E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Software, hard times
EXPORT of computer software is likely to dip as will the dollar earnings. Many software professionals who dropped everything and rushed to the USA in a latter-day gold rush during the past two years, are rushing back. They are among the hundreds of thousands of workers who are being “shed”, as though they are so much ugly fat. USA-based clients have demanded a sharp reduction in price the Indian companies charge for their work.

Bad omen for Pak democracy
THOUGH the deadline — October, 2002 — fixed by the Pakistan Supreme Court for holding elections is not very far, leaders of the 16-member Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) are feeling uneasy. They are perhaps not sure if Gen Pervez Musharraf will relinquish power as expected. There are indications that the army may go back to the barracks but the General may stay put, a la General Zia-ul-Haq.

Is it over-reaction?
THE reverberations caused by the ouster (resignation?) of Mr George Fernandes have yet to die down when another George affair has hit the ceiling. This time it is Mr Vincent George, Personal Secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is having to go through the crusher. The CBI says that he owns assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

OPINION

BUDGET 2001-2002
Some disturbing aspects of Union Budget
There is excessive fudging of figures
C. Narendra Reddy
THE Finance Ministers are known to camouflage their budget figures. But no Finance Minister has done as much fudging as Mr Yashwant Sinha and got away with it. This is a new trend in the presentation of budgets by the State Governments and even the Centre to present knowingly misleading figures to the legislatures and the public. This has grave implications for parliamentary accountability and needs to be checked.

Time for declaration of new human rights
Bharat Jhunjhunwala
THE Universal Declaration of Human Rights is indeed a milestone in securing welfare of human beings. But 50 years down the line many a shortcoming is visible. The declaration sanctifies human inequality by ignoring the inherent psychological inequalities among human beings. It places emphasis on “rights” rather than duties. It sanctifies economic inequality between human beings by restricting economic rights within national boundaries. It ignores that the present constitution of the UN Security Council is contrary to the principle of equality. The present declaration is iniquitous and needs to be thoroughly revised. India must prepare an alternate declaration and present it before the United Nations.

75 YEARS AGO

Health week at Phillour

WINDOW ON PAKISTAN

Water crisis and its lengthening shadow
Syed Nooruzzaman
NO one can be sure when exactly the feared war on water among different nations in this century will be fought, but an acute shortage of this crucial agricultural input has worsened the already strained relations among the federating units of Pakistan. Today they are baying for the blood of one another. Serious differences over the various aspects of the much publicised Kalabagh Dam have stalled its construction, though it is described as an imperative factor to keep Pakistan in one piece.

ON THE SPOT

Something very wrong with our system
Tavleen Singh
SOME kind person had sent Bangaru Laxman flowers even in his moment of disgrace. An enormous bouquet of gladioli and carnations that sat, still wrapped in cellophone, on a table in his drawing room bringing the only note of cheer to the gloom that hung over his government bungalow in Delhi.

ANALYSIS

Will God protect the Iskcon cows?
Sanjay Suri
THE spread of foot-and-mouth disease across Britain has led to precautionary measures on a war footing at the Hare Krishna temple in Watford, north of London. The temple had to cancel both the Indian festivals of Holi and Ram Navami to protect its cows. Devotees are offering prayers daily for protection of the cows at the temple.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Software, hard times

EXPORT of computer software is likely to dip as will the dollar earnings. Many software professionals who dropped everything and rushed to the USA in a latter-day gold rush during the past two years, are rushing back. They are among the hundreds of thousands of workers who are being “shed”, as though they are so much ugly fat. USA-based clients have demanded a sharp reduction in price the Indian companies charge for their work. This is possible because it has become a buyers market, with shrinking orders and a large capacity in India. This piquant situation has given rise to an opposite analysis. With a drop in the dollar price and with so much idle capacity and engineers, it is possible that ordering software from this country will become cheaper still. This translates into more orders, though not booming revenue. This is bad news for all.

