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Creek of contention Cool tidings Lessons in politeness |
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Quotas by fiat
Recovering the girl child ‘A few good men’ can fight terror Chatterati
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Creek of contention INDIA and Pakistan narrowing down their differences on the question of boundary delineation in the Sir Creek marshy area in the Rann of Kutch between Gujarat and Pakistan’s Sindh province is bound to help in taking forward the composite dialogue process for peace between the two neighbours. The two-day deliberations between the Surveyors-General of India and Pakistan ended in New Delhi on Friday with the two countries agreeing to go in for a joint survey of the 96-km Sir Creek area as a first step. This positive development will be followed up with a meeting in Pakistan in August between technical experts from the two sides. These experts will work out the modalities for the survey and discuss the available options for drawing the boundary. Innocent people, including fishermen belonging to both India and Pakistan, have been suffering considerably because of the confusion in the marshy area and the disputed waters, which have rich deposits of minerals, oil and gas. Fishermen often land up in jail on both sides without realising when they entered the other side’s territorial waters. Once the dispute is resolved, fishermen will be the immediate beneficiaries. As a result of the talks in New Delhi, 71 Indian and 59 Pakistani fishermen have been set free from the prisons where they had been languishing for a long time. In fact, there began a healthy competition between the two countries on releasing the fishermen serving jail terms on each side. It was India which gave the lead by setting free the 59 Pakistani fishermen with a view to creating an atmosphere of cordiality. This showed its impact during the talks as also in the Pakistani decision to release the 71 Indian fishermen. This is what happens when decisions are guided by pragmatism. The United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea has it that all the disputes like that on Sir Creek should be settled by 2009 in the interest of the countries concerned. |
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Cool tidings YOU can almost smell the wet earth as dark clouds drift in over the Arabian sea and shower Kerala with the first rains of the South-West monsoon – six days early. As the coconut trees sway in the gust and the fishermen hasten to bring their boats in from the sea, the rest of India, though having to wait a little longer, can cheer the prospects of yet another good monsoon. We can hope, in particular, that it will have a cooling effect on the prices of agricultural commodities. Kitchen fumes lately have had more to do with Rs 60-a-kg dals than to enthusiastic experimentation at the stoves. Since 2003, the IMD has been using a two-stage model for its long range forecasts. The first stage, carried out in April, uses about eight different parameters, and predicted that rainfall for the country as a whole would be 93 per cent of the long period average. Anything below 90 per cent constitutes a deficient monsoon, and the probability of that happening, on current estimates, is a reassuring 22 per cent. Weak El Nino conditions that prevailed for most of 2004 had ended abruptly in 2005, and most models predict a 65 per cent probability that neutral conditions will prevail over the equatorial Pacific for most of the monsoon season. The next stage of the IMD’s exercise is in July, and it will use 10 parameters. The importance of the monsoons to the economy cannot be overstated. Apart from boosting ever sluggish agricultural growth, the season is a key driver for practically every sector. Continued GDP growth in the region of 8 per cent cannot even be considered without a good monsoon. Tracking the course of the monsoon as it travels up the Indian mainland is a national preoccupation, in which every farmer, his face upturned towards the skies, not to mention every hot and sweaty citizen, participates. For now, in the northern region, the cool tidings of an early monsoon bring cheer. |
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Lessons in politeness IN the democratic scheme of things, public representatives figure higher than public servants. But in hidebound babudom, the officials are mini-maharajas and consequently a law unto themselves. That is why the Punjab Chief Secretary has had to hold out lessons to them on how to deal with MLAs and MPs. The latter have been seething at the lack of courtesy shown to them by the bureaucrats. What is expected of the latter is now being spelt out. Whether there will be a change in the officials’ attitude towards the elected representatives or the guidelines will be adhered to only for form’s sake, depends on the firmness of the directive that has been issued. It is heartening to know that their lack of manners is sought to be controlled. The general impression is that the officials think that all those outside their own charmed circle are lesser beings who have to be treated as a necessary evil if not an occupational nuisance. Now that they are being made to show some respect to the legislators through an official diktat, perhaps some consideration can also be shown to the common man who cannot help interacting with these twice-born officials. If the MLAs and MPs are given the cold shoulder by these big men, one can well imagine the treatment meted out to the average man. While it may be too much to expect the great babus to be polite to the common man, perhaps they can be asked to be a little less unapproachable and distant. Right now, meeting an official and getting one’s work done, even if it is a routine one, is about as easy as sighting a blue moon. No power on earth can make them behave like “public servants”, a misnomer if ever there was one. May be, just may be, government intervention can make them a little less pompous than the “public masters” that they are today. |
