In a major breakthrough, Maharashtra police arrested the absconding former bodyguard Ravindra Patil of renegade actor Salman Khan. Patil is the key witness in a case where an inebriated Khan drove his Land Cruiser on September 28, 2002 into a bakery killing one person instantly. Khan abandoned his car and fled the scene leaving Patil to arrange for medical help. The police arrest Khan the following day and slapped “culpable homicide” on him which, if found guilty, will put the actor away for 10 years. A High Court then reduced the charge, which will still imprison him for 7 years. Patil had deposed to the police that he had repeatedly told Khan not to drive rashly, which the actor ignored. After two appearances in court, Patil absconded after he received death threats about deposing against the actor. Since he did not show up for 5 hearings spaced over 2 months, a non-bailable warrant was issued for his arrest. It will be interesting to see if Patil will retract his earlier deposition lending more argument to coincidental discussions on perjury and witness protection.

Senior Researcher at the Delhi-based Institute of Pathology Ruchi Singh became the first Indian woman to be selected for L’Oreal UNESCO Women in Science -2006 fellowship. Singh researches drug sensitivity and gene _expression in parasite Leishmania Donovani that causes Leishmaniasis, a disease that spreads in humans through sand fly bites. This disease is prevalent in 88 countries, its cutaneous form affecting 1.5 million annually and a more lethal form called the “Kala Azar” affects ½ a million people. While treatment is well-known, variants of Leishmania parasites in India have become resistant to traditional antimonial drugs (which contain toxic substance similar to arsenic) and over 60% infected people do not respond to treatment. Since most of those affected are poor, the more expensive alternate drugs are beyond the reach of most. Studying Indian Kala Azar patients, Singh has isolated drug-sensitive and drug-resistant variants of the parasites and hopes to identify specific genes that cause the anomalies by studying gene expressions of each group. Her fellowship will allow her to use a unique chip designed to study expressions of thousands of Leishmania genes simultaneously. Singh says that she will return to India to continue her work at the Institute of Pathology and contribute to bring in therapeutic strategies to control Leishmaniasis in India.

Editorial : Regulate Ship Breaking Business

A major terror incident was averted in Mumbai when police reacted swiftly to a tip-off that a bomb was placed inside the Jeevdani temple. The crude but ingenious bomb was placed in a plastic water bottle fitted with a pocket-sized transformer that would have given it the power to explode. This incident is symbolically significant as it was on the anniversary of the 1993 bomb blasts that killed 256 people and injured 713 others. Abu Salem accused of masterminding that incident has been extradited from Portugal. Salem initially confessed to his role and implicated actor Sanjay Dutt, son of late Congress Member of Parliament, Sunil Dutt, for having harbored equipment and terrorists. Like other actors who are involved in various criminal cases, Dutt continues to function freely. Salem has since changed his story a few times accusing the police of coercing a “confession” out of him. While this is a ploy often used by criminals to wiggle out of a case, confusing the investigators, and abusing the rickety criminal justice system while police do extract “confessions” to benefit their political masters. The Indian Parliament may introduce amendments to Criminal Penal Code to address these issues (See other article on this subject under Democracy). In another incident police arrested terrorist Tariq Batlo in Goa as he was bound to bomb Kollur Mookambika temple with 1 kilogram of RDX and firearms.

Assisted by helicopter gun-ships, Pakistani security forces attacked a madrasa (Islamic seminary) run by terror-cleric Sadiq Noor killing 25-30 terrorists, including foreigners in Miranshah, the main city of North Waziristan. Many al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists had found safe sanctuary among the Pashtun tribesmen who are at odds with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf over lack of economic investment and support to the United States in the war on terror. Known for the number of terrorists, Waziristan has a high illiterate and economically marginalized population that depends on terrorism as a means of living. Like fellow tribesmen in Baloachistan, the Pushtuns say that Musharraf does not give them any development and treats their region as a colony. The Afghans complained bitterly to US President George Bush when he made a surprise stopover in Kabul about lack of adequate Pakistani measures to check terrorism. They want Pakistan to dismantle its terror network sponsored by its intelligence agencies—specifically the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). More than 120 have died after Pushtuns launched a rebel attack on Pakistan security forces as reprisal to a March 1 attack on their positions by Pakistan. Many say that the March 1 attack was timed by Musharraf to win Brownie point from Bush. It is not clear if Noor or another rabid cleric Maulana Abdul Khaliq Haqqani were present at the madrasa when the attack took place. On the Eastern border, reports are reaching Srinagar that Pakistan has arrested Syed Salahuddin, so-called Supreme Commander of United Jihad Council (UJC) that focuses attacks on India. Salahuddin has been at odds with Pakistani ISI since 2000 when he responded to a ceasefire by the Indian Army. However, that ceasefire lasted only 15 days because of lack of support within the UJC. Kashmir pro-Pakistan hard-line leader Syed Ali Geelani said that he will launch anti-Pakistan protests in Srinagar if Salahuddin is not released. The Indian Government plans to ask Pakistan to hand him over for crimes against India; Salahuddin is one of the top 20 most wanted in India. Pakistan is accused by Indian intelligence and American Central Intelligence Agency of harboring number one Dawood Ibrahim--Pakistan rejects this charge and denies his presence there. Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri admits the presence of terrorists in Pakistan and says that his Government has “influence over them” but does not “control” them. 

