The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

Gas raises hopes

SUDDENLY, there is fast-track movement on the gas front. Oil and gas blocks are being awarded at a speed unheard of in official annals. On Monday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs announced the award of as many as 23 blocks. That brings the tally of blocks awarded in three rounds of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) to 70. That is almost an astronomical figure if compared to the 22 blocks awarded in the past 10 years. The feeling in the oil industry all along was that the exploration was suffering because of the dilly-dallying of the political bosses. The Vajpayee government has stepped clear of the sundry controversies tormenting it to take some ground-breaking decisions, be it in infrastructure development or heavy-investment projects. Its decision-making capacity seems to have been buoyed by large gas find by Reliance Industries Limited in the Krishna-Godavari deepwater basin. This was India’s largest gas discovery in the last three decades. Small wonder that RIL has been awarded nine out of the 23 blocks whereas the ONGC has got 13. Suddenly, things look rosy for India on the gas front, so much so that today some analysts even project that in the next 15 to 20 years, India will become a gas exporter. What a seachange that will be from the time when it had to virtually beg for this essential fuel.

Possibilities are immense, according to current reckoning. While that bright scenario will unfold only over a long period, the immediate concern is how much of gas will be available in June, 2004. A lot will depend on unwavering administrative support to the industry. At the same time, serious thought should also be given to the cost of production because pricing has to be right if gas has to become a viable fuel for power. It is also necessary to have a suitable regulatory regime. The biggest consumers of gas are the fertiliser and power sectors. If gas prices are right, abundant supply can usher in a boom in the fertiliser sector, which in turn can give a fillip to farming. However, a turnaround in the power sector will be a lot more difficult. Unless there are radical power reforms, the gas-based revolution cannot go far. Just as input prices have to be market-driven, output prices, generation and transmission have also to be handled professionally and not left to the whims of politicians and bureaucrats. A comprehensive policy framework has to be evolved immediately which does not inherit any of the debilitating rigidity and inflexibility of the old regime.

Slowdown in reforms

It is rare for India’s private sector to host an international conference on economic reforms without any government participation. Surprisingly, this year’s India Economic Summit began on Sunday without the customary speech of the Indian Finance Minister. By staying away from the opening session of the summit, organised by the World Economic Forum and the CII, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh might have sent a wrong signal to the international business community, that is, the Indian government was no longer as enthusiastic about the economic reforms as it used to be. For the past some time now, little progress has been made on the reforms front. The disinvestment programme has been held up following differences among the NDA coalition partners. The economy itself has been pushed from the centrestage as ruling and opposition politicians busy themselves with playing politics over communalism and terrorism. The second-generation economic reforms will have to wait until there is political consensus. This political deadlock is annoying to the Indian industry, which is eagerly waiting to tap opportunities thrown up by globalisation and to catch up with the fast-growing competitors. An exasperated Rahul Bajaj, CMD of Bajaj Auto, was led to think aloud at the summit that why other countries vigorously pursuing reforms did not bother about or wait for political consensus to emerge. “The gap between us and other countries is increasing,” he cautioned. Even the mild-mannered Infosys Chairman, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, could not help saying: “With tremendous respect to Mr Prime Minister, I would say that he has to be courageous and firm in taking decisions.” The concerns of the business community are laudable, but the reality is that this country is run by politics, and economics comes to the fore only at the time of a crisis.

At any global business conference on India, it is but natural for the participants, particularly those from the West, to offer advice on how to make India globally competitive and compare its laggardly ways with a fast-moving China. One can understand the obvious disappointment of the domestic and foreign investors waiting to lap up public sector jewels at cheap rates in the present recession-hit world when the stocks of most companies are quoting much below their intrinsic value. The disinvestment process has not been scrapped; it is only waiting for a broader political review. Their lament at the slow pace of infrastrucuture building is appreciable, but they have to realise that this democratic country of more than one billion people is not like one of their companies where decisions are taken and implemented in a hurry. The country cannot afford a repeat of Enron. Besides, the economic reforms have a bearing on the lives of so many people and they have to understand the implications and prepare themselves for the change. A healthy public debate on a contentious issue is rather welcome. China’s political system does not allow dissent in public and decisions are taken by a coterie at the national level. Here decisions cannot be imposed on the states, which have to be taken into confidence by the Central government on all vital issues. Despite such systemic limitations, the country’s national leadership cannot escape the blame for a general slowdown in decision-taking. It is clear on the roadmap and possible pitfalls. The country has to shed the image of being an elephant, if foreign investment is to move from a trickle to a flood.

