Thursday, April 6, 2000, Chandigarh, India
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Bihar
in deeper distress
AMERICAN
CORPORATIONS |
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Price revision: unimaginative
handling by Arvind Bhandari NOW that the hoopla over the much-hyped Clinton visit is over, an immediate issue which faces the Vajpayee government is the hike with effect from April 1 in the prices of foodgrains supplied through the public distribution system (PDS). If the allies in the BJP-led government and the opposition parties have created a furore against the hike, it is because the question of price revision, with a view to reducing the food subsidy, has been handled in a foolish, unimaginative manner.
The
saint of Tapovan
Ignored
Indian New Year
April 6, 1925
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AMERICAN
CORPORATIONS BUSINESSMEN, at all levels, talk a new buoyancy in Indian economy, following the visit of President Clinton. This is, perhaps, the only tangible outcome of the much-publicised tour of the country by Mr Clinton, whose last few months in office could have produced no other benefit for this country anyway. He could only smoothen the way for a number of American multinationals to collaborate with us and our own mini-MNCs who have till now been apprehensive of the bigness of the American MNCs which, they feared, would swamp them. America has been attracted by the size of the huge middle-class markets now developing in China, India, Brazil and Indonesia, and has been seeking an entry into them. The initial experiences of Coca-Cola, Kellogg and others seeking markets for their food products had not been very encouraging. Kellogg, for example, found that it took time to change Indian breakfast habits to find a good market for their product. Coke failed in its initial attempts by using their American advertising strategy but lost out to Pepsi, which stuck to its campaign aimed at the Indian market. The international advertising formula did not work and Coke had to work out a new strategy using popular cricket players as models and promoting a local brand of cola, Thums Up, which Coke bought from Ramesh Chauhans Gold Spot group in 1993. It had till then called Pepsi a poor substitute for the Real Thing. These conflicts and clashes are likely to increase as more and more American brands are likely to come to India. The Indian middle class is not Westernised to the extent the American MNCs would like us to be. Shampoos are being pushed into the market in sachets, rather than the Free 30% extra and One free for every two you buy which is a favourite strategy in the Western markets. It might take a long time for that concept to take roots in the Indian market. Hindustan Lever, a subsidiary of the MNC Unilever, had the run for its money when it realised that a local entrepreneur with a low-cost detergent, Nirma, outsold the entire branded products of Hindustan Lever, by striking at the housewife with an imaginative advertising programme, making full use of the extensive reach of television. The Hindustan Lever-Nirma conflict could have led to serious consequences, but for the existence of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act. With increasing globalisation, even that Act would soon become redundant and will not help purely Indian MNCs to withstand the onslaught of the powerful American MNCs. Indian manufacturers of motor vehicles, particularly two-and-three-wheelers have already started feeling the pinch. They cannot, however, bring out any cheaper versions, as Hindustan Lever did introducing their new Wheel brand detergent to retrieve the Nirma market. Tatas (dealing in trucks) and Bajaj (in scooters and three-wheelers) are seeking new ways to ward off the oncoming threat. At the moment they have nothing better to offer for Indian road conditions.. India, no doubt, is one of the giant economic engines of the Third World, being listed among the top dozen largest national economies in the world. In 50 years since Independence, the nations output has shot up five-fold, from $50 billion of goods and services to $250 billion. The increase in population during this period from 360 million in 1951 to about 925 million in 1995 has left behind about 200 million people below the poverty line. In 1991, when Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister and Dr Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister introduced a series of measures to reform the economy, there were hardly any protest from the ranks of the Congress or the Opposition parties. Even the Communist parties acquiesced in the reforms. There was not even an attempt at seriously debating the issues involved or the points of departure from half-a-century of an economic system that was overnight jettisoned. Mr Rao and Dr Singh were able to bring inflation under control and check government spending. The foreign exchange earnings began shooting up, and there was a noticeable drop in capital spending. The reforms, however, failed to