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| Tuesday,
July 3, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Chennai crisis – Part II Rajnath’s caste card UK police in the dock |
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Artillery as a fighting arm Calibre as promotion
criterion
A buddy in
Gurdaspur
Relevance of Bush’s religious card
How not to ‘maintain’ separated wife and kids
Hearing
in High Court
Music raises milk yield of cows
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Chennai crisis – Part II THE Centre has exercised its softest option in the unnerving Tamil Nadu problem: to recall Governor Fathima Beevi. She barely escaped the ignominy of being sacked by resigning at the 12th hour. She deserved what was coming. By adding her authoritative voice to the patently bogus claims of the Jayalalitha-ruled government, she elevated a law-breaker, Ms Jayalalitha, to protector of law. Mr Karunanidhi and others were wrong in insisting on an arrest warrant; in corruption cases it is not necessary. But the police blundered in arresting the former Chief Minister, violating the directive of the Supreme Court. The Centre, and indeed the whole country, is angry at the manhandling of a 78-year-old leader, the seniormost in the South, but it is helpless in rushing to his rescue. But the arrest of two Union Ministers is a different matter. First, it was blatantly wrong to detain them without any information to the Centre. If states acquire the power to take Union Ministers into custody, the concept of federal polity will collapse, making states ruled by a different political party an enemy territory. Hence the natural anger and demand for action on behalf of Union Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran and his colleague Mr T.R.Baalu. Law Minister Arun Jaitly has cogently argued why the Centre will crack down on the police entering the residences of the two and arresting them. This issue threatens to blow up into a confrontation between the Centre and Tamil Nadu. Late on Monday the Tamil Nadu police said it would frame cases against them on two counts of criminal acts, meaning that the state government is prepared to challenge the powers of the Centre. New Delhi faces a dilemma. It wants to dismiss the Jayalalitha government and impose President’s rule. But it does not have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha to see it through. The Congress, which has had a profitable electoral understanding with Ms Jayalalitha’s AIADMK, has already opposed the idea; it has also
criticised the recall of the Governor. Hawks in the ruling alliance want to act tough. But sober elements, a comfortable majority, want to tread cautiously lest they repeat the Bihar blunder when they had to reinstate the Rabri Devi government. All this means that the Centre can only issue directions under Article 355 of the Constitution and wait for the response of the Jayalalitha dispensation. This article empowers the Centre to warn a state government of the problems it faces and how to tackle them. This constitutional provision has not been used in the past and to test it in Tamil Nadu, ruled by a temperamental and paranoid leader, is worrisome. |
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Rajnath’s caste card UTTAR
PRADESH Chief Minister Rajnath Singh is a Thakur who thinks like a Brahmin. The decision to create a quota for the "most backward castes" (MBCs) within the 27 per cent job quota for the other backward castes (OBCs) is expected to weaken the hold of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party on the Dalit vote-bank without compromising the Bharatiya Janata Party's relationship with the upper castes. With the UP assembly elections due early next year Mr Rajnath Singh is virtually leaving no political stone unturned for improving the electoral prospects of the BJP. It is not difficult to understand why Ms Mayawati and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav were looking uncomfortable while answering questions from the media on the Chief Minister's unsubtle decision to steal their "Dalit thunder", as it were. Of course, their answers were as unconvincing as Mr Rajnath Singh's explanation about why it took the BJP-led coalition nearly five years to wake up to the plight of the MBCs within the OBCs. President of the UP unit of the BJP Kalraj Misra was more forthright and honest in stating that the benefit of creating caste-based reservation within reservation would be reaped by his party during the assembly elections. It goes without saying that the BJP will have to pull all stops for proving wrong the poll forecast conducted recently by a leading English weekly. The survey understandably showed the BJP and its allies finishing last in the electoral race. However, while the BJP has not yet reacted to the findings of the survey the BSP leaders have debunked it because it shows the Samajwadi Party as politically more popular among the Dalit voters. But a finding which has surprised even those who conducted the survey is the emergence of the Congress as the proverbial dark horse. Among the four major contenders the Congress is, perhaps, the only party which does not have a leader of the stature of Mr Rajnath Singh, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ms Mayawati for leading the party in what should, going by past trends, be a no-holds-barred battle for political supremacy at the hustings. Of course, the survey was conducted before Mr Rajnath Singh pulled out the caste card from his bag of political tricks. It would be instructive to see the vote-swinging, if any, in favour of the BJP and its allies after the announcement of reservation within reservation for the
