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Friday,
October
17, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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National disgrace Witness protection Enter taikonaut |
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What is wrong with higher education?
‘Koi kaam hai…!’
‘Jhum’ plays havoc in Meghalaya hills
DELHI DURBAR
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National disgrace EVERY thoughtful Indian’s head hangs in shame at the reported rape of a 35-year-old employee of the Swiss Embassy in the national Capital on Tuesday night. How can security be so lax at the venue of an international film festival that has been going on for the past some days? Guests from various parts of the globe have converged at the Siri Fort auditorium to participate in the film festival and they deserved the best possible security, especially in the post-9/11 scenario, if not for Delhi’s notoriety for crime. The victim, who was going back home all by herself, was abducted from the venue and raped in her own vehicle. There was no one at the back gate to check outgoing vehicles. Ordinary theatres have better arrangements. That no chauffeur was provided to the diplomat to drive her back home at late hours is another avoidable breach of security norms. Within an hour of the incident, another woman escaped a rape attempt at the same spot. That this should happen days after the rape of a college student by the President’s bodyguards is all the more shocking. The argument advanced by some that such crimes are prevalent in all big cities and this incident could have taken place anywhere in New York or Los Angeles is rather ridiculous. Reasonable care has to be taken to meet the security needs of citizens. There is an apparent security failure here. While VIPs and their kin are heavily protected in the Capital, how could foreign diplomats be left so unguarded, especially at night? The minimum that the Delhi Police can do to salvage its rubbished image is to show in this case also the kind of efficiency it displayed in arresting the culprits involved in the college student’s rape. There is no excuse or justification for the security lapse. And the sack of five junior policemen is not enough. The incident is bound to have international repercussions. While no words of sympathy can lessen the trauma of the victim, swift and severe punishment to the rapists alone can provide a healing touch and remove misgivings and doubts, if any, about the efficacy of the Indian system of policing and justice. We are under watch, internationally. |
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Witness protection THE need to provide protection to witnesses in criminal cases cannot be overemphasized. There has, of late, been a series of cases where the accused have gone scot-free because the prosecution witnesses turned hostile. The most prominent among them is the Best Bakery case where all the accused were acquitted because the witnesses had retracted their statements. Thanks to the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission, efforts are now underway to undo the damage done in this case. These will, hopefully, result in the conviction of the guilty. But in a less sensitive case, the phenomenon of witnesses turning hostile can indeed sound its death knell. This has happened in umpteen cases. Remedies have often been bandied about but never implemented. It is in this context that the guidelines suggested by the Delhi High Court should been seen. They pertain to certain types of witnesses whose deposition is crucial in a case. It will be the responsibility of the state to provide such witnesses security so that they can depose before the court without fear of extraneous influence. In many Western countries, there are effective mechanisms in place to ensure that the witnesses do not go back on their statements. In the US, they are even given a new identity and a new place to stay so that they are safe from potential revenge-seekers. But the situation in India is dissimilar. In the Best Bakery case, for instance, the witnesses turned hostile not merely because they were threatened by the accused. It was the atmosphere that was created in the state and the partisan behaviour of those in power that was to blame for the about-turn in the attitude of the witnesses. They would have found that it was an uphill task fighting not only against those standing in the dock but even the government of the day. In such cases, mere provision of security guards for the witnesses will not suffice. Fear of retribution is not the only factor inducing witnesses to turn hostile. Money also plays a major role as was found in the notorious BMW case in New Delhi where the son of an arms dealer driving his vehicle at break-neck speed mowed down several people. Even those who fell victim to his drunken behaviour claimed subsequently in the court that they were hit by a truck, and not by the car. Besides, there is also the practice of witnesses deliberately making contradictory statements during cross-examination to weaken the case. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has decreed that a witness’ version is invalid unless it is cross-examined. Ideally, a witness should not be allowed to go back on his statement once it is recorded before a magistrate. In any case the excessive dependence on witnesses must end as circumstantial evidence is more dependable than the version of man. |
