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Saturday,
August 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
MSP tussle is joined For whose welfare is it? |
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Nothing honourable about it
Our defensive mindset
God
forbid!
What is going on, Mr
Advani?
Debate on terrorism: the missing
angle
Preserving Sikh culture in USA
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MSP tussle is joined LAST
year’s lessons of paddy procurement problems have been fully grasped and acted upon. Hopefully this year the whole operation should be smooth, barring a last minute policy glitch by the Union Ministry of Food and Public Distribution. Hopefully again, kisans should have no reason to feel cheated or wronged. All this became evident on Thursday when Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and two other Chief Ministers met the Prime Minister and made five demands on behalf of paddy growers. It was a powerful delegation as it included Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and the Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu, who with 29 members in the Lok Sabha can make or break the BJP-led alliance government. And Mr Naidu has shown on two previous occasions that he does not take no for an answer and manages to have his way with the Centre. The three Chief Ministers from rich paddy growing and surplus states want the Centre to increase the minimum support price (MSP) by Rs 50 for both the common and “A” grade grains — to Rs 560 and Rs 590. This is not an extortionist demand as metropolitan economic newspapers will scream. This figure is based in sound economic factors like input costs, wholesale price index and parity with industrial goods. They also want the procurement by the FCI to begin on September 1 to be fair to the producers of early growing varieties and small and medium farmers who need urgent cash and have no holding capacity. Until a few years ago this was the fixed date for the commencement of procurement. But last year it was ordered to be shifted to September 21 and this year to October 1. FCI should play a more active role than in the recent past. This means that FCI should not enter the mandis late and exit after absorbing 40 per cent of the arrivals. The second most important issue raised by the three Chief Ministers is regarding the quality of the grain. The specifications should be fixed in advance in consultation with the states and applied uniformly. Last year the FCI (read the Ministry of Food) stirred up a crisis by rejecting a bulk of the paddy offered for sale on the pretext of discolouration. Kisans lost crores of rupees before the problem could be sorted out. This has to be avoided in this procurement season and the demand is thus well taken. Then there is the storage crisis. A good part of the procured foodgrains – wheat and paddy – is kept in the open under a plastic cover and the quality deteriorates very fast. The Centre in one of its high-pitched but unimaginative proposals expected the private sector and flour mills and shellers to build godowns and keep the grains. Not one has come forward so far. And not surprisingly. Now the three Chief Ministers have asked the Centre to fund the project and commit itself to provide reasonable returns for full 10 years. If the rental is high enough, the capital cost can be more than recovered within this period. |
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For whose welfare is it? NOT
to be left behind in the race for populist measures to woo the electorate, a Punjab minister, who is supposed to look after the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes, has come out with a bright idea that may ultimately harm the very people it is intended to benefit now. The minister, Mr Sarwan Singh Phillaur, announced on Wednesday that the condition of minimum aggregate of 40 per cent in the entrance test for Scheduled Castes students for admission to the MBBS, BDS and BAMS courses had been removed with effect from the 2001 session. The condition was imposed by the Medical Education and Research Department. The dropping of this condition may help a handful of Scheduled Castes students in getting admission to the much sought-after courses. But it will hurt them in the long run. The limit of 40 per cent was already ludicrously low and its removal altogether is an open invitation to incompetence in the medical profession. Has the Cabinet collectively applied its mind on the issue? What kind of doctors will the beneficiaries of this decision make? And what kind of people will go to them for treatment? Already those who can afford and those in power like Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, taking no chances, prefer to go abroad for treatment of even minor ailments. But a large part of the population still depends on the affordable government hospitals, whatever their condition, for treatment. The Scheduled Castes candidates after completing their medical courses are expected to find employment in such hospitals. It is the poor who mostly go to the civil hospitals and they are the ones most likely to suffer at the hands of doctors of doubtful competence. Besides, the genuinely capable doctors belonging to the Scheduled Castes may have to suffer a stigma of their being from the reserved quota, which may ultimately come to stand for inefficiency. With reserved quota doctors operating in the crowded corridors of civil hospitals, already suffering from lack of adequate equipment and medicines, more and more patients may be forced to desert them and turn to more expensive, but comparatively more reliable private doctors. Treatment is also partly a matter of trust. Medical is a profession that deals with life-and-death matters. Incompetence and negligence have no place in it. No life is so cheap that it can be handled by any less than capable hands. As for as the need to uplift the socially downtrodden and economically deprived sections of society is concerned, there are better ways of helping them. Give them maximum financial benefits and arrange the best possible educational opportunities for them, but don’t harm them and others by lowering standards-- that too in the medical