MBCs. |
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UK police in the dock SINCE racialism has been a fact of life in the developed West, reports of clashes between Asian and white youths in certain north-western UK towns for the past few weeks are not surprising. What is, however, astonishing is the emerging reality that the problem is becoming complex with racialism spreading to areas not associated with this contagion, and the police, one of the various institutions the Britons have been proud of, getting afflicted by it. Burnley and Nelson towns in Lancashire were known for cordial race relations till the other day when Asian homes and business establishments came under attack from whites. Residents of Asian origin in Accrington, another peaceful town in the region, are also dazed after sporadic incidents of arson. Two children and their family members narrowly escaped being burnt alive when their house was set ablaze on Saturday. Birmingham, Oldham and Leeds too have been in the news for race-related violence. At most of these places the police is alleged to have displayed a partisan behaviour against the Asian community. Though the sufferers have been mainly Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, the Asian community as a whole sees this development as a serious threat to security. One incident being widely mentioned in media debates and elsewhere relates to a high-profile Labour Party activist and member of the Commission for Racial Equality, but an Asian by ethnic origin, Mr Shahid Malik, who was mercilessly assaulted by the riot police. He experienced the brutality of the police, suffering from high racial fever, while pleading with Asian youths that they should not take the law into their own hands by attacking the guardians of law and order. This happened in Burnley, where Mr Malik's father, an immigrant from Bangladesh, is Deputy Mayor! The fact that racial prejudices are getting deeper into British society is being attributed to mainly two factors. One, cotton trade in north-west England is fast becoming a thing of the past, and as a result a large number of Asians and whites have lost their jobs. Joblessness has created a fertile ground for the far-right British National Party for sowing the seeds of hatred among the whites against the Asians. The party stands for racial segregation, saying that "multiculturalism", as advocated by liberals for maintaining racial peace, cannot get acceptability among the British masses. The second factor believed to be stoking the fire is the "negative presentation" of the problems of migrants and asylum-seekers by politicians in general and sections of the media. Eleven organisations, including Liberty, a civil rights group, have pointed this out to the UN Human Rights Commission. Are these signs of the worst days ahead for non-whites in the so-called liberal West? |
Artillery as a fighting arm AT this crucial juncture where the line between conventional warfare and nuclear conflagration is blurred, the focus of attention should be on the higher direction of war and effective utilisation of forces in an NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) environment. It is a fact that it is the man behind the gun who matters, and only the best should be entrusted with the command. The June 19 article “Support elements as fighting arms” by a retired General tends to foment inter-arm rivalry within the Army. The author has highlighted the limited effectiveness of artillery fire during World War I despite millions of rounds having been fired. These are vintage facts to which military history does not lend credence. However, let us examine these in today’s context. During World War II, 60 per cent of all the casualties were caused by artillery fire. During Operation Vijay in Kargil, 80 per cent of our casualties were attributed to Pakistani artillery fire and 90 per cent of Pakistani casualties were caused by our artillery fire. A few quotes from infantry officers from the Kargil operations will help put the record straight”. Maj-Gen V.S. Budhwan, GOC, 3 Inf. Div.: “My artillery played a major role in breaking the enemy’s will to fight and ensuring his defeat.” Maj-Gen Mohinder Puri, GOC, 8 Mtn. Div., Mushkoh Valley: “The gunners have done a fantastic job. Actually it was an artillery battle, and the credit for the victory goes to the artillery.” As regards the author’s contesting the accuracy of our artillery fire in Kargil, Col. Khushal Thakur, CO, 18 Grenadiers, had this to say: “The sight of over 100 guns pounding Tiger Hill was awesome. The fireball of the explosions lit up our objective. We closed in up to 40 metres of the shelling. The accuracy was so great that not one shell strayed from its target. Since then my men hold the artillery in very high regard — specially the Bofors gunners.” With reference to the author’s contention as to the ineffectiveness of artillery fire against motivated and