EDITORIALS

Dr Kidney in the net
The entire network must be demolished 

IT is so very common to see real masterminds of massive rackets slipping away from the hands of the police at the last moment. That is why when Dr Amit Kumar of the kidney infamy gave the slip to the police, there was a feeling that this was the last we would hear of him. The supporting cast would get the rap while he would vanish without trace. But fortunately, the drama has folded differently this time with his arrest from a jungle resort hotel in Nepal. If things go as scheduled, he should be in India soon enough. But despite this success, there is need for extreme caution. He is a slippery customer and has outsmarted the police many times in the past. Plus, he has the ill-gotten wealth to buy his way out. In fact, he made an attempt to do so in Nepal by offering big money to the police party which went to the hotel to arrest him. Luckily, it did not work. One hopes that the Indian police too would set a similar example.

If on the one hand, it is very important that he gets due punishment for the horrible crime that he committed, it is also necessary that the kidney racket is fully exposed. An operation cannot be conducted at such a scale without official patronage or the authorities in several states choosing to look the other way. Names of various politicians have been making the rounds ever since the scandal hit the headlines. Now that the kingpin is in the police net, it is necessary to trace all his links so that the network that he had put in place can be demolished for ever.

As it is coming out, Amit Kumar did not have his tentacles in India alone. He was active in Nepal too. That is all the more reason why the police of these two countries should cooperate to weed out the nexus. The flip side is that he had some well-heeled patrons. They may try to come to his aid, not to bail him out but to save their own skin. The investigating agencies have the strength to withstand such pressures, hopefully. 

Growth worries
Internal bottlenecks are to blame

IT is a healthy trend that the GDP growth projections matter so much now. A slight moderation in growth now makes headlines. The BSE Sensex plunged 613 points on Thursday partly due to the Central Statistical Organisation’s forecast that the country’s growth would slow down to 8.7 per cent in the current fiscal. Though it is the fears of US recession that have essentially caused turmoil in global financial markets, India may, by and large, escape with bruises. The Sensex fall is more due to the outflow of foreign institutional money.

After a laudable expansion of 9.4 per cent in 2005-06 and 9.6 per cent in 2006-07, the economy is heading for a below 9 per cent growth. The CSO projection is a little rosier than the RBI’s 8.5 per cent but Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is a little more optimist in his expectations of “close to 9 per cent”. And that is what finance ministers all over do: always be optimist. Doomsayers don’t make good leaders. There is a think tank that shares Chidambaram’s optimism. The National Council of Applied Research does not believe growth will be below 9.1 per cent.

Apart from the appreciating rupee and US shrinkage, high interest rates are blamed for the proposed contraction. Worried about inflation, the RBI has refused to succumb to India Inc’s pressure to lower rates. Inflation, however, may rise due to factors beyond its control like soaring oil and commodity prices in global markets. That the Finance Minister favours softer loans is well known. Though the declining demand for housing and consumer durables has hit manufacturing, it is basically agriculture that has not perked up despite government promises to make all efforts to boom its growth. Besides, a break on reforms has sent wrong signals to foreign investors. The vast foreign exchange reserves have not been put to any good use. Also holding up growth are coalition politics compulsions, inadequate infrastructure and the state neglect of agriculture, health and education. The required drive is wanting in these vital areas. 

Bush’s blunders
US remains stuck in Iraq, Afghanistan

THE Iraq obsession of President George W. Bush remains intact despite the whole world decrying the war he launched on the basis of concocted information. Instead of showing remorse for his blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan, he devoted more time to the Iraq war than to the economic woes of the US during his final State of the Union Address. And that, too, when the possibility of economic distress has replaced his follies in Iraq as the most talked-about subject during the run-up to the presidential election in November. He, of course, hinted that 20,000 US troops might be withdrawn in the coming few months, but at the same time appeared to be urging the Americans to get ready for a long stay in Iraq.

According to a latest study, President Bush made 935 false statements in two years after 9/11 to convince the Americans that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destructions or was about to produce them, and the regime had definite links with Al-Qaida. The US citizens believed him. But what did they get after that? The US, which was then struggling to achieve its objectives, stated and unstated, in Afghanistan, found itself caught in a quagmire with no exit route. The situation almost remains unchanged till today, nearly five years after President Bush’s military intervention in Iraq.