This is the fallout of a gentle slowdown of the US economy. No, it is not recession yet, though textbooks will support the thesis of a slideback after a decade of robust growth. Unemployment and inflation rates are very low but the economy is not expected to grow at all in the first three months of this year. From a dramatic 8 per cent growth two years ago (at the height of the IT explosion) it has slumped to an emaciated 1.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2000. The profit of all IT-related companies is shrinking. While hundreds of dot com ventures have closed shop after a few months of glory and adulation, several website providers are in deep trouble. Astonishingly, the giant computer manufacturer Cisco is retrenching thousands of workers. Intel, which makes a key memory chip, is laying off workers. Even the brick and mortar units such as Boeing, Daimler Chrysler, Honeywell and General Electric are sacking workers. The mood is downbeat and it expresses itself accurately in the behaviour of New York Stock Market (Dow Jones) and Nasdaq. The index at these two exchanges has plunged to a two-year low, breaching the psychological floor of 10,000 and 2000 points.

This spells trouble for India. For one thing, the foreign exchange earnings will stagnate if they do not fall. The analysis of a leading US forecaster that India will record $ 50 billion in software export earning by 2005 has collapsed even before the whole thing started. It is now about $5 billion and if it sustains it, it is good enough. Two, the frenetic pace of IT education will lose much steam and that is bad news for young men and women dreaming a bright future. Three, states like Punjab and Haryana which entered the IT race late will have to withdraw or hope for a miraculous turnaround. It is a big mess but very few understand its dimensions

Bad omen for Pak democracy

THOUGH the deadline — October, 2002 — fixed by the Pakistan Supreme Court for holding elections is not very far, leaders of the 16-member Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) are feeling uneasy. They are perhaps not sure if Gen Pervez Musharraf will relinquish power as expected. There are indications that the army may go back to the barracks but the General may stay put, a la General Zia-ul-Haq. The latest proof of the General's scheme is available in his interview given to The Washington Post, carried on Wednesday. In his opinion Pakistan does not have an environment conducive for the return of democracy, yet this cannot be prevented. The truth is that the Constitution is coming in the way of the realisation of his undisclosed agenda. All these months he has kept Pakistanis at bay with finding loopholes in his anti-corruption campaign or in the political devolution plan he introduced. Now it seems he will bring an amendment to the Constitution to create the "right conditions" for re-establishing democracy with a "proper balance of powers" between the President and Parliament. Thus elections may come about but under a changed system with a mechanism to ensure reinstallation of General Musharraf as President of Pakistan. This means he is prepared to again surprise PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and exiled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had been hoping to recapture power through their proxies. When the military ruler recently engineered a split in the Pakistan Muslim League, earlier led by Mr Sharif, it was part of his well-calculated grandiose plan.

The two former Prime Ministers — one living in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and the other in Dubai (UAE) — are naturally upset. With the realisation that they are going to again lose the battle for power, Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto have approached the world community in their own way to expose the military regime's unholy designs. Mr Sharif has aired his views through two media interviews — one given to the Voice of America and the other to a Pakistani news agency — while Ms Bhutto has knocked at the doors of the Commonwealth, using the ARD platform, to ensure that nothing is done to stop the march of democracy. Friday's ARD rally at Mochi Gate, Lahore, was aimed at highlighting the impending political crisis. But General Musharraf is unnerved. Perhaps he has got the feedback from his intelligence sources that he is still far ahead of ARD leaders like Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto in people's preferences. A bad omen for democracy in Pakistan!

Is it over-reaction?

THE reverberations caused by the ouster (resignation?) of Mr George Fernandes have yet to die down when another George affair has hit the ceiling. This time it is Mr Vincent George, Personal Secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is having to go through the crusher. The CBI says that he owns assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. At a time when PAs of even IAS officers are found to accumulate property worth crores, no one can claim that the former PS to the late Rajiv Gandhi can do no wrong. But the timing of the accusations does arouse suspicion. As Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in another context, "daal mein kuchh kala hai". The CBI rap comes at such a juncture that there will be no dearth of people who would see hidden hands behind the action. And they may not be exactly unjustified either, considering that the investigating agency does have a dubious reputation of doing its masters' bidding.

