By Chayanika Saxena*

Just the day before three massive terror strikes ripped through the city of Kabul, the seat of central power of Afghanistan, I had the chance of interacting with the Member of Parliament from the Badakhshan province, Fawzia Koofi, on the future of politics in Afghanistan. Brimming with hope amid massive insecurity, she acknowledged that a long journey lay ahead of them as a nation in-the-making.

‘Unpredictable’ is a word that features constantly in the discourses on Afghanistan whichever pedestal they may be spoken from. Both intellectual and casual discussions on this nation-in-the-making are rife with a sense of exasperation not only over the deadly fate that many meet within the country on a constant basis, but also over the sheer unpredictability of the course it will run. The ‘moments of peace’ that intersperse the long periods of conflict are, in fact those eerie silences that speak their own language; telling the tales of an uncertain life which the general masses of Afghanistan have resigned to. The constant shadow of war and insecurity have anaesthetized them to the events that appear shocking to us in our countries, where if nothing else, but such terror strikes continue to be events extraordinaire.

The ordinariness that such terrorizing events have assumed became a clarion call for the National Unity Government to find a solution to a rather predictable pattern of an unpredictable life in Afghanistan; or, so it is believed. One year into office (almost), the ‘political solution to an internecine struggle’ (that the NUG was hoped to be) demands evaluation of where it has come till now. The views, as always, are split between the idealists and the pragmatists. There are those who were expecting an instantaneous transcendence into a state of peace with the rise of a ‘democratically elected’ government, and are thus disappointed with the present state of affairs. And, then there are those who knew the path to peace will be a long one and are hopeful that there will be change later, if not sooner. It is to the latter kind that this cautiously optimistic Member of Parliament, Ms. Koofi, belongs to.

Having faced the hardest of circumstances, including many bids on her life from the very day on which she was born; Koofi has seen the rough and tumble of life from the closest quarters. Being in power since the inception of the parliament in the 21st century Afghanistan, she is currently in her second-term in the Wolesi Jirga (House of the People, or the Lower House) and is hopeful of pulling a hat trick in the elections to the parliament that are due the next year. In a conversation with her over the future course of politics in Afghanistan, she resounded pride for her country in her fiercely headstrong demeanor which has been her trademark, but was equally cautious not to let this gloss over the shortcomings that are apparent in every sphere of Afghanistan’s life.

The National Unity Government

Calling the sharing of power between the two Afghan leaders, Mohammed Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah as a ‘solution’ rather than a ‘compromise’, Koofi observed that the decision to have the power shared between the two contenders was the only way available to assuage the two major ethnic communities in the country — Pashtuns and Tajiks. But, is all well with the arrangement? Well, not really.

There exists, as the MP notes, a major difference in how the two leaders go about conducting their respective businesses and which has a major impact on the overall functioning of the government. While President Ghani has a penchant for making bold moves in both domestic and international circles, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah is believed to maintain a rather measured and moderate style of doing politics. A micro-manager is what Koofi believes the current president is as he seems to take stock in an equivocal fashion of the smallest to the biggest things that fall under his purview. Whereas Abdullah, despite the powers vested in him, does not appear to be making the most of it.

Amendment to the Constitution to carve an official position of the prime minister as a permanent replacement to the temporary seat of the CEO; reforms in areas pertaining to elections in the country such as the Electoral Law and the Electoral Commission, and the appointments of political and bureaucratic functionaries were flagged by the MP as the other sticky issues that dampen the prospects of success for the NUG.

Ethnic Affiliations Continue to Run Deep

Comparable to India in terms of its sheer ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity, affiliations to communities in Afghanistan continue to play a major role in determining the political make-up of the country. From the smallest of administrative portfolios to even the government in Kabul, ethnic solidarities are seen assuming priority, and which as the MP observed, come to hamper the efforts of creating a national consciousness.

But, while ethnicity becomes a probable reason for tension and acrimony, sectarian conflict in Afghanistan, the MP believes is not that common. The feuds between communities often erupt out of a combination of ethnic and economic tensions and hardly assume a sectarian color.

Talking about the internal make-up of the communities, Koofi highlighted that the three major ethnic communities in Afghanistan — which are the Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Hazaras — exhibit differences in how they lead their social, cultural, political and economic lives. While the Pashtuns, for having being in power for more than 200 years now, are in obvious favor of maintaining the status-quo, and as a result are stringent about how they deal with these aspects of their life, the Tajiks and Hazaras on the other hand are more moderate. Having been the bureaucratic and administrative backbone of the Pashtun-led empires for an equivalent period of time, their sedentary lives and greater degree of literacy have made them moderate in their dispensation towards politics in particular. In fact, as Koofi claimed, it is hard to divide the Dari-speaking Tajiks along axis of divisions — be it region, or other intra-ethnic fault-lines.

For a variety of political, economic and social reasons, Hazaras compared to the other two communities have not had significant experience of power in Afghanistan. While their political currency is on the rise today, this community, as the MP believes has been the most progressive among the major ethnic lots in the country.

Peace Process

A peace process that has almost got the whole world, particularly the South Asian region anxious, is definitely a tight-rope walk. With all the ‘revelations’ that have been made in the last few weeks and the severe intensity of the spring offensive of the Taliban forming the backdrop, the journey to rapprochement and reconciliation will be a long drawn one. Added to it, the credibility of Pakistan as a committed stakeholder in the process appears to be questionable to the domestic constituencies within Afghanistan. But, in spite of these dampeners, Ms. Koofi, as a cautious optimist believes that the process of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan continues to remain a priority and that there is no going back on it.

A Slip in Rank for India on Afghanistan’s Priority List?

An increasing sense of apprehension, if not disaffection with Afghanistan’s revised international and regional priorities, is what is felt in the diplomatic circles in India. The recent parleys with the civilian and military capitals of Pakistan, combined with the increasing Chinese interest and involvement in the peace process have certainly created speculation in the minds of the Indian audience about a possible sidelining of this South Asian giant. But, ‘fear not’ is what Ms. Koofi had to say to such questions that spoke of India’s increasing concerns vis-à-vis Afghanistan’s re-oriented foreign policy.

While acknowledging a change in the direction of Afghanistan’s foreign policy — a move that she claims is the rightful prerogative of every sovereign nation —Koofi was quick in assuaging a visibly concerned India. Speaking of the now staple-feed of a statement on the civilizational connect between India and Afghanistan, Koofi believes the cultural bridges between these two countries, are very hard to forget. The important role played by India in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, especially through the infrastructural, educational and capacity-building projects it has financed, have reinforced the bond of trust between the countries. And in fact, such is the intensity of camaraderie and faith between the two countries that she claimed that for many Afghans, including the CEO of the country, India has become a second home.

A case in point which Koofi brought to light to prove the vast cultural dividend that India has managed to reap in Afghanistan was the uproar that was caused post the signing of the intelligence-sharing agreement between the National Directorate of Security (Afghanistan) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan). Also, the continuous support of the Indian government in providing opportunities for higher education to the Afghans is a service which her nation, she said, was thankful to India for.

Carving Space for Women in Politics

Afghanistan is not an exception to a world order that continues to be biased against women, said the MP who has herself experienced the worst forms of repression. Disowned at her own home and then the brutality of Taliban have surely contributed to her will to fight for women’s rights in the country. But in doing so Koofi is also careful to point out that the years under Taliban do not define Afghanistan — her country is certainly more than that. Having given women the right to vote in 1919, many reforms had touched the lives of women before the country descended into chaos with the invasion by the Soviet Union. While brutality against women continues, with some statistics going on to describe Afghanistan as ‘the worst place to be a woman’, steps towards ensuring greater equality in the country are also being taken — a case in point being the nomination of Anisa Rasooli to the Supreme Court’s High Council.

Future of Afghan Politics

Ms. Koofi’s cautious optimism about the future of Afghanistan and its political set-up speaks of the hope she has for the country and the problems that have the potential to crush it. A growing class of literate, young Afghans is what the MP counts as a blessing for the country, while the continuous presence of extremist elements, meddlesome neighbors and a declining economy, amount to speed-breakers in this journey.

Koofi was equally careful to stress that the internal troubles of Afghanistan have been a creation of international and regional politics, and that a permanent solution to them will require a committed international and regional participation. Anything short of it will once again expose Afghanistan and through it, the whole of South Asia, to the kind of threats that will be more severe than ever. And, as the MP wrapped the conversation, she was particular to reiterate that it is in the interest of South Asia and the whole world to not to leave Afghanistan’s side so long as a comprehensive, sustainable reconciliation is not achieved.

*Chayanika Saxena is a Research Associate at the Society for Policy Studies and will be conducting her Doctoral Research on State-building in Afghanistan. She can be reached at chayanika.saxena@spsindia.in

By Ajit Kumar Singh*

Among a range of indicators of deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan came the announcement of the death, at least two years earlier, of Mullah Omar, the so-called Amir ul Momineen (Leader of the Faithful) and ‘supreme commander’ of the Taliban; a contested succession for leadership of the group; and the rising spectre of the Islamic State (IS, formerly Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, ISIS) in the Af-Pak region. These developments promise enduring troubles, even as they give signs of the unraveling of Pakistan’s strategy of orchestrated negotiations and proxy war against Afghanistan.

On August 8, 2015, terrorists carried out a suicide attack killing at least 21 people and injuring another 10 in the Khanabad District of Kunduz Province in Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

On August 7, 2015, terrorists carried out a series of attacks across the national capital Kabul, killing at least 51 people. In the first attack, a suicide bomber dressed in Police uniform detonated his explosive vest in a crowd of trainees outside the Kabul Police Academy, killing at least 27 and injuring over 25. Later, militants detonated an explosives laden truck near an Army complex, killing 15 and injuring over 240. In the last of these series of attacks, terrorists attacked Camp Integrity, which houses US and coalition troops that help train Afghan forces, killing nine and injuring 20. The victims included eight civilian military contractors and a US serviceman. The Taliban claimed responsibility for two of the three attacks – on the Kabul Police Academy and Camp Integrity. Though the attack near the Army complex remained unclaimed, the Taliban is suspected to have been responsible.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in a televised address stated, “We hoped for peace, but war is declared against us from Pakistani territory. I ask the government and people of Pakistan to imagine that a terrorist attack just like the one in Kabul … took place in Islamabad and the groups behind it had sanctuaries in Afghanistan and ran offices and training centres in our big cities. What would have been your reaction?” He warned that these attacks would spell the end of his rapprochement if Islamabad did not respond strongly.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recorded at least 355 civilian casualties – 42 deaths and 313 injured – in the August 7 Kabul attacks. Though the number of deaths reported by UNAMA is significantly lower than the deaths reported in the media, UNAMA stressed the fact that the number of civilian casualties, at 355, was the highest in a single day since it began systematically recording such casualties in Afghanistan in 2009.

The security environment across Afghanistan remains alarming. UNAMA’s 2015 ‘Midyear Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict’ released on August 5, 2015, documented 4,921 civilian casualties (1,592 dead and 3,329 injured) in the first half of 2015, as compared to 4,894 (1,686 dead and 3,208 injured) during the corresponding period of 2014. In 2013, the number of civilian casualties during the same period had stood at 3,921 (1,344 deaths and 2,577 injured). Over the same period of 2009, these casualties stood at 2,491 (1,052 deaths and 1,439 injured).

The UNAMA report further noted that civilian casualties from suicide and complex attacks executed by Anti-Government Elements (AGEs) caused 1,022 civilian casualties (183 deaths and 839 injured) during the first six months of 2015, a 78 per cent increase compared to the first six months of 2014. Similarly, 699 civilian casualties (440 deaths and 259 injured) were reported in incidents of targeted killing in first six months of 2015, an increase of 57 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. The number of civilian casualties caused by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), stood at 1,108 (385 deaths and 723 injured), a 21 per cent decrease. During the same period, ground engagements led to 1,577 civilian casualties (379 deaths and 1,198 injured), a 19 per cent decrease compared to the corresponding period of 2014. The remaining 515 civilian casualties in 2015 were the result of “explosive remnants of war” (four per cent), aerial operations (two percent), and “other” (five per cent).

More worryingly, in the first six months of 2015, UNAMA documented a 23 per cent increase in women casualties and a 13 per cent increase in child casualties. Emphasizing the adverse impact of this development, Danielle Bell, UNAMA Director of Human Rights, noted,
The rise in the numbers of women and children killed and maimed from conflict-related violence is particularly disturbing. This year, UNAMA recorded the highest number of children and women casualties compared to the same period in previous years. All parties to the conflict must undertake stronger measures to protect civilians from harm. When the conflict kills or maims a mother, child, sister or brother, the repercussions for families and communities are devastating and long-lasting.

Meanwhile, partial data collated by Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) shows that violence in all categories has increased, and also that there has been a visible decline in the overall security situation. After declines in the total number of terrorism-related fatalities since 2011, the numbers began to surge again in 2014, and have already crossed the five figure mark (10,379) in the current year, with well over four and half months left and ground conditions becoming more ‘favorable’ for militants.