well-entrenched enemy troops, this is what Brig Devinder Singh, Commander, 70 Inf Bde, has to say: “The enemy was well-entrenched on precipitous ridgelines in Batalik sector and initially we made little headway. The enemy subjected our troops to heavy volumes of coordinated automatic fire. We had to lean on the gunners to destroy the defence works of 5 Northern Light Infantry one by one.... I can say without hesitation that the tide turned in Batalik because of the pounding the enemy received from the artillery .... While my infantry battalions deserve immense credit for their courage and determination in several hardfought battles under the most trying and adverse circumstances, the real victory came only when the artillery forced 5 NLI to abandon their positions and scamper back across the LoC.” The author says, “Firing a few rounds from guns in direct firing mode can hardly justify the claim for transition from Combat Support Arm to Combat Arm.” May I remind the General that neither during his service nor today did terms such as Combat Support Arm and Combat Arm exist in the glossary of military terms. It is only arms and services. For the lay reader, the term “arms” includes armour, infantry, artillery, engineers and signals. Counter-bombardment is a subject which boggles even quite a few enlightened people. To achieve lasting neutralisation of an enemy field battery deployed in an area of 100 yards by 100 yards, it needs a superiority of 30:1 under normal conditions. In high altitude areas, the zone of the gun increases, hence much more ammunition is required. Further, in the absence of the American ANTPQ-36 gun-locating radars with our army, and the inefficacy of sound-ranging equipment in the mountains, the last resort is air operation, which has its limitations due to weather conditions, visibility, enemy SAMs and only daylight capability. Justapoxing a Bofors battery in dug-in-gun emplacement in the plains deployed in an area of 500 yards by 500 yards would require the entire Pakistani artillery to neutralise it. Hence shoot, but why scoot? The author has also said that ground operations would become redundant with the usage of air operations and RPVs. It is apparent that he is not taking into account their limitations. Coming to the main issue raised by the author, as regards the ethos, training, exposure and experience of artillery officers in battle and the doubts expressed about their potential to command fighting units and formations in battle, I would like to say that from day one an artillery officer is entrusted the independent command of the gun position without a protective mantle which his counterpart enjoys. He has to produce the first round within seconds of the receipt of orders. Ingrained procedures of double check, reflex actions and an alert body and mind ensure it. The results are there for all to see even in peace time, and the accountability is 100 per cent. Gunners pass the Sigma 6 test hands down and that is what training is all about. As regards ethos, it is enshrined in the gunner’s motto — “Sarvatra Izzat O Iqbal.” (Everywhere with Honour and Glory), which every gunner holds sacred to his heart and has proved time and again in every battle. Coming to battle experience, the author has highlighted the fact that the guns are deployed in depth. Yes, I agree, and these are manned by three very efficient 2/Lt’s and Lts with the adjutant manning the regimental command post. However, what he has failed to highlight is that of the 13 to 14 officers available in an artillery regiment, the other 10 are well up in the thick of battle and considered as the right hands of their respective infantry commanders. These include the operations officers, two per battalion with the forward attacking companies, the battery commanders with the battalion commanders and the CO with the brigade commander. The operations officers accompany the assaulting infantry companies in the attack, adjust the fire, take on impromptu targets that may crop up and once on the objective, readjust the fire to beat back any counter-attack which may follow. Further, if the battalion has a second or third phase in their attack with the reserve companies, the same operations officer goes in for a second attack. In case of shortage of officers or casualties, even the subalterns are entrusted with operations officer duties, which mantle they invariably wear after about three years of service. On a number of occasions, in the event of the infantry commander becoming a casualty, the gunner officer has taken over his role and continued the task. Gunners perform similar functions with armour in battle. It seems the General has mixed up the issue of fighting experience with the majority of gunners manning gun positions in a depth area. However, we are discussing the command potential of those 10 officers per regiment who are well up in the thick of battle. Instances are replete where gunners have challenged the gauntlet thrown by the enemy and stood their ground under most adverse conditions, forcing the enemy to flee. In the 1965 war, the Pakistani army did its utmost to recapture Alhar, a railway station on the Sialkot-Chawinda section, the deepest point of our penetration. With the ceasefire drawing close, regaining its control became a matter of prestige for the Pakistani army and they hurled counter-attacks with infantry supported by armour, one after the other. 