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Enter taikonaut PRESIDENT A. P. J. Abdul Kalam must have looked at the sky on Wednesday with satisfaction as China became the third country after the US and the former Soviet Union to send a man in space. As the Missile Man of India, he must have placed China's achievement in a larger global perspective. That would be a more appropriate response to the neighbour’s successful “manned” march into space. The long awaited launch was greeted with mixed, though largely congratulatory, reaction by the global community. It would be petty to belittle India's own space programme by declaring that China has stolen the thunder. There has been talk in informed quarters about India sending a man to the moon. It is a programme that the US itself has abandoned because of the high cost and low returns from it. It has, instead invested in upgrading the instrumentation and technological inputs of unmanned space missions for procuring important data. Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G. Madhavan Nair put the issue in perspective by pointing out that “we have excellent space capabilities and are on a par with many space faring nations.... I don’t see any specific advantage a manned mission to space can have over an instrument-based launch”. Although China has not yet declared the objective of the mission, but a routine check list of what space technology has helped nations achieve should provide the answer. Its contribution in the fields of science, technology, medicine, agriculture, weather forecasting and strategic military planning (read spying) are no longer classified information. India’s own contribution in tapping the resources of space for the benefit of mankind are fairly impressive. To quote Mr Nair again, “India in no way stands belittled” by the Chinese manned space mission. There is a distinct possibility of the US and China forging a space partnership, similar to the one that saw the US and Russia float a joint international space station. Such a development would set off another round of global gossip on the threat to mankind by the US-China space cooperation! Nothing succeeds so well as success. — Talleyrand |
What is wrong with higher education? THE Tribune’s 12-part survey of the universities of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal raises issues of much wider concern regarding the role of higher education in national life. How the life of one crore students studying in over 230 universities, including the deemed ones and institutions of national importance and 11,000 colleges is shaped would determine, in no mean measure, the future of the country. Though they comprise only 1 per cent of the population of India, they are its elite and supposed to provide leadership to the rest in various walks of life. In quantitative terms, India can claim to have one of the world’s largest higher education systems. Quality-wise, none of them can claim to be number one in the world, but among the developing world India does not compare too badly. Nothing wrong in aspiring to be among the best in the world. But a more practical question is that within the given resources, both monetary and human, and the requirements of the country, what should be the pattern of growth of higher education? On the whole, we spend much less as a percentage of the GDP on education than what many countries at our level of growth did. The goal of allocation of 6 per cent GDP on education, suggested by the Education Commissions, is far too illusory. But to spend whatever money we do in a manner that widens the disparities between the elite and the masses in terms of knowledge and opportunity of progress is tending to distort the socio-economic equilibrium of the country. An overall 65 per cent literacy rate, after 56 years of Independence is nothing to celebrate about when China and the countries in South-East Asia had achieved far higher standards in far less time. Even 65 per cent could hardly be called literate in the strict sense of the word. For, it includes all those who can simply sign their name. In fact, 92 per cent of the people have not completed primary education. The goal of universal education envisaged in the Constitution is still far away. Moreover, the expenditure on education per child of a middle class family goes on decreasing as he or she reaches a higher level. The condition of government schools is so bad that many families prefer to cut short even the necessities of life to get their child admitted to what are called public schools, which charge exorbitantly high fees. In proportion, the fee structure at college and university levels is far less. Should society subsidise education of 1 per cent population at the cost of 99 per cent is a question worth pondering over. Why should there be a uniform fee structure for all students in higher education and why should not those who can afford be charged more so that less fortunate students can be encouraged with monetary incentives to avail themselves of similar facilities? Or the Central and state governments should spare larger funds to subsidise schooling facilities. Another aspect of higher education which needs a review is that of relation between employment and higher education. Educated unemployment is a very combustible material in any society. But the entire debate in the country has been focussed on the tailoring pattern of higher education to the needs of employment opportunities to be determined by market forces. But little thought has been given to regulate market forces so that they conform to a rational pattern of higher education which satisfies other societal needs also. The distinguishing feature of Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar, according to The Tribune survey, is that it has made the least contribution to unemployment. “By keeping off mainstream arts subjects and stressing on job-oriented courses in engineering, science and management,” it