E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Judgement for harmony
THE Supreme Court has once again discharged the duty that should have been ideally performed by the State. Every right-thinking person in the country must have heaved a sigh of relief when the highest court of the land rejected the Centre's plea for lifting the restriction on performing puja on the 67-acre stretch of undisputed land in Ayodhya.

War shadow on exports
COMMERCE Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden export-import (exim) policy has enthused the industry and business chambers have praised it in glowing terms. However, a widely shared grouse is that he has made no provision for the US-Iraq war impact on the economy in general and exports in particular.

POTA for politics
THE manner in which the Union Government has acted on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act against MDMK leader Vaiko in Tamil Nadu reveals its double standards. Its fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court seeking deletion of two paragraphs in its earlier one accusing Vaiko of indulging in activities banned under POTA demonstrates that the government has succumbed to political pressure from its allies such as the MDMK and the DMK.

OPINION

Propaganda war on Iraq
Why Arab channels are more credible
S. Nihal Singh
BOMBS fall on Baghdad and elements of Iraqi forces give stiff resistance to American and British troops. But alongside this unwelcome war of US choice another contest is raging; the information war or, in simpler English, propaganda.

MIDDLE

Living twentyfour hours
Mohindar Pal Kohli
“HOW do you live 24 hours a day” is a very odd question. You may prepare an agenda in the morning or in the night. But that would pertain to the physical and apparent socio-personal activities. How would you enlist the dynamics of the mind, the inner conflicts, the mental resolutions and the unreqited cravings?

ANALYSIS

Need for administrative reforms
Vinod Mehta
REFORMS in administration are as important as economic reforms. Though the process of economic reforms was initiated more than a decade ago, reforms in the administration have yet to take off.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Moderate drinkers face lower risk of dementia
ELDERLY people who consume one to six alcoholic drinks weekly have a lower risk of dementia than those who completely abstain, according to a new research published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Judgement for harmony

THE Supreme Court has once again discharged the duty that should have been ideally performed by the State. Every right-thinking person in the country must have heaved a sigh of relief when the highest court of the land rejected the Centre's plea for lifting the restriction on performing puja on the 67-acre stretch of undisputed land in Ayodhya. Even a layman who feels for the country and the safety of its people would have said that the Centre's request, if granted, would have caused communal disharmony, given the communal nature of the dispute. The request was made after Godhra and the post-Godhra developments had already caused serious damage to the secular fabric of the country. It is the duty of a responsible State to protect the life and property of each of its citizens without prejudice or bias in favour of one and against another section of India's multicultural society. If the party in power (or a group of parties) begins to take a partisan interest in promoting issues that are dear only to a section of one particular community, the end result would be the collapse of the Constitution itself. Let there be no confusion that Ayodhya is part of the Sangh Parivar's larger agenda of dominating Indian society through enforcing what it calls “cultural nationalism”. The Centre's request for the lifting of the ban on puja on the undisputed stretch of land was the Bharatiya Janata Party's way of telling its Parivar members that no stone would remain unturned for getting for them what they want.

The Bench comprising Mr Justice S. Rajendra Babu, Mr Justice S. S. M. Quadri, Mr Justice M. B. Shah, Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice Doriaswamy Raju said that status quo was necessary “not only to maintain communal harmony but also to fulfill other objectives of the Act”. And what are the other objectives of the Act under which the disputed stretch of 2.77 acres and the undisputed 67 acres were acquired by the Centre? Among other things, it provides that after the decision on the title suit of the disputed land, being currently heard by the Allahabad High Court, the undisputed land could be utilised for providing access to the main area where a makeshift temple has been constructed over the remains of the Babri Masjid. As expected, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has threatened direct action for gaining control over what has now become an equally “disputed” 67 acres of land. The BJP has not enhanced its image as a fair political player by getting involved in the controversy. Where was the need to move the ill-conceived request to the Supreme Court? Whose interest would it have served — the people of India or a very small section of one community? The BJP-led coalition had earned deserved praise when it took the initiative of persuading the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court for a day-to-day hearing of the title suit. A three-member Bench has laid down the rules of procedures for speeding up the process of justice. Given the sensitive nature of the dispute even a fast track system of justice might not be able to avoid the pitfall of making an error of judgment. A minor misreading of facts in deciding the dispute can destroy communal harmony that the Supreme Court has sought to protect in its latest ruling.

