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Monday,
February 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Strengthening
anti-war drive Edgy ceasefire |
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Problem
of Bangladeshi migrants Recorded
transactions may prevent tax evasion
Rites de
Passage: a post-Valentine’s Day introspection
Caring
women & their uncared for heart
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Strengthening anti-war drive WITH every passing day, the George Bush administration of the USA is getting more and more isolated on the Iraq war front. There is no end to demonstrations throughout the world, including cities and towns in the USA itself, in protest against the war plan to find an answer to the question of dispossessing Iraq’s Saddam Hussein regime of weapons of mass destruction, if at all it has any. The angry Americans have now begun saying that “Drop Bush, not bombs” to save the world from a catastrophic situation. Certain US soldiers, including a marine stationed in the Gulf region, have approached the courts of law to prevent an American military action against Iraq unless the US Congress makes such a declaration. All previous records were broken on Saturday when most parts of the globe saw peace marchers in large numbers raising the banner of protest against the US-British war designs. London witnessed the biggest anti-war rally in living memory, asking Prime Minister Tony Blair to look for an alternative to the intended use of force against Iraq, where people are already dying of hunger and an acute shortage of medicines prevails. Certain well-informed marchers made it clear that they did not like the Saddam Hussein regime because of its past record, but felt that it could be effectively handled through means other than the use of military might. The anti-war drive got more strength when UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council on Friday that his team could not find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, contrary to the American and British belief. He, however, stated this with the rider that there were “forbidden materials” which could not be accounted for. Yet the report was highly embarrassing for the US-British axis with Spain as the only formidable supporter of the war plan. In substance, the latest report is quite different from the one Mr Blix had presented to the Security Council on January 27, which was very harsh on the Saddam Hussein regime. The latest account of Mr Blix has emboldened the anti-war Security Council members like France, Russia and China which favour the UN weapons inspections to continue for as long as needed to ensure the global community that the discredited regime in Baghdad had no weapons of mass destruction or the capability to produce or assemble such deadly things. In the coming days one can expect more support for what the French Foreign Minister stated in the Council: “There is an alternative to war — disarming Iraq through inspections.” The simple reason is that an overwhelming majority in the global community strongly feels that the American-British war programme may lead to unbelievably disastrous consequences. It may even dangerously destabilise the mighty US economy as the future course of events may not be in accordance with the calculations of Mr Bush and his advisers. As a result, Mr Bush’s hopes for a second term as President may also dash to the ground. The unending American hunger for Arab oil, therefore, seems to be taking the great nation to a suicidal path. If those fighting a war against the imminent war achieve their laudable objective, they will have created history of sorts — immobilising the super power without firing a single shot.
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Edgy ceasefire THE coming together of the BJP and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh was a coalition of convenience from day one. Ms Mayawati desperately wanted the post of Chief Minister while the central leadership of the BJP needed her support for the Lok Sabha elections equally keenly. But living together has been a nightmarish experience for the state BJP leaders all along. That is why serious differences keep on cropping up every now and then, and these are likely to become more intractable with every passing day. The compromise arrived at after a meeting between Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and Ms Mayawati on Saturday only papers over the chasm. The talks hardly addressed any of the issues raised by the state leaders. The adamant Chief Minister neither agreed to go easy on Raja
Bhaiyya, nor did she promise to soften her haughty style of functioning. Even the formation of a three-member committee by the BJP to coordinate with her was at best a face-saver because she insisted that no coordination committee was formed. The three senior BJP leaders from the state used to meet her earlier also and they would continue to do so once every fortnight, she said categorically. Even if it is surmised that the committee indeed will look after the various grievances of the BJP men, it is pertinent to note that two of its members - Rajya Sabha member Kalraj Mishra and PWD Minister Lalji Tandon - are pro-Mayawati, making sure that the third member, state BJP president Vinay
