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Monday,
August 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Pointless fight with the EC Drought-hit Punjab |
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Pakistan’s fractured polity
Providing education without competition Bed-sharing not harmful for kids Mystery of ‘coffee kick’
Teenage girls more diet prone
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Pointless fight with the EC THE
BJP, the leading member of the ruling NDA, has unnecessarily made a prestige issue of the timing of elections in Gujarat. The Election Commission (EC) is within its constitutional rights in deferring the poll schedule if it is convinced that the atmosphere in the riot-torn state is not fit for holding free and fair elections. There are precedents when the EC has acted on these lines in the past without the ruling party or group of parties kicking up a controversy. The BJP is creating problems for itself by questioning the decision of a constitutionally autonomous entity with clear-cut responsibilities as specified in Articles 174 (1) and 324 of the Constitution. If the commission’s decision leads to a situation where it becomes imperative to impose President’s rule, no one should object to it. Political parties should be sure of their following among the public. Showing scare if elections are not held in accordance with a time schedule convenient to a group is an indication of lack of confidence in that party’s capacity to secure the people’s mandate for forming its government. This is the only inference one can draw from the BJP’s strong reaction to the EC’s decision to finalise the Gujarat poll schedule any time in November or December, and not now as sought by the ruling party on the basis of a constitutional provision which cannot be interpreted by ignoring the other provisions concerning the rights and responsibilities of the commission. In fact, the ruling party should have been on the forefront in strengthening the position of a constitutionally autonomous body in the larger interest of democracy instead of reading motives in its independent decision. Perhaps, this is for the first time that the principal ruling party and the EC find themselves on a collision course. However, one feels the matter will be settled without taking it too far since it has now been referred to President A
P J Abdul Kalam by the Union Cabinet for seeking his opinion. It is not a hidden truth that society in Gujarat is sharply divided on communal lines. The thinking in the BJP is that the party can exploit the people’s sentiments during an early poll to form its government again in the troubled state. But a large number of voters continue to remain displaced. They cannot exercise their constitutional right of franchise owing to an explosive situation. In most parts of the state the wounds caused by the worst communal riots in Gujarat’s history are still raw. The EC is of the view that there is no normalcy in the state as relief and rehabilitation work is going on at a slow pace and those guilty of perpetrating or instigating large-scale killings in the name of religion still remain unpunished. There is a fear of a strong communal backlash. This view of the EC is contrary to that held by the BJP, which asserts that the situation in Gujarat “is quite normal and conducive to the holding of free and fair elections”. But in the matter under discussion it is the EC’s opinion which has to get primacy over any other agency. Nothing should be done to weaken the position of the Election Commission, as that will amount to questioning the established credibility of India’s democratic institutions. |
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Drought-hit Punjab THE
existing norms for declaring any area drought hit say that the crop damage there should have exceeded 50 per cent. Punjab’s position is peculiar in this regard. The crop loss there is not that severe, because 95 per cent of the cultivated area in the state has assured irrigation. Yet, the Punjab Government has declared the entire state drought hit. Its logic is that it has had to spend hundreds of crores of rupees extra for saving the kharif crop. The state has indeed suffered heavy losses due to the failure of the monsoon. Officials point out that the state’s economy suffered consolidated losses of over Rs 5,000 crore, including the agriculture and the industrial sectors. Losses in the agriculture sector were about Rs 2,367 crore, while losses in the industrial sector were in the vicinity of Rs 1,741 crore. The PSEB had to spend a considerable amount on purchasing additional power from the Central Electricity Authority and other electricity boards to maintain the supply. Still, there was shortage because tubewells had to run non-stop, particularly to save the paddy crop . Farmers had to spend Rs 150 crore on diesel in the absence of power. Besides the general loss of industrial production, the drought also affected the services sector. The government wants the Centre to adopt a different yardstick in Punjab, where the damage was other than the withering of the crops, so that it is able to assist farmers out of the calamity relief fund. It remains to be seen how the Centre responds to the plea. One thing is clear. Farmers should not be made to suffer because of any bureaucratic wrangling. The method of assessing crop damage has to be fine-tuned in such a way that it is able to present the true picture. The poor kisan should not be deprived of doles just because he has managed to save part of his crop by the sweat of his brow. The same holds true of the definition of what constitutes monsoon failure. The model that is currently prevalent is too inaccurate to reflect the real situation. Even when state after state came in the grip of a severe drought, the weather men were trying to prove it scientifically that the situation was not at all bad. Various models that are being followed are not sacrosanct. There is need for learning from experience and revising them suitably. The aim ought to be to come to the rescue of the affected people at the first call of distress, instead of waiting for the situation to become totally hopeless. |