Two conclusions are likely to be drawn from this sudden awakening to the incidents that reportedly started taking place way back in 1990. One, that it is the government's way to deflect attention away from the tehelka atom bomb. The second, even more unfortunate, assumption would be that the government is trying to armtwist Mrs Sonia Gandhi into submission. For all one knows, Mr George might very well be involved in some dealings as the CBI alleges. But in politics, public perception matters as much as facts. Had the CBI moved ahead in the case at any other time, this type of cause and effect deductions would not have been there. But at this stage, these may become inevitable. Just as Mr Vajpayee has stood by Mr Brajesh Mishra and Mr N.K. Singh, the Congress President is not likely to leave Mr George in the lurch. It can be safely presumed that she will rise to the defence of her trusted man. That will make the whole battle political and the truth behind it may never come out. 

BUDGET 2001-2002
Some disturbing aspects of Union Budget
There is excessive fudging of figures
C. Narendra Reddy

THE Finance Ministers are known to camouflage their budget figures. But no Finance Minister has done as much fudging as Mr Yashwant Sinha and got away with it. This is a new trend in the presentation of budgets by the State Governments and even the Centre to present knowingly misleading figures to the legislatures and the public. This has grave implications for parliamentary accountability and needs to be checked.

To give instances of Mr Sinha’s figure tricks, the revised estimates for 2000-2001 of the percentage of revenue deficit, fiscal deficit and primary deficit have all remained exactly the same as the Budget estimates for 2000-2001 up to the decimal. This is an unbelievable feat.

The fiscal deficit, for example, has remained static at 5.1 per cent of the GDP in the revised estimates, the same as in the Budget estimate. So is revenue deficit which remained static at 3.6 per cent and the primary deficit at 0.5 per cent. These are the primary parameters of the Budget and one should expect the Finance Minister to be near accurate in what he presents as they have policy implications as well.

The Finance Minister, perhaps, forgot that he had presented only a week earlier the Economic Survey to Parliament. One should expect the Budget figures to be consistent with those given in the Survey. At the very second page of the Survey, the key indicators table gives the GDP at current prices for 2000-01 as Rs 1,989.5 thousand crore. The revised estimate of the fiscal deficit for 2000-2001 given in the Budget is Rs 111.97 (say 112) thousand crore. This works out to 5.6 per cent of the GDP figure and not 5.1 per cent” as the Finance Minister has given. The Finance Minister took the credit in his Budget speech that “The fiscal deficit as percentage of the GDP is expected to be on target at 5.1 per cent. He is off the mark by 0.5 per cent. This is not a small amount. In GDP terms it is a difference of Rs 10,000 crore, nearly equivalent to the entire primary deficit.

There seems to be some compulsion on the part of the Budget makers to show that they were right on the target. This is clear from what the Finance Minister said at the end of his Part A of Budget speech when he assured the House that “in order to practice greater accountability and transparency, I am attaching with the Budget papers this year a new report on ‘implementation of Budget Announcements, 1999-2000 and 2000-01’”.

It is true, he stoops to adhere. In the process of presenting himself as a man who sticks to his figures, the Finance Minister led himself from one mistake to another big mistake.

The fiscal deficit in 2001-2002 is proposed to be contained at 4.7 per cent of the GDP. He should have made simple arithmetical calculation of what it means to the GDP next year. The Budget gives the figure of Rs 116.3 thousand crore as the fiscal deficit next year. From these two figures it is easy to deduce that the GDP next year would be Rs 2, 474.5 thousand crore. That would mean the GDP next year would increase by 24.4 per cent over last year at current prices. In the last four years from 1997-98 to 2000-2001, the GDP at current prices had increased by 11.8, 16.3, 10.5 and 11.4, respectively, an average percentage increase of 12.4 per cent. If what the Finance Minister presented in the budget is to be correct, the percentage increase in the GDP at current prices next year would have to be double. That would in effect mean either the GDP increase at constant prices would be double than it was in the current year i.e. 12 per cent or the inflation rate would be double next year at 15.6 per cent.

Would the Finance Minister want us to believe of such a steep increase in GDP growth and inflation rate? He is not dreaming of such a catapulting in the growth rate in one year. In his Budget speech he was modest to say that “our aspiration must be to achieve still higher growth in the next 20 years”.

Then what do the Budget figures indicate? Is the inflation rate going to double? That would be the end of BJP-led government at the Centre. Does he intend that? He must clarify or he must correct his figures.

This only means that the fiscal deficit would be much more than envisaged in the Budget as a percentage of the GDP. The Finance Minister has expressed serious concern over growing revenue and fiscal deficits because of the looming debt trap. He gloated for being a “fiscal fundamentalist”. He must first know the fundamentals of the Budget.

