Reports of police commissions and judicial pronouncements have made it obligatory for the police to prove their innocence when an accused dies in their custody. But in reality the police are able to get away with murder as enquiries into such incidents seldom lead to the arrest, let alone punishment, of the guilty in khaki. Until this public perception changes, people will get agitated over such deaths as had occurred at Balachaur. Unfortunately, it led to the death of an innocent person in police firing and serious injuries to the policemen trying to control the mobs. Had the authorities taken adequate preventive steps following the youth’s death, they could have at least averted the subsequent violence in the town.

But the larger issue — the basic structure of the Constitution — remains since the court has ruled that the ongoing elections will be subject to its final order on this issue which will have to be examined thoroughly by a full Constitution Bench. The petitioners — Mr Kuldip Nayar and Mr Inder Jit — have argued that the amendment to the Representation of People Act in 2003, dispensing with the domiciliary rule for those contesting the Rajya Sabha elections, amounts to changing the basic structure of the Constitution.

In fact, the whole controversy is unseemly, because it is an established fact that in every genuine democracy, it is the political bosses who decide the overall course of a military campaign after weighing various pros and cons. In this particular case, as the Air Chief has himself said, involving the Air Force too quickly was not only fraught with the danger of escalation of conflict but at those heights, helicopters would have been “extremely vulnerable”.

The extent to which the rhetoric would be translated to practice remains to be seen. But there is no denying the fact that unless Indian agriculture revives significantly and on a sustained basis, the rest of the economy would find it difficult to grow at 7-8 per cent each year over a decade, a goal that has been enunciated in the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme released on May 27. The CMP calls for stepping up public investment in agricultural research and extension, rural infrastructure and irrigation “in a significant manner at the very earliest.” It talks about nursing the rural cooperative credit system back to health, doubling rural credit in three years, expanding institutional lending to small farmers, easing the debt burden, reducing interest rates on farm loans and making crop and livestock insurance schemes more effective.

The CMP has also claimed that it would ensure “fullest implementation” of minimum wage laws for agricultural labour, thoroughly modernise revenue administration and establish clear land titles. The government said it would amend the Constitution to make cooperatives “democratic, autonomous and professional”. The CMP recommends the “systematic removal” of controls that depress the incomes of farmers and the need “to ensure that adequate protection is provided to all farmers from imports, particularly when international prices fall sharply”. Like all documents of its kind, there is little to quibble about what the CMP wishes to achieve.

There is more than enough official data available to indicate that Indian agriculture is not exactly in the pink of health, despite the high-pitched rhetoric about the need for a second green revolution. The real income earned by the average farmer in the country has actually come down by roughly 10 per cent over the last seven years or so. While the share of agriculture in gross domestic product has decreased from over a quarter till the end of the 1990s to around 22 per cent at present, the farm sector directly or indirectly provides a livelihood to close to two-thirds of the population. One drought year (2002-03) and the index of agricultural production crashed by more than 12 per cent while the production of foodgrains came down by around 14 per cent. Indian agriculture is still far from having become immune to the whims of the monsoon although we have certainly come a long way since 1914 when the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance described the budget as a “gamble on the monsoon”.

The impact of the drought was severe simply because only around 40 per cent of the total cropped area in the country is irrigated. The way in which water is misused in the country should make all Indians ashamed. The problem goes beyond the scramble among states for a higher share of river waters. Or for that matter, the protests against the construction of large dams like the one over the Narmada. Countries like Israel have successfully greened barren deserts. India, in fact, stands out from the rest of the world for the profligate manner in which the country’s water resources have been (and continue to be) used. There are enough studies conducted which affirm that our forefathers were far more efficient and judicious in using water than the current generation.

