E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Engineering admissions
THE Union Human Resource Development Ministry deserves appreciation for its plan to do away with the present multiple system of examination for admission to the various graduation level engineering and architecture courses offered by the different institutions spread throughout the length and breadth of the country in 2002. 

Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Sirimavo Bandaranaike's last political act before she died of heart attack in Colombo on Tuesday was to cast her vote in the 11th parliamentary elections in the country. She drove 36 kilometres out of the capital to Attanagalle, where her son Anura Bandaranaike is a UNP candidate, for exercising her electoral right. 

opinion

THOUGHTS ON PAKISTAN
A peep into Musharraf’s mind
by G. Parthasarathy
IT is now one year since Gen Pervez Musharraf staged a coup to take over the reins of power in Pakistan. This is how he might be thinking today. The words are my own, but the thoughts have been presented in the first person, singular number as if coming from the General’s heart:

After Serbia’s peaceful revolution
by Inder Malhotra
WHAT a dramatic, thrilling and historic moment it has been. Practically the whole world stood up to cheer the people of Serbia, and for very good reason. For, they have wrought the miracle of overthrowing Slobodan Milosevic, a dictator as infamous as he was diabolical, by entirely democratic means. Their task was monumentally difficult, but it has been accomplished. Vojislav Kostunica, whose outright election victory the reprehensible Milosevic had tried to negate by hook or by crook, is now Serbia’s president.

Of Life Sublime

Kabira khara bazaar mein...
by Bharat Dogra
THERE are very few persons who can draw with equal intensity the admiration of the devout as well as the atheists. But this is true of Kabir, the 15th century saint and poet, who still enjoys a vast following much beyond the formal membership of the sect of his followers.

Analysis

Basmati patent
India’s fight loses sting
By Devinder Sharma
Withdrawal of four claims by the Texas-based American company, RiceTec Inc., is being viewed as a victory of sorts in the ongoing battle over the control on basmati rice. It is being hailed as a major success, a shot in the arm for the country’s efforts in securing its commercial interests in the exports of basmati rice.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

No credit to policy 

A cursory analysis of the general health of the economy and a few minor goodies in the direction of banks pass off as this year’s busy season credit policy. The RBI has severely kept out of its reckoning three areas of its exclusive control. There is no change in the interest rate, volume of credit available and additional protection to the rupee. Instead there are the expected and oft-repeated warning. The steep rise in crude price is mounting pressure on the rupee and in the absence of a steady flow of foreign capital, it may even create problems of shrinking foreign exchange reserves. This is partly set off by an impressive growth in exports. Inflation has zoomed to slightly over 6 per cent as against 3.4 per cent in the corresponding period last year. But if the effects of the oil price rise is excluded, inflation will be lower. A higher rate of inflation tends to affect exports and is also bad for the rupee. Interest rate cannot come down since the rupee is yet to fully stabilise against the dollar; so it stays where it went up in July, at the height of a falling rupee. Money supply expansion is along targeted lines and so is government borrowing. Basing itself entirely on the analysis of the Central Statistical Organisation, the RBI has lowered the projected growth rate of the economy to 6 per cent or 6.5 per cent. In its slack season credit policy in April it had forecast a growth rate 0.5 per cent higher. Another analysis shows that the rate can even be lower by about 1 per cent if the present slowdown continues. All that lies in the realm of speculation and the country has to wait to know the reality There is an ironic comment in the RBI report for this region. It expects agriculture to grow at last year’s pace and feels that the food position is “satisfactory” after noting that the stocks with the FCI is as high as 41 million tonnes or more. Obviously the RBI does not know about the frustration among farmers here over the FCI antics.

For the rest, it is trying to nudge the banks to switch over to international accounting practices and also relaxed a few minor rules to make their balance-sheet look a bit more appealing. For instance, it has allowed banks to lend as much as Rs 10 lakh to individuals to invest in new shares, but has kept companies out of this concession. If the central bank expected that the stock market will jump with joy at the prospect of an infusion of money, it was mistaken. The sensex chose that day to shed more than 110 points, bringing the share value of banks down with it. There is another related concession. Now banks can lend a maximum of 5 per cent of the total credit at the end of the previous year; until now it was limited to 5 per cent of the total deposits every bank mobilised the previous year. There are some changes in the way the asset evalution is done and in provisioning which is setting apart some funds to head off a run on the banks. Indian banks have to go a long way before they can catch up with those in advanced countries in book-keeping. But a few tentative steps have been taken as RBI Governor Bimal Jalan has often said. The concept of busy season is a quaint one. When the economy was totally dependent on agriculture, the period starting with October and ending in May was a busy one. Harvest will arrive, sugarcane crushing will start and the demand for money will shoot up. By April the rabi crop will be in and economic activity will slow down. Today agriculture contributes less than 30 per cent to the national income and the economy runs on an even keel round the year. The RBI and the nation still stick to the two-season tradition. 

