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Truth as defence A good deal |
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No headcount
Huntington’s forebodings
A trauma story
Towards ‘Gene Revolution’ Harvard chief quits after turbulent
5-year reign Health
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Truth as defence THE Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Bill 2004 passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday fulfils a long-felt need. It provides for making truth a valid defence in a court of law. For instance, until now, a citizen could not call a judge corrupt even if he had evidence to prove that the judge was indeed corrupt because truth was not a weapon at his disposal in contempt of court cases. This was despite the fact that satyameva jayate (truth alone triumphs) is the motto of the nation. This is one reason why the black sheep in the judiciary get away scot-free. Now, the Bill allows truth as a valid defence if the court is satisfied that it is in the “public interest” and the request for invoking the said defence is “bona fide”. Though legal and constitutional experts have, over the years, been stressing the need for making truth as defence, Parliament could not pursue the matter to its logical conclusion for one reason or another. In 1999, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution strongly recommended this provision. Clearly, if there is evidence to prove a judge’s misconduct, truth will have to be allowed as defence for initiating action against the judge concerned. Parliament had to amend the statute in the light of the experience of the enforcement of the Act. In a contempt case, the judge becomes both the prosecutor and the jury. Therefore, the judge should use the power of contempt with utmost circumspection in the interest of justice, equity and fairplay. Despite this amendment, one question remains: who should decide the contempt of court proceedings — the same judge against whom allegations have been made or a different judge? Surely, the whole exercise of introducing the defence of truth in the Act would be defeated if it is not made mandatory for another judge to hear the contempt of court case. The Bill in its present form is loaded with many “ifs” and “buts”. In fact, there is a strong case for a review of the whole law of contempt to make it more egalitarian.
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A good deal WHAT India’s Ambassador in Washington Ronen Sen told the international media on Tuesday should be enough to quieten the sceptics of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Mr Sen declared that the much talked-about deal had nothing which could affect India’s strategic nuclear programme — in other words, the country’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons. He rightly emphasised that India “does not require any outside assistance” for this purpose. The ambassador could not have been so categorical without New Delhi’s authorisation. Nothing more should be expected by those, including certain scientists associated with India’s atomic energy establishment, raising unfounded fears about the efforts to take Indo-US relations to “new strategic heights”. Such a deal can never be a one-sided affair. In fact, the deal is in the interest of both India and the US. If India needs it to acquire the latest nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and to ensure the supply of fuel for its nuclear reactors, the US sees global advantages for it in upgrading its relationship with a resurgent India. The US has begun to consider India as a natural partner in the fast changing global scenario. The new height in Indo-US relations can lead to India being recognised as a major global player. India, which already enjoys the reputation of being a responsible nuclear weapon power, cannot allow the opportunity to go waste. The seriousness of the US in pursuing its goal vis-à-vis India can be understood from the fact that the Bush administration is doing everything possible to ensure that the nuclear deal becomes a reality. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns who is President Bush’s pointman for the nuclear deal, is already in New Delhi to put his final seal of approval on the deal. Mr Burns has to get the remaining 10 per cent hurdles — 90 per cent problems, as he has admitted, have already been taken care of —- cleared. Any compromise on India’s long-term strategic nuclear programme will certainly be out of question.
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No headcount DEFENCE Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s announcement in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that there will be no headcount of Muslims in the armed forces will, hopefully, bring the curtain down on an unsavoury controversy. Howsoever innocuous the motive of the Sachar committee appointed to study social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in the country was, the decision to seek such a data from the defence forces was sending wrong signals. The three forces induct soldiers and officers on merit and even if there is under-representation of the 138-million Muslim community in these forces, it is not because of any sort of bias. That is why there was such a strong reaction not only from ex-servicemen but also from the present Army chief. Mr Mukherjee has candidly admitted as much. According to him, in its anxiety to collect data, the committee had perhaps forgotten that the armed forces had a different character and creed. What is to be noted is that such a study will continue in other departments and ministries. The Defence Minister has done well to underline the fact that the “armed forces are professional, apolitical, secular and the most disciplined force the country has today”. And that is how it should remain. Care must be taken that the communal virus, which is hyperactive in the country, does not reach the portals of the defence forces even by mistake. What is heartening is that Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh, who has himself been a Defence Minister, played a constructive role during the storm that the issue raised. It is he who said emphatically that this debate should be brought to an end and the armed forces should not be dragged into any controversy. Such statesmanlike response will go a long way in restoring a healthy convention in the country that certain issues should be kept above politics. Defence is certainly one such area.