War shadow on exports

COMMERCE Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden export-import (exim) policy has enthused the industry and business chambers have praised it in glowing terms. However, a widely shared grouse is that he has made no provision for the US-Iraq war impact on the economy in general and exports in particular. If the war lingers, which appears quite likely, the oil bill will shoot up. The tourism, aviation and IT sectors, in particular, will bear the brunt of war. It will be difficult to maintain, let alone push up, last year’s level of exports. Even if the war stops in two months, as assumed by some, exports may take time to pick up as a revival of the US economy alone will give a real push to global trade. The Indian economy has withstood pressures of global recession, even benefited from it as hard-pressed Western companies are increasingly shifting sourcing business to low-cost India. Despite slugglish global trade, India could beat its own 12 per cent export target by registering a 16-per cent growth last year. If the country can maintain at least a 12-per cent export growth annually, it would not be difficult to achieve the exim policy’s target of capturing 1 per cent of global trade by 2007. This is quite a conservative target if seen in terms of the country’s untapped potential. At the time of Independence the country’s share of global trade stood at 2.5 per cent. Subsequent economic policies resulted in an inward-looking economy and the share of global trade got reduced to 0.45 per cent in the late eighties until the economic reforms, launched by the Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh duo, reversed the trend.

The exim policy for 2003 does try to identify “engines of growth” such as the hitherto neglected services and agriculture sectors, apart from giving a greater push to the existing high-growth segments of gems and jewellery, textiles, auto components, drugs and electronic hardwares. In the services sector, health and education hold out tremendous potential for exports. The country’s drug companies and doctors have already made their mark internationally. Indian universities, already cash-strapped because of declining support from state governments, and IITs can tap the international market for quality education by upgrading their academic skills and equipment appropriately. Agriculture exports are much harder to achieve. The exim policy does provide encouragement to companies for undertaking contract farming, but small farms, outdated laws like the Land Ceiling Act, costly power, poor irrigation facilities, lack of investible funds, quality seeds and expert guidance all hamper farm exports. On the other hand, agriculture in India today is threatened by cheaper farm imports. Nevertheless, the exim policy has at least made an effort towards tapping the export potential of agriculture.

POTA for politics

THE manner in which the Union Government has acted on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against MDMK leader Vaiko in Tamil Nadu reveals its double standards. Its fresh affidavit in the Supreme Court seeking deletion of two paragraphs in its earlier one accusing Vaiko of indulging in activities banned under POTA demonstrates that the government has succumbed to political pressure from its allies such as the MDMK and the DMK. This also proves that it follows different standards for different people. Vaiko was arrested on July 11, 2002, by the Tamil Nadu police for his alleged support to LTTE, a banned organisation. In a petition to the Supreme Court, he had contended that the scope of Section 21 of POTA was affecting his right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution. The Centre, however, in its earlier affidavit, maintained that Vaiko’s speech at Thirumangalam on June 29, 2002, which led to his arrest in Tamil Nadu, was an act of terrorism. It referred to Section 21 (3) of POTA which states that “a person commits an offence if he addresses, submitting for the purpose of encouraging support for a terrorist organisation or to further its activities”. Clearly, this stand infuriated the MDMK and the DMK. If reports were to bear scrutiny, pressure was mounted on the Centre to change its stand before the apex court so as to bail out Vaiko. Possibly, the Vajpayee government thought it fit to change its stand rather than take the risk of ending the alliance with the DMK and the MDMK.

