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Monday,
April 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Nation on holiday T for transparency Murder in the womb |
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Information
war and the media
Of
funerals, bhogs and vanity
WHY THE NANAKSHAHI
CALENDAR? A
compromise calendar
Men
prefer to suffer in silence?
|
Nation on holiday THE Lok Sabha has passed a resolution seeking a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. The resolution was moved by a private member. During the same session, a member of the ruling party introduced and then withdrew a common civil code Bill. Now the nation is on an extended holiday and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee too has decided to stretch his tired legs in Gangtok. No government work will be done until April 20 because of the politicians’ obsession with declaring as national holidays the anniversaries and festivals of imagined or real personalities and customs. The list of non-issues that keep the politicians and policy-makers busy is endless. India should be declared a nation on perpetual holiday. Even when the lawmakers attend the sessions of legislatures, for which the helpless tax payers have to pick the tab, they seldom discuss important national or state-level issues. If a competition was to be organised for spotting the politician who talks more but does little concrete work for the people or the constituency there would be several candidates. Today Lucknow will witness the most extravagant display of abuse of public office and money when Chief Minister Mayawati inaugurates the father of all celebrations on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti. That is the day when she will answer her critics, primarily from the Samajwadi Party, with oratorical fire and brimstone at a “pardafash” rally. She takes pride in the scale on which her own birthday was celebrated in January. It was meant to awaken Dalit pride. At what cost? Such a question as this should never be put to Ms Mayawati or any other politician in an India where passions, not policies, now decide the outcome of electoral battles. Drivel is a harsh word to use. But a softer expression may not explain the words and deeds of the politicians, of all hues, both inside the legislature and at public forums. Take the example of Madhya Pradesh where Chief Minister Digvijay Singh kept the Bhojshala issue alive for putting the Bharatiya Janata Party on the backfoot. What difference does it make to the ordinary citizens, who want governments to take measures that help them improve their quality of life, whether Muslims are allowed to offer namaz on Fridays at Bhojshala? Or, whether Hindus should also have the same right to pray at the shrine that is both a temple and a mosque, on Tuesdays? Digvijay Singh wanted the Centre to take a decision. Now that the permission to offer puja during sunlight hours on Tuesdays has come from the Centre, Diggy Raja has shifted the focus to a more monumental non-issue. He has managed to rope in Ms Uma Bharati’s disgruntled brother for performing the spiritually uplifting task of reciting shlokas and bhajans at public functions for the “electoral welfare” of the Congress. |
DOES anyone have the right to know how bureaucrats and ministers arrive at decisions? Yes, said the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal
(TDSAT) which held that the internal correspondence between the Department of Telecommunications
(DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) should be brought on record. The tribunal’s chairman was quite right when he maintained that the government should bring on record these documents so as to justify its actions related to the decision-making process within DoT following the announcement of the1999 New Telecom Policy. The matter has been brought to the fore because of the contention of cellular operators that even as late as September 1999, DoT had determined that the operators given licences for fixed lines would not offer mobile phone services. A month later, there was a U-turn. Cellphone companies are asking the government to explain its decision, which they are, of course, contesting. Communications Minister Arun Shourie has been placed in an unenviable position. He has been rightly criticised for his statement that “the government has reservations about showing internal notings to business rivals.” The erstwhile champion of transparency is now defending the need for secrecy, though to be fair, he says the government is willing to place the documents before the tribunal, but not the cellphone operators. — The TDSAT is quite right when it says that post-liberalisation, the government must have a neutral role in which it just makes policy. It also says that the whole process should be transparent. The public has a right to know how ministers and bureaucrats take decisions. For far too long the enormous discretionary powers that these two categories of decision-makers enjoy have been cloaked in anonymity which is detrimental to good governance. Surely, if someone loses a bid, he would love to know why he lost it. While there is no doubt that matters concerning defence and national security, in general, do need to be kept secret, it should not become an excuse for covering up governmental bungling. Mere lip-service to the Freedom of Information Act will not do. Telecom is now a major lifeline of India and Indians have seen what free enterprise can do in such a short while. There must be a level-playing field for all kinds of telecom operators and the sooner this is done the better it will be for the nation. If there has been something wrong in the decision-making process, let it come out in the open so that it can be effectively addressed by
TDSAT. Decision-making processes will surely become better as soon as it is known that they can and will be publicly examined. |
