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Thursday,
June 26, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Towards
mature relations Educational
muddle What
others say |
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It’s
bickering, not dialogue
Taj on a
tight budget Govt
still not serious about drug abuse Mad rush
for admissions
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Towards mature relations India and China as two great neighbours have no choice but to be friends. The declaration signed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in Beijing on Monday reflects the desire of their people to realise their collective potential. It recognises the value of positive political engagement, launched over two decades ago, and rejects the self-defeating policy of viewing each other with suspicion and hostility. India has been feeling somewhat uneasy about the slow progress on the settlement of the border question. The Beijing talks have led to the appointment of two high ranking representatives of India and China for finding a mutually acceptable solution to the border question. The initiative to reopen the trade route through Sikkim has political connotations, irrespective of reservations expressed by Chinese officials. The recognition of the autonomous region of Tibet as a part of China by India in effect underscores the existing political and geographical realities, although a little more categorically and with greater clarity. Besides the border question, China's close relationship with Pakistan has been a sore point with India. We don't know to what extent China is ready to review the nature of its relationship with Pakistan, taking into account India's sensitivities. But Beijing has agreed to condemn international terrorism in the joint declaration. Even so Pakistan has reacted on expected lines. It has accused India of misleading China on the subject of cross-border terrorism. If anything, there is a lesson in the India-China joint declaration for Pakistan. Neither China nor India has abdicated its position on the border question as well as Pakistan, but the two countries have agreed to forge a durable and enduring relationship. What they have done is not to allow the differences to come in the way of mending fences in other areas of mutual interest. The beginning of a new chapter of mutual cooperation between India and China would be of interest to the rest of the world, particularly the US. If they continue to hold hands, their collective size and economic might would cause a shift in the current lopsided global power equations. The signing of the joint declaration is indeed a significant step in that direction and a hopeful sign. |
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Educational
muddle BY reversing its decision to discontinue the plus one and two classes in colleges, the Punjab Government has obviously succumbed to the pressure from the teachers’ lobby. It reveals the government’s muddled thinking and malfunctioning in as important an area as education. A few days ago Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had announced his government’s decision to shift the plus one class from colleges to schools from the coming academic session, while allowing the existing batch of plus two to complete their studies in colleges. This had stirred a hornet’s nest. The teachers employed in colleges to teach plus one and two classes were up in arms since they risked losing their college jobs, as also social status, since they might ultimately have to shift to schools. The government should have anticipated such resistance and tackled it effectively. But populism prevailed. There are weighty reasons for shifting the plus one and two classes to schools. Education commissions like the Kothari Commission had recommended that the plus two level classes should stay in schools. The issue had also been discussed from time to time at meetings organised by the Centre where states had accepted the wisdom of continuing plus two classes in schools only. Schools are generally within the easy reach of most students and colleges are sparsely located. After passing out at the plus two level, those who do not want to, or cannot afford to, pursue higher education, are better equipped to find a job or try self-employment than a mere matriculate. Besides, college education is more expensive. Also, students in a college tend to be less attentive to their studies than in a school where discipline is enforced strictly. The Punjab Government had taken a positive step but unfortunately it could not stick to it. There were, no doubt, practical problems in implementing the decision from the current session. The decision should have been taken well in advance so that adequate arrangements could be made to ensure a smooth switchover. There is some truth in the argument advanced by the protesting college teachers that schools lacked adequate facilities to meet the requirements of plus two science students. The government has to recognise that school education is a thrust area and lack of funds should not come in the way of providing quality education up to the senior secondary level. Similarly, the argument that colleges have spent heavily on upgrading facilities for the plus two students and recruited special staff also lacks substance. The facilities and the staff can be utilised for providing education to science students at the undergraduate level. Their strength can be increased, if need be. Whenever reforms are effected, some dislocation and inconvenience are but natural. That should not blind one to the long-term benefits that the reforms propose to usher in. |
