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| Wednesday,
July 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Consensus
on agenda Politics
at PAU Crackdown on UTI |
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Doing
law to please papa
Portrayal
of woman in the media unfair
Can we
contain chaos on roads?
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Consensus on agenda IT was heartening to see a broad consensus emerge in Monday's all-party meeting to discuss the agenda for the forthcoming summit with Pakistan. Contrary to apprehensions, there were few discordant voices. Even the hawkish Shiv Sena kept its cool. The Prime Minister will be helped by the support. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee was speaking for everyone when he emphasised that Kashmir was not the sole or even the core issue. Matters concerning nuclear confrontation, proxy war, cross-border terrorism, release of prisoners, easier communication and travel between the peoples of the two countries and trade and commerce need to be discussed in a holistic manner. The same holds true of the Siachen issue also. As former Defence Minister George Fernandes has pointed out in a TV interview, no agreement can be reached in isolation. Misgivings in this regard had arisen because while General Musharraf has been playing a snooty customer, India has gone overboard in extending a red carpet welcome to him. There is a large section which believes that instead of being euphoric, a business-like approach would have been more appropriate. Many of them even suspect that the government might barter away vital national interests. A lukewarm response to the confidence-building measures announced by India has not helped the situation either. That is why the government was at pains during the all-party meeting to highlight that the talks would be held only within the framework of the Constitution, the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. The offer of a no-war pact was rightly rejected with the contempt it deserved because it is meaningless as long as Islamabad continues its open support to terrorists. It is strange that India's spirit of accommodation has been rebuffed by Pakistan as some kind of a weakness. In fact, there is a distinct attempt to provoke New Delhi in some matters. The invitation being extended to Hurriyat leaders by the Pakistani High Commissioner despite serious reservations expressed by the Indian Government comes under this category. At one stage, it had appeared that various parties would boycott the high tea, but now they have perhaps decided to take the unfriendly act in their stride. It is clear that the unelected Hurriyat leaders have no locus standi or legitimacy. By insisting on inviting them, Pakistan has only proved that they are its hand-maiden. The venom spewed by the neighbour's spokesmen as well as the official media has also not been diluted on the eve of the summit. Rather, it has become more corrosive. The President-cum-Chief Executive-cum-Army chief does not impress anyone here by talking about making a new beginning. His sincerity will be judged by deeds, not words. |
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Politics at PAU PUNJAB
Agricultural University, Ludhiana, is in the thick of an unsavoury controversy. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr K.S. Aulakh, has issued a show cause notice to a Professor of biotechnology, Dr H.S. Dhaliwal, for getting his candidature for the post of Director, Research, recommended by an Akali minister. The minister has publicly admitted that he had made the recommendation through the Chief Minister's Office to the Board of Management of PAU. The reason given by Punjab Revenue Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan for his not-so-unusual action is interesting : "I and Dr Dhaliwal are childhood friends and belong to the same village. We have grown up together and I know he is a man of big calibre and thus I have recommended his case as a good friend." Mr Sekhwan is rather upset that by issuing a show cause notice to Dr Dhaliwal, the Vice-Chancellor has humiliated him. Dr Dhaliwal, press reports suggest, had not himself approached the minister for a favour. Either his relatives had approached the minister or the latter on his own had taken the initiative to help his childhood
friend. One section of the university has made the counter-allegation that Dr Aulakh himself had used political influence to secure the job of Vice-Chancellor. This, of course, has been denied by Dr Aulakh. Then there is an allegation that the Vice-Chancellor has a grudge against the Professor and earlier he had terminated the services of Dr Dhaliwal's wife. That the academic atmosphere of a premier research institution of Punjab should get so polluted is unfortunate, though there is nothing new about it. The university, which is credited with bringing about the Green Revolution in Punjab and producing eminent agriculture scientists, is expected to give a lead to the Punjab farmer in the post-WTO scenario. Instead of realising their tremendous
