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Monday,
August 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Election tidings George’s sortie Berth right |
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No change in China’s attitude
The “momsoon” factor
Doctors’ protest to linger; many resign
Pay for delay
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Election tidings STRAWS in the wind suggest clearly that the Bharatiya Janata Party is on election mode. The party feels that the political situation, coupled with the best monsoon in recent years, is in its favour and it should capitalise on it. A series of statements and a slew of concessions in the recent past culminating in Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani's strong advocacy of simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls should be seen against this backdrop. Ever since the late Indira Gandhi dispensed with the practice of holding simultaneous polls to cash in on the splendid victory the Indian Army achieved in the 1971 war, there has been a large body of public opinion favouring restoration of simultaneous polls. The most powerful and, some say, clinching argument in favour of such polls is that it will save a lot of money, not only of the exchequer but also of political parties and candidates contesting the elections. In the light of what Mr Advani said, three scenarios can easily be visualised. First, the Prime Minister recommends dissolution of the Lok Sabha so that elections can be held simultaneously to Parliament and in the four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, where polls are due later this year. Second, elections in these four states are postponed so that they can be held along with that of the Lok Sabha in the first quarter of the next year. The third option is to evolve a consensus among all political parties so that elections can be held simultaneously to all state assemblies and Parliament. This may require enactment of a new law for which a political consensus is a prerequisite. While the timing of the Lok Sabha polls is a decision the Prime Minister will have to take, sooner than later, there are also clear indications about the kind of issues the BJP would like to highlight during the campaign. First and foremost would be the issue of foreign origin of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The ruling combine has not so far done anything to prevent a person of such origin from becoming the Prime Minister of the country. Obviously, it does not want to deprive itself of a major electoral plank. As it is, there is a sharp difference of opinion within the Opposition on her suitability as a prime ministerial candidate. There is every possibility of the Congress' plan to form a grand pre-election alliance to take on the BJP coming unstuck on this very issue. This being the case, the BJP thinks it would be child's play for the party to sharpen the divide and thereby exploit it to its own electoral advantage. It is also keen to use the temple card, though its leaders have been insisting that they favour a negotiated settlement of the dispute. This was clear from the pledge taken by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the cremation of Mahant Ram Chandra Paramhans to build a Ram temple at Ayodhya. Significantly enough, at the same venue, Mr Advani also explained the three options for building a temple - through a negotiated settlement or a court decree or a new law - without spelling out his preference. In other words, there is no forward movement on the issue. Perhaps, the ambiguity on this score is deliberate as the BJP does not want to show all its electoral cards at this early stage. |
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George’s sortie DEFENCE Minister George Fernandes gave a clean chit to MiG-21 after a 25-minute sortie in the controversial fighter aircraft on Friday. But his very act of having to take to the air in what has derisively come to be called a “flying coffin” unwittingly indicates how low the confidence in its airworthiness is. The flawless performance of this one aircraft cannot wish away the fact that about 315 MiG-21 fighters have crashed in the past three decades. That is indeed a high figure by any count and no amount of argumentative skill or confidence-building sorties can remove the doubts of the families of the dead or concerned citizens. If the plane is as safe as the Defence Minister and the Air Chief want the country to believe, they should explain what leads to such an exceptional rate of accidents. Now questions are being raised not only by ordinary persons, but also the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who is believed to have taken up the issue with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He is also understood to have asked for a comprehensive report on the crashes and remedial actions taken by the IAF. It is not every day that the Supreme Commander of the armed forces intervenes in this way and this unusual action only highlights the gravity of the situation. Veteran fliers do not blame the MiG-21 squarely. After all, it is not the only plane to have met with accidents. But they have pointed out many faults with the training of the pilots, maintenance of the aircraft and the quality of the spares. As several articles by experts in The Tribune have mentioned, the absence of an advanced jet trainer is a major handicap. It is a surprise that its acquisition is hanging fire despite 17 years of negotiations. Human error which is cited as the cause of a large number of crashes is nothing but a euphemism for the inability of many rookie pilots to graduate from sub-sonic training aircraft to the highly sophisticated MiG. Even otherwise, the ageing Russian plane seems to have developed many snags which the current level of maintenance perhaps cannot address despite elaborate upgradation. The best confidence-building measure that the Indian Air Force can take is to remove these shortcomings. If the planes stop crashing with such chilling regularity, there will be no need for the Defence Minister to get into a pilot’s overalls and helmet. |
