The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

INLD victory
Congress needs to work hard in Haryana

EVER since Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda called early elections in Haryana, things have not been going on expected lines for the Congress. First, its calculations that the success that the party had achieved in the Lok Sabha elections would be replicated in Assembly elections went awfully awry. It almost lost power but for the chipping in of Independents and HJC rebels. When they were accommodated, many of the senior party members were alienated. The fissures have been papered over but continue to be pretty visible. Under such circumstances, it had put all forces at its command into the Ellenabad byelection caused by the vacation of the seat by Mr Om Prakash Chautala who decided to retain Uchana Kalan. This time his son Abhey Singh Chautala contested against the previous Congress candidate Bharat Singh Beniwal. Since every seat counted for the Congress, the byelection got far more importance than it deserved. But in the end, its calculations have again proved wrong, with junior Chautala retaining the seat with a comfortable margin of nearly 6,200 votes.

Ellenabad is a known stronghold of the INLD and the Congress did not have a plausible roadmap to wean away its committed voters. As far as money and muscle power was concerned, both parties were virtually even. In the end, the old bonds of the Chutalas with the largely farming community right since Mr Devi Lal’s time proved to be the clinching factor.

Although it was a contest between Mr Abhey Singh and Mr Bharat Singh Beniwal, the battle had turned out to be proxy war between Chief Minister Hooda and his predecessor Chautala. Mr Hooda campaigned in the constituency for more than a week. The effort has not borne fruit. The victory has further boosted the morale of the INLD, which at one stage had been nearly wiped out from the state. The Congress must do a serious re-think as to why it has frittered away that advantage, allowing its archrival to stage a comeback.

Change of guard
May be, Patil will make a difference

ALMOST the first thing that Mr Shivraj Patil did after being sworn in as the 32nd Governor of Punjab was to promise a “cooperative atmosphere” and a “positive attitude”. Here is hoping that he actually brings about this change in the functioning of Raj Bhawan in the shortest possible time because it is badly needed in Punjab and certainly in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Especially in his capacity as the Administrator of Chandigarh, he will have to be far more accessible and accountable hands-on person than his predecessor was. Perhaps, he made the statement deliberately because the people’s wish-list is known to him, considering that he has been the Home Minister of India. Punjab is getting a “civilian” Governor after some two decades. Whatever the other advantages of having Generals as Governors might have been, responsiveness to the public opinion is not their strong point, judging from the controvertial tenure of Gen S. F. Rodrigues. As a politician, Mr Patil will have to be more alive to the aspirations of the public.

He will also have to wipe out the bitterness that has creeped into the relations between the bureaucracy and the Administrator. General Rodrigues’ tenure was marked by a running battle with his senior officers. Mr Patil should ensure that the Administration presents a cohesive image and everybody pulls along in the right direction.

He will also have to steer clear of the kind of ugly spats the UT experienced in the recent past. Most of them were the result of ignoring the various checks and balances and taking decisions unilaterally in Raj Bhawan. Ideally, Chandigarh should be under a Chief Commissioner. But if Raj Bhawan is more transparent, numerous unpleasant situations can be easily avoided. There are set procedures in administration which were ignored by his predecessors. With Mr Patil’s arrival in Chandigarh, the UT hopefully can live in peace and harmony.

Thought for the Day

Some sleep five hours; nature requires seven, laziness nine, and wickedness eleven.

— American proverb

ARTICLE

Flawed security planning
Need to change the mindset
by K. Subrahmanyam

A new National Security Adviser (NSA) has been appointed and he is a former Foreign Secretary. The first and the second NSAs were also from the Indian Foreign Service. Since our National Security Council (NSC) has not been set up under an enactment unlike the US body, its functioning style depends largely on the Prime Minister and the NSA, who is its Secretary. Mr Vajpayee had an NSC which had six members, inclucing the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. The other five members were the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Home, Defence, External Affairs and Finance. Except for the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, the other five were the members of the Cabinet Committee for Security Affairs (CCS). Mr Vajpayee made his Secretary heading the PM’s Office, Mr Brajesh Mishra, the NSA.

The NSC was intended to guide and formulate long-term planning and policy formulation on issues relating to national security. The NSC hardly met in this role during the NDA’s rule. With a few exceptions, most of the meetings were as CCS members in which the matters relating to defence and national security were handled with the NSA-cum-Secretary to the Prime Minister bringing up current issues for decisions of the CCS. Recently Mr Mishra has expressed the view that the post of the NSA was too powerful and was also not accountable to Parliament and, was, therefore, unsuitable for parliamentary democracy. It was his proximity to Mr Vajpayee and the combination of the two posts of the NSA and the Secretary to Prime Minister that made the post very powerful. His successors did not wield the power he did.