Another misnomer in Mr Sinha’s Budget is the tall claim on poverty alleviation. In the very fourth para of Part A of his speech he claims that the poverty has fallen by 10 per cent from 1993-94 till now. This, compared to poverty reduction of just 8.5 per cent in 10 years of the previous decade from 1983 to 1993, is a confirmation that the economic reforms introduced in 1991 have had a welcome impact in accelerating poverty reduction, the Finance Minister implies. The claim needs to be closely examined. The economic reform in all other countries though had accelerated growth had initially had an adverse impact on income distribution hitting the poorer sections harsher. But in India, as the Finance Minister seems to claim, while the growth rate has improved by 10 per cent from 5.8 per cent average in 1980s to 6.4 per cent in the reforms decade, the poverty ratio has declined at the rate of over 14 per cent. This implies that the government has taken more than adequate care of the human side of the economic reforms by not only arresting the usual initial adverse impact of economic reforms on poverty but also achieving the miracle of actually accelerating poverty reduction. Three cheers to the Finance Ministers of the decade.

One has to take this claim with a pinch of salt. What the Finance Minister did not say in his Budget speech was the change in the methodology of estimating poverty ratios introduced in the reforms decade. He perhaps assumed that it was enough that the Economic Survey had made a mention of it. But it is necessary to state what the Survey says on these poverty ratios. Referring to poverty in Chapter 10, the Survey says that “comparable estimates based on a consistent methodology and data set are available until 1993-94”. However in the 55th Round Survey made in July, 1999-June, 2000, “the NSSO introduced certain innovations in the manner and method of data collection which may have bearing on the comparability of poverty estimates made from this round relative to the earlier rounds”. The survey has rightly warned that “because of the changes in methodology of data collection, these two sets of estimates may not be strictly comparable to the earlier estimates of poverty”.

The survey had rightly presented two sets of estimates of poverty ratios for 1999-2000. On the basis of earlier methodology based on 7th day recall, it had given the poverty ratio of 23.3 per cent. In this case, the reduction in poverty is much steeper at 13.3 per cent since 1993-94. In the second case of 30-day recall, the estimated poverty ratio for the year 1999-2000 is 26.1 per cent. This is the figure that the Finance Minister has taken. He should be patted for being cautious by taking a lower figure.

The reforms no doubt have speeded up poverty reduction in 90s compared to 80s. But compared to 70s, the rate of reduction in poverty is the same. The causes for better performance in terms of poverty reduction in the 80s and 90s are different. The 70s, which coincide with the Fourth and Fifth Five Year Plan, saw a major thrust in creating additional irrigation potential of 8.2 million hectares under major and minor irrigation. That had contributed in a major way to poverty reduction in the rural areas. The nineties, on the other hand, saw a major step-up in the Plan and Non-Plan expenditure of the Central Government on various social sectors from Rs 9608 crore in 1992-93 to Rs 36,270 crore in 2000-01. With the severe resources constraint, the investment on both major and medium irrigation projects as also on social services is coming down. This is likely to affect severely the pace of poverty reduction in the current decade despite the reforms.

The third false step that the Finance Minister seems to have unwittingly led himself into was bringing into service tax net some of the IT sector companies. Even though he had given excise and customs tax concessions to the IT sector, bringing into service tax net the service provided to leased circuit line holders, on-line information and data base retrieval services seem to have sent a wrong signal contributing to the crash of IT shares followed by general slide of stock markets. The IT shares have been taking a beating on all major world markets. The Union Budget has only helped to strengthen the bear dominance on the Indian stock markets. The bullish manner in which the Finance Ministry seems to have reacted subsequent to the Budget presentation to break the bear cartel operating in the Bombay Stock Exchange has contributed further to the nervousness in the stock markets. Whatever good the Budget had aimed at has been washed down the drain as a result. The meltdown in the market cap since the presentation of the Budget till March 13 has been as much as 1.46 lakh crore. The Budget could have had a better strategy.

The writer is a senior journalist and economic commentator. 