The annual rate of growth of production of all kinds of foodgrains — wheat, rice, coarse cereals and pulses — stood at 1.67 per cent in the 1990s, a rate that was considerably lower than the rate of growth of population of 1.9 per cent during the decade. Why then did food stocks mount so rapidly? First, cereal production far outstripped the rate of population growth right through the 1980s. Secondly, the inclusion of pulses in the overall rate of growth of food output distorted the picture since the production of pulses has been stagnant for over three decades. Thirdly, coarse grains are being increasingly used to feed cattle and poultry.

That’s not all. There has been a distinct shift in consumer preferences towards non-cereal foods. Finally, the single most important factor that has contributed to rising food stocks is the unusually high levels of procurement by the FCI in the recent past. The sharp increase in procurement volumes can be directly attributed to the jump in the minimum support prices (MSPs) announced from time to time by the Union government, that have been way above the prices recommended by the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The recommendations of the CACP (a body of experts) have been invariably over-ruled by politicians in power, specifically, successive Union Ministers for Agriculture.

A recent study by a panel headed by former CACP Chairman Abhijit Sen has pointed out that each year the government spends more on stocking foodgrains that its entire Plan and non-Plan outlays on agriculture, rural development, irrigation and flood control. Another study has suggested that the actual/announced MSP should be less than or equal to the MSP recommended by the CACP. Moreover, it has been recommended that the methodology for calculating MSP by the CACP should be radically altered to make it a truly “minimum” support price by including only variable costs, namely the costs of inputs and wages (including family labour), while calculating the MSP.

It can be stated with certainty that if the government implements these recommendations, there would be much hue and cry from politicians and rich farmers, who do not pay any personal income tax.

India is a member of the World Trade Organisation and the Agreement on Agriculture provides for specific commitments on steps to improve “market access” to imported agricultural products. Indian farmers have today become more vulnerable to price fluctuations in the world market over which they have no control. The major problem of Indian agriculture is that product prices are very high by world standards. While costs of cultivation per hectare are among the lowest in the world, unfortunately so are the yields.

The ship-to-mouth situation of the mid-1960s may be gone forever. But the Green Revolution is yet to spread evenly beyond Punjab, Haryana and West Uttar Pradesh. Even in India’s “granary”, by the late-1980s, the limits of increasing farm productivity through the use of fertilisers, pesticides and high-yielding varieties of seeds had been reached. In many rice-growing areas in particular, a high crop yield remained elusive.

One day in June, 1942 Dr Khan Sahib, the younger brother of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, with his British wife went to the Delhi Cloth Mill shop on the Mall Road when suddenly a stray bullet grazed past one of the ears of Mrs Khan. Though a slight injury did occur, there was no damage to the head and neck. The lady created a ruckus on the Mall and a rumour spread that the British government wanted to kill her and her husband and only providence, nay the grace of Allah, had saved them. The very next day the Red Shirts started an agitation against the government. Soon the agitation spread. Sir George Cunningham, the Governor of NWFP, acted with sagacity and advised the DC and SSP of Peshawar to use force and not to overreact and deal with the situation calmly and wisely.

The agitation took place every day. But DC Iskander Mirza’s agents penetrated the Red Shirts organisation, and two of their generals started working for him. He had them take charge of the food arrangements at the Red Shirts headquarters.

One day, they added crouton oil, a very strong purgative, to the huge cauldrons outside their camp containing their morning tea. Having consumed large quantities of tea and watched by a huge crowd, including senior government officials and the police, the Red Shirt leaders prepared their men for the march on the city. About a thousand Red Shirts paraded in splendour before their commanders in full dress uniform.

Suddenly all hell broke loose as the purgative took effect. Red Shirts were seen breaking ranks and running helter skelter to relieve themselves on the banks of the canal. Having tightly secured their trousers around their waist with layers of turbans to deaden police baton blows, they were unable to remove their trousers in time.

The great show was soon reduced to a scene from a comic opera. Soiled trousers are not a pleasing sight in any society. but, to a proud Pathan, known for cleanliness, it is the ultimate disgrace. This spectacle, watched by large crowds of Peshawar citizens, was the peak of humiliation. Henceforth, no Red Shirt could venture forth in his uniform in the city for fear of being ridicule.

