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Wednesday,
July 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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One more air crash Idea for the subcontinent Sania’s day |
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Vulnerable Blair losing support
The Old Burra Din
AJT project remains grounded
Turmeric in curry stops blood clots
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One more air crash WE have it on the authority of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, that it is wrong to call a MiG a “flying coffin” because the plane is absolutely safe. And yet, these planes keep on tumbling out of the sky with chilling regularity, the latest crash involving a MiG-23 taking place near Ferozepore on Monday. Surely, so many accidents one after the other cannot be dismissed as a routine affair. The nation wants an explanation as to why the IAF combat aircraft are so accident-prone. Every crash not only depletes the nation’s defence assets but also demoralises the country. Above all, the demise of a trained pilot is also an irreparable national loss. The pilot involved in the Ferozepore crash managed to bail out but many others have not been that lucky. Besides, many civilian lives have also been lost as at Ambala and Ludhiana. Their families are as concerned as the rest of the Indians about the safety record of the IAF aircraft, especially MiG-21s. The IAF has suffered over 350 accidents since 1990. Most of them involved MiGs. The explanation given is that this happens because 80 per cent of the IAF combat aircraft are from the MiG family, with MiG-21s alone constituting about 40 per cent. That argument is hardly convincing. There is more to the crashes than what meets the official eye. Many of the jets are over-aged. Yet, aircraft maintenance is not what it ought to be. Russians have in the past suggested that the spare parts imported from Ukraine are of inferior quality. The preparatory training of pilots may also not be adequate in the absence of a suitable advanced jet trainer. These and many other contributory factors have been pinpointed in several expert committee reports over the years, the most notable being the report of the La Fontaine committee. Yet, their recommendations have not been fully implemented. It is a matter of regret that the “chalta hai” approach so common in civilian matters has infected the defence sector as well. The embarrassing air crashes should wake up the Indian Air Force to the perils of this attitude. A valorous pilot may think nothing of laying down his life in the defence of the nation but it is unfortunate if he suffers any harm just because the machine he is flying is not in the best of shape or his training is not what it should be. In defence matters there can be no compromise with quality. |
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Idea for the subcontinent EXTERNAL Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has floated a new idea to ensure that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations function as partners in economic growth. He feels such cooperation is possible if these countries agree to forming a South Asian Union. The laudable suggestion, made at the New Delhi meeting of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday, should evoke encouraging response from all South Asian nations, which will be the beneficiaries. But this is unlikely to happen because two major players in the region — India and Pakistan — see each other with suspicion. This is particularly true in the case of Pakistan. Despite Mr Sinha’s convincing explanation, his idea may by habit be interpreted in Islamabad as being a clever Indian move. Economic experts point out that the fears — like an unfavourable balance of trade — Pakistan has been nursing on the business front are mainly imaginary. If Canada and Mexico can benefit more than the US by promoting trade and commerce among themselves, why can’t this happen in the case of Pakistan? What is required is readiness to look beyond bilateral political issues like Kashmir. SAARC itself could have propelled economic growth at great speed in India, Pakistan and the other member-countries if Islamabad avoided being the spoilsport. Though the forum has nothing to do with bilateral issues, Pakistan has always been trying to use it for partisan purposes. Of late,
Bangladesh, which authored the idea of SAARC, has begun springing surprises. But in the process it has suffered considerably. Bangladesh has a huge deposit of gas, which can be exported to India at a negligible cost. Both countries could be the gainers, with Bangladesh obviously being the major beneficiary. But decision-makers in Dhaka have an inbuilt skepticism which prevents them from taking the advantage of a big market in the immediate neighbourhood for their gas. Improved
