 |
|
Fake currency Georgia on the boil Gay life |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Many cooks, spoiled broth
Sambar wars
Colonial Civil Service Maybe foreign oil isn’t so bad after all Chatterati
|
Fake currency THE magnitude of the recovery of fake currency notes from banks in Uttar Pradesh is huge and shows that the racket is a big-time operation carried out meticulously. It is not as if banks received the counterfeit notes from clients and failed to detect them. These were systematically introduced by certain bank employees themselves who apparently whisked away genuine notes from the banks and replaced them with the fakes. Fake notes of the face value of over Rs 1 crore were recovered from one branch of the State Bank of India in Dumariyaganj alone. Similar recoveries have been made from Aligarh, Bijnor, Lucknow and Siddharthnagar also since the racket was unearthed by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in May this year. The fake notes were smuggled from Nepal. There are reasons to suspect that the mischief was done mostly through bank branches in towns bordering Nepal. It is obviously a sinister game plan to destabilise the country’s economy. The notes are believed to have been printed in Pakistan and entered Uttar Pradesh through Kathmandu and Dhaka. STF sleuths have not ruled out the possibility of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) playing a facilitator in the nefarious trade. Ironically, that did not make alarm bells ring in the government as loudly as they should have. UP Additional Director-General of Police Brijlal has alleged that the police had apprised the Reserve Bank of India about the racket on March 29 last year and had asked them to check banks in districts bordering Nepal, but it was not done. It is such dereliction which allows the enemies of the nation to make hay. Now that the scandal has bloomed into horrendous proportions, there is an urgent need to come to grips with the situation double quick. With the decision to hand over the matter to the CBI, all its ramifications can be probed. Secondly, it has become imperative to launch better surveillance at the Indo-Nepal border. This has been identified by the anti-national forces as the soft underbelly of India. Complacency has to make way for exceptional vigil.
|
|
Georgia on the boil THE tension between Russia and its former Caucasus republic, Georgia, has taken a turn for the worse. The low-scale war between the two has led to the loss of hundreds of lives in a short time. It can lead to a full-scale war if steps are not taken to bring it to an end immediately. The affected South Ossetia, which got de facto independence in 1992 in a war against Georgia, must not be allowed to become a pretext for Russia and Georgia to vent their anger against each other. Russia’s dislike for Georgia increased after the latter applied for a NATO membership some time ago. Moscow had been looking for an opportunity to militarily strike against Georgia. The opportunity came Russia’s way when Georgia attacked South Ossetia to recapture its rebel region, which wishes to merge with North Ossetia, a Russian territory. Russia has taken the position that its forces are only playing a “peacekeeping” role, as it has its troops stationed in South Ossetia for the purpose. The truth, however, lies elsewhere. Georgia acted suddenly, perhaps, with the realisation that it could quickly regain control of its estranged region at a time when Russia’s attention, like the rest of the world, was focused on the Beijing Olympics. Georgia, a staunch ally of the US, might have thought that Washington would come to its rescue if the situation went against it. But the Georgian leadership, perhaps, forgot that in a military conflict between two sides the week suffers immediately and the allies come to play their role at a time of their choosing after weighing all the pros and cons. The US cannot side with Georgia the way it did when Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait because Russia is not Iraq and Georgia is not Kuwait. The US has been trying to end the hostilities between Russia and Georgia through the UN Security Council. Russia cannot afford to prolong the war. But it will do all it can to ensure that South Ossetia does not become a part of Georgia again.
|
|
Gay life THE suggestion of Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss that homosexuality must be decriminalised has not come a day too soon. It is an anachronism for any society in this age of individual freedoms for the state and the law to decree what sexual choices are permissible. There was a time when a man choosing to have a physical relationship with another man was considered either sinful or abnormal. Whatever may be one’s belief, there is little reason to see such men as criminals. It is high time such a sexual choice was made legal, not only to end the “structural discrimination” which frustrates prevention, care and treatment of people with HIV but also to ensure their equality under the law. There can be no denying that Indian society is deeply divided on this issue. However, Dr Ramadoss’ forthright advocacy for legalising homosexuality in India may raise hopes more than is justified by the prevalent realities. The minister made his pitch for scrapping Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code – which criminalises homosexuality -- at an international conference on AIDS in Mexico. Whether he was playing to the gallery or is earnest about following up the issue will be known by how his ministry pursues the issue at home. Until then it would be premature to take his words as the official stand of the government, when the Union Home Ministry is firm that Section 377 should be retained, on the grounds that it is necessary as a deterrent against child abuse. While this is not convincing, especially in the light of the Law Commission’s suggestion to specifically criminalise sex with children below 16, the fact is that the Union Home Ministry’s viewpoint has prevailed so far. Given the opposing stands taken by the ministries of health and home affairs, it is not clear which of the two represents the official position of the Union Government. Statements are of little use. It is policy that matters.
