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11 THE HINDU SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2014
NOIDA/DELHI
COMMENT
>>The last paragraph of a report, HJC working to divide anti-Congress vote:
BJP (August 29, 2014) said that the BJP won eight of 10 Lok Sabha seats in
Haryana. It should have been seven.
In the same paragraph the name of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)
candidate fromHisar was mentioned as Dushyant Hooda instead of Dushyant
Chautala.
>>The United Kingdoms rst referendum was held in 1973, erroneously
mentioned as 1975 twice in the Editorial, Risky, if not reckless (August 27,
2014). The 1975 referendumwas the rst U.K.-wide one.
>>An article Fading promise of India Spring (Comment page, August 29,
2014) gave the date of the two by-elections in Punjab as August 22. It should
have been August 21.
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
G
oogles secretive research lab-
oratory is trying to build a eet
of drones designed to bypass earth-
bound traffic so packages can be de-
livered to people more quickly.
The ambitious programme an-
nounced on Thursday escalates
Googles technological arms race
with rival Amazon.com Inc., which
also is experimenting with self-y-
ing vehicles to carry merchandise
bought by customers of its online
store.
Amazon is mounting its own chal-
lenges to Google in online video, dig-
ital advertising and mobile
computing in a battle that also in-
volves Apple Inc.
Google Inc. calls its foray into
drones Project Wing.
Although Google expects it to take
several more years before its eet of
drones is fully operational, the com-
pany says test ights in Australia
delivered a rst aid kit, candy bars,
dog treats and water to two farmers
after travelling a distance of roughly
one kilometre two weeks ago.
Besides perfecting their aerial
technology, Google and Amazon still
need to gain government approval
to y commercial drones in many
countries, including the U.S.
Amazon last month asked the
Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA)for permission to expand its
drone testing. The FAA currently al-
lows hobbyists and model aircraft
makers to y drones, but commer-
cial use is mostly banned. AP
Google building eet of
package-delivering drones
It is the policy of The Hindu to correct signicant errors as soon as possible.
Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.
The Readers Editors office can be contacted by
Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to
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The Terms of Reference for the Readers Editor are on www.thehindu.com
R
ecently, I had the opportunity
to give an hour-long talk on the
political doctrines of Gandhi,
Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lo-
hia and Jayaprakash Narayan with Aam
Aadmi party volunteers at one of the
many volunteer training camps orga-
nised by the party in Uttar Pradesh. Fol-
lowing the discussion, a senior party
member fromthe State cornered me and
gently chided me for being ignorant of
the ground realities.
Skirmishes in Uttar Pradesh
Ever since the Samajwadi Party gov-
ernment came to power, Muslims have
been involved in minority terrorism.
They openly molest or harass our wom-
enwhile the administrationindulges ina
cover-up, he said in an angry tone.
Please make it clear to the top lead-
ership that they should steer clear of
issues related to Muslims if they dont
want to lose the support of the majority.
Ab is desh me musalmano ki rajneeti
nahi chalegi (now the politics that allows
the Muslims tocall the shots has noplace
in this country), he added.
I asked him if he knew of any specic
instance of a Muslim man raping or ha-
rassing a Hindu woman. He furnished at
least three recent instances.
Would it be fair to evaluate or judge
an entire community by the yardstick of
just two or three individuals, I asked
without getting into the merits of his
statistics. All the accused in the Nirb-
haya episode were Hindus and they cer-
tainly belonged to one caste or the other.
But did we measure their respective
caste groups onthe basis of one individu-
als action? If not then, why are we mak-
ing an exception in the case of Muslims
now? I continued.
There is a big difference, he said.
The caste or religious doctrines of Hin-
dus do not sanction deceitful or forcible
conversionor violence targeted against a
particular community. But their reli-
gion does so. It is not just that Hindu
women are being lured into love affairs
and marriages with the sanction of
Maulvis; such activities are very well-
funded. Look at the proliferation of
mosques along the U.P.-Nepal border.
Where is the money coming from? The
worst part is that the State government
has been siding with the Muslim cul-
prits, he replied.
