Honour for the Mission
IN this age of degeneration of values, the Ramakrishna Mission has kept the flame of social service burning. Among the Indian missionary organisations, it stands at an enviable height and, therefore, it is appropriate that this year's Gandhi Peace Prize has gone to it for its durable and philanthropic work.

An uncivil war
IT is the moment of truth for the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration in Sri Lanka. Its much-hyped “Operation Jayasikuru” has utterly failed to deliver “certain victory” which the term implies.

Nuclear explosions
by Himmat Singh Gill
ANY meaningful discussion on the effects that India’s nuclear explosions might have in its defence field must pre-suppose and take for granted that we would continue to have a dependable political system in place for the next few years, at least, so that some measure of continuity is available to counter the fallout of such a far-reaching act as this.

UN and problems of globalisation
by Kofi A. Annan
THE Asian crisis, now rapidly becoming a global crisis, is by no means a purely financial matter. It has disastrous consequences for millions of people in their everyday lives. Moreover, it is the poor who are hardest hit. In Indonesia, almost 15,000 workers are losing their jobs every day this year. And poverty comes with its usual sorry retinue: hunger, social unrest, violence, abuse of human rights

Ignore tourism at the cost of prosperity! by Tavleen Singh TOURISM is the future” the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh said recently. “The idea is to push tourism as a major growth engine to harness its direct and multiplier effect for employment generation, economic growth and poverty alleviation in an environmentally sustainable manner.” National Geographic channel makes a splash by Amita Malik TO us villagers from the capital of India, the cable largesse in Bombay is nothing short of staggering. Eking it out with a maximum of 15 channels one finds that Bombay offers a choice of a minimum of 35 channels which can go up to 55. A girl called Khushboo by Darshan Singh Maini FROM time to time I have drawn in these “middles”, little water-colour sketches of the children close to me – of a baby bibliophile who at the age of three would start browsing the tomes off the shelf as though she were engaged in some metaphysical research beyond the ken of the family...

75 Years Ago

Indian Day in the Commons
THERE is no need to refer to Sir Charles Yate’s speech, for one always knows what to expect from Sir Michael O’Dwyer’s Parliamentary double. Sir Robert Hamilton’s contribution was a useful corrective.

Honour for the Mission

IN this age of degeneration of values, the Ramakrishna Mission has kept the flame of social service burning. Among the Indian missionary organisations, it stands at an enviable height and, therefore, it is appropriate that this year's Gandhi Peace Prize has gone to it for its durable and philanthropic work. (This is the first time that an institution has got this award.) As the citation rightly says, the prize honours the commitment and contribution of the Mission towards the amelioration of human suffering and undertaking activities which are close to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. For those who have even rudimentary knowledge of the Mission's work, its choice from among the 53 nominations received for the award should not come as a surprise. In and around Chandigarh, one can see the inspiring dedication of the volunteers led by Swami Pitambarananda. Those who preceded him have left an unmatched legacy of service to God and man. At the centre of the Mission's activities is Daridranarayana. In this region, as in the far-flung north-eastern Khasi hills, the Swamis and their disciples are engaged in the stupendous task of removing ignorance, poverty and hatred from communities and tribes. Swami Ramakrishna Paramahansa saw in the human condition misery caused by the lack of faith. Perhaps in the world as it is , there is an urgent need to stop self-division. The idea can be taken to the level of holiness and wholeness. In brief, to be holy is to be whole. Work, and not mere monasticism, is the solution of most of our social problems. This is the Pitambarananda style of making bitter life better. Men like him are working all over the country and their endeavours have been recognised by this prize.

The Mission is currently aiming at educating the masses so well that it is able to fight corruption.We have the highest standards of morality—both of the classic and folk varieties. We have countless examples of human and fakely divine intrigue and many deft intriguers are fervently worshipped in what can be seen as monuments to public faith. In such confusion of morality it would not suffice to recall just one form of corruption. Political corruption, as old as the history of government, has not distinguished among cultures, systems of government, or ideologies. Today, we have judges in the social field misjudging right conduct. The corrupt do not constitute the historical process; they owe their survival to their wily supporters. Thus they cannot negate the historical process or the inner national urge for purification. It is a pity that we do not talk any more of the "Lotus Land of Purity", of a new sacral society built on a sound foundation without illusions. We must make self-determination, the grammar of our creativity. When society will grow through the individual's will to the general will responding to the idea of an incorruptible order, a radically moral revolution will be possible and a leap ahead will materialise. For this, each one of us must keep our life and conduct clean. The total uglification of life can be redeemed only by total beautification. Those at the helm in every walk of life ought to work for it. Angelus Silesius, that western mystic, has put it beautifully:

The Cross on Golgotha

Will never save thy soul.

