E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

It is cultural carnage
INDIA'S reaction to the horrifying news that the Taliban have begun knocking down centuries old statues of the Buddha and other "symbols of idol worship" in Afghanistan was politically correct keeping in mind the emotional attachment of the people with the statue of the Buddha in Bamiyan and the samadhi of Prithviraj Chauhan in Ghazni. 

Balco: reason loses
IT was rhetoric versus rhetoric in what passed off as the Balco debate and truth and analysis fled the surcharged Parliament. The opposition smelt a big scam in the deal with Sterlite but had nothing to go by other than its deep suspicion and an eagerness to somehow nail the NDA government. Its jubilation at two partners breaking ranks with the alliance was very short-lived.

Stamping out terrorism
TERRORISM has been thriving in almost all parts of the world mainly because it is yet to be fully recognised as an international crime against humanity. Only those countries which are directly affected by it fight it willy-nilly, while many of the rest confine themselves to making the right noises.

OPINION

BUDGET 2001
One-dimensional Budget exercise
Breathtaking agenda of marketisation
Kamal Nayan Kabra
THIS first year of the millennium also marks a decade of liberalisation. Ten years ago a watershed in India’s policy processes and regime inaugurated a new era, confidently promising a high watermark economic performance. A unique quirk of India’s emerging political economy ensured during the 1990s an unstable and divided polity, but a stable consensual economic policy regime.

Going up in smoke
Rahul Singh
I am not a smoker, but I am fully aware of the hazards of smoking or of consuming tobacco-related products, like gutka. I have had friends who have died from cancer of the lungs, mouth and throat because they have been heavy smokers. I know somebody who, in the prime of life, is also fighting this deadly disease through sessions of chemotherapy and radiation. It is a frightening sight.

MIDDLE

Times have changed
Ramesh Luthra
GRANNY dear! Sweet and graceful! Glistening silvery crop on her head added to her charm. At home in storytelling. Anxiously did we look forward to summer vacation to be with her in the village. We would wait for her to finish household chores. Her bed in the centre, we would vie with one another to be the closest to her. Her stories would transport us to faroff lands while the cool breeze sang lullabyes to us. A pleasant change from the pigeonhole flats in the city.

WINDOW ON PAKISTAN

Growing scourge of extremism
Gobind Thukral
RELIGIOUS extremism is becoming a matter of concern for many English language newspapers in Pakistan. Urdu newspapers like Nawa-e-Waqt do not show that kind of concern. But these have a mass circulation across the country. Interestingly, the same people own both kinds of papers.

ON THE SPOT

How to improve abysmal performance of SEBs
Tavleen Singh
REMEMBER when Delhi went without power for an entire day just as we entered the year 2001? Remember how the tripping of the northern power grid was of such a serious nature (on December 26) that even the Prime Minister went without power for a while? Well, dear readers, that was only a trailer.

ANALYSIS

Dropout embraces future as lama
CLEARWATER (Florida), A middle-school dropout living with his parents in Florida has embraced his new future as a Buddhist monk after having been identified as a reincarnated Tibetan lama. At a ceremony in November in India, Jack Churchward (18), was declared the sixth reincarnation of Tradak Tulku, who ran a Tibetan monastery almost 100 years ago.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

It is cultural carnage

INDIA'S reaction to the horrifying news that the Taliban have begun knocking down centuries old statues of the Buddha and other "symbols of idol worship" in Afghanistan was politically correct keeping in mind the emotional attachment of the people with the statue of the Buddha in Bamiyan and the samadhi of Prithviraj Chauhan in Ghazni. An official spokesman described the action as "cultural carnage" and at the same time advocated restraint in responding to the unjustified acts of vandalism by the cultural cops of Mullah Omar. The illegal Taliban regime has never shown signs of restraint or sanity in implementing its diktat, based on the wrong interpretation of Islamic tenets, on the hapless people. But the current act of vandalism can provoke a bloody backlash in locations outside Afghanistan. It should be treated as a crime against global heritage and history. The entire world has the right to respond and react to the unfortunate decision because preservation of historically significant monuments and texts is the responsibility of the entire civilised human race. Since the Taliban have no respect for civilised behaviour the global community under the aegis of the United Nation should evolve an appropriate response for dealing with the ghastly crime committed by them. The regime of Mullah Omar has invoked the name of Islam for justifying the action. Among its targets is the 53-metre [175 ft] tall 2000-year-old statue of the Buddha in Bamiyan. The silence of the Islamic world on the cultural carnage would be mistaken as indirect support to the shocking act. Every right thinking Muslim should treat it as his pious duty to explain to the non-Muslim world that the Taliban represent only themselves.