Pakistan’s fractured polity THE condition that for the coming October elections in Pakistan a candidate must be a graduate has once again reminded the people of Baluchistan how backward and deprived they are. They believe the establishment in Islamabad has intentionally deprived them of educational facilities so as to deny them equal opportunities in jobs and other fields. If the military government sticks to its graduation condition the Baluch will also be deprived of equal electoral opportunities, especially in rural areas and more especially in the matter of women representation. The Baluch resentment against the control of their natural wealth by outsiders and their suspicion that they are purposely being kept backward is compounded by the bitter memories of why their state was annexed by Pakistan by brutal military action soon after independence. The Pakistani leadership, whether civilian or military, has never bothered to redress their grievances and help them join the national mainstream. On the contrary the establishment never hesitates in using force against them or shooting down their elected governments, thereby aggravating their sense of alienation. Tribal chiefs, their mutual rivalries and sometimes bloody fueds notwithstanding, are at one in protesting against the treatment of the people of Baluchistan. There is an unbridgeable gulf between the social and political ideologies of Baluch leaders and the Pakistan ruling elite. During the Cold War years the Baluch were pro-Soviet Union and active members of the Leftist National Awami Party (NAP) which was critical of the US global policies, especially those concerning this region. Baluch parties are secularists and do not swear by the two-nation theory. On the other hand, the Pakistan ruling elite has always been an ally of the USA and it took a distinct anti-Soviet stand during the Cold War years. For the ruling elite, secularism is anti-Islam, anti-two-nation theory and anti-Pakistan. Those who preach secularism are condemned as pro-India traitors. Thus, the Baluch protest against their economic and political deprivations. And when Pakistani rulers respond to their protests one can see the force of their suspicions and prejudices against them. The above fact was recently dramatised in Dera Bugti, the source of the Sui Gas. There were reports that gas pipelines were frequently attacked by missiles. The government said the attackers were men of Bugti chief Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was giving them protection. Bugti forcefully denied this charge and made two points: (i) his people were too illiterate to use: sophisticated missiles. It could be the work of those elements who were trying to disturb the law and order situation throughout Pakistan, he said. However, he agreed that some attacks could have been carried out by the Baluch who were angry because the gas companies refuse to employ the locals. “They are not given even a peon’s job”, here, he said. The Pakistan government sent about 50,000 para military troops to surround Dera Bugti in June. The troops cut off electricity and telephone lines and stopped trucks carrying food and medicines. The stoppage of electricity badly affected water supply in the hot months of June and July throughout the 4,000 sq-km Dera Bugti. Reports from this area said Bugtis were all armed for a showdown with the besieging troops. The second point that Bugti made in an interview with the Urdu BBC on June 17 was that the siege of Dera Bugti was for political reasons. “I was called to Islamabad to alarm the General (Pervez Musharraf) and discuss with him the situation on the border with India. But I did not go because there was no point in talking to him. He first takes decisions and then invites us for talks”, he said. Bugtis complain that while their gas lights and warms houses in Punjab, their own area is starved of electricity. One may find a number of electric polls in Baluchistan but all are dummies. In 1999 a provincial minister had gone on hunger strike to protest the denial of electricity to Baluchistan. The 3000-sq miles Makran Coast has no roads and no electricity for its 8.5 lakh people. The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) says it is too expensive to supply electricity to Makran. The Baluch are not excited by the development of Gawadar for an alternative port. When the then Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, announced in April, 1999, that a port at a cost of Rs 35 billion and a highway linking Gawadar to Karachi would be constructed there was no enthusiasm. The Baluch had heard such promises a number of times. Former Chief Minister Akhtar Mengal said in the Assembly soon after that the province would be better off if only its Sui Gas royalty was given to it. Fishermen in the coastal area complain that the government had given contracts to foreign companies to catch fish near Pakistan’s territorial waters. That is harming Baluch fishermen. Small fishermen suffer because they have no cold storage facilities and also no road network to take their catch to urban areas. In May, 1999, the Baluchistan Assembly passed a resolution asking the Federal Government to fix a quota in government jobs for its educated people and pay royalty for its gas. Denied government jobs, Baluch youths have no alternative but to join smugglers, especially drug-runners, and do other illegal things. When Baluch youths go out to Punjab cities or Karachi they bitterly realise how backward they have been kept. They find that their province does not have adequate educational facilities; they do