Policy Research Group   - Strategic Insight: PM offers jobs, asks Kashmir to give peace a chance

PM offers jobs, asks Kashmir to give peace a chance
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editor on 11 August, 2010 01:40:00
 
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached out to the Valley on Tuesday,
urging the people of Jammu and Kashmir to give "peace a chance", while
recognising the need for a political solution that addresses their "sense of
alienation".
In a speech televised live, the PM sought to signal a healing touch by
expressing grief and sorrow over the loss of lives and by acknowledging the
resentment that Armed Forces Special Powers Act evokes from people even as he
noted that any peace outreach could yield results only if there was "prolonged
peace".
In what can be seen as a slight or oblique criticism of the state government, he
also said the package for economic reconstruction had not been fully felt on the
ground and promised to address this. He announced a group comprising the head of
the PM's economic advisory council C Rangarajan, N R Narayana Murthy, Tarun Das,
P Nanda Kumar and Shaqeel Qalander and a representative of the J&K government to
formulate a jobs plan.
Although his remarks came at a meeting with an all-party delegation from J&K,
the PM was appealing to a larger audience in the Kashmir Valley, particularly
the youth who have been at the forefront of the rock pelting protests. Speaking
in Urdu, the lingua franca of the Valley, the PM struck a note of empathy for
the youth in Kashmir, who he said had grown up seeing nothing but violence and
had been scarred by suffering.
"I can feel the pain and understand the anger and frustration that is bringing
young people out on to the streets of Kashmir," he said. This marked a change of
tonality; also because the PM refrained from mentioning the role of outsiders --
a euphemism for Pakistan's well-known role in stoking trouble.
While acknowledging the "prevailing public sentiment" over the AFSPA, PM said
that "eventually J&K Police has to take on the burden of normal law and order
duties". http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6289948.cms?prtpage=1
2. Geelani rejects PM peace, job offers
SRINAGAR: Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Tuesday rejected Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's peace offer and employment package, saying "Kashmiri youth
aren't on the streets for jobs but are fighting for their rights".
The octogenarian leader said Kashmiris weren't vitiating the state's peaceful
atmosphere and accused security forces of unleashing a rein of terror across the
Valley. He said people are on streets demonstrating peacefully for their right
to self-determination.
Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who has engaged with the Centre in
the past, said the Centre can't weigh emotions of Kashmiris on the scale of
money and jobs. "The Indian leadership must address Kashmir issue's political
dimension and not the economic one," he said. He said none of the
recommendations that had been made when they met the PM in 2005 were implemented
and called for the involvement of all three parties — India, Pakistan and
Kashmiris — to resolve the dispute.
People's Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti said she expected the PM to talk
about an uninterrupted, conclusive and serious dialogue. "But it could prove to
be a serious beginning," she said. "However, it's heartening that the PM
recognised the people's sentiments particularly that of the youth," she said.
The PDP president said the PM could have spelled out a future road map to
resolve the issue. The PDP had boycotted the PM's all-party meet and dismissed
it as a futile exercise.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6290392.cms?prtpage=1
3. Mumbai oil spill to be cleared in 8 days
MUMBAI: The Singapore-based Smit company will begin operations to salvage the
MSC Chitra from Wednesday. But it may take nearly six to eight months before the
ship can be removed from the spot, officials said.
Mumbai Port Trust chairperson Rahul Asthana said: "A team has come on Tuesday
and another is reaching on Wednesday morning with pumps to remove the oil."
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust's acting chairperson N N Kumar said these pumps can
suck out oil at the rate of 30 metric tonnes an hour.
The ship Chitra was carrying 2662 metric tonnes of fuel when it’s started on
Saturday. Nearly 879 metric tonnes has flown out. Besides, there are 283.8
tonnes of diesel and 88,040 litres of lube oil on board. "It will take eight
days to drain out the oil," said Kumar.
Coast Guard officials said a crane called Sea Patriot C4 mounted on a ship has
been arranged and has been positioned close to Chitra to continuously pump out
the oil. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6290156.cms?prtpage=1
4. Day after, ambitious PCPA mulls going mainstream
LALGARH: A day after the massive show of strength at Mamata Banerjee's rally in
Lalgarh, PCPA appeared to be seriously weighing options whether to join
mainstream politics or even extend outside support to Trinamool Congress after
the West Bengal assembly elections next year.