responsibility towards the crisis-ridden agriculture of the country, scientists are engaged in mud-slinging, bringing a bad name not only to themselves but also to their institution. Agreed, an institution cannot be easily insulated from the existing social and political milieu. But if the prevalent atmosphere is polluted, it becomes all the more important that the academicians not only set their own house in order but also give a lead to society. Politicisation of the universities in Punjab is all too well
known. How appointments and promotions are made in the universities is common
knowledge. In this context, if a Vice-Chancellor initiates action against a Professor for inviting or encouraging political interference in a case of promotion, he is not only justified but also sets an example for other institutions. If the head of an institution does not stop political interference, who else will ? As for the minister, he seems to be blissfully unaware of something known as university autonomy. He has taken upon himself the job of deciding who among his friends has merit and who deserves what post. Time was when ministers and other politicians made clandestine recommendations for favours to their followers. Now they not only do so openly, but also justify these on the pretext of being representatives of the
public. It is for the Chief Minister to decide what kind of lessons in public administration he has to give to such ill-informed ministers. |
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Crackdown on UTI UNION
Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is very angry with the previous management of the UTI (Unit Trust of India) and proposes both severe punishment and a thorough clean-up. This is the implication of his tough talking at a hurriedly called meeting with the media. The urgency he imparted to his interaction with journalists is a dead giveaway of his and the ministry’s two motives. One, he wants to douse down fears of the investors in US-64 – numbering over two crores – and pry open the decision-making process in the giant organisation. For the present he has ruled out writing out a fat cheque in favour of the UTI to meet its long-standing obligations to the US-64 investors. That is his initial and preliminary reaction. He may change it if the report of an outside agency investigating the UTI mess finds gross wrong-doing and recommends remedial steps. And Mr Sinha’s blunt speaking makes this highly possible. UTI is under his ministry and it is too prestigeous to be let down. If the investors have lost because of the whimsical or wicked decisions of the former chairman and his board of trustees, the government has a moral duty to accept responsibility and meet the financial burden. He gave ample evidence that he really holds the former dispensation guilty of serious omissions and commissions. Mr Sinha virtually read out a chargesheet against the ousted management. He felt that investment decisions were biased; for instance crores of rupees were parked in the shares of such companies as HFCL (Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited), Zee Telefilms, Cyberspace and Infosys long after their prices plunged in the early months of this year. These were the favoured ones of Ketan Parekh and he desperately needed outside help to steady the price level. But a powerful bear cartel willed otherwise and it won. And the UTI lost. Was the action to buy shares of these companies influenced by a desire to throw a lifeline to the tainted broker, Ketan Parekh, or a genuine mistake born out of safeguarding the interests of the investor? Mr Sinha has raised this question and he suspects the worst. He is outraged that the UTI management, read Mr Subramaniam, kept the ministry in the dark about the status of US-64 until the very last minute. This is a very serious failure and perhaps warrants a severe penalty. The UTI’s board of trustees is packed with the nominees of public sector financial institutions. And they are responsible to the government and yet nobody alerted the ministry of the impending crisis. This could be a failure or total lack of information. The proposed investigation will cover this aspect too. Incidentally there has been hanky-panky in the working of all financial institutions and the probe into the UTI should lead to a total revamp. And it is time that started. |
Indo-PAK SUMMIT Need
for future-oriented solution, not ad-hocism PRESIDENT
Musharraf is welcome to India. Pakistan is our neighbour and we cannot change geography. It is our misfortune that ever since Independence, Kashmir has kept India and Pakistan as adversaries. Kashmir continues to swamp every attempt or desire towards normalisation. Wars have been fought and talks galore have taken place. I have myself been an active participant in such efforts when I was Foreign Secretary. In an interview with a senior journalist General Musharraf has stated that Kashmir had to be addressed foremost, and that any solution called for a practical approach. The search for a solution must be future-oriented. It must not be bogged down in history. What are the basic factors in a “practical approach”? What are the changed conditions? What are the possible features of a forward movement that we could realistically expect having failed so far? Kashmir has not merely kept us apart, but pulled us down. With the skills, talents and resources that we have, in the last 50 years and more, we could have transformed the face of the subcontinent. It is others that have benefited from our adversary relationship. How much have we spent on