I told him I would not get into an
argument of demanding hard evidence
to substantiate such accusations, nor
would I engage inplatitudes like the law
should take its own course and the
guilty should be punished. Religious
emotions stirred up by politics are not
susceptible to reasoning or evocations of
Indias constitutional ethos.
I decided to talk to him person-to-
person. Let me give you my example, I
said. I dated a Muslimgirl while study-
ing in a Lucknow college and came very
close to marrying her. We never saw our
relationship through the prism of reli-
gionand nor did our friends and families.
The fact that we didnt get married had
nothing to do with religious prejudices.
This happened in U.P. 16 years ago, but
there was no talk of love jihad then. The
woman I eventually married nine
years ago in Mumbai is a Goan Cathol-
ic. I, a Marwari baniya, could easily have
been accused of indulging in a Hindutva
version of love jihad by targeting women
from different minority communities
across multiple States. Perhaps the only
reason I didnt land up in trouble was
because there were no counterparts of
the Vishva Hindu Parishad or the Rash-
triya Swayamsevak Sangh taking up the
issue of the women I had had relation-
ships with.
Unless we segregate girls and boys of
different religions and castes in all pub-
lic spaces, inter-religious and inter-caste
love affairs and marriages are inevitable.
They are bound to happen in the feudal
and patriarchal social settings of U.P. as
much as in the cosmopolitan environs of
Mumbai or Delhi.
But you didnt forcibly convert your
wife, did you? Look at the Meerut in-
stance. They took advantage of her pov-
erty by giving her a job, then made her
pregnant and converted her to Islam.
They want to increase their numbers,
my colleague shot back.
Are the instances of physical abuse or
mistreatment of women only restricted
to relationships between a Muslim man
and a Hinduwoman? How do most of the
Hindu women get treated in Hindu
households? Dont they face physical vi-
olence and male dominance at the hands
of Hindumen? The problemlies withthe
patriarchal and misogynistic mindset
cutting across religious communities, I
responded.
As a political party, we have to appre-
ciate public sentiment. This government
is pro-Muslimand people have made up
their mind to vote for a party that will
show the Muslims their place. This is not
my voice but the popular sentiment, he
maintained.
If we are against minority appease-
ment and the vote bank politics of the
Samajwadi Party, does the answer to it
lie in majority appeasement or Hindu
vote bank politics, I asked him. We have
to break this cycle of competitive
communalism.
How do you want the world to see us?
A Hindu India which denies equal rights
and equal justice to its citizens who hail
from the minorities or an India where
the majority of Hindus has striven for
and established a just and fair nation?
The worst conduct of a few individual
Muslims cannot be the template of con-
duct for a majority of Hindus. What kind
of conduct will enhance the honour of
Hindus and Indias prestige? Do we want
to be seen as modern and progressive or
narrow-minded and regressive, I asked
him.
What U.P. is witnessing today the
recurrence of skirmishes over loud-
speakers blaring at places of worship, the
location of mosques or temples, the hon-
our of our women are all old fault
lines caught up in old templates of time.
These fault lines had been confronted
and debated over by the makers of our
Constitution: the men and women who
spoke for a new India. I think some of the
best Hindus with the assistance of the
best of members from various minority
communities drew up our Constitution
and exemplied the collective vision of a
secular, just and tolerant India. This was
and continues to the best political road-
map for our country. A vision that ap-
peals to and invokes the dark side
lurking in each of us would only plunge
us in an abyss of darkness. When we talk
about a corruption-free India, it also en-
visions an equitable and just nation that
is free of exploitation, injustices and in-
equities of all kinds.
I agree with you but the problem is
that the other side doesnt believe in the
logic of communal harmony. Also, how
would youconvince those whohave been
putting up with minority belligerence
for more than two years? All our good
work would get negated by one inam-
matory speech of an Azam Khan, my
colleague said.
It is very difficult to talk sense in an
atmosphere where rabble-rousers from
both sides are stoking ugly passions.
