E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Freedom for farmers?
Do the 2002-03 Budget initiatives provide for “kisan ki azadi”, as has been claimed by Mr Yashwant Sinha? The answer could have been in the affirmative had he not raised the prices of most varieties of fertilisers. 

Good only for bare essentials
The tendency of successive governments to think of procuring umbrellas only after it starts raining has played havoc with the country's defence preparedness. This preparation is an ongoing process and cannot be set in motion at the last minute.

OPINION

Common money, clashing politics
Can Europe be a political community?
Bharat Wariavalla
The new year saw the coming together of 12 countries of the European Union in a single currency system. Stretching from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this bloc of countries has a GDP next to the world’s largest GDP, that of the USA, and their money, the euro, is a serious contender against the dollar for a world currency status.

MIDDLE

Understanding a mania
M.K. Agarwal
Sometime back a revered, dear old friend of mine asked me to help him complete the following sentence in not more than 10 words: “Cricket is India’s favourite game because....” He explained that he had come through the first two stages of a three-step quiz, and that a convincing answer to the concluding part could bring him a handsome prize.

Kipling’s day is long gone
Jason Burke
Peshawar
The colonel pointed to the distant ridge, as sharp against the bleached sky as his whiskers’ waxed points. “The enemy are there,” he said with a perfect upper-class British accent before clicking his fingers for a refill of our china tea cups. He pointed at a chart hung on the tent’s green canvas wall.

ON THE SPOT

Tehelka case: waiting for justice
Tavleen Singh
Shankar Sharma, whose company financed Tehelka.com, has been in jail for nearly three months on the charge that he sold shares to foreign investors without taking permission from the Reserve Bank, while Manu Sharma, who is charged with killing Jessica Lal, is out on bail. 

TRENDS & POINTERS

A village of singers
The onslaught of Bhangra pop and commercialisation of Punjabi music may have distanced young generations from the traditional folk music genre, but there are some who are still inspired by the traditional form.

• SMS-ing can lead to injured fingers

• Salamis, hot dogs cause diabetes

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Freedom for farmers?

Do the 2002-03 Budget initiatives provide for “kisan ki azadi”, as has been claimed by Mr Yashwant Sinha? The answer could have been in the affirmative had he not raised the prices of most varieties of fertilisers. The talk of cutting fertiliser as also other subsidies has been in the air for quite some time, but neither the industry nor the farmers are prepared for this. Making fertilisers available at reasonable rates to farmers, even if this means imports, has to be the objective. The industry too has to prepare for competition by modernising its machinery, cutting down production costs and improving efficiency. In the present situation the subsidy on fertilisers should have been continued. However, Mr Yashwant Sinha has added to the burden of the already suffering farmer. A farmer will now have to pay more for each bag of urea (Rs 12), DAP (Rs 22) and potash (Rs 10). But for this sore point, the other proposals for the farm sector, particularly a 10 per cent increase in the allocation for rural infrastructure, thrust on agricultural research and extension links to farmers, are in the right direction. On the positive side, most farmers overuse fertilisers and the higher prices, it is hoped, should discourage this tendency.

The removal of the remaining curbs on the storage, sale, movement and export of foodgrains is welcome, but the Finance Minister did not take any major initiative for tackling the number one problem of the agriculture sector, that is, the malady of mounting foodgrain stocks. He has chosen to wait for the recommendations of the Abhijit Sen Committee, which has been appointed to help the government formulate long-term grain policy. The country has 324.15 lakh tonnes of wheat and 256.17 lakh tonnes of rice as on January, 2002. The next bumper wheat crop will be ready in April. Neither the state nor central agencies are prepared to handle and store the coming stocks. So the problem of plenty will only worsen. The FCI is under increasing pressure to withdraw from the procurement process. The wisdom of continuing with the policy of paying minimum support price (MSP) for foodgrains is also being questioned. Punjab, Haryana and other foodgrain producing states have not yet prepared themselves for both these eventualities. Although last year’s central Budget had provided for a decentralised procurement system, it did not materialise due to the states’ unpreparedness, deliberate or otherwise. The budgetary thrust on the diversification of crops, seen in this context, is therefore commendable. Mr Sinha has asked the states to remove the monopoly of their agencies and boards in the procument business and encourage private participation by removing legal hurdles, wherever necessary. The first test of efficiency of the new government led by Capt Amarinder Singh will be in April when it will be required to procure wheat arrivals.