argues, “GJU has done tremendous social good.” Similarly, the write-up on Panjab University, one of the oldest universities of the country, states, “there is no demand for social studies and languages as they are not directly job-oriented and they are the poor cousins of the science departments.” But when graduates and postgraduates in engineering, medicines, sciences and management corner a major share in IAS and allied services, how is their training job-related? I am not here entering into a debate over whether engineers and doctors should be debarred from appearing in competitive examinations for the Central services. They must be brighter students who took up sciences in 10+2 and after that competed for and got admissions to higher technical institutions. And brighter students get selected in administrative services also. But a point that is missed in this argument is that brighter students with degrees in sciences are far less suitable for administrative jobs than they would have been if they had studied arts and humanities. Perhaps, the system of evaluation also favours their selection. For there is only one perfect answer to any question in sciences for which the candidates get 100 per cent marks whereas there is no perfect answer in arts courses and candidates rarely get full marks. If graduates and postgraduates in social sciences and humanities are better suited for administrative jobs, other things remaining the same, what are the incentives for brighter students to prefer them to physical sciences? Can there be some job opportunities for them at a level lower than the IAS? In fact, a doctor and a engineer would do his/her job better if he/she had better knowledge about society where he or she is working. The current gap between the research in technical subjects, say, in agricultural universities and the farmer’s fields can also be bridged better if technical experts have an elementary knowledge about society. There should, therefore, be a compulsory capsule course of social sciences and humanities in any science or technical course. It could be vice versa also. No specialisation does justice to the specialised field without a minimum awareness about the overall perspective. Whatever else India’s higher education might have achieved, it is deficient in providing such a perspective. Its effect is most conspicuous in the field of politics. Though the educational standard of the political leadership at every level is rising, their awareness about the problems of the country is declining. Even a casual survey would reveal that the bulk of medical, engineering and science graduates who enter politics swell the ranks of extremists of all communities. On the other hand, the much-maligned liberal education of yesteryears had produced giants. The decline of social sciences in India has another undesirable implication. Most of the expertise in these disciplines and studies, on their application to policy matters concerning India, are now centred in countries like America. These centres are producing more respectable experts on every state of India, including Kashmir, India’s Pakistan policy, communal and ethnic conflicts and socio-economic problems than we do in India. Our think-tanks often have to depend on second-hand knowledge and quote foreign authorities on all domestic problems. Other experts go to these centres to get training and recognition. Even if foreign experts are more knowledgeable and objective, they lack what Myron Weiner, the pioneer of Indian studies in America, called the sixth sense without which they are unable to comprehend the data which their statistical tools cannot quantify. The borrowed knowledge and expertise about Indian problems inhibit our capacity to think for ourselves. As long as the arts and humanities are treated, as the survey indicated, poor cousins of the sciences (physical), higher education would tend to be an island in the social life of the country. The social sciences can provide far better linkages between the universities and society which is so often regarded as one of the objectives of the former. Their decline also contributes to lowering the standards of discipline in the universities. It often leads many to plead for depoliticisation of the campuses. If the university campus cannot be a forum for an informed and intelligent discussion on socio-political issues, where else it should be done? And how do you train the future leaders of the country if they are not exposed to free discussions in their student life? Ironically, the advice to depoliticise the campuses often comes from the political establishment which has robbed them of their autonomy and reduced them to a government department. If the Vice-Chancellor and the staff of the universities are political appointees, the ban on political activities of the students would only result in political regimentation of these institutions and pose a grave threat to democracy. A fresh thinking is, therefore, called for restoring the balance between social sciences and physical science and for creating opportunities for the students of the former as also for introducing inter-disciplinary courses. Higher education should not merely be concerned with ensuring jobs and careers for the youth but also with making them more responsible
citizens. |