The Cross in thine own heart

Alone can make thee whole.

We congratulate those who have selected the Mission for the award.

An uncivil war

IT is the moment of truth for the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration in Sri Lanka. Its much-hyped “Operation Jayasikuru” has utterly failed to deliver “certain victory” which the term implies. Instead, it is an albatross around its neck, exposing the army’s impotence and the LTTE’s amazing capacity to regroup, rearm itself and attack and rout the troops in one brutal battle after another. It is thus a bad advertisement twice over. The latest grim news is from Killinochchi, a major army base with dozens of surrounding camps housing soldiers and arms. The LTTE smashed the defence, drove out the army battalions and captured armoured personnel carriers, rocket launchers, rifles and truckloads of ammunition. Killinochchi represents a bodyblow to the government’s war efforts, if it does not quickly end up being a terminal blow. In psychological terms, it has the potential to deeply erode the enthusiasm of the troops to press on with “Operation Jayasikuru” as the victory has gifted the Tigers with the necessary fire power to mount another similar assault. The LTTE claim that the latest derring-do was led by the Tiger supremo Prabhakaran is very significant. It is the first time he has personally entered the battlefield, risking death or capture but boosting the fighting image of his men and women. Yes, women form the bulk of his guerrilla force. When Prabhakaran directs the firing and when Killinochchi falls, it is double trouble for Colombo.

The Sri Lankan army has expectedly played down the impact of the rout by pointing out that it still controls, rather has wrenched control of, Mankulam, 30 km to the south and a key road junction. But the fallen town was a fortified advance post and was taken after a pitched battle last year. Also, nearly 500 soldiers have been killed there, kindling fears that it will not only intensify the lingering distaste for the civil war but also the bitter opposition to turning Sri Lankan youth into cannon fodder. That would be bad for the health of the recruitment drive and also the slim chance of peace in the Tamil-dominated northern part. The lethal effect of the Killinochchi defeat should be viewed against the recent happenings in Jaffna. Two elected Mayors of the city have been murdered by the LTTE during the past six months and it is the most heavily protected settlement in the whole of the North! Obviously, the Tigers have unrestricted access to the town and can strike at will. (In the middle of last month the Mayor was killed along with a few top military and police officers when an explosive planted in the false ceiling was triggered by remote control.) Obviously again, the LTTE continues to enjoy the support of the local people, exposing the hollow claim of the administration that it had banished the vicious Tigers by liberating Jaffna. The Killinochchi loss has upset all plans of President Kumaratunga. She cannot go ahead with countrywide elections which will be irrelevant to or farcical in the eyes of the Tamils. She will have to be heartless to keep fighting. If the army continues to lose face after every “success”, the LTTE rises with renewed vigour after every defeat, like a phoenix from ashes. The LTTE has to be defeated, but the battlefield is not a wise arena to do it. The Tigers are too vicious a force to deserve another crack at negotiations or limited freedom to operate within their area. During the past five years, the LTTE has grown too audacious in its operations and too fanatical in pursuing its aims to change its stripes now. Everyone wants it to be crushed, but the only force which can accomplish it, the Sri Lankan army, is hopelessly unequal to the task. If there is a “terrorist” dilemma, Sri Lanka presents it to perfection.

Nuclear explosions
Fallout on India’s defence
by Himmat Singh Gill

ANY meaningful discussion on the effects that India’s nuclear explosions might have in its defence field must pre-suppose and take for granted that we would continue to have a dependable political system in place for the next few years, at least, so that some measure of continuity is available to counter the fallout of such a far-reaching act as this.

Presuming that this government or any other to come would be fully supportive of India’s entry into the full-fledged nuclear weapon state club (from which now there is no going back even it someone wants to), a large number of prominent fallouts in the military field are not only possible but very likely.

