E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Sangh Parivar’s poll games
The non-saffron political parties have a lot to learn from the Sangh Parivar about evolving effective pre-poll strategies. They are streets ahead of the rest of the pack in the four states where Assembly elections are to be held next month.

Freebies galore
In the Christian world, Christmas time is Santa Claus time. In India, the equivalent season is the election time. Every party wears a red coat, puts on false beard and moustaches, packs its sleigh with goodies and makes house calls. 

Trading for peace
At a time of heightened tension, any talk of mutual trade benefits that India and Pakistan can obtain if they normalise relations, at least economic if not political, sounds misplaced. But this is also the time for an introspection on what the two countries have gained and lost by belligerent postures.

OPINION

The cost of troop deployment
How it affects economic growth
Ashok K. Mehta
Since India gained Independence in 1947 it has fought more wars, border skirmishes and internal conflicts — more than any other country. Only Israel with a fraction of comparable population and size comes near it. The wars occurred in two phases: a direct clash of armed forces between 1947 and 1971 and a proxy war between 1990 and the present time. 

MIDDLE

A doctor’s lament
Iqbal Singh Ahuja
My mother always wanted me to be a doctor. She was ready to sell her jewellery, property etc and even miss one meal a day to make me a doctor. Her wish was fulfilled. I became a doctor with meritorious marks. I was offered a job in NASA, a rare honour, but I had to decline as that was a research job and my mother’s aim was that I should serve the people.

REALPOLITIK

Global relevance of Gandhism
P. Raman
Even the most optimistic surviving Gandhian will concede that his cherished ideals remain buried deep under the final sweep of globalisation and consumerism. While globalisation has killed his concept of self-sustaining villages, the latter destroyed ideals like simple lifestyle, emphasis on human factor and minimum exploitation of nature. 

A CENTURY OF NOBELS

1987, Peace: OSCAR ARIAS SANCHEZ

Moderate drinking halves Alzheimer’s risk
Alcohol consumed in moderate amounts can almost halve the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, scientists have reported in the Lancet medical journal. Drinking a moderate amount of any alcoholic beverage — between one and three drinks a day — helped prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

• Liposuction helps men get something off their chest

• Diabetes breakthrough banned in researchers’ country

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Sangh Parivar’s poll games

The non-saffron political parties have a lot to learn from the Sangh Parivar about evolving effective pre-poll strategies. They are streets ahead of the rest of the pack in the four states where Assembly elections are to be held next month. The stakes are particularly high for the saffron party in Uttar Pradesh. If UP falls, the next target of attack would be the Centre. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the political face of the Sangh Parivar, has, therefore, drawn up an interesting strategy. One is to create a pro-BJP hype through pre-poll surveys by magazines and newspapers. The other is to raise the Hindutva bogey without directly coming into the picture, for that would annoy the so-called secular parties that make up the National Democratic Alliance. The task of reviving the Hindutva agenda has, therefore, been left to the ever-reliable Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The Sant Chetavani Yatra is the core of this strategy. The yatra started from Lucknow a week ago and BJP ministers and members of legislature were allowed to take part in it in their individual capacity. What message does the BJP want to send out to the electorate by allowing the freedom to participate to every member without "officially" associating itself with the VHP-led campaign? The Prime Minister's meeting with the VHP delegation on Sunday was part of the same strategy. The confusion over whether Mr Vajpayee promised to settle the dispute before March 12, the deadline set by the VHP, is deliberate. It keeps the NDA partners happy and at the same time provides an opening to the Sangh Parivar to raise the Hindutva decibel level by claiming that it has received a firm commitment from the Prime Minister about the dispute being settled before the deadline.