profession. The second part of the minister’s announcement that the government would reimburse the tuition fees of the SC students studying in the technical and medical institutions in the state is a welcome step. The setting of an income limit at Rs 60,965 a year for availing these benefits will ensure that these are not cornered by the already well-off members of the Scheduled Castes. |
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Nothing honourable about it ADD
the names of Sonu and Vishal to the long list of those who were killed by their own parents for having dared to declare their love for each other. The luckless lovers from Alinagar in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh were not the first, nor will they be the last, to pay with their lives because primitive India still does not allow its children to look beyond their caste for seeking soulmates or life partners. It is a disturbing contradiction. On the one hand, the country is taking giant strides towards becoming an important member of the global village. On the other hand, the primitive and repugnant social customs and values are intact. In the case of the Alinagar lovers, perhaps there was an element of greed which drove the elder brother of the boy to instigate his own parents into taking Vishal's life. He did not want to share the 10 bighas of the family land with his younger brother. Since Vishal was a Brahmin and Sonu was from a Jat family the greedy sibling reportedly aroused caste passions for turning the entire village against the teenaged lovers. However, to attribute the gory crime, committed in full view of the entire village that is a short distance away from the nearest police post, to greed alone will not pass muster. Honour is a word which arouses wild passions even among seemingly educated and civilised individuals in the sub-continent. Yes, neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh, nor even Nepal, is free from the taint of spilling blood in the name of "family honour". An obvious question which needs to be answered is the absence of a popular upsurge against such an obnoxious practice as the killing of children by their own flesh and blood for daring to look beyond the caste and religious barriers for love and marriage. Why? At least in the case of India to link the lack of interest in the matter of ushering in sweeping social reforms to the vote-bank politics may not be entirely incorrect. How can the political class which promotes and patronises caste-based mayhem pluck the courage to even publicly express concern at the barbaric acts of those whose votes it needs for survival? The fact that no mention was made in either House of Parliament of the incident which should make civilised society hang its head in shame should be taken as conclusive evidence of the criminal indifference of the political class to issues which deserve its undivided attention. |
Our defensive mindset K.F. Rustamji in a lead article in The Tribune (August 1, 2001), “Being always on the defensive won’t pay” on General Musharraf and the Kashmir issue has thrown a poser: “why, as Indians we are always on the defensive.” Well historically, we have always been a defensive people. We take pride in telling the world that we have never coveted other peoples’ lands while others have always come and conquered us. We have never crossed our borders into other countries, while others have repeatedly invaded our country, plundered our cities and temples, and massacred us. Add to this a thousand years of slavery and you have a servile and pusillanimous people; a state of mind we have not been able to shed; 53 years of Independence not withstanding. While it is possible to cite any number so instances from history about our defensive mind-set, it would be more relevant to confine this discussion to a few post-Independence moves. During the 1947-48 Kashmir war (initial hesitancy to act apart) when everything was going well for us we rushed to the UN and what followed is too well known to be repeated. To this day we continue to pay a heavy price. During the 1962 war with China we were totally paralysed and could not even reinforce the positions at Bomdilla etc and halt the Chinese advance and, come winter, pay them pack in equal measure. Instead we let 4 Infantry Division be decimated. We were equally scared to deploy the IAF, based on some imaginary fears, which otherwise would have made all the difference. Neither in 1965 nor in 1971 was the army tasked to recover maximum territory in PoK. Even before Tashkent, Kosygin had made the Indian PM agree to hand back to Pakistan the strategic Hajipir pass and other areas. At Shimla in 1972 we behaved as if we were the vanquished party. There was no quid pro quo for giving back to Pakistan large captured areas and release of 93,000 prisoners, not even return of 50-odd Indian prisoners. Thirty years later we are still pleading for their release. It was Rajiv Gandhi who made repeated efforts for a pact with Pakistan, not to attack each other’s nuclear installations, whereas it was Pakistan who should have been pleading for such a pact; worried as it was about India’s ability to strike Pakistani nuclear facilities in a matter of few minutes flying time, while Indian nuclear facilities were deep inside the country and difficult to reach. At Kargil our dithering to deploy the IAF, even within our territory, where our own heaviest artillery was relentlessly pounding the enemy which had invaded into our territory is one of a piece. Some informed circles tell us that we were concerned and worried about escalation of the conflict. However, it is not