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Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. — Martin Luther King |
Quotas by fiat
Blaming the politicians for keeping caste biases alive, Prof Andre Beteille insists that reservations will lead to social polarisation. Opposed to the very idea of reservation on the basis of caste alone, he says while universities should be socially inclusive, they should be allowed to explore effective avenues like affirmative action. Professor Beteille, who recently resigned from the National Knowledge commission following the government’s decision to extend 27 per cent reservation to the OBCs in higher educational institutions, points out that his role in the commission was to envisage a university that would take everyone out of stagnation. In conversation with
Smriti Kak Ramachandran of The Tribune, Professor Beteille, who is also the Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), regrets that universities are being used to balance power instead of being allowed to focus on expanding scholarship and science which is their main objective. Excerpts: Q: Are you upset with the Human Resource Development Minister’s comments about the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and the reservation on the quota issue expressed by some members? A: I am not really upset. But it was in bad taste to say something about a commission, which has been set up by the Prime Minister himself. This is no way of running a parliamentary system of government. His comments, however are not the reason for my resignation. I have long seen the issue of reservation simmering, I have seen it from my days in the University of Delhi, during the Mandal agitation. I hate claiming to have seen it coming but I first wrote against it (reservation) way back in 1961. Q: If the government were to persuade you to take back your resignation, will you agree to it? A: I do not think about such things. I have already submitted my resignation and this has in no way affected my relations with the Prime Minister. He continues to remain my favourite professor of economics and I have the highest regard for him professionally and personally. Besides, I will continue working. My ambition is to talk to as many people and make them realise how reservation will lead to polarisation. Q: As part of the NKC you have made your stand on reservation clear, what else are your concerns vis-à-vis education? A:
The NKC had a broad mandate. Lots of good things are being done, e-governance for instance. My interest was to find a way for a new kind of university that would take us out from the stagnation. Universities in their present form are moribund. They need to recover the pursuit of science and scholarship, and something drastic needs to be done for that. Knowledge is expanding, universities need to keep pace with it. They are not places for balancing power. Universities should be socially inclusive. It is good to have more women, minorities, Dalits, but all this without compromising its academic objective. As a university man, I don’t see that a new kind of a university becoming a reality if we get bogged down by caste and community. Universities now are being seen mainly as devices for employment guarantee to all castes in proportion to their numbers. Q: Anti-reservationists are worried that quotas will kill merit. Do you agree with that impression? A: I don’t want to make too much of merit. If someone cannot face competition because they don’t have access to a particular kind of schooling or that kind of preparedness, then it is counter-productive to put them into the IITs and the IIMs. There is no lack of intelligence among the Dalits, but they may not be really prepared. You need to prepare the grounds of their entry, not force them in by a fiat of the government. Q: Do you then see a need for a common school system? A: No, I am against a common school system. It is a delusion. There will always be some (schools) which will be better. What we should aim for is good schools with the basic minimum of resources to prepare a student for the next level. Because if you have a CSS, then you will have to give the government powers that no government must be able to have. If some schools have the resources you cannot force them to come down to the level of others because this country does not have the resources to come up to the level of some better schools. If some schools offer to raise money on their own and improve the standard, can you force them not to? The government must encourage public-private partnership but with some regulatory authority. While there should be no draconian laws, there should be no leverage for those who are in education purely for commercial reasons. Q: The Prime Minister has spoken of Affirmative Action. Do you support it? A:
