E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Court order vs disorder
THE utter disgust displayed by the Supreme Court over the way the government has gone slow in closing down polluting units in Delhi’s residential areas is fully justified. All these years it has not only ignored the impassioned plea of the suffering public but also court orders. 

Bad politics
MR ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE owes a debt of gratitude to most Opposition leaders for helping him become Prime Minister. He should have been sitting in the Opposition following the dramatic one-vote defeat on a motion of confidence in the Lok Sabha last year.

An oily duty hike
IN a wrongly timed move, the Centre has increased the import duty on all varieties of edible oil, claiming it would help the growers. It will not since the khariff crop is in and the rabi oilseed will come months later. Even so, growers, say, of soyabean, can hope to get only Rs 50 more a quintal from the present Rs 950. 

OPINION

Move for new alignment
Will Third Front come about?
by A. N. Dar
MUCH before the NDA’s end of the term, political soundings are being taken by various parties for the formation of the Third Front. It is not so far 100 per cent clear which parties will ultimately come together. But what will draw them close to each other is now more or less known.

IN THE NEWS

Big deal by Big B
SO now his financial worries should be over. Super star Amitabh Bachchan — Big B to his fans and admirers — has clinched a renewal deal with the hosts of his Kaun Banega Crorepati programme, News Television. It is much bigger — worth Rs 65 crore — than the deal he had struck before launching his popular serial.

• M. S. Swaminathan
• A troubled PM
• US voting machines

Will democracy take firm roots?
By Hari Sharan Chhabra
AT the time of the independence wave in the African continent in the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century, most African countries started out with multi-party democratic governance. Democracy did survive for a period of time. A major obstacle to sustenance of democracy in Africa, according to Mr Kenneth Kaunda, lay in the profound “statism of African political systems”.

TRENDS AND POINTERS

Bank statements reveal all
BANK statements can not only tell you how rich you are, they can uncover the inner-most secrets of your psyche and place you directly into one of three distinct personality types, according to research by a leading psychologist.

OF LIFE SUBLIME

Faith in the divine entity
by Kartar Singh Duggal
G0D is. The Guru whom I have accepted as my master and my guide, whom I love and admire, says so. That so and so is my father, I accept because I am told so. He gives me the love and affection of a father, it confirms what I am told. I switch off the light and go to sleep under a roof without ever fearing that the roof might cave in.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Court order vs disorder

THE utter disgust displayed by the Supreme Court over the way the government has gone slow in closing down polluting units in Delhi’s residential areas is fully justified. All these years it has not only ignored the impassioned plea of the suffering public but also court orders. Just because the polluters constitute a bankable voter pool, and are also a tested source of election funds, they have been appeased in a million ways all along. And even now the government is siding with them, on the plea that two million people who are likely to be affected by the closure have taken to streets. If the law is to be bent and disfigured according to the number of the people who start destroying public property, the country has no right to be called a civilised state. And to think that all this is happening right there in the national Capital! Not too long ago, two state governments kowtowed to a murderer (Veerappan) on the same plea. The contagion is spreading, it seems. The attempt to bargain for more time at this stage is bizarre considering that the court had passed these orders way back in 1996. All this while, the Delhi administration cocked a snook at the judicial authority. The court had directed the government even before that (in 1995) not to issue any new licence to industries in residential (non-conforming) areas. Still, some 15,000 were merrily issued. Why? The government has no answer. Even now, if more time is given, where is the guarantee that the needful will be done? When talking about the livelihood of a few people, no mention is made of the health of 10 times more people. If one were asked to choose between life and livelihood, it would require a strange kind of blindness to opt for the latter.

The crux of the problem is that appeasement has become a way of life for certain politicians. They are also willing to compromise and sacrifice all principles only to earn a few political brownie points. That is why the BJP is out to denigrate the Congress and vice-versa. Ironically, there are many factions within the BJP which are trying to run down each other. The issue of bringing an end to pollution was so clear-cut that it should be above petty politics. But that was not to be. The apex court’s observation that if the government had its way, it would abrogate all laws, should make the latter hang its head in shame. Whenever courts give an inconvenient decision, it is ever too keen to bring about amendments. That defeats the very purpose of having the elaborate machinery to adjudicate on various points of law. This sorry state of affairs has gone on for far too long. It is time the government started siding with long-suffering law-abiding citizens instead of trying to please hooligans. The relocation of such a large number of industries is indeed a task of a very big magnitude. But, then, this problem was allowed to grow to such a level by the government itself. It should be prepared to face the consequences now. Delaying action still further will not make the trouble go away; it will only make things worse.

