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The supreme snub Turmoil in Tibet |
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Package for Arunachal
Bane of defence planning
War trophy
When private becomes public in cyberspace Use ‘Dr’ in Germany, face criminal charges! Chatterati
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The supreme snub THE stinging snub that the government should have given to men like Mr Raj Thackeray who try to divide the country into tiny chicken coops, closed to every “outsider”, has come from the Supreme Court. It has not only asserted in no uncertain terms that every Indian has the right to settle anywhere in the country, it has also reminded the parochial elements that India is not an association or confederation of states and there is only one nationality: India. The message should reach loud and clear to all those who are ever on the lookout for protesting against anything under the sun. They seem to have a hyper sensibility, which gets hurt without any rhyme or reason. Unchecked, their activities have the potential to tear asunder the heart and soul of the nation. Such bushfires are currently lit in practically every state of India by men who have a myopic vision of the nation. All this goes on as a matter of routine only because the government does not pick up courage to call the bluff of these wannabe leaders who can do anything for a few votes. So, if today it is Maharashtrians wanting to see the back of North Indians, tomorrow it can be leaders of Punjab wanting to throw out labour from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Then there are numerous others who froth at the mouth when they find fault with a painting or a movie. The government tends to placate them and they go on acquiring larger-than-life nuisance value. The apex court’s stinging comments should galvanise the government into a resolute action. It must stand firm in the face of such bullies instead of abjectly surrendering as it did in the case of protests against Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen. The appeasement has gone on for too long. It must end forthwith and the government must prove once and for all whose writ will run. The nation cannot be held hostage by a bunch of trouble-makers.
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Turmoil in Tibet THE protests in Tibet continuing for some time against Chinese rule have ended on a sad note. Instead of allowing the aggrieved people to vent their feelings in a peaceful manner, the Chinese authorities preferred to ruthlessly crack down on the protesters, many of them monks, resulting in the death of at least 10 persons in Lhasa on Friday. The biggest demonstration by the Tibetans during the past 20 years was enough to disprove the Chinese claim that the people in the vast Himalayan region, annexed by China in 1951, were happy with its rule because of the improvement in the quality of their life. They found in the coming Beijing Olympic Games an opportunity to bring to the notice of the world how the Chinese government has been trying to bring about a cultural change in Tibet. But the way Beijing has tried to handle an emotional issue has only proved the point the Tibetans wanted to make. It is unfortunate that a mature nation like China should use brute force as it did when its own people were expressing deep-rooted resentment. Strong-arm tactics can never help solve the Tibetan crisis. That is why the world community, including the US and the European Union, has appealed for dialogue with the Tibetan leadership. Describing the protests by the Tibetans as part of a “separatist” movement, as China does, will not help. It is in the interest of peace and stability in China to find a way to redress the Tibetans’ grievances through talks by adopting a conciliatory approach. The Tibetans, who have been alleging human rights violations by China, have been greatly concerned about the Chinese efforts to change the demographic character of their region by encouraging people from other regions to settle in the “Tibetan Autonomous Region”. Their anger is understandable. Their grievances cannot be brushed aside. As the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader based in India, has pointed out, dialogue is the only way to end the “simmering discontent” among the Tibetan people.