There are three other budgetary initiatives which have a significant bearing on the agricultural states. One, a special loan settlement scheme for marginal farmers. It is now common knowledge that farmers are under heavy debt. While loan-waiving need not become a regular practice, in genuine cases farmers need help to escape from the clutches of private money lenders. The kisan credit card scheme has been quite a success and its reach needs to be extended. Two, the Budget provides for a new corporation for agricultural insurance. This, one hopes, would provide relief to farmers losing their crops due to natural calamities, use of spurious fertilisers or seeds of poor quality. Cotton growers losing their crops to American bollworm year after year will stand to benefit. Three, the removal of restrictions on new milk processing capacity will allow new players in the highly regulated dairy sector. This will provide competition to the established institutions including cooperatives and companies like Nestle and Cadbury. The dairy sector has tremendous unrealised potential which will stand unlocked. With this in view, the government has decided to amend the Milk and Milk Products Control Order. All in all, the Budget, by providing institutional and financial support for value addition, processing of farm produce and exports should help agriculture survive in the post-WTO regime. Though, much remains to be done, particularly by the states, most of whom are financially irresponsible and reform-resistant.

Good only for bare essentials

The tendency of successive governments to think of procuring umbrellas only after it starts raining has played havoc with the country's defence preparedness. This preparation is an ongoing process and cannot be set in motion at the last minute. But it took an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with Pakistan to make the powers that be wake up. Only last year, the Ministry of Defence returned about Rs 5,000 crore as unutilised. This can be attributed to the slowdown in purchases following the Tehelka expose. But what about the year previous to that, when exactly the same thing happened without Tehelka? This laidback style only shows that the wish list of the defence forces is not taken with the seriousness that it deserves. The Rs 65,000 crore allocated this year marks an increase of 14.03 per cent over last year's revised estimates of Rs 57,000 crore. But as far as the Budget allocation last year was concerned, it was Rs 62,000 crore. So, the hike does not involve much of a jump - barely 4.8 per cent. If one factors in domestic inflation with respect to revenue expenditure and the devaluation in the rupee with respect to capital expenditure, the allocation ends up being grossly inadequate to take care of modernisation and upgradation of the country's defence. But considering the overall financial limitations, the Ministry of Defence can make at least the most essential acquisitions through proper prioritisation.

Defence Minister George Fernandes has mentioned the advanced jet trainers (AJTs) and the aircraft carrier "Admiral Gorshkov" among the top priorities. Besides, decade-old machinery in the ordnance factories needs to be replaced. The Army is expected to utilise the enhanced outlay of Rs 5,910 crore for equipment on purchasing Phalcon AWACS from Israel, T-90 tanks from Russia and 155-mm artillery guns from South Africa or Bofors. Equally urgent is the acquisition of weapons-locating "firefinder" radars, because unless these are deployed in strength on the western border, it is very difficult to check infiltration. The enhanced outlay of Rs 1,735 crore may help the Air Force to carry out the badly needed upgradation of the MIG-BIS factory in Nasik. Now that the USA has lifted the military-related sanctions against India, it may be possible to purchase 40 GE-404 engines and get the LCA project moving. All these are mandatory for carrying out at least a small part of the profile transformation that the defence forces are clamouring for. The Defence Budget does not mention ballistic missiles and nuclearisation of weapons, now that India is a nuclear-weapon state. These will be covered under the financial provisions of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The money returned last year and stores funds of the Army are to be used to meet the cost of mobilisation, now running into its second month. This may affect the ongoing maintenance programmes of the three Services. Besides, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has imposed a 5 per cent "national security" surcharge. Even that may go more towards footing the bill of forward deployment, along with the pullback when that happens. Defence modernisation may not get speeded up sufficiently. The problem with the Defence Budget is that it has very high revenue composition, that is, salary bills and establishment costs. That leaves very little for capital expenditure, which is used to procure new weapons systems. For instance, out of last year's Rs 5,000 crore unspent fund, as much as Rs 3,000 crore was contributed by capital expenditure. The capital outlay in the 2002-03 proposals is only 32 per cent. It is better than 29 per cent of the previous year, but is still insufficient. The imbalance needs to be corrected. Many defence analysts are of the view that it is possible to do so only if manpower is reduced and more force multipliers utilised. The country has also to plan ahead and be prepared for war contingency in case the current border standoff spins out of control. 