Significantly, in July 2015 reports of death of Taliban’s ‘supreme commander’ Mullah Omar started resurfacing. There had been continuous speculation on the subject since 2013, and, indeed, even earlier, but on July 29, 2015, Abdul Haseeb Sediqi, the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan spy agency, confirmed, “There’s no doubt. We confirm he is dead. He died in April 2013, two years back, in Karachi [Pakistan].” Later, on July 31, 2015, White House released a statement saying, “While the exact circumstances of his [Mullah Omar] death remain uncertain, it is clear that his demise, after decades of war and thousands of lives lost, represents a chance for yet more progress on the path to a stable, secure Afghanistan.” On the same day, Taliban ‘spokesman’ Zabiullah Mujahid referring to Omar as “the late leader of the faithful” confirmed his death. In the same statement he disclosed that Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour would be Taliban’s new leader. Alhaj Moulavi Jalalludin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqani Network, a hard-line wing of the Afghan Taliban, reconfirmed Omar’s death, “…we would like to state that the passing away of His Excellency the Amir-ul-Momineen is a huge loss for the Islamic Emirate, the whole Muslim world and particularly for the Islamic Jihadi movements”. His son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is the present ‘chief’ of Haqqani Network, was announced as the ‘deputy chief’ of the Afghan Taliban.

In the immediate aftermath of these announcements, reports emerged of increasing differences within the Taliban, and the rejection of Mansour as its ‘undisputed leader’. Powerful Taliban leaders, including Tayib Agha (‘chief’ of the Taliban’s Political Office in Qatar), Mullah Zakir (Taliban’s’ military commander’) and Omar’s own son Yaqoob, reportedly resigned in protest, rejecting Mansour as a Pakistani proxy, and the succession as lacking the endorsement of the jirga. There are strong and enduring ties between Taliban’s new chief and Islamabad. Mansour was the head of the Quetta Shura, which has long operated out of Pakistan’s Balochistan Province with full support of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Indeed, his association with Pakistan goes much further, and reports indicate that he studied at a madrasa (Islamic Seminary) at Jalozai village in the Nowshera District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan.

Acknowledging the rift, in a 33-minute audio message sent to journalists on August 1, 2015, by Taliban ‘spokesman’ Zabiullah Mujahid, Mansoor asserted that the group’s jihad would continue until its goal to implement an Islamic system in Afghanistan was accomplished. “We should keep our unity, we must be united. Our enemy will be happy in our separation. This is a big responsibility on us. This is not the work of one, two or three people. This all our responsibility (sic) to carry on jihad until we establish the Islamic state.”

Another ‘Islamic State’, IS, is however, looming on the horizon, threatening to capture spaces that have long been under Taliban’s influence, consolidating significant territorial gains by defeating Taliban units in Nangarhar Province. It is widely believed, moreover, that the growing differences within Taliban will help IS, and that the turf war between these two outfits will make Afghanistan more insecure in the near future. As splinters fall away from Taliban and various Pakistani formations, including the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the dreaded IS appears to be emerging as the more potent threat. Significantly, according to the US Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2014, out of the five perpetrator groups with the most attacks worldwide in 2014, IS tops the list with 1,083 attacks leading to 6,286 fatalities in five countries; as compared to Taliban’s involvement in 894 attacks resulting in 3,492 deaths in two countries. The ‘rising graph’ of IS – if it can be sustained – is likely to attract more recruits. Omar Samad, senior adviser to Afghan Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah, notes, “Some dissatisfied elements (of the Taliban) have already pledged allegiance to (ISIS). With Omar out of the equation, more are likely to join.”

These worrying developments have already resulted in the suspension of what Sushant Sareen has described as the “Pakistan led, Pakistan owned” ‘peace talks’ between the Taliban and Kabul, of which the first round was held in the resort town of Murree, adjacent to Islamabad, on July 7, 2015. The Afghan Government was represented by Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the Deputy Foreign Minister, and the Taliban delegation was led by Mullah Abbas Durrani. Karzai was accompanied by a delegation including representatives from all the major players in the government, including at least two officials representing the CEO, Abdullah Abdullah, and his deputies. The US and Chinese representatives were also present as a delegation of the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC). Though nothing significant emerged from this meeting, a second round of peace talks was scheduled to take place on July 31. The disarray around the Pakistan backed Taliban factions over Mansour’s appointment as Omar’s successor, however, quickly scuttled the ‘process’, and Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an statement on July 30, 2015, announced, “In view of the reports regarding the death of (Mullah) Omar and the resulting uncertainty, and at the request of the Afghan Taliban leadership, the second round of the Afghan peace talks, which was scheduled to be held in Pakistan on 31 July 2015, is being postponed.”

The ‘peace process’ was, indeed, astonishing in its very fundamentals, with Pakistan running the show as ‘facilitator’ even as it continued to facilitate the mounting of attacks by its Taliban proxies across Afghanistan. Pakistan’s motivation and enduring role in supporting terrorism in Afghanistan, including continuous attacks against the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops led by USA for nearly a decade and a half, were widely known, and yet, the international community has continued to encourage Pakistan as a critical ‘stakeholder’ in Afghanistan. This is despite overwhelming cumulative evidence of Pakistani mischief, including the fact that that Osama bin Laden, the amir and ideological fountainhead of al Qaeda, its founder, and the architect of the 9/11 attacks in the US, was killed in May 2011, in a US operation in the garrison town of Abbottabad, less than 62 kilometres from Islamabad, and a stone’s throw from the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, the country’s top training established for officers, and the local Army Brigade Headquarters. Mullah Omar is now reported to have died in Karachi, and it is widely accepted that he was in the protection of ISI.

This has placed Kabul under tremendous pressure and forced Afghanistan to adopt an immensely damaging policy of seeking Islamabad’s ‘cooperation’ to deal with Pakistan’s own proxies. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has invested tremendous political capital in this misconceived approach, despite the active and vocal opposition of many in his own Government, including the country’s CEO Abdullah Abdullah. Indeed, the Afghans are demonstrating increasing impatience over the Pakistan policy adopted by President Ghani. In May 2015, when Ghani’s decision led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation between ISI and the Afghan intelligence service, the NDS there were angry reactions across the political spectrum in Kabul. The MoU which includes “(intelligence) sharing, complimentary and coordinated (intelligence operations) on respective sides” was criticized by several Afghan Members of Parliament (MP). MP Rahman Rahmani declared in the House: “… you [Ghani] sign a shameful intelligence sharing agreement. By signing this agreement you have made yourself blind and dumb.” The Deputy Head of Parliament’s Internal Security Commission, Mohammad Faisal Sami, added: “The government should have endorsed its defeat to Pakistan before signing this agreement and announce it publicly.”

Despite the substantial costs domestic terrorism is inflicting in Pakistan, there is little to indicate that Islamabad is willing to abandon its terrorist proxies, or to renounce terrorism as an instrument of state policy and strategic extension. President Ghani has sought to talk his way out of an intractable situation, under tremendous international pressure and despite tremendous domestic opposition, and the result has been a mounting wave of Taliban violence and growing evidence of Pakistani deceit. Continuing down the same policy path can only be disastrous for Afghanistan. It remains to be seen, however, whether the international community and the Afghan President will finally pull their heads out of the sand and adopt a strategy with a more rigorous basis in reality.

*Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management

By K V Kesavan and Vindu Mai Chotani*

Seventy years have passed since the end of the World War II and yet issues connected with the post war reconciliation process are continuing to haunt relations between countries in Asia. Whereas Japan and South East Asian countries have gone a long way in adjusting their relations, ties between Japan and China, and Japan and South Korea continue to be obstructed by historical issues.

It was on August 15, 1945 that the Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced the unconditional surrender of Japan in WW II. Keeping the tradition with his predecessors, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will make his 70th anniversary address. The new statement is already under close scrutiny by Asian nations – especially China and South Korea, which widely view Abe as a “revisionist”, and which bore the brunt of Japan’s wartime excesses in the pre-war years. Mr. Abe does realize that East Asian countries attach great importance to his address which could contribute to reconciliation with South Korea and China, or aggravate the already strained relations. Will he apologize and reiterate the crucial aspects of the statements issued by previous Japanese leaders, and if he chooses not to, why?

As any anniversary marking the end of a war, this day should be used to reflect on the terrible pain inflicted by the war in the past, and give hope to shape a better, more peaceful future. The issue that arises in East Asia is that, unlike Europe, crafting a reconciliatory narrative has been a particularly difficult challenge. Divergent understandings of the past conflict, territorial disputes, and the comfort women issue have deeply affected the national identity formation and nation building for these countries, driving them further apart.

Since the beginning of the year, a great deal of the attention on Japan has been focussed on the content of Mr. Abe’s projected statement on the Japanese Government’s views of the war. Earlier this year, Abe had stated that he did not feel it necessary to repeat the wordings of apology for Japan’s wartime actions since he had already decided to uphold the statements issued by previous Prime Ministers.

In what was seen as a prelude to his upcoming statement, Mr. Abe’s April address to a summit of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta, expressed Japan’s “deep remorse” over the war, but did not offer a “heartfelt apology” to the people of Asian nations affected by Japan’s “colonial rule and aggression” during and before the war. Similarly, much to the dismay of US lawmakers who have called upon Abe to reaffirm and validate previous Japanese war apologies; his joint address to the US congress in April, expressed “deep remorse”, yet once again omitted the term “apology”. Instead Mr. Abe emphasized “Japan’s new banner” that is “proactive contribution to peace based on the principle of international cooperation.”

By these actions, Abe risks losing the confidence of the international community that previous Japanese leaders managed to secure. The 1993 statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei, alongside statements issued by Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi in 1995, and Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro in 2005 were important due to the fact that they contained the terms “heartfelt apology” and “colonial rule and aggression.” These statements have played a crucial role in reassuring Japan’s willingness to accept its war time history.

While many experts argue that these expressions are adequate, for numerous reasons they do not resonate with China, South Korea, and many in the international community as well. The inability of Japanese right wing nationalists in accepting Japan’s war time atrocities, in addition to visits made by Japanese leaders such as Mr. Koizumi, and Mr. Abe to the Yasukuni Shrine (a shrine in Tokyo that houses Class – A wartime criminals); and incidents such as the ‘textbook controversy’ all seem to have undermined the importance of these apologies.

That the changing geopolitical climate in North East Asia has left Japan feeling vulnerable is clear. The North Korean nuclear regime and the rise of China have prompted the Japanese government to reinterpret Japan’s pacifist constitution, and pass two security bills to ensure the more proactive role of Japan’s self defense forces. These events have further provoked China and South Korea to protest against what they view as Japan’s return to militarism.

Keeping aside the merits of their cries, refraining from apologizing will only complicate the situation further. Most recently South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed that Mr. Abe in his war anniversary statement should adhere to the 1995 Murayama statement, which offered an apology and described Japanese action during World War II as “aggression”.

Internationally German Chancellor, Angela Merkel during her visit to Tokyo in March 2015, also urged Japan to properly address its wartime conduct. Further, a group of 187 scholars of Japanese and East Asian studies, have called on Japan to accurately address its history of colonial rule and wartime actions, particularly the “comfort women” who were forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

Domestically there is also considerable pressure on Mr. Abe, some of it coming from within his Liberal Democratic Party as well. Mr Komura Masahiko, the LDP Vice President has urged Mr. Abe to uphold past government apologies and expressions of remorse for Japan’s war time aggression in Asia. Ex- Prime Minister of Japan Murayama Tomiichi, alongside Kono Yohei, the former cabinet secretary in charge of releasing the 1993 Kono statement also echoed the same sentiments. They called on Prime Minister Abe to stand by the statement released in 1995.

Acknowledging how high the stakes are, earlier this year Mr. Abe set up a 16 member panel of scholars, business leaders, and other experts to aid in advising him on the content of his statement. However, the report of the panel will serve only as a “reference” point for the government as it drafts Mr. Abe’s statement. Further, within this panel itself, there are contrasting views of what this statement should entail. A prominent Japanese Scholar, and advisory member to the panel, Prof. Kitaoka Shinichi stated that he wanted Mr. Abe to acknowledge that Japan had indeed committed aggression. On the other hand, some of the panel members have stated that a change of wording from the previous anniversary statements would only be natural.

Thus it can be established that the arguments surrounding Mr. Abe’s statement are two fold – one being that Mr. Abe should apologize and uphold the statements made by his predecessors, while the second being that he should take a more future oriented approach, that would involve a change in terminology.

Presently there has been some momentum in Japan-China and Japan-South Korea relations. Mr. Abe is likely to visit China for summit talks with President Xi Jinping around 3 September 2015, when China commemorates its 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Further, President Park has stated that she wants to make this year, the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, as well as the 50th anniversary of the normalization of relations between Japan and South Korea, a year to start moving bilateral ties forward.