Time for declaration of new human rights
Bharat Jhunjhunwala

THE Universal Declaration of Human Rights is indeed a milestone in securing welfare of human beings. But 50 years down the line many a shortcoming is visible. The declaration sanctifies human inequality by ignoring the inherent psychological inequalities among human beings. It places emphasis on “rights” rather than duties. It sanctifies economic inequality between human beings by restricting economic rights within national boundaries. It ignores that the present constitution of the UN Security Council is contrary to the principle of equality. The present declaration is iniquitous and needs to be thoroughly revised. India must prepare an alternate declaration and present it before the United Nations.

Article 1 of the declaration stipulates that all human beings are “equal in dignity and rights.” Article 3 stipulates that all have rights to life, liberty and security. Article 13 speaks of rights of freedom of movement. Article 26(1) provides for right to education. The difficulty is that no two of these many equalities can go together. If we were to secure equality of dignity between a weak and strong student in the class, it would be necessary to accept inequality of rights between the two. The right of the bright student to practicals would have to be restricted to provide equal dignity to the two. No two of the various equalities can go together. It was necessary to state upfront which would be the key parameter in which equality would be secured; and to acknowledge that inequality in all other parameters would be acceptable. The declaration is a hotch-potch of mutually inconsistent equalities.

Our tradition has specified that equality will be secured only in “opportunities of self-realisation”. Human beings are different in their samskaras (inner tendencies) and capacities. Each should be provided with such opportunities, which are necessary for his self-development. One who has the samskara of making money should be given the freedom to do business; but one who has the samskaras of kingship must be deprived of that very freedom. It is necessary to amend the declaration to say, “every human being is entitled to equal opportunities to realise his inner tendencies and that inequality would be accepted in all other parameters.”

Men and women have different samskaras. There is no meaning to giving them same equal freedoms and opportunities. Each must be given according to his or her samskaras.

Article 7 provides that “all are equal before law.” This means that the weak and the strong have equal legal rights. Naturally the weak would not be able to enforce their rights. Our tradition asks for an affirmative approach. Yudhistira was selected as Yuvaraja because he awarded lesser punishment to the Sudra and progressively higher punishment to Vaisya and Kshatriya. The principle was that punishment should be awarded in keeping with one’s social responsibilities. This needs to be built in the declaration.

Article 29 of the declaration enables the rights of the individual to be limited if necessary for the “general welfare of society”. The problem here is that rights of the individual are primary. Only if they conflict with general welfare they may be “limited”. The result is that individual rights of the terrorists are given primacy while the larger society suffers.

Our tradition puts general welfare in the centre. It is said that “give up one for the family, family for the village, and the village for the society.” The welfare of the larger numbers has to be secured proactively. The Pandavas burnt six unsuspecting villagers in the house of lac so that they could escape and punish the evil rulers. Lord Rama gave up Sita to secure the welfare of the society. It is necessary to amend this Article to say, “Human Rights will be available only in larger social interest.”

In Article 16 it has been accepted that the family is the “fundamental group of society”. The “group” should then have some autonomy to regulate the relationship between its members. The elders of the family would have greater authority. Thus in our tradition it is said to “Respect the mother as God, respect the father as God...” But other articles of the declaration require that equality be maintained between members of the family. Article 1 and 2 talk of equal rights of family members. Under Article 7 the weight of evidence of the grandfather and the grandchild are equal. Article 16(1) provides equal rights for the dissolution of family irrespective of the impact on other members. It is necessary to amend this Article to say, “The rights of the individual shall be subservient to those of the family.”

Article 29(1) mentions that “everyone has duties to the community.” But the discharge of these duties is not compulsory. These are empty advice without teeth. Article 26(2) says that education shall strengthen “respect for human rights and freedoms. ” It does not say that education shall strengthen the respect for “duties to the community.” Articles 18, 19 and 20 provide for freedom of thought, expression and assembly. These are not contingent on one discharging his duties to the community. The result has been that human beings do not discharge their duties. This leads to ever-increasing violation of the rights of others. Our tradition, on the other hand, speaks only of duties. Gita says “duties alone are your right.” The declaration should be amended to make rights contingent on the discharge of those duties.

The declaration endorses the present constitution of the Security Council, which is based on inequality. But Article 29(3) says that nothing shall be said against the principles of United Nations.

