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Suicides in the Army On Record |
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Checking pollution from canals
The US nuclear enactment Profile Diversities — Delhi
Letter
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Suicides in the Army ON Friday, Lieutenant-Colonel Pankaj Jha serving in a sector headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir shot himself. There have been instances of soldiers committing suicide in the past, but this is the first time that a senior officer has taken the extreme step. Instances of fratricide too are on the rise in the Army. According an estimate, over 100 cases of fratricide in the Army have been reported this year alone. Last month, Lt-Col Saket Saksena of the Rashtriya Rifles was shot dead by a soldier who was reprimanded by him. Following the incident, soldiers posted in Jammu and Kashmir are living in a high stress environment and such incidents are not uncommon. The Centre announced posting of more psychiatrists in formations engaged in counter-insurgency operations. So far, they were posted only at Military Hospitals. The Indian Army is one of the very few fighting forces in the world, where most units live in field conditions, as compared to family stations. One never expected till 1989 that the Army would have to be deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. As Principal Information Officer to the Government of India, I remember the then Jammu and Kashmir Governor, General K.V. Krishna Rao briefing Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in mid-1989 that he would not like the Army to tackle the militants in the state, and asked for some paramilitary units. Former Union Home Minister Buta Singh expressed his inability to spare the paramilitary units as they were required for maintaining law and order during the elections. It was decided that the action against the militants in Kashmir would be postponed till the parliamentary elections were over. The Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress lost the elections and the V.P. Singh-led coalition came to power at the Centre. This changed the whole scene. Pakistan advanced its plans and India had to face a full scale proxy war in the state. The Centre decided to raise the Rashtriya Rifles in the early nineties which had different scale of equipment for deployment in Jammu and Kashmir. The stress factor is not new. In my different assignments as a communicator with the Armed Forces, I had interacted with officers and soldiers and tried to understand how the Army has been dealing with the problem of stress. As a young officer, I spent over a year living with the 2nd Battalion of the Sikh Regiment, when it was serving with the United Nations Emergency Force in the Gaza Strip. Some outstanding infantry officers briefed me about an Army Officer’s responsibilities in keeping the men in fine fettle, physically and mentally. Some of the things that I learnt in Gaza were reinforced when I returned to India and visited the different Infantry regimental centres of the Indian Army after the Chinese aggression. The regimental centres are storehouses of information and each regiment has its own particular traditions. The common thread in all regiments is that the officer is expected to know his soldiers like the back of his hand. A company commander, who has nearly 120 soldiers under him, knows almost each person by name and his family background. How does this happen? In infantry regiments, an officer, soon after being commissioned spends most of his time with the men. If the unit is in a peace station, he would be with them in the parade ground or at the playground almost every day. During his annual leave, a Second Lieutenant, generally a newly commissioned officer, is required to visit the villages from where the men hail. He visits their families and spends some time with the parents too. Very often, the parents would have served with the same regiment. When the jawans go on leave, they are interviewed by the Company Commander and sometimes presented to the Battalion Commander. If there is any problem at their hometown, generally connected with the property, ancestral or otherwise, the commanding officer usually writes to the District Collector or Tehsildar. These letters are expected to help the soldiers to get access to the district officials. The general experience of officers and men now is that the district administration hardly finds it necessary to respond to the solders, even senior officers. There is normally an “arz” parade in each unit, particularly before a soldier goes on leave. On return, the company’s senior JCO debriefs the soldier and checks whether his grievances have been attended to. With some variations, the procedure is followed in all the arms and services, like the Armoured Corps, the Regiment of Artillery, the Engineers and Services like the Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the Army Service Corps. Each battalion or its equivalent holds a Sainik Sammelan where the Commanding Officer addresses the soldiers; explains to them their duties and listens to their grievances. The Commanding Officer is expected to be the head of the family. Once a person joins the Army, he is admitted as a member of the family and he continues in that status even after retirement.