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What others say The death toll on Tuesday among British military personnel north of Basra was a fifth of the total fatalities sustained during the war to occupy Iraq. It is a sad reminder, if one were needed, that the result of that war is not yet peace, and that British soldiers on the ground are having to cope with the consequences of this deeply flawed result. Till now it looked as if southern Iraq might be less affected than the north, but the soldiers and their families are now suffering as much as the US soldiers who have been killed and wounded in the north since April. What exactly happened in the two incidents near Amara will need careful analysis and a great deal more information. It may be tempting for military analysts to pigeonhole episodes of violence into two separate categories. Relatively low level clashes are regarded as an expression of local dissatisfaction with the “postwar situation” and amenable to being settled by more efforts in the hearts and minds department. More sophisticated clashes are attributed to remnant Ba’athists and Fedayeen forces, perhaps with some shadowy Saddamite hand behind them. It would be more realistic to see in Iraq — as formerly in northern Ireland (or anywhere else where armed forces encounter local opposition) — a hazy continuum between popular grievance and more organised forms of resistance. If paramilitary Iraqi forces are roaming in the outskirts of Amara, they could hardly do so without some degree of support from elements of the civilian population. Nor can they take refuge in inhospitable terrain: there are neither forests in southern Iraq nor (since Saddam destroyed them) marshes in which to hide. — The Guardian
Firms under pressure It is time again for annual stockholder meetings. Many corporations see these gatherings as shareholder contact opportunities. Rather than trying to slide through without trouble, executives should see these events as golden opportunities to promote the management line and let shareholders know more about how business is conducted. This year, the stockholder meetings clearly reflect the recent dramatic shift in the business climate. The most obvious change is the sharp increase in stockholders who will be quite clear about what they expect of management. It is refreshing to see a gradual end to the ``everything is fine’’ tone of these meetings, in which shareholders do not ask any embarrassing questions or say anything bad about management. Contributing to this change is the swift demise of cross-shareholding arrangement, a decades-old fixture of corporate operations. The so-called ``stable shareholders,’’ or affiliated companies closely tied through mutual shareholdings, can no longer assure calm annual meetings, since institutional investors increasingly demand more of a say over how companies are run. — Asahi Shimbun |
It’s bickering, not dialogue IN quick succession over recent days several well-known and respected commentators have come to a strikingly similar, if also, depressing conclusion about the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s peace initiative in relation to Pakistan that was so warmly welcomed across the world. One of them has tersely declared the initiative to be “dead” already. Another, while refraining from being apocalyptic, has stressed that if things went on at the present rate for a while longer Atalji’s historic extension of a “hand of friendship” to the western neighbour would be “history” soon. In the opinion of the third, pessimism has overtaken the earlier optimism because in South Asia the “double-edged tongues” of politicians and official spokespersons have become the “most dangerous weapons of mass destruction”! The fourth has put the same thought more bluntly. General Pervez Musharraf’s threat to repeat Kargil if no progress was made over the core issue of Kashmir, he argues, has brought the subcontinent back to the juncture when the General’s “infamous spiel” on Kashmir at a breakfast meeting with Indian editors had predictably wrecked the Agra summit. To this one might add an incongruous fact. On the eve of Mr Vajpayee’s journey to China, this country’s most powerful neighbour, the Indian media devoted more space to the escalating Indo-Pakistani bickering than to expectations by both sides of a spurt in the hitherto slow improvement in India-China relations. To be sure, Pakistan’s President and Chief of the Army Staff has claimed that his remarks on Kargil, in the course of his interview to an Indian TV channel, were “distorted” and quoted “out of context”. Many Indians are prepared to accept this explanation. But the fact remains that the Ministry of External Affairs, before issuing its