E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Wanted: a healing touch
FRESH incidents of violence, including burning people to death, in Gujarat are once again a grim reminder of the quality of governance in the state. The law and order situation in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and other towns continues to be precarious.

Salaam justice
A common factor between the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the USA and the February 27 burning of bogies of the Sabarmati Express near Godhra was that they were both carried out by Islamic fundamentalists.

FRANKLY SPEAKING

HARI JAISINGH
Jammu & Kashmir at crossroads
Confusion prevails amidst thriving business of politics, hawala
THE suicide (fidayeen) attack at the historic Raghunath Mandir and related activities in Jammu and Kashmir are again a grim reminder that terrorism continues to pose a major threat to the country’s internal security and communal harmony. The leadership has failed to deal with the problem effectively.

IN THE NEWS

Azad caught in his own web
HE is admired for his expertise in political manoeuvring. He is acknowledged to have provided considerable strength to his party high command in times of crisis. But today he is believed to have fallen from grace. He faces marginalisation because his tactics to promote his cronies have backfired. Here the person being referred to is Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress.

• Behind the TV screens

COMMENTARY

Little goodwill for Nepal in India
M.S.N. Menon
SHOULD India extend military assistance to Nepal? Under the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, India has an obligation to assist Nepal. But should it?

This ‘court’ delivers homespun justice
IT’S goodbye to lawyers and courts in a tiny hamlet in Orissa. A “court” dispenses instant justice — and it’s absolutely free! Harihar Sahu, 66, who lives in Laxmisagar on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar, is neither a judge nor a lawyer. Yet in the last seven years, he has delivered judgments on nearly 717 cases. Amazingly, both complainants and defendants are said to gladly accept his verdict.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Shampoo may cause early puberty in girls
Shampoos containing female hormones may be causing girls to go through puberty at an even earlier age, the British weekly magazine “New Scientist” says. “Unknown to many parents, a few hair products — especially some marketed to black people — contain small amounts of hormones that could cause premature sexual development in girls,” it reports in next Saturday’s issue.

• Beware of swimming pool chemical

• Sunlight helps cancer patients

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Wanted: a healing touch

FRESH incidents of violence, including burning people to death, in Gujarat are once again a grim reminder of the quality of governance in the state. The law and order situation in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and other towns continues to be precarious. The fact that communal frenzy has even engulfed the earthquake-devastated eastern parts of Kutch district is highly disquieting. Curfew has had to be imposed at a number of places even after four weeks of nerve-racking events, starting with the Godhra carnage. Apparently, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has failed to handle the situation firmly. Why is it so? Is he deliberately looking the other way to intensify the communal divide as part of his new-found love for vote-bank politics? Some reports suggest that he is toying with the idea of holding a snap poll to the state Assembly sometime in June. It is up to him to hold an early election. But playing the Hindutva card for this purpose will be a highly dangerous game. We expect Mr Modi to rise above petty politics, promptly restore law and order and win over the minority community which has suffered considerably during the riots. His prime task has to be proper relief work and rehabilitation of the victims of the ghastly events. Gujarat badly needs a healing touch. Perhaps, Mr Modi is not realising the damage he has inflicted on the body politic of his state. Gujarat, which gave birth to Mahatma Gandhi and was till recently the hub of economic growth, is a shambles. Everything seems to have gone haywire in the wake of the communal holocaust. Instead of playing to the gallery, the Chief Minister should get on with the business of governing the state justly, fairly and impartially. If he cannot, then, in the interest of the nation, he may better opt for a decent exit. He cannot be allowed to continue to play with the communal fire for his votebank politics.

True, communal riots are not a new phenomenon in Gujarat. It has occasionally been in the grip of such vicious developments. The state witnessed major communal riots in 1965, 1985, 1989 and 1992. But this time the riots have had sinister overtones. The National Human Rights Commission has rightly chided the Narendra Modi government for its "serious intelligence failure" as well as its "inaction" following the Godhra tragedy and the subsequent deaths and destruction. The communal problem has got aggravated in the state simply because the politico-administrative set-up has never tried to sincerely and honestly tackle the undercurrents of unrest at the socio-economic and humanitarian levels. The Congress leadership is as much to blame for this messy situation as is the BJP at present. It is a fact that in the absence of a just socio-economic order, the Muslim community has become the victim of vested interests and lumpen elements. We have to find an answer to get out of the mess. What Gujarat needs is a total social revolution. Credible voluntary organisations can help. But they will need formidable official backup for this purpose. Mr Modi is under watch. He ought to realise that the tarnished image of Gujarat cannot be repaired if he continues with his distorted politics and misplaced postures. We hope Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will set the pace for a new order after his one-day visit to Gujarat. He must act fast before it is too late.

