The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Fallen Generals
Action should have been exemplary

AN “advice” from the Defence Minister asking the Army chief to virtually reverse his decision in a corruption case is unprecedented, but was unavoidable. It looks like General Deepak Kapoor as good as asked for this reprimand when he went extraordinarily soft on Military Secretary Lt-Gen Awadesh Prakash in the Darjeeling land scam case. The army chief okayed disciplinary proceedings against Lt-Gen PK Rath, which can lead to a court martial, but recommended only a milder “administrative action” against Lt-Gen Awadesh Prakash and two others, Lt-Gen Ramesh Halgali and Major-Gen P Sen. There was no explanation why different yardsticks were applied, in spite of the fact that all evidence indicated that it was Lt-Gen Prakash who was instrumental in the issuance of a no-objection certificate to a private establishment that falsely claimed to be establishing an affiliate of the well-known Ajmer-based Mayo College on land adjacent to the Sukna military station in Darjeeling district.

What made this soft approach all the more untenable was the recommendation of the Court of Inquiry ordered by the Eastern Army Commander, Lt-Gen VK Singh, who is set to be the next Army chief, that Lt-Gen Prakash be sacked. The tainted Lt-Gen Prakash is the topmost brass in the Army and as Military Secretary enjoys tremendous clout. If anything, enforcement of rules should have been stricter in his case instead of being mild.

The Army is one institution which still evokes confidence and respect because of its integrity and uprightness. As such, it is very important that where there is even an iota of doubt about senior officers’ conduct, a thorough investigation must be conducted and the guilty punished. Whatever General Deepak Kapoor’s motive might have been in giving him only a gentle rap on the knuckles, it would have given the impression that the Army is willing to look the other way if there is any wrong-doing by those in its upper echelons. The cracking of the whip by Defence Minister AK Antony has luckily foreclosed that dangerous possibility.

Justice at last
Nemesis catches up with Mujib’s killers

With the execution of five of the 12 assassins of Bangladesh founder President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, justice has finally caught up with them 35 years after a group of young army officers mowed him down in cold blood at his residence along with most of his family members. Of the others, while one convict had died abroad in the intervening period, six are still holding out overseas. It was truly a sad chapter in Bangladesh’s history that the military regime that succeeded Mujib issued an ordinance granting immunity to the killers and even assigned some of them to diplomatic jobs abroad. The assassins openly boasted that they had gunned down the father of the nation and yet there was no action forthcoming.

The wheels of justice started moving again in the case 21 years later when Mujib’s daughter Hasina who survived because she was abroad at that time became the country’s prime minister and revoked the indemnity ordinance clearing the way for the trial that culminated in the executions now. While the original complaint had identified 20 accused, 15 of them were convicted in 1998 of which only four were in the country and a fifth was extradited by the US in June 2008. While Sheikh Hasina was out of power from 2001 to 2009, her bete noire Begum Khaleda Zia soft-pedalled the case. The case got a boost with the return of Sheikh Hasina to power. That during Begum Khaleda’s regime various judges recused themselves from the case only indicates the fragility of democracy in the country. It is heartening that some of the guilty have finally been brought to book but would this have been possible if Sheikh Hasina had not returned to power and picked up cudgels to avenge her father’s assassination?

Prime Minister Hasina deserves the support of all right-thinking people in her efforts to bring the remaining assassins to justice. Her rivals in the opposition and outside would doubtlessly try their best to destabilise her. It is no secret that some of them have the backing of Pakistan’s ISI. But justice must continue to be done.

Thought for the Day

Excellence is to do an ordinary thing in an extraordinary way.
— Booker T. Washington

ARTICLE

Threat to India’s food security
Agriculture deserves top priority
by Dr Manjit S. Kang

India witnessed unprecedented food production in the 1970s and the 1980s, and this phenomenon was dubbed as the Green Revolution. The country was transformed from a food-deficient nation to a food-sufficient nation. The seeds of the Green Revolution were sown when Dr M.S. Swaminathan invited Dr Norman E. Borlaug to India in 1963. Borlaug provided to Indian scientists, including those at Punjab Agricultural University, seeds of some improved wheat varieties developed in Mexico. India achieved self-sufficiency in wheat in 1972 and in rice in 1974. This happened on account of the scientific achievements of agricultural scientists who developed new crop varieties and corresponding farm technologies, hard work of farmers, and government policies conducive to agricultural growth.

