Time to opt out

By Iqbal Masud

WHEN Al Capone, the famous Chicago gangster of the 30s, was arrested, he said: "Ishould never have issued a cheque for flowers sent to the funeral of a friend". The FBI traced the cheque to a concealed bank account and booked Al Capone for life, not for murder, but for tax evasion.

There must be dozens of Al Capones in Mumbai today carrying on their killings of builders, hoteliers, doctors at the rate of one or two per day. They have not made the mistake of Al Capone. They do not keep ordinary accounts, forget bank accounts. Their record of killings is not equalled even by Al Capone. Frightened, Maharashtra CM Manohar Joshi is threatening to impose a TADA-like ordinance in Mumbai.

Frankly the state has eroded in Mumbai as it has in the rest of the country. Moreover the problem in Mumbai has specifics of its own, not generally known to the rest of the country.

Sometime ago a distinguished civilian wrote a long and much lauded report on crime and politics in India. I have read that report. It is a work of an academic. I have lived in Bombay from 1960s onwards and served as its Commissioner of Income Tax up to 1981. Let me furnish some humble home-truths.

The original ‘gangsters’ were Haji Mastan and Yusuf Patel (1970s-1980s). I met both of them in the course of official duty. They clearly indicated their political connections which I cannot disclose because of the Official Secrets Act. But I did communicate to my bosses my apprehensions of the growing danger.

Mastan and Patel were merciless people. I talked to them in Urdu. When you talk to a man in his mother tongue, he lets slip a lot of information, which he would not do otherwise. The funny thing is Mastan and Patel saw themselves as victims. They criticised the COFEPOSA Act quite intelligently. This Act (later blasted by the judiciary) placed the burden of proof on the accused. They said: "You don’t do that in the case of chemists, who adulterate drugs — life-saving ones. We are far less dangerous than those guys". Good point. Unfortunately, I could not applaud them because of my official position.

To cut a long story short, Mastan and Patel got away with it despite my best offensive operations. When it came to the judiciary, neither the Income Tax nor the Customs Departments could establish their guilt. But I was never an endangered species as far as these two gentlemen were concerned. They simply laughed at my efforts which finally proved to be futile. One of them even sent me an invitation to his daughter’s marriage, adding a note: "You did your duty".

This tolerant ambience has vanished today. The successors of Mastan and Patel have killed many officials. Gangsterism gained ground during the December 1992 to March 1993 riots. Gangsterism is essentially a secular activity but the communal bitterness of that genocide divided even the gangsters on communal lines. It is clear from the Srikrishna Commission Report, now available in Mumbai to the common citizen, that the police and the politicians were not far away from the gangsters. Justice Sri Krishna put the present rulers of Bombay and the then Congress rulers of Bombay in the dock. Now these people want to condemn the same gangsters from a superior moral height. The gangster shakes his head and says: No.

The recession has affected the gangsters. From killing builders, they descended to film people. Now they have descended to the common or garden life — hoteliers, doctors etc. Probably, they will descend to a man who has two shirts instead of one. In their own way they are proving the Amartya Sen thesis right.

Today Mumbai is an anarchist’s paradise. Cars cut lanes, and there is no police to check them. Cars flash full headlights blinding the opposite traffic, and there is no action. Divali-fire-works go on and on the whole night, no action. I am mentioning the humbler sufferings of the citizens. In more serious areas like rape or murder, the position is worse. Will TADA help? I have been a consistent opposer of such despotic statutes.

Seeing society collapse in Bombay, I am prepared to accept some despotism, if it can be honestly used to control the gangsters. Actually, a civil war of sorts is going on in Mumbai, in which no prisoners are taken. If the state puts forward a reasoned ordinance to control the gangsters and not a mindless one like TADA, I would accept it. But things being what they are, I am afraid the Government in Mumbai will put its political opponents in jail in the name of controlling terrorism. It is a catch-22 situation.

Perhaps, this is a time for the rulers, the intellectuals, the professionals, and the mediamen to sit down together and evolve a counter-strategy, which is both forceful and democratic.

Adulteration of mustard oil

By Shirish Joshi

THE last thing you expect after enjoying a dish full of fish fried in mustard oil is to be admitted to a hospital following vomiting, diarrhoea, nausea, breathlessness and swelling in the feet and death within a few days. But this was the experience of Shahid Ali of Gole Market, New Delhi. He was the first victim of epidemic dropsy which claimed several lives in Delhi in July and August, 1998.