Of course, the proxy revival of the Hindutva agenda is one of the several "inadvertent" happenings that may help the BJP to create political confusion among the voters. At the peak of the Babri Masjid agitation Syed Shahabuddin had given a call to Indian Muslims to boycott the Republic Day celebration (as if participation is mandatory for every Indian). He was called unpatriotic, and rightly so, for using a national celebration for making a political point. Non-participation in the Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations by senior leaders, from both the ruling and opposition parties, even without a public declaration as was made by Syed Shahabuddin would logically be noticed. Those who watched the coverage of the Republic Day parade on television were, therefore, rightly agitated over the absence of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sonia Gandhi at the function. The camera showed most leaders, including former Prime Ministers, but there was not even a passing glimpse of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, whom many see as future Prime Minister of India. Had the Congress spokesmen not made a noise, the nation would have presumed that Mrs Sonia Gandhi had given more importance to the election campaign than to the Republic Day parade. It now transpires that she did attend the function, but for some reason Doordarshan cameras failed to catch even a glimpse of her. Hers was just another face in the crowd that did not attract the notice of TV cameras! A formal apology for the serious lapse would not undo the damage that has been done to the Congress campaign in the four states. How many voters who saw the DD coverage of the parade would get to know that Mrs Sonia Gandhi had actually attended the Rajpath function? 

Freebies galore

In the Christian world, Christmas time is Santa Claus time. In India, the equivalent season is the election time. Every party wears a red coat, puts on false beard and moustaches, packs its sleigh with goodies and makes house calls. There is a difference though! The Christmas gifts are for real. Election gifts come wrapped in “I Owe You” cellophone instead. From the outside, you can be sure that you will be getting the moon. Peel the cover and you may end up with two penny worth of items, that too if you are lucky. At least that has been the trend all along. If you are optimistic enough to believe that the stardust being offered by the Congress and the Akali Dal in Punjab is for real, well, best of luck to you. What is confirmed is that the sacks are huge indeed. Of the two, the Congress one is bulkier. After all, it is a package of concessions worth Rs 1,200 crore. That sort of money can indeed transform the life of every Punjabi. Where will the big bucks come from? The party has its answers ready. Through fiscal discipline and resource mobilisation, of course. That will mop up, hold your breath, Rs 4,000 crore. You can’t fault that, can you? It is another matter that such brave words have never got translated into reality in the past. Will the miracle take place this time? The public may gawk at the size of the promises, but party president Capt Amarinder Singh is not preening. “We could have promised more, but refrained from doing so as we first wanted to fulfil all we say today,” he has declared modestly.

The feel-good manifesto has something for everybody, be it farmers, employees, transporters or traders. But the biggest benefits have been reserved for the backward castes - being wooed by the BSP — which have been offered 27 per cent reservation. Free power to farmers will continue. Even those running diesel engines have been promised relief. The list is so long that it is quite an effort to decide which one to mention and which one to leave out. No thought has been spared to the fact that if the Congress does come to power and is unable to meet all these pledges, it would be in hot water. The party knows that the Badal government is groaning under the anti-incumbency load. Corruption will be a major negative factor. The manifesto has promised a judicial commission headed by a sitting judge of the High Court to inquire into the personal acquisition of wealth and property by Mr Parkash Singh Badal and his Council of Ministers. All that has been summarised into a catchy “freedom from corruption and freedom from bankruptcy” slogan. Suffice it to say that either of them is a tall order; read together they are nothing short of a mirage. With so much of shining stuff on offer, who has the time to think of issues like the decline in agriculture, lack of industrial growth and deficiencies in elementary sectors? Bread is not essential when butter is being doled out.

Trading for peace

At a time of heightened tension, any talk of mutual trade benefits that India and Pakistan can obtain if they normalise relations, at least economic if not political, sounds misplaced. But this is also the time for an introspection on what the two countries have gained and lost by belligerent postures. If India dealt an economic blow to Pakistan by banning its flights, Islamabad responded by hurting Indian wheat sales to Afghanistan. Both have hiked their defence expenditure and diverted their limited resources from development work. If the two countries stop bickering, keep aside political issues and think of their economic interests, peace will have a brighter chance to prevail in the subcontinent. If Pakistan buys wheat from India instead of Canada and the USA, it can effect a saving of $25 a tonne on freight alone. This is the finding of an Indian think-tank, the Research and Information Systems (RIS), which has come out with its South Asia Development and Cooperation 2001-2 report . Citing the example of China and the USA, the report has observed that globally trade is being increasingly used as a prelude to political reconciliation.