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Package for Arunachal THE people of the Northeast are used to periodic announcements of welfare, infrastructure and other “packages” by the Centre. While these measures certainly have some impact on the states in the region, it is unfortunate that they do not make a difference to the lives of a substantial number of people on the ground. Arunachal Pradesh is comparatively better off among the “seven sisters”, especially since it is the least affected by violent insurgent movements. Better road, rail and air connectivity, and augmented power and telecommunication resources will immediately help promote economic activity and improve the quality of life. This is what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised with a new Rs 1,300 crore package. As a far-flung border state, claimed by neighbouring China, to boot, connectivity is important from all aspects. This particular package is focused on electricity, flood mitigation projects and railway links. The state has a couple of highways and many villages are reasonably well connected by roads. Four-laning of the main trunk highway to the state is on the cards. Dr Singh has laid the foundation stone for the 32-kilometre railway line connecting the state capital, Itanagar, with Harmoti in Assam. Surveys are underway for more rail tracks. For improving power availability, the focus on solar and hydel-based projects is heartening. A mountainous state like Arunachal Pradesh, with its proliferation of cascading streams, has long been identified as the most suitable area for putting hydel technology to greater use. Not only are such projects cost-effective but also environment-friendly, an important consideration in an ecologically rich and sensitive belt. The Prime Minister has inaugurated a 110-MW project near Itanagar besides laying the foundation stone for the 3000-MW Dibang project. Along with these, it would be wise to consider several mini-hydel projects, which have been advocated by experts. Satellite telephone connectivity for remote regions has also been announced. The projects augur well for the state. They must be completed in time so that people can soon start reaping the benefits.
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Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. — Khalil Gibran
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Bane of defence planning
THE Budget allocation for defence for 2008-09 — Rs 105,600 crore — is 10 per cent higher than that for 2006-07. This amount may appear large, but considering the demands for the country’s security needs, it is insufficient. Equally, over the years, shortages have been piling up and modernisation was deferred. While the general inflation during the year may touch 5 per cent, in defence equipment it is generally one and a half to twice this figure. Add to this the fact that bureaucratic hassles seldom let acquisitions go through smoothly, and invariably a large amount lapses at the end of every financial year. The additional burden of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission will further cut into the funds for capital expenditure for the year. The allocation in terms of the percentage of the GDP works out to less than 2.5 per cent. The bane of defence planning in India has been two-fold. One, there is no long-term joint defence planning encompassing all the three services and, two, no long-term assured financial support for defence is available. Nothing serves the latter assertion better than the Finance Minister’s palliative that, if required, more funds for defence will be made available. Ad-hocism is palpably obvious. Admittedly, there are other compelling needs to be addressed. Abject poverty, illiteracy, abysmal state of health care, unemployment, etc, are the more pressing issues. However, it is the attitude and understanding of our political and intellectual elite which seem to be working under the assumption that progress and prosperity are not entirely inclusive of security and this then becomes an area of concern. Historically, too, we have never given national security the focus it demands. After Independence our attitude and policies have invariably ignored the need for strategic planning. However, the developments in the region, both in the fields of economics and security, will no more let an escapist attitude prevail; instead, there will be pressures of all kinds to create structures for strategic planning. In spite of limiting defence expenditure over the last 60 years, our economy has not been able to keep pace with many other countries whose baseline was much lower than ours at the start of this period. In fact, besides China, many other South Asian countries have left us behind by a wide margin. Even where allocations were as low as 1.8 per cent of the GDP as during the first 12 years of Independence and thereafter averaged between 2.3 per cent and 2.5 per cent, the economy moved at a painfully slow pace. It is the utilisation of the balance of 98.2-97.2 per cent of the GDP and the gains therefrom that merit a review and identifying pitfalls that have doggedly prevailed. Unfortunately, defence expenditure on the procurement of equipment has been in terms of imports which have had a negative impact on the economy. Even that which is supplied by