Priyanka stumps Maya

It is not easy to win a political debate with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati or Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav without using rough language. Anyone who tries to ruffle them ends up getting a mouthful. That the language of political discourse has become rough and often obscene with the opening up of the system is not in doubt. But rarely do polite political pin-pricks make the members of the “rough brigade” lose their cool. For this reason alone Mrs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s recent visit to her mother’s Lok Sabha constituency, Amethi, was successful. It made Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati see red and Congressmen smile. All she did to get the Bahujan Samaj Party leader hopping mad was the deft use of the same Dalit card that Ms Mayawati uses for wrong-footing her political opponents. This time it was Mrs Vadra who made the champion of the Dalits fall flat on her face. The resultant acts of political retaliation helped the Congress gain a few points at the expense of the Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition. Indira Gandhi’s granddaughter used a routine incident for stealing Ms Mayawati’s Dalit thunder. During her political stock-taking visit to Amethi Mrs Vadra was informed about an act of “atrocity” against a poor Dalit. His house was demolished by a powerful Thakur of the same village. The Thakur is said to be a BJP worker. Mrs Vadra’s breathtaking political response showed why the average Congress worker has pinned his/her hope on her for reviving the party. She did nothing dramatic, but merely used the opening for initiating the process of winning back the trust of the Dalits. She issued an appeal to Congress workers to rebuild the demolished house through shramdan. The political implications of the seemingly humanitarian gesture understandably unnerved the Chief Minister.

She used the same weapon that had helped her survive the attempt of the BJP dissidents to topple her. A law and order situation was promptly manufactured by the local police and Section 144 was imposed for preventing any “unlawful” assembly of people. But Ms Mayawati did not know that Indira Gandhi’s granddaughter is made of sterner stuff. She does not accept defeat without a good fight. She made the police register an FIR against the Thakur. The registration of the FIR would have passed off as a political routine but for the counter-offensive that saw Ms Mayawati perhaps for the first time in her political career taking an anti-Dalit stand! She accused Mrs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of getting a criminal case registered with the sole objective of garnering Dalit votes. And why not? Surely making pro-Dalit gestures is not the exclusive right of the BSP? The Chief Minister was provoked into issuing a two-page statement in which she targeted Priyanka for helping a Dalit register an FIR against five persons, including a local BJP leader. The Dalit was personally escorted to the police station by Mrs Vadra. The allegation that the demolished structure was illegal would have made sense had it been raised by a non-Dalit or the land on which it was located belonged to a Dalit. Ms Mayawati has won many a political battle by launching a no-holds-barred attack on her rivals. But this round must go to the Congress, more specifically, the Nehru-Gandhi family.

OPINION

Why is Army short of manpower?
Factors that can restore military’s lost status
Pritam Bhullar

TIME was when soldiering was considered as one of the best professions in India. At that time, the choice of most girls was to get married to soldiers. Today, not only has this profession become almost the last choice of our youth but even in the matrimonial market, its rating has plummeted to a new low.

During the Raj days, the Indian Civil Service (ICS) was, no doubt, regarded as the best service. But the second best was the Indian Army. Both enjoyed an enviable status and offered good life to its members. There was no lure for money those days and this kept most of the services clean and free from corruption.

Because of its well-regulated and adventurous life, military service had an edge over all other services. What made it more attractive was its glamour, dazzle of the uniform, an attractive mess life and enthralling band music.

After Independence, the British mystique started melting. But it did not vanish altogether and the successive services — the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Army — were still considered attractive. However, over the years, the Army has gone down in status and has also lost its erstwhile shine and charm. No wonder then that today a service chief is at the 12th position in the Warrant of Precedence, whereas the Commander-in-Chief was next to the Viceroy before Partition. And a jawan has been put lower than a chaprasi by the Fifth Pay Commission.

What is worrisome is that in a vast, poor and over-populated country like India, we continue to be short of manpower in the defence forces for the past several years and this shortage is increasing by the year. The shortage of officers in the Army is over 13,000 now, which is one-third of the authorised strength of officers. In the Navy and the Air Force, it is about 700 and 3000, respectively. Over 80 per cent of the shortage in the Army is at the level of middle-ranking officers — Majors and Captains.