The RIS report, which has demolished many myths surrounding Indo-Pakistan economic relations, calls for relaxing curbs on bilateral trade. It dispels fears about the domestic markets of the two countries being swamped by foreign goods. While Indian goods are cheaper, those from Pakistan are qualitatively better. Even if Pakistan were to grant India the status of most favoured nation (MFN), as has been demanded by this country for long, its trade with Delhi may still remain less than 2.5 per cent of its total trade. The report has indicated that by increased collaboration in areas like steel, textile machinery and chemicals both countries can cut down their costs significantly. Pakistani consumers can, according to one estimate, reduce their food bills by 20 to 30 per cent through increased trade with India. But all this may prove to be wishful thinking unless the leaders of the two hostile neighbours scale down tension on the border, work together to end terrorism, remove mistrust and resume dialogue. Their war should be against poverty.

OPINION

The cost of troop deployment
How it affects economic growth
Ashok K. Mehta

Since India gained Independence in 1947 it has fought more wars, border skirmishes and internal conflicts — more than any other country. Only Israel with a fraction of comparable population and size comes near it. The wars occurred in two phases: a direct clash of armed forces between 1947 and 1971 and a proxy war between 1990 and the present time. These wars have retarded India’s economic growth and imposed a heavy social, political and human cost. Interest in the economics of war has been overshadowed by the politics and geostrategy of war. While the world is in recession, India’s economy is faced with a slump. The unexpected and unprecedented deployment on the border, leave alone the actual conduct of war, involves substantial human and economic cost. A conventional war is likely to slow down the economy further.

In anticipation the government has authorised the Union Finance Minister to levy through emergency provisions additional excise duty to cushion the costs of any future war. Two years ago, in the face of a near military defeat by LTTE, Sri Lanka was forced to hike its defence expenditure by 80 per cent, crippling the economy. It had to impose a war levy and other taxes. Its economy was a shambles but a military rout was averted.

It is true that no price is too high for national defence and security. Equally planned and sustained investment in defence preparedness could prevent crisis situations resulting from invited vulnerabilities. Had India managed its defence preparedness more systematically and more seriously, especially after 1971, and created deterrence capabilities in J&K and elsewhere as was suggested by the military, the Kutch and Kargils might have been avoided. Defence expenditure was deliberately — some would say criminally — depressed to manage fiscal deficit. Finance Ministers are in the habit of saying that there is no shortage of funds for defence. It is the Indian rope trick that the budgeted allocation has to be surrendered as the procurement procedures ensure that the money allotted remains unspent. In its scheme, China had relegated defence modernisation to the fourth place without starving the military of funds. Building military capability is a sustained process which cannot absorb the switch-off and switch-on effect. The scale and scope of the present mobilisation is indeed unprecedented.

Not since 1971 have the armed forces been placed at readiness levels of this high order. In 1971 the Army Chief had asked for eight months to deploy and relocate his forces in the East due to the underdeveloped communication infrastructure. On this occasion the government ordered mobilisation three days after the assault on Parliament. Normally, the armed forces are placed on warning (W) followed by mobilisation (M). The military standard operating procedure allows some time between W and M. This is the first time that mobilisation was ordered waiving the W. It was also the first time the annual Army Day parade — a ritual started in 1950 marking the takeover of the Army by an Indian officer — was cancelled and the Republic Day parade scaled down.

Mobilisation involves the movement, deployment and operational preparedness of the armed forces in a ready-to-fight “hot war” deployment. First, troops occupy their defences in battle locations followed by the deployment of strike or offensive formations. Optimum readiness levels involve laying of minefields. Hot war deployment entails relocation of forces that are nominated as “dual-use”. These are simply switched from West to East and vice versa. This happens in the case of the Navy and the Air Force as well.