Engineering admissions

THE Union Human Resource Development Ministry deserves appreciation for its plan to do away with the present multiple system of examination for admission to the various graduation level engineering and architecture courses offered by the different institutions spread throughout the length and breadth of the country in 2002. The idea is to introduce a single examination system to be called the National Education System for Testing (NEST) to screen those aspiring for technical education. This will help save the students and their parents from the excruciating experience they have to undergo at the admission stage. Most of these students---at least those who finally make it to either of the engineering colleges or universities without using the crutch of reservations---are without doubt the cream of society and deserve fair treatment. Instead, they are being victimised by the system. Under the prevailing arrangement, students have to submit forms for the admission test at a number of institutions---on an average, eight or 10----spending a hefty amount in the process. Then they have to travel to distant places where the test centres are located, and this means an additional expenditure. Thus, it is a big burden that the multiplicity of the examinations bring on their shoulders. This is not the end of it all. For two years after a student has cleared his matriculation his/her parents have to spend at least Rs 2000 every month---in metropolitan cities, the expenditure is much higher--- on coaching outside the school system to bring their wards to the level of the cutting edge. They will obviously heave a sigh of relief when the single examination arrangement comes into being.

According to the Ministry's plan, not much publicised so far, in the first phase only admissions to the engineering and architecture courses will be covered. The medical courses will be taken care of in the second phase which is to follow soon. One estimate has it that over 15 lakh students throughout the country had been suffering for no fault of theirs all these years, mainly because the country had adopted a multiple admission scheme. However, the people behind NEST will have to answer a major question. Is there any arrangement for a student who suddenly falls sick and is unable to appear in the NEST examination despite having completed all the formalities? In the prevailing system, if he is unable to appear in one admission test he can prepare for other examinations. Something will have to be done for such unfortunate souls. It is for the authorities to think how this is to be worked out. In any case, NEST is going to be a massive exercise. The nation will watch with utmost interest how an otherwise excellent idea is implemented successfully.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Sirimavo Bandaranaike's last political act before she died of heart attack in Colombo on Tuesday was to cast her vote in the 11th parliamentary elections in the country. She drove 36 kilometres out of the capital to Attanagalle, where her son Anura Bandaranaike is a UNP candidate, for exercising her electoral right. However, she was extremely unhappy with the political feud between her children. Mr Bandaranaike had left the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party [SLFP] in a huff in 1993 after he lost the leadership battle to his sister Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga. The fact that Ms Kumaratunga fulfilled her mother's dream of leading the SLFP back to power after a gap of 17 years in 1994 provided the matriarch of the numero uno political family of the island nation only marginal happiness, because it strengthened her son's resolve to remain in the opposition. She wanted a reconciliation between son Anura and daughter Chandrika because deep down she was essentially a family person. She was forced into active politics after the assassination of her husband Solomon in September, 1959. His death saw Sirimavo become the first woman Prime Minister in the world. But throughout her life, in power and out of it, she remained more rural than urban in personal tastes. Like the unsophisticated rural women she never gave up parting her hair in the middle and used little make-up even while playing host to world leaders.

Her achievements as Prime Minister and leader of an important member of the non-aligned movement were a mixture of success and failure. In 1962 her diplomatic skills failed to stop China from destroying the tenets of Panchsheel and the commitment to "Hindi-Chini bhai bhai". On the other hand, she was responsible for the Sirimavo-Shastri pact for improving relations between India and Sri Lanka. The provisions of the pact did not go down well with the Tamil population in her own country. In spite of her commitment to socialism, Sirimavo became unpopular when she introduced harsh economic reforms in 1977. The SLFP not only was trounced in the parliamentary elections after the introduction of the economic package but also her successor, J. R. Jayewardene, took the extreme and undemocratic step of depriving her of her civic rights. They were restored only after Ms Kumaratunga led the SLFP back to power. Whatever may have been her shortcomings, she would be remembered for removing the symbols of colonial rule by making Sri Lanka a republic in 1972. Throughout her long political journey the mother and wife in her remained alive. She had only two personal dreams in the last years of her life. One, to resolve the estrangement between Anura and Chandrika. Two, to be buried next to her husband. Her second wish would come true when at the end of the official period of mourning her body would be taken in state to the final resting place of Solomon Bandaranaike. But will her death be able to achieve what she could not in life — make her son return to the party founded by his father and help his sister continue as President of Sri Lanka?