Bad politics

MR ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE owes a debt of gratitude to most Opposition leaders for helping him become Prime Minister. He should have been sitting in the Opposition following the dramatic one-vote defeat on a motion of confidence in the Lok Sabha last year. However, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, egged on by his close confidante Mr Amar Singh, convinced himself that the better option was to allow Mr Vajpayee continue as caretaker Prime Minister than let Mrs Sonia Gandhi form a coalition of non-saffron parties. Tuesday's uproar in and the subsequent adjournment of the Lok Sabha, on the first business day of the winter session, on the issue of who should lead the Opposition's debate on the plight of farmers in the country confirmed the suspicion that Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav dislikes Mrs Sonia Gandhi more for personal and less for political reasons. Is Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav by any chance a woman-hater? It is not merely Mrs Sonia Gandhi's Italian origin which irritates the Samajwadi leaders. It is surprising, but true, that as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh he was allegedly responsible for the "murderous attack" on Ms Mayawati at the state guest house in Lucknow. And some years ago when a consensus had been built for the passage of the women's reservation Bill without a debate he instigated the Samajawadi members to stall the proceedings unless his demand for "reservation within reservation" for Dalit, OBC and Muslim women was accepted. The only woman whose political career he has personally shaped is former brigand Phoolan Devi. It is surprising that the Congress has not bothered to expose the fatal flaw in Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's so-called samajwad-based political philosophy.

However, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav is not alone in seeking to deny Mrs Sonia Gandhi the role of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. An all-party meeting for discussing the Opposition's strategy during the winter session was convened by veteran parliamentarian Somnath Chaterjee. Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Madhavrao Scindia represented his party at the meeting. Logically the Leader of the Opposition should have been asked to convene the meeting. What is the message which the Opposition sent out to the ruling combination after the defeat of the Vajpayee government last year and during the current session of the Lok Sabha? That it is willing to tolerate Mr Vajpayee as Prime Minister, but not Mrs Sonia Gandhi as Leader of the Opposition? The non-Congress Opposition has much to explain. Mrs Sonia Gandhi may have limitations of both language and political substance in playing an effective role in articulating the genuine concerns of the people. However, the fact remains that she has won not one but three elections to arrive where she is today. She has the people's mandate to represent them in the Lok Sabha. She was unanimously elected leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party last year. And thanks to Mr Jitendra Prasada she is now a duly elected Congress President. To deny her the role which the democratic process has assigned to her is both bad politics and precedent. The non-Congress Opposition parties are free to oppose her and her party in electoral battles. However, to create an opposition within the Opposition against the duly recognised Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha may in the long run weaken the edifice of parliamentary democracy itself. Surely, not even Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav would want that to happen.

An oily duty hike 

IN a wrongly timed move, the Centre has increased the import duty on all varieties of edible oil, claiming it would help the growers. It will not since the khariff crop is in and the rabi oilseed will come months later. Even so, growers, say, of soyabean, can hope to get only Rs 50 more a quintal from the present Rs 950. But vanaspati producers in Nepal will hugely benefit, as their export will become still cheaper in India, although by a small percentage. Local traders too will benefit as the duty revision gives them a valid excuse to mark up the price for their existing stocks. The government also hopes that this way it can dampen imports. It cannot since drought conditions in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra will bring down output. To meet the stagnant demand this country has to buy at least 4.5 million tonnes, almost the same volume as last year and half of it from Malaysia. That country exports all its surplus to India and has promised to cut prices to absorb the higher impost. On Tuesday itself prices slid by $ 5 a tonne; the exporters there regularly adjust the prices to keep the sale of palmolein buoyant. They did it in June last and late last year when the government put up duty to curtail imports. RBD oil (refined, bleached and deodourised) will attract the maximum duty of slightly over 71 per cent from the present 45 per cent. In the case of other varieties the hike is 10 per cent; in practice, it will be only 8.5 per cent since the 15 per cent special additional customs duty has been withdrawn. Dramatic will be the change in the import profile of edible oil. Until now RBD oil import formed nearly half and mostly from Malaysia. With the duty differential widening from 27.5 per cent to 46.6 per cent (as between crude import by vanaspati makers and RBD import), import of unrefined variety will shoot up.