Katiar, will be boxed in. Ms Mayawati on her part came down heavily on the state BJP leaders who she said were behaving as if they were in the Opposition. Mr Vajpayee, Mr Advani, party president Venkaiah Naidu and HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi seemed to be more keen to redress her grievances than those of their own party men. The reason is obvious. They want to keep her in good humour ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, come what may. That is why she won this round of sparring hands down. Former UP Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, who had opposed the decision to support a Mayawati-led government, was not included in the negotiations and she used the opportunity fully to castigate him. While the policy of the BJP might have saved the coalition, the state leadership is none too happy with the latest turn of events. Whatever gains the party may make at the Centre by kowtowing to Ms Mayawati, might be more than neutralised by the losses it might suffer in the crucial state. BJP leaders insist that Ms Mayawati is systematically destroying their roots. |
Problem of Bangladeshi migrants THE recent spat between India and Bangladesh over the stranded Bangladeshi migrants in Satgachia in Cooch Behar district was just a tip of the iceberg of the huge problem of migrants in this country. The problem is older than Partition and has an immense potential for the deterioration of the security situation in the East and Northeast of India. Addressing the state Chief Secretaries and DGs of Police in Delhi in January, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani stated that there were about 15 million Bangladeshis in India and it posed a serious threat to the country’s internal security. What are the dimensions of the problem? The migration problem is more than a century old and it began with large migrations from the predominantly Muslim districts of undivided Bengal into Assam for work opportunities in the rice fields and tea estates there. This continuing influx exploded in 1978 when the All-Assam Students’ Union began an agitation which was temporarily resolved by an agreement signed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. This also led to the Asom Gana Parishad coming to power in Assam, but the huge migrant population which was already in the state could not be sent out due to judicial procedures and political contingencies. The number of Bangladeshis estimated to be in India was put at 10 million about 10 years back. The Intelligence Bureau has reportedly estimated, after an extensive survey, that the present number is about 16 million. This figure may be correct since the migration has continued unabated all these years. Practically, every state in the country has Bangladeshi migrants, but the largest concentration is in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar. Some of the districts of W. Bengal bordering Bangladesh have an alarming proportion of migrants. Since the migrants in these districts have almost completely merged with the minority population there the problem can be seen only as part of the total minority population in these border districts. The districts of
Murshidabad, South and North 24 Parganas, Nadia and West Dinajpur are particularly affected, and they are all adjoining Bangladesh. In Assam also, the districts of
Dhubri, Barpeta, Goalpara, Hailakandi and Karimganj have a similar heavy concentration of minority population with large sections of Bangladeshi migrants. This led to vote-bank politics both in Assam and West Bengal and judicial procedures only made it worse. In West Bengal, the CPM, in power since 1977, had turned a blind eye to this issue because of the support it was getting from the minority-migrant population.. Only recently Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharya has taken note of the seriousness of the problem. In Assam, the ministry’s survival, when the Congress was in power and also when the AGP replaced it, depended upon the support of a group of MLAs who were against any serious action against the migrants. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act effectively prevented even half-hearted attempts in this direction. The relations with Bangladesh have deteriorated ever since Begum Khaleda Zia came to power last year. Her attitude towards India has not been too friendly, and Bangladesh and Pakistan have been getting too close for India’s discomfort. To quote Saleed
Samad, a Bangladesh journalist, “the government holds power with the help of fundamentalist Islamic groups that are changing Bangladesh’s secular character.” Even during the regime of Seikh
Hasina, the Bangladesh armed forces had elements who were suspected to be in close liaison with the ISI in the Pakistan High Commission there. The various insurgent groups in the North-East have had their training camps located in the border regions of Bangladesh and some of the prominent ULFA insurgents have been living in Dhaka for years. Sheikh Hasina failed to evict them or hand them over to the Government of India on one legal pretext or the other, and there is no change in the situation today. The problem of East Pakistan/Bangladesh migrants was first dealt with, after Partition, by the
Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950. Consequently, about six lakh illegal migrants were sent back to East Pakistan. However, the migration continued unabated. Mr.