|
|
It is strange how man gets time to hate when life is too short to love. — Rabindranath Tagore
|
Many cooks, spoiled broth
PAKISTAN is again busily inviting India to the feast, with the peace process on the menu, but with too many cooks in Islamabad the broth is in danger of being spoilt. No one seems in charge of the rival chefs. The last few months have seen an intensification of sub rosa belligerence from various quarters, interspersed with more positive statements on trade, cooperation and peaceful coexistence. There have been efforts to infiltrate jihadis across the LOC, sometimes accompanied by cross-border firing in violation of the ceasefire agreement and, more dangerously, actual border violations by Pakistani military personnel. Islamabad has responded with counter-charges and loftily called for restraint so as not to rock the boat, describing the exchanges as a useful exercise in letting off steam, casually dismissing a serious demarche. On the Kabul embassy bombing, evidence with the Afghan government of a Pakistani hand was subsequently reinforced by similar findings by US and Indian intelligence sources. The Americans confronted the ISI with hard proof on the subject and have accused rogue elements in the ISI of leaking information about planned US-NATO military strikes against the Taliban to the latter, compelling President Bush to ask the Pakistan Prime Minister who is in charge of the ISI, which has long been accused of being a law unto itself. Dr Manmohan Singh put the Pakistan Prime Minister on notice on these matters on the margins of the SAARC summit in Colombo and Mr Yousuf Gilani has promised to inquire into the Kabul bombing though other spokesmen in Islamabad are speaking in different accents. It is pointless for Pakistan to argue that it cannot be a terrorist state when it is itself a victim of terror. If terror stalks Pakistan, it is because the monsters it bred and fattened over many years have turned on their erstwhile keepers. Pakistani observers themselves are bewildered by the abortive seven-hour civil coup by their PM’s Office which announced that the ISI would henceforward be under the Interior Ministry. This was soon rubbished by a craven “clarification” that the earlier announcement had been “misinterpreted” and that there was no change in the status quo. Obviously, the Army or the ISI intervened and the Prime Minister had to back off. This indicates where power resides and the limits to civil authority which remains woolly and divided. The Muslim League (Nawaz) pulled out of the government some weeks ago insisting on the restoration of the former Chief Justice and others judges who were removed at the time of President Musharraf’s November coup. Nothing has been settled and the governance of Pakistan has off and on been conducted in exile from Dubai and London, which is where Mr Zardari and Mr Nawaz Sharif periodically visit. This is a bizarre situation. Meanwhile, the recent Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts and Surat serial bomb plants remain unsolved. Current leads point to trans-border involvement though internal modules are at work at home as well. No formal accusations have been levelled but Pakistan has charged India with responsibility for the more recent bombing of its Herat consulate and for using its consular and development assistance presence in Afghanistan to foster violence in Balochistan and the Frontier. Pakistan is not doing any of this to thwart India’s civilian nuclear agreement being internationally negotiated. The alarms are more likely being dictated by internal turf battles and diversionary tactics. Military-ISI-jihadi establishment hardliners seek to rally the country around the flag and subvert the forthcoming J&K polls which, if conducted smoothly, would embarrass them. Salahuddin and his United Jihad Council have denounced the prospective elections while the straw men of the Hurriyat have yet to decide which way to jump. Rather than be unnerved by bluff and bluster, India should play a cool hand. It needs to strengthen the modernising civil-democratic peace lobby in Pakistan by carrying the India-Pakistan dialogue forward on a broad front, putting the onus on Pakistani hardliners to reject fresh overtures. New initiatives could include an offer to extend the Jammu-Baramulla railway to Muzaffarabad; a Delhi-Srinagar-Islamabad air service with the forthcoming opening of the Srinagar international airport; and a proposal for the joint construction and management of Pakistan’s Neelum Valley and India’s Kishenganga hydro projects as a step towards joint water resource development in all of J&K to combat climate change. Greater trans-border/LOC road and rail connectivity and trade as agreed can be pressed. With Kabul now a SAARC member, India should push for transit to and a joint approach towards Afghanistan, especially with the Iran and (possibly) Turkmenistan pipelines on the anvil. Fighting terrorism in India calls for firmer handling by the Centre, coordinated action by the states under an autonomous federal agency, and a willingness by governments and civil society to accept the enactment and implementation of sterner laws with an impartial and self-executing mechanism to hear appeals and punish the misuse of authority. Communal vote-banking all round, such as the BJP’s dangerously divisive agitation in Jammu, is sowing hatred and mistrust and must be ended. A broad-based National Integration Council meeting could offer a means of restoring civility and balance in pubic life and redrawing the boundaries of nationally acceptable conduct by all
players.
