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Costlier cooking Perils of politics in power generation THE falling water levels in the Bhakra dam are giving the shivers to power engineers. They are scraping the bottom, as it were, and any further decline can plunge the whole region into darkness. If one of the turbines has to be shut down, there will be a cascading effect and the situation will become unmanageable in a very large area. To Yahoo! |
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Pak nuclear blackmail remains
The age of the showman
Dateline London From Pakistan
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Costlier cooking AN oil price hike gives the consumers a double blow: they not only pay more for the diesel, petrol and LPG they use, but also for other commodities as the increased cost of transportation is passed on to them. Tuesday’s petrol price hike, combined with a 16.7 per cent increase in the coal prices, may push up inflation, which has been under control for quite some time. The hike, though unavoidable, is particularly severe for the housewife as LPG now costs Rs 20 more. This is sure to be widely resented. Yet populism does not pay in the long run and the government has successfully resisted the Left pressure against a sharp hike. Public utilities have to be priced fairly for their smooth and efficient delivery. Besides, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar was left with no alternative as the international oil prices continue to rule high and the previous NDA government had avoided taking the unpleasant step on the eve of the parliamentary election. From a normal price band of $22-28 a barrel, generally accepted by OPEC, the oil prices had touched $42 a barrel this year. Of late, the prices have started falling after the recent OPEC meeting at Beirut decided to raise oil output by 2 million barrels a day from July, and if need be, additional 500,000 barrels a day from August. The UPA government has passed on the burden fairly to all stakeholders. Apart from the consumers, the oil marketing companies will bear the cost as also the government, which has reduced the excise duty on petrol, diesel and LPG. To cope with global price fluctuations, a war situation or a terrorist strike on oil supplies, the country needs to have a sufficient oil buffer. Despite the massive oil imports and a huge year-after-year rise in the consumption of petro products, the country still does not have any energy policy to ensure an efficient use and proper development of its various sources and resources of energy. |
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Bhakra fright THE falling water levels in the Bhakra dam are giving the shivers to power engineers. They are scraping the bottom, as it were, and any further decline can plunge the whole region into darkness. If one of the turbines has to be shut down, there will be a cascading effect and the situation will become unmanageable in a very large area. To some extent the problem is seasonal and occurs every year. This year the shortage is being felt more acutely because of the scarcity of rain and snow-melt in the catchment area. But there is a manmade reason which has compounded the woes. During the run-up to the elections, power generation was increased despite the fact that the water level was lower than last year. Since the attempt at that time was to appease the voters somehow, all warnings were ignored and instructions were issued to minimise power cuts before the elections, come what may. The sop apparently did not yield the desired results but landed the public in the present difficulties. Not only electricity but also water for drinking and irrigation has become scarce. For a month-long mirage of abundant power, the public will have to suffer for long. If the monsoon arrives in time, the situation may improve somewhat. Otherwise, June may prove to be a difficult month. There is a lesson to be learnt from the crisis. Electricity is an essential commodity which should not be linked with the electoral fortunes of any political party. The management of electricity boards must be allowed some kind of autonomy to ensure that prudent decisions are taken without pandering to political considerations. Politicians can provide a façade of good service only for a brief period. After that, it is the public itself that has to go through a hard time. |
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Yahoo! A free web-based e-mail service that offers 100 MB storage is certainly a dream come true for many users who have been hobbled by the lack of space to store their e-mail messages. Now that Yahoo, which had decreased its storage capacity from 6 MB to 4 MB two years ago, has upped it to 100 MB, the users will be happy. They are not to be bothered that the move has evidently been prompted by its arch-rival Google's plan to launch a free e-mail service called Gmail with 1 GB of storage. E-mail users would also welcome improved services that have been announced, and will hope that other e-mail providers, like Hotmail, which currently charges $ 60 for a premium service with 100 MB storage, would follow suit. E-mail is now ubiquitous, and an important business and personal communication tool. While big private companies set up their own mail servers, most others rely on web-based e-mail service providers, who give a free service by serving advertisements when