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Promising dialogue Murder in the womb |
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Feel good, and party
Chief of Defence Staff a necessity
Sense and sentiment
Experts differ on cause of vultures’ death Delhi Durbar
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Promising dialogue BOTH India and Pakistan deserve appreciation for successfully drawing a roadmap for peace during their three-day official-level meeting at Islamabad. They have been observing great restraint to ensure that the congenial atmosphere created after the Vajpayee-Musharraf dialogue remains intact. The agenda for “composite dialogue”, finalised by the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries, includes the eight points identified in 1998. One hopes the two neighbours will proceed with utmost caution “towards achieving a common objective of peace, security and economic development” on this dangerous, if not treacherous, road. There is enough time to prepare for the first round of talks as it will be held either in May or June, when the Foreign Secretaries will take up peace and security, including confidence-building measures, and Jammu and Kashmir. These are substantive and sensitive issues and require meticulous laying of the groundwork by both sides. Siachen, the Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project, Sir Creek, terrorism and drug trafficking, economic and commercial cooperation and the promotion of friendly exchanges in various areas will be dealt with later on. It is good that the progress made on all these fronts will be reviewed at the political level — by the two countries’ Foreign Ministers. This is in accordance with the desire of Pakistan to which India has agreed. General Musharraf, it seems, has realised, as we in India do, that war can never bring peace, not even the proxy war that Pakistan had unleashed in Jammu and Kashmir. His latest ultimatum to foreign terrorists to either leave Pakistan or surrender should be seen against this backdrop. He expressed his resolve not to allow terrorism to prosper in his country while addressing a gathering of religious scholars. There could be no better occasion than this to issue the warning, as these people had been providing sustenance to the extremist elements. The January 6 Vajpayee-Musharraf joint declaration too demands that efforts must be made to “remove the atmosphere of violence, hatred and terrorism” for the cause of peace in the subcontinent. There should be no let-up in dealing with all kinds of terrorists, including the Kashmir-bound
jihadis, who can derail the efforts for the normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan. |
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Murder in the womb NOT many are likely to take seriously the caution voiced by the newly elected President of the International Planned Parenthood Federation about a looming social crisis caused by, what she called, “an unholy nexus of technology and tradition”. Despite campaigns in the print and electronic media and appeals made by some religious leaders, the trend of a skewed sex ratio in favour of males has not reversed. It is more pronounced in financially and educationally progressive states like Punjab and Haryana. Remote areas of Himachal, inhabited by poor and uneducated families, have reported a normal gender ratio. Technology and tradition do have a role, but it is limited. In certain areas of Rajasthan and Haryana, where the killer technology is not yet available, female babies are disposed of by cruder means. Educated couples in the urban and semi-urban areas with access to ultrasound scanners resort to female foeticide until their desire to have a son is fulfilled. A son is still considered a provider of social and economic security in old age. The rising cost of living and maddening materialistic pursuits also drive parents to limit their family size and prefer a son to a daughter. One can come across advertisements that proclaim: “Spend Rs 600 now and save Rs 50,000 later.” A daughter is considered a burden by many parents. Statistics indicate that female infanticide is not restricted either to the urban areas or the poor and middle classes. Different strata of society have different reasons and justifications for killing the unborn in the mother’s womb. An increasingly unsafe social environment, indicated by the rising graph of crimes against women, also contributes to this anti-female bias. Religious practices which require a son to perform post-death ceremonies are still in vogue. The instilling of right moral values in children and building social pressure on the culprits may help in containing this criminal practice. |