|
Sambar wars
THE officer trainees trooped into the IAS Academy mess after an absorbing session on the intricacies of the Constitution of India. While polite dinner table conversations were supposed to be peppered with “Please pass the salt” or “May I have the chapatti basket, please?” we were used to more cryptic requests like, “The gunpowder, partner” or “Lifesaver bottles, please.” Not to be confused with blood and gore or military supplies, Krish’s idli podi or Venkat’s pickle could be mixed with the most indifferent arhar daal on the planet to taste like Amma’s divine cooking back home. “Only if you were unconscious or inebriated, of course,” supplied Supriya, who never let us forget that sambar and rasam were her basic needs. She planned to run nutrition tests to prove that she was wasting away having to pretend that the daal chawal in the mess was actually food. There was always someone grumbling about the food in the mess. “The mess is not merely the name of a place, it is an accurate description of the state of affairs therein.” This was the Probationer’s First Law with apologies to the dear departed Murphy. “If you came here looking for home food, go home!” was another postulate. To which Murali added, “The daal in the mess has been specially diverted from flood relief supplies — be grateful!” It became clear that daal was a fundamental question of quotidian existence in the academy. There was no point making people so miserable over basics when the mess committee was managed by the probationers themselves, and the average mess bill was an astronomical Rs 5000 a month. A snap poll was held, and to nobody’s surprise, the batch voted decisively for sambar in parallel with daal. The South Indian head count was only 15 but 58 people voted for sambar. So it was assumed that people had either voted with both hands and some with their feet as well, or that Rest of India had shown rare solidarity in ensuring that there were fewer Tamil groans and Telugu expletives over the menu. Predictably, everyone made a beeline for the new addition irrespective of their ethnicity, leading to imbalances in the daal: sambar ratio worked out on paper. Like with all melting pots, the head cook had the last word. When the sambar tureen logged receding levels, he would squeeze tamarind paste, chop drumsticks and sputter some mustard seeds into the arhar daal in an urgent bid to salvage the day. Most people were too busy with their favourite pursuits (a sport, a hobby or a love interest) to care. The mess notice board which was the wallpaper for cartoons and graffiti, however, showed that you can never fool a good palate indefinitely. Under the head, “subsidies in the mess” was this succinct analysis: “In this mess, the vegetarians subsidise the non-vegetarians. The girls subsidise the boys. The vegetarian girls subsidise everyone else.” Below was the postscript: “It takes a brain nourished with curd rice and sambar to work this out.” Someone had added: “The last word: It takes brawn fed on butter chicken and rajmah to ensure it stays that
way.”
