by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Salman Khurshid
By Prashant Sood,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not told the “truth” to the opposition about the conversations he has had with the Pakistani leadership and the government’s policy vis-a-vis the neighbouring country had reached a “dead end”, says former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
He also feels India is losing its grip on the world in foreign policy and has gone into the US camp with very little returns.
“Our policy on Pakistan is at a dead end. We are losing people every day. We keep saying we are giving it back to them. Years of losing civilians and soldiers and years of saying we are giving it back to them isn’t really my idea of a good foreign policy,” Khurshid told IANS in an interview.
“Pakistan is a slippery, difficult creature and (dealing with) that is what diplomacy is about,” he added.
Khurshid, a senior Congress leader, said it was more than clear that “we do not have a war option with Pakistan”.
“So our failure is writ large. We have to find a solution. It is not our job in the opposition to give him a solution unless he consults with us. Unless he asks us what can be done. But this is not something that can be allowed to go on indefinitely,” he said.
Asked if the Congress party had any suggestions for the government, he said, “We have no suggestions except that he should first tell us to the truth”.
“He has never told us the truth about Pakistan; what he has said to them, what does he do (in) meetings with them, what does he share, what do they promise. He must share with us something before we can tell him what to do,” Khurshid said.
The former minister said India has been unable to go “beyond a certain point with our agenda as far as the US is concerned”.
“Yes, I certainly think we have gone into the US camp. We have got very little in return. We used to get concrete results from being with the (erstwhile) Soviet Union — not just with it, but with the rest of the world that was aligned towards socialism. So I think there are major issues there. And we have gone in blind, we haven’t calculated properly.”
Khurshid, whose latest book “Triple Talaq: Examining Faith” has hit the stands, said India was getting global attention not because of its foreign policy but because of its economic potential.
“Our markets are forcing people to show interest and the Indian diaspora is playing an increasingly important role in the world. These things give us stature.
“This is not the kind of stature we had when India provided leadership to the Third World under (Prime Minister Jawaharlal) Nehru and the comfort India had when the Soviet Union stood strongly with India and India was an exponent of non-alignment,” he said.
He said Modi has shown an “enormous amount of energy of salesmanship” and has done a reasonably effective job in this respect because of his oratory.
“I don’t think in foreign policy, if you look around the neighbourhood, if you look around West Asia, if you look around Europe, if you look at Africa, I don’t think we have a consistently coordinated foreign policy posture that will be appreciated in the world. The way we are jumping from leg to leg on Israel and Palestine, the way we are dealing with China vis-a-vis Japan and China itself, the way we are keeping a very low relationship with Russia,” he said.
Khurshid, who was External Affairs Minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, said India was consulted on major international flashpoints in the past — but that was no longer the case.
“In the past, nothing moved without India being consulted. Today, in Syria nobody wants to know what India thinks, in Iraq nobody wants to know what India thinks. I think we are losing our grip on the world as far as foreign policy is concerned,” he said.
(Prashant Sood can be reached at prashant.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Abhishek Purohit,
New Delhi : Even though he may not be fully fit by the time the All England Badminton Championships start on March 14, Indian shuttler H.S. Prannoy feels that he needs to play the tournament in order to get into the groove ahead of this April’s Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
The 25-year-old returned to the national camp in Hyderabad in the first week of February to resume training after being sidelined due to a wart on his foot.
At the moment, for Prannoy, the Birmingham event may arrive too soon. But he doesn’t want to let it go as he sees it as an opportunity to get into competitive mode.
“At the moment I am training well. But training and match practice are different things. I need to play competitive matches and tournaments before the CWG,” Prannoy told IANS.
“The All England is dicey for me. Coming from any sort of injury is not easy but hopefully the situation will be better in two weeks’ time,” he added.
“The tournament and you see the crowd, they lift you,” Prannoy told IANS.
He also revealed that he learned and tried the art of throwing negativity out of his mind during the injury-enforced break.
Prannoy has a 2016 South Asian Games team gold in his cabinet, as well as an individual silver from the same competition and bronze in the Asia Team Championships the same year. He also won the US Open last year as he moved into the top-10 in global singles rankings.
He defeated compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in the final of the National Championships in November. Still he feels he has a lot of things to learn from the world No.2 from Guntur. Srikanth is the highest-ranked Indian in the category. The two shuttlers will carry big expectations from India.
Prannoy reckons that the Indian badminton contingent has proven performers and should be a strong contender in the mixed team event.
The young men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Saiwiksairaj Rankireddy will look to set the court on fire in their debut performance at the CWG, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra will pair up with N. Sikki Reddy for the mixed doubles clashes. “They all have been doing well in recent tournaments,” Prannoy said.
In the women’s singles department, Olympic medallists Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will shuffle roles as the team will pin hopes on the singles event. In the women’s doubles section, the pair of Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponappa will look to continue their great performances as Ashwini will try to emulate her 2010 gold medal winning run with her new partner.
“The women have been the flag-bearers in setting high standards. Be it World Championships or Olympics or any big event, they have proven their mettle,” he said.