users open their account. It is precisely in this area that Google has raised privacy concerns, since it would scan the mail for keywords and serve advertisements related to the content of the mail. Thus the major upgrading in mail storage means invasion of privacy. Google says otherwise, but the jury is still out. While for many, life without e-mail would seem impossible, the downside of increasing e-mail usage has been spam, or unsolicited e-mail, often commercial, sent indiscriminately. According to one estimate, as much as 62 per cent of e-mail is spam. Along with spam come "phishing" schemes which trick consumers into surrendering personal data by responding to spam that appears to come from a legitimate bank or e-commerce site. While e-mail users may rejoice over the increase in storage capacities, they have to be assured that their privacy will not be encroached upon, and that they will be protected from spam, viruses and other ailments that afflict a service that has certainly changed the way the world communicates. |
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Friendships begin with liking or gratitude — roots that can be pulled up. — George Eliot
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Pak nuclear blackmail remains SHORTLY after he returned to Delhi in 1982 following his term as Ambassador to Pakistan, Mr Natwar Singh remarked that it was his ardent wish that Indo-Pakistan relations should be conducted in a manner that ensured that Pakistan was not a regular feature in Indian newspaper headlines. He is going to find this easier said than done in this age of 24-hour live television news coverage. But we are perhaps finding the recipe to make our approach to foreign policy seem less Pakistan-centric following the policies outlined by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in his June 7 address to the joint Session of Parliament and recent remarks made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In his typically low-key manner, Dr Manmohan Singh sent General Musharraf and indeed the international community a very clear signal on how far any government in India would go in responding to the General’s ambitions on Kashmir. Dr Manmohan Singh told British journalist Jonathan Power: “Short of secession, short of redrawing boundaries, the Indian establishment can live with anything”, as far as Kashmir is concerned. In the meantime, comments by Mr Natwar Singh about the primacy of the Simla Agreement and his advocacy of a “Joint Nuclear Doctrine” for India, Pakistan and China created a major media controversy and evoked a predictable reaction from Pakistan. President Kalam has now clarified that dialogue with Pakistan will be “within the framework of the Simla Agreement and all subsequent agreements between the two governments, including the Joint Statement of January 6, 2004”. He also spoke of expanding “political and security exchanges with China to ensure regional security”. It is important for India to stress the primacy of the Simla Agreement, even as it respects all other agreements signed with Pakistan. The Simla Agreement set the stage for bilateral resolution of all issues between India and Pakistan. It replaced the old UN-mandated “Ceasefire Line” with a new Line of Control (LoC) based on ground realities. It is also the only agreement that explicitly requires both sides to “respect” the LoC and commits them not to seek to alter the LoC unilaterally. It has been the practice of successive military dictators in Pakistan to unilaterally reject or seek to replace agreements that democratically elected governments signed with India. General Zia-ul-Haq sought to replace the Simla Agreement with a so-called “No war Pact” even though the Simla Agreement contains all the elements of a “No War Pact”. Barely six weeks after the Lahore Declaration was signed General Musharraf described the declaration as “hot air” and went on to provocatively add that “low intensity conflict” with India will continue even if the Kashmir issue is resolved. The Lahore Declaration commits both India and Pakistan to abide by the Simla Agreement. And thanks to some inept handling of negotiations by Mr Jaswant Singh, we came perilously close to pandering to General Musharraf’s claims that Kashmir was the “core issue” and abandoning all references to both the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration at the Agra Summit. After some deft diplomacy by Mr Vajpayee and Mr Brajesh Mishra, Pakistan faced international isolation during and after the Kargil conflict, primarily because it violated the provisions of the Simla Agreement when its forces crossed the LoC. The stage is now set for wide-ranging discussions with Pakistan. It is to the credit of Mr Brajesh Mishra that the January 6, 2004, Declaration not only commits General Musharraf to prevent territories under Pakistan’s control being used for terrorism, but also resumes the composite dialogue agreed to in the Lahore Declaration. There has, therefore, been no erosion in India’s insistence that the provisions of the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration should be observed. While the initial discussions will be on nuclear and conventional confidence building measures, the Foreign Secretaries are expected to discus issues like Jammu and Kashmir. The Lahore Declaration had envisaged a detailed exchange of information between India and Pakistan on