The civil and political rights of all human beings stipulated in Articles 4, 5, 14(1), 15, 16, 19 etc have universal applicability. But the economic rights are restricted within the borders of nations. Article 13 restricts the freedom of movement to “within the borders of each State.” If all human beings are entitled to equal rights then why should one human being be restricted from movement into another country? Article 21(2) provides that the right of equal access to public services will be applicable only within “his country”. Pray, why? When civil rights are universal then why not access to public services? Article 22 limits the right to social security “in accordance with resources of each State.” Why should then political rights be universal? The result of these provisions is that the industrial countries can interfere in the affairs of the developing countries in the name of political rights, but the developing countries cannot interfere in the industrial countries to secure their economic rights. It is necessary to make these economic rights universal.

It is high time that we drew up a more just and equitable Charter of Human Rights and present it to the UN General Assembly for adoption. 

75 YEARS AGO

Health week at Phillour

THE Secretary, Health Week Committee Phillour, writes: The Health Week came to a termination here on the 17the instant. After a varied and interesting programme of health poems, dialogues and dramas had been gone through, Mr H.D. Bhanot, Deputy Commissioner of the district, gave away the prizes to the boys for best teeth, physique, and health and congratulated for the success of the Health Week celebrations. The audience left the meeting deeply impressed with the function.

Water crisis and its lengthening shadow
Syed Nooruzzaman

NO one can be sure when exactly the feared war on water among different nations in this century will be fought, but an acute shortage of this crucial agricultural input has worsened the already strained relations among the federating units of Pakistan. Today they are baying for the blood of one another. Serious differences over the various aspects of the much publicised Kalabagh Dam have stalled its construction, though it is described as an imperative factor to keep Pakistan in one piece.

The four provinces have their own agricultural priorities and patterns and they are not prepared to alter them, come what may. Sindh insists on growing as much paddy as it has been doing so far; rather it wants to produce more as it will obviously help improve its overall economic condition. Punjab too is not prepared to listen to any argument to alter its priorities. But from where will they get the water they badly need? Both rabi and kharif crops are not possible without sufficient irrigation water supply, as 90 per cent of Pakistan's agriculture depends on it. The drought, which has taken in its grip the entire country, has worsened the crisis, though it has been mainly caused by the low priority given to irrigation water supply by the successive governments since 1976 when the Tarbela Dam was completed. Pakistan has two other mega dams—Mangla and Chashma—and the fourth one could have been Kalabagh had it not fallen victim to the inter-state dispute despite a 1991 treaty on river water use.

Military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has come out with his own plan to meet the crisis. He wants to concentrate his efforts on smaller dams as these are low cost and early, result-oriented projects, keeping Kalabagh aside. He may have his supporters to the idea, but most experts feel that Kalabagh cannot be given a low priority in view of its long-term and large-scale advantages. Pakistan Industrial Traders and Associations Front chief Mian Anjum Nisar says alternative projects cannot serve the purpose. It will be all wastage of time and financial resources. The smaller projects, he feels, can play only a complimentary role. Even they all put together can be no substitute for the Kalabagh project. Planning about other dams is alright, he points out, but the mega dam construction must be taken up on priority.

With the water availability being less than 40 per cent compared to last year, the annual growth rate in agriculture is likely to be zero or even negative. The previous year the farm sector recorded a growth rate of 7.1 per cent. Writing in The Nation of March 5, Mr B. A. Malik, a retired Chief Technical Adviser in the United Nations, laments that he has been warning the successive governments for over a decade about the water problem being faced today but in vain. He poohpoohs the mostly non-feasible suggestions being given through the media. Federal Agriculture Minister Khair Muhammad Junejo says the government will promote drip irrigation to boost production, but in Mr Malik's opinion the drip system's scope is limited. In his own words, " It is highly energy-intensive and a costly technique. It calls for well-trained human resources and an industrial base capable of supplying equipment and providing repair and replacement facilities. Its use can be justified for high-value crops in water-deficient areas... However, its large-scale use for common crops like cereals, cotton or fodder in the vast Indus plains of Sindh and Punjab is neither technically nor economically viable, nor necessary."