ordnance factories and defence PSUs has invariably been priced high, and the Services never got their money’s worth. Where the defence equipment is produced indigenously, the overall impact of defence expenditure on the economy is positive even if none of it is exported. In case the export of such equipment takes place, the impact is doubly positive. However, the national policies and the efforts of defence research and development (except, perhaps, for the Indian Navy) did not result in self-reliance and the country had to depend mostly on imports. Therefore, it has had a negative impact on economic growth, and we had to pay more for less. With the defence sector being opened up to private players and collaboration with foreign companies and technology tie-ups, the situation may improve to some extent, and here again competition is essential to keep the prices within reasonable limits. Even so, much of the profits will be taken away by the collaborators unless we quickly master the technologies and indigenise production. India’s strategic vision must encompass its ambitions to become an economic power. It is essential to understand the need to create a secure environment for the fulfilment of such a lofty aim. To sustain the status of an economic power, the country will have to emerge as a regional military power and create peaceful conditions. In the field of national security, in all its facets, the doctrine of deterrence needs to be understood and capabilities to meet that end created. Development of deterrence is what will discourage adventurism by an adversary, have a sobering effect in the region and forestall any adverse situation for the country. There is the issue of judicious spending of financial allocations. Such spending and acquisition of new weapons, technologies and defence-related infrastructure have to be worked out to fit in the overall long-term strategic vision and security imperatives. In the absence of “jointness”, the Services tend to move along their own narrow tracks and are inclined to take a somewhat coloured view of the nature of future conflicts and their own role in these. Consequently, the capabilities thus built and infrastructure created could be disparate and unable to deliver the optimum dividend due to lack of synergy. While the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and every defence analyst pitches for the “jointness” or, in other words, the CDS system, the hold-up is inexplicable. Absence of unified and collective perceptions, prevalence of divergent strategic concepts and visualisation of the nature of future threats and long-term security needs remain blurred between the three Services. Consequently, all acquisitions are not fruitful and we don’t seem to get the bang we deserve for the buck we spend. The army continues to be obsessed with the Western front and keeps arming itself as such, whereas the security environment and the demands of new challenges have undergone a paradigm shift. It is possible to set out many such examples. Equally, the pervasive tendencies of turf tending and lack of understanding of imperatives of other Services and the essence of naval power led a senior Air Force officer to project the view that the Indian Navy should do without aircraft carriers and the shore-based IAF assets can provide air support and air cover to the naval fleets! The issues of force structuring and equipment are related to the demands of the present, near future and long-term security requirements. Manpower can be adjusted as the demands shift or shrink, but equipment acquisitions, the infrastructure thus created and the overall capabilities cannot be realigned easily or in a reasonable time-frame. The assimilation and optimum exploitation of equipment take a couple of years and its life-span in our environment due to the paucity of funds and inability for early replacement could extend up to four decades. The need for judicious use of financial allocations for defence cannot be over-emphasised. This can be possible only if there is long-term joint planning and assured financial support for such plans: at least covering five-year periods at a time. It is only under the CDS system that synergy and optimum utilisation of financial resources can create the most appropriate capabilities to face the security challenges of the future. The country cannot rise to a position of eminence in the international power play if the three Services have their own priorities, and joint planning, both in the acquisition of assets and operations, is
missing.
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War trophy
Collecting