THOUGHTS ON PAKISTAN
A peep into Musharraf’s mind
by G. Parthasarathy

IT is now one year since Gen Pervez Musharraf staged a coup to take over the reins of power in Pakistan. This is how he might be thinking today. The words are my own, but the thoughts have been presented in the first person, singular number as if coming from the General’s heart:

How time flies. It’s now a year since Lieut-Gen Aziz Khan, then Chief of General Staff, Lieut-Gen Mehmood Ahmed, Corps Commander, Rawalpindi, and Lieut-Gen Muzaffar Usmani, Corps Commander, Karachi, sent that upstart Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to where he really belonged — the Attock jail. I am glad that I had told General Mehmood to keep the 111 Brigade ready to move and take over the country at short notice before I left for Colombo. General Aslam Beg after all took nearly four hours to deal with Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo, when General Zia asked him to put that pesky civilian in his place in 1987. My boys took over the television station in Islamabad and the whole country in 15 minutes. But, alas, taking over the country was so much easier than governing it.

People really welcomed me as a hero when I took over despite my announcing the takeover in English. (It’s a pity I did not take my Urdu classes seriously). But ruling these indisciplined civilians is such a messy affair. I was confident that once I was seen by Western television audiences in slacks and shirt-sleeves, with my family and dogs, I would be welcomed as one of them. But rather than welcome my openness and desire to win international recognition, that upstart Qazi Husain Ahmad (Amir of the Jamat-e-Islami), who owes his existence to the patronage of General Zia and the ISI, proclaimed my fondness for my dogs as un-Islamic. He even took exception to my expressing admiration for the secularism of Kemal Ataturk.

I thought that as my dog, like Clinton’s, is named Buddy, the President and I would soon become “Buddy-Buddy”. For some strange reason this did not happen. Clinton seemed to have other things on his mind like Osama bin-Laden, the rights of women in areas controlled by our Taliban brethren, the restoration of democracy and our support for the “jehad” and “jehadis” in Kashmir. Those civilians in the Foreign Office tell me that the Indians have some new weapon called information technology that has greatly impressed Clinton and the Americans.

If A.Q. Khan could purloin nuclear technology from the Netherlands, how come we have not been able to similarly get parity with the hegemonic Indians in this sphere.

I had to find someone trustworthy and sharp to head the ISI instead of that “ghaddar” Ziauddin (Lieut-General Ziauddin), who was stupid enough to believe that I would allow him to replace me, merely because Nawaz Sharif chose him. Having executed the takeover on my behalf, Mehmood was a logical choice. But he is an ambitious chap. I think the best course would to “promote” him as a four-star Vice-Chief, like Generals Arif and Aslam Beg were promoted by Zia. I will, of course, retain effective power like Zia did. I will not make the same mistake as Ayub did, who relinquished direct control of the army and the ISI. Look at what Yahya did to Ayub when he threw out his mentor!

Ayub and Zia decided to stay on in power by promising “grassroots democracy” through elections to local bodies. This meant that while people could elect representatives empowered to repair drainage systems, my Punjabi comrades-in-arms would continue to rule the country. I decided that it would be better to kill two birds with one stone by devolving power to the district administration. The feudals could be persuaded to participate in elections to district councils. At the same time the power of the provincial governments would be curtailed, and demands from the troublesome Mohajirs, Sindhis, Baluchis and Pathans for provincial autonomy neutralised. It’s a pity that this scheme has been rejected not only by mainstream political parties and also by nationalist groups. But I intend to proceed, regardless of all this. I know the feudals are a terrible lot, but one has to be prepared to even sup with the devil to retain the “gaddi”. I think I should get Mehmood and the ISI to ensure that there is enough support for what I am planning to do. Perhaps I can offer the ISI some more plots of land in Lahore and Karachi as an added incentive. Nothing pleases my fellow faujis more than laying their hands on more land. But unless I proceed discreetly, the insufferable Qazi Husain will again start screaming that the army is the biggest real estate agency in Pakistan. He is already screaming about plots in Lahore that Amjad (Lieut-Gen Syed Mohammad Amjad, who was in-charge of dealing with the cases of political corruption), Khalid Maqbool (Corps Commander, Lahore) and I have been recently allotted for our services to the nation.