OPINION

Common money, clashing politics
Can Europe be a political community?
Bharat Wariavalla

The new year saw the coming together of 12 countries of the European Union in a single currency system. Stretching from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, this bloc of countries has a GDP next to the world’s largest GDP, that of the USA, and their money, the euro, is a serious contender against the dollar for a world currency status.

But the decision to create a single currency was not inspired only by economic considerations. There was politics behind it, as is true about all major economic decisions. It is the amazingly peaceful and swift reunification of Germany in 1989 that made the members of the Economic Community (now the European Union) enthusiastically push the idea of a single European currency. For them, and notably France, it was a way to tie their strong partner, grown stronger, after the unification, Germany, into a network of interdependence and thus rein in German power. The hope behind the single currency plan was to constrain united Germany’s political freedom.

Here few people know that France and also Britain opposed German unification in 1989. President Mitterand flew to Crimea to confer with Soviet President Gorbachev to find ways of preventing the two Germanies from uniting. Mrs Margaret Thatcher expressed the British fears of a united Germany.

The strongest support for the unification came from Mr George Bush Sr, who diplomatically concerted with Chancellor Helmut Kohl to bring about the German unity. The USA has always stood by Germany in its hour of need — from the time of the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948 to the year when the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989. It is this that makes for strong cooperation between Germany and America, which in turn provides justification for the US military presence in Europe.

The common currency may not yet pave the way for the political unity of Europe. The big three of Europe — Germany, France and Britain — have conflicting visions of what a future Europe should be. Britain has not yet joined the common currency-fold, though it may do so in the expected second term of Mr Tony Blair. Only if Britain opts for the euro can this money begin to rival the dollar as a world currency. The city of London is the largest money market in Europe, and the euro without the pound sterling becoming a part of it cannot aspire to be a world currency.

Though France and Germany have together piloted the destiny of Europe for the past 50 years, they have deep differences among themselves over the political shape of a future Europe. The oldest of the modern state, going back to the sixteenth century, France insists on the primacy of the nation-state. It opposes the idea of a supra-national Europe for that would diminish its sovereignty.

Germany, a relatively young state, created by Chancellor Bismarck in 1870, prefers a Europe that is a federation of states. Germany itself is a federation. It wants a Europe in which the sovereignty of states is gradually melted into a loosely federated Europe.

Here we tend to believe that the European Union is a cohesive entity moving in a well-charted direction. We know little about the serious divisions among its key members. For example, our media hardly reported on a verbal dual between President Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroder over the issue, indeed trivial, of weighted voting in the European Commission. The occasion was the summit meeting of the EU leaders at Nice a year ago. So miffed was Mr Schroder that he asked the French: “Is this what you think of us fifty years after the war.”

Mr Romano Prodi, the most intellectual of the heads of the European Commission, is perturbed that the EU may remain only a trading bloc and not become a political community, as its founders like Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer wanted it to be.

The three principal countries of the EU — France, Britain and Germany — have sharply conflicting ideas on a future Europe. Gaullist nationalism deeply afflicts the French decision-makers. They want Europe to be a loose union of nation states led by them. The grandeur of France that General de Gaulle so eloquently spoke about 30 years ago is still the objective of this French policy, but it eludes them.

The British are even more nationalistic and isolationist than the French. They would like Europe to be just an economic union that does not bind them politically to Europe. Their binding links are across the Atlantic with the USA.

Only the German vision of a federated Europe is somewhat in tune with the current reality of Europe. But even a federal Europe cannot accommodate its vast linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity. An enlarged European Union, perhaps comprising as many 25 countries by year 2004, will be a hugely diverse Europe. The present EU of 15 countries still broadly conforms to the political and cultural contours of western christendom after it broke with Byzentium. Europe of 25 countries will be a hugely diverse cultural, linguistic and political entity.

How ironical that just when the Europeans have taken such a momentous step as having one currency, they are so bereft of the vision for one Europe. Perhaps, they think that a politically united Europe will automatically follow a Europe tied together by a common currency. In other words, functional integration on such matters as post, health, fisheries, immigration or now money will eventually result in the integration on matters that deeply touch national pride and sensitivities like defence and foreign policy.