What lies ahead
In the coming months and years, U.P.,
the State that once boasted of its Ganga-
Jamuni Tehzeeb, is going to pose one of
the most difficult litmus tests for the
secular and modern vision of India. The
contagion of mutual hatred and intoler-
ance has spread across the length and
breadth of the State. As my conversation
above with a part-colleague shows, it
would not be an easy task to convince
and win over even some of the more
reasonable and relatively moderate sec-
tions, forget the lunatic fringe.
What U.P. needs today is a sustained
and vigorous political engagement with
all communities; a relentless dialogue of
peace and reconciliation. Conict reso-
lution committees comprising the mod-
erates need to be formed at the local
level. Somehow, it has become childs
play to manufacture and amplify new
ssures, and seek out and champion new
communal causes by falling back upon
patriarchal and feudal notions of loss of
honour and prestige of ones
community.
A continual vigil has to be mounted,
and at the rst whiff of an incident hav-
ing the potential of a communal cona-
gration, liberals need to step in to
negotiate amicable and mutually accept-
able solutions. Unless the people realise
that communal harmony and equal jus-
tice are not airy-fairy sentiments but the
bedrock so necessary for material pro-
gress, accelerated economic growth and,
above all, a better future, containing the
virus of communalism will be an uphill
task.
(Ashish Khetan is a journalist who
stood for the 2014 Lok Sabha election as
a candidate for the Aam Aadmi Party
fromthe New Delhi constituency.)
Old and new fault lines in Uttar Pradesh
RESOLVING CONFLICT: Unless people realise that communal harmony
and equal justice are the bedrock for material progress, economic
growth and a better future, containing the virus of communalism will
be an uphill task. Picture shows a security person guarding a mosque
on Eid-al-Fitr in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. PHOTO: PTI
What the State needs today is a sustained and vigorous political engagement with all
communities for a dialogue on reconciliation
Ashish Khetan
In the coming years, the
home of Ganga-Jamuni
Tehzeeb is going to pose a
litmus test for the secular
and modern vision of India
I
t is good that Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and Defence Minister Arun Jait-
ley have made it clear to the U.S. Defence
Minister, Chuck Hagel, who was in India
earlier this month, that the pure sale of
defence hardware by the U.S. to India is
far fromenough.
The way we should go with the Amer-
icans has to be on the lines of the co-
development and co-production of the
state-of-the-art Fifth Generation Fighter
Aircraft (FGFA) with the Russians.
However, India, whichagreed to buy 39
AH-64D Apache helicopters for the Army
in addition to the 22 now under negotia-
tion, is in talks again for purchase by the
Indian Air Force (IAF) from the U.S.
manufacturer, Boeing. This is being done
without transfer of technology (TOT) to
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)
for the local manufacture of all these 61
helicopters, which is bad for the country.
Such a number of helicopters, senior
managers and engineers of HALs Hel-
icopter Division argue forcefully, is large
enough for substantial local content-
based production. Neither the IAF nor
the Army contracts with Boeing has gone
so far as to make TOT result in techno-
commercially viable production here fea-
sible and viable. The Ministry of Defence
should act immediately to tie-up such
TOT-based production by HAL instead of
proceeding with mere import of the n-
ished product.
Defence supplies by the U.S.
Will the U.S. government agree? If we
use the multi-billion U.S. dollar value of
the two contracts as leverage and exert
pressure, they will have to. This would
mean new jobs for HAL and its sub-con-
tractors. It would also mean we would
have a nationally controlled spares pro-
duction base in the country, which would
be orders of magnitude cheaper than sup-
ply of spares fromthe U.S. The bread and
butter for the supplier come fromhugely
priced spares; not from the main
equipment.
If one were to analyse defence supplies
by U.S. companies under the U.S. govern-
ments directionand control evento their
closest allies such as the U.K., one
would nd that it is the policy of the U.S.
government to severely restrict not only
TOT in general, but transfer of technol-
ogy relating to critical sub-assemblies,
modules and components too, making us
eternally dependent on them.
