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Wednesday,
January 22, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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The interconnect row Resignation drama Ray of hope on Iraq |
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Examining Venezuelan socialism
Corner house
Centre must shed the midnight knock image
Hunk gets nod when she’s on the pill
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The interconnect row THE private cellular companies’ stand-off with the basic operators on the one hand and with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the other has come to an end, no doubt, on the intervention of Union Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan. A few issues have cropped up that need to be addressed urgently to avoid a similar situation in future. The most important is the challenge to the authority of TRAI. The cellular operators have cast aspersions on TRAI and refused to heed to the regulator’s advice to restore the interconnection to the basic operators. They relented after Mr Pramod Mahajan assured them on Monday of a sympathetic look at the issue of access charge and entry fee. Good governance requires that TRAI should be shown due respect and its authority should not be undermined by anybody. The government has to ensure this. In the changed telecom scenario the office of TRAI has to be treated with dignity. The second issue is of assuring a level-playing field to the rival players. The government or TRAI should not be seen as favouring any particular party. If a fair competition is assured, the consumer’s interests are automatically protected. New technologies drive the old ones out of the market. When the mobile phone rates were high, the government was seen as favouring the cellular companies. The consumer was fleeced for years. New technology has changed the situation dramatically and the mobile phones have become affordable to more and more people. Now the government and TRAI are seen as siding with the limited service providers. This impression has to go and TRAI’s credibility must be restored to avoid disputes in future. The lay reader may not understand what the whole controversy is about. There are two mobile technologies — CDMA and GSM — and their users are in a cut-throat competition the world over. When the mobile telephones using the GSM technology were launched in the country, their operators were required to pay a hefty licence fee. They in turn made cell phone calls very expensive — the peak rate being Rs16 a minute. When the limited mobility services using the CDMA technology were launched, the operators did not have to pay the licence fee charged from the cellular companies. TRAI has taken the position that the WLL (limited mobility) services are different from the cellular services and are part of the fixed line basic services. So, their terms of business are different. In many countries the two types of mobile phone services are considered identical. To level up, the cellular operators demand interconnect user charges from WLL operators, an issue that has never been addressed so far. TRAI is now seized of the issue and will have to work out a fair and just interconnect regime to the satisfaction of all parties. By denying access to fixed line and WLL service consumers for a week, the cellular companies have lowered themselves in their estimation. It was when MTNL stopped entertaining cellular calls in Delhi that these operators realised their limits and fell in line. |
Resignation drama MR Sukh Ram’s party has been behaving like a true mercenary in Himachal Pradesh. It is open to alliance with everyone from the BJP to the Congress to the third front. Whenever a door is firmly shut in its face, it reacts in a weird manner which would have appeared funny had it not involved people in responsible positions. The resignation by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Mansa Ram and Minister of State for Rural Development Prakash Chaudhary is the case in point. The parting of ways by two ministers from the ruling party on the eve of the Assembly elections would appear to be an earth-shaking event, if one did not know the background of these buccaneers. They won the 1998 election on the Himachal Vikas Congress ticket. They comprised one-half of the total strength of the party whose supremo Sukh Ram feared that the Congress would poach on his men through horse-trading. He made them form a separate party which was later absorbed in the BJP. That is how the BJP came to power and the Congress was made to sit on the opposition benches in a hung Assembly. The two were rewarded with
ministership, but the BJP rank and file always treated them as outsiders. Now that the BJP is in the process of allotting tickets, the two imports from the HVC are nowhere in the reckoning. Small wonder that they have utilised their open return ticket to go back to the
HVC. Mr Sukh Ram has, expectedly, welcomed them back into the fold because in reality they had never left the party and the whole charade was only a tactical move. As such, the BJP neither gains nor loses anything from their resignation. But in politics, perception is stronger than real facts. Quite a few voters might see their resignation as signs of trouble in the party, which may influence their pattern of voting. That will be bad news for the BJP. Even otherwise, the HVC has some pockets of influence and can spoil the prospects of the BJP as well as the Congress. That is why the Congress has still not fully ruled out the possibility of an understanding although Mr Virbhadra Singh is strongly opposed to any truck with him. On the other hand, the real trouble of the BJP lies in the never-ending power tussle between Union Minister Shanta Kumar and Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. There are similar cracks in the Congress also, which are resuscitating the HVC willy-nilly. It will be a pity if fringe stumps again come to occupy a decisive position in the next Assembly just because the mainstream parties cannot learn to eschew infighting. |