our defence purchases from third countries? How many lives have been lost! What misery has been caused cannot even be estimated. Worst of all, the very people we have been fighting for have been the worst sufferers. This should stop. No killings. No human sufferings. Guns and bullets to be replaced by schools and factories. For Pakistan, Kashmir has kept the country united. We have seen that whenever there has been internal weakness in Pakistan, the temperature on Kashmir goes up. After Bangladesh the two-nation theory was largely demolished. They have to stick to Kashmir to try and justify what remains of it. For India, it is a question of our integrity. It is seminal to our secularism. We have failed so far to reconcile these diametrically opposite positions. The Simla Agreement had ruled out war as a means of settling the problem. Pokhran II has now made it obligatory instead of only a pious expression. We lost our superiority in conventional warfare, which had till then kept Pakistan on leash. In earlier military adventures they had been badly humbled. Now open war is out, but clandestine adventures like Kargil can take place with impunity. At the same time, foreign powers are concerned in respect of the risks of a nuclear war erupting in the subcontinent. That now gives them a stake in our bilateral relations. The economy of Pakistan has never been as bad as it is today. It could go bankrupt any day. Kashmir has played a major role in Pakistan reaching this stage. At the same time, their internal situation is now very fragile. Sindh and Baluchistan, as also the Mohajirs living in Sindh, are not prepared to accept any more the domination of Punjab and the Punjabis. The public wants a settlement with India. Even after almost 30 years of the Simla Agreement, we have not been able to provide the common man in Kashmir either security or stability. There has been hardly any development. This could have been done easily if Kashmir had been handled and administered properly. The Centre has not paid the intensity of attention Kashmir deserved. The public in India, including Kashmir, wants peace, development and safety. India must also be interested in a solution. We are losing valuable lives. There is so much defence expenditure that can be diverted to strengthen our economy. What can emerge? First and foremost, we must cut out the political rhetoric. President Musharraf has said this. We have been saying this so often in the past. Both have made Kashmir the football for domestic purposes as also in our bilateral relations. The atmosphere has to be conducive to talks. There must be some agreement in respect of the risks of a nuclear war. Both countries can be destroyed. There is no issue more important than survival. Both have to accept this. The positions of the two on Kashmir are too far apart. In any kind of negotiations, there has to be some give and take on both sides. Both have so far been rigid, demanding the maximum from the other. Minimum positions have not even been indicated. The only yardstick is the Simla Agreement from which one could infer that the LoC could eventually be around which some settlement can be reached. War is out. We will never give up what is a part of us. Pakistan at the same time will not surrender POK to India. Therefore, the best is that we cool down the LoC as we have done with our border with China. We must set up a permanent bilateral group that will meet periodically to ensure the sanctity of the LoC and what else should be done as directed by the two governments. If this alone results from the visit, the leaders would have cracked the granite nut. Every thing else would follow such as removal of the existing barriers, encouraging exchanges in all fields, be they economic, technological, scientific or cultural, and many other positive moves. Can we expect any change from the past efforts? One can only hope. If we can get on to the right path, the dynamics will be such that we will move fast. We wanted to get onto this kind of path when Rajiv Gandhi and President Zia met in Delhi in mid-December, 1985, and agreed upon a step-by-step approach that would culminate in a visit by Rajiv Gandhi to Pakistan. President Zia was sincere, but he faced hurdles from both his military colleagues and politicians. The effort collapsed after a very successful and promising visit by Mr V.P. Singh when he was Finance Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government followed by my visit in January 1986 for Foreign Secretary-level talks. There is much hype and euphoria. Most of us would greatly welcome a breakthrough. The possibilities do not appear that bright for any thing beyond cosmetics. This would be unfortunate. I sincerely hope that some joint pre-summit homework has been done so that both sides already know what minimum will emerge, and that this is acceptable as the bottom line. I have no doubt that it is only the military that can kcome to any settlement involving Kashmir. No politician can do so. Even in the case of a military head, there are major internal forces to be contended with, including colleagues. President Zia wanted a solution. He was seeing the future in a wide perspective. He could not succeed. Let us pray that General Musharraf will be more successful. The writer is a former Governor of UP and Foreign Secretary of India.