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A truth that’s told with bad intent/Beats all the lies you can invent. — William Blake
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Huntington’s forebodings
FOLLOWERS of the great Semitic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam share a common belief in the Old Testament. But, over the centuries, relations between them have been marked by prolonged periods of hostility, warfare and mutual cruelty. The worst manifestation of religious bigotry was the Holocaust of World War II, when Hitler sought to exterminate Jews. One hoped that with the passage of time, religious bigotry would give way to enlightened thinking and tolerance. But the rage that we are witnessing across the Muslim world today at perceived injustices and humiliations heaped on Muslims by the Christian West and the insensitive response of countries like Denmark to Muslim anger, raise questions about whether Prof Samuel Huntington’s forebodings of a coming “Clash of Civilizations” are becoming a reality. Suspicions about Muslims have been growing in the West ever since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. These attacks, acts of terrorism in Spain, France, and the UK and the discovery of Islamist terrorist networks in the United States and across Europe, have led to a phenomenon of Islamophobia in these countries. Reports of excesses by American and British forces in Iraq have also angered the Muslim world. Matters have now come to a head with the publication of a dozen cartoons, including some depicting Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist and suicide bomber by the Jyllands Posten newspaper in Denmark last September. The same newspaper had earlier rejected a cartoon seeking to portray Christ negatively because it did not think that “the readers will enjoy the drawings”. The Danish Prime Minister behaved with incredible arrogance, refusing to express any regret or remorse for the offending cartoons. He even refused to receive Ambassadors of Islamic countries. As protests by Muslims across the world grew after the OIC summit in Mecca, the Die Welt newspaper in Germany and French newspapers Le Monde and Liberation reprinted the offensive cartoons. These cartoons were then reprinted widely across Europe and in Australia. The United States and the UK alone, among the major western powers, called for restraint by the media. Syria and Iran saw these developments as an opportunity to unleash a campaign of demonstrations against the West. But there is no doubt about the extent of anger that swept across the Muslim world at the arrogance and insensitivity of the Europeans. The argument by the Danish Prime Minister and others that there could be no interference with the freedom of the Press is laughable. Writers have been prosecuted in European countries for expressing anti-Semitic views. Blasphemy about Christ is punishable in the UK. “Freedom of the Press” cannot be used as a reason to ridicule the deeply held religious beliefs of others. The Islamic countries should use their boycott of Danish goods effectively to drill some good sense into the arrogant Danes. There are, however, profound differences in the approach of Christians and Muslims to life. Advocating the separation of the Church and the State, the Bible proclaims: “Render, therefore, unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” Muslims do not countenance such separation. Muslims believe that their loyalty is first to their religion and only then to the nation of where they are resident. National frontiers do not limit a Muslim’s duty to defend what he believes are the rights of his coreligionists. While Europe may not cherish religious diversity, India’s tradition of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the whole world is a family) has provided a rational basis to build unity in diversity, rejecting the belief that unity is synonymous with uniformity. While condemning the West for intolerance, many Islamic countries have a horrible record of how they treat their minorities. Justifying conversions to Islam, they come down heavily on those who choose to renounce Islam. Despite the talk of a united Muslim “Ummah,” Sunnis and Shias regularly kill each other from Iraq to Pakistan, with Sunnis fearing a revival of Shia assertiveness in the Persian Gulf. While Muslims protest against offensive cartoons in the West, newspapers in Muslim countries depict Jews in most derogatory terms. Iran’s mercurial President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad calls for Israel to be “wiped out” of the map. Young children in Pakistan are taught that Hindus are “treacherous”. Pakistani newspapers regularly refer to “Hindu-Jewish conspiracies” against their country. Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed, Amir of the Jamat-ud-Dawa, justifies jihad against India and calls “Hindus, Jews and Christians” as “enemies” of Islam. Shortly after he took over as President, General Musharraf justified violence in Jammu and Kashmir as a jihad. He retracted after he was advised of the adverse diplomatic consequences of what he was saying. Urdu newspapers in Pakistan regularly refer to communal disturbances in India as “Muslim killing riots”. Islamic countries will have to do a lot of introspection and set their own houses in order before they sermonise to others in the OIC about human rights and on how others should treat their minorities. All these developments will inevitably affect communal harmony in India and pose challenges to our secular fabric. Mercifully, despite corruption, casteism, communalism and criminalisation that have afflicted our political class, civil society organisations and the higher judiciary have taken a strong stand whenever governments have not acted strongly against those who have aided and abetted communal strife. But recent terrorist atacks in Delhi and Bangalore show that Pakistan will spare no effort to promote communal strife in India using its “assets”, including its own nationals, for this purpose. While the Muslim community, particularly in Northern India, requires substantial assistance in access to education and employment, gimmicks to build vote banks like tinkering with recruitment to highly respected institutions like our armed forces can seriously damage national security. Pakistan deserves full credit for the manner in which it resisted Saudi pressures to avoid the deployment of Shia troops in its army contingent in the desert kingdom some years ago. It would also be counterproductive to conduct international relations, including our relations with Iran or the US, through the prism of communal vote banks, as our communist parties are now doing. Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Mohammed Kaif and Wasim Jaffer play for the country as proud Indians, not because of any communal surveys or quotas set by Justice Rajinder Sachar, but because they are high achievers, utilising the opportunities they have got in their motherland. Nobody asks what religion Shah Rukh Khan practices when they adore him as a good human being. And Azim Premji has not attained his stature in the world of information technology because of government quotas for the private sector, or favours bestowed by a government-appointed “judicial
committee”.
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A trauma story THE first time I heard of a “trauma centre”, I was left guessing if it was an infectious disease like TB or a psychic problem caused by stress. My hunch was it could be caused if a person saw a “real ghost” — i.e. something unpredicted or out of the world. But here it was newspaper report of “patients fighting against the trauma centre in Delhi’s Lok Nayak Hospital for poor services.” Its whole time doctor had been sent on polio duty. My Concise Oxford describes trauma as a “morbid condition caused by wound or emotional shock”. Pulse polio was hardly an exercise where a trauma specialist could be required. In Bhopal it was an occasion which I noticed brought forth mothers in their festival best in the hope of seeing their picture in the next morning’s papers! When such a centre was being set up in BHEL hospital and was in my day’s programme there, I needed to ascertain what “trauma” meant. “Is it things like road accidents or house collapse?” I asked the doctors sitting by my side. They appeared to concur. So when my turn to say a few words came, I referred to the importance of ever-readiness for unforeseen events. I recalled how the then Education Minister was delivering his convocation address at Lucknow University. Report of the jehadi attack on Parliament was whispered in his ear and saying a hurried word to me he had to leave abruptly. That horrible event was remembered recently when the security men who saved the country from a tragedy of unimaginable dimensions were honoured. The chinks still persisting in our elaborate armour — exposed a few days later by the hoax call of a bomb there — were too embarrassing. As one thinks of it, there are virtually endless forms trauma may take from a fire in a school pandal, a railway accident, a stampede in a huge gathering like the Kumbh or the Haj Pilgrimage reported the other Day — to a Gujarat earthquake which had turned a Republic Day into one of national mourning. A trauma not being a disease originating only out of some infection in the body calls for a versatility. I recalled before I closed on that day, an interesting story to illuminate it. An old idler had got a windfall gain in a type which has become the craze of couch potatoes today: crores of rupees in some draw. The telegram received by the family gladdened it tremendously but also raised a fear if the grandpa would be able to stand the shock. After a good thought, they sought the aid of their family doctor who was called post haste. Grasping the emergency, the physician started readying the mind of his lucky friend: “Things sometime happen ……. Unexpected glad tidings, ….. Suppose you get a fortune …..” he began. “What do you mean?” he was questioned. “Some forgotten cousin in Africa leaves you a heavy amount ….” “I don’t have any such relation….” “But in case some forgotten friend decrees you a crore, what will you do with it.” “Oh. Stop it, where do I have a friend like that.....?” “But just imagine it. It could be me. It can be a possibility…..” “Oh. I’ll give half of it to you…” the idler spluttered. Hearing that, the doctor collapsed! Wouldn’t that too be a trauma? Only it would be a welcome one, though more for the prize winner and may be for the doctor
too!
