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Bumps on the road Buta Singh’s ways |
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Lessons from
Gurgaon
Europe in crisis
Seven wonders of
our world!
Heart surgery for
Rs 5 a month Asha Parekh’s
nightmare in Mumbai Delhi
Durbar
From the pages of
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Buta Singh’s ways The
standoff between Bihar Governor Buta Singh and Chief Secretary G.S. Kang over the transfer of 17 IPS officers has snowballed into a major controversy with Mr Kang having proceeded on long leave in protest against the decision. The issue not only exposes the Governor’s brazen refusal to listen to the sane advise given by an upright Chief Secretary but also his propensity to kow-tow to the whims of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav who is a major ally of the UPA Government at the Centre. President’s rule implies Governor’s rule, but this doesn’t mean that Mr Buta Singh can ignore and undermine the Chief Secretary’s authority, throwing established norms and propriety to the wind. Mr Kang has advised the Governor against the transfers because of the officers’ high integrity, good work and short tenure. More important, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is against abrupt transfer of IAS and IPS officers posted in the districts with a short tenure as it would affect their morale and the quality of administration. But the Governor is firm on his decision for reasons best known to him. What is cause for concern is the serious damage these transfers will inflict on the system at a time when Bihar is to go in for elections in October or November. As reports suggest, a beneficiary of the transfers will be Siwan’s notorious criminal and RJD MP Shahabuddin. Superintendent of Police Sanjay Ratn, who raided the MP’s houses, seized arms and vehicles under his possession and debarred him from Siwan, has now been shifted. It may be recalled that in May last, the Governor transferred District Magistrates C.K. Anil and K.K. Pathak from Siwan and Gopalganj respectively for having kept the heat on both Shahabuddin and Sadhu Yadav. A beleaguered state like Bihar where governance has suffered very badly for quite some time is in need of a fair and impartial Governor who will not buckle under political pressure. Mr Buta Singh’s justification of the transfers will only strengthen the impression that he was pandering to the wishes of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav or his friends. This can only be condemned. The Centre must undo what cannot be justified.
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Lessons from Gurgaon While
it is too early to say how durable the truce between the Honda management and workers brokered by the Haryana Chief Minister would be, the Gurgaon incident has definitely thrown up a string of questions for wider public consideration, the foremost being: why did the agreement signed on Friday last after the violent standoff not come about earlier? What had the state government been doing for more than a month and a half when the labour dispute was still at the initial stage? It was only after Congress President Sonia Gandhi exerted pressure on Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda to control political damage that a peace pact was hurriedly stitched up. What has happened at Gurgaon is certainly an isolated incident and it may not affect the peaceful industrial climate in the state or the inflow of foreign investment. But it was also the first major incident in the recent years which put the state’s industrial dispute-resolving mechanism to test. The results, as extensively reported and telecast, have been disastrous. It was a letdown by Mr Birender Singh’s Labour Department, which allowed the dispute to linger; the police, which exposed its utter lack of professional training in handling a violent mob; and the political leadership, which took its own time to wake up to the ugly reality. Haryana enjoys a good reputation for its peaceful industrial climate and its proximity to Delhi adds to its pull as an investment destination. Japanese companies have particularly chosen Haryana for investment. To counter the negative impression generated by the mishandling of the Honda protest, the state needs to gear up its dispute-resolving mechanism. As former DGPs and ADGPs have pointed out in The Tribune, the Haryana police needs to reorient itself as a disciplined force by learning how to coolly deal with a violent situation, no matter how grave the provocation. The Centre too should take immediate corrective steps, including a relook at the labour laws, to ensure a peaceful industrial environment in the country.