Ray of hope on Iraq IT is becoming increasingly clear that the USA will have to go against the popular mood at home and mounting anti-war initiatives at the global level for ordering military action against Iraq. The most powerful voice against war is now that of France. The French Foreign Minister, Mr Dominique de
Villepin, left no one in doubt at a high-level United Nations Security Council meeting on terrorism that his country would wage a diplomatic war, including the possible use of its veto power, to make America see reason. The real fireworks will begin after the UN weapons inspectors’ report comes up for debate in the Security Council on January 27, the deadline for Iraq to come clean. With France having made it clear that it would stop the Security Council from passing a resolution authorising military action against Iraq, there is no reason why the smaller nations should not let America know their views on the issue. The French opposition is a major blow to the Bush Administration’s preparations for a military conflict in February. America has already sent tens of thousands of troops to the Persian Gulf in anticipation of the Security Council giving the green signal. President George W. Bush may have to rework his plan because Russia and China, which enjoy veto power, and Germany, which will chair the Security Council in February, have also supported the French stand and indicated that they are willing to let the inspections continue for months. President Bush is trying to mislead the global community by projecting Baghdad as the epicentre of international terrorism and Mr Saddam Hussein as a threat to peace. After 9\11 America received the unequivocal support of the international community for its campaign against terrorism. It misused the global support for “taking over” Afghanistan and securing bases in Pakistan for American troops for gaining strategic control over the oil-and-gas-rich region. America’s response to the December 13 attack, in 2001, on India’s Parliament was not that of a nation committed to combating all forms of terrorism in any part of the world. The time has come for all peace-loving countries, big and small, to close ranks, as they had done in favour of America after 9\11, for mounting diplomatic pressure on President Bush to abandon the plan to attack Iraq. Forget the humanitarian and ethical aspects of the US designs in the Middle-East. There will hardly be a nation that will escape the economic whiplash of the America-induced Arabian nightmare. The American economy, that is struggling to come out of a long phase of recession, too will be devastated in the event of President Bush going ahead with his plan to destroy “that man Saddam”. If the United Nations has to remain relevant it must forcefully articulate the concerns of the majority of its members against unilateral military action by America against Iraq. |
Examining Venezuelan socialism
Mr Chavez is following in his footsteps. A few years ago Venezuela was affected by severe flooding, killing thousands. Torrential rain swept away entire communities. At that time Mr Chavez opened the army barracks and the presidential palace to the homeless. He has sent the army to build schools, repair roads and provide drinking water. He has legalised and encouraged occupation of empty buildings and urban plots by squatters. According to Venezuela News, Mr Chavez has threatened to take the land needed for reconstruction from the big landowners. He warned that if a landowner, “owns 50,000 hectares, does not want to pay taxes, or sell, and he has no project for that land, we will now simply apply the letter of ‘the law in the public interest’, expropriation”. Socialism Today reports that the “corrupt leadership of the trade unions, who were almost entirely enmeshed with the old regime and received enormous perks and privileges, are being removed. Four hundred trade union officials with positions on the boards of directors of banks and other institutions have gone. Despite a wave of protest from the USA and other imperialist powers, the government last year banned union leaders from leaving the country and taking their money with them.” Perhaps the most revolutionary concept that Mr Chavez is promoting is that of participatory democracy. He says, “The current political model is mortally wounded and no viable alternative can exist without breaking the bourgeois, neoliberal system that has operated in Venezuela since 1945. In our model of democracy, the people participate in making political, even military, decisions. There has to be direct democracy where the people retain the right to remove, nominate, sanction, and recall their elected delegates and representatives.” Mr Chavez is telling the people to organise in every way possible — Bolivarian circles, women’s groups popular radio, etc. Mr Chavez is also pursuing an economic policy that does not suit the Western powers. After taking office he has seen that the production quotas fixed by OPEC are adhered to, resulting in an increase in the oil prices. Mr Clinton reportedly once pleaded with Mr Chavez to help reduce oil prices but Mr Chavez refused. While taking over the reins of the