I have been following AA in the Delhi School of Economics for many years. While there was no policy for it, we made our own rules. I said other things being equal or even slightly unequal, I will take a Dalit. But how much unequal is something is a matter of judgement for the admission committee to decide. I know how much load a student can take. Based on this knowledge and the respect for autonomy of the institute, let them decode how far they can stretch their level of merit to accommodate people. In the US where AA is not forced by the government, each university has its own policy. In fact, better universities have AA. It is flexible, respects the autonomy of the institute and in public interest as against numerical quotas. Reservation will lead to polarisation, bright lads will not want to follow AA. Q: The government’s assurance to the agitating students that it will increase seats and infrastructure have failed to placate them. What do you think needs to be done to redeem the universities? A: The government should get out of the university. The actions of the government have made the universities apathetic to their social responsibilities. They think when there is a rule, why make the extra effort. The government always tells them you have to do this. Like the public sector they too are being robbed off their initiative. Funds are not a
problem. It is the morale that is being affected. In Calcutta University in the 1920s and 1930s there was exceptional research work in physics being done — CV Raman, JC Bose and Meghnad Saha did not have funds but they were doing something important. Freedom and autonomy are needed otherwise the morale sinks. Freedom is necessary for academic success. Q: While the caste-creed barriers are seen to be crumbling in urban India, do you think the phenomenon is not being duplicated in the rural areas? A: Caste is no longer overwhelming as it was. There are inter-community marriages happening, the rules of who eats with whom have diminished. The signs of it weakening are there. There is a discernible change and caste biases are being kept alive by
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Recovering the girl child Nawanshahr
District in Punjab with a sex ratio of 808 girls to 1000 boys in 2001 is by no means in the red list of the 10 districts of the country with the lowest female sex ratio, in the 0 to 6 age group. But that has not deterred its dynamic District Collector Krishan Kumar from initiating a major drive to raise the female child sex ratio of the district and establish a development model that can be emulated by other districts like Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, and Gurdaspur, where the female sex ratio had plummeted below 780 in 2001. In fact, of the 10 districts of the country with the lowest child sex ratio, seven are in Punjab. Using a carrot and stick policy and mobilising the NGOs, the student community, the sarpanches and anganwadi workers of the district, Krishan Kumar has taken on the massive responsibility of monitoring every pregnancy in the 467 villages in the five blocks of Nawanshahr. Special attention is given to the 100 villages where the female child sex ratio is abysmally low — below 800 and in some cases even below 700. Using a specially developed software, a computerised record village-wise is available of population, children in the 0 to 6 age group, number of male children, number of female children, sex ratio, the names of the pregnant women, the expected date of their child’s birth and their telephone numbers. If there is no telephone in a particular house, the number of the sarpanch is listed. Giving the project the necessary official status and impetus is the periodic call to pregnant women by a woman representative from the DC’s office to find out how they are faring and whether they have had their baby. In fact, the DC’s wife has also been involved in the anti-sex selection campaign. She has written some 450 post cards to women panchayat members and teachers with messages against sex selection. “You are a woman and I am a woman. Do you think it is right to stop the birth of a girl? Let us welcome girls.” Through constant vigilance and monitoring, every pregnancy is recorded at the earliest. Surveillance intensifies between the third and fifth month of conception when there is greater chance of knowing the sex. A missing pregnancy becomes a cause for concern and investigation. Krishan Kumar is convinced that “evidence, which has eluded law enforcing agencies so far, can be gathered by a socio-medical audit. No criminal can escape if audits are complete.” The birth of a girl is celebrated by the community. All new born baby girls and their parents come together and are feted. Whatever the name given by the families, girls born on a particular day are given the same name - Hasiparan and Navjyot to name two - by the District Collector. However, the death of a foetus through a surreptitious abortion is mourned by the community, outside a home or clinic. There is no slogan shouting just a peaceful, dignified shokh sabha that embarrasses those who have eliminated the female foetus illegally and sends out strong messages to the rest of the community. One of the first things that the District Collector did on assuming charge a year back, was to bring 30 NGOs of the district together under a common umbrella called the Upkar Coordination Society. While working independently on their individual agendas, collectively their energies were channelised to check female foeticide and drug addiction. Mr Krishan Kumar is the chief patron of the Society. There is a new excitement and energy in the air at Nawanshahr with periodic cycle and scooter rallies, nukar nataks on the PC PNDT Act (Pre