20 Rajput as part of 35 Inf Bde firmly stood its ground, with superb fire support by 166 Field Regiment. This regiment employed all means to garner the support of every artillery regiment in range and brought to bear the fire of almost two artillery brigades on the assaulting enemy troops. Each time the enemy left 100-200 killed, with fire being brought down up to 50 metres ahead of the defences. That was a battle of grit and determination, among many that the gunners are proud of. It will be enlightening to examine the status which gunners enjoy the world over. The Soviets granted supremacy to artillery on the battlefield. To them, artillery was the “God of War” and the concept of massed employment of artillery emerged. Soviet artillery officers have risen to the highest ranks. In the USA artillery officers, after commanding artillery brigades, are eligible to command infantry divisions. In France, artillery officers are treated on a par with other arms. As a matter of policy, artillery officers are appointed to command armoured divisions in intervals. In Pakistan, artillery is a part of the General Cadre, as also in the UK and Germany. Incidentally, during World War II, 11 of Germany’s 13 Field Marshals, in command of armies, were gunners. Nearer home, Gen Pervez Musharraf is a gunner and so is our present Chief, Gen S. Padmanabhan. He happens to be the fourth gunner Chief that the Indian Army can be proud of. Lieut Gen JFR Jacob, who played the most significant role in the creation of Bangladesh, too is a gunner. I am all for the Queen of the Battle having its due share. However, the guiding principle must be that the best assumes the command. The writer is a retired Brigadier. |
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Calibre as promotion
criterion LIEUT-GEN Harwant Singh (retd) has stated that artillery officers should not be included in the category of “general cadre officers” since the arm they belong to does not qualify to be called the “fighting arm”. In my view it is of no consequence whether the artillery is called the “support element” or “fighting arm” since it will continue to perform its task as hithertofore. Therefore, what needs to be analysed is whether artillery officers meet the qualitative requirement of “general cadre officers” or not as in the case of “fighting arms officers”. The artillery officers from the time of their commissioning remain associated with fighting arms (armoured corps and infantry), be it an OP officer, battery commander, regimental commander, or artillery brigade commander. In peace they jointly take part in sand model discussions, test exercises with and without troops, infantry-tank cooperation training and the like. They attend the same career courses such as junior and senior command courses, defence services staff courses and higher command courses. There is no separate agenda for artillery officers about these courses and they are graded on the same weighing scale. In times of war artillery officers and fighting arm commanders jointly prepare and execute their operations. Both during operations and exercises artillery officers live, work and eat together with “fighting arms”. In counter-insurgency operations, artillery units carry out more or less the same tasks as fighting arms. For example, I as an artillery brigade commander was responsible for counter-insurgency operations in South Assam and the western part of Manipur. If they are allotted less counter-insurgency-prone area it is because the type of weapons they hold and not due to any other reason. Hence the artillery officers develop the same ethos and get the same exposure, experience and training. The author of the article has denied the existence of casteism in the Army, which may not be so in actual practice. There is a tendency among course instructors to overrate their regimental officers in relation to others. I am, therefore, a staunch supporter of the theory that no regimental loyalties except the calibre should influence promotions irrespective of the fact whether an officer belongs to the so-called “supporting elements” or the “fighting arms”. The writer is a retired Brigadier. |
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A buddy in
Gurdaspur I remember Asha as a child of four or five. Her father, Ramesh, and I were colleagues. During the war years we were both stationed in Bombay (now Mumbai) and we became close friends. We lived in the same block of flats on Marine Drive. Asha was a noisy little girl, full of mischief. She would barge into my flat at odd hours to show me a new doll, or beg to be taken out for a drive in my sports car. I always kept a jar of candy for her and then, being rather houseproud, even as a bachelor, I would go round with a damp cloth removing the marks she had made with her sticky fingers on the furniture. But I liked having her in the flat. I liked the sunshine and the laughter she brought into it. The years rolled by. Ramesh was transferred up north while I was sent east and it wasn't till the sixties that we caught up with each other in Calcutta (now Kolkata). I was a married man by then with two children of my own but almost the first question I asked Ramesh when we met was about the little friend