|
Colonial Civil Service Newspapers
routinely carry news and interviews of those successful candidates who have attained top ranks in the so-called elite and prestigious examination of our country, the UPSC’s Civil Services Examination. The examination, which despite being a one-and-a-half-year long marathon exercise, right from the stage of filling the forms to the declaration of the final result, continues to attract a large number of aspirants from every nook and corner of our country. Many of them throng the national Capital for getting themselves admitted to coaching centres to fulfil their dream of becoming a bureaucrat (some even leave their present job in their endeavour towards success). It is indeed shocking that in recent years a large chunk of the country’s promising students from the fields of medicine, engineering/technology, management etc., by clearing the civil service exam with flying colours, are entering the top echelons of the bureaucracy rather than pursuing their career in their respective qualified professions. This is perhaps because of our present system of governance, which is still deeply embedded in its colonial relic where a “DC or Collector” enjoys vast powers and a position higher than all other functionaries in the district. It is all the more unfortunate that specialists or technocrats have to work under the control and directions of a “generalist” in our administrative set-up. In the present era of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, I am unable to understand our society’s still over-emphasis on the colonial civil-service, which is a relic of the British Raj. The aura of being an IAS officer continues to remain at the top slot. The service enjoys the first preference of young educated aspirants belonging to various streams. The service, which was evolved to serve the British regime in order to collect reveune and exercise coercive and punitive powers on hapless Indians, has although transformed into a professional public service, in real terms it is a service of politicians in power. Regarding the generalist nature of the bureaucracy, it is rightly said that “an IAS officer is a jack of all trades and master of none”. Though the IAS is termed as the topmost all-India service, the two others being the IPS and the IFS, but actually it is a service under the control of a state government. A selected civil servant has to usually remain and serve only in the state cadre, allotted at the time of his/her selection throughout his career, although a few stints of postings are available at the Centre during periodic intervals. When the service is only in and under a particular state government with a little time in the Union Government, how can it be termed as an All-India service ? Doesn’t the central services like Income Tax, Central Excise and Customs, Railways, Posts and Telegraph etc are more All-India in nature ? I would also like to point out the apathy and lackadaisical attitude of our successive regimes to reform the present scheme of civil services although various commissions and committees have been appointed from time to time to examine the matter. The notable ones are the YK Alagh committee, the Surinder Nath committee and more recently, the PC Hota committee, which submitted its report in 2004. Although piecemeal reforms have been carried out scantly, but the need of the hour is to overhaul the entire gamut of civil service structure. I think our politicians don’t want to rejuvenate the civil service as per contemporary needs and challenges as they only desire that the bureaucrats should merely carry out their diktats and dance to their tunes. It is noteworthy to mention that as the service of a private sector employee depends on the pleasure or wish of his employer or management, the posting of a bureaucrat fully depends on the whims and fancies of his political masters. This is evident when after the change of a regime, there in a state, come large-scale postings/transfers of bureaucrats. All this forces a bureaucrat to incline towards one political party or the other and indulge in appeasing members of the ruling elite in order to have a attractive and dignified postings. Though the posting and transfer power in the hands of a government is indispensable in administrative jurisprudence, it also cannot be denied that the same can prove to be a bane for those bureaucrats who work honestly and as per the rule book. An officer, who does not carry out unfair and unreasonable diktats of his political boss has to face the music. There is little remedy available to him/her in such circumstances. The Central Government does not have enough powers to come to the rescue of such harrassed officers at the hands of a state government although a little remedy exists through the intervention of administrative tribunals and the judiciary. It is also a bitter fact that the IPS, the IFS and other central services (including defence services) have always got a raw deal as compared to the coveted IAS cadre. Be it pay packets or speedy career advancement opportunities, the IAS continues to remain at the helm in contrast to other services. Only recently, after the Sixth Pay Commission award, members of other services lamented the step-motherly treatment meted out to them with regard to the increase in pay as well as promotional avenues as against IAS officers. Though the Central Government has constituted an empowered committee to look into the anomalies and grievances in this regard, to what extent it would be able to redress the grievances of other services is a matter of time. The need of the hour is to initiate a national debate for the adoption of a “Position Classification” system for categorisation of services in our country, wherein pay and incentives depend upon the nature and functions of the post which a public servant is holding, as is prevalent in leading countries like the USA and Japan.
