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Tuesday,
December 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Beyond
Agro-Tech Elections &
Gujarat’s economy Putin’s visit |
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Gujarat
in Indian politics
All a
matter of destiny
Crime
spurt: causes & cures
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Beyond Agro-Tech TO ensure a wider display of the latest farming practices and technological innovations, the CII-organised Agro-Tech 2002 should be held more often, maybe with greater cooperation from the agricultural universities and the agriculture departments of the northern states, and at places within an easy reach of farmers. Held once in two years in Chandigarh, the fair serves a limited purpose and provides essentially a business-to-business and business-to-government interaction. Most of the visitors are urbanites having little to do with agriculture. For most Chandigarh families, it is just another outing. This time an additional attraction of the fair is the setting up of a model village, which has an ideal interactive school, a well-equipped health centre, a bank with an ATM, solar energy equipment in each house and a drip irrigation system in each field. This is the industry’s vision of what a future village should be like. This is sheer wishful thinking. It does not take into account the ground realities. Most farmers do not have the basic health care facilities. Dispensaries in the rural areas are often without medicines or/and medical staff. There may be a school in the village, but where are teachers trained to provide education in a meaningful way? The dropout rate is very high even in an otherwise better-off state like Punjab. How can the farmers, who do not have an easy access to clean drinking water, afford to instal a drip irrigation system? Do they have enough money to keep it in a bank and use the ATM as desired? How many of them have the purchasing power to buy the latest tractor? Agreed, the basic purpose of every business is to sell its products or services and earn profits. This cannot be done unless and until the plight of the farmer improves. Industry and agriculture are inter-dependent and cannot move in isolation. To facilitate their interaction, the government has to play the role of a match-maker. Industry-agriculture linkages have to be worked out and the existing ones strengthened. The contract system is still at the talking point stage. The government participation in Agro-Tech at present is confined to the visit to the fair by the Chief Minister or the Governor and the display of banners at some government department stalls. After the four-day fair comes to an end, there is little follow-up action. For instance, a farmer wants to diversify into sericulture, floriculture or tissue culture and he needs constant guidance, whom should he turn to for help? If he wants to grow the latest flowers, where should he market it? Experts at a CII seminar point out that India produces milk at the lowest cost in the world, but where is the infrastructure to tap the export potential? The immediate need is to strengthen the extension services. Representatives of the agricultural universities and the agriculture department should maintain a liaison with industry on the one hand and the farmers on the other. Farmers lose their precious milch cattle to disease for want of timely medical aid. There are not enough mechanics to repair costly tractors and other farm machinery. There is no government or private agency to give the farmers genuine, reliable advice as to which farm machinery is suitable for their needs and at what price. As a result, a farmer suffers loss and fails to repay his debt, which sometimes drives him to suicide. Industry, the government and the farmer must have a common platform to settle such issues, remove growth-related barriers and check exploitation. Only then can fairs like Agro-Tech play their real role in facilitating development. |
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Elections & Gujarat’s economy GUJARAT, acknowledged as the hub of the country’s economy till February, 2002, received a severe jolt twice in the recent past. First came the devastating earthquake and then the worst riots in the state’s history. The communal killings and the destruction of property on a large scale shook the state by its very foundations. Gujarat, whose contribution to India’s national income was over 10 per cent and to the country’s exports 20 per cent, suffered a loss of nearly Rs 11, 000 crore as a result of the riots. Fears are being expressed that the state may no longer attract as much foreign direct investment as it used to do earlier (15 per cent of the total FDI coming to the country). People in general not only lost their faith in the law and order machinery but also their sources of livelihood. If the Gujaratis today need anything on a priority basis, it is the strengthening of the rule of law and restoration of their economic pride. But, unfortunately, the two principal political parties — the BJP and the Congress — have failed to give in their manifestos the prominence these issues deserve. Not caring for the secular values associated with the Congress, the opposition party has tried to project itself as a better version of the BJP. But the party in power, with Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the driver’s seat, seems to have left the Congress far behind in raking up issues of little significance so far as the people in general are concerned. The BJP election manifesto, released on Sunday, talks of terrorism and related issues in a big way. Economic issues, including the creation of an atmosphere conducive for economic revival in Gujarat, find only muted mention. The party, it seems, is little interested in social integration and re-establishing the people’s confidence in one another. Or doing everything possible to end the atmosphere of hatred and distrust that developed after the Godhra incident. The projects mentioned in