of my bachelor days. "You must come and see her" said Ramesh with more than a hint of parental pride in his voice. "She's not at all the little pest you used to know. She got a Ist division in her BA. I wanted her to do her MA and take up teaching. But she had other ideas and joined an advertising firm. That's the trouble of having only one child. You have to give in all the time." The "little pest", when I saw her a few days later, took my breath away. She had grown into a lovely young woman with delicately chiselled features, a turned up nose and large eyes that seemed to smile when they looked at you. She was tall and slim and her thick, black hair came down to her shoulders with a slight curl at the ends. "And how many boy-friends have you got?" I asked her after I had finished teasing her about the amount of money I had spent on keeping her supplied with sweets. "Oh, uncle" she said with a ravishing smile, "you don't expect me to reveal all my maidenly secrets to you? You might pass them on to my father and it would upset the poor man. I'm sure he's already got someone up his sleeve for me. Someone from a "respectable" family, with "bright" prospects." And, then, fate took a hand in Asha's life and that of her parents. Her firm sent her abroad on a three months' course with its UK associates. While she was there she fell in love with an Englishman and married him without consulting her parents. He had "bright prospects" all right being the son of an industrial tycoon, but he wasn't "a suitable boy" in the eyes of her conservative parents. I am glad to say, however, that after sometime, and with some counselling by me, Ramesh and his wife got over their initial shock and disappointment. "What can you do?" said Ramesh to me. "She's our only child and her happiness must come first." Now, in retirement, like myself, Ramesh and his wife live for the day, once a year, when Asha and her two children fly out to spend a month with them. |
Relevance of Bush’s religious card GEORGE
BUSH’S plans to transfer huge federal funds for social programmes and relief to religious institutions on a regular basis have run into trouble. The opposition comes both from the traditionally strong American secular establishment as well as the religious right — for different reasons. Bush’s experiments with his religious card have relevance to our own saffronisation of public institutions and the temple-based vote bank politics. A total of $ 65 billion a year was proposed to be disbursed to religious outfits. This was part of Bush’s election promise. Soon after his swearing-in, he had called a meeting of the religious leaders, mainly Judeo-Christian. The Republicans argue that the church and similar institutions could better manage literacy, rehabilitation and relief work than the non-religious NGOs and state. However, now the administration has formally announced the postponement of the whole move. The religious right takes objection on two premises. First, government funds always follow regulations which include donation from them for church activities abroad. Anybody could allege that such funds were used for proselytising. Federal rules also prevent mixing of religious and relief programmes. The church does not want such curbs on its regular activities. Second, state funding will also benefit ‘fringe’ groups like Hare Krishnas, the Nation of Islam Organisation and the Church of Scientology. The last one works on schemes for black American prisoners. The religious right fears that many such organisations would spring up to claim the funds. the Judeo-Christian establishment dislikes the use of state funds by such ‘extraneous’ groups. Murray Friedman, a Jewish leader, during his meeting with Bush had warned him of the possibility of misuse of his ‘faith-based’ funds for ‘proselytism in religious settings’. Certain Islamic groups in the US have rated such possibilities high in view of the church groups’ growing influence on the Bush administration. Even certain minority Christian groups have sought better safeguards in the flow of federal funds through church outfits. However, the judiciary will be the biggest hurdle for Bush. “Any use of public funds to promote religious doctrines (or) advance the religious message” violates the constitution, Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, who holds the decisive vote in the supreme court, had said much before the proposal was formally put in cold storage. After this setback, Bush tried to pressurise the philanthropic foundations of US multinationals to divert their enormous funds through the church outfits. For this, he promised to pass a legislation providing 15 per cent tax exemptions and many such concessions. However, the business was quick to spurn Bush’s suggestion. The 500 US ‘Fortune’ companies donate huge funds to political parties, including to Bush. But with their global business interests, universal character and compulsions of being friendly with large sections of consumers beyond religious and race identities, they dislike to be seen as partisan. On rare occasions, firms like IBM, General Motors and Exxon Mobil Corp do extend funds to church groups. However, this is on the condition that such funds should be separately accounted and audited. Exxon specifically mentions a ban on use of their funds for