A specic case will illustrate the reality.
The case pertains to the Sea Harrier,
which is aircraft carrier-borne and uses
vertical take off and landing (VTOL). The
U.K. was the inventor of VTOL technol-
ogy. India had bought two squadrons
(around 30 aircraft) of the Sea Harrier
from the British Aircraft Corporation
(BAC) way back in the 1970s for its air-
craft carriers. When the Atal Bihari Vaj-
payee-led National Democratic Alliance
government was in power (1999-2004),
we sent our Sea Harriers to the BAC for a
thorough upgrade. At that time, the Min-
istry of Defence, the Navy and the BAC
knew that such an upgrade would call for
the BAC importing some critical sub-sys-
tems, modules and components (hereaf-
ter collectively referred to as modules)
from the U.S. This was because those
modules had been imported by the BAC
even for the Sea Harriers it had produced
in the U.K. and supplied to the British
Navy.
That the U.S. government would prove
difficult in clearing the supply of those
modules for our Sea Harriers was recog-
nised by both the BAC and the Defence
Ministry. So they sounded out the U.S.
government agencies concerned. The
U.S. response was non-committal. Never-
theless, the Ministry went ahead. Why?
Because we did not have an option. Over
25 years, the Indian Navy operated those
aircraft, but no effort was made to suc-
cessfully indigenise those modules. We
just merrily went along with importing
those modules from the BAC, which in
turn kept importing them from the U.S.
companies concerned at huge increases
in prices fromtime to time.
It was not surprising, therefore, that
the U.S. government refused the supplies
to the BAC for tment on our Sea Har-
riers. The BAC and the British Navy then
told India that the U.S. government had
done likewise, even in regard to the Har-
riers of the British Navy despite the U.K.
being the countrys closest ally.
The U.S. government nally agreed to
the export of the modules concerned, but
only after former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair ew to Washington D.C. to
specically persuade the U.S. President to
release them. As far as our requirements
of the modules were concerned, Mr. Vaj-
payee had done something similar.
This case shows how even British and
European defence equipment manufac-
turers have to constantly face and deal
with the U.S. governments export con-
trols on themon a wide array of modules,
despite the fact that all of them are sup-
posedly equal members of NATO.
Being circumspect in dealings
This kind of policy and practice by the
U.S. government also came up with re-
gard to the upgraded F-16 Falcon and
the F-18 Hornet ghter-bombers which
Lockheed Martinand Boeing respectively
had offered India against the global ten-
der put out by the Ministry of Defence/
IAF for 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat
Aircraft (MMRCA) four years ago. Of all
the six bidders, the TOT and terminal
local content were the smallest inthe case
of boththe U.S. planes. Therefore we have
to be extremely circumspect in dealing
with the U.S. government in all high tech-
nology defence systems fromthe transfer
of technology and local production con-
tent points of view.
(Ashok Parthasarathi was the Science
and Technology adviser to Prime Minis-
ter Indira Gandhi.)
Lets talk transfer of technology
OFF-CENTRE: Indias decision to buy Apache helicopters without
transfer of technology for local manufacture is unwise. Picture shows
a U.S. Apache helicopter ring rockets in Pocheon in 2010, near the
heavily fortied border with North Korea. PHOTO: AFP
India must insist on co-development and co-production of defence systems that it plans to
buy from the U.S.
Ashok Parthasarathi
Having a production base
in the country would mean
national control over
spare parts, so as to not
remain at the mercy of the
supplier
W
ith Iraq and Syria ablaze, the oil-rich kingdomof Saudi Arabia
seems almost an afterthought. But Riyadh will be a crucial, if
quixotic, ally as the U.S. seeks to mobilise Sunni Muslims against the
terrorist Islamic State.
The kingdoms many critics argue that Saudi Arabia itself helped spread
the toxic virus by bankrolling Islamist rebels and their extremist Salast
Muslimideology. As if to insulate itself fromsuch criticism, the kingdom
recently donated $100 million to a new U.N. counterterrorismcentre, and
its senior religious leader, the grand mufti, declared the Islamic State and
its al-Qaeda forebear enemy No. 1 of Islam.