First and foremost, a very deliberate National Security Review needs to be carried out, in which seasoned and experienced defence experts should examine threadbare each and every external, strategic economic and tactical contingency that could emerge. This would need to be our priority number one. Simultaneously, we require the immediate establishment of a small-sized but effective National Security Council with a National Security Adviser (NSA) like they have in the USA, base-supported by an augmented Defence Planning Staff (DPS) where there would henceforth be only a one-window, all-agency collated intelligence input system, with a fully integrated expenditure and analysis division. These are weighty subjects in themselves, about which one has already written separately in a national daily, and which are beyond the purview of the present write-up.

Henceforth, we would need to recognise that China is our main adversary and given the ongoing mutually assisted nuclear and conventional weapon programming with Pakistan, India’s strategic military planners would do well to definitely plan for fighting a “Two Front” (China and Pakistan — both active, or, one active and one passive), war at any given time. This would necessitate a restructuring of India’s field force levels with more emphasis on the creation of mobile reserves which could be switched over theatre to theatre, than on holding of ground on fixed defences. Nuclear warfare in fact necessitates dispersal and not concentration of forces. Thus, our strategic planning and tactical doctrine in war, would need an appraisal by real experts in the field, and not pseudo-intellectual, self-appointed think tanks and government-appointed and government-sponsored organisations and establishments, now mushrooming all over the country. Having now put a nuclear deterrent in place, and the terrible destruction of a nuclear conflagration well known to everybody, a greater emphasis on biological and chemical warfare (N.B.C.-more stress on the “B” and “C” than the nuclear) would be in the fitness of things, insofar as the Army’s re-equipping and training is concerned. The use of mustard gas in a particular situation is more likely than a tactical or a deep strategic nuclear strike.

The next step would be to standardise and home-produce all the different kinds of equipment and munitions we are at present holding in our armed forces, so that any going back on past commitments and agreements does not leave us on a weak wicket. With equipment from the USSR (now Russia), the CIS, France, UK and other sources, and with anyone of them capable of closing down the supply lines for spares and logistic infrastructure, fighting a long or even a short war, could pose considerable problems.

We must also avoid the pitfalls of overspending in the nuclear weapons field, (even now it is a long road to the production of a sophisticated hydrogen bomb with possibly more indoor laboratory tests to follow) all at the cost of conventional weapon production. A nuclear armoury does not make conventional warfare redundant.

To viably keep pace with the arms race that has now finally begun in South Asia, it is one’s considered view that the complacency and inertia manifesting itself in the public sector in the field of defence industry, precludes this set-up from measuring up to the tasks ahead. More responsibility must now be shared by the professionally managed private sector. In place of refrigerators and washing machines, they could and should produce tanks, aircraft and guns. It is unsafe to keep on importing engine assemblies and other electronic systems, when we have a perfectly efficient private sector to deliver the goods.

Next, and this is an important issue, India must urgently seek other alternatives to power and energy, in the way of nuclear and thermal power stations, not to berate the harnessing of wind-power. Along with this, we need to diversify and hasten our search for new oilfields off and on-shore, while at the same time taking protective measures for safeguarding the Bombay High and the Assam outfields against alien depredations and sabotage. The growing presence of China, Pakistan and the USA in the “blue waters” of the adjoining oceans, needs no further emphasis.

Nuclear power is a heady brew, that is often not easy to hold. The high morale of the armed forces and the added respect with which every Indian would now be looked upon, should not be frittered away by jingoistic political utterances by one party or the other for their own limited, interim based gains. In a way I am happy we have crossed over into the portals of the nuclear mansion, and for all this the credit must go to Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and his team. Yet the real tests lie ahead of us now.

On whether to join unconditionally the CTBT or to hang on outside on the periphery of the “no-first-use-treaty”, or the Fissile Material Control cutoffs. Possibly it would not be wrong to state that with these five explosions one after the other, the stewardship of the country’s defence at least will finally be handed over to the real professionals in the field. The Armed forces and the scientists should be in the driver’s seat, and not so much the IAS and the IFS bureaucrats, who will of course, still have a major role to play in shaping the country’s destiny.

Major-General Gill (retd) is a former senior member of the Indian Army’s Perspective Planning on National Security and Defence Options.

