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Wednesday,
July 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Saying ‘No’ is right No third way Corruption—a meaty question |
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Water crisis hits the world
Torchlight of secularism
Iraq — a continuing headache for US
Parents: agony of living under fear
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Saying ‘No’ is right BY politely rejecting the American request to send troops to Iraq under the prevailing circumstances, India has expressed the national call on an issue which has wider ramifications. It is not a sudden development. Monday’s decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) reflects the consensus arrived at after much deliberation. What India has finally said suits its national interests. There was no logic in Indian troops serving the cause of the occupying powers — the US and the UK — in Iraq. There was no compulsion for India being seen on the side of those hated by the Iraqis. Hardly a day passes without the US and UK forces not suffering casualties at the hands of hostile locals. There is a great difference between the US-controlled “stabilisation forces” and the UN-mandated multinational peacekeeping troops. Being a part of the former would have meant playing an unpleasant role, which a proud nation cannot accept. The occasion demanded that India must make a clear distinction between the cause of rebuilding Iraq and associating itself with the occupying powers by committing its forces to tame a people whose anti-American sentiments are getting stronger with each passing day. The CCS meeting took note of this aspect when it declared that the Government of India was “ready to contribute to the restoration of infrastructure, medical, health, educational, communication and other civilian needs of the Iraqi people”. India’s stand underlines that there are limits to unilateralism indulged in by the sole super power. The US can win a war even by ignoring international opinion, but it has no means to justify this action. India had disapproved of the avoidable use of force by adopting a parliamentary resolution. The time has come when India should try to persuade the US and British authorities to review their Iraq policy. Their people are becoming restive. The Americans and the British are losing their men almost every day. India need not annoy the US. That will be unpragmatic. New Delhi has to be careful about its relations with Washington. But it can safely make an appeal for peace in the Arab-Gulf region. The long-term presence of the victors in Iraq cannot serve this purpose. The US has done what it wanted to do. The rebuilding of Iraq should be speeded up, possibly with the help of the UN in the interest of stability in the area. |
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No third way PRACTICAL considerations seem to have weighed with Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani when he said on Sunday that it was not possible to enact a law for the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. His allusion was to the lack of support for such a move in Parliament, a point underscored by the fact that two constituents of the National Democratic Alliance - the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Samata Party - have already distanced themselves from the move. No major Opposition party is likely to support the move. What is surprising is that despite the parliamentary arithmetic being decidedly against taking the legislative route for construction of the temple, the Bharatiya Janata Party accepted it as an option worth its consideration. There is definitely more to the BJP's decision than meets the eye. The party has been under tremendous pressure from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Sangh Parivar organisations to do something to fulfill the party's commitment on Ayodhya. That VHP leader Ashok Singhal had even gone to the extent of calling for the Prime Minister's resignation if he was not able to deliver the goods shows the mood of desperation in their ranks. One reason why they are desperate is that the digging operation being carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India at Ayodhya has not yielded evidence that a temple existed where the Babri Masjid once stood. They have also been averse to any settlement with the Muslims on a quid pro quo basis. That they did everything possible to frustrate the recent efforts of the Kanchi Shankaracharya is too well known to need recapitulation. By expressing its readiness to consider the legislative option, the BJP has indicated that it is not in a mood to take on the VHP. Small wonder that Mr Advani has only referred to the impracticality of the suggestion and not questioned the wisdom of such a move. As it is, there are certain fundamentals in national life, which are not decided on the basis of parliamentary majority. The Sangh Parivar has always been questioning the Rajiv Gandhi government's decision to change the law to suit the demands of a section of the Muslims who were incensed by the Supreme Court decision in the Shah Bano case. In asking the government to enact a law to construct the temple, the Parivar is asking, inadvertently or otherwise, to repeat Rajiv Gandhi's blunder. The impracticality of the legislation aside, such a step will strike at the roots of the secular credentials of the nation and clear the way for more hardline policies. The government should categorically rule out such an option and, instead, help find a solution through talks between the two communities or, alternatively, wait for the court verdict. |
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Corruption—a meaty question TRANSPARENCY International puts out a daily dossier on the tales of corruption from everywhere. The July 14 issue carries stories from Africa, China, North Korea, Japan and Peru. What good is a bulletin that fails to report what could easily qualify as an extraordinary tale of patronising corruption? For instance, the report from Hyderabad about motor vehicle inspectors having formed a syndicate for fighting harassment of colleagues by anti-corruption agencies. Most stories of corruption are the result of investigation by the anti-graft outfits. Like the top story on Transparency's bulletin board. It is about a Chinese court that sentenced a multi-millionaire to 18 years in prison for bribery and economic crimes. Yang Bin had been named by Forbes Magazine as China's second richest man in 2001. After his arrest, he told journalists that he loved wealth because he loved meat! The wealth provided him the means to eat as much of any variety of meat he relished. But the Hyderabad tale is not about the CBI or the Vigilance Bureau having busted a bribery racket involving vehicle inspectors. It is about the inspectors' resolve to create a "distress fund" for legal battles with the anti-corruption agencies. They have already raised Rs 5 lakh for the "noble cause". It goes beyond the outdated formula about bribe-takers bribing their way out of
jail. That formula has worked splendidly. But the "Hyderabad Declaration" could start a global movement for patronising and protecting corruption. Just form a cooperative of the corrupt with the sole objective of securing the release of entrapped colleagues from a system that does not believe in the doctrine of the right to livelihood. The Hyderabad initiative should see the corrupt of the world unite, for they have nothing to lose, not even their wallets. The creation of a global corruption fund should be the ultimate dream of every crook.