In order for Japan to have harmonious relations with China and South Korea, one must be able to accept and right the wrongs done in the past. Changing the language of the apology would be misconstrued as doubting or questioning past statements. Thus one could think of three options for Mr. Abe. Firstly, that Mr. Abe should make a sincere and unambiguous apology, and adhere to the expressions that have been made by previous prime ministers. Shining a light on Japan’s post-war accomplishments without first addressing Japan’s victims with an admission of guilt and remorse would be counterproductive. Secondly, showing contrition, while looking to the future, and letting the world know that Japan wants to continue to pro-actively contribute to peace is a sure sign of progress. This could well be a stepping stone in improved Japanese diplomatic relations in North East Asia. Thirdly, it is extremely important for the peoples of Japan, China and South Korea to have a deep understanding of each other’s perceptions and understandings of history. They should begin to conduct history education reform, and resume their joint history research and joint history textbook projects.

Lastly, the common rhetoric in Japan is that they have hit the wall, and are suffering an “apology fatigue,” caused by the failure of China and South Korea to recognize Tokyo’s repeated apologies. If Abe does apologize, it is important that South Korea and China acknowledge this and sincerely work to improve bilateral ties.

* Prof. K V Kesavan is a Distinguished Fellow and Vindu Mai Chotani a Research Assistant at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi.

As new strategic realities create new powers, new types of future conflicts emerge. In East Asia, these will include new forms of cyber-enabled conflicts defined through a convergence of ‘cyber-kinetic-information domains’ and their strategic interactions.

By Michael Raska*

East Asia’s current strategic template hinges on a convergence of unresolved historical legacies and emerging security challenges, characterised by a mix of asymmetric threats, low-probability / high-impact risks, and a range of non-traditional security challenges. These are amplified through a perennial strategic distrust, which propels a regional “arms competition” and diffusion of advanced military technologies in nearly every combat domain.

At the same time, however, regional powers acknowledge the interlocking economic interdependencies and consequences of potential conflict escalation. Therefore, their strategic choices point toward a long-term competitive strategies, including novel ways and means of asymmetric negation short of major wars.
Netwars and information spheres of influence

One of the quintessential aspects of the cyber-enabled hybrid conflict spectrum is strategic ambiguity – in terms of effects, sources, and motives. The cyber domain amplifies the use of ambiguity – neither confirming nor denying the use of force vis-à-vis existing or potential adversaries and their selective proxy targets. Direct, and to a lesser degree, indirect results of cyber-attacks are often invisible, which creates uncertainties about the sources of the intrusion, attack, or malfunction.

Even if the source is known or detected, the purpose of the cyber-attack might be less clear. Accordingly, cyber-attacks may be used as a response to a limited kinetic attack or aggression with a lesser risk of escalation than a physical retaliation. At the same time, however, strategic ambiguity in the use of cyber may increase the propensity for offensive and unrestricted cyber warfare given the prevailing perceptions of lesser risks of detection, the lack of accountability, and the resulting low probability of successful deterrence.

The development of ambiguous cyber warfare strategies, however, transcends the cyber domain. Cyber-enabled conflicts are embedded in the broader context of information conflicts – political, economic, information, technological, media, and ideological struggles for influence. In the 1990s, John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt introduced the concept of ‘netwars’ – information-related conflicts between nations or societies, in which opponents are trying to disrupt, damage, or modify what a target population ‘knows’ or thinks it knows about itself and the world around it. Traditionally, netwars have been conducted through public diplomacy, propaganda, psychological campaigns, intelligence operations, as well as through traditional print media and television.

Social media and strategic vulnerabilities

Today, social media have brought netwars or information conflicts to a new level. In essence, social media enable protagonists to seed ideas, deliver information campaigns, and shape narratives for specific target groups in real time and with no geographic limitations. The diffusion and sharing of selective information generates ‘certainty’ which creates, to varying levels of influence, ‘conversion’ of target groups.

This is done by exploiting existing tensions or identifying new fracture points within target groups, and conveying selective information to select audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately their behaviour to favour ‘friendly’ objectives. In doing so, social media campaigns may target a national will, regional or group audiences to gain support and weaken opposition, to individual targets to enhance particular narrative at a local level. At the same time, they provide defensive aspects – preventing opponents from using or manipulating information to gain an advantage.

Sceptics may argue that there are serious limitations with regard to the use of cyberspace for political purposes. However, the continuously evolving character and reliance on cyberspace in both civil-military domains provides a new arena for strategic competition, increases uncertainty, and enables a spectrum of operations other than war. Accordingly, traditional regional security flashpoints in the East and South China seas, the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait will likely have parallel and continuous confrontations in and out of cyberspace, with potential cyber-attacks on physical systems and processes controlling critical information infrastructure, information operations, and various forms of cyber espionage.

The progressive complexity in strategic interactions and interdependencies between cyber, information, cognitive, and physical domains will likely challenge traditional kinetic uses of force in future conflicts. For example, in ensuring operational access in the East or South China seas, the US military will have to ensure the security, reliability, and integrity of its mission-critical command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems as well as combat support and logistics systems.

Shifting centres of gravity

These will become increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats as well as other emerging forms of electronic warfare, including threats from electromagnetic pulse and high-powered microwave weapons. A sophisticated cyberattack on these systems would likely result in cascading effects on the individual services with ramifications on their abilities to carry out operational missions.

As conflicts move into the cyber and information domains, the centres of gravity are going to shift. The value and more importantly, the accuracy and reliability of strategic information relevant for the situational awareness and function of the nation state as a system will become even more important with the increased dependence on cyberspace.

Cyber-enabled conflicts will evolve in parallel with technological changes – e.g. the introduction of the next generation of robots and remotely controlled systems that will continue to alter the character of future warfare. Ultimately, however, both cyber and information domains – whether civil or military – may become simultaneously targets as well as weapons.

* Michael Raska is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

By Mahendra Ved*

The government launching a major project to rewrite histories of all wars and major operations undertaken by the Indian armed forces seems a good idea, but for apprehensions about the current political dispensation’s thrust to ‘rewrite” history in general and dovetail it to a particular religious-cultural ethos.

Already, a controversy is brewing about induction of academics in premier institutions like the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). The last Indian Science Congress also witnessed efforts to make mythology and folklore interpreted as science and history.

History of a war is vulnerable to such interpretations since it is easy to invoke patriotic sentiments. Would these histories, then, aim to show that Indians won all these wars and that the adversaries were all wrong and weak, meant to be demonized?

The project already underway aims to make history of wars “simple and reader-friendly”. Per se, it is a good idea to make people aware of the role the armed forces have played in the nation’s life. But it is to be hoped that this is not aimed politically to “catch ’em young”.

Lessons need to be learnt from the lop-sided, anti-India and anti-Hindu history being taught in Pakistan’s schools where generations brought up on sanitised history have had no access to any other viewpoint.

The war histories, classified secrets for long, have been good source for historians in general, particularly war historians. These are academic pursuits, and those who engage in it must be willing to delve into details that are “too technical and full of military jargon”. It would be wrong to hold back the historical records in ‘raw’ form from the academia, if that is the idea to rewrite war history in ‘readable’ format.

Our chequered history shows that Indians were weak and divided and on many occasions, the outside ‘ínvader’ was invited by one or more of the local parties engaged in a territorial dispute. It also shows that Indians lost to smaller, but more determined and better-trained adversary, who introduced the horse, the swifter, easy-to-control animal compared to the elephant in the battlefield at one time and gunpowder at another.

The Indian armed forces that evolved during British India and in the princely states were essentially mercenary in nature. There was no forced enlistment. Millions fought in the two World Wars and thousands died, not for their enslaved country, but the ruler who paid.

The ethos changed, but not basically, after Independence. Those who joined Netaji Subhas Bose’s Indian National Army and those who participated in Mumbai’s ‘Naval Mutiny’ were kept out of the armed forces. The forces that divided on India-Pakistan lines turned adversaries overnight and have fought four wars. These hostilities have characterised the relationship.

This being the case, it would be a challenge to interpret and judge the role of the military that evolved on caste, regional and religious lines.

Release of the new war histories will kick off on September 1 with an account of the 1965 war, in keeping with the government plan to celebrate its 50th anniversary from August 28 to September 26 as “a great victory” over Pakistan. This has raised eyebrows since the 1965 war ended in a “stalemate”.

This was unlike the crushing defeat of Pakistan in the 1971 war. That defeat, essentially, was in the erstwhile east wing that became Bangladesh. It was overrun, but partially, by the India-Bangladesh joint forces who hurried to take Dhaka and force the surrender of Pakistan’s 93,000 combatants.

The government is likely to hold back account of the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962, especially the classified report by Indian Gen. Henderson-Brookes that blames the political leadership of the day.

However, British author Neville Maxwell, who wrote a damning account on India’s performance after he had access to this report, posted it on a web site two years ago. So, details are known, although there is “nothing official” about them.

Conflicts cause euphoria during and in the aftermath and generate much popular lore. Serious studies, if at all, follow after the dust has settled down, which could take years.

Official records, as well as popular perceptions show Indian armed forces as ‘liberators’ of Goa, while wresting Hyderabad from the Nizam’s control was projected as “police action”, even though the army was involved.

Perceptions are that India was ‘betrayed’ in 1962, although it was India that under took the “forward movement”. India was ‘surprised’ in 1965 and in the 1999 Kargil conflict. How is that going to be tackled?

How is the role and performance of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka going to be viewed?

Details of these conflicts are available from studies, in both countries as also institutions elsewhere in the world, and from memoirs of those who were part of the conflict. Judicial and military probes have gone deep into some of them. The 1971 war, for instance, caused the Justice Hamoodur Rahman Report in Pakistan where Lt. Gen. A.A.K. Niazi who surrendered also had his version. Many Indian officers, too have written their versions commenting on strategic and tactical omissions and commissions.

Each account carries its own interpretation. The challenge for the historians engaged by the government to rewrite and simplify them would be to steer clear of differing, even conflicting, claims and opinions. This, of necessity, would have to be done in an informed manner by informed persons.

*Mahendra Ved is a New Delhi-based writer and columnist. He can be reached at contributions@spsindia.in

Two blasts hit the downtown Bangkok Erewan Shrine in the area of Ratchprasong at 6:55pm local time during rush hour. At least 16 people have been confirmed dead so far, with at least 80 injured, including foreigners, particularly Chinese and Filipinos.

An improvised explosive device fastened to a utility pole was detonated probably by remote outside the temple dedicated to Lord Brahma, crowded with people after the workday. A motorbike-bomb exploded seconds later a few meters away, hitting at least to taxis and causing more chaos and devastation. Such an attack is unprecedented in Bangkok’s recent history, where low-powered mostly symbolic blasts have occurred. Another two explosive devices were defused by special teams.

“The people who did it targeted foreigners and to damage tourism and the economy”, said Defence minister Prawit Wongsuwan. Also a police spokesman in a news conference indicated that the attack aimed to dissuade foreigners.

Schools will remain closed tomorrow and residents and visitors are all warned to stay away from areas at risk of other attacks.

A recent Washington Post article typifies the way discussion about religion is misleading and distorting in much media and academic commentary. Religious literacy is proposed as a solution.

By Paul Hedges*

The Washington Post published an article on 10 July 2015 by Daniel Philpott entitled “Are Muslim countries really unreceptive to religious freedom?” His argument was that despite Muslim-majority countries showing high patterns of repression, Islam was not the problem. While I agree with his conclusion there are problems with the way the discussion was framed.

Three statements stood out from the article: “a dearth of religious freedom in Islam”; “Islam clearly has considerably lower levels of religious freedom”; and “the presence of religiously free countries in Islam”. While one could surmise what he meant to say, it actually makes no sense: what is this generic “Islam”? Elsewhere, the writer uses the much better term “Muslim-majority countries”, which makes sense. Islam, like any religion, is diverse (not just Sunni and Shi’a, but also Sufism and others); it has changed over time. There is much diversity within Islam.

How not to talk about religion and Islam

For comparison, consider these phrases: “a dearth of religious freedom in democracy”, “democracy clearly has considerably lower levels of religious freedom” and “the presence of religiously free countries in democracy”. What is this “democracy”? What it means is countries with democratic systems.

Is this simply a semantic quibble? No. Particularly in the current global context, such language creates a homogenising perception of diverse religious traditions: in this case that there is one simple thing called Islam. It oversimplifies the conversation; indeed, as Philpott shows, reasons for lack of religious freedom in Muslim-majority countries comes from many factors, for instance some former Soviet states still enact quite strict regulations of which he mentions Uzbekistan as an example.

Further, it suggests that the answer may lie in some specific “religious” impulse within the tradition being discussed, in this case Islam, which hides far more complex social, political, and ideological factors. As such, it promotes a discussion on what scholars in the field would call sui generis religion. That is some “pure” form of spiritual realm divorced from other factors, existing in isolation. Whatever religion is, it only exists within the matrix of specific human societies.

