The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Welfare — Punjab style
Funds misdirected to feed the poor

Free power for farmers and subsidised food for the poor are two major populist schemes of the Badal government in Punjab. Both have bankrupted the institutions handling them -- Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd in the first case and Punsup and other state agencies in the second. This is because the near-bankrupt state government does not make timely payments to these institutions, which are in dire financial straits.

Supplying subsidised wheat and pulses to families below the poverty line is a laudable idea to protect the poor from the heat of rising prices. However, this requires good governance, a foolproof delivery system and sufficient funds. Punjab has none of these. Because of governance deficit, the well-intended “atta-dal scheme” has come a cropper. Central funds have been diverted to keep it going. The agencies responsible have piled up a heavy debt with banks refusing a bailout. The government owes Rs 1,100 crore to Punsup, Markfed, Punjab Agro and the warehousing corporation. The state delivery system is notorious for leakages. A 2009 official inquiry in Bathinda revealed that of the 12.8 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme 71,630 were fake. A family can be eligible for the “atta-dal scheme” only if its annual income does not exceed Rs 30,000, if it does not own even a fan or any mode of transport, including a bicycle. The needy as usual have been bypassed by grabbers, probably with official connivance.

In a state where corruption is rampant from top to bottom, it is not surprising that the better-off and well-connected people manage to corner subsidies meant for the poor. Whether it is power or cheap food, a major part goes to benefit the undeserving. Despite a severe financial crisis the ruling political leadership plays the politics of populism, hands over freebies to one and all, does not hesitate to take more loans to splurge on its election-oriented schemes and adds to the already worrisome debt burden of the state.

Bangalore’s Street View
Allow service, protect strategic locations

A project by Google Inc to systematically take pictures of streets in important cities all over the world now covers 27 countries, but not India, as yet. Its maiden attempt to roll cameras in Bangalore was stopped by the police soon after vehicles mounted with cameras were launched on the streets. The stated reasons are privacy and national security.

Google launched its Street View project in the US in 2007. While its users swear by the detail that is now widely available to them, many controversies have arisen over privacy and other concerns, including Google picking up passwords and personal data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks in the UK. Google itself declared that it had captured the data accidentally, apologised and purged the data from its systems. In response to various concerns, Google now blurs the faces of people and licence plates of cars and responds promptly to any request to remove private information by anyone effected by it.

Google maps have become a useful navigational aid for millions of people, and have found widespread usage with those individuals who have smart phones. There is no doubt that the Street View feature enhances the experience of those who have access to it. In India, we often have antiquated cartographic concerns —pictures of bridges etc. are banned because of ‘strategic reasons’, that too in a time when everything is visible through satellites. The police in Bangalore should make clear what their concerns are, and Google should respond constructively. While masking out anything of strategic importance, they should make data on the city available over the Internet. Indeed, this experiment should also be replicated in other cities of India, so that the world at large can experience incredible India through the panoramic view provided by Google and others of its ilk.

Thought for the Day

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. — Vaclav Havel

ARTICLE

Jihad, terror and extremism
Factors that dominate Pak security set-up
by G. Parthasarathy

While promoting terrorism abroad has been the trademark of Pakistan’s military establishment, new skeletons are tumbling out of the ISI’s cupboards, revealing the horrors perpetrated by its torture and assassination networks within the country. The “tell all” book titled “Inside the Al-Qaeda and Taliban --- Beyond 9/11 Osama bin Laden” written by journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, widely believed, even within Pakistan, to have been bumped off by the ISI, has been banned by Islamabad.

Shahzad made some startling revelations to an American television network, hours before he was abducted. He revealed that even before the 9/11 terrorist strikes, there were formal agreements between the ISI on the one hand and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda on the other. Moreover, just after 9/11, the then Director-General of the ISI, Lieut-Gen Mehmood Ahmed, assured both Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden in Kandahar that Pakistan would neither mount operations against them, nor would it arrest them.

Given these assurances, it is not surprising that Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden and their supporters and armed cadres crossed the Durand Line and were given haven in Pakistan. Some second ranking Al-Qaeda leaders were, however, targeted when they were suspected of involvement in attempts to assassinate General Musharraf in December 2003. Shahzad asserts that the “Pakistan Army has always been closely allied with Islamist forces,” adding that mutinies from within the army’s ranks were always possible in the event of major operations in future, against Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuaries.

While the Islamist propensities of significant sections in the Pakistan Army establishment are well known, what is now emerging is that support for Islamic extremism is also significantly prevalent in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Navy. The recent attack on the Mehran Naval Base in Karachi, where American supplied naval reconnaissance aircraft were destroyed, has revealed the extent to which radical Islamist elements have infiltrated the Pakistan Navy.

