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Friday,
May 2, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Blot on the Bench Liquor, liquor everywhere! WMDs in Kashmir |
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Fresh study of Sino-Indian ties
“Dealy-Dallying”
Know your onions
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Blot on the Bench THE arrest of former Delhi High Court Judge Shamit Mukherjee by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land allotment scandal once again brings to the fore the issue of tainted judges and their accountability to the system. Even though Mr Mukherjee is entitled to face the trial under the normal law of the land and prove his innocence, he has already inflicted incalculable damage on the judiciary. Reports on the events leading to his arrest point to a close nexus between him and the land mafia in Delhi. The CBI’s report submitted to the Union Home Ministry and to the Supreme Court Chief Justice clearly details his links with several of those accused in the DDA scam. The politician-contractor-official nexus is nothing new. What is, however, disquieting is the addition of even judges to this deplorable linkage. Mr Mukherjee’s own reported confession before the CBI that he was “entertained” by “several society women” at the offices and guest houses of Dharam Bir Khattar, the key accused in the scam, bears testimony to the fact that people unworthy of such high posts are able to occupy them. But then, the issue in question is not an isolated one. The reported involvement of three judges of the Karnataka High Court in the alleged Mysore sex scandal for which the Press received a rap on the knuckles, the controversial role of three judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the Punjab Public Service Commission episode, the ignominious exit of a judge of the Rajasthan High Court, five months after allegations of sexual misconduct and corruption were levelled against him, have made a dent in the people’s faith in the judiciary. If judges themselves act in a manner unbecoming of the high office they hold, who will judge them? Technically, Mr Mukherjee does not fall in this category as he had resigned from his post a month back. But his exit had, in fact, lent credence to the controversy — citing his wife’s ill-health as the reason for his resignation and his subsequent attempt to withdraw it. More important, he had misused his official position for personal ends. There is a dearth of legislation effective enough to punish errant judges for moral turpitude or corruption. But the one available — impeachment — is cumbersome and simply impractical. The system of in-house committees is not transparent. There is, therefore, a need for an alternative mechanism to discipline errant members of the higher judiciary — a procedure that is not as drastic or as impractical as impeachment but one that could warn the higher judiciary that corruption and misconduct will be dealt with sternly. The judicial appointments too should be made foolproof and transparent with stress on merit, moral integrity and experience. Perhaps, the proposed National Judicial Commission will help tackle the problem. Meanwhile, a closer look at the recruitment system which allows characters like Shamit Mukherjee to get in will also be in order. |
Liquor, liquor everywhere! THE way national and state highways in Punjab are dotted with liquor vends, it would appear that the vehicles here run on this brew rather than petrol or diesel. Unfortunately, these are meant for the travellers and there are results to show for this mushrooming. More than 2,200 persons lost their lives in road accidents in the state during 2002-03. Drinking had a central role to play in a large number of cases. And yet, there is no end to the opening of the death shops. As a Tribune report recounted graphically the other day, these vends are the norm rather than an exception everywhere, especially near the key towns like Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. This proliferation flies in the face of court orders that no liquor vend would be allowed within 150 metres of any state or national highway. And yet, there are places where the vends can be found barely 10 metres from the main roads. The Punjab excise department turns a blind eye to these gross violations in its avarice for revenue. Its new policy says that no liquor vend will be allowed within 150 metres to 300 metres of a school, a place of worship or even state and national highways, but it has left it to the discretion of the licencees to decide about the location of the vend. While these vends are strategically located to attract customers, these seem to be invisible to the authorities who are supposed to remove them. As the Tribune report mentions, there are 10 liquor vends on the national highway in Amritsar district but the Excise and Taxation Officer claims that there are none. Either he has a poor eyesight or everybody else is hallucinating after taking one too many! There is no denying the fact that a liquor vend, whether it sells country liquor or the curiously named Indian made foreign liquor, is a money spinner and the government badly needs money. But this resource crunch should not blind it to the social and other consequences of the short-sighted policy. What it gains is more than offset by the losses suffered because of the accidents and the resultant deaths and injuries. Ironically, it is the non-drinking travellers who also become a victim. That is why the courts have been taking such a serious view of the violations. And yet, the desirable results have not been achieved. The Tribune has done its job of highlighting the irregularity. It is now for the competent authorities and the courts to take up the cudgels on behalf of the public. Driving and drinking just do not mix. The presence of liquor vends close to the roads is an open invitation to all those bent on carrying out that suicidal-cum-murderous experiment. |