proselytising. The USA was a tradition of adhering to the legal separation of the state and the church. Its supreme court had right from 1940s tried to safeguard secularism by giving a series of balanced interpretations of its constitution. Domination of an enlightened elite and compulsions of a booming consumerist society helped make the US secularism fairly functional. Calling himself a born-again Christian, Bush seeks to use the religious card to ensure a vote bank and access to the blacks through the church. The first display of this religious card came on the oath-taking day itself. A Protestant Evangelist minister appeared at the function to officially dedicate the inauguration of the new President to Jesus Christ and the “Holy Spirit”. Such invocations might have taken place at official functions earlier. But the way Bush did it had raised hackles from different groups. Alan M. Dershowitz, a Harvard law school professor, quoted a letter written by first US President George Washington to the then tiny Jewish community expressing regret over a similar action during his time. In the past decade, there has been a 12 per cent rise in immigration, most of them being non-Christians. Bush’s critics rightly argue that his partisam move has tended to exclude tens of millions of American Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Shintoists, Sikhs and Unitarians. His second move pertains to the suspension of federal relief aid to organisations that make abortion a part of their programme. This will affect hundreds of NGOs, semi-government and government institutions all over the world. They will now either have to drop abortion as part of birth control or be prepared to lose enormous US funds. Also uncertain is the fate of some of the WHO health programmes with US assistance. Apparently, Bush thought that much of these ‘freed’ funds could be diverted to ‘faith-based’ outfits. We face a different kind of problem in India. Educational institutions run by religious groups in India can also avail the normal government grant, provided they follow the relevant rules. Even charity and humanitarian work done by religious outfits get tax concessions as any other NGO. However, barring educational institutions and hospitals, work of such religion-based institutions have not been exemplary. They are often treated as exclusivist by other communities. The use of charity for conversion has been an old charge. As a result, most sections in India view the Bush plan with suspicion. For us, the shrinking allocations for welfare schemes makes the whole debate irrelevant. In the USA, George Bush has tried to change the tone of political discourse. Religion is increasingly sought to be made part of the official public life. The incumbent establishment is also getting theoretical support from sections of political writers who have begun talking of the ‘failed American attempt’ to construct what they call ‘Naked Public Square’. These sections argue that the ‘elite-led secularisation’ — a term for out desi ‘pseudo-secularism’ — of America has passed the peak, and a new resurgence of the faith — i.e. church — is already in the process. This new assertion is not just fleeting or defensive. They assert that the academe can no more confine religion to the alleys of what an eminent editor describes as a ‘cultural red-light district’. Political theorist Wilfred M. McLay, for instance, argues that secularism of the ‘Naked Public Square’ itself has turned out to be a quasi-religious establishment with all its non-pluralistic embodiments it seeks to fight. ‘Secularist orthodoxy’ is the product of the worldview of the disenchanted affluent. Under the “guise of separating church and state, they seek to exclude religious thought and discourse from public life,” McLay argues. An important aspect of the secularism discourse by the religious right in US has been its firm adherence to the Judeo-Christian tradition — to the total exclusion of others. McLay, for instance, seeks curtailment of genome and human cognition research not on ethical or health grounds but on the basis of the Judeo-Christian understanding of human nature as being an endowment from God. |
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How not to ‘maintain’ separated wife and kids THE decision of the Central Cabinet to abolish the maximum limit of Rs 500 for the quantum of maintenance allowance payable to the wife and children of a separated husband was long overdue. Strangely enough the limit fixed in 1973 has never been reviewed, though incomes and expenses have increased manifold since then. Many N.G.Os boasting of espousing causes of women and children of the country and availing financial grants have never bothered to raise their voice against this injustice. The parents of a married woman, after bringing her up and then spending heavily on her marriage, are forced by custom to bear life-long torture of their separated daughter and insults and taunts of the "jawai sahib". No wonder some parents prefer to terminate lives of their daughter before her first breath. It is not only the paltry amount given as compensation that is pinching, its payment is equally cumbersome and unbearable for the hapless woman and her children. Once the court orders payment of maintenance allowance, the respondent husband starts depositing