Agra should not go the way
of Shimla and Lahore WITH
each passing day the preparations for the Musharraf visit are getting more and more absurd. Even if diplomatic niceties call for the highest protocol welcome to the Pakistani dictator — red carpet, 21-gun salute, stay at Rashtrapati Bhavan, etc — why have we gone way beyond? Witness how entire localities he may visit and routes he may traverse are being spruced and decked up (buildings being renovated, flower pots being put on roadsides, hawkers being shooed away); witness how Agra, the venue; for the summit meeting is getting a face-lift; how the 1000-year-old round-the-clock market at the dargah in Ajmer is being asked to close during the General’s visit; how exotic menus are being devised for the visitor in Delhi and Agra and elsewhere. Who is this man we have decided to so welcome? An old and tested, good and great friend of India? Or some powerful all-conquering jinni who is coming to give us a talking-to and therefore must be humoured and appeased? He is neither. He is General who seized political power in a coup and was criticised by many nations and, at the time, called by us a usurper and murderer of democracy and accordingly berated in international fora. He is the man who recently anointed himself President of Pakistan in violation of all its constitutional processes, who has been disowned as such by the two principal political parties in his own country, who has been severely criticised for the action by all major nations; in short, a self-appointed supremo who clearly lacks the mandate to speak for the people of Pakistan. In this country, above everything else, General Musharraf is known as the brain behind the Wagah-Kargil treachery which caused the death of several hundred young Indians — not sometime in the hoary past but barely two years ago. Given this curriculum vitae of the visitor, the official and officially-sponsored hype over his visit has left the people of this country bewildered and aghast. Even as the mass of thinking Indians is perplexed and dismayed by the somersaults, Prime Minister Vajpayee is evidently very pleased with the praise he has received for his initiative in certain foreign capitals as well as certain domestic coteries. They want him to consign a half-century of Pakistan’s high-voltage animosity, and worse, against us to footnotes of history. Sure, it would be nice to be able to do so. But is that possible, is it being realistic? Can we simply wish away all the ugly facts — the four wars, the continuing bloodshed in Kashmir, the bomb attacks elsewhere in India — facts past and present? Can bilateral history be re-written only by one side? If not, is Pakistan willing to co-author it? Is it willing to accept that Kashmir is a part of India, that one-third of the state is under Pakistan’s illegal occupation, that the decade-old trouble in Kashmir is the doing of its ruling mullah-military combine, that it will end its bloody mischief in that state (and elsewhere in India)? The answer to these questions is so obvious that it needs no labouring. Has General Musharraf said or done anything that would even remotely suggest a change in Pakistan’s stand? The evidence is to the contrary. Even as we constantly utter our aspirations for friendly relations and talk of economic cooperation and trade ties and cultural exchanges, the fundamentalist mullahs and their terror organisations continue to spew venom against India, and General Musharraf and all his men on their part keep hammering on Kashmir and delivering all manner of pinpricks and provocations. Why, almost the day after he and Mr Vajpayee agreed to eliminate all rhetoric that could vitiate the upcoming summit, the General claimed that India had been “forced” to invite him for talks by foreign pressure and “the pressure from the jehadis in Kashmir”. This barb would have prompted many another country to warn him that we would have to call of the talks if he persisted with such provocations. Did we even consider doing this? Perish the thought. All that our MEA spokesperson said was that Mr Musharraf’s allegation was not true. The reason for this inert reaction is not far to seek; when you are denying the undeniable, the less said the better. It is true that, thanks to our blow-hot blow-lukewarm posture against the terrorists, they continue to be at it. But there is no doubt that they can be fully taken care of by our security forces unless thwarted by our own government. What is not deniable in General Musharraf’s assertion is that much of what the NDA government has done and is doing regarding Kashmir, including the invitation to him for talks, is being dictated from elsewhere, namely Washington. That we are not only taking the dictation but actually asking for it is emerging as a blot on this government’s sense of