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WMDs in Kashmir RELATIONS between India and Pakistan are as fickle as the weather. After Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Srinagar initiative the political weather in the subcontinent had shown signs of becoming pleasant. But it has turned nasty again. The ill-winds, as usual, have come from the direction of Pakistan, carrying with them the disturbing news that the foreign mercenaries operating in Jammu and Kashmir may be in possession of weapons of mass destruction. It is a diabolical development and India will have to use all its diplomatic and military resources for stopping Pakistan from encouraging the export of WMDs into the Valley. The country's envoy at the United Nations should seek a special session of the Security Council for discussing the dangerous development. The report that the mercenaries are carrying WMDs is not a bogey to embarrass Pakistan. There is no need for India to resort to scare-mongering. Lt Col S. P. K. Singh of Northern Command Headquarters has been quoted as having said that "terrorists operating in Jammu and Kashmir have chemical weapons, as per the recent intelligence reports analysed by the Army". In view of the disquieting development, the move for restoring some measures of contact with Pakistan may need to be reviewed. Those who are not familiar with the destructive potential of biological warfare need to be reminded of the acts of genocide committed by Saddam Hussein's regime for suppressing Kurdish and Shia uprisings in the 90s. Showing the picture of a terrified girl, one of the many thousand victims of America's reckless use of napalm gas in Vietnam, too would serve the purpose of provoking the global community into taking seriously the threat to international peace from WMDs in reckless hands. The excuse for the invasion of Iraq by the Anglo-American forces was the WMDs in Saddam Hussein's secret cellars. The invaders have not yet found the deadly chemicals they said they wanted to destroy for protecting the world from biological catastrophe. The world cannot risk another 9/11 and December 13. WMDs are a threat to the safety of mankind. Their destruction should be on top of the international agenda for sustainable peace. The
Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban have regrouped after they were pounded out of Afghanistan by American troops. Pakistan has played a key role in their revival. The periodic handing over of
Al-Qaeda operatives to America is meant to deflect criticism of US President George W. Bush's double standards in fighting international terrorism. On Wednesday six more suspected troopers of Osama bin Laden's force for spreading global terror were arrested in Pakistan. Mr Bush will send a certificate of good conduct to Gen Pervez Musharraf. There will not even be a passing mention, at the daily White House media briefing, of the Indian Army's intelligence report that Pakistan-trained mercenaries in Kashmir are carrying
WMDs. But India should not allow the development to be ignored by the international community. |
Fresh study of Sino-Indian ties ON April 21, India and China decided to step-up military-to-military exchanges, hold a counter-terrorism dialogue and increase confidence-building measures to maintain peace along the Line of Actual Control, paving the way for the final resolution of the boundary dispute. This was stressed by a Chinese official at the end of the first full day of talks between the Chinese Defence Minister, Gen Cao Gangchuan, and his Indian counterpart, Mr George Fernandes, who was on a week-long visit to China. China and India have come a long way to restoring the tattered relationship in the wake of the May 1998 nuclear tests by India. The animosity and bitterness between the two countries immediately after Pokhran II are all but gone. Since Mr Jaswant Singh’s visit to China in June 1999, a post-test normalisation process has been gradually taking place. Mr Fernandes’ visit, it is hoped, will strengthen the process. The two sides have on many occasions publicly announced that they do not view each other as a security threat. The Joint Working Group (JWG) on border issues has resumed its regular meetings and in November the two sides for the first time exchanged maps on the middle sector of the Line of Actual Control. A security dialogue has been initiated and a number of meetings have been held. And leaders from the two countries, including high-level military officers, have exchanged visits. Despite these welcome developments, serious obstacles to normal relations remain. These include the unresolved boundary issue, Tibet, and the Sino-Pakistani nexus. The boundary issue, which involves more than 125,000 square kilometres in disputed territories, continues to elude solution and remains a sticking point in bilateral relations. While both governments have agreed to speed up the process of LAC demarcation, at the moment neither side