B.N. Mullik, the veteran Director of the Intelligence Bureau, had proposed a Prevention of Infiltration Programme which was implemented by the Government of India whereby about 1,50,000 illegal migrants were repatriated to East Pakistan during 1963-65. After the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, the Indira
Gandhi-Mujibur Rahman Pact of 1972 had provided that all those who entered India prior to March 25, 1971, would be allowed to remain in this country while the rest were to return to Bangladesh. Accordingly, as many as seven million refugees returned to Bangladesh. It would, therefore, be seen that in the past India and Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh had amicably settled, through negotiated agreements, the return of East Pakistan/Bangladesh migrants from India. When Begum Khaleda visited India as Prime Minister during her first term, she made an extraordinary statement that there were no Bangladeshis in India. No doubt, this remains her stand even today. Her Foreign Minister, Mr Morshed Khan, told a Press conference at Dhaka on February 6 that “there is not a single Bangladeshi migrant in India”. This stonewalling tactic on the part of the Bangladesh will not be helpful. But how does India make the Bangladesh Government accept the identification of Bangladeshi migrants spread all over India and how do you make Dhaka agree to take Dhaka back? If there is a genuine desire for cordial relations with India on the part of Bangladesh, this is possible. As already stated, in the subcontinent itself seven million Bangladeshi refugees returned to Bangladesh in 1972 as a result of the
Indira-Mujib Pact and earlier in 1950 six lakh migrants were sent back to East Pakistan as per the
Nehru-Liaquat Pact. Is it possible to effectively stop this continuous migration from Bangladesh? The enormity of the problem can be realised when the actual border is visited. As Governor of West Bengal in 1989-90, I had visited the border areas in Cooch
Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, West Dinajpur and Malda. The border was indicated with bamboo poles with small red flags which were planted zigzag in the rice fields. Bangladesh labourers regularly crossed over to work in the fields in West Bengal. School children from border villages of Bangladesh came over to study in Indian schools and many of the rickshaw-pullers in the towns in the border districts of West Bengal came during the day from Bangladesh and returned in the evening. But if some of the farm labourers or rickshaw-pullers stayed behind there was no way of finding out. In the border areas of West Bengal people did not view this traffic as a problem, much less a serious threat. This is how the migrant population has grown over the years to the present level. It is left to the policy makers and administrators to worry about the long-term demographic and security overtones of this continued influx. The continuous influx of Bangladeshi migrants, their spread throughout India and, more importantly, their concentration in the north-eastern states have drastically changed the demographic character of the region. While most of the migrants are “Malthusian” in character, in the sense that they have come to India for a better living condition, their presence in the border region poses a security problem. While European countries as well as Australia and the USA are straining to keep the migrants out for ensuring employment opportunities for their own nationals, India’s problem is different which explains Mr. Advani’s characterisation of this huge presence as a security threat to India. The issue of Bangladeshi migrants has been one of the important policy planks of the BJP and the VHP. They make a distinction between Hindu and Muslim migrants. They call Hindu migrants as refugees while the Muslim ones as infiltrators, though in fact most of them are economic refugees. However, after the BJP came to power this issue was laid to rest except for occasional references at different levels. Why this issue has suddenly assumed so much importance is not clear. This, perhaps, explains why even knowledgeable observers should suspect that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are apparently whipping up this issue along with that of the Ram Mandir in the run-up to the assembly elections this year and the parliamentary polls next year. Those at the helm of affairs should realise the sensitivity of the issue and the dimensions of the problem and deal with it with patience and understanding.
The writer is a former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim. |
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Recorded
transactions may prevent tax evasion The economy keeps growing and so does the deficit while the revenues do not increase in the same proportion as the economy grows. There could be a number of reasons for the shortfall in revenue collection which may vary from year to year, like recession in the industrial sector or shortfall in agricultural production. But one factor that has been constant for the last five decades is tax evasion. There are so many loopholes in the tax system that allows people and organisations to evade taxes with impunity. There are no reliable estimates of the extent of tax evasion in this country. But the studies on black money that are available show that its size has grown significantly over the past many years. If this tax evasion is checked, the Finance Minister would never be faced with a shortfall in tax collection and would have low fiscal deficit. Therefore, the Finance Minister, instead of resorting to an increase in tax rates or coming out with amnesty schemes, should find other means to increase the revenue collection. One such way is to plug the loopholes which encourage tax evasion. Tax evasion is there almost in every country. However, the degree of evasion may vary. Most of the evasion occurs when transactions are done in cash and never recorded. This has been the experience of many countries. So, many of these countries have come out with measures that discourage cash transactions and