Another trend that is becoming popular with the officers is to put in their papers for premature retirement. They do this to seek a second career in their post-retirement life while they are still young. This is because of slow promotions, which have resulted in the stagnation of officers in the same ranks for years together.

Alarmed by this trend of officers in the ranks of Major, Lt-Col, and Colonel who quit the Army prematurely, the Chief of Army Staff, Gen S. Padmanabhan, recently got a cadre review proposal prepared by the Military Secretary’s Branch which envisages a substantial increase in the number of officers from the ranks of Colonel to Lt-General. This increase, if accepted by the government, will improve the avenues of promotion to some extent.

To overcome the stagnation problem, lateral movement of officers to paramilitary forces, civil services, private and public sectors is the answer. No less important is to provide a respectable retired life to the defence personnel with good pensionary and medical benefits. Apart from making the defence services attractive, these measures will also help in bringing down the number of officers who opt for premature retirement.

Bitten by the bug of materialism, today’s youth prefers, if he can help, to go in for a career which fetches him a fat salary with a comfortable life. This is why the private sector jobs offering lucrative salaries are preferred by most who are professionally well qualified.

To attract the youth to opt for the Army and to offset the shortage of officers in it, some measures have been adopted by Army Headquarters over the years. In 1996, the services of the electronic media were hired to refurbish the image of the Army. Though lakhs of rupees were wasted on this PR exercise, the results produced by it were not encouraging. Then in 1997, a new commission was introduced for JCOs, NCOs, and ORs who were in the age group of 30-35 years. This scheme too belied the expectations of the authorities to make up the strength of the officers.

After these two measures proved abortive, the training period of cadets at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) was reduced by six months in early 2000. This reduction brought down the training period of direct entry cadets to one year from 18 months and for the National Defence Academy (NDA) cadets to six months from one year at the IMA. This was done to quicken the commissioning of officers into the Army to help in arresting their shortfall at the present level. Yet another measure adopted to overcome the shortage was to increase the annual intake of cadets at the IMA by about 1000.

Despite all these measures, the paucity of officers continues to increase, thanks to the growing number of officers taking to the trend of chucking the Army. Incidentally, the document prepared by the Shimla-based Army Training Command (ARTRAC) called: “Commercial Public Relations for the Army” in 1996, based on which Army Headquarters launched soap operas (PR exercise) to improve the lost image of the Army, contained many revealing aspects. Inter-alia, it said, given an opportunity such as golden hand-shake, majority of the soldiers would like to leave the Army because of the poor service conditions and inadequate salaries which have taken the Army to the bottom of the career-choices among today’s youth.

In August, 2001, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence had advised the government to take immediate action to make Short Service Commission for the officers more attractive and to re-examine the feasibility of giving the armed forces officers a running pay band on the lines of the civil services. As part of the action plan, the committee had also recommended that the Army’s role in counter-insurgency should be gradually reduced and a review of the cadre structure should be carried out.

The Kargil Review Committee in its recommendations had said that as far as possible, the Army should not be used for counter-insurgency duties. It further recommended that the paramilitary forces should be restructured by transferring the Army manpower to them on their release from the Army after seven to 10 years’ colour service. This, the Kargil Committee felt, would enable the paramilitary forces to measure up to the task of counter-insurgency effectively. It seems this recommendation has been swept under the carpet.

Surprisingly, the Army is considered to be the panacea for all the ills afflicting the country. This is having an adverse effect on all other organisations for they have started thinking that the Army will always come to deal with the difficult situations. Most of them do not put in their best for this reason. If this was not true, then one Army brigade should not have been pulled back when it was deployed for war on the border for “Operation Parakram” during the Gujarat riots.

In an overpopulated country like India, there is no dearth of manpower. What one sees at almost all recruitment rallies is that if there are 200 vacancies, more than 5000 youths come forward for recruitment. But, at times, it is not possible to fill even 200 vacancies out of them because most of them do not meet the minimum laid down standards.

No doubt, India has a volunteer Army. But, unfortunately, those who opt for the Army are not the ones having any other avenues open to them. Ever since the quota of recruitment for each state has been fixed on the basis of percentage of its population as compared to other states, the standard of volunteers has gone down. For, in certain states like Punjab and Haryana, every third person is a volunteer for the Army and many of them make the grade but cannot be recruited because of the quota restriction. This is not to say that in other states there are not enough volunteers. They are very much there in great numbers thanks to the large-scale unemployment in the country, but very few of them make the grade for recruitment.