Mira Kamdar, a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute, New York, from 1992 to 2006, wrote in 2008: “If a single institution can take credit for bringing the Green Revolution to Punjab, it is Punjab Agricultural University.” Today, agriculture is the source of livelihood for more than 65 per cent of India’s population. Agriculture accounts for 27 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes 21 per cent to total exports. Agriculture also supplies raw materials to industries.

For many years, India has been comfortable in its ability to produce food and feed people. It has had surplus foodgrains too. The nation appears to have achieved “food security”. The main food security crops are wheat and rice, produced in Punjab, Haryana, and Western UP — the “Food Bowl” of India. For more than a decade now, Punjab has been consistently contributing to India’s Central grain reserve at least 60 per cent wheat and up to 40 per cent rice. The contribution of the “Food Bowl” states to the Central grain reserve is 98 per cent wheat and 65 per cent rice. This remarkable achievement has come at a cost though - underground water table has gone down drastically and soil health has been adversely affected.

Today, a trip through Punjab and Haryana would show that after harvest foodgrains (wheat and rice) lie in the marketplace (mandis) in the open for months to rot. Last year, during a meeting with Union Finance Minister Parnab Mukherjee I brought to his attention the issue of lack of adequate grain-storage facilities and consequent wastage of foodgrains in the mandis. There was an increased funding for the development of storage facilities in last year’s budget. Unfortunately, millions of tonnes of foodgrains are still being “stored” improperly in the open. We can ill afford such post-harvest losses. We are wasting the precious water and other inputs used to produce this grain. Much more needs to be done in the area of foodgrain storage.

For agriculture to serve as an engine of growth and poverty alleviation, we must ensure that agriculture grows. Agricultural growth cannot be achieved without investing in agricultural research and development. In an article, “Reducing Poverty and Hunger in India: The Role of Agriculture”, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, writes, however, that public investment in agriculture began to decline in the 1980s and that initially the decline was offset by increasing private investment in agriculture. He further states, “Since the mid-1990s private investment in agriculture has stagnated while public investment has continued to decline.”

Research and development are the prerequisites to the development of new technologies. Agricultural universities in India have proved this, as their R&D led to the development of new crop varieties and new technologies. Agriculture aside, if we simply look at India’s overall investment in R&D, a very gloomy picture emerges. India lags behind other nations in spending on R&D. For example, India’s per capita R&D investment is $5.5 as compared with $11.7 for China and $705 for the US. According to a UNDP 2008 report, India’s allocation for R&D was just 0.8 per cent of its GDP whereas that of China was 1.2 per cent and that of the US 2.7 per cent. Japan spends more than 3 per cent of its GDP on R&D.

A strong commitment is required on the part of the Government of India to improve the R&D scenario, particularly for agriculture. Here one is reminded of a speech by John F. Kennedy that he delivered during the joint session of the US Congress in 1961, requesting funds for the space programme. He said, “First, I believe that this nation should commit (emphasis added) itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” This vision became a reality when man landed on the moon in July 1969. This type of commitment is needed in the case of agriculture in India.

Alarm bells are ringing in various quarters about India’s vulnerability in sustaining foodgrain production to feed its ever-growing population (about 15 million new faces are added every year).

Mira Kamdar commented on Punjab’s role in Indian agriculture as follows: “With just 1.5 per cent of India's land area, Punjab produces 20 per cent of the country's wheat and 12 per cent of its rice. It provides 60 per cent of the Central government's reserve stocks of wheat and 40 per cent of its reserves of rice, the country's buffer against starvation. Punjab's amazing productivity made it possible for India to feed most of its growing population that tripled from 350 million when the country became independent in 1947 to more than 1.2 billion people today.”