For India the development is more worrying because of the post-Ayodhya wounds caused by misguided sections of Hindus and Muslims. Vishwa Hindu Parishad Senior Vice-President Acharya Giriraj Kishore has been quoted as having said that the samadhi of Hindu warrior Prithviraj Chauhan in Ghazni was among the monuments being targeted by Mullah Omar's followers. It must be remembered that as a reaction to the destruction of the Babri Masjid several Hindu temples were vandalised by hotheads in Pakistan. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. The Centre should alert its intelligence agencies and deal firmly with organisations and individuals found trying to whip up communal passions in India as a response to what is happening in Afghanistan. The US State Department in its extensive report on the global hot spots has mentioned the possibility of Hindu-Muslim violence in India. If the prophesy comes true, it would be appropriate to look for the epicentre of the communal tremor in Bamiyan and Ghazni.

Balco: reason loses

IT was rhetoric versus rhetoric in what passed off as the Balco debate and truth and analysis fled the surcharged Parliament. The opposition smelt a big scam in the deal with Sterlite but had nothing to go by other than its deep suspicion and an eagerness to somehow nail the NDA government. Its jubilation at two partners breaking ranks with the alliance was very short-lived. The fear of defeat compelled the TDP and the Shiv Sena to vote with the government. In the end the opposition, particularly the Congress, looked tired and clueless. What about the treasury benches? Two junior Ministers, known more for their combativeness than persuasive skill, hurled challenges at opposition members. One asked the critics to produce proof of hanky-panky without circulating all relevant documents. The other demanded a better offer, six times bigger, and vowed to accept it. Opposition political parties are not in the business of bidding for or canvassing the sale of aluminum smelting companies. In the end the motion rejecting disinvestment stood limp and lost. In a week the government will prepare the legal transfer papers and accept a cheque for Rs 550.51 crore. Balco, a profit-making unit with hundreds of crores (Rs 300 crore?) in deposits with banks and financial institutions and with a brand new smelting unit (to covert rough alumina into anodised aluminum) will have a new owner who has to merely bring in about Rs 250 crore to head a company that makes a yearly profit of Rs 100 crore or so. The government is yet to explain two points. One, it asked one Mr P.V.Rao to evaluate the worth of the land, machinery and bauxite mines although he had no experience in this line. And he completed the work in about 20 days, saying a US company had collected all relevant facts with the help of government departments. Strangely the US company charged and secured a 2 per cent commission and not a lump sum as is the practice. There is also a vague and unsubstantiated charge that the Centre pressurised the Orissa government to transfer two bauxite mines to Balco on the very eve of accepting the bid. Goldplating? This needs a solid and reasoned rebuttal.

The ruling alliance did not so much carry the day as the opposition lost its case since it relied entirely on newspaper accounts which were scrappy and gossippy. The present leadership and indeed the party organisation have lost the stamina to do homework. Going by published reports can be counterproductive, as the Balco fiasco proves. The party should cultivate bureaucratic insiders who are not committed to any political ideology but are fiercely committed to public probity. In these days of financial and moral promiscuity, it is inconceivable that a deal worth Rs 550 crore and riddled with gaping holes did not attract the greedy attention of men in a position to influence decisions. Liaison men, both of the political and professional types, swarm the corridors of power and subvert every business transaction into a sinful operation. If the Congress wants to force the alliance government to be always on its toes, as it should in the broader national interest, it should give up its total dependence on making speeches in English in impeccable Oxbridge accent or in Hindi with a very heavy videshi accent. This is particularly so since the government has identified and set a deadline for disinvestment in four public sector units (PSUs) in the next two months with several more to come later. The NDA government believes that Balco will prove to be its mascot, paving the way for an accelerated progress in shedding all PSUs, profit-making or not. Last year the Finance Minister set a target of collecting Rs 10,000 crore by way of sale of PSUs and ended up by realising Rs 100 crore (Modern Foods) and Rs 1950 crore by book transfers. This year the target is Rs 12,000 crore; will Balco pave the way? It should given the lethargy of the opposition Congress and directionless policy of the Left. 