The unending insurgency in Iraq is not allowing the establishment of a democratic set-up there. The country that was once considered the most developed nation in West Asia after Israel has been reduced to ruins. Al-Qaida seems to be the only gainer. It does not have to struggle for getting fresh recruits. It has strengthened its presence in Afghanistan also. The Hamid Karzai government in Kabul is making all kinds of efforts to buy peace with the Taliban, which has close links with Al-Qaida. The truth is that the war against international terrorism has become a victim of President Bush’s flawed policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Thought for the day

It’s important to know that words don’t move mountains. Work, exacting work moves mountains. —Danilo Dolci 

ARTICLE

Trouble in the Terai
Nepal’s next big problem
by Shastri Ramachandaran

THE uphill road to the thrice-postponed elections in Nepal runs through not just the Kathmandu valley but also the southern plains — the Terai - bordering India. The ruling elite — which now includes the Maoists — ensconced in the rarefied heights of power in Kathmandu has set the elections for April 10. But, it is the people in the plains who may decide whether polling to the Constituent Assembly can proceed as scheduled.

The parties, and a clutch of armed groups, in the Terai have made it plain that they will stop at nothing, including violence, to thwart the elections unless the government accepts their demands for greater rights and more representation in the Constituent Assembly. As of now, the plains people’s demands have cast only a shadow over the elections. Unless there is a major political initiative to address the long-standing demands of the Terai people, the agitation may put elections in the shade; and the stability that comes from maintenance of law and order (in the Terai) may take precedence over holding the elections mandated by the peace process.

If the import of developments in the Terai has not yet registered, especially as a threat to the process of Nepal’s democratic transition, the fault lies in the excessive preoccupation with the goings-on in Kathmandu. The capital is perceived to be synonymous with the country, and happenings in the capital are invested with far more importance than they merit to the exclusion of upheavals elsewhere — the Terai, in this case. So much so, that a strike called by the Maoists in Kathmandu to bargain with the government gets more attention than seething violence — and killings, armed clashes and arson — in the Terai.

The Terai does not figure as a central concern of the power elite in Kathmandu. Except when it erupts. And, when the simmering discontent and sense of being discriminated against do erupt in volatile spasms, the perception is that of trouble in the “periphery”. It is precisely this perception of being “peripheral” and consigned to the margins despite their overwhelming presence and contribution to Nepal and the Nepalese economy, agriculture and industry, that has now ignited the Terai people to rise in protest against the domination of the Kathmandu-centric Nepalese.

The Terai plains are home to 48.4 per cent of Nepal’s 28 million. It is the granary of Nepal. The industry, infrastructure, trade, commerce and industriousness of the Terai are critical to Nepal’s economic survival. Yet, the Madhesi of the Terai faces political and social discrimination; and as a people, the Madhesis are deprived of due representation in elected and government bodies.

The Terai’s demand for proportional representation as also for some form of regional autonomy has shaken the mainstream parties as well as the Maoists. In fact, many leaders as well as activists of the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) have struck out on their own, launching outfits, agitations and movements to further the cause of the Terai people. The government’s assurance that the new constitution to be drafted after the April election will ensure greater rights to the plains people has not blunted the drive of the agitating groups. On the contrary, they continue to proliferate: reports suggest that over a score of armed groups are active. The prevalent Terai-based political formations are gaining ground and new ones are surfacing, both reinforced by desertions of leading politicians, including ministers and MPs.

These disparate forces — despite the similarity of their objectives and single-minded opposition to the Nepali parties and the elections — are not united on a common platform and lack an over-arching political leadership. Far from being a weakness that the state can exploit to suppress the tide of agitations, this condition represents a grave danger: of uncontrolled violence breaking out. While such unguided eruptions may not serve the objectives of the Terai people, there is every risk of the tension and violent clashes vitiating the atmosphere for elections.