Mr Akmal Hussain, a leading economist, in an exhaustive article carried in The News on March 3, says: "Even though irrigation is the life blood of Pakistan's agriculture, and indeed its economy, the governments in the past have allowed the irrigation and drainage systems to deteriorate to a critical level. Poor maintenance has resulted in the gradual deterioration in the canal system, whose carrying capacity of water has got reduced due to the lack of adequate desilting and crumbling of canal banks. Delivery efficiency (from the canal head to the root zone of crops) is now as low as 35 to 40 per cent." This is so when agriculture contributes 26 per cent to the GDP growth rate and employs over 54 per cent of the country's labour force.

In a recent editorial The Nation of Lahore took the Musharraf government to task for doing little all these months while the drought's shadow had been lengthening with every passing day. "Instead of tackling the worsening water crisis on a priority basis, it has got itself entangled in such marginal issues as the devolution plan, to restructure the political system. To put it more plainly, the devolution plan can wait; the water crisis can't. The government's inability to build a consensus on the construction of dams is being viewed as a failure in some quarters." 

Something very wrong with our system
Tavleen Singh

SOME kind person had sent Bangaru Laxman flowers even in his moment of disgrace. An enormous bouquet of gladioli and carnations that sat, still wrapped in cellophone, on a table in his drawing room bringing the only note of cheer to the gloom that hung over his government bungalow in Delhi.

So transient a thing is power that where a week ago there would have been crowds of supporters filling the lawns and long queues of visitors waiting to meet the President of the party that rules India there was now nobody. Empty lawns in which stood a handful of empty white plastic chairs, a sleepy policeman at the gates and a foyer so devoid of visitors that, although I was early rather than late, Mr Laxman’s sole assistant was on the telephone trying to find out if I was coming or not.

The former BJP President, looking gloomier than the gloom that filled his house, sat in the drawing room with the flowers. Alone. “These are bad days”, he said sadly: “Very bad days, and all because of one mistake. I trusted them, I met them in good faith, I believed them when they said they were planning to bring Rs 5000 crore worth of investment to India”.

We talked inevitably about the Tehelka expose but there was nothing Mr Laxman said that he has not already said on a dozen television programmes so I am not going to bore you with repetition. What I had come to see Mr Laxman about was to seek his comments on the whole business of political party funding and to see if he had any ideas on how it could be made more transparent.

It was something he seemed eager to talk about. “Political parties need money, lots of money”, he said. “Why don’t you find out how much it cost the Congress Party to organise their meeting in Bangalore. Did you see the size of the cutouts? How many there were? Do you know that each cutout costs a minimum of Rs 25,000”.

I said I had, indeed, seen the giant cutouts of Sonia, Indira and Rajiv and had also noticed the lavish arrangements at the All-India Congress Committee’s 81st annual session. How much did he think it would have cost? Mr Laxman hesitated, he seemed reluctant to give me an exact figure. He had only been President of the BJP a few months, he reminded me, and had not really dealt with these things.

When I persisted with my questions I discovered exactly why he did not want to talk about money. “Now, if they have such a big meeting”, he said “how does it look to the voters if the BJP can only have a small one. So we have to also have a big meeting, we have to organise transport to bring the delegates in and the more buses we organise the more people come. All this costs money — a lot of money — and every political party collects it from the people. Any party that says that it doesn’t is lying”.

So, in his brief tenure as BJP President had he met many people who had offered him a lakh of rupees? No, no, he said hastily, this was the first time that he had been offered such a large amount. Usually, it was a few thousand rupees at a time and there were receipts given instantly. Even, with the Tehelka donation he had immediately passed the money on to the party treasurer and obtained a receipt in the name of the Westend company but they never came to collect it.

If all this were true and everything above board then why had his secretary, Satyamurthi, told the Tehelka team that his boss had several foreign bank accounts. The expression of sadness on Mr Laxman’s face became sadder still and in the tones of a man betrayed by a trusted confidante he told me that he had no idea why Satyamurthi had talked like this. “But, they took him out in the evening and they got him drunk and he thought they were big people so he was trying to impress upon them that their boss was also a big man. That must have been it”.

This is also something he has said often on television so let us get back to the subject of political party funds because an important way to reduce corruption would be to find a way of making these funds more legitimate, more transparent. How much did it cost the BJP to fight the last general election, I asked, how many seats had they contested.