Stamping out terrorism

TERRORISM has been thriving in almost all parts of the world mainly because it is yet to be fully recognised as an international crime against humanity. Only those countries which are directly affected by it fight it willy-nilly, while many of the rest confine themselves to making the right noises. The end result is that safe heavens exist from where the perpetrators orchestrate their death dance. One such sanctuary has been Britain because of the legal loopholes available there. Till three years ago, conspiring to commit terrorist activities abroad was not even illegal there. It was declared so only following the 1998 bombings at Omagh in Northern Ireland, killing 29 people. Since then, it has made some amends. Last month, it introduced a sweeping anti-terrorist legislation, followed by a ban on 21 terrorist organisations on Wednesday, including the Babbar Khalsa, the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the LTTE. Interestingly, a large number of these organisations have not attacked British targets. This fact should send a strong message to terrorist bodies that the world is united in its revulsion against the scourge. This is apparently a diplomatic triumph for India, which was hamstrung by the lack of support in its endeavour. The British action is expected to be a precursor to a similar ban on the Lashkar-e-Toiba by the USA. Since London and Washington have been cooperating on intelligence matters, the former’s decision must have come only with the tacit approval of the Bush administration. It is hoped that Canada may also follow suit. India has welcomed the decision because it will contribute significantly to strengthening the international community’s resolve to combat terrorism.

While the ban is capable of displaying the international resolve, its efficacy as a bulwark against the menace is doubtful for two reasons. One, most of the terrorist organisations do not operate under their own names in foreign countries. For instance, the banned Kashmiri organisations have no formal presence in Britain despite its half-a-million strong Kashmiri community. They collect money and recruit volunteers for a murderous jehad through front organisations. Resources are routed through such a labyrinth that it is almost impossible to strip the disguise. Moreover, terrorist organisations have a record of changing their labels once a ban is put on them. For instance, the Lashkar is nothing but the Harkat-ul-Ansar in a new mask. Constant vigil will have to be maintained on the nefarious activities to ensure that something similar does not happen this time. 

BUDGET 2001
One-dimensional Budget exercise
Breathtaking agenda of marketisation
Kamal Nayan Kabra

THIS first year of the millennium also marks a decade of liberalisation. Ten years ago a watershed in India’s policy processes and regime inaugurated a new era, confidently promising a high watermark economic performance. A unique quirk of India’s emerging political economy ensured during the 1990s an unstable and divided polity, but a stable consensual economic policy regime. This feat was accomplished as all the political combinations which ruled India during the 1990s remained steadfastly loyal to the programme of structural adjustment and vowed to carry it forward to its “logical” culmination irrespective of the emerging reality. The present ruling combine has so far proved itself market fundamentalist in a more pronounced manner than its predecessors. With the balance sheet of the 1990s in hand, can the Union Budget be expected to depart from its loudly stated commitment to press ahead with the second stage of what somewhat tendentiously is termed the second phase of the “reforms”?

The pre-budget Economic Survey put paid to any such hopes as it expounded a really breathtaking agenda of marketisation of the factor markets, finance, public goods supply and its organisation, external economic relations, etc.

The Economic Advisory Council too chipped in to lend its weight and the Finance Minister dutifully carried it out in the Budget. A backdrop to the meaning, content and implications of the budget has to be provided in terms of a terse sumup of the economic scene after 10 years of liberation. A slowdown of economic growth in all the major goods producing and labour absorbing sectors is far more pronounced than can be inferred from the 6 per cent figure as it is also based on some statistical “innovations”. It was accompanied by a mere 0.04 per cent growth in the organised sector employment which contributes about two-fifths of our total production. Latest NSSO data show higher incidence of unemployment. Increased extent of malnutrition has also been reported in an official all-India survey in 1998-99.

With near stagnant farm wages and non-viable small and marginal farmers, in all numbering some 16 to 17 crores, the resulting demand slowdown led to accumulation of unsold cereal stocks of almost five crore tonnes, a slowdown of inflation, except for the big spurt in the prices of petroleum products, 20 per cent increase in exports (petty offset by increased import content of the exported goods like gems and jewellery), low savings and investment, both public and private, low imports and yet a whopping current account deficit financed by capital account external inflows.

With such an economic track record, the public finances are bound to be in the doldrums, with fiscal deficit reaching one-tenth of the GDP. Naturally the external deficit increases our external liabilities. Little wonder the total government liabilities are in excess of half of the GDP. Except a tiny minority of captains of industry and finance, and, of course, their faithful allies, the ruling political class, there is widespread disillusionment and dissatisfaction all around. How does the Union Budget 2000-2001 tackle these ticklish questions and daunting challenges?

An ideological fixation with supply-side factors which increase the profitability of capital and access to the savings of the household sector at very low real rate of interest, encouragement to intensified collaboration and symbiosis between Indian and foreign capital, etc., may be seen to be the underlying guiding principles of economic policies in general and fiscal policy in particular.

