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Friday, February
1, 2002,
Chandigarh, India  
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Hall of ill-fame Old policy, old bottle
Depressing signals from Tamil Nadu |
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Booked to bed
A world gone out of control?
1990, Physiology or Medicine: MURRAY & THOMAS
Facial scanning is here for checking terrorists
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Hall of ill-fame Mr Prabhat Kumar’s decision to step down as Governor of Jharkhand at a time when the process of electing Assembly members in four states has begun is bound to become a campaign issue. Since he has been forced to step down, rival political factions would understandably be rejoicing the discomfiture of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led
coalition. The BJP will have to put its best foot forward, preferably the one without the Flex name tag attached to it, for controlling the damage. In fact, the BJP leadership must have done a lot of behind-the-scene work to make Mr Prabhat Kumar resign as Governor. The charges against him are indeed grave. The pre-resignation statement in which he professed his innocence and blamed the media for the adverse publicity should not be allowed to go unchallenged. It has become almost a standard procedure for politicians and bureaucrats to blame the media for reporting their alleged involvement in cases of corruption. The Indian media is still fairly objective and reports events as faithfully as they are revealed to it. Mr Prabhat Kumar would have earned more points and sympathy had he stepped down the moment the CBI named him as one of the prime beneficiaries of the favours rendered by the CEO of the controversial Flex Industries. He will most certainly receive a fair trial and will be given the opportunity to clear his name when the case involving him and Mr Ashok Chaturvedi, the Director of Flex Industries, comes up for hearing. Whether he violated the civil services code or not is an issue that cannot be decided through the public airing of injured innocence. He is far too senior a former civil servant — the last post held by him was that of Cabinet Secretary — not to understand the gravity of the charges brought against him. All are equal in the eyes of the law. But the bureaucrats should realise that the service conduct rules protect them from unfair intrusion in their professional dealings by investigating agencies — a shield not available to ordinary citizens. However, once a permission for investigating charges against them is received, they should cooperate with the investigators rather than prevent them from doing their job. Mr Prabhat Kumar must understand that if he were to be allowed to continue as Governor until he was convicted, there would be others who would demand the same protection and privilege with retrospective effect — and most of them would be political leaders, including Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ms Jayalalithaa. There should be no doubt in the public mind that Mr Prabhat Kumar was forced to quit to save further embarrassment to the BJP-led coalition. Now that he has been made to take the decision he should have taken on his own, Mr Prabhat Kumar should be man enough to face trail rather blame others for giving him a bad name. Technically, he is an innocent. All that the media has done is to exercise its right to information and has put it in the public domain. |
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Old policy, old bottle India’s medium-term export policy, unveiled on Wednesday by Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran, is a repetition of old strategies in an international environment that is startlingly new, even radical. The policy hopes to repeat the heady performance in last decade when Indian export grew by an average of 10 per cent, and in one year touching as high as 24 per cent. The strategy is simple on paper but very difficult to implement. This year growth in exports has been a niggardly 3 per cent or less. Mr Maran dreams of pushing this up to 10 per cent in the remaining part of the financial year and fixing it firmly at that level for the next five years. If this miracle really unfolds, India will have a handsome share of 1 per cent of global trade. At present the share is slightly more than 0.6 per cent and the commodities are few and non-competitive in terms of price. The quality and delivery schedule are another matter, not to talk of the elaborate paper work. In fact, Indian exporters and foreign importers have everything to avoid this country. China and South Asian countries make foreign trade a friendly game. Mr Maran pins his hopes on two things. One, he wants the country to hugely increase exports to new areas like Latin America, southern Africa, Egypt and certain countries in South-East Asia. He says his Ministry has done a meticulous survey and is confident of achieving results. He also expects a big boost to trade to traditional importers like the USA, the European Union and Japan. In all these countries India has to compete with China which enjoys several advantages compared to India. This point is left unexplored. The Minister also expects that the real effective exchange rate of the rupee will remain favourable and as though on a cue the rupee lost 12 paise on the same day. The second point he stresses on is to bring down the customs duty on imports required for exports and cheaper and easier credit to exporters. These are compatible with WTO rules. But these may not be enough to help exporters to overcome the global economic slowdown and register a robust growth of 3 per cent this year and 10 per cent next year. It has to recognise that there are structural weaknesses and unless they are solved, Indian exports will be a prisoner of external influences. A grand strategy is no immunisation against this harsh reality. |
