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TheIndian EXPRESS
www.indianexpress.com

l TUESDAY l APRIL 23 l 2013

The Indian EXPRESS

BECAUSE THE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL

The political way

S THE Budget session resumes, Parliament is bristling with unresolved issues. The government will have to summon all its powers of persuasion, which havent so far been conspicuously on display, if it is to pass important bills on pension and reform, not to mention high stakes legislations on land acquisition and food security. Opposition parties have several grouses, beginning with the 2G JPC that, in their view, let the government off too easily, the vetting and amendment of the CBIs report on coal block allocations by the law minister, as reported by this paper, and the shared outrage over cases of rape. It is entirely legitimate for parties todemandthatthegovernmentexplain itself on the floor of the House for the law ministers conduct if it is found that he tampered with the investigating agencys report. But the oppositionmaybealittlemisguided in its exertions to hold government directlyorwhollyanswerableforthe problem of rape. Already, bowing to theimpatientclamourforinstantresults, the government has amended criminal law to make it more sweeping in fact, the imperfections of thatlawmaywelltakeasystemictoll in the years to come. The cases of sexual assault that continue to draw national attention and concern underlinethecomplexreality:whileitis tempting to blame an authority figureoraspecificdispensation,thereis no getting away from the acknowl-

This Parliament session will sorely test the UPAs skills in persuading the opposition, and supporting parties
edgement that sexual assault is a wider social problem. It can only be addressed by a more dispersed and sustained set of measures. The UPA is called upon to defend its decisions and enact important financial bills at a point when its strength is seriously diminished. The parties it usually counts on for support are set against it for varying reasons. The DMK, now outside the alliance, is smarting over the methods and conclusions of the 2G JPC. The TMC demands action for thewayMamataBanerjeewasheckled outside the Planning Commission. The SP has been calibrating its distance from the government daily. And yet, if it wants any meaningful legislation passed, the government has no choice but to pitch its case to supporting parties, and to the opposition. This is not merely a question of adding up the numbers or negotiating backstage. It will need to reach out to parties invested in the same ends. For instance, though it may disagree on the design, the BJP recognises the necessity of getting the pension and insurance bills passed. In the end, the onus of making Parliament function is squarely on the UPA and there is no other way. Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansaris ideas, such as automatically suspending disorderly MPs or deferring the live telecast of parliamentary proceedings, miss the point. Solutions do not lie in procedure and there is no alternative to political engagement.

Against freedom
HE All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has become Microsofts biggest customer for cloud services. By June 30, students and teachers at 11,500 technical institutions will be locked down to Microsofts online productivity applications and storage. Cloud services reducethecostofcomputingandincrease reliability, so this is a good route to go. But a better fork in the same road could have been taken. Whatwouldithavecosttodevelopa free and open source cloud? Or to catch the interest of free and open source software providers who already offer such services to large populations? Even if big brands are infavour,Microsofthascompetition which may have been more open. Comparisons between proprietary and free and open systems usually focus on the cost advantage free means free to use. It is a compelling argument for poorer countries that face the challenge of educating, skilling and connecting large populations very rapidly. But the real, long-term advantages lie in the alternative meanings of free free to play with, free to change, free to reprogramme, free to apply to un-

Why the AICTEs decision to partner with Microsoft is unimaginative

intended purposes. And most importantly, free to learn from and free to share. When the users of a system have technical interests, the potential gains from these flavours of freedomareimmense.Insteadofbeing passive users of a locked system, theywouldbeencouragedtobecurious,totinkerwiththeverytoolsthey use and innovate ways to adapt them to their needs or to future needs. The cloud itself could be adapted. And users would have access to at least 40,000 software packages to use, study or get involved in developing. In the open source ecosystem, its redundanttoaskwhothestakeholders and beneficiaries are. Over the long term, everyone owns the ecosystem and benefits from it. Besides, in calculating the benefit to education, a computation of savings should be accompanied by a projection of profits accruing to communities,thenation,theknowledgeeconomy. And to students, who could start developing software professionally even before joining the workforce. In terms of opportunity cost, the AICTEs decision to partner with Microsoft is prudent but unimaginative.