‘Koi kaam hai…!’ POLITICS is said to make strange bedfellows. But I think basically it is “kaam (no pun intended, please) which brings people to jell even in most inhospitable circumstances, and one has to compromise on one’s ideals. Afterall, bending in a little accommodating manner facilitates favours. I am reminded of a couplet: Hawa kay sakht jhonkon say shikasta ho hi jaata hai; Wo har shaakho-shajar jisko lachak jana nahin aata. (If a branch or a tree were not endowed with the quality of bending, strong currents would defeat them). Then there are men who, even if they have remained contented for years, suddenly turn to you and seek your proximity and attention. There is an unexpected shower of “Long-time-no-sees” and “ See-you-soons”. And you too on your part tend to walk into the trap compelled more by your own willingness made easy by your seeker than by the fact of being approached with attributable motives and apparently ingenius methods. It is for such kind of people that poet Bashir Badra has said: Ye roz-roz ki justajoo, ye aap-jenab ye minnatein; Ye sharafatein be-gharaz nahin, inhein aap say koi kaam hai. (He is more frequently seeking you with overtly courteous etiquette. His humility isn’t at all ungrudging; he surely has an agenda for you.) I heard a story about a Sidh Baba of Moga in Punjab. The plain-hearted saint had a bad mouth for many. But with the grace of Providence, whosoever he vent his spleen on got rewarded in one way or the other. It caught up with the Mogaites to purposely come in the way of the Sidh and seek his ire and thus be rewarded. One day another saintly person told him, “Baba ji eh Mogay ale taynoon tich nahin samajhday (These Moga-walas give a damn to you!)”. Pat came the Sidh’s reply, “Eh tay sare katthay hoke maynoon tich nahin samajhday, te main inhaan noon ikalla tich nahin samajhda (Collectively, these Mogaites give a damn to me and on my part standing alone I give a damn to them.) I am not aware of the authenticity of the anecdote, yet the fact remains that if you have some work with somebody and even if it involves a bit of humiliation and insult, you would go for it. Fraud, deception and duplicity are all discounted when work is to be extracted from the person capable of getting it done. Mamraj Naai of my village was a witty person as his ilk would be. One day while walking towards the village he did not notice the area Thanedar following him in a jeep. The driver honked and whizzed past Mamraj when the SHO Sahib himself alighted from his vehicle and bashed him up. Having received the beating from the Thanedar, Mamraj could not help but ask him, “Mai baap, itni door mujhe peetnay aye they ya koi aur bhi kaam tha…! (Did you come all the way only to thrash me or you had some other business also!) Sidhs and Mamrajs belong to a different
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‘Jhum’ plays havoc in Meghalaya hills
NORTH-East stands entirely different from the rest of the country. The difference lies not only in dress, language, food habits and festivals but also in agricultural practices like shifting of cultivation (“Jhum” and “Bun” in local parlance). When man learnt about agriculture, he used to clear a patch of forestland, grow crops with whatever expertise he had then and moved on to clear the next patch of forest. That is what came to be known as shifting cultivation. Shifting cultivation in the seven sister states can broadly be classified into “Jhum” (slash-and-burn) and “Bun” (ploughing-the-slashed-biomass) types. In Jhum the local population slashes and burns a patch of forestland, consisting mostly of thick growth of bamboo and wild vegetation while in Bun farmers do not burn forests. They rather plough back whatever vegetation they cut so that the biomass can be used as organic manure. This practice was of some relevance when the population pressure was negligible because farmers used to till a piece of forest for three years. They moved on to clear the next patch of land once the soil lost fertility allowing the fields to go into fallow and gain some nutrients for the next 15 to 20 years. Now the situation has undergone a sea change. Shortened Jhum or Bun cycle of two to five years owing to population pressure and paucity of cultivable land has led to massive ecological degradation. Because of depleting forests, soil erosion is scarring the hills. Continuance of Jhum has led to large-scale deforestation and denudation of hill slopes causing siltation of water reservoirs and thereby total ecological degradation. Besides causing siltation and consequent floods in plains, this type of cultivation has also been responsible for the loss in soil fertility since top fertile soil is washed away during heavy rain. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Meghalaya stands fourth after Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur, in Jhum cultivation. More than 525 sq km of area is under shifting cultivation here and nearly 53,000 families practise this form of agriculture. Prof B.K. Tewari from North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), a noted ecology and Jhum expert, says that the Meghalaya government is dilly-dallying on weaning farmers from Jhum and Bun cultivation because this practice is so deep-rooted among the farmers. “Land tenureship is the main problem and the state government is not interested in touching this issue, a proverbial swarm of wasps,” he says. Mr Yashpal Sharma, Joint Director, NEH region agriculture research complex, Umiam, explains: “There are three ways of land distribution here in Meghalaya. The Siem system in which the king, the owner of the land, distributes land, the village head system in which the leader of the clan or tribe earmarks land for village families and the individual owners who have the land in the name of joint families. The first two categories are orthodox and never go for permanent cultivation. The third category is, however, adaptable,” he says but adds that there are just a handful of them. So whenever a tribe head or Siem gives an order, villagers pounce on a piece of forestland to cultivate it. “You’ll cry when