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Berth right POLITICAL activity in India is popularly perceived to be an activity for feeding the insatiable appetite for self-projection. This appetite among most politicians is usually in direct proportion to the increasing irrelevance of the ordinary people. They grow big not by humbling someone their size, but by making the small and ordinary look more small and more ordinary. It goes without saying that the ordinary folks would prefer to avoid the route these netas take with all the attendant ho ha. But what are they to do when a neta ends up occupying a berth in a railway coach reserved by a simple law-abiding citizen for himself? Ask Mr B. P. Singh, a senior officer with a pharmaceutical company. He knows everything about medicines. But his ignorance about the ways of the world of netas must have made him realise that the arrogance of political power is more bitter than any medicine he has ever handled. Political arrogance does not taste sweet anywhere. But in India it makes the bitterest bitter gourd taste like gulab jamun. Mr Singh boarded the Patliputra Express at Dhanbad, but found some one else enjoying the comfort of an airconditioned three-tier berth he had paid for. When he asserted his right, the GRP had him produced before a magistrate who promptly sent the “ticketed traveller” to jail under some provision of the Arms Act! His must be the rare instance of a passenger holding a valid rail ticket being made to feel worse than a ticketless traveller. It is happening all the time to people who are not allowed to enjoy their facelessness. They are off-loaded from buses, rail coaches and planes without reason by rude staff members because of last-minute “hukum” for seats by politicians and bureaucrats. The “maha purush” in the Patliputra coach turned out to be an elected representative of the people. Since he belonged to Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav’s party, he had absolute right of way at least in Bihar and Jharkhand. When Mr Shahnawaz Hussain was the political boss of civil aviation flights even from Delhi used to be detained and diverted to Patna for the convenience of the MPs from his home state. Phoolan Devi was, of course, a law unto herself, with or without the pun. She made others pull the chain for trains to make unscheduled stops at railway stations of her choice. With netas of all hues and backgrounds, and their sidekicks, on the prowl, as it were, the common man is indeed living in interesting times, as the Chinese say.
Thought for the day My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world. —George Bernard Shaw
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No change in China’s attitude TWO
recent developments in Sino-Indian relations have once again brought to the fore the boundary question. India’s decision to upgrade the level of discussion by nominating the National Security Adviser, although not reciprocated by China, is an important development. It is hoped that he would be able to provide “political inputs”, particularly since the case is well known to both sides. Secondly, the Chinese incursion into Arunachal Pradesh across the international frontier at Asaphila once again highlights the need for India to ensure the non-violability of the McMahon Line. The fact that the Chinese took in custody Indian officials and interrogated them only added to the urgency of the matter. The issue was raised in Parliament, and taken up with the Chinese through diplomatic channels. In any case, why is the sanctity of the McMahon Line so important for India, and how did it come about as an international boundary? By August 1912, Britain was worried about Russian advances in Mongolia and felt the need to settle the Indo-Tibetan border question in unequivocal terms. The first step, therefore, was to obtain the concurrence of China on a tripartite meeting. Accordingly, on August 17, 1912, a memorandum (the “Jordan memo”) was handed over to the Chinese in Beijing. The Chinese were hesitant since acceptance would imply accepting equality with and independence of the Tibetans. The British pressed the suggestion that they would make it a bilateral affair between themselves and the Tibetans if the Chinese demurred. Finally, on August 7, 1913, China conveyed its acceptance to attend the meeting. The Chinese acceptance was on the basis of the 1912 memorandum, thus accepting Tibet on equal terms. On October 13, 1913, a tripartite conference opened at Wheatfield House in Shimla. As expected, the differences between Tibetan representative Lonchen Shatra and Chinese representative Ivan Chen were irreconcilable and a breakdown appeared inevitable. Under the circumstances both requested McMahon to suggest “some definite solution to the frontier problem” between Tibet and China. Haggling continued for some time till on April 27, 1914. a compromise solution was found. A convention was signed by the parties concerned, and attached to the Shimla convention was a map which showed the Tibet-China border in a blue line. The Tibet-India border was marked by a red line, called the McMahon Line. It was delineated on a map (1” to 8 miles) on two sheets and generally follows the principle of watershed. The Chinese refused to ratify the convention. As explained by their Foreign Office on July 6, 1914, “it is only because of the Tibet-China boundary and that boundary alone” that prevented a ratification. Earlier on June 13, 1914, China had submitted a memorandum to the British along with a map. In this map the red line (McMahon Line) remains unaltered while two sets of compromise lines are shown for the Tibet-China boundary. Further in October, 1914, the Chinese Foreign Office in a note to the British explicitly accepted “the whole of the Simla convention except the Tibet-China claims.” From that time onwards till 1959 no Chinese government took any formal exception to the McMahon Line till Chou-En Lai raised it with Nehru. Why did the Chinese never raise this issue before? Nehru had asked the same question and received the cryptic reply from Chou that “time was not ripe”! Chou told Nehru in 1956 that China would give recognition to the McMahon Line but backtracked when on September 8, 1959, Chou wrote to Nehru that China had never recognised it and referred to Beijing not signing the 1914 Shimla convention. But, then, why did China accept the validity of the 1856 treaty between Tibet and Nepal? There has never been an answer. Do also remember that China has accepted the McMahon alignment with Myanmar (earlier called Burma). It is the same McMahon Line drawn in red at Shimla in 1914. At that time Myanmar and India were one administrative unit! Thus, between Chinese belligerence then and now, has their attitude really changed? The intrusion by China on June 26 this year into the Asaphila area of Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh is a reminder that the Chinese posture has not changed much and that they will continue to violate the McMahon Line to show that they still do not accept it. Another test of China’s attitude will come soon. It will be recalled that on September 8, 1959, Chou told Nehru in a letter that the “China-Sikkim boundary” was outside the scope “of our discussions”. In other words, China will not discuss this sector with India. In the next boundary talks, will China change its stand? This will show whether it has changed its attitude or not. Let us see. The Chinese continue to talk of the LAC in the eastern sector firstly to downplay the importance of the McMahon Line alignment and secondly to keep India guessing as to where their troops actually are. The Chinese have talked of different LACs at different times! Chou in his correspondence with Nehru (published in the White Papers) referred to the LAC of November 7, 1959, while the LAC of September 8, 1962, is another line which existed just prior to the outbreak of the 1962 conflict. An even more pertinent question would be: Where is Asaphila located and where did this incident take place? Is it in the north or south of the McMahon Line? If it is in the south, which is Indian territory, then the incursion becomes all the more serious. If it is in the north, then they had no business to be there. In 1986, a similar intrusion occurred. It was in the Wangdung area of Arunachal Pradesh. The intention of the Chinese was to test the resolve of the then young Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. It is to the credit of Rajiv Gandhi that he not only stood firm but also within a matter of days deployed a brigade opposite the Chinese intruders in a perfectly coordinated effort involving the Ministries of External Affairs and Defence. The Chinese were outgunned, and for the first time since 1962 the Indian Army established its ascendancy in this area. It also led to the Army re-establishing physical control right up to its perception of the McMahon Line. It was noticed that the Chinese Military Attaché and the Tibet army commander were replaced. A coincidence? May be. In no case should violations of the international boundary as indicated by the McMahon Line be left unchallenged by India. Incidentally, even the US recognises the McMahon Line as the international frontier in the
region. The writer, a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, was the leader of the Indian delegation to boundary talks with China. He also served in China. |
The “momsoon” factor THE
wife had planned a European holiday from June to September with the son and daughter-in-law. Her rapport with the latter was the envy of many of our friends. I declined to accompany her. I was looking forward to my freedom in the retired life. Regular golf and bridge sessions seemed promising. I could also do things the way I had always wanted to do but was restrained; like throwing about the newspaper pages after reading, keeping a perpetually cluttered writing desk, miss brushing my teeth at will (and escape the BYTE routine as the children called their mom’s “brush your teeth everyday” dictate), not refolding the napkin after the meal, hang my clothes on the door latch for the night, not stifle an audible belch following a good meal etc. I put the weighing machine away in an obscure corner and let the flab accumulate. Though they could not express, even the dogs appeared delighted to be spared their twice-a-week bath. It is not so much the bodily assault of the detergent that they mind but the combing afterwards must be terribly painful, if the balls of hair that come off are any indication. I was enjoying the grass widower routine. A friend who dropped in on a Sunday afternoon was aghast on finding me unshaven, sprawled on the sofa with a book and the house in general disarray. I must have been rather convincing in my explanation of the benefits of a relaxed, without-wife routine. He got so carried away that he enquired if Gayathri, our daughter-in-law, had another sister who could marry his son. Regretfully I told him no. However, as