E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

USA on a dangerous path
IRAQ is not the Japan of 1945. Nor is it the Germany of pre-World War II. The American plan being studied on the lines of the regime change in the two defeated countries which the USA and its allies captured and then set up an administration run by America’s military officials can be implemented only at an unbearable cost.

A burning problem
THE burning of paddy and wheat stalks after harvesting was always a nuisance, causing numerous eye and breathing difficulties to the people living nearby. But the practice has now become so widespread that it is threatening the very weather pattern of the continent. Last week’s “darkness-at-noon” rain has been directly attributed to it and it also seems to have a lot to do with the brown cloud hovering over the entire Asian continent. 

This mischievous campaign
THE anti-Dalai Lama posters that appeared mysteriously in Dharamsala should not be taken lightly. The posters printed in English used highly provocative language against the spiritual and temporal head of the Buddhists and the Tibetan people. In the past there have been confrontations between the local people and the Tibetans.

OPINION

Significance of the Assembly poll
Verdict for building a new Kashmir
A.N. Dar
IT is a verdict with a deep irony. The October elections, which have swept the National Conference out of power, have demanded of many who were not great followers of the party’s founder, Sheikh Abdullah, to carry forward his plan for building a “new Kashmir” — with prosperity, peace and secularism. It was in this very month of October in 1947 following the Pakistani tribal invasion that Sheikh Abdullah had come to power. Fiftyfive years later in this very month the party has lost its hold on Kashmir.

MIDDLE

Eat, drink and be merry
Anurag
EAT, drink and be merry because tomorrow you may die, err....rr....diet. Though doctors love to run down dieticians, saying that the latter’s theories and practices are sans any scientific basis, you might have noticed that doctors themselves have a very limited understanding of the factors that make us put on weight. Media overdose of medical news and views keeps constructing and deconstructing diet mythologies day in and day out.

A POINT OF VIEW

The truth behind SYL issue
Shahbaaz Singh
THE judgement of the Supreme Court on the completion of the SYL canal was delivered in January this year, asking Punjab to complete its portion of the SYL canal by January, 2003. The two successive Punjab Governments have been planning to file an appeal, but so far nothing concrete has been done. With this the state of affairs, let us review the entire scenario from the beginning.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Nurse useful for heart patients
HEART patients who have undergone a bypass surgery are able to control their cholesterol levels more effectively if they receive follow-up care from a nurse, says a new study published in the October issue of American Heart Journal.

• Sad girls may make depressed women

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

USA on a dangerous path

IRAQ is not the Japan of 1945. Nor is it the Germany of pre-World War II. The American plan being studied on the lines of the regime change in the two defeated countries which the USA and its allies captured and then set up an administration run by America’s military officials can be implemented only at an unbearable cost. Eliminating the Saddam Hussein regime by force is not impossible for the super power, but sustaining the regime change is. The US economy has recovered from the aftereffects of 9/11, but not fully till this day. Reports suggest that a large number of Americans wish to avoid a war on Iraq primarily owing to economic reasons. Even then there is a US Congressional nod for an all-out military action against Baghdad, allowing “an extraordinary flexibility” to President George W. Bush on how and when to take on the Saddam regime. This has come about, perhaps, because the Bush Administration has succeeded in painting Mr Hussein a demon and Iraq a dreaded rogue nation, posing an intolerable threat to America’s oil and strategic interests. The Congress response to the Bush rhetoric is strange in the sense that the august US House does not want to ensure that a war is waged only after diplomacy fails to achieve the objective, unlike in 1991 when America and its allies launched a full-scale military action not only to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation but also to get rid of the Saddam regime. The second objective could not be achieved despite all that happened. The use of the American military might and the imposition of crippling economic sanctions only added to the popularity of the Iraqi dictator. Besides this, the development strengthened the anti-American sentiment in the volatile region. The anti-American feelings have got intensified since then because of the US failure to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli imbroglio and other ill-calculated steps taken elsewhere on the globe.