Religious Freedom: Western or Islamic?

In his article, the writer also makes this claim: “Whereas some scholars view religious freedom as a Western value derived from Western history, the principle has a claim to universal validity.” This again is where religious literacy would be useful. There is considerable historical evidence which shows that the freedom of religion that Europe developed around the period we called the Enlightenment actually came from an admiration of the tolerance seen in the Ottoman Empire.

Controlling huge swathes of population across a massive geographical area, the Ottomans had many religious traditions represented amongst their subjects, and enacted policies to allow them to live together in relative harmony. Europe had nothing like this and so learnt from it.

Moreover, the Ottomans were not simply innovating but were building upon foundations going back to Muhammad and his early successors, the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs. Under the Pact of Umar and the dhimmi system, Christians, Jews, and in due course many others (e.g. Hindus, Zoroastrians, and Buddhists) were able to follow their religious teachings, organise their own communities, and live in relative freedom.

Certainly it was not perfect, and is not what we understand today as religious freedom – the jizya tax for protection under the dhimmi system, and the millet system which extended this to military levies under the Ottomans, are examples. Nevertheless, it is the basis of Western religious freedom: Islam, rather than Western values (even if Christian and Jewish biblical principles and texts were invoked for it), was the inspiration for our modern system. Religious literacy is a useful thing to have.

Is there religious freedom across the Islamic traditions?

Recognising the issues above, it would be possible to have a much more nuanced discussion about religious freedom in Muslim-majority countries. As the writer says, much is due to specific forms of secular regimes. However, we could see that the eighteenth century Wahhabi ideology which dominates in Saudi Arabia is also a factor, which often limits the freedom of Islamic groups it does not approve of.

Salafism is also often mentioned as a problematic ideology by many Western commentators; however, it involves going back to early Islam for its guide and so actually could drive greater religious freedom than is seen in many places by invoking the Pact of Umar, which regulated the rights and freedoms of non-Muslims living under Islamic rule.

The impacts of colonialism– and the way Western influence and continuing policies also impact many Muslim-majority nations also needs to be considered. Are restrictions on religious freedom coming from Islam or reactions to the West? Once we start discussing religion as something other than a sui generis monolithic entity we will be free to have a much more useful discussion.

I do not blame the writer for his language. The fact that it got published in The Washington Post and probably passed by the vast majority of readers is indicative of a grave level of religious illiteracy in society: this is true in academia, the media, politicians, the general public, and indeed even amongst most religious people and institutions (they may know their own tradition but they lack knowledge about what religion is generally, certainly at any academic level). Such problems are likely to recur until we see political commentators and journalists, amongst others, being trained in religious literacy.

*Paul Hedges is an Associate Professor with the Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies Programme at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

By Syed Badrul Ahsan*

There was the urbane in Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Steeped in modernity as he was, he could have been a prominent figure in the politics of the West, with which he liked to identify himself. And yet there were in him all those little instances of behavior and outlook which rendered him petty. He refused to address Gandhi as the Mahatma, even though Gandhi had no qualms about honouring Jinnah as Quaid-e-Azam. And when Jinnah refused to shake the hand proffered by the scholar-politician Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, despite shaking hands with other (non-Muslim) figures of the Indian National Congress, he did himself no favours.

Sixty eight years after the cataclysm of Partition and 67 years after Jinnah’s death in what were clearly forlorn circumstances, there are those who go on presenting the thought that had Jinnah lived longer, Pakistan would transform itself into a properly democratic, perhaps even secular country. It is logic that does not hold water. Worse, it is bad sophistry, if sophistry is what it is. Sit back and reflect on the reasons why.

The founder of the state of Pakistan found himself positioned, in August 1947, as an almighty individual in the political scheme of things. In the country he had fashioned through a violent exercise of communalism, helped not a little by the frenzied rush to decolonization by Mountbatten and company, Jinnah was governor general of the country, president of its constituent assembly and chief of what by then had become the ruling Muslim League. All authority was his, flowing from him and going back to him. Neither the constituent assembly nor prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan mattered. The seeds of autocracy that would in time be taken huge advantage of by Pakistan’s military were what Jinnah planted in the early days of Pakistan. The cult of personality, set in motion by Jinnah, has grown in the subcontinent and has especially in Pakistan generationally undermined the concept of democracy. Once Jinnah passed from the scene, Pakistan went into a tailspin, a condition it has never been able to recover from. Democracy and Islam have proved to be a volatile mix for the country. The roots, of course, have lain in the spurious idea of the two-nation theory Jinnah and his Muslim League propounded so vigorously — and so ruthlessly — in the 1940s.

As stated earlier, Jinnah was a modern, urbane man steeped in the liberal traditions of the West. It was these traditions he brought back home from England, ideals he thought he could safely see transplanted in his colonized India. The future, in the 1920s and 1930s, appeared to be Jinnah’s. And then, strangely, he lost the future through deliberately turning his back on it. The secular Jinnah, unable to agree with Gandhi and Nehru or stomach their brand of politics, turned inward and then parochial. Communalism was beginning to make inroads into his politics. In personal life, he was not given to small conversation or ordinary socialising. His mind, sharp in its perception of political conditions, would not go beyond legalities. Jinnah detested academic discussions. And there is little hint of any attachment he might have had for aesthetics in the form of literature. Razor sharp politics was a consuming passion for him. Political stubbornness thus did not give him a niche in the egalitarian company of Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. He was smitten by the daughter of his Parsi friend and married her. Subsequently, however, he would not countenance the marriage of his daughter with a Parsi man. He severed all links with his daughter. If he suffered inwardly from the consequences of his decision, he showed precious little sign of it.

One cannot ignore the notion that the urbane Jinnah quickly mutated into a haughty Jinnah as the chasm between him and the Congress widened. His conscience was not riled when he encouraged his Muslim League followers to paint Dr. Khan Sahib and Badshah Khan of the North-West Frontier as heretics or closet Hindus standing in the way of Muslim self-determination. His contempt for the scholarly Abul Kalam Azad did not become a man of his background. Prominent Muslim politicians who did not agree with him or toe his line were, for him, beneath contempt. And when Gandhi died, it was pettiness which underlined Jinnah’s expression of condolence for the Mahatma. A niggardly statement of sorrow went out from him in January 1948. Incidentally, it was a time when he authorized Pakistani army regulars, in the guise of tribals, to infiltrate Kashmir. It was a miscalculation the ramifications of which are yet being felt in the subcontinent.

In 1946, Jinnah tinkered with the Lahore Resolution adopted by the All-India Muslim League in March 1940. He had the operative phrase, ‘independent states’, in the resolution quietly changed to ‘independent state’. He then explained away, without convincing anyone, ‘states’ as having been a typing error. Six years for a typing error to be noticed and corrected? It was duplicity at work and the ramifications would be severe. Then again, there would be the consequences of his call for a Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946. The Muslim League did not explain at whom or what the day was aimed. Nevertheless, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy would cheerfully go into fulfilling his leader’s wishes. Thousands of Muslims and Hindus perished in communal riots first set off in Calcutta on the day and spacing out over the next few days to bring Noakhali and other places into the conflagration. Jinnah showed no inclination and had no time visit the riot-torn areas. A shell-shocked India left Gandhi and Nehru scrambling to restore communal peace, a semblance of normalcy in collective life. Jinnah stayed aloof. He knew the killings would force Britain’s hand and give him his Pakistan.

In the years leading up to Partition, Jinnah and his acolytes loudly propagated the false notion of Muslims being a nation, as opposed to being a religious community, and therefore deserving a separate country. Ironically, on August 11, 1947, a few days before the emergence of Pakistan, he loftily informed the country’s constituent assembly that all religious communities were free to practise their faiths and that the state had nothing to do with that. Pakistan, the argument went, was for everyone irrespective of caste, creed or colour. That was a clear contradiction, a contravention of the politics he had practised thus far. It was akin to his sense of horror when he was informed that the Punjab and Bengal would be partitioned along communal lines. Punjabis and Bengalis, he put it across, had common legacies that could not be sundered. Jinnah was willing to have India sliced into two across a Hindu-Muslim divide, but was uncomfortable when the same standard was applied to a division of the provinces. He did not notice the fallacy of his argument. Or deliberately ignored it.

In August-September 1947, as Hindus and Sikhs left Pakistan for India and Muslims made their way to Pakistan, with thousands among these three communities perishing in murder and mayhem along the way, Jinnah took a helicopter ride and observed the unprecedented migration from the air. For the first time in his life, as the Pakistani journalist Mazhar Ali Khan was to tell his wife Tahira Mazhar Ali subsequently, Jinnah appeared to realize the degree of the demons Partition had unleashed. ‘What have I done?’ He asked. Silence was the response, from those around him.

Jinnah, as the late Justice Abdur Rahman Chowdhury once told this writer, was blissfully unaware of Bengali culture. When on his visit to Dhaka in March 1948 a group of Bengali students (Chowdhury was among them) called on him to make their views on the need for Bengali as the state language of Pakistan known to him, Jinnah left the students in a state of incredulity: he wished to know if Bengal could point to any prominent cultural and literary icons as part of its cultural heritage!

A reassessment of Jinnah becomes necessary in the regions of the subcontinent he cobbled into the state of Pakistan. East Pakistan was to fight its way out of Jinnah’s state as a secular Bangladesh in 1971. What remains of Pakistan today confronts the murderous Taliban, the sinister Inter-Services Intelligence and periodic foreign drone attacks inside its territory. Its feudal classes keep their grip on politics. And so does the military. Meanwhile, the long twilight struggle for a free Baluchistan, initiated in the 1960s, goes on.

*Syed Badrul Ahsan is Associate Editor, The Daily Observer, Dhaka. He can be reached at: ahsan.syedbadrul@gmail.com

By Michael Lelyveld

As China struggles to meet economic and environmental goals, questions over the government’s new currency policy have left the consequences in doubt.

After a week of turmoil following China’s surprise devaluation of the yuan, analysts remain uncertain whether the currency shift is a “market-driven” reform as claimed or part of a broader stimulus plan to revive the flagging economy.

World markets have reacted sharply to the devaluation that began on Aug. 11, in part because it may signal that the government knows that its 7-percent official economic growth rate is not all it’s cracked up to be.

“How bad is the Chinese economy if they’re taking these measures?” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Memphis, Tennessee-based Wunderlich Securities, according to The Wall Street Journal. “That’s a big concern.”

The true state of China’s economy may be reflected in the prolonged downturn in coal, which provides nearly two-thirds of its primary energy.

Partial coal data for the first half of 2015 have given the industry no reason to cheer after consumption fell 2.9 percent last year in the first decline since 1999.

Production through June dropped by a steeper rate of 5.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.79 billion metric tons, while imports of 99.87 million tons plunged 37.5 percent, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said.

July figures were barely better, as output fell 3.1 percent, the NDRC planning agency said last week.

Although the industry has yet to release first-half consumption estimates, the production numbers suggest the slide could extend through a second consecutive year.

The country’s main industry group, the China National Coal Association (CNCA), started calling for output cuts of at least 10 percent in July 2014. But the first-half figures make the case that mines are still overproducing for a weakening economy, keeping losses high and prices low.

Over 70 percent of mid-sized and large coal companies ran in the red with first-half losses of 48.4 billion yuan (U.S. $7.8 billion), the NDRC said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

As a group, major coal producers still made 20 billion yuan (U.S. $3.2 billion), but that was only about a tenth of their profits in the first half of 2012, Xinhua said. The proportion of loss-makers has stayed largely unchanged in the past year.

A slower economy, anti-smog measures and overproduction have ganged up to keep coal prices down.

Prices for steam coal used in power plants have hit rock-bottom as growth in first-half electricity use slid to 1.3 percent, its lowest rate in over 30 years. Power consumption fell 1.3 percent in July, the National Energy Administration (NEA) reported last week.

One sign of sustained weakness is that cheap coal prices have failed to rekindle the market, as power consumption in China’s heavy industry dipped 0.9 percent through June.

If the negative numbers are indicators of economic weakness, they may signal what China’s policy makers will do next.

Implications for environment

If devaluation is only the first step in a broader new stimulus, the outlook could improve for coal producers and industrial output, but all bets may be off for environmental gains.

The bad news for miners has been better news for environmental advocates, who have given China’s government high marks for pursuing climate change plans.

In May, Greenpeace/Energydesk China estimated that an 8-percent drop in coal consumption in the first four months of the year would translate into a 5-percent cut in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared with the year-earlier period. China’s coal use accounts for half of the world’s consumption of the high-polluting fuel.

In a breakthrough bilateral accord with the United States last November, China agreed to reach a peak in its CO2 emissions “around 2030″ and increase its non-fossil fuel share of energy to around 20 percent.

Under the agreement, the United States also set a new target to reduce its carbon emissions in 2025 by 26-28 percent compared with 2005.