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Feel good, and party LIKE some mainstream politicians, Jaspal Bhatti of “Ulta Pulta” fame is a veteran of many parties floated mostly in Chandigarh. Drawing on this experience, he has formed the Feel Good Party at the right time. The way major parties are hunting frantically for partners, policies and promises, there are good chances that he too will find many suitors, particularly because he has specifically mentioned that his party has no ideology. Not only that, he has had an auspicious beginning, stealing the name from a slogan. BJP legal beavers must be scratching their heads whether they can invoke the copyright law to stop Bhatti’s feel-good mischief. So much of clever copy, newspaper space and public money gone waste! Bhatti has proved right the adage “Have slogan, will party”. But nobody should feel bad about the feel-good theft. Just tap the potential that he has brought into the political arena. In fact, he has broken fresh ground. One, he has sought more than one party symbol, preparing in advance for the inevitable split in the party. Two, he has made it clear that the post of party president will remain in Bhatti’s immediate family. This will ensure that there is no challenge to dynastic rule. Three, he is not confining his party to any caste, colour, creed or state. All that the members require is a 16-inch smile, even if it is painted with a brush. To that extent, his creation might have a national appeal. Four, he is welcoming even foreigners with open arms, provided they bring in foreign exchange. Taking a cue from the FGP (Feel Good Party, that is), many more may be encouraged to join the fray. For all one knows, a Shining India Party may already be in the offing. Whether it is abbreviated as SIP or SHIP, it can have a good run in these times. All that matters is love and work. — Sigmund Freud |
Chief of Defence Staff a necessity WELL into the first decade of the 21st century and almost six years after Pokhran-II, nuclear India is still without a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). With Parliament having been dissolved and elections around the corner, India’s first CDS is unlikely to be appointed in the near future. Consequent to the submission of the Kargil Review Committee report, a task force led by Mr Arun Singh was constituted by the Group of Ministers
(GoM) headed by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to analyse the functioning of the higher defence organisation in India and suggest remedial measures for improvement. Among the major recommendations of this task force was the creation of the post of CDS with a joint planning staff HQ. The GoM accepted this recommendation. However, while the tri-service Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff
(HQIDS) was formed, it is still headed by a three-star officer who reports to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee
(COSC). Approval of the four-star post of CDS was deferred by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) pending further consultations. The lack of political consensus as well as opposition within certain sections of the armed forces were cited as the reasons for the deferment. In India’s prevailing security environment with a nuclear overhang, marked by regional instability, an over 50-year-old low intensity limited conflict along the LoC with Pakistan, an ongoing Pakistan-sponsored “proxy war” in Kashmir, a vitiated internal security situation, repeated air space violations, burgeoning maritime security challenges and increasing demands for Indian contribution to multinational forces, the early appointment of a CDS is an inescapable operational necessity. More than ever before, and especially in the nuclear era, it is now necessary for the national security decision makers to be given “single-point military advice” that takes into account the interdependence of each of the armed forces to meet complex emerging challenges. Success in a modern war depends on the formulation of a joint military strategy based on the military aim and its joint and integrated execution. At present, under the system bequeathed to India by Lord Ismay in the early-1950s, the three Services draw up their individual operational plans based on the Defence Minister’s Operational Directive. Only limited coordination is carried out at the operational level and the tactical level. In the present era of strategic uncertainty and rapidly changing threats, no military professional now disputes the unavoidable necessity of a joint planning staff for the planning and conduct of joint operations so that these can be planned “top down”. The newly established HQ IDS will undoubtedly meet this requirement in the years to come, but if it remains headless, its functioning will remain disjointed and it will never carry the clout necessary to ensure that difficult and sometimes unpalatable decisions are accepted by the three Services without questioning. Many analysts have sought to question the need for single-point military advice for India’s civilian political masters. With India’s “No First Use” nuclear strategy, the CCS would be in a real quandary if at a critical stage during war, when the adversary has unleashed the nuclear genie, the Chiefs of Staff express divergent views on the payoffs of using nuclear weapons in a retaliatory strike and the type and nature of response. The Service Chiefs would to some extent be guided by the impact of the use of nuclear weapons on their forward-deployed fighting troops and would need to take the prevailing military situation into account while making their recommendations to the government. It is axiomatic that the differences among the Chiefs of Staff are resolved by the military professionals themselves, with one of them acting as the arbitrator. Only a CDS would be able to take a detached view and present an objective analysis of the situation along with the available options and the advantages and disadvantages of each option. Ideally, the CDS should be an overall commander-in-chief and from him command should flow to individual theatre commanders. Given India’s long land borders with a varied terrain configuration and two major seaboards, as also adversaries who are geographically separated, a “theatre” system of tri-service command is best suited for the optimum management of both external