Mr Saddam Hussein is an out-and-out dictator. But it is for the people of Iraq to look for an alternative ruler. If the Baghdad regime really poses a serious threat to world peace, as President Bush wants the global community to believe, the facts should be established by an independent agency. Even then any military action against Iraq must have the UN authorisation. The way the condemned regime is being handled by the USA has made Mr Hussein a hero in the entire Arab world. Today what he and his aides say evokes increased attention. Iraq argues that it has agreed to allow the UN arms inspectors to go to that country and find out if the Saddam regime has accumulated weapons of mass destruction, or has facilities to manufacture them, as alleged by the USA. But President Bush refuses to take seriously anything coming from Baghdad. The reason: he wants “complete US hegemony” over the region and a control over the enormous oil reserves there. This is despite the fact that there is almost universal opposition to the American plan in the context of Iraq. The Iraqi situation has also acquired an emotive dimension. The Arab masses are getting greatly impatient with the US double standards in handling the Iraqi crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. To make matters worse, the US Congress recently recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, ignoring the Palestinian demand for the eastern part of the historic city as the capital of their future homeland. This has sent disturbing signals all over the Arab world. The Iraqi dictator may successfully use the growing anti-Americanism to frustrate President Bush’s plan. In any case, the intended American action will be undemocratic and in complete disregard of the internationally recognised sovereignty of nation-states.

A burning problem

THE burning of paddy and wheat stalks after harvesting was always a nuisance, causing numerous eye and breathing difficulties to the people living nearby. But the practice has now become so widespread that it is threatening the very weather pattern of the continent. Last week’s “darkness-at-noon” rain has been directly attributed to it and it also seems to have a lot to do with the brown cloud hovering over the entire Asian continent. Debilitating influence that it has on the environment is only now being fully understood. Worse, these effects are going to last decades, if not centuries. Provided we stop forthwith, that is! The chilling fact is that the whole approach still continues to be casual, despite the fact that the Press - with The Tribune in the lead — has been shouting from the housetops about the critical dangers involved. The carbon dioxide that we are mindlessly sending into the atmosphere might stay there for more than a century, endangering the life and health of even future generations. But the “chalta hai” approach just does not go away. Even in a state capital like Chandigarh, where the burning of leaves is banned, it is not uncommon to see safai karamcharis making a heap of leaves and other waste material and merrily setting them on fire.

One reason for this brazen destruction of the environment is ignorance. But ignorance in this regard can be fatal. The need of the hour is to start a saturation campaign in the Press and the electronic media. The other more relevant reason is that the poor farmers have no means available to get rid of the unwanted byproducts of their harvest. In olden times, biodegradable mass was used as manure to fortify the land itself, but in this age of inorganic farming, that method is hardly practical. Some of it can be sent to other states as fodder. At the same time, scientists should be asked to find other innovative uses. For instance, disposal of flyash emerging from thermal plants was such a major problem till techniques were evolved to make bricks out of it. Coal-tar, which too was a troublesome byproduct of petroleum refining, is now essential for making roads. Similar uses can surely be found for the paddy and wheat stalks. Another possibility that can be explored is to burn them under controlled conditions so that the material can be used as a fuel for running boilers, etc, and very little smoke escapes into the atmosphere.

This mischievous campaign

THE anti-Dalai Lama posters that appeared mysteriously in Dharamsala should not be taken lightly. The posters printed in English used highly provocative language against the spiritual and temporal head of the Buddhists and the Tibetan people. In the past there have been confrontations between the local people and the Tibetans. The source of conflict was petty business rivalry. However, the present hate-campaign does not seem to be the handiwork of the local people. Although the posters carried the name of a non-existent organisation called the Himachal Liberation Front, the police suspect that the campaign has been masterminded by members of a rival sect, Shungden. Whoever is behind the hate-campaign is clearly out to exploit local sentiments by issuing the posters in the name of a bogus Himachali organisation. The more worrisome aspect of the incident is the failure of the intelligence agencies to anticipate such an attack on the Dalai Lama and his followers living in exile for the past four decades. The Shungden may have circulated the posters at the behest of the Chinese authorities who have in the past launched a major attack on the Dalai Lama. They have accused him of committing blasphemy, and distorting Buddhism. The language that was used in the posters is similar to the abusive language used by the Chinese for running down the Dalai Lama and his government in exile. In a well-orchestrated campaign the authorities used both the print and the electronic media against the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