It is time we dispensed with the recruitment quota system and reverted back to the old system of enrolling the best out of the volunteers, irrespective of the states they hail from. Admittedly, we cannot dilute the standard of soldiering for the sake of extraneous considerations and then regret it when it is too late.

The only way to attract the right kind of material in required numbers to the armed forces is to improve the terms and conditions of service, including a substantial increase in salary, perks and other benefits. The other areas that need immediate attention include housing, children’s education, and stagnation. Nothing raises the morale of a soldier more than upholding his “izzat”. The government should, therefore, carefully look into this important psychological factor to restore the soldier’s pristine status.

The writer, a retired Colonel, is a well-known defence analyst.

MIDDLE

A moment of joy
D.R. Sharma

IT must be 12 or 13 years ago when a campus colleague walked in one early morning to share his joy at our son’s performance in the Nehru Parliamentary Quiz. He had watched it on the television the previous night and wondered how the little boy remembered so many names and dates. “Any special diet, Sharmaji?” he asked and complimented us on being attentive and caring parents.

I suddenly recalled this incident while watching the World Cup on the TV. Not much of a football fan, I could hardly differentiate between a Ronaldo and a Rivaldo. I knew practically nothing about the teams that the sports critics had been applauding. I knew only one thing that India was nowhere in the game, having lost at the very initial stage.

Of course I had been reading about the legendary strikers from different nations like England, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. I had also come across reports that Beckham’s hairdo had caused a flutter in many a young heart. But beyond that I felt totally bewildered when it came to the history of the game which the Church of England had once called barbaric — a simple act of butchery.

Whenever our son and his wife got back from work, they would find me and my enduring wife glued to the set, enthralled by the upcoming penalty kicks and the athletic feats of the tacklers. The sprightly display by the Japanese and the South Koreans had already ignited our Asian pride, though we admired the Latinos when they dramatised their blend of skill and stamina.

I think on the day of finals our son and daughter-in-law were off-work, waiting for the match to begin in the evening. As we huddled up in the living room — and before the match began — Mukul told us all about the game. He knew the year when and where the first World Cup was played, and then the venues of the later matches. He also knew the names of the winners, year by year, also the number of goals that some champions had scored. He also knew about the vintage rivalry among some teams and the spirit of revenge with which some of the teams redeemed themselves.

When he was almost through with that spiel of names and dates, his mesmerised companion turned to my wife and asked: “Mummy, what did you feed him?”

A POINT OF VIEW

Save Punjab from becoming a desert
Harjap Singh Aujla

THE talk in the villages of Punjab these days is centred on the diminishing returns on paddy and wheat and the failing level of underground watertable. This problem of water, believe me, is not new, but of late it is getting the desired attention. We, the Punjabis, are by nature a carefree lot. Small problems just don’t matter in our everyday life. The underground watertable has been going down for the past four decades, but in the initial years the drop was minor and tubewells were deep enough to take it in stride. The problem of course was originated by the cultivation of paddy in the unconventional areas. In the original undivided province of Punjab, rice, especially Basmati, was cultivated in the Gujjranwala and Sheikhupura belt and on both sides of the Ravi in Sialkot, Gurdaspur, Lahore and Amritsar as well as in the Beas basin in Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala. Now every district is growing it and the rivers are no longer perennial.

From October to June for a period of nine months all the rivers in Punjab are just like dry beds of sand which don’t help in recharging the underground watertable. The waters generated by melting snows and rainfall in the hilly areas of Himachal Pradesh are dammed up in Bhakra and Pong reservoirs and are conveyed to the arid areas of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Water from the hill areas is utilised to the optimum extent, but no effort is being made to store Punjab’s own annual rainfall of 25 inches plus. Given our callous indifference to the storage of our own rainfall, even without cultivation of rice, Punjab’s watertable was supposed to go down gradually. Lack of recharging potential due to negligible flow and no storage in the rivers for nine months in a year is the principal cause of our problem of falling underground watertable. What would have happened slowly anyway has been marked accelerated by the cultivation of rice.

The State-wide watertable has dropped more significantly during the past two decades. Where the watertable was 50 feet deep in 1980, it is 250 feet deep in 2002. Such a significant drop in the level of water should have rung alarm bells long ago, but our nature is to keep on ignoring our problems in the hope of getting some miracle to happen. Scientific thinking suggests that such a miracle has neither happened nor will happen. The solutions, at this late stage, are difficult but not impossible.