Indo-Bangladesh trade relations could help Chittagaong port emerge as the Hong Kong of South Asia. Only visionary leaders can understand the significance of not allowing economic matters to become hostage to political problems. India has been consciously doing all it can to alleviate the subjugation fears of its neighbours with a view to promoting regional cooperation on different matters. Yet the problem persists. It can go only if India and Pakistan can enhance their bilateral trade. One hopes this realisation dawns on the other side of the border. One-fifth of humanity lives in South Asia which would stand to gain if it does. |
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Sania’s day THERE
is a saying that the basket that carries crabs in India does not need a lid. The less ambitious crabs make sure that no one from among them gets to taste freedom and success. The role of the usually over-critical media is no different. The latest example of the negative attitude of the media in assessing the worth of events and achievements was reflected in the indifferent coverage it gave to the performances of a number of Indian players at the just-concluded tennis tournament at Wimbledon. Sania Mirza, Sunitha Rao, and the better-known Leander Paes, made news by their inspiring performances in what are called the "margin events". So what? An optimist always sees the glass as half-full. But a typical "media crab", instead of praising Sania for becoming the first Indian girl to win a title at Wimbledon, dug up statistics that showed that in the past 56 years India has won only 16 grand slam titles! The sound words of advise of the legendary theatre critic, Charles Fabri, would appear to be relevant in the context of the state of health of Indian sports. He encouraged positive criticism to help Indian theatre strike roots. The same yardstick should be applied for assessing the achievements of Indian sportspersons. Ignore the tribe of "media crabs". This year's Wimbledon has been exceptionally fruitful for Indian participants. Sania became the first Indian girl to win a grand slam event. Rita Davar was a runner-up in the same discipline way back in 1952. The secret of Sania's success was improved training and a conscious effort by the game's governing body to help talented young tennis players gain international exposure. The US-born Sunitha Rao was ranked number one in the girl's junior event. She has the makings of a future champion considering that she is already ranked 168 in the women's tennis. Though technically an American, Sunitha has expressed her desire to represent India in tennis. Leander, of course, is a veteran of sorts. But the mixed doubles title he won with Martina Navratilova was special. Books would show that the former American tennis superstar equaled Billy Jean King's record of 20 grand slam titles at the age of 46 plus. She had partnered Billy Jean to establish that record. On Sunday she made Paes a part of the Navratilova legend by taking him along with her to yet another pinnacle of tennis glory.
Thought for the day New ideas are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. — John Locke
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Vulnerable Blair losing support WHETHER British Prime Minister Tony Blair will become a casualty of the Iraq war remains to be determined, but luck seems to be running out on him, besieged as he is on all sides. Now well into his second term after a repeat landslide win, the banner of his New Labour has become a trifle bedraggled and its standard-bearer a less charismatic and worthy presence on the political stage. Many issues — mostly domestic — are troubling Mr Blair. But the trigger has been the Iraq war and the near universal belief that he was less than truthful in taking his country into war. Critics have honed in on the two dossiers presented by the government, one of which pilfered in part an old student PhD thesis and the second suggested that Saddam Hussein was capable of using weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. This, as much as anything else, tilted the scales in the House of Commons vote on the war. The infamous weapons have still to be found — more than two months after major operations ended. Mr Blair and his spin doctor Alastair Campbell have been fighting a rearguard action with the British Broadcasting Corporation and in the Commons committee investigating the charges. Irrespective of the outcome of the charge that the Blair government “sexed up” the September report inserting the 45-minute time bomb, the Prime Minister’s credibility is on the line. Mr Blair has been strikingly successful in making over the Labour Party to improve its appeal. He is in the league of Mr Bill Clinton and Mr Gerhard Schroeder of Germany in bringing their respective parties to the centre of the political spectrum to win broad constituencies. The truth is that the traditional Left and socialist planks have ceased to be vote winners in the new Information Age and the demise of many blue collar industries in western industrial democracies. Mr Blair was eminently articulate in spreading the mantra of New Labour, in