swabhimaan, its own as well as the nation’s. And if what is being speculated turns out to be true, that is, that the Vajpayee dispensation is in fact open to “solutions” injurious to India’s territorial inviolability, then such moves are doomed to boomerang on its face. General Musharraf should realise this, even if our government in its current mood of ‘statesmanly’ euphoria doesn’t. While it is too late in the day to question the fuss being made over the Musharraf visit, it is not too late for this government to re-think the path it is allegedly embarking on vis-a-vis Kashmir. It will not do to talk unilaterally of letting bygones be bygones, much less to “muse” over “innovations” in settling the Kashmir problem, (What innovations can there be on territorial integrity?!), or talk of an “open mind” on the matter — and punctuate such statements occasionally with the “integral part of India” bit or that the “only problem is Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.” At Agra the Prime Minister must cut out the back-slapping, Musharraf-like bonhomie of one of his predecessors and do some no-nonsense, business-like talking with the visitor. He must approach the meeting solely and wholly in terms of national interests and values. He must recognise the pitfalls of ill-conceived statesmanship and firmly resist myopic temptations as well as off-shore
proddings; he must ensure that Agra does not go the way of Tashkent, Shimla and Lahore. In other words, Mr Vajpayee must tell the General that enough is enough, that Pakistan must forthwith cease and desist in Kashmir, that if they persist in their nefarious actions then they must know that the ISI and company have no copyright on proxy-war tactics and subversion, that it is a game at which two can play, that it is no secret that there is deep discontent in the northern territories and even in the so-called Azad Kashmir, not to mention the regional and secretarian strife in large areas of Pakistan proper, a situation that is eminently susceptible to conflagration. Mr Vajpayee must say all this, not necessarily as a threat but to make the General recognise the realities in the subcontinent and come to terms with them. The writer is a veteran journalist and commentator. |
Doing law to please papa IT can be tough pleasing a Spanish “papa’’, even if you are the world’s most famous Latin crooner. Millionaire singer Julio Iglesias might have thought international superstardom and the sale of 267m records would prove to his father, Julio Iglesias senior, that he was a high-achiever. But no. The star’s father, who is in his 80s, is a respected doctor - a cultured and educated man. Papa Iglesias has long harboured a distinctly Latin shame that his son was a failure, because he never got a university degree. Julio junior, (57), was a college dropout. Given the option of making millions of dollars by selling records to swooning housewives across five continents — and becoming a global sex symbol along the way — he, perhaps understandably, decided not to complete his law degree. This is not to say that young Julio, who comes from a well-off family and started his working life as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid, was not up to it. Had he not crooned he would have followed other family members into the diplomatic service. His cousin was Spain’s ambassador to London for nearly 20 years. Now Papa Iglesias has had his way. In recent years his grumbling had reached fever pitch. After all, he reminded Julio junior, he had passed all his law exams but one. Surely, 35 years later, it was time for a retake of the final exam? Julio is a dutiful son. Earlier this year he went back to his books. “I did it for my father,’’ he admitted. “Four or five years ago he started asking me if I was not ashamed about never having finished.’’ Late night swotting and exam nerves replaced his normal pursuit of the good life. On this occasion, he knew, his permanent tan, perfect teeth, gold jewellery and white linen suits were not going to impress anybody. A verbal examination in front of three professors was carried out at Complutense University in Madrid, in June. Julio passed with an “excellent’’. “It was very serious and austere. I think they were generous with the mark though,’’ he told the Spanish El Mundo newspaper yesterday (Sunday). “There was no favouritism shown at all,’’ the university insisted as it welcomed its latest law graduate. Iglesias junior, however, is not preparing for a career change. He writes most of his international contracts, he has revealed, but the law is not for him. “I am not about to start working as a lawyer now,’’ he said. Papa Iglesias, however, is beaming with pride.