Chairmanship of the Group Of 77 from Iran, he said the rich countries give “about one thousand million dollars per day in subsidies of the production of food, benefits and services. Meanwhile, they demand from us — the countries of the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh world that we cannot subsidise our national production because this would transgress the laws of the invisible hand of the market.... Are the majority of the inhabitants of the planet going to accept the imposition of a privileged minority? Twenty per cent of the population of the world from the developed countries consumes 80 per cent of the benefits and services that are produced on the planet.” Now wonder Mr Chavez has got much support of the people. A report in the Guardian (October 23, 2002) gives an account of Mr Chavez’s hold on the people’s heart. The entrenched elites staged a coup. “The Generals told Mr Chavez to resign or there would be a civil war. He decided to resign with the idea of returning to power as soon as possible. However, he would do so only if he were given the freedom to communicate with the people to go wherever he chose. At first the Generals accepted his conditions, so his resignation was announced. However, the Generals changed their mind and Mr Chavez did not finally resign. It was a terrible moment for the people. There was a climate of depression. It was a terrible night. During his imprisonment, army lawyers came to see him to make sure that he was being treated fairly. When he was answering the questions he explained that he had not resigned. This was in the report handed over to the Chief Justice. During a TV interview, the Chief Justice revealed that Mr Chavez had not resigned after all. This was one day after the coup. As soon as people heard this, they poured out of the slums. More than 100,000 people marched from the poor neighbourhoods over to the military barracks to call on the soldiers to join them. The poor people and the soldiers, more than 200,000 strong, marched to the Miraflores Palace demanding Mr Chavez’s return to the government. Not a shot was fired. Finally, the forces loyal to Mr Chavez inside the army recovered some strategic areas and began to control the situation. They sent a helicopter to get Mr Chavez and bring him back to the palace and the coup was over. There is little doubt that Mr Chavez is the people’s hero. But can his brand of socialism sustain? A similar euphoria was seen during the Russian and Chinese revolutions, but they degenerated. There are two problems that he will face. It is difficult to keep a benign state that way. The bureaucracy tends to degenerate over time. The Red Guards unleashed by Mao Zedong had themselves became tyrannous and had to be contained. Moreover, the people lose interest in politics. It has been reported that only 10 per cent votes have been cast in some of the referendums. The “people” are shortsighted. They are more interested in obtaining small personal benefits from the corrupt rather than opposing them. Thus, participatory democracy does not work. People can be effective check only if there is a socially active force in society that continuously guides them and itself stays away from power. Gandhiji’s idea of participatory democracy rested on the crucial role of the constructive worker. The people become irrelevant in the absence of such teachers. This element is missing in Mr Chavez’ model. The second problem is that Mr Chavez continues to seek foreign investment from those very countries whose policies he opposes. Venezuela was one of the richest countries in Latin America a few decades ago. It has oil and many minerals. But they used their wealth to provide free health and education to the people. The result was that the people developed a recipient mentality. Industries were not put up. Now Mr Chavez wants the MNCs to put up those factories. But this will not work. One cannot oppose American interests in securing cheap oil and also seek American investment. The result will be that Mr Chavez’s experiment will fail. His own bureaucratic set-up will itself become tyrannical in the absence of a grassroots people’s resistance. And the spending of money in free health and education projects will not make it possible for Venezuela to set up its own industries. As a result, its ability to resist Western interests will be nullified. The lesson for India is two-fold. One, we should strengthen the constructive worker who lives among the people and guides them. Second, we should set up our own industries instead of running after foreign investment. The writer, a well-known economic commentator, was associated with the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
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Corner house EXCEPT once when I was in my early twenties I have never opted for a corner house. But somehow, the corner houses have been happening to me. While young I was working at a hill resort and staying as a permanent guest in a hostel which had only a few corner rooms. It was considered to be somewhat elitist to have a corner room with two windows — with the sun as your companion throughout the day. I had to pay a slightly higher rent but I thought it was a good decision to soak in the winter sun while others shivered in their one-window dingy cubicles. After I overcame that elitist itch, I thought I would occupy any house on the campus that came my way. Patiently I waited for my turn, and then a house appeared and I was asked to move in within a week; otherwise, said the allotment letter, it would go to the next person on the list. It was a corner house with a broken