In this situation, politicians abandoning mainstream parties to join the Terai people’s struggle should, perhaps, be welcomed. Doubtless, the exit of personalities such as Mahanta Thakur, a senior minister of the Nepali Congress who dedicated himself to the party for nearly 50 years, is a blow to the government. Yet, his taking up the cause of the Terai — along with other prominent leaders who have quit the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), the Nepal Sadbhavana Party and the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party — raises the prospect of a seasoned leadership articulating the interests of the Terai. Such a leadership might serve to restrain the destabilising forces, particularly those sections that are seeking to “internationalise” the problem with the aid of busybodies.

There is a view that the spate of resignations of Terai politicians from the mainstream parties was triggered by the provocative calls for secession; and the efforts, by interested sections in Nepal and abroad, to keep the Terai on the boil. The resulting instability and lack of security would serve these vested interests to sabotage the April election if only to keep the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) out of the mainstream. The haste with which “far-flung foreign elements” have taken up the cause of the Terai has raised eyebrows in Nepal and the region.

The Maoists, who have returned to the government, may have brought the focus back on holding the elections. But, they are no longer the only ones who may dictate the course of events. The Maoists are not a force in the Terai, once the stronghold of the Nepali Congress with the CPN (UML) holding pockets of support. In fact, many of the armed groups roaming the Terai are factions that broke away from the Maoists; and, in the Terai the Maoists have been at the receiving end of violence during clashes.

The way forward —towards holding the April elections — in the Terai is through talks. Intimidatory deployment of security forces by the government can accomplish little in the prevalent strife. Many protesting groups in the Terai, with their propensity for agitation, are not inclined to holding talks. Politicians who have deserted their parent parties to make the government address the demands of the Terai can become rallying points in the region and a channel of communication for Kathmandu. They represent an opportunity both for Kathmandu and the plains people to frustrate the designs of anti-democratic and anti-Nepal forces out to derail the elections and destabilise the polity.

MIDDLE

Santa Claus
by Vikramdeep Johal

Snowy beard, ruddy complexion, imposing build — no wonder an Australian kid in Sydney mistook my uncle for Santa Claus. He not only looked like the legendary patron saint but also lived like one, spreading happiness among children wherever he went.

Darji (short for Sardarji), as he was fondly called by everybody, knew inherently what most of us realised only after watching Taare Zameen Par — every child is special. What he simply couldn’t tolerate was the “don’t do this, don’t do that” chant with which parents tried to restrain their young ones. “Let them have fun,” he used to say. “Why stop children from doing what comes naturally to them?”

I remember an instance when he made me feel really special. I was studying in Class III in an English medium school in Jalandhar, while he was the Principal of a village school in Nawanshahr district. One day, he took me along for a meeting with his fellow teachers. He asked me to speak a sentence or two in English before them all. I did the needful. The “sirs and ma’ms” were impressed by my angrezi, and Darji swelled with pride seeing them shower praise on his nephew. I was on cloud nine, or perhaps still higher.

That incident happened about 25 years ago. Time, however, failed to diminish his lust for life as well as the magical ability to click with kids. He loved to call himself an “82-year-young” man, making 30-somethings like myself wonder whether we would be even half as sharp and agile as him at his age.

Recently, the sprightly octogenarian challenged my nine-year-old nephew to a 100-metre race. The latter, bubbling with enthusiasm, began preparing for the run. Unfortunately, it couldn’t take place as my uncle’s “race of life” came to an abrupt end. He succumbed to a massive heart attack barely a week after he’d danced in step with youngsters at his granddaughter’s wedding.

We were all upset by his death, and my nephew took it quite hard. A couple of days after the funeral, we were at home eating fish brought from a nearby shop. I offered it to the kid but he said no even though he was fond of it. “Darji is dead and you are enjoying fish,” he said bluntly, his eyes full of tears. His bitterly true words were followed by an oppressive silence, as we — the grown-ups — waited for the fleeting feeling of guilt to pass.

OPED

Public healthcare in Punjab a sham
Implement national health insurance policy
by A.J. Philip

AMAR SINGH is a septuagenarian from Sadhupur in Moradabad who came to Chandigarh at the age of 11 in search of a livelihood. He saw “with his own eyes” the City Beautiful coming up from scratch. There is hardly a road in the city in which he had not worked as a labourer. He never went back to his home village.