The Guardian |
A human processor called Saleti Ram THE year was 1996. The world was high on Information Technology. Everyone thought that IT could solve all problems. The Government too started dusting old and delayed projects. There was an urgency, bordering on haste, in implementing them. I was working as Divisional Operations Manager with the Indian Railways (IR) in Delhi when I was suddenly asked to take up an assignment with the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) project. After a month in the project, it was clear that the proposed system was no answer to IR’s needs. We learnt early what is being realised today - the virtual world offers no alternative to hard work on the ground. At times, IT’s promised benefits remain more virtual than real. We were under pressure from twin sources: the government and a top-notch IT vendor, who was behind the project. There were jargon-laden presentations by IT professionals. Even some attempts were made at technological browbeating. We were referred to, almost disparagingly as “mere users”. The vendor’s South East Asia and Australian territory chiefs, both Ph.Ds, were brought in to advise us. But we stuck to our guns. After many such interactions, I reached a stage of “enough is enough” and invited the vendor team to Tughlaqabad, a major railway yard on the outskirts of Delhi. The vendor had proposed to computerise the yard master’s work, and in the consequent “right-sizing”, dispense with the post. We arrived at 6 a.m. I stationed the team near the cabin. Saleti Ram, 50 years of age, Yard Master, was in full form. While coming in for shift work at midnight, he must have picked up and straightened out a brown paper bag for writing, and a pencil stub was visible behind his ear. He seemed to have details of each of the hundreds of wagons on the little brown paper, and the pencil occasionally moved between the back of his ear and his hand to make the latest corrections. He was controlling three shunting engines, and about fifty staff. Both men and machines were his puppets, dancing to his tune. Realising the importance of the moment in his work, he was quick to appreciate, and fierce in reprimand. Every wagon seemed to smile at his appreciation, and every engine quivered at his displeasure. He would run across the 22 line yard, firing quick instructions to the shift team as he came across them, take feedback on work done, and make notings on his brown paper. His voice appeared to float on the morning mist, above the noise of the engines, and the moving wagons, his instructions always finding the target audience. Occasionally, his clapping hands would resound in the yard, appreciating work done, and exhorting for more. It was a misty December morning, but nobody felt the cold. Watching Saleti Ram’s magic, the good doctors of IT were mesmerised, and stood motionless for more than an hour. We walked back in silence, passing two more cabins on the way. Yard Masters O.P. Prashar and S.P. Lahot were weaving the same magic at their cabins, conducting their yards like philharmonic orchestras. At the Area Officer’s control tower, I asked the visiting team for their comments. The team leader only gestured to say that he was speechless. Just before leaving, he said, “Indian Railways will do themselves much harm by replacing Saleti Ram. IT has only stationery processors to offer. Salety Ram is an active, moving processor, and IT has no replacement for him”. This was a turning point in the entire project, and we could move away from a potentially costly and disastrous implementation effort. The on-duty Yard Masters that day may never realise it, but they saved the nation crores in unproductive expenditure, and contributed in realigning the project. Thank you, Yard Masters Saleti Ram, O.P. Prashar, and S.P.
Lahot. |
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Portrayal of woman in the media unfair THE International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) was established in 1926 in Belgium and today it has 4,50,000 members all over the world. Its 24th World Congress was held at Seoul in South Korea from June 11 to 15. Of the assembled journalists, 40 per cent were women because this time there was a special stress on their participation. Women journalists from all over the world shared the existing paradoxes, struggles, discrimination, exploitation, sexual harassment, unequal pays etc faced by them. The number of women journalists in decision-making position in the media is shockingly low with only 0.6 per cent of them making to the top. Even where 40 per cent women journalists are in existence, only 3 to 5 per cent of them reach the top position. The IFJ action plan in this direction is that all its member unions should lobby and insist on transparent and open procedures for promotions, adequate childcare facilities and getting media owners to set targets for women journalists. There was an assuring unanimity amongst the journalists on the issue of “portrayal of woman in media”. If the Australian media trivialises women in the public arena, Cambodia mostly tends to ignore rapes, rising divorce cases and violence against women. Most of the West tends to project women as “glamorous dolls”. Similarly in majority of the countries falling under Asia Pacific, issues related to women are given less than one per cent space. Besides, the portrayal of woman suffers from conservatism and orthodox and mostly a feudalistic mindset. Novenka Dobljekar of Slovenia hesitatingly took the microphone and said that she was in two minds whether to share an incident with you all. “But I almost feel inspired that the IFJ is the right platform to say it all. Well this shocking incident involves me. When my name was finally selected to represent my country for the IFJ congress, the President of my union resigned in protest. He felt peeved that a woman journalist was being given priority over the President of the union”. Journalists felt aghast and unanimously condemned the feudal outlook. The five-day world congress of the IFJ, especially from the point of view of women journalists was an exercise in introspection. I was personally overwhelmed with a sense of respect for the decision of the IFJ to indulge in this much-required extra-attention. Similarly it was heartening to witness and vote for Sabina Inderjeet of The Times of India to get elected to the prestigious “Executive” of the IFJ. She argued her candidature firmly and with conviction. It was also a moment of pride to witness yet another journalist, Shyam Khosla (formerly of The Tribune), get voted for the position of Adviser-in-reserve for the
IFJ.