Functional integration seldom produces political unity. SAARC is a good example of this. It has achieved nothing of substance since it was founded in 1984. Like SAARC there are many such organisation in Latin America, Africa and West Asia, and many of them have withered or are barely surviving because its members do not share a common political vision.

On the other hand the EU has on the whole prospered since it was born in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome. Its founders held in common a conception of Europe, and very importantly the mighty USA blessed it unreservedly. Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman conceived of a united Europe during World War II and their conception was shared by President Roosevelt and President Truman. Without American support and money the plans for European unity would have floundered.

Equally important was the generous financial support the Federal German Republic under its redoubtable Chancellor, Kondrad Adenauer, gave to sustain the European unity venture in its nascent stages in the fifties. Germany subsidised the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to its economic disadvantage and to French advantage. Someone has to pay for unity. Germany pursued enlightened self-interest.

Today in 21st century Europe there is no one country with sufficient power and vision to take the required giant stride towards political unity. United Germany with some 80 million people is still economically the strongest in Europe, but it is no more as feisty as it once was. It cannot be the locomotive of the European economy.

The EU cannot become a political community for a long time, if ever. That is a sad thought, for a distinctly European voice in world affairs is most needed at this time.

MIDDLE

Understanding a mania
M.K. Agarwal

Sometime back a revered, dear old friend of mine asked me to help him complete the following sentence in not more than 10 words: “Cricket is India’s favourite game because....” He explained that he had come through the first two stages of a three-step quiz, and that a convincing answer to the concluding part could bring him a handsome prize.

My immediate reaction to the poser was one of puzzlement at the high popularity of cricket in a poor country like India. For, by all counts, it is a lavish game, requiring costly paraphernalia by way of wickets, gloves, bat and pads, besides a bowling strip. Basketball is said to be the national game of the Americans, and football of the Germans, for the ostensible reason that being inexpensive, these games enable mass participation. And remember, these nations are far wealthier than we are. It would, therefore, make much better sense if, in this country, games like wrestling, kabaddi, or gilli-danda were to enjoy preponderance of appeal; it would be so much in keeping with our means and milieu. Wherefore, then, this mania, this addiction, for cricket? How to explain the frenzy which grips an entire populace when a major cricket match is on? People sit glued to their TV sets, lapping up the game, ball-by-ball, and over-by-over. In buses and trains, bars and coffee houses, shopping malls and post-office queues, cricket is the talk. To understand this paradox, and to answer the above riddle, we need to analyse.

Cricket is a leisurely game, and a match could last several days. Of late, one-day matches or those with limited overs, have gained some ground, but the thrill and excitement of a Test match, and its pre-eminence, continue unabated. The unhurried character of the game prompted Lord Mancroft to describe cricket in these words: “It is a game which the English, not being a spiritual people have invented to give themselves some concept of eternity”. The English introduced their national sport wherever their colonial ambitions took them. In India, the game hit upon a particularly kindred soil. Its relaxed nature had a striking cultural parallel with the life of the people here. In the absence of serious occupation the natives showed, to use the phraseology of Dickens, a general tendency to lurk and lounge, and to be at street corners without intelligible reason. Cricket offered them an agreeable pastime in which to spend their abundant leisure.

With passage of time a colonial mindset got under way, and a habit grew, especially among the upper classes, to imitate those in power. Enthralled by the tastes and forms of amusement of the masters, they took to cricket with gusto. Independence has not changed this elitist bias. Even now the cricketers generally come from privileged backgrounds. This patronage by the nobility has gone a long way to influence the preferences of people at large. The common man imagines that by subscribing to cricket he is acquiring unto himself a bit of the distinction and exclusiveness associated with the high gentry. It is much like the craze for English medium schools, even in small towns, and among the not so well-off.

Earlier, cricket was regarded as a gentleman’s game, almost synonymous with dignity and honour. If a man was found flirting with another’s wife, his conduct was dubbed as “not cricket”. Honour is still attached to the game, but now money dominates. In other disciplines like, hockey, boxing, weightlifting, volleyball etc money is, unfortunately, scarce; sponsorship for them is an alien concept. Many bright players in these fields are forced to spend their retirement days in anonymity and penury. In a market-driven economy it is the cricketers who have a heyday. They enjoy primacy; they are the idols, the ones to command respect and revenue. Next to, or along with, film celebrities, it is the cricket heroes who are eagerly sought and generously paid by the corporate world, to espouse and push their products — may be drinks, soaps, perfumes, automobiles, furnishings, garments, watches, cigarettes, energy boosters, or aphrodisiacs. Every upstart contender sees in cricket money and fame; many seek in it a career; some even discern in it the road to matrimony and conjugal bliss.