Even if its earlier stand is viewed or accepted as “a misapprehension of the stand of the Government of India”, it reveals its callous approach to the issue. It is nobody’s case that crossborder terrorism — the precise reason for which POTA was enacted — needs to be rooted out from the Indian soil. But the country has enough laws to tackle terrorism. While enacting POTA, the Centre had argued that the normal laws of the land were not enough and extraordinary situations needed extraordinary laws. However, the selective manner in which it is being used against political opponents proves that POTA, far from rooting out terrorism, has become an instrument in the hands of the Chief Ministers to settle political scores with their opponents. If Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa put Vaiko behind bars just for a speech he had delivered, her Uttar Pradesh counterpart, Ms Mayawati, went a step further in putting a person like Raja Bhaiya under POTA. Examples galore, POTA’s implementation in various states like Jharkhand and Maharashtra shows its flagrant abuse by local politicians and policemen. Against this background, it is doubtful as to what extent the Centre’s much-assured review committees would help bail out the innocent.

OPINION

Propaganda war on Iraq
Why Arab channels are more credible
S. Nihal Singh

BOMBS fall on Baghdad and elements of Iraqi forces give stiff resistance to American and British troops. But alongside this unwelcome war of US choice another contest is raging; the information war or, in simpler English, propaganda.

Back in 1991, as I watched CNN in the Information Ministry in Baghdad at the beginning of the last Gulf war, and later in a hotel room in Amman, it struck me how useful a propaganda tool the US possessed in the shape of a 24-hour satellite news channel. Sometimes, it was in the nuances. In showing Iraqi clips, the channel said they had been “censored” by the Iraqi authorities while American clips were merely “cleared” by US military officials.

But unlike in the last war, the propaganda war is less unevenly matched. For the Arabic satellite Al-Jazeera channel based in Qatar, started in 1996, has never looked back after winning fame in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden’s tapes. Since then the Arabic 24-hour news channel field has attracted two more recent customers, Abu Dhabi TV and an almost brand new Dubai channel. They are covering the war, with Jazeera boasting a viewership of 35 million. little wonder then that senior Bush administration officials are queuing up to be interviewed.

If democracy means freedom of speech and the latter means free media, think again. For America, there is no level playing field in war, which must be tilted to its advantage in armaments as in sound bytes. Jazeera reporters have been barred from the New York Stock Exchange and they were unable to participate in the somewhat questionable concept of “embedded” reporters with American troops because Kuwait refused them visas.

There is felicitous irony about Jazeera having its headquarters a stone’s throw from the US Central Command directing the Iraq war. The channel has also ruffled the feathers of some Arab governments by its reporting. In the context of the war, Jazeera is the darling of the Arab masses because it gives the other side of the picture. Its clip showing the questioning of American PoWs drew howls of American protest even as American and British channels were liberally showing handcuffed Iraqi prisoners of war.

In another delicious irony of the war, an American administration that has incarcerated hundreds of suspects linked to Al-Qaida at Guantanamo base without according them any rights as PoWs is now swearing by the Geneva conventions Iraq is charged with flouting. Against the American refusal to be part of the International Criminal Court, it is equally strange to hear American officials threatening to take Iraqi leaders to a war crimes trial.

In Serbia, the American-led Nato, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, had no compunction in bombing the main Serbian television station with technicians inside because it was broadcasting propaganda.

In Iraq, the US took some time to try to silence Iraqi TV, with criticism from American media on the delay, because it was indulging in propaganda. America’s own officially-sponsored Arabic TV channel is on the air but has few takers. Jazeera is now reporting what Iraqi TV cannot disseminate.

As initial American war plans went awry and its military’s frustrations grew, given pockets of stiff resistance and dearth of Iraqis welcoming the invaders, the propaganda war gathered pace. A propaganda gem from Britain’s Tony Blair, alas, came to grief shortly after it was delivered. In the Camp David setting, with President Bush benignly looking on, the Prime Minister said with great vehemence about the “depravity” of Iraqis who had allegedly executed two British PoWs. It transpired that it was simply not true, with the families of the dead soldiers denying the allegation and a junior British minister sheepishly acknowledging the “mistake”.