There are striking similarities between the present poster attack and the one launched by the Chinese authorities some years ago. The usual Chinese approach was to question the Dalai Lama's political role in Tibet. However, a few years ago the attack became more personal and nasty. He was called the "head of a serpent" and was accused of spreading blasphemy by distorting tenets of Buddhism. Similar language has been used in the posters to denigrate the Dalai Lama. The so-called HLF threatened to eliminate the spiritual head and his followers if they did not leave Dharamsala. The police is investigating the Shungden angle. Last month Shungden activists had called a Press conference in Kathmandu to accuse the Dalai Lama of spreading terrorism. The basic concern of the local police should be maintenance of law and order in Dharamsala, particularly around Mcleodganj - the temporary headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile. The intelligence agencies should investigate the larger conspiracy and bring the guilty to justice. The Union Home Ministry cannot escape responsibility in the unhappy development in Dharamsala. Its intelligence agencies failed to detect massive Pakistani infiltration in Kargil. They failed in predicting Godhra and Akashardham attacks. They failed to anticipate the poster hate-campaign against the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. This is disquieting, to say the least.

OPINION

Significance of the Assembly poll
Verdict for building a new Kashmir
A.N. Dar

IT is a verdict with a deep irony. The October elections, which have swept the National Conference out of power, have demanded of many who were not great followers of the party’s founder, Sheikh Abdullah, to carry forward his plan for building a “new Kashmir” — with prosperity, peace and secularism. It was in this very month of October in 1947 following the Pakistani tribal invasion that Sheikh Abdullah had come to power. Fiftyfive years later in this very month the party has lost its hold on Kashmir.

Will the new leadership, most of whom have never been in power in Kashmir, fulfil the Kashmiri dream which was put upside down for many years, one of the reasons why the ruling party had to face such rough weather in these elections? That is not the entire story. Jammu and Kashmir in recent years had had a blood-thirsty existence, thanks to the Pakistani plan to win the state by resorting to a kind of militancy no other state has experienced. Kashmir has been bleeding, and the state of gorgeous mountains and beautiful lakes is now more known as the state of graveyards, shattered schools, localities full of widows and orphans, unemployed youth presided over by kalashnikovs which were used to suppress, extort, shoot, rape and indulge in arson.

Will Kashmir recoup from this gory detail? The voters have given their verdict. Their verdict has not been against the National Conference alone. It has also been against New Delhi’s policies of not doing enough to bring all elements, pro and against the state’s links with India, together, to give them a sense of being and to assure them that even when they have grievances against India, they would be heard and wherever possible redressed. It was no doubt a difficult task, but well worth attempting. That did not happen. Not by setting up proxy leaders and showing up as if they were the only ones one could talk to. The electorate has swept aside one set of leaders. It would want genuine leaders who would talk to New Delhi. Some of them talked to President Musharraf, but he assured the role of wanting to get something for himself out of the situation. That is why he will ultimately fail. New Delhi should have called them as partners. It was, for instance, recently very wrong of Mr L.K. Advani not to talk to Mr Shabir Shah who had come here after talking to Mr Ram Jethmalani’s Kashmir Committee.

The Kashmir voters blamed Dr Farooq Abdullah for this failure because he had mistakenly placed himself as part of the New Delhi establishment. But he should not be given the entire blame. The Central Government’s own policy was responsible for it. That is one of the reasons why the BJP has been wiped out almost clean from the new assembly. It has just one member in the new assembly. As big as the dethroning of the Abdullahs is the wiping out of the BJP from the Jammu region for long its bastion, now handed over to the Congress. This is a major surprise of the election and should give lie to commentators that Indira Gandhi had made a good showing in the J and K elections in the eighties by trying to communalise politics in Jammu.

