The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Bt+Brinjal
More tests needed to allay safety concerns

The common man is justifiably confused. Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chauhan and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar insist that genetically modified (GM) Bt brinjal is totally safe, considering that the biotech regulator, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has given it a clean chit on October 14, 2009. On the other hand, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh maintains that the committee’s safety tests are flawed. With so much divergence of views in the Union government itself, the consumer does not know whom to believe. Under the circumstances, the best option would be to check and double check all aspects so that there is no scope for misgivings. Not only the short- term impact, but also the long-term effects of Bt brinjal on human health should be analysed thoroughly. After all, what is at stake is the future of millions of people.

What lends authenticity to Mr Jairam Ramesh’s apprehensions is the warning by noted molecular biologist Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava that a nod for Bt brinjal would be one of the biggest disasters for the country. Dr Bhargava, a Supreme Court appointee to the GEAC, has revealed that less than 10 per cent of the 30 mandatory safety tests had been conducted before the decision was taken by the GEAC. The GEAC members allegedly turned a blind eye towards major discrepancies, fudging of data and misinformation in the MNCs’ records of the tests.

Bt brinjal will be the first genetically modified food crop to be introduced in India. Brinjal happens to be the country’s second largest produced vegetable after potato. Human safety is paramount and it will be advisable to err on the side of caution. This is all the more necessary in the light of previous efforts by multinational corporations to use the citizens of Third World countries as guinea pigs. Other indigenous techniques available to increase productivity should also be evaluated. For example, Andhra Pradesh, which has not allowed cultivation of Bt brinjal, has one lakh acres of land under organic farming and yields of cotton are equal to the farms of Punjab and Maharashtra where Bt varieties of cotton were sown. At stake, however, is the question how safe is Bt brinjal for the health of the people. It certainly requires deeper research before the government grants its clearance.

Victims of marriage
Law must protect NRI brides

Tales of NRI’s deserting their wives are not uncommon. Yet precious little has been done till now to protect the interests of brides marrying men based in distant lands. Thus the National Commission for Women’s demand for a separate law to cover NRI affairs, particularly with regard to matrimonial disputes, maintenance of women and children, ex-parte divorce, alimony, etc, is valid. With the number of cases of harassment of NRI brides rising, there is an urgent need to redress the grievances of these unfortunate women who are often cheated by unscrupulous husbands on the promise of a better life.

While the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs recorded 331 cases of harassment last year, actual figures are likely to be much higher. Punjab — where the craze for going abroad is widespread — tops the list with maximum number of brides facing desertion. Individual efforts of men like Balwant Singh Ramoowalia and Jagdip Singh are welcome. Ramoowalias’s Lok Bhalai Party has done well to bring to light the unenviable plight of abandoned brides. However, legal recourse can help them. The Law Commission’s report “Need for Family Law Legislations for Non-Resident Indians” had made useful recommendations including changes in the law to provide for maintenance and alimony. The opening of NRI cell to register complaints by NCW is a step in the right direction.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development’s proposal for a second passport for women who marry NRIs too can be explored. However, more is needed to check fraudulent marriages involving NRIs. The government must take up the matter with governments of foreign countries especially those where NRI population is fairly large. Parents too would be well advised to check the antecedents of prospective NRI grooms and verify their marital and financial status lest their daughters become victims of marriage.

Thought for the Day

Money can fetch you bread alone. Don’t consider it as your sole end and aim. — Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa

ARTICLE

Importance of dissent
Congress should nurture internal democracy

India is a democracy without democrats because most parties that are active in the national polity lack internal democracy not only by their structural arrangements but also in their functioning. The young general secretary of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi is on records on more than one occasion to admit that internal democracy was missing from the Congress structure.

However, recent controversies around Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor clearly point out the lack of functional democracy within the party. The sum and substance of the upbraiding of the young minister for the controversies he triggered off by his candid opinions suggests that the party high command expected a total conformity not only with the present but also with the past of the party.

For the party what the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi said and did was the ultimate word and would remain for perpetuity right and so. Hence the party could not and would tolerate any criticism of their actions or their words.

Tharoor had made a mistake of publicly agreeing with the criticism levelled by Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Labour MP from Britain of Nehru’s foreign policy as a moralistic running commentary. He had no hesitation in concurring with the view as he too belonged to Parekh’s political philosophy.

The Congress party spokesman reminded Tharoor that he was a minister in the Congress-led government and expected to carry forward Nehru’s policies and not to express a differing opinion. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to initiate a meeting with Tharoor to convey him the party high command’s displeasure.

