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Arrest not enough
Engineering in Tamil |
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Omar’s track record
Dealing with Naxalites
Serpent Bar
Alternative agriculture
Combat soldiering not for women
Inside Pakistan
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Arrest not enough
The
arrest in New Delhi of Dr Ketan Desai, the controversial and powerful president of the Medical Council of India, is a shocking reflection on the prestigious body. Dr Desai, who is said to have held a vice-like grip over the MCI for the last 20 years, has been charged, along with two of his alleged accomplices, with ‘accepting’ a bribe of Rs two crore for granting recognition to a private medical college in Punjab. This is not the first time though that he has come under a cloud. He in fact was forced to step down as MCI president in 2000 after the Delhi High Court ordered him to do so, holding him guilty of misusing his office and of corruption. But he returned as the president last year after winning a protracted legal battle. He got elected as the president of the World Medical Association, which has a membership of 90 million across the globe and his many admirers will no doubt see in his arrest a witch-hunt. But the fact remains that the Medical Council of India was described as ‘a den of corruption’ by the Delhi High Court 10 years ago. With the MCI enjoying powers of granting approval to new medical colleges, clearing affiliation to medical colleges, carrying out inspections and derecognising them, private medical colleges find themselves at its mercy. But sadly, it has neither been able to enforce a uniform standard across the country nor has it succeeded in maintaining quality or putting an end to malpractices connected to capitation fees or admissions. It is widely believed that ‘NRI quota’ and the ‘management quota’ of seats in private medical colleges are routinely doled out to the highest bidders or used to favour politicians and bureaucrats. The ‘industry’ could not have flourished without the patronage of the MCI, politicians and the bureaucrats. Sweeping reforms in the MCI itself and the health ministry are necessary therefore to cleanse medical education in the country. It is just not enough to arrest a few and make them cool their heels in prison for a short time. The system’s capacity to mete out swift, sharp and exemplary punishment being in doubt, the only other alternative is to ensure transparency, reduce political interference in the MCI and impose restrictions on re-election of office-bearers for more than one term.
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Engineering in Tamil
Votaries
of mother tongue as the language of instruction have a reason to cheer. In a pioneering move Anna University in Tamil Nadu will introduce Tamil as medium of instruction for BE civil and mechanical courses in colleges affiliated to the university from the coming academic year on an experimental basis. In principle, the move aimed at motivating students from the Tamil medium schools to join engineering colleges is sound. Yet the measure calls for proper wherewithal to be put in place. Besides the problem of availability of textbooks which the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education is preparing, there are other issues like availability of teachers who are well-versed in Tamil and are technically qualified too. Already there is a growing unease over the quality of technical education in India and even the Prime Minister has expressed his concern. Even if the state government is able to put the infrastructure in place, the question of employability of these engineering graduates still remains. There is little doubt that today we are living in a global village and English has emerged as a link language, especially in fields of technology and research. The fact that the new measure is being introduced only on a trial basis implies that the government is aware of the possible hiccups. It is reassuring to learn as Tamil Nadu’s Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy has conveyed that a silent revolution in higher education is on in Tami Nadu. To capitalise on the gains reflected in increased enrolment in higher education, students from all classes must benefit. Undeniably, students who study in schools with their mother tongue as the medium of instruction start on a back foot when they have to compete with those from English medium schooling background. Yet utmost care has to be taken to ensure that the perceived benefit does not turn out to be an excess baggage. All said and done one of the main goals of technical education is to seek and find gainful employment. The government and the university have to make sure that their experiment is not just chauvinistic linguistic bravado and the interests of students are not sacrificed.