The Union Budget 2001-2002, both on revenue and expenditure sides, its monetary-financial-industrial policy frills and its “development” philosophy (treating increased production, whether of goods or of services and irrespective of social, economic and cultural costs) seems to be impervious to the lessons of the last decade. The economic slow-down and imbalances cannot be attributed to weak incentives, inadequacy of finance and government’s excessive and irksome regulations. Cronyism did flourish, but it affects the quality and social benefits of growth and not its rate. The simple fact is that the excessive obsession with supply-side factors and disregard of the demand side (seen in terms of significant growth of unemployment, disregarded of justice in income and wealth distribution, regional equity, absence of enhancement of the productivity of the small and marginal farmers and of the rain-fed farms) can neither give sizeable, sustainable and broad-based growth nor can put government finances on a sound footing. The Budget for the year 2001-2002 shows that the accumulated backlog of misdirected, misconceived policies narrows down policy options, emboldens myopic, narrow, sectional lobbies and becomes the harbinger of maldevelopment. If it were not so, how can one explain in the Budget:

(a) absence of any food for work programme, if not to ensure food security, at least to save the cost and embarrassment of nearly five crore tonnes of unsold, rotting cereals when millions are forced to go to bed on empty stomach;

(b) a whopping direct tax cut of Rs 5,500 crore;

(c) reduction in excise duty on cars, soft drinks, glazed tiles, carpets, wall papers, linoleum and what have you and decontrol of drug prices and future markets in sugar which could increase both price volatility and price level;

(d) the allocations for rural development and agriculture, minor and major irrigation, taking both revenue and capital account together still remain under 15 per cent of total central government expenditure;

(e) continued showing of concessions, including improved and cheap access to public sector and household funds on the private corporate sector, while its performance in terms of savings, investments, exports, honest tax payment (as seen in massive misuse of MODVAT) and repayment (as NPAs amount to over Rs 80,000 crore) and employment generation remains dismal. It seems the poorer the performance, the more liberal the tax concessions and other public account bounties for the corporates.

(f) reduction of customs duty on gold, which has become the second largest import item after POL.

One can go on to point out the deep-seated pro-rich anti-poor bias of the fiscal policy. The point which seems to be missed out is that the facade of deregulatory, marketisation and rolling back the state is wearing thin. Discretionary choice of goods for tax cuts and fresh tax imports continues unabated.

The public systems are made to work overtime to line a few private pockets. A transparency of a reverse kind can certainly be seen. The agenda of the second phase of liberalisation is well-known and was given a specific form with fair amount of nitty-gritty in the latest report of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. In many of its parts, the Budget is just a reiteration of those recommendations as fait accompli. But is there any indication of how the budget revenue figures have been worked out? Take the case of disinvestment from which Rs 12,000 crore is to be garnered and as many as 27 important PSUs, including some Navratnas and mini-Navratnas, are to be privatised. Has any advance assessment of the price to be realised by their strategic sale been made? If yes, how has the sale price been estimated?

The persistence of fiscal deficit is basically the result of failure/refusal to raise the tax revenue, which, as a proportion of GDP has declined. The cut in public investment, especially infrastructure and agriculture, is causing deep, long-term hurt to the economy. Huge borrowing is not so much crowding out private sector, as is building up pressure for reducing the rate of interest against the wellbeing of the saving classes, maintaining the household sector and the pensioners. Partial introduction of exit policy and capital account convertibility are bound to hurt in a way that would cause irreparable loss to our long-term future.

In sum, a totally one-dimensional budget for the benefit of the monopolies, foreign capital and the ruling elites is going to weaken the democratic content of our polity. Since it cannot give a real boost to growth, the equity, which is taken as a by-product of growth, is also going to be a casualty.

The writer is Professor, Department of Economics, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.

Going up in smoke
Rahul Singh

I am not a smoker, but I am fully aware of the hazards of smoking or of consuming tobacco-related products, like gutka. I have had friends who have died from cancer of the lungs, mouth and throat because they have been heavy smokers. I know somebody who, in the prime of life, is also fighting this deadly disease through sessions of chemotherapy and radiation. It is a frightening sight.

In the West, people are much more aware of the link between tobacco and cancer, which is now well established. A little while ago, a powerful film “The Insider”, based on a real life story, showed the extent to which powerful tobacco companies could go in suppressing evidence of the direct connection between smoking and cancer. The whistle-blower in that film (actor Russell Crowe) who was working in a tobacco company, was told to shut up. When he courageously went ahead with revealing his findings to a TV reporter, his life was threatened.

