 |
| Tuesday,
March 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India    |
BJP’s tehelka session VHP’s stand on Tehri Pak nuclear
obsession |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
CORRUPTION IN POLITICS: A DEBATE-II
P. Raman
Social relevance of space
programme
Session at Lahore
Insemination with HIV positive
man’s sperm Try a bit of online therapy
|
|
BJP’s tehelka session A KEY success at the two-day national executive meeting of the BJP was its unqualified support to the economic policies of the alliance government. Controversial decisions like drastic changes in labour laws, cut in the interest rate on small savings and the employees provident fund and a steep increase in the import duty on several commodities received total endorsement. Dissenting voices, often shrill from inside the Sangh Parivar, have either been won over or silenced, at least for the time being. If Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee wrested absolute political authority from the RSS at Bangalore two years ago, his government established economic independence from carping critics at this meeting. But the media gave very little importance or space to this and it is not at fault. By a maladroit manoeuvre, the BJP leadership kept the focus entirely on either containing the tehelka.com damage or attacking the Congress. This was particularly so at the public meeting held on Sunday. Frankly, the tehelka controversy belongs to the Opposition and the government has only a limited role. It has to deny any wrong-doing at the ministerial level, and stress repeatedly that there has been no compromise on the quality of weapons. Its image will suffer if there is public doubt about buying second-rate weapons because the kickback is very attractive – the security as commerce charge. Obviously, party managers do not read the letters column in newspapers, which share this perception. Having spent long years in opposition, the BJP has not developed the skill for quick reaction and the tehelka tapes demanded a response in double quick time. The BJP should have acted first and not merely reacted at leisure. As one columnist has pointed out, the Prime Minister lost six hours in securing the resignation of Mr Bangaru Laxman. The Defence Minister should have quit even before the first broadcast of the tapes ended in mid-afternoon. He allowed his party president to defend herself till she realised that nobody was listening. In such cases instant resignation quells suspicion and any delay converts this into an admission of guilt. Insisting on a judicial inquiry has not helped either. As many legal experts have pointed out, nothing meaningful ever comes out of such an exercise. The road to inaction is littered with the reports of the Shah Commission on Emergency excesses, the Ranganath Mishra Commission on the 1984 riots and several such things. Nor does a threat of investigation into a conspiracy behind the tapes is appropriate. It merely deepens the suspicion. What all this shows is that the government’s self-confidence is shaken and it comes out best when a normally cool and self-assured general secretary Narendra Modi gets agitated and indulges in longwinded but unconvincing replies before television cameras. |
|
VHP’s stand on Tehri THE Vishwa Hindu Parishad appears to have expanded its self-created role beyond redefining Hinduism and building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. It has found a “holy reason” for threatening to stop work on the controversial Tehri dam project. VHP President Ashok Singhal has been quoted as having said that he would go on a fast unto death if the Uttaranchal government did not order suspension of work on the dam. It is an unfortunate development. Mr Singhal need not have given a religious twist to the already complicated issue by stating that the construction of the dam would pollute the holy Ganga. Of course, he has not bothered to explain the link between the construction of the dam and the pollution of the Ganga. The VHP’s shrill support to an irrational demand has resulted in the drowning of the voice of the local population on the issue of the rehabilitation of those who would be displaced because of the dam. The Uttaranchal government has announced that the two main tunnels of the dam will be shut down on March 31 for starting work on the facility for power generation. According to local activists, the closure of the tunnels may flood Tehri village out of existence. Chairman of the Tehri Municipal Corporation Vijay Singh Panwar and dissident MLA from Tehri, Mr Lakhi Ram Joshi, have thrown their weight behind the 12,000 villagers opposed to the closure of the tunnels. On the face of it, their demand for giving priority to the rehabilitation of the Tehri dam oustees seems fair. In earlier instances the displaced persons were made to leave their hearth and home on the condition that they would be provided alternative sites for resettlement. Needless to say, the promises were seldom fulfilled. Most displaced persons, including the Pong Dam oustees, to date have not received the full amount of compensation, in cash and kind, promised to them at the time of their displacement. Mr Singhal may not have a case for opposing the construction of the dam. But the one made out by the local representatives of the people seems to have merit. The government should start building the infrastructure for the rehabilitation of the displaced persons before going ahead with the project for augmenting irrigation facilities and electricity generation. Uttaranchal does need to improve its irrigation and power generation facilities. But not at the expense of increasing the misery of a section of the people. |