and internal security challenges. Contrary to the belief that only the United States needs a theatre system because of its wider geopolitical interests and involvement in security issues all over the globe, with its inimical neighbours and peculiar national security threats and challenges, India too needs a theatre system for integrated functioning to achieve the synergy of operations with limited resources. The Chinese, with similar needs, have a well-established theatre system. Each theatre commander should have under him forces from all the three Services based on the requirement. The initial allocation of forces need not be permanent and could be varied during war or during the preparatory stage. However, at the inception stage it would be more appropriate to make the CDS the “first among equals” and let the three Chiefs of Staff retain operational command and administrative control over their Services as change should be evolutionary and not revolutionary. Once the system matures and theatre commanders are appointed, the Chiefs of Staff of individual Services should have responsibility primarily for force structure and drawing up perspective plans. They should oversee the development and acquisition of weapons and equipment, plan recruitment, guide and coordinate training at specialised training establishments and control the administrative matters such as the annual budget, pay and allowances, maintenance support, medical services, etc. Several other areas of functioning necessitate overarching military command and control at the national level. The newly-constituted Strategic Forces Command for the planning, coordination and control of India’s nuclear weapons must function directly under the CDS even as nuclear warheads and delivery systems comprising the “triad” remain with the respective services. Similarly, the tri-service Andaman-Nicobar Command and the Defence Intelligence Agency
(DIA) should report directly to the CDS. It is well known that the Chairman,
COSC, lacks executive authority over the Services other than his own. The COSC works primarily by consensus and cannot make hard decisions binding on all the Services. Often during war, the fate of an entire campaign can hinge on a single decision. Such a decision can only be made by a specially selected defence chief and not by a committee like the COSC that operates on the principle of the least common denominator. Military history is replete with examples of how decisions changed the course of a war. Eisenhower’s decision to launch the Normandy landings in the face of continuing rough weather and MacArthur’s decision to land at Inchon against stiff opposition from virtually his entire staff could not have been made by committees. All other major democracies have opted for the CDS system. India cannot ignore it further. It is an idea whose time has
come. |
Sense and sentiment RECENTLY a colleague accompanied his son to a reputed management institute and returned only after settling him down in one of the campus dorms. “I hope the boy learns to cope with the rigorous drill and survive,” he remarked while sharing his dreams and fears. It was deja vu for us, since we had lived through these highs and lows a few years ago. All bleeding hearts travel with their wards when they leave home for the first time. We didn’t for we feared the final parting. “You’re throwing the little lamb to a pack of wolves,” remarked our son while boarding the train. A moment ago we had bought a chain with a tiny lock to guard his belongings in case he fell asleep at night. We just asked him to be brave and fight his battles on his own. “Remember, son, your journey starts now,” I said when the guard blew the whistle. On return we found the house empty, somewhat eerie — no hi, no grouse, no demand, and no sound of his motor bike. The two of us just sat down in his room, looked at his pens and pencils, his old socks and shirts, and raced down the memory lane. How he managed to hold the lunch tray on the first day in that elementary American school. How he and Hank made friends. How he picked up the bags and ran at the Kennedy Airport when the flight was about to take off. Strangely, we would get emotional at the sight of a hostel boy buying mugs and detergents at a campus store. Then we would wonder about the little man in the big world. God forbid, if he sneezes hard, who will rush with aconite and allium cepa? Well, the little lamb managed to survive in that compassionless setting, though when he came home after the first semester he did look bony and battered by that cruel course called Quantitative Analysis. He told us all about that jungle life and about the strategy he had devised not to crack up. After his graduation — which we joyously attended — he swiftly regained what he had lost in terms of weight and seemed well-honed to enter the corporate world. He had learnt the “fundas” to gatecrash into the new world of information technology. When he explained what it meant the two oldies gust gaped like nursery kids. The last time he visited us he seemed excited about the work he was doing for the company. He took out a document from his bag and wanted us to read it. In a memo his CEO had highlighted our son’s qualities: competence, commitment and character. We like his passion for work and his readiness to learn. What somehow we don’t like much is his twelve-to-fourteen hour work schedule everyday. Maybe it is the hard work that pays. This morning he called to say that his company had earned one hundred crore in less than one hundred
days.