Tharoor has publicly not confessed to pointing out that the UPA government had blatantly given up the Nehru path in the current foreign affairs by seeking close relations and partnership with the United States. Nevertheless, he tried to wriggle out of the situation caused by his remarks in usual political fashion of blaming the media for misquoting him. He claimed that he was merely quoting opinions of leaders of other countries who felt that Nehru foreign policy was a moralistic commentary only.

The episode merely reflected how doors of the party remain closed even on trivia to any differing opinions or even to introspection of past mistakes if it involves critical element for the Nehru Gandhi regimes. Tharoor is accustomed to a different style of functioning even at the United Nations. He always had enjoyed freedom of expression and had fearlessly given his opinions in free debates internal or external for his functioning.

He must now feel strangled to find no avenue within the party and in any internal forum for any debate. Neither there is any debate within the parliamentary party nor in the organisational wing. The practice has come into existence ever since Indira Gandhi had combined two posts, leader of parliamentary party and the organisational head into one and held it. The tradition continues even today as Sonia Gandhi occupies both the chairs.

In Indira’s time, members were not allowed to express their views in the parliamentary party meetings which were mere rituals before and at the end of every session of parliament .The leader delivers her address and other members are expected to nod their heads in approval. No issue has been discussed at the parliamentary part meetings since 1980.

Even at the party forums, known critics of the party leadership are carefully weeded out to deny them an opportunity to hold the mike at the party sessions. Many have in the past revealed the character of debates within the Working Committee where no dissenting words are allowed to reverberate.

Known supporter initiates the debate and the Working Committee meetings have generally concluded by authorising the party chief to take necessary actions whether it was dealing with other parties or for disciplining errant members or effecting even a change of the leadership of the legislature party or nominating candidates for controversial seats. No dissenting voice has been heard in the party’s decision-making bodies.

The authoritarian character of the military chain command is an inherent necessity for a strict obedience for success of every campaign with enemy. However, functioning of politically parties differ radically. They are not fighting enemies. They are supposed to serve public causes for welfare of people and society. Fighting other parties is incidental need and not primary function. Unless the ground realities are known and proper evaluation of past mistakes is taken into account, correct strategies cannot be evolved.

Strategies evolved to fight political opponent alone but fail to satisfy masses and their needs and aspirations have a habit of recoiling on the party. The left of centre swing that Indira Gandhi gave to her economic focus during the days of internal crisis in the Congress in 1967-70 periods was her political compulsion. But it also raised hopes and expectations of people.

As the Indira Gandhi government failed to satisfy the raised urges, controls slipped out of her hands within the next two years. Rajiv Gandhi had also raised expectations but could not meet them. Hence his unprecedented majority of 1984 had dwindled down to nearly the half numbers won in the December1989 election.

However, there has not been a serious introspection by the party high command even to understand causes of its failures to win the election leave aside the causes of its success earlier and later so that the party can understand what the masses desire from it. The party believes that it was able to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party twice on its slogan that identified it with the Aam Adami.

If so, why there has been no serious debate within the party forum on the impact of and causes for the current price rise on the people? There has been a lot of effort in playing the blame game for the price rise but not on suggesting how to control the situation. How can it come about without a clear understanding of what caused it?

The parties need to understand that people’s aspirations and fears have a direct impact on fortunes of parties in power or outside it. Without internal democracy and two-way traffic for communication, the Congress would not be able to deal with developing political situation. When the party attempts to stifle differing voices even on trivial issues such as the character of Nehru’s foreign policy 40 years ago and have no potential of effecting lives now, where is the hope that it would be able to meet the challenges ahead?

Merely projecting a person as a future leader is not a sure cure for rebuilding the party with a brighter future. The charismatic leader also requires a functional and democratic structure to keep him tuned to what people whom he desires to rule and lead in future want from him, of him and by him.

After a few more controversies, Tharoor may be cast aside and there would be none to shed tears for him since he is alone even in his state party unit but he would, certainly, leave an indelible mark on the party for his views are a warning that introspection is must for a brighter and errorless future.

MIDDLE

Jai Hind Club
by Raj Kanwar

THE early and mid 1940s were politically turbulent years in India in general and Lahore in particular. All the Congress leaders from Gandhi downward had been jailed in the wake of the Quit India Movement. It was then left to the sundry unlisted soldiers, viz. college and school students and the unknown rank and file of the party to keep the torch alight.

I was then a student of DAV School; we lived off Nisbet Road, in close proximity to Dayal Singh College. Its students were the most vociferous, and regularly took out boisterous processions, despite restrictions, lathi charges and arrests. Salim, (whose full name I do not remember now), was their leader. His impassioned speeches greatly influenced the younger students like me. I too, with my school friends, would join the processions, albeit at the rear.