Countless people like Amar Singh suffer for want of healthcare. Tribune photo: Karam Singh

Sixteen months ago, he was so overcome by nostalgia that he decided to go to Sadhupur. But that was not to be. At the Chandigarh railway station, he met with an accident that virtually immobilised him. His left leg is now a useless mass of flesh and bones. He needs a costly hip operation. He managed to raise Rs 3000 for his treatment but he did not get it in the government hospitals at Sector 32 and 16, though he was admitted there. He did not succeed at the Sector 22 hospital either.

With nowhere else to go, Amar Singh has taken shelter at the bus stop, adjacent to the CBI office, in Sector 30. It is a miracle that he has survived the bitterest winter this year. Perhaps, it has something to do with his name. Amar Singh has virtually reconciled himself to losing his leg and survives on the munificence of some Good Samaritans.

What has happened to Amar Singh can indeed happen to any poor person in this part of the country if a visit to some primary health centres in Kharar subdivision of Mohali district is anything to go by.

The public healthcare system in Punjab, which has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country, is a sham. A homoeopathic medical practitioner near Moga told me that many of his patients could not afford to buy medicines which did not cost more than Re 1 a day.

Imagine such a person living in Tarapur village, just 25-30 km from PGI, one of the best hospitals in the country, contracting a disease that requires hospitalisation. There is no guarantee that the doctor will be there if he visits one of the PHCs in the area.

Even if the doctor is there, he will not be able to diagnose his case and give him proper medicines because the PHCs do not have such facilities. An easier, more practical, option will be to stay put in the village in the hope that the Almighty will cure him of his disease.

It is not for want of resources that the poor patients in Punjab have to suffer. For instance, most PHCs have pucca buildings constructed at enormous cost. It is doctors and paramedical staff who are lacking at these centres. A study found that 39 per cent of doctors and 44 per cent of medical staff are absent on any given day in Punjab.

On paper, things are hunky-dory as this quote from the Human Development Report, prepared by the Punjab Government in 2004, suggests: “The reach of health institutions is very good in Punjab. The average population covered by any medical institution is around 10,000-11,000. In terms of access, the average radius served per institution is 2.68 km. There has been a four-fold increase in the number of PHCs servicing rural Punjab since 1980, covering the entire state.”

However, a World Bank report published in the same year is nearer to truth: “A recent perception survey by the Public Affairs Centre places Punjab in eleventh place in the quality of service delivery across 16 major Indian states”.

In Punjab, government hospitals and dispensaries cover only 10 per cent of non-hospital care. In other words, private medical care is the chief health service provider in Punjab.

The poor, particularly those below the poverty line (BPL), are totally excluded from private medical care. Who looks after them? Dr Geetika Grover, who is posted at PHC, Dhanola, in Chief Minister’s home district Barnala, says: “All those who have yellow cards are given free treatment. They do not have to pay even Re 1 for registration”. Excellent!

But few PHCs are equipped with laboratories, x-ray and ultrasound machines that are required for proper diagnosis. “Serious patients are referred to district hospitals”, says Dr Grover.

The question is, when a patient cannot afford to spend even Re 1 for medicine, how can he spend money on transport to go to a distant hospital? More often than not, he/she just gives up. How to tackle this problem?

A friend, Rev John Mathew, had found a solution for this problem. The Fellowship Mission Hospital at Kumbanad in Kerala which is under his care tied up with United India, a public sector insurance company, to provide insurance cover under the universal health insurance policy for nearly 4,100 people. Under this policy, up to five members of a family are entitled to get medical benefits worth Rs 30,000 per year.

Today, the poor people of Kumbanad know that they have this policy to fall back upon if they need hospitalisation. Literate that they are, they are also conscious of their rights. This needs to be mentioned as many government and philanthropic agencies in this part of the country bought insurance policies for the poor, who did not even know that they had been insured.

While medical insurance is not a profitable business with the outgo on account of claim settlements being more than the premium income, the universal health insurance policy has become highly profitable for the insurance companies. This is because the poor people on whose behalf insurance policies are bought do not know anything about the scheme and cannot, therefore, avail of its benefits.

Take the case of Abhishek Industries, which was in the news for the wrong reasons. It bought a policy to insure 60 farmers. The farmers themselves did not know that they were insured. As a result, there was not a single claim from the policyholders. The company simply forgot to insure them the next year.