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Experts differ on cause of vultures’ death
Ornithologists the world over have decided that captive breeding of vultures is the only way to save the once most common scavengers from extinction. This recommendation has been made by scientists and ornithologists from the Species Survival Commission — a body of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); the Darwin Initiative for Survival of Species, UK; the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB), UK; the Zoological Society of London; and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), during a three-day International South Asian Vulture Recovery Plan Workshop. The workshop was held at Pinjore and Timber Trail from February 12 to 14 to decide on an immediate plan to ensure that the three species of vultures — slender billed, white backed and long billed Gyps — do not get extinct. The Chief Conservators of Forests from Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, attended the workshop, besides forest officers from West Bengal and Gujarat. The meeting, also attended by experts like Dr Andrew Cunnigham from the Zoological Society of London, Dr Debbie Pain, Head of the International Research Division of the RSPB, Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of the BNHS, concluded that the vulture population, already small, is declining so sharply that appropriate measures cannot be implemented rapidly enough to prevent their extinction. Experts are of the view that only the immediate launch of a captive management programme for all these three endangered species of vultures can save the few hundred pairs remaining in the wild and check the especially rapid annual rate of decline. The number of the three species of the once most common scavenger — slender billed, white backed and long billed Gyps — has declined by more than 97 per cent over a 12-year period in India and 92 per cent in a five-year period in Pakistan. The nation-wide annual vulture survey for 2002, showed an alarming 50 per cent decline in the population of white-backed vulture species and a 25 per cent decline in the population of slender-billed and long-billed vultures. There are just about 100-odd pairs of slender-billed vultures left in the world and in India these are found only in Assam. It is due to this decline that these species were listed by the IUCN, the World Conservation Union in 2000 as critically endangered. Dr Vibhu Prakash, Principal Scientist, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and coordinator at the Vulture Care Centre at Bir Shikargah, near Pinjore, says that the survey carried out by biologists, wildlife departments of various states and ornithologists under the aegis of the BNHS, also shows a rapid decline in the population of Himalayan Griffan and Eurasian Griffan (migratory Gyps species of vulture). Though initially the ornithologists and scientists were of the view that the vultures were dying because of a viral infection, it is now believed that the vulture deaths are a result of diclofenac (a non-steroid, anti-inflammatory drug). The birds’ exposure to diclofenac occurs through its use to treat diseases in livestock. Experiments done by the Paregrine Fund, a US-based group involved in research work on the vulture decline problem in three vulture colonies of Pakistan, revealed that vulture mortality was a result of kidney failure in the birds feeding on carcasses of cattle, which had been injected diclofenac. However, experts have still not ruled out that a viral strain is afflicting vultures and causing their death. This workshop has recommended that action be taken at all levels to prevent all use of diclofenac in veterinary applications that allow this medicine to occur in the carcasses of livestock, available as food to vultures and other scavengers. Experts say that the current captive population is not viable for any of the species, and a complete extinction is likely to occur if no action is taken. It has now been decided that a maximum number of vultures be taken into captivity during the 2004 breeding season, provided there is no compromise on the scavengers’ health and welfare. Since it is believed that the birds that are not taken into captivity will be subject to a very high mortality next year, capturing additional birds will be a continuing priority for captive management. Since vultures will have to be kept at specialised captive vulture management centres, the state governments of Assam and Himachal Pradesh have now agreed to set up one captive vulture care centre each. As of now, only one vulture care centre exists in South Asia, at the Bir Shikargah forests near Pinjore. This centre has been set up by the BNHS and the Government of Haryana, while it has been funded by the Darwin Initiative and the Royal Society for Protection of Birds. It has been decided that the vultures that are caught can be kept in the Vulture Care Centre at Bir Shikargah till the time the captive care centres at Assam and Himachal Pradesh are ready. The Bir Shikargah centre will also act as a training centre for the other captive care centres. As of now, the Vulture Care Centre at Bir Shikargah has 23 birds, and three more flight aviaries on an additional five acre land are proposed to be built during this year to accommodate the vultures that are caught for captive breeding here before they are shifted to the new centres. |
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Delhi Durbar Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal has invited Maneka Gandhi and her son, Varun, to take part in a rally in Patiala. Badal spoke to Maneka over the telephone after the mother-son duo made a grand entry into the BJP. Due importance was accorded to their entry with Maneka and Varun Feroze making a much photographed call on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. SAD sources said Maneka has accepted Badal’s invitation though the date for the rally is to be finalised. Badal’s gambit is clearly to take advantage of Maneka’s Sikh community lineage as well as the family’s Gandhi tag. The significance of holding the rally in Patiala cannot be lost as it is the bastion of Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh. Patiala was represented in the dissolved 13th Lok Sabha by the Chief Minister’s wife, Preneet Kaur. Maneka, however, is unlikely to change her Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Varun Feroze, who is pursuing higher studies in the London. School of Business, is expected to cut his political teeth by campaigning for his mother in Pilibhit.