The Army’s profile has now changed. Earlier, their parents served, many of them, in the same regiment. Today, the officers’ children feel that there are better career opportunities outside. The soldiers’ character too has changed. Earlier, service in the Army was considered an honour. Today, it is no longer so. The young men, particularly in Punjab, opt for going abroad. It also requires a great deal of effort to motivate young men and generate in them a pride in their uniform. The Rashtriya Rifles is not as close knit as the Infantry Regiment. Its units recruit soldiers from different parts and the regimental loyalty is not as strong as in the Army. The government should make officers and jawans feel that the nation is conscious of their difficult role. It should respect their sacrifices always, not just during a war, and keep the promises made. We watch on the History channel documentaries of the heroic deeds of the British and American soldiers during the Second World War. India too has some excellent material in the form of coverage of battles fought during the 1947-48, 1965 and 1971 operations. The material is safely canned in the Armed Forces’ Film and Photo Division. Most of it is inaccessible to our film-makers. Posting psychiatrists to forward units alone won’t help. The government should address the basic problems of the officers and jawans. They are giving their today for our tomorrow.— ANI |
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On Record As Mrs Gandhi’s confidant, she was among the most powerful persons in the party. As AICC general secretary, she was heading the party’s media department and continues to be in charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. She has deliberately kept a low profile since she became a minister, preferring to immerse herself in her files. She recently found time for a free wheeling interview with The Sunday Tribune. “The anti-establishment sentiment is not visible in Punjab to the extent one would normally expect”, she says. Excerpts: Q: What is your assessment of the Congress’ prospects in the coming Assembly elections? A: Everybody is pleasantly surprised that the anti-establishment sentiment which generally works against the ruling party is not visible in Punjab. In the last one year, the state government has initiated a host of development programmes, going right down to the block level. There may be some amount of anger and disaffection among the people, which is bound to be when a government has been in power for five years. But if we pull up our socks and everybody puts in their best, there is no reason why the Congress should not fare reasonably well. The Akalis, on the other hand, are in total disarray. There are so many different groups and each is fighting each other. Parkash Singh Badal is a respected leader, but there is no collective leadership or devolution of power in that party. Where are the new faces in the Akali Dal? Badal is promoting and projecting his son, but he does not have the same stature as his father. It is a different story in the Congress — we have a number of leaders. Q: It is not the Akali Dal alone which is so hopelessly divided? What about the fissures in your own party — the Brar-Amarinder spat is very much in the open. A: I would not like to comment on individuals. Jagmeet Brar is a very good speaker and elections are drawing close — sometimes things are said in the heat of the moment, but nothing more should be read into these statements. I would not describe these as fissures. There may be some differences on a particular issue or with regard to emphasis on a particular point. But these always get sorted out as it is the common aim of all party leaders and workers to come back to power. I think we have an excellent team in Punjab. Both Brar and Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh are well aware that Mrs Sonia Gandhi has constantly emphasised that the party must be united if it is to overcome any anti-incumbency. All the leaders — whether it is the Chief Minister, PCC chief Shamsher Singh Dullo or Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, they have all come together to participate in the ongoing Vikas Yatra. We had a very successful political rally in Ludhiana recently — not only did the people come in large numbers but it was also a very responsive crowd. Q: The Akalis managed to retain their traditional support base among the Jat Sikh peasantry during the last Assembly elections when the Badal government was at its most unpopular. Today, your government is facing anti-incumbency. A: We have a Prime Minister from Punjab. Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s acceptability and credibility as a leader is unchallenged. She has always had a soft spot for Punjab. The economy is booming, villages are improving, townships are growing, industry is coming in. All these are positive signs and this suits our Punjabi sentiment. It is also true that in the last five years, the Chief Minister has done a lot for the farmers. Last time, the Jat Sikhs in the Malwa belt had voted for the Akalis. Capt Amarinder Singh has been concentrating on this region and has made a conscious effort to address the grievances of the people here. Q: The UPA government has completed two-and-a-half years in office. How do you rate its performance, the general impression is that it is not working as a team. A: True, this is the first time the Congress is heading a coalition government. The experiment has worked very well. Both the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson have put mechanisms in place to address the grievances of coalition partners and those supporting it from outside. The UPA-Left coordination committee meets periodically to discuss the issues raised by the Left parties, both Dr Manmohan Singh and Mrs Gandhi are in constant touch with the allies. The government has passed the historic National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill. We have a government which is making greater allocations for social sector programmes. Irrespective of our political differences, we in the government are working as a team. For instance, I am trying to take advantage of the different schemes under the Bharat Nirman programme and tying these up with tourism projects. I want to promote rural tourism and for this I am working very closely with the Rural Development Ministry which is headed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Similarly, I have got a lot of cooperation from Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav who has responded very positively to my suggestion to start a Bharat Darshan train and a second Palace on Wheels. All these illustrate the successful functioning of the UPA government. Q: You will shortly complete a year in the government. But you have always worked in the party organisation. How do you find the change? A: That’s right, I have worked in the party organisation for over 30 years. When I first became a minister, I felt like a fish out of water. But I have now got a grip on the issues in both Culture and Tourism ministries. I have done quite a lot of reading, I have also travelled. Above all, I have an excellent team. I must say I have got tremendous encouragement from the Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Gandhi. I don’t feel that nervous now. Q: What are the various initiatives taken by the Tourism ministry? A: Everybody, especially the state leadership, realises the potential of the tourism industry. But we have a major infrastructure problem, especially a shortage of hotel rooms. We are, therefore, inviting private players in a big way as we need to add 150,000 new rooms by the year 2010. The new Bed and Breakfast Scheme will get us more rooms, we are relaxing rules for guest houses and placing greater emphasis on budget hotels. n
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Checking pollution from canals There is no end to pollution from Buddha Nullah and its effects on human and animal health in Ludhiana. The authorities have simply not bothered to check the spread of pollution. For the past 10 years, we have been hearing about sewage treatment plants being installed. Unfortunately, these are still “under construction”. Meanwhile, the quantity of sewage has increased so much that the Sidhwan Bate canal flowing on Ludhiana’s other side is fast becoming a sullage drain. Suitable measures brook no delay. I suggest some effective measures to check pollution levels and for handling of the solid waste disposal. The quantity of sewage from Budda Nullah (700 tonnes a day) is beyond the scope of the proposed three treatment plants. Running these plants itself would be a formidable task because the whole process is biological and hence more sensitive to the pH, temperature and toxicity in terms of nickel, chromium and other heavy metals. Skilled labour to run the plants properly is simply not available. Sewage, after entering the treatment plant, will not get purified automatically. Skilled manpower is needed for handling this. Also, for successful running of the plants, a well-equipped pollution control laboratory is needed to oversee the quality of sewage of the influent and affluent from the plants. It’s not possible visibly to check its quality. The treatment in the plants should be done in a phased manner. In Phase I, only the primary treatment of the whole sewage should be taken up. This would remove 65 per cent of the solids and 25 per cent of the particles from the sewage. The remaining treatment in Phase II is highly biological and needs skilled labour. The flow of the plants should be by gravity only. The use of electric equipment should be kept to the minimum because irregular power supply may affect the treatment process. With the primary treatment, the flow in Budda Nullah would look like muddy canal water. It will not be an eyesore to the public, though pollutants in the dissolved form will still be there. To improve the quality of Budda Nullah, solid waste disposal should be carried out by mechanical composting or through vermiculture to produce organic manure for the crops. By simply dumping the solid waste far away from the city is no solution. The mechanical compost plant will act as an industry, which will manufacture organic manure and retrieve plastic material and some metals for reuse. This would be a good profit-making industry for the Municipal Corporation without incurring any additional cost because they will not have to acquire new land after every 5 to 10 years for solid waste disposal. Mechanical composting is a standard process and is universally used in all the developed countries. n The writer is a former Professor & Head, Civil Engineering, and Chief Engineer, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana |
The US nuclear enactment There is a lot of confusion in certain sections of opinion in this country about the significance and implications of the consensus bills passed by the two Houses of US Congress. Partly this confusion arises because the US Constitution is basically different from India’s parliamentary Constitution. Consequently, the legislative processes, their impact on the administration, the responsibility of the executive (the President of US) to conduct foreign policy on his own initiative etc. have not been fully understood in this country. First, this legislation is a domestic one of the US Congress amending an earlier legislation which forbade the US from having any civil nuclear cooperation with any country which is not a member of the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) such as India. This legislation authorises the US Administration to enter into civil nuclear cooperation with India though this country does not propose to join the NPT. The US legislatures during the enactment have expressed their views, their aims etc. in the enactment and not all of them are binding on the US President since according to the US Constitution he has the responsibility for foreign policy. This has been made clear to the two Houses by the US Secretary of State, Dr Condoleezza Rice. This legislative amendment was crucial because the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) of nations (including China and Russia) are waiting for the US to amend its law of technology denial to India before they would consider relaxing the procedures of the NSG to permit India to interact with other nations to receive nuclear technology, materials and equipment. While the US is bound by legislation, the other countries which joined the NSG have done so only on the basis of executive decisions. They can relax their procedures to subject India to technology denial purely on the basis of executive decisions but the US needs the legislative amendment. But other nations have chosen to go by the US initiative in this matter. Therefore, the crucial significance of this US Congressional legislation is it clears the way for the NSG to consider lifting nuclear technology denial regime vis-à-vis India. Therefore, this enactment has an international significance, going beyond Indo-US bilateral relations. At the same time, this enactment is not binding on India as it is purely a US domestic legislation only signifying the US willingness to have civil nuclear cooperation with India in spite of India staying out of the NPT and continuing as a nuclear weapon state. What will be binding on India is a bilateral agreement to be negotiated and signed between Delhi and Washington (called the 123 agreement). That is still under discussion. Therefore, what India should watch carefully is that as far as possible the 123 agreement does not have any clause that is not considered palatable to us. The US Under Secretary of State, Nicholas Burns, visiting Delhi, has declared that the 123 Agreement will be concluded entirely within the parameters of July 18, 2005 and March 2, 2006 joint declarations. India will be negotiating the 123 Agreement with the US State Department and not with the Staff of the two Houses of US Congress. The US Secretary of State had already taken note of India’s concerns and conveyed them to the Congress. She has also pointed out that conducting foreign policy is entirely a prerogative of the US President under the US Constitution. That would indicate that the US Administration is in a position to deliver a 123 Agreement without being unduly constrained by the sentiments and extraneous requirements demanded by the US Congress. Simultaneously, India has to negotiate an India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This safeguards agreement will be different from that applicable to all non-nuclear weapon states. At the same time, since India is not one of the five nuclear weapon states under the NPT, the safeguards agreement will have some differences from those applicable to nuclear weapon states, but it will be closer to it than the one applicable to non-weapon states. That has to be followed by persuading the 45-member NSG which works by consensus to lift the technology ban. The US has been working hard to persuade them to do so and overwhelming majority have come on board. Still there are a few who are to do so. The US amendment to its own law will give further momentum to the process and it is expected that others, including China, will come on board. Therefore, the significance of this legislative amendment of the US Congress is to trigger off the international process of lifting the NSG technology ban. After that happens, it will be open to India to obtain its nuclear technology, materials and equipment from any one of the NSG’s members and not necessarily from the US. China is obtaining its nuclear reactors from Canada, France, Germany and Russia. These countries enter into bilateral agreements of supplies without putting in the kind of conditionalities which the US Congress tends to do. Therefore, if India does not purchase reactors, materials and