Even more widespread has been the infiltration of radical Islamist elements into the Pakistan Air Force, including the Chaklala Air Base near Rawalpindi, where American supplied transport aircraft are based. Airmen from this base were involved in an attempt to assassinate President Musharraf in 2003. The links of the PAF with Al-Qaeda go back to 1996 when an air force officer, M. A. Mir, known to be close to Islamist elements in the ISI, entered into a pact with Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubayada, promising Al-Qaeda the supply of arms. Interestingly, while the elements from Saudi Arabia were evidently supportive of this deal, Mir, who later became Pakistan’s Air Chief, died in a mysterious air crash while on official duty, in a PAF aircraft, on February 20, 2003.

Three Saudi princes associated with Air Chief Marshal Mir’s 1996 deal with Al-Qaeda died in similarly mysterious circumstances, shortly thereafter. Interestingly, the mysterious deaths of Mir and the Saudi princes occurred after both President Musharraf and the Saudi monarchy had become averse to Al-Qaeda influence in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia! Interestingly, the father of Faisal Shahzad, whose animosity towards the US prompted him to attempt to blow up the Times Square in New York last year, is retired Air Vice-Marshal Baharul Haq of the PAF.

The malaise of Islamic radicalism has also spread to Pakistan’s nuclear establishment. Dr A.Q. Khan, infamous for his rabid references to “Hindu treachery,” was a major player in moves to transfer nuclear weapons capabilities to Iran, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Bhutto himself described Pakistan’s quest for nuclear weapons as his country’s contribution to “Islamic Civilization”. These sentiments are shared by senior Pakistani nuclear scientists like Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood, who, along with his colleague Abdul Majeed, was detained shortly after the terrorist strikes of 9/11 for helping Al-Qaeda to obtain nuclear and biological weapons capabilities.

Mehmood openly voiced support for the Taliban and publicly advocated transfer of nuclear weapons to the whole “Ummah” (Muslim community worldwide). Two other Pakistani scientists, Suleiman Asad and Al-Mukhtar, wanted for questioning about their suspected links with Osama bin Laden, disappeared in Myanmar. The million-dollar question is: did they disappear into the territory of Pakistan’s “all-weather friend” and partner in proliferation, China? The malaise of Islamic radicalism runs deep across Pakistan’s entire security establishment — civilian and military.

The roots of this radicalisation can be traced back to the days when the US and the rest of the Western world backed Pakistani military dictator Gen Zia-ul-Haq to the hilt. It was General Zia who ushered in a new era of Islamisation, bigotry and blasphemy laws targeting minorities, together with nurturing radical, armed Islamic groups, bent on waging jihad across the world. Officers recruited in his era are today three star Generals and the army is largely motivated by the ideology of the “Quranic Concept of War” articulated by his protégé, Brigadier (later Major-General) S.K. Malik. Describing anyone who stands in the way of jihad as an “aggressor”, Malik held that “the aggressor is always met and destroyed in his own country”.

Malik also had a unique view of the concept of “terror”. He averred: “Terror struck into the heart of the enemy is not only a means. It is an end in itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponent’s heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved. Terror is not a means of imposing a decision upon the enemy; it is the decision we wish to impose on him. It is a point where the means and end merge”. This is precisely what was sought to be “imposed” on the ill-fated people killed in the Victoria Terminal area in Mumbai on 26/11.

Despite evidence that the ISI recently passed on operational intelligence received from the CIA to terrorist groups, both the US and the UK are making conscious efforts to gloss over the ISI-terrorist nexus. The British are realising that in their desire to be pro-active across the world as America’s most “loyal ally”, they have been punching above their weight. Moreover, the greatest threat to internal security in the UK comes from nationals of Pakistani origin, motivated and trained in terrorist safe havens in Pakistan. The UK seeks to appease Pakistan to facilitate an early withdrawal from Afghanistan and secure ISI cooperation for internal security.

The Americans quite evidently believe that Pakistan has to be kept in reasonably good humour, at least for the present, to achieve larger strategic objectives. In these circumstances, India has to shed illusions that the Pakistan military establishment can be persuaded to discard the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy by mere sweet words and “composite dialogue”.n

MIDDLE

Of toilet paper and cola
by Vinod Prakash Gupta

In the year 1969, my nephew, the same age as me, left for America to pursue higher studies and eventually settle down there. Despite being uncle and nephew, we were close friends, as was the definition of friendship back then in average middle class families: blissful insouciance and comforting intimacy. We went to the same school, cackled endlessly over food eaten with our hands, shared clothes, played in the streets and many such other common simple pleasures that make childhood friendships memorable and cherished for life.