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Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. — Mark Twain
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Europe in crisis A common theme permeates the European continental countries as they face a future of some uncertainty and foreboding. After the post-World War II phenomenal growth, economic difficulties are growing, unemployment is rising and the first flush of the European adventure is over. As the so-called old Europe grapples with the problems of the future, it looks less promising than it used to a few short years ago. In the main, continental Europe faces two kinds of problems, those of economic adjustment in a fast changing and globalising world and the other of a different future, with an aging population imposing its own logic and the largely homogenous societies having to face the problem of importing young qualified labour in a steady stream to keep up with maintaining standards. The latter problem is accentuated by the issue of world terrorism impacting on the considerable Muslim minorities that live in Europe. The rejection by French and Dutch voters of the European Union constitution was not a vote against Europe but, in the first instance, a vote against their governments and, secondly, against an indefinitely expanding Europe. Many in old Europe seem to have lost confidence in the governments that rule them. President Jacques Chirac of France has had to reconstitute his government while Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende remains a Harry Potter figure, who was 46 when he first assumed office. Europeans have always prided themselves on the welfare states they built up on the ruins of the last World War. Their social security net was the envy of the world, and they succeeded in taking the sting out of the raw capitalism practised in the United States. Gradually, one European state after another has had to pare down social benefits for fiscal reasons and their changing demographics, with fewer workers supporting the social security framework. The referendums on the European constitution brought these anxieties to a head in France and the Netherlands because of the fear that an ever-growing Europe was seemingly set to follow the Anglo-Saxon model, which would destroy the prized continental model. “We no longer trust the government”, a lady who voted against the European constitution told me in her home outside Paris. Now in her fifties, she was loath to lose the privileges she had enjoyed since her birth. In the Netherlands, the “no” in the referendum was also a protest vote against the government, which does not command much popular support, existing as it does as a centre-right coalition. Superimposed on these problems is the question of the Muslim minorities, numbering around 10 million in the European Union. As developments in France and the Netherlands have shown, the European models of integrating the minorities have failed, strikingly brought home by the murder last year of the Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh by Mohammed Bouyeri, an Amsterdam-born man with the twin Dutch-Moroccan nationalities. In France, the condition of the poorer suburbs that harbour migrant populations with a dangerously large percentage of young unemployed is well known. Continental European countries are, as a rule, non-immigrant nations. The need for cheap labour in fuelling post-World War production brought large numbers of Turks and other Muslim workers to countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands. Migrant populations multiplied as workers brought their families, and relations and friends were attracted to the economic opportunities of the West. The national authorities sought to tackle the problem of large foreign populations by a policy of benign neglect and coddling sections of migrant leadership. The intentions were good, but the results proved to be disastrous, with the new phenomenon of terrorism finding willing new recruits in Europe as Western policies fuelled Muslim discontent. By contrast, the United States is a country of migrants and its famous melting pot has, until recently, succeeded in making Americans of one and all by the almost religious reverence accorded to the Stars and Stripes and the institution of the presidency. Bereft of an old culture and civilisation, the US has elevated the mundane to a level of holiness that is almost comical in its manifestation in reactions such as the Nine Eleven terrorist attacks provoked. Even in Britain, whose capital is more cosmopolitan that most other European cities, the strains of fighting Islamist-inspired terrorism in London are beginning to show. Prime Minister Tony Blair is sounding more and more like President George W. Bush in his rhetoric in fighting terrorism. Britain’s total support to America’s war in Iraq was undoubtedly a factor in the London bombings. For continental Europeans, the problems are more acute because they have not introduced Britain’s policy of multiculturalism even to the extent London has tried to. Continental Europe is thus facing three problems, which tend to get inextricably mixed. The question of driving the economic engine is important because economic stagnation is bad for Europeans and, in a sense, negation of the European dream. How to square the economic compulsions of globalisation with retaining the essential ingredients of the welfare state is a knot to untie. Second, it is becoming increasingly important with each passing day that rational immigration policies must be pursued in order to winnow the undesirables while at the same time building a base for welcoming young qualified migrants. Countries like India and China, which provided large pools of qualified men and women to the Western work force have booming economies and opportunities for those who would have otherwise gone abroad. What Europe needs today is a high calibre of leadership willing to tell the people home-truths and condition them to tomorrow’s world. Europe of the future will inevitably be more rainbow coloured than it is today because the continent cannot otherwise sustain its competitiveness. Secondly, strong-arm methods to check terrorism must be tempered with understanding and sane policies of integration. The anger of the Arab and Muslim world cannot be assuaged by token gestures on such seminal issues as the Palestinians being robbed of their land every day while the West pretends not to notice what Israel is doing. Instead of projecting a European view, as the French and Germans did over America’s invasion of Iraq, Europe has been a supine spectator of events in Palestine, making noises of encouragement to Israel and giving credence to the fiction of a Quartet seeking to resolve the problem, which seems to be America’s exclusive
preserve.