you see how forests and hill slopes have been plundered,” O.L. Marbaliang, a central government field officer, tells this correspondent. “In Meghalaya, the problem has assumed epidemic proportion in Garo hills where tracts of forests are burnt. Khasi and Jaintia farmers usually practise Bun cultivation,” he adds. One of the hard-hitting environmental impacts of Jhum and Bun is that it damages the ecology and soil system, besides accelerating the rate of soil erosion. The burning of biomass causes air pollution and is responsible for loss of soil nutrients, soil fauna and microbes. While on one hand, it lowers soil acidity, organic matter, carbon, magnesium and nitrogen content, on the other it enhances phosphorus and presence of cations, a virtual cocktail of imbalances that may ruin the soil fertility. The clearing of forest areas at frequent intervals for shifting cultivation results in the loss of primary forests and formation of secondary forests. Shortening of the Jhum cycle doesn’t give adequate time to forests to regenerate and finally fallows are converted into wastelands. As per a scientific journal, the largest wasteland area in NE (North East) is under shifting cultivation category. Records indicate that every year 5 to 45 tonnes per hectare of topsoil, accelerated by high rainfall, is eroded. Then are forest officials doing anything? Mr G.W. Kharmujai, Divisional Forest Officer, East Khasi Hills, says that though the Forest Department discourages the Jhum and Bun cultivation, the department cannot do much because it controls just 6 per cent of the forest area. “However, we launch awareness campaigns to tell farmers about the negative impact of Jhum,” he says. Most of the farmers this correspondent met vouched for this age-old practice and openly showed their defiance towards shifting to a settled kind of cultivation. Q. Malwei, a farmer from Khasi hills, says that moving on to a settled kind of cultivation is a “costly affair.” “The burning of fields raises soil fertility,” he says. Yashpal Sharma explains the logic: “Farmers say that burning of forestland helps them in three ways. One, the field is partially sterilised. Secondly, with settling down of ash, mineral matter is added to the soil and thirdly, pH of the soil gets raised slightly. This is helpful as soil is acidic in nature here.” The Union Government constituted two task forces to study the Jhum menace. The first was in 1983 under the Ministry of Agriculture and the second in 2001 under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. They recommended that a sustainable approach to manage the shifting cultivation should be adopted using holistic and integrated means. Government endeavours notwithstanding, most of the Jhum rehabilitation schemes have failed because Jhum families were not involved when schemes were formulated. Secondly, most of the projects were not allegedly tested before implementing. Thirdly, the whole approach lacked research backup and intensive monitoring and evaluation. As long as adamant farmers and half-hearted implementation of government policies continue to exist in the NE, Jhum and Bun will stay. And so will soil erosion, ecological degradation, barren wastelands and scarred naked mountains. This article has been facilitated by a fellowship given by the National Foundation of India under its North-East Media Exchange Programme. |
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DELHI DURBAR Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi may have survived the political assault following the CBI filing a chargesheet against him in a forged document case, but his future remains uncertain. There is a possibility of the Congress high command not giving him another term even if the party returns to power in the state. The high command had little choice but to defend Jogi as he had levelled allegations against a central intelligence agency from the AICC premises. Since the allegations were levelled at the party’s official press briefing, Jogi’s resignation would have meant an indirect admission by the party of some wrongdoing. The CBI chargesheet was filed a day after the election schedule was announced and the Congress found it easy to raise questions on the timing. Party leaders sought to explain their predicament by saying that they could have taken a different view in the matter had the chargesheet been filed earlier. ``How can we change our General in the midst of a battle,’’ a leader said. Laloo lambasts BJP The irrepressible RJD strongman, Laloo Prasad Yadav, is now taking up the cause of a Dalit and a tribal in ousted U P Chief Minister Mayawati and chargesheeted Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi. As expected, Yadav who brooks no opposition to his leadership of the RJD ,went through the motions of reinstalling himself as President of the regional party without any contest for the fourth consecutive term. All this happened within half an hour of the two-day RJD national convention getting under way in Patna recently. Soon after anointing himself as the unchallenged RJD supremo, Laloo launched a frontal attack on the BJP that its leaders are using the CBI to settle scores with the leaders of the Dalit, tribal and backward people. NRIs on DD Doordarshan is to telecast a series of well known non-resident Indians who have shown enterprise of a rare order without forgetting their roots. It includes Joginder Sanger of the Washington Hotel on London’s Poland Street, Rami Ranger, Director of Sun Oil in Middlesex, Karan Billimoria of the world famous Cobra Beer as well as Raj Loomba, Lord Raj Bagri and Lord Navnit Dholakia. The serial is called “Pravasi: The Pride of India”. DD has contracted well known news reader Jaswin Jassