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Politics over food
Hard times |
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Murder of rationalism
Saving Parliament
Sex and sensibility
Punjab must study climate change effect
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Politics over food
The
four Congress-ruled states of Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan have rolled out the food security scheme without waiting for Parliament to pass the Bill. If Parliament fails to enact the law, the UPA might have to re-issue the Ordinance, much to the dislike of the opposition parties. The states’ hurry was apparently necessitated by the Rajiv Gandhi birth anniversary celebrations, though the pressure of the fast-approaching elections is also there. If Parliament remains non-functional, both the BJP and the Congress should share the blame. The Congress has failed to rein in its anti-Telangana MPs from Andhra Pradesh and the BJP leaders need just any provocation to get worked up and stall the proceedings, promises of good behaviour to the presiding officers notwithstanding. Why can’t the battle over missing Coal Ministry files be fought after the session? The Congress seems to believe that regardless of the rising cost of living and hurdles in access to food, the grant of the legal right to certain amount of cereals will get it votes of the poor. The BJP has a hundred and one objections to the food Bill which its spokespersons keep talking about on TV channels but won't debate them in Parliament and let the government incorporate the sensible ones in the Bill. It appears the party does not want to oppose the food security Bill openly in Parliament or outside but also does not want it to get passed and allow the Congress to squeeze political mileage out of it. As for the implementation of the food scheme, states already have the experience of the public distribution scheme. But the new law makes food entitlement an enforceable legal right of every eligible person. The second major difference is the beneficiaries are to be selected on the basis of their Aadhaar card, thus checking the illegal diversion of foodgrains which plagued the existing PDS. States can improve on the Central list of grains and criteria by adding more food items and beneficiaries at their own cost. What ultimately matters is food should reach the needy.
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Hard times
Amritsar
MLA Navjot Kaur Sidhu is angry she has not been given the ‘promised Rs 100 crore’ for the development of her constituency; as a BJP MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary she has no say in policy or decision-making. She is right and she is wrong. While her and her MP husband's issues within the BJP are for them to settle, their claims on lack of funds are correct. But the implication that their constituencies are particularly neglected may be questionable. If they cast an eye around, they will notice that hardly any town or village in the state is receiving any money for development, except those in (Chief Minister's) Muktsar district. The reason for this acute shortage of funds is simple — the state government does not have the money. It has crossed its Rs 367 crore overdraft limit with the RBI by more than Rs 300 crore; salaries and bills are not being paid; the power corporation is broke; public land is being sold; and, above all, the state's debt since 2007 has doubled to Rs 95,000 crore. The Finance Minister, however, says there is no cause for alarm. Perhaps the slowing down of the national economy, drop in the state’s revenue, and the deadbeat realty sector — its real milch cow — also don’t bother him. The optimism in the government is not confined to the Finance Minister. Despite little resources at its disposal to do anything with, the government in addition to its army of ministers has at least 20 chief parliamentary secretaries, who legally have no powers in the functioning of the secretariat. Along with a top-heavy bureaucracy and the incumbent expenses on offices, security, travel and other perks, this is a liability that contributes little to development. The dire straits notwithstanding, neither of the ruling alliance partners would allow any meaningful correction. The BJP comes to the aid of traders and industry every time the government attempts better tax compliance and the SAD won't consider even rationalisation of free electricity for agriculture. Maybe the MP-cum-comedian Navjot Sidhu needs to learn a thing or two about dark comedy too.
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Murder of rationalism
Dr
Narendra Dabholkar (65), a rationalist, was on his morning walk in Pune on Tuesday when he was shot dead by two unidentified men. Why would a rationalist fear for life from enemies in the 21st century democratic, progressive India? Dabholkar had refused to take security despite threats from right-wing Hindu groups. But a threat to his life was palpable. Religion and politics make a heady mix and reasoning works against stupidity. Political forces exploit people by keeping them blindfolded with an overdose of religion, superstition and godmen's tales of miracles. Dabholkar's words drew the thin line between faith and blind faith. The assimilation of ideas — even contradictory ideas — has helped the evolution of Hindu philosophy. The idea of Hinduism propagated by political forces does not allow rationalists come close to their vote banks. No wonder, Dabholkar made enemies in the political arena of Maharashtra for spearheading the idea of an anti-superstition Bill, which was introduced in the Maharashtra legislature in 1995. After several re-drafts, it is still awaiting clearance, 18 years later. The only silver lining in this episode is — all political parties have condemned the killing. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra has promised that the Maharashtra Eradication of Blind Faith Bill will be taken up for discussion. The state Cabinet had approved the bill ahead of the monsoon session. The Bill has been opposed by the Warkari sect and several religious organisations. Dabholkar's move towards a more logic-based, exploitation-free society had threatened the economic interests of many; in 2008 he had devised a questionnaire for astrologers and promised a reward if they passed — it remained unclaimed. He opposed fasting by women, a major cause behind anaemia. People he worked for took him as their enemy. A price he had to pay for being rational in chaotic political times.