However, it must be said to his credit that he used his credentials to enhance India’s rating as a major actor in the international system with other major powers of the world through his personal diplomatic efforts. While that was an unprecedented achievement for a person not holding formal political office, his tenure as the NSA did not advance the objectives for which the NSC was established. He now favours discontinuing the institution.

Mr Dixit and Mr Narayanan inherited a post which was not the same as the one occupied by Mr Mishra since they could not combine the post of the NSA with that of the Secretary to the PM. The UPA government made the NSC identical in its composition to the CCS. During Mr Mishra’s tenure the functions of coordination of intelligence agencies, including the newly created National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), chairmanship of the Executive Council of the Nuclear Command Authority, liaison with national security advisers of other major powers, etc, had been added to the responsibilities of the NSA.

The internal security situation posed an additional challenge with an increase in terrorism as well as Left wing extremism. Simultaneously came the US initiative of helping India in its efforts to become a major power which transformed into the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. All these developments kept the NSA extremely busy. Mr Narayanan as the NSA did try to build further on the foundation laid by Mr Mishra. He revived the Joint Intelligence Committee within the NSC secretariat. He increased the number of deputies from one to three, initiated a number of studies and set up policy groups for particular issues.

But the problem of management of Indian national security could not have been fully addressed by an incumbent NSA. Unfortunately in this country, the complexity and magnitude of the problem of management of national security have not been grasped by our political class and establishment. India’s rise to the status of the most populous, democratic, pluralistic, secular, industrialised country as the third largest market and GDP in the world in the next three decades will not be a resistance and obstacle-free process even though in the nuclearised and globalised world today there is no expectation of a war among major powers. Though India’s rise is a unique case in modern history when it will not cause concerns among other major democracies since its growth is as a democratic nation, there are still serious threats and challenges to India. These are religious and leftist extremisms, ethnic secessionism, organised crime and one non-democratic great power which is our neighbour, concerned about our rise and would like to keep us down though India has no ambition to rival China.

The role of the NSC and the NSA is to think and plan ahead to meet the threats and challenges that are likely to arise. This calls for a mechanism to make forward-looking assessments spanning short, medium and long-term developments within the country and in the world outside. Such assessments should be discussed by our political leadership (National Security Council) and appropriate plans to advance our interests and limit damage to them will have to be formulated. Directives should be issued to the ministries to translate the plans into policies and programmes and seek the approval of the NSC. Initiating, monitoring, coordinating and supervising the implementation of this process on behalf of the Prime Minister is the role of the NSA.

Ensuring the emergence of India as the world’s largest, pluralistic and secular democracy, thwarting the various threats and challenges in the next three decades, is a daunting task. If only our politicians had understood the stupendous nature of this task they would have paid more attention to the development and functioning of the NSC. We have major problems to develop and nurture a national security system and endow it to have adequate capability to meet the requirements of the task.

Outsiders have already focused attention on our inadequacies in this respect. These are a lack of an adequate intelligence capability, internal, external and technical with a large proportion of highly trained people. Secondly, the country needs a large number of think-tanks and highly qualified social scientists applying themselves to international studies and national security.

Above all, both our political class and academia have to undergo a basic attitudinal change about intelligence and its role. Till now our politicians and bureaucracy have been acting on a mindset which leads them to feel that intelligence is a report on current and immediately impending happenings and is necessary for them to react to them.

That is the surest way of not being ready to deal with a threat successfully. Intelligence, in reality, is a vital but incomplete input to enable one to assess a future likely threat and, therefore, is continuously needed to be aware of a developing situation and be ready to deal with it in anticipation.

When the Kargil panel suggested that the NSC members should have regular fortnightly intelligence briefings, it was turned down on the ground that the particular agency would bring the relevant intelligence to the notice of the NSC as and when it was necessary. That is the approach of those who can only react and not get ready to act in anticipation to thwart a threat.

Unlike his predecessors, this Prime Minister is familiar with the problem and its solution. He now has an opportunity to initiate a new beginning in the national security management.