It is easier to make war than to make peace. — Georges Clemenceau |
Water crisis hits the world The water crisis that India faces is not limited to this country. For some of the poorest people in the world, a drink or a pot of soup means getting up before dawn and walking, often for miles, to fetch a bucket of water. Over a billion people share the plight. Women and girls in particular spend much of their time scavenging for water. Water supplies are falling worldwide while the demand is growing dramatically at an unsustainable rate. Over the next 20 years, the average supply of water worldwide per person is expected to drop by a third. Those in developing countries already consume a fraction of the water used by those in the affluent West. As against 400 to 500 litres of water used a day in the industrialised world, in developing countries access to 20 litres of freshwater per person is seen as a boon. A further drop in the water availability could be critical for the survival of these people. The World Water Development Report, aptly titled Water for People, Water for Life, released earlier this year, says political inertia exacerbates the water crisis. There are three major reasons for the dwindling water resources — population growth, pollution and the expected climate change. Despite birth rates slowing down, world population is expected to reach 9.3 billion by 2050. At present India has a sixth of the world’s population and its record for pollution control, whether in the air or in the water, is abysmal. In fact, it is ranked third, after Belgium and Morocco, for the low quantity and quality of its underground water. To galvanise world leaders for the water crisis looming large on the not too distant horizon, 23 UN partners looked at a wide range of water-related targets in diverse fields like health, food, ecosystems, economic evaluation, resource sharing and governance for the world water assessment programme. Depending on population growth and the political commitment of nations, an estimated two billion to seven billion people in 48 to 60 countries will face water scarcity by the middle of this century. Climate change will account for an estimated 20 per cent of the increase in global water scarcity. In fact, the report presents almost a doomsday scenario of the crisis looming ahead. Water quality is expected to worsen with pollution levels and water temperature rising. About two million tonnes of waste is dumped every day into rivers, lakes and streams, and a litre of wastewater pollutes eight litres of freshwater. It is estimated that worldwide there is 12,000 km3 (cubic kilometres) of polluted water and if pollution keeps pace with population growth, the world will lose 18,000 km3 of freshwater by 2050. Finland heads the list of countries with the best quality of water, followed by Canada, the New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Russia, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and France. Kuwait may be rich in terms of its oil reserves, but it is ranked the poorest in terms of water availability for its people — just 10 cubic metres per person per year. It is followed by the Gaza Strip, the UAE, the Bahamas and Qatar. Singapore comes 11th in the list with just 149 M3 available per person per year. The top 10 water-rich countries, after Greenland and Alaska, are French Guiana (812,121 M3 per person per year), Iceland, Guyana, Surinam, Congo, Papua New Guinea, Gabon, Solomon Islands, Canada and New Zealand (86,554 M3) Over a billion people today do not have access to the basic supply of clean water, and over two billion do not have access to adequate sanitation, the primary cause of diseases linked to water. The poor continue to be the worst affected with 50 per cent of the population in developing countries exposed to polluted water sources. Asian rivers are the most polluted in the world, with three times the bacteria from human waste as the global average. All efforts to set up effluent treatment plants for industrial areas seem to have fallen by the wayside for the World Water Report says the rivers in Asia have 20 times more lead than those in industrialised countries. With the quality of water declining, every day 6000 people, mostly children under five, die from diarrhoea. More than 2.2 million people, mostly in developing countries, die each year from diseases associated with poor water and sanitary conditions. By 2025 it is predicted that water withdrawal will increase by 50 per cent in developing countries and 18 per cent in the developed world. Half the drinking water needs of the world are met by the underground aquifers. The heavy withdrawal will have an adverse impact on the eco-systems of the world and the agricultural output. As a result of deforestation and the heavy runoff of rainwater, since 1996 water-related disasters like floods and drought have more than doubled. In fact, the global emergency on water has triggered off a debate internationally on whether water should be declared a basic human right. It is argued that without equitable access to a minimum requirement of clean water, other established rights such as the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being as well as civil and political rights are not attainable. The