energise the economy. Controls on private investment were removed or relaxed. Several areas were opened up to private domestic investors.They included banks, airlines and telecommunications. Foreign companies were also welcomed selectively. Imports were liberalised, particularly of capital goods. Several consumer durables were removed from the list of restricted imports. In May, 1994, the Government of India officially welcomed an American delegation of about 30 CEOs of major US companies who signed deals for investment of $7 billion in power plants, oil and gas exploration satellite communications and cable television. Another 300-member Canadian delegation came in 1996 and signed commercial and investment contracts worth several million dollars. They covered areas like transport, roads, highways, telecommunications and petroleum industries. The Foreign Investments Board cleared 58 proposals from Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens, General Electric, BASF and Nokia. With this, India had, in the eyes of the American media, a hospitable environment for foreign investments. It is now the turn of President Clinton to act as the super-salesman for the American MNCs and seek to clinch deals which India had been hesitant to do since it has been wedded to the concept of self-reliance. This lobby is still active and vocal in this country and the government has at least to pay lip-sympathy to it. Slowly, but perceptibly, Indias old dread of large firms is now giving way to a new concept of bigness the transnational corporations, where size and scale of operations could bring down prices and ensure good quality of products. As these moves are gaining ground, the warnings sounded by two American spokesmen of capitalism Henry Kissinger and Prof J.K. Galbraith need to be remembered by us. Kissinger told The Chicago Tribune in June, 1984: I am disturbed by the tendency to treat the Asian economic crisis as another opportunity to acquire control of Asian companies assets cheaply and to reconstitute them on the American model. This is courting long-term disaster. Galbraith said in an article in Dissent (Summer, 1999): The push for competition, deregulation, privatisation and open capital markets has undermined economic prospects for many millions of the worlds poorest people. It is, therefore, not merely a naive and misguided crusade. To the extent that it undermines the stable provision of daily bread, it is dangerous to the safety and stability of the world, including ourselves. The greatest single danger right now is in Russia, a catastrophic example of the failure of free market doctrine. We have been warned. The
captains of our industry and business , more than the
political leaders, need to be concerned about the spread
of unchecked globalisation. Globalisation compromises
national sovereignty. The Director-General of the World
Trade Organisation had declared: We are writing the
constitution of a single global economy. The claim
has been derided as a constitution for the largest
corporation to rule the world. And what better
salesman to canvass support for the worlds largest
corporation than the most powerful man in the world?. |
Price
revision: unimaginative handling NOW that the hoopla over the much-hyped Clinton visit is over, an immediate issue which faces the Vajpayee government is the hike with effect from April 1 in the prices of foodgrains supplied through the public distribution system (PDS). If the allies in the BJP-led government and the opposition parties have created a furore against the hike, it is because the question of price revision, with a view to reducing the food subsidy, has been handled in a foolish, unimaginative manner. It is utterly foolish to increase the prices of foodgrains being supplied through the PDS to those below the poverty line (BPL), from Rs 2.50 to Rs 4.20 per kilo in the case of wheat, from Rs 3.50 to Rs 5.89 per kilo in the case of rice and from Rs 11.90 to Rs 13 per kilo in the case of sugar. This is not in keeping with socio-economic justice and, understandably, has become an emotive issue in the hands of the governments detractors. The increase in the prices of foodgrains and sugar for the BPL families should be rolled back. Further, it is true that for those above the poverty line (APL) the price of wheat is to be increased from Rs 6.82 to Rs 8.40 per kilo and of rice from Rs 9.05 to Rs 11.78 per kilo. But this does not make socio-economic sense. The question arises as to why at all should APL families be kept within the ambit of PDS. Denying them sugar only through PDS is not enough. Their ration cards should be cancelled and they should be made to fend for themselves in the open market, so that the PDS is confined only to BPL families. I had argued along these lines in these columns earlier also. In view of their dire poverty and very limited purchasing power, an increase in the quota of foodgrains available to the BPL families from 10 to 20 kilos per month would be meaningless unless the proposed price hike in