encourage recorded transactions. One such mechanism has been the use of debit and credit cards combined with payment through banking mechanism. It has been reported that the Republic of Korea has been using debit cards and credit cards very effectively to curb tax evasion. The South Korean Government allows 10 per cent rebate in taxes if the payments are made through credit, debit cards. This is an idea which needs to be adopted to Indian conditions. The Finance Minister should come out with such a provision which encourages cashless transaction. As a first measure it may be made mandatory that all salaries above Rs 10,000 per month, both in the public and private sectors, be directly credited to individuals’ accounts in their respective banks. Secondly, payments above a certain amount may also be made mandatory through debit/credit cards and through cheques or bank drafts. With electronic banking gaining importance, transfers through the banking mechanism will become as easy as receiving or making payments by cash. In most of the countries the use of debit and credit cards for making and receiving payments has reached a point that for buying even one small ballpen payment is made through credit/debit card. Similarly, the payment for the sale and purchase of immovable property and various kinds of consumer goods and services beyond a certain stipulated amount should also be made through banking channels. While doing so, the Finance Minister will not only be plugging one of the biggest loopholes leading to tax evasion but would also reduce the need for ready cash and hence the printing of currency notes on a large scale. The biggest chunk of black money is invested in real estate and gold. The circulation of black money in the housing sector is beyond someone’s imagination. Since house tax is based on the current purchase price, only one-fourth of the money is paid by cheque and the rest in unaccounted cash. Even the honest buyers of flats/houses are forced to pay in black money to acquire a flat or a house. Additionally, the Finance Minister, by encouraging the use of plastic money for purchasing foreign currency for making payments abroad, would also be curbing hawala racket that has been responsible for all the illegal and terrorist activities in this country. As the debit and credit cards are now becoming important, the Finance Minister has wisely relaxed the rules pertaining to the purchase of foreign exchange by individuals and organisations. Since the money in foreign exchange can be withdrawn by an individual in any part of the world from one’s own personal account, or one make payment for goods or services purchased abroad against debit/credit card, it will immediately get recorded automatically. If the money so withdrawn is up to the limit laid down by the RBI, no questions need be asked. However, if the money so withdrawn in foreign exchange exceeds the amount laid down by the RBI, only then the person may be asked to inform the federal bank as to the purpose for which the foreign exchange was used. The tax amnesty schemes in the past have not been helpful in checking tax evasion and curbing the black money in this country. So long as cash transactions continue to be made, tax evasion will continue to be there and black money will continue to be generated. It is high time the Finance Minister started thinking in terms of developing a mechanism to encourage recorded transactions, instead of cash transactions. With computers all around, it would be much easier to administer cashless transaction rather than cash transactions and thus check tax evasion to a significant extent.
— INFA |
Rites de Passage: a post-Valentine’s Day introspection THERE was consternation in my brother’s home this Valentine’s Day. My cute teenaged niece couldn’t make up her mind about what to wear. Was is it going to be the red mini or the red trousers with the mini top. Choices, choices, choices! “Well whatever it’s going to be, it’s got to be red, with lots of skin showing” she said, as her father glowered menacingly. As she sat debating clothes with a set of cute, confused young girlfriends and her indulgent mom, I couldn’t help reflecting on how times had changed. Red the colour of Karl Marx, and socialism is today the colour of all that represents capitalism: Coke, Cable TV and Valentine’s Day. A festival associated with a pagan ritual, the cruel King Claudius, and a tender-hearted priest named Valentine, has fusilladed into the latest icon for our consumer society. It is fuelled by card companies, soft toy manufacturers, candy, coke and assorted clothing manufacturers. They have clogged the channels on TV for the past month. The so-called Youth Channels, MTV and Channel V, the Star and Zee networks, Sony and even “sada” Punjabi channels such as Punjab Today and Alpha Punjabi were full of barely clad young things, espousing the cause of Saint Valentine. Saint Valentine’s Day traces its roots to a pagan ritual associated with the feast of
Lupercalia, commemorating young men’s rites of passage to the heathen god
Lupercus. In ancient Rome, February 14 was the feast of the goddess Juno, who is associated with marriage and women. The next day i.e. February 15 would begin the celebrations for the Feast of
Lupercalia. The lives of young boys and girls at that time were strictly segregated. One of the rituals associated with this festival was the drawing of names of Roman girls by boys out of a jar with a slot. The boy would then have, as a companion, the girl whose name he drew, for the rest of the festival. Sometimes these young ones married. Thus started the custom of young men selecting young women for Valentines. At around this time, Emperor Claudius II of Rome was engaged in bloody battles. He found recruiting men into his army Leagues very difficult. Over a period of time, he began to believe that it was because men did not want to leave their wives and families. He, therefore, banned marriages and engagements. Valentine was a priest in Rome, in the days of “cruel Claudius II”, who married couples secretly. For this, he was sentenced to death by beating him with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom, in the year 270 on the 14th day of February. Later the Christian Church in an attempt to do away with the pagan rituals in the Feast of