clear if these were the IAF’s self perceived fears or that of the Government of India. Under such ambivalence and timidity, crossing the border to strike severe blows to the invader to deter him from such violations in the future was out of the question. More likely it was the perceived fear of nuclear conflagration, a fear on which Pakistan seems to play and get away with every type of aggression. The world may have applauded our restraint, but it is we who paid and continue to pay the price in lives and wasteful expenditure. Pakistan had been restrained from creating mischief of the type and scale as crossborder terrorism in J and K due to the larger Indian capability in conventional forces and the will to deploy these. Pakistan tried to negate this by acquiring nuclear weapons capability and capitalise on the Indian fear of a nuclear conflagration. It is this fear in the Indian political mind and our self appointed nuclear experts which emboldened Pakistan to send terrorists across the LoC in Kashmir and commit large-scale aggression at Kargil without any fear of retaliation. Pakistan is well aware of the fact that it can never exercise the nuclear option because the Indian response would result in its extinction; mad mullahs and military leadership are fully alive to this essential fact. Pakistan knows what nuclear deterrence is all about and it has operated this lever against India with adroitness and finesse. India gives further airing to these fears by seeking no first use of nuclear weapons and the confidence building measures related to nuclear safeguards. This Indian fear psychosis has deprived it of its only viable deterrence, that is the threat of conventional force application against Pakistan to inhibit it from undertaking crossborder terrorism. India has driven itself in that unenviable position where it has no alternative but to let itself be bled slowly through these thousand cuts. It is pathetic to see a large and powerful country in so hopeless and helpless a state. Kashmir is as much a political problem as one with Pakistan, J and K problem needs to be addressed in this setting. More recently the unilateral ceasefire in J and K was a purposeless exercise. A ceasefire offer to our own misdirected people or insurgents is understandable but a ceasefire against foreign mercenaries who come across the LoC to kill our men, women and children makes no sense and was perceived as a sign of weakness and fatigue. Besides it threw up a whole range of wrong signals to the security forces in J and K on the one hand and to Pakistan and jehadi groups on the other. When we finally decided to hold talks with General Musharraf, the anti terrorist operations should have been stepped up to a feverish pitch and state of alertness at our installations increased manifold; something we had been advocating in these columns. This did not happen and the General arrived in Delhi harbouring the impression that it was crossborder terrorism (freedom struggle according to him) which had impelled us to seek a dialogue. Under these conditions General Musharraf would have been least inclined to reach any reasonable understanding to cease crossborder terrorism or link it to any agreement at this stage and consequently insisted on the centrality of the Kashmir dispute or perhaps an issue; with due deference to Indian penchant for legalistic interpretation of words. Much has been written about the Agra talks. Absence of a structured agenda, inadequate preparations, the role of the media, it’s lack of briefing by the Indian side, it’s mismanagement, Musharraf having the media mughals for breakfast, his playing to the home constituency of mullahs, jehadis and the army and finally the mohajir angle and what not. The basic fact relates to the mindset of Pakistani political and military leadership and its people which is the result of 53 years of single point focus on Kashmir even when it has resulted in impoverishment of that country and is driving it back to the middle ages. Given this background, to have expected Musharraf to suddenly relegate the Kashmir dispute to the background, concealing it amongst a host of confidence building measures and economic issues, was unrealistic. No amount of sophistry and rationalisation of Pakistan’s response should distract us from this basic fact. The pertinent question is, how to proceed hereafter. In any future dialogue, Pakistan will remain “unifocal” on Kashmir. We have to convey to it, our sincere desire to address the Kashmir issue and seek a fair and workable solution. General Musharraf must understand the Indian position and what is feasible. Though India’s claim on the whole of Kashmir cannot be questioned, but over time this main issue has been diluted and diffused. The three wars, return of captured areas in PoK and the existence of a Line of Control for so long has altered the position somewhat. Even so nothing should distract us from taking up the central issue of Kashmir. Before that we have to move into a position of advantage and gain the upper hand in our fight against crossborder terrorism. It is essential to make crossborder terrorism a costly proposition for Pakistan. There exist fertile grounds for fomenting trouble in Sind, Baluchistan and Northern Areas in equal measure. While we can handle trouble being created in J and K by Pakistan, the latter will be hard put to cope with what could possibly lie in wait for it in these provinces. As India bleeds, Pakistan must bleed profusely in this game. In other words when we take a seat at the table and talk, it must be from a position of strength. This approach becomes useful when negotiating with an unreasonable, obdurate and intransigent party. We can make Pakistan desist from direct involvement in this endless mischief and misdeeds in Kashmir only if we are able to make it pay for these nefarious activities; making it a painful exercise for it. That is possible if we shed this fear of conflict escalating and call off Pakistan’s bluff of nuclear dimension to this conflict. Pakistan’s mullahs and military leadership must be made to realise that we have their equals in this country too and any resort to use of nuclear weapons will be the end of Pakistan. It cannot hold Indian response to crossborder terrorism hostage to threat of escalation of the conflict and its descent into a nuclear scenario. Pakistan must be disabused of its perception that fear is the key to Indian response, in appropriate measure, to crossborder terrorism. Only then will the deterrence potential of our conventional force capability will work in halting crossborder terrorism. The writer is a retired Lt-General. |