the BJP manifesto show that the entire exercise is aimed at emotional exploitation of a section of the population. When the party says that “we want to throw terrorists out from this border state” it makes people believe that it has identified “terrorists” but will take action against them only if it succeeds in retaining power after the December 12 elections. Is this how a responsible party should behave? Godhra and the post-Godhra disturbances have not been touched as part of a strategy. Mr Modi’s yatras may take care of this aspect of his brand of politics. Terrorism has been discovered as the most effective emotive issue. It is, no doubt, a major issue today, but it comes in handy to those politicians who try to thrive by dividing society on communal lines. It is not their problem if this ultimately weakens India from within. This is what India’s enemy number one, Pakistan, wants. Gujarat, as also the rest of India, needs to be saved from politics of hatred. Only then can people unitedly concentrate on their economic development. |
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IT is customary for the heads of state or government to speak of the age-old and strong ties between their great countries before the commencement of a visit by one to the land of another. But the statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to his three-day Indian visit beginning today have gone far beyond the routine. In fact, he has almost echoed the Indian sentiments. He has not only expressed concern that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Pakistan could fall into the hands of “bandits and terrorists”, but has also displayed his anxiety over reports about Osama bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan. Read with another statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry alleging links between Pakistan and terrorist acts in Jammu and Kashmir, these observations point to the convergence of perspectives on international terrorism between the two countries in the light of the post-September 11 scenario. Quite expectedly, Pakistan has reacted sharply to these statements and has cast aspersions on the Russian ability to safeguard its own nuclear stockpile. Its frustration is writ large over the comment that it has made that Indian and Russian ties continue to be strong even after the collapse of the USSR. The issue dominated the Pakistan-Russia joint working group meeting in Moscow also. India can view all these developments with satisfaction. The “Delhi Declaration” on December 5 is expected to give a new push to bilateral cooperation in a range of areas, especially trade and investment, science and technology, defence, space and nuclear energy. Stung by sluggish commercial relations, Russia is likely to increase the sales pitch for defence equipment. But considering the serious doubts raised about the advisability of purchasing re-fitted aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, all such items on offer should be duly evaluated, taking into consideration everything from their suitability in the current scenario to the availability of spare parts. Since Mr Putin is coming to India directly from China, it is also expected that he will once again put the spotlight on trilateral cooperation between India, Russia and China. Delhi has been at pains to deny that the three are forming a separate axis to counter the US hegemony. Following the informal meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the three countries in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session to “discuss global issues and cross-border terrorism”, and the unusual interest that the meeting generated, this issue is likely to be kept carefully away from the centre stage. |
Gujarat in Indian politics GUJARAT is a benchmark in Indian politics. After Ayodhya and the demolition of the Babri Masjid, it is the experimental ground for testing the limits of propagating Hindutva. The pogrom that took place in the state was condoned by the central Bharatiya Janata Party leadership. And Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has showered encomiums on Mr Narendra Modi, the man more responsible than anyone else for what happened. He is the chief vote-gatherer of the party and is projected as the future Chief Minister, should the BJP win the elections that are almost knocking on the door. The Sangh Parivar is not a monolithic organisation but all sections of it subscribe to some core beliefs, among them the supremacy of Hindutva in the Indian scheme of things. It is doubtless an elastic term and is explained in various ways to serve individual and factional objectives. But as the concept has been propagated in Gujarat, it is little short of a fascist creed. It is of a piece with this theme that Mr Modi should use all the evocative images that divide society, harp on the pride of Gujaratis, blame the proverbial foreign hand for the state’s ills and whip up emotions. It is parallel to the apartheid South Africans’ lager mentality conjuring up images of a beleaguered society fighting against odds. And the knight in shining armour pledging to save Gujaratis is none other than Mr Narendra Modi, a stalwart of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the talisman of the BJP. Mr Advani had set on his rath yatra more than a decade earlier with his blood-curdling rhetoric to paint the country red, leading two years later to the demolition of the Babri mosque. He does not see a connection between the two events and seems to have no regrets over his yatra, the precursor of the BJP’s historic Lok Sabha victory. Taking a leaf out of Mr Advani’s book Mr Modi conducted his own yatra, giving it the appellation of “gaurav yatra.” As an afterthought, the BJP talks about the real problems of the state — of water and economic development. Because, thanks to the BJP government’s priorities, the post-Godhra organised riots that laid large areas of the state waste transformed, as if by a strange alchemy, the industrious and entrepreneurial people