effect adopting many Conservative policies. Mr Blair became Prime Minister in 1997 and was a young (he has just turned 50) and appealing face all set to take Britain into the new millennium. But the Iraq war has unravelled his carefully built edifice. As the Liverpool Labour conference last week showed, a section of his party, never happy with his concept of New Labour, is now in revolt seeking a policy change to win the next general election. The Left in the party says there is distrust and disillusionment in the ranks and is presenting a “New Left Project”. The Left attack is on pensions, student fees and the Iraq war. Some analysts are worried that Mr Blair is fast losing control over his party, also exemplified by the Welsh wing rebelling against the all-women shortlist being imposed in two South Wales constituencies. Mr Blair’s other grand design of bringing Britain into the common European currency has suffered. He has had to strike an uneasy compromise with his Chancellor of the Exchequer in scuppering the project for the immediate future. There is simply too much opposition in the country for joining the euro and the full-throated support he needs from his party does not exist. The Prime Minister’s logic in taking his country into the euro zone is unassailable in terms of his ability to play an influential role in Europe, but the national psyche is not attuned to making the jump. No one doubts that Mr Blair is paying a heavy price for his support for President George W. Bush’s Iraq war; assessments vary on how high the price will be. Why did he push his luck so hard in taking his country into the war? Was it a passionate belief in the cause, as he often sought to suggest, or a decision based on realpolitik? All British governments, starting with Winston Churchill towards the end of World War II, made a strategic decision that the war they had supposedly won had impoverished them to such an extent that they would be unable to hang on to the privileges of their old empire. They therefore decided that they would become staunch allies of the United States in exercising power on its coat-tails. The experiment worked splendidly in the initial decades after the war as America learnt the ropes about the intricacies of international diplomacy. Although the US was the undisputed senior partner, Britain was not an American doormat. In other words, British support earned a measure of reward in influencing US policy and there were occasions when British prime ministers chose to differ with Washington. These differences and irritations or rows were resolved. Mr Blair’s contribution to his predecessors’ policies has been to take British support for whatever Washington chooses to do to a new level of subservience, influenced in part by his own attachment to theatricals and spin and in part by the character of the Bush administration. The neoconservatives’ agenda and the events of September 11, 2001, merely magnified and accentuated Mr Blair’s decision to be, in effect, a doormat. The run-up to the war is instructive. While President Bush and his representatives wavered between declaring weapons of mass destruction and “regime change” as the justification for going to war, Mr Blair initially differentiated his stand by proclaiming that the latter was not his aim only to fall in line. While the Bush administration had decided to go to war towards the end of last year, it indulged Mr Blair in seeking a second UN resolution and withdrew it in the face of a certain rebuff from the Security Council. Mr Blair chose to go to war without the second UN resolution he had earlier insisted upon. It is becoming increasingly clear that in joining the American war and sending one-third of its army into Iraq, Mr Blair has had no role in influencing the US in how to run the occupation. President Bush laid down the law in the run-up to the war as in determining the nature of the occupation regime. The Bush administration has made it clear, to Britain as to everyone else, that the concept of true partnership is alien to its mores and its relationships can be based only on the subservience of the other party. When British Tories, the staunchest supporters of the Atlantic relationship, stand up in Parliament to declare that Mr Blair had “duped” members of Parliament on Iraq, they smell blood. Former Conservative foreign secretaries have been merrily taking swipes at the Prime Minister for not merely being Washington’s poodle but also one who waits to be tickled in the tummy after being humiliated and punished. Indeed, Gallup polls show a healthy upward swing for the Conservatives, despite the lacklustre character of their leaders. The Iraq war has suddenly made Mr Blair vulnerable, and everyone, in the Labour Party and outside it, is taking aim at him. The question is: can he survive to take his party to a third election victory? |