USTasDelhiandBangalore aremyIndianhomes,Boston ismyAmericanhome.Ihave lived here for 16-17 years. Norfolk Street, where the Boston bombers lived, is only a couple of miles away from my apartment. MIT, where the Tsarnaev brothers killedapoliceman,ismyalmamater. Cambridge Rindge and Latin School,wheretheyoungerTsarnaev brother studied, is across the street from Harvard Universitys Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, where I started my American career as a junior professor. Boylston Street, where the bombs went off at the marathon finish line, and the nearby Copley Square are the commercial heart of Boston. I have friends in Watertown, where the younger Tsarnaev hid in a boat before being captured by the police. Suchintimateassociationsgenerate sadness about the events last week, but they also allow me to formulate some puzzles and provide proximate, if not conclusive, answers. If Washington is the political capital of the US, New York the financial capital and Los Angeles the entertainment capital, Boston is Americas intellectual capital. Universities, colleges and labs liberally dot the landscape. Also, Bostons history is special. The American revolution against the British commenced here; the Boston marathon, so violently disrupted on April 15, is on Patriots Day. Cambridge, part of Boston, perhapshasmoreforeignerspercapita than any other town in the Englishspeaking world. Only New York andgreaterSanFrancisco,comprising Berkeley and Stanford, could compete in the US, and London abroad. The Tsarnaev brothers, especially the older sibling, felt lost and discovered destructive anger, in what is one of the most internationalandinclusivetownsoftheUS. Here is what Cambridge superintendent of schools Jeffrey Young says: We [Cambridge] are an inclusive community, guided by our shared values... That may be one reason it is so hard to understand how this could happen in a place like Cambridge. Boston is also known for its legendary sports teams. The Boston Marathon is part of a great sporting tradition that iconises Patriots Day and Bostons rebellion against the British in 1775. Going back to 1897, it is the worlds oldest annual marathon, and currently one of the six annual marathon majors across the world. An estimated half a million people watch the race. It is a

The Boston question

How could terror breed in the heart of a city so inclusive?
ASHUTOSH VARSHNEY
day of celebration. This year, the celebration morphed into a nightmare. President Obamas words evocatively and brilliantly summonedthemeaning of the event and tragedy: On Mondaymorning,thesunroseover Boston. The sunlight glistened off theStateHouseDome.Inthecommons, in the public garden, spring was in bloom... In Hopkinton, runnerslaceduptheirshoesandsetout ona26.2-miletestofdedicationand grit and the human spirit... It was a beautiful day to be in Boston, a day thatexplainswhyapoetoncewrote that this town is not just a capital, not just a place. Boston, he said, is the perfect state of grace... And then, in an instant, the days beauty was shattered. A celebration became a tragedy. Even when our heart aches, we summon the strength that maybe andanotheratthesubway,thecitys transport lifeline. In Virginia, Colorado and Connecticut, some attempts at mass murder have succeeded, but they were not jihad-inspired. Indeed, only one major act of jihadi terror has been successfullyexecutedsince2001.At the Fort Hood army station in Texas, Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 soldiers, apparently under the influence of a radical cleric. Kelly has no doubt that luck has played a role, but he also says that the New York Police Department regularly consults with the local leadersofMuslimneighbourhoods. The police-citizen interaction has been very helpful. In Boston, too, the younger Tsarnaev was apprehendedonlyafterthelockdownwas lifted. One of the homeowners noticed a pool of blood on his boat, lodged in the backyard, and in-

LETTER OF THE WEEK AWARD

To encourage quality reader intervention The Indian Express offers the Letter of the Week Award. The letter adjudged the best for the week is published every Saturday. Letters may be e-mailed to editpage @expressindia.com or sent to The Indian Express, 9&10, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi -110002. Letter writers should mention their postal address and phone number. The winner receives books worth Rs 1,000.