His decision to set up an alliance with the BJP, which of course gave Dr Farooq Abdullah, stability for five years and made his son a minister (though a balanced and competent politician) at the Centre was the biggest mistake of his career. His one-time lieutenant, Mr Saifuddin Soz, who revolted at the time against his decision, now is justified in telling him: “I told you so.” The people of Kashmir could not rub their eyes seeing the National Conference holding hands with the BJP, which is known in Kashmir as a hardliner Hindu party. Gujarat did the rest but Dr Farooq Abdullah and the BJP’s leaders in New Delhi continued to believe that a new magic would prevail and the people of Jammu and Kashmir would not understand how badly the ruling party had played its cards.

To secure his own position and give himself as Chief Minister a sense of confidence, he gave up the National Conference’s principles as a regional party and joined the BJP in the NDA. Even the BJP suffered because soon enough it was at loggerheads with the National Conference. The BJP parivar did worse. It asked for the trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir and setting up of Jammu as a separate state which, thanks to his good sense, Mr Advani rejected. At the end of all this, Mr Omar Abdullah, whom Dr Farooq Abdullah was wanting to make Chief Minister, was saying that he would get out of the BJP embrace. The elections saw to it that the parting would come sooner.

The false sense of security which being an ally of the BJP gave him created a bad twist for Dr Farooq Abdullah. He made himself look like an opportunist politician. But in praise of him it must be said that he has been a foremost defender of Jammu and Kashmir’s links with India. India must forget that. He is a robust defender and is blessed with a way of speaking out wonderfully well. So is his son, Omar, who is hailed as a sober politician who might personally have made it good if he had become Chief Minister. But, unfortunately for a Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah gave enough evidence of being a non-serious politician. When Shabana Azmi went there, he took her down the conservative Srinagar’s streets as a pillion-rider on a motor cycle. Contrast this with his father who would start every speech with a recital of the Holy Quran. When Kashmir was razed by bombs and bullets, Farooq would spend long months in London where his British-born wife lives. Even within the last fateful election, he departed one morning for South Africa. When Kashmir needed bridges, roads, schools, dispensaries, the Chief Minister of an impoverished state spend crores which he received after much pleading from New Delhi in setting up a fabulous golf course on the banks of Dal Lake. His flatterers egged him on. Not that the touristic Kashmir did not need another golf course, but the state had other priorities. Such acts cut him off from his people. Till the last he did not realise that the people were yearning for change. Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mufti Mohammed Sayeed went on nibbling at his domain. Even Mr Bhim Singh’s Panther’s Party had its full.

His BJP friends should have taken a lesson from Mrs Sonia Gandhi who went to Kashmir during the electioneering to become the only national leader not to care for personal security. This must have sent a message to the alienated Kashmiris that there were some who had the nerve the patriotism to be with them despite the dangers. Dr Farooq Abdullah has many friends like Mr L.K. Advani and Mr George Fernandes but none of them showed up.

The new administration must have its ears to the ground. It must set out to offer jobs to the thousands who are unemployed and often resort to the militancy egged on by the fundamentalist propaganda coming from across the border. It must care for the thousands who have lost their all in militancy. It must give succour to the mothers and fathers who have lost their children without anyone telling them what has happened to them in the darkness of indifference. It must industrialise the state. It must help Jammu and Ladakh but not in a brash manner so that Kashmir does not feel alienated. Then only can it build a new Kashmir. New Delhi must help it in this.

MIDDLE

Eat, drink and be merry
Anurag

EAT, drink and be merry because tomorrow you may die, err....rr....diet. Though doctors love to run down dieticians, saying that the latter’s theories and practices are sans any scientific basis, you might have noticed that doctors themselves have a very limited understanding of the factors that make us put on weight. Media overdose of medical news and views keeps constructing and deconstructing diet mythologies day in and day out. The upshot: society is saddled with the menacingly multiplying tribe of hypochondriacs.