technologies from the US, then, no American conditionalities will apply to its purchases from other countries and they will be governed only by the bilateral agreements negotiated with them. A lot of noise has been made about the US not making available reprocessing technology. This has been the US policy till now. The US did not reprocess its own spent fuel and tens of thousands of tonnes of spent fuel has accumulated in the US. There have been discussions about storing them in deep mountain tunnels. Just recently, President Bush has announced a change of policy. He proposes to burn up all plutonium in newly designed proliferation-proof reactors to get rid of plutonium and also to enhance clean energy generation. This programme, called G-NEP includes all major nuclear technology nations and India has been invited to join it. Those who make a song and dance on the reprocessing issue are silent on this project and this invitation to India to join it which would allow reprocessing of spent fuel. India can reject the arrangement to get the technology ban lifted by the NSG and put its civilian reactors under the India-specific IAEA safeguards if it finds the final agreements arrived at are not in its national interest. But to start running down the process before we have crossed the first hurdle, the US legislative amendment and are yet to cross the second, the 123 agreement with the US shows an attitude somewhat similar to that exhibited by those who opposed economic liberalisation in early Nineties on the ground that it would bring the East India Company back, there would be no level-playing field and competition would kill jobs in India. History of last 15 years has proved that underlying that approach was a lack of self-confidence, total misreading of international developments and an obsession with the Cold War ideologies. Fundamentalism, whether it is of religious type or ideological one, is harmful to national interest. The critics know full well that their criticism lacks substance and is mostly ideological and political posturing. When the whole process is completed successfully they will claim that their trenchant criticism brought about the result without which there would have been too many concessions. This can neither be proved nor disproved. Therefore, the critics have nothing to lose from their criticism, however baseless their denounciations may
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Profile Dr Chitra Bharucha’s assumption of the influential role of BBC Chairperson in January has been confirmed by the BBC and the British Government. She thus becomes the first Indian and first woman to head the largest broadcasting corporation in the world with a 26,000-strong staff in the UK alone, along with a budget of four billion pounds. She has made India proud. A hematologist by profession, Dr Bharucha has served in different capacities in Belfast City Hospital, Ireland. She moved to a career in media from medicine in 1996 when she joined the BBC in Northern Ireland and she stayed on till 2003. Even though her appointment, as of now, is interim, her first task would be to continue negotiations to secure a license fee that approximates the BBC’s deeply-desired sum of 2.5 per cent above inflation. Dr Bharucha is described by those who have worked with her in the past as “capable pair of hands” and her CV is proof of her toughness and ability. Chitrta has lived in Britain for 34 years, having held such high-profile jobs as Deputy Director of the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service and a consultant at one of Belfast’s leading hospitals. She succeeded in a province of UK that had hardly any Indians or coloured people, barely knew or appreciated talent from the erstwhile colonies. Dr Bharucha suddenly hit the headlines following the “shock” resignation of Michael Grade, appointed the chairman in October only. In an act, which many described as “betrayal”, he decided to move to the BBC’s main terrestrial rival, ITV. Only weeks back, Chitra was named vice-chairperson of the newly-formed BBC Trust, a brand new body set up to take over and extend the traditional function of the corporation’s governors. Newspapers have been quoted as saying that Grade’s resignation is seen to have knocked the BBC sideways, leaving it leaderless at a critical stage in its negotiations with the government to secure a rise in the huge license feel it earns from British tax payers in exchange for pursuing a strictly public-service remit. Dr Bharucha’s first task, evidently, will be to carry on complex dialogue process. The BBC trust is a new body that has been created to oversee the regulations and governance of the BBC from January, when the board of governors, which currently oversees the autonomous broadcaster, is disbanded. In the words of Michael Grade, who has since resigned as Chairman: “We must consult the public to ensure our decisions are properly informed to those who pay for the BBC”. Dr Bharucha currently chairs fitness to practice adjudication panels of the General Medical Council. She also heads the advisory committee on animal feeding stuffs for the Food Standards Agency and was appointed Member of the Review Body for Judicial Complaints when it was created in 2006. She may have to quit these assignments to head the
BBC.