|
Pak nuclear obsession THE report of the prestigious London-based defence weekly, Jane’s Intelligence Review, that Pakistan has acquired an edge over India in nuclear weapons capability after the 1998 tests is not surprising because of two basic reasons. One, there is a strong belief in Pakistan, to the extent of being an obsession, that it can remain in one piece only if it develops itself into a formidable nuclear power in Asia. Thinking Pakistanis openly declare, as was done the other day by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of his country’s nuclear programme, that the 1971 surrender leading to the birth of Bangladesh would not have come about if Islamabad had in its possession a nuclear bomb. Two, from the defence point of view, Pakistan’s nuclear programme has had a systemic advantage over that of New Delhi as it is the army that controls what goes on in the research laboratories there. The political control in India, of course, can be helpful in convincing the world community that New Delhi’s nuclear programme has been basically development-oriented, never intended to achieve military superiority over its neighbours, the 1998 Pokhran blasts notwithstanding. But this will not do. India will have to review the whole matter in the light of the new realities. The army factor provided the Pakistani scientists a clear direction and freedom to go to any extent to achieve their target. That is why they relied on means fair or foul to produce the bomb with a delivery system capable of targeting any Indian city or strategic installation. So, the Pakistanis are not bothered if their missiles are a copied version of what North Korea or China has designed after great efforts. Then the scientists there had another advantage in the sense that they had to keep only India in mind, unlike this country which can never forget the China factor. The Jane’s report clearly shows that the Pervez Musharraf regime had been trying to befool international donors by removing Dr Qadeer Khan, head of the Kahuta Research Laboratories, and Dr Ashfaque Ahmed, Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, to give the impression that it was working in the direction of capping its nuclear programme. It is difficult to believe that any government in Islamabad can ever think of dismantling its nuclear programme, whatever the economic compulsions. The truth that has come out may intensify the nuclear race in the region. Not a healthy development in an area — the South Asian region — where a large number of the world’s poor live! |
|
Cleansing dirty Indian politics THAT India’s body politic is suffering from the cancer of corruption and black money is one clear message that emerges from the tehelka episode. It poses the question of whether the cancer can be removed before it proves fatal to India’s democracy. Can we stop the entry of criminals into politics while politicians rely on black money? Can we stop, or even diminish, the use of bribery in government commercial deals ? The answer must be “No”, so long as India’s politicians and political parties cannot survive without the injection of illegal funds. It was a different era when India fought for independence from British colonial rule. The giants of the freedom movement were those who were successful in their own professions or calling. They were self-made men. Dr Ambedkar did not get his claim to fame because he was from a Scheduled Caste; he earned his success. The same may be said of Gandhiji, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Motilal Nehru, and many others. What mattered then was education, integrity, talent and capacity to serve the nation. You first earned an honest living before people accepted you as a leader. The scenario changed almost overnight as India became free. Before he could lay moral standards for an independent India, Gandhiji was assassinated. Jawaharlal Nehru soon found that politics in free India was becoming dependent on donations from the large industrial houses. Perhaps he closed his eyes to the manner in which the Congress party’s financial managers collected money. Alarm bells were ringing even then, as an early defence scam — the jeep scandal — emerged as did the Mundhra affair. The nation had immense faith in the honesty and integrity of the Founding Fathers — men like Nehru, Sardar Patel, Babu Rajendra Prasad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Maulana Azad and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai. It was also the case that defence purchases were