not have enough hospitals and there are undependable water resources. The water level in Baluchistan has been falling low and the fear of water drought in the next 10 years haunts the people. That should explain why there are frequent missile and rocket attacks on gas pipelines and military establishments in the province. But a greater cause for Baluch alienation is political. As said earlier, the state of Baluchistan was annexed with military might without the people’s consent. While they were yet sulking, the provinces of West Pakistan were forged into one unit in 1955. Like the Sindhis and the Pakhtun, the Baluch also protested because they feared it was an attempt to undo their ethnic and linguistic identities. That brought the Baluch closer to the protesting Sindhis and Pakhtuns. There was some hope of the Baluch coming into the Pakistani national mainstream after the December, 1970, general elections. The Baluch under the banner of the NAP and the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Islam participated in the elections and formed a coalition government in the province. But then President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was not willing to forgive the people of Baluchistan for having totally rejected his party, the PPP, at the 1970 elections. Just a day after the promulgation of the 1973 Constitution he dismissed this government and installed his own, the defeated PPP, into power. Chief Minister Ataullah Mengal and Governor Ghaus Bux Bizenjo were accused of preparing for an armed revolt and jailed. This charge was made after the seizure of arms in the Iraqi embassy. Bhutto said the arms were meant for Baluchistan. But he could never prove this charge after he told NAP chief Khan Abdul Wali Khan that he dismissed the Baluchistan government because the Shah of Iran did not want a leftist government on his country’s eastern border. As the people of Baluchistan revolted against this dismissal, Bhutto sent the army to quell them. In this crackdown thousands of Baluch were killed and many thousands fled their homes to take shelter in neighbouring Afghanistan. Armed Baluch went up the hilltops and gave a tough fight to the Pakistan army which subjected them to aerial attacks. This confrontation went on till December, 1977, when Gen Zia-ul-Haq ordered the withdrawal of the army. At the same time Bhutto, now deposed, told the Supreme Court that the army did not let him withdraw it. But it was not the last time that an elected government was dismissed in Baluchistan. In December, 1988, the Baluch Assembly was dismissed by Governor Mohammad Musa a few hours after it was sworn-in by him. In 1997 newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif allowed the Baluchistan National Party to form the provincial government under Sardar Akhtar Mengal, but a year after he brought about a split in the party and installed his own Muslim League into power there. Mr Sharif felt offended when Sardar Mengal protested that he should have been taken into confidence before using the soil of Baluchistan for nuclear explosions in May, 1998. When the preparations for the nuclear explosions were being made the young Baluch were up in arms. As a symbol of protest they hijacked a plane also. That once again showed how far away the people of Baluchistan were emotionally from the people of Punjab. Baluch leaders are actively involved in the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) which includes Sindhis and Pakhtuns. All of them are against Punjab’s domination and demand true autonomy as the only guarantee for the survival of Pakistan. The 1973 Constitution of Pakistan guarantees provincial autonomy but the ruling elite has never respected it. Thus, the provinces have lost faith in the provision for autonomy in the Constitution. For the Baluch and the Sindhis autonomy is a lesser option: they have often talked of complete liberation from Pakistan. Baluchistan National Party leader Ataullah Mengal had gone away to London after release from jail. The writer is a political commentator, specialising in Pakistan affairs. |
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Providing education without competition Dr Pandey (37) has achieved another milestone. He is youngest Indian to be honoured with such a prestigious award. It was 1991 when Dr Pandey was doing his Ph.D in mechanical engineering in the University of Berkley, California, when he founded Asha along with his two friends. After his return to India, he taught in the IIT, Kanpur, but continued working for Asha. After two years he left his teaching job and started working with the downtrodden in right earnest. From his humble beginning, the organisation spread its wings and today it has 35 branches in India, and the USA. In a free-wheeling interview, interrupted by over a dozen telephone calls, Dr Pandey talked about communalism, nuclear disarmament and his vision of India. In this fast-paced materialistic world when everybody is looking towards America what prompted you to return to India. While I was in the USA I got a job offer at the IIT, Kanpur. There I worked for two years, but I always yearned to work for those who have been deprived of the basic amenities. The truth dawned on me that the underprivileged could be rendered help only if one works with them. So, I decided to leave my job and started Asha — a non-formal education centre in a village called Ballia. What exactly prompted you to work for the underprivileged. It was a report prepared by the MIT whose experts had found that more than 50 per cent of India’s children remained totally uneducated and never went to school. I was still at California where together with two of my colleagues we decided to do something to bring some hope in the lives of that deprived lot. That’s when Asha — our voluntary organisation was born. What was the reaction of your family when you decided to quit