exclusion of water as an explicit right was due more to its nature; like air, it was considered so fundamental that its explicit inclusion was thought unnecessary. In November 2002, however, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights affirmed that access to adequate amounts of clean water for personal and domestic use was a fundamental right. It is seen as a “soft law,” which is not internationally binding on the 146 countries that have ratified the international covenant but still carries sufficient weight and influence. At the same time, it has been amplified that water is not to be viewed just as an economic commodity but also as a social and cultural asset. Though private sector involvement in the management of water resources is considered essential, as in India, the general argument is that the control of the assets and resources should remain in the hands of the government and the users. Any privatisation of water-pricing scheme must include mechanisms to protect the poor, the World Water Report emphasises. In fact, the report gives an example from Delhi where the poor pay water vendors $ 4.89 (Rs 230) per M3, while families with piped water connections pay just $0.0, less than Rs 5. The water situation is grim, but there is hope of better days ahead. To augment the existing water resources, several new initiatives are being taken the world over. Masai women in Kenya have joined a pioneering new anti-drought initiative. They are harvesting rainwater using special, low cost containers and digging mini-reservoirs or earth pans. Similar projects, funded by the UNEP and others, are underway in Nepal, India, Bhutan and Tongo. From Bangladesh to Zambia simple, ingenious foot-operated treadle pumps are being used to draw water from wells, and in Mexico waste water from sugar factories is being recycled. A major challenge will be to prevent water wars in the years ahead. Sharing of water among countries because of a common river basin is a necessity. The other challenge will be to find the funds to provide safe drinking water and sanitation for all. This is estimated to cost $ 14 to 30 billion more per year. The current annual spending is $ 30
billion. (Concluded) |
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Torchlight of secularism Torchlight of secularism, Bhisham Sahni, is no more. Today, when various regional and communal forces are threatening the solidarity of a pluralist society, it is an irreparable loss to India. As an eminent member of Progressive Writers Union, also influenced by his elder brother Balraj Sahni, who spearheaded the I.P.T.A movement, this literary giant has been a great source of inspiration in Indian cultural field. In spite of his leaning towards communism from early youth and his long stay in Moscow, he never became prisoner of any ideology. He never tried to form any sectarian literary group. He kept writing with dedication and sincerity of heart least bothering about various critics who underestimated him. His stories, his novels, his plays, and all his literary work depict the sincerity and humanism of his noble heart. The agony of partition is well depicted by writers like Kartar Singh Duggal and Qurratlin Hyder but none achieved so much recognition as “Tamas” by Bhisham Sahni. He endeared himself to millions of readers after it got translated into various languages of the world. Bhisham gave a great account of himself as an actor in the famous serial “Tamas” produced by Govind Nihalani. No wonder, when he left this mortal world, the TV news announces “Tamas Bhisham is no more”. As a true son of Punjab, he has vividly depicted the ethos of Punjab. No wonder his portrait has received a place of honour in the Punjab Art Council Hall at Chandigarh. To me, it is a great personal loss. He was my guide, guru and a dear personal friend. My husband knew him since his college days but I had the privilege to know him when I took my manuscript on “Dada Nehru”, my first book in Hindi, which I was asked to write by the Motilal Nehru Centenary Committee. I seemed quite baffled when I approached him because the feedback by two friends who went through the manuscript were two extremes. One suggested me to include more chaste Hindi words in the text and the other felt that I should use more simple vocabulary since the 50,000 copies of the book were meant for an average reader. The expert eye of Bhisham was able to assess the whole contents in a couple of minutes and gave a go-ahead signal for publication without any change of words. With his blessings I entered the field of Hindi literature with full confidence. Bhisham was wedded to literature all through his life. His health started failing after the demise of his life-companion, Shiela, yet he kept on working with zeal till the end. He finished his great monumental work “Autobiography” hardly six months ago. He suffered a cerebral vascular stroke and was admitted to Escorts Heart Institute on July 7 and slipped into coma a couple of days before his death. Our prayers could not save him. Now, that he is no more on this mortal world, we must pledge to strive for the values he taught us. Let us solemnly work together to save the multi-coloured fabric of our pluralist society for which he strived all through his
life.