far smaller then than they are now. The armed forces were neglected until the Chinese attack of 1962 woke us up from our stupor and exposed our military weakness to Pakistan. The years from October, 1962, to Nehru’s death in May, 1964, will ever be remembered as a period when India got down to the task of rebuilding its armed forces. Not one voice was raised in dissent as India got on with the task of massive arms and weapons purchases to modernise its armed forces. It can be said with pride that Nehru achieved more for India’s defence after October, 1962, than Churchill could for Britain after the evacuation from Dunkirk in June, 1940. The years after Independence also saw a tremendous emergence of new industries, as entrepreneurs realised that India was a land of opportunity. Nehru, however, kept his distance from the new tycoons, preferring to align with industrial pioneers, such as JRD Tata — men whose names were a byword for integrity. When he died, all Nehru bequeathed was his ancestral property and the royalty on his books. His successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the man who oversaw the retrieval of India’s military reputation in 1965, left a legacy of an unpaid loan on his Fiat 1100 car. During the Nehru-Shastri era and for a little while beyond, the state funds were used with great care and discretion. Nehru always travelled abroad in commercial flights. Even for the crucial Tashkent talks following the 1965 war with Pakistan, a regular commercial Air-India flight to London was diverted via that city so that Lal Bahadur Shastri and his entourage could be dropped there. There was no special flight. But that era passed. A new leadership emerged and with it came strange shady characters, who seemed to have a remarkable influence on matters of State and on the State’s leaders. Extra-constitutional power centres flourished. A “kitchen cabinet” was said to surround Indira Gandhi. Established political norms faded, and following the break-up of the Indian National Congress, the politics of big money moved in to prop up the new Congress. It is important to remember this history to understand where the nation went wrong. Indians even today are inspired by high ideals — they do not approve of corruption. But the compromises in public life and the evolution of a consumerist society have led to a situation where the nation cannot survive only on the bedrock of high ideals. The cancer of corruption today is infecting every walk of life, not just arms purchases. Increasingly, it is becoming difficult to distinguish between a criminal and a politician. There is an old Indian saying, “Yatha raja tatha praja” (“Where the king lead, the people follow”). The rajas of today are the politicians and our political masters, and the first thing most of them seem to do is to line their own pockets. Hardly any of them can be said to be successful outside politics. Politics has become their profession, and they make the best of it by garnering as much money as they can — with no holds barred. The dependence of political parties and politicians on black money has already led to the entry of criminals in politics. We have seen the fallout from this process in Mumbai, where criminals call the shots. Mumbai or Bollywood is also witnessing the convergence of criminals, politicians and the entertainment industry. It is a lethal combination. Kidnappings, abductions and other crimes of extortion are spreading all over India. In many districts people are taking the responsibility for their own security. Residential areas are being turned into little fortresses, or tiny autonomous enclaves where no one may enter without permission. Law and order is in a mess, and people do no trust the police. One wonders if there exists a government in the country to secure the life and property of its citizens. It is time India took steps to cleanse politics. And this can be done only by first removing the scourge of black money from the body politic. Like it or not, we have to accept that a certain amount of State funding of elections and political parties will be required, given the special circumstances of poverty and a dearth of direct financial support from the public. Only then can we hope to bring the surgeon’s scalpel to the cancer of black money. One look at the yearly budgets, however, confirms that India does not have the public funds to support such a proposition. If anything, the country needs to cut the size of the government and reduce its expenditure to be able to survive. But that is a different story. A bold decision is called for — one that could not only revive the health of Indian politics but also make the authorities enforce laws against black money more stringently than has been done hitherto. One idea that merits consideration is that the Centre should launch a national lottery, along the lines of the National Lottery in Britain and similar lotteries elsewhere. It should be held weekly, run “online”, and managed via a foolproof computer system on the British model. Our own computer software experts are certainly capable of delivering such a system, or