E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

A dam delayed is …
THOSE who swear by the "better late than never" philosophy can rejoice at the long-delayed completion of the Ranjit Sagar Dam. But to those who think that such an inordinate delay is inexcusable in any project, more so in the case of a vital hydroelectric project, the inauguration by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee brings little joy.

Bhajan Lal’s show
HARYANA Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala should ring up Mr Bhajan Lal and thank him for organising a rally at Bhiwani on Sunday which exposed the sharp division within the Congress. The original purpose was to expose the misrule of Mr Chautala. Instead it provided an ideal platform to Mr Bhajan Lal's supporters to humiliate Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee President Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

OPINION

BUDGET 2001
Handling economic bottlenecks
Why the budget caused euphoria
Prem Shankar Jha
THE budget has generated something close to euphoria in business, industry and the media. The reaction is fully justified. For four years a succession of shaky governments had pretended that all was well in the economy, when in fact its high growth rates were a statistical illusion, industry was in a deepening slump, and job growth had come down nearly to zero. The message that North Block therefore sent out relentlessly to the economy was, “Look out for yourselves. We, the government, can do nothing. For today politics is king.”

Blueprint for stronger India
R. N. Malik
DURING a recent conversation with a European diplomat he was told, “India is a sleeping tiger.” The diplomat retorted, “No! India is a sleeping elephant.” Finally, we agreed that “India is a sleeping giant.” Yes, India is a giant country both in terms of dimensions and human population. North-South and East-West dimensions are approximately 2,700 km. The human population is over 100 crore. It has seven major river basins, and the Brahmaputra basin is close to the size of the Amazon. But somehow people are not as enterprising as expected. It appears as if the country is suffering from some kind of amnesia.

MIDDLE

Darzion wali gali
D. K. Mukerjee
THE Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh is sitting virtually on top of goldmine, blissfully unaware of the infinite possibilities it holds out, not only for enriching its coffers and funding public benefit enterprises, but also for shielding it from the odium and ire of both taxpayers and payers of sundry other municipal charges. One does not have to dig hard into this mine. The rich veins are stretched out on the very surface in the shape of arterial and non-arterial roads. One has just to name it to find it.

TRENDS AND POINTERS

Church declares war on rape
THE Rwandan Church has urged its traumatised population to intensify its fight against rape, as health officials warn that the HIV infection has reached catastrophic levels. The Archbishop of the Protestant Council of Rwanda (CPR), Emmanuel Kolini, declared that today the spiral in rape cases was arguably equal to the era of the genocide — a trying period for the tiny Central African State that lost 800,000 lives within a span of three months.

• Sleep disorder and attention deficit
• Citizenship Act becomes gender neutral
• Women build peace

REALPOLITIK

P. RAMAN
The art of piecemeal survival
THE mutually complementary nature of the regionalisation and personalisation of contemporary Indian politics and the demise of ideology has been discussed at length in these columns. Few had then anticipated that this deadly brew could bring about a whole political culture of outright opportunism in such a short time. Initially, this served the purpose of all players. But the brazen use of the regional card by certain irresponsible NDA partners has set a highly disruptive trend in Indian politics — as disintegrative as religion-based and caste-based politics.

ANALYSIS

Once-mocked nation reaps a harvest of successes
Moslem Uddin Ahmed
Dhaka:
Disaster-prone, desperately poor and forced to live on food aid since its birth, Bangladesh has now achieved self-sufficiency in food production, overturning nearly 30 years of western pessimism about its capabilities.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

A dam delayed is …

THOSE who swear by the "better late than never" philosophy can rejoice at the long-delayed completion of the Ranjit Sagar Dam. But to those who think that such an inordinate delay is inexcusable in any project, more so in the case of a vital hydroelectric project, the inauguration by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee brings little joy. Due to the long hold-up, the cost of the project skyrocketed from Rs 250 crore to Rs 3,800 crore. Even more painful was the non-recoverable loss of power generation. It is really criminal that for 43 years, precious Ravi water continued to flow untapped to Pakistan after the Indus Water Treaty allocated it exclusively to India. The Ranjit Sagar Dam is a ready reckoner of how not to go about handling such a project. Political, technical, administrative and financial snags contributed their mite in making it a fiasco. Buckpassing was the only activity carried out diligently, while the work suffered due to slippage, pilferage, substandard machinery and material, misappropriation of funds, lawlessness, mismanagement and inefficiency. This provoked Mr Vajpayee to have a dig at the state of affairs. What the common man wants to know is whether the authorities have learnt any lessons from this tragic saga. If such mistakes are not repeated elsewhere, then the errors of commission and omission can be condoned. Otherwise they do call for a thorough enquiry, as has been demanded through a public interest litigation.