So, for the fitness freaks and the calorie-conscious who make a fetish of their figure, here is a regimen evolved after prolonged research, clinical tests and repeated trials in the field. Our growing clientele speaks for itself. They are indeed our ad ambassadors at large.

So, why not jump into the bandwagon and saviour the success without going through the gruelling gym and health clubs, or inflicting pains of self-denial and deprivation. Try them out at your place of work or wherever you wish.

So, take your pick. Here they are:

(a) 0-100 calories

Beating about the bush (75 cal.); swallowing your pride (50 cal.); passing the buck (25 cal.); hitting the nail on its head (50 cal.); balancing the books (25 cal.); tooting your own horn (25 cal.); pulling out the stops (75 cal.); wrapping it up at the day’s end (20 cal.); opening a can of worms (50 cal.); setting and ball rolling (50 cal.); going over the edge (25 cal.); counting eggs before they hatch (10 cal.); calling it quits (2 cal.); jumping to conclusions (100 cal.); throwing your weight around (100 cal.).

(b) 101-200 calories

Climbing the walls (150 cal.); dragging your heels (150 cal.); bending over backwards (175 cal.); adding fuel to the fire (160 cal.) jumping on the bandwagon (200 cal.)

(c) Above 200 calories

Pushing your luck (25 cal.); wading through paperwork (30 cal.); running around in circles (350 cal.); eating crow (25 cal.); climbing the ladder of success (750 cal.); picking up the pieces after (350 cal.); putting your foot in your mouth (300 cal.); making mountains out of molehills (500 cal.).

Friends, I have learnt the hard way and I hope you too would — that to succeed in today’s world, it has become necessary to rise above one’s principles. Let me make the confession that I have stolen the foregoing regimen from many persons. This is a respectable vocation called research. Had I stolen them from one person, it would have been an act of plagiarism. So, go ahead and keep climbing the ladders of success.

Remember folks, health is the slowest possible rate at which one can die. Adults beware, especially those who have stopped growing at either end, but growing in the middle. Mind you, I am not making mountains of a molehill!

Just laugh it away. (S)he who laughs last, laughs the best. And (s)he who laughs, lasts. So don’t mind putting your foot in your mouth.

Dieting is wishful shrinking. Hence, let’s eat, drink and be merry.

A POINT OF VIEW

The truth behind SYL issue
Shahbaaz Singh

THE judgement of the Supreme Court on the completion of the SYL canal was delivered in January this year, asking Punjab to complete its portion of the SYL canal by January, 2003. The two successive Punjab Governments have been planning to file an appeal, but so far nothing concrete has been done. With this the state of affairs, let us review the entire scenario from the beginning.

As everyone is aware, the three rivers whose “excess water” Punjab is made to part with — the Satluj, the Ravi and the Beas — flow in India through Punjab, besides Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Even today Punjab is giving half of the waters in these rivers to Rajasthan and another one-fourth to Haryana. It is the remaining one-fourth water, which is the bone of contention today, which has been projected by some as flowing to Pakistan, and is sought to be diverted to Haryana.

Haryana is by natural law, that is internationally recognised and accepted for handling such disputes, not a rightful claimant to Punjab river waters. It is not a riparian state to any of the three rivers. Then how can it demand or claim these waters, when with present political boundaries, none of these rivers even flow close to it? It is like Jharkhand demanding Ganga waters from Bihar from which it has separated or Gujarat asking for Godavari water as in the past it too was part of Bombay Presidency. Carrying this argument further, we all know that Burma, now an independent country, was part of British India before gaining independence. Therefore, if tomorrow it lays claim to Ganga-Bramhaputra waters, going by same argument under which Haryana is seeking water from Punjab, India will have to part with its waters. And the list of claims under this most unnatural argument will be infinite.