compensation I promised that I won’t share his query with his wife who had never been separated from him. He pumped my hand thankfully. Nothing cements a friendship better than guarded secrets. I had barely enjoyed a month of my freedom when during a telephone call in the first week of July Gayathri said: “Mom will be reaching Delhi on the coming Saturday night.” It was too much of a shock to respond coherently. After a pause I merely fumbled: “But Gayu why are you letting...?” “I tried my best dad”, she said with sincerity, “but mom has used her trump card. She says she is missing you”. Being in the Army we had been separated for a large part of our married life. I was, therefore, not inclined to fall for the missing-me line. There has to be something else. Then an explanation came to mind. I had telephonically informed her that in our newly constructed house the massive seepage due to recent rains had caused sludge in the drawing room and had soaked her silk carpet. Knowing how fastidious she is of her collections, she must have found it hard to bear. Now I wondered if it was wise to have told her the truth. But it was too late. Every truth has a price and I had to pay. With less than 36 hours before the wife’s scheduled return, there was a lot to do. The toaster had to be repaired. The lawn grass had grown tall enough to conceal a cat. The cobwebs swayed merrily in corners. The dogs had gathered grime. The carpet had to be drycleaned. The early morning Sunday teeoff needed cancelling. I did not know where to begin. I needed something to shore me up against panicking. I asked the domestic help to bring me whisky and
ice. |
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Doctors’ protest to linger; many resign THE medical fraternity in Punjab is in turmoil. The issue of withdrawal of the non-practising allowance (NPA) by the state government is agitating every doctor’s mind and a protracted agitation by them is an imminent possibility. Even as the state government remains firm on denying the NPA to its doctors from August, a spate of resignations has ensued among senior doctors. It is for the simple reason that the denial of the NPA will drastically reduce the pension as the allowance, which constituted 25 per cent of their basic salary, is withdrawn. Among those who have already put in their papers are the Director, Family Welfare, UT and the heads of Gynaecology and Paediatrics at General Hospital, Chandigarh. Some of the doctors from the Punjab cadre, who are on deputation with the UT, have also put in their papers seeking pre-mature retirement. There have been a number of resignations in Punjab as well. Incensed doctors accuse the government of encouraging the corrupt handful with a thriving private practice and punishing the hard working and sincere majority. For once, the entire medical fraternity is unanimous in condemning the measure. The Punjab Civil Medical Service (PCMS) has already announced to launch a statewide agitation to press for the restoration of the NPA and a ban on private practice. The government has somewhat softened its stand by agreeing to allow the doctors to keep the entire amount they earn through private practice, but the PCMS says this is not acceptable to them as they want the NPA to be restored. On the other hand, the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, has so far remained firm, saying his government will not succumb to the pressure of the agitating doctors as most of them do private practice. At the same time, the doctors are equally firm on their stand and are in no mood to relent. Sources claim that the sulking doctors have silently started a work-to- rule campaign in government hospitals and patients are being turned away from government hospitals. Doctors claim that they do not have any incentive to see patients beyond their duty hours. During the last few days there have been instances of patients being turned away. “As is the norm, we see patients suffering from any medical problem, irrespective of the fact that whether he is from our faculty or not, so after the withdrawal of the NPA, we too can be choosy,” explains a Punjab doctor. A former PGI Director, Prof I.C. Pathak, while being opposed to the withdrawal of the NPA, wonders how the government expects to take work from a grumbling and unhappy medical fraternity. “If the authorities had failed to check private practice by government doctors in the past, it does not mean that they should legalise it as the solution lies in giving them enhanced salaries on a par with PGI doctors,” he suggests. Professor Pathak says that a similar experiment of allowing government doctors private practice started long time back in the Amritsar Medical College had proved to be a miserable failure. “By such a decision the government has only complicated the whole issue and brought the doctors on a path of confrontation,” he sums up. Senior doctors point out that a similar experiment by the Haryana Government had boomeranged, forcing the government to reintroduce the NPA. “Two years back the Himachal Pradesh Government too had proposed to withdraw the NPA being given to its doctors, but with demonstrations being staged outside the State Assembly, the government dropped the move,” said a doctor from Himachal. “Why should the dedicated majority be penalised for the malpractices of a handful of doctors? The withdrawal of the NPA only indicates that the government is trying to cover up for its failure by becoming a shareholder in this activity, which is against the interest of the common patient.” This is how the President of the PCMS Association, Dr Hardeep Singh, views the whole issue. The head of Surgery Department at the PGI, Dr J.D. Wig, strongly feels that those doctors who are into academics in the medical colleges should be kept away from private practice. “Rather they should be given all facilities and enhancements as they are the leaders in medicine on whose shoulders lies the responsibility of producing good doctors,” he remarks, echoing his displeasure at the withdrawal of the NPA. Doctors feel that it is ultimately the patients who will suffer. They argue that whenever they are approached by patients at home they cannot turn them away as it is against the ethics of their profession. “If this is considered to be private practice then the government can never stop it,” they point out. |