US tobacco companies have had to pay up huge damages, running into billions of dollars, after courts have found against them. Having said all this, I find myself questioning the Central Government’s recent decision banning smoking in public places and also barring the sponsorship of sports and cultural events by cigarette and other tobacco-product companies.

Let us first take up the ban on smoking in public places.

What exactly are public places? Is a public park, like Lodi Gardens in Delhi or the Oval ground in Mumbai, a public place? What about Marine Drive in Mumbai or the area around India Gate in Delhi, where a great many people take walks or go for an outing? These are “public places”. Why should smoking be banned there?

Even more pertinently, how can the authorities enforce such a ban? You would need a huge and alert police force to patrol these sprawling areas to catch anybody who dares to light up. I can understand smoking being banned in confined places like cinema or theatre halls. But to ban it in open spaces makes no sense and is not enforceable.

In the West, the feeling against smoking has become so strong that most offices ban it. In Manhattan, New York, for instance, one often sees a knot of people outside a skyscraper, on the pavement, puffing away because the entire building is a no-smoking area.

But a ban on smoking in New York’s Central Park, as public a place as you can get, would be unthinkable. So, the Indian Government needs to carefully define what it means by a “public place”.

Les us now turn to tobacco companies sponsoring sports and cultural events.

As matters stand, Indian sport depends heavily on such sponsorships. Tobacco companies have been banned from advertising in the Indian print and electronic media, rightly so. They have, therefore, turned to other areas to get publicity for themselves. This has also happened in the West. But sports there are not as dependent on sponsorship of tobacco companies as in India.

I noticed that watch companies like Rolex and Seiko are big sponsors of golf and tennis. I somehow cannot see Titan watches taking the place of the India. Tobacco Company in India is sponsoring sport. All that the government will succeed in doing is to cripple Indian sport, which, in any case, is not in a particularly healthy state, without providing an alternative source of finance.

The Vajpayee government, as in so many other well-intentioned moves, has not really thought this one out fully. The logic of what the government is trying to do is to wean Indians away from tobacco in all its forms. This means mainly cigarettes, bidis, gutka and tobacco-laced paan.

Close to one million Indians die from cancer linked directly to tobacco. The cost of treating patients suffering from tobacco-related ailments runs into thousands of crores.

At the same time, however, India is one of the world’s largest exporters of tobacco in the world. The exports are worth a massive Rs 1,000 crore and hundreds of thousands of farmers are engaged in growing tobacco. Has the government thought of how it would make up this loss and of providing alternative means of livelihood for these farmers, or even of initating steps to persuade them to grow alternative crops? I doubt it very much.

There are other, far more pressing matters than tobacco consumption that should be engaging the attention of the government. I can mention one that comes to mind in connection with the recent Gujarat earthquake: the quality of construction of buildings.

It has now become abundantly clear that many of the buildings that came crashing down in Gujarat had only been built in the past few years. Both the construction and the materials used were sub-standard. Some of the builders have vanished, fearing prosecution.

There is a strong likelihood that recent buildings in other cities, like Mumbai and Delhi, places that are earthquake-prone are also sub-standard. How about stringent laws and strong follow-up action in this area? It won’t take place and the main reason is the close connection between the builders and the politicians. So, it’s much easier to score brownie points by targeting tobacco, rather than an activity where corrupt politicians and officials make big bucks.

Times have changed
Ramesh Luthra

GRANNY dear! Sweet and graceful! Glistening silvery crop on her head added to her charm. At home in storytelling. Anxiously did we look forward to summer vacation to be with her in the village. We would wait for her to finish household chores. Her bed in the centre, we would vie with one another to be the closest to her. Her stories would transport us to faroff lands while the cool breeze sang lullabyes to us. A pleasant change from the pigeonhole flats in the city.

Somehow this summer she did not keep well. My father brought her to the city for treatment. One morning we took her to the hospital. An unprecedented crowd! Good heavens, so many sick! Virtually sitting like sardines packed in a tin. Inhaling one another’s foul sweat. Unbearable heat! One lone cooler professing to make it a little bearable. I managed to get some space for granny on one bench. I fanned her with the newspaper. But of no relief at all.

I spotted one guy in khaki with slicked-back thick hair and a pronounced front puff sitting outside the doctor’s room. “Sham Lal — Sha — m — Lal”, he read out from the outpatient card in a monotonous tone. In a jiffy appeared some Sham Lal. All sweat — poor fellow. Must be quite a consolation to him to be called in.

The voice of the guy khaki became more blatant. “Krishna — Devi — Krish — na — Devi” Lo! Krishna Devi was to be seen nowhere. “Hell with the people”, he bawled. And the next name was read out more loudly ever.