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Omar’s track record
On
the face of it, Mr Omar Abdullah’s track record as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in the past 15 months has been satisfactory notwithstanding several ups and downs. As his interview to The Tribune on Thursday suggests, given the challenges he had to confront, he managed the affairs of the state with due sincerity. Over 35,000 troops have been reduced in Jammu and Kashmir so far. There has been substantial reduction in the number of Central paramilitary forces from internal duty as well. He has promised that with the improvement in the security situation, there would be a further reduction of troops. The Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and the separatists have been consistently campaigning for troop reduction. They believe that the Army’s presence in Kashmir is affecting normal life and is also responsible for human rights abuses. The BJP fears that troop reduction may encourage militants to “regroup” and “worsen” the situation. The ruling National Conference is of the view that an improvement in the security situation necessitates troops cut in the Valley. Mr Abdullah has made it clear that the decision to deploy the Army was not political, but based on the security situation in the state. Linked with the issue of troop reduction is the demand for withdrawing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the state. Any decision on the two demands necessarily hinges on considerable reduction in militancy and improvement in the security situation. Though infiltration from Pakistan this year is lower than last year, Mr Abdullah has rightly said that there is “zero room for complacency” and that there is no question of “letting our guard down”. The third generation Abdullah is known for his enthusiasm for work. His claim in the interview that “we have done a bloody good job” may seem an exaggeration, but few can dismiss his government’s achievements like progress in setting up two Central Universities, speeding up four-laning of the National Highway between Jammu and Srinagar, stipend for the jobless among the economically weaker and backward sections and opening 18 polytechnics in various districts. While the government’s thrust on development is welcome, Mr Abdullah cannot afford to lose grip on law and order as both are inextricably intertwined, the one depending upon the other.
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Do your work, but surrender the result to God. — Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa
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Dealing with Naxalites Besides the brilliance and brutality of the Naxalite ambush sprung in Dantewada on April 6 that accounted for the single biggest one-day loss ever to security forces, two other images remain in the aftermath of the tragedy. Instead of saluting during the cremation of CRPF jawans, police officers doing namaste; and policemen bunched in single-file on patrol in the Dantewada forest. Both these actions demonstrate the civilian mindset of the police when military ethos is the answer. The way 26/11 galvanised counter-terrorism, Dantewada will, we hope, chivvy counter-insurgency and anti-Maoist strategies. Since Black Tuesday a torrential downpour of lessons and ideas have flooded policy-makers on strategies to cope and confront the Maoist People’s War. At one extreme is civil society’s Arundhati Roy, calling Maoists Gandhians with guns while on the opposite side is the gun-wielding majority, demanding their extermination. Clearly, India is facing the gravest internal security threat ever, first recognised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004 but without doing anything about it. Six years later, after repeatedly underestimating its gravity, the politico-military response turns out to be too little too late. The biggest distortion about the Maoist challenge is that it is billed as a law and order problem falling under state jurisdiction when even the blind will acknowledge it is a full-blown insurgency beyond the capacity of individual states. It is a political problem with the Centre and the state having conflicting interests. Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya accused Railway Minister Mamata Bannerji of having links with the Naxalites. Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and Maharashtra are known to be soft on them. The Andhra Pradesh model of carrot and stick worked but with 10,000 Maoists operating across state boundaries under a unified command, and with an elaborate financial support structure ($ 200 million annually), and no dearth of manpower, only a well-coordinated and robust Central and state multi-pronged response can arrest the Maoist contagion beyond the 226 districts of the country’s 630. Consider the costs. More than 900 persons were killed in 2009 in Naxalite- related violence which is more than the combined fatalities of the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir and CIS in the North East. The economic cost is horrific: three steel plants, a chemical hub and a car plant all worth $ 15 billion have failed to come up and production and shipment of iron ore and aluminium have been hit and access to other strategic materials like thorium and bauxite prevented. Mamata Bannerji informed Parliament recently that 40 per cent of railway business was undermined by the Naxalite strikes and other disruptions. The Maoists have the upper hand. Given the scale of the problem and the operational deficiencies thrown up by Dantewada, both strategy and tactics require revisiting. The CRPF, according to the 2000 Group of Ministers report, is the designated force to tackle internal security but is untrained to fight insurgency which requires combat skills or an infantry soldier. The BSF is the only paramilitary force equipped, trained and battle inoculated like the infantry. The command structure must be rationalised. State police which is required to be the lead element in counter-Naxal operations is deeply politicised and geared to combat riot situations. There is a deficiency of 80,000 police, aggravated by the failure of states in implementing police reforms ordered by the Supreme Court. The long-term challenge for the Home Ministry and Army is training of state and central police forces to requisite infantry standards. In the interim the Army must accommodate larger numbers of CRPF for six to eight weeks training in its CIS and Jungle Warfare schools in Eastern and Northern Commands. This will require expansion of training infrastructure and strict guidelines for trainers and trainees. Police units must be trained as cohesive teams led by dedicated officers. Bihar and West Bengal are to raise units from 60,000 ex-servicemen who retire each year from the Army. Lateral induction into central police forces from Army must no longer be dodged on grounds of difficulties in adjusting seniority. The Army should consider establishing cantonments, military stations, collective training areas and firing ranges in Maoist-affected states. Operational advisory and monitoring teams should be embedded with CRPF units during training and operations. It is in the Army’s interest to militarise the CRPF to avoid getting sucked into a third front. The IAF employed Hunter jets and helicopters to break the MNF siege of an Assam Rifles Post in Aizawl in March 1966. Thrice it was used in Jammu and Kashmir – May 15, 2000, helicopters were used to kill militants in Kandi-Yusmarg; on March 25, 2000, Mi35 attack helicopters fired rockets and guns on hilltops to destroy militant hideouts. Attack helicopters were used in 2003 on Hilkaka heights in the Pir Panjal ranges. The IAF was also used in offensive role against Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka quite freely. Concern for collateral damage reflects the operational ethos of our armed forces. India is the only country facing a multiplicity of grave internal security threats to which it responds with minimum force at avoidable human cost instead of using adequate and proportionate force. Security forces need not be apologetic about gaining the upper hand with selective use of force. Of course, there is no military solution, but applying calibrated force is unavoidable. Lack of political will is responsible for insurgencies dragging on and the Maoist gaining
ascendancy.