“trophies” is a man’s (maybe woman’s also) weakness. For the soldiers, the trophies assume greater importance since they act as inspiration for future generations to excel. Thus, all military units display their trophies prominently. During the 1971 war, a young officer spotted an abandoned Pakistani six pounder anti-tank gun at Khulna (Bangladesh). He promptly “captured” it and we, not so young lot, decided to keep it as a “war trophy”. We did not feel it necessary to inform our seniors just then. After our de-induction from Bangladesh, we came to our peacetime location and having displayed our “war trophy” in front of our Quarter Guard, we got engrossed in our “peace-time soldiering” and forgot about it. After a few days, our Brigade Commander visited us to see how we had “settled down”. Accordingly, he inspected our Quarter Guard. Like all good commanders, he had “an eye for detail” and promptly noticed the gun displayed, which was not there during his pre-war visits and enquired about it. Before the Commanding Officer could respond, the Adjutant, in his exuberance, replied that it was a “war trophy” from the just concluded war. The Commander (perhaps knowingly, since no paper had gone to him) mentioned that he hoped that all the formalities concerning possessing a “war trophy” were completed. So as not to embarrass the Commanding Officer, he did not wait for reply but moved to other points. After the visit, the Old Man (as a Commanding Officer is affectionately referred to in the Army) demanded to know about the formalities that were completed for possessing the “war trophy”. There were none and in our wisdom (actually lack of it), none was considered necessary for the glory of the regiment. It was then that all hell broke loose, including the possibility of “court martial”. However, he desired it to be “regularised” soonest. We discovered that the procedure to acquire a “war trophy” was formidable one involving so many reports and sanctions from various HQs. Since it was a “serviceable” gun and the time limit for reporting and initiation of action to possess it as a “war trophy” was long over, the best way was to deposit it with the Ordnance (Depot). Through the good offices of the Second-in-Command (2 IC), the Old Man’s approval was obtained for that. Next day the gun was sent to the Ordnance Depot [Danapur (WB)], but the Ordnance people would have none of it and demanded why it was not reported and deposited earlier and threatened to initiate action for as grave a “crime” as keeping a serviceable gun “unaccounted” for so long. The havildar, who took the gun, sensed trouble and before it could aggravate further, “disengaged” himself from the Ordnance Wallahs on some pretext and brought the gun back. Fortunately, he had not disclosed the name of our regiment. Since good soldiers have an uncanny intuition of any impending trouble while going on any mission, he had mud-plastered the tactical number and the vehicle number. Thus, he did not leave any trace of our identity. Now, we had another problem on our hands. A “war conference” was held to overcome the “new emerging situation”. Our Quarter Master, a veteran of World War II who was older than even the Old Man, came with a perfect solution. The gun was to be taken at night and just dumped at the gate of the Ordnance Depot. The same was done. How the 2 IC “handled” the Old Man and how the latter “managed” the Commander we never knew, nor did we hear of that gun again. However, we deeply regretted that our complacency in not complying with the cumbersome “procedures” and “formalities” deprived us of our “war
trophy”.
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When private becomes public in cyberspace THE 22-year-old could well have believed she was anonymous. She was identified as “an American, petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, and 105 pounds.” and by the code name ‘Kristen’. The spotlight was on the New York’s Governor, Mr Eliot Spitzer, not on the woman he had a tryst with, and was comfortably away from the scene of crime, so to say. Journalists from The New York Times tapped in all their sources, and someone checked out the popular Internet social interaction site Facebook, and put a face to the person for whose company Client 9 (the Governor) paid $1,000 an hour! Ms Ashley Alexandra Dupre was, till the scandal broke out, an unknown, aspiring musician. Journalists and others could not have dug up so much about her and her life, so soon, had it not been for the fact that she had herself put many details online on two of the top Internet social networking websites MySpace and Facebook. In Paris, police recently arrested a Societe Generale employee as part of their investigation into an alleged rogue trading scandal at the French bank. The man was not identified immediately, but it was revealed that he was listed as a friend on the main accused Jerome Kerviel’s Facebook website page. For a cyber user, MySpace is her or her space in the social networking world, but it is also a public profile. MySpace has over 100 million and Facebook 64 million active users worldwide. Social networking websites are increasingly playing an important role in dispensing information about individuals, and if they happen to be in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, these websites become a trove of trivia, and sometimes real information, for the media and at times, law enforcement agencies. Often we are reminded that the cyber world is an extension of the real world, with actual consequences. Ms Dupre, understandably, did not reveal her life as an escort online; she wanted to focus on her music. As we go online, the “prostitute” of headlines becomes a person who has given the following description of herself, edited to save space: “I am all about my music, and my music is all about me…. When I was 17, I left home.... Left my hometown. Left a broken family. Left abuse. Left an older brother who had already split. ....I have abused drugs. I have been broke and homeless. But, I survived, on