Things are becoming complicated externally. After Clinton refused to be impressed by my charms, Sattar told me that I must waylay Putin at the Millennium Summit in New York. I thought Putin was suitably impressed by me when he sent an envoy to meet me recently. But look at what these terrible Russians have done. They have not only held us and our Taliban allies responsible for regional and global terrorism but also demanded that we should respect the sanctity of that awful Line of Control in Kashmir. And to make matters worse, they are pouring in sophisticated arms to our hegemonic neighbour. I must speak to Javed (Information Adviser Javed Jabbar) and Rafiq (Major-General Qureishi, Spokesman) and tell them that they should brief the media on how I have imparted new dynamism to our foreign policy and won new friends and allies. It’s a pity that Dawn revealed that no one supported my views or position in New York. I should get Zulfiqar (Lieut-Gen Zulfiqar Ali Khan, Chairman, Water and Power Development Authority-WAPDA) to raid their offices again to check their electricity meters.

The Indians are becoming really impossible. They refuse to talk to me or even recognise me. They refuse to forget the statements I made about why a low-intensity conflict with India would continue even if the Kashmir issue is resolved, and my view that the Lahore Declaration and Simla Agreement are meaningless. More importantly, they seem to be determined to neither forget nor forgive my role in Kargil.

Thank heavens our soldiers who were killed in Kargil were not from Lahore or Sialkot. It’s easy to proclaim victory and bury soldiers from Gilgit and Baltistan without military honours. But Punjabis are a different kettle of fish in Pakistan. There is precious little I can do to meet Indian, Russian and American demands and call off the Kashmir “jehad”. I personally don’t like the idea and some of my Corps Commanders and patrons like Hamid Gul (former head of the ISI) would call it a sellout. We do, after all, enjoy “bleeding” the Indians.

There are really no easy choices in leading Pakistan. The economy cannot be revived in the foreseeable future. My honeymoon with the people was all to brief. So, I guess I will have start looking for an exit strategy. This should not be too difficult as there is no dearth of politicians who would love to ride to power on the shoulders of the army.

I guess I can get Ejaz-ul-Haq, Imran Khan, one of the Chaudhrys, or preferably some Sindhi or Baluchi to agree to become Prime Minister while I work out the details of how I can replace old man Tarar and become President.

We can then pull the strings from behind the curtains and hold the politicians responsible for all the country’s woes, as we did in the past. Power without accountability to our people is, after all, what we in the army like the best.

The writer was the High Commissioner of India to Pakistan during the coup staged by Gen Pervez Musharraf last October.

After Serbia’s peaceful revolution
by Inder Malhotra

WHAT a dramatic, thrilling and historic moment it has been. Practically the whole world stood up to cheer the people of Serbia, and for very good reason. For, they have wrought the miracle of overthrowing Slobodan Milosevic, a dictator as infamous as he was diabolical, by entirely democratic means. Their task was monumentally difficult, but it has been accomplished. Vojislav Kostunica, whose outright election victory the reprehensible Milosevic had tried to negate by hook or by crook, is now Serbia’s president. The majesty of the people’s power, backed solidly by international opinion, has prevailed.

However, it would be only realistic to realise that the peaceful revolution was the easier part. The challenges that lie ahead are stupendous, indeed mind-boggling. Not the least of these is how to gain control of, and democratise, a power structure shaped entirely by Milosevic during his 13 years of iron rule and run by his hand-picked lieutenants and loyalists. This is particularly true of the army and the police.

For us in India it should not be difficult to understand both the enormity and the complexity of the difficulties Kostunica, 56-year-old constitutional lawyer deeply dedicated to democratic methods and liberal values, faces. We, too, had our “revolution by the ballot-box” in March, 1977, and we remember only too well what happened thereafter. What most Indians may not know is that compared with the situation in India after the Empress was overthrown, the state of affairs in post-Milosevic Serbia is infinitely more delicate, explosive and virtually unmanageable.