While the blue-water Navy is out on the high seas, its brown water flotilla is in a defensive mode. The Air Force, similarly, is in three stages of alert: airborne, cockpit and crew room readiness.

The deficiencies in equipment inventories have to be made good and additional war wastage reserves acquired. This involves off-the-shelf imports at the high cost. During the 50-day Kargil war 155 mm artillery ammunition had to be purchased for around Rs 500 crore. Reserve personnel and equipment have to marry with their units. Officers on leave have been recalled, leave disallowed, all training courses except triservice ones have been curtailed or cancelled. Thus, the shortfall in officers at the level of Captain and Major has been made up. Mobilisation, deployment, relocation, readiness and disruption costs of nearly two-thirds of the 1.8 million strong armed forces are anywhere between Rs 700 crore and Rs 900 crore. This figure could go up to Rs 1200 crore in three months — that is approximately Rs 100 crore for their sustenance in their present state. In a study done four years ago, the cost of maintaining troops in J&K was pegged at Rs 400 crore annually. This included the cost of bullets and shells traded across the LoC but excluded Siachen which alone accounts for Rs 500 crore a year. Mobilisation for war requires reinforcing the 740 km LoC and covering nearly 2300 km of the international border with Pakistan.

Such extensive deployment has a human cost too. There is the inevitable problem of relocating the population from these areas. Thirtyfive soldiers have already been killed and many wounded in minefield-related accidents. The increased troop density has provided terrorists with more and bigger targets to engage. The compensation costs of casualties has gone up 20-fold since 1971. A soldier killed in battle will cost the state between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 50 lakh while a pilot and submariner 10 times more. Of course, the real human cost is not measurable in money terms. It is not clear what kind of war, if any, is in store. A Kargil-like local war lasted 50 days. It was very long by Indian standards. The 1947 war in J&K ran a full one and a half years and hasn’t really stopped since.

The 1965 and 1971 wars which were halted by external intervention lasted between 14 and 17 days, though in the first case the war came to an end mainly due to the depletion of ammunition stocks. In the Indian experience, every war has adversely affected economic growth.

The 1962 war with China slowed down economic growth to a mere 2 per cent. In 1965 growth was reduced to a negative 3.72 per cent (sustained drought was also a cause) and in 1971 to less than 1 per cent. However, despite Kargil, which cost around Rs 7000 crore, the economy maintained a happy 6.5 per cent rate of growth. Kargil was not a full-scale war but a mere border skirmish, though substantial deployment of the Navy and the Air Force also took place.

A war by accident or design is very unlikely. The nuclear bogey is only in the minds of western strategists. The deployment for Operation Parakram is already one-month old. It is unlikely that the armed forces will stand down before India’s coercive diplomacy forces Pakistan to stop crossborder terrorism.

The deployment is sustainable at the present level of readiness for up to six months and renewable thereafter but not without short-and-long-term costs. De-escalation — reduction of forces on contact — may only take place after there is hard evidence that Pakistan has initiated steps to stop infiltration and material support to terrorists. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has urged India to de-escalate and resume the dialogue but left it to India’s judgement whether its conditions had been met by the measures taken by Pakistan. Meanwhile, the financial cost of Operation Parakram and related activities, including the return of troops to barracks, may go up to Rs 5000 crore over the next four to six months.

The writer is a retired General.

MIDDLE

A doctor’s lament
Iqbal Singh Ahuja

My mother always wanted me to be a doctor. She was ready to sell her jewellery, property etc and even miss one meal a day to make me a doctor. Her wish was fulfilled. I became a doctor with meritorious marks. I was offered a job in NASA (USA), a rare honour, but I had to decline as that was a research job and my mother’s aim was that I should serve the people. A few years later again I was offered a lucrative job in Oxford University (UK). It was indeed a very rare opportunity to learn and earn. I had to refuse as my mother said: “I have made you a doctor not for America or the UK. I want you to serve our own people.” The spirit of service was inculcated in me and I did my best and a majority will agree except for my competitors/detractors though in the heart of heart they will also agree.