|
|
Maybe foreign oil isn’t so bad after all THERE are many things I want independence from – incoming e-mail, the section of my wedding vows about monogamy, this bogus corporation I created to lower my taxes but now takes up all of my time, Sam Zell – but foreign oil is not one of them. Foreign oil is my favorite kind of oil. It means other nations clog their beaches with ugly rigs, do dangerous work and suffer environmental disasters and I still get to cruise Hollywood in my yellow Mini Cooper convertible. Oil exploration is an industry America should look to expand right after alchemy research and pyramid building. Yet Barack Obama and John McCain, in speeches and ads, have spent time arguing about who is most serious about achieving independence from foreign energy. Both are willing to drill offshore even though that won't produce more gasoline until long after we all own electric cars. And both want to relieve gas prices by tapping the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, despite the fact that there's no emergency and higher prices are the only thing that has been effective at getting Americans to curb consumption of foreign oil. The only smart thing I heard was Obama's advice to fully inflate your tires, although he overlooked the fact that gas stations no longer have free air pumps or even decent pay ones. I'm surprised he didn't tell us to save gas by not getting lost with the aid of free Amoco maps. If the candidates wanted to be independent from all oil, I would embrace that green goal. But they hate only foreign oil. As if foreign oil was inherently different from good, God-fearing, strong-work-ethic American oil, the kind that is ignited by freedom and burns terrorism and France. To the commodities market, there is no American oil, no American cotton, no American aluminum, no American coffee – they all get bid on without national prejudice. Even I know that, and my academic study of commodities consists solely of watching "Trading Places." If we were energy independent, the politicians imply, prices wouldn't go up. But if you're an oil-striking American dude – maybe a little naive but smart enough to know that your hot daughter Elly May is going to be better off in Beverly Hills than the Ozarks – you're going to shop your barrels to the highest bidder, not just to whiny Americans with their near-worthless dollars. More oil procured from under U.S. soil means more oil on the global market, not more oil for just us. A country is not stronger if it produces everything itself. Econ 101 teaches you that everyone benefits when people who are good at one thing, such as having oil, can exchange it with people who are good at something else, such as sitting in offices and surfing the Web. And even if we cut down on imported oil, we're still dependent on other nations. We import electricity from Mexico and Canada. We import 20 percent of our natural gas and 80 percent of the uranium for nuclear reactors. All of our solar power is directly imported from the sun. If being independent from foreign oil is good, so would being independent from foreign fish, foreign cars, foreign beer and foreign movies. Do you want to live in a world without Spanish mackerel, Priuses, Guinness or Mr. Bean? Self-sufficiency won't make us safer either. Sure, if we went to war with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and Russia and Mexico and Canada at once, moving our armies around would be tough, but that would be the least of our worries: We would have some kind of mob-funded, hockey-goon, masked-wrestler army at our door. Outside that scenario, energy interdependence makes us more secure. When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit in 2005, for instance, we got oil to the ravaged Gulf Coast by buying extra from Venezuela and the Netherlands. Robert Bryce, author of the new book "Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence," is sure the presidential candidates know all of this. "The rhetoric is helping to support multibillion-dollar boondoggles like the ethanol scam," he said. "When they say, `energy independence,' they mean, `Vote for me.' It's all it means." The only solution to our energy panic, I believe, is to get monthly bills for gasoline, just like we do for water, electricity and cell-phone minutes. All that staring at those hundredths of a cent speeding by on a gauge is bound to make people crazy, lashing out at foreigners and large corporations. If bartenders attached one of those things to their taps, we would have candidates promising independence from foreign beer too.
By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
|
|
Chatterati LEADERS of different political parties, including the BJP, are wasting their time becoming masters of sting operations. Only if the tax-payers’ money were not wasted in all this. And in the whole drama the three “pehalwans” — Mulayam, Paswan and Lalu along with mastermind Amar Singh — have been brought together on one platform. It’s a clever three-some. The losers in this are the two main parties. Even after the Prime Minister’s all-party meet, the call for peace was only for TV channels. The riots are all stage-managed by the Delhi BJP boss. As the time of elections comes closer, the vote-bank politics, overlooking communal harmony, starts over human lives by a couple of brokers financed by desperate politicians who are holding the government to ransom. It is shameful and disgusting. Another
tragedy The stampede, which took the lives of 146 people at the Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh, could have been avoided. Those killed were mostly women and children. The government has announced compensation and ordered an inquiry. What is there to inquire into? In 1981 more than 50 people died in a similar incident at Naina Devi. Such tragedies should have compelled the administration to deal with these “melas” on a war-footing. It is amazing why these public events cannot be managed with a degree of foresight and administrative skill. As usual, the provision of basic amenities and administrative services is shoddy. The District Magistrate has enough powers to manage such events and he has in this case clearly failed to anticipate the requirements of crowd control. And, of course, our politicians are the first for any “darshan” with a convey of senior officials and cops. But when arrangements for the public are concerned, there are only some home guards on duty. And no medical facilities are provided for during such events. It’s
amazing The media is always surprised at the personal rapport of politicians across political parties. Recently, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BSP chief Mayawati startled everyone with their meeting at comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet’s funeral. The two were seated next to each other and were seen exchanging views. Mayawati’s barbs against “crown prince” Rahul Gandhi are overlooked as the two women leaders share a personal rapport with each other. It is good that political attacks do not affect their behaviour from being civil to each other in public. Women anyway, they say, are adept at reconciliation. Well, though the cold vibes that Prakash Karat got could have frozen everyone present.
|
|
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