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Seven wonders of our world! Over
the last 30 years we have been owned by seven dogs — three Labrador retrievers, two spaniels, one pie and one pug! May 12, 1973. My husband smilingly said: “Happy Birthday” and gave me a card. I looked at it in some surprise, as my birthday was over two months away. He had confused my birthday with Leo’s! Leo was our golden Labrador retriever, who was turning one. He was my husband’s gift to “us” when we set up our first home. Leo was as gentle as a lamb — when it suited him! He assumed the car had been bought solely for his use and stretched out on the back seat as soon as the door was opened. Any attempt to dislodge Leo resulted in much snapping of jaws and deep growls, and the only tactic that worked was to bribe him with a piece of cake or chocolate! Tina, a black Labrador, came to us all the way from London. Tina had an impeccable lineage but her mother must have had a quiet night out because her tail was a bit of a letdown — it had a definite, undeniable, upward kink! Tina’s arrival led to complete joy, so much so that my father-in-law and my children who were normally extremely pleased to see me, hardly noted my re-entry into the household after a year’s absence! When Tina was almost five years old, she produced a litter of 10 puppies. As a product of the royal kennels, Tina took care to ensure she had a nursemaid. Tasha, our beautiful, black spaniel, so willingly provided these services that she came to be called “Tashamashi” by one and all! The only one of Tina’s progeny who remained with us was Tiffany. As a pup, she chewed through a live wire that led to a permanently dislocated hipbone. She was a gentle, undemanding soul, bullied and led by Tasha. Tiffy looked forever apologetic about her existence, and only after the greatest provocation by Tasha, would retort back with a mild bark! Cuddles came to us when she was three, a neglected grey and black spaniel. Undemanding, but fondest of tit-bits from the table, Cuddles became almost totally blind. In spite of repeated surgeries for tumours, she bounced back to life and we were sure that like a cat, she had nine lives. But she lost the battle and last month, she died. Gypoo was a pup living off a rubbish heap, full of the joys of life. I brought her home and my friend, Tessa named her “Rani”. I said, “Rani of the GYP’s, as in Great Indian Pies?” So, she became Gypsy Queen and later, Gypoo. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get used to our flat and lives in my cousin’s uninhabited house with the caretaker. Minnie Mouse is a Pug. She is our youngest, sits on the sofa in spite of dire threats, forgets her toilet training on the silk carpet, refuses food from the table unless it’s chicken or mutton, disobeys all rules and is petrified of thunder. Long live Minnie and our Gypsy
Queen!
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Heart surgery for Rs 5 a month
Twenty-year-old Prasanna, a farmer from Tumkur district of Karnataka, would have normally wasted away after he was stricken with a heart disease. However, a model health insurance scheme has provided a ray of hope to thousands like him, besides setting a splendid example of government-private partnership. Prasanna underwent an open heart surgery for Rs 60, the annual premium for the Yeshasvini health scheme launched in the cooperative sector in 2003. This quiet health revolution reaching out to the have-nots has resulted in medical treatment to more than 85,000 farmers in the last two years. As many as 25,000 farmers have undergone various kinds of operations, including those of the heart, brain, stomach, eyes and the gall bladder, during this period. Starting from the 800-bedded super-speciality Narayana Hrudalaya Hospital on the outskirts of Bangalore, it now reaches out to farmers through 170 hospitals across the state. The scheme came into being ironically at a function where its originator — the Hrudalaya hospital founder and heart surgeon, Dr Devi Shetty — was invited to endorse a milk product. Dr Shetty, a foreign trained cardiologist who went on to become Mother Teresa’s personal cardiac surgeon and then an unabashed advocate for providing modern health care to the poor, asked his hosts the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) to support a path-breaking idea. What he had to offer to the KMC’s Managing Director was this: “I will extend health benefits to all your two million employees for just Rs 5 a month” Fortunately, for the farmers and Karnataka, the then Chief Minister S M Krishna was also at the function. When this scheme was suggested to him by the KMF Managing Director, he asked his government to fine-tune it. So was born the Yeshasvini (meaning Victor) health programme with KMF members as its first beneficiaries. The scheme was extended to other cooperatives and now covers around 17 lakh farmers in the state. The government jacked up the premium to Rs 7.50 a month for each member by contributing the extra Rs 2.50 from its own coffers. The manner in which the Yeshasvini scheme took off is also unique. The insurance fee was collected upfront for a year so that initial needs for funds could be