In fact, the project is not really complete even now. Full benefits can accrue only after the Shahpur Kandi Dam, the Upper Bari Doab project and the Shahpur Kandi extension project are completed in a time-bound manner. One of the major factors that has slowed down the exploitation of the water resources in the country is the rivalry between various riparian States. In most cases, neighbouring States have acted more like nations at war. Till realisation dawns on everybody that they have to sink or swim together, it will be very difficult to salvage the situation. Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra's statement seeking denial of the benefits of the Ranjit Sagar Dam to Haryana is only an undesirable manifestation of that syndrome. In an ideal situation, the Centre could have been a dependable arbitrator. But given the fractured mandate and alliances with different parties in States, it has little moral authority for playing a decisive role beyond providing funds. 

Bhajan Lal’s show

HARYANA Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala should ring up Mr Bhajan Lal and thank him for organising a rally at Bhiwani on Sunday which exposed the sharp division within the Congress. The original purpose was to expose the misrule of Mr Chautala. Instead it provided an ideal platform to Mr Bhajan Lal's supporters to humiliate Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee President Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Of course, the Congress high command is itself responsible for the unhappy turn of events. The systematic attempt by the coterie close to Mrs Sonia Gandhi to marginalise Mr Bhajan Lal as an important factor in the revival of the Congress in Haryana apparently forced the former Chief Minister's supporters to make a public show of their displeasure with the policies of the central leadership. Mr Hooda may have many virtues, but building up a mass following either for himself or the Congress is not one them. The crowd, largely made up of Mr Bhajan Lal's supporters, instead of raising its voice against Mr Chautala made Mr Hooda the target of its ire. The central party leaders, including Mrs Mohsina Kidwai and Mr Moti Lal Vora, watched helplessly as the Congress' state unit president was booed away from the dais.

The public show of anger against Mr Hooda at a rally meant to put the heat on Chief Minister Chautala should leave no scope for doubt that the Congress can survive in Haryana only on the terms dictated by Mr Bhajan Lal. Sunday's fiasco should also alert Mrs Sonia Gandhi to the danger of exposing herself as a leader with a national mass base if she goes ahead with the decision to address a kisan rally in Haryana. Mr Hooda has reportedly extracted a promise from Mrs Sonia Gandhi when he met her in Delhi last week. The date and venue of the public show of strength of the Congress in Haryana under the leadership of Mr Hooda is yet to be decided. The rally at Bhiwani was originally meant to show Mr Bhajan Lal's "massive following" in the state. However, Mr Hooda's meeting with the Congress President saw it being converted into a PCC-sponsored show. In the light of what transpired at the rally in Bhiwani 10 Janpath should have no difficulty in realising whose show it actually was in the light of the treatment meted out to Mr Hooda. 

Congress in sunset zone

THERE is a mighty implosion in the West Bengal unit of the Congress. In what has become a continuing process, one more piece, read eight MLAs, broke off and melted in the Trinamool Congress led by the mighty Mamatadi. Another chunk should be travelling in the same direction by tomorrow, the day the TMC wants to release its list of candidates for the May Assembly election. Everyone gravitating to the TMC is motivated only by a desire to win the election and, if possible, become a Minister. There is no ideology involved in all this to-ing and fro-ing. And the party hoppers will need more than their new leader’s charisma and rabble rousing skill to get on top of the rival and ruling Left Front. Figures attest to this. In a last Assembly election, the Congress secured just a shade less than 40 per cent of the total vote (82 seats in a House of 294). The Left Front got nearly 50 per cent. Well, there has been erosion in the case of both. Yet for the TMC to occupy the Writers Building, the Congress should have shrunk to near oblivion and the LF must be poorer by one-fourth of its past strength. And, more, all anti-Left votes should solidly go with the TMC.