A girl called Khushboo
by Darshan Singh Maini

FROM time to time I have drawn in these “middles”, little water-colour sketches of the children close to me – of a baby bibliophile who at the age of three would start browsing the tomes off the shelf as though she were engaged in some metaphysical research beyond the ken of the family, of a baby-boy who wouldn’t utter a syllable for the first two years of his life, and then started spouting songs like a canary one fine morning to the utter amazement of his parents and doctors! And then another piece about a daughter who would be a princess at the royal age of six, and would challenge the highest heavens if anyone had the appetite for argument. So, my “portrait” portfolio of those adorable creatures remains a distinctive part of the genre which sits pretty in the “middle” of the edit page, and helps blow away some of the blues in the midst of so much “world-pain”, so much “sea-sorrow”.

Today’s piece is essentially another sketch in the series except that the girl called Khushboo is not from our own vast clan of cousinage and their offspring, but a little “angel” that lighted suddenly at our door one fine morning of May this year — the only child of our new tenants upstairs. To know such a little “personage” in her mercurial, myriad aspects — of mimicry and histrionics, of impersonation and clownage, of nursery rhyme jingles in action, of sweet-and-sour tantrums etc — is to watch one of nature’s wonders in flesh and bone. There’s in God’s dappled glory so much to please the eye and the ear, so much to charm the senses into a state of the mind where the sacred and the profane come together to mock us out of our grand edifice of theory and thought. A wayside wild flower in a crumbling crevice, a frisking squirrel cutting capers on a tree near you, a school of pigeons or doves cooing away to glory at sunrise or sunset – all these and a thousand more such little sights are enough to stagger a cynic, or quieten a critic. And yet, I think, not one of these sights has the energy of intelligence that runs through sentient humans, though a beaming child, a cavorting, fluffy puppy, a lark streaking in the sky, all connect us mysteriously with the sources of life’s infinite riches. And that’s how Khushboo, now in her 5th year, and so aptly christened, leaves a strong wash of fragrance in her wake whenever she chooses to visit her foster “grand-parents” downstairs. From her “good day” to “good night”, we see that sweet lyric in and out of the lexical symphony she works up, flitting about the place like an elf from nowhere, a moment here, a moment there, breaking eggs for a fanciful omelette, playing a “sweet heart” to Shah Rukh Khan, acting the school “Ma’am”, using the same idiom and accent, and winding up with her animated pow-vow with her “boy-friend” during the roll-down in a school-rickshaw overflowing with a whole big packet of chatter, mischief and high fun!It’s indeed amazing how her sensitive antennae pick up all that falls within the line of her vision. There’s hardly a TV serial of her fancy that she cannot re-enact to the most embarrassing detail. And yet an uncanny sense of delicacy and a refreshing candour lace her quick-fire recitals, and when her “ladyship” “has said the piece, she preens up to her full 43 inches in her latest frills (and each day, a new “designer” dress, please!) to win applause, and then rushes out of the room in a long hoop of laughter. We often tell her amused and, of course, proud and pleased parents, a young Sindhi couple of great charm and conviviality from Bombay, that Khushboo is destined for great things in life. A little “aristocrat”, as to the manor born, she has already learnt to carry herself with an air of distinction.

As for her acting talent, she could even today walk into any serial scene, and run away with it. Ah, but the whole world is soon to be her theatre, and from school to college to the bridal home, there would be scores of scenes to prove herself. She is, I trust, so endowed, so well-equipped by nature (and, of course, her genes) as to be able to “affront her destiny”, whatever it may be. She is, given her fierce sense of individuality and self, bound to ruffle many a feather in her voyage to womanhood, but I also believe that she would prove equal to the scuffle with reality. All this, to be sure, belongs, to the unseen future, but Khushboo, at this point of time, suggests immense magnamities of mind and spirit.

I picture her then as a bud opening out in the sun, and gathering the ambience of a full-blown flower — a little lady whose native innocence, tempered and annealed during her encounters with the world, would somehow abide. But who knows the ways of Providence? So, let me not tempt the Fates, but wish her a home of bliss where, to quote from W.B. Yeats’s poem. “A Prayer from My Daughter”, “all’s accustomed, ceremonious,” and where the wheel of her happiness’ would come full circle.

We understand her parents are scheduled to move out some time next year, but we know too that wherever they settled, here in Chandigarh, she’ll have a home away from home so long as we are around. The aroma of her name and person would continue to sweeten such memories in the twilight years of an old couple!