God forbid! IT is enough to make the Bard of Avon turn in his grave. That is, if he really wrote the plays and sonnets ascribed to him and it wasn’t Christopher Marlowe or Sir Philip Sydney or the Virgin Queen herself. To think that in the land where Romeo once wooed the fair Juliet some misguided persons should now be trying to produce a substitute heart. A heart that throbs, not with passion, but with compressed air. A heart not of flesh and blood but of that cheap and vulgar stuff known as plastic. According to a newspaper report, Italian scientists have already tried out their “unbreakable” heart on animals with some success. Well might Escalus, Prince of Verona, say in Act. 1, Sc. 1, ‘What ho! you men, you beasts/That quench the fire of your pernicious rage/With palepink drops from your plastic-pumped veins!’ And when Romeo in Act 2, Sc. 1 is about to scale the wall of Capulet’s orchard would his courage fail him? “Can I go forward when my heart is here?” The answer would be a categorical “no” with the sort of heart his countrymen have in mind. Or picture the great love scene in Act 2. I have always considered Romeo as rather a gutless youth for having made his declarations of love standing below Juliet’s balcony instead of climbing up to it. In the circumstances, it was stupid of him to have asked his lady-love, “O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?” To which question Juliet quite sensibly replied: “What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?” With a plastic heart Romeo might not have even got as far as the foot of the balcony in which case he would also have missed the small satisfaction of seeing his beloved’s face in the light of the moon by which he was so eager to swear. But consider what a plastic heart would mean to our business tycoons, our selfless politicians, our overworked bureaucrats and our angry young men. No longer would they fear a sudden, massive heart attack. All they need do is to lay by a small supply of spares. In the beginning, perhaps, there will be some difficulty over foreign exchange but, in time, with Italian aid, a heart manufacturing unit could be set up in the country, maybe on a “turnkey” basis. The new enterprise, of course, would have to be in the public sector notwithstanding its dismal record of public service in the past. The thought of one of our leading industrial houses cornering the market in the plastic hearts is terrifying. Nor would it be prudent to allow any of our states to handle the project. Several of them are straining at the leash to secure greater autonomy especially in matters touching finance. Control of the means of rejuvenation would enable them to twist the arm of the Centre. Personally, I am not greatly thrilled at the prospect of being able to get myself fitted with a plastic heart. My old ticker has served me well, even if it does miss a beat when I see a pretty girl! |
What is going on, Mr
Advani? LAST week in my mail arrived an unsigned letter which I reproduce because I believe it reflects growing public anger at the government’s apparent inability to deal with terrorism. It was written before last week’s attack on Jammu railway station. “Madam, why don’t you write in your column and tell L.K. Advani and their Parivar that India also sponsor terrorism like Pakistan does and recruit people from Kashmir with sufficient money and weapon (sic). That is the only weapon now left for us. A portion of money that is spent on security should be allocated for this purpose. Why India cannot print Pakistan currency and circulate it in places like Karachi, Sind etc. Why terrorists are apprehended and not killed. Let them also relish the taste. Why do we feed the enemies and keep them in jails. Please write and save the country from perish (sic). We have learnt this in Punjab. This is the only language the General & Taliban will know.” Let me make it clear that I do not support the views expressed in the letter but I understand the anger and frustration. Days after General Musharraf flounced off on his midnight flight from Agra we had the first massacre of Hindu shepherds in Doda district. There was, unbelievably, a survivor who described in detail what happened and how. You would imagine that this would be sufficient for a halfway competent government to take urgent measures to ensure that no further massacres of a similar kind occurred. But no, in just over ten days we had our second massacre of Hindu shepherds on the same mountainous pastures that are clearly being used by terrorists as bases and hideouts. This time along with the usual threatening noises from the Home Ministry, we were informed by the Indian Express that the ministerial team that went up to investigate the second massacre had returned with the impression that “militants have set up huge bases” in the jungle in areas vacated by Indian troops. The question that needs to be asked is if ministers on a casual visit could discover this what were our intelligence agencies doing? Sleeping? And what of Mr Advani, is he all bark and no bite? It is beginning to look that way or the terrorists would not have been emboldened to carry out the attack on Jammu railway station last week. Surely, a railway