their respective nuclear doctrines. While India has transparently enunciated its nuclear doctrine, Pakistan has deliberately chosen not to do so. Ambiguity on this score enables Pakistan to resort to nuclear blackmail by speaking constantly of Kashmir being a “nuclear flashpoint”. The head of Pakistan’s Strategic Forces Command, Lt-Gen Khalid Kidwai, recently spelt out the entirely India-centric focus of Pakistan’s nuclear strategy. New Delhi should seek clarifications on General Kidwai’s comments and make it clear that unless Pakistan properly enunciated its nuclear doctrine we would regard General Kidwai’s remarks as constituting the basis of its nuclear doctrine. Further, while Mr Natwar Singh’s thoughts about having a common nuclear doctrine are obviously unrealisable for the present, Pakistan and India worked together in 1998 and 1999 in the United Nations, advocating the de-alerting of nuclear arsenals and removal of nuclear warheads from missiles globally. A UN Resolution co-sponsored by the two countries on this score received widespread support and exposed the real intentions of other nuclear weapons powers. This common approach could be revived by the two countries in forums like the Non-Aligned Movement. Apart from implementing proposals like the reopening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, it would be helpful if we could move ahead in promoting discussions between representatives of the peoples of Kashmir on both sides of the LoC. Sadly, there are no empowered representative institutions either in POK or in the so-called Northern Areas. These territories are ruled as virtual colonies of Islamabad. The Pakistan Government has constantly sought to change the demographic, ethnic and sectarian composition of POK and the Northern Areas. A wave of repression has also recently been let loose against the majority Shia population in the Northern Areas. The people of POK and Northern Areas will have to enjoy a modicum of representative democracy and autonomy if they are to be credibly represented in any intra-Kashmiri dialogue. New Delhi should not fight shy of raising such issues in the forthcoming dialogue. While the UPA government has spelt out its diplomatic strategy, the country is still in the dark about how it proposes to deal with ISI-sponsored terrorism, not only across the LoC but also across the international border and our borders with Nepal and Bangladesh. Given the immense American pressure to militarily crack down on Al-Qaeda along the Afghanistan border, General Musharraf will obviously tread cautiously for the present in raising infiltration levels across the LoC. One would, therefore, like to broadly know what the government proposes to do, if emboldened by American indulgence, General Musharraf chooses to step up infiltration across the LoC. Groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba still remain active in Pakistan and POK. There does appear to be a tendency to neither acknowledge nor spell out a strategy to deal with issues of global terrorism — issues that Mr K. Subrahmanyam recently described as resulting from “Saudi Arabian money, Pakistani (ISI) infrastructure and American
indulgence”. |
The age of the showman THERE
are quite a few persons in our midst who display ability, do hard work, are considered key people for a long while, but eventually end up without recognition of any sort. They always remain in an illusion that their work would speak for them. Unfortunately, silences rarely speak. Merit and sincerity alone do not add up to much — not any longer at least. Ours is the age of the showman as never before. Late Raj Kapur, the choicest gene of the Kapur clan and the brightest light of the tinsel world, was often referred to as the “showman”. Far from being so, he was a man lost in his work. He was certainly not the best actor of his time, but look at his overall contribution — all the movies with soulful themes and lilting music that he has left behind. The coveted ‘Dada Sahib Phalke Award’ did come his way, but just when he was dying and unable to move from his seat — our gracious President had to go to him to bestow the honour. Had he really been a showman many ministerships and other such rewards would have been his for the asking. Again, think of the obscure man who created the hilarious “Hey Jamalo” that triggered what has come to be known as ‘indipop’. The man has vanished in the shadows because he was not able to market himself. But for others, this has meant notes and notice all the way. At more earthly levels, my father was an excellent teacher. He exactly knew how to make minds receptive for learning. I know it first hand because I happened to be his student for good many years. I remember that he, while once taking our geography class referred to the lines of longitude and latitude as imaginary lines. Then, to check back, he told us that one of the longitude lines passed close to our neighbouring village. He offered to take us there for picnic and also, of course, to let us have look at it. All of us sprang to attention with curiosity. After rather an embarrassingly long bout of sheepishness, we finally realised that imaginary lines could not exist on the ground and these were meant for maps only. I do not think any of us has forgotten about it since then. However, showmanship was just not there in the system of my father. So, he never got any kind of recognition for his