She further wrote, “In 2001, India even began to export grain, though critics claim this impressive achievement was gained at the expense of India's poor. Only two years later, in 2003, India had to reverse the funnel and import grain, something it had not done in decades. Every year since then India has imported more and more of its food.”

Dr. Sanjay Rajaram, a former Director of CIMMYT”s wheat research programme, revealed while speaking at a seminar in October 2007, “Between 2004 and 2007, the average production of wheat was around 72 million tonnes in India. By 2020, India would need 100 million tonnes. Between 2002 and 2007, productivity was around 2.8 tonnes per hectare. By 2020, it should be 3.8 tonnes per hectare. If India fails to enhance production, leading to a huge gap between supply and demand, there could be social upheavals and rampant hunger and malnutrition.” This should alert us all to the possibility of India slipping down the “food security” ladder.

Recently, Dr Swaminathan stated, “We are on the verge of a disaster. We will be in serious difficulty if food productivity is not increased and farming is neglected.” He warned that the country would face a food crisis if agriculture and farmers were ignored.

Is India’s food security vulnerable? Many think so. At a recent annual meeting of the vice-chancellors of Indian agricultural universities, a serious concern was expressed about India now being on the verge of becoming a foodgrain-importing country. Only a couple of years ago, India did import some wheat from Australia. Do we want to become an importing nation again? If we do not want to go that route, we must invest more in agricultural development.

India’s position is precarious in food production because of erratic rainfall patterns. For example, in 2000-01, foodgrain production was 196.8 million tonnes (rainfall was 91 per cent of the long-term average or LTA). In 2002-03, foodgrain production was down to 174.8 mt because rainfall was 81 per cent of the LTA. In 2005-06, foodgrain production went up to 208.8 mt (rainfall being 99 per cent of LTA), and in 2007-08, it reached 230 mt. India has not exceeded 230 mt in the last one decade. By 2021, however, India will need to produce 276 mt of foodgrains to feed its people. By 2050, the country will need to double its foodgrain production. It will be an extremely difficult task if India does not increase its outlay for agricultural R&D and simultaneously take appropriate measures to reduce population growth.

The writer is Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.

MIDDLE

Cope Bhavan
by Rajbir Deswal

Like they have confession boxes in the churches, to have the “sinners” unload their chests, before “His” representatives on earth for redemption, our ancestors too had Kop Bhavans (anger management or sulking chambers), for purgation of the self, employing and effecting a kind of catharsis. I marvel at the wisdom of our forerunners, who gave enough importance to curing the wounded self in their own way, if one was to suffer the pangs of a tragedy, agony or anguish.

If you refer to the Indian scriptures and books of history, you will find mention of Kop Bhavan, which used to be a compartment in the palaces, mansions and stately homes of rich and mighty in earlier times, where one would convalesce, lament, brood, grieve, sulk or even cry to come to terms with oneself. This closet was also used to invite attention of someone who mattered, and also for seeking favours from him.

Kop Bhavans provided the desired calmness of ambience to cope with the malaise troubling his or her mind. Step-mother of Ram, Kaikayee, removed herself to Kop Bhavan in order to invite concern of her husband Dashrath, who in order to console her and fulfil a promise he made to her for saving his life once, agreed to banish Rama to jungles for 14 years. Later, Dashrath himself died in Kop Bhavan, grieving separation of Ram, Sita and Laxman.

If you are not able to rein in your emotions on being a little overwhelmed, you always give in to the incessant and uncontrollable flow of tears, but generally not in full view of everyone around, unless the intensity of your agony compels you either to scream, shriek or cry.

To cope with your predicament then, either you hide your face with your hands; or you turn it the other way. Or you look below; or relegate yourself to a corner. Deposit yourself in the store, or even the washroom. And then being all by yourself, you weep or cry or sob. You mostly recover and regain your resilience and put up a fresh face, trying to cope with your agony.