station in one of our most disturbed states could have been protected well enough for heavily armed men not to have been able so easily to board a train and then escape after their massacre of ten passengers. What is going on Mr Advani? We have a right to know. Critics of the BJP government are already beginning to sneeringly refer to the Home Minister as Sardar Advani. It is his own fault if they do because nobody was at greater pains to project himself as the toughest Home Minister since Sardar Patel than Advani. No sooner did he enter the portals of North Block than a portrait of the Sardar appeared on prominent display and Advani himself went out of his way to warn Pakistan sternly, on several occasions, that cross-border terrorism would not be tolerated. But did he do anything else? The shot answer is no. Our intelligence agencies have been a complete mess for many years. Since Operation Bluestar, in fact, when after the bodies of a couple of intelligence men were thrown out of the Golden Temple in gunny sacks they fled leaving Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to fortify the temple without any interference. Since then there has been any number of occasions when the failure of our intelligence agencies has been glaringly there for everyone to see. You would think that a Home Minister under an entirely new government would revamp them on a priority basis. There are, for a start, too many of them and often one agency does not know what the other is doing. The second problem is that very few of our senior intelligence officers have any real experience of counter-insurgency and the third is that they appear to spend far too much time in the safety of their air-conditioned offices in Delhi instead of out in the field where they are needed. There is no indication that Mr Advani has done anything to change this. Nor is there any indication that he has understood the need for retraining our paramilitary forces in counter-insurgency tactics. Is it any surprise then that terrorists attack these days with increasing impunity and when they do the Home Ministry’s response is usually to call ‘a high-level meeting’ as if this were the only solution at hand. The Home Minister appears not to have understood that strong words and high-level meetings scare nobody, least of all committed killers. The truth is that Mr Advani never understood the Kashmir problem he inherited. I say this from personal knowledge. Shortly after he became Home Minister I sought an interview on Kashmir for a book I was writing and discovered in answer to my very first question that Mr Advani had not done his homework. My question was simple: What do you believe caused the Kashmir problem as it is today? His answer was that he believed it was entirely the handiwork of Pakistan. Anybody who observed the start of the violent struggle that began in 1989 could have told him that it was the result of indigenous mistakes made by the governments in Delhi, but Mr Advani appeared not to know this. Since he believed that the whole problem was caused by Pakistan he proceeded to deal with it only militarily as a proxy war. This has not worked and we are not the only ones who are aware of this. Last month in Pakistan everyone I talked to — even those who accepted that the Pakistan government was actively supporting the “jehadis” — pointed out that without huge local support they would not be able to function. Asma Jehangir, the human right activist who is very critical of her government’s policies said, “What worries me is that I meet too many people in India who do not accept that there is an indigenous problem in Kashmir. If I can accept that there is support for the ‘jehadis’ from our government then surely you should be able to accept that there is an indigenous problem in the valley”. Our problem is that even the Home Minister seems not to understand this and assuming that he believes that the military option is the only one, then why has he failed in implementing it? All we have had so far are those endless high-level meetings and meaningless inquiries that come to their conclusions so long after the acts of violence that nobody bothers about them. Meanwhile, terrorists get bolder and more brutal every day and the targeting of defenceless Hindu villagers in Jammu is likely to create communal tensions on an uncontrollable scale. The buck stops at the Home Minister and it is time he came up with some credible explanations. |
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Debate on terrorism: the missing
angle THE recent killing of six high-profile individuals, including a former Foreign Minister and another prominent politician, in Karachi and elsewhere at the hands of extremists has led to a fresh debate on the scourge of terrorism. But, surprisingly, it is not being discussed with reference to the culture of terrorism that has been allowed to prosper by misusing the name of religion. Here the point to be noted is what the authorities and intellectuals think about the running of training camps in various parts of that country to kill innocent people in India's Jammu and Kashmir under the guise of "jehad". Terrorism is a two-edged weapon, as it has been pointed out time and again. Pakistan cannot remain unaffected by its acts of aiding and abetting terrorism to implement its designs in the subcontinent. With its own conscious efforts Islamabad has allowed the growth of a culture whose roots are getting deeper in the land of its birth. Terrorism has been raising its head time and again, mostly in the form of sectarian killings. Pakistan will have to view the problem in its totality to strike at its roots. Military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who has described the gunning down of innocent people in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists as "freedom struggle", has incapacitated himself to see the reality because of his Kashmir obsession. He