Salaam justice

A common factor between the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the USA and the February 27 burning of bogies of the Sabarmati Express near Godhra was that they were both carried out by Islamic fundamentalists. The WTC attacks claimed nearly 5,000 lives; the Godhra tragedy nearly 60. Both incidents gave rise to a wave of hate crimes. The comparison ends here. A firm message from the White House ensured an effective check on hate crimes in the USA. The same cannot be said about the handling of the flare-up in Gujarat that has claimed close to 1,000 lives so far. The fire of hatred continues to consume innocent lives in Gujarat while the wheels of justice have moved with amazing alacrity in America. There is a lesson in it for societies struggling to contain hate crimes. A Dallas county jury in Texas has convicted Mark Anthony Stroman of the murder of Vasudev Patel at a petrol pump shortly after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Stroman had confessed that he had killed Patel, 49, an immigrant from India, to avenge the terrorist attacks. The jury took less than an hour to convict him. But it is not going to rush into deciding the scale of punishment for Stroman. It would either be death or life imprisonment. President George W. Bush had promised to bring to justice the perpetrators of the horrible crime that left nearly 5,000 dead in New York. But the first conviction is that of a man who was merely reacting to the horrendous crime that brought down the American symbols of military and economic might. This point should not be ignored.

The speedy trial and conviction of Stroman has enhanced the image of America as the upholder of the rule of law. There are several aspects of the case that should be examined by the powers that be for removing the glaring chinks in the Indian system. One, the investigation, trial and conviction of Stroman was completed in a record period of six months. In the past few decades all forms of hate crimes have raised their head in the country. However, the investigation and other procedures continue to be slow and cumbersome. If courts in India were to work as fast as they evidently do in the USA, it would send out a signal to criminals that committing crime in India is risky business. Of course, it goes without saying that for the courts to speed up the process of trial it is necessary for the investigating and prosecuting agencies to pull up their socks as well. The Stroman case could not have been decided so promptly without all the agencies doing their bit. There is something in the Dallas case too for those who want to keep out criminals from the electoral process. Stroman's crime has been established within six months. Now he cannot contest unless the superior courts find him not guilty and set him free.

FRANKLY SPEAKING

Jammu & Kashmir at crossroads
Confusion prevails amidst thriving business of politics, hawala
HARI JAISINGH

THE suicide (fidayeen) attack at the historic Raghunath Mandir and related activities in Jammu and Kashmir are again a grim reminder that terrorism continues to pose a major threat to the country’s internal security and communal harmony. The leadership has failed to deal with the problem effectively. The growing communal divide has only made matters worse.

Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has his own agenda. The Centre works on its half-baked calculations. Militant groups play their deadly games at the bidding of their masters across the border. The Congress has floated a new leader in Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad. He has no solid political base in the valley and hence is more comfortable in New Delhi than Srinagar. As for the BJP, the less said the better.

So, it is business as usual—the business of politics, gun, money, loyalties, sub-loyalties and extra-territorial loyalties with some excitement thrown in-between.

One such exciting moment was the arrest of senior Hurriyat Conference leader Mohammad Yasin Malik under POTA last week after the recovery of one lakh dollars allegedly brought for him from Pakistan via Nepal.

Mr Malik has, understandably, debunked the whole episode as politically motivated. The flow of foreign money in the valley through illicit channels is an open secret. Militancy in the state is, after all, not an innocent fun game. It is a well-planned gameplan sustained by foreign money and gun power.

The jehadi groups have taken full advantage of the poor house-keeping in the state and beyond. Do our leaders understand this? It needs to be borne in mind that the problem of militancy cannot be tackled effectively if governance is ineffective and faulty. The nation has already paid a heavy price for the blunders of our leaders. New Delhi may be in the know of plots and sub-plots. But it has failed to put its acts together.

No wonder, the confusion persists, notwithstanding the forthcoming Assembly elections, the proposed visit of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to the valley and renewed activities of All- Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders.

It is not clear what the Centre is up to. The right hand in the Prime Minister’s Office invariably does not know what the left hand in the Home Ministry is up to.

Even otherwise, policy-makers in New Delhi lack coordinated thinking and action.

The hasty signal for a dialogue to the Hurriyat leaders, the unilateral ceasefire and other half-hearted peace initiatives reflected the Centre’s adhocism, which does not pay.