is strong enough to overcome the still enormous domestic popular sentiment, more so in India than in China, to achieve a final settlement. Tibet constitutes another possible point of contention. The strategic significance of Tibet to both India and China is obvious. New Delhi has always regarded Tibet as a security buffer between itself and China. Indian security analysts argue that Chinese deployment of nuclear missiles in the Tibetan plateau seriously threatens Indian security. For Beijing, the very fact that India provides refuge to more than 120,000 Tibetans, the Karmapa and the Dalai Lama will always be a touchy issue between the two countries. Perhaps, the most contentious issue for bilateral relations is China’s strategic relationship with Pakistan. China’s alleged nuclear and missile assistance to Pakistan continues to prove to New Delhi that Beijing intends to tie India down. While Beijing rejects charges of involvement in Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes and maintains that improved Sino-Indian relations should not be based on a distancing of the Sino-Indian relations, New Delhi insists that this should be a litmus test of China’s sincerity. Over the years since the process of normalisation began, Chinese support for key Pakistani positions such as the Kashmir question has weakened and become more ambivalent. This was demonstrated during the 1999 Kargil crisis and continues amidst the current militant activities as well. Beijing’s interest in the continued support for Pakistan, including the endorsement of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s government, lies in a desire to maintain stability in Pakistan against the backdrop of rising Islamic fundamentalism. The US war against terrorism in Afghanistan has seen a reaffirmation of Sino-Pakistani relationship, typified by General Musharraf’s two trips to China during the Afghan war. But one could argue that Beijing is more interested in keeping Islamabad under its influence against the encroaching US presence than encouraging Pakistan to embark on reckless adventures. The last thing China wants is a military confrontation between the two South Asian foes. The Indian Defence Minister’s visit to China at this juncture provided an excellent opportunity for the leaders of the two countries to tackle them at the highest political level. Four critical issues need to be carefully considered if real progress is to be achieved. First, the two sides should seriously and candidly discuss their bottomlines on the boundary issue. Both sides must realise that the current LAC, with some minor adjustments, offers the best chance for a final settlement of their territorial issues. For all the sentiments and national pride, the fact of the matter is the significant changes to accommodate each other’s demands — China’s on the eastern sector and India’s on the western sector — could be met without resort to the use of force. And military confrontation between two nuclear-weapon states over desolate lands is hardly worth it. Second, China should address India’s concerns over the Pakistani issue. Beijing must convince New Delhi that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems is not in China’s own interest, even with regard to a long-standing ally such as Pakistan. It should also convey to India that China’s continued close relationship with Pakistan could help Beijing persuade Islamabad to stop proxy war against India and to seek a political settlement of the Kashmir issue through bilateral dialogue and negotiations. Third, the two sides must express their strategic intentions in clear terms to avoid any misperceptions. This relates to their nuclear postures and missile developments. China and India have both a declared no-first-use (NFU) policy, but New Delhi’s request for a bilateral NFU commitment has been shunned by Beijing. China possesses a sufficient number of missiles to target all major Indian cities. India’s current development of the Agni missiles is a way to address that strategic imbalance. At the same time, China’s possible responses to the US deployment of ballistic missile defences could in turn trigger a further Indian buildup in its nuclear and missile forces. In such a context, strategic dialogue and the introduction of arms-control mechanisms — a bilateral NFU could be one such measure — serve to head off an unnecessary spiral of arms competition to an arms race. Finally, the leaders of the two countries should have the foresight to look beyond the security prism. There are many areas where China and India could cooperate globally and bilaterally. Both support the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as the basis for building a post-Cold War multipolar international order. Both oppose hegemonism, power politics and interference in domestic affairs of other countries. Both insist that the ultimate goal of nuclear disarmament is the complete destruction of nuclear weapons. Both have also held that each country’s political, economic, and social developments should be based on a country’s history and own choices, rather than imposed from without. As the two largest developing countries, China and India also seek a more equitable, just and fair international economic order so that the South can better benefit from globalisation. A focus on these issues should go a long way to normalise relations between the two countries. The writer, Emeritus Fellow, UGC, specialises in international affairs.