Today I wonder whether my mother was right in her single-minded efforts. She might have had another opinion, if she could have known that a doctor’s life is not safe and he can be attacked by the same people whom he serves. Probably she never realised the dangers a doctor faces during his/her job. She never thought that the inconvenience, missing meals, missing family life, will have no meaning for the people whom he is serving.

I wonder whether I would have also agreed. I could have joined the Army to serve the people. At least death could have been in saving the honour of country and moreover from the bullets of the enemy and not by my own people — my own brethren.

Where have we gone wrong? Doctors who were next to God have suddenly become shaitans or the people who should feel obliged to the profession have become thankless! There has to be something vicious as the causative factor.

I realised that “Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so”. A thing can be termed as a virtue if it is declared so. If you teach a child that cheating and stealing is a good thing, for that child these acts are termed as good and similarly if you teach that doing good to somebody in life or helping someone is bad, then for the child these acts are definitely bad. If the doctor is projected as a devil to today’s child, his future will be bad or even worse. A doctor will also sit with a gun in his hand in his consultation room. Instead of love and affection from the doctor, a stern face will haunt you. The basic qualities for a doctor, “care, affection, sympathy, nobility”, will be no more a hallmark of a doctor. May I take the liberty to say that something has gone wrong at grassroots?

Parents, teachers (guru), doctors and priests are the symbols of great respect and the doctor is considered next to God. Teacher (guru) is worshipped prior to the parents. It is the teacher (guru) who is basically responsible for projecting a person as an evil or a pious person.

If patient is cured and goes well, it is ok. The hospital is termed as very costly and sometimes called a loot. The patient shows helplessness in paying a few thousand rupees. Saving a patient’s life is worth a few thousand rupees and God forbid if a mishap occurs the demand is in lakhs of rupees for the same patient.

Cost of making a person a doctor is very high. Even in a government or private college the seat costs between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 30 lakh. A doctor is not going to treat his own family. It is the public, which he is going to serve. The expectation is “doctor should see his patients free”, or charge very little. Agreed! Who takes the responsibility of the doctor with regard to food, shelter, conveyance etc. Anybody coming forward and for how long?

Everybody wants to charge the doctor extra because he is a doctor. You want the doctor to see the patient free and when the doctor wants to buy a house/plot you want to charge the maximum. I have seen the person crying in front of doctor for the hospital bill and the same person buying costly jewellery from the very famous jewellery shop where very few persons will dare to step in. Why this double standard?

“Death is in God’s hand”. Which doctor want to kill the patient? It is the desire of every doctor that whosoever comes to him, should go cured and happy. Law is there to decide if there seems some doubt.

We want to make our country free of violence and loot — a country where life is for celebration and not for negation of the very person who helps you to live it better.

The administrator must administer. Today, everybody, administrator, leaders and officials snigger at a doctor and call him personification of greed. Tomorrow their sons/daughters may become doctors and may be a target of the same fate. It will be too late to realise and correct the mistake. Time is now to wake up. If the administrators want to denigrate, insult the doctor, go ahead! Future is for everybody. What we sow today, we will have to reap tomorrow. Choice is clear, whether you want a doctor with a stethoscope or with a gun. Wake up. Stop the wheel now.

REALPOLITIK

Global relevance of Gandhism
P. Raman

Even the most optimistic surviving Gandhian will concede that his cherished ideals remain buried deep under the final sweep of globalisation and consumerism. While globalisation has killed his concept of self-sustaining villages, the latter destroyed ideals like simple lifestyle, emphasis on human factor and minimum exploitation of nature. The Mahatma had worshipped values of life and the means and ends alike. Now the ever hungry capital and mindless machines have become the world’s new gods.