rather sharp reaction to the General’s outburst, had checked and rechecked his interview’s videotape. It was because of this (and because of General Musharraf’s absurd questioning of the legitimacy of the Kashmir elections internationally recognised to be free and fair) that Mr Vajpayee was constrained to retort in kind. General Musharraf’s threat of a repeat of the Kargil war, he told a public meeting in the interior of Madhya Pradesh, was, in fact, an invitation to Pakistan’s “fourth defeat”. Understandably, this hasn’t gone down well across the Wagha border. Moreover, it is only fair to recognise that there were subtle nuances in the statements of both General Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee that have been largely overlooked in both countries. Consequently, the atmosphere in the subcontinent that had improved enormously after the Prime Minister’s famous speech in Srinagar on March 18, reaffirmed and amplified in his subsequent oration in Parliament, has been muddied and could be vitiated. After all, the Pakistani President, evidently tailoring all his pronouncements to his agenda for his meeting with the United States President, Mr. George W. Bush, at Camp David, has offered provocation to this country on more subjects than Kargil and the Kashmir poll. Particularly appalling was his plea in London for a Western “arms embargo” on India. Why, in heaven’s name, one might ask. Because, says the General, India’s conventional superiority over Pakistan was on the increase and, if this went on, Pakistan would be forced to “rely” on its nuclear weapons as its “real deterrent”. This gratuitous grandstanding that amounts to nuclear sabre-rattling was not a casual or off-the-cuff performance. It was a well-thought-out move. For what General Musharraf said publicly in the British capital was stated privately a week earlier at a Track-II meeting between India and Pakistan at Kathmandu. So level headed a Pakistani as Mr Inam-ul-Haq, a former Foreign Secretary and briefly Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told the gathering that the rising Indian conventional superiority “would lower the nuclear threshold in the subcontinent”. Surely, neither General Musharraf nor Mr Inam-ul-Haq expects the world to take such irresponsible talk seriously. Leave alone the unthinkable consequences of Pakistan using the nuclear weapon on any pretext whatever (India is committed to No First Use), any situation in which Islamabad could be rash enough to take recourse to the nuclear arsenal is difficult to envisage. Even assuming that a conventional war between Pakistan and this country does begin, it cannot but be limited in both intensity and duration. For it is impossible to envisage a state of affairs in which Pakistan, threatened either by unbearable loss of territory or the annihilation of its armed forces, might feel compelled to use nuclear weapons. Neither side has enough ammunition for a long war because both depend on imports that are bound to be embargoed. More importantly, the international community simply would not stand for a war between the two nuclear countries of South Asia. On day one of any conventional conflict between them, the UN Security Council would demand an immediate cease-fire and would do so under the mandatory Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, not under Chapter 6 that was invoked over Kashmir in 1947-48. And yet General Musharraf’s hue and cry about mounting Indian conventional superiority and Pakistan’s consequent need to use the weapon of the last resort as the first deterrent is not without a purpose. At stake here is Pakistan’s anxiety to acquire F-16 aircraft, denied to it since 1990, and India’s unconcealed opposition to it. Time was when the US had made up its mind to give Pakistan this multi-role warplane, so cherished by the Pakistani military. Normally, an announcement to this effect would have been made after the Camp David parleys. But later Washington changed its mind and decided to de-link the F-16 transaction from the Musharraf visit. This does not mean, however, that the matter is closed. For, the America’s position is that there is no decision on the supply of F-16s to Pakistan “for now”. The last two words are the key. The decision to let Pakistan have the coveted aircraft could be clinched later, possibly at the next meeting of the US-Pakistan joint group on defence cooperation, due some weeks hence. Informed analysts of US policy on South Asia — Indian and American — have come forward with two possible explanations for the delay in the announcement of the American decision on F-16s for Pakistan rather than make it the centre-piece of the General’s current visit. First, that the Bush administration, anxious to please both India and Pakistan, would like to sanction the supply of F-16s to Pakistan only when the deal for the sale by Israel of Phalcon AWACS and Arrow anti-missile missiles is also concluded so that neither side feels aggrieved. The alternative explanation of the deliberate delay in decision-making in the US capital is that Washington would wait for India’s decision on its request for Indian troops to be sent to Iraq to help stabilise the volatile