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Towards ‘Gene Revolution’ IN India cotton is about the most important cash crop. It is grown throughout the year, in all climates and on all soil types. Over 30 lakh small farmers grow this crop. The cotton yield is low, which has been a matter of concern for not just farmers and the government, but also for the textile industry. The Indian textile industry, which contributes nearly 3 per cent to the GDP, accounts for over 14 per cent of the total industrial production. It also contributes 27 per cent to the export earnings, and engages 18 per cent of the country’s workforce. The Indian cotton has also been of a low quality: it is considered the most contaminated and also low in micronaire and tenacity. Owing to this, the grading and processing adds an additional 10 to 15 per cent to the production cost of cotton textiles. Hence what is called for is an improvement in not only crop yields but also in crop quality. In the case of cotton, the bollworm pest damages up to 50 per cent of the crop yield. It impacts the quality of the produce as well. It is significant to note that about 45 per cent of all pesticides used in India are for cotton crops. To address the issues in cotton production, productivity and quality, considering its significance to the Indian economy, the Government of India set up a Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC) in February, 2000 to improve productivity and produce better fibre for textile mills. Genetic engineering basically addresses the vital issues in crop production like the decreasing reliance on hazardous chemicals, making the crop healthier, reducing the effect of environmental stress on crop yield and addressing many areas which cannot be tackled by traditional breeding. Unlike in the Green Revolution, where the procedure was to select, breed and propagate characters over a period of years, in the present “Gene Revolution” one identifies genes with specific traits in any organism, insert them into the desired organism and get value added for a specific trait. Greater resistance and improved quality of the cotton crop is achieved by bringing about molecular changes, by bringing in a different gene. This is precisely what has been done in the case of Bt cotton. This also leads to a beneficial physiology such as the cotton crop maturing early, having the possibility of growing two crops in a year. The Bt proteins have a long history of safe consumption. It is derived from the naturally occurring soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. It is now in commercial microbial products used globally for over 35 years. Over all these years the Bt protein has been subjected to extensive safety testing around the world. Following the implementation of Bt cotton in 2002 and with active encouragement from TMC, the cotton yield has increased to 480 kg lint per hectare. The acreage under Bt cotton cultivation, and the number of farmers adopting the same, has also been steadily increasing. The area under cotton is likely to stabilise at nine million hectares, which will constitute 5 per cent of the total cultivated area. Hence, there is a growing need to improve the cotton yield to meet the growing demand for cotton. China adopted Bt cotton in 1997 the US in 1996, Australia in 1997, Mexico in 1996 and South Africa in 1998. As with any new technology that calls for a new way of doing things, there are likely to be pockets of resistance, generally due to lack of information. There is a myth that growing Bt cotton would lead to soil deterioration and, needless to say, it is unfounded. Any high-yielding variety would draw nutrition from soil. What is required is to upgrade quality of soil, say by green manuring and use of organic and inorganic fertilisers. Also, as in the case of synthetic pyrethroid, it is no denial of the scientific fact that the resistance of pests to Bt variety will develop over a period of time. Naturally, a sensible thing to do is to learn from past mistakes and all necessary correction procedures and protocols be implemented right at the technology adoption stage. Hence, it is a matter of great satisfaction that the strategies of Bt resistance management have been implemented in India right from the introduction of the technology such as refuge planting and stacked gene Bt cotton development. At the moment, the Bt gene has been found to be highly effective to resist pest damage in cotton, especially the bollworms, which has indirectly promoted the use of the biocontrol strategy of using Bt liquid formulations as spray by farmers wherever they have not planted Bt cotton. There are over 20 hybrids of the Bt cotton available for sowing to account for wide soil varieties, climatic conditions and sowing seasons