As we observe Gandhiji’s death anniversary tomorrow (Jan 30), it is appropriate to reassess the real relevance of his ideals in this vastly changed matrix. True, his economic model has lost even its academic interest after the far-reaching changes in the past half a century. Many had understandable reservations about his political strategy during the freedom struggle. Yet it is astounding to see that many of his concepts and the tools he had employed to fight a mighty empire have now got a new meaning and application the world over.

Hundreds of NGOs and political and environmental activist groups have sprung up the world over to counter a still mightier adversary — the combined strength of the powerful corporates, their world bodies and the ruling elites. Among the assorted groups are the Greens, vegetarians, environmentalists, “car burster”, labour unions and even anti-consumerist religious groups. It is difficult to catalogue them because most such movements are unorganised and spontaneous.

They have all adopted the strikingly Gandhian methods of protests. Non-violent actions, silent protests and passive resistance bordering civil disobedience to counter what they believe the corporate greed. They don’t have a Gandhiji to arouse the national sentiments. These undefinable activist groups do not even have an apex coordination. Even with all such drawbacks they have been able to make their voice heard at international fora like WTO and the corporate-financed World Economic Forum.

Unlike the first half of the last century, the media is more dominant and hence the impact of its conscientious boycott of the activities of the activist groups more telling. The latter loudly blame such negative media role and attribute it to their corporate control. Incidently, the activist groups seek to compensate for the mainstream media boycott, even ridicule, by their own publications. They also have their own well-stocked bookstalls in most US cities. Many of them are run by voluntary work and make up for their loss by selling other periodicals.

Though there is no estimate of such publications — some of them unpriced — the parallel Press has a wide reach. They range from neighbourhood narrow sheets to well produced ones like Arion and Car Bursters. By their very nature, they combine both campaign materials and reports of the activities of the respective group. Electorally, they may be a drop in the ocean. But their cumulative impact among sections of people is not insignificant. Their voice is heard in many local bodies who take positive steps like discouraging cars and providing more space for bicycles. In the USA, Greens had their own presidential candidate.

Their ranks have swelled in the past one year due to the hardship caused by the economic slowdown and massive loss of jobs. Apart from their specific areas, there have been a confluence of purpose. The common ground is anti-globalisation, forced consumerism, over-exploitation of nature for corporate profits and health hazards. This makes them target the MNCs, the IMF and the World Bank. Incidentally, such sentiments are heard more in the USA and other developed countries. The trend is to blame the greed-driven corporate exploitation for all their woes.

Beginning as a fad, the vegetarian movement has not only spread far and wide but acquired new meaning and new targets. Departmental stores have been forced open separate “organic” sections. This has encouraged a whole lot of new industry and organic farming. Like the Greens, they have found new targets in genetically modified food, something on which the corporates have made heavy investment and wanted to market in a big way.

Periodicals like Orian regularly bring out study reports of health hazards from the over-feeding of antibiotics on animals and the diabolic links between the government leaders and their corporate donors. This, they assert, help the latter manipulate the health standard factors to the detriment of the consumers. The Grounddog, a tiny periodical, for instance, established correlation between the donation by certain segments of food industry and compromises on standards on organic food lebelling. Another poorly produced local journal attributes the pro-corporate bias of the media to the corporate-media-politician nexus.

The telecom communication act, another activist mouthpiece alleges, gave away $ 70 billion worth of the public’s broadcast spectrum to a handful of media giants who had contributed $ 7.6 million for the election fund. The Enron case is a glaring one. As early starters of the super highway concept and ‘automobilemania’, campaign against the ‘car hazards’ have taken a feverish pitch in the US and other developed countries. Much of the urban disaster and pollution are blamed on the automobile lobby’s lure of profit.

The parallel Press give details of the activities of hundreds of “car-burster” groups the world over. Every year, third Thursday of September is observed as “world car-free day” during which roads are symbolically dug up and sapplings planted. “Autoholics” are ridiculed and “critical mass rides” are held on bicycles. Elaborate reports are carried from the USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Europe.