situation there. America knows that the Vajpayee government would like to respond positively to the US request but is hobbled by hostile public opinion, divisions within the ruling coalition and continuing lack of clarity on the terms on which the Indian division requested by Washington would function in Iraq. New Delhi is also committed to consulting Iraq’s neighbours, including Iran that has become America’s new target, perhaps along with Syria. General Musharraf, on the other hand, is keen to send Pakistani troops to Iraq, if only he is asked to do so. He sees advantage in this despite the strong opposition to the idea by the Islamists of Pakistan represented by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Remarkably, the US hasn’t yet requested for Pakistani troops because it evidently prefers Indian soldiers. On return from China and presumably before the start of Parliament’s monsoon session, Mr. Vajpayee will have to take a decision on the question of troops for Iraq. As for the dialogue with Pakistan, he has iterated that meaningful talks can begin only after cross-border terrorism ends. Those who want talks to take place without delay would have to do something to “create a conducive atmosphere”. |
Taj on a tight budget See Naples and die, goes an old saying, for nothing more beautiful is left in the world to experience after seeing Naples. The purpose of life is fulfilled. One may say the same about the Taj—a poem in stone. The Taj Mahal is the Mona Lisa of monuments, having a certain “Je ne sais quoi” that has entranced all the world and his wife since 17th century. Carrying such a beauteous image of the monument, self along with spouse decided to see the Taj Mahal before it turns into Taj Mall. It was not a pocket-friendly time of the month. We carried just Rs 3,200 thinking that it would be sufficient for a two-day stay. But it was not to be. We reached Agra around 4 in the evening. An auto-driver took us to a lodge. “Rs 300 per day,” the lodge owner demanded. It was late. Darkness had descended. With wife accompanying me, I couldn’t take the risk of searching for a “more” reasonably priced lodging. A “cordon bleu” cook that wife is, for the next two days, we survived more or less on the 10-plus pranthas she had made specially for the journey as the money, most of it, had been spent unknowingly on buying leather goods for which Agra is famous. Didn’t realise that we were carrying just Rs 3,200. The following morning, we rushed to the mausoleum where the body of Shahjahan and his soul Mumtaz lay. Luckily, it was Friday. The entry was free. Slowly, we moved near the grand edifice, and voila! The Taj Mahal. “C’est magnifique,” I cried experiencing the same ecstasy I had experienced many moons ago. Wifey sceptical about its wonder earlier was also awestruck. Time was around 7.30 pm. Darkness was surrounding the white marble by degrees. Only few people remained. Starless night mingled with stone silence was creating a dreamy atmosphere that brought out the Shahjahan in me. “I will also make a Taj Mahal for you,” I told my Mumtaz uxoriously. “Let me die first,” she shot back in a tone that betrayed both her anger and hunger. “Didn’t have the money for two square meals and he had the cheek to nourish the Shahjahan in him,” the look of her face silently conveyed these thoughts. After a while, we returned to the lodge, packed up and left for the railway station. Only Rs 330 remained. In this amount, we had to buy tickets for a return journey as well as arrange for good. We sat down in a nondescript restaurant. Coincidentally, there was also a bus stop nearby. I asked a waiting passenger, under my breath, the fare from Agra to Delhi. “Rs 120,” he said. It was quite consoling. The fare for two of us would be Rs 240. Fair enough. We could manage, I thought and “sat like patience on a monument” waiting for the bus which came after an hour and a half. Quickly we ensconced ourselves in a front row seat. Once inside the bus, I fell into a brown study. I remembered what Bill Clinton said about this edifice of love: “The world is divided into two-those who have seen the Taj and those who have not.” I thanked God that I was one of those who had seen it and also consoled myself that we had gone to Agra at a time when things were not very costly and many of the leather items were sold almost for an old song. After five hours of night journey, my train of thoughts finally stopped, though the memory of the marvel in its pristine glory lingers... |