Cambridge, part of Boston, perhaps has more foreigners per capita than any other town in the English-speaking world. Only New York and greater San Francisco, comprising Berkeley and Stanford, could compete in the US, and London abroad. The Tsarnaev brothers, especially the older sibling, felt lost and discovered destructive anger, in what is one of the most international towns of the US.
we didnt even know we had, and we finish the race. On that toughest mile, just when we think that weve hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall... And thats what the perpetrators of such senseless violence, these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build... and think somehow that makes them important thats what they dont understand. The Boston bombings raise two big questions. The first is this: If nearly all big acts of terrorism, especially jihadi terrorism, have been thwarted in the US since 2001, how could this one escape the net of intelligence? RayKelly,NewYorkCityshighly respected police chief, says that since 9/11, 16 terrorist attempts in New York have been foiled, including one aimed at the Times Square formed the police. The almost daylong police search did not yield the younger Tsarnaev. It also appears that bigger acts areeasiertofoil,whilesmallerplots canremainundertheradar.Thetechnology used in making smaller bombs is so well known and bombmaking manuals are so easily available,onlineandotherwise,thatlowgrade bombs can be easily produced by one or two people. Thisisthemostchillinglargerimplication of the events last week. Unlessprovenotherwise,theTsarnaev brotherswerespiderswithoutaspider web. They did not even have an exit plan after executing terror. A networkedterroristwouldhaveleft theUS,orbeenclosertoanairport. The second big question that the Boston bombs raise is deeper. What explains that some of those who grew up in the US, went throu-

gh American institutions, lived in inclusive multi-ethnic towns, even took the oath of citizenship as the youngerTsarnaevdid,wouldresort to terrorist violence on US soil? The fundamental premise of Americaasanationofimmigrantsis that, regardless of ethnicity, race or religion, everyone can be American. There may be teething troubles in adjustment, experienced by new immigrants and/ or caused by older settlers, but in the end, freedomandequalityasthecoreprinciples of nationhood, education in public schools and the lure of opportunities can build a strong and cohesive nation out of Americas many diversities. Do the Boston bombs,byanychance,showthatbeingareligiousMuslimandbeingan American might not go together? It would be analytically premature to rush to this conclusion. And the fact that, unlike the reaction to 9/11, America is not even debating this issue shows how far the US has come. The Tsarnaev brothers appear to bepartofadysfunctionalfamilyand horriblycomplicatednationalhomelandpolitics.Accordingtoscholars of Chechnya, every fifth Chechen is in exile; so deep are the national wounds of wars and forced migration.TheTsarnaevparentskeptgoing back and forth between the US and their homeland, finding home nowhere. The older Tsarnaev brother came to the US when he was already a teenager, the age normally viewed as the hardest for adjustment to a new and unfamiliar land. If, as is widely reported, he could not make a single American friend even after living a decade in one of the most inclusive towns of the US, itsayssomethingabouthisownpsychological difficulties. The plunge into jihadi ideology might be a consequence of such difficulties. If so, the fundamental cause of the embrace of terror would not be a turn towards jihadi Islam, but a psychological crisis caused by the inability to adjust to a new land and thevirtualimpossibilityofreturnto the homeland. Acts of terror must indeed be punished, but we need more evidence before we arrive at grand conclusions about Islams incompatibility with the US. The writer is Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences at Brown University, where he also directs the India Initiative at the Watson Institute. He is a contributing editor at The Indian Express
express@expressindia.com