A huffing and puffing no-so-young lady with a girl child screaming in her arms joined the swelling numbers. I am “Krishna Devi — please”, with a stern look on his face like the one our school teacher was notorious for, he yelled at her: “Why should you disappear like that? Stay at home rather than get on my nerves”. With a pitiable look she pleaded again. “My child was thirsty. I had gone to get water for her”.

“Now go and quench your thirst” he retorted angrily. And the next person was called in.

I could not resist asking my grandma who that fellow was. Though weak and emaciated she related an interesting story. “I remember in my father’s ‘haveli’ there used to be a ‘durban’ all polite and gentle — nothing of the rough and discourteous in him like the one over here. Sometimes he would ply the huge clothmade fan hanging from the roof in the drawingroom. Clearing her throat she continued: “You know child! there was no electricity in our small town”.

As if we were watching a Hindi movie. Action took a sensational turn. A so-called VIP escorted by gunwielding security guards arrived on the scene. His dainty spouse exuded sweet fragrance of Fire and Ice to the badly perspiring assembled lot. The guy first looked dazed, then blinked his eyes. Gone to the wind was his uncouth behaviour. Surely he resembled a typical courtier of Shakespeare’s plays-doubly bent, all humble and smiles! The door opened and the VIP patient was ushered in like a royal personage.

At this my granny commented: “Child, times have changed. So have the men”.

“So this is the moral of your story?” I chipped in.

She smiled a bit in response.

Growing scourge of extremism
Gobind Thukral

RELIGIOUS extremism is becoming a matter of concern for many English language newspapers in Pakistan. Urdu newspapers like Nawa-e-Waqt do not show that kind of concern. But these have a mass circulation across the country. Interestingly, the same people own both kinds of papers. Two different approaches by the same owners on the vital question of jehad are quite visible. In any case, most commentators in the Pakistan Times, Dawn, the Frontier Post (this newspaper’s office was under attack recently), The Nation and newsmagazines like the Friday Times, Newsline and Herald have been warning the people and the politicians alike about the dangers which mullahs and maulvis and the jehadis pose to the well-being of Pakistan. Intriguingly, the government of Gen Pervez Musharraf has put a blanket ban on the activities of moderate mainline political parties while allowing the others to preach hatred, misguide the youth, recruit them in armed squads and push them to Kashmir, Afghanistan, Chechnya and to the Muslim-dominated areas in China.

Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission has added its powerful voice to what bold journalists like Ayaz Amir said in Dawn. In its latest report, the commission warned against what it called, “outpouring of vicious hatred from clergymen in direct violation of law has resulted in numerous incidents of violence, harassment and even cold-blooded murders....Crime against women is rising every passing day. There had been 300 honour killings in just one year. This notorious practice of a feudal mindset where a young girl is killed by relatives and even parents for supposedly dishonouring the family either by marrying without consent or becoming pregnant outside the wedlock. This figure could be still higher as a large number of cases are not reported to the police. People have very little faith in that law enforcement agency. India too suffers the ignominy of honour killings.”

Pakistan is indeed paying a heavy price with the country often rocked by Shia-Sunnis killings. Mr Amir in Dawn has this to say to his people and the government: “Of the paper tigers none are more deadly than the reverend divines whose concept of jehad is incomplete without a mike, a powerful loudspeaker and an attendant press corps dutifully inscribing their bizarre utterances. The frenzy once reserved for nuclear capability has now transferred itself to Kashmir. Every divine has become a jehadi. No religious leader worth his salt will make a public appearance without Kalashnikov — wielding bodyguards at hands. Is self-publicity the goal or is there a reason for such fearsome security? Still others are engaged in a holy war against their own compatriots — Sunnis against Shias and Shias against Sunnis. At their hands Mao’s dictum stands inverted: power flowing not from the barrel of the gun but from concentrated hate and mindless bigotry. Sectarian gunfire is aimed at the capturing of no strategic heights. It is an end in itself.”

Mr Amir further said, “What are ISI and military intelligence doing? They have perfected the art of political control (or interference). What has happened to their once great skill in remote controlling the armies of fundamentalism? Cannot they assess the dangers of a jehad gone rampant, a jehad whose symbols are now perhaps more evident in Pakistan than in Kashmir.”