Murder in the womb ECONOMICALLY and educationally well-off states like Punjab and Haryana have reported more female foeticide cases than the backward ones like Orissa. This startling fact was highlighted at a seminar on female foeticide in Chandigarh the other day. Of course, it is not fair to jump to conclusions on the basis of the emerging ugly reality, as the participants themselves cautioned, but this definitely shows that economic and educational advancement alone cannot minimise the rising cases of denial of birth to the girl child. Most of those endeavouring to end the biases against the girl child agree that there is a combination of factors responsible for the discriminatory attitude. There are problems like those related to the marriage of a daughter, particularly the increasing dowry demand. But then the problem of dowry is not confined to these states alone. It is basically the people’s attitude that works against the female babies, leading to their getting killed in their mothers’ wombs. The anti-girl attitude is the core problem that leads to female foeticide getting social acceptability. As highlighted in a recent survey, in Punjab, a male child is still considered not only a future bread-earner but also a protector of the family honour, whatever the term implies, and its women. This perverted thinking results in the pre-natal sex-determination test and the elimination of the female foetus. Thus, it is the attitude that must change to end the growing gender imbalance in the country’s population, notably in Punjab and Haryana. Laws like the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Test Act can help arrest the dangerous trend only if it is followed strictly by radiologists and doctors. Allowance has to be made for the fact that social evils cannot be fought with laws alone. People will find some loophole in the law to deny the right of birth to the girl child. So what is required is identification of the factors that sustain the anti-female attitude. Despite the anti-dowry law, the problem refuses to go away. Dowry in most cases is responsible for wife-beating, bride-burning and other such evils. Thus, the curse of dowry must end to initiate a process of attitudinal change. Experience shows that laws have failed to curb the demand for dowry. It is, in fact, on the rise and acquiring new dimensions. There is an urgent need to educate the masses about social evils in a big way. Besides the mass media, religious organisations and other NGOs can play a major role in creating an awareness among the people that the girl child too has the right to birth. After all, a society is judged on how it treats its
womenfolk. |
Information war and the media THE relationship between the media and war is as old as warfare — that is how we have war accounts in scriptures like the Ramayana and the Mahabharat. This relationship, like warfare itself, is always developing and evolving. Information warfare — psychological war and information through the media are part of it — is not new. What is new now is the seamless and integrated approach to the conduct of information and disinformation, and its lethality. The first Gulf war elevated the importance of information to a level where it is now being accepted as a tool for war fighting. In the latest Iraq war, this has been taken to a new dimension with 750 embedded journalists, multiple TV channels, the print media and websites working round the clock. This war has also seen a large number of journalist casualties — over 11 in all. What is the strategic justification of the information war? Wars involve the entire people and not just the armed forces. The civil- military interface represents an important dimension of war and has to be suitably addressed. Minds of the people have to be mobilised nationally and globally. It is through media that people at home and abroad are kept fully abreast of developments so that they are not misled by rumours, propaganda and disinformation. Media moulds national and international opinion and is a potent force multiplier, or a force degrader. It is utilised in the national interest for building national morale, winning popular support and understanding, and influencing the shaping of international opinion and diplomatic reactions. Even during a proxy war the battle for hearts and minds is of paramount importance. There is no point in winning the battle of bullets if you lose the war due to popular alienation. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff definition of information war is “Action taken to achieve information superiority in support of the national military strategy by affecting the adversary’s information and information systems while leveraging and protecting own information and information systems.” Information war covers several aspects and includes “public affairs”. The “public affairs” component comprises use of the media to keep population informed and to build up support through overt and covert dissemination of well-conceived messages and at the same time remaining alert to counter the hostile media. The US faced a credibility gap in the Vietnam war, which it attributed to the conflicting reports between the unrestricted correspondence by war journalists from jungles and the official military briefings in Saigon. In the Gulf war, the US Administration was able to convince the media to adhere to certain guidelines. Journalists were asked to accompany military units in special “pools”. The “pools” represented newspapers, wire services, television, radio and news magazines. “Pool” stories were submitted for “security review” and cleared by defence spokesmen. All information provided outside the censored “pool reports” were from official military briefings or questions put by the journalists during official briefings. Let us now move to our experience of the information war (pertaining to media interaction) during the last two decades. I learnt my first major lesson during Operation Bluestar when the government, for reasons not known to me then or now, imposed strict censorship. It led to several rumours and disinformation about the damage caused to the Golden Temple, as also the situation in the towns and villages of Punjab, which had immediate and serious adverse impact on the morale of troops and Punjabi population. I was commanding a brigade near Jammu. It required all the tact and support of the saner elements in the brigade to control the situation. Four years later, under conditions that were not as difficult or complex, and when we had learnt new lessons from the Gulf war, Operation Black Thunder conducted by the National Security Guards was a neat, well-planned job. It was a great success. The Kargil conflict was India’s first real war of the information age. During this operation, both the military and the media were — as they still are — on the learning curve of its new concepts and methodology. After consulting some established and respected media persons, the military tried to implement the “pool” methodology of the Gulf war — of daily briefings in Delhi, advising some dos and