Complicating Saudi Arabias pivotal role in containing regional
instability is the fact that generational change is slowly coming in the
kingdom, too. The stakes for the U.S. in this
leadership transition are large, and the outcome
is hard to predict.
King Abdullah remains in power, a generally
popular and respected monarch. But at 90, his
energy and attention span are limited. Tensions
have surfaced at several Saudi ministries over
the last year, suggesting a jockeying for power.
For a generation, Americans and Saudis have
worried that the kingdomwas a potential
tinderbox, with Muslimand secular extremists
vying to undermine the conservative monarchy.
If anything, the kingdomseems slightly more
stable now than a decade ago but Sunni and
Shiite extremists, otherwise deadly adversaries,
share a common dreamof toppling the House of
Saud.
The inner workings of the royal family remain
all but impenetrable to outsiders. The senior
princes are slow-moving, self-protective and
resistant to foreign counsel traits that invite
speculation about whats happening behind the
palace walls. But whatever their internal
disagreements, the sons and grandsons of King
Abdul Aziz, the kingdoms modern founder, have
been able to maintain the family consensus
necessary to preserve their rule.
U.S. and Arab experts describe a kingdomthat
is worried about three dangers: the rise of Iran
and its Shiite Muslimallies; the resurgence of
Sunni extremismembodied by the Islamic State;
and the reliability of the U.S., the kingdoms
protector, which is seen by many Saudis as a
superpower in retreat.
The unsettled situation is illustrated by the mercurial Prince Bandar bin
Sultan. He was ousted as intelligence chief last April, then rehabilitated
this summer with the honoric title of chairman of the national security
council. The outcome is probably a net gain for Saudi stability: Khaled bin
Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, the new chief of the spy service, is seen as a more
reliable and professional operator; he works well with Prince Mohammed
bin Nayef, the interior minister who is trusted by the U.S.
The new spy chief and the interior minister, accompanied by Prince
Bandar and Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, travelled to Qatar this
week, presenting a common front to a regional rival that has often
bedevilled Saudi and U.S. policy.
One question mark has been Crown Prince Salman, 78, the Defence
Minister, who is reportedly in poor health. Speculation about succession
was fuelled by the appointment of Prince Muqrin as deputy crown prince
last March. Meanwhile, Crown Prince Salman has struggled to run the
Defence Ministry. Since assuming that post in November 2011, he has had
four deputies, including two sons of his predecessor, Prince Sultan.
The wild card in the Saudi deck is Prince Bandar, the amboyant former
ambassador to Washington. When he was head of Saudi intelligence and
paymaster to Saudi allies in Syria and Lebanon, he was an unpredictable
and in Washingtons eyes, sometimes untrustworthy operator.
Some Americans feared Prince Bandars covert efforts in the Syrian civil
war were unintentionally spawning al-Qaeda terrorists. U.S. officials were
relieved when Prince Bandar was removed as steward of the Syrian
opposition.
It has been Saudi Arabias recurring nightmare to ght external enemies
by encouraging Sunni movements that turn extremist and threaten the
kingdomitself. This happened in the 1980s, when the Saudis joined the
CIA in sponsoring the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. The devout Muslim
ghters drove out Soviet troops but evolved into the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The Saudis must worry that a similar process has happened again. Some
of the Sunni ghters they backed against Iran have drifted toward the
Islamic State. The Saudis didnt intend the ensuing disaster, but they must
now deal with it.
Western analysts credit Mohammed bin Nayef and Khaled bin Bandar
for seeking to build more competent, professional security services at
Interior and Intelligence. Theyll need that skill, and luck, too. For Saudi
Arabia, big challenges lie just over the horizon. 2014. The
Washington Post.
Saudi challenge: The
Islamic State
WORLD VIEW
Complicating
Saudi Arabias
pivotal role in
containing
regional
instability is the
fact that
generational
change is slowly
coming in the
kingdom, too
DAVID IGNATIUS