UN and problems of globalisation
by Kofi A. Annan

THE Asian crisis, now rapidly becoming a global crisis, is by no means a purely financial matter. It has disastrous consequences for millions of people in their everyday lives. Moreover, it is the poor who are hardest hit.

In Indonesia, almost 15,000 workers are losing their jobs every day this year. And poverty comes with its usual sorry retinue: hunger, social unrest, violence, abuse of human rights. The least developed countries, the ones least able to influence world priorities and policies, are being penalised yet again.

So the human dimension must be at the heart of the response — including debt relief — to this first major crisis of globalisation.

Of course, the role of the seven major industrial powers, and of the world’s finance ministers and central bankers, remains crucial. But they cannot and should not undertake this task alone. All parts of the international system need to come together.

President Clinton has suggested wide-ranging discussions on the new world “financial architecture”. No doubt some will say that this is none of the UN’s business. There are other international bodies, more specialised and perhaps more competent to deal with economic problems: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the Bank for International Settlements. But the UN is the one truly global institution we all belong to. It must have a seat at the table. Economic and financial strategies will succeed only if they are applied within a clear political framework. That framework will command much wider support if, through the UN, all affected countries have played a part in working it out.

Over the long term, globalisation will be positive. It draws us closer together and enables us to produce more efficiently, to control our environment, to improve our quality of life. But such benefits are not felt equally by all. For many people, “long term” is too far off to be meaningful. Millions on this planet still live in isolation, on the margins of the world economy. Millions more are experiencing globalisation not as a great new opportunity but as a profoundly disruptive force that attacks both their material living standards and their culture.

Some of those who had benefited most from open markets and capital flows are now feeling the greatest pain. The temptation to retreat into nationalism or populism is strong. But, fortunately, in most developing countries, those false solutions are being rejected.

Each country’s crisis has its own local features and causes. Each country has to address its own specific problems and shortcomings. But many countries need help, for these are not just financial or macro-economic problems. They have grave social and political consequences, and some of their causes are to be found in political and social systems. The UN has a responsibility, as the universal institution, to insist on the need for worldwide solutions based on rules that are fair to all.

It is our job to ensure that nations do not react to this crisis by turning their backs on universal values. In such crises, we must come together to find solutions based on the founding principles which all our member states have in common: those of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular, we have a special responsibility to speak up for the victims or potential victims. We cannot forget the countries in Africa and elsewhere whose debt burdens the crisis has made even more unsustainable.

Debt relief is often resisted on grounds of “moral hazard,” that it rewards the reckless and penalises the prudent. But were not the lenders often just as reckless and irresponsible as the borrowers? Can it really be moral for them to insist on full interest and full repayment if the result is that children not yet born when the debts were contracted are denied even a subsistence diet or an elementary education?

Many nations feel their interests are ignored or neglected in specialised economic bodies, where the strongest voices, for quite understandable reasons, tend to be those of countries which have already achieved economic success. But the UN provides a forum for informed debate among all those affected by the crisis. It has to represent all stakeholders in the global economy.

The UN must play its part in the search for solutions that preserve the benefits of globalisation while protecting those who have suffered or who have been left out.

None of us would claim to have gotten everything right in our handling of globalisation. I certainly make no such claim for the UN all of us bear some share of responsibility for the present crisis. But by working together to solve problems, we can make our work more credible, relevant and legitimate in the eyes of the world at large.

(The writer is Secretary-General of the United Nations.)

Ignore tourism at the cost of prosperity!

by Tavleen Singh

TOURISM is the future” the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh said recently. “The idea is to push tourism as a major growth engine to harness its direct and multiplier effect for employment generation, economic growth and poverty alleviation in an environmentally sustainable manner.” Chandrababu Naidu then proceeded to identify the reporter two was interviewing him and the exact areas where he planned to make his tourism thrust— Hyderabad, Tirupati, Vishakapatnam — and also said he had raised the state’s tourism budget from Rs 1.20 crore last year to Rs 46 crore for 1998-99.

By coincidence I came across the interview in my files on the very day that Bihar’s de facto Chief Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, was busy celebrating the President’s refusal to dismiss his wife’s government. Enjoying, as he always does, the glare of camera lights he waved his arms and announced in dramatically raised tones that he would always fight against the division of Bihar and against social injustice.