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“Dealy-Dallying” I am in my office. Two boys in the near-twenty age-bracket enter. They greet me while I am still busy with my computer. Realising that they are still not seated, I ask them to. Disturbed by the eerie silence, I am compelled to tear myself away from the monitor and turn to the boys. “Yes, what can I do for you?” I ask them in a matter-of-fact manner. They announce the purpose of their visit. They are carrying with them a pack of a pictorial volume from a certain publishing house. One of them manoeuvres a painfully affected western accent. I am impressed neither with the price offered nor their presentation for it is too obviously declaring they are the budding sales-people. Maybe students, or commission based apprentices, or BBAs or MBAs on assignments given as part of their course-curriculum. But I don’t disappoint them. Since my own children have grown up, I find some sort of identification while interacting with the younger generation. In the moments to follow, the boys leave no stone unturned to persuade me to buy their product while showering heavy praise on the item on the one hand and on the other, alluring me with temptation to accept their invitation price which was one-third of the actual, since their company was carrying out a special offer drive. They conjointly and consciously want me to recall the wisdom of a Shakespearean quote; “There is a tide in the affairs of men…!” And I am reminded of a joke when an unobliging customer threw an insurance company agent down the stairs but unfazed, the agent asked with folded hands, “When again do I pay you a visit, sir!” I am still unmoved. They ask me my problem. I smile and tell them I have no money. They don’t believe it but offer to accept a cheque. Mischievously, and it is too apparent, I inform them my chequebook isn't there in the office, but at my home. Now there is a very brief pause. One of them makes an audacious suggestion. “Why? Can’t you borrow just three-hundred bucks from somebody here, sir?” “No my dear, not from the colleagues in the office but you, if you are willing to!” I behave nastily. All their hopes are dashed, at least for the time being. They are not willing to give up since by this time I had made clear to them my intentions to purchase their stuff, to be gifted to someone but only at a later date when I would contact their publishing house, if they had left their visiting cards with me. While re-packing their product, the boys ask for my visiting card and politely inform me that one of them will come to me a week later. I am neither amused nor really amazed for they are the perfect salesmen in the die. But yes, I did purchase restlessness for one full week without paying a single penny. I wish the boys had visited just the following day and sold off their stuff to me. |
Why Nanakshahi calendar? Why arbitrary deviation? THE write-ups of Kiranjot Kaur and Gurcharanjit Singh Lamba on the Nanakshahi calendar (April 14) carry criticism couched in diplomacy. Kiranjot has aptly said that the present form of the calendar is not perfect, but her appreciation for its being “nearer to nature” for grouping together all the longer months in summer is a bit misplaced because this, in fact, is the main weakness of this calendar. It also gives the lie to her assertion that the dates of the Nanakshahi and common era calendars are fixed with respect to each other. The arbitrary and fanciful deviation introduced by the author of the new calendar will negate the main idea behind its introduction. According to Kiranjot, “The Sikh diaspora spread all over the world felt the need to discard the lunar calendar dates and accept the solar calendar dates.” Their compulsion was the adoption of the common era calendar by the whole world making it difficult for the Sikhs, especially the NRIs, to remember the dates of Sikh festivals fixed by the Bikrami calendar. Therefore, the Nanakshahi calendar should have been completely synchronized with the international calendar. The first day or sangrand of every Nanakshahi month should have been fixed on the 15th day of every CE month rather than on 13th day for some months and 14th and 15th for others. This monthly confusion will go on impeding the popularity of the new calendar. Mr Lamba has unnessarily given the controversy a communal tinge by branding the introduction of this calendar as a final gesture of the Sikhs breaking away from their Hindu origin. But he has alluded to a very interesting fact that “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.” Not only has he contradicted Kiranjot on the criteria for a calendar to be “nearer to nature”, he also appears to rejoice that the Sikh Panth has