A BOND WEAKENED
The British as they really are
IT isn’t time yet to be sanguine about the reported assurance of a member of Prime Minister David Cameron&’s Cabinet that the proposal of a 3000-pound bond from short-term Indian visitors to Britain “has not been considered” by Whitehall. It is hearsay, actually double-hearsay because we hear of it from Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who was told by the Liberal-Democratic British Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who in turn was reportedly told so by the Conservative Home Secretary. To us it seems rather a roundabout way of saying that a proposal has been shelved. Perhaps and before not very long, the British will formally announce that it has indeed been abandoned. If that happens, the dust will settle for some time; if it doesn’t it will be in our faces again. But in the cacophony of furious reactions not just in India, or within the Indian community in Britain but also in five other countries similarly described as “high-risk”, some obvious facts must not be lost sight of.
First, the British must have done their homework before determining that short-term visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Nigeria have a tendency to overstay. Second, the British must have realised the diplomatic implications of targeting six former colonies to the exclusion of others in a step that can only be deemed discriminatory. Third, implicit in the proposal must be acceptance that the elaborate system of screening visa applicants ~ outsourced in many countries and seeking personal details that ought ordinarily to be confidential ~ has only been a limited success, notwithstanding the huge cost levied on visa applicants. Fourth, Whitehall must have realised that diplomacy works on the principle of reciprocity and it is as easy for the targeted countries to lay down humiliating conditions as it is for the British to do so. Fifth, notwithstanding the country&’s highly intrusive policing, relatively miniscule size and the collection of biometric and facial data from visa applicants, the UK Border Agency and local authorities in Britain lack the wherewithal to prevent visitors from overstaying. Sixth, there appears to be some amount of political consensus in Britain on the need to crack down on visitors who overstay; in other words, even if the bond proposal is given up some other way will be found to make a visit to London a less than edifying prospect.
There is one more fact we must not lose sight of. In spite of having ruled, pillaged, divided, on occasion starved, and often desecrated a country (now three of the six countries targeted), the British through a contrived feat of diplomacy managed to convince us for more than six decades that we retained an emotional bond with our former rulers. For a fine of 3000 pounds, the British seem determined to weaken that bond, and we must not grudge them their right to do so if only because it allows us to see them as they really are, and perhaps always were, and not as they pretend to be.

BRAGGING RIGHTS
Going wrong for Modi
POLITICIANS’ “clarifications” are almost always hypocritical attempts at damage control ~ attempting to dilute the fall-out of a previous action. While it may not always be correct that first impressions are the correct ones, “gut feelings” do tend to stick. All that, maybe more, must be borne in mind when considering Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray&’s bid to underplay the thrust of an editorial in his party&’s mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ that flayed the BJP&’s “campaign face” for controversial claims on relief for the Uttarakhand victims. Thackeray is the editor of Saamna, and while admittedly an editor does not write/read every word of a publication before it goes into print, it is difficult to accept that a party organ ~ unlike an independent newspaper ~ will comment in strains very different from the party line: an editor who seeks to disassociate himself from an editorial comment hardly merits that designation. The subject under focus, however, is not the editorial integrity of the publication, but to cite that now-diluted commentary as evidence of how the Narendra Modi “style” is proving an embarrassment even to the BJP&’s allies: does whatever remains of the NDA actually deserve projection as an alliance? The most valid aspect of that commentary is its articulation of the larger point that Modi&’s way of doing things militates against the BJP securing the support of other parties in an electoral construct in which no single party is expected to form a government. Modi may not have personally claimed to have delivered 15,000 Gujaratis to safety, but neither did he “clarify” what his media managers churned out.
Apart from that claim being factually difficult to sustain, it confirmed that an aspirant to the prime minister&’s office has not outgrown a parochial mindset; and raised questions about a “national” party placing so much stock in a man so obviously politically-blinkered. Modi&’s advocates have frequently contended that his thrust on development (let&’s not digress into the validity of that claim) “cancels out” the negatives that accrued from 2002: yet his reputation for being autocratic has been reinforced ever since he stepped up from the state to the national plate. He made a belated token effort to make peace with party stalwart L K Advani, indicated he gave a damn at the JD(U) opting out, and does not even pretend to be reaching out in any direction. Are other so-called saffron stalwarts with a broader perspective so marginalised that they remain hunkered down?

ROT IN GARO HILLS            
Need for drastic action
IT is about time the Meghalaya government took immediate steps to tighten its seemingly loosening grip on the law and order situation in the Garo Hills. Over the past two years or so, there had been an abnormal rise in the incidence of crime against women and wanton killings of policemen and civilians, clearly revealing the ineffectiveness of the law enforcing agency. Last month, Garo militants gunned down five coal miners. Last Sunday, some miscreants brutally murdered eight labourers, mostly migrants from Assam&’s Goalpara and Dhubri working in various coal quarries, and escaped with Rs 80,000. Since the assailants are yet to be identified or their true motives ascertained, it will be premature to blame any local militant outfit. According to agency reports, following a rumour that a miner raped a mentally-challenged girl in Tura two days ago, an irate mob went berserk killing a man and setting fire to some vehicles.  
Already, there are reports of a mass exodus from the Garo Hills, the consequences of which should not be lost on both Shillong and Dispur. They must ensure that the sudden turn of events does  not kindle ethnic fires and communal disharmony. Quite obviously, nothing short of a drastic clean-up will arrest the rot in the Garo Hills. New Delhi has shown pragmatism by accepting Meghalaya chief minister, Mukul Sangma&’s request for paramilitary forces. But these forces must be used judiciously to regain a grip on the situation.