superlative teaching ability and had to be content with the job satisfaction that he felt within. Today, our females are freely coming forward to display every part of their anatomy, except for the last few square inches (in fact, the internet has put even this forbidden area universally in-bound). The pop singers are busy producing albums based on just anything that they think would catch the tired popular imagination — the flickering lights, the glimpses and gyrations of female flesh, the hitherto unknown mysteries of vocal chords, colours, outlandish hair-styles, funny dresses and in fact, anything that the fun-loving folks would pay for. What sort of music it is that needs such a gigantic extraneous support? Now, how long this age of the showman is going to last? Perhaps, for ever. The tastes and techniques may change, but basic parameters will remain the same. More of a man after all lives in his mind. So, marketing shall always be important. Showmanship will keep casting its long shadow over sincerity and merit in all ages. I really wonder if raw truth ever prevailed. In fact, showmanship seems to have been the truth all through, though there has to be, indeed, some substance in the folds of showmanship
also. |
Dateline London
MOST political observers feel in the recently concluded elections to the European Parliament the ruling parties have been given the drubbing and the euro-sceptic parties have made considerable gains at the expense of pro-European parties. Secondly, there is a sharp drop in the voting, which shows voters’ indifference to the European community. Their observation is correct in so for as elections results in the UK, Poland, France, Germany, Ireland and Czech Republic are concerned. But in Italy, Spain and Belgium the ruling parties have not only held their own, but also increased their share of votes in some cases. The euro-sceptics may have gained in some countries, such as the UK, but their share of the total number of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) is only 2.5 per cent. The centre-right remains the largest block with 35 per cent of the MEPs, the socialists at 30 per cent and the liberals at 9 per cent. As to the second observation, while in some countries the voting percentage slumped, in Italy it increased to 75 per cent and in the case of Malta, the percentage was 82 per cent. The overall percentage, however, fell from upwards of 50 per cent to about 45 per cent. It is also true that more voters stayed away from voting than those who voted. Ironically, the voting was extremely low in most of the 10 new members of the EU. The conclusion, if one has to draw any, is that in the 732-member EU Parliament comprising 25- member countries, it is difficult to see any particular pattern. In the UK, the two main political parties, the Conservatives and the Labour, suffered humiliation. The former got 29 per cent of votes, lowest since 1832, and the latter got 25 per cent, the lowest share of votes it polled in the country since 1910. The big gainer is the 10-year-old UK Independent Party (UKIP), which increased its share of votes to 16 per cent, up 9. 8 per cent over the last European Parliament elections four years go. It increased the number of MEPs from the UK from three to 12. Both in the percentage of votes and seats, it surpassed the Liberal democrats. The party is euro sceptic and with one-point agenda, according to its star vote puller, a former Labour MP and BBC show host, Kilroy-Silk. It is to wreck the European parliament and expose how corrupt and inefficient the European
Commission is and how it is encroaching upon the sovereignty of various countries. What the party wants is for the UK to withdraw from the European Union. Though the UKIP has snatched votes from both the Labour and the Conservatives, it has the potential to do more harm to the Conservatives. It will reopen the debate within that party between euro-sceptics and pro-Europeans. This issue has plagued the party for much of the past decade. If one has to point out a single issue which wrecked the chances of recovery of the party, one would point to a tug of war between the pro- and anti-Europe camps. By asking for a complete withdrawal from the EU, the UKIP could galvanise the euro-sceptics, who would demand a clear position on the pullout from Europe, thus opening the civil war and wrecking chances of its victory at the next general election. Some political pundits believe that the UKIP phenomenon might just be a flash in the pan. First, on the strength of the present share of votes, the UKIP would not be able to gain even a single Parliament seat in the UK where the first-past-pole election system prevails. Secondly, people always vote differently in national elections from what they do in local or European elections. When it comes to the national agenda, the UKIP has none. Many in the party, however, believe that beating that the Conservatives took at the hands of the UKIP was mainly due to the complacency shown by its leadership before the elections. The party leader, Mr Michael Howard, dismissed the UKIP as a fringe party and lost a lot of votes to it. Senior conservatives, however, caution the party against losing nerve. Since taking over the leadership of the conservative party, Mr Michael Howard has tried to reconcile the two factions. The party position under his leadership is that Britain wanted to be at the heart of Europe but