Under the Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan, out of six Western rivers called waters of the Indus basin, India has been given full rights to utilises the waters of three rivers, the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi Pakistan gets the right to use the waters of the remaining three rivers namely the Chenab, the Jhelum and the Indus. What has been given to India in a treaty India has miserably failed to make use of.

Until 2001 India, by not damming the Ravi was letting its entire water into Pakistan. The story is not as dismal in the case of the Sutlej and the Beas. The discharge contributed by its catchment area in the hills is dammed up and released into canals for the use of three States. Only the inflow contributed by the drainage area in Punjab goes into Pakistan. Pakistan on its own part has constructed several barrages, especially in its Sind to irrigate the formerly desert-like areas of that province. Farmers from west Punjab have settled in big numbers in these newly irrigated but otherwise virgin tracts of land. The area is blooming with all sorts of plantations.

At the level of the state government and other agencies a lot of advice is being given to the cultivators in Indian Punjab to abandon the practice of cultivation of rice and adopt other low water requirement crops instead. Can the people issuing these sermons guarantee that the watertable will come back after the plantation of rice is discontinued? The answer to this question is a big no. By stopping the cultivation of rice, we can certainly arrest the further downward slide in the watertable, but recharging will happen only if lakes are developed for constantly seeping the surface waters into the sub-soil.

At this stage we need to develop a series of cascade lakes by damming the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ghaggar at intervals of three to four miles each. First two such lakes should come up near Beas town on the Beas and close to Phillaur on the Sutlej. The Ghaggar dam should logically come up somewhere between the crossing of the Chandigarh-Ambala highway and the Grand Trunk Road. The primary purpose of these lakes will be to surcharge the underground watertable. The secondary purposes can be the production of fish, creation of recreational opportunities and augmentation of rural and urban supplies of potable water for the cities and districts of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana Chandigarh and Patiala. At this time all the big cities of Punjab are suffering terrible shortage of potable as well irrigation quality water.

These dams need not be very expensive to build. What is needed is a basic dam structure at each location. The height above ground may range between ten to fifteen feet. Since these dams shall not be capable of generating significant amounts of electricity, their designs can be very simple. The impoundment structures could be either roller compacted concrete gravity dams or more slander reinforced concrete dams. They should be safe in sliding, overturning and against forces of uplift pressure. Eliminating seepage from underneath the dams should not be important. Earth dams are slightly cheaper to build and they are aesthetically pleasing, but their problems are not easy to detect and are more difficult and expensive to address. The concrete dams mostly develop problems on the upstream side and the symptoms appear on the downstream side. Such problems are easy to detect during the periods of low impoundment and the remedies can also be applied during droughts. These dams built on the rivers will be able to hold the entire amount of water during a weak monsoon. During normal or heavy monsoon however, some water will flow into Pakistan.

Punjab’s water problem is very serious. It deserves serious action. The solutions are not cheap, but they are a dire necessity, no matter what the price-tag is. Once these dams are in place, the rise in the underground watertable will be noticed in the very first year in the areas located up to two miles from the river banks. Within a few years the impact on the watertable will travel to more than 10 miles on each side. Ultimately the entire state and some parts in Pakistan and Haryana will also benefit from these dams. In America wherever a dam has been built across a stream its impact on the underground watertable has been positive and permanent. The excessive consumption of water during the peak years of industrial revolution of the nineteenth century resulted in deepening of water table all over the industrial America. With the construction of hundreds of small and medium sized dams the imbalance was rectified in the early part of the twentieth century. A lot of dams are still coming up in the areas of water shortage.

During the eighties a phenomenal spurt in urban grown in Monmouth County of New Jersey created scarcity of water on a countywide basis. After years of planning a new dam was built across the Manasquan river during the early years of the nineties. The result was abundance of water in the immediate future and sufficiency of water up to 2020. In the intervening period another dam will be built and more water will be harnessed.

Punjab needs extensive conservation of water. The village ponds need to be deepened and made bigger. The ‘choes” of Ropar and Hoshiarpur need to be dammed. Sukhna lake in Chandigarh needs to be deepened so much that all the flood water in “Sukhna choe” for the entire monsoon season can be stored in the lake. The Railways need soil for the Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail link. Let them dig this lake up and cart the soil to the alignment of the railway line. There is another “choe” passing through the leisure valley in Sectors 3,10 and 16. This “choe” should be dammed in several spots in the gardens it is passing through. By the time it reaches Mohali, its bed should be dry.