There will be two adverse fallouts. Inflation, which crossed the 7 per cent mark last week, will get a boost. Edible oil is price-sensitive, meaning a higher price pushes down demand. But with increased use in various other eatables, prices generally look up. Two, import of vanaspati from Nepal will steeply go up. Nepal allows duty-free import of RBD oil and vanaspati units then convert it and send it across to this country without paying any duty under the trade agreement between the two countries. It is not dumping because of two reasons. The commodity is manufactured in that country and not imported and re-exported as is the case with China-made textiles and dry batteries. Some of the units are owned by Indians. Two, there is no underpricing or government subsidy, which violates the trade pact. Only last week FICCI brought this to the notice of the government, demanding a reworking of the agreement to ensure a level-playing field for the local mills. This distortion can end only when oilseed output goes up. But unfortunately nothing much has happened in this field. The oilseeds mission set up during the Rajiv Gandhi years has fizzled out and drought has done the rest. As a consequence, imports have been going up from 1.75 million tonnes (mt) in 1996-97 to 2.08 mt the next year and then to 4.39 mt and finally to 4.49 mt last year. This financial year is estimated to witness the same volume of import. The piecemeal policy is not designed to either increase output or slow down imports. 

Move for new alignment
Will Third Front come about?
by A. N. Dar

MUCH before the NDA’s end of the term, political soundings are being taken by various parties for the formation of the Third Front. It is not so far 100 per cent clear which parties will ultimately come together. But what will draw them close to each other is now more or less known. It is their animosity towards the BJP and the Congress and the need for them to beat these parties back. The present soundings are being taken on forming such a combination. This should include some of the parties which support the present BJP-led coalition but whether they will distance themselves from the BJP, contribute to its climbdown at the polls and consequently themselves lose power is not clear.

This uncertainty will be one of the difficulties to come in the way of the Third Front or at least delay its formation. What is certain now is that the Third Front will include parties most of which do not enjoy power now. They will, therefore, find it easy to draw closer to each other but whether this will bring them nearer power cannot be certain.

One of the major steps was taken at last month’s CPM’s conference in Thiruvananthapuram. The conference passed what its general secretary, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet, called a “historic resolution” which said that it was willing to share power with a non-BJP, non-Congress government. This is at present so distant a possibility that it could even be called the CPM’s “sweet dream”. It will be enough for it if it can retain power in West Bengal in the Assembly elections next year. Gaining power in New Delhi will be far more difficult, almost impossible.

But the dream of gaining power alone is not going to be enough. What will be the ideology it will project to the voters? Will the parties stretching from the CPM to the Shiv Sena and the Telugu Desam Party be able to formulate a common policy? The BJP combination could do this to retain power, but can the Third Front manage this on the plea that this will let it gain power?

Reports have come that the idea of forming the Third Front would receive a major fillip at the end of November when a felicitation function will be organised for Mr Jyoti Basu in the Salt Lake stadium near Calcutta. Among those invited are Mr V.P. Singh, Mr Chandra Shekhar, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mr Deve Gowda and Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, all those who would be connected with the formation of the Left Front one way or the other. The CPM state secretary, Mr Anil Biswas, has denied that this will start off the Front, but Mr Jyoti Basu has said: “It is time the Third Front is revived again.” He is reported to have said that he would now devote more time to it, reviving the Front. Is the former Chief Minister of West Bengal linking his prestige which has received a drubbing in West Bengal with the birth of the new Front?

But Mr Jyoti Basu is a realist. He knows that this is not going to be an easy task. He has conceded this. To bring all these leaders together, knowing their ambitions and their reach, is not going to be easy. Mr V.P. Singh has been trying hard to build a new constituency in the country for himself by protesting against demolitions and protecting the slum-dwellers, but he has not so far created any impact. Mr Chandra Shekhar is already known as a leader without a party. Mr Deve Gowda too has hardly any mass standing or a major grouping to control. Two leaders of parties associated with the Third Front, BSP leader Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, have been accusing each other of trying to make up with the BJP, which will hit the hardest by the Third Front.