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Govt still not serious about drug abuse Just 17, Ramesh, a slum dweller, is a small-time drug carrier and is hooked on to narcotics or what in common parlance is known as drugs. He just cannot kick his habit of being a carrier and a consumer. No explanation exists in medical science or with doctors on what prevents the body or mind to accept detoxification. He falls into the category of ‘‘hardcore users’’ and continues to relapse into drugs. It’s a losing battle for the doctors. Ramesh keeps up with his duty as a courier of drugs as he gets his ‘‘dose’’ free in return for his services from bigger traders. This is not a stray case. There are thousands like him in North India and are documented by various de-addiction centres. These addicts are lured by the bait of ‘‘their dose’’ . The northern region is today the hub of growers, suppliers and couriers. Growing poppy is legal in UP and Rajasthan for medicinal purposes, but a large part of it finds its way into the illegal trade. Himachal and Uttaranchal farmers clandestinely grow poppy, while the major drug smuggling route is through Afghanistan and Pakistan into Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, says the Narcotics Control Bureau. The police now keeps a vigil at Shahbad between Ambala and Kurukshetra. Prof Anil Malhotra of the PGI de-addiction centre says the profile of a majority of drug addicts is the same. “They start off during teenage by smoking a cigarette and some of them come into contact with the bigger fish only to graduate onto bigger things like opium, smack or heroin.’’ Last year the PGI handled about 675 new cases and has a list of more than 3,300 follow-up cases. Explaining the need for drug addicts to use the substance ,Prof Malhotra says: ‘‘Even as the first experience with drugs is not very pleasant, the kick or ecstasy it provides to the brain makes the user seek more.’’ Asking a drug addict to stop immediately is wrong, it has to be a step-by-step approach, says Dr Malhotra. Meanwhile, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is now trying to get a chapter included in the school curriculum on harmful drugs. But how serious is the government in tackling the problem ? Dr Malhotra is not optimistic: ‘‘The government is still not serious about the issue. Rehabilitation for drug addicts is non-existent, and we have no psychatrists experts to deal with people nor do we have relapse prevention strategies.” Taking the same line, Mr Rakesh Goyal, who heads the zonal office of the Narcotics Control Bureau in Chandigarh, says: “The police does not take matters seriously. Drug abuse is not taken as a major crime even as it is the mother of all crimes from petty theft to prostitution to robberies.’’ It is tough to breaking the vicious cycle of drugs, which starts from the grower, goes to the supplier, the carrier and finally to the consumer. The economic reason and the volume of earnings are far tot big for the grower and the supplier to leave it, say officials, while advocating education for youth as the only way out . In Himachal Pradesh, lure for easy money has developed into another kind of “addiction” among farmers: grow the
opium plant which brings in high revenue on a per acre basis. The enforcement agencies carry out their operations like the one done last month in Mandi District to destroy the crop. However, this may not be enough. Himachal Pradesh has pockets of illegal plantation in Shimla, Chamba , Mandi , Kulu and Sirmour districts. What is grown illegally in Himachal is actually permitted in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. A large amount of opium is smuggled into Punjab from Rajasthan. Shahabad located between Ambala and Kurukshetra on the national highway is today a major transit point. Recently, a gang nabbed by the Chandigarh Police only proved the point being made by intelligence agencies on the importance of Shahbad in the drug trade. A secret report with an enforcement agency says Chakrata in Uttaranchal is a major destination for suppliers as several inaccessible valleys are used to grow opium. The gain from carrying drugs to major destinations makes it a lucrative business. Mr Rakesh Goyal says what may cost Rs 6,000 a kilogram in Himachal fetches Rs 1 lakh in Goa. “Transportation is easy. We have found drugs concealed in diesel tanks of trucks,” says Mr Goyal while adding it is impossible to check every truck, car, or passenger on board a bus or a train. The drug smuggler uses all kinds of tricks. On June 11 this year the NCB, in collaboration with the Customs Department, nabbed two African nationals, who had crossed into India from the Wagah border. Each carried three kilograms of high quality opium stuffed into capsules which had been taken inside the body through the rectum. It needs a concerted, co-ordinated effort to curb the menace. In early May this year the Narcotics Control Bureau and the Customs Department carried out a major drive to remove illegal poppy plantations in the Chuhar valley in Mandi district. It became a big issue in Himachal Pradesh. Mr Kaul Singh Thakur of the Congress sought a resolution in the Assembly calling upon the Central Government to permit limited cultivation of poppy in Himachal Pradesh. |