Alienation is, of course, not an overnight phenomenon. It builds up over a period of time. If militancy has penetrated deep in the valley, it is mainly because the state administration and the Centre have hardly worked in close concert and in a determined manner to frustrate the nefarious designs of Pakistan-sponsored terrorist groups.

The ground realities keep changing rapidly in the valley. The Hurriyat leaders once enjoyed a sizeable following. By now, most of them are seen as paper tigers. The pro-Pakistani slant of Mr Abdul Ghani Lone, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other Hurriyat leaders is widely known. Mr Yasin Malik and Mr Shabir Shah keep mentioning the azadi card. Their importance might have diminished, but they retain their nuisance value and draw a larger-than-life media attention.

The trouble with the Hurriyat leaders is that they thrive on gimmicks and rhetoric. The setting up of an election commission by Mr Malik is part of this stuntmanship which does not stand the test of common sense.

As of today, uncertainty continues in the state. The mainstream parties as well as the separatist organisations, for once, are somewhat subdued. The ruling National Conference leaders except Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and Works Minister Ali Mohd Sagar seem scared keeping in view the way militants have of late been targeting their party activists. Their fears are not unfounded. Out of over 320 political activists killed between 1990 and March, 2002, by militant outfits, more than 235 belonged to the National Conference.

The separatists, especially those belonging to the Hurriyat Conference, also play safe. They stick to the party headquarters in Srinagar. Some Hurriyat leaders shuttle between the state’s summer capital and New Delhi and hold meetings with foreign diplomats and other important persons. They are also in touch with those otherwise treated as “toothless and rootless”.

During the past one year the Hurriyat headquarters is no longer crowded. Many Hurriyat leaders do not attract crowds even at home.

This poor public show is because of two reasons. First, Hurriyat leaders have stopped distributing doles to the “sufferers” and the victims of militancy-related violence. Second, the APHC strength is eroded because of the infighting among the leaders of the 23-member conglomerate. The people see in these developments the Hurriyat’s diminishing role.

The APHC Chairman, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhatt, says that crowds at his residence and at the party headquarters have thinned because “I do not want to encourage begging. I do not want the Kashmiris to become beggars. I have stopped giving doles. I have no money with me which could be given to destitutes and orphans.”

In this new situation, a large number of people have started exploring other avenues for assistance, including the mainstream political organisations, especially the National Conference.

Interestingly, several Hurriyat leaders are keen to participate in the next Assembly elections and capture power, if possible. All the same, they are scared and do not wish to risk their lives and popularity, whatever is left of it. That is why they shy away from the poll and periodically dish out excuses to justify their stance.

They, of course, do not wish to lose sympathy of the American and British ruling elite. To confuse matters, the Hurriyat leaders floated the idea of having their own election commission. They argue that the Election Commission of India cannot ensure a free and fair poll. In any case, the commission idea is yet to take off.

The Hurriyat leaders say that their participation in the election would be only for determining the representative character of the APHC and not for the purpose of sitting either on the Treasury or the Opposition benches in the Assembly.

The Government of India has not given up the hope of encouraging the separatists to contest the Assembly poll. Some critics, however, point out that the Centre has no compelling reasons to woo the separatists. All the same, it is acknowledged that in case they join the national mainstream and contest the poll, this would free the state of the separatists’ mischief potential.

Those who support the move for motivating the separatists to contest the poll refer to the Sheikh-Indira Accord of 1975, saying that even though by 1974 Sheikh Abdullah had lost much of his political shine, Indira Gandhi entered into an agreement with him to remove the most prickly political thorn in Kashmir politics.

The events of the past two years indicate that the Centre is yet to formulate a definite policy on Kashmir. Interestingly, when Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Abdul Majid Dar announced a unilateral ceasefire in July, 2000, neither the Centre nor the state government could handle the situation properly.

The militant leaders wanted the proposed talks to remain a secret. But someone bungled as their pictures were allowed to be published. The names of the Central team too were made public. This had a negative impact. The Hizb ceasefire remained in force for a week. In November, 2000, the Prime Minister announced the suspension of combat operations against militants. It remained in force for over three months.

The moot point is: what was the net result? The ceasefire provided the militants a chance to re-establish their bases in the areas which had been sanitised earlier. Later, the Centre appointed Mr K.C. Pant as its chief negotiator. He visited Srinagar once. The APHC boycotted him on the plea that a senior Central minister should conduct negotiations.

Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Ahmed Shah accused the Centre of the failure to take even one single positive step. He declared, “If the government takes one bold and positive step, we will take three.”

The confusion prevails on both sides. While the separatists are a divided lot, the state and Central governments have a love-hate relationship. The Government of India is unhappy over the state government’s performance. Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is annoyed because of the squeeze in the flow of Central funds.

The Centre claims that it has allotted sufficient funds, and charges the state authorities with misusing the money. With five members of the National Conference in the Lok Sabha, Dr Farooq Abdullah follows the carrot and stick policy to his advantage.

It needs to be realised by the Centre that arousing undue expectations about the Hurriyat is not in its interest. For, this will only weaken Dr Farooq Abdullah’s administration. It so happens that the Chief Minister is still the best bet for the country.

The real challenge in Kashmir actually lies in properly guiding Dr Abdullah. If he is made to deliver the goods in a transparent manner, the situation in Kashmir can change for the better. But alas! Nothing of the sort has happened. Half-baked and misplaced goals cannot take us anywhere.

What is needed is coordinated thinking and action to achieve the set objectives and goals and neutralise the advantage that terrorists enjoy. It is equally crucial that the people are made equal partners in the state’s progress. This is an elementary task. But, then, the missing element in Kashmir today is common sense. And common sense is not so common in Srinagar as well as in New Delhi.

IN THE NEWS

Azad caught in his own web

HE is admired for his expertise in political manoeuvring. He is acknowledged to have provided considerable strength to his party high command in times of crisis. But today he is believed to have fallen from grace. He faces marginalisation because his tactics to promote his cronies have backfired. Here the person being referred to is Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress.

Behind the TV screens

India's television scene is likely to witness major changes in the days to come. Though denied, the most sensational development discussed during the past few days was that Mr Rupert Murdoch's Star TV network was about to acquire the 24-hour Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, owned by the India Today group. Denial is all-right, but, as they say, there is no smoke without a fire.

One thing is, however, certain. The marriage of convenience between the Star network and content provider New Delhi TV of Mr Pranoy Roy is going to end in March next year. There is no possibility of their contract getting renewed. In the process, TV viewers will have another news channel as NDTV is planning to have its own independent arrangement by April next year. It is also learnt that NDTV may reach an agreement with Doordarshan as a news content provider. Whatever the truth may be known in the coming few weeks.

If reports are correct, six new news channels are likely to emerge on the TV screens----in English and regional languages. Star News is expected to be modelled on the lines of Fox News with an independent Hindi channel added to the Star stable.

In all that is expected to happen in the coming weeks and months, what is most noticeable is the television networks' growing interest in the news content providing business. The latest study of viewership has brought out that people in general switch on their TV sets to know about the day's news more than anything else. This is the result of the September 11 developments that shook the USA, nay, the entire world. 

COMMENTARY

Little goodwill for Nepal in India
M.S.N. Menon

SHOULD India extend military assistance to Nepal? Under the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, India has an obligation to assist Nepal. But should it?

Yes, but not because of the treaty obligation. Nepal has never been faithful to the treaty. It has always wanted to abrogate it. Why then should India assist Nepal? Because India can never accept a Maoist regime in Kathmandu. What is more, America has expressed its support to Nepal against the Maoists. If in spite of these obstacles and the world-wide failure of Marxism, the people of Nepal are determined to pursue the Maoist course, we can only say: they will be sorry for it.

It has been Nepal’s contention that the treaty gave offence to China, that it reduced Nepal’s sovereignty and that it reflected a relationship with India that Nepal was uncomfortable with. These explain why Nepal has not invoked the treaty and why Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba did not even mention the treaty while he was in India recently. They are, of course, entitled to their opinion. But it is strange that Deuba should ask for military assistance from India after rejecting the treaty.

Today, with the Communists threatening to seize power, the relevance of the treaty must be obvious to the people of Nepal and to their politicians. This is the second time the Communists are at it.

Perhaps Nepal might have forgotten the circumstances in which the 1950 treaty was signed. Perhaps Indians too might have forgotten. So, let me recall, in brief, why the treaty was signed and how Nepal had tried to frustrate it.

In 1947, China occupied Tibet. It was feared that China might encourage a revolution in Nepal or support the Nepalese Communist Party to seize power. So, in 1950 the treaty was signed. It provided for Indian military and economic assistance.

In 1951, the two countries decided to establish border checkposts along Nepal’s border with Tibet to gather intelligence.