Is it any wonder then that a host of senior American officials from President Bush down have taken to reciting the alleged atrocities committed by the Saddam Hussein regime? And Pentagon briefings in Washington are now complemented by archival material showing Iraq in the worst possible light. It is, of course, never even whispered that while American propaganda lovingly plays on the gassing of Kurds more than a decade ago — there remains serious doubt about who used the mustard gas — that President Saddam had remained the friend and ally of the United States.

Propaganda excesses are not restricted to the American side, but Jazeera has less need to indulge in propaganda (one instance: America is using weapons of mass destruction in bombing Baghdad). The Arabic channel has merely to show the deaths and destruction caused by US bombs on civilians in two Baghdad markets. Besides, the horrendous scenes of a Baghdad night sky lit up by a volley of missiles and bombs leave little to the imagination. By contrast, official Iraqi claims of dead and wounded civilians are surprisingly modest.

Outside Basra, which has been besieged by British troops, a senior British officer asserted that a Shia uprising had taken place in the town. Jazeera had merely to show the placid scene of downtown Basra to nail the propaganda. Days later, as if to work out their frustration, British troops entered Basra to demolish two statues of President Saddam whose popularity has never been higher in the Arab street.

Truth is proverbially the first casualty in a war, but the scale on which falsehood is being spread must be remarkable, given the unequal military balance of power and the implements of propaganda at American command. Jazeera’s strength is that America is fighting an unjust war and an Arab world hungry for tales of bravery and courageous battles against the odds is prepared to embrace President Saddam. Despite his unsavoury traits and past actions, in the popular imagination, he represents the valiant Arab fighting for his land.

If the American goal is truly to spread democracy in West Asia, it is setting a bad example. America’s declared policy of world supremacy is far from the concept of democracy and the biggest blow to American war plans came from the flowering of Turkish democracy. The new ruling Justice and Development Party refused to let American ground troops launch a land invasion of Iraq from Turkey.

MIDDLE

Living twentyfour hours
Mohindar Pal Kohli

“HOW do you live 24 hours a day” is a very odd question. You may prepare an agenda in the morning or in the night. But that would pertain to the physical and apparent socio-personal activities. How would you enlist the dynamics of the mind, the inner conflicts, the mental resolutions and the unreqited cravings? You may draw some inference in respect of the lifestyle on an individual from the regulated way of his living, the fixed hours of his work and rest, the disciplined work routines, the social behaviour, the eating habits and above all what in spiritual term is called Pratyaahaarm or self-control; yet you may not know the essential man in him. The man, in fact, lives daily beyond 24 hours. Father Time is our tryrant. We have made its measuring and figuring a necessity of our existence. The man, in his inmost self, is timeless being.

We generally look for very high standards, while framing our ideas in life. The stoic and the intellectuals are praised without realising that inellect is but an instrument and not the essential being of man. It is not self-sustained. It is an automatic routine faculty. Will Durant in his book The story of philosophy (very popular in our student days) narrates the story of Epictetus ‘master, who treated him with consistent cruelty. One day he took to twisting Epictetus’ leg just to pass the time away. “If you go on like this” said Epictetus calmly, “you may break my leg.” Still the master went on and the leg was broken. “Did I not tell you”, Epictetus said mildly, “that you would break my leg.”

The story may not impress us, yet there is a certain mysticobility in such a philosophy, as in the quiet courage of some Dostoyeveskian pacifists. Never in any case say, I have lost such a thing, but say I have returned it. Is the child dead? It is returned. Is the wife dead? She is returned. Are you deprived of thy estate? Is not this also returned”. But Epictetus is a singular example of self denial — hard at that. Only a bit of it is required to attain a justifiable equipoise in our daily life.