And here does “kop” become “cope” in its pronunciation and meaning too. On a lighter note, I was rather wondering why they should not have Kop corridors near the courts, police stations, hospitals and tax departments! Parliament and assemblies too could have their separate “Kop Lounges” for these places are full of souls who are the most troubled either at the hands of the electorate, or their opponents and detractors. Kop cabins near wells of legislative houses would stop many an unruly member bent on tormenting the Speaker.

We need Kop Corridors near famous playgrounds and stadia where large number of sports-lovers on losing a match by those who they rooted for, could nurse their wounded psyches in preference to burning the houses of their sports icons.

OPED

Tributes to a Marxist
The message does no justice to Jyoti Basu
by J. Sri Raman

Tributes are, more often than not, a trite affair. Homages paid to the deceased, in particular, hardly make a provocatively new point. The flurry of eulogies, following veteran leader Jyoti Basu’s demise, however, fall in a different category. The accolades for the man and the Marxist actually articulate a far-from-approbative message.

There is no doubt, of course, about the nationwide response to the symbolic event that Basu’s end was. The leader from West Bengal was one of the very few – arguably just three – from the Left to have acquired a national stature. Both similarities and dissimilarities marked the political careers of Dange, Namboodiripad and Basu.

All of them started as nationalists – Dange as a crowd-controller for Lokamanya Tilak, Namboodiripad as a pioneer of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) and Basu as a student lobbyist in London for India’s independence movement. All of them were to strike regional roots – Dange playing a major role in Maharashtra’s creation, Namboodiripad in several Kerala-specific campaigns and Basu becoming West Bengal’s symbol for decades. All of them took the regional route to national renown.

One of the dissimilarities was related to the internal debates that always distinguished the Marxist camp from other sections of India’s political spectrum. Dange and Namboodiripad revelled in such debates while, Basu kept a certain distance from them, indeed airing an impatience with “intellectual” exercises of this kind, with the inverted commas displaying a disdain for them.

The second, and perhaps more important, dissimilarity related to political power. Dange never knew power. Namboodiripad held power twice in Kerala – holding on to it, in fact, for truncated terms. Basu stayed on as a successful chief minister for over 23 years in a state not tailor-made for stability and under an unfriendly Centre.

Two phases of Basu’s political past have gone unstated or under-noticed in most media and other recapitulations since January 17 when his final struggle ceased. The first was his political arrival as an agitprop leader, with the tram strike of 1953 against a one-paisa fare hike, an illustration that some old-timers still remember.

The second was his story as a chief minister fighting the Centre, with his every visit to New Delhi evoking enormous regional pride at the rare spectacle of a state leader standing up and speaking on equal terms to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

What sustained Basu through all this was, ultimately, an ideology. This is also what the tributes, from all but the Left and pro-Left quarters seek to deny.

They do it in different ways.The gambit consists in glorifying him, his family background, his starched clothes and his staccato sentences, among other things as “aristocratic”. Even his pro-poor proclivities are presented as patrician, slightly and subtly guilt-ridden, almost like the politely apologetic air of a British peer of the realm, particularly while conversing with a plebeian commoner.

“A king among communists” – that is how a popular television channel titled its programme on the tributes. Basu had a hereditary, higher-class claim to posthumous tributes than the common run of communists.

Dinned into our ears over these days by the burgeoning tribe of Basu’s panegyrists, including several past detractors, is the claim that his was no “doctrinaire socialism”. They come to this conclusion because his state government banned “gheraos”, as though the cruelly violent form of agitation were part of any socialist doctrine. It is also suggested that he was paying only lip-service to socialism, under party discipline, because he wanted industries in West Bengal and wooed investments there. A TV interviewer, known for irreverence, once told him to his face that his was only “social democracy” and not socialism.

Protestations by Basu in his lifetime went unheeded. His explanation that his state was “not a Republic of West Bengal but a part of India”, that his government had to function “within a capitalist system” was not considered adequate. It is not going to be accepted now by those who seek to interpret his demise as that of the doctrine that guided his life, too. They can only laugh out of court any argument that limited reforms within a state can be part of a Left road-map for revolutionary advance.