In 1952, as was feared, the Communist Party of Nepal made an attempt to seize power. It was, however, aborted, and Dr K.I. Singh, its leader, took refuge in Tibet, where the Chinese gave him asylum. In consequence, India sent a military mission to Nepal to train and modernise the Nepali army. But Nepal looked upon these steps with disfavour. It thought that India was being too intrusive. It wanted to be free from these security obligation.

In 1955, King Mahendra came to power. He wanted to assert the authority of the monarchy. But as India expressed itself in favour of democracy, he played the China card against India. This tactic has continued till recently.

In 1956, China changed its policy. It entered into a trade agreement with Nepal. And it offered economic assistance too. In 1958, Nepal forced India to downgrade the Indian military mission.

In 1960, Chou en-Lai visited Nepal and sought permission to construct a highway linking Lhasa with Kathmandu. The Koirala government was not enthusiastic. But the dismissal of the Koirala government and the abrogation of the Nepal constitution paved the way for closer Nepal-China relations.

Nepal’s relations with India reached a new low. Nehru’s remark that the Nepalese developments were anti-democratic further angered the royal regime. In 1961, Nepal completed the border demarcation with China. As Indian stock declined in Nepal, that of China rose.

The debacle of the Indian army against the Chinese in 1962 encouraged Nepal to flout the 1950 treaty. In 1965 the highway was completed. It turned out to be a military highway — a clear violation by China of its undertaking. Nepal showed little concern for India’s security concerns.

Speaking in Parliament, Nehru said: “We cannot allow that barrier (Himalayas) to be penetrated... Therefore, much as we appreciate the independence of Nepal, we cannot allow anything to go wrong in Nepal... because that would be a risk to our own security”. What he feared happened. But what we said then is still valid. If the Maoists come to power in Nepal, that would be one of the worst disasters for this country. We cannot permit it.

In 1967, China demanded parity with India in all matters. As the Chinese persisted, Nepal asked India to surrender all the privileges that it enjoyed. This suited China, for China’s ultimate goal was to expel Indian influence from the Himalayas so that Tibet would be secure.

By 1970, Nepal demanded India’s withdrawal from Nepal. In 1975, King Birendra proposed the “Zone of Peace” to embarrass India. In 1988, Nepal bought large consignments of arms from China, including anti-aircraft guns. Obviously for use against India!

Perhaps, that was the last straw for India. It decided to retaliate and did so where it hurt. It sulked over the renewal of the trade agreement. Indo-Nepal relations sank to a new low. Can we blame India? We cannot.

I must digress here. Nepal’s economy has been integrated with that of India from the British times. India was Nepal’s first trade partner. Nepal looked to India for economic and technical assistance. Half the tourists arriving in Nepal were Indians. India had an open border with Nepal. About four million Nepalese had settled down in India. In short, the two countries were bound together by “special relations”. More could have been achieved but for Nepal’s cussed ways. For example, the two countries could have worked miracles if they decided to jointly exploit the water resources of the Himalayas.

India believed that a democratic Nepal would be with India. But this is not what happened. There was a price to be paid for the China card. With every throw of the card, the Communist movement in Nepal got a shot in the arm. Today it is the principal opposition in Parliament. And the monarchy was its main protector.

Then, there was the influx of other anti-India forces, above all of the ISI of Pakistan. The Nepali authorities did nothing to stop these developments. In fact, the political parties vied with each other for the anti-India platform. Never was anti-India feeling so great. And the king refused to use the army against the Maoists.

During the last few years, India-Nepal relations have been in a crisis. The hijacking of the Indian plane was followed by the frenzy over an Indian film star. That was followed by the Supreme Court decision to withdraw citizenship rights of Nepalese of Indian origin. But India refused to react. On the contrary, it reduced customs duty to almost zero. India-Nepal trade tripled. But it is also led to misuse.

Nepal has a way of magnifying real and imagined problems to make them into grievances against India. Such “grievances” might have yielded concessions before. But no more. Today, India has no patience for these tactics. Which is why there is little goodwill to draw upon today on either side.

This ‘court’ delivers homespun justice

IT’S goodbye to lawyers and courts in a tiny hamlet in Orissa. A “court” dispenses instant justice — and it’s absolutely free!

Harihar Sahu, 66, who lives in Laxmisagar on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar, is neither a judge nor a lawyer. Yet in the last seven years, he has delivered judgments on nearly 717 cases. Amazingly, both complainants and defendants are said to gladly accept his verdict.