Botanically mustard belongs to the genus Brassica, which has over 150 species. Several of them are cultivated as oil seeds or as leafy vegetables. In our country yellow mustard or sarson is the principle oil seed crop. Mustard seeds contain oil up to 30-38 per cent. Certain varieties cultivated in Uttar Pradesh have a higher oil content up to 42-43 per cent.

Mustard oil is used as a cooking medium in northern states of India as well as Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. It is used in making pickles of various fruits and vegetables as well as frying pakoras and fish. It is also used as a hair oil or for massaging the body.It is reported that regular massage of the scalp will produce abundant hair. It is not popular in southern states as well as Maharashtra. Only those people from the north who are living in these states use mustard oil.

When Argemone Mexicana (AM) oil is added to mustard oil and consumed, it causes dropsy, a term sometimes used for an abnormal accumulation of body fluids. AM is also known as Mexican poppy, poppy or Yellow Thistle. AM grows wild anywhere, even in mustard farms. For a layman, the seeds look very similar to mustard seeds.

If observed under a microscope, AM seeds have a rough surface, while mustard seeds are smooth. The mustard crop is ready for harvesting in the months of March or April. AM flowers and seeds also appear at the same time. It is possible that AM seeds get mixed with mustard seeds, unknowingly, if harvesting is done with machines.

AM is highly poisonous. It has no nutritional value. Grazing animals do not touch it. AM oil like mustard oil has a dark yellow or light orange hue, hence blends very well with mustard oil. It is said that AM oil imparts a little hot pungent flavour to mustard oil. People from North India who use mustard oil seem to love it.

Besides making more profits at the cost of the lives of poor people, this may be one reason why AM is used to adulterate mustard oil. Even an addition of 1 per cent of AM oil i.e. 10cc in one litre of mustard oil is enough to cause dropsy.

Dropsy does not appear as a single isolated case. It generally affects a group of people at the same time. Hence it is also known as epidemic dropsy. The initial symptoms of dropsy are vomiting and diarrhoea, nausea, breathlessness and swelling in the feet. In some cases glaucoma, kidney failure have also been reported. Swelling of the legs is the most common as well as a consistent symptom. Some patients experience burning sensation in the feet.

Dropsy has no cure in the allopathic system of medicine. Attending doctors treat patients with vitamins, calcium and a protein rich diet. Without medical treatment, the disease affects the human body in total and ultimately leads to death due to cardiac failure.

Cases of dropsy caused by adulteration of mustard oil with AM are generally reported when freshly pressed mustard oil appears in the market. The harmful effect of AM oil is felt most when it is fresh from the oil mill. The effect wears off with the passage of time.

Can you test mustard oil adulteration at home? The adulteration of AM oil can be detected very easily at home. Tell your children studying science to carry out the nitric acid test at home, but be very careful in handling nitric acid. It is highly corrosive.

Take a little mustard oil in a test tube or a small bottle and add a few drops of nitric acid, available with dealers who sell chemicals. If the oil turns dark brown like snuff, the sample is adulterated. The test will be positive if the sample contains 0.25 per cent of AM oil i.e., 2.5 cc in one litre.

What should a common housewife do? To start with do not use mustard oil for cooking in the months of April or May or soon afterwards, when oil from fresh mustard crop appears in the market. It is more likely to be adulterated with AM oil knowingly or unkowingly. Switch over to clear oils like groundnut or soyabean or sunflower.

In case you cannot switch to some other oil, buy a well known brand or the product from a well known oil mill and that too packed in sealed bottles or tetrapack containers. Do not buy it loose.

Adulteration of mustard oil with AM oil is not a new phenomenon. It has been going on for the last 100 years at least. According to Prof G. Ojha of the University Grants Commission (UGC), people from our country have suffered from dropsy at least 30 times in this century. He has carried out an in-depth research on AM. There was an epidemic of dropsy in Nadiad, Gujarat in 1950. It was followed by another at Mumbai in 1960. Adulteration of mustard oil with AM oil was responsible for the dropsy epidemic in West Bengal and Bihar.

The only way to prevent such epidemic of dropsy in India in future is to eradicate AM from the country. AM has taken roots throughout the country. It is found to grow wild even in hilly areas up to 1,500 metres above sea level.

Toxic AM oil can enter into the human body, not only through food but also through the skin. In one such outburst of dropsy the oil used for body massage was found to be mixed with AM oil.

The Union Government has proposed to ban the loose sale of all edible oils, including mustard oil, in India. It may be a good decision, but it will hit hard the weaker section of society. Consumer protection organisations in India have opposed the ban. Most of the consumers buy cooking oil in small quantities much less than a litre at a time. Even those who buy a litre or two at a time will have to pay higher prices.