| April 25, 2003 | Friday | Safar 22, 1424 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
One hurdle less
Substandard CNG kits
SPEAKING in parliament on Wednesday, Mr Vajpayee repeated his government’s offer of talks but with the addition that Pakistan must stop “cross-border terrorism” and dismantle the “terrorist infrastructure.” This is somewhat different in point of substance from his speech in Srinagar last week when he offered talks to Pakistan without any preconditions. Islamabad readily accepted the offer. Since then, however, the Indian side seems to be having second thoughts on the tone and content of the original offer which seemed remarkably positive and forthright — the kind that is sorely needed if some progress is to be made in straightening out the tangled and problem-ridden inter-state relationships in the subcontinent, especially those between India and Pakistan. In the present case, though Mr Vajpayee has not specifically spoken of a linkage between talks and “cross-border terrorism,” his deputy Mr L.K. Advani has underlined the point of conditionality by repeating the charge of “infiltration” and the urgency of closing down the so-called “terrorist training camps.”
Friends of Pakistan and India had welcomed the Indian offer and Pakistan’s acceptance of it, hoping that Mr Vajpayee’s Srinagar initiative could turn out to be seminal and that the two countries could resume the dialogue that had remained suspended since Agra, 2001. Mr Vajpayee’s speech had also led to a lowering of tensions and an Indian minister had even come up with June as the month when the dialogue could start. However, writing in these columns a few days ago, we had cautioned our readers against being overly optimistic. We had reasons to sound this note of caution, because Indo-Pakistan relations are accident-prone. Somehow, sane moves are often aborted or are overtaken by events and developments that sometimes seem beyond the control of the two governments. The Agra talks were not an unmitigated failure. The very holding of the summit was itself an achievement. If a joint communique was not issued, the two leaders could have met later to pick up the threads left off at Agra. However, 9/11 cast its shadow on the subcontinent, and following the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament building and the massing of troops on the common border, the two countries came close to open hostilities.
While intercession by friendly countries averted the war, a dialogue between the two countries has been conspicuous by its absence. Pakistan has repeatedly offered talks without any preconditions. It is India, unfortunately, which has been attaching conditions for resuming the dialogue. One hopes the hard-liners in the BJP government realize that the perpetuation of tensions between the two countries serve no worthwhile purpose. The Kashmir issue is there for all to see. The two countries’ failure to find a just settlement has led to colossal human rights violations in the Indian-occupied territory and caused the death of nearly 80,000 people. No sane mind would want the misery of the Kashmiri people to continue. Worse, it can cause a wider conflagration. The only choice, therefore, is for the two countries to try to solve this and other problems through a dialogue. One hopes Mr Vajpayee will stick to his Srinagar offer.
THE intense power struggle within the Palestinian Authority seems to have been resolved in favour of prime minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas, with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat withdrawing his objection to certain appointments Mr Abbas had made to the new cabinet. The end of the deadlock has paved the way for unveiling the “road map for peace” in the Middle East, brokered by the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. The road map envisages the phased creation of a Palestinian state by 2005, conditional on the Palestinians and Israelis taking certain steps during a two-year period. As a first step, basic reforms have to be made in the functioning of the Palestinian Authority — a process now more or less under way. However, after agreeing to hand over power to a new prime minister, Yasser Arafat took strong exception to certain names in the list of cabinet members. The main objection was to the appointment of Mohammad Dahlan, the tough former Gaza security chief, as head of security in the new administration. After a period of intense diplomacy, Arafat has finally dropped his opposition to Dahlan’s appointment. The Palestinian parliament must now approve of the new cabinet before the road map is finally unveiled.
Humiliating though this new peace process may be for the Palestinians, the road map now offers the only viable and peaceful way forward towards statehood. However, there is every likelihood that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will try to scuttle even this new peace process, just as he and Netanyahu subverted the earlier Oslo accords. Already, the Israeli prime minister has raised a large number of objections to the proposed road map, but the US has so far maintained pressure on the Israelis to let the process move forward. Rather than ceding to the principle of land for peace, the ultimate Israeli aim seems to be to radically change ground realities by setting up more Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory. The Israelis would then offer the Palestinians some limited form of autonomy. Now that the Palestinians have delivered on their part of the deal, it is up to the Israelis to begin a withdrawal from Palestinian territories and dismantle the illegal Jewish settlements. With the US under immense pressure from its European allies to revive the peace process, the Americans must now persuade Israel to make some real concessions if it seeks a durable peace in the Middle East.
A NUMBER of recent accidents involving vehicles fitted with substandard compressed natural gas (CNG) kits underscores the need to put in place a quality control mechanism to govern this hazardous trade. As many as five lives have been lost to such accidents in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad alone over the past few weeks. In recent years, a growing number of people have installed CNG systems in their public and private vehicles as a less expensive and more eco-friendly alternative to gasoline. However, the petroleum ministry, which recommends switching over to CNG as a cost effective alternative to petrol, would do well to make sure that the kits supplied to workshops installing CNG systems meet internationally acceptable safety standards.
Taking advantage of the recent popularity of CNG, workshops installing CNG kits have witnessed a mushroom growth. However, many of these workshops have been installing substandard and unsafe ‘home-made’ CNG kits, exposing people to potentially fatal hazards. The absence of any monitoring mechanism is largely to blame for this state of affairs. Ideally, a quality control regime should have been put in place before such CNG kits made their way into the market. The petroleum ministry and other concerned authorities must also take urgent measures to make the public aware of the dangers of installing substandard CNG kits in their vehicles.