It is not merely that in comparison with the havoc wrought by the Serbian tyrant, operating from behind democratic trappings for more than a decade, Indira Gandhi’s 19-month Emergency was a schoolgirl’s picnic. It is that Milosevic has left behind an economy ruined thoroughly; rampant corruption; a burden of guilt for the misery inflicted not only on the Serbs but also on their neighbours; and still unresolved ethnic-territorial issues that have been the staple of the apparently unending conflicts in the Balkans.

On top of all this, Kostunica, personally very popular, really heads a loose and rather fragile combination of 18 disparate parties whose “egotistical infighting over the years” was one of the several important factors behind Milosevic’s supreme power. As a writer in The New York Times has pointed out, even revolutions have a “day after”. This was driven home to Kostunica even before he could be sworn in. The scene at the building chosen for this purpose as an alternative to the burnt-down Parliament House was nothing short of chaotic. The swearing-in itself was delayed because MPs, many of them surrounded by burly body guards, were engaged in furious negotiations or bargaining about the shape and composition of the future federal government.

This problem remains unresolved but it is less of a headache than the wider issue of how to preserve the federation of which Montenegro is Serbia’s only partner. It is now showing every sign of wanting to be independent, its patience having been tried by Milosevic to almost breaking point.

Far more painful and intractable is the problem of Kosovo, Serbia’s province with an overwhelming Albanian majority that is regarded by most Serbs as the cradle of their culture. Last year, the US-led NATO bombed entire Serbia, including parts of Kosovo, to save them from Milosevic’s campaign of “ethnic cleansing”. Kosovo is now run internationally or, more accurately, by the American military muscle that maintains the peace also between the two sides in Bosnia —the Serb Bosnia and the federation of Bosnian Muslims and Croats. The USA and the UN to say nothing of NATO’s European members who do not always see eye to eye with their American ally, are committed to Serbia’s unity and Kosovo continuing to be its province. But the Albanian Kosovars have a different idea. They don’t want to have anything to do with Belgrade any longer.

The critically important point in this context is that even though Milosevic lost the war over Kosovo, as he did earlier in Bosnia and with the Croats, he was applauded by Serbs who felt that he was defending their honour against a host of enemies, including Islamic fundamentalists and the United States of America. The majority of Serbs have turned against Milosevic. But their hurt pride and paranoia, dating back to the five centuries of Ottoman rule and the beastly treatment meted out to them by the Nazis and the Croat fascists during World War-II, has not disappeared. Nor will it.

This underscores how skilful and adroit Kostunica will have to be to win back the confidence of the Montenegrans and reassure the Kosovars without losing the trust of Serb nationalists. It is a very difficult balancing act.

As against the pile of acute problems, Serbia’s new President also has a number of assets, principally the enormous goodwill of his people, who do want to turn their backs on the recent past, and overwhelming international support.

Milosevic was banking, till the last minute, on Russian support to his pretence that foreigners should leave the Yugoslav Federation alone to complete their electoral process themselves. Only after Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov arrived in Belgrade and told him to quit did Milosevic throw in the towel. Another blow to him was delivered by China, his close diplomatic ally during the Kosovo bombings. President Jiang Zemin sent Kostunica a message of “heartiest congratulations”.

Moreover, the European Union has already started lifting its sanctions against Serbia and a jubilant President Clinton has promised to do so on behalf of the USA. Unfortunately, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund cannot come to the aid of Kostunica immediately because of some legal complications. But he should be able to get enough foreign help to start rebuilding his country’s shattered infrastructure.

Finally, the wily Milosevic may have fallen but the Milosevic problem is far from over. In the first place, unusually for a deposed dictator, he remains within the country, and has indeed announced that he would be active in Yugoslav politics “after a short period of rest”. Secondly, his party, calling itself Socialist, has a majority in federal Parliament and he is still its leader. The question is whether the party will tolerate his leadership for long and thus endanger its own future.

And then there is the tricky problem of Milosevic being an indicted war criminal wanted by the International Tribunal at The Hague. For his part, Kostunica had announced well before the elections that he would not arrest Milosevic, leave alone hand him over to The Hague Tribunal.

This is a very sensible balancing act. Opinion within his country is divided, judging by reports coming out from Belgrade. But Kostunica knows that any Serb leader perceived to be acting on American dictates would be considered a “traitor” to the Serbian cause. At work here is one of the several glaring contradictions. America alone has the military power to enforce the Balkan peace, such as it is. And yet not just Serbia but many other parts of region seethe with deep anti-American sentiment.

Milosevic’s highly corrupt son who, like the offspring of many other dictators and despots across the world, has amassed tonnes of money by misusing his father’s absolute power, has already fled to Russia. The key question now is whether papa would follow the prodigal son. 

Kabira khara bazaar mein...
by Bharat Dogra

THERE are very few persons who can draw with equal intensity the admiration of the devout as well as the atheists. But this is true of Kabir, the 15th century saint and poet, who still enjoys a vast following much beyond the formal membership of the sect of his followers.

Kabir was uncompromising in his criticism of religious dogmatism, hypocrisy and superstition. He lashed out fearlessly, even recklessly, at all those who used religion for their narrow selfish ends, and in the process misguided the people and created communal strife. Whatever Kabir said was so earthy and close to the people's own experiences that it soon become part of the region's folklore. To this day whenever someone speaks against religious hypocrisy and dogmatism in North and Central India, one or two couplets of Kabir are quoted in support of the argument.

It is this aspect of Kabir's life and message that the atheists find inspiring. They admire Kabir because he not only campaigned against religious narrow-mindedness and superstition but also managed to get the support of the masses in his crusade and that too in medieval times.

But Kabir himself was not an atheist. He was a devotee of Ram. His Ram, however, is not a particular mythological character but that Supreme Being to whom one can surrender oneself completely and get completely assimilated in him. Kabir's Ram can be called Bhagwan or Allah or God with equal ease and this perhaps was the reason he attracted people of all communities.

Despite all the following he attracted in his lifetime, Kabir was never a rich man. He made a difficult living from weaving cloth on his loom. He had to support his parents, his wife and children. There must have been temptations to use his popularity and his large following to enrich himself, but he always resisted this and was content to earn his livelihood from weaving.

At the same time he was not afraid of challenging the most powerful people of his time. The Mullahs and the Pandits as well as their political patrons were clearly a powerful segment of society and Kabir antagonised them relentlessly with his actions and his sayings. He could have been attacked at any time. He could even have been killed, yet this saint continued on what he believed was the right course. There are storied (they must have some historical basis) that he confronted and defied the most powerful king of those times as fearlessly as he defied the Mullahs and Pandits.

How could anyone carry on against such odds day after day, year after year? In Kabir's case this was made possible by a great source of strength, his ability to surrender himself completely to his Ram. The strength, beauty, and uniqueness of this supreme surrender is that a person can live fearlessly even in the middle of the greatest hostility and the worst adversities.

Kabir's heart was as pure as a mountain spring. He devoted himself without fear or favour to the creation of a better world. From this grew the strong feeling that as he had always served his Ram to the best of his ability, surely Ram would take care of all his worries. Why should he worry about his own well-being when there was the Supreme One to take care of all his worries. "That Supreme One who cares for the entire world will also take care of this devotee's problems". So it was futile, needlessly distracting, for Kabir to worry about his own problems.

It is the strength of this devotion, the purity of this complete surrender that attracted the devout towards Kabir. This devotion enabled Kabir to reach a state of peace and steadfastness where his spiritual quest could continue undisturbed in the middle of all the turmoil of the world. He could not avoid this turmoil but he could raise himself above it, and he did it successfully.

It was from this stage of peace that Kabir always spoke about the need to devote oneself to the welfare of others, to make the best use of this short life, to have compassion for all people, all forms of life. He asked the better-off people to avoid arrogance and greed and make use of the opportunities they had to serve others. His simple messages had a direct appeal to the people. So despite all the myths he challenged and the egos he punctured, he managed to attract a large number of followers within his lifetime.

Over 500 years later, a large number of people continue to draw inspiration from Kabir while groping for solutions to the problems of an increasingly troubled world. 'Kabira Khara Bazaar Mein....' — so went one of his famous songs and one may still continue to turn to him in the consumerist bazaar of today's greedy world.

The writer is a well-known environmentalist.

Basmati patent
India’s fight loses sting  
By Devinder Sharma

Withdrawal of four claims by the Texas-based American company, RiceTec Inc., is being viewed as a victory of sorts in the ongoing battle over the control on basmati rice. It is being hailed as a major success, a shot in the arm for the country’s efforts in securing its commercial interests in the exports of basmati rice. After all, RiceTec Inc, which had obtained a patent for basmati rice, has been forced to withdraw certain claims in its controversial patent.

In reality, Indian efforts to contest the controversial patent have suffered a serious setback. The jubilation all around is temporary, a mere public relations exercise to bolster the sagging morale of a nation burdened with the heavy socio-economic cost of an impending patenting regime.