Conception Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act) and female foeticide. The District Collector meets 30 to 35 students every day to talk for half an hour about the falling sex ratio and asks them to be his eyes and ears on pregnancies in the village. In every village, five children have been identified and given special identity cards as representatives from the DC’s office. They are given Rs 100 for every pregnancy reported on a toll free number. A calendar of events is drawn up to ensure that the momentum for the movement against sex selection does not flag for a single day. International women’s day is celebrated as anti-foeticide day. At meetings and rallies, Krishan Kumar will appeal to the people to “accept the new life growing in the womb of the woman as God’s gift. That has more religious sanctity than all the visits to gurudwaras and temples.” Each officer of the district, whether in the irrigation department or electricity supply, has been given responsibility for monitoring sex selection and health care in five villages. The involvement of just about everybody is ensured. There are frequent meetings with doctors and gynaecologists too. Girl students too go and meet them and appeal for the survival of the female species. There have been discordant notes too, when an enthusiastic campaigner referred to the doctors as ‘butchers’ and they walked out of the meeting. The collective spirit of the people of Nawanshahr is amazing. The system of punishing offenders (doctors involved in sex selection and the shutting of clinics misusing the technology) is matched by kudos and rewards given to those rectifying the adverse sex ratio in Punjab. The Punjab government has announced a reward to Rs 2.5 lakhs to a panchayat or village that is able to raise the sex ratio from 800 to 850 or from 850 to 900 girls per 1000. Villages who are able to level the number of girls to boys or cross it are rewarded Rs 3 lakhs. A reward of Rs 2.5 lakhs has been given to Jalahmazra village in Aur block of Nawanshahr this year. Over the last two/three months a trend to improve the female sex ratio has been noticed. It is too early yet to say if this trend will be maintained but it is a silver lining in a dark sky. Of the 37 ultra sound clinics in the district, one has been closed and action is being taken against another three. Seven cases have been registered under the PCPNDT Act — two in Nawanshahr and five in neighbouring districts. Because of the tremendous vigilance in Nawanshahr, those keen to go in for sex selection go to neighbouring districts. “Female foeticide will not stop overnight. So we are combining enforcement with social audit,” says Krishan Kumar. Dr Harinder Rana, Punjab’s director for health and family welfare, says the Nawanshahr model for containing sex selection will be replicated in other districts. But will the State be able to find clones of Krishan Kumar? |
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‘A few good men’ can fight terror THE past fortnight has seen a spate of violent incidents in the Kashmir Valley. Tourists are also being targeted. The alarming regularity and inexplicable impunity of all such terrorist acts right across the length and breadth of this country must propel our security establishments to get their act together with alacrity, and shed their overly reactive orientation to terrorism. They need to be far more proactive, responsive and, importantly, innovative, in their approach to tackle the hydra-headed monster of terrorism, whose roots, inspiration and continued support lies, without doubt, towards our West. The Pakistani military mindset continues with its pathological hostility towards India, as succinctly stated by the Pak Army’s Brig SK Malik: “Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it is the end in itself.” With the global war on terrorism having lost the urgency and enthusiasm which the US displayed for some time after 9/11, India must aggressively strive to fight and win its battle against terrorism, within its borders, on its own, employing its abundant genius and resources. Though a plethora of forces and security agencies are all involved in fighting this battle and much experience has been gained over the years, including some notable successes behind it, there does not appear to be an all embracing, coherent macro- strategy to counter the instrumentality of terrorism. Importantly, one of the most significant factors in this uphill battle, namely, hard, timely, actionable intelligence in the field, continues to be a weakness with our security forces. This is despite some good backup by technical intelligence inputs. This flaw requires serious introspection and adoption of ingenious measures. The silver lining, since some years, has been the gradual decline in popular support from the locals for terrorists coming from across the border. However, much more needs to be done in terms of effective coordination and genuine intelligence sharing among the various forces involved, without resorting to turf battles or the ‘numbers game,’ and with scrupulously avoiding human rights violations. The Army has to become more innovative in its approach, using light and highly mobile teams, based on a mix of Special Forces and local volunteers, to seek out these practitioners of the cults of hate and eliminate them from the Valley. Even some department stores and malls abroad have better security arrangements in place than some of our sensitive establishments, which need far better security. It is a total fallacy to state that only more money and resources are required to ensure better security arrangements. A ‘few good men’ can do the job as long they are properly equipped, trained and above all, committed and adequately motivated. Nothing prevents us from an overall proactive and spirited resurgence in matters of security to resolutely confront the scourge of terrorism and defeat it comprehensively. To do that, we may have to one day strike at the very roots of terrorism and its sponsors with all our might. Meanwhile, the government needs to be tough in its approach to all those within the country, who, for whatever reason, are perpetuating the agendas of the enemies of this country. The author was the first Chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency, India, and these are his personal views. |