else international companies should be invited by tender to bid for the job. The British relied on a global tender. There is a conglomerate of four partners that runs Camelot, the Lottery Operating Company in Britain. However, everything must be kept transparent and in full public view as has been in Britain. The integrity of the system must be paramount. If the British experience is taken as a benchmark in planning for an Indian “lottery to cleanse politics”, there need not be any worry about its success. The British lottery at the moment distributes only 28 per cent of its taking for good causes; 50 per cent goes towards prizes; 12 per cent towards lottery tax and the balance towards the retailers’ margin, the cost of running and Camelot profit. In Britain, the National Lottery has created 110,000 new jobs apart from catering to 36,000 retailers who handle the ticket vending machines. In India, such a lottery is bound to create a greater number of jobs while the ticket sales may be handled by select branches of the banks spread all over the country to hit its remotest corners. Another beneficiary would be Doordarshan like the BBC, which runs the hugely popular National Lottery Live show every week when the draws take place in view of the whole British nation. The Henley Report in Britain said the National Lottery was having a positive impact on the economy of that country. The National Lottery of Britain brings in weekly approximately £ 90 million (Rs 630 crore) and gives away, on an average, £ 25 million (Rs 175 crore) towards the National Lottery Fund created under the order of Parliament. A National Lottery in India and a fund created along the lines of the National Lottery Fund of Britain can take care of, as a first call, not only the funding of India’s politics and electoral system, but also help in such causes as the renovation of national monuments, assisting of sports organisations, charities and such other good causes as Parliament may decide. It can be estimated that the total ticket sales in an Indian National Lottery may average anything upto Rs 600 crore weekly. Of this total, the states may be given 20 per cent to replace the takings from their own dubiously run lotteries, and 35 per cent will be a reasonable proportion to cover the prize money and the running costs. The remaining 45 per cent may be available for running the National Lottery Fund, making an average of Rs 270 crore or a total of Rs 14,040 crore annually. This is a conservative estimate. The actual figures may be much higher. To benefit from such a fund, recognised political parties will have to conform to the principles of inner-party democracy and submit to an annual audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and it will be incumbent on the Election Commission to enforce these rules. If any political party fails to comply, it should automatically be struck off and not allowed to contest elections. Time has come to create conditions where politics of the nation is no longer the game of dirty and crooked people. Better people will only get attracted when the system is clean and transparent. The nation should consider not only this but also any other viable scheme that can help restore the health of the country’s politics. Let there be no delay, for there are vested interests in this country thriving in the current system of corrupt politics and corrupt bureaucracy. A National Indian Lottery can be the beginning of a developing campaign to cleanse the politics of India. The Tehelka affair has only highlighted a practice that we all knew had been followed for years. When the video evidence pointed a finger at the president of a party that habitually preached from a high moral pedestal, we were shocked, but cynically resigned. That won’t help. The nation cannot afford the corrupt to strangle its destiny. If the country can succeed in straightening the politicians who are its latter day “rajas”, the next stage should be to take a close look at the bureaucrats, ministers, et al. That there is an urgent need to downsize the government is something that the World Bank and our own economists have been reminding us. Let the surgery go right to the bone, and pay the incumbents of the surviving jobs such salaries that they would not have to request a visitor to “bring a bottle of scotch”. Yes, all this can be done. If India is not to let down its emerging young professionals, if India is to retain its high position in the global IT industry, it is imperative to create a clean, transparent economic environment. This means getting rid of black money, widening the tax net and bringing into it all the politicians who escape it by throwing their weight around as new feudal lords. Many voices will be raised against a lottery to cleanse political sleaze. But remember the Indian saying, “You need to use iron to cut iron”. Those who say that a lottery is immoral should remember that the annual festival of Diwali itself becomes a huge festival of gambling in many parts of India. No one bats an eyelid at that. So, why not let a national lottery help cleanse our corrupt politics.