the job with IIT? I got unflinching support from my family. Initial my father was a bit sceptic about my this decision, but he was confident that I would succeed. Tell us something about Asha and your concept of non-formal education. Asha is working towards imparting education with the aim of empowering students by imbibing the spirit of cooperation. To achieve this aim, we have opened centres where we ensure the overall development of young minds. We have over a hundred institutions spread across the country where we are trying to promote our type of education. This is different from formal education as it is free from any sense of competition and thus free from prejudice. I believe you are planning to undertake a peace mission to Pakistan. What has prompted you to take such a decision? My interaction with Pakistanis has cemented my belief that the common people of both countries do not want war. And, believe me, those who look at war with disdain are in majority. We are trying to reach out to the people of Pakistan to build up an atmosphere of friendship but it is politicians of both countries who are playing spoilsport. If you feel that politicians of the both countries are adamant in derailing the peace process then how can peace be restored in the region? Because the politicians are stubborn, that’s why the interaction between the peoples of both countries is essential. Solutions to this issue lies in dialogue, not in nuclear weapons. So why not sit down and start talking. If there is sincerity on both sides, then this issue would be resolved amicably. You are also involved in the issue of nuclear disarmament and have voiced reservation over the election of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam as President of India. I have nothing against Dr Kalam per se. I feel that we are glorifying a person who has only manufactured weapons of destruction. He was the man behind the nuclear test and look what happened after Pokhran II — we have created a war hysteria only because we are a nuclear power. This is a dangerous sign and one should avoid treading this path. I believe you have been involved in other movements as well. I participated in the Pokharan to Sarnath march that was organised to express our protest against the nuclear tests. More recently, I undertook a similar protest march together with my friends and co-activists from Chitrakoot to Ayodhya to express our concern at the recent happenings in Gujarat. How will this award help you in the near future? This award signifies a collective effort put up by my friends and co-activists in installing a sense of pride among the downtrodden. I hope that now people will take my work seriously, and may be more people will join us now. |
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Bed-sharing not harmful for kids A new study by researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles has challenged the age old notion that sharing beds with parents harms children psychologically. According to the latest study, published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics, the practice of bed- sharing neither helps nor harms a child. “There is no evidence that bedsharing is harmful psychologically or any other way, when compared to other forms of sleep”, said study author Paul Okami, a researcher in the Department of Psychology at the UC-LA. Okami and colleagues followed a group of 205 California-born children and their parents, beginning in 1975. They categorised 154 families as having unconventional lifestyles. The other 51 families were described as conventional because they were headed by two married parents. The researchers picked a “target” child from each family, following him or her through age 18. The researchers found that children who had bed-shared were no more likely than those children who did not bed-share to have problems with behaviour or relationships, drug use, smoking or vandalism, to name a few parameters measured. “We found no effects”, Health Scout quoted Okami as saying. They also found that the unconventional families were more likely to have the bed-sharing habit than the conventional families. The reluctance on the part of some American parents to let a child into their bed is regarded as peculiar in other parts of the world, where bed-sharing is the norm, Okami noted. Okami acknowledged there could be a safety issue about which parents should be aware. In recent years, studies have found infants are more likely to die in their sleep if they share a bed with their mothers and the finding held up especially if the mother was heavy.
ANI |
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Mystery of ‘coffee kick’ A protein in the brain has be found to prevent the effects of coffee wearing off. Researchers feel different levels of this protein could explain how a cup of coffee can keep some people buzzing for hours, whereas others need another fix far more quickly. Coffee works because it binds to and blocks brain nerve cell receptors that play a role in the control of Movements. The research focuses on a protein called DARPP-32. When this protein is combined with small doses of caffeine, it helps reduce the amount of other brain chemicals which would inhibit excess nerve activity. The caffeine/protein combination also subdues a protein called kinase A, whose job it is to stop DARPP-32 working. The net effect is a circular one, with the combination working to effectively knock down various mechanisms designed to end the caffeine “buzz”. This means it keeps on going for much longer than might be expected for a chemical having such a pronounced effect on brain activity. Dr Jean Marie Vaugeois, from the University of Rouen, was quoted by BBC as saying, “DARPP-32 keeps us going until the next coffee break by extending the effects of the last cup. This knowledge should provide an even better understanding of caffeine’s effects.”