gate, desolate lawns and a repelling exterior. Inside, taps were missing and washbasins cracked. But it was a corner house with a pleasing number and we occupied it without incurring the displeasure of the allotment committee. To the east of the house stood a line of tall silver oaks and to the north five gigantic mango trees. After every hurricane the lawns were littered with the carnage. And the maid who swept the rooms was only meant for the rooms, and not for clearing the mess outside. But that was not the only mess that we experienced in that elegant house with a magical number. Whenever we saw a vehicle slowing down near our driveway — and we knew that incoming vehicle belonged to none of our friends or relatives — we would prime ourselves with vital information about the campus. “Excuse me,” would intone the driver,” where does Dr Dhingra live?” You can’t live in a corner house without knowing the house numbers of your colleagues, be they Dhingras or Dhillons. And what we encountered in that campus corner house is not over. It is continuing in the house which we got built for our serene, sunset years. The house happens to be, again, a corner one with an equally magical number. Luckily, there are no silver oaks to the east or the massive mango trees to the north. But trees or no trees, encounters continue to remind us of the earlier house. The shrill sound of the doorbell doesn’t herald a friend but a marketing representative — earlier called salesman — with bags full of his company products. “Before I move to other houses in the lane,” says he, “I thought I would check with you.” While he is saying his piece, workmen with pickaxes land up to dig trenches for the myriad cables to upgrade the communication network. But the digging has to commence from the strategic point which acts as a cloakroom for their tiffins and sundry tools. Right at the corner house assemble their spouses with bawling babes in tow. At lunch-time they have every right to ask for a bottle or two of thunda pani and then rest right at the gate of the corner house. Now we live in a town where Dhingras and Dhillons have yielded place to Mahajans and Mittals, to Gargs and Guptas. My favourite read after the relocation is the sector directory which I’m trying to memorise to help the harassed souls disperately looking for directions to a specific house. |
Centre must shed the midnight knock image AFTER
Iftikhar Gilani’s release, Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had thankfully hailed it as a victory for the country's functioning democracy. He is perfectly right. But behind what he did not reveal has been his own failure to mete out justice to an innocent journalist whose case has been repeatedly brought to his notice by the latter's professional colleagues. They had explained to him the details of the website containing the so-called 'secret' documents and the cause of the vindictive action. Initially he was sympathetic. He had called for the details but then began gently cautioning the friends against inadvertently involving themselves with wrong elements. At one stage, he asked Mr Arun Jaitely to sort out the issue with the journalists. That too had failed to break through the thick wall erected by the police bureaucracy to protect their own action and to please the political masters with their 'hard work' in security matters. At the lower levels, the bureaucracy's response was even more crude. Communal and ethnic insinuations were thrown at to emphasise the untrustworthy of the victim. Still worse, murmuring campaigns began even against the concerned journalists alleging that the Pakistani ISI had hired them to save their 'mole', i.e, Iftikhar. This was to scare them. Finally they triumphed with the backing of the alert section of the media. More than the growing culture of witch hunt and Mr Advani’s apparent insensitivity, the Iftikhar episode also illustrates the grim tale of how the rapidly stretching central police machinery and security network creating an atmosphere of paranoia. On the one hand, it suits the ruling party's present political agenda. In the Iftikhar episode it also suited the vested interests, some of them being influential businessmen with the right connections. The police and intelligence bureaucracy will always have their own axe to grind, at both lower and higher levels. A free hand from the North Block means a field day for the perpetrators of the state-sponsored crimes. Thus the political chant of threat to national security and paranoia benefit every one. The Iftikhar story narrates this in all its entirety, including the sudden all-out importance attached to security as a political ploy. Iftikhar's real troubles began with the publication of his report in his daily on April 5 last year exposing the alleged involvement of some three dozen business firms in hawala rackets. This conduit, he had alleged with ample evidence, had ended up with the terrorist network. He had mentioned the names. A reading of the story — its photocopies are available — is enough to convince one about the journalists' integrity. Subsequently, some arrests were also made. Then suddenly hell began to break loose on Iftikhar. While the alleged guilty men were all let off, raids and threats began with a view to forcing him into submission. First it was income tax raids ending up with the unhindered use of every available draconian measure — arrests, intimidation and attempt to manipulate the MI report. At one stage, North Block seemed moving towards taking a lenient view. But the sudden emergence of national security as the ruling party's electoral agenda had made Iftikhar's plight