The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Lok Dal have been edging the Samajwadi Party to move a no-confidence motion against the BJP government in UP. This demand is made on the Samajwadi Party because it is the main opposition group in UP. This motion could succeed because the BJP combination in UP is on the brink of losing the majority after the formation of Uttaranchal. The BSP and the Lok Dal have accused Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav of giving the BJP government tacit support. But Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has in turn said that Ms Mayawati is trying to have an understanding with the BJP to become the Chief Minister of UP. He said: “I am not talking out of thin air....After all, she has joined hands with the BJP twice in the past to form a government.” The two parties, he said had “pre-poll internal understanding and post-poll external understanding.”

That is the kind of rapport between the two major parties which are looked at as key partners of the Third Front. The truth lies in between. Both the BSP and the Samajwadi Party would, if at all, seriously work for the Third Front after the elections in UP next year which will give them an idea where they stand. Both are looking to their own interests than those of the Third Front. This should cause no surprise. Both parties would not now like to pull down the UP government because they are afraid that this would give it greater sympathy during the polls.

At the CPM conference in Thiruvananthapuram last month only Mr Deve Gowda and Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav were present. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav clearly was not interested — not before the UP elections. He wants the Third Front to be totally anti-Congress. But can the same be said of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav whose government rests on the support of the Congress? All parties interested in the Third Front are wanting to know how the factional fights in the BJP and the Congress will turn out to be. In the BJP the question is already being asked: “After Vajpayee, who?” The general opinion is that Mr L.K. Advani will throw in his hat. But many months earlier Mr Ramakrishna Hegde, who should be deeply interested in the Third Front, said: “In the event of the present Prime Minister disappearing from the scene, perhaps Mr Fernandes want to place himself in the most advantageous position.” That is why, Mr Hegde said, Mr Fernandes had prevented him from becoming a minister in the Vajpayee government.

Other important questions remain. Will there first be a realignment of forces? And what shape will it take? What will be the attitude of the Telugu Desam Party and the DMK? The Shiv Sena and the Trinamool Congress are said to have come closer to the TDP. Reports say that Mr Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party is trying to woo the TDP, to the chagrin of the BJP. The TDP leader, Mr Yerram Naidu, paid a courtesy call on Mr Bal Thackeray and in return three Sena ministers, Mr Manohar Joshi, Mr Suresh Prabhu and Mr Vikhe Patil, came to meet Mr Chandrababu Naidu. The two parties have also reached an equation because both oppose the demand for Telangana and Vidharba. Political circles in Andhra Pradesh were intrigued by Ms Mamata Banerjee’s description of Mr Naidu as “my elder brother”. In a brotherly act, Mr Naidu sent Ms Jayaprada to West Bengal to campaign for Ms Mamata Banerjee and she delighted her hostess by describing Marxist rule as “jungle raj”. But, then, can both the Trinamool and the CPM be in the same Third Front? Gone perhaps are the days when the CPM was aghast at the TDP supporting the BJP combination. It prefers to forget that development so that it will have a chance to take the TDP out of the BJP alliance. Mr Chandrababu Naidu could be soft towards this idea because this will help him get the minority support.

In Punjab, the Sarb Hind Akali Dal is making friendly noises towards the Third Front. SHAD keeps on repeating that leaders of several parties which could join the Third Front had come to Punjab to canvass for it in the Sunam byelection. Among them were Mr Chandra Shekhar and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, canvassing against the Akali Dal (Badal) and the Congress. No wonder, Mr Prem Singh Chandumajra is hotly criticising the economic policies of both the BJP and the Congress.

The last word has not been said about the shape of the contacts between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress. To save itself, will the CPM want to be closer to the Congress? And wouldn’t the Trinamool want to fight the CPM in association with the Congress?

Big deal by Big B

SO now his financial worries should be over. Super star Amitabh Bachchan — Big B to his fans and admirers — has clinched a renewal deal with the hosts of his Kaun Banega Crorepati programme, News Television. It is much bigger — worth Rs 65 crore — than the deal he had struck before launching his popular serial.

The 135-episode contract, which he signed previously, has led to three major developments. One, Big B's already high stature has gone up by Rs 25 crore — the difference between the value of his latest contract and the one he finalised earlier. Two, Star TV's viewership has zoomed to the top and remains there even after the Zee Network's Sawal Das Crore Ka. Three, Amitabh Bachchan can claim credit for introducing a new kind of business — the business of mind game. His KBC experiment's success has brought in the arena a number of TV networks fighting for more and more viewership.