Those processions then became a regular feature. The processionists braved police lathis, though it must be said to the credit of the policemen that they used reasonable force; their object seem to disperse us, and not hurt us, as the today’s policemen in Free India do. Most of us would run helter-skelter but the leaders would lay on the road daring the police to arrest them. That the police routinely did, took them to the thana and then ritually released them in the evening. My schoolmates and I were spared because of our tender years, and to save the police extra paper work.

The World War II then raged furiously. The Japanese had scored some notable victories in the South-east Asia War theatre, and had captured Rangoon, Singapore and even the Andamans. The city of Calcutta had come within the air bombing range of the Japanese.

It was in this background that the news filtered in the summer of 1943, despite censorship, of the exploits of Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose. A provisional government of Free India or Azad Hind was proclaimed. The INA soldiers even successfully managed to enter Assam, and liberated Kohima and Imphal in May 1944. However, their success was short lived.

But by then the slogan Jai Hind given by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had become the war cry of the country, fighting to liberate India from the clutches of British rulers. The trials of Sehgal, Dhillon, Shahnawaz at the Red Fort in Delhi further roused our nationalistic passions.

My schoolmates and I then thought of commemorating Netaji’s birthday and formed a Jai Hind Club on 23rd January 1946 in Lahore. Eight of us had our right arms tattooed with “Jai Hind”. A club member retired as an army general, and another is a reputed doctor in Mumbai. I live in Dehradun. But the other five founders of the Jai Hind Club got lost in the upheavals of the Partition. May god bless them wherever they are, or may their souls rest in peace if they have gone to their Maker.

OPED

Decline in leadership
Let sportspersons lead from the front
by M.G. Devasahayam

With the recent revolt of hockey players against the non-payment of subsistence salaries and Hockey India’s action in suspending the World Cup training camp, Indian sports has further descended into the bottomless pit of malaise and maladministration.

Though the impasse has ended with a temporary patch-up on the intervention of Suresh Kalmadi, president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the damage has been done.

It is a different matter that the IOA itself is in crisis over the state of preparedness for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in October this year!

It now transpires that as of November 2009, Hockey India had a total of Rs 1.78 crore in its kitty given by its sponsor, Sahara. Out of this amount an ‘unknown’ sum was spent on clearing an overdraft inherited from the old federation; a 25-lakh-rupee loan from the Indian Olympic Association was repaid and an ‘undisclosed’ amount was used to meet expenses related to foreign trips for the men’s and women’s teams from May 2009 onwards.

This left a paltry Rs 30 lakh, a fraction of the moolah money-bags paid for purchasing a cricket player for the IPL, to prepare the teams for the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Asian Cup – all falling this year.

In the event, the assuring exhortation of Union Sports Minister MS Gill – “I will do everything possible to give the players a fair deal. The duty of all players is to continue training. Everyone knows in the country that it is my objective to lift Indian hockey to the glorious level it has had in the past.” – sounds hollow and unconvincing.

Does this mean that he has been unaware of this dismal state of affairs all the while? Or did he know but did not care? It appears to be so because the minister is a self-proclaimed worshipper of cricket and promoting other sports does not appear to be his priority.

It should be remembered that it was during his watch India’s Olympic achievement remained at the pathetic level of 1980, while neighbouring China rose to the pinnacle of world sports.

India’s only ‘Olympic’ achievement seems to be the massive spending of over Rs 5,500 crore to build infrastructure for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and its messing up so far.

Hardly anything is heard about the preparations for the various games and sports and India’s prospects in these. It would be worthwhile to remember that the same city hosted the 1982 Asian Games, for which also a huge amount of money was spent on infrastructure.

But has it benefited the promotion of sports in the bureaucratic city in any manner? What kind of achievements have Delhi teams and sportsmen posted during the last near three decades?

The fact of the matter is that the administration of sport and games in the country is reeling under a crisis of leadership. This is reflected in the hockey players’ sharp response to the charge that they were putting money before the country: “We are not playing for money. We never have and we never will…….But a little money does play some role. Hockey India came into existence to take the national game to another level altogether, but it seems to have backfired. If they cannot take care of us, they better resign….We are willing to play the World Cup on our own money and will bear all our expenses.” The expression of no-confidence in the leadership is indeed jarring!

The reasons are not far to seek. As it is, leadership in this country in all walks of life is mediocre and weak. But in the arena of sport, it is worse, even destructive.