respect of them is rolled back. The increase in the food subsidy as a result of this rollback would be compensated to a large extent by taking the APL families out of the PDS. The proposal to increase the price of fertilisers, with a view to reducing the fertiliser subsidy, is also encountering opposition, particularly from the farm lobby in Haryana and Punjab. There is no doubt that a fertiliser price hike would create difficulties for small and marginal farmers. What is needed is a two-tier system of fertiliser prices, a lower price for weaker farmers and a higher price for well-to-do farmers. It would not be difficult to work out the modalities of such a system. The resentment ordinary people express on being called upon to tighten their belts gets accentuated by the galling experience of simultaneously watching ministers and senior bureaucrats luxuriate in vulgar ostentation like medieval potentates. This is no idle criticism. In the wake of the Central Budget Prime Minister Vajpayee has felt constrained to send a letter to all his ministers exhorting them to eschew luxury and superfluity and practise austerity. It is a pity that the Prime Minister has made an exhortation. He should have issued a directive, spelling out in detail the economies which should be effected in the life-style of his ministers. Evidently, Mr Vajpayee wants to soft-pedal the issue lest he should offend members of his scandalously large jumbo Cabinet. Flabbiness at the top is the price the nation has to pay for coalition politics. Apart from the life-style of ministers being an eyesore, no effort whatsoever has been made in the Budget to cut non-Plan government expenditure, which has grown like a cancer.This cancer cannot be cured by applying balms and ointments. What is required is surgery, wielding the scalpel to excise the cancer. The need of the day is to slash expenditure, drastically and ruthlessly. The proposed Expenditure Reforms Commission will be too spineless to meet the needs of the situation. For one thing, its powers are to be only recommendatory. For another, the commission is to be given one years time before it starts making recommendations. What about the reports of the earlier Administrative Reforms Commission and the more recent Fifth Pay Commission, which has made a vast array of recommendations on the expenditure-cutting administrative reforms needed? Clearly, the government is not sincere about cutting expenditure, and only wants to buy time. The Expenditure Reforms Commission should be given vast mandatory powers, not to just make recommendations but to actually wield the axe and slash expenditure without waiting for one year to elapse. The commission should have the mandate to close down ministries or departments, to scrap programmes and activities and to cut budgets, even if these have been sanctioned at the beginning of the year. After liberalisation, many departments and sections have become redundant. These can be found in the Ministries of Industry, Commerce, Fertilisers, Chemicals and so on. Again, there is no longer any justification for a Ministry of Steel or a Ministry of Coal. These areas are no longer the monopoly of the government and can simply be regarded as two more industries, which should come under the purview of Ministry of Industry. There was never any justification for the Ministry of Civil Aviation or the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Most countries in the world do not have such ministries. As regards the scrapping of programmes, the commission should ask each minister/secretary to priortise all the spending heads under his department. The commission should then simply take a red pencil and score out the last 10 or 20 spending heads. One can vouchsafe that neither the minister nor the secretary would even notice that some spending heads have been removed: These low priority programmes have virtually no benefit whatsoever except to support the job of one deputy secretary, one section officer and a few assistants and clerks. Finally, as emphasised
by the Fifth Pay Commission, the Central Government
should be downsized by 30 per cent over the next 10 years
by not filling the vacancies created by retirees. In
fact, there should be a voluntary retirement scheme for
Central Government employees on the same lines as the one
proposed for the employees of the PSUs. |
The saint