Depressing signals from Tamil Nadu The Andipatti constituency in Tamil Nadu is in the news because it is from here Ms Jayalalithaa is seeking to make her triumphant return to power and glory after daring the "due process of law and justice". The trumpets have been blowing loud with those surrounding her promising to transform Andipatti, meaning "dwelling of the pauper" to Arasipatti, which means "abode of the queen". With this in view a budget of Rs 100 crore has been assigned to the constituency and money is flowing like "cheap liquor" introduced recently "to provide quality booze to the poor"! The other day AIADMK cadres used her visit to the temple city of Madurai, en route to Andipatti, to file her nomination, as a grand occasion to hail the "queen" for her conquest of two bulwarks of democracy — the Madras High Court and the Election Commission (EC) of India — who are perceived to have surrendered. What is more blatant is that AIADMK ministers have vowed to make the victory really worthy of a queen, Jayalalithaa, winning by a margin larger than the total number of voters in the constituency! This is no empty rhetoric considering the expertise of these ministers in capturing booths and counting centres exhibited in the recent local bodies elections. In politics as in marketing "Truth is not the truth. Perception is the truth." The wide perception is that democracy is being ravaged and institutions that are supposed to be its bulwarks are surrendering one by one, the latest being the EC itself. In the event the communiqué issued by the commission on January 21 on the Andipatti controversy appears more comical than realistic: "The primary concern in taking these decisions — to postpone the byelections to Saidapet and Vaniyambadi and to hold the poll in Andipatti — is to ensure that the purity of the election process is upheld and the democratic character of the nation, described by the Supreme Court as oasis of democracy, does not get dented in any manner." There is a proverb in Tamil that "it is futile to hide a full pumpkin in a plate of rice". Yet the EC seems to be precisely attempting this. Let us consider the facts. Three assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu — Saidapet, Vaniyambadi and Andipatti — were to go for a byelection in February. Of these, the first two vacancies arose due to the death of incumbents whereas in Andipatti the AIADMK legislator was ordered to resign to pave the way for Ms Jayalalithaa in anticipation of her complete acquittal in the TANSI case as happened recently in the Madras High Court. Elections were duly notified and then followed an avalanche of complaints of serious irregularities and manipulation of electoral rolls in all the three constituencies. The ruling party loyalists were leaving no stone unturned in ensuring the victory of AIADMK candidates in all the three constituencies. Since the "queen" herself was contesting in Andipatti and the ministers had vowed to ensure a massive majority, rigging and manipulation there were naturally at their worst. In response to these complaints and representations made by all the major political parties in the state, the EC deputed Mr K.J. Rao, a Secretary in the commission, to personally verify the complaints. Based on his report, the EC has postponed the Saidapet and Vaniyambadi byelections indefinitely and ordered immediate removal of the Commissioner of the Chennai Municipal Corporation for accepting bulk applications submitted by the AIADMK after the prescribed time limit and getting them included in the revised rolls. The EC has also stayed the publication of the electoral rolls of Saidapet and Vaniyambadi as remedial action was needed. But the Andipatti constituency was declared free of all irregularities and the election was allowed to proceed. This is despite the fact that of the three constituencies, Andipatti, chosen by the AIADMK supremo to contest from and return triumphantly as Chief Minister, exceeded the other two constituencies in enrolling bogus voters and deleting names of people with doubtful loyalty to the ruling party. Mr K.J. Rao's clean chit to Andipatti is perfectly understandable, considering the modus operandi and style of functioning of the powers that be in Tamil Nadu and the powerful network they have in New Delhi. Saidapet and Vaniyambadi had returned non-AIADMK candidates in last May's election and the ruling party's position, if anything, has considerably weakened in these two constituencies in the past eight months, as powerful allies who won the seats had been sent out of the AIADMK alliance. Andipatti, however, continues to remain an AIADMK stronghold and the results are reported to be a foregone conclusion in case Ms Jayalalithaa contests from there. The "iron lady" not only wanted the Andipatti polling to go ahead but also desired a back-up constituency some time in the near future in case winning calculations in Andipatti go awry. With this in view, an elaborate plan was hatched to postpone the Vaniyambadi and Saidapet elections but hold the Andipatti poll as per schedule. What followed was a charade in which the EC was taken for a ride with Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy used more as a tool than as an accomplice. Well before Mr Rao reached Andipatti for inspection "operation cover-up" was put into effect and proof was presented that no bulk applications had been entertained as was done in Saidapet and Vaniyambadi. Mr Rao was duly convinced despite the sideshow put up by the AIADMK and DMK functionaries trading allegations and counter-allegations. State government officials contributed their mite by refusing to cooperate with Mr Rao and taking him on a misguided tour. A thoroughly confused Mr Rao returned to New Delhi and submitted a vague report on Andipatti. Commissioner Krishnamurthy, alone in office, moved fast and issued the controversial order that has seriously damaged the credibility and fair name of the Election Commission of India. It is widely believed and perceived that the entire "Arasipatti cover-up" was orchestrated and choreographed by a powerful former boss of the who had appointed himself as the "messiah of the middle class". Considering the "cloak-and-dagger" style of this gentleman while in office, this perception may not be far off the mark. The way institutions are crumbling, democracy and the rule of law in India are at great peril. Empty rhetoric notwithstanding, corrupt men and women stride this land like a colossus, dominating its political, administrative, judicial and business spectrum. Over a period of time, while the good and the honest have shrunk in disgust, the corrupt and the venal loom larger than life mocking at the institutions and the systems democracy has spawned. In the event the hapless people of this nation look upon the higher judiciary and the Election Commission to defend democracy, justice and the rule of law. Throughout history democracy was never sustained, justice was never preserved and ideals were never vindicated, by surrender. Throughout history men have faced hopeless odds in battle, and have accepted valiant defeat and the prospect of certain death in defence of their liberty and values rather than surrender their ideals. The present struggle for the soul of our nation, for our core values, and for the supremacy of justice and rule of law, can be likened to a war. It can be called a culture war which is every bit as destructive of our institutions and values, if not of human lives, as a war of bombs and bullets. The casualties thus far have been integrity, character, justice, truth, prosperity and freedom. This war, like any other, will not be won by surrender, no matter how bleak the outlook at present may be. Our men in olive green, most of whom hailing from humble moorings, even today are sticking to this hoary tradition of valour and sacrifice for defending the honour of the nation refusing to surrender against heavy odds. But those in "three-piece suits" and "buttoned-up coats" crumble at the slightest crunch and surrender in the face of petty temptations and passing threats. The big question is whether the exalted institution of Election Commission has also chosen to surrender instead of standing up and be counted! If so, the doomsday for democracy and rule of law in India is not far off. The writer, a retired IAS officer, is a well-known politico-economic commentator. |
Booked to bed A cold, freezing winter night, a howling wind outside knocking on the window panes. Ah! What better than a cosy, warm bed and an engrossing book to curl up with. Such small pleasures of life make up for all the winter chill, and lend romance to the season of shivers. Coming home after a hard day’s night, changing into a comfortable and warm kurta-pajyama — a hot meal, and then to slide into a snug bed is my idea of bliss. And bedtime is my finest hour. The day’s work is done, and there is a hushed silence of the household in blissful slumber. For, then begins my tryst with books. A private communion with world of words authored by myriad minds. What shall be the flavour of the night? I have several choices to pick from. The bookshelf behind my bed has an assortment to meet all moods! If I have hit the blues why not chuckle with a good ol’ P.G. Wodehouse or perhaps a vintage R.K. Narayan with its gentle, tragi-comic humour. And if it’s a day — or rather night — for some insights, then perhaps a hardback V.S. Naipaul with incisive essays and narratives written in the most elegant English prose. And if I want simple word-pictures, straight from the heart, of hills and its quaint landscapes, peopled by unforgettable characters, then perhaps a Ruskin Bond. I can get back to his Rain in the Mountains anytime and drift gently into the dewfresh innocent world of pine knolls, streams, hillside tea shops and drunken postmen. I select my night-time reading, like a wine connoisseur, picking up his table wine to go with a gourmet meal! It has to have the right blend and vintage. In fact, I have this queer habit of starting two or three, new talked-about arrivals at the same time; reading from each a few pages — and then go back to the one that stirs the imagination most. Or to simply discard all of them; and just flick some magazines that come in heapfuls these days. But eventually I always go back to a book, even if it’s a re-read; magazines are only shortspan flirtations! For me a book is not just a racy page-turner that grips for its unputdownable qualities; but something to be savoured word by word and mulled over later on. And in making my choice, it’s not only the contents of the book that matter, but also its binding, its title, its cover design — and