Brusque, bearded Carlyle has given us in his painting style a philosophy of clothes and shown us how, in their glass, we may read the man. Half the tailors’ advertisements tell us of the importance of wearing the right dress. But there are oddities, who afford to wear shabby suits and the wrong dress flouting all common sartorial rules. Do the clothes “make a man or there are other virtues which make him stand above his fellow beings? Should one being guided by the censorious frowns and shallow judgements of the fashionable and the fastidious dictates? I would like him to be happy in his own individual way, and not necessarily in the way which others would impose upon him, avoiding of course, the infringement of social niceties.

The personalities differ. There are people who wake up in the morning to become a part of the crowd in the day — eating, earning, loving, quarelling, feeding and upbringing the family and aging and then passing away. There are others who mix work with pleasure, prepare a definite schedule and well directed programme not only for the fulfilment of the assigned duties but also for the development of self culture. Such persons exude fragrance, they influence people and are loved and respected.

“Start the day with love, fill the day with love and end the day with love — this is the way to God,” said a man of God. And these are the men who follow it and the dictum has become an essential part of the life style.

I know about my eminent teacher who practised on these lines and attracted quite a number of admirers. He would not react to any vituperative attack on him but rather kept cool and silenced his critics with his mute expression. Once I was with him in the morning. After breakfast, he was in a very pensive mood, got up from his chair, brought a quinine tablet and crushed it between his teeth. On my inquiry he said that he was trying to chew the bitterness as he expected some one would be coming to curse him during the day. One has to face such testing time day in and day out.

Time sports and the life ebbs away. But man does not shed away his delusions and his feigned desires. Most of us belong to the Virochana cult (needs of the flesh) and are merely Udarnimittam (given to the needs of the belly) and our personalities are reflected in our daily routine. It is not difficult to recognise those in action who regularly practise controlling all their subjective activities within their patent personalities. Love, tolerance, forgiveness and withdrawal are the mental faculties and are far more important than the apparent questions of life’s justice or injustice and cannot be ignored.

Then what is nature’s aim in this scheme? Dare one predict it? Physical activity governed by strict measure, makes a man fit to move in this world with success but the mental discipline guided by inner instincts and motored by contemplation, conscience and will, makes him what Blake said, “see the world in a grain of sand/and heaven in the wild flower.” Such a life provides the Upanishadic spontaneity of child — always inquiring, always fresh.

The great Sankara implores us to follow the path of Praanaayaaman, Pratyaahaaram, Nityaanityavivekavichaaram — the control of all activities of life’s manifestations in you, the sense withdrawal from their respective sense objects, the inquiry (reflection) consisting of discrimination between permanent and the impermanent reaching the total inner silence.

ANALYSIS

Need for administrative reforms
Vinod Mehta

REFORMS in administration are as important as economic reforms. Though the process of economic reforms was initiated more than a decade ago, reforms in the administration have yet to take off. This imbalance in the reform process is creating problems at various levels, as we are witnessing in the case of the disinvestment process or the implementation of financial sector reforms.

Decisions are taken but seldom implemented in letter and spirit. Difficult decisions are glossed over by referring them to committees. There are too many layers of hierarchy which unnecessarily put spokes in the wheels of smooth functioning of the administration; files keep on hopping from one desk to the other back and forth without adding to the decision-making process in any meaningful manner.

The office rules and procedures are outdated and are actually hampering the functioning of various government offices. The discipline of the office employees is very bad. Citizens are fed up with the administration. Creation of websites will not help unless the mindsets and office procedures are also changed.

The time is ripe for introducing administrative reforms without any further delay. Already, a number of committees have made recommendations of various kinds which need to be implemented with all the seriousness. The latest one is the Geethakrishnan Committee Report on Expenditure Reforms. There is no need to set up any more committees now.