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Mad rush for admissions MORE and more parents now want to get the best available education for their children. Happily, education is seen as a vehicle of upward social mobility. This is a positive development. No society can progress while remaining in the dark. Making conscious efforts towards collective growth and awakening is one thing, but getting desperate for specific degrees for personal gain and achievement is another. Education is a ladder that should help everyone climb up. The sense of competition is healthy up to a limit, but is getting nastier in our society as traditional Indian values of cooperation and “Sarbat da bhalla” are getting lost somewhere along the way. A sign of this social phenomenon can be seen in the fierce competition for admission to prestigious educational institutions and struggle for top jobs. This has led to much stress among children and their parents. The gruelling process starts right at the nursery stage. Parents no longer send their child to a neighbourhood school. The school has to be one with an acknowledged reputation for excellence, no matter how far it is located and how hard it may be for a child to commute in a bus or an autorickshaw. The schools which produce toppers and regularly find a mention in newspapers are favoured. It adds to a family’s status if the child goes to a sought-after, expensive school. While democracy does not permit forcing parents to send their children only to neighbourhood schools, the government can encourage this trend if the quality of education in government schools is improved and reputed private schools are evenly scattered in residential areas. Right now government schools are out of reckoning even if some of them may have more qualified teachers, better facilities and bigger campuses. Neighbourhood schools can help parents spend less on education, save the child from travel hassles and ease traffic congession on roads. The fact that too many parents chase a small number of schools high on the public rating list is responsible for the mad rush for admissions, subjecting children to physical and mental pressure. Living in a high-spending consumerist society that extols the virtues of materalistic well-being, parents themselves are under social pressure to make their children excel in every activity they undertake — which is something impossible — disregarding the child’s own area of interest and talent. Throughout his/her schooling days, and even later, a student is acutely conscious of the fear of failure. Success has to be consistent — in every test, in every class. Class X and plus two students are particularly under heavy stress. All those in the top bracket compete for the select few courses in select few colleges now rated by the media for parents’ and students’ convenience. Today the IITs, set up by Jawaharlal Nehru to produce world class builders of modern India, are globally recognised for their quality education and their alumni are assured of getting top jobs. Some of the IITians have made their mark at the international level, particularly in the field of information technology. Small wonder that so many parents every year want their children to compete for the IIT joint entrance test. Medical and engineering fields continue to draw talent. Business management, commerce and information technology have lately emerged as the hot favourites of many because of the huge salaries the corporate sector pays. With globalisation, the area for competition has widened, both in terms of admission to academic courses and jobs. More jobs are coming to India because of the growing trend of outsourcing. Multinational companies are increasingly setting up shop in low-cost countries like India to make use of cheaply available manpower, offering salaries, which may be peanuts by Western standards, but are fabulous going by the Indian level of wages. Education has failed to keep pace with this fast-changing scenario. Barring a few institutions in cities, most are still what they used to be in the last century, running traditional courses which are out of sync with the present reality. It is time to pause and ponder how best the country’s vast human resources can be tapped. What are the skills in demand? Do we have enough institutions to impart those skills? Why should there be a scramble for admissions? Since manpower is an asset, the need is to train and equip it with skills required anywhere in the world. The artificially created barriers to the free movement of jobs have to be demolished since they are not WTO compliant. In view of the shortage of globally admired institutions of learning in this country, foreign colleges and universities are luring Indian students as parents are willing to spend large amounts on education and banks are making their job easier by offering loans on easy terms. This also calls for a check on the entry of foreign institutions of doubtful credentials. At the same time, there is need to make the country’s best known institutions pro-active and encourage them to spread out globally to share their wealth of knowledge. An investor in education will feel disappointed if the “commodity” he buys does not give him reasonable returns in due course of time. A student who labours hard for a course financed by a bank loan will feel cheated if he fails to get a job on its completion. High expectations breed high disappointments. The government has to ensure that there are enough avenues for absorbing the growing numbers of educated youth. Facing unemployment after tremendous hard work and acquiring expensive degrees is an unsettling prospect and can lead to social instability. The high rate of joblessness cannot be wished away. It has to be tackled head on.
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