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Love is friendship set on fire. — Jeremy Taylor
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Saving Parliament PARLIAMENT is a temple of democracy. Members are its “pujaris” (priests). Their purity affects the temple's purity. If members defile it, the reputation of the temple goes down in the eyes of the people. They begin to doubt the belief it projects. Something similar is happening in Indian Parliament, which has lost its lustre and does not evoke the confidence it once did. All types of ills are attributed to it. The same temple, citadel of faith, has become a laughing stock. Still the fact remains that power resides in Parliament. It is because the two Houses, the Lok Sabha elected directly by the people, and the Rajya Sabha indirectly, legislate for the country. Both have lessened in esteem due to the lowering of integrity of many MPs. A rough estimate is that 30 per cent of them are involved in one or the other court cases. The nation's happy experience is that the Supreme Court has intervened when the cases have got aggravated or when MPs have been found wanting. In recent days, the Supreme Court has once again come to the rescue of the nation to set things right. In a landmark judgment, the court has said that the representatives in Parliament and state legislatures will stand disqualified as soon as they are convicted by a trial court. One hopes this applies to heinous crimes only. The provision in the Representation of the People's Act has been declared ultra virus because it allowed a convicted member to stay till his final appeal is dealt with up to a period of three months. This has been misused and enabled a delinquent member to continue for years by approaching different courts. The fodder scandal case against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad is at the trial court stage even after 17 years. Shibu Shoren has become the Chief Minister of Jharkhand even after having been convicted and sentenced in a murder case. Therefore, all that matters to a member of Parliament or the state legislature is to remain in the House regardless of his conviction in a court of law. Power in politics being such a driving force, morality and ethics do not matter. Likewise, the British Upper House of Parliament, the House of Lords, is thinking in terms of penalising convicted members by debarring them from the House. Among those affected is one NRI who falsely claimed 50,000 pounds in expenses and was punished with a three-month suspension. Even after the Indian Supreme Court's judgment, the conscience of the convicted MPs and MLAs has not irked them. Instead, all political parties have come together to undo the Supreme Court's verdict. A Constitution amendment is sought to be passed to lay down that a member cannot be disqualified until there is a court of appeal open to him. This attitude should have touched at least the thinking MPs, but they are quiet lest they should embarrass the party they belong to, or the convicted members with whom they sit. The protest against the proposed Constitution amendment is wide and strange. People are naturally appalled because Parliament goes down further in their eyes. Already, the daily adjournments and the squabbles have raised the question: Why Parliament? Each day costs Rs. 2.8 lakh. Urgent Bills are pending because they have become a point of political controversy. Parties do not seem to realise that the people's disillusionment in some neighbouring countries has killed democratic governance. One is not sure whether the Constitution amendment would be upheld by the Supreme Court. Article 14 guarantees equality before law. MPs cannot gang up to thwart the equality which the Supreme Court has enunciated. The Constitution debars any person from contesting elections if he has been convicted. How is a convicted MP or MLA different? It's but natural that they should also be disqualified. Article 14 also forms a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. It has already been accepted following a Supreme Court judgment that the basic structure cannot be changed by Parliament. If the proposed amendment is passed, it might be thrown out by the Supreme Court on the ground that Article 14 forms part of the basic structure. In reality, the judiciary and Parliament are on a war path. Fortunately, the government has deferred the Bill on the appointment of judges. The government wants to have a leeway. The court has gone through the phase when the judiciary and the government openly fought over the appointment of judges. Now a collegium system has come to be followed. The four senior judges of a High Court constitute the collegium and decide who will be elevated to the Bench. The same procedure is for the Supreme Court judges. This arrangement has never been to the liking of the government because it gives little room for any patronage which the executive has in mind. If the Bill, which the government contemplates is thrown out by the judiciary, then what happens? The Supreme Court may again intervene. The government is to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act to exempt political parties from transparency. The proposed Bill insulates political parties from an order by the Central Information Commission which declared them as public bodies and accountable for financial benefits. True, the elected representatives of the people are the final authority. But what is the remedy when every segment of the democratic apparatus has been politicised? Power politics has come to dictate the various steps. Because of this, Parliament ceases to be the temple of democracy in the real term. On paper, it will continue to remain so. Maybe, this fact will urge parliamentarians to rise to the standards expected from them. They are the ones who can retrieve democracy from the lack of confidence in which it is stuck. The convicted members should take the initiative and voluntarily resign the moment they are convicted by a trial court. It is their moral
responsibility.