There is yet another aspect. The unpredictability of outcome of a cricket match, and the splendour and spectacle that go with it all have a touch of the “drama”. The boys in flannels, coloured shirts, stylish sunglasses carry with them an air of trendiness and flamboyancy. These, it seems, are strong points of fascination for women. Only this would explain the sizeable presence of female spectators in a cricket stadium. Their appearance imparts to the game a kind of dainty charm, and the sanctity almost of fashion. And if you are not in fashion, goes a saying, you are as good as out of the world. Penchant for cricket is thus the in thing, a vogue, and a mark of accomplishment, even of elegance.

It is time to ask if we are now in a position to provide an apt answer to the teaser we had started with. Understandably, there is no single best reply. My own suggestion to my mentor was: “Cricket is India’s favourite game because it epitomises national traits like elitism, consumerism, dramatism and mannerism.” I have no means of judging its strength, as my friend never got back to me. The reader may speculate and surmise, as he likes.

ANALYSIS

Kipling’s day is long gone
Jason Burke

Peshawar
The colonel pointed to the distant ridge, as sharp against the bleached sky as his whiskers’ waxed points. “The enemy are there,” he said with a perfect upper-class British accent before clicking his fingers for a refill of our china tea cups. He pointed at a chart hung on the tent’s green canvas wall. ‘My chaps are pushing up here,’ he said and gestured into the white light outside. It was extremely hot. In the distance, a line of khaki infantry were working their way across a pink-flecked field of flowering opium poppies, bashing the green plants flat.

The scene, to anyone raised on the writing of that chronicler of the British Empire in India, Rudyard Kipling, was a parody of a parody, the British Raj revived. Nothing changes on the North West Frontier.

Next week, Pakistan celebrates the centenary of the North West Frontier Province, carved off as a self-governing bloc where the truculent tribesmen who had resisted colonial rule for decades could look after themselves and, it was hoped, act as a buffer against Russian imperialism. In much of it, government authority, then as now, was legally restricted to the roads. Apart from that, the only law was that of the tribe and the gun.

Opium may have been grown here for centuries but the explosion in cultivating the drug, and the manufacture of its derivative, heroin, has come only in the past two decades.

It is easy to dismiss the current fundamentalism of many of the area’s Pashtun tribes as endemic. It is not. The recent support shown for the Taliban and for Osama bin Laden is not merely the latest manifestation of a centuries-old tradition.

If it were, the chances of countering the growing fundamentalism of the 25 million people in the province - and elsewhere in the world - would be slim indeed. In fact, religious extremism in the Khyber can be countered. And if it can be dealt with there, it can be dealt with anywhere.

The stakes are the highest for Pakistan, a nuclear-capable state which has never lost its post-colonial hangover. Pakistan woke up after the bloody binge of partition wondering not just ‘where am I?’ but ‘who am I?’ and seems still to be seeking the answer. Both the fundamentalists and Pakistan’s military leader, President Pervez Musharraf, are hoping to provide one.

Musharraf wants a democratic, pluralist, moderate Islamic nation (and for this he deserves more credit than he receives from left-leaning UK liberals who maintain a knee-jerk opposition to his military rule).

He believes the North West’s lurch into religious radicalism was not inevitable. He knows that for centuries the traditional culture of the Pashtuns has differed from that of Bin Laden and his Saudi-influenced Wahhabis, or the Taliban with their brand of Deobandi sect militancy. Although the tribes of the frontier province have ridden to battle many times under the green flag of Islam, religion has never been their prime motivation - whether they fought the Sikhs, the British or my colonel with the waxed moustache. It was the desire for loot and land or, as often as not, sheer bloody-mindedness in the face of attempts to curtail their autonomy, that drove them to their swords, jezzails or, latterly, rocket-launchers.

Musharraf also knows that over the past 30 years every Pakistani leader has looked to the fundamentalists to bolster their positions. Fundamentalist leaders, few of whom show a genuine commitment to faith, have found fertile ground in Pakistan, and particularly in the North West where poverty, illiteracy and a culture of violence have drawn thousands to the certainties of radical Islam.