The Old Burra Din CHRISTMAS in the bad, old British days was quite an event in one respect. You met a lot of people of whose existence you were previously unaware. There was, for example, the Posts and Telegraphs department. Normally I received my mail delivered twice a day by two different men. But there were never less than six men who turned up to say “salaam” on the 25th of December. It was the same with the “tarwallas” even if you received no more than two or three telegrams during the year. Then there were the telephone linesmen, the “bijliwallas” and the road-“safaiwallas”. On the credit side there was the time-honoured custom of “dalis”. This pleasant practice, I believe, originated in Mughal times when on the king’s birthday his nobles and courtiers used to offer costly gifts to him as “nazarana”. Unless he was a particularly rapacious monarch, all he did was to touch the offering and return it to the donor or have it distributed to the poor. A more sensible and practical attitude was adopted in British days. Government officials were allowed to accept fruit and flowers, hence the word “dali”, while anything valuable and lasting was surrendered to the “malkhana” (treasury) where it was subsequently auctioned to the benefit of the exchequer. British companies trading in India had their own unwritten code in regard to “dalis”. In my company one was allowed to accept anything “consumable, solid or liquid”. This elastic term included such delicacies as dried fruits, tinned savouries and, of course, a bottle of Scotch which, pre-war cost only about Rs 10 and was more “consumable” than the other contents of the hamper. I remember a Christmas in an upcountry station nearly 50 years ago when one of my distributors arrived with the usual hamper containing acceptable items. I offered him a cup of coffee and as we were exchanging pleasantries his driver appeared with another parcel. Inside it was a silver teaset that looked more ornamental than utilitarian. The gift was politely but firmly refused. A year later I happened to visit our head office in Calcutta. As I was about to leave the Chairman sent for me. There was something familiar about the gleaming pieces of silver that stood on his desk. “Would you mind” he said, “delivering this personally to your distributor in...? He brought it to my bungalow a few days ago. I said I would accept it in token fashion and return it to him.” That was one occasion when I did not follow my Chairman’s instructions to the letter. To save the persistent donor embarrassment I delegated the job to a subordinate. |
AJT project remains grounded
THE purchase process for the Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) has been suspended following reports in the western media alleging payment of kickbacks by the Hawk manufacturers. The MoD’s recent decision has come as a blow to the IAF, which has been waiting for the AJTs for more than two decades. It has been losing combat pilots at regular intervals due to the absence of these trainers. The British Aerospace (BAe) Hawk has been taken off the shortlist as also the Czech L-159B. The Czech advanced jet trainer was evaluated recently by the IAF and had apparently met its specifications. Now the tedious process of shortlisting AJTs will have to be undertaken all over again. At a recent press conference, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, had stoutly defended the MiG-21s. Last week Defence Minister George Fernandes confirmed that it would take another two to three years for the AJTs to arrive as the ministry had suspended the purchase process due to the allegations of bribery. Over the past 10 years the IAF has lost over five squadrons of just the MiG-21s, which are now being utilised to provide stage-III training to combat pilots. Apart from the monetary setback, the lloss of valuable lives is a matter of serious concern. Already 43 IAF pilots have lost their lives in MiG-21 crashes in the last decade. Air Chief Marshal Krishnaswamy had admitted at the press conference that there was a rise in the number of accidents due to human errors. He drew specific attention to the difference in the take-off and landing speeds for the initial Kiran trainers and the stage-III MiG-21 trainers which he acknowledged was far too wide. While the Kirans take off and land at a speed of 200 km per hour, the MiG-21 trainers land and take off at almost 340 km per hour. Earlier, the IAF pilots were given training on the Type-77 MiG-21s. Now that has been shifted to Type-96 MiG-21s, which are more difficult to handle. Without the AJTs, training in the past was imparted on simpler aircraft. However, with increasing security demands, training has been made more stringent by shifting to complex aircraft which is creating problems. In the absence of the AJTs, the IAF inventory of MiG-21s, which form the backbone of the country’s air defence, is getting depleted with every crash and every phase-out. There is no other replacement for the Mig-21 on the cards. A section in the IAF feels that if there are problems with the Hawk trainer, why not go in for the next best option available which has also been evaluated. But for