A USD 7.5 billion defense deal between Algeria and Russia may indirectly benefit India. Algeria is planning to buy 28 multi-roles and long range Su-30 fighter planes, 49 multi-role Mig-29SMT fighters, and 20 Yak advanced jet trainers, air defense systems, and tanks from Russia. Sources say that since the Algerian order of Su-30 closely matches the Indian SU-30MKI version, which has some India-made avionics and other parts, “Indian companies may be contracted to supply the same components for Algeria.” India has built 140 Su-30MKI fighter planes under Russian license and also manufactured avionics and jet frame parts for the Russian Su-130MKM bought by Malaysia. The Algerian order is also influencing the 126 multi-role combat aircraft order by the Indian Air Force (IAF) especially since France has decided to abandon the Mirage and instead is encouraging India to buy a feature-rich variant of the Mirage “Rafale” but is likely to miss the qualification process  Russia is fielding its latest Mig-35 fighter plane (export name for the Mig-29 M1/M2 version) which has an innovative thrust vectoring engine RD-33OVT and will compete against Lockheed Martin’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and SAAB’s Gripen fighter planes. 

In a further escalation of tensions, Iran threatened to quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and said discussions with Russia on a joint venture deal is not longer being considered in Iran. Should it go through with the threat, the world community will consider to have broken one more treaty and will hold it against that country for a longer period of time. Iran is already considered to have broken parts of the NPT when it bought nuclear weapons technologies from disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. It exacerbated its case further when it abrogated the Paris Agreement by starting nuclear fuel enrichment for “research” purposes. The threats by its hard-line President against Israel and disparaging comments against Jewish people increased fears of Iran’s intentions. Iran claims that its nuclear “research” is to achieve energy self-sufficiency and denies interest in a weapons program. The National Council of Iran Resistance, a rebel group opposed to Islamic control of the democracy, exposed the country’s nuclear weapons program and has been substantiated by later investigation of the now-terminated Libyan weapons program. The same group has now outed an Iranian underground command facility built to protect its leaders from possible Western and Israeli air and missile attacks. The facility is said to contain extensive inter-connecting tunnels that brings many organizations and bureaucracies into the center in case of an attack. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for consideration has now referred the Iranian nuclear weapons program. The UNSC has powers to impose economic and even advocate military sanctions on Iran but an imminent threat of that is unlikely since both Russia and China have extensive military and economic ties with Iran. Many countries, including India, would possibly oppose such moves in the near term crying for more diplomatic engagement. However, many countries have given up on diplomacy with Iran. The European Union-3 (EU-3) consisting of Britain, France, and Germany had prolonged discussions with Iran to sign the Paris Agreement only to see it trashed by Iran last September. Russia engaged with Iran since December trying to secure a joint venture with processing of nuclear fuel in Russia but dedicated for Iranian use but that proposal seems to have reached a dead-end. However, international mood can turn quickly if Iran follows through with its threat of using oil as a weapon and backing out of the NPT. Oil is an internationally sensitive issue now and with Iran being the second largest producer of oil in the Oil Producing Export Council country, any attempt to reduce the flow of oil will seriously damage world economies and anger dependent nations. An Iranian withdrawal from NPT will unite all nations passionately opposing nuclear weapons such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asian countries into supporting the Western point of view. It may have broader ramifications as South Africa and Brazil may restart their respective nuclear weapons program and Israel may also declare itself a nuclear power.

A draft property protection law that took 8 years to form has created a new debate in China over its abandonment of socialist policies for capitalist ideas. A small but very vocal group of socialist ideologues are questioning the economic reforms and the cost of development to rural areas. Chinese economic reforms have been focused on three prominent urban centers such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong and vast swathes of rural population have been left out of the economic miracle. A recent meeting of party delegates from districts saw new programs for rural development and even statements from the Chinese President and Prime Minister on the need to transfer wealth to the rural areas. Surprisingly, the amount earmarked for such programs have been about USD 2 billion. Professors of Beijing University Law School accused the authors of the draft law of “copying capitalist civil laws like slaves.” While many modern Chinese analysts quickly dismiss these accusations, there are daily reports of rampant corruption, labor abuses, land-grabs with political and official support, and lawless imprisonment of rural population for factory work. These were precisely the conditions that socialism sought to overcome and the quick abandonment of these programs without adequate safeguards for the poor is threatening to derail the China economic miracle. Legislative officials say that the law only codifies a more expansive property measures already incorporated in the Constitution in 2003 and insist that the law will be implemented, albeit with significant changes.

India and China are meeting in idyllic environs of Kumarakon to negotiate an end to their dispute over borders and leaders of both delegations expressed optimism in its resolution. India, represented by National Security Advisor, M. K. Narayanan, said that the two countries need to break out of legal issues and instead strive for a political and strategic solution. He said that the principal objective is to “extricate the talks from the logjam” and after “the next two-three we hope we would be able to go into the question of border delineation.” Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingua led the Chinese delegation as a special representative of the Chinese President said “we are making progress and the conditions are better for resolving the border disputes.” India and China have already resolved many issues such as recognition of Chinese occupation of Tibet, Sikkim, acceptance of Dalai Lama’s Government in exile in India, etc. However, Arunachal Pradesh, Akasi Chin (portion of Jammu & Kashmir illegally gifted by Pakistan to China), and Nepal borders will be the hard ones to crack.

Editorial: The Nepal Stalemate

Editorial: Iran's Nuclear Program