of Tapovan ONE is always intrigued by the phenomenon of saintliness when it becomes a transparent, moving reality before ones eyes. Somehow, the stories and kathas about or around such persons, though a part of our religious consciousness in the making, remain, in general, close to fables and myths, what with the modes of narration and the worked-up idiom or style. At the popular level, this kind of hagiography goes down well with the congregations everywhere, and over a period of time, interpolations, embroidery and sentiment make such stories stranger than fiction in most cases. To be sure, some authentic, recorded narratives do survive in nearly all cultures and church or temple sermons, but we tend to be highly sceptical when someone living and known to us is played up as a saint for our times. A Mother Teresa is such a rare example in real life as to compel the imagination of adoration, but its also a fact of life that small-time, home-grown, street-saints are still there to vindicate our faith in the goodness of man. And, here and there, we do find a godly person working obscurely in some remote place to bring a bit of sweetness and light into the lives of the abandoned and the forsaken, the stricken and the slighted of the earth. And when the recognition comes, slowly but inculcably (as, for instance, in the case of Bhagat Puran Singh) we marvel at the miracle, and bow our heads before the power of the spirits plenitude. My story today concerns one such person, Bhagwant Singh Dalawari, whom I have known as an urchin since our days in that winding, narrow, Byzantine street called Anderkot in the timbertown of Jhelum (now in Pakistan). The younger brother of my closest childhood friend and schoolmate, Kartar, he was frequently in my path, and despite the fog of nearly 70 years, he has remained an image of dusky innocence, quietness and affableness. This was in stark contrast to the image wilfully created by Kartar that of a street brawler, ready to jump into any argument of fray. He too, now gone to his heavenly abode, did turn into a Gandhian recluse in the twilight years of his life, but Bhagwant, who remained out of my vision or view after the partition in 1947 for almost 50 years, emerged from nowhere, as it were, to be styled as the saint of Tapovan. And I realised the full beauty and truth of his graduation to saintliness when one evening four or five years ago, he suddenly materialised along with a couple of worthy admirers, and surprised me with his presence a presence that one felt on the pulse, in the blood, and in ones heaving consciousness. I had, I sensed, seen one of Gods great souls on a sojourn in the realm of the mortals. I had heard about him and his sewa in a leprosy ashram in a Maharashtra village or town, but it had not dawned on me that our urchin from Anderkot had in his pilgrims progress arrived. He had achieved a kind of earthly, deeply human nirvana while still in worshipful labour. He had heard, whilst in Chandigarh at a seminar, about my obscure and long illness, and he had come like a dove from heaven at my door. Such experiences leave one in some awe. Dressed in immaculate white from the scarf on his head to the robes below, an image of utter humility and godliness, he touched my feet, his Bhapa ji, as he called me. I was blessed, and for days and weeks I could hear the flutter of his wings, so to speak. Later, we exchanged letters and books and articles, and I came to know some parts of his fairy-tale transformation. After the partition, he had moved to New Delhi, and in course of time, joined the External Affairs Ministry at a junior level. His assignments took him and his family to countries abroad, and then in his early forties, when he was holding a responsible position in our Paris Embassy, he had, one morning, an epiphanic experience, a clear, uncoded message from his Maker to get out into the wide world of the suffering poor and the destitute. And right, there and then, he gave up his diplomatic job and returned home to make Tapovan his last part of call. And there he has lived in the midst of his beloved lepers like the famed Father Damien in the Congo, and served them with all the energies of his body and soul till this day. No wonder, he was honoured with the Bhagat Puran Singh Award in Amritsar a couple of years ago. And I wrote a poem on
his visit to my place The Ministry of
Pain, and dedicated it to that noble missionary. My
latest volume of verse, The Aching Vision (WW, Calcutta,
2000) carries this two-page poem, and helps sustain my
faith as an ordained priest in the service of
pain. |
Ignored
Indian New Year THE Bharatiya New Year dawned on Wednesday April 5. The Vikrami Samvat year 2056 ended on April 4 and next day the New Year, 2057, ushered in on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada or the first day of the moonlit night of the bright fortnight of Chaitra (Chait), popularly known as the First Navaratra (the first day of the nine Auspicious Nights (The Navratras come twice a year, in March- April Vernal Navratras (climaxing with Ramas birthday and in September - October the autumnal Navratras ending with Dasehra. It is called Vikrami Samvat in memory of the legendary King Vikramaditya, who should have lived over 2000 years ago. Look at the wild rejoicing and hectic merry-making on the Christian New Year on January 1; tonnes and tonnes of New year greeting cards are exchanged in all cities and towns, and the midnight celebrations are on a grand scale in hotel parties (drinks are an integral part) and general merry-making upto midnight in most Indian households. This year, January 1,2000, being the beginning of the new century and a new millennium, beat