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Serpent Bar Palais
des Nations in Geneva is the Mecca of international conferences. In its salles (halls) delegates deliberate on covenants, conventions and treaties to promote international peace, understanding and protect human rights. I was there recently to participate in the International Coordinating Committee on human rights. Much heat and passion are generated over the draft resolutions. Wranglings lead to conflicts. Those accustomed to making verbal sallies succeed in confounding the issues, blurring the text and their contents as well. Opinions and counter opinions become a nightmare for the interpreters — making it, at times difficult for them to render intelligible translations. When decisions elude and resolutions become difficult to pass, lobbying is the only answer. But the conference hall is not its true arena. It is best conducted in the Serpent Bar just outside the hall. The bar is an oblong space overlooking a serene garden with luxuriant grass dotted with sculptures depicting pain and achievements of humanity, trees in slow-bloom suggesting oncoming of spring, and glimpsing Lake Geneva in the beyond. It is here that the warring delegates repair to. Chairs resting on legs that look like slithering snakes cover the entire floor space. Aroma of coffee, smell of beer froth “winking at the brims”, petite belles — all in the business of the Conference – throwing ‘Bon jour’, ‘Bon journee’, ‘Merci’ with captivating smiles at the slightest eye-contact is the ambience that Serpent Bar offers like no other. Here the delegates mingle without ear-phones, communicate without interpreters, tempers that soared high inside the hall cool down, clarity of thought descends in a flash. Lobbying is at its best in this setting. Delegates make full use of mobiles for back-home consultations, hold each others’ hands — especially when interlocutors happen to be boue feminas — exuberate understanding of issues which defied solutions inside the salle. Decisions suddenly appear within reach. The sartorial elegance of dark suits–-an unwritten dress code of international conferences – is in full display as a symbol of international solidarity. Unique mosaic of different cultures, races, religions and languages that throng the bar plays its own role in promoting international understanding. The delegates return to the conference hall with areas of misunderstanding ‘considerably narrowed down’, and resume business with earphones and country-plates in front. Perfect contrast to the informal milieu of the bar. The bonds developed and the understanding reached in the bar become quite evident. Things unsaid become eloquent. The language of discourse is tempered with caution. Resolutions are adopted with thumping applauses. And the hammer comes down on the conference. But the event cannot be said to be over without the last visit to Serpent Bar where departing delegates exchange business cards, make professions of mutual understanding and say ‘aure voirs’ with assurances of cooperation. While flying back home, I kept wondering whether it was the salles of Palais des Nations or its Serpent Bar which took the cake. But, indeed, it is difficult to imagine one without the
other.
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Alternative agriculture
A
meeting of Central ministers and chief ministers held on April 8 with the Prime Minister in the chair constituted a working group under the Chief Minister of Haryana, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to “recommend ways of increasing agricultural production and productivity”. The group is expected to submit its report by June 6, 2010.