of Gujarat into spectators of, if not participants in, a killing game. Ordinary people suffered, shopkeepers suffered and industrialists and entrepreneurs suffered. All that was on offer was the rhetoric of Gujarati pride wrapped in the saffron colours of the BJP. Populist politics is not the exclusive preserve of Mr Narendra Modi or the BJP but the variant of it being propagated is particularly dangerous for equating religion with nationhood and driving a coach and four through the secular creed of the Constitution. Gujarat can hardly be repeated elsewhere in the country but Mr Modi and his ilk are seeking to create a political climate in which the noxious plant of hate can grow, in the hope that it will sprout elsewhere. On the general plane, the BJP lends support to the Modi way of doing things by rewriting history textbooks to filter out anything deemed inconvenient to the party’s view of historical development. A possible BJP victory in Gujarat (the signals from the state are mixed) would, therefore, give a fillip to those who believe, in common with Oscar Wilde, that nothing succeeds like excess. In other words, such branches of the Parivar as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal would interpret a Gujarat success as a licence to go all out in propagating their form of Hindutva, creating more divisions in society and setting the stage for more conflagrations. Increasingly, it seems, the tenor of political debate in the country is being debased. The manner in which the BJP has chosen to take Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to task for addressing the Oxford Islamic Society is outside the bounds of all civilised conduct. One is sorry to see the usually suave and articulate Arun Jaitley stoop to vulgar name-calling to put across the party’s point of view, later buttressed by the BJP President. There can be two interpretations of these distressing phenomena. The BJP is running scared after all the losses it has notched up on a string of state assembly elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, and is, therefore, prepared for another Babri Masjid demolition job, metaphorically speaking, to try to regain people’s favour. Or the more radical elements of the Parivar are so convinced of their election success that they cannot contain themselves and want to proclaim victory before they win it. Admittedly, there are many shades of saffron in the Parivar. But Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s gentle admonitions or prolonged silences appear more in the nature of division of labour than a power struggle with the more articulate propagandists. The real contest in the Parivar is between ideologues and opportunists. For the purists among the ideologues, power should be sacrificed in the short term in order to bring about true Hindutva. But they are overwhelmingly outnumbered by the opportunists whose taste for enjoying the fruits of power has grown with amazing speed. Congressmen’s ambitions pale into insignificance compared to the zeal with which BJP men and women seek power. Gujarat would be doing itself and the country a disservice if it were to give encouragement to the rabble-rousers and those seeking a short-cut to achieving power by dividing the people. Sociologists have been trying to divine what makes the land of Mahatma Gandhi so susceptible to the new mantras of hate. A people traditionally given to pursuing their entrepreneurial flair for profit while leading a spartan life seem to be thrall to a destructive goddess. In recent times, Gujarat has suffered twice, first at the hands of a devastating earthquake and then through an orgy of murder and mayhem. In immediate terms, the state has become a stepping stone for the BJP in its quest to retain power in New Delhi, with 2004 tantalisingly close. Perhaps Gujaratis will pause to consider their future before they mortgage it. |
All a matter of destiny WE had one of the most experienced doctors in undivided India as our Medical Officer in the Islamia College, Peshawar. He had two principal claims to fame. One, he was the only bloke in the entire history of the Lahore Medical College (Peshawar had no medical college) who had invested 11 glorious years in obtaining his MBBS degree. It was commonly known that he had got that degree not on merit. He had earned it because his British teachers were so thoroughly fed up with him that they decided that the only way to get rid of him was to give him the degree. And two, which is decidedly more important, he was the offspring of a powerful feudal Pathan lord (Bin Laden’s name was not known at that time) without whose support, the British could not rule the waves over the highly strategic Khyber Pass. Denial of degree to him would have earned the British the wrath of that lord and the tribe he commanded. Our Pathan doctor was extremely popular with students. He used to keep two big glass jars containing tasty juices in his clinic. One jar had brown colour and we knew that it was sugarcane. The other was sparkingly red, a mixture of Vimto and soda. This one was for headache. The brown one was for ache in the stomach. Students were fond of both the syrups. More importantly, they were fond of the special diet the good doctor prescribed, an extra half chicken and