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Chatterati Agewell Foundation is just a phone call away for elderly citizens; changing their life for the better when their own children fail to do so. The foundation has everything under one roof for elderly people. An employment exchange, an active help line just a phone call away, and volunteers to spend time with them if they feel lonely. Life changes once you are a part of Agewell. Agewell’s helpline attends to matters of a medical or emotional nature, security measures, and also offers legal and financial advice. The elderly get a sense that there is someone they can ring up at all times, on whom they are not a burden. The foundation has also started a full-fledged employment exchange. The foundation works with Residents’ Welfare Associations to cater to the requirement of coaching institutes looking for teachers, counselors, investment guidance, and maintenance of accounts. They are placed according to their age, experience and expertise at various levels. The organization is active in 35 states and has a network of 540 districts across India. “There is also a programme involving children. If children are prompted to share a smile with the elders and spend a few moments with them, these moments become precious for the elders. Agewell registers old people who live alone for a lifetime membership fee of Rs 5000/- for an individual or couple. Strange that Indian society would need such an organisation at all.
In this hi-tech life, we now have a first-of-its-kind “Health kundli”, a diagnostics package comprising five distinct tests for couples intending to tie the knot. The tests ensure complete health compatibility in couples keeping in mind today’s lifestyle. The health kundli comprises tests for Rh factor, thalassemia, hepatitis B, syphilis and HIV. It can’t be made mandatory to have pre-marital checkups, but spreading awareness is good. Hepatitis B, which causes more deaths than HIV, needs highly precise and accurate diagnostics to detect the infection. With preventive measures, like going in for health compatibility of the partner before marriage, they say serious diseases can be avoided.
Mobile dieting Hey! We sell anything that sells now. We now have a mobile service for weight loss. Your mobile phone can actually assist you in your weight loss effort. Here’s how: Sign up with My Food Phone.com, send in a camera phone picture of your meal, and receive video email feedback, replacing the need for food diaries. Diaries are effective weight loss tools, but require a lot of work. And guess what! A personal dietitian will critique your food choices. Of course, it’ll cost you quite a bit but this is the latest fad in town.
Sycophancy reigns The whisperings in the UPA Government can be hilarious, but are even dangerous at times. Every one is stunned about how some of the senior Congress Chief Ministers are in a fix due to the Centre. In fact, indiscipline aimed at making a Chief Minister uncomfortable is generously rewarded. The powerful Chief Ministers who have won the state on their own mettle are being looked upon as mere workers of the party and workers who criticise these Chief Ministers are made PCC presidents and are given senior cabinet posts. Senior Chief Ministers are feeling humiliated by the way they are treated by the Centre. Hence frustration levels are high. This is one party where loyalty and performance get a beating because of sycophancy and back biting, which is encouraged to the hilt. |
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From the pages of GODSE AND APTE GET DEATH
New Delhi, Feb 10.—Mr Atma Charan, Special judge, delivering judgement this morning in the Gandhi murder case, sentenced Nathuram Godse and Naryan Dattatraya Apte to death. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was found not guilty and acquitted. The remaining five accused, Bishnu Ramchandra Karkare, Madanlal Kashmirilal Pahwa, Shakar Kistavya, Gopal, Vinayak Godse, and Dattatraya Sadadhiv Parachure, were sentenced to transportation for life. Digambar Ramchandra Badge, the approver, was discharged. |
Satyameva Jayate... Truth alone shall triumph. — The Upanishads The king who aspires to monarchy must look after his subject’s need and wants. He must be unto them like the raindrop nourishing the thirsty ground or like the wide armed tree shading them with its canopy. — The Mahabharata I have never touched ink or paper. This hand has never grasped a pen. I speak about the greatness of four ages with my mouth alone. — Kabir The course, which is calculated to improve matters, should then be adopted. The offenders would, under certain circumstances, benefit by forgiveness and mend his ways for the future. —The Koran
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