These things are quite possible but, as analysts would hedge their assessment, somewhat improbable. The Congress is in dire straits because it is a willing prisoner of the past. There is the lofty Pachmarhi resolution which is a throw-back back to the days when it had political and electoral muscle and the Mandal tremors had not redrawn the social map. So it says it will shun a coalition arrangement and will fight on single-handed. Since then it has been a steady downhill. In Bihar, in UP, in Tamil Nadu and now in West Bengal it has been a long sad story. The West Bengal slide is the most poignant since it is entirely due to its failure to read the situation correctly, react in time and keep its options intact. It first refused to talk to Ms Mamata Banerjee, later relented when her stars were soaring, asked her to throw out the BJP and finally sought her permission to fight the BJP in its allotted seats. This is not the way the second important political force behaves. If it does, it ceases to be the second biggest political force. It begins to ride to its sunset. As the Congress is doing now. 

BUDGET 2001
Handling economic bottlenecks
Why the budget caused euphoria
Prem Shankar Jha

THE budget has generated something close to euphoria in business, industry and the media. The reaction is fully justified. For four years a succession of shaky governments had pretended that all was well in the economy, when in fact its high growth rates were a statistical illusion, industry was in a deepening slump, and job growth had come down nearly to zero. The message that North Block therefore sent out relentlessly to the economy was, “Look out for yourselves. We, the government, can do nothing. For today politics is king.”

This budget has shattered that mould of helplessness and defeat. The tone and the marshalling of evidence by the Economic Survey foreshadowed the change. What no one could be sure of was whether, in a year when the country faced five state assembly elections, the Finance Minister would have the political capacity to meet the challenges he had himself identified. In sharp contrast to Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Mr Sinha rose to the challenge, but left us to be in no doubt that he could not have done so without the sustained support of the Prime Minister. Over and above, the other benefits that will flow from this budget have provided reassuring proof that India has, once again, a government that can govern.

The media has focused most of its attention on the measures the budget contains to revive the economy by promoting investment. Given the “byte-capturing” power of big business, this is hardly surprising. But the budget contains a great deal more, that merits much closer attention, because without sustained follow-up the promise that these departures contain could easily wither away.

To begin with, the economy faces not one but three inter-related challenges. These are to bring down the fiscal deficit; to revive growth in agriculture and industry (as opposed to ephemeral and illusory growth in services) and through it real economic growth and employment generation; and to initiate the long deferred structural reforms without which the transition from a command to a market economy will remain incomplete. The last has become especially urgent because of the removal of import restrictions on manufactured and agricultural consumer goods that began this year and will be completed next year. The budget has tackled all three challenges, and in a manner that shows the government’s awareness of their inter-relatedness. But it has done so tentatively in a manner that holds out the promise of change more than change itself. That is why, without the most careful nurturing, the initiatives it contains could once again come to naught.

Mr Sinha has tried to tackle the fiscal deficit mainly by lowering interest rates. As this percolates through the economy, it will lower the burden of interest payments by about Rs 10,000 crore for every 1 per cent decline. Unfortunately, since the government has also borrowed another Rs. 1,15,000 crore to cover its deficit the addition to interest in the coming year will wipe out these gains. The net benefit will therefore be reflected in the ratio of interest to the GDP rather than an absolute decline. A far more powerful tool for reducing the deficit was only mentioned in passing. This is the complete dismantling of administered pricing in petro-products. Mr Sinha paved the way for a rational market-based pricing of petroleum products by unifying indirect tax rates at 16 per cent. When the Ministry of Petroleum completes deregulation next year the present near-zero net subsidy will be converted into a 16 per cent ad valorem inflow of real resources. This will add Rs 30,000 crore to the government’s revenues. Unfortunately by then interest payments on this year’s fiscal deficit will swallow half this amount. Mr Sinha has yet to learn the penalties of delay.