Could there be a better telling comment on the dangerous situation. But General Musharraf, as he told American Congressmen, is feeling helpless in the face of the increasing power of the gun-toting jehadis. At one level he encourages these fundamentalists and another he expresses his helplessness and wants India to understand his compulsions, the country that has suffered and continues to suffer in the valley of blood that is what Kashmir is today. On top of all this the Pakistan Supreme Court has held that there could be no restriction on the funding of jehadis. The court is evidently playing into the hands of the military ruler.

Meanwhile, General Musharraf should be happy at the vacuum of leadership in Pakistan’s mainline political parties. Pakistan’s Muslim League leader and ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has bargained with the military ruler and escaped to Saudi Arabia. He is happy that he has saved his life and wealth. Right now his stock is low and his PML badly divided. Corruption and money-laundering has tarnished his image, and he would require the bad image of his rivals to brighten up a bit. How leaders waste away massive mandates, Mr Sharif is a glaring example.

Another mainline leader and twice Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto, is much eager to return to Pakistan. She has been sending all kinds of signals to the military ruler through her American friends. She is prepared to strike deals.

How to improve abysmal performance of SEBs
Tavleen Singh

REMEMBER when Delhi went without power for an entire day just as we entered the year 2001? Remember how the tripping of the northern power grid was of such a serious nature (on December 26) that even the Prime Minister went without power for a while? Well, dear readers, that was only a trailer.

The movie is about to begin and it is going to be so filled with darkness that you may not be able to see anything, you might not even have enough electricity available to turn it on. Except in Mumbai, where power cuts are almost unheard of, most Indians are used to irregular, unreliable power supply but we have seen nothing yet. Things are likely to get much, much worse unless the Power Minister’s efforts to improve the situation are supported fully not just by the state governments but by you and I.

It was in order to hammer this message home that the Power Minister, Suresh Prabhu, invited a bunch of us hacks to a working dinner at the Meridien Hotel in Delhi last week. We gathered in a rooftop suite, drank lots of fresh juice and ate delicious morsels of spicy chicken and paneer but any idea we may have had that this was just a social occasion was quickly disabused by a slide show that we were treated to as soon as the Minister arrived.

He came slightly late, hastily grabbed a glass of orange juice, and got straight down to business. He seated himself at the head of a conference table in front of a screen, with us on both sides of him, told us that the power situation was grim and that we would find out just how grim at the end of the slide show.

An official from his Ministry then took over and the show began. The first slide informed us set the scenario of grimness by telling us that the annual losses of the state electricity boards had quadrupled in the past seven years. From Rs 3,140 crore in 1991-92 to Rs 14,460 crore in 1998-99. This means, as the Finance Minister also pointed out in his Budget speech, that together these SEBs owe the Central Government Rs 26,000 crore in unpaid power bills compared to Rs 6,800 crore in 1995.

Slide number two explained that the two main reasons why our state power companies were broke was because of theft which now amounts to an astounding Rs 20,000 crore a year and because of subsidies that amount to power being produced at Rs 2.80 paise per unit and being sold at Rs 2.07.

Now, let me analyse for you what these figures mean and to do this I will have to say some of the things that the Minister could not say too frankly and that the Power Ministry’s slide show would also, naturally, not spell out too clearly. Although, the Ministry deserves credit for being more candid than most government departments would dare to be.

The truth about the mess in our power supply, dear readers, is that the state electricity boards are controlled by corrupt, inefficient trade unions who will not allow any change in the system because it would reduce their own earnings and their power.

An example? They tell us that their real losses come from supplying power, free of cost, to farmers. Well, what they actually do is conceal some of their theft in those figures. They steal the power and then supply it to those who are prepared to give them a cut for the service. The Power Ministry slide show admitted this.

What it could not do was comment on how evilly corrupt our electricity board officials have become. In Delhi, right under the Power Minister’s nose, we have a situation in which it is impossible to get an electricity meter without paying a bribe. The price of the bribe can be as high as Rs 25,000, as a Union Minister in the present government found out before he became a Minister. If you do not pay it you can be sure that you will never get a meter as I found out the hard way.

In 1989, just after V.P. Singh became Prime Minister and announced the end of all corruption it happens that I applied for an electricity meter. A Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking (DUSU) official duly appeared at my doorstep and informed me that if I wanted a meter I would have to pay Rs 5,000.

‘Why?’

‘That’s the price. Everyone in your building has paid’.

‘Well, I’m not going to because I don’t believe in bribing people’.

‘Fine. You will not get a meter’.

He was right. Not only did I find it impossible to get a meter legally but I found that my electricity supply was erratic and mysteriously absent, even when all around me would be flats full of light and music, so I paid the Rs 5,000 and since then my little flat is also filled with light and music most of the time particularly because I share a line with the Prime Minister. It’s what they call a VIP line so I have fewer power cuts than the average citizen of Delhi.