MIDDLE

A house for Mrs Wood Pecker
by Justice Mahesh Grover

TALES from Panchtantra drawn heavily on animal characteristics to weave stories with inferences to human behaviour, and copious comparisons have often emerged in them and other folklore as well. For example, a Bagula has been compared to a deceptive person (Bagula Bhagat), an owl is wise and a fool depending on which side of the continent you are. Crow is attributed cunningness, falcon ruthlessness, a sparrow timidity, while parrots and mynahs provide for legendary love stories.

Probably, these creatures are afflicted with the same emotions as humans which compel them to behave in somewhat similar fashion as us, but which is just a shade less pronounced and demonstrative on account of intellect deficit.

While enjoying my tea in the benign settings of a lawn surrounded by trees, inhabited by avions, I started observing them while feeding them crumbs strewn on the grass. It was pleasurable to watch them display their antics and often, they interacted with you, if you chose to do so. On throwing crushed biscuits around, the place would instantly be flooded with a variety of birds fighting for the crumbs, often chasing each other away, and entering into a brawl.

A pair of mynahs were regular visitors and would swoop down instantly, the moment I set down my chair, and then screech loudly, relentlessly demanding their treat and would not give up till their demand was met. They gradually got emboldened enough to perch themselves within touching distances from me. This made the tea ceremony lively and interesting. The most interesting was the Wood Pecker, who came and started chipping viciously and noisily at a tree trunk. He persisted day after day. It was spring time, so I guessed that it was trying to make a home in the tree chosen by him. He managed to chip away a good bit of the tree where a hole was soon discernible.

He then came with his partner who sat at a distance watching him chip at the tree for some time. She then flew to the spot where Mr Pecker had been strenuously working. It seemed that Mr Pecker had got Mrs Pecker along to approve of the site of abode selected by him.

Alas! Mrs Pecker had different notions. She gave one peck on the tree, looked at Mr Pecker disdainfully, convinced of his ineptitude and flew away. A bewildered Mr Pecker sat looking quizzically at his work. An angry call made him follow her demurely.

“Love’s Labour Lost,” one could say, or say “Hen- pecked Mr Wood Pecker”?

Ever noticed it in humans?

No candid confessions, but only sheepish denials.

As a humorist said, “One of the fundamental truths about marriage: the wife is always incharge.”

OPED

Wastage of food
Build silos for safe storage of grains
by S. S. Johl

INDIA has been suffering from bouts of shortages and surpluses on the food front for the last several decades. The country lays maximum emphasis on increasing production and, yet, follows a tardy policy on foodgrain storage.

Grains are stored in CAP and godowns mainly and only recently some silos have been set up. Still the storage space dismally falls short of requirements.

However, now policymakers seem to have awakened to the ground realities and at the instance of the Government of India, the Food Corporation of India has now decided to create additional foodgrain storage capacity for central pool stocks across the country, including Punjab and Haryana.

As per the policy guidelines, only storage godowns in the private and public sectors on a five-year guarantee of business are to be got constructed. Unfortunately, these policy guidelines appear to have been framed without taking a holistic view of the issue.

The availability of foodgrains in a particular season depends on production, minimum support prices and other related factors. Depending upon the foodgrain stocks already in storage, the requirements of additional storage change from time to time.

There has to be, therefore, some degree of flexibility in types of storage linked with handling and transportation of foodgrains. The irreversible trend of fast increasing mechanisation at the farm level and bulk marketing by farmers, a short duration of the marketing season followed by heavy monsoon rains require a rational mix of different storage systems and capacities.

The CAP storage, which is the lowest cost storage, is suitable for short-period storage only and is totally unsuitable in the rainy season. This system, therefore, has a limited scope in Punjab, Haryana and western Utter Pradesh.

Grains must be removed from such stores in these states, well before the monsoon sets in. Godowns are suitable for not more than one year, although at present grains in such stores are kept for several years.

In longer storage in godowns grains get infested with insects and are spoiled by rodents and moisture. If grains are stored at a higher moisture content, i.e., more than 12 per cent, this can lead to a huge loss in terms of quality.

Another aspect is that being vertical structures, silos occupy only one-third of land area compared with the land requirements of godowns, which offsets the higher costs of silos. This is particularly important for Punjab, where land prices are very high.

The silo storage is meant for long duration storage easily up to two to three years and even longer. This system of storage saves the grain from spoilage due to excessive moisture, development of hot pockets, fungus growth, insect pests, rodents, birds and thefts.

No doubt, this system is a bit more expensive, yet even if one per cent of post-harvest losses are eliminated through the silo storage, it can save 2.3 million tonne of foodgrains. This is a huge contribution to the food security of India.