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Hurt at the fag end of career FOR Dr Gurdip Kaur, a daughter of the late President of India, Mr Giani Zail Singh, the withdrawal of the NPA has come as a bolt from the blue. “Senior doctors like me have been hurt by the decision as at the fag end of our career we have been left in the lurch, upsetting our calculations due to the deduction in our pensionary benefits,” she said. Dr Kaur, head of gynaecology at the General Hospital, Chandigarh, whose retirement was due in January, 2004, says: The NPA is not a compensation for keeping away from private practice but for the night, emergency and call duty we are doing for 24 hours.” Moreover, those from pharmacology, anatomy, virology and other such streams cannot do private practice. Has the government thought of compensating them in any way? ask doctors. |
Pay for delay IT'S amazing what competition can do. Last fortnight MTNL came up with the idea of offering its subscribers in Delhi its Garuda WLL phones to tide over the problem of dead telephones following widespread rain. The offer was conditional – it said it was willing to give this in areas where the problem was serious and widespread. I do not know what constitutes, according to MTNL, a “serious and widespread” problem and whether any area came under the definition, but the very fact that MTNL came up with this proposal is an indication of the changing mindset of the service provider. Particularly when seen in the context of its earlier behaviour as a monopoly. Whether it is telecommunication or power supply, charges are expected to be levied only for services rendered. But for years, the basic telecommunication service provider in the country happily collected rent from consumers even for those days and months that the telephones remained dead and no service was provided. It took consumers considerable effort and time to make the service provider to even recognise this fact. With the opening up of the telecom sector, consumers have a choice of telecommunication services and are in a better position to deal with service providers who ride roughshod over their rights. Even the complaints redressal agencies constituted under the Consumer Protection Act have a different attitude to poor service today. In the case of Har Krishan Lal Kamboj vs G.M.Telephones, Ferozepur..( RP No 1204 of 2000 , decided on January 23, 2002) for example, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission took serious note of the “casual attitude” of the service provider towards the subscriber and directed it to pay him Rs 20,000 as compensation. His telephone in Abohar had remained non-functional for 37 days. This consumer’s line , it was found, was part of 1,000 connections that remained out of order due to “exchange conversion” work , for which they were all given rebates in rent. However, the department had not bothered to inform the subscribers about the work or the disruption that it would cause in their service. And this, said the commission, was deficiency in service.. So whether it is MTNL, BSNL or a private company, the service provider can no longer afford to be complacent about the quality of service. Whenever a subscriber reports a faulty line, the service provider should not only rectify it in the shortest possible time, but also provide, till that is done, an alternate communication system. Needless to say that the call rate should be the same as the landline and all incoming calls to the landline should automatically be diverted to this number till the basic telephone service is restored. In the absence of such an arrangement, the service provider should give compensation to the consumer voluntarily for every day of delay in rectifying the fault. British Telecom, example, has such a system, wherein if the fault is not rectified within a promised time, it gives the subscriber damages for every day’s delay. The service providers that fail to take such measures will only end up paying huge sums as compensation to the consumers, besides losing their subscriber base. |
One may read throughout one’s life, read even with every breath; yet of all things, it is only the contemplative life that really matters. All else is the fret and prattle of ego. — Asa, 467 The divine mystery is revealed not through reading, but through understanding. — Majh, 148 God is realised through God’s own grace. — Prabhati, 1343 God’s exalted presence is realised even in our innerselves if the Master, by casting His gracious glance, washes away our dust (of fear and hope). — Siri, 18 God cannot be understood or realised through cleverness. — Gauri, 221 For the self to die through the Guru’s instruction, that, in truth, is the real life. How can there be life otherwise? If I live, in any other way, it is not the proper way. — Asa, 354 By himself none is either literate or illiterate, wise or unwise, good or bad. He who lives as God’s slave and dwells even on His praise, can justly be called the real man. — Asa, 359 Guru Granth Sahib |
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