it would reject any formal constitution or allow it to enhance its powers. Instead, it would renegotiate the treaties and opt out of common fisheries and agriculture and some other key areas. It would like Britain to retain its sovereign status. Ironically, most euro-sceptics draw their inspiration from Margaret Thatcher, who incidentally signed the Maastricht Treaty and surrendered more powers to the Community than any other Prime Minister had done in the past. Meanwhile, what about the Labour humiliation in the European elections, the second this week after its worst performance in the local elections earlier this week? It was the first time that any ruling party slumped to a third position in mid-term elections. Some present and former Labour ministers blamed the results on Labour supporters’ anger at the government for having pushed the country into the Iraq war on a false pretext that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be unleashed against the western world within 45 minutes. It also feels that while the Labour got the kicking, the Conservatives did not do well enough. Fringe parties such as the UKIP would cut into their votes and affect their performance in the general election in a year's time. Many feel that the party has not drawn correct lessons from the council and European defeats. Complacency can cost the Labour the next election. |
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From Pakistan ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties attacked government policies at the start of the National Assembly's budget debate on Tuesday when they also publicly joined a guessing game about the political future of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. The treasury benches put up only a low-level defence of the budget for fiscal 2004-05 in a sparsely attended Lower House, where their disinterest in the debate provoked Opposition protests and a token walkout. But in their assault on the government's economic, political and foreign policies in the general debate on Prime Minister Jamali's second budget, the two main Opposition groupings — the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) — remained clearly divided because of their own bitter row over who should lead the government's opponents in the 342-seat House. After Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain got the debate opened by his nominated Opposition leader and MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the proceedings spanning two sittings lacked the usual fireworks between the government and the Opposition and were relatively cool as was the atmosphere outside Parliament House after a morning shower ended four days of a heat wave. — The Dawn
One million jobs
promised
LAHORE: The Punjab government will generate one million sustainable jobs during the next fiscal year in order to reverse growing poverty and unemployment. Of these new jobs, some 15 per cent or 150,000 will be created by the public sector and the rest by the private sector. "The government will create some 30,000 jobs in the education, vocational training, health, agriculture extension, and access to justice sectors. Another 120,000 will be generated through public sector development programmes," Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said at a pre-budget briefing on Tuesday. Answering a question about the temporary nature of the jobs to be created through public sector programmes, the Chief Minister maintained the Punjab government would continue to increase development spending each year to take care of the "temporary nature" of these jobs. "Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz has indicated to create one million jobs all over the country during the next fiscal year, we're going to generate as many jobs in Punjab alone," he said.
— The Dawn
Viral diseases
on the rise
LAHORE: Viral diseases like inflammation of tonsils and mumps infection are stated to be affecting hundreds of people in the city owing to the use of impure food, contaminated water and ice cold edibles. Much to the parents' concern, the children are falling victim to such seasonal diseases that expose them to grave health hazards, doctors said on Tuesday. As per medical practitioners, diseases like throat and mumps infection, measles, high-grade fever and gastro-intestinal infection are very common. This is evident from the fact that a number of people are seen rushing to private clinics and hospitals for medication. "We are receiving a number of patients with throat infection, tonsils inflammation and especially children with diarrhoea”, said Dr Mohyd-uddin, a senior specialist at the Fatima Jinnah Medical College\Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
— The Nation |
Remember, riches bring in grief,
Truly, no joy abides in them. A rich man even fears his son, This is the position
everywhere. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya Get the mercy of God and of His greatest children; these are the two chief ways to God. The company of these children of light is very hard to get; five minutes in their company will change a whole life, and if you really want it enough, one will come to
you. — Swami Vivekananda A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in the boat. An aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live within
him. — Sri Ramakrishna |
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