The fillip to industry has been dealt with so extensively that it need not detain us for very long. It will come from the reduction of interest rates, the reduction of the dividend tax from 20 to 10 per cent, and the exemption of capital gains tax on shares sales income re-invested in the primary market. The three together will lower the cost of borrowed funds and increase the equity portion of new investment. Together these should take upto 4 per cent off the present overhead cost of new investment - reduce it by a quarter. Can anyone blame industrialists for being ecstatic? But there is a caveat to be registered once more. All the benefits accrue to large, organised industry, which employs barely 10 million workers directly. There is very little directly in this budget for the small-scale industry, which employs other 35 million.

This is not an oversight. It reflects the government’s awareness that the small scale sector first needs structural reform before it can avail itself of the opportunities that can be created by fiscal and monetary policy. The budget has made a determined start in changing the structure of the economy. That is what Mr Sinha referred to as the second generation of economic reforms. Unfortunately, though these are the most important policies he has unveiled, they have received the least attention.

In agriculture, the Finance Minister has signalled two broad shifts: the government will free the movement of produce with only a minimum of restrictions, and will shift the focus of public investment from increasing the quantities of output to improving its quality and value added component. His emphasis on building cold storages and the like needs to be seen in this light. But there is a corollary to this: cold storages need regular power, and the SEBs will not supply power regularly if they have to lose money doing it. So the shift will not be possible if the state governments do not charge economical rates of power and eliminate theft in the name of the farmer. These public investments are therefore intended to accelerate reform of power pricing and distribution that the states have promised in the various memoranda of understanding that they have signed with the Centre, such as to meter rural supply and eliminate theft. Mr Sinha has conceded that much remains to be done.

The second structural change pertains to the labour market. Ten years after Dr Manmohan Singh first raised the need for an exit policy, the Vajpayee government has finally enacted one. By freeing all establishments employing less than a thousand workers from the need to get government permission for laying off workers, it has opened the labour market for 96 per cent of industrial establishments and 89 per cent of industrial labour. Those who are laid off will get their accumulated provident fund (assuming these have not already been swallowed by the employers), 45 days of separation pay for each year of service and a year on unemployment insurance at 30 per cent of the last pay drawn. One can dispute the adequacy of the last, but the overall package provides a generous safety net for displaced workers for even five years service will take away more than two years’ pay worth of separation benefits.

What Mr Sinha has not taken into account is that while this is more than generous in the west and north where investment is taking place and there are jobs to be had, it is far from adequate in eastern India where most sick and obsolete industry is concentrated and no one is investing. He needs to beware that the application of a single rule to all states does not become a source of political friction and further undermine Indian unity.

The writer is a well-known economic commentator.

Blueprint for stronger India
R. N. Malik

DURING a recent conversation with a European diplomat he was told, “India is a sleeping tiger.” The diplomat retorted, “No! India is a sleeping elephant.” Finally, we agreed that “India is a sleeping giant.” Yes, India is a giant country both in terms of dimensions and human population. North-South and East-West dimensions are approximately 2,700 km. The human population is over 100 crore. It has seven major river basins, and the Brahmaputra basin is close to the size of the Amazon. But somehow people are not as enterprising as expected. It appears as if the country is suffering from some kind of amnesia.

Anyway, a close study of the development process of the nation during the past 40 years shows that India can become as strong as any developed European country if the following 15 steps are taken in right earnest.

1. We must adopt a policy to bring down the rate of population growth to 0.5 per cent per year. All our development projects will be self-defeating if this factor is ignored.

2. We should build at least 300 dams of intermediate height — 350 ft to 400 ft across various rivers and their tributaries in a cascading manner to generate one lakh MW of power in next five years. The belief that dams require huge funding (Rs 6.00 crore per MW) is a myth. Follow Dr K.L. Rao’s model of building Nagarjuna Sagar Project, using stone masonry with “lime surkhi” requiring only token use of steel and cement. This programme should be followed by the extension of irrigation facilities in arid and semi-arid areas and anti-water-logging measures by constructing a network of drains.

3. Start a definite programme of dairy development and horticulture on a massive scale in the seven north-eastern states. Here green land is in abundance but no cattle to graze. Cattle are perishing in Gujarat and Rajasthan for want of fodder and water. These seven states can feed the whole of India with dairy products, fruits and vegetables. Cross-breeding programmes can bring another white revolution.