don'ts to field reporters and taking them to the war zone and briefing them through the operational staff. But unlike the Gulf war, there was to be no censoring of media reports and there was to be no deviation from the truth. As there was no bureaucratic approval or sanctioned infrastructure (which continues!), this ad hoc system in the field had its limitations. The Indian media, not used to being conducted, resented and almost boycotted the procedure. The site tours were discontinued after some time and media persons got total freedom to move around on their own except where their lives could be in danger. The military and the media did not indulge in any deliberate disinformation drive. But they effectively exposed Pakistan’s lies and disinformation tactics. Except a few gossip, manufactured and sensationalising stories, which are well known by now, the reporting, depending on the experience and analytical capability of the reporter, was fairly objective and got public support for the war effort. The decision to impose a ban on cable operators for showing Pak TV programmes and on the VSNL for accessing Dawn’s website was not well considered. This decision, however, had nothing to do with the military. After the war, as expected, there was introspection, which I found interesting, educative and some times amusing. Most experienced journalists felt that although there were shortcomings, overall it was a job well done. Many Pakistanis who met me after the war also conveyed that our media reports had revealed the truth to them. They were very impressed with our civil-military and media interaction and felt that our media reports had a major impact on the morale of their soldiers and citizens. Some analysts and media persons, however, questioned the role of the media in the war and its coverage. They felt that the media had gone overboard, that the impact of television was underestimated, and there was disproportionate reporting and analysis. Some analysts felt that the mass media had been “militarised”! It had “glamorised”, “humanised” and “trivialised” the war. Pre-election political rivalries and media competition also affected the coverage. The lessons of the information war during Kargil episode and connected shortcomings in the establishments and the interaction with the media were taken note of. Regrettably, many recommendations are yet to be implemented. India has yet to fully develop and make proper use of information war concepts and procedures. While doing so, it would not be correct to follow the American concepts of information war. We need to develop our own, taking into account our capabilities, characteristics, sensitivities of our people and our national interests. If the media is to serve as a force multiplier, it also has a democratic responsibility for vigilance and to guard against manipulation. We have also to take into account the domestic political rivalries, impact of globalisation, commercial interests and media competition, and the ethical and moral factors. “Appointed” or “sponsored” media does not carry much credibility. “Embedded journalism” is unlikely to succeed in India. The writer is a retired Chief of Army Staff. |
Of funerals, bhogs and vanity IT is shocking and outrageous that in the so-called modern, high-tech age, death — an eternal reality and inevitable end of all forms of life — fails to generate solemnity, sorrow and sympathy, usually associated with bereavement. The behaviour and deportment of both the bereaved and the mourner leaves much to be desired, and reveals a lot about the working of human mind in this material world, characterised by ever-rising selfishness and brutality. Obituaries which should simply be intended to convey to the near and dear ones the sad news of the final departure of a person from this planet, are often turned into a means of impressing the society with our status as men of riches and influence. What this implies is that the dear departed soul is conveniently marginalised and relegated to the background, and made to serve as a medium for loud proclamation about one’s own self-assumed importance. It is snobbery and ostentation which comes to the fore, and not the genuine concern for the object of mourning. It is not uncommon to see in a newspaper many obituaries on a single page on behalf of a number of individuals, institutions and business organisations, as if all these are engaged in a race of stealing the show. What is the need of giving one’s official designation, host of telephone numbers, names of commercial and industrial units ‘and references of foreign countries, such as the US, UK and Canada? Can there be a more telling comment upon the degradation of the homo sapiens whom Lord Almighty is believed to have created in His own image? The same lack of decorum, solemnity and genuine human sentiments are often observed in the case of mourners. A few days back, I attended the funeral of a promising youth, who had died an untimely death. I was deeply anguished to find several mourners carrying mobile phones right into the cremation ground. When the funeral pyre was being lit, an honourable “gentleman” was using his cell-phone to intimate the time of his arrival at a club. During the short kirtan after the lighting of the pyre, I again found people talking about the slump in the market, recession in the industry, DA instalments, latest transfers and promotions, prospects of various candidates in elections and the failure of the government on all fronts. Ladies, too did not lag behind. They merrily exchanged pleasantries and trivialities like schedule of kitty parties, the school report of their children and even the latest release in the local theatre. Of course, all is not lost yet. Among the mourners, a few mature and elderly persons turned philosophical and reflective while commenting upon the futility of life and the irony inherent in man’s arrogance even in the face of brevity of his stay on this earth. During the bhog ceremonies, we often find very few people attentively listening to the words of solemnity and sublimity read out from the scriptures. Most of them seem to be restless, watching others come and go. They scan the hands of the clocks and watches. Can’t we insulate ourselves from this material world for a few minutes, and realise the harsh reality of life, called Death? How sad that white corpuscles have outnumbered red ones in our blood! |
WHY THE NANAKSHAHI CALENDAR?