For instance, the report of the Fifth Pay Commission had made far-reaching recommendations regarding administrative reforms. But the government, instead of accepting the report in toto, accepted only those recommendations which were populist in nature. The recommendation regarding pay scales were accepted but those concerning the freeze on fresh appointments, downsizing of bureaucracy, simplification of office procedures, etc, were not accepted at all. This made nonsense of the whole report.

Some bureaucrats are of the view that the government should have just accepted the Fifth Pay Commission report in toto which in other words have meant that if the recommendations regarding the administrative reforms were not accepted by the employees those concerning the pay scales would also not be automatically accepted. Since only one part of the recommendations was accepted the implementation of pay scales led to heavy expenditure on the non-plan side. As a consequence, the financial situation of some of the states which have implemented the pay scales as recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission are in very bad shape.

The bureaucratic structure in the country is not officer-oriented and is heavy at the bottom, and once the jobs are made permanent, the employees don’t show any interest in their work. The public opinion is now building up in favour of the work at the lower level to be sourced out on a contractual basis; no need to have a permanent cadre at that level; some believe that even the higher posts should be given on a contractual basis.

Over the years, the bureaucratic structure has also been highly politicised. The interference from political leaders in the postings of bureaucrats at their whims and fancies have not only vitiated the administrative atmosphere but also led to indifference among the bureaucrats towards their work. Experts favour a fixed tenure of postings for bureaucrats so that political interference in the postings could be minimised.

There is also the question of training and retraining of government employees from top to bottom. It is common knowledge that people from different social backgrounds enter government service at various levels and as such one cannot expect a similar kind of behaviour from everyone. The senior level officers with a middle class background have some sophistication but live in their own cocoons while people coming from lower strata are relatively crude in their behaviour towards citizens. Therefore, proper training of the employees becomes very important. Unless they are properly trained in the kind of work and the behaviour expected of them one should not expect miracles from them.

It is also being felt that instead of the “general administrator”, there should be a “specialist administrator” who knows what he/she is expected to do in his/her area. As of today, bureaucrats are made to move, say, from the Department of Animal Husbandry to the Department of Education, then to the Department of Commerce and then to the Department of Health. In the process, the incumbent has no specialist knowledge of any of the areas in which he has worked. Similarly, those who come from the lower strata of society are not trained to deal with the general public. There is a strong need for training to be imparted at all levels of the bureaucracy; training and retraining should be a regular feature. Instead of punishing the recalcitrant employees either by holding back their increments or by chargesheeting them, it may be better to send them for retraining again and again till they reform themselves.

Coming back to the question of politicisation of bureaucracy, a view is emerging that the politicians themselves need training in administrative matters and only then would they be able to understand the problems of administration. In fact, in France all the politicians are expected to clear a course on administrative matters before they are entrusted the job of handling the Ministries.

It is also important that in the interest of better administration the government should not put its fingers in all the pies. The first question it should ask itself is, whether it is really the concern of the government. If it is not, then it should not go into it. And if it is the concern of the government, then the second question to be asked is if it should be done by the government itself or it should be done by some other organisation like an NGO or some autonomous body. This way the government will be saved from unnecessary irrelevant work. INFA

TRENDS & POINTERS

Moderate drinkers face lower risk of dementia

ELDERLY people who consume one to six alcoholic drinks weekly have a lower risk of dementia than those who completely abstain, according to a new research published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Much like alcohol consumption is supposed to prevent heart attacks by preventing blockages in blood vessels, the same thing might be happening in dementia. By preserving blood flow to the brain, we could hold off dementia”, he stated. ANI

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Feel that God works through your hands, sees through your eyes, hears through your ears. You will have a new angle of vision. You will enjoy supreme bliss. Sit not idly craving for God to help you but be ever up and doing as God helps those who help themselves.

—Swami Shivananda, Peace Your Birthright.

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It is when God comes in the form of an enemy

That he brings with him his supreme favours.

—Paul Bible, Proverbs 25:21