4. Start a definite programme for harnessing solar and wind energy on a massive scale. India is the only country to have 300 clear sky days in a year.

5. Reduce the oil import bill at least by 40 per cent, using strict austerity measures. The oil bill of Rs 75,000 crore this year was crippling for the Indian economy. The import of gas from Bangladesh and Australia may prove cheaper than the import of oil from Arab countries. So, lay more dependence on gas than on oil as a secondary source of energy.

6. Stop obscenities in films, TV advertisements and the print media to strengthen the social fabric so that the nation does not waste its time on morally degenerating activities.

7. The budget talks of infrastructure development in a big way. That is all-right. But it should be given top priority. Provide circular roads around each district town. Lay special railway lines with one station per 100 miles parallel to three busiest routes — Delhi-Calcutta, Delhi-Bombay, Delhi-Amritsar — and introduce super-fast trains of 250 km/ hr. Remember the cost of one 400-seater aeroplane is equal to laying 250 km of a railway track.

8. Split the bigger states like UP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh further into two each. Build regional directorate headquarters over a group of 10 districts. A state with 150 constituencies (15 MP seats) can be administered most efficiently.

9. Rationalise the transport system so that railway services do not compete with bus services. Convert 40 per cent passenger trains into express trains. Hand over the running of 40 per cent trains (running within a state) to state governments or private agencies.

10. Launch a second green revolution by importing the best seed varieties of wheat, rice and sugarcane from Hungry, Australia, the Philippines and Brazil.

11. Reform the State Electricity Boards by allowing the privatisation of the distribution system in a systematic manner and as quickly as possible.

12. Create a special cell or ministry to promote exports and rope in direct foreign investment on a massive scale. The existing system to achieve this target is extremely sluggish.

13. Popularise and spread the Indian system of agriculture in African countries. The agriculture system in these countries is still in a primitive stage. Tubewell technology and other farming operations can provide a lot of work to Indians in Africa.

14. Devise a rational programme to ensure quality education in information technology right up to the district level. North India is still groping in the dark in this new greenfield.

15. Fix the minimum educational qualifications for legislators and members of Parliament to encourage talented people to enter politics. In the changed situation all doors to politics should be closed for illiterates or semi-literates.

These 15 suggestions, if implemented, can totally transform the economic profile of the country. In today’s world only harsh decision can bring the desired results.

The writer, an engineer by profession, is a senior functionary in the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation.

Darzion wali gali
D. K. Mukerjee

THE Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh is sitting virtually on top of goldmine, blissfully unaware of the infinite possibilities it holds out, not only for enriching its coffers and funding public benefit enterprises, but also for shielding it from the odium and ire of both taxpayers and payers of sundry other municipal charges. One does not have to dig hard into this mine. The rich veins are stretched out on the very surface in the shape of arterial and non-arterial roads. One has just to name it to find it.

“Naam” and “Roop” are the essence of existence. “Roop” comes first followed by “Naam”. We are not born with any name; our name is an after-birth phenomenon. Once it is attached to us it sticks to us like a leach. If we manage to pluck one away another springs in its place. Man is mortal but names are potentially immortal unless abruptly terminated by the fiat of a corporation, an administration or a government.

Inanimate things such as cities and roads can be more easily stripped of their birthday names and given fresh ones. The change may be in just a bit of a twist as in the case of Kolkata or Mumbai or a total turn-around as in Chennai or the erasement of British road names as in New Delhi. The old, ones familiar, names are gone and new indigenous ones have appeared in their place with the result that people of the older generation feel like lost children in the woods of a big metropolis.