my own. I am here; in NY because of my music....” When the New York Times broke the story, Ms Dupre faced a harsh media spotlight, she went through her sites and deleted a number of friends and some other information, but at the same time, she kept her profile on both the websites. She knew that the media and the world at large were viewing her profile, so she edited it, but by that time a lot of damage had been done. Bilawal Bhutto Zirdari did the same, apparently blanking out a Halloween costume photograph that portrayed him as a “devil”. Being a political figure, even if he was only 19 and a student at Oxford University, he did take the precaution of registering under a pseudo name, “Bilawal Lawalib, (Lawalib is Bilawal reversed). When the news of his assuming the chairmanship of the Pakistan People’s Party broke out, another profile came online on Facebook. “Bilawal Bhutto Zardari” profile and his opinions were widely quoted by the media, but it was later revealed that the profile had been created by a prankster called “Tonay”. The media had neglected to relate the profile to the person by digging up further, which the New York Times did when they called Ms Dupre and interviewed her, thereby confirming their conjecture. The Internet often gives a false sense of anonymity to its users. You are not invisible when you are using the Internet, and certainly, what you post online can be checked and is visible. Increasingly Indians are blogging, putting their profiles on sites like MySpace and Facebook. It is therefore important not to presume that the date you post, and the photographs that are posed online are private. They are accessible to the public. So what do you do? Be mature in selecting what to reveal about your life, keep private things private, just as you would in real life. Getting back to Ms Dupre, she modified her profile but kept it on. In her note, she says: “Don’t let anyone hold you back or tell you that you can’t…because you can. I didn’t and here I am, just listen to it…. “What we Want” is my latest track….. Perhaps Ms Dupre wants to change tracks now. If so, her profile and the publicity have really helped her, and she knows how to exploit her instant fame. She has even created her own Facebook fan page to promote her music and groups dedicated to her have sprung up. She has posted her two songs in her profile and she is selling the songs online through a website called Amie Street, which prices tracks based on popularity. The songs are being listened to and presumably downloaded by lakhs of curious Internet users. A few days ago, if anyone wanted, he could have downloaded the songs free. Today, the going rate for the songs, “What We Want” and “Move ya Body,” is 98 cents a download. Her latest song, “Unspoken Words” is priced at $1.96. Many would argue that cannily trading my space for Facebook is a good bargain. Ah! The fruits of notoriety.
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Use ‘Dr’ in Germany, face criminal charges! BERLIN — Non-Europeans with PhDs beware: Telling people in Germany that you’re a doctor could land you in jail. At least seven US citizens working as researchers in Germany have faced criminal probes in recent months for using the title “Dr.” on their business cards, Web sites and resumes. They all hold doctoral degrees from elite universities back home. Under a little-known Nazi-era law, only people who earn PhDs or medical degrees in Germany are allowed to use “Dr.” as a courtesy title. The law was modified in 2001 to extend the privilege to degree-holders from any country in the European Union. But docs from the United States and anywhere else outside Europe are still forbidden to use the honorific. Violators can face a year behind bars. Ian Thomas Baldwin, a Cornell-educated researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, has stopped calling himself “Dr.” ever since he was summoned for interrogation by police two months ago on suspicion of “title abuse.” “Coming from the States, I had assumed that when you get a letter from the criminal police, you’ve either murdered someone or embezzled something or done something serious,” said Baldwin, a molecular ecologist. “It is absurd. It’s totally absurd.” No one has questioned the legitimacy of his degree or whether he has the right to conduct research here. But going by “Dr.” is verboten. If he wants to refer to his doctorate, German law dictates that he identify himself as “Prof. Ian Thomas Baldwin, PhD, Cornell University.” Baldwin confessed in a telephone interview that “there’s no question I’m guilty as charged.” But he hopes prosecutors will give him a break. In his defense, he noted that the Max Planck Institute has always addressed him as “Prof. Dr. Baldwin” since it offered him a job a decade ago, and nobody warned him he might be in legal peril if he did likewise. The proper use of honorifics is no small matter in Germany, a society given to formality where even longtime neighbors insist on addressing each other using their surnames. Those with advanced degrees like to show them off, and it is not uncommon to earn more than one. A male faculty member with two PhDs can fully expect to be called “Herr Professor Dr. Dr. Schmidt,” for example. In effect, forcing Americans to forsake their titles amounts to a social demotion. “It’s an indication of