grown capable enough to do something its Gurus had not wanted to do. Mr Lamba has made another amusing revelation that “the calendar which is being given the name of Nanakshahi is rather a hybrid of Gregorian, Bikrami and a host of sant babas, sadh mandlis, historians, politicians and whoever wanted to be on the bandwagon.” He has also lamented that this calendar is “not a creation of experts in astronomy or calendar-making.” I am confident that had such experts been involved, they would have definitely synchronized the Nanakshahi calendar completely with the internationally accepted CE calendar, and we all would have easily remembered that our next sangrand would be on the 15th day of the next CE month, as I had also suggested to the calendar committee. I also tend to fully agree with Mr Lamba’s final comment that “in the half-hearted way this compromise calendar is being introduced, the Sikhs may end up being the object of ridicule...” BHAI ARIDAMAN SINGH JHUBAL, Amritsar
Not another calendar, please We look for April 14 in one calendar, not for Baisakhi in another; therein lies the genesis of the problem mentioned by Kiranjot Kaur. There has been confusion over the dates of Divali, Navratas etc also for the same reason, i.e. using two calendars. The introduction of a third calendar will only complicate the issue, not solve it. One calendar for the entire world and for all purposes is the only way out. All our births and deaths are recorded accorded to the CE calendar. Certificates of education carry CE dates. Worldwide, the computers, satellites, moblie phones etc. stand adjusted to the CE calendar. We celebrate our birthdays, solemnise marriages and mourn deaths according to that calendar. Why make Ram, Krishna, Mohammed, Guru Nanak and a few others exceptions to that? We are now used to the idea of Baisakhi on April 13, so let it be Baisakhi on April 13 forever. Neither we, nor our children will have any objection to that. Let Ram’s birthday too be calculated accordingly and notified as such, for he was born before man had any calendar at all. Like Buddha or Socrates. (Calendars are not more important than people.) The Bikrami calendar has held ground because it serves as the basis of astrology as traditionally practised in India. Some scholars have worked out “rashis” according to the CE, efforts need to be made to integrate the Indian system of horoscope casting and reading etc with that calendar. (The presence or absence of maitri/patric/ bharatri — sukh and conjugal happiness etc is forecast with singular accuracy) Increasing computerisation will, however, require the Bikrami calendar to yield place to the CE calendar. The Nanakshahi calendar is being introduced to satisfy the whim that since Christians and the Hindus have a calendar, the Sikhs must have one. This is childish, and will invite ridicule as Mr Lamba has said. L.R. SHARMA, Jalandhar
Make it simple The write-ups on the Nanakshahi calendar are quite interesting. History shows that human beings have always tried to get the measurement system to be more systematic and simple so that people can easily use it. The proof of this is present metric system used by almost all the people of the world. Except for the Americans and the British, who have big egos and therefore they are using a more complicated and difficult system. All scientists and scholars are trying to find the metric system of measurement for time. Till now they have not found any perfect solution. Making it in the name of Sikhism has at least one disadvantage. First, as it is mentioned that it is not the perfect but still better than the current ones, means that later on it a better calendar is developed, then it won’t be implemented due to the restriction imposed by some people. As far as the clash of important dates is concerned, that will always occur if two different units are used. For example, the Ramjan period, which is based on the Hijri calendar, is always changing with respect to the Gregorian calendar. That does not meant that the people who developed were against anybody. They developed it for the benefit of the people to their best abilities and resources available to them. If the calendar is developed for all, and it performs better, then it will be adopted by everybody and the question of ridicule of Sikhism does not arise. R.K. SINGH, Chandigarh