Newspaper headlines, both nationally and internationally, have praised India’s tireless efforts to fight the “biopirates”. With the battle won, it is now a matter of time before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) strikes down the basmati patent, the electronic media beamed. Not to be left behind, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which had filed for revocation of the patent on behalf of India, claimed: “We have succeeded in forcing RiceTec to withdraw four out of the 20 claims made in its patent. The claims now withdrawn would have adversely affected India’s commercial interests in future exports of basmati rice.”

“This demonstrates the Government’s resolve to protect India’s basmati interests against any attempts to misappropriate the same,” APEDA claimed. Laudable words, indeed. And if wishes were horses, APEDA would have certainly taken the Indian farmers on a merry ride, returning to find that the economic interests of rice growers have been mortgaged to an American company. Once RiceTec retains control over its patent, Indian basmati will not be allowed to be exported to North America. Subsequently, the American company will be able to reaffirm its patent supremacy over all the major basmati eating regions of the world!

RiceTec Inc, in reality, has played a clever trick on India. By withdrawing four of its crucial claims, like in the game of chess, the company has foiled India’s attempt to strike down the patent. By losing some ground, it has ensured victory in the ongoing war on the ownership of basmati rice. In all probability, India now stands to lose the fight over who owns basmati rice.

It is primarily for this reason that RiceTec Inc, has preferred to withdraw only four (No: 4,15,16 and 17) of its 20 claims. The patent, originally filed on June 8, 1995, concerned as many as 20 individual claims and 10 drawing sheets. And why only these four claims? Because, the company realised that its claims pertaining to “novel rice grains”, which in simple words means grains with new characteristics, would not hold true in the light of the re-examination sought by India. And if India were to conclusively establish that there was nothing new in RiceTec’s “novel rice grains”, the USPTO would have been left with no option but to revoke the basmati patent.

Of the 20 claims, only four (in reality, one three claims) are specific to the characteristics of the rice grain. The remaining 16 claims are more less concerned with “novel rice lines”, which essentially details out the breeding techniques and other characteristics and properties for cultivating it outside the Indian sub-continent. Knowing well that it will not be so easy to conclusively establish that rice plants with basmati traits cannot be grown outside the sub-continent, India had challenged only three claims (No: 15, 16, and 17) referring to the novel grains.

In its application for re-examination filed in April, this year, APEDA had strategically contested only the three claims. The underlying objective was that it is on these three claims that India could pin down RiceTec Inc. Once this happens, the rest of the patent claims would fall flat. Strategically, this made tremendous legal sense. But the legal excitement was short-lived. Having sensed the reasons behind India’s move, RiceTec Inc, withdrew four claims (adding No 4 to the list) in mid-September. The deft move has left India baffled. Except for putting up a brave public front, Indian officials are worried at the likely fallout. RiceTec Inc, is certainly laughing all the way to the USPTO court rooms.

Although APEDA’s request for re-examination (in April) was made on the basis of inputs provided by an inter-ministerial task force set up to examine the technical details of the patent and come out with a point-by-point rebuttal, it is time to re-think on the strategy to be employed under the changed circumstances. To say that RiceTec’s withdrawal of the claims is a significant victory, and that we will continue to contest the remaining 16 claims, is to put your hand deliberately into fire.

India must challenge the partial withdrawal of the patent claims. It must force the USPTO to either accept the entire patent application (with 20 claims) for re-examination or to direct the company to withdraw its patent. What was new in the patent application was the creation of the “novel” grains. And if there is nothing novel in the grains that have been produced by RiceTec, there is certainly no merit in granting it a patent protection. The USPTO cannot be allowed to view the controversial basmati patent as merely a legal instrument, for it involves the economic interests of millions of small and marginal farmers in the northwestern parts of the sub-continent. Their survival cannot be hinged to a legal mechanism that protects the interests of the biopirates.

At the same time, India must reinforce its demand in the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) for extending geographical indications to include basmati rice, Darjeeling tea, and the likes. Also, it is not clear as to why India is dithering on making legal provisions for enrolling basmati rice and the other indigenous products that belong to the country in its own legislation on geographical indications. Or else, India loses control over what was legitimately its own traditional heritage, nourished for generations its farming community.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Man is an animal who lifts his head to the sky and does not see the spiders on his ceiling.

—Baba Avtar Singh, Spiritual Sparks