has ordered a crackdown on "terrorists and hardened criminals" throughout Pakistan without imposing a ban on extremist outfits operating in the name of protecting sectarian and ethnic interests by resorting to violence. Presiding over an Inter-Provincial Conference at Islamabad the other day, he directed that "there should be no inhibition against the use of every available force to combat terrorism in all its forms". But he did not utter a word about the "jehadi" groups allowed to continue their unholy activities unhindered. This contradiction in approach is self-defeating. Some time ago the "jehadi" groups were served with a ban on openly collecting donations for the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, but a Friday Times report, quoting the Lashkar-e-Toiba's North-West Frontier Province chief, has it that there is no let-up in the raising of funds by Kashmir-centric outfits. This is not surprising in a country where the ruler of the day does not realise the implications of what he says and does. How can he go on describing terrorists as "freedom fighters" and then think of preventing them from collecting funds by misleading the gullible public? It seems these merchants of death do not take the military government's decisions seriously. That is why, perhaps, few militant outfits have responded to the government's call to deposit illicit arms at the nearest police station. Media comments show that the realisation is yet to dawn on Pakistan that terrorism in all its forms cannot be destroyed root and branch unless there is an attack on the very culture of killing innocent civilians. If such a campaign is launched, all "jehadi", sectarian and ethnic outfits indulging in violence will have to be disbanded. A recent editorial in The Nation of Lahore says: "Among other things, the government needs to review the way it is proceeding to deal with highly motivated and well-trained networks. The deweaponisation campaign is moving at a snail's pace because, among other things, the Interior Ministry has too many irons in the fire...The amnesty period announced for voluntary handing over of illegal weapons was over on 20 June, but the promised raids to recover illicit arms have yielded poor results...Decisions continue to be postponed for unknown reasons. The proposed amendment to the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act has yet to be given final shape. One hears the amendment is to incorporate provisions to ban some militant outfits due to their involvement in sectarian violence and to prohibit the imparting of military training at religious seminaries. But as the document is to be presented before Governors and heads of law-enforcement agencies before it is finalised, it would be premature to make any comment on its provisions. One can only hope that it is given final shape without further delay." Nowhere does the editorial talk of the culture of terrorism that has been gifted to Pakistan by Kashmir-centric militant outfits as well as sectarian organisations following the path of violence. It is necessary to kill this very culture. That will mean eliminating the terrorist outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir under the guidance of the notorious ISI. Is Pakistan ready for such a course? |
Viceroy's Camp, Ganeshkhand, July 31: On Thursday, the 29th July, His Excellency the Viceroy held a reception at Government House at 9.30 p.m On Friday, the 30th July, 1926, Their Excellencies, accompanied by His Excellency the Governor, M.S.V. and Aides Camp in Waiting, attended a review of the Poona Garrison this morning. Their excellencies visited the Experimental Farm at Hadapsar, the Hadapsar Cooperative Society and the Indian Christian School at Hadapsar and afterwards drove to the Depuri Workshops at Kirkee. |
Preserving Sikh culture in USA AS an entrepreneur, Chirinjeev Kathuria has achieved success beyond his wildest dreams. A Chicago-based physician-turned-telecom baron, he has founded companies such as MirCorp, which commercialised space, and HealthCite, a medical knowledge-based Website. He has also revolutionised the concept of providing free Internet service in Europe. But Kathuria readily admits that his Sikh heritage brings him more pride and comfort than his business achievements. “Someone said, ‘to kill a culture you have to kill its people, language and food and customs’,” Kathuria, whose parents brought him to America when he was eight months old, said. “My Punjabi is not good. But I still try to make an attempt at learning it!” Though his Punjabi needs perfecting, Kathuria proudly showcases his turban and beard as a symbol of his heritage. “It’s easy for parents to tell their kids about the importance of being a Sikh when they see me because I have the turban and beard,” Kathuria said Now, Kathuria will speak about the importance of second-generation Sikhs preserving their heritage and the importance of creating awareness about his community. Along with luminaries such as Dr Narinder Kapany, Director of the Washington DC-based Sikh Heritage Foundation, and Dr Alka Pande, former Chairperson of the Department of Fine Arts at Panjab University, Kathuria will be one of the guests at the gala of the Sikh Heritage Foundation. The event, featuring a dinner, leactures and entertainment, will be held at the Smithsonian Institution on August 11 in Washington DC. “I find Sikh history fascinating, ” Kathuria said. “The idea of this event is to set up a permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian to preserve Sikh culture.” The Foundation, founded last year by Sikh Americans, seeks to showcase and preserve Sikh art and cultural artefacts. “The issue of preserving Sikh heritage is extremely urgent and is probably the most important challenge facing the community right now,” noted programme coordinator Jeevan Singh Deol. “Eighty per cent of the manuscripts of Guru Granth Sahib are no longer in existence.”