Can we contain chaos on roads? INCREASING
pressure of vehicles on roads and frequent violation of traffic rules and regulations may lead to chaos which deserves immediate attention. One look at the traffic might give an impression of
prosperity, if the number and types of vehicles are to be considered. But, unfortunately, behind the new rich look on the roads is the monster of indiscipline and impatience, claiming a large number of lives in accidents. There is hardly a family which has not lost a near and dear one in one or the other fatal road accident. Vehicles have claimed more innocent lives in Punjab than the decade-long terrorism. We accept every accidental death as the fate of God, even though it might have occurred due to an avoidable human error. Instances of rash driving are many such as the infamous BMW car case in which seven persons were crushed to death. The other day an over-loaded truck literally fell upon a Tata Sumo at Sirhind, killing all 15 occupants. Only recently three of a family were crushed to death on the G.T. Road near Phillaur in which a bus coming from the opposite direction crossed the divider and rammed into a Toyota Qualis vehicle, killing all on the spot. Our laws need to be modified to put some fear into the minds of drivers. Even after most serious fatal accidents, drivers are bailed out easily. Similarly, driving licences are easily issued without proper driving tests. There may be many on the road without proper driving knowledge, leading to disastrous situations. The issuance of driving licences needs to be streamlined and made more transparent. We must set up result-oriented inquiry committees to go into major traffic accidents, to fix responsibility and suggest ways so that these could be avoided in future. Vehicles are generally overloaded and tend to go out of control. Commercial vehicles are supposed to be declared fit to travel regularly by the transport authorities. Here too the money factor plays a major role and it is not uncommon to notice obsolete, heavily polluting vehicles plying on the road, violating all rules and regulations. There needs to be a whole lot of introspection on the traffic control situation in our country. To begin with we need to teach our people to be patient on roads and observe discipline so that there is some sense of security. We need to introduce a minimum of one hour a week of basic teaching at the primary level to educate our children how to observe traffic rules and regulations. This must be a part of the education syllabi up to the matric level. We can create a separate wing (the traffic police is ineffective) just to maintain traffic and provide help to accident victims. We need to withdraw substantially security guards provided to the so-called VIPs. Their vehicles can be used to help maintain order on the roads. We need to have a patrolling vehicle every 25 km on the G.T. Road along with an ambulance service. An effective traffic wing can be headed by a dynamic officer like of Ms Kiran Bedi. |
Without the Satguru, all talk of liberation is the whispering of ghosts. Vyas, other sages and scriptures too, sing the glory of the Master. Consider the one without a guru as ever in the mourning....
My Satguru has blessed me and my heart overflows with joy; He knew all that my heart longed for. He spoke to me fondly, with much cheer and gladness; My Satguru spoke to me in his infinite mercy, O Tuka, And my mind and heart are filled with happiness. — Sant Tuka Ram of Maharashtra, Gatha, 4341, 4336 * * *
O Servant of God, True Guru, Truth's true embodiment; We that are low worms, seek our refuge in thee; Mercifully bestow on us the light of the True Name. — Sri Guru Ram
Das Ji. From Sodar-Rehras, the evening prayer of the Sikhs. * * * The Guru is called the Almighty himself. The Guru is saint, the Guru is prophet. He makes home in every heart, He fills to the brim all empty vessels. The Guru does whatever he wills. — From J.R. Puri and T.R. Shangari, Bulleh Shah
* * * By oneself alone is evil done, By oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil avoided, By oneself along is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself, No one can purify another. — Thus Spake the Buddha, compiler, Swami Suddhasatawananda
* * * Hail, all hail, to the True Guru, free from enmity, Above the need of praise or the fear of calumny. Hail, all hail to the True Guru, the Wise, Who hath God's light within him. Hail, all hail, to the True Guru the Eternal Whose goal is beyond our grasping. Hail, all hail to the True Guru, the True, Who confirmeth men in the Truth. Hail, all hail, to the True Guru, Saith Nanak. It is he who imparteth the Word. — From Sri Guru Granth Sabib, Slok Vadhik page 1421 |
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