Till date the strategy of agricultural development has primarily been to (a) extend the Green Revolution (GR) package to more geographical areas and crops and (b) plug gaps, if any, in the areas and crops already covered. In this context, the minimum support prices, timely availability of fertilisers and water are the issues one hears about. The latest addition to this strategy is the use of bio-technology involving genetic modifications, e.g. Bt brinjal. But age-old wisdom says that one should not put all eggs in one basket, in this case the basket being the GR package. A committee set up by the Planning Commission has called this agriculture “exploitative” because it has resulted in “damaging impacts on the environment, human and animal health, soil and water resources”. The increased use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers has caused problems of soil, environment and water degradation. The chemical-intensive agriculture, practised post-Green Revolution success, has polluted our food, drinking water and air. “Life expectancy has improved, but the quality of life has deteriorated. The rural economy is in ruins because of the over-dependence on outside inputs in agriculture such as seed, fertilisers, pesticides, growth-promoting chemicals etc” (GoI, 2001). Besides, “modern agricultural practices are contributing to the genetic uniformity of crops with vast tracts of lands sown with the same genotype extending into even neighboring countries… [which] makes agriculture highly vulnerable to unforeseen weather and pest/pathogen situations”. Since 1980 the water table has fallen by 4 metres in 264 districts. In the agricultural strategy of the government, organic or alternative agriculture is only paid lip-service and is meant for niche markets or for rain-fed areas etc and not as a general strategy of agricultural development. The terms of reference of this working group are no different with a heavy emphasis on “bridging yield gaps”, a euphemism for extending the GR package to other states. Way back in 2001 a report of the Taskforce on Organic Farming had recommended that “leaders of the government should propagate the concept of organic farming as a sustainable and better alternative” and suggested that “all the state governments may be advised to consider experimentation and demonstrations on government farms on a 50:50 area basis on organic farming and other forms of farming”. Unfortunately, this has not been done till date. It appears that organic agriculture interests the Indian government more for its export potential rather than as an agricultural strategy. The contribution of the Ministry of Agriculture in the propagation of organic agriculture is confined to the creation of national and regional centres of organic farming by renaming the existing establishments and allocation of just Rs 150 crore in the Eleventh Plan. The least that the “long-term policies for sustained agricultural growth” require is that all eggs are not put in one basket. To operationalise this conventional wisdom, the mainstream agricultural policies and research institutes should take note of “organic/alternative agricultural practices” successfully adopted by thousands of farmers for many decades now. The fourth edition of “Organic Farming Source Book” gives a list of farmers flourishing without the use of the GR package of chemical fertilisers, insecticides, herbicides etc for decades. Is it too much to expect from the Indian Council of Agriculture Research to formally collect, consolidate, study and verify these claims. Either turn these down as a fraud or develop these further as well as extend at least the same state support to them as is extended to the GR package. Alternative agriculture is a self-reliant agriculture with no external inputs. No purchased inputs means no indebtedness, and no indebtedness to trader means no distress sale immediately after the harvest. No reliance on chemicals means no reliance on the fast-dwindling oil reserves and costly imports. Hence, alternative agriculture can take care of not only sustained agricultural growth but also many other goals that the government has set for itself, including “reduce the gap between farm gate and retail prices”, have “climate-resilient agriculture” etc. Confining the group to the GR states of Haryana and Punjab, and to West Bengal and Bihar, where the GR is weak, indicates that one can expect this group to serve the old wine of GR in a new bottle. That would be sad indeed given the steady decline in the soil and water quality, two essential inputs of agriculture or rather human life itself, which has been brought about by the Green Revolution and which has been well documented by the government’s own committees. The writer is a Professor of
Economics at M. D. University, Rohtak
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Combat soldiering not for women WOMEN officers in the armed forces are asking for parity with the male officers in all streams, including the combat arms. In September last year, the government decided to grant permanent commission (PC) to those women officers who were recruited after March 2009 on the completion of 10 years of service and that too in a few administrative streams. Some women officers challenged the decision in the Delhi High Court. On March 12, the Delhi High Court ruled: “Women officers of the Air Force who had opted for PC but were granted extension of SSC and of the Army are entitled to PC on a par with male officers.” As for their induction into the combat arms, the Delhi High Court said: “The claim of absorption in areas of operation not open for recruitment of women officers cannot be sustained being a policy decision.” The court refused to interfere with the policy decision, which does not offer permanent commission to SSC officers across the board for men and women being on parity and as part of management exercises. A study carried out at the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff on all aspects of employment of women officers in the armed forces in 2006 recommended that women officers should be excluded from close combat roles. Women officers are up in arms against such thinking and say that the Army is a male-dominated