Of course, the universal health insurance policy does not benefit the BPL families much because the premium of Rs 250 is beyond their reach. It is against this backdrop that the Centre introduced the rashtriya swasthya bima yojana (national health insurance policy) where the BPL families are given virtually free insurance.

To enrol in the scheme, a BPL family has to pay only Rs 30 towards the cost of a chip-embedded smart card. The central and state governments pay the premium amount in a 75:25 ratio. Every BPL family (up to a unit of five) is eligible for insurance. Few diseases are excluded under this policy. The policyholders can get benefits subject to a ceiling of Rs 30,000 per year. The policy also makes provision for transport allowance (actual with a limit of Rs 100 per visit) on production of proof like train/bus ticket but subject to an annual ceiling of Rs 1000.

The patients can avail of the services of both public (including ESI) and private health providers. The scheme was launched on the Gandhi Jayanti Day last year. States like Gujarat, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi have already announced the scheme which will come into force on April 1. In Delhi all the 1.74 BPL families will be covered by the scheme.

The Punjab Government is yet to take any initiative to implement the scheme. Even Chandigarh administration, which is cash-rich and surrenders money every year to the national kitty, has not taken the bother of calling for bids from the insurance companies as a prelude to implementing it. It is the poor like Amar Singh who will ultimately be deprived of healthcare.

Sixties idealism making a comeback
by Rosa Brooks

WE can end a war. ... We can save the planet. ... We can change the world.”

A few years ago, if you had suggested that a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination consider airing these sentiments in ads broadcast during the Super Bowl, most political pundits would have said you were insane.

The Super Bowl, watched by nearly a third of the US population, is about football, beer and machismo. It’s not about the anti-war movement, the environmental movement, the anti-poverty movement or peace, love and understanding.

But Sunday, Barack Obama aired a 30-second Super Bowl ad that drew unabashedly on the iconography of the American left -- and no one batted an eyelash.

The ad offered images of rallies and protest marches, of poverty and environmental destruction, of the devastation of war and of beaming, hopeful, multiracial crowds. Broadcast not to a niche demographic of activist students or South Carolina blacks but to a cross-section of football fans, the message was unashamedly nostalgic, idealistic.

The Obama ad highlights a recent sea change in Democratic politics, one that’s impossible to understate. A few short years ago, Democrats were on the defensive. On national security issues, the party’s Beltway power brokers anxiously debated how best to look “tough.”

That led easily into a depressing sort of “me tooism,” as Democrats competed to show that they weren’t the wimpy, soft creatures of Republic caricature but hard, chest-beating types, willing to embrace wars, abandon civil liberties and kill terrorists deader than dead.

On domestic issues, Democrats were also running scared. Most congressional Democrats voted to support Bush’s ruinous 2004 tax cut, for instance. And in general, Democrats did their darnedest to avoid using words or images that would remind the average American of the 1960s. The conventional wisdom was that bringing up the anti-war movement or the women’s movement or race or poverty would be a gift to the right.

No more. All of a sudden, Democrats are on the offensive. “Change” isn’t just this year’s most ubiquitous campaign slogan, it seems to be something that’s already happening out there in the real world, in small towns, on college campuses and yes, even at Super Bowl parties.

Who knows just what caused the shift in mood? Iraq? Katrina? Global warming? Rising income inequality? Disgust with Bush and Cheney?

Whatever the causes, Americans seem eager to reclaim a spirit of idealism that many thought ended with the 1960s, to embrace a heritage that acknowledges conflict and struggle but also hope and progress.

Obama’s Super Bowl ad represented a gamble: a bet that the symbolism of past social movements is now more likely to give Americans a thrill than a chill. And the matter-of-factness with which his ad was greeted -- and Obama’s success so far -- suggest that his campaign correctly read the national mood. Hillary Clinton increasingly seeks to appeal to the same idealistic spirit as Obama, the same nostalgia for those moments when changing the world seemed truly to be within our grasp.

Today, the arguments between the two candidates are over who is best placed to bring about the seismic change that both candidates assume voters want. I would bet that we really have turned a page. On the Republican side too, there’s a palpable desire for a candidate who doesn’t fit into a rigid ideological box.