LUNAR calendars have a month of 29 or 30 days and a year of 354 days. Solar calendars have a month of 30 or 31 days and a year of 365 days. The difference of 11 days is made up by the lunar calendar after every three years by adding an additional month of 30 days to the prevailing lunar calendar. Removing this anomaly presents the piquant situation practically. For example, Guru Gobind Singhji’s Parkash Gurpurab sometimes occurs twice in one solar year and sometimes not even once in a solar year. The Bikarmi solar year is longer by 20 minutes compared to tropical solar year (also called year of the seasons. A tropical year is the length of time that the earth takes to make one revolution around the sun between successive spring equinoxes) because it does not take into account the precession. This difference results in an increase of one day after 70-71 years. In Bikarmi samat 57th Baisakhi was on March 13-14 and in Samat 2056 (common era 1999). Baisakhi was on April 14. If no correction is applied to the calendar after 1,100 years Baisakhi will be in May and after 13,000 years in October! The fear of various religious sects that “Masya" and “Punya” dates have been changed is baseless. There have been allegations that the Nanakshahi calendar is a copy of the Christian calendar. This is again not correct. The commonly used calendar called the common era CE is based on a tropical year. Since the Nanakshahi
calendar also has the same base, the dates of\ two calendars with respect to each other are fixed. However, the Nanakshahi calendar is even nearer to nature. The common era calendar has arbitrary days of the month 30 or 31 alternately, but the Nanakshahi calendar has 31 days in long summer months from the spring equinox to the autumn equinose and 30 days for the winter months. At equinox the length of the day and the night is equal all over the world. The sunrise and the sunset are calculated according to the longitude and latitude of Amritsar. The fraction of time, nearly 6 hours, left out of calculations in a tropical year is adjusted every fourth year by adding a leap day. In the Nanakshahi calendar this correction will be applied in the month of "Phagan", which will have 31 days in a leap year. A suggestion has been made by Col S.S. Nishan that the corrected Nanakshahi calendar should be implemented retrospectively from the beginning of the Nanakshahi samat. But according to the calendar rules, an amendment is made from the date of implementation, otherwise it creates complications. For example in 1699, the year of the Khalsa, Baisakhi was on March 29. Now Baisakhi is on April 14. In year 1582 Pope Gregory applied a correction of 10 days to the prevalent Julian calendar. The announcement was made on September 3 and the next day the date was September 13, not September 4. Much later this correction was applied to the Bikarmi solar calendar, but not retrospectively. Despite repeated requests Colonel Nishan has not provided a draft of the calendar which, according to him, should be accepted. Criticism without a solution is meaningless. The present Nanakshahi calendar is not perfect, but the best produced after marathon meetings of historians, scholars, intellectuals and religious leaders. All objections are welcome if accompanied by solutions. Baseless criticism should be treated with disdain that it
deserves. The writer is a former General Secretary of the SGPC * * * * * * A compromise calendar THE advent of the Nanakshahi Calendar is welcome, for the declared motive is to give recognition to the independent status of the Sikhs. However, to reach the perfection level, it will have to travel a lot. There is no denial that Sikhism is a complete and sovereign religion independent of Hinduism and Islam. Rather on the theosophical sphere on the question of belief in one and singular God, it is more proximate to the Islamic philosophy. But socially, it is closer to Hinduism because, leave aside exceptions, almost the entire conversion came from the Hindu society. If for this reason someone wants to label the Sikhs as Hindus, then by the same logic the Muslims will have to be declared as Christians and Jews. However, right from the birth of this revealed religion, Sikhism had to face two-pronged onslaughts. One from the Mughal rulers, who declared that they would finish the entity of this new born religion. But this way Sikhism should be at least grateful to them that they recognised the entity of the Sikhs. On the other hand, certain sections of the Hindu society did not want to give them the status of an independent and sovereign religion and wanted them to be just an offshoot of the great banyan tree of Hinduism. This was not at all acceptable to the founders of the Sikh religion and Guru Arjan Dev himself had to declare “na ham Hindu na Musalman” Though the Gurus abandoned each and every custom or ritual of Brahminism, they found nothing wrong with the Bikrami Calendar and adopted this even in Gurbani and even in the Hukamnamas for, being lunar-based, it was nearer to nature. It is