Till the other day Big B was learnt to have dues totalling Rs 70 crore mainly because of the failure of his company, ABCL, now AB Corp. Today, however, he should not have much to pay off. Canara Bank has struck his name off its list of defaulters after he cleared the Rs 9.60 crore loan he had taken. He has got a "lifeline" also. Bombay Stock Exchange broker Ketan Parekh, better known as Big Bull Ketan, has agreed to fund Big B's ailing company to infuse new vigour in it. Soon Parekh's nominees will be on the board of directors of AB Corp. One wishes Bachchan had two more "lifelines" as is true with his Star TV programme.

M.S. Swaminathan

DR M.S. SWAMINATHAN, the eminent agricultural scientist, has won more awards than he can possibly remember. The latest award conferred on him the other day was the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. This was in recognition of his contribution in the domain of plant genetics and ensuring food security to millions of people in the developing world.

Just look at some of the awards won by the “author of evergreen revolution”, as President K. R. Narayanan described him while presenting Dr Swaminathan with the latest honour:

Ramon Magasay-say Award for contribution to agriculture, the World Food Prize for outstanding achievement in improving world food supply and the UNESCO Gandhi Gold Medal in recognition of his outstanding work of extending the benefits of biotechnology to developing countries.

Remark-ably, all these prestigious and high-profile awards wear light on the persona of the humble Monkumbu Sambasiva Swaminathan, the village boy who has made it big on the world stage by his dedication to agricultural research.

Dr Swaminathan, 75, has proved himself to be not only a scientist but an able administrator as well, a combination difficult to achieve. He has been the Agriculture Secretary at the Centre, the Acting Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, the Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Director-General of the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines.

After his return from the Philippines in 1988, Dr. Swaminathan used his World Food Prize money to set up the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, a non-profit scientific trust. The foundation soon established the

Centre for Research on Sustainable Agricultural Development (CRSAD) which initially operated out of rented premises in Chennai before moving to the present building leased from the Tamil Nadu government.

“We have adopted a human-centered approach. One that works concerns about ecology, social equity and employment into the matrix of rural development,” he says of the Centre’s area of work.

That is the quintessential Swaminathan whose work has always centered on the development of the village and its poor.

A troubled PM

REMEMBER Mr Basdeo Panday, Trinidad and Tobago’s first-ever Prime Minister of Indian origin? Just three years ago, Mr Panday was the toast of the Indian government and the media when he came to visit his ancestral village, Lakhmanpur in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. He was the guest of honour at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26, 1997.

Mr Panday is again in the news — but for the wrong reasons. Just a couple of weeks before the December 11 elections, the ethnic Indian Prime Minister is faced with two convictions for slander and discrimination and a crippling penalty.

Publisher Ken Gordon sued Mr Panday earlier this year for calling him a “pseudo racist” at the May 30, 1997, inaugural Indian Arrival Day celebrations in Chaguanas, a central Trinidad town that is home to thousands of ethnic Indians.

The courts have ordered Panday to pay damages totalling more than 1,00,000.

Courts have also ruled that Mr Panday had discriminated against the Caribbean Communications Network (CCN), headed by Mr Gordon, by dismissing its application for a cellular telephone licence.

Mr Panday, who has moved the High Court, the country’s highest judicial body, challenging his convictions, has vowed to go to Britain’s Privy Council which hears appeals when a High Court verdict is challenged.

He may also be facing the prospect of being debarred from contesting elections if he is declared bankrupt following his refusal to pay the huge penalty.

Mr Panday, who is heading the United National Congress (UNC) government, has vowed not to back down from his battle, nor will he step down as UNC leader.

Trinidad and Tobago, a republic within the Commonwealth, has a population of 1.3 million. The ethnic distribution is 40.3 per cent Indians, 39.6 per cent Africans, 18.6 per cent mixed, 0.6 per cent Lebanese/Syrians, 0.4 per cent Chinese and 0.6 per cent Europeans.

Is Mr Panday, like ethnic Indians who have made it to the highest offices in other parts of the world such as Fiji, facing racial discrimination, a charge, ironically, he has himself been convicted of?

US voting machines

ONE of the by-products of the recent American Presidential election is a focus on voting machines. A voting machine is an automatic, booth-like device used to record votes in popular elections and to keep track of the number of voters who cast ballots at a polling place.