In June, China formalized its national climate change pledge to the United Nations, vowing to cut CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 60 to 65 percent in 2030 from 2005 levels, raising its target from the previous commitment of 40-45 percent.

China has already lowered its CO2 intensity by 33.8 percent from the 2005 mark by the end of 2014, the official English-language China Daily said.

The national push has been backed by local efforts to limit coal use.

Last month, Xinhua said industrialized Hebei province next door to Beijing has removed nearly 700 furnaces so far this year to reduce coal consumption and major pollutants. Demolition of smokestacks and furnaces means their capacity for coal burning has been eliminated permanently.

Tougher enforcement under a revised environmental protection law has also led to the shutdown of 9,300 companies and the suspension of 15,000 others in the first half of the year, China Daily reported.

All this has raised hopes that China will soon reach a peak in coal consumption, perhaps even that it already has, curbing the world’s biggest source of man-made CO2.

In June, a study by environmental analysts at the London School of Economics said a peak in CO2 emissions may be at hand, well before China’s promised 2030 deadline and perhaps even earlier than 2025.

Early “peaking” could make it possible to stay within the 2-degree Centigrade (3.6-degree Fahrenheit) warming limit, established by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to avoid the most severe environmental effects.

That makes China’s continued decline in coal use crucial.

Risk of new stimulus

But China’s consumption trends can change quickly, as illustrated by a bullish CNCA forecast in November 2013 that China’s coal consumption would rise to 4.8 billion tons in 2020.

The forecast less than two years ago gave no clue that consumption would fall from 3.65 billion tons to 3.51 billion tons last year. But the trend could turn around again if the devaluation is a step aimed at pumping up the economy.

The risk of a new stimulus plan has risen along with suspicions of official growth rates, which economists have eyed with a nod and a wink for years.

“To be honest, no one has a clue where the economy is, and I don’t think that it’s properly measured,” Viktor Szabo, senior investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management in London, told The New York Times.

“Definitely there is a slowdown,” Szabo said. “You can have an argument about what level it is, but it’s not 7 percent.”

Philip Andrews-Speed, a principal fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Energy Studies Institute, said the latest data suggest that “peak coal use in China now looks much closer than before.”

But in a recent column on his website at www.andrewsspeed.com, he questioned whether the lower-consumption trend would continue, arguing that coal use over the past three decades has been linked to GDP growth in more than one way.

On the simplest level, higher growth has generally led to more coal consumption. But bigger leaps have resulted from spurts in stimulus spending on infrastructure projects in the early 1990s, in the boom years starting in 2003 and in 2011, Andrews-Speed said.

The government has previously resisted calls for major stimulus to spur the economy after experiences with higher pollution, energy consumption and debt from the 4-trillion yuan (U.S. $626-billion) stimulus package announced in 2008.

“The outlook for China’s coal consumption over the next year or so depends critically on whether the government decides to boost economic growth through a new infrastructure program,” Andrews-Speed wrote.

In an email message, he noted that the low figures on electricity and energy use have raised doubts about official claims that GDP growth in the second quarter and first half have been sustained at 7 percent.

Last month, the NEA said China’s total energy use in the first half rose by only 0.7 percent.

In an earlier RFA interview, Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, estimated that China’s actual GDP growth rate may be 4 percent “at best.”

“I do wonder if economic growth really is 7 percent. Some have speculated that it might be much lower, in which case, the likelihood of a government stimulus is greater,” Andrews-Speed said.

(EurActiv) — The Serbian press has speculated that one of the conditions that Greece must fulfill to receive financial assistance from the West includes recognizing Kosovo, a former Serbian province which Belgrade refuses to recognize as an independent state.

The Serbian daily Blic says that there ware obvious signs that Greece’s vulnerable financial situation means that “Kosovo is a lost battle for Serbia.”

Most EU countries, except Greece, Spain, Romania, Cyprus and Slovakia, have recognized the independence of Kosovo, who seceded from Serbia in 2008 (see background).

“It would take a miracle for Greece not to recognize Kosovo in the next few months, a year at the most. A serious undertaking will have to be done by the Serbian diplomacy for Athens to give up on recognizing Kosovo, or at least to prolong it,” the paper quoted an unnamed source.

The newspaper said that conditions that Athens will have to fulfill to get the sorely needed money are not just economic, but also political.

Political analyst Dušan Janjić is quoted as saying that Kosovo’s recognition by Athens “will arrive as early as in the fall”. He added:”Tsipras will play pragmatically. He will recognize Kosovo in order to delay the issue of Macedonia’s name. Due to the bad situation, he won’t be able to conduct his own policy. He will have to make concessions, and in this case it will be recognizing Kosovo.”

The European External Action Service would like Greece to recognise Kosovo and to solve the so-called ‘name dispute” with Macedonia, which prevents this country from advancing toward EU accession.

Serbia takes the same position as the EU on Macedonia, but not on the Kosovo issue.

Macedonia declared independence from the dissolving Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991.

Seen from Athens, the official name used by Skopje – the Republic of Macedonia – is an open challenge to the Greek region of Macedonia. In retaliation, Greece vowed to veto Macedonia’s participation in international organisations, including the EU, until the issue is resolved.

Although Macedonia is recognised as the country’s constitutional name by most EU countries, the name dispute with Greece has led to an impasse for the country’s membership of both the EU and Nato.

The UK, Poland, Romania and 13 other EU countries call the country Macedonia, while France, Germany, Spain and 9 other EU members call it the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” or FYROM.

Asked to comment on the press speculation, Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić said that there were no signs that Greece would change its position regarding Kosovo, and that high-level visits between Belgrade and Athens would take place soon.

“As the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I should pay an official visit to Greece in October. Tsipras should have visited us earlier but due to the problems in his country, he announced that he would come later,” Dačić said.

By Divya Kumar Soti

Mullah Omar has died again, though this time he has died conclusively. In the high-voltage drama surrounding the declaration about his death “in Karachi in 2013” certain things are particularly notable. The announcement of Mullah Omar’s death came out after US-China-Pakistan-sponsored Murree peace talks attended by key Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network delegates. Though the Murree talks were described by the sponsors as a sort of breakthrough it was unclear from day one as to what actually came out of that meeting, except an intent expressed by all sides to meet again soon. The Taliban faction running the Qatar political office had stayed away from the Murree talks.

Clearly, the sense Pakistan and other players, including the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) cronies in Afghan Taliban must have gathered from Murree experience was that Pakistan’s new policy goals in Afghanistan can not be realized without bringing the organization into discipline by sidelining Taliban factional leaders not ready to be tamed by ISI.

Serious rumors of Mullah Omar’s death had emerged multiple times in last few years, but neither the Afghan government nor the US tried to confirm them. However, this time when news of his death first originated through a splinter Taliban faction Fidai Mahaj, which was once cleared by erstwhile Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud from his domain on insistence of Afghan Taliban leadership, Kabul as well as Washington almost immediately confirmed it, while Pakistan conspicuously refrained from denying it despite the fact that sub-title of the story was that he died in a Karachi hospital back in 2013.

Mullah Akhtar Mansur, who has been installed by ISI in place of Omar, is breathing fire and has talked of pursuing the goal of establishing an Islamic system through “sword and talks” in compliance with Islamic law and war codes. He has described the Murree talks as “enemy propaganda”. It is another thing that his close aide was present at the Murree meeting. All this is to be seen in light of the fact that Qatar faction led by Tyyeb Agha is so far refusing to acknowledge Mansur’s authority, and rumors are afloat that ISI has neutralized Mullah Omar’s son and has placed his family in protective custody.

Strategic stake instead of strategic depth

Since last winters, Pakistan has ostensibly portrayed to international community that it is ready to give up pursuance of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan if the Afghan Taliban is accommodated in the power structure in Kabul and Pakistan is accepted as ultimate arbitrator as well as custodian of peace in Afghanistan. If things move on further this will also involve de facto limitations on Kabul’s jurisdiction in South and East Afghanistan, ensuring that a favorable streamlined flux is maintained on both sides of the Durand Line. It is difficult to say whether this ostensible positioning involves a genuine policy shift. However, this current Pakistani policy alteration is driven by following factors:

From interactions with Pentagon planners, particularly after Ash Carter took over a US Defense Secretary, Pakistani military leaders came to the conclusion that Americans are determined to not allow Afghanistan going to Taliban wolves in the manner wanted by Pakistan, and hence the Strategic Stake goal may remain unachievable;

China too does not want a Talibani takeover of Afghanistan due to simmering insurgency in Xinjiang and its Silk Road initiative. But it does favor a government in Kabul which may be controlled through strings in Rawalpindi.

In the long term, this strategic stake may culminate in internal sabotage of the fragile power structure in Kabul. But that is a distant possibility for now. In short to medium term, this strategic stake carrot will be dangled to Kabul in the backdrop of intensifying Talibani terror campaign.

But delivering Afghan Taliban to the peace table is not an easy task due to extreme indoctrination levels of cadre. It is not easy for Mullah Mansur to sell peace to ultra-radical Taliban cadre at a time when his authority is being challenged from within. Mullah Omar when alive had taken an extremist position on negotiations with “unIslamic” democratic government. Taliban cadre know Mullah Omar as a leader who chose the path of misery and struggle but did not yield to American pressure to hand over Osama bin Laden. An aura of mystic divinity was built around Mullah Omar’s persona, who though operating like a phantom was a reason of motivation for Taliban cadre. Selling the strategic stake was not easy as long as Mullah Omar was “alive”. Thus, he has been declared dead to make way for Rawalpindi’s new policy forays.

After being saddled in Mullah Omar’s place, Mulla Mansur has seemingly ordered an intensified terror campaign in Kabul to portray himself as an equally strong leader and to deflect the cadre’s attention from the internal disquiet. After his taking over, Taliban have carried out dastardly attacks in Kabul, including the massacre at the Police Academy and bombing at Kabul Airport.

What’s next?

After declaration of Mullah Omar’s demise, for now the Murree process is in doldrums. However, this latest peace process was a well-thought out initiative with backing from US and China and attempts to revive it may be made after sometime if Mullah Mansur succeeds in establishing a firm grip on Afghan Taliban. Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaz Aziz has already articulated the future intentions of Pakistan in clear terms: “I think the first round was very productive and I hope the second round will take place before long, once the leadership issue is decided. It is not yet clear whom they represent and whether there will be unanimity on the new leadership or not.”

However, the latest terror campaign in Kabul has bewildered the Ghani administration – which is also aimed at dissuading the Afghan government from establishing any liaison with the Qatar faction – and has forced it to turn the heat on Pakistan pressing for urgent action. President Ashraf Ghani recently told media persons in Kabul that “the decisions which Pakistani government would make in next few weeks would be significant to affect bilateral relations for the next decades.” He further added that “the security of our people and national interests of Afghanistan lay the basis of our relationship with Pakistan. We can no longer tolerate to see our people bleeding in war exported and imposed on us from outside.”

In the present scenario, the dissident Qatar faction assumes importance and it is to be seen whether Mullah Mansur will be able to mend fences with it. Gulf powers, unhappy with Pakistan over the Yemen conflict, may decide to throw their weight behind Qatar faction and Kabul may also prop it to deal with Pakistani blackmail. Another twist to the saga is the advent of brand ‘Islamic State’ which is seen by jihadists to be successfully sustaining the “Caliphate”.

Over the last many months, some Taliban commanders have sworn allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and Taliban has written a letter to the Islamic State to refrain from expanding into its domain. Al Qaeda’s leadership based in Pakistan, which used to support Mullah Omar, is absent from the scene and fast losing sheen. The Afghan situation is all poised for turning more complex and tortuous.

*Divya Kumar Soti is an independent national security and strategic affairs analyst based in India. He can be contacted at editor@spsindia.in

Saudi Arabia executed Monday three Sri Lankans found guilty of robbing and murdering a Saudi national, Omar Yeslam Saeed, on May 11, 2007, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Six Sri Lanka nationals and two other foreign nationals were arrested in connection to the case by the Saudi authorities. From the time of the arrest of the six Sri Lanka nationals, the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Jeddah continuously extended all consular assistance required by the Sri Lanka nationals, the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry said.

When the case was first taken up and the verdict pronounced, three of the six Sri Lanka nationals were given the death sentence and the other three were sentenced to imprisonment of varying terms and lashes in 2008.

The three Sri Lanka nationals who were sentenced to imprisonment and lashes were deported to Sri Lanka, after completing their sentences.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate General in Jeddah continued to render necessary consular assistance to the three convicted Sri Lankans. Assistance was also provided in connection with their appeals to the Saudi judicial authorities, the statement said. However, the death sentences remained unchanged.

Sri Lanka’s then Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Hussain Mohammed met with the Governor of Mecca in February 2015 and as a result of the meeting, the execution, which was due to take place earlier this year, was delayed, enabling the Government of Sri Lanka to make further appeals.