All this imbibes two Gandhian traits. First is the increasing aversion to excessive industrialisation and forced consumerism. This marks a reinvention of the virtues of nature and need for preservation of environment. The second and more obvious has been the adoption of the Gandhian tools for mobilisation and affirmative action. Author Bill McKibben in O’ Afield journal says that the present fight is ‘morally as urgent as the civil rights movement a generation ago.’

A whole outline of ‘non-violent economic alternatives’ has been drawn up by author and associate professor at university of Wollongong to effectively counter the post-globalisation capitalism. This group’s emphasis on bicycles, ‘local employment and trading systems’ (LETS), ‘local money system’, ‘voluntary simplicity’ by individuals, etc are strikingly Gandhian. In fact, passive resistance has been the hallmark of all activist movements.

In an era where a direct confrontation with globalised capitalism is unthinkable, the passive Gandhian model of affirmative action has several advantages. So long as the movement remains passive, the establishment is unlikely to pounce on it. This has been the pattern even when some groups in the USA had occasionally resorted to their own version of Gandhian civil disobedience. Moreover, none of the existing movements have the organisation or stamina to withstand a full-fledged showdown with an establishment which could destroy the Soviet system. Thus passivism has the tremendous potential of silently educating the people about the impending disasters.

The strengths of the modern capitalism are its innovation, efficiency, competitiveness and spread. However, each of these is bound to come in to conflict with the essentials of human nature. The system does not recognise any one in between the corporate office and the consumer. While raising investment and production and improving the quality of the products and their reach, it ignores the man behind the machines — something critical to Gandhiji — his job, his minimum needs. The Gandhian tools of protest enable the activist groups to educate the people about this basic contradiction.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Moderate drinking halves Alzheimer’s risk

Alcohol consumed in moderate amounts can almost halve the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, scientists have reported in the Lancet medical journal.

Drinking a moderate amount of any alcoholic beverage — between one and three drinks a day — helped prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Dutch researchers at Erasmus University in Rotterdam carried out a six-year study of 5,395 people aged 55 and over who showed no signs of dementia.

The scientists checked their drinking habits and monitored their state of health. By the end of the study, 197 participants had developed Alzheimer’s or other dementia conditions.

Those who consumed between one and three drinks a day had a 42 per cent lower risk of developing dementia than non-drinkers.

Monique Breteler, who led the research, said: “In recent years evidence has been accumulating that vascular factors may be involved in the cause of dementia, both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. DPA

Liposuction helps men get something off their chest

Cosmetic breast operations are no longer the sole preserve of women. Infected by the desire to stay ever attractive, men are now freely sacrificing themselves to rigours of the operating theatre. They want to rid their bodies of telltale, feminine curves at chest height. Almost one in 10 men, estimates German plastic surgeon Joachim Hecker, is unhappy with the shape of his breast. And more of them are seeking an answer in cosmetic surgery, confirms Detlef Witzel, head of the Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons in Berlin.

By the time the male upper chest has assumed such feminine proportions, hormone therapy is too late and the only answer is to surgically remove the female breast-like fatty tissue.

The most common cause of abnormal enlargement of the chest, says Hecker, is the use of drugs promoting muscle growth. They often contain steroids, relatives of the female hormone oestrogen - and they don’t only promote muscle growth. Men aged between 25 and 35 are particularly affected.

Older men can often attribute their enlarged chest size to over-eating at the dinner table, Witzel said. DPA

Diabetes breakthrough banned in researchers’ country 

New Zealand researchers claim to have developed a breakthrough treatment for diabetes, after tests that included some patients in Mexico, but its use is banned in their home country.

Diatranz of Auckland says it has conducted a successful trial that could eventually provide a cure for 15 million people around the world with type 1 diabetes who now need daily injections of insulin.

But the New Zealand Health Ministry has banned the process, which uses insulin-producing cells from the pancreas of newborn piglets, because of the risk that pig viruses could be spread to human patients. DPA

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

— Swami Siddinathananda, “Meditation According to the Bhagavata”