all records and we seemed to be caught in some social earthquake or emotional upheaval. The year 2000 was a very rare occasion; such a moment come once in a hundred years. or once in a thousand years. Compared to such globe-shaking celebrations, our own Vikrami New Year goes almost unnoticed like the birthday of a poor relation. Of course, some orthodox people do make some feeble noises hogging publicity perhaps one hundredth part of its Christian rival among the upper classes. The Indian New Year is a lunar festival. Its dates are variable. It may dawn as early as March 20, or as late as April 12. It is a pity that even in the 53rd year of Independence we zealously carry on with the old colonial traditions feeling it below our dignity to switch over to the indigenous ways and festivals. If we want to feel very modern, we adopt St Valentines Day, when we enjoy the freedom to send love letters to unknown girls and boys. Those professing to be ultra-secular would not celebrate this. New Hindu Year lest they be dubbed as communalists. They forget that all Gurparbs and other festivals are celebrated according to this calendar the Vaisakhi as the birthday of the Khalsa, Kartik Purnamashi (full moon day) as the birthday of Guru Nanak, and Poh Sudi Saptami as the birthday of Guru Gobind Singh and so on with the birthdays and immortality days of all other Gurus. It is a truly Indian national calendar followed by most communities. The Vikrami year is both lunar and solar. April 5 is the start of the lunar year Ekam, Dooj, Ashtami, Poornamashi, Amavasya, etc. Almost all our festivals like Diwali, Dasehra, Holi as also birthday and death anniversaries are celebrated according to the lunar calendar. The year 2057 had already begun on April 5. Baisakhi falls on April 13 like the Financial year coming in April after the years birth in January. The lunar year consists of 355 days; every year it lags 10 days behind. So it lags behind 10 days in the first year, 20 days in the second year and 30 days in the third year. To correct the imbalance, our every third year consists of 13 months, (the extra month is called Mala Maasa or Purshottam Maas). The year 2056 had 13 lunar months Jeth ran for two months. Without this adjustment, it would have been like the Hijri calendar (it began in 622 A.D.). The day of the week on which the New Year falls is called Raja of the year. The day on which Baisakhi falls (April 13, Thursday, or Veer Var or Jupiter is the Mantri (Vizeer) of the year. Both planets are broadly beneficent, so we can look forward to a moderately positive year, despite doomsday prophesies of dark prophets like Nostradamas of 16th century France. The Government of India
has adopted the Saka Samvat as the official calendar (on
April 5) the Saka year was 1922 and the date was Chaitra
16. Not one man in 10000 can tell what is what, the great
Indian population has left this Saka Samvat alone. Not
one of our festivals is celebrated according to the Saka
calendar, The government adopted it, because it is
automatic. The Shakas were foreigners who conquered parts
of India and were ultimately defeated by Vikramaditya,
called Shakari (conqueror of the Shakas). Why remind us
of our period of foreign rule? Shaka apologists quote it
as an example of Indias tolerance; give even the
enemy its due. |
Chelsea
Clinton a museum buff A SURPRISE visitor at the Piety and splendour, Sikh heritage in Art exhibition at the National Museum, New Delhi, was US President Bill Clintons daughter, Chelsea, who skipped the scheduled shopping trip to the Capitals exclusive Santushti complex to visit the museum on March 21. The exhibition is part of the grand finale of the tercentenary celebrations of the birth of the Khalsa and seeks to honour the true Sikh spirit and enable a deeper understanding of Sikh history and culture. As many as 215 art objects, drawn from various sources, including the National Museum, New Delhi; Sanskriti Museum, New Delhi; Art Gallery, Chandigarh; Sheesh Mahal Museum and Quila Mubarak, Patiala; Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum, Amritsar; Himachal Pradesh State Museum, Shimla, as well as private collections. Apart from paintings, the objects displayed include manuscripts, jewellery, textiles, coins, medals, and several historical weapons. There is also a replica of the throne of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the original being in London. Thank you for welcoming me back to your extraordinary museum. It has been an honour and a pleasure to wander through the Sikh exhibit. I hope to come back here again! Thank you, Chelsea wrote in the visitors book. The exhibition was inaugurated on March 14, 2000 and is on till April 13, 2000. Chelsea is quite a
museum buff. She earlier visited the National Museum in
1994 when she accompanied her mother, Hillary Clinton, on
a trip to the country. She also stayed back and visited a
museum in Bombay while her father was on an official
visit to Pakistan. |
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