Those in charge of these games and sport, barring honourable exceptions, are nothing more than self-seeking charlatans using the sport bodies more for personal aggrandisement rather than the promotion of sport or sportspersons!

As a result, while the level of sport activity within the country is abysmally low, in international competitions we move from one shame to another. There appear to be no end to this sordid saga of incompetence, mediocrity and non-performance!

If the sport associations and bodies are dens of non-performing vested interests, government machinery in India, both at the Centre and in the states, is no better. Except earmarking a pittance for sports development, and perpetually promising grandiose policies, governments have done precious little towards genuine sports promotion.

In their present form and functioning it is futile to expect any improvement in the sport bodies or government departments in charge of sport. Things are going only from bad to worse as is clear from our dismal performance in hockey, football, athletics and other sports.

India’s occasional good performance in shooting, billiards, chess etc. is more due to individual and family efforts rather than that of government’s or sport bodies’ support.

It is, therefore, high time that outstanding sportsmen, professionals and sport lovers took charge and prevent Indian sport from sinking any lower. Distinguished and eminent sportspersons, including cricketers, should come together and form a nucleus in order to make this possible.

Such a profile is essential to take on the vested interests, deeply entrenched in the organisations managing the affairs of sport in the country.

In the event of the involvement of outstanding sportsmen in the promotion of sport in the country, it will become easier to enlist the support of industry and institutions, who otherwise shy away from this venture.

The present hockey crisis is a gloomy example. Some leading corporates that were willing to chip in with huge funds, backed out when they came to know that elections for Hockey India are due in February and some ugly politics, including the reemergence of KPS Gill, who almost single-handedly destroyed the game, cannot be ruled out.

The matter of excellence in sport, being vital to the youth of the nation and the honour of the country, needs to be taken up and pursued as a national movement. This calls for dynamic, dedicated and devoted service to the cause of sport and a thorough professional approach to its development.

Outstanding sportsmen have imbibed these characteristics in their blood and, therefore, are ideally placed to lead the movement. They can always access the services of experienced administrators and professionals who will be only too glad to assist. So let the sportsmen come to the fore and lead from the front instead of sitting and sulking at the rear.

The writer is former president of the Chandigarh Olympic Association and founder president, Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association

Changing face of West Asia
by Robert Fisk

It looks like a hop, skip and a jump. There’s the first electrified fence, then the dirt strip to identify footprints, then the tarmac road, then one more electrified fence, and then acres and acres of trees. Orchards rather than tanks. Galilee spreads beyond, soft and moist and dark green in the winter afternoon – a peaceful Israel, you might think.

And a peaceful Lebanon to the north, tobacco plantations amid the stony hills, just an occasional UN armoured vehicle to keep you on your toes. “Major Pardin says you cannot take pictures,” a Malaysian UN soldier tells me. Then a second one says the same. Then along comes a Lebanese army intelligence officer and stares at our papers. “OK, you have permission,” he declares, and I snap away with my old 36-frame real-film Nikon; the fields, the frontier fence, the high-tech surveillance tower on the horizon. This must be the most photographed border in the world.

Of course, the gentle countryside is an illusion. Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleagues in the Israeli government have been announcing that the only “army” of Lebanon is the Hizbollah, the Iranian-armed and Syrian-assisted guerrilla force whose bunkers and missiles north of the Litani river might just tip the balance in the next Hizbollah-Israeli war.

The Hizbollah claimed that the 2006 war with Israel was a “divine victory” – it didn’t feel that way to us in southern Lebanon at the time – yet even Israel admits it was a near-defeat for its own ill-trained soldiers.

But how would Israel react if the Hizbollah managed to enter Israel itself? Israeli army commanders are talking about this in the Israeli press. A fast, dramatic spring across the frontier to the west – in the direction of Naharia, perhaps, or a grab at the settlement of Kiryat Shmona – and Hizbollah would announce it had “liberated” part of historic “Palestine”. Israel would have to bomb its own territory to get them out.

This is no game. The Israeli army wants to revenge itself on the Hizbollah, which humiliated it in 2006. Nasrallah – on giant-wide screens, for security reasons – often talks as if he’s the Lebanese president. Did the Israelis really think al-Qa’ida or the Hizbollah were beind the attempted killing of two Jordanian diplomats between Amman and the Allenby bridge, Nasrallah asked. No friend of al-Qa’ida, Hizbollah would have succeeded in blowing them up if it had been involved. The crowd roared its agreement.