Fortunately for Chandigarh, unfettered by the shackles of history, the roads bear no names except a few geographical ones. These nameless roads live only in categories ranging from V- 1 to V-7and go about as orphans without any “namkaran” ceremony to give them “a local habitation and name”. What a golden opportunity lies ahead for the corporation to adopt them and give them the names of big donors! The amount of donation beginning from a reserved price of several lakhs for a V-7 road and rising steeply up to a few crore or more for a V-2 or V-1 road, can determine which donor’s name should be given to it. The possibilities are endless. And when one corporation is overthrown by another in the electoral process, the budget pages can be opened once again and fresh start given to the naming game. Nothing in the law of the Constitution prevents the re-christening of inanimate roads, and there is plenty of precedents and case history of sudden alterations taking place in the names of roads all over the country and almost in all towns. What a windfall it would be for the taxpayer and the corporation, blessing all like “the gentle rain from heaven”.

However, there will always remain some exceptions where citizens would continue to retain the name they have themselves given to a particular streets or roundabout keeping in view the adjacent landmark (like the Tribune Chowk) or the traditional activity plied in the vicinity (like the Labour Chowk). In my neighbourhood there has sprung up a whole lot of “boutiques”—euphemism for a tailor’s shop — and I think this lane will continue to be called the “darzion wali gali” irrespective of the nomenclature given to it by the corporation. 

Church declares war on rape

THE Rwandan Church has urged its traumatised population to intensify its fight against rape, as health officials warn that the HIV infection has reached catastrophic levels. The Archbishop of the Protestant Council of Rwanda (CPR), Emmanuel Kolini, declared that today the spiral in rape cases was arguably equal to the era of the genocide — a trying period for the tiny Central African State that lost 800,000 lives within a span of three months.

Said Rwandan Health Minister Ezechias Rwabuhihi: “The AIDS epidemic is a silent and devastating threat not only to our lives but also our national security. Our hospitals are over-stressed, the staff is over-stressed and some of the services are over-stressed.”

Rwabuhihi added that nearly 500,000 Rwandans, or 6 per cent of the population, were infected with HIV. The most vulnerable are women aged between 25 and 29 years, with 21.5 per cent already infected with the virus.

According to the Minister, 70 per cent of patients in Kagali’s main hospital alone had the virus. Other officials attribute the increase in the HIV infection rate to poverty and breakdown in family ties caused mainly by the genocide. WFS

Sleep disorder and attention deficit

In some cases, adults diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may actually suffer from sleep apnea, a condition characterised by disrupted sleep, loud snoring and difficulty functioning during the day, researchers report. What’s more, treating the sleep disorder may resolve the symptoms of ADHD, and allow patients to reduce or stop taking medication.

This occurred in three adult patients described in a report in the January issue of the journal Chest. The patients were diagnosed and being treated for ADHD, but they also snored at night and reported feeling fatigued during the day and were subsequently diagnosed with sleep apnea, according to Dr Sohail Naseem, from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, and colleagues.

Doctors treated their sleep problems, which gave the patients more energy during the day and increased their attention spans. Two of the patients discontinued their use of stimulants.

One treatment for sleep apnea is continuous positive airway pressure, a therapy in which a stream of air is delivered by mask into a patient’s nose at night, helping to prevent airway collapse.

An estimated 2% of adults have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to the report. While not all have sleep apnea, it should be checked out in patients who have the symptoms, said Dr Bashir Chaudhary, a co-author of the report.

“The possibility of treatable diseases such as sleep apnea should be considered before accepting a diagnosis of ADHD,” he told Reuters Health.

ADHD is characterised by impulsiveness, difficulty with academic and social functioning, and short attention span. The disorder, which is usually diagnosed before the age of 7, affects 3% to 16% of children. Sleep apnea affects about 3% of the population as a whole, the report indicate. Reuters Health

Citizenship Act becomes gender neutral

The Sri Lankan government has accepted the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act which is expected to change gender discriminatory administrative action relating to the registration of foreigners married to Sri Lankan women.

Constitutional Affairs Minister GL Peiris said that the relevant provisions are neutral but that they are “discriminatory in operation”. The policy that has been followed over the years is to consider only the applications of female spouses and not the applications of foreign male spouses.

Several fundamental rights cases have been filed in the Supreme Court recently challenging the refusal to grant resident visas to foreign men married to Sri Lankan women. The petitions charged that the present practice was violative of both the Sri Lankan Constitutional and international human rights conventions. Almost all these cases have been settled with the state agreeing to grant visas.