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Diversities — Delhi
Letter The French are too conscious of observing Science Day. On the occasion of French Science Day, the Embassy of France, in collaboration with Alliance Francaise de Delhi, is hosting at least two conferences in New Delhi — of Professor Claude Cohen Tannoudji (Nobel Prize of Physics in 1997) on ‘Ultracold atoms, methods and perspective’ and that of Nicolas Gravel on ‘Evolution of economic inequalities: Robust methods for normative appraisal’. In India, science and its offshoots are so well stacked, rather thrown, in tight compartments that art lovers run a mile away the minute the word ‘science’ is uttered or even whispered. In this context, it did come as a surprise that one of the latest DELNET lectures focused on the relationship between science and art. Yes, there is a relationship between all the streams. You shouldn’t be really surprised to know that for writer William Dalrymple’s talk on “The last Mughal: Eclipse of a dynasty” held on Dec 5 at the IIC, there were a huge gathering of not just history lovers but far beyond. It won’t be an exaggeration to comment that Dalrymple has put the facts and happenings of that particular era in such a fashion which could be described akin to story telling. Perhaps, that explains the response he has been getting. Though I have read history at school and college, I bypassed some relevant details from Bahadur Shah Zafar’s life which have been brought forth to the fore by Dalrymple. That Bahadur Shah Zafar was a mystic, poet and calligrapher and though the East India Company had deprived him of all political authority, the rebellion of 1857 took place! Not just that, there was great cultural vibrancy in that era and, yet unaware, we sit on our immediate past. Earlier, we had dastaangoi sessions where kissas, dastaans and the so-called happenings were narrated in a manner to hold the attention of the listeners for hours at a stretch, but all that seems ebbing with modern day complexities taking charge. Nothing really relaxed in today’s fast paced setting. Anyway, not really wanting to sound gloomy, let me add this interesting input. In New Delhi, there is a Centre for Transcultural Studies. In keeping with this very concept, next week this forum will hold a discussion on “Cultures of democracy” with sociologists and scholars taking you on a transcultural trip! What I am trying to put across that there could be some similarity and bonding between one segment with the other, with a this or that not really come in way. Maybe, not even the language barrier(s). As always, one thing to the next. Next week, Professor Alok Rai, who teaches English at Delhi University, is all set to chart the course of the spoken word — from the time of Amir Khusrau to today’s setting. Don’t really know what Prof Rai will comment on this on Dec 13, but from what it seems the spoken, day-to-day language is getting cruder than ever before. Earlier, shikwas and shikayats were put through in subtle forms but not today. You don’t really have to go too far, on the road if there is even a slight bumper to bumper interaction, there would be a volley of abuses and more. Crude and rude we stand today! So much so that if and when you bump into somebody talking in the manner of yesteryears, that is relaxed and polite, you really give those surprised looks, almost akin to adding “from where have you arrived?”!n
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In the silent halls of the hardwon place, the victorious king treads alone. The only movements he hears are those of widows whites. Where are the people with whom he can share his joy? His exultation gives way to depression. You were born in this world with everyone laughing while you cried. Don't conduct yourself in a manner that they laugh when you are gone. They are the ones who have bartered guidance for error; thus their trade does not profit and they are guided.
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Ambika Soni, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture, spent over three decades in the Congress organisation in various capacities before she joined the Union Cabinet early this year. She had initially opted out of the government when the UPA came to power in 2004, as she had preferred to work with Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had refused to accept the Prime Minister’s post.
An
India doctor, born in Tamil Nadu’s cultural capital of Madurai, is all set
to become the head of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and arbiter
of the 21st century broadcasting culture.