Looking at it in another way, Punjab is not a riparian state to the Ganga-Yamuna river system. But before its bifurcation, the Yamuna was flowing along the boundary of its territory. Then while allocating Haryana’s share in Punjab river waters to it, should not the “due share” of water in the Yamuna be given to Punjab? Haryana must answer, if it is ready to part with or share waters of the Yamuna canals, being used by it, in affirmative.

By natural law only riparian countries or states can and do have legitimate claim to any river waters systems. Whether it is the case of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka sharing Cauveri waters or India and Pakistan sharing rivers of the Indus basin or India and Bangladesh sharing Ganga-Bramhaputra waters. Even considering hypothetically, India or no international forum would entertain a Pakistan claim, should tomorrow it decides to press ahead with one, demanding Ganga river waters, giving the argument that it was also a part of pre-partition India and, therefore, has a right over them. If today we agree to Haryana’s claim, it would be opening a Pandora’s box, having to deal with all sorts of fictitious claims.

Actually, Haryana has no rightful claim to the Punjab rivers. The noble commissions set up by the then Central Government, with God knows what motives, did not even bother to consider, or knowingly twisted, the ground realities. The righteousness of their working and intentions can be gauged from the glaring omissions they have made in their functioning. For example, how did the Eradi Commission, on whose report the court has based its judgement, include the Ravi’s water in the calculation of total and surplus waters of Punjab rivers, when the Thein Dam made to harness waters of this river was not even existing at that time. That it was completed merely quarter of a century after the award was given may appear as a minor flaw to some.

Have any of these commissions ever considered the falling watertable in the entire northern, eastern and central Punjab because of excess drawing of ground water (as canal water is not available in most of these areas). A state, which cannot provide enough water to its more than half of available area for irrigation, has been reported to be having surplus water by the noble commissions.

Even if there was any logic in their argument (though not understandable) at the time of the commission’s award, based on which the apex court has given its judgement, there exist none today, for considering existing ground water resources in Punjab as “surplus”. Poor rains for the last so many consecutive years in the region and lowering of the ground watertable because of its over-exploitation for irrigation, will soon turn Punjab into a desert, if a comprehensive canal water system is not developed for the entire state.

There is not enough water in Punjab for even itself if the entire state is to be irrigated with waters from its own rivers. Have we not seen this year that Punjab has received not even 50 per cent of the normal rain in the monsoon? The insufficient rain in the catchment areas of the Ravi and Beas rivers have turned them into mere “nullahs”. All the reservoirs are well short of the comparable levels of even last year. If Punjab had surplus water after parting with three-fourths of its water, it would have happily given the same. But where is the “surplus” water that is to be shared? How can water resources in such a state be considered as surplus and others raise demand for their “share”? It is like robbing an impoverished man.

This problem has arisen entirely because of myopic and biased politics. Like the Pakistan governments, which have had no other agenda to talk about other than propaganda against India, successive Haryana politicians have also fed its people and the central governments with an anti-Punjab malicious campaign. This they have done to further their own narrow political interests. At every rally and forum, we get a statement from Haryana politicians that they will not give up their share of water in the Punjab rivers or their claim on Chandigarh or so-called Hindi-speaking areas in Punjab. But the people of Haryana must see through this game. They must understand that the politicians are doing it to merely divert their attention from the real issues that concern them i.e. poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, caste conflicts, women’s emancipation and so on. So must the Centre.

How false is the claim of the champions of Haryana’s cause can be seen from the following. Punjab even today has a much bigger canal network than Haryana, and Haryana is already receiving nearly the same quantum of water from the Punjab rivers, that Punjab is. Besides, it is also drawing water from the Yamuna river. Haryana politicians are very vociferously saying that they are claiming water that is draining away to Pakistan. If Punjab with its much bigger canal water distribution and supply network is not able to harness this “surplus” water and it is flowing out of the country, how will Haryana handle this extra water in its already overloaded smaller canal system?