over which cotton is grown in India. For instance, in North India cotton is planted in April and May; in central India the planting season is June and July; while in South India it is planted during June, July, August and September. The duration of the cotton crop is about 140 days in north India, whereas it can be 220 days in South India. Obviously, the Bt cotton variety recommended for a certain soil type and climate should be used there only as it has only been recommended after extensive field trials. It is essential that the Bt seeds are procured through recommended channels only so as not to besmirch the good work of the new technology or create a doubt in the minds of all stake-holders of cotton. It is also feared scientifically that if the use of unknown/illegal Bt cotton is not curtailed, chances of breakdown of the resistance to Bt toxin are likely to increase because the so-called illegal Bt cotton have never been assessed for the quality of toxin available in them, toxin retention ability and genotype x gene interaction. Unfortunately, people are prompt in putting any crop failure on Bt cotton without assessing the quantum of spurious, mixed or second and third generation seeds being freely used by growers. In a recent nationwide study of more than 3,000 farmers by AC Nielsen it has been found that among the farmers who planted the Bt cotton in India: «The crop yield increased by 29 per cent on adoption of the Bt cotton «The use of pesticides reduced by as much as 60 per cent «Incomes increased by about 78 per cent over those who planted traditional varieties Given the success of Bt cotton, nearly 20 food crops, 10 vegetables, two fruit crops and three commercial crops are being considered for genetic transformation in India. I think here lies the success of
biotechnology. The writer is the Chairman, Agricultural Scientists’ Recruitment Board, ICAR, New Delhi
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Harvard chief quits after turbulent
5-year reign THE turbulent five-year reign of Larry Summers at Harvard was brought to a close on Tuesday when the university announced that the former US treasury secretary will step down in three months, at the end of the current academic year. News of his departure came before a meeting of the powerful arts and science faculty, set for next Tuesday, which was expected to deliver a resounding vote of no confidence in his stewardship of the university. Mr Summers’ tenure had been stormy from the outset. Soon after arriving in 2001, he took aim at grade inflation, limiting the ranks of honours students and reducing the total of A and B grades awarded. He then set about asserting his control over some of Harvard’s powerful fiefdoms. That brought him into confrontation with Cornel West, the celebrated professor of African-American studies, who left Harvard for Princeton in April 2002. The clash involved two very large egos. But long before that, Mr Summers was known for his often brusque style and a disregard for political correctness. “Larry Summers strikes me as the Ariel Sharon of American higher education,” Dr West told an interviewer at the time. “He struck me very much as a bull in a China shop, and as a bully in a very delicate and dangerous situation.” Trouble flared last year when the Harvard president told a conference that “innate differences” may explain why there were so few women in the highest echelons of science. The result was outcry in the female academic community, grovelling apologies from Mr Summers, and the creation of task forces to examine ways of reducing barriers to the advancement of women in science. But the last straw proved to be the departure of William Kirby, the dean of the arts and science faculty, widely seen as having been pushed out by Mr Summers. At a tense faculty meeting last month, various speakers said that campus morale was “grim”. Others accused Mr Summers of cronyism, by refusing to bring sanctions against his friend Andrei Shleifer, a leading Harvard economist. In 2004, Mr Shleifer was found by a federal court to have conspired to defraud the US government by making personal investments in Russia, in conflict with his US government consulting contract to advise Russia. Technically, Mr Summers could only be removed by the seven-member Harvard Corporation, the university’s board of directors, of which he is a member. There, support for him had seemed stronger. But he seems to have concluded that a second bruising faculty vote of no confidence would plunge Harvard into a debilitating crisis. Oddly, Mr Summers’ largest pool of support appears to have been among students. A poll by the student newspaper found that fewer than one in five undergraduates and graduates thought he should step down, while 57 per cent believed he should stay.