However, due to the nature and gravity of the crime, the payment of blood money was not accepted, despite the numerous appeals and attempts by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, Sri Lanka’s Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate General in Jeddah, to spare the lives of the three convicts sentenced to death, the Sri Lanka government said.

The release further said that the Government of Sri Lanka continued to make appeals to the Saudi authorities and in this context, Rauf Hakeem, the then Minister of Urban Development, Water Supply and, Drainage, accompanied by the then Ambassador, Hussain Mohammed, handed over a clemency request from the President of Sri Lanka addressed to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and King of Saudi Arabia, to Crown Prince H.R.H. Mohomed Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz on May 18, 2015.

However, the Ministry of Interior of Saudi Arabia announced Monday that according to the Saudi law, the three convicted Sri Lanka nationals were executed in Jeddah today on the charges of murder and robbery, the Foreign Ministry statement further added.

The majority of us have become dependent on technology and its presence on our life, such that we integrate technology to a perfection in every walk of our life. Systems within the schools too are no exception and are demanding changes. This is probably why technology integration in the learning environment is necessary. Learning improves and classrooms get a boost thanks to the comfortable integration of technology. There’s a way in which technology can be successfully integrated in classrooms such that it is beneficial to the students.

Digital education has taken over the traditional chalk and blackboard method in a big way. Educational institutions are now utilizing technology to make teaching a more interactive and simple affair. Virtual classrooms, e-lectures, web conferencing and online courses, inter alia, are plethora of options giving education a digital future. No doubt, there has been a surge in the number of education start-ups in India over the last two years, but only a fraction of them survive as product delivery remains a challenge for most. Since high-end technology is not feasible, we have had to set up a class with basic equipment and internet speed. Teachers could be located anywhere; all they need is a webcam and internet.

E-learning, however, comes with its share of glitches. The set up requires high speed internet connection which needs to be on even if classes are not being held. However, it got a lukewarm response from both parents and students. The parents preferred to have a more real teacher-student interaction for their children. Even then, using technology for education is a great tool if harnessed properly.

The typical Indian classroom was once characterized by students sitting through hour-long teacher monologues. Now, technology is making life easier for both students and educators. Schools are increasingly adopting digital teaching solutions to engage with a generation of pupils well-versed with the likes of Play Stations and iPads, and trying to make the classroom environment more inclusive and participatory. Technology makes the teaching-learning process very easy and interesting. For instance, earlier it would easily take teacher one full lecture to just draw an electromagnetic cell on the blackboard. Though s/he could explain the cell structure, there was no way s/he could have managed to show them how it really functions. This is where technology comes to teacher aid — now s/he can show the students a 3D model of the cell and how it functions. Instead of wasting precious time drawing the diagram on the blackboard, teacher can invest it in building the conceptual clarity of the students.

Recently, schools in tier two- and tier three- cities are increasingly adopting the latest technology. More than half of the demand for digital classrooms is from such small cities. Schools in these smaller cities realize that it is difficult for their students to get as much exposure as students from tier one cities. Apparently, they proactively subscribe to solutions which richly benefit both the teachers and students by simplifying the syllabus…. Even parents want the best for their wards and are not averse to paying a little extra. They see value in these initiatives by schools to modernize the way teaching is imparted today.
Educomp Solutions, Everonn Education, NIIT, Core Education & Technologies, IL&FS and Compucom are dominant players in this sector. New entrants include HCL Infosystems, Learn Next, Tata Interactive Systems, Mexus Education, S. Chand Harcourt (India) and iDiscoveri Education. Except for S. Chand Harcourt, which is a joint venture between S. Chand and US-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, all others are Indian firms.

Take Smartclass from Educomp Solutions, one of the first Indian companies in this space. Smartclass is essentially a digital content library of curriculum-mapped, multimedia-rich, 3D content. It also enables teachers to quickly assess how much of a particular lesson students have been able to assimilate during the class. Once a topic is covered, the teacher gives the class a set of questions on a large screen. Each student then answers via a personal answering device or the smart assessment system. The teacher gets the scores right away and based on that, she repeats parts of the lesson that the students don’t appear to have grasped.

State governments are also giving a boost to the adoption of technology in schools. Edureach, a division of Educomp, has partnered with 16 state governments and more than 30 education departments and boards in the country, covering over 36,000 government schools and reaching out to more than 10.60 million students. Edureach leads the market with 27 per cent of the total schools where ICT projects have been implemented. As of now, Edureach has created digital learning content in more than 14 regional languages for these projects.

In line with this increasing interest in technology for school education, there has been a rush of education-focused tablet computers in the market. The most high-profile of these has been Aakash, which was launched by Kapil Sibal, than Union Minister for Human Resource Development in October 2011. The Aakash project is part of the ministry’s National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT). It aims to eliminate digital illiteracy by distributing the Aakash tablets to students across India at subsidized rates. While the project itself has become mired in delays and controversy, it has generated a lot of awareness and interest among students around the educational tablet.

Meanwhile, DataWind, the Canada-based firm that partnered with the Union Government for the Aakash project, has also launched UbiSlate7, the commercial version of Aakash. India has huge opportunity for low-cost tablets.

Technology firm HCL Infosystems launched the MyEdu Tab, which is priced at around US$230 for the K-12 version. The device comes preloaded with educational applications and also books from the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a government organization. “MyEdu Tab” has content offline and can be accessed over the cloud. It allows students to learn at their own pace. With a topic revision application and a self-assessment engine, students can evaluate their skills and knowledge on their own. Teachers can upload content, which can be accessed by students and parents for tasks such as homework and progress reports on their respective devices. The parent can monitor the progress of his or her child through the cloud-based ecosystem.

Micromax, a leading Indian handset manufacturer, also launched an edutainment device called Fun book. Micromax has also partnered with Pearson and Everonn to make available relevant content for students. Digital learning facilitated through tablets will revolutionize the educational space. Everonn has invested in developing content and services targeted toward tablet audiences.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) resulted in significant cost savings and plays a huge role in education. In the state of Kerala, it has already had a huge impact in both saving costs and providing state-of-the-art access computing to students in government schools. FOSS has a huge number of packages for school students, many of which can be ported to local languages and used in schools. It is also helping disabled students in a big way, by enabling them to access digital resources using audio-visual aids.

ICT Interventions have had brought about significant improvement not only in student enrolment but attendance too and reduces student dropouts. Computer-aided education has improved the performance of children in subjects such as English, Mathematics and Science, which are taught through computers using multimedia-based educational content.

According to the “Indian Education Sector Outlook — Insights on Schooling Segment,” a report released by New Delhi based research and consultancy firm Technopak Advisors, the total number of schools in India stands at 1.3 million. Of these, one fifth was private schools. But nearly one-tenth of the private schools have tapped the potential of multimedia classroom teaching whereas in government schools, it has barely made any inroads. The current market size for digitized school products in private schools is expected to grow at a CAGR {compound annual growth rate} of 20 per cent to reach the over US$2 billion mark by 2020. However, the market potential might get as big as US$4 billion if the total population of private schools adopts multimedia. Apart from this, the current market size for ICT in government schools is expected to grow five times by 2020 due to level of penetration in government schools, which is around 750 million US$.

There are, however, several logistical issues. Delivery of equipment to rural areas is a big challenge in itself. There is lack of basic infrastructure — either there are no classrooms or there are ones with no windows…. Some schools don’t even have toilets. Moreover, the power availability in these areas is often poor and has had to deploy generator sets in majority of schools. But despite the challenges, educationists are optimistic. They believe that “ICT” can have a huge impact on our education system resulting in increasing the reach of education at costs low. With increasing penetration of mobile phones and Internet kiosks, the potential is indeed immense.

Though the schools in India are going through technological transformation, one key question is how big a role technology will play in the education sector. There are four parts to learning — lectures, library, laboratory and life. But Technology- fifth part plays a critical role in all these. Despite numerous studies on the impact of ICT in education, the outcomes remain difficult to measure and open to much debate. It needs to be understood that technology is only an enabler and a force multiplier and cannot be treated as a panacea. We believe that impressive gains in teaching-learning outcomes are possible only through an integrated approach rather than a piecemeal intervention.

However, there is a need of caution in considering potential investments in educational technologies. These are very exciting times for online and distance education technologies, but there are risks facing parents, educators and policy makers in evaluating the opportunities these new technologies and their proponents represent. There is recent growth in high-quality, free, online educational courseware offered on websites like the Khan Academy and the Math Forum, as well as the work of the Open Learning Initiative in developing intelligent cognitive tutors and learning analytics. But such technologies, available from a global network of resources, only provide value when understood, chosen and integrated into a local educational community.

Interventions by governments and NGOs must be inclusive of local community concerns and aware of local political complications.  Spending on technology requires deciding the outcome of integration of technology in classroom. What is your vision for successful integration of technology? Spending without vision would mean unnecessary spending to improve a system that you have barely understood. Aging systems in schools can desperate integrate technology. One need to know how the current system works like and what kind of improvisations are planning to bring in with the new technology integration.

Only then we can rope in technology within classrooms. The technology should be capable of empowering students. They should be able to analyze, think and create new things based on the technological improvisations brought in by the school. Unnecessarily restriction on technology use makes students unable to innovate and create. Most technology integration in classrooms makes this sort of mistake. School staff as well as students needs to rope in more than just explaining the module during their training. They must be provided hands on training as well as in-depth training on the various modules of using the technology. Make technology training comfortable for them. Integration of technology is an ongoing process which will need varied kinds of training at different times. The technology integration should take care of the varied skill levels displayed by people and take care of it.

The United States has condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the Assad regime’s deadly airstrikes yesterday on a market in the Damascus suburb of Douma, where more than 100 people were killed and hundreds were injured.

In a statement, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby noted that the Assad regime’s brutal attacks on Syria’s cities have killed thousands of people and destroyed schools, mosques, markets, and hospitals.

“Yesterday’s airstrikes, following its other recent market bombings and attacks on medical facilities, demonstrate the regime’s disregard for human life. As we have said, Assad has no legitimacy to lead the Syrian people,” Kirby said, adding that, “The United States is working with our partners toward a genuine, negotiated political transition away from Assad that brings an end to such attacks and leads to a future that fulfills Syrians’ aspirations for freedom and dignity.”

Taking advantage of its growing working-age population could help accelerate South Africa’s growth to 5.4 percent a year and double per capita incomes by 2030, according to the South Africa Economic Update released by the World Bank today.

The report forecasts South Africa’s real GDP is at 2.0 percent in 2015, and envisages a slow strengthening to 2.4 percent in 2017. But overall, growth in South Africa will remain largely below the average growth rate of 4.2 percent and 4.0 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa, in 2015 and 2016–2017, respectively.

The report explores how the projected growth can be attained by creating a virtuous circle of job intensive growth, improved productivity, higher savings and better education attainment particularly for the youth who will drive the growth in the working age population in the coming decades.

“We hope that analysis and evidence offered in this report will promote informed dialogue and policy debate about the country’s development priorities pertaining to job creation and economic inclusion in a context of major demographic changes”, said Guang Zhe Chen, World Bank Country Director for South Africa.

The seventh edition of the South Africa Economic Update dedicates its special focus section to the issue of Jobs and South Africa’s Changing Demographics. It offers an analysis on the complex challenges posed by changing demographics and its implications for jobs and labor markets.

The report finds that South Africa is undergoing a profound demographic shift in which the share of its working-age population between 15 and 64 years has expanded substantially and will continue to grow for another five decades.

Since 1994, the working age population expanded by 11 million and comprises 65% of South Africa’s population of 54.9 million in 2015. The working age population will grow by another 9 million in the next 50-years.

The report argues that this expansion presents the country with a “demographic window of opportunity” for increased economic growth and better living standards. This advantage is hindered by high unemployment and low job creation rates. About one-third of the labor force is either out of work or not looking.

Since 2000, the number of jobs in South Africa grew by only 2.8 million mainly in services. Agriculture, manufacturing, and mining sectors shed workers in the same period, with the result that total jobs created fell far short of the growing labor supply.

As South Africa has not created enough jobs to take advantage of its growing working age population, only a little over 40 percent of its working age population have jobs.

“We see that education is the greatest priority for South Africa if it is to harness its demographic opportunity to propel growth. Getting basic schooling right is the first step to ensuring that school leavers and graduates have the foundational skills necessary to function in the modern workplace”, says World Bank Program Leader, Catriona Purfield.

Better educational attainment would help tackle the high number of unemployed youth in particular. About 60 percent of the 5.2 million unemployed in South Africa are between 15 and 34 years old, 60 percent do not have a matric (high school) qualification, and the youth unemployment rate is about 50%.

The report shows that if in the next 15 years enough jobs could be created to absorb new entrants and lower the unemployment rate by three-quarters, and if vocational training could be used to retool the long-term unemployed to make them more attractive to employ, and if education improved so new entrants to the workforce are better equipped for the modern workplace, real GDP growth would accelerate to 5.4% per year, enough to allow per capita income to double and extreme poverty to be virtually eliminated by 2030.