He said the party had contested 375 seats but that candidates had been made to raise their own funds. The party paid only for things like hiring aeroplanes and helicopters for the big leaders to travel across the country. How much did this cost, I asked, and he said it was about Rs 1 lakh per hour of flying time. In addition to this there was the cost of big public rallies.

One way to reduce this expenditure was to get the Election Commission to ban big rallies, to ban cutouts that cost Rs 25,000, these were all things, he said, that needed to be considered. We also needed to admit, he added, that the limit of Rs 15 lakh per constituency that the Election Commission had laid down was not enough and that the average cost per constituency was more like Rs 25 lakh. Message? Political parties need money, lots of money and they have to collect it much in the way Mr Laxman was seen collecting it on the Tehelka tapes.

It saddens me to say that the other party president, Jaya Jaitley, was more reluctant than Mr Laxman to admit that political parties need considerable funding and often resort to dubious ways to collect it. Let me say at the outset that I have known Jaya for many years and believe her to be among the least corrupt of our politicians. She is not at all the sort of politician who would have been salting away party funds to buy a flat or fancy jewellery. Having said that, though, let me also say that I was disappointed in her refusal to admit that the Samata Party is just like all the others when it comes to collecting money. She insists that the party only collects money in relatively small donations and that it has a list of members from whom it seeks funds on annual basis.

According to her Samata provided its candidates in the last general election with only Rs 1 lakh each. She also stands by her repeated assertion on television that she was targeted by Tehelka only because she is known not to be corrupt. Well, that is as maybe.

My own experience is that all our politicians rely largely on black money to contest their elections. Even the most honest of them — the ones who do not spend political funds on themselves — have little hesitation in spending more than Rs 15 lakh for their own elections.

Can this be stopped? I am not sure. But, it is time to try and do something about making the accounts of political parties more available to public scrutiny. It is also time to seriously consider state funding of elections but before we do anything we have to get our political leaders to admit that there is something very wrong with the system and something needs to be done. Full marks to Mr Laxman for at least admitting this.

Will God protect the Iskcon cows?
Sanjay Suri

THE spread of foot-and-mouth disease across Britain has led to precautionary measures on a war footing at the Hare Krishna temple in Watford, north of London.

The temple had to cancel both the Indian festivals of Holi and Ram Navami to protect its cows. Devotees are offering prayers daily for protection of the cows at the temple.

“Foot-and-mouth disease is easily borne by people and vehicles across vast distances and that is why we have stopped people coming to the temple,” spokesman for International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon), Bimal Kishore Das, said.

The nearest outbreak has been recorded in Essex county, some 30 miles from the temple.

The enclosure where cows are kept has been strengthened to reduce the possibility of wind-borne infection, Das said. “We are taking all the precautions we can and we’re sure God will protect them.”

More than 400 outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease among cows, sheep and pigs have been recorded across Britain. According to the policy being pursued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF), all animals, infected or healthy, which are within a two-mile radius of a known occurrence of the disease, will be slaughtered.

Only one attendant is now allowed near the cows at the temple and he is thoroughly disinfected before going near them, Das said.

“People used to come here on weekends to feed the cows but now all that has stopped,” he said.

India Abroad News Service

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Think of little sects, born out of fallible human brains, making this arrogant claim of knowing the whole of God's infinite truth! Think of the arrogance of it; If it shows anything it shows how vain human beings are. And it is no wonder that such claims have always failed, and by the mercy of the Lord are always destined to fail.

—What Religion is in the Words of Swami Vivekananda, chapter I

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Stealing the goods of others, keeping extra-marital relations and doubting sincere friends —these are the three great vices.

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Drinking destroys righteousness, wealth and potency. Hence those desirous of dharma and artha should abandon the habit of drinking.

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He who can control anger through viveka or sense of discrimination, is the hero among heroes.

— From Dr Manjula Sahdeva, Maharishi Valmiki Ke Upadesha

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He who feeds us is our father;

He who helps us is our brother;

He who places his confidence in us is our friend;

Those whose sentiments accord with ours are our kinsmen.

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If one asks which is the more dangerous venom, that of a wicked man or that of a serpent, the answer is that however subtle the poison of a serpent may be, it can at any rate be counteracted by virtue of mantrams; but it is beyond all power to save a person from the venom of a wicked man.

—Niti Shlokas or Moral Stanzas