Americans vote in many ways, and the mechanical-lever machine that was introduced in 1892 in Lockport, N.Y. is the most common. Though these machines are no longer manufactured, and are thus vulnerable to breakdowns etc., they were used by 34.3 per cent of voters in the 1998 elections, the most recent year for which data is available. They are considered reliable and leave a paper trail in the form of punch-cards that can be counted to verify results.

The manner in which these cards are punched, however, is the root of the recounting issue in Florida, upon which American Presidency is hanging. A metal stylus is supposed to detach a rectangular hole in a card every time a vote is punched. When it fails to do so, a tiny bit of paper or cardboard (called chad) is left hanging. Those in the know call it the “chad issue”. The term dates back to the 50s when punch cards were the standard way of inputting data into a computer. Handing chads may not allow a vote to be registered during mechanical counting. These chads may detach during recounting, thereby resulting in a different count.

Not that all of America suffers from such antiquated machines. The current trend is toward scanned paper ballots used by a quarter of voters or electronic systems. California’s Riverside County became the first jurisdiction to use touch-screen voting exclusively, winning positive reviews from voters for its new $14-million system. Though officials pointed out the speed, security and accuracy of the new system, the cost and the lack of physical ballots to recount were seen as negatives.

In contrast to the American problem, Indian electronic voting machines have been receiving a positive response ever since they were put to use in 1998.

Will democracy take firm roots?
By Hari Sharan Chhabra

AT the time of the independence wave in the African continent in the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century, most African countries started out with multi-party democratic governance. Democracy did survive for a period of time. A major obstacle to sustenance of democracy in Africa, according to Mr Kenneth Kaunda, lay in the profound “statism of African political systems”.

The problem was that African nationalist leaders inherited states rather than nations, with the result the leaders found themselves busy with the question of forging nations. Also economic well-being of its citizens did not materialise. Instead of economic advance there was stagnation, causing frustration all round and a growing demand for change.

Two developments shook African politics. First was the onslaught of the military in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Zaire, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. Seeing the frustration and hatred towards multiparty democracy in Africa, the military leaders tried to convince the public that they could do a better job than the incumbent rulers. Consequently, there were military takeovers through coup d’etat in a number of countries. But military rule was totalitarian rule, pure and simple, with common man having no voice. There was renewed frustration. Despite military takeovers, there were African countries, such as Botswana, Zimbabwe and Gambia, where multiparty system mercifully continued to flourish.

The second political development in Africa was the currency gained by one-party states. Some African leaders argued that since “traditional” African democracy was based on consensus, the most suitable form of democracy for Africa was that of single party.

Leaders like Mr Kaunda and Mr Julius Nyerere felt that the single-party system had several advantages. For example, it would avoid lengthy discussions and dissensions, which went against the grain of national unity and social harmony. An added advantage, according to them, was that single-party rule would promote economic developments. Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania were cited as states that benefited from one-party rule.

With the end of Cold War in the early nineties came the second wave of democracy in Africa. Strangely enough, major western powers, which had supported authoritarian regimes in the past now began actively assisting in their removal. The western powers began talking of multipartyism, good governance, transparency and rule of the law. A major condition for financial assistance from the western powers was multiparty democracy.

The World Bank and the IMF also brought about conditionalities, which had a direct bearing on the successful realisation of democracy in Africa. These conditionalities were devaluation of currencies, austerity measures, liberalisation and privatisation. African countries most of them in poor economic shape, had no option but to accept these conditionalities.

As a result, one-party states began disappearing, military rulers went back to the barracks and multipartyism became the order of the day, country after country. Democracy in Nigeria, Africa’s largest country populationwise, was hailed as a major achievement. The end of apartheid and the ushering in of non-racial democracy in South Africa was also welcomed the world over with great enthusiasm. A new South Africa was born in 1994, which was described by many as a miracle.

Today, while Africa is standing tall with a thriving multiparty democracy in most countries, there are two countries where home-grown ideologies are flourishing. Take the case of Uganda, where no-party democracy has taken shape. President Yoweri Museveni, Africa’s current leading political thinker, believes that African nations are not ready for multiparty democracy based on the western model. He talks of no-party politics, an ideology much different from the one-party system.

Ethiopia is another home-grown political model in Africa. Ethiopia’s constitution allows any of its ethnic groups to secede after a referendum. — IPA

Bank statements reveal all

BANK statements can not only tell you how rich you are, they can uncover the inner-most secrets of your psyche and place you directly into one of three distinct personality types, according to research by a leading psychologist.

