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EDITORIAL
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Olive Branches
Pakistan's
motivation is not peace in Kashmir but pelf in America
 With
the extension of the cease-fire in Jammu and Kashmir to Republic Day,
the mood in the subcontinent's most troubled region is decidedly upbeat.
Pakistani troops have moved back from the Line of Control (loc). The Indian
Government has indicated it is on its way to reviving the dialogue with
Pakistan. Militant Kashmiri leaders from both sides of the loc are meeting
in Saudi Arabia to consolidate the lull in hostilities. After 11 years
of bloodshed and ferocious terrorism, it is easy to get carried away and
assume the worst is over. Realpolitik, however, recommends healthy doses
of cynicism. It would be judicious to ask why this cease-fire seems to
be working while the one called by the Hizbul Mujahideen in July failed.
The answer, quite simply, is the changed attitude of the military regime
in Islamabad. General Pervez Musharraf actively sabotaged the summer peace
initiative, worried the Hizbul was slipping out of his control. Today,
he is playing along. The point is: why?
A clue was
provided earlier this week in Musharraf's televised address to his fellow
countrymen. He explained Nawaz Sharif's expulsion with the vague suggestion
that more extreme steps (indicating a jail term or worse) would not be
appreciated abroad and would hinder foreign investment. This is a tacit
admission of Pakistan's near bankruptcy and status as a virtual client
state of Saudi Arabia and the United States. It is under Washington's
pressure that it is offering an olive branch to India. For Delhi, there
is room here for opportunity as much as for caution. Musharraf's commitment
to lasting peace-not to speak of that of the religious zealots to his
right-is yet to be established. Whatever the motivation, the fact that
Indian and Pakistani officials will begin talking is in itself welcome.
In settling its northern problem, India has to hasten-but slowly.
Seeds
of Change
The farm
sector could do with a bout of decontrol
 Agriculture
was back in business this past month, Parliament's business that is. On
November 29, Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury tried to enter Parliament on
a tractor to draw attention to "the plight of farmers". A few
days earlier MPs from Kerala had staged a "coconut march" in
Delhi. All this followed a slanging match between the BJP and the Congress
over responsibility for the crisis in Indian agriculture. Now, on a more
substantive note, the Agriculture Ministry has prepared a draft National
Agriculture Policy-incidentally India's first policy document on agriculture.
The ministry is also ready with the Aquaculture Authority Bill and Plant
Breeders' Rights Bill. If Ayodhya and then Bofors had not deflected the
country's attention, agriculture may well have dominated Parliament's
agenda in its just concluded winter session. But to what avail?
That crisis
stalks farmers from Punjab to Kerala is beyond doubt or debate. It is
rooted in falling returns from agriculture. The price of most crops-from
wheat and rice to rubber and coconut-hasn't risen as fast as the cost
of production. The culprit: a cobweb of controls and laws that keeps productivity
low (hence high costs) and prevents farmers from getting the best price
for their produce. They are still not allowed to move their crop from
one state to the next and, in some cases, from one district to the other.
There are restrictions on how much grain private traders can store. This
limits the amount they buy from farmers. Thanks to inefficient subsidies,
the Government has no money to invest in better irrigation, credit systems
and varieties of seeds. So what does it do? Produce a policy draft that
simply lists every single problem of Indian agriculture as its area of
priority. This is fertile ground for nothing more than confusion.
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2001, celebrate the future in 