It also contends that South Africa will need to take policy action along several fronts to realize this potential. Getting basic education and post-school vocation training right is paramount if the existing unemployed and millions of new young entrants to the labor market in the coming decade are to find work. But the jobs challenge also requires complementing existing efforts to promote manufacturing and exports by policies to support the development of small and medium sized firms and informal enterprises by cutting red tape, promoting access to finance and ensuring greater flexibility in the regulations that apply to these smaller firms.

Wikipedia reigns. It’s the world’s most popular online encyclopedia, the sixth most visited website in America, and a research source most U.S. students rely on. But, according to a paper published today in the journal PLOS ONE, Wikipedia entries on politically controversial scientific topics can be unreliable due to information sabotage.

Co-author Dr. Gene E. Likens is President Emeritus of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Likens co-discovered acid rain in North America, and counts among his accolades a National Medal of Science, a Tyler Prize, and elected membership in the National Academy of Sciences. Since 2003, he has monitored Wikipedia’s acid rain entry.

According to Likens, “In the scientific community, acid rain is not a controversial topic. Its mechanics have been well understood for decades. Yet, despite having ‘semi-protected’ status to prevent anonymous changes, Wikipedia’s acid rain entry receives near-daily edits, some of which result in egregious errors and a distortion of consensus science.”

In an effort to see how Wikipedia’s acid rain entry compared to other scientific topics, Likens partnered with Dr. Adam M. Wilson, a geographer at the University of Buffalo. Together, they analyzed Wikipedia edit histories for three politically controversial scientific topics (acid rain, evolution, and global warming), and four non-controversial scientific topics (the standard model in physics, heliocentrism, general relativity, and continental drift).

Using nearly a decade of data, Likens and Wilson teased out daily edit rates, the mean size of edits (words added, deleted, or edited), and the mean number of page views per day. While the edit rate of the acid rain article was less than the edit rate of the evolution and global warming articles, it was significantly higher than the non-controversial topics. Across the board, politically controversial scientific topics were edited more heavily and viewed more often.

“Wikipedia’s global warming entry sees 2-3 edits a day, with more than 100 words altered, while the standard model in physics has around 10 words changed every few weeks, ” Wilson said. “The high rate of change observed in politically controversial scientific topics makes it difficult for experts to monitor their accuracy and contribute time-consuming corrections.”

Likens added, “As society turns to Wikipedia for answers, students, educators, and citizens should understand its limitations when researching scientific topics that are politically charged. On entries subject to edit-wars, like acid rain, evolution, and global change, one can obtain – within seconds – diametrically different information on the same topic.”

The authors noted that as Wikipedia matures, there is evidence that the breadth of its scientific content is increasingly based on source material from established scientific journals. They also note that Wikipedia employs algorithms to help identify and correct blatantly malicious edits, such as profanity. But in their view, it remains to be seen how Wikipedia will manage the dynamic, changing content that typifies politically-charged science topics.

To help readers critically evaluate Wikipedia content, Likens and Wilson suggest identifying entries that are known to have significant controversy or edit wars. They also recommend quantifying the reputation of individual editors. In the meantime, users are urged to cast a critical eye on Wikipedia source material, which is found at the bottom of each entry.

Delivering a special statement on Monday following the close of polling for the General Election 2015, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena stated that to his knowledge the election which concluded today was the most peaceful in the country’s entire history of holding parliamentary polls since 1947.

It is indisputable, Sirisena added.

“I do believe that conducting this election in a peaceful environment was a result of the good governance established through changes and transformations effected since taking up appointment as the President of this country six months ago,” Sirisena said.

President Sirisena said when comparing this election with the pre-election atmosphere and the day of the Presidential Election he contested on January 8, there are vast differences. During the January 8 election, there were many major incidents in several areas in the country including attacking and burning of a stage at Baddegama area, firing incidents in Polonnaruwa district and also killings in Nivithigala area.

He pointed out that the main lesson we should learn from this is that such a peaceful election is the result of the head of state acting in a neutral manner during election campaigning.

Sirisena further said that during this election as he did not use Presidential powers, the Election Commissioner and his officers, IGP and all officers of the Police Department, Officers engaged in election duty from the day nominations were given were able to apply their authority in a consistent and fair manner.

President Sirisena appealed to the people to enjoy the election results irrespective of party differences in a calm and peaceful manner without any incidents of post-election violence.

By C Uday Bhaskar*

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second appearance at Delhi’s historic Red Fort on August 15, on the occasion of India’s 69th Independence Day celebrations where he unfurled the national flag and delivered an impassioned 90 minute speech, was a marked contrast from his debut appearance in August 2014.

Whereas his Red Fort speech last year – a few months after he was sworn in as prime minister – exuded hope in the vast Indian populace that was increasingly frustrated with the listlessness of the Congress led UPA II, the speech this year though high on rhetoric and oratorical flourish did not quite enthuse his 1.25 billion and beyond audience – the “Team India” that he repeatedly invoked.

Modi appeared to be combative yet defensive and his speech was focused entirely on domestic issues – ranging from corruption and caste to the need to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in Indian youth and offered a report card as it were on the progress made in building toilets across the country and enabling the opening of bank accounts for the socio-economically deprived, among the various national polity issues that were flagged.

Given the scale of the many inadequacies that confront India – take the paucity toilets, particularly for the poor, for instance – it is commendable as to what has been achieved in one year – even if critics were quick to point out that the numbers have been inflated and while toilets may have been built, there is no water.

Not so elliptical references to his political opponents were also made and it seemed the prime minister was reaching out to Indian citizens across the nation. He spoke to them in a manner that was not possible for him in Parliament in the monsoon session, given the arid zero-sum strategy of stalling legislative business adopted by the Congress Party.

One issue that came into adverse national focus was the protest by ex-servicemen for equitable redress of their long festering and tenaciously denied pension benefits. In an unprecedented development, four retired service chiefs wrote a joint letter to the president – the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces – in the run-up to Independence Day seeking his intervention over the rankling OROP (one rank-one pension) issue.

This initiative clearly demonstrated a loss of faith in the government of the day and the fact that the matter was referred to the president is an exigency that ought to have been avoided by the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) and a more alert and empathetic higher national security apparatus. It was hoped that the PM would assuage the bruised sensitivities of the veterans from the ramparts of the Red Fort and effectively quarantine the matter. However his remarks about the OROP were only a reiteration of what had been stated in the past – and no clear direction or deadline was announced.

The sincerity and determination of Modi is not in doubt – he wants to transform India – but evidently ‘Team Modi’ – his cabinet and principal bureaucrats have not been able to deliver on many of the promises made by the PM in his first year.

The logjam in Parliament has revealed the limitations of managing a fractured majority (the BJP has an overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house, but not in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house) and the Congress is paying the BJP back in the currency of disruptions now that their roles have been reversed.

Consequently, Modi’s Red Fort address did not dwell on certain crucial areas – foreign policy, security and strategic developments and larger global issues. The turbulence and bloodshed in West Asia – a region he was visiting the next day – and the rise of the Islamic state (IS) for instance, and the more recent incidents of terrorism in Gurdaspur and Udhampur did not find specific mention.

This was intriguing given that Modi has shown a flair for foreign policy matters and has embarked on his maiden visit to the UAE (August 16) for a stand-alone summit visit. This is the first visit by an Indian PM to the Emirates in over three decades and given that Modi has dwelt on the need to contain radical religious ideologies and related terrorism in every major forum that he has spoken over the last year, the omission at Red Fort was visible.

The conjecture that follows is that Modi has become more aware of the many constraints that inhibit him from being able to bring about swift change at the national level – and this is a different kind of leadership challenge from what he was able to achieve in Gujarat. Hence the overwhelming domestic focus in the August 15 speech to reassure his flock that he remains committed to the vision of candidate Modi when he was soliciting voter support.

The tenacity and obduracy of the great Indian octopus to resist meaningful change and the sloth that has accumulated into the bureaucratic entrails are distinctive national traits. Modi will have to evolve a different strategy in the three years that he has before him to make his core team deliver, so that the 1.25 billion strong “Team India” that he wishes to energize have their faith and hope restored in the NaMo magic to transform their lives.

That was the plank on which the Modi led BJP won a landslide victory in May 2014 and April 2019 is closer than it seems.

*C Uday Bhaskar is Director, Society for Policy Studies (SPS). He can be contacted at cudaybhaskar@spsindia.in

Apart from numerous religious educational institutes like Dar-ul-Ulooms, Darsgahs, Maktabs, etc, spread across the length and breadth of the valley, there are certain unconventional sources of education in valley like the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Wakf Board’s educational and professional institutions, orphanage schools and various other trust-run educational institutions, Police public schools, Army’s goodwill education, Shia community run religious and other educational institutions, etc.

The Army run or Army administered education (schools) in the valley are commonly known as Goodwill education and these institutions are known as AGPS (Army Goodwill Public Schools). These institutions are an alternative form or source of education besides the common modes of government or private education. Such alternatives, like wakf education or Goodwill education, have certainly been able to change the discourse by enabling access to the marginalized to a good education that is either free or at a minimal/affordable cost.

Having studied ‘Muslim Endowments and Society in Kashmir’ thoroughly, I have surveyed Muslim auqaf and waqf sponsored educational institutions in the valley. As a researcher my observations in various religious or English medium educational institutions like darsgahs, darul-ul-Ulooms, waqf schools, Wakf Board aided Islamic university of science and technology, Bibi Halima college of Nursing, etc., I have had close interactions with the staff and students that unfolded interesting facts and stories. I learned how such massive and potential institutions, despite huge issues and challenges, that while contributing a lot to the ailing society, continue to remain uncelebrated and invisible.

The student enrollment in Wakf-run chain of schools (13) in Kashmir is above three thousand (Boys 1,627 and Girls 1,605) and at the moment thousands of students from socio-economically backward sections of the society benefit from these institutions. Despite a good education, a nominal amount is charged from the students as tuition fee and all the educational requirements are made available by the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Wakf Board (JKMWB), which certainly proves to be an alternate source of education in its own limited capacity.

It is my objective observation that, despite a variety of schools in Kashmir, the educational situation in the valley is grim in terms of quality, content and attendance. Some major reasons for the poor standard of education in the state, according to researchers, are elaborated as an absence of a myriad of school facilities like ventilation, drinking water, light, toilet, and proper space facilities that have badly hit and battered the scenario of education in schools. Other reasons include a poor investment in education, a dearth of motivated teachers, poor educational infrastructure, lack of monitoring and evaluation mechanism and above all the political instability commonly known as the Kashmir conflict that has laid a disastrous impact on the holistic education especially since 1989.

To boost the capacities and quality assurance, there is a definite need for alternative models of education that are being applied worldwide so that the discourse in terms of empowerment, mainstreaming and above all a good education can be changed. Besides Goodwill Education, institutions like the Wakf Board and other independent waqf-run schools or seminaries, Shia community run Bab-ul-ilm Schools, another Shia association that runs quality religious institutions, play a major role in promoting education and creating a safe and sustainable school environment to enable children, youth and adults learn in conditions conducive to peace. Goodwill Education or Army run education in Kashmir is one such alternate model besides Wakf run education that I see as a functional model and is the hope of future Kashmir.

Goodwill Concept

The concept of Goodwill Education as per the Army works with a vision that is, “To be an institution of excellence dedicated to the children of Jammu & Kashmir, to develop them into responsible citizens and leaders of tomorrow by imparting quality education to them in an environment which is caring, stimulating and challenging”.

How far they have succeeded in their mission, only time will tell though critics call it the militarization of education in Kashmir. While the Army’s commitment towards providing quality and futuristic education to the children of Army personnel resulted in the establishment Army personnel and created the Army Welfare Education Society in 1983, the academic challenges faced by the children in the State of J&K, stimulated the Army — which was deployed for Counter Insurgency Operations — to evolve an approach to address this challenge. Goodwill Education as a concept arose in the 1990s to ensure that education remains a priority and is accessible in the conflict zones of the country in the time of crisis as much as during times of stability.

Though for numerous reasons and constraints, it cannot be denied that there are millions of children who have been deprived of quality education in different conflict affected zones of India including the State of Kashmir, yet education has failed to occupy a prominent place of concern. Kashmir, a subset of the overall conflict-torn population of the country, needs an education system that facilitates peace building, harmony, development of future leadership and market oriented. As the conflict stabilizes, many fatal challenges are surfacing that can be addressed only by a quality education, which still seems a big challenge to achieve at a larger level. Therefore alternative forms of education must proliferate and meet the increasing need.