One need not be an uncritical admirer of the Left or Basu to understand or appreciate this. Mr Ashok Mitra, a former finance minister of West Bengal’s Left front government, wrote not long ago: “I feel sorry for Mr Jyoti Basu....His current state of an imprisoned Shah Jahan saddens the heart deeply.” But he is clear about the assumptions and objectives behind the project of the parliamentary Left in a state where it can capture limited power.

The end of Basu is the end of the Left to Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee who says, “He was the first chapter of the Left movement and the last”. According to the mega corporate sector and its mouthpieces, even before his end, Basu had begun to represent the end of ideology.

One section of the non-Left spectrum, however, has refrained from joining the anti-ideology chorus. Ironically, it is the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) that has chosen to pay a tribute to Basu’s “commitment to his ideology”. The party, berated by Basu as “uncivilised” and “barbaric” has sent its frontline leaders to attend Basu’s funeral as if in answer to his invective. Has the BJP, however, made its point?

It tried to make a similar point on July 6, 2003, when then Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani spoke at a function in New Delhi to mark the 103rd birth anniversary of Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Jana Sangh (the BJP’s parent). Advani pilloried the Marxists for “political intolerance”, as none of them attended the function. He recalled that his first official engagement as Union Home Minister was to attend the funeral of E.M.S. Namboodiripad in Kerala on March 20,1998, at the behest of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

On Dr Mookerjee’s next birth anniversary, which will fall two days before Basu’s (July 8), will Advani and other BJP leaders recall how their far-right ideology did not prevent them from attending Basu’s funeral?

Tolerance for an ideology of intolerance – which found a gory illustration in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 – is just not compatible with the world outlook that Jyoti Basu was widely associated with.

Why Punjabis head for Australia
by Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Here is a question for politicians: Why do our boys and girls have to go to countries such as Australia, where some of them get stabbed and even killed, to do low-rated courses such as cookery, hospitality, saloon management, accountancy and so on?

There are enough institutions in India where such courses are available. In fact, 26,000 seats are lying unfilled in the professional colleges in Punjab alone. Of these 4,500 seats are vacant in hotel management and architecture courses, and 11,300 in management, 1,500 in pharmacy and 8,000 in engineering courses. Like Punjab, thousands of seats are vacant in other states. Then why do students go to Australia and New Zealand? There are about six lakh foreign students in Australia and of these 1,20,000 are from India. Most of them are from Punjab.

They see a better future and a better quality of life in these countries. The sole objective of the 99 per cent students going abroad is to secure permanent residency status, a green card or other documents to settle there. After securing PR in Australia, there always remains a good scope to move to greener pastures such as Canada, the US and European countries.

Earlier, wards of rich, famous and royal families used to go abroad to study in Oxford or Cambridge University in the UK. Doing Bar-at-Law or study in the London School of Economics was a craze in the elite class. Some used to go to the US to study in big league universities such as Harvard. After study, most of them used to return to India to be a part of the ruling class or take over family business.

But now even commoners send their wards abroad. They sell their properties; secure heavy loans to achieve the objective of getting their wards settled in foreign lands. Their objective is different.

Going abroad on the basis of a study visa is only one aspect. There are thousands of other young boys and even girls, who, cheated by travel agents and human smuggling mafia, either end up in jails or have to live like fugitives until they are granted a general amnesty.

Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who has been fighting against travel agents, claims that in recent years 1,800 Punjabi youths, duped and fleeced by agents, have died in various countries. He claims that a large number of Indian youths, most of them Punjabis, are living like criminals in countries like Spain, Indonesia, Lebanon, Cyprus, Iran and Algeria.

Why? Because our ruling politicians have failed to ensure a secure future to wards of the emerging and expanding middle class in our country. They have failed to give a just, corruption-free system.

When Nitin Garg or Ranjot is killed in Australia or someone else is attacked, our politicians shed crocodile tears, issue ritualistic statements and announce financial help for the bereaved families. But they should ask themselves: Why do our students go abroad to study and why Australians, Americans, Canadians etc are not coming to study in India?

The answer is obvious. Our politicians have let us down. Besides big corporate houses, others who have flourished fast in this country are politicians, bureaucrats and their agents.