Pashtun leaders, their patriarchal power undermined by new threats, have been happy to support the hardliners, so providing some legitimacy for a novel and alien ideology. But there is nothing inevitable about this. Like the growth of an opium poppy, fundamentalism needs nurturing. And it, too, can be rooted out. This means the crowds of angry young men who jostled and spat at me in the bazaars of Peshawar last autumn are not an inevitable element of the political landscape. It also means that the green head-scarved fighters firing in the air at funerals in Gaza and the devotees of sharia law in Nigeria are not inevitable either.

The West must guard against the belief that fundamentalism is a fact of life in certain parts of the world. If you were raised on Kiplingesque tales of derring-do on the frontier, with visions of hawk-nosed turbanned men who were cunning and untrustworthy but great fighters and horsemen, loyal to Allah and their tribe alone, that makes it all the harder.

It is too easy for us to accept the cliches and dismiss the North West Frontier Province as beyond help. Those who scratch a living among its bleached and blasted hills deserve much better. The Observer

ON THE SPOT

Tehelka case: waiting for justice
Tavleen Singh

Shankar Sharma, whose company financed Tehelka.com, has been in jail for nearly three months on the charge that he sold shares to foreign investors without taking permission from the Reserve Bank, while Manu Sharma, who is charged with killing Jessica Lal, is out on bail. One of Manu’s alleged accomplices, Vikas Yadav, was given bail even earlier and has just been re-arrested in connection with another murder. This time it was not a young girl who ended up dead because she refused to serve liquor but a young man who danced with Yadav’s sister. Like Manu, though, he is the son of a powerful politician so he could make bail again.

But, Shankar Sharma, who as a stockbroker built up a hugely successful company, had no criminal record and last year paid Rs 20 crore in taxes, is considered such a threat to society that he continues to be denied bail. How would you describe such a justice system?

By fortuitous coincidence, on my way to Mumbai’s Esplanade court I had a chance to talk about it with our Attorney General Soli Sorabji, who happened to be on the same flight from Delhi. It was he who raised the subject.

“All of you are trying to link it (the case against Sharma) to Tehelka but the truth is that there was a case against him in connection with the stock market two weeks before Tehelka broke.” Whatever the case against him, it seemed wrong to keep him in jail, I said, and Mr Sorabji agreed. “We are not opposing bail. Our instructions are not to oppose bail”.

Well he clearly forgot to tell his Additional Solicitor General K.K. Sood, who argued strenuously against bail on the ground that Sharma was a rich man and could use his wealth to hire people to murder the government’s witnesses. Surely, if this was his plan he could implement it just as easily from jail? He also described him as a man who had no respect for the ‘rule of law’ because when the Enforcement Department summoned him to Delhi for one of the many raids it has conducted against him he offered to send the keys to his office with one of his ‘minions’ instead. Considering there have been 25 raids on Sharma’s company in the past year it sounds like a perfectly legitimate thing to do but who am I to mock Sood’s arguments if the judge found them compelling enough to deny bail.

It would be a mistake, though, to think this is just about Shankar Sharma it is about a justice system that keeps a man with no criminal record in jail on the flimsiest of charges while releasing killers back into society.

Sharma is charged under FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act), a law the Vajpayee government itself abolished on the ground that it was obsolete. So why is it still being used? The charge is that Sharma sold shares to FIIs (foreign institutional investors) without personal permission from the Reserve Bank. The FIIs had permission to buy and the company, Himachal Futuristic, had permission to sell, the RBI even fixed a minimum price but Sharma’s violation, according to the government, is that he did not take personal permission to broker the deal. Sharma has explained that because he was not dealing in foreign exchange, he did not need Reserve Bank permission in the first place but even if he is guilty of a technical violation, is it serious enough for him to have spent the past two months in jail? If after 25 raids and a whole year of investigation this is all they can come up with, then it’s hard to believe this is not about Tehelka.

Tehelka shook the central government and in particular the Defence Ministry to its roots. Everyone knows that money is made by touts and government officials in defence deals and everyone knows that politicians collect money illegally but never before had the Indian public seen evidence on tape. The image of the BJP party president accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh tore of the last bit of gloss on that party’s holier-than-thou image. It also ended the Vajpayee government’s honeymoon and this is what Shankar Sharma is being made to pay for.

TRENDS & POINTERS

A village of singers

The onslaught of Bhangra pop and commercialisation of Punjabi music may have distanced young generations from the traditional folk music genre, but there are some who are still inspired by the traditional form.