— The writer is a veteran political commentator. |
|
From power pedlars to
people IT is good that our boardroom politicians have at last been forced to reach out to the people seeking their benign intervention. For so long they have been used to easy solutions like drawing room intrigues, cosy media management and TV showmanship for complicated political problems. After getting to power, the BJP has forgotten its old style public action programmes. The Congress had set a few dates but did little. Now all politicalparties have drawn up elaborate field programmes to sell their side of the case directly to the people. Ask the worried operators in the political
corridors. No one is really sure of the mood of the people. Few give credence to the in-house opinion surveys or the IB reports. The gruelling strategy sessions did not produce much. Hence this time no one even talks about mid-term polls — some thing normally one heard during all such political crises in the past. The idea is to wait for the results of the five Assembly elections and more feedback. All major players had their all-India conclaves to plan future plans. The Congress had its plenary session and announced a two-week field campaign up to the block levels to ‘‘educate’’ the people about the misdeeds of the NDA regime. The NDA has also set similar rally programmes after the BJP's National Council meeting this week. The party has brought out a set of pamphlets and folders elaborating the Congress corruption. The RSS too had its pre-determined pratinidhi sabha where many speakers lamented the moral erosion of the BJP after it wrested power. The Left parties held their separate meetings as also the newly-formed People's Front. They have already begun their rallies in their
strongholds. Then there are a series of agitations by reform-hit sections like farmers and industrial labour. Thus the next six weeks are going to be a period of rallies and protests. Such short-term programmes apart, all three political formations are moving with the belief that it is going to be a long-drawn confrontation with no early breakthrough in sight. Winning strategies are being drawn up on this presumption. The Opposition is hellbent on Mr Vajpayee's resignation. Yet they have no roadmap to project an alternative in the 13th Lok Sabha. They are waiting for the government to take more reform-related unpopular actions. The BJP, on its part, is extremely cautious about both its limitations and strength. Barring a few ardent reform enthusiasts, pragmatists among them foresee adverse reaction after the Congress changed tack on economic
programmes. As a pure survival strategy, these sections in the BJP want the government to move cautiously lest it would make the party unpopular. However, at the moment the BJP managers are concentrating on a four-point
plan. The top-most priority is for keeping the NDA allies in good humour with all possible
allurements. If they had ignored Ms Mamata's protest resignation seeking the ouster of Mr Fernandes, it was on the assumption that the impulsive lady would relent after a prime ministerial pep talk. Where they erred was in overlooking her immediate electoral compulsions in West Bengal. Mr Ramakrishna Hegde turned hostile due to the manipulations of a suspicious Mr Fernandes. Mr Vajpayee had to buy peace with Mr Fernandes by offering liberal praise and the NDA
chairmanship. An angry Mr Fernandes could easily wreck the government. Mr Nitish Kumar smiled only after he got back his Railways. Leaders of the six Samata MPs who had continued their protests despite Mr Fernandes' admonitions, relented only after a firm assurance of ministerial accommodation in the ‘‘next’’ reshuffle. Similar sedatives were applied on Mr Hegde. Thus the BJP's fire-fighters themselves directly dealt with individual rebels in those NDA parties that are not under the total control of a single state-based boss. The crisis managers were also pressed in to chastise the RSS leadership to allow some more time to Mr Vajpayee. Their subtle threat to the RSS top brass was that if they continued with their pinpricks, Mr Vajpayee would be left with no option but to rock the boat. This apparently worked, and the RSS came with a diluted version of its statement hours after the
first. But Nagpur continues to encourage those within the BJP who are firmly with Mr Vajpayee but prefer the dismantling of the Brajesh Mishra-led PMO. Senior ministers, including Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Yashwant Sinha, have had an occasional brush with the PMO bureaucracy. The other component of the survival strategy is to wrest the cutting edge by countering corruption with
corruption. This is the central point of the new BJP pamphlets and folders. The FIR against the Sonia aide can be the beginning of a counter offensive. Developments on the other side of the spectrum have been more dramatic. First, the Congress has dumped its earlier posture of being a dignified and constructive Opposition which virtually meant unilaterally supporting the