establishment in which the risk to women in combat roles due to their biological difference from men is exaggerated. They feel that nothing poses more challenge to women than men in close combat roles. It is only the masculine mindset of the military that is keeping women out of close combat roles. Several countries such as America, the UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, Russia, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam and Yugoslavia enlist women in their armed forces. America has a large percentage of them, that is 11 per cent, in its volunteer forces. The first large-scale war fought with women’s active participation in it was the Gulf war in 1990. Among the US troops in this war, 8 per cent were women who not only contributed their share to the victory of the allied forces but also figured in the list of casualties and POWs. Of the 13 women killed, five were battle casualties and two women were captured by the Iraqi army. At the time of induction of the US forces into Saudi Arabia in 1990, a former Marines officer-turned-journalist said: “Women could play their part in the rear areas, but soldiering was something best done by men.” He went on to say that he was not alone in expressing misgivings about what would happen if women got involved in combat. “As soon as women stated coming home in body bags or the Iraqis captured a few and raped them, we would see an end to it,” he quipped. And sure enough, this was proved true as America did not send them again to the second Gulf war. The two women who became POWs were Major Rhonda L Cornum and Specialist Melissa Colman. In June 1992 Major Cornum testified before the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces that she was “violated manually, vaginally and rectally.” Based on the disclosure of Major Cornum, the opinion that gained ground in America was that women were far more vulnerable than men in combat. Incidentally, none of the male prisoners reported any such treatment though they complained of inhuman torture. Admittedly, it is their gender that puts women at a great disadvantage in battle. For, they not only become victims of sexual assault by the enemy in the event of being captured but they also run the risk of losing their chastity at the hands of their own forces. Despite their derring-do, frontline soldiering is risky for women as no country can reconcile to its women soldiers being sexually violated in battle. Combat soldiering should, therefore, be counted out for women. Their place is in the rear areas where they are not likely to come into contact with the enemy. They should be granted SSC in the administrative wings of the three services and should be considered for the grant of PC after five years of service depending on their suitability, as in the case of male SSC officers, so that they can make the Army a career for them.
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Inside Pakistan With President Asif Ali Zardari’s assent to the 18th Constitution Amendment Bill, one question that is being hotly debated is whether it will really no longer be possible for a future Army Chief to stage a coup in Pakistan. The 18th Amendment has strengthened Article 6 of the Pakistan Constitution, barring courts from legitimising a military takeover of power.
Article 6 in its new form has it that any judge validating an army coup will be guilty of high treason. That is why Zardari asserted while signing the historically significant Bill that he had closed the doors forever on military dictators usurping power. But Zardari also added that “mishaps can take place”. This part of his statement is equally significant. It is true that “The judiciary has always been the vehicle of legitimising the illegal removal of elected governments”, as Daily Times has commented. Now the judiciary will be doing so at its own peril. But military dictators do not bother about such things. They know that there are many other ways to get the cloak of legitimacy as Gen Pervez Musharraf did by stage-managing a referendum in 2002. Having a tough law to prevent army rule in the future is one thing. But the law can serve the purpose only if there is a mature political leadership in Pakistan. Most newspapers have stressed the need for a capable political leadership, which can make it impossible for the Army Chief to stage a coup, whatever the circumstances. General Kayani’s role
Zardari, who had been initially reluctant to forego the enormous powers he enjoyed as President, is believed to have put his signature on the 18th Amendment Bill because he had no better choice. Army Chief Ashfaq Kiyani’s dominant role in all that has happened, though for the good of democracy, has been too visible to be ignored. The Pakistan President, perhaps, was given a clear hint that either he agreed to accept the position of a titular head of state or get ready to be hauled over coals. A way could have been found to open the cases against him relating to his Swiss bank accounts. With the all-powerful Pakistan Army working against him, Zardari could have been prevented from taking the advantage of immunity he enjoys as President. First support from court
Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the eligibility of the Presidential immunity from corruption cases. A Division Bench of the court ruled that the 2008 Presidential election, which went in favour of Zardari, could not be challenged as the President enjoyed indemnity from court proceedings and could be removed only by launching impeachment proceedings in parliament. The Sindh High Court verdict goes against the opinion expressed by the Pakistan Supreme Court off and on after it nullified the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). As Raoof Hasan, a Lahore-based commentator, says in an article in The News, “The Supreme Court’s insistence that the government take the necessary steps with regard to the initiation of cases against the President in the Swiss court hinges on its belief that these cases are not covered by the much-hyped immunity clause.” This shows that Zardari’s troubles are not over despite the bargain he is believed to have made with the Establishment. |
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