— The Independent
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Health FOR years Americans have been cautioned about the potential risks of consuming too much salt, but a team of New York scientists has concluded that a low-sodium diet may do more cardiovascular harm than good for people who are not at high risk for hypertension. Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx say healthy participants in a large government-sponsored clinical trial who restricted daily salt intake to less than 2,300 milligrams were 37 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease. The finding, reported in today’s American Journal of Medicine, is at loggerheads with prevailing medical wisdom and government recommendations. Lead researcher Dr. Hillel Cohen theorizes that low-sodium diets raise the kidney’s levels of renin, a protein involved with increasing blood pressure when sodium levels are low. Cohen also theorizes that low-sodium diets set the stage for diabetes by encouraging insulin resistance, the inability of the hormone to control blood sugars. Cohen’s team included Michael Alderman, a researcher who for nearly two decades has looked into the negative health effects of low-sodium diets. Dr Jeffrey Cutler of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute said consumers should abide by government guidelines on salt intake: no more than 2,300 milligrams daily. “This group has been publishing papers for a number of years, trying to show the usual advice is wrong,” he said. Cohen said his study is not the definitive answer. “We’re raising a yellow warning flag here,” Cohen said Tuesday. “It’s simply a warning flag, that the evidence behind the (government’s sodium intake) guidelines need to be investigated.” In his research, which involved culling information from a massive federal database, Cohen studied the diets, salt intake levels, weights, ages and ethnicities of participants and found deaths were more likely among those who restricted salt intake. Response to Cohen’s study from the medical community was strong. “Actually, too much salt leads to high blood pressure, and high blood pressure leads to cardiovascular events,” such as heart attacks and strokes, said Dr. David Brown, chief of cardiovascular medicine at Stony Brook University Medical Center. He added that people in the study may have been predisposed to cardiovascular disease. They may not have fared poorly because of their diet. Dr Humayun Chaudhry, chairman of medicine at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in Old Westbury, said the findings send an unhealthy message: “I certainly would not want any of my patients or anyone with hypertension or heart disease to increase salt intake,” Chaudhry said. He added high blood pressure is silent and underlies a vast number of heart attacks and strokes globally. An estimated 50 million people in the United States have high blood pressure. “There is a subset of patients who are exquisitely salt sensitive,” Chaudhry added. Dr Nieca Goldberg, spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, pointed out that Cohen’s study analyzed statistical data and was not a clinical trial: “This is an epidemiological study and like other epidemiological studies ... we don’t know if this is true.”
— LA Times-Washington Post
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From the pages of King Amanullah’s failure
THE announcement made by the Amani-Afghan that King Amanullah has issued a proclamation withdrawing nearly the whole of his programme of reforms will cause the widest and most genuine regret all over the civilised world, and especially among all those in Asia who have been watching the progress of the King’s bold experiment with the liveliest and most sympathetic interest. The Times did not in the least exaggerate the truth when it said the other day that the failure of King Amanullah would be fraught with grave consequences to the future of Asia. In essence and in substance the King was doing what the whole of Asia must do if it is to meet the West on its own ground, to resist the ceaseless process of exploitation by it, and to stand firm on its own legs. Japan tried the same experiment 60 years ago and with marvellous success. More recently it has been tried by Turkey under the consummate leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Indeed, as we said at the very outset, it was Mustafa Kemal Pasha whom King Amanullah had clearly made his model.
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The mind and intellect of a person become steady who is neither elated by getting desired results. nor perturbed by undesired results. Restless senses forcibly carry away the mind of even a wise person striving for perfection. — Bhagvad Gita Whatever is great and glorious is the reflection of God. Be it the perfume of a rose, Or the sweetness of a pomegranate, Or the white luster of a pearl, Or the joy in child’s smile. — Sanatana Dharma For every minute that I spin, there is in me the consciousness that I am adding to the nation’s wealth. — Mahatma Gandhi One must have this kind of faith: ‘Once I have uttered the name of Rama, can I be a sinner any more’? — Ramakrishna
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