Laloo may look like more of a clown as compared to other politicians but, in fact, he is really no different to most of them. He speaks the language that most of them have done for 50 years, the language of abstract promises and uncertain ideologies. It is a language that has served mainly to obfuscate the real issue which is how can India rid itself of its shameful, dreadful poverty. One important way is tourism and the fact that Chandrababu Naidu has understood this is one of the things that makes him different from the average Indian politician.

Bihar is India’s poorest state but, believe it or not, is so richly endowed with tourism potential that it could make more money but of it than Rajasthan does or Andhra hopes to. If Bihar is lucky enough to one day elect a Chief Minister like Naidu, it will probably be able to make more money than Andhra does out of Japanese tourism.

Despite the violence and horror of Laloo’s Bihar, despite its lack of hotels, its appalling roads, despite 85 p.c. of the state having no electricity, Japanese tourists continue to flock places like Rajgir and Bodh Gaya to make their pilgrimage along Buddha’s footsteps. Think what could happen if instead of rodent-infested hostels and bumpy roads you had the facilities that are usually available to the modern tourist. Fine hotels and motorways that allow you to travel at acceptable speeds instead of at bullock-cart pace.

Buddhism is not Bihar’s only attraction. It has wonderful forests and old hunting lodges, like the one that I stayed in during an election campaign, which once belonged to the Maharaja of Dumrao. It was exactly the sort of place that foreign tourists come looking for in India. If you go down to Ranchi and then drive into the backwoods of Hazaribagh you will find the quaint, old-world India that again is what foreign tourists look for. Having personally made the journey I was stunned to stumble across an old Anglo-Indian town called Muckluskieganj with old-fashioned English bungalows and buildings to remind the Anglo-Indians who had settled here, of the place they considered home.

Even in tribal parts of the state, desperately poor and hopelessly neglected, there is potential for tourism that nobody has even begun to dream about. At Palamau, considered one of the poorest districts in India, I have seen pretty forests and rural enclaves that would be perfect for what the trade calls adventure tourism. This is before we have even begun to think of such other adventure tourism potential as river rafting and trekking.

But, because no Chief Minister of Bihar has ever spoken the sort of language that Chandrababu Naidu now speaks, districts like Palamau are so desperately poor that their main reason for attracting outsiders is the fact that they provide an endless supply of bonded labour.

Sadly, what is true of Bihar is also true for most other Indian states as well. With a coastline that is 2000 miles long we have barely begun to touch the surface of beach tourism. Goa, one of the few places that has exploited its potential, is so full during the season that people usually book for Christmas and New Year a few years in advance.

We have the most fabulous mountains in the world but only Kashmir has made a serious attempt to attract tourism. At least it did before violence began. Himachal, Uttar Pradesh, the North-East, these are all places that offer the most incredible scenic splendour but no outsiders, or hardly any, come to see it and the local people remain desperately poor.

The India chapter of PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) calculates that tourism offers the highest employment figures for the money invested in it. So, for every Rs 10 lakh invested in tourism it generates 47.5 jobs compared with 44.7 for agriculture and 12.6 for the manufacturing industry. According to PATA, global trends show that the tourism sector would employ 383 million people by the first decade of the 21st century and that South-East Asia would see a major tourism boom.

It is a boom that, India will miss out on unless we have more Chief Ministers who begin to think like Naidu. A single state in India has more to offer that whole countries do in Soth-East Asia but they have understood long before us that tourism is not possible without decent airports, flights, roads, hotels and telecommunications. The result is that tiny Phuket has a better airport than Mumbai does and also has hourly flights from Bangkok, whereas Goa and Mumbai are connected with barely two flights a day.

Since, most of our Chief Ministers prefer talking about secularism and socialism rather than tourism we have a situation in which tourism is almost regarded as something that is meant only for the idle rich.

The truth is that wherever tourism potential has been developed it has brought infrastructure that is vital for any kind of development. Roads, electricity, telecommunications are as important for rural development as these are for the tourism, but these usually come only when tourists do because of our twisted, socialist reasoning that poor people do not need these things.

To end, on an optimistic note instead of a sad one, we should be grateful that there is at least one Chief Minister who is speaking the language that Chandrababu Naidu is. Perhaps, the day is not far when a Laloo Yadav or a Kalyan Singh would start listening and learning. They do not do so at their own cost because much of the money for the tourism industry comes from private investors. It is money that states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh desperately need.