After 5 years, he retuned to India for a business meeting. I was excited at the prospect of meeting him and assumed that he would stay at my place. But his chosen place of residence was a five star hotel where I was called upon to meet him. He did not stay with his parents either. The reason was clear. His standard of living and habits had gone through a sea change whereas we were still struggling to convert our dry latrines into semi-flush ones.

In the mid-seventies except for the rich folks and top ranking officers in the services the use of toilet paper, habitual consumption of soft drinks and bottled water were luxuries. As a result, every non-resident Indian while visiting India either stayed at a hotel or if staying with family or friends carried a suitcase full of toilet paper and packs of cola.

In 1983 my nephew came to India with his family. By which time I, with my wife and two children, was residing in a comfortable upscale government bungalow in Delhi. He had become a successful industrialist in America and was considered rich by even American standards. This time they decided to visit our home.

Initially, my nephew’s children were shy and reluctant to partake of our hospitality. That changed the moment they heard a fluent stream of English emanate from my children’s mouths. Then began the tour of the house. My children were the product of the new generation. They were used to regularly consuming aerated drinks and were well versed with the usage of toilet paper and cola,b a stock of both, always available in our house. My nephew’s children came out squealing with disbelief and delight- ‘Oh Dad! They have toilet paper and soft drinks’.

The parents were relieved too and we knew from their expressions that our lifestyle has been granted the seal of approval. The result was a two day stay at our place which otherwise would have been unthinkable.

It was a lovely visit the memories of which I still hold dear. But news of our ‘luxurious’ standard of living spread like wild fire amongst our family and friends and we were termed as snobs or ‘angrez’. The relatives seemed to be in awe of us that brought about both shyness and fear resulting in awkwardness. I was flummoxed at the dramatic alteration of our social status both in India and abroad within our circle by a single bottle of cola and a roll of toilet paper.

I often look back on this incident and it both amuses and alarms me with regard to how everything changes but nothing really does. Back then it was cola and toilet paper that became symbols of who we had become. Today it is the Ipads, Iphones, Jaguars and Jacuzzis that drive people’s perceptions about others. It makes me long for the days of paper planes, sleepovers on the ‘chhatt’ and cutting chai — days when things were simple.n

OPED society

no more queer than others
As recently as February 2010, the Royal College of Psychiatrists had to issue a statement to clarify that ‘homosexuality is not a psychiatric disorder’. The debate about what makes people gay has been raging for decades. Now scientists aim to settle it for good.
Jeremy Laurance

‘Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, it is primarily neurobiological at birth.” So said Jerome Goldstein, director of the San Francisco Clinical Research Centre, addressing 3,000 neurologists from around the world at the 21st meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Lisbon last month.

In doing so he was attempting to settle a debate that has raged for decades: are gays born or made? It is a puzzle because homosexuality poses a biological conundrum. There is no obvious evolutionary advantage to same-sex relationships. So why are some people attracted to others of the same sex? Sexual attraction provides the drive to reproduction – sex is a means to an end not, in Darwinian terms, an end in itself. From an evolutionary perspective, same-sex relationships should be selected out.

Despite this, they are common in the animal kingdom. Birds do it, bees probably do it and fleas may do it, too. Among the many examples are penguins, who have been known to form lifelong same-sex bonds, dolphins and bonobos, which are fully bisexual apes. Various explanations have been advanced for the evolutionary advantage that such relationships might confer. For example, female Laysan albatrosses form same-sex pairs, which are more successful at rearing chicks than single females. Homosexuality may also help social bonding or ease conflict among males where there is a shortage of females. Gay couples will not preserve their own genes but they may help preserve those of the group to which they belong.

Animal kingdom

The existence of homosexuality in the animal kingdom has been cited to demonstrate that it is not a sin against nature. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of recognised mental disorders almost 40 years ago in 1973 and the World Health Organisation followed suit in 1992. The UK Royal College of Psychiatrists does not produce its own list of disorders but tends to follow the WHO.

Yet as recently as February 2010, the college felt compelled to issue a statement to “clarify that homosexuality is not a psychiatric disorder,” adding: “There is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Furthermore, so-called treatments of homosexuality create a setting in which prejudice and discrimination flourish.”

The move was prompted by a survey of 1,400 psychiatrists and therapists, which found more than one in six had offered to help turn gays straight, or reduce their gay or lesbian feelings. Moreover, the cases were not concentrated in the past, but spread across the decades up to the present.

Professor Michael King, who led the study published in BMC Psychiatry, said at the time: “We didn’t expect it to be happening at this rate and we are really rather concerned... It is distressing and harmful and there is absolutely no evidence it works.”

One puzzle was that far fewer therapists said they would attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation if asked to do so – one in 25 – than admitted having actually done so. They seemed uncomfortable with giving treatment, or admitting to it. Pressure from clients demanding help because of bullying or discrimination may have pushed the therapists into delivering it.