Now foreigners married to Sri Lankan women can apply for citizenship under Section 12 of the Act if they are adults, of sound mind, intend to continue to be residents in the country and have been residents for one year preceding the date of application. WFS

Women build peace

‘Women Building Peace: from the Village Council to the Negotiating Table’ is an international campaign aiming to raise global awareness of women’s experiences and perspectives of peace and conflict and to help women increase their potential as peace-builders. Thousands of organisations and individuals world-wide have joined the campaign by adding support to a petition and circulating it widely. These signatures will be presented to the United Nations on International Women’s Day, March 8. WFS

The art of piecemeal survival
P. RAMAN

THE mutually complementary nature of the regionalisation and personalisation of contemporary Indian politics and the demise of ideology has been discussed at length in these columns. Few had then anticipated that this deadly brew could bring about a whole political culture of outright opportunism in such a short time. Initially, this served the purpose of all players. But the brazen use of the regional card by certain irresponsible NDA partners has set a highly disruptive trend in Indian politics — as disintegrative as religion-based and caste-based politics.

Serious national issues are viewed through the regional prism and as such tackled in the narrow partisan interests of the provincial partners. It seems to have acquired a pattern. The Vajpayee Government comes out with a decision provoking instant protests by his own regional allies, then intense bargaining for the cake and a final compromise. All this is done in full public view. At times it looked sections of the ruling party have aligned with the Opposition to assail the government right on the floor of Parliament. All this has become so routine that no one really bothers about what the BJP managers describe the minor antics of the allies.

What is important is the final voting. Everything else becomes irrelevant in a scenario where no one really bothers about an orderly functioning of the government on the basis of certain charted out policies and programmes and meaningful inter-party dialogue for cohesive working. Instead, the whole emphasis is on each side pushing through the partisan agenda and gaining some political leverage in their respective state. The BJP managers have proved that the stability of a coalition of regional allies depended purely on the efficacy of the art of piecemeal survival. This short-sighted approach has been the main factor that has led to the ugly display of regionalism.

For Mamata Banerjee, Indian Railways is purely a vehicle for power in West Bengal. Even before the Budget presentation she has been trumpeting about her decision to reduce it to an election document of the Trinamul Congress. Railways’ finances, safety, passenger and goods traffic facilities were all ignored to make it attractive to her voters. She had defied the Prime Minister and the government’s advisory bodies. Still worse, in her budget speech, she went to the extent of finding fault with the Finance Minister and other colleagues. This defies the principle of collective responsibility. Rail Minister had always favoured their home states. But what Mamata Banerjee has done goes against the very principles of federalism and collective responsibility of the Cabinet.

Much of the blame for this should go to the Prime Minister. To be fair, Mamata had insisted on getting Railways as a precondition for joining the NDA cabinet. The Prime Minister should have put his foot down at that point. Now he could do little if she blatantly refuses to toe the government’s reform line for Railways. When the NDA allies like the Orissa BJD and TDP protested against the discrimination of their States, Mamata showed this to her voters as a proof of the worth of her bonanza to them at the cost of other States. If such arrogant display of regional partisanship has not so far led to parochial responses elsewhere, it only shows the strong sense of integrity and tolerance of the Indian people.

For the past two years, even the terms like regionalisation and politicisation have become synonymous. Politicisation of the Centre’s relief efforts virtually meant discrimination against non-NDA-ruled states. To embarrass the Left Government, Mamata herself prevented the Centre from releasing adequate funds to her State when it was hit by severe floods. Orissa felt peeved at the poor flow of central help when the State faced cyclones as disastrous at the Gujarat quakes. NDA partners who can hoodwink the Centre naturally get prompt aid. This had happened during the last year’s drought in Gujarat and Rajasthan and the floods in Bihar. In many cases, coalition partners exert pressure on the government to thwart help to their rival regimes at home.

Every central move — Union Budget and legislations, PSU sellout, imports, farm prices and procurement — is being invariably viewed from the regionalistic angle and responded as such. Under threat from the respective NDA allies, Vajpayee was forced to drop the sale and disinvestments in PSU in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Last year, the Prime Minister buckled under the Shiv Sena threat on the Maruti disinvestment. Mamata had forced a rollback on petroleum prices just because she had an election to fight in her state.