(Abhishek Purohit can be contacted at abhishek.p@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Prashant Sood,
New Delhi : Opposition parties should strive to field a common candidate against the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in each constituency in the next Lok Sabha polls and alliance talks among them should start early to allow workers to align themselves, according to senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid.
He also asserted that Congress President Rahul Gandhi is the party’s obvious choice as prime ministerial candidate in the Lok Sabha polls, but any announcement would have to wait for the outcome of alliance talks among opposition parties.
And he believed United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi is the best person to bring together like-minded opposition parties against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA.
“As far as I am concerned and our party is concerned, the choice is obvious. But till such time, in case there is a larger collaboration and alliance, courtesy demands that we wait till that announcement is made by the alliance. But for us it is very clear. Rahul Gandhi is very clearly the person for the job and who would lead from the front,” Khurshid told IANS in an interview.
He was asked if there should be a declared opposition candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 general election.
The former Union minister, whose latest book “Triple Talaq: Examining Faith” has hit the stands, said there has been severe erosion in Modi’s credibility.
“I think there is severe erosion taking place as far as Mr Modi’s credibility is concerned, but I won’t say that the erosion is adequate yet. There is a slide, and erosion continues,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of an opposition alliance coming about against the NDA, he said: “It is difficult to say right now, but if an alliance does not happen, we will all be very sorry for losing an opportunity.”
He said discussions were quietly taking place at various levels. “There is a realisation in all parties that it is a very important turning point for Indian history. I think the ego barriers of the past do not exist any more. But it still requires a lot of footwork. Somebody quietly has to take that initiative. I can’t say who will finally be the person who will do it. But quietly, discussions are going on,” he said.
On fielding one common opposition candidate against the NDA, he said it is too early to say that. “But I hope it is something of that nature. It is a very complex and complicated picture, and to make simplistic predictions is not very advisable, not at this stage.”
On reconciling differences among competing players in Uttar Pradesh, his home state, which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha, Khurshid said internal antagonisms had lowered considerably after the last parliamentary elections. “Let us see if that can go to a natural conclusion.”
Asked about the timing for formal talks, he said the sooner the better.
“I think it is never too early. Though a lot of people do believe that it will give BJP more time to work against it, I think experience of some alliances of the past is very clear that if you leave it too late, then it becomes very difficult for workers to align themselves. There is a certain time that workers need to align themselves and that needs to be factored in.”
Asked about Sonia Gandhi playing a leading role in bringing opposition parties together, he said: “She has a larger-than-life presence in the spectrum of liberal politics. I can’t see things happening without her intervention, guidance and blessings.”
On the possibility of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee playing a cementing role, Khurshid said anyone can do it.
“But that’s a role in which you need to be willing to sacrifice. If you want a win-win situation, you may get the win-win situation, but you may not be able to do the kind of things that it takes for a leader with broad shoulders to do.”
Asked again if Sonia Gandhi is the best person to stitch an alliance, he said: “I don’t want to contradict anyone but for me clearly she is the best person.”
On the minimum seats the Congress should contest in Uttar Pradesh, Khurshid said that Congress would have a much larger contribution to make across the country.
“Therefore, keeping that in mind, I would think for parliament working on par is a good formula (for UP). But no rigid formulas should stand in the way of an overall settlement if we are to save this country from fate worse than we can imagine.”
On the idea that the lead party in each state should take on the BJP, Khurshid said: “That’s one suggestion. There are many ways of looking at it. Some principled position needs to be taken and then, working around that position, adjustments can be made.”
Khurshid said there will be a revamp in the party with Rahul Gandhi making “it very clear that he is going to give a strikingly new Congress set-up”.
The former External Affairs Minister admitted that the Congress faces a tough task in the forthcoming assembly polls in the northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, but said the party had good prospects in other poll-bound states.
(Prashant Sood can be reached at prashant.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
M.M. Pallam Raju
By Mohd Asim Khan,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has “twisted” some of the things in the digital revolution, such as “forcing digital transactions” on people and insisting on linking Aadhaar with everything, says M.M. Pallam Raju, a minister in the earlier Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
He contends that the genesis of India’s electronics and information technology (IT) revolution can be traced back to Congress governments in the previous century, adding that the momentum has been lost now.
Raju, an electronics engineer and a former Minister for Human Resources Development, trashed the idea of a totally cashless or even “less cash” Indian economy, saying digital transactions should be “an option and convenience” and not forced upon people.
“Cashless economy has to be integral to the overall economy. It is essential where large transactions are involved, but not on a day-to-day basis. It can be an option and convenience if somebody wants to pay digitally, but cash has been the comfort factor, especially for the rural population that is comfortable transacting in cash rather than digitally,” Raju said.
“Also, see how much fraud is happening in cyberspace, in terms of accounts getting hacked, money getting diverted, etc. And the chances of such frauds are higher with rural and uneducated people,” he said, adding that a “suitable ecosystem” has to be created before anything is “imposed on people”, which “unfortunately has not happened”.