minimised. The state government, on its part, made its infrastructure of post offices available to collect the Rs 5 premium, and issue a “Yeshasvini member card”. The initial task of getting hospitals to participate and selling the idea to the cooperatives was conducted by the Trust, but the daily operations were later handled by a third party, which also coordinated payments to hospitals. Speaking about the scheme, Dr Shetty says out of the 85,000 who had received treatment under the scheme in the last two years, 25,000 had been operated upon. Besides recognising 170 hospitals, the Yeshasvini Trust also recognises four heart hospitals in the state for heart operations. The scheme covers nearly 1,700 different types of operations which include operations of the stomach, gall bladder, eyes, brain and uterus. The members also get free outpatient consultation in all Yeshasvini recognised hospitals, besides getting discounts on outpatient investigations. Dr Shetty says the scheme can be easily replicated elsewhere with the Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu governments in dialogue with the Trust to include cooperatives in their states in this programme. “All it needs is 10 lakh members who have come together for some other reason other than healthcare like a cooperative society or a grameen bank. A monthly premium of Rs 10 to Rs 15 should be collected for the whole year and deposited in the account of the charitable trust responsible for implementation of the scheme. Lastly, recognised hospitals should offer comprehensive packages for the operation so that patients are not charged extra in case of complications’’. Dr Shetty says Narayana Hrudalaya is ready to carry out the entire process of launching the scheme free of cost using its expertise and infrastructure in case any state government or organisation desires so. Trained at the Guy’s College in Britain, Dr Shetty left a promising career to come back to Calcutta to work on pioneering low-cost heart surgery. This led to the establishment of the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences in Kolkata in the nineties and the foundation of Narayana Hrudalaya in 2000 in Bangalore. He has not stopped at building world-class institutions which are aimed at providing quality health care to the underprivileged. He has instituted telemedicine to provide cardiac care free of cost to the poor by roping in ISRO. Narayana Hrudalaya is also in the process of being declared a deemed university for postgraduate medical degrees and is on the road to becoming a health city, the dream goal of Dr Shetty. How did he go about it? “I realised that the bulk of the money of hospitals is earned from heart treatment and that needed to be reduced. We at Narayana Hrudalaya have done just that. We have gone in for large-scale operations and are currently performing 23 surgeries everyday. In Calcutta we are performing around eight surgeries everyday. This has reduced costs to Rs 65,000 for a bypass surgery”, he said.
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Asha Parekh’s nightmare
in Mumbai
Yesteryear’S Bollywood actress Asha Parekh was stuck 15 hours in the city’s life-stopping floods, with barely enough water to moisten her lips. But after surviving a harrowing experience, she salutes Mumbai’s spirit and resilience. Asha Parekh and veteran Hindi film character actress Shammi were in one of the thousands of vehicles stuck in a road last week when the city of 15 million was deluged after the worst rainfall in 100 years. “Yes, Shammi aunty and I were stuck in my car for 15 hours without food, sleep and barely enough water to moisten our lips,” Asha Parekh told IANS, still in disbelief over the experience. The Mumbai-born former heroine of many romantic hits of the 1960s and 1970s could not believe this was the city she had grown up in. “I was born and brought up in Mumbai. But never in my life have I seen what I saw happening in the last few days... The city we are so proud of and felt so safe in was plunged into an unthinkable crisis... And I hope no one ever goes through what I did. “I wondered if we would ever get out of the car alive. Was this really the Mumbai I had grown up in? That thought occurred to me more than once as I sat in the car...” For her Tuesday began as just another day when she was to drive to town for some work with
Shammi. It was raining when they left, but they thought nothing of what was normal during monsoons. “Little did we know then that we would return home only the next day.” In town, after lunch with friends, the two women finally headed home at 3 p.m., a journey that was to last 15 hours. “It was virtually one of those water-water-everywhere (not a drop to drink) situations. Our car was stuck in traffic for the entire night. There was no movement and we couldn’t step outside since there was waist-deep water outside.” At the Mahim Creek, the car went further under water. “The two of us, and the driver just sat frozen in the car, not knowing what to do. I prayed especially for Shammi aunty who is very old and unwell.” After the nightmare was over, Asha Parekh thought about the way Mumbaikars rallied around those who needed help. “It made me regain my faith in our city. People of every neighbourhood served tea and biscuits to all the stranded and disoriented commuters. Residents opened their doors to commuters who couldn’t proceed further. “Though I was caught in a nightmare, I think I now have more faith in Mumbai’s powers of resilience than ever before. Yes, I could’ve been stranded for longer in my car. But I wasn’t. I reached home safe.” The actress’ relatives from Pakistan were greatly relieved to see her home. — Indo-Asian News Service