Letters to the

EDITOR
Target Musharraf
Guptas column General Musharraf (Deluded), (National Interest, IE, April 20). Pervez Musharraf should be tried for his misdeeds and misadventures. He has certainly been deluded by the Pakistani judiciary, which had trapped the general by first granting him bail and then, when he returned from his self-imposed exile, by cancelling his bail and ordering his arrest. As Gupta explains, Musharraf brought the subcontinent, at least twice, close to an all-out war. Such individuals have to be brought to book . R.K. Kapoor Chandigarh
SHEKHAR GUPTA was spot I AGREE with Shekhar

on with his analysis of Pervez Musharraf. His crimes against Pakistans people, its institutions of democracy and its judiciary have finally caught up with him. In his delusional megalomania and given his self-serving conviction of being the redeemer of Pakistan, Musharraf returned from exile to fight the general elections in the false belief that Pakistanis were enthusiastically waiting for him. He forgot that history has an unerring tendency to repeat itself. But then, all dictators fool themselves. M. Ratan New Delhi

Common ground
THIS refers to the editorial

The missing monument

ARUN PRAKASH
OT long ago, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit remarked that a national war memorial around India Gate would clutter up a recreational space and hinder peoples enjoyment. But surely the Delhi administration can create such spaces elsewhere? Pleasure seekers might find more appropriate places than Edwin Lutyens grand central avenue, leading from India Gate to the elegant Rashtrapati Bhavan, with the imposing North and South Blocks guarding its flanks. The civilised worlds capitals are replete with heroic statues of soldiers, with squares and avenues named after generals, admirals and famous battles. In India, we mostly celebrate politicians, along with a few saints, film stars and cricketers. But soldiers seem to be anathema. It is worth asking whether the Delhi CM would have opposed a memorial to a politician or religious figure on the grounds that it would be a hindrance to peoples enjoyment or that it would spoil the environment. Ever since Independence, the Indian politico-bureaucratic establishment has typically regarded its soldiers, sailors and airmen with a certain disdain. This is bizarre and incompre-

Unlike in India, cities across the world have war memorials in central locations
hensible, considering that a soldier laid down his life for the country just days after Independence. Lieutenant Colonel Dewan Ranjit Rai earned glory and a posthumous Maha Vir Chakra for fighting Pakistani raiders near Baramulla. In the 66 years since then, there has scarcely been a day in the life of our embattled nation that a grieving family somewhere has not welcomed a hero, brought home in a tricolour-draped coffin. The war memorial, if one is ever created, will be a small tribute to the memory of the young men who brate these events in their own ways. The crowning national ignominy is the fact that the Sri Lankan government has been gracious enough to erect an impressive monument to the IPKF dead, while these brave soldiers remain unsung in their own motherland. Whether it is the Arlington Memorial in Washington, the Cenotaph in London, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris or the impressive Jatiyo Smriti Soudho in Dhaka, these magnificent monuments embody the pride of nations and the spontaneous desire of citizens their lives in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Although most of the names engraved on the granite walls are Indian, the monument does not celebrate a national war. Second, free Indias contribution to this imposing monument is merely a rifle lodged, muzzle-first, in stone, with a helmet perched on its butt. The symbol is recognised across the world as an ad hoc battlefield marker for a soldiers temporary grave. For a politico-bureaucratic establishment that has stubbornly refused to acknowledge, by word or deed, the sterling contribution of the soldier to Indias freedom struggle, its post-Partition consolidation and to combating the repeated assaults on its territorial integrity, the construction of a national war memorial at a central location in the Capital would be a belated but welcome gesture. It would bolster the pride and morale of not just a million and a half Indian men and women bearing arms, but also of the large fraternity of veterans who gave their today for our tomorrow. The writer is a retired chief of naval staff
express@expressindia.com

Ground rules (IE, April 22). Its indeed heartening that a consensus has been built on this critical issue. Land acquisition has been the bone of contention not only in industrial projects but also in infrastructure and real estate development. Singur and Noida Extension are cases in point. The bill has laid down clear guidelines about compensation and the extent of consensus required. Now, hopefully, farmers whose land will be acquired will be a happy lot. Nor should there be any slip-up in implementation, and the same spirit of coordination must be maintained on other pending reforms. Bal Govind Noida

