Business Standard 22 May 07
Hala
Ajai Shukla: Learning from Lord Curzon
BROADSWORD
Ajai Shukla / New Delhi May 22, 2007
There are few indicators of a country's strategic temper as reliable
as the way it treats its frontiers. British regents like Lord Curzon,
acutely sensitive to the vulnerabilities of their borders, employed a
variety of devices to keep those areas trouble-free and their
inhabitants neutral, if not favourably disposed towards the centre.
>From granting some border areas the status of "excluded area" (in the
case of the Naga Hills) to protecting the identity of border people by
restricting access by outsiders (the Inner Line, which still exists in
the north-eastern states) the British protected their most sensitive
borders less with hard power than with a careful mix of political
autonomy, cultural respect and a clearly stated assurance of
protection.
India's approach is markedly different. Forced, partially through
political and strategic miscalculations, into deploying large numbers
of soldiers for the physical protection of its borders, first in J&K
and then on the border with China, New Delhi has been far less
sensitive than its Curzonian predecessor. The Indian Frontier
Administrative Service, a specially selected cadre of frontier
administrators that was steeped in local tradition and sensitivities,
merged in the mid-1970s with the IAS. Unsurprisingly, administration
moved from local tradition and sensitivity to the rulebooks and power
tantrums of New Delhi.
Take the ongoing trouble in Leh, the capital of Ladakh, India's
strategically vital chunk of the Tibetan plateau, where a Deputy
Commissioner's personal feud with a well-respected local NGO threatens
to snowball into widespread resentment. In the cross hairs of the DC,
Mr MK Dwivedi, is the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of
Ladakh (SECMOL) and its Director, Sonam Wangchuk. SECMOL has done
remarkable work in bringing up education in the interiors of Leh,
since kicking off "Operation New Hope" in 1994 through a tripartite
MoU with the government and the local community. Over the last decade,
SECMOL has trained 3,567 village teachers, VEC members, panchayat
leaders, village headmen and women leaders, bringing up pass
percentages in Leh district from 5% in 1994 to 55% today. SECMOL's
next phase of Operation New Hope was to be the Ladakh model of the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan; it was inaugurated by President APJ Abdul Kalam
in June 2006, setting a pass percentage target of 90% by 2010.
The Director of SECMOL, Sonam Wangchuk, has received the J&K
Governor's medal for educational reform. Since 2004, he has been a
member of the National Governing Council for the Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan. President Abdul Kalam's address to the nation on Independence
Day last year mentioned SECMOL as one of the initiatives that formed
the model for a Knowledge Society in India by 2020.
Leh's DC, MK Dwivedi, clearly doesn't agree with the President. He has
issued a notice declaring SECMOL "a significant threat to the
administration and peace of the region" and an illegal occupant of
government land. Sonam Wangchuk has been notified as guilty of having
"anti-national connections" in China and other foreign countries.
SECMOL is guilty of "threatening Council and District Administration
officials". Behind the crackdown: Sonam Wangchuk made the cardinal
error of speaking publicly about the administration's neglect of
education.
SECMOL has denied the allegations. Wangchuk has stated that his only
connection with China was a pilgrimage he made with his mother (like
many other Buddhists from Leh) to Lhasa six years ago. Intending to
clarify its position to the people of Ladakh, SECMOL prepared a CD on
that. The DC struck back this March by invoking Section 144 of the
Cr.PC, imposing a ban on circulation of material by Wangchuk, or any
other member of SECMOL. Public protests were also prohibited by that
order, which still remains operative. All employees of the Education
Department have been instructed to suspend cooperation with SECMOL.
The J&K government, worried by events, dispatched the Divisional
Commissioner to Ladakh in August last year. After meeting everyone
concerned, the Commissioner brokered a compromise. Mr Dwivedi agreed
to withdraw his notices and orders against SECMOL. But after the
Divisional Commissioner returned to Srinagar, the Leh DC went back on
his promise.
Mr Dwivedi is evidently enjoying the power he wields, apparently
issuing notices against SECMOL based on pure hearsay. Explaining to a
local newspaper, he said, "I received some complaints against him from
the locals. A teachers' association complained against him for
unnecessarily interfering in their working while some other people
alleged that he has some odd connections with Tibet and China."
Dwivedi is also at loggerheads with the local tourism industry. The
administration has promulgated notices laying down hotel rates, much
to the resentment of local hoteliers. Pinto Narbu, the MLA from Nubra,
who runs a local hotel, fumes, "He's an old-style bureaucrat who wants
to control things. Hotels are not essential services. Who is he to try
and lay down hotel rooms, which are governed by market forces all over
the world!"
Insensitive administration is not new to India. But Ladakh, which has
remained comparatively free of anti-India resentment even through the
turmoil that has plagued J&K, is a special place that must be
administered by special people. This is equally true of other border
areas, inhabited by people who need to be won over to the idea of
India. Arrogance, like Mr Dwivedi's, is an indulgence that India
cannot afford.