Whether the idealistic yearning for change endures probably has little to do with who wins and who loses the Democratic nomination (or even the White House). Whoever wins the White House will be president of an America different from the one that greeted Bush’s inaugurations in 2001 and 2005.

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Inside Pakistan
Zardari’s hunger for power
by Syed Nooruzzaman

It is not surprising when PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari says that if his party wins the coming elections only he will be the right candidate to become the Prime Minister. “No one else has a consensus”, he claims.

This is what was expected even when he stated immediately after his spouse Benazir Bhutto’s assassination that PPP Vice-Chairma Makhdoom Amin Fahim would be heading the government that might be formed after the polls. It was difficult to believe that he would function as a “kingmaker” a la Ms Sonia Gandhi.

Mr Zardari is known for his hunger for power. His tainted image is a problem, but he is not the person to feel ashamed of it. “The derogatory nicknames given to him by opponents are still branded about as are the unproven allegations of amassing wealth and involvement in activities that contributed to the downfall of Benazir Bhutto’s second government,” according to The News (February 7).

“But the reality about Pakistan’s politics”, as The News points out, “is that Zardari is not the only national-level leader burdened with such a past. Others in the field too have similarly tarnished reputations.”

Yet, as The Nation says, “it would have been far better had Mr Zardari remained behind the scenes and acted as the ‘kingmaker’ rather than directly assuming the role” (of the king).

More chaotic days ahead

Despite President Pervez Musharraf’s repeated pronouncements that the February 18 elections will be free and fair, few people are ready to believe him. Media reports suggest that the polls will be rigged but only to the extent of ensuring that the King’s party, the PML (Q), emerges as the biggest group in the National Assembly. The PPP is unlikely to be prevented from benefiting as a result of the sympathy wave generated by Benazir’s killing.

All efforts of the interim government are likely to be directed at denying the PML (N) of Mr Nawaz Sharif an opportunity to capture power. He is seen as a bigger threat to President Musharraf’s position, particularly after he declared that the Pakistan President would be impeached if the PML (N) formed its government after the elections.

As The Frontier Post says, it is not without reason why Mr Sharif is asserting that “President Pervez Musharraf is not sincere in holding fair and free elections” and that “any election under him will be an exercise in futility which will push the country into further crises.”

Pakistan is moving towards “anarchy” with the opposition parties already having “agreed to launch their agitation against the rigging in the elections.”

A major section of the people remains opposed to holding the battle of the ballot with Mr Musharraf controlling the show as President. This was also evident on Iftikhar Day organised by lawyers. Not only that.

A large number of ex-servicemen recently held a meeting to express their resentment against President Musharraf’s alleged attempts at ensuring a favourable election outcome. They set up a five-member committee to force him to give up power with a view to preventing the impending chaos.

“The bitter fact is that most of the civil society is not on board”, as Business Recorder pointed out in an editorial on February 5. Pakistan today is faced with “a grave crisis, much bigger for one election to overcome, especially when even for that one election a level-playing field is not being provided to all players”, the Recorder added.

Truce with Taliban

Baitullah Mehsud, a South Waziristan warlord and chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban in Pakistan, continues to remain in the news after Islamabad blamed him for the assassination of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto. The latest reason for his having hit the headlines is an undeclared ceasefire agreement between the Army and Mehsud.

However, no party to the truce is admitting to have entered into a deal. According to a Dawn report datelined February 7, “Mehsud declared a unilateral ceasefire in South Waziristan on Wednesday after the security forces started vacating positions in some key places.”

Maulvi Umar, Mr Mehsud’s spokesman, told Dawn on the phone, “Since the Army has minimised the scale of operations, the Taliban shura decided to halt activities across the country for an indefinite period… No, there is no secret deal with the government. This is our unilateral decision.” The Army, too, has made a statement on similar lines.

However, Daily Times says in an editorial, “The sincerity of Baitullah Mehsud’s ceasefire will soon be tested. He has already threatened a newspaper in Peshawar and might go on to threaten others to keep his domain of fear intact. A ‘deal’ is no defeat, and Pakistan needs to defeat terrorism.”