Ajit’s son to
enter politics
With the Nehru-Gandhi sons and daughters entering politics, how can kisan neta and former Prime Minister Charan Singh’s grandson, Jayant, be far behind? Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh is drawing plans to launch his son from Mathura, which is a Jat dominated constituency. Though Ajit Singh’s personal staff is denying the launch but preparations are under way on a massive scale in Mathura for the rally. Ajit Singh is very hopeful of bringing his son into the 14th Lok Sabha as Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has promised his total support. The caste arithmetic works in his favour and Ajit Singh is happy to perpetuate and consolidate his father’s hold on farmers.
Only prepared statements?
These days a lot of things are being said and observed about the Gandhi family. The other day when Varun Feroze and his mother, Maneka Gandhi, joined the BJP, people gathered at the party headquarters in Delhi had a lot of hush-hush comments to make. One such comment, which was quite sarcastic, came from a party worker the moment Varun Feroze and Maneka read out written statements after they were formally inducted in the party. The comment was: “Kya Gandhi parivar mein sab log apna vaktavya padte hain?” (Does everyone in the Gandhi parivar read out written statements?) No prize for guessing right who he was actually referring to.
IAS wives’ annual fete
Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pandey’s residence last Sunday was the scene of a nostalgic get-together savoured by one and all. The hostess was the better half of Pandey. It was a get-together forming part of the annual fete by the Association of Wives of ICS and IAS Officers. The response was inspiring as more than 120 wives attended with the single-minded purpose of activating the dormant association. It was proposed that the spouse of younger officers should also be encouraged to join the association rather than only those in the higher echelons of the civil service. Though Kamal Pandey was described as being slightly out of sorts and shy, his wife table-hopped, greeting everyone. Interestingly, five ICS officers braving the discomfort of old age and challenges made their presence felt. A tongue-in-cheek suggestion made was that the organisers should have also kept an ambulance at close call in case of any emergency. Contributed by T.R. Ramachandran, Satish Misra, S. Satyanarayanan and Prashant Sood.
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The result of worship is assimilation to the form worshipped and the limited forms give limited results. No devotion fails of its highest reward. The lesser ones bring lesser rewards while devotion to the Supreme brings the supreme reward. All sincere religious devotion is a seeking after the Supreme Godhead. — Dr Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan on The Bhagavadgita There is none except Him, the one Lord, to go to (for refuge and sustenance). — Guru Nanak Man can never come up to his ideal standard. It is the nature of the immortal spirit to raise that standard higher and higher as it goes from strength to strength, still upward and onward. The wisest and greatest men are ever the most modest. — S.M.F. Ossoli Maya is certainly experienced as long as the phenomenal personality is there and the universe is perceived, just as gold is yellow and valuable to us in life whatever it be in itself, or to the animals or to scientists. The fire may not feel itself hot, but others do feel and describe it as hot. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya |
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