As a former Union Minister, how does he see the current government’s insistence on linking everything from SIM cards to bank accounts and insurance covers with Aadhaar? After all, Aadhaar was conceived and rolled out during the UPA’s time.
“Aadhaar was envisioned to link welfare schemes. The whole idea was to streamline government benefits and to curtail losses/pilferage. That is being twisted and made into big monster without adequate preparation.
“If databases are to be secure — which I don’t think they are right now — there have to be more security features built in, and then if you utilise linking of Aadhaar for putting some checks and balances in place in the system, that’s all right. But don’t insist on linking everything with Aadhaar.
“That is not what founding fathers desired when they gave us the Constitution. We have a right to live our life, but that is being encroached upon,” Raju said.
Raju recently wrote “A Contribution in Time: India’s Electronics Revolution”, based on the life of his father, Dr M.S. Sanjeevi Rao, who served as Deputy Minister for Electronics in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ‘s cabinet. It was unveiled by former President Pranab Mukherjee and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He said that while the book is a personal tribute to his father, it also tells the larger story of the genesis of India’s electronics revolution.
“As Electronics Minister and Chairman of the Electronics Commission, Dr Sanjeevi Rao ushered in dynamic and far-reaching policies that enabled exponential growth of the electronics, telecom and IT sectors in India. He was part of the team, along with Sam Pitroda, which led the country into the era of telecom, computers and IT (during Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure),” Raju said.
“As millennials are so familiar with technology and its utilisation, it would be quite insightful for them to understand the genesis of this revolution — when electronics was happening and becoming a phenomenon worldwide,” he added.
Raju said that the vision of the leaders in India then was to make electronics-based technology accessible to the common people at an affordable price.
“It all started with consumer electronics and then became all pervasive with information technology, telecom and its role has increased exponentially,” he said, speaking of the book that captures the life of Sanjeevi Rao and the contemporary milieu in text and pictures.
It also contains a report that throws light on the coming into being of the Electronics Commission and the Department of Electronics in 1971.
“The good work that was started back then (in the 1970s-80s) for creating an ecosystem for manufacturing of electronics, which are the building blocks for applications anywhere, that momentum has not been sustained,” Raju said.
Of the modern internet and mobile phone connectivity revolution, Raju said that the “building blocks and the foundation of all this” was laid under the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
“We realised there was a need for bigger bandwidth, higher speeds as the digital communication was growing and becoming all pervasive. And so we envisioned this high-speed network — which the current government has named as Digital India.
Striking a personal note on how he conceived of the book, Raju recalled: “When our father passed away in 2014, it was an emotional moment for us. After suffering a stroke in 1998, he was paralysed, lost his speech. He was like a child (to me). It was a reversal of roles. He became the child and I became the father. When he passed away, it was like losing a child. I had to get that pain out. So the idea of writing a book occurred.”
(Asim Khan can be contacted on mohd.a@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Herb Dhaliwal
By Gurmukh Singh,
Toronto : Canadas first Cabinet minister of Indian origin, Herb Dhaliwal, says the focus of the on-going visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to India has been derailed by the Khalistan issue.
“It is very unfortunate that the media in India has overblown this Khalistan issue. This has shifted the focus away from trade — which is what the two countries should be discussing,” Dhaliwal, who in 1993 became the first Indian to be elected as an MP in the Western world, told IANS.
Dhaliwal, who served as Canada’s Minister for Revenue and Natural Resources from 1997 to 2003, said the sticking issue between the two countries is “about human rights and not Khalistan”.
He said, “When I was the Cabinet minister, I had met Prime Ministers (I.K.) Gujral, Manmohan Singh and (A.B.) Vajpayee and raised the issue of punishment for those behind the 1984 riots. I had told them it is about human rights and they had no objection.”
Dhaliwal said the vast majority of Sikhs in Canada have nothing to do with Khalistan. All they want is that human rights must be respected and the culprits behind the 1984 killings should be brought to justice.
“There is only a very small proportion (of Sikhs) in Canada which is blowing up the issue of Khalistan for their own purposes. This issue is about human rights,” said Dhaliwal, who was instrumental in the opening of the Canadian consulate in Chandigarh in 2003.
About Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh’s charges against two Sikh ministers in Trudeau’s cabinet, including Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, as being Khalistani supporters and denial of visa to him by Canada, Dhaliwal hoped that Trudeau will discuss these issues with him.
About denial of Canadian visa to Amarinder Singh in 2016, he said, “It was the result of some misunderstanding at the bureaucratic or some other level. It shouldn’t have happened. Canada should apologise to Amarinder Singh for this error.”
Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trudeau not to let this issue divert their focus from trade, Dhaliwal said the economic interests of India and Canada are complementary.
“Canada is rich in oil and gas and we can help meet the energy security demands of India’s fast-growing economy. We can also be a major supplier of agricultural products for India.”
Despite all the issues between the two countries, Dhaliwal said, “The huge inflow of Indian students into Canada and direct air connections are big pluses which will help build future relationships. I think this is an important development which people should emphasise.”
—IANS