government. It was thought that such a graceful image would endear it to the people. Suddenly, it has become an aggressive Opposition party sparing no opportunity to hit out at the Vajpayee Government. It did not even spare DD for granting the special Fernandes presentation and sought similar opportunity to the Congress. Second, is the decision of the Congress to assail the BJP Government's reform measures. It covers such issues as PSU sellout, subsidies, imports, anti-labour Bills and the plight of
farmers. Apart from making it an election issue, this change has brought the Congress closer to other Opposition parties. Third, unlike earlier, no Opposition party or formation, including the Congress, any more nurse the illusions of coming to power all alone. This is based on the ground realities in states and the restricted influence of the different opposition parties. As a marginal party in such big states as UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and with no hope of an early breakthrough, the Congress has formally recognised the need for a coalition at the Centre. It has recorded this climbdown in its political resolution this month. The CPM, which hitherto doggedly refused to join coalition governments at the Centre, has also considerably toned down its position. Last, since Mr Vajpayee's personal image already stand tarnished, the Opposition believes that the BJP's only remaining survival plank is the absence of an alternative. Hence, without projecting a convincing alternative, the Opposition cannot wean away the NDA allies before or after the
elections. The Opposition floor coordination and formation of the People's Front which includes the Left, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, the RJD, the NCP, and possibly the AGP, are initiatives in this regard. Despite such signals, prospects of an Opposition consolidation still remains a far
cry. In UP, the Congress will have to concede the supremacy to a highly slippery Mr Mulayam Singh
Yadav. The leadership issue is going to be the biggest hurdle with others like the NCP objecting to Mrs Sonia Gandhi's role. It is also conceded that as the largest Opposition formation, it is naive to expect the Congress to drop the
claim. But anything can happen in this era of unabashed compromises. At the moment everyone is concentrating on public opinion offensive. |
|
Social relevance of space
programme INDIA’s space programme has a tremendous “social relevance” and is helping the vast country manage its resources more efficiently, facilitate speedy communication and enable broadcasting, say scientists involved with the programme. From mineral prospecting to locating shoals of fish, from issuing cyclone warnings to finding groundwater, these are some of the areas where India’s fledgling space programme is being put to use, they say. The Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) and Indian National Satellite (INSAT) series of satellites form the mainstay of India’s natural resource management system, say scientists from the National Remote Sensing Laboratory in Hyderabad and the Development and Educational Communication Unit in Ahmedabad. “It is a very directed programme and we have no plan to give competition,” said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Kasturirangan responding to speculation that the country’s growing capability in placing satellites of various kinds in orbit would lead to the commercial exploitation of the space programme. “We will place foreign satellites into space commercially only if our facilities are in excess of our own requirements,” he said. Foreign cooperation has always played an important role in India’s use of space technology as a vehicle of development. The GEOSAT or the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) that India is scheduled to place in orbit on Wednesday will experiment with digital television and audio transmission to enhance rural connectivity. The satellite will be powered into space by a Russian cryogenic engine. At the launch rehearsals in Sriharikota last week, P.S. Nair, director of the ISRO satellite Centre, said: “Several new technologies have been incorporated in the GEOSAT. There are two F band and three C band transponders which will help communication in South Africa and India without using a terrestrial station.” By the time the GSLV-Mark III programme — an improved launch vehicle expected to be ready in the next five years — becomes operational “the cost per kg for a launch would have come down by 50 per cent,” he said. This cost reduction would be to the tune of $4,000 per kg of payload, ISRO claimed. Indian launch vehicles placed South Korean and German satellites into orbit recently. “The Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial agency under DoS (Department of Space), has started marketing hardware and space services. Commercial agreements have been executed between India and the Space Imaging Inc. of the USA by which IRS data is shared,” Kasturirangan said.