Tales of corruption got told at the Minister’s dinner. As soon as Mr Prabhu indicated that he would like our views a fellow-hack told a long, detailed story of murderous corruption in his locality and said that most of his neighbours were government servants in full cahoots with the corrupt linesmen. Others told other tales and minced no words. “You will not be able to do anything until you can free the state electricity boards from the clutches of the thugs who run the trade unions”, said one eminent financial journalist and got the vociferous support of not just the rest of us but even of some of the officials present.

The Minister listened in silence, intervening only to say that one way to prevent theft (55 per cent in Delhi) was to privatise distribution. Great idea but, alas, it will probably never happen because every time attempts are made to privatise in the power sector the trade unions go on strike and are usually supported by Opposition political parties.

It is usually pressure from these same political parties that prevents power being more rationally priced. The Ministry has suggested to State Governments that even farmers be charged a minimum of 50 paise per unit but only nine states so far have shown the courage to implement this proposal. There is also a proposal that no consumer pay less than 50 per cent of the cost of producing a unit of power.

After the slide show I found myself seated at the same table as the Minister and he continued talking about power with almost childlike enthusiasm. If we could only tap our vast hydel potential, he said, development would come side by side because power plants would mean roads and with them would come a virtual transformation of rural India.

True, but everything depends on getting our State Governments to reign in the trade unions that control their state electricity boards. That would be the beginning of other changes. If that does not work the Power Ministry should seriously consider breaking the government monopoly on selling power because that would force the SEBs to improve their abysmal performance.

Dropout embraces future as lama

CLEARWATER (Florida), A middle-school dropout living with his parents in Florida has embraced his new future as a Buddhist monk after having been identified as a reincarnated Tibetan lama.

At a ceremony in November in India, Jack Churchward (18), was declared the sixth reincarnation of Tradak Tulku, who ran a Tibetan monastery almost 100 years ago.

Churchward, whose parents both practice Buddhism, is now studying the Tibetan language and planning a trip to the monastery Tulku once led. Eventually, he would like to have a monastery of his own in the USA.

“I didn’t have a religion before. Now I have numerous opportunities to do different things with Buddhism,” Churchward said. “If you ask me, I’m a normal kid.”

Churchward grew up taking lithium and ritalin after being diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder when he was in the first grade. He started smoking and drinking when he was 14.

A year later, after he was caught stealing a pair of athletic shoes, a judge ordered Churchward to help build a shrine room in the Tibetan meditation centre his parents started in Clearwater, a city on the Gulf of Mexico better known as a major Scientology centre.

“He ran around with some rough friends,” said Elizabeth Cantlon 23, Churchward’s sister and a Buddhist herself.

Churchward turned towards Buddhism after the death of one of his friends from a drug overdose a year ago, and a visit from Chetsang Rinpoche, who leads the Drikung Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism and identified Churchward as a reincarnated lama. AFP

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

The speaking of truth is commended by all, and the speaking of falsehood is condemned by all.... I do not approve of the wrangling of the various religions against one another, for they have by propagating their creeds, misled the people and turned them into one another's enemy. My purpose and aim is to help in putting an end to this mutual wrangling, to preach universal truths, to bring all men under one religion so that they may, by ceasing to hate each other, live in peace and work for their common welfare. May this view through the grace and help of the Almighty God, and with the support of all virtuous and pious men, soon spread in the whole world so that all may easily acquire righteousness, wealth, gratification of legitimate desires and attain salvation, and thereby elevate themselves and live in happiness.

—Swami Dayananda, Swamantavyamantavya

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The One is manifested as many.

Wherever I see, He pervades everywhere.

Maya tempts all with its alluring forms,

But rare is the dispassionate one who knows:

All is God. All is God.

With out God there is none.

The thread is one, its beads are many.

So is the Lord woven into the world.

— Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, page 485

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One day I purchased anguish from the trader of Truth,

The moment I saw the stall of the beloved, I instantly bartered with my head, I traded for suffering with the Lord of my visions. I purchased the gem of nam with the sacrifice of my life,

Then I learnt about love from my gracious beloved. The market of love is charged with heat, the false aspirants know not about it, I have done the trade of Truth with my sweetheart, the beloved. The rule of that realm is, O! Miskeen, you must accept criticisms in abundance. Abandon the path of desires, vanquish your ego in every manner.

— Sai Hadi Baksh, Miskeen Namo

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All intelligences awake with the morning.

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden (New York, 1966), 57, 60, 107.