These days farmers bring wheat and paddy to the market in bulk through tractor-trailers. If metallic silos are built with facilities of bulk weighing, drying, cleaning and grading infrastructures, there is no need for producers to unload their produce in market yards, where there are no drying facilities and after sale the produce is filled in bags.

In the silo system the need for bags is eliminated and bags are used only at the final stage of delivery for supply to consumers. There are, thus, considerable savings on time, bags, hassles of handling the produce in the market.

The silos can be declared as market yards under the provisions of the Agricultural Produce Markets Act and all charges like market fees, purchase tax and other development charges being levied by the government can be easily realised at the silo heads.

There is no scope for tax avoidance in this system. This requires some amendments to the Agricultural Produce Markets Act, which should not pose any problem because action is already afoot to amend the Act for enabling the setting up of private markets in the country.

No doubt, the silo system of grain storage is a bit costly. However, in view of the food and nutritional security of the country and proper management of foodgrain supply and demand, a rational mix of CAP storage, godowns and silos is required to be built. Grains meant for the buffer stock, emergency provisions and exports must be stored in metallic silos in order to keep the quantity and quality of the grains in the original, rather improved form through scientific handling that would ensure the maintaining of proper temperature, moisture and aeration in the stored grains.

Plinth storage facilities should be for very short period storage and created only in the foodgrain surplus producing areas. The stocks must be cleared within two to three months before the winter rains and the monsoon set in.

Godowns can be used both in the surplus-producing areas as well as consuming areas/states for annual supplies and must be recycled within one year.

It is to be remembered that any minor spoilage renders the grains nutritionally deficient and often unfit for human consumption. Also, we need to realise that the grains that are not fit for human consumption are also not fit for animal consumption.

Thus, for improving food security as well as nutritional security of the country, a rational mix of foodgrain storage systems, wherein all the three types of storage systems find their due place is the need of the hour.

The Central policy for creating substantial additional capacity is already too late and this delay has cost the nation dear in terms of spoilage and losses of grains and ad hoc actions aimed at managing the supply and demand of foodgrains in the country.

Now that additional capacity is being created incorporating only the godowns is a misplaced policy stance. When new storage capacity is to be built in the public and private sectors, the policymakers must not ignore the system of scientific storage in metallic silos. These costs will pay back in their own turn in terms of ensuring food and nutritional security in the country in the context of good quality foodgrains. Even if a fraction of the cost and attention is diverted from production to scientific storage, the country will not have to suffer from the bouts of shortages and imports as well as unmanageable surpluses and exports, which invariably involve huge costs and losses to the nation.

Americans disillusioned with govt
by Rupert Cornwell

ON the face of it, few political turnarounds have been as astonishing. A mere 14 months ago, a tide of fury at George W. Bush and eight failed years of Republican rule swept Barack Obama to power.

Last week’s stunning loss of a seemingly rock-solid Senate seat in Massachusetts suggests voters’ anger is now directed with equal ferocity against Mr Obama and the Democrats. In fact, one crucial element has not changed: Americans’ disillusion and exasperation with the way their government works.

Many factors contributed to the came-from-nowhere victory of Scott Brown. He was an excellent candidate; a relative outsider, a natural communicator and infectiously energetic. Maybe too the electorate felt that however hallowed the memory of Ted Kennedy, after almost half a century it was time for real change. “This is the people’s seat,” Mr Brown declared in his victory speech, not a sinecure to be handed down from one generation of Democrats to another.

The faltering economy, stagnant earnings and a jobless rate of 10 per cent have added to the rebellious mood. Another element, unquestionably, was the increasingly unpopular health care measure pushed by Mr Obama and the Democratic majority on Congress, now opposed by a majority of Americans.

Then there’s the Obama factor. This was not a referendum on the President, who in November 2008 carried Massachusetts by 26 points. But his approval rating has since slid from 75 per cent to 50 or less. The presidential coat-tails are not what they were. Indeed, Mr Obama’s appearance alongside the Democrat candidate Martha Coakley at the weekend may have done as much harm as good.

But one strand links all these reasons, and connects them with the wrath visited by voters on Republicans in 2006 and 2008: the frayed relationship between Americans and their ever-more dysfunctional system of government.

The President’s popularity has slipped. But in comparison with Congress, viewed positively by just 25 per cent of the voters, he is adored. And since Democrats control both chambers, they naturally bear the brunt of the blame. Indeed, to judge by recent polls, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is as unpopular as was Dick Cheney in the waning years of the Bush era.