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Sex and sensibility More than a decade and a half ago there we were sitting in a cinema hall with my three-year-old daughter in my lap. Now which Hollywood movie we saw my memory fails me except that it starred handsome hunk Brad Pitt. As we, the tribe of Hollywood aficionados, know only too well Hollywood movies have a customary love-making scene. So there in the middle of the film just as the onscreen chemistry between the lead couple flared up, my little one quizzed: "Mama, why is she unbuttoning his shirt?" Needless to say, all those within the hearing distance were mighty amused, while our embarrassment at her innocent yet churlish query knew no bounds. While I can't fully recall whether the promise that we made to ourselves not to ever take her to an English film was honoured, but yes since then much has changed. For one my baby is now a young woman grown up enough to watch adult content without making me flinch. More pertinently, since then sex is no longer a preserve of Hollywood alone. Slowly but surely, it is coming out of the closet in Hindi cinema too. Recently as I watched a thought-provoking film on a male sex worker with bold almost explicit scenes, I was intrigued by what one of India's leading film critic had to say: 'Indian sex cinema graduates'. Indeed, the film with somewhat graphic representations has come a long, long way from the usual fare where invariably the camera would pan on two flowers coming together to suggest consummation. This one was bold by all standards. But I found myself asking: Have we, the tribe of viewers, come of age? To be honest, prior to watching the film, I was duly warned by a concerned colleague not to watch this adult film alone. Forewarned, as they say, is forearmed, but I had little choice. My job as a reviewer demands and commands a first-day, first-show viewing with or without company. Inside the auditorium of course I had company for sure. Only as I found a stranger (you bet male of the species) sitting right next to me, I quickly lunged for a new seat in a deep corner far, far away from human presence. Cleary, I alone do not inhabit this uncomfortable zone. In this land of Kamasutra, mention the three letter word and be it a public meeting or a drawing-room conversation, most of us simply freeze. Many of course even find it impossible to utter the word without turning beetroot red. A well-educated friend of mine even found it hard to pronounce the title of the film "Love Sex and Dhoka" and sought refuge in its abbreviated form while furtively pushing money under the counter before buying tickets. And watching the primal desire being frozen on the big screen makes most of us doubly fidgety. No wonder, the most enthusiastic viewer's response to sex scenes is guffaws, catcalls, whistles and more of the same. In short, however modern we may appear to be, sex and Indian sensibility continue to remain out of sync. While in recent times the censor board might have decided to give a break to its scissors, we won't let our mental ones rust ever. Citizens of a country where temples were once dedicated to the art of love-making, today we have graduated to being a bunch of closeted beings, who simply fail to see beauty in the bold and beautiful. Sex for most of us, despite our constant preoccupation with it in our private lives, will remain a dirty word. For the record, the aam admi (VVIPs of course can watch it in Parliament too) will continue to maintain: See no sex, hear no word about it and say nothing about it! Good Lord, have I broken one rule, at
least?