Lupercalia, substituted the name of maidens with that of Saints. Pope Gelasius ordered this change in the lottery custom. Thus began the ritual of young men selecting Saints, as patrons, whose lives they would try to emulate during the coming year. Out of the tradition for men to give girls they admired handwritten messages of affection with Saint Valentine’s name in it, emerged the present day Valentine cards. The first true Valentine card was sent in 1415 by a Frenchman, Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife, from the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned after the Battle of
Agincourt. It was thought that birds also chose their mate for the year on February 14. Pigeons and doves are birds which mate for life and, therefore, came to be used as a symbol of “fidelity.” Today, America celebrates this day with fervour. In terms of cards sent, it is ranked second in popularity only to Christmas. Children make a decorated box with a slot in the top for the Valentine’s day party at school. During the party, they slip valentines into their classmates’ Valentines’ Box. The first US made valentines called “Worcester valentines were crafted in the 1830s by a college student named Esther Howland. John McLaughlin, a New York printer, created the “Vinegar valentines”. These comic valentines were printed on cheap paper in bright colours and made fun of old maids and others. American cartoonist Charles Howard also popularised what were called “Penny
dreadfuls” — comic cards with dreadful designs which sold for a penny. There’s a Valentine day card for everyone — parents, sweethearts, spouses, teacher and even your dog! Cards, flowers especially the ubiquitous red rose, candy, perfume et all wrapped in red with glitter and long-suffering hearts pierced with arrows were favourite Valentine Day gifts. The departmental stores of the city beautiful added wine, cheese and munchies to the list, this year. In the schools, the nuns and brothers and other principals had counselled their charges to show restraint. The cops had geared up for where the real action was to be: “the geri route”. But the real dilemma was my niece’s and that of every nubile young thing: “What if they didn’t get a single valentine?” The even greater dilemma was that of cautious parents: “How to deal with rampant young teenaged hormones as they tried to do what advertisements and commercials expected of them?”! Well, Valentine’s Day came and went. There were some hits and some misses. Cupids arrows have a way of finding their mark. My little niece and her friends also collected a lot of valentines but they showed restraint and came straight home after college for an all girls bash. My brother was a happy father this Valentine’s Day as he
reflected, “At the end of the day family values and socialisation i.e.
“sanskars”, still do matter. Not all the temptations and satellite TV can take that away from us”. |
Caring women & their uncared for heart CAREGIVING is humane, and women are more likely to take care of a sick or disabled family member at some point during their lives. A new study now says that women who spend nine or more hours a week looking after ill spouse could increase their risk of coronary heart disease. However, the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed that providing care for a disabled or ill parent, sibling or other individual did not significantly increase the risk of the disease, suggesting that the caregiving commitment in these cases may have been less burdensome or less intense. “Although many caregivers describe their work in rewarding terms, an increasing number of studies have begun to suggest health risks,” say Ichiro Kawachi, M.D., Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues. For the study, the researchers collected data on caregiving and coronary heart disease from 1992 to 1996 for 54,412 women enrolled in a long-term nurses’ study. The women were 46 to 71 years old with no prior history of heart disease. During the study period, the researchers documented 321 cases of nonfatal and fatal coronary heart disease among the nurses. Questionnaires filled out by the nurses tracked how many hours each woman spent in caregiving activities each week and asked them to rate how stressful or rewarding their caregiving experiences were. After adjusting for other factors such as age, body mass, exercise, smoking and saturated fat intake and a history of high blood pressure or diabetes, the researchers found that the risk of coronary heart disease for the women increased with nine or more hours of caregiving per week. The researchers found no association between how much stress or reward from caregiving that the nurses reported and their risk of coronary heart disease. Despite this, “the mental distress from seeing loved ones suffer, added to the stress from financial burdens and the pressures of juggling work with caregiving, may have contributed to the risk of disease in caregivers,” Kawachi and colleagues say. Caregivers may also have less time to look after their own health and fewer opportunities to seek social support outside their homes, both of which might contribute to an increased risk of heart disease, according to the researchers.
ANI |
Desire for women can be overcome by thinking about demons like Ravana who were destroyed by lust. Passion should be driven away by dispassion. Implant mercy in your mind to do away with cruelty. By zeal one can do away with lethargy. Mental equilibrium can remove bodily fatigue. By engaging in new assignment, you can do away with laziness. Think for a while that the body is different from the soul and thereby do away with egoism. —
Selections from Durvasanapratikara Dashakam *** When you experience God’s love in its fullness, you have complete trust that whatever happens, happens for the best. —
Gems from the Magic of the Heart. |
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