Nowhere is the resentment greater than among independents, at the fulcrum of US politics, whose support sent Mr Obama to the White House, premised on the belief he would fulfil his campaign promise to change the way Washington — ie government — worked.

It hasn’t happened. The climate has grown even more venomously partisan, preventing anything being done. There’s the old stench of corruption too. Ms Pelosi promised to clean things up. Instead Americans are offered the unedifying spectacle of New York Congressman Charles Rangel, head of the hugely powerful House Ways and Means committee — the main tax-writing body on Capitol Hill — entangled in ethics and tax avoidance allegations.

Instead of taking Congress to task, Mr Obama appears ready to indulge its every whim. As his ambitious reform schemes founder — healthcare today, perhaps climate and energy policy and market regulation tomorrow — he seems to have achieved a poisonous combination of big government and no government.

As a result independents are deserting in droves. The trend was already evident in last November’s elections where Republicans recaptured the governor’s mansion in New Jersey and Virginia, two states Mr Obama had comfortably carried only a year before. The same happened this week in Massachusetts where, although registered Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one, nearly half of all voters are independents.

For the moment Republicans are beneficiaries of this anti-establishment mood, stridently expressed by the Tea Party movement which strongly backed Mr Brown. But Republican incumbents could fall victim to the resentment — a danger he recognised on Tuesday night when he scarcely used the word “Republican”. His victory was “all of us against the machine”. His was an “independent” majority.

Where this new populism will lead is the most fascinating current question in US politics. It is similar to Poujadism in France in the 1950s in its disgust at elites (in this case Wall Street). But it is a very American movement, of little guys fed up with deficits and with a government that spends like a drunken sailor when they have to watch every cent. If it lasts, the consequences could be momentous.

— By arrangement with The Independent

Chatterati
Narendra Modi goes kite flying
by Devi Cherian

NO BJP Chief Minister can beat the astute Narendra Modi. You cannot ignore the political acumen of the Gujarat Chief Minister. He has perfected the art of subtly making political capital out of all occasions — whether celebrations or moments of solemnity.

His dress sense changes according to the occasion. Clad in a jersey, Modi was out flying kites with people on Makar Sankranti. He chose six locations in Ahmedabad where he flew kites, interacted with people and shared their home-made food. In short, he floored his constituency people.

Interestingly, all the six locations he chose were areas where the BJP needed to strengthen itself. As the Municipal Corporation elections approach, Modi knows that his flying kites on a local terrace or eating a home-made “till ka laddoo” is something the locals will remember when they go to cast their vote.

He is going all out to prove his secular credentials these days. He inaugurated an international seminar on Buddhism.

He plans to set up a big Buddhist temple along with a centre for research. With the Dalai Lama by his side, he propagated the message of love and compassion. Now that is a changed Modi, no doubt!

A plot on moon for Mayawati

AN understatement is certainly not the forte of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. After declaring that her birthday celebrations on January 15 would be low key, she really stretched the definition of “low key”.

All the parks and memorials in Lucknow were lit up with blue Chinese lights. Hoardings, sponsored by BSP leaders, were plastered all over the state capital all in shades of blue, which happens to be the BSP’s colour too.

There were also blue banners, blue balloons, blue arches and even blue elephants. Inside the auditorium where Behenji unveiled projects for the poor, blue orchids were put up on the walls. Thank God, there was no customary cake cutting in public this year.

Mayawati has also been gifted a three-acre plot on nothing less than the moon! Gifted by a party leader. He purchased the lunar plot from the US-based Lunar Republic Society.

The society openly sells plots on the moon. It also has registration papers signed by its member-secretary. But one does not know the price that has been paid for the plot.

Of course, when a gift is being given to Behenji, its price is immaterial. It is the feeling that matters. This year Behenji announced welfare programmes and development schemes worth Rs 7,312 crore.

Mothers-to-be have a choice

Today mothers, it seems, can go to any lengths to ‘bestow God’s blessings upon their children, even if it means risking their own or their baby’s health. And, sadly, the doctor goes along with it.

A woman in the Capital chose to deliver her baby prematurely so as to coincide the birth with Makar Sankranti, a festival which is considered auspicious by Hindus.

Nowadays gynaecologists give the mothers-to-be a choice of natural birth, water baby birth and a cesarean.

If the mother-to-be is into astrology, she can ask her astrologer what is an auspicious day time to give birth. Then the doctor also obliges.