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Iraq — a continuing headache for US
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increasing attacks on US soldiers in Iraq clearly indicate that the occupying US forces are in deep trouble. Hardly a single day passes when the US troops are not targeted in one place or the other by local Iraqi fighters. Over 50 US soldiers have been killed and many have received serious injuries since Mr George Bush announced the end of the conflict in that country. The policy-makers in Washington are frightened over the increasing attacks on their well-equipped soldiers. This fear has forced them to invite troops from other countries so that the pressure on the US forces is reduced. For the US, India seemed to be a better choice for sending its troops to Iraq. The US has also offered a good share for India in the reconstruction in the war-ravaged country in exchange of India sending its troops to Iraq. During the recent US visit of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, President George Bush extended the courtesy of meeting the Indian dignitary without schedule and tried to convince him about the proposal. Now that India has decided not to send its soldiers to Iraq, it is imperative to understand the ‘ground situation’ in Iraq. I travelled throughout Iraq from April 9, 2003, the day Baghdad fell to the American forces, to May 12. In this crucial period I could manage to witness the American attitude towards the Iraqis and tried to understand the psyche of the local people. The American soldiers in various parts of the country, except Basra where the British forces are stationed, have been projecting a contradictory character. On the one hand, American soldiers keep smiling towards the citizens and mixing with children playing around, on the other they do not hesitate in opening fire on protesters, stopping them from exercising their democratic right. The killing of Iraqis in Falluja, 60 km west of Baghdad, began only when the locals were demonstrating against the Americans to get their school building vacated to resume academic activities in the city. Seventeen persons were killed in two days. In the recent days Americans have been again showing their restlessness and fatigue by opening fire on innocent civilians. These killings are projected by the Western media as those of the activists of the Ba’ath Party and sympathisers of the previous Saddam Hussein regime. Falluja is quite a different city in Iraq. When I visited Falluja immediately after the initial killings, the local Sheikhs (tribal leaders) were complaining against the rude behaviour of the American soldiers and their humiliating acts against their womenfolk. They suggested that the Americans should reduce the number of their soldiers inside the city and be stationed outside of the city. Falluja resident painfully explained that their city had a religious identity — having 180 mosques — and was next only to Madina in Saudi Arabia. It was Friday and the Imams of the mosques were prayed for the immediate withdrawal of the occupying forces. Some Americans were apprehensive that Falluja had got more Saddam sympathisers and they were creating trouble for them. Similarly, Tikrit is the centre of the hate-America sentiment. On the first day when Americans entered Tikrit, I also visited the city. Tikrit, being the hometown of Saddam Hussein, is an over-developed city having all facilities, more than it deserves as per the Iraqi standard. The statues and pictures of Saddam Hussein were intact, showing no signs of hate towards the gone leader. American soldiers searched all people entering the city and seized their arms. I witnessed, and recorded in camera, the way American soldiers were quick and rude in arresting the suspicious Ba’ath Party activists. The soldiers asked my cameraperson not to film the incident as per the Geneva convention, but my cameraperson was quick enough to reject his plea and did his job. When I visited Tikrit after about three weeks of occupation, all the statues and pictures of Saddam Hussein had been either removed or painted. The local people complained that Americans used TNT explosives to dismantle the statues of Saddam Hussein. Saddam’s statues and pictures were thrown or torn away by people in Mosul and Kirkuk, but not here. Generally Iraqi people complain about the rude behaviour of American soldiers. Iraqis do not tolerate Americans eyeing their womenfolk. I observed that American soldiers have their own problems caused by long working hours, home sickness and unfamiliar weather conditions. Moreover, they feel insecure as most of the Iraqis have arms in their possession. In the beginning, they had expected a short-term operation in Iraq, but at this stage the situation seems to be uncertain. The uncertainty in Iraq is caused by confusion among the American bosses. In April Maj Gen Garner promised an interim government by mid-May, but the Americans are not now sure of establishing an interim system even by August — four months after Saddam’s fall. The uncertain situation is the main reason for asking India to send its troops. Americans are not sure of what mechanism would succeed in Iraq. Americans are directly responsible for the situation in the war-ravaged country. On the one hand, the Americans claim credit for getting