two extra eggs. One day, a student was drowned in the college swimming pool. We pulled him out and took him to the Pathan doctor. He subjected us to a barrage of vital questions. What were we doing at the swimming pool during college hours? Didn’t we have any class? Did any of us have any enmity with him? Had any college teacher rebuked him? Was he good at studies? We gave truthful answers to all those questions. Our cross-examination lasted more than two hours. That finished, the good doctor took charge of the boy lying in deep slumber on his examination table. He felt his pulse, put his ears close to where his heart was, made his stethoscope dance on various parts of his body and then, looking at us philosophically, pronounced: “Too late. You have brought him to the clinic too late. He is already dead.” Normally, the death of a boy, belonging to a powerful tribe, as a result of drowning in the college swimming pool, might have caused a rebellion. His tribe might have launched a war against the tribe to which the doctor belonged. There would have been a skirmish with the British. The road leading to Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass would have been cut. Movements of British troops would have been badly jeopardised. But nothing of the sort happened. For, the good doctor took the plea that it was ordained in the boy’s destiny that he should die by drowning and it was not for him, a God-fearing man, to come between him and his destiny. The matter ended there. PS. Any resemblance to any character in today’s Pakistan should be treated as purely incidental. |
Crime spurt: causes & cures THE recent rape of a Delhi medical student on the streets in the broad daylight has one salutary effect. It has aroused the national conscience and touched off a debate on the ways to counter the growing devil. The responses have been typical of us — angry demonstrations and press statements, brave pledges to punish the guilty and plenty of criticism of the police. And after the emotion dies down every thing will be forgotten. The competitive media hype precipitates the public ire, which in turn pressurises the law enforcing agencies to take panic measures. Then the media loses interest and the whole issue remains under the dusty files. Meaningful follow-up and durable solutions are alien to us. The reaction this time varies from demands for lynching of and the death penalty for the rapists to the using of chilly powder spray by the victims as self-defence. The police and NGOs came out with instant remedies which were duly publicised by the media. Commercialisation is the watchword. Some bright ones have designed handy rapist deterrent sprayers to be marketed at offices and educational institutions. Parents are being advised to impart self-defence to the girls and handbills about karate classes in every park and
nukad are being distributed along with morning newspapers. Then there is sane advice. Women should avoid dark spots, should move in groups or accompanied by male escorts and use the “helpline” (whatever it means) when needed. For the party type, the advice is to use one’s own vehicle after the midnight orgies or go with women companions while returning home. Politicians, women activists and the police have more substantial remedies. Ms Kiran Bedi, after having gone into the criminal law books, has suggested a series of changes to plug the loopholes. She wants quick in-camera trials and women orientation to law enforcers dealing with such cases. Also, the police should prepare a vulnerable area map to concentrate for patrolling. Neighbourhood activists have a more meaningful suggestion: form voluntary groups under supervision of the elders. Mr L.K. Advani is for the death penalty to the rapists. But the women organisations cold-shoulder it because this will prompt the culprits to kill the victims to eliminate evidence. Despite all this, the real tragedy is that everybody is simply beating around the bush and there is no concrete move in sight. This is because rape and cruelty to women occur at different environs and there cannot be an omnibus remedy. How can society deal with the plight of the helpless minors suffering inside their home at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them? Then we have the dating rape by the lusty lover which leaves the victim in life-long trauma. Call girl rape — violating the ‘deal’ — and charge of rape to settle score with a friend-turned-foe have to be tackled differently. The rural areas of certain regions have vengeance rape like the one suffered by the late Phoolan Devi. True, the police can be effective in putting the street and public transport ruffians — the Rahul type — under check by better lighting and stringent patrolling. Quick trials and harsher provisions will have a deterrent effect. The issue has to be fought by a balanced mix of punitive, social and moral war. But let us admit that even the success of such an allout effort is extremely doubtful. For we are fighting a phenomenon imposed on us by the outside forces through a combination of inescapable measures. To begin with, rapes and cruelty to women are only one side of the crime coin. Incidence of the former has been rising in proportion to all other crimes. Burglaries, attempted or effected bank robbries, contract killings, kidnappings for huge ransom and murders have all gone up in the recent years. In fact, with better tools and higher knowledge, the perpetrators of crime have achieved a new level of sophistication. White collar crime, undoubtedly an intellectual version of the crude acts of crime, has also been growing on a much bigger scale. Watch the state’s helplessness in preventing and punishing those behind the large number of frauds, misappropriation and repeated stock scams and corruption. Lakhs of people lost their life’s savings in UTI and established cooperatives as the state is ill-equipped to meet post-liberalisation white collar crimes. Howsoever we may pretend otherwise, much of what we witness today has been the karma phal of the rapid socio-economic changes that have been taking place during the reform decades. The exit of ideology and idealism, omnipresent glorification of the lavish lifestyle, compulsive consumerism and the insatiable lust for wealth have had a crippling effect on the reform generation. The advertising and marketing campaigns targeting the gullible consumer and age groups constantly induce them to acquire more and more goods even if they are beyond their means. The worst victims of the marketisation rush have been the lower strata of the population. Competition and efficiency, hallmark of the neo-capitalism, essentially mean job cuts. Europe is reeling under the anachronism of more investment, more production and more loss of employment. Upgradation