I hope this article will prompt our planners to think of not only abandoning the cultivation of rice, but also to plan evolving new strategies to harness the waters of our rivers for rehabilitating the depleting water levels of the State. My suggestions are for agricultural abundance and food sufficiency of the entire nation and not just for the benefit of its bread basket, Punjab.

TRENDS & POINTERS

The ‘right to know’ on toxics

NEGOTIATORS from Europe, Central Asia and North America began talks on Monday to finalise an international pact to strengthen the people’s right to know about the presence of chemical waste and toxic pollutants.

Under a draft plan, hammered out over two years of negotiations, the states will set up national registers of industrial pollutants released into the water, air and soil.

The pact, which the countries hope to be able to sign next year, covers the disposal, storage, recycling or treatment of dangerous materials ranging from minerals to metals, fertilisers and hydrocarbons.

But the week-long talks, the last scheduled session of negotiations, come amid complaints by environmental groups that some toxic substances — radioactive waste and cancer-causing chemicals — risk being dropped from the draft deal under pressure from industry lobbyists.

Friends of the Earth and other activists warn that some countries are pressing for known carcinogenic substances, such as beryllium, a metal used in some electronic appliances, and chromium VI, employed in pigments and dyes, leather tanning and wood preserving, to be removed from the list.

Another area of concern is styrene — a possible carcinogen used widely in rubber, plastics, insulation, fibreglass and autoparts — which is also in line to be omitted.

“The public should have the right to know what chemicals are being discharged by companies and where they are being stored,” said Mary Taylor, researcher at Friends of the Earth. Reuters

Russia may ban Barbie

An unfeasibly busty plastic doll, known for her lavish tastes and docile boyfriend, is an unlikely enemy of the Russian state. But Barbie, along with a host of Western toys, faces the wrath of the Kremlin for contaminating the young minds of Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Education has included Barbie along with a list of other toys and games that face a ban because of the supposedly harmful effects they have on the minds of young children.

Barbie, in particular, is under fire because the doll is thought to awaken sexual impulses in the minds of the very young, and encourage consumerism among Russian infants.

The Ministry sent a request to the Russian Government this month to create a special commission to examine the psychological effects of toys and games which provoke aggression, fear and ‘premature sexual manifestations’.

Under a plan reminiscent of the harsh controls imposed on children’s toys during Soviet times, a number of criterion have been pinpointed, asking whether the toy `provokes aggression, or cruelty towards other players,’ if it contains ‘themes of immorality and violence, or provokes unhealthy interest in sexual problems,’ or if it inspires `disdain or negativity to the racial peculiarities and physical inadequacies’ of other people.

Yet Russian psychologists have rounded on the moves against Barbie, saying the accusations are unfounded. Sociologist and children’s psychologist Natalia Grishayeva said: ‘People are writing that Barbie stimulates early sexual interest, but no scientific tests have been done. TV, films, Russian magazines for teenagers and porn on the Internet are truly responsible for this. This is where state regulation must be.’ The Guardian

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Before doing anything, one must weigh carefully whether it is right or wrong; then everyone will speak well of it. They who act rashly and repent afterwards are anything but wise, so declare the Vedas and sages.

— Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Ayodhya Kanda

***

The Almighty Rama, Uma, makes everyone dance like a puppet.

— Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Kishkindhakanda Kanda

***

Sometimes meekness is a great evil.

— Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Bala Kanda

***

Can suffering result from doing good to others?

Can the possessor of the philosopher’s stone suffer poverty?

— Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Uttara Kanda

***

It is good neither to quarrel with a bad man nor to make friends with him. From the wicked... one should always hold aloof and avoid them as one would a dog.

— Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Uttara Kanda

***

It would be easier for hair to grow on the shell of a tortoise or for the son of a barren woman to commit murder, or for flowers of all sorts to bloom in the sky than for a soul to find happiness if it be hostile to Hari.

— Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Uttara Kanda

***

Though one may take infinite trouble in watering a plantain, it will not bear fruit unless it is pruned; even so believe me garuda, a mean man heeds no prayer but yields only when reprimanded.

— Shri Ramacharitamanasa, Sundara Kanda

***

Death is like falling asleep

and birth is like waking from that sleep.

— The Tirukural, 339