ANI |
Teenage girls more diet prone
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new study has revealed that teenage girls are far more concerned about their weight and more likely than boys to diet - even if they are not over weight. Researchers found that at 15 years of age, 26 per cent of girls were on a diet compared to just 5 per cent of boys. Moreover, overweight girls of that age were three times as likely to be worried about their weight as overweight boys. Researchers at the University of Glasgow surveyed over 2,000 children at the ages of 11, 13 and 15. Under exam conditions, they were asked whether they were worried about putting on weight and whether they were dieting to become slimmer at that time. They also calculated their body mass index (BMI), to see if the children were the right weight for their height. Although there were significant differences between boys and girls worries about weight at age 11, the researchers found these had become “huge” by the time they had reached their mid-teens. At each age, girls who were of medium to low weight were significantly more likely to be dieting than boys. By 15, 26 per cent of medium weight and 8 per cent of low weight girls said they were dieting compared with under three percent of medium to low weight boys. Similar patterns were seen when children were asked whether they were concerned about putting on weight. Between the ages of 11 and 15, the number of boys worried about their weight fell. But the number of girls who expressed concerns increased from 44 per cent at 11, rising to 70 per cent at 15.
ANI
Crows turn toolmakers Ingenuity may no longer be the preserve of humans alone, say British researchers, who have revealed that the humble crow is amazingly dexterous when it comes to making tools to enable it to forage for food. Researchers from Oxford University, led by Alex Kacelnik, conducted trials on Betty, a crow belonging to the Corvus moneduloides species, which is native to the southwest Pacific island of New Caledonia. Corvus moneduloides is known to make tools in the wild to retrieve insects from holes in trees or from under leaves on the forest floor. The birds craft hooked tools out of twigs and shape barbed leaves into tapered implements. In order to explore Betty’s tool-making ability in the lab, the researchers presented it with a straight wire and a bucket of food dropped out of reach down a pipe. Betty would first try to use the wire to lift the bucket and if that didn’t work, she quickly fashioned a hook by pulling on the wire with her beak. She successfully gained food in more than half of the trials. The bird had neither used the wire before nor observed others using wire. It had not received any prior training also.
ANI |
Great are those who suffer fasting’s hardships; yet they are surpassed by those who suffer hard words. —The Tirukkural
*** They who imagine truth in untruth, and see untruth in truth, never arrive at truth, and follow vain desires. They who know truth in truth, and untruth in untruth, arrive at truth and follow true desires. —Khuddaka Nikaya The Minor Religions of the Pali Canon (translator F.H. Woodward)
*** Desire stands behind thought, stimulating and directing it; Thought energised and determined by Desire, stands behind Action expressing itself therein in the world of objects. Desires carry the man to the place where the objects of desire exist and thus determine the channels of his future activities..... Desire attaches a man to the objects of desire, binding him to them with links unbreakable; wherever is the object of desire thither must go the man who desires it. The object of desire is called fruit and the fruit which the man has sought he must consume, in whatever place it is found.... Whatever the fruit be.... pleasurable or painful (it binds man). When a man understands this law, he can watch over his desires.... —An Advanced Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics.
*** The fire of desires can be extinguished with the Word. —Sri Guru Granth Sahib
*** If anybody has the desire to go back to the Father, he will go back to the Father. If we have desires pertaining to the world, we will have to come to this world. Because, you go where your heart is, you go where your desires are. —Maharaj Charan Singh, Thus Saith the Master
*** Offering the fruit of his actions to God, the Karamayogi attains everlasting peace in the shape of God Realisation; whereas he who works with a selfish motive, being attached to the fruit of actions through desire, gets tied down. —The
Bhagavadgita |
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In terms of landmass, Baluchistan is the largest province of Pakistan: it occupies 43.6 per cent of the country’s total area. But it is the least populated (only 5 per cent of the total population) and, worse, least literate. It is very rich in natural resources. Pakistan’s industrial infrastructure mainly depends on the gas and coal of this province. The gas from Dera Bugti meets 60 per cent of Pakistan’s, mainly Punjab’s, domestic and industrial needs. The province has 200 coal mines, which again meet the industrial requirements of Punjab. The province is rich in marble and mineral wealth which is being explored by foreigners under contracts from the Government of Pakistan. The government has provided heavy protection to the explorers against resentful Baluch. 
WHEN Dr Sandeep Pandey received a call from Manila enquiring whether he would like to receive this year’s Magsaysay award, everybody in his family thought it to be a prank. But again after three days when they asked for confirmation, then truth dawned on Dr Pandey that he actually has won this year’s Magsaysay award — the Asian equivalent to the Nobel prize — for bringing Asha (hope), which incidentally is also the name of this organisation, to impressionable minds of the underprivileged by kindling the light of knowledge. He was selected in the “Emergent Leadership Category”, and is among five others to have won the coveted award .