miserable. The whole security establishment came under pressure to 'unearth' more and more terrorist plans and conspiracies which could whip up the national emotion. Modi needed Godhras and Akshardhams to mop up votes. He had to somehow connect the Opposition with 'Mia Musharraf'. His comments that each BJP defeat brought about cracker firing in Karachi had its crippling effect. Though Iftikhar may have escaped conviction and further imprisonment and torture, security as a political agenda in the forthcoming elections is bound to force the establishment to come out with more and more such revelations. The first requirement is to unravel more cases of terrorist conspiracies. This alone will provide an urgency to the political agenda. The next is to show to the voters that the BJP alone is concerned about the security threat and it alone could effectively counter it. The Iftikhar case provides enough proof of the effectiveness of national security and politicised patriotism as a highly emotional election agenda. It makes the opposition Congress almost dumbfound. A week before the Kashmiri journalist was freed, the concerned journalists had approached Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy for his party's support. Reddy sympathised with the journalist but made it clear that any formal support in his favour would give a handle to the BJP to charge the Congress with not cooperating on the issue of national security. This was when the Home Ministry's case has gone bust after the MI had given its second view. The only Congress hope, it seems, is that national security in its present hyped form cannot be maintained for a longer period. The party is waiting for the right time to expose the BJP's failures on security. Until then it will play second fiddle to the BJP. The BJP is going the whole hog to prove that India under it is not a 'soft state', and the party is capable of unearthing every terrorist plot and punishing the conspirators ruthlessly. Plots to kill Narendra Modi surfaced during the Gujarat elections. And the culprits are killed in encounters or during escape bid. Unfortunately, after the Iftikhar case credibility of such claims stand further eroded. Yet we have more of such plots — this time the prime minister and his deputy — 'around' the Republic day. They are from Lakshar-e-Toiba and LeJ respectively. Details of who will do what are getting wide coverage. This writer remembers how Indira Gandhi had persuaded the MPs not to seek answers about air violations by Pakistan. Such details helped the enemy to identify the cases where India failed to detect the intrusions. Instead of keeping the enemy confused, today's efforts are aimed at stepping up the terror psychosis. All recent pronouncements and demonstrative actions by Mr Advani tend to confirm this elaborate election strategy. He has just warned the people about the 'extremely grave' security situation prevailing in the country. All its leaders, he says, are 'under constant threat' from terrorists across the eastern and western borders. It is more like a 'war situation' than 'the emergency'. The only way to counter the enemy is to dispel India's image as a 'soft state', he asserts. When national security gets politicised, government's own credibility and fair play in dealing with Iftikhars also get eroded. |
Hunk gets nod when she’s on the pill IF she’s on the pill, she’s sure to choose a hunk. If psychologists are to be believed, women’s taste in men could vary depending on whether they are taking the contraceptive pill. According to a report in The Age, the researchers believe taking the contraceptive could lead to women choosing men with a “macho” appearance, as opposed to those with more feminine features. During tests, scientists at St Andrews and Stirling Universities showed different images of men to female subjects and asked which one they would select as a potential long-term companion. Women who were on the pill were more attracted to men with strong masculine features but the reverse was true of women not taking the contraceptive. The study argues that men with more masculine faces should be perceived to be more attractive as their characteristics suggest they will provide good immunity genes. But researchers found that in choosing long-term partners, women would subconsciously select men with less-threatening facial features, theoretically indicating honesty and good child-rearing skills. Men with a more rugged appearance, such as a pronounced jawline and cheekbones, were held to be more attractive for women looking for short-term partners.
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Hatred ceases not by hatred but by love. Return love for hatred. Love your enemies. Love those who are inferior to you. Love all animals. Love the plants. Love your teacher. Love all saints. Love your parents. Love little but love long. Speak lovingly. Act lovingly. Serve lovingly. You will soon enter into God's kingdom. — Swami Sivananda, Peace your Birthright The best of all religions is the pure action of repeating the Name of the Lord. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Gauri, M 5, Page 266 The priceless jewel of the Name is the essence of all repetition (japa) — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Ramakali M1, page 9 |
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PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez’s grandfather was a people’s revolutionary. His great-grandfather had led an uprising that led to the killing of one of the country’s Presidents, and fought in another in which a tyrannical Governor was put up against a wall and shot.