strongly felt that before adopting this new calendar, at least the comparative table should have been drawn showing the Bikrami dates given in the Gurbani, the Hukamnams and Sikh scriptures. Having been at the receiving end for almost three centuries, the social and cultural ties between Hindus and Muslims strengthened. But with the advent of the Arya Samajist philosophy the independent legal status of the Sikhs was diluted even in the Indian Constitution. But the recent developments of Punjab and the activities and intrusion of the RSS in the garb of Rashtria Sikh Sangats had a counter-effect and the movement to have a calendar of the Sikhs in place of the Bikrami calendar gained momentum. Though the Bikrami (Vikrami) calendar is not a Hindu calendar for it has no source in any of the Hindu scriptures, this calendar was introduced by Vikramaditya who happened to be a Hindu ruler. This way we can’t call Newton’s theory as a Christian theory or the
Einstein theory as a Jew theory. On the other hand the calendar being adopted is on the basis of Pope Greggory’s Gregarian Calendar, which is surely a Christian calendar. Religion being the source of truth is always definite and unambiguous. It cannot compromise on principles. However, it is amusing that the calendar which is being given in the name of Nanak Shahi is rather a hybrid of Gregorian, Bikrami and a host of sant babas, sadh mandlis, historians, politicians and whosoever wanted to be on the bandwagon. It is thus not a creation of experts in astronomy or calendar making. By adopting a Christian calendar the Sikhs will not lose their identity and will not become Christians, but in the half-hearted way this compromise calendar is being introduced, the Sikhs may end up being an object of ridicule through an instrument which is the creation of none but themselves.
The writer is a Sikh scholar and Editor, ‘Sant Sipahi’, a magazine founded by Master Tara Singh |
Men prefer to suffer in silence? COUNSELLING denotes providing mental comfort by giving the right advice. A study reveals that men need more guidance than women regarding the workplace and they are more insecure about their relationships, reports Sydney Morning Herald. According to the
finding, 55 per cent of the formal counselling sessions were run for men, just edging out their female colleagues. Researcher Bob Compton, a senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney's School of Management, said the study dispelled the myth that men preferred to suffer in silence or seek advice from mates than visit a counsellor. The top three reasons for going to a counsellor were relationship problems, emotional disturbances or general feelings of stress (15 per cent of cases) and work-family balance (10 per cent). Dr Compton said relationship stress had long been the biggest issue seen by workplace counsellors, who now provide services in more than 80 per cent of Australia's top 100 companies.
ANI Tips for fatherhood Fatherhood is finally being taken very seriously. A new magazine called “Dad” gives “dads-to-be” tips by proud fathers like David Beckham and Pierce Brosnan on how to make the bond stronger with their child. Ministers have spent 50,000 pounds of taxpayers' money on a magazine for new fathers in which Brosnan, the James Bond actor, tells men to sing to babies in the womb. The tip for fatherhood - from the "spy" who always has enough energy after saving the planet for the coital fade-out, but has no children of his own - is one of a number contained in 'Dad'. Jack O'Sullivan, the editor, was quoted as saying in The Telegraph that Dad reflected a "social revolution in Britain", coinciding with laws giving fathers a legal entitlement to paid paternity leave and flexible working hours. Articles carry such headlines as: "What will happen to your sex life before and after the birth?". Unlike Bond, Brosnan is a father. He tells Dad: "You have to nurture that life in the womb. They're gifts from God. You should sing to it, talk to it. I am in awe of my children's lives."
ANI |
Blessed are they whom the world condemns, for they shall be its judges. Blessed are they whom the present persecutes, for they are the children of the future. Paul Richard, “The Gospel of the Mountains”. The world speaks to me in pictures, my soul answers in music. Love is an endless mystery, for it had nothing else to explain it. * * * I am able to love my God because He gives me freedom to deny Him. * * * Wealth is the burden of bigness, welfare the fulness of being. —
Rabindranath Tagore, Selected Poems. |
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Since the Bikarmi and Nanakshahi calendars were synonymous, it was necessary to separate the Nanakshahi calendar to standardise it and fix dates of historical and religious importance. The Sikh diaspora spread all over the world felt the need to discard the lunar calendar dates and accept the solar calendar dates. The Nanakshahi calendar amended under the patronage of Akal Takht Sahib is based on scientific facts in accordance with the Gurbani.