Various state governments of Punjab in the past had submitted before pressure from the Centre and have sacrificed Punjab’s interests — whether it were the Akali or Congress governments. They had always been agitating on various issues and raising demands when they were in opposition, but colluded with the biased Central Governments when in power. Be it the question of transfer of Punjabi-speaking areas, now a part of Haryana, Rajasthan or Himachal Pradesh, or return of Chandigarh made for Punjab to it, or the more recent question of non-inclusion of Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar in Uttaranchal, Punjab politicians have sold their own state’s and people interests for their own narrow political or economic gains.

The media too have shown an anti-Punjab bias while reporting the conflicts of Punjab with the Centre on other states. In the past few years we have seen the role of a very active electronic media in the important and also not so important matters of national interest. But how many times has this particular issue been discussed or debated? Neo-intellectuals and educated learned urban gentlemen of the country also view even the legitimate demands of Punjab as threats, without even understanding them. As they are the prominent customers of English language newspapers and television, this section of the media feeds them with what they want to read.

The last government of Punjab was too weak to present its case to the Central Government. It was only busy in making hay while the sun was shining. Having just three Lok Sabha members and everybody knowing fully well that it would not get another term even at the state level, after its misdeeds had started becoming open, it was not of much use even to its ally central government. So why would the Centre support the needs of people of such a state. Nor could it present its case efficiently in the light of which the Supreme Court ruling was pronounced. This has been the bad luck of the people of Punjab for the last more than 25 years. Either there was President’s rule and no state government existed to present its case to the Centre or if it were there, it was in opposition to the Union Government, which would not treat it favourably. For a while when the state and Union governments were friendly, either the threat of terrorism was so prominent that it diverted attention from any other problem or the politicians at the helm of affairs were incompetent or were busy filling their own coffers.

Today judiciary is the last refuge of the victims of oppression in the entire country. We the people of Punjab request the respected judiciary of India to see the entire matter in the light of reason, truth and the present-day ground reality, and review its decision. In the past we have seen the judiciary correct so many wrongs in the country and prevented injustice, we hope, truth and logic will prevail again.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Nurse useful for heart patients

HEART patients who have undergone a bypass surgery are able to control their cholesterol levels more effectively if they receive follow-up care from a nurse, says a new study published in the October issue of American Heart Journal.

After having bypass surgery, 228 heart patients received standard care such as information and instructions for diet, activity, and monitoring pulse and temperature.

A nurse care manager gives patients individualised counselling, feedback on their lifestyle changes, and prescription and monitoring of drugs to lower cholesterol. The nurse care manager’s programme included an outpatient visit, phone calls and discussions with the patients’ doctors.

“When heart bypass patients discharged from the hospital after surgery aren’t able to lower their cholesterol levels, they are likely to end up back in the hospital. Our research suggests that more aggressive treatment is needed to enable patients with a history of heart disease to manage their cholesterol, improve their health, and avoid complications,” study lead author Jerilyn Allen, a professor of nursing, was quoted as saying by HealthScout. ANI

Sad girls may make depressed women

A study suggests that girls’ tendency to stew in their sadness puts them at higher risk for developing depression later on in life.

Girls think more about their sad feelings than do boys, said the study’s investigators from Florida State University.

Psychology Professor Janet Kistner and former doctoral student Dannah Ziegert developed a children’s version of a questionnaire commonly given to adults to assess styles of response to a depressed mood.

They administered the questionnaire to around 200 9-to-12-year-olds in the fourth and fifth grades. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, found a significant difference between the sexes.

While the girls tended to think about their feelings, boys tended to do things to get their mind off their feelings.

Kistner said: “We asked them if they get a bad grade or don’t get invited to a birthday party do they think about it over and over again or do they run outside and play a game?

“Girls had a greater tendency to think and think and think about it, and that’s a pattern of behaviour that could put them at risk for depression.” UPI

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

There is a reward for good and punishment for evil.

— Chinese proverb

***

—Analects