even the writer’s picture on the dust jacket! Even if Arundhati Roy’s GOST was not a masterpiece, her petite face and ringlets of curly hair would have induced me to buy it! Perhaps, women readers would say the same for Pico Iyer’s books, with his handsome visage on the jacket! I usually have a good look at the paper used, the type and size of the font and its print quality, before getting swayed enough to buy a book. And these days, the hardbacks being so frightfully expensive, it’s worth all this fuss and scrutiny. Moreover, books are a collector’s item that ought to be aesthetically produced as works of art by themselves. Another thing that affects my late night reading is the quality of light that falls on the book, without straining my back or neck. It has to be muted enough so as not to bother my wife who likes to turn in early, and yet sufficient to light up my flights of fancy and create the right ambience. No wonder, I spent quite a bit on buying the right kind of bedside lamp. After all, this lamp is for enlightenment. |
A world gone out of control? In the 20th century, man searched for alternatives for a new world order, for new ways of life. It produced a crop of ideologies, each trying to deny man his freedom, trying to make him a robot. By the end of the century, they were all discredited. We thought that no one would try to impose new ideologies on mankind in the 21st century. We were wrong. Fundamentalism, Talibanism, Terrorism — these are the new ways of life offered at the onset of the 21st century — all coming from the “enraged” Muslim world. It is going to be dangerous to live in this century. The Christian world gave us socialism. It tried to take mankind forward, not backward. But it denied freedom to man. The new ideologies threaten to take men backward — to primitive life. To a life raw in tooth and claw. The hijackers of the September 11 events were told that they were doing a job “loved by God”. A shocking view into the mindset of terrorists! But which God? Allah? Is Allah, then, a punishing God of innocent humanity? No, no, say Muslim intellectuals. But what have they done to prevent upstarts from among them making a business out of God and religion? This question can no more be evaded. It is for the Organisation of Islamic Conference to give the world an assurance that Muslim upstarts will not plunge the world into a catastrophe in the name of God and Islam. Murder is a criminal offence. But the leaders of the terrorist organisations have made murder their profession and they are being sheltered by Muslim countries. No argument can exonerate them, for murder and terror can no more be accepted in civilised societies. To do so is to make terror and murder a way of life in the world. In his book “What is Islam?”, Montgomery Watt says that Muslims are heirs to a deep-seated prejudice, which goes back to the war propaganda of the medieval times. Let us admit this. But has Islam been different? In what way? Today, says an authority, Islam has come to be identified with the mullah, a semi-literate man, with a flowing beard and gown, the Taliban, burqa-clad women, madrasas and frenzied mobs. Osama bin Laden has multiplied the prejudices manifold. Terror has no place in Islam, says the Quran. It says: “Fight those who fight against you, but begin no hostilities. Surely God does not love aggression.” Yet the entire terrorist philosophy is based on aggression. And the entire Muslim world remains mute! The events of September 11 have given rise to a re-examination of the Muslim world and unfavourable questions are being asked: Is Islam undemocratic by the nature of its teachings? Why is it that no Muslim country has a democratic dispensation? Why are Muslim countries ruled by kings, sheikhs or military men? The Muslim world is unable to put up eminent leaders. Says Asghar Ali Engineer: “The entire Arab world (300 million in number) lacks any mass leader of any calibre as its authoritarian rulers use highly repressive policies and do not allow persons of this kind to emerge.” In short, it is these authoritarian rulers who dominate over Muslim councils. They condemn any democratic movement among them as a western conspiracy. So the Islamic world has languished without a proper leadership, and no leaders are likely to appear without democratising the Islamic world. The Taliban shocked the world by demolishing the 1,500 years old Buddha statues. There is no sanction in the Quran for it. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Nasr Farid Wassel himself journeyed to Kandahar to persuade the Taliban to desist. And Islamic countries too made similar appeals. Was the defiance by the Taliban to be taken so lightly by the Muslim world? In any case, the world wants to know what is the Muslim attitude to pre-Islamic civilisations? Egypt escaped the ravages, not so much by Persia and India. The Taliban called themselves soldiers of Islam. Yet they had nothing to do with Islam. They lived by selling narcotics, which kills millions of innocent people in the world. They funded terrorism with narcotic money. And yet the Islamic world could associate these people with God and Islam! Eric Hobsbawm, the Marxist historian, says: “We do not know where we are going. We only know that history has brought us to this point”. Yes, history has brought us to this point. And we can only be thankful to history for what has been accomplished. Life, brain and consciousness — these are milestones of this human history. If the world had gone out of control — and it does, if not