the amount in the State Bank of India by challan (through the Treasury) every month. It is credited in the Treasury record as a court deposit. Now to withdraw this amount the petitioner woman has to approach the court every month for the issue of a refund voucher. The refund voucher is issued only after taking the report of the Treasury to confirm that the credit of the amount exists in the Treasury record at such and such entry number. After obtaining refund voucher from the court, the petitioner submits it to her bank for crediting the amount into her account. Her bank submits the refund voucher in the Treasury for affixing a payment order in favour of the State Bank of India after making a minus entry against the original deposit entry. After taking back the passed refund voucher from the Treasury, the former bank submits it to the State Bank of India which passes on the amount to that bank for credit in the account of the petitioner. Thereafter, she can withdraw the amount from her bank. This process takes at least 15 days of each month. Is it not a punishment to the aggrieved woman seeking justice? This procedure of payment is older than even the law granting maintenance allowance when the wide network of the banking system was not in existence and the treasuries were handling cash transactions of the government and courts. Today when even salaries of the government employees as well pensions of retired employees are paid by banks directly, the payment of monthly maintenance allowance through the treasuries and that too by refund vouchers does not appear to be in consonance with the modern times. Therefore, at the time of amending the law regarding the limit of maintenance allowance, the following procedure for its payment may be inserted: "While filing the petition praying for payment of maintenance allowance for self and/or children, the petitioner will intimate details of the bank and her saving account (single only) number in the petition itself, through which payment is to be made". "While passing orders on the quantum of maintenance allowance, the court will direct the respondent to deposit the amount of maintenance allowance for each month in the said account by 5th of each month". To deprive the petitioner of her rightful maintenance allowance, the respondent may take loans/advances against his salary (recoverable in monthly installments from his salary) in order to artificially reduce his income. The petitioner cannot be indirectly burdened with liability of such loans. Therefore, gross salary should be taken into account while computing the quantum of maintenance allowance and not the "carry home" salary. It will also be justified if the share of the respondent in the income of ancestral property held by his parents is notionally included in the income. |
Hearing in High Court SOMETIME ago, some Babbar Akalis were convicted by the
Sessions Court under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, for
murder, keeping of arms, etc., in what is known as the Supplementary
Babbar Akali case. 21 of the convicted persons have now preferred an
appeal against the Sessions Judge's order, which is being heard by a
bench consisting of Mr Justice Broadway and Mr Justice Ziffar Ali of the
Lahore High Court. |
Music raises milk yield of cows THE sheds could soon be alive with the sound of music after researchers found that cows produce more milk when listening to soothing tunes such as REM’s Everybody Hurts and Lou Reed’s Perfect Day. Lecturer Adrian North and researcher Liam MacKenzie spent nine weeks conducting tests on 1,000 Holstein Friesians. A sound system, similar to that in shops, was fitted in their cow sheds and music was played 12 hours a day. The pair, from the UK’s University of Leicester’s school of psychology, discovered that milk yield rose by 0.73 litres per cow per day when they listened to slow music. Dr North said the 3 per cent increase “may not sound a lot but how many companies would like that sort of improvement in productivity just by playing the right type of music to their workers? “We were careful not to bore them to tears by playing the same songs over and over again, so we picked a selection of music which was played continuously,” he added. Slow music was defined as 100 beats per minute and included Aretha Franklin singing What a Difference a Day Makes and Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. The researchers found that cows produced less milk than normal when subject to upbeat music — at 120 beats per minute — such as The Wonderstuff’s hit Size of a Cow and Jamiroquai’s Space Cowboy. The researchers now plan to investigate whether playing music to chickens will increase
egg-laying. The Guardian
Artificial respiration made easy
An Indian scientist has developed a device which makes the process of providing artificial respiration to critically ill and comatose patients almost risk free, simple and accurate. The device, “percutaneous tracheostomy kit”, will be used in a procedure called percutaneous tracheostomy, which involves giving artificial respiration to critically ill patients, the inventor of the kit, Dr S. P. Ambesh, Assistant Professor at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, told PTI. Ambesh has already filed patent applications in India, the UK, Belgium, France and Germany.