the Iraqi people liberated from Saddam’s clutches and seem willing to establish a democratic government. On the other they are not ready to accept the most popular leader, Baqar Al-Hakeem, apprehending him to be pro-Iran. The Americans projected Ahmed Chalabi, but one and all rejected him on the Iraqi streets saying that people would not accept any American agent. The decision-makers in Washington do not seem to be ready to give the right of choice to the Iraqi people, of whom more than 60 per cent are Shia Muslims. To remedy the American psychological problem, Washington needs a Shia leader who can serve their interests in the best possible manner. So far Americans have failed to find a Karzale among the Iraqi Shias. Hence the search for an “agent ruler” and the fear of a pro-Iran government in Iraq are delaying normalcy in that country. The writer, an expert on West Asia, was in Iraq recently. |
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Parents: agony of living under fear FOR
all the reams of print and gales of waffle about parenting, no one ever seems to talk much about the Fear. The churning terror in every parental gut that something (gory but non-specific) will happen to them, hurt them, take them away from you for ever. The Fear is always there, making its appearance about the same time as the placenta, only the Fear is bigger, bloodier, infinitely uglier, and unlike the placenta, you can’t just throw it away. There is no fear like the Parent Fear. Not only is it omnipresent, it is also a shape-changer, with a seemingly endless ability to morph in accordance to your child’s age. Newborns? Never mind the nappies and the sleepless nights, the red herrings of parental strife, let’s wring our hands about cot death, prodding sleeping babies awake in the middle of the night just to check they’re still breathing. And why not have a little neurotic weep before each vaccination because you’re convinced they’re going to emerge autistic. A bit older? Let’s sit in casualty departments for six hours because we’re convinced their mild snuffle is meningitis. Toddlers, primary schoolers? That’s easy. They’re going to get run over, they’re going to be abducted, they’re going to end up like those missing American kids smiling those terrible full-cream smiles on the sides of milk cartons for all eternity. And on and on it goes. Whatever the situation, whatever the weather, whatever the age of your child, the Fear is always there - your own personal black cloud dragged along on the end of a dog lead. The trick is to conquer the Fear, or at least dial it down to a more controllable level. I thought I’d managed this with my eldest daughter. I thought I’d pulled off a pretty good impersonation of a cool, laidback mum, but I reckoned without her turning 11. It was then I realised that there was a difference between being cool about messy bedrooms and too many sweets, and being cool about her wandering back from school alone or with friends, maybe stopping off at the park or the local shops along the way. I feel sorry for my daughter, I really do. She is currently the only child in her class forced to trudge to the after-school club in a bright-orange safety jerkin, holding hands with children half her age, a humiliation she finds unendurable. When her friends talk about lurking in the local Body Shop, she just has to stand there silent, left out, unable to join in. Certainly, all of her friends enjoy far greater freedom than she does. It would seem that truly cool parents, not impostors like myself, simply don’t feel the need to arrange police escorts and helicopter surveillance for their children every time they are out of their sight. They may have the Fear as bad as anyone, but they also have the Faith. Faith - in their children, in fate, in humanity - I simply don’t have. `Don’t you trust me?’ my daughter keeps saying and I just keep repeating: `It’s the world I don’t trust - the London traffic, the dodgy adults, the teenagers you might want to impress, the busy streets, the quiet alleyways, the short cuts you should never take, the whole ugly, screwed up outside world I’ve been put on this earth to shield you from.’ Right now we’re in the middle of intense negotiations. Is it a daughter thing? Is it a growing-apart thing? It’s certainly a duality thing. One side of me wants my daughter to grow into a brave, streetwise, strong human being who can cope with whatever the world throws at her, the sooner the better. The other side of me just wants to hurl her into the padded cell of parental over-protectiveness until she’s at least 21 years old. All things considered, it probably takes a better parent than me to realise that sometimes there’s nothing to fear but the Fear itself.
— The Guardian |
The reality would have no name other than Om (Aum), the all-comprehensive syllable, embracing the limits of the entire phonetic alphabet with potential creativity, sustenance and dissolution in it. — Pandit Satyakam Vidyalankar, The Holy Vedas Pranava Aum is the bow and oneself is the arrow; Brahman spoken of as That, is the target. Unerringly is it to be shot at, And, like an arrow, should come to be one with that. — Mundaka Upanishad II.2.4 Aum is the monosyllable that signifies the Absolute, atman. — Swami Muni Narayana Prasad |
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