National Geographic channel makes a splash

by Amita Malik

TO us villagers from the capital of India, the cable largesse in Bombay is nothing short of staggering. Eking it out with a maximum of 15 channels one finds that Bombay offers a choice of a minimum of 35 channels which can go up to 55.

All Indian language channels, from Marathi to Malayalam, three French channels, RAI, three Arabic channels, the joy of watching the German elections on Deutsche Wolle. And to add to it all, the dramatic launch of the National Geographic channel in the presence of proper explorers with beards, blue eyes and beautiful manners.

Of course, we all know that National Geographic has been on our screens since July, but there had to be a proper press conference and a proper party with wigwams, waiters with Mexican hats and our own pseudo-Naga dancers from Bombay to add to the exotica required for the occasion.

And why not? National Geographic comes with a tremendous reputation for integrity, research and first-rate, personalised presentation. Its claim that it already has 5.5 million viewers in India is an index to the fact that if you give viewers serious stuff properly presented, they are willing to give up film-based programmes.

One of the significant aspects of the launch party, with all its glitter and exuberance, was that there were several teachers of geography at the launch and it was announced at the press conference that the channel has plans to keep in touch with the right institutions in India. And it is certainly on a firm footing in India because the famous magazine has been around for years.

Which is why the immediate success of the TV channel, which started only in 1997 with its launch in the U.K. the Scandinavian countries and Australia is understandable. And although it was a repeated question at the press conference, there is no competition between the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. They can certainly co-exist with honour in India, where rank commercialisation of entertainment has robbed particularly the young viewer of genuine public service channels.

I have been rivetted to the National Geographic channel since its inception. Its picture quality is outstanding and its stickler for documentation awesome.

And there are good reasons for it. It has on its staff 100 writers, film-makers, researchers, explorers and access to an international network of scientists researchers and film-makers (including India). Its story-telling being first-person adds to its authenticity. And an idea of the kind of people who contribute to it was apparent from the people who flew out to India for the launch. Greg Marshall, the marine biologist who invented the Crittercam, a device for attaching to animals and marine life, including hippos and sea turtles. He won an Emmy for the Great White Shark, on which he used the Crittercam for video images.

The husband-wife team of Dereck and Beverly Joubert, several times Emmy winners, lives in Botswana and spoke with passion about their love of the wild and the creatures they have filmed with such dedication. Their wild-life documentaries are a legend.

The channel is jointly owned by National Geographic magazine and the NBC, the Asian office based in Singapore has already reached 45 countries and operates in seven languages. Every programme is checked for 25 to 30 hours for accuracy. India is considered the largest potential market and it is heartening that the channel is among the top three choices of Indian viewers. The quality of its programmes owes a good deal to the fact that it takes as much as two years to complete a programme.

National Geographic is planning more India-specific programmes, more co-productions based on more surveys and research. This is to take care of the criticism that its programmes do not show enough of Asia.

It is interesting to know that out of the more than 20 million households that have hooked on to the channel in its two months, 8.5 million households are in Andhra Pradesh. The channel intends to target outside the metros with a population of 50,000 or so at an affordable price through cable operators. It does not yet have plans for Hindi. Perhaps it does not need to. Its visuals surmount all language barriers.

75 YEARS AGO
London Letter
Indian Day in the Commons

THERE is no need to refer to Sir Charles Yate’s speech, for one always knows what to expect from Sir Michael O’Dwyer’s Parliamentary double. Sir Robert Hamilton’s contribution was a useful corrective. He asked the Government to give an assurance that some limit would be put to the Viceroy’s power of certification. Otherwise, the appetite for that sort of thing would grow by eating.

The Right Spirit

The best speech of the evening from the Indian point of view was that of George Lansbury. He is always so straight, so natural, so simple, and so sincere. He understands the hearts of India as few other Englishmen have done. He is regarded by most Tories as a great extremist, but as a matter of fact he is the embodiment of sweet reasonableness. He believes in trusting the people of India absolutely to run their own show, and he makes no secret of his conviction that this would be the best possible solution not only for India but for Britain also. He wants the two peoples to work together in a spirit of comradeship, and he realises that this can never be so long as one of them is always trying to maintain its domination over the other.