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Punjab must study climate change effect Warm
days have become warmer and cold days colder. The average temperature of earth has risen by 0.5°C over the past century. The rains have also become erratic. The seasons have started overlapping, warm weather during winter and cold conditions during spring or summer. The seasonal climatic variations have been converted into daily variations. These weather conditions strongly affect the health of plants and animals. The changing climatic conditions have baffled meteorologists as well, for whom it has become really difficult to predict the seasonal or daily weather conditions. Punjab, agriculturally the most important state of the country, has also witnessed climatic changes like in other parts of the country. Considering the importance of agriculture in Punjab in national food security and livelihood security of about 16 million people dependent on agriculture and its vulnerability to climate change, it is important that efforts be made to carry out extensive research on developing adoption technologies in relation to climate change. The agro-meteorologists at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have reported that during the last four decades, there has been an increase in the minimum temperature by about 1°C at most l°cations in Punjab; increase in relative humidity; decrease in evaporation rates and the number of rainy days; apart from a perceptible increase in extreme weather events such as erratic rainfall, heat wave, cold wave, etc. How it happened Scientists argue that these climatic changes are the outcome of the increasing levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there has been an increase in the concentration of the GHGs in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide has increased by 29 per cent, methane by 150 per cent and nitrogen oxide by 15 per cent during the last 100 years at the global level. This has resulted in increase of the mean surface temperature by 0.4-0.8°C during this period. The global increase in carbon dioxide concentrations are primarily due to the use of fossil fuel coupled with land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to intensive agriculture. According to the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) report, the agriculture sector emitted 17.6 per cent of carbon dioxide in 2007. These emissions from the agriculture sector arise from enteric fermentation in livestock (63.4 per cent), rice paddy cultivation (20.9 per cent), manure management (0.7 per cent), agricultural soils (13.0 per cent), and on-field burning of crop residue (2 per cent). At present, the total rice straw utilisation in Punjab for different purposes constitutes less than 2 per cent of the 22 million tonnes produced annually, whereas 72 per cent is burnt in the fields itself, leading to the production of enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, apart from suspended carbon particles, into the atmosphere. In the 2010 report of the IPCC, it is predicted that the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration will reach approximately 605-755 parts per million (PPM) by 2070. It is estimated that agricultural productivity will have to double to be able to feed the world population by 2050. The industrial and agricultural activities are primarily responsible for the rise in the concentration of the GHGs in the atmosphere. The increasing levels of carbon dioxide are mostly because of the combustion of fossil fuel. Consequences of change Carbon dioxide is referred to as "polluting gas" which is true only if it is present in higher quantity in the atmosphere. In reality, it is also a life saviour. Nature has provided us with a miraculously balanced energy cycle in which the gas plays an important role by acting as a sink for trapping the energy from the sun, and ultimately to be trapped in the form of plant biomass. But when present in higher quantities, it can lead to increase in air temperature due to its green house effect, commonly referred to as global warming. A World Bank estimate indicates that warming of about 1.25°C is expected to occur in India over the next three decades, which can reduce average land productivity across districts by 17 per cent. The resultant increase in temperature can reduce crop duration, increase crop respiration rates, affect the survival and distribution of pest populations, and may hasten nutrient mineralisation in soils, decrease fertiliser use efficiency and increase evapo-transpiration. This could be a shock to the agricultural sector accounting for around 70 per cent of rural employment. Extreme weather events like droughts, floods, tropical cyclones, heavy rainfall, heat and cold waves are known to negatively impact agricultural production. Further, the changes will affect crops, soils, livestock and biotic stresses. The studies at the PAU have shown that a significant decrease in sunshine hours — both during kharif and rabi seasons — could lead to decreased agricultural production. Since, the crops require an optimum amount of sunshine for growth it is a serious reason of concern for the future. Mitigating the effects The climate change situation in the state points towards immediate climate resilient strategies to overcome the challenges that have surfaced. These strategies need to be framed on a three-tier system, involving industrialists, agriculturists, policy makers and the common man. Many resource conservation technologies are being developed by the scientists of the PAU. These technologies are based on the principle of lesser use of resources for similar production level and the recycling of crop and other biomass as per the principles of nature. These include conservation irrigation (laser land levelling, drip, sprinkler and furrow irrigation which consume lower amounts of water); conservation tillage to conserve the soil organic carbon in the aggregates for a longer time period; harvesting rain-runoff water, especially in hilly regions, to take care of water problems; site-specific application of fertiliser nutrients to improve nutrient use efficiency; integrated nutrient and pest management to reduce the use of toxic poisons to kill agricultural pests; and crop diversification. All the stakeholders have to come together to work towards mitigating the impacts of climate change to some extent and devise strategies for easy adaptation to the changing conditions. Not only do we have to produce at the existing level, but also roughly double the agricultural productivity level to feed the billions in future. This will not be an easy task.
The writers are Director and agro-meteorologist in School of Climate Change and Agricultural Meteorology, PAU, Ludhiana.
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SS Kukal and Prabhjyot Kaur