Dr Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, examined bank statements from dozens of customers at the Woolwich Building Society and used them as a tool of psycho-analysis. He divided the statements into one of three categories: Hedonistic Grazers, Material Martyrs and Steady Builders.

“It started out as a bit of fun but I quickly realised that you can actually analyse someone quite accurately from just looking at their bank statement. On close examination, it contains a lot of information,” Wiseman said.

Hedonistic Grazers were identified by frequent trips to the cash machine, taking out small amount on almost a daily basis. They rarely plan ahead and make endless trips to supermarkets, buying provisions as they go. By the end of the month they are usually overdrawn.

Wiseman saw them as people who needed instant gratification and sought pleasure at every opportunity with no sense of planning for the future. in Freudian terms, they would be called “highly oral”.

On the other side of the equation are Material Martyrs. These are people who make only a few trips a month to the bank, withdrawing enough cash to last for weeks.

They only go to the supermarket once or twice a month and they pay most of their bills by direct debit and rarely go into the red.

The Martyrs would feel guilty about carrying out acts of pleasure, restricting themselves to occasional treats. Any sign of extravagance would be frowned upon. They would also be masters of time-management, very frugal and highly organised.

“Freud would have called this lot quite anal,” Wiseman said. “It is amazing how easily this technique fitted in with this aspect of Freudian theory.”

The final type, the Steady Builder, has no equivalent in Freudian analysis. These are people whose statement is dominated by a mortgage payment, who make few trips to restaurants and have a high number of debit card payments, often for things like the internet, and occasional enormous bills from the supermarket.

These people, Wiseman concluded, were older home-owners and both the Hedonistic Grazers and Material Martyrs were likely to one day turn into them.

Wiseman followed up the analysis with personality tests of 50 volunteers and found that he had accurately identified 75 per cent of the bank statements correctly. ‘That’s a high correlation, a long way beyond what chance would have predicted,’ he said.

The research could also help banks and building societies target their products better. By analysing monthly bank statements in psychological terms, bankers can build up a personality profile and then send information about suitable products. (Observer)

The poor man’s weapon

New laboratory techniques mean that for about a dollar, say some analysts, a microbiologist can now generate enough material to harm people and livestock covering a square kilometre, earning bioterrorism the nickname of “the poor man’s atomic bomb”. The Tokyo subway incident seems to show that almost anybody can gain access to biological weapons of mass destruction.

To Milton Leitenberg of the Centre for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, however, it proves just the opposite: that the threat of bioterrorism has been wildly exaggerated. In a recent paper, Dr Leitenberg studied around 1,000 threatened or actual uses of bioterrorism, including hoaxes. He concluded that “there is an extremely low incidence of real biological events, in contrast to the number of recent hoaxes, the latter spawned by administrative and media hype.”

In fact, biological weapons may prove more of a threat to their makers than to their intended victims. In 1979 a weaponised strain of anthrax being developed by Soviet researchers in the city of Sverdlosk was accidentally released, killing about 70 people and some livestock. Those affected all lived and worked within a narrow zone extending from the city’s military facility to its southernmost limits some 30 miles away. The Soviet authorities initially insisted that people had become ill from eating tainted meat. Only in 1992 did President Yeltsin confirm the real source of the outbreak. (Economist)

Faith in the divine entity
by Kartar Singh Duggal

G0D is. The Guru whom I have accepted as my master and my guide, whom I love and admire, says so. That so and so is my father, I accept because I am told so. He gives me the love and affection of a father, it confirms what I am told. I switch off the light and go to sleep under a roof without ever fearing that the roof might cave in. It is not that roofs have never caved in. But a building constructed scientifically with care, is relied upon. One can have faith in it. Without faith life can become miserable. You cannot take the next step; who knows it may land you in a ditch.

During my tenure at All India Radio, Ranchi, I had a Gujarati friend, an engineer. He had no faith in the divine entity. I listened to him but never entered into an argument with him. Whenever he had an opportunity, he would come out with something new to support his disbelief. At times, he would laugh at me. He wondered, how a modern man, a progressive writer, highly educated and enlightened, could continue to subscribe to the faith of his father, his father's father, his father's father's father.