But the threats continue. The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, says that the Lebanese government will be held responsible for any future war and the Lebanese have had the usual warnings from Israel. Lebanon’s infrastructure will be attacked, its bridges and highways destroyed, its villages erased. Israel, Mr Barak has been saying, was restrained in 2006 – when it attacked Lebanon’s infrastructure, destroyed its bridges and highways and erased its villages. Plus ça change.

But there’s a good deal of “change”. Syria is being courted by the Obama administration. Its old allies in Lebanon – Druze leader Walid Jumblatt among them – are uttering honeyed words to Damascus. Indeed, Jumblatt has been meeting both Nasrallah and his old enemy Michel Aoun, and concluding that he is three-quarters of the way down the road to Damascus. And President Assad of Syria has been visiting Tehran again, to assure the Islamic Republic of his ever-loyal support.

You can see the way everyone is thinking. And here’s the big question, the camel in the room. If Israel ignores Obama and attacks Iran’s nuclear sites – a real aggression if ever there could be – the Hizbollah could fire rockets into Israel, perhaps even revealing its new anti-aircraft missile capacity. Hamas might join in from Gaza. Hamas is a tin-pot outfit; the Hizbollah is not. An Israeli attack on Iran will unleash Iranian military power against America. But part of that power is Hizbollah in Lebanon. This is serious business.

The United Nations has been complaining at the increase in Israel’s overflights of Lebanese territory. The Lebanese army has been opening fire on Israeli aircraft flying over the border – useless, of course, because the Americans don’t give the Lebanese army weapons that can hurt Israel.

— By arrangement with The Independent

Inside Pakistan
Are tribal elders against Taliban?
by Syed Nooruzzaman

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan seems to be no longer in the good books of the tribal population in South Waziristan. This inference can be drawn from a Daily Times report datelined Tank (Jan 21) that a jirga (tribal assembly) of the Mehsud tribes on Wednesday offered to hand over to the government Pakistani Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud along with 377 others, believed to be his followers.

The jirga, which had 300 participants, accepted all seven conditions of Islamabad, including no opposition to efforts to establish the writ of the government in the tribal agency, put forth for ending the Army operations in South Waziristan. After the jirga decision comes the Pakistan Army announcement that it will not launch any new anti-extremist offensive in the area. The Army’s explanation is that it wants to consolidate the gains it has made so far.

What actually happened between the Pakistan Army and the tribal elders is not known. But the kind of offer the jirga has made cannot be expected when the discontinuation of the armed forces’ offensive is for a limited period of six months. Moreover, such agreements in the past only helped the Taliban to regroup itself and emerge stronger later on.

How the tribal elders react to Friday’s development that Hakeemullah Mehsud has been killed in a drone attack remains to be seen. Has he really been killed? Or is it a ploy to help the tribal chiefs not to bother about handing over the Pakistani Taliban chief to the government, which was not easy in any case? Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed that the extremist leader is very much alive, according to The Daily Times.

Govt, judiciary on collision course

Despsite denials by President Asif Zardari that the government is preparing to meet the challenge posed by the judiciary through the scraping of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), efforts are on to ensure that the Supreme Court verdict does not affect Mr Zardari’s position. While one review petition was filed in the apex court on behalf of the government last Saturday, indications are that another such petition may be there soon now that the full text of the judgement has been released.

According to a Dawn report, the government “hinted in the National Assembly on Wednesday that it could file another review petition after studying the Supreme Court’s detailed ruling” against the infamous NRO. The report, carried on January 21, quoted Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan as saying, “the government is examining this judgement”.

As The News says, “Indeed, the review (petition) filed against the NRO (verdict) just days before indicated that panic was already rising… There are some indications that the government has decided not to follow the Supreme Court directions”.

A Business Recorder editorial says, “If anyone is fearful” of the 287-page judgement, “he must be the one who had been convicted but the NRO relieved his burden. And there are not many such beneficiaries among the political elite; only some 35 who made hay while the sun shone”.

Meaningless “strategic depth”

Pakistan’s efforts for securing “strategic depth” by having a puppet or friendly government in Afghanistan after the departure of the US-led multinational forces from there are meaningless, as argued by Kamran Shafi in an article in Dawn (January 19). In his opinion, the much-discussed idea is nothing but “poppycock”.

He says Pakistan is engaged in the “Great Game in Afghanistan, we are told, because ‘strategic depth’ is vital for Pakistan due to the fact that our country is very narrow at its middle and could well be cut into half by an Indian attacking force.”

Whatever fear the Pakistan Establishment has in its mind, seeking strategic depth in Afghanistan is like chasing the mirage. No government in Kabul will ever allow this advantage to Islamabad in view of the history of relations between the two countries.