Bhindranwale’s anniversary It is pathetic that a pious name like Nanakshahi Calendar is being misused by showing days like June 6 and classifying them as a martyrdom day. All of us know that how bad the chapter was of terrorism in Punjab and most of the people who currently call it a martyrdom day of Bhindranwale have some way or the other suffered because of the so-called martyr. Let the Nanakshahi jantri be used to show and celebrate days like Baisakhi and Lohri and not for purposes incompatible to its standard which can instigate negative feelings. In a way keep that hatred and violence which had in no way benefited Punjab and the Punjabis away from the people living in Punjab and for those who live outside and want to come back and still see the same old beautiful Punjab. AMIT VERMA, Melbourne,
A calendar for every religion? Every religion has got its own gods and rituals. But this is the first time that one has heard that a sect for that mater a religion, has to have its own calendar. Should one expect that now that the Sikhs (read the S.G.P.C., a body enacted by a government Act) has adopted its own calendar, there would follow a Dayanand calendar, a Baba Jaimal Singh calendar, an Ausotosh calendar, a Baba Gurcharanshahi Celendar, a Brahm Kumari calendar a Lekhshahi
calendar, so on and so forth. The more, the merrier, even if muddier. But then the calendar should be original, not a distorted, edited or reformed version of the Christian calendar. Anyway, how sad that Ms Kiranjot Kaur has invented the canard that “lunar calendars have a month of 29 days or 30 days and a year of 354 days”. Well, only of Samvat 2059, Vaisakh had 31 days, Jaith, Asarh, Sawan, Bhadan and Asif, too had 31 days each and except Maghar and Magh, all other months were of 30 days. All the historical dates are fixed. For example, Guru Nanak Dev’s birthday always falls on the Pooranmashi (full moon) of Kartak and Divali, of course, on Amawas (complete dark night); they are not fixed according to the Christian calender, and there lies the rub for those who are so keen to identify themselves with the foreigners and ruthlessly disown their roots and commonality with the parent creed. CHAMAN LAL
KORPAL, Amritsar
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Know your onions ONIONS are rich in a class of compounds known as the flavonoids. Also found in foodstuffs such as tea, apples and red wine, flavonoids are believed to have the capacity to quell disease-precipitating processes in the body. One flavonoid that has caught the attention of researchers over the last decade is quercetin, with several studies suggesting that this nutrient has the ability to protect us against a variety of conditions, and onions are especially rich in this. Studies show that onions have the capacity to ‘thin’ the blood and may help to reduce blood pressure, too. Onion eating has also been found to be associated with lower levels of blood fats known as triglycerides, which are believed to play some part in the clogging-up of arteries around the body. The physiological and biochemical boons onions offer appear to translate into considerable benefits for the heart. Increased flavonoid intake, including those coming from onions, has been associated with a significantly reduced risk of heart disease. In one study, high flavonoid intake was associated with a halving in the risk of succumbing to this condition. There is also some evidence that compounds in onions have beneficial effects on the hormone insulin in the body. Insulin is principally responsible for moderating the level of sugar in the bloodstream. A reduction in the amount or effectiveness of insulin predisposes the body to diabetes — a condition characterised by higher-than-normal levels of sugar in the bloodstream. Onions appear to prolong the effect of insulin, and more than one study shows that they help to keep blood-sugar levels in check. These facts mean that onions are a particularly healthy choice for diabetics. In addition to their rich stash of flavonoids, onions have also been found to harbour significant amounts of sulphur-containing compounds. These biochemical entities seem to help the liver deactivate potentially toxic substances, an effect which might help to keep the body free from cancer. This idea is borne out by studies linking onion-eating with a reduced risk of cancer of the stomach and prostate. Other evidence points to a particularly strong relationship between onions and a reduced risk of lung cancer. Onions are also believed to help reduce the airway spasm that is characteristic of asthma, and are believed to help keep symptoms of this condition at bay.
The Guardian |
Sages who live on air, who are ascetics and observe continence, who have pacified their senses, renounced the world, and are pure reach thy status known as Brahmin. — Srimad Bhagavata, 11.6.47 As the threads from the spider, the tree from the seed, the fire from the coal, the stream from the fountain, the waves from the sea, So is the world produced from Brahma. — Mundaka Upanishad, I.I,7 |
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