First politicians make their own career secure, then take care of their sons and daughters and then of other relations. They do not bother what happens to others. As the political and bureaucrat class is busy securing the future of its sons and daughters, others are left to fend for themselves.

There are many politicians who tell us from the roof-tops that our economy is growing at a rapid rate of 8 per cent or more. Whether has such growth improved the quality of life of people living in cities, towns and villages? Has it made people financially secure? Has it given better health care at affordable prices? Has it made education available at a low price? The answer is a clear no.

From a growing insecurity among the common people has born the desire to settle abroad where they expect life would be better for them. Facing a shortage of working hands, developed countries are “importing” people from India.

If we want to save our Nitins and Ranjots, we should endeavour to throw up a selfless political class which should think first about us and later about its own kin.

Afghanistan in grip of corruption
by Douglas Alexander

IN his speech at the inauguration of his second term, President Karzai declared a commitment to “bring to justice those involved in spreading corruption and abuse of public property.” He must now turn those words into deeds.

Last week’s survey from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime showed the true extent to which corruption affects Afghans. Six out of 10 people said that corruption was the biggest problem they face. The problem of corruption is not simply one of perception.

In a country where the average annual wage is just over $300 per year, the average household pays as much as $160 in bribes a year. Altogether, the UN survey suggests that Afghans paid out $2.5 billion in bribes over the past 12 months – equivalent to almost a quarter of Afghanistan’s GDP.

The loss of faith in public officials is forcing ordinary Afghans – who feel they have no redress – to look elsewhere for their security and welfare, driving them into the arms of insurgents. Corruption is also restricting growth in the Afghan economy, damaging the confidence of would-be investors. That is why the international community is looking to President Karzai’s Government to show leadership and renewed determination to tackle this problem.

President Karzai has already committed to establish an independent anti-corruption commission with powers of investigation and links to prosecutors. That commission and all of the bodies responsible for tackling corruption – from police teams to judicial tribunals – should now be provided with a legal guarantee for their long-term independence from the government, to ensure freedom from undue interference.

To verify progress on tackling corruption, the international community and the Government of Afghanistan is expected to agree to establish a panel of international, independent representatives to monitor the Government’s anti-corruption efforts. Such a panel would report to the Afghan government as a critical friend, to the Parliament and the Afghan people as an aide to calling their government to account, and to the international community to inform investment decisions.

In return for clear commitments from the Government of Afghanistan to tackle corruption, the international community should work together to support the establishment of an effective, enduring Afghan state. That means donors keeping their promises on investment, as the UK has done. While we have delivered on all of the aid pledges we have made over the past three years, close to a quarter of all international commitments previously given have not been met.

Donors should also work more through the Afghan government, rather than around it. While corruption creates a natural desire among donors to avoid delivering through the Government, evidence from around the world shows that doing so is more expensive and less effective. And we must remember that our aim is to support the people of Afghanistan to build a state that can provide basic services to its people – not to provide those services ourselves.

In 2001, just one million children across Afghan-istan had access to education – all of them boys. Today, more than six million children, a third of them girls, are in school.

With clear and credible action on corruption, the Government of Afghanistan could safeguard the international investment it currently receives and begin a new phase of partnership with the international community. It can show the people of Afghanistan that it is the government – not the Taliban-led insurgency – that is committed to delivering a more prosperous, more secure and more just nation.

— By arrangement with The Independent

Corrections and clarifications

n In the report “Two more Indians attacked in Oz” (Page 18, January 28), the introductory para mentions the age of the attacked Indians as 19 and 20. In the same para at another place the age of one of the two is mentioned as 18.

n In the report “Strive for inclusive growth: Prez” (Page 1, January 26), the fifth para is virtually a repeat of the preceding para.

n In the headline “Lanka goes to poll today” (Page 15, January 26), it should have been “polls” instead of “poll”.

n In the headline “Water shortage fumes residents” (Page 5, January 26, Chandigarh Tribune), the use of word “fumes” is inappropriate.

Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them.

This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error.

Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com.

H.K. Dua Editor-in-Chief