In the early decades of the 20th Century, India was home to the largest population of Sarus crane in the world. They numbered in the thousands and were seen throughout the sub-continent except south of the Godavari. So it is worrisome, that the latest census by the Wildlife Institute of India should show a countrywide count of 2,468 birds only. Of this world population, more than 35 per cent Sarus are today concentrated and depended upon the marsh-lands in UP’s Etawah and Mainpuri districts alone. By a strange paradox, the World Bank chose to fund a wasteland reclamation project in these two districts which entails specifically to drain out the marshes, the essential lifeline habitat of the Sarus.

It is generally accepted that the Himalayan Mountain Quail was last seen in 1876. Sadly, bird photography was not in vogue in those times and so generations of Indians since, have known this attractive bird only through some excellent paintings which have survived. And for the scientists, there are a few preserved skins in museums across continents.

The pink-headed duck was never sighted after 1935. Although the likes of EHNL Lowther and Col RSP Bates had pioneered bird photography in India by then, this very handsome bird was perhaps never photographed. The pink of its head and neck set up a dazzling contrast with the rich dark-brown plumage of the rest of its body. Both birds were endemic to India alone. Their extinction is an irrevocable heritage loss for the world at large and India especially.

Luckily, there have not been any more bird extinctions since, though over 100 species of India’s birds have reached a critical stage in survival. Fortunately, many of these birds have caught the popular imagination of most Indians and with persuasive motivation they might rally to help favourable conditions for the survival of these species into the future. The Sarus among all these species perhaps has the most deep-rooted mythical appeal with the larger cross section of rural and urban Indians. Not just because at 1.50 to 1.75 m it is tallest of all the 15 species of cranes in the world. It’s because the Sarus is perceived by most Indians as the living legend of conjugal fidelity and that they pair for life, in-variably transcending the marital vow “till death do us part”. This belief of immutable bonding by Sarus pairs has made the bird universally worshipful among all tribals and non-tribals of India.

The most intimate life history of the Sarus crane in the field was painstakingly observed, collated and penned with great sensitivity, for the first time, by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and it pre-dates the first book on Indian birds by about 250 years. The text of the latest Jahangirnama (translated, edited and annotated by Wheeler M.Thackston, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, 1999) for the period March 1616-March 1617 reveals the first ever recorded description of the Sarus:

“The Sarus is a bird something like a crane, but it is larger than a crane by a ratio of ten to twelve and has no feathers on its head, just skin stretched over bone. For a distance of about six fingers behind the eyes and down the neck it is red. Mostly they live in pairs in the wilderness though occasionally they can be seen in flocks.”

In our mindset, the Sarus crane remains even today the symbol of the eternal romance on earth. It predates the classics such as the Persian Layli and Majnun and the Shakespearian Romeo and Juliet. One has to witness the tenderness, the grace, the joy and love’s ecstasy of the Sarus crane’s yearly mating dance, to understand the quality of bonding which for them extends even beyond life on earth.

And yet the Sarus crane today figures in the “Red Data Book: Species of Indian Birds” whose future is gravely threatened. The Sarus crane cannot survive without marshes or wetlands which are literally being drained out, land filled, bulldozed and plough over.

The founding fathers of the Constitution had clearly visualised that the state and the nation as a whole shall jointly protect and care for its wildlife and their habitat. For, the Directive Principles of State Policy under Article 48 A enjoin upon the “State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard forests and wildlife”. Article 51 A {Fundamental Duties of a citizen) states in clause (g)” It shall be the duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures”.

In real terms, the environment comprising forests, tiger reserves, national parks, marshes, wetlands etc., today amount to less than 5 per cent of India’s landmass only. Let us not grudge this miniscule space left to our wildlife and instead apply our minds to use the other 95 per cent of land more scientifically and productively to provide better quality of life to all Indians.