Dhoi Sahu, 60, who lives in Bhubaneswar, and his three brothers had been fighting over a plot of land for years. Finally, tired of the squabbling, they went to Sahu for mediation. The self-styled judge based his verdict on an ancient Hindu text and it had the effect of making the quarrelling brothers bury the hatchet.

Sahu says he has been acting as a mediator since 1992. Then the people he helped urged him to form an organisation. “So in 1996, my friends and I launched ‘Jana Adalat’, or people’s court,” he explains. Today, the unofficial court has 25 members and counsels over a hundred people daily.

The “Jana Adalat” functions from the premises of a temple dating back to 1195 AD. “It has an open space where we, the members of the court, sit and hear disputes,” Sahu says. “Anybody can plead his case. He doesn’t need a lawyer. Nor does he need to pay us a fee. He doesn’t have to wait for the judgment either. All he needs is to have full faith in us. This is the only condition we have before we hear any case.”

Like a government court, Sahu’s “Jana Adalat” serves notice on both parties involved. If any party refuses or fails to respond, Sahu visits them and tries to persuade them to attend his court.

“Some people ignored us and went to court,” he says. “But the court too delivered the same verdict. This has made people have faith in us. We are sought out mostly by ordinary people but we’ve also had politicians, bureaucrats, policemen and even lawyers seeking our help.”

The government gave them Rs 20,000 and others have contributed too, but still it is not enough, he says. ANI

TRENDS & POINTERS

Shampoo may cause early puberty in girls

Shampoos containing female hormones may be causing girls to go through puberty at an even earlier age, the British weekly magazine “New Scientist” says.

Chandra Tiwary, former head of paediatric endocrinology at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, who conducted the study among the four girls, said these hormones are probably absorbed into the bloodstream via the scalp. AFP

Beware of swimming pool chemical

Scientists have warned that high levels of a chemical compound found in indoor swimming pools might pose a risk to pregnant women and their unborn babies.

Researchers at Imperial College, London said they found levels of trihalomethanes (THMs), a by-product of chlorine, in London swimming pools that were higher than amounts found in tap water which had been associated with health problems.

“There have been some previous studies carried out with tap water where they found some effects like spontaneous abortion, stillbirths and congenital malformations at lower levels of these byproducts,” said Dr Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, who led the study reported in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

He added that the by-product levels are relatively high but scientists do not know what effects THMs in swimming pools might have on pregnant women and unborn babies. THMs are formed when chlorine, which is added to swimming pools to keep them clean, reacts with organic matter such as skin or hair.

Nieuwenhuijsen said more information is needed about THMs, which can be swallowed or inhaled, and their impact on pregnant women. In the meantime efforts should be made to reduce the levels, he said.

“The owners of swimming pools have to make sure they reduce the by-product levels because there might be a risk if they stay at this level”, Nieuwenhuijsen said. Reuters

Sunlight helps cancer patients

Though too much exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays can cause skin cancer, sunshine may have a protective effect against some cancers, US scientists have said.

They suspect Vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin that is also found in fortified milk and dairy products, cod liver oil and some fatty fish, can help to slow down the speed at which cancer cells divide.

“This study found inverse associations between both residential and occupational exposure to sunlight and mortality from female breast and colon cancers”, said Dr Michael Freedman of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Reuters

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

The godly people possess divine virtues

And spread the message of divinity on earth.

— Rigveda

***

Beware of bodily anger, and control thy body!

Leave the sins of the both, and with thy body practise virtue!

Beware of the anger of the tongue, and control thy tongue!

Leave the sins of the tongue, and practise virtue with thy tongue!

Beware of the anger of the mind, and control thy mind!

Leave the sins of the mind, and practise virtue with Thy mind.

— The Dhammapada

***

Five things constitute perfect virtue: gravity, magnanimity, earnestness, sincerity and kindness.

— Confucius: Analects

***

With virtue and quietness one may conquer the world.

— Lao-Tse, The Simpl Way.

***

Though a man on earth do evil deeds

And outwardly seem virtuous

In God’s Court he shall be handcuffed like a thief;

He is truly the Lord’s man,

Who remembers Him all the time....

He who with venom in his heart

Speaketh in honeyed words,

In Yama’s court he shall be bound

And beaten for his hypocrisy.

The hypocrite sins in various ways,

But always sins secretly;

Yet in an instant his guile

Shall be made known to the world....

— Guru Arjan Dev, Rag Gauri, Sri Guru Granth Sahib

***

You must not use your God-given body for killing God’s creatures, whether they are human, animal or whatever.

— Yajur Veda