PTI
Child prodigy to meet Nobel laureates
From playing cricket with peer group in the dusty alleys of his West Delhi locality to rubbing shoulders with Nobel laureates in swanky conference rooms in Germany - and 13-year-old Tathagat Avtar Tulsi, the child prodigy from Bihar, is neither flustered nor unnerved. “I am quite excited at the prospect of sitting in the august company of nobel laureates in Physics at Lindau (Germany) and listening to their ideas,’’ Tathagat, the youngest matriculate in the world, told UNI before leaving for Germany. “I am specially interested in ‘super conductivity’, `quantum field theory’, `big bang theory’ and particle physics and hope to get enlightened in these areas by the erudite phycists in Germany,’’ said Tathagat, the youngest of 17 scientists who would be in Lindau for a week-long round table conference with 21 Nobel laureates. This is the first batch of young Indian scientists to Germany as part of the Central Government’s scheme to facilitate their interaction with Nobel laureates from across the globe. UNI
Child, teen suicides increase
Singapore has seen a fourfold increase in the number of its children, aged 10 to 14, committing suicide in the past 20 years. There were 0.5 suicides per 100,000 teens in the early 1980s, but the figure has now reached two per 100,000, The Straits Times has reported. The main reasons for attempted teen suicides include romantic relationships, stress at school, conflicts with parents, unhappy homes, unrealistic expectations, bullying and growing-up.
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If you love, you will be a wise man. And when you become a wise man you will definitely love. ***** The mind is like a crow, which has no other wish than to annoy people. But as soon as it is steeped in love, it becomes a swan and troubles no one. ***** Love is a soul quality and is inherent in all of us.... We need not spend a penny to achieve it. As soon as the soul is freed from the filth and attachments of the world, real love automatically makes its appearance. ***** The kingdom of love has been the highest of all realms in every age... If we really love Him, then we automatically love his creatures. ***** The entire universe is beautified by the glory of love. ***** God is love and love is God.... In order to tread the path of love one has to forget oneself entirely. By thus losing himself, the lover is able to gain Life Eternal. ***** Love is noble and pure. It purifies us and ennobles our life. It is the very essence of simplicity. It is also the sustaining power of this world. Without it, the world would be desolate and our life would be aimless. ***** An ordinary sword will cut an object into two pieces, but the sword of love is quite different. When it is used, it unites two souls into one. ***** When a spark of love for the Lord is lit in a person’s mind, it cannot be concealed. His eyes disclose it. Even if the mouth is locked, love will burst out in the form of teardrops from the eyes. The body trembles, the hairs stand on end, and the lover smiles but cannot speak. ***** Thus wine of love cannot be found in jugs. It is flowing out of the hearts of lovers. Persons who have not tasted the elixir of love are aimlessly running after the intricacies of worldly attractions and are deprived of this divine
ecstasy. — Maharaj Sawan Singh, Philosophy of the Masters series I. |
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