TNS
Protection against heart disease Compounds found in black tea, apples and chocolate may help protect against heart disease, study findings suggest. Elderly men who consumed most of the compounds, called catechins, were 51 per cent less likely to die of ischemic heart disease over 10 years compared with those who consumed the least. Ischemic heart disease occurs when narrowed arteries reduce the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. Catechins are part of a group of plant compounds called flavonoids that have also been linked to a lower risk of lung disease and certain cancers. Flavonoids are anti-oxidants, compounds that neutralise disease-causing free radicals in the body. “Our results suggest that a high catechin intake may help reduce the risk of dying from ischemic heart disease. However, our study has to be confirmed in other countries and populations before any recommendations can be made,” Ilja C.W. Arts, the study’s lead author, said. Although men who consumed the most catechins also tended to exercise more, not smoke, drink less coffee and consume more fibre and vitamin C, these factors did not influence the overall results, the researchers report in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Exactly how these compounds may guard against certain diseases is not clear. Arts, from the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, suggested that they may work by preventing LDL (bad) cholesterol from damaging cells, by recycling other anti-oxidants such as vitamin E or by reducing the risk of inflammation, associated with heart disease. The average intake of catechins in the study was 72 mg, which can be obtained by eating about four apples a day or drinking two cups of tea with a small piece of chocolate, Arts said. Black tea was the major source of catechins among the 806 men, aged 65 to 84, in the study.
Reuters
Pesticides hit male fertility French and Argentine researchers have produced new evidence showing that exposure to pesticides and solvents could be contributing to failling sperm counts and rising levels of male infertility. In a study of 225 men the scientists found exposure to insecticides, herbicides and fungicides could limit their ability to have children. “Exposure to pesticides and solvents is significantly associated with threshold sperm values much lower than the considered limits for male fertility,” Dr Luc Multigner of the French research institute INSERM said in a report in the journal Human Reproduction.
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When there is hypocrisy, even if there is something good along with it, do not go there even for the sake of picking up that good only. If you do, it could be cooperation with evil which must not be offered. ***** Just as we throw away milk if there is poison in it, so must we reject any good which has got the poison of hypocrisy mixed with it. — From The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi ***** If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. ***** For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? ***** And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? — Kahlil Gibran ***** Allah does not love the public utterance of hurtful speech, unless (it be) by one to whom injustice has been done; and Allah is Hearing, Knowing. ***** If you do good openly or do it in secret or pardon an evil, then surely Allah is Pardoning, Powerful ***** O you who believe! Let not people laugh at (another) people, perchance they may be better than they, nor let women (laugh) at (other) women perchance they may be better than they; and do not find fault with your own people nor call one another by nicknames; evil is a bad name after faith, and whoever does not turn, these it is that are the unjust. ***** O you who believe! avoid most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in some cases is a sin, and do not spy nor let some of you backbite others.... ***** O you men! surely We have created you of a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other; surely the most honourable of you with Allah is the one among you most careful (of his duty); surely Allah is knowing, Aware. — The Holy Quran, VI: 148-149; XLIX, section 2:11-13, 18 |
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