of the quality of labour has been an inseparable aspect of the efficient production line. So less intelligent ones fall by the way side. In India, modernisation has led to progressive elimination of class IV jobs. The VRS has pushed large sections out of job. They are all now being counselled to take up self-employment the space for which is rapidly shrinking. Forty million people are now on the live register of the employment exchanges. All this provides fertile breeding ground for criminals. Rahul and his jobless school dropouts, the police says, had only wanted to rob the medical girl. When they found she had only less than Rs 100 on her, Rahul thought of making “better use of her”. The culturally rootless second generation urban poor are the most vulnerable. The break-up of families and control of the traditional caste institutions push them into the crime world. He tries to emulate the pranks of film and TV heroes. Easy availability of pornography for the semi-literates and drugs form a deadly mix. The more educated and well-to-do sections get their inspiration from the growing “party” culture profiling permissiveness in colour pullouts and channels. Their heroes are the “page three” crowd and MTV generation. Sadly, they take the artificial glamour world as real and act under false notions. This is not something peculiar to India. Crime and anarchic life by the deprived sections have always been a part of the globalisation everywhere. Maybe we are yet to reach the Latin American proportions of yesteryears. But the process has begun with all its fury. The resultant degeneration of the social life is almost akin to what had begun in the USA a generation before. The American church, otherwise fairly organised, had miserably failed to prevent the overall moral degradation and erosion of values. Their present concern is the large proportions of unwed mothers resulting from the rapid exit of the very institution of marriage. Soon after George Bush took charge, he tried to provide state funds to religious establishments for counselling and rehabilitation. We have to learn valuable lessons from their experience. |
Abu: a sharp brush,
a sharper pen Abu was active and dedicated to his profession till his last breath. Ironically, his last column appeared in The Tribune on December 1. While reading his column “Treat war like disease”, few could have imagined that this would be his last piece for The Tribune. A notable aspect of his personality was that Abu was not only an accomplished cartoonist of the highest order and distinction but also a prolific writer and commentator. True, he did not belong to the likes of
R. K. Laxman, but he was a class apart from the run-of-the-mill cartoonists. While his drawings were of international standard, his writings were direct and pungent. He conveyed his feelings forcefully and in a free and fair manner. Abu was a trend-setter as a cartoonist during the 19 months of the Emergency. Even though he rose to fame during this period for his sharpness of brush and biting criticism of Indira Gandhi’s dictatorial style of functioning, Abu continued to raise his voice against the injustices in the system till his death. In his writings, he did not spare the powers that be for the ills or wrongs in society. To that extent, he was a thorough professional to the core. Abu was dismayed over the attitude of senior BJP leaders, especially their silence over the utterances of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad top brass in the last few weeks. In his piece on “competitive communalism” (The Tribune, November 3), he gave vent to his anger and frustration over the ongoing developments when he said: “So long as they (BJP leaders) keep the flock together, nothing else seems to matter”. |
If one is lucky enough to have sometime free from worldly activities, one should devote oneself to meditation. That is, one should live alone, speak little, eat little and do a lot of practice of God remembrance. For one’s spiritual progress one should become firm in such service. One should slowly increase such time of freedom from a few hours to days and then to weeks of enjoying spiritual bliss through living alone. — From the writings of Mahatma Mangat Ram ji Maharaj (1903-1954)
*** Nothing is absolutely right and nothing is absolutely wrong. — Chuang Tzu
*** Do not scold the wind nor abuse the rain. — Tai Shang Kan Ying P’ien *** These four habits are the principles of the religion of Zarathustra : To exercise liberality in connection with the worthy; To do justice; To be friendly unto everyone To be sincere and true and to keep falsehood far from themselves. — Sad Dar *** Even the swiftest horse requires the whip the sharpest steel life requires the whetstone, and the wisest man requires counsel. — Shayast-na-shayast *** Of two bed fellows who hear the cock crowing, the one who gets up first will first enter paradise. — Vendidad *** To live in fear and falsehood is worse than death. — Menog-i Khrad *** Humility in oneself is as correct as grandeur among inferiors. — Dadistan-e-dinik, I, II |
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THE death of Abu Abraham, a distinguished cartoonist and commentator, on Sunday afternoon at Thiruvanthapuram, has come as a bolt from the blue to lakhs of his admirers. In particular, his sudden demise has come as a shock to the readers of The Tribune, with whom he had a special relationship for decades.
Some people may not have agreed with his views, but what was remarkable was his courage of conviction. He was a champion of secularism and never deviated from this avowed path in his writings.
What especially grieved Abu was the division of society on religious and communal lines. Surely, this was not the India of his generation, the old-time, value-based generation, which was part of the Gandhi-Nehru thinking process. He disapproved of the Sangh Parivar’s ways and felt that with each speech that its associates make, the scale of violence went up and the country faced the threat of a “communal explosion”.