IANS |
THE Central Sikh League, the 5th Session of which will be held at Lahore on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th April, will hold its sittings in the Bradlaugh Hall. The Reception Committee has appointed different sub-committees for
langer, boarding and lodging and propaganda work. Arrangements are going on apace. The members for the Reception Committee are being enrolled. The election of the President is to be held tonight. There are four candidates, Sardars Gurdit Singh, Sardul Singh
Gavisheer, Avtar Singh and Mangal Singh. It is expected that Baba Gurdit Singh will be asked to preside over the deliberations of the Conference. |
|||||
|
Insemination with HIV positive
man’s sperm Japanese doctors have made the first attempt at artificial insemination using sperm from an HIV-positive husband in a technique that virtually guarantees the safety from infection to his wife and their unborn baby, reports AFP. University Hospital had so far conducted four such procedures for the couples since last May making it the first case for in Japan using HIV-infected sperm, hospital official Haruo Danno said. The wife has shown no signs of pregnancy yet, however, Danno said. The hospital did not disclose the age of the couple. “The university’s ethicial committee approved the artifical insemination in November, 1999, and we made very sure that the couple understood the procedure was not one hundred per cent safe,” the official said. “While stressing the imperfect nature of the insemination, we gave our full support and respect for the couple’s wish to have a baby,” he said. The husband is a haemophiliac who was infected with HIV virus after receiving contaminated unheated blood products, the official said. “Our method will give hope to many couples in similar circumstance,” he said.
PTI
Sex for power A number of instances of senior officials allegedly involved in cases of bribery with sexual favours have come to light in China in the recent past. But even as officials are punished, the legal community is debating on whether or not sexual bribery cases can be dealt with legally. In a widely publicised case of trading sex for power, a peasant woman slept her way up to the post of Deputy Director of a local propaganda department.
WFS
Try a bit of online
therapy You’ve just had a row with your boss or a fellow worker and you want to let off steam, so who do you turn to? There are your colleagues, but suppose discretion is required. Nyasha Poe would argue that such a situation is tailor-made for her company, friendly-ear.com. Carrying a steaming kettle as its logo, Britain’s first online corporate counselling service was launched last month. In an increasingly time-starved society, friendly-ear offers immediate advice from qualified counsellors through e-mail or on the phone. No prizes for guessing that online therapy was pioneered in America. Last year, there were 200 websites devoted to mental health issues and about 350 individual therapists on the web. The premise is that online therapy can rake in the bucks in a society notoriously in a rush - at least in the world of upwardly mobile professionals. Be that as it may, the proliferation of online therapy in the US has thrown up a host of regulatory and ethical concerns. Virtually all the American sites are unregulated, many are unlicensed, so consumers may be at the mercy of fly-by-night therapists. Mindful of such concerns, some online therapists under the umbrella organisation of the internet healthcare coalition have crafted voluntary guidelines known as the eHealth code of ethics. The rules ask sites to disclose financial ties or their commercial sponsors to give accurate and well-supported information, while safeguarding privacy and confidentiality.
Guardian |
|
SPIRITUAL NUGGETS All prejudices, whether of religion, race, politics or nation must be renounced, for these prejudices have caused the world's sickness. It is a grave malady which, unless arrested, is capable of causing the destruction of the whole human race. Every ruinous war, with its terrible bloodshed and misery, has been caused by one or other of these prejudices. ***** If priests of religion really adored the God of love and served the Divine Light, they would teach their people to keep the chief commandment, 'To be in love and charity with all men'. But we find the contrary... Religious hatred is ever the most cruel! ***** All religions teach that we should love one another; that we should seek out our own shortcomings before we presume to condemn the faults of others, that we must not consider ourselves superior to our neighbours.... Let us therefore be humble, without prejudices, preferring others' good to our own! Let us never say, 'I am a believer but he is an infidel', 'I am near to God, whilst he is an outcast'.... We have no right to look upon any of our fellow-mortals as evil. ***** Concerning the prejudice of race; it is an illusion, a superstition pure and simple! For God created us all of one race. ***** God has not created men that they should destroy one another. All races, tribes, sects, sects and classes share equally in the Bounty of their Heavenly Father. ***** The lovers of mankind... are the superior men, of whatever nation, creed or colour they may be. For it is they to whom God will say these blessed words, "Well done, My good and faithful servants". In that day He will not ask, 'Are you English, French or perhaps Persian? Do you come from the East or the West?' — Abdu'l Baha, Paris Talks, November 13, 1912 |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