Once he was travelling with his young son from Calcutta to Ranchi by train. As ill-luck would have it, the train, running at top speed, derailed on a curve and plunged into a ditch in the dead of night. He did not know how long he lay unconscious. When he regained his senses in the calamitous darkness with the dead around him and the wounded crying for help, he folded his hands and solicited, "Lord! if I can find my son, I will be your slave for the rest of my life". And as these words came to his lips, there was the cry of his young child, "Papa", from behind the boulder on which he lay. Hundreds were killed, many more were wounded. My friend and his son arrived home the next day without a scratch. The first thing he did was to narrate to me the incident.

Another happening: Serving on the editorial board of the Lotos, an organ of the Afro-Asian Writers Association, I had to visit Moscow frequently. My interpreter, Tania, a confirmed Communist, could not believe that with all my progressive writings, I said my prayers regularly. My telling her that my Guru believed that one should labour hard and share one's earnings with others, and that was the essence of Socialism by which she swore, had no effect on her. God and religion were anathema to her. Whenever she had an opportunity, she would try to argue with me ridiculing faith in anything except what Marx and Engel had "revealed". I listened to her patiently, and would seldom refute her. I would only tell her that if my faith made me a better man than many confirmed Communists I saw around, what was wrong with it? And yet I would never convince her.

Once she took me to visit one of their ancient monasteries outside Moscow. A huge complex which housed a seminary and a grand church with splendid deities. It was a Sunday. There were hundreds of devotees. As we entered the sanctum-sanctorum, there was something in the atmosphere which for a second, made me close my eyes and fold my hands. When I opened my eyes, Tania was nowhere. Where could have she disappeared? And then I spotted her, a candle in her hand going with the rest of the devotees offering obeisance to the icon.

A Punjabi poet has said:

We may not believe in the Lord;

But what do we do with the void in the heart?

A leading progressive writer, one of the founders of the Progressive Writers' Movement in India and a confirmed Leftist who was jailed several times during the freedom struggle, would carry a volume of Hafiz, the celebrated Persian poet every time he came to Delhi and stayed with us. "It seems it is the only classic which has caught your fancy," once my curiosity got the better of me and I asked. "I carry it as my constant guide," he explained.

"How?" I was intrigued. Reading a book once or twice at best should do. One has so much to read. Finding me unconvinced, my non-believer friend who swore by Marx explained: "Every time I am in a dilemma, I know not my mind, I open Hafiz at random and read the verse which catches my eye and believe it or not, I find in it a clear signal of what I should do. It serves as my guide". "But this is exactly what we, the Sikhs, do every morning," I butted in. "We read a 'shabad' from the Holy Granth opened at random and treat it as a signpost for the day."

I found that my senior colleague did not wish to continue with the argument. We started discussing something else.

God is. Though, perhaps not as commonly visualised, a saintly, grey-haired sage, with inebriated eyes, beaming face, a halo around His head; a regal monarch sitting on a majestic throne; a master-craftsman; a savant exuding wisdom; a mystic lost in trance and so on. God is a concept. He is just. He is love. He is compassion. He is truth. He is working-hard-earning-enjoying-and-sharing. He is, therefore, known in some quarters as the divine entity.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

When you feel in a state of depression, Rama's advice is to give up your laziness, throw aside your book, be on your feet, walk out in the open air, and walk rapidly. Naturally, your breathing becomes deep. Naturally will this breathing take place, and that will cheer you with energy and all depression will be gone; that cold breeze blowing on your face will produce a wonderful effect... Another way is after walking out of the room in the open air.... stand still in a corner or at some place where you are not noticed, then open the mouth and take in the air fully through the mouth and exhale it through the nostrils; this process should be practised rigorously, and you will see how wonderfully it will cheer you up.

—Swami Ramatirtha, In Woods of God Realisation, Vol. IV, lecture XIII

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And as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciple asked him, sayng, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.

— The Gospel According to  St. John, 9: 1-2

***

Stung by greed... one is born to die and after death undergoes rebirth repeatedly. In this way he is punished continuously and does not see the end of his journey.

— Guru Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1020

***

I shall merge in the Lord like the water in the sea and the wave in the stream. The shunya (soul) will mege in shunya (God) and like air I shall look upon all alike. Then why shall I come again? The coming and going is under the will of the Lord and Realising This will, I shall merge in the Lord.

— Sant Kabir, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, page 1103

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God only is wise; and... the wisdom of men in worth little or nothing.

—Socrates in Plato’s Apology

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

—The Holy Bible, The Book of Psalms, 111:10