This week Chhatisgarh’s Congress Chief Minister Ajit Jogi tried to make the Balco sellout as an issue of Madhya Pradesh’s “tribal pride”. This emotional device worked wonders and even the Opposition BJP in the state extended support to Jogi’s anti-sellout campaign. Last year, Prakash Singh Badal had to resort to threats to change the grading norms for foodgrains purchases by the FCI to pacify the Punjab farmers. Soon the Centre had to extend similar concessions to states like Haryana and UP. As the parochial mindset spreads, even such national issues as the general budget, reform and WTO norms get provincialised by the competing NDA allies.

Badal found the new Union Budget acceptable because it contained assurances on his state’s demand for foodgrain purchases and schemes for farmers (even if so vague). M. Karunanidhi is happy just because of the presumed protection to his state’s cash crops like coffee, tea and coconut. Naidu alone seems to have adopted a more sensible approach. Often the non-NDA parties also add to the trend by taunting the respective ruling group about their failure to get things for their state. This makes the regional allies more virulent.

Barring the pre-70 Dravidian outfit, regional parties in India have not been regionalistic. Most of them were born as a show of protest against the high-handed manners of the Congress, among the latest being the Trinamul and Moopanar’s TMC. By and large, the provincial outfits took care not to do things that would be termed as parochial. They had also grabbed every opportunity to share power at the Centre and thus join the national mainstream. On all such occasions, they had scrupulously avoided raking up state issues and extended full cooperation to resolve old inter-state disputes. This continued even during the UF era.

Thus parochial regionalism as opposed to the hitherto integrative regionalism, has been largely a post-98 trend. When coalitions move away from programmatic understanding and ideological cohesion, the only remaining bond will be the urge for survival. Everything else becomes irrelevant. The MPs could cry hoarse against a government decision and issue bold statements and then after an overnight deal with their state boss, say: “Now we will support it”. This is rank opportunism. Luckily, this is confined to the interested political parties. But its reckless use will take the malaise down to the people.

Once-mocked nation reaps a harvest of successes
Moslem Uddin Ahmed

Agriculture advisers now suggest increased use of modern technologies and crop diversification. Already, farmers have begun to grow wheat and vegetables in addition to the staple rice. These experts also say that Bangladesh ought to be exporting vegetables and fruits — at the moment, much of the foreign exchange earnings of around $ 6 billion every year is from readymade garments. Gemini News

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Love permits me no rest;

It teaches the lesson of sufferings. Intellect retreats Where love enters.

Love leads the prayers;

It teaches things beyond religion.

***

Love known not dogmas or rituals...

All is in vain without love,

None realises the truth without love.

—Ahasan

***

You must weep day and night,

Not for a minute or for a while.

I continued to weep, O Dadu,

And found the beloved within.

—Sant Dadu Dayal

***

When did you learn, O my beloved, The ways of the butcher?

Take a knife sharp enough,

Do not kill me with a blunt one.

Open my wounds and see,

I am deeply in anguish.

***

Do not meet me When I search for you,

Let not my craving Vanish from my blood.

***

Grant me the prayer, O beloved,

Meet me not as I seek you,

Let not my longing for you vanish,

Meet me on the doomsday,

And I have spent my life in bliss.

—Shah Abdul Latif

***

Love is the prescription of the wise,

They alone can be in love,

Who have knowledge within.

—Daryakhan

The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it.

***

The morning which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.

***

May the auspicious dawn Brighten our path

And grant us wealth,

Vitality, wisdom and valiant posterity!

May she come With all abundance and affection,

And associated with the Divine forces

Continue to shower blessings on us.

—Rig Veda, 7.41.7

O Divine dawn

When the birds fly forth

From their nests,

Men must rise to work

And earn their sustenance.

— Rig Veda, 6.64.6

This heaven-born daughter of the sky

Driving away the darkness,

Wakes up the human beings

From their slumber;

She, with her bright lustre,

Is perceived dissipating the gloom

Even through the shades of darkness.

— Rig Veda, 6.65.1