the hierarchisation of German society,” said Gary Smith, director of the American Academy in Berlin. “Germans are much more status-conscious about these things, and the status is real.” Smith holds a doctorate from Boston University and has tempted fate by answering to “Dr. Smith” during the two decades he’s lived in Germany. He said he was told years ago that there is a legal way for foreign PhDs and MDs to register for permission to use the appellation, but he has never bothered. “It wasn’t worth the trouble of doing anything about it,” he said. “It’s really an absurd situation in a globalised world.” The German doctor rule has been in effect since the 1930s, but it has been only sporadically enforced in recent years. Joerg Stolz, the chief prosecutor in the city of Jena, which is investigating Baldwin and another researcher at the Max Planck Institute there on suspicion of title abuse, said those two probes were “near closure.” He said his office had recommended to a judge against filing charges. In that event, he said, the matter would be referred to the Cultural Ministry in the state of Thuringia, which could still decide whether a civil fine is warranted. Detlef Baer, a spokesman for the ministry, said officials planned to drop both cases. “We spoke with the parties involved and determined they had no criminal intent,” he said. “They were given instructions as to how they can refer to their titles,” by citing the degree but not calling themselves doctors. The criminal investigations have alarmed higher education officials in Germany, where US researchers are in high demand and treated as blue-chip recruits. Last week, state education ministers met in Berlin and recommended that the law be modified so anyone holding a doctorate or medical degree from America could be addressed as “Dr.” without running afoul of the police. Even if the proposal is adopted, however, it would extend the privilege only to people with degrees from about 200 U.S. universities accredited by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Anyone with a PhD from Canada, Japan or the rest of the non-European world would still be excluded. For now, the old law remains on the books. It is unclear when, or if, Germany’s state parliaments will change it.
By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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Chatterati THE capital’s weddings may be getting bigger by the day, but some 80 villages around Delhi have decided to reverse that trend. Outer Delhi is disgusted by the idea of an unruly and expensive wedding tamasha. Many are planning day-time weddings that are low-cost, no-liquor and no-DJ affairs. Late nights are not suitable for older people; it also means men getting drunk, thereby causing crimes and accidents. Add to that, there are incidents of gate-crashing as well. The organizers aim to take this trend across the city’s 362 villages. Some 25 daytime marriages have already taken place. These wedding ceremonies start at 3 p.m. and wrap up by 7 pm. Money on electricity is saved too. And since there’s no loud music, social interaction is being given a boost. The next agenda are issues like “dowry-less” weddings and curbing female foeticide. They want to bring back the biradari system, which was more egalitarian. Well, hopefully the rich and famous in the cities will follow this sensible route.
Wages of intolerance Maharashtra continues to feel the reverberations of Raj Thackeray’s outpourings against the poor Bihari migrants in Mumbai. From the Mumbai Thane region, there has already been an exodus of North Indians towards their ‘poor’ home land. The law did catch up with Raj but as usual it was a case of too little and too late. In India, such a charade of arrest and bail is the preserve all politicians wanting to be in the public eye. Well, if the issue was handled sloppily by the Maharashtra Government, the members of parliament from Bihar and UP merely raised political slogans against the Sena. A low level slanging match has ensued from both sides. Bihar politicians have joined the war of words against Thackeray. But have they ever thought why investors shy away from Bihar? Why is there no migration towards Bihar from other states? It is Bihari labour which is found from Kashmir to the South. Will these leaders make an honest attempt at getting Bihar out of the poverty trap? Shouldn’t a large portion of this failure be attributed to them?
The draw of power The last two weeks in the capital witnessed heavy networking by the Rajya Sabha aspirants among the powers that be. Surprisingly, the new trend of editors and journalists who want to be a part of the upper house is growing. With a couple of senior editors out of jobs, politics seems to be the next best thing. Well, it is said that an industrialist buys his way to the upper house. So, obviously a journalist or a news paper owner might have to compromise with the positions his paper takes. Aligning with a political party for media persons has been till now been a big ‘no.’ But times have changed. But is it fair to the public? What lures the rich to politics? What lures the already powerful senior journalist to the upper house? One fails to understand. Shall we say that it is politics that reigns supreme everywhere in India?
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