frequently — history has brought it back to its axis. Therein lies our hope and re-assurance. Semitic religions want an enemy. Their secular life is in no less need of an enemy. Octavio Paz writes: “Tyrannies and despotisms need the threat of an outside enemy to justify their rule. When such an enemy does not exist, they invent one”. This is true of both Christianity and Islam. It is time they looked upon the world as one, as one family. The Islamic world is restive. It is unhappy over the negative influence of Western civilisation over Islam. So what does it do? It creates an “ideal” model in Afghanistan. Was it the Nizam-e-Mustafa? Ideology was trying to bottle up human history. With the death of ideologies, history has triumphed. It did not come to an end, as Fukuyama says. Man is now free to create history. But he is still in a prison — the market prison. He must get out of it. The market has only one objective: to turn mankind into an amorphous metabolic organism! Our problem finally is our growth. In 1930 there were only two billion human beings. Today there are six billion. Most of them are a burden on the earth. By 2050, we are told, the number will go up to 9-10 billion. Malthus feared that the growing population would overwhelm the earth’s capacity to feed it. Feed we may. But it is beyond man’s capacity to sustain such a huge population. And we have already damaged much of the life-support systems. It is perhaps not yet time to agree with Nietzsche when he says: “The earth is a beautiful place. But it has a pox called man”. We must find a vaccine for this pox, lest we be all scarred beyond recognition. The Muslim thinkers must get out of their ivory towers. Dr Zakir Hussain had said that providence had destined this land (India) to be the laboratory for the greatest experiment in cultural synthesis. But Islam is an ideology. It tries to straightjacket the Muslims. It is not open to amendments and accommodation. It is for Muslims to ponder over their entire inheritance. |
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Facial scanning is here for checking terrorists In an Australian first of sorts, air passengers will now have their faces scanned and checked against a database of terrorists. Facial screening, which scans faces like a bar code and records individual prints, is being tried at Sydney international airport on volunteer Customs staff. Initial trials, five years ago found the technology called biometrics was not user-friendly. But in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the USA its development and use have been accelerated. The technology, used by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI, CIA, US Customs and British police, is more tamper-proof than passports and identity cards are. It is also being used by law enforcement agencies in Israel and Egypt. Besides fingerprints, other features such as the iris and retina, facial characteristics and voices can be read. Facial recognition systems on the market can capture faces, based on 80 facial landmarks, up to 3 km away and at a speed of a million faces a second.
ANI Premature birth can slow child development: study Babies born even less than four weeks premature are still at risk of slow development, raising the question of whether inducing labour is a good idea, according to a study. “This finding suggests that women and their physicians should balance the risks of moderate prematurity against the risks of continuing the pregnancy before deciding whether to induce early labour,” said Duane Alexander, Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, where the study was conducted. The study of 4,621 children published in the January issue of the journal Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology showed that children born in the 34th to the 36th week of pregnancy are at risk of development delays for up to four years. A normal pregnancy is 37 weeks.
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Sons, relations and even earned wealth desert man, but there is something which does not — Karma earned in previous lives Both are born in these are family in the same house and of the same womb, One is a master of hundred men, And the other cannot feed even himself. —
Jayavallabha, Vajjalaggam verses *** Both the passionate joy of this world And the boundless joy in heaven cannot come To the level of even a sixteenth fraction Of this joy due to decline of desire — Dhvanyaloka Verses (9th Century CE) *** The desire for happiness and self satisfaction is natural, and no one would willingly lead a life full of sorrow and sufferings. But do we ever find a man who feels satisfied with his lot? The reason for this is that our actions are not in conformity with what we know and what we desire. — Sudarshan Kumar Biala, Yoga for Better living
and self Realisation *** Desire leads to ultimate ruin. It can never be destroyed by fulfillment. Dispel desire. Develop true love. Desire plus life is man Life minus desire is God. Desire leads to despair — From the discourses
of Sathya Sai Baba *** Desires are crazy. They make you sad in two ways. If they are not fulfilled you will be sad, frustrated. If they are fulfilled you will be sad and frustrated, in fact, more so, because when your desires are fulfilled then you suddenly recognise you have been chasing shadows, illusions. You have been trying to catch hold of a rainbow; all that you find is that your hands are wet, that's all. — Osho, Come, Come, yet again |
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