The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (2000), echoing the National Policy on Education (1986), lamented the “erosion of the essential social, moral and spiritual values and an increase in cynicism at all levels.” Against this backdrop, the framework advanced a plea to integrate value education into the curriculum. The framework prescribed an integrative approach. Value education and education about religions should be “judiciously integrated with all subjects of study”. Such value based content is essential in curricula as it can connect and relate the masses to their context and ethos. Therefore education for peace must focus on ‘citizenship education’. The emphasis may shift, thereafter, to ‘peace as a lifestyle movement’. Students can be made aware of the need for lifestyles conducive to the integrity of creation and stability of society. Education for peace is holistic and a long-term proactive strategy to nurture peaceful persons who resolve conflicts non-violently. It embraces the physical, emotional, intellectual, and social growth of children within a framework of human values.

Needless to say that violence in Kashmir post-1989 had the worst effect on the educational infrastructures. The Army launched its initiative in the field of education in late 1990s. Starting with four schools in 1998, four in 1999, four in 2000, a total of 30 Schools were established by 2010, ranging from primary to secondary and senior secondary level of education. These schools were established in remote and inaccessible places within Kashmir and other parts of the State where there were no schools at all or where the academic infrastructure has suffered irreparable loss.

Army schools are not dominated by traditional hierarchical structures, but by dynamic networks and the demands of local and global cooperation in promotion of sustainable and safe environment. About 9,000 students are enrolled in these schools and over 600 men and women are employed as teaching or administrative staff as per the army sources. The Army maintains that since these schools were created as means to provide quality education at reasonable or affordable costs, the meager revenue earned through collection of fees from the students had to be supplemented through Sadhbhavana funds so that essential academic infrastructure, technological support, and assets contributing to creative environment could be created and maintained.

I visited some of these schools as a part of my research to compare Goodwill Education with wakf-run schools. During my fieldwork, it was heartening to see the students of these schools belonging to remote and underdeveloped areas. On interacting I found them articulate, enthusiastic and hopeful and with a good futuristic vision. No doubt, with peace sustaining, few good schools have come up in the valley, but they are far and few, and beyond the geographical, as well financial reach of the parents.

“I believe Goodwill Schools are not only the centers of excellence for education and personality development, but also the institutions for promoting and supporting the symbols of glory in Kashmir,” said a local teacher.

The Army also maintains that it is also supporting education of large number of students in boarding schools beyond Kashmir. The scope of these interventions was enlarged from 2014-15 onwards and presently there are 431 students availing scholarships and studying in some of the best schools of the country. Year 2014 also saw few special initiatives such as Kashmir Super 30 and Kashmir Top Achievers; the credit goes to Srinagar-based 15 Corps commander Lt Gen Subrata Saha.

“Kashmir Super 30 prepares students from poor and under privileged backgrounds to crack entrance tests for IITs and other top Engineering Colleges. Through the first batch run in 2013-14, out of 23 students who were provided coaching, one student cracked IIT, seven NIT and nine went to other Engineering Colleges. In next batch, three cracked IIT, seven went to NITs and 23 students got through other Engineering Colleges. Even an effort of this nature, if continued for next ten years, can create enough number of youth who could provide technological leadership to Kashmir”, said an Army spokesperson.

He maintained that the Kashmir Top Achievers was meant to infuse competitive edge for entrance examinations for professional technical education and high end jobs such as officers in Armed Forces.

The role of Army’s Goodwill Schools in the prevention and intervention of safe and sustainable environment related issues is enhanced when they incorporate safety concept to the curriculum, school policy, school ethos and values, interpersonal relationships, effective partnerships with parents and services in the wider community.

These schools plan facilities for teacher professional development by organizing workshops and teacher exchange programs and Student development by organizing various curricular and curricular activities that result in building Confidence & Communication Skills, Inquiry and Reasoning, Spirit of Adventure, academic excellence, competence and Sportsmen Spirit in the students. This helps promote talent among students.

Goodwill Schools engage in Sustainable Development by getting engaged in learning for the future by inviting students and teachers to enter a culture of complexity by using critical thinking to explore and challenge, in clarifying values, reflecting on the learning values of taking action and of participation revising all subjects and the pedagogy in light of Safe and sustainable Development.

Out of the total funds available in Sadhbhavana, the allocation towards the education sector varied from 4.9 crore in 2001 to 23.9 crore in 2015. It is very evident from this data how Army’s efforts towards education were gradually increased with peace prevailing in Kashmir. Bulk of these funds were utilized towards providing quality infrastructure like smart boards, libraries, labs, computer rooms, and Modern technology, hygienic toilets and drinking water facility. Army’s investment in education must serve an eye opener to the state government.

As a result of the thrust imparted towards quality, these schools have been giving extremely good results. Performance of Goodwill Schools can be evaluated with its Board Results, which is rising throughout with 70% in 2009-10 to 82% 2013-14 and 100% in 2015. Comparing the Class 12 performance of Goodwill Schools with other schools, while the pass percentage of Government and Private Schools combined was 71.8%, the pass percentage of Army Goodwill Schools was 94.62%. Apart from this there are many success stories of the students who passed from Goodwill Schools and who have made a mark in their lives.

While Goodwill Schools are proving to be successful models for the other schools to follow, there is a need to adopt measures that can help other schools to benefit from the methodologies being followed by these schools. The government too is showing tremendous commitment towards education sector and coming together of the concepts, resources and processes can accelerate the growth of this sector. Simultaneous to this Army needs to acknowledge the success of this concept and boost the funding so that goodwill education becomes more effective at a macro level.

Education for Society

Teachers make the highest impact on quality in the classroom. They are at the heart of education, but the status of overall teacher education in India is pathetic, to put it mildly.

“Being a woman-dominated profession, it’s perceived as not being a demanding profession. But it requires as much planning, preparation and rigour as any other job. The overarching problem is the low status of the teaching profession. Our teachers aren’t empowered to think creatively and out of the box,” agreed Maya Menon, founder of Teacher Foundation. The only way to solve the learning crisis is to get teachers who are “trained, motivated and who enjoy teaching, who can identify and support weak learners, and who are backed by well-managed education systems,” the report stated

Schools need to be seen in context of its linkages with the wider society and Kashmir is highly in need of that. Schools, be it Goodwill or others must emphasize the elements of a good citizenship among students. We need an appropriate education linked to the surroundings, promoting peace, emphasizing skill up gradation using local products and expertise. We need an education that does not convey the message of imposition, overt or covert but promotes the emotional integration of the people.

I believe for the development of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the first requisite is peace and then that of a quality education. The students of J&K must have the right to dream differently. I think we must not be too pessimistic about the state of education in Kashmir but yes we need enough of training of teachers, interactions, capacity building programmes, student and teacher exchange programmes, and other exposure related activities along with an ample funding to boost education in Jammu and Kashmir.

It is believed that since 2014 Goodwill Schools have enhanced the academic and scientific inputs that are required for building the future of Kashmir. The concept started in 1990s was given a major boost by Lt Gen Subrata Saha in multiple manners. In addition integration of capacity building tours and other Saghbhavana initiatives with these schools, bringing about a scientific temper in the curriculum and creative engagement through host of talent hunt opportunities are just few of the efforts that have been made, says the Army. The recent seminar on education organized by the Gen. Saha itself reflects the academic mindset of the General and I wish that future Corps Commanders to carry forward the concept of Goodwill Education with the same vigour.

Way Forward

1. The budget allocation of Sadhbhavana should increase so that more number of schools can be established at the places where there are no footprints of these schools. More so, the areas that are still disturbed need to be addressed.
2. All the existing Goodwill Schools need to be upgraded to at least Class 10, and gradually to Class 12. Accordingly, the infrastructure and facilities will require to be added.
3. Teachers of government school can be sent for IT and computer training to the Goodwill schools as the Goodwill Schools have well equipped IT labs and trained staff.
4. Transaction of curriculum and updated and upgraded contents and pedagogical skills can be imparted to the government school teachers in the Goodwill Schools.
5. Students of government schools can be sent to the goodwill schools to make use of library facilities every week.
6. Students can also attend training in some sports and other activities in these schools.
7. Students can be taken to the smart classrooms to get a feel of interactive teaching may be once in a month on rotation basis without disturbing the routine of the Goodwill Schools.

Last Word

We must abstain from politicizing education and instead start illiteracy free Kashmir movement to achieve hundred percent literacy and quality education in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also I feel we must emphasize on the need for education in all schools and not merely training. Many schools train their students so that they have knowledge and skills but to be truly educated one has to have the ability to rationalize debate and critique which hardly prevails in the valley’s education system. It is important to throw out ideas and allow these to be negated or accepted through the power of discussion and debate. The importance of application of knowledge has to be the priority. Examinations are the least important element of education and must be designed to test application and not knowledge. Goodwill Schools or other alternate forms must be encouraged to follow such a line of education. It is important that our educational institutions do not strive for perfection or rat race competition but more for excellence. The importance of alumni networking and peer groups through modern IT networks is the future and more and more exchange of information and education through peer groups is the need of the hour. Kashmir needs many more good educational institutions rather than a few prevailing shopping malls of education.

Our health care system and our system of higher education have a lot more in common than you might think. As I explained in a previous column at Forbes, in both systems a third-party payer pays a good portion of the bill, leaving consumers and producers with perverse incentives to take advantage of it. The financing of both systems is dysfunctional. There is much waste and inefficiency. And low-income families are the least well served.

Here is what I wrote two years ago:

We spend about twice as much as other developed countries as a fraction of national output. Yet our results are mediocre. Public and private spending is growing much faster than our income ? putting us on a course that is clearly unsustainable. It appears we are buying quantity instead of value. Outcomes vary wildly from state to state. And programs that target the poor seem to be backfiring instead.

I asked readers to guess whether I was writing about health care or higher education? I could have been writing about either.

Loyal readers already know that health care spending was proceeding moderately until the advent of Medicare and Medicaid. Amy Finkelstein showed that in the first ten years Medicare had no impact on the health of the elderly. And fifty years after the fact, we are still arguing about whether Medicaid affects the health of the poor. Yet this massive infusion of federal spending fueled health care inflation that has been barreling along ever since. The same thing appears to have happened in education. According to economist Richard Vedder, the explosion in college costs began about the same time as the cost explosion in health care ? with the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Vedder was the first economist to demonstrate that federal tuition loans were fueling spiraling tuition costs and his work was largely ignored. But a new study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York finds that Vedder was right all along. As summarized in the Wall Street Journal:

The New York Fed study found that for every new dollar a college receives in Direct Subsidized Loans, a school raises its price by 65 cents. For every dollar in Pell Grants, a college raises tuition by 55 cents. This is one reason tuition has outpaced inflation every year for decades, while the average borrower now finishes college owing more than $28,000.

Writing in The New York Times, Eduardo Porter says:

The United States shares two dubious distinctions. It has the most expensive higher education in the world: $26,000 a year, on average. And the college graduation rates of America’s young are growing at nearly the slowest pace in the industrial world, the third from the bottom among 30 nations tracked by the O.E.C.D.

What about helping students from low income families? Porter writes:

It’s not just that many colleges and universities are bleeding taxpayers. The government’s overall strategy to subsidize higher education is failing at its core task: providing less privileged Americans with a real shot at a college degree. Alarmingly, it is burdening low-income students with risks they cannot bear and steering them into low-quality educations…

Low-income students in the United States often end up with the short straw: no degree, no job and a bundle of debt that they must pay anyway.

In addition, middle income families who try to save for their children’s college expenses have a rude surprise. When the income tax law is combined with the typical rules for college aid, these families face a marginal tax rate in excess of 100 percent! That is, when they save an additional dollar they lose more than a dollar in higher taxes and reduced financial aid.

A study by Claudia Goldin of Harvard and Stephanie Riegg Cellini of George Washington University finds that for-profit schools that get federal subsidies charge, on the average, 78 percent more than for-profit institutions that are not eligible for aid. The price difference is almost identical to the value of the subsidy. (For-profits, by the way, get about one-quarter of all federal subsidies.)

Meanwhile, colleges and universities are doing just what hospitals do to capture more federal dollars. They are competing on amenities. Water parks, climbing walls, elaborate dorms and dining facilities – these are all part of the modern college experience – which is increasingly a social and recreational experience rather than an academic one.

So what’s the solution? Hillary Clinton has weighed in with a proposal, summarized in the Wall Street Journal:

[T]he Clinton plan aspires to convert loans into grants. The proposal would allow all borrowers to enroll in income-based repayment programs such as the federal Pay As You Earn, which caps loan payments at 10% of discretionary income and forgives the balance after 20 years—10 if you work in intentionally vague “public service” fields. This encourages students to earn less—and sends you, taxpayer, the billion-dollar bar tab….

To pay for it, Mrs. Clinton says she’ll close “tax loopholes and expenditures on the most fortunate.” This idea is getting a workout since it seems to be the way she’s paying for every other new spending proposal too.

My proposal for higher education is similar to what I’ve recommended for health care: a fixed sum voucher. (More details here.) I would also allow students to put future earnings up as collateral for college loans. For example, a lender might be entitled to 10 percent of post-degree earnings for a period of time. More details on that in a future post.

This article appeared at TownHall and is reprinted with permission.