Speed it up
THE prime minister has tried

Ghosts of Kohima
HEY fought them at the beaches, they fought them on the seas and oceans, but perhaps only once in British history did they fight them on the tennis courts. In a poll conducted by the National Army Museum, the Battle of Kohima has been voted Britains greatest battle, a surprise win, considering that proverbial favourites like D-Day and Waterloo were in the running. British, Indian and African troops defeated the armies of imperial Japan in 1944, in a battle fought at such close quarters that the scene of action was whittled down to the tennis lawns of the district commissioners bungalow at one point. Netaji loyalists may be affronted the advancing Japanese were accompanied by troops of the Indian National Army. But one might say that Kohima was where Japans imperial army met its Waterloo.

A poll held in Britain reclaims a battle long forgotten in India

The forgotten war fought in the hills of the Northeast resonated far beyond its immediate theatre of conflict. It broke the myth of Japanese invincibility. It also halted the Japanese advance into Asia, becoming the first of several major losses suffered by the imperial army. Kohima has been called the Stalingrad of the East, as it mirrored Nazi reverses in Russia. Had the Allied forces lost the battle, Japan might have pressed forward into India. Historian Robert Lyman calls Kohima the last real battle of British Empire and the first battle of the new India. Yet in India, the role of its soldiers in World War II has receded into a collective amnesia. About 2.5 million Indians fought in the war but their stories are rarely told. Outliers in the great Indian narrativeofthefreedommovement, they remain unclaimed by history.

The Indian politico-bureaucratic establishment has typically regarded its soldiers, sailors and airmen with disdain.
gave their lives for the nation. It has been the gallantry, patriotism and selfless sacrifice of these young men that repeatedly saved the nation from disintegration and dishonour, as our strategic naivete led to adventurism by neighbours in 1947, 1962, 1965 and 1999. The refusal to pay homage to fallen soldiers on the anniversaries of the Bangladesh and Kargil wars, or to the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka, on specious political grounds is unforgivable, especially since Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka celeto acknowledge the sacrifice of their national heroes, the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have fallen in the countrys wars. All these are in prime locations in the heart of the city. Far from spoiling the environment, they evoke deeply patriotic sentiments. In India, it is only the armed forces who pay homage to their own, at the Amar Jawan Jyoti erected below India Gate. There are two bits of irony here, which seem to escape everyone. First, India Gate is a war memorial erected by the British in memory of soldiers of who lost

WORDLY WISE
David Guterson

Cities produce in me melancholy or a tension I don't need.

US as young Muslim refugees from war-torn Chechnya, they sought to perpetrate mass murder and urban warfare in their adopted homeland. That poses significant questions for every country processing migrants and asylum-seekers. The 2005 London bombers, too, were ostensibly well-integrated members of society... In Australia, ASIO is concerned about more than 100 Australian citizens from migrant communities fighting in Syria with the al-

A wake-up call on immigration?

PRINTLINE
Qaeda al-Nusra Front. Attention must now focus on ensuring that such an atrocity never happens again. It is hard to see what physical barriers could be erected at a city marathon without placing an intolerable burden on security forces and unacceptable limits on individual liberty... Future security measures must focus more on identifying and intercepting likely terrorists.

to soothe public sentiments about the brutal rape of the child (Amid protests over rape, PM calls for vast improvement in womens safety, IE, April 22). While some amendments to the law have been made, they dont seem to have worked. The PMs claim that we have moved with speed in strengthening the law to be able to deal more effectively with offences against women is only partly true because some of the valid suggestions made by the Justice Verma committee were not accepted. The fast-track court to try the accused in last Decembers gangrape case is not fast enough. Had the accused been punished by now, it could have worked as a deterrent. Yash P. Verma Pune

Human computer
SHAKUNTALA DEVIS demise

EN years after Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev arrived in the

From a leader in The Australian

is a great loss to the country. The nation itself would be honoured if Karnataka and the Central government jointly established a world-class mathematics institute in her name. Bidyut K. Chatterjee Faridabad