The Maoist-backed outfit says it has already gained the strength to fight the
polls on its own in at least three constituencies in West Midnapore and south
Bankura. PCPA doesn't want Mamata to make dents in its core area. But it's ready
to offer her support in the fringe areas of Jangalmahal, like Garbeta, Keshpur,
Goaltore where Trinamool is facing stiff resistance from armed CPM cadres.
The idea has been doing the rounds among senior PCPA leaders for quite some
time. At a meeting in a village in Salboni on Tuesday, central committee members
resolved to use the Santrash Birodhi Mancha — floated by Mamata Banerjee and
26 rights groups — to spread their political views and garner mass support and
at the same time pursue PCPA's 'independent political activities'.
The PCPA is comfortable with the new platform. It will give them an opportunity
to reach out to the people before the 2011 assembly polls. PCPA leaders, who TOI
met on Tuesday, said they would ally with the mancha as long as it helps them
advance the cause of the tribals in Jangalmahal, and fight "state terror and CPM
goons". http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6290531.cms?prtpage=1
5 .Centre fined for denying 1942 activist his pension
CHENNAI: The idea of pension must not have crossed his mind when he was
imprisoned during the Quit India movement in 1942. But V Loganathan, an
octogenarian now, would also not have imagined that he would have to spend 16
years chasing officials to get his freedom fighter's pension after Independence.
Expressing outrage over the harassment to Loganathan and the agony he had to
undergo, Justice S Nagamuthu of the Madras High Court on August 5 imposed an
exemplary cost of Rs 50,000 on the central government and lambasted it for
having made him run from pillar to post. The court asked the government to pass
an appropriate order within two months.
There was delay on the part of the court, too. Although Loganathan had filed the
petition against the rejection of his pension claim in 2001, it was only after
he wrote a letter to Madras HC chief justice M Yusuf Eqbal that the matter was
taken up and orders passed.
Loganathan first applied for the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension in 1994.
After his application was rejected, he approached the HC. Subsequently, he won
three rounds of litigation in the court. The Centre, however, returned his
papers on the ground that the mandatory recommendation by the state government
was not there.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6290528.cms?prtpage=1
6. Amid Indian protests, US House okays bill to hike visa fees
WASHINGTON: Amid protests from India, the US House of Representatives has passed
a bill to steeply hike US visa fees for skilled workers to raise $600 million in
emergency funding to help secure the US-Mexico border.
Senators passed a similar plan last week. But since the House version passed in
a voice vote on Tuesday is slightly different it will go back to the Senate for
final congressional approval before being signed into law by President Barack
Obama.
The measure proposes to raise the fees on H-1B visas for companies who have more
than 50 per cent of their employees on such visas for highly skilled
professionals from $320 to $2,320. Similarly the fee on L-1 visas given to
multi-national transferees from $320 to $2,570.
The additional fees from the popular H-1B and L-1 visas programmes would be used
to build operating bases and deploy unmanned surveillance drones to better
secure the US-Mexico border, one of the rare issues both Democrats and
Republicans have agreed on.
The legislation targets companies that lawmakers say "exploit" US visa
programmes. A summary of the Senate version listed Wipro, Tata, Infosys and
Satyam as such firms, saying that they fly thousands of employees to the US to
work at as technicians and engineers for their clients.
In a letter to US trade representative Ron Kirk, India's commerce minister Anand
Sharma said the bill unfairly targets Indian companies and estimated it would
cost the country's firms an extra $200 million a year. "It is inexplicable to
our companies to bear the cost of such a highly discriminatory law," Sharma
wrote. New Delhi argues the bill is discriminatory because it will primarily
impact Indian firms even though they account for fewer than 12 percent of the
total visas issued.
US companies, such as Microsoft, use these visas in larger numbers but would
escape the hike as it targets only compnies with more than 50 percent of
employees on H1B or L-1 visas.
Democrat Charles Schumer sparked protests in India when during a Senate debate
last Thursday he called Indian IT major Infosys a "chop shop"-the term often
used for the place where stolen cars are dismantled for resale.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6291322.cms?prtpage=1#ixzz0wHIWngY8