Professor King said: “If the therapist is not wise enough to say that there is nothing pathological about it, they may get seduced into trying to change them. Instead, the therapist should be saying that it is very unfortunate they are being bullied and that they can try to help them come to terms with their situation.”

Genetic link

Research in neurobiology, cited by Jerome Goldstein in Lisbon last month, has served to reinforce this view. If it can be shown that the brains of gay people are physiologically different from heterosexual people, the idea that they are “aberrant” and may be changed is harder to sustain.

Twin studies have revealed a probable genetic link with sexual orientation and Dr Goldstone plans to examine the brains of identical twins using MRI scanners for differences.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, using MRI scanners measuring blood flow to the brain have already found differences in the size of the amygdala in the brain, which plays a key role in emotional responses. The brains of homosexual men resembled those of heterosexual women and those of homosexual women resembled those of heterosexual men.

The research builds on other studies of neurological differences between gay and straight men and women. A study led by Qazi Rahman at Queen Mary, University of London, found gay men and heterosexual women share a poor sense of direction and are more likely to navigate using landmarks or by asking someone. It is heterosexual men who stick stubbornly to the map.

The right-hand side of the brain dominates spatial capabilities, so may be slightly more developed in heterosexual men and lesbians. An earlier study found gay men and heterosexual women outperformed lesbians and heterosexual men in verbal fluency.

These studies hark back to those by Simon LeVay, a gay neuroscientist at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, who claimed to have found structural differences in the brains of homosexual and heterosexual men. Post-mortems studied by LeVay revealed that a region of the brain called the interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus is two or three times bigger in heterosexual men than it is in women. In gay men, however, this region is about the same size as in women.

This supported the notion that the brains of gay men were in some ways a bit like women. But LeVay acknowledged that it was impossible to say whether this made people gay or whether the differences in their brains were a consequence of being gay. To make a compelling case, it would be necessary to show that the neurological differences existed early in life and that it was possible to predict future sexual orientation from them.

But he was captivated by the idea that, if gays were “born that way” it could undermine the morality of homosexual discrimination. He believed that a lifestyle based on an innate propensity rather than a conscious choice is far more difficult to condemn.

Jerome Goldstein agrees. “We must continue to bring forward data that show the differences or similarities between the brains of homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, and transgender persons.” He added: “The neurobiology of sexual orientation and the gay brain, matched with other hormonal, genetic, and structural studies, has far-reaching consequences beyond sexual orientation.”

‘Curing’ homosexuality

The idea that homosexuality can be cured has a long and dubious history. For most of the last century it was thought to be an aberration from the norm that could be “corrected”, rather than a natural state. Everyone was thought to be basically heterosexual and homosexuality was regarded as a deviation, the result of “faulty learning” in childhood.

During the 1950s and 1960s, when belief in psychological behaviourism was at its height, aversion therapy was used to “cure” homosexuals. Male patients were given a slide show which included pictures of sexually attractive men and women and a lever that allowed them to change the slides. If they lingered too long over the pictures of the men, and did not move on swiftly enough to the pictures of the women, they received an electric shock. A variation of this treatment involved a drug that would make them vomit.

Aversion therapy, famously employed in Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange to cure Alex of his obsession with violence, was used up to the 1980s, but has since been discredited.

Other treatments included advice to masturbate to a homosexual fantasy and then switch to a heterosexual one near orgasm. Covert sensitisation required patients to counter homosexual thoughts with shameful fantasies of arrest by the police or discovery by their family.

Although not uncommon, these treatments never became mainstream in Britain. In the US, however, the idea that homosexuality can be cured retains wide support.

UN REPORT BY DECEMBER

The UN Human Rights Council, known as Geneva Forum, adopted a resolution last week , declaring that there should be no discrimination or violence against people based on their sexual orientation. The controversial resolution marked the first time the UN Human Rights Council has recognised the equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The text, presented by South Africa, was adopted by 23 countries in favour, 19 against with 3 abstentions and one delegation absent during voting. Russia, Pakistan and Bangladesh voted against the motion. China abstained during voting.

“All over the world, people face human rights abuses and violations because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, including torture, rape, criminal sanctions, and killing. The landmark resolution affirms that human rights are universal.”

— Hillary Clinton

“The aim was for a dialogue on discrimination and violence meted out to those whose only crime seems to be their choice in life.”

— Jerry Matthews Matjila, South African Ambassador

“This issue has nothing to do with human rights. What we find here is an attempt to change the natural right of a human being with an unnatural right. That is why we call upon all members to vote against it.”

— Sheikh Ahmed Ould Zahaf, Mauritania’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva

The resolution calls on the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to draw up the first U.N. report on challenges faced by gay people worldwide. Her report, due by December, should document discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.