Rajiana village in Punjab traces its heritage to Baba Raja Peer who lived centuries ago. Memories of royal splendour have dimmed with the passage of time but his teachings, songs and folklore are remembered to this day.

Gagandeep, Jaspreet and Joginder, all aged between 11 and 12, are bringing life back into the village landscape by carrying on the ancient tradition.

Gagandeep Singh says: “I want to preserve the wealthy tradition of our village. I would like to sing of our mythological and cultural heritage that has been heard by the people of Punjab for generations.”

Adds Jaspreet Singh: “I’d like to sing patriotic songs to the glory of our martyrs, of the saints and heroes of our history and mythology, of their sacrifices and their grandeur.”

The three lads and others in the village take special training from Sardar Nand Singh, a village elder.

The song-stories which Nand Singh narrates and instils into them originate in mythological texts, the religious books, singing of heroes, valour and time.

Nand Singh, the singer trainer said, “Art is the other name for ‘shakti’ or strength. Art has its roots in Punjab. Starting with sage Valmiki, all our Sikh Gurus were deeply attached to art and its forms. Our folklore, dhadi singing, the Gurbani and traditional songs are sung by these children.” ANI

SMS-ing can lead to injured fingers

Though short text messaging (SMS) has overtaken the popularity of calls on cellular phones, experts warn that sending too many can lead to hand injuries, reports BBC.

The increase can lead to finger and wrist injuries from repetitively pushing the tiny buttons on mobile phones, say medical experts.

A safe text guide with exercises for avoiding injury, including shoulder shrugs and neck-muscle stretches, has now been launched by Virgin Mobiles. The Mobile Data Association, which compiles the figures, says the 57.5 million messages sent by amorous texters on 14 February was more than double the number sent on the same day in 2001.

“The growing awareness of the benefits of text messaging has meant it is the choice method for discreet communications - particularly when protocol dictates as on Valentine’s Day,” said its chairman Mike Short. ANI

Salamis, hot dogs cause diabetes

Till now consumption of processed meats has only been linked to cardiac diseases but now latest research published in Diabetic Care magazine says that consumption of meats can also lead to type II diabetes.

Harvard researchers say men who load up on hot dogs, bacon, salami, and the like are at a much higher risk of developing type II diabetes than are those who eat fewer of these foods. Though the reason for the link isn’t clear. It could be simply a reflection of a generally unhealthy diet rich in animal fat and low in fruits and vegetables.

However, the researchers say some evidence suggests that nitrates in processed meats may harm cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, the hormone that helps the body convert sugar into energy.

Even after adjusting for fat intake and other risk factors, like smoking and exercise habits, “processed meat stands out as an important risk factor for diabetes,” says Dr Frank Hu.

Hu admits that processed meats are often just one part of a person’s otherwise lamentable diet. “People who eat more processed meats are more likely to eat other unhealthy foods like red meat and refined carbohydrates, so the results may simply reflect an unhealthy eating pattern,” he says. ANI 

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Creation and Destruction are made by the Word

And in the Word His breath remains concealed.

— Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Majh M-3, Ashtapadi

Many times has the creator created the creation. Always by the same Word.

— Sukhmani Sahib

Everyone recites the Kalma with his lips;

Rare is the person who recites it from the heart.

When the Kalma comes from the heart,

the spoken word has no value.

— Sultan Bahu, Bait 101

Do not leave alive the dog of your mind,

It has always been the enemy of your soul.

— Maulana Rum, Masnavi, Vol. 1

Immaculate in His light;

nectar-sweet is His Name.

Whosoever partakes of it

becomes desireless and immortal.

— Sri Guru Granth Sahib, M-5, page 886

Ever since I have seen religious bickerings among religions, I have had nothing to do either with the Sheikh or with the Brahmin.

— From Diwan-i-Hafiz

Everyone from whose mouth does not come "I am the Truth" belongs to the tribe of infidels.

— Bu Ali Shah Qalandar, Masnavi

I have no quarrel with anyone now for I have abandoned both pandit and mullah

— Sant Kabir, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, page 1158

Futile is the erudition of pandits

the scholarship of mullas;

they know not the secret.

— Bulleh Shah, Kafian

In the eyes of God what is most despicable is that you do not practice what you say.

— The Quran, 61:3