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Delhi Durbar The
Left parties’ criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his reported statement on the Iran-India gas pipeline looked more symbolic during the discussion on the issue in the Lok Sabha as their attack was more directed towards the BJP for trying to question the government on it. The Communist leader had earlier attacked the Prime Minister for his statement on the gas pipeline during his US visit. But when Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, during question hour, defended the Prime Minister’s interview to a US daily and the BJP members alleged that Aiyar was “misleading” the House, Left members were on the forefront defending the government. The proverb that barking dogs seldom bite seems to fit the Left parties aptly. Going strong
at 84 Despite being critically ill since April 2004, 84-year-old Amita Malik goes about her daily chores all by herself, including cooking, shopping and typing. She covered the international film festival in Goa for NDTV last December. Living alone in a rented flat in East Delhi is not easy. With limited income from free-lancing, she has to fall back on her savings to pay a rent of Rs 12,500. Amita Malik has had a six-decade long memorable association with the All India Radio where she began as a student announcer in Lucknow. She is proud of the fact that she has never missed a column till date despite her ill-health. Hard to defend Lalu’s cases Railway Minister Lalu Prasad seems to have put the Union law officers in an uncomfortable position as they are ruing the day when his and his wife Rabri Devi’s cases were handed over to them. The officers are facing pressure tactics applied by the minister to get himself off the hook in the fodder scam, disproportionate assets and income tax cases. Defending Lalu becomes difficult when searching queries are put to the law officers by the court. Media and
the police Often blamed for sensationalising, the media is again at the receiving end for its coverage of the incident in Gurgaon recently. The policemen blame the 24-hour news channels for instigating the masses by repeatedly playing the tapes where the men in uniform were shown beating the workers, editing the portions which showed the personnel being roughed up. A constable posted outside a private hospital where the injured DSP Dahiya is recuperating had this to offer: “Policemen are depicted as demons by the media. Being a cop is a punishment for the sins committed in the previous life”. Contributed by R. Suryamurthy, Tripti Nath., S.S. Negi and Smriti Kak Ramachandran
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From the pages of The Poona Tragedy
Even in the best ordered society crime cannot be abolished, and by one of the singular ironies of human nature the history of the most civilised nations contains the record of the most diabolical crimes. In Europe civilisation is at its best, but crime also is at worst. Socialist, anarchist and nihilist outrages are of common occurrence, and the most fiendish ingenuity is employed in devising fresh instruments of death and destruction. Criminals of this type are yet unknown in India. Dynamite and explosive bombs have not yet found their way to this country. On the whole, India is generally free from violent crime and the assassin’s ghastly work. But absolute immunity is an impossible dream. The fanatic and the desperado are to be found here, as anywhere else, and the hand of the assassin has been once or twice raised against the highest in the land. But such crimes are comparatively rare, and the recent tragedy at Poona has naturally filled the whole country with alarm and concern…. The Government might impose a punitive police on Poona, but the policemen would be the countrymen of the people punished, and what if they were to fraternise with the people? Let us be out with the truth, in the name of all that is fair. The Government, the Anglo-Indian, the Anglo-Indian papers are all suspicious of the people of the country. But the people are neither disloyal nor seditious, and hence it is easy to threaten them.
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I don’t think we have failed, we have just found another way that doesn’t work. — Book of quotations of Success By obeying him man lends spiritual support to his kith and kin. — Guru Nanak All men arise from him. But the senses perceive men as different from each other. — The Upanishads From him rises the sun and in him sets the sun. Bask in the glory of the great omnipresent. — The Upanishads No one can be called unhappy till one dies. — Book of quotations on Happiness
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