this someone in the MoD will have to stick his neck out and he will necessarily have to be the Defence Minister. Inevitably, there will be intense lobbying and pushing by the interested parties since the expected order is quite large. The MoD is considering purchasing at least 66 AJTs with the option of licence for indigenous production. The three-year time frame set now for acquiring the AJTs is unlikely to be met. Going for a fresh evaluation means starting from scratch. There are a number of AJTs available globally, including the one from the stable of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which has put its Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) in the race. Besides the BAe Hawk and the Czech L-159B, AJTs from Brazil and Italy will also be in the race. Evaluating all of them afresh will take time. It was way back in 1982 that the La Fontaine committee under the former Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Da La Fontaine, was set up to go into the reasons for the large number of accidents plaguing the IAF. The committee suggested the purchase of AJTs which could help IAF pilots bridge the gap between the initial trainers and the stage-III trainers. After evaluating various advanced trainers, the IAF had shortlisted the BAe Hawk and the Dassault Alpha Jet for price negotiations. The subsequent red-tape proved to be a boon for the Hawk as the production of Alpha Jet was closed, leaving the former as a single vendor in the race. The deal would have been through long time ago had there not been differences over the price. The BAe was apparently quoting a much higher price than what the MoD was ready to shell out. This brought in the L-159B into the race late last year. Once again the “Tehelka syndrome” has hit the MoD. |
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Turmeric in curry stops blood clots MY girlfriend and I recently spent a splendid long weekend with some friends in Devon, south-west England. We topped off three days of dietary indulgence with a take-away curry. My mate Big Pete reminded me that curry is officially Britain’s favourite food, and suggested that this was reason enough to write a column about it. I’m an obliging sort of chap, and generally like to take any opportunity I can to emphasise the good in food. However, my initial reaction was that while Indian food may delight the taste buds, the overly oily form it generally takes in this country makes it difficult to make a case for on nutritional grounds. Then again, I thought, curry is rich in potent spices and maybe there’s some hot news on one of these. Back at my desk, I kicked off by running a scientific literature search on turmeric — a spice that is almost ubiquitous in Indian dishes. Many of us will have had occasion to discard a garment bearing the mark of turmeric’s ochre hue. While turmeric may be renowned for its staining power, it has quite a reputation as a medicinal agent, too. In Ayurvedic medicine, it is said to stimulate digestion - a property that may have special significance bearing in mind that Indian food and overeating often go hand in hand. Regular intake of turmeric may help to temper longer-term digestive strife. One study found that having 500mg (about Å tsp) of the spice, four times a day, helped relieve symptoms in almost 90 per cent of indigestion sufferers. My excavation of the science struck gold in the form of other studies. Many focus on a major constituent of turmeric, curcumin. There is evidence that it has a number of actions in the body that assist the free flow of blood around the system. One study found that it reduces the tendency of clotting components called platelets to stick together. This means that consuming turmeric may help prevent the formation of tiny blood clots, called thrombi, that can block off arteries and trigger heart attacks and strokes. Another study found that curcumin can dramatically reduce levels of unhealthy blood fats called triglycerides - an effect which is likely to further reduce the risk of circulatory disease. Other evidence points to turmeric as an anti-cancer agent. Laboratory studies suggest that it is believed to reduce the risk of the body’s cells turning cancerous. There is evidence that turmeric may help curtail the growth and spread of existing tumours, too. Studies show that curcumin can help to quell the action of carcinogens. Also, two laboratory studies published this year found that curcumin can cause cancerous cells to self-destruct. In a recent scientific review published in the journal Anticancer Research, it was concluded that curcumin has great potential in the prevention and treatment of cancer. Curry lovers everywhere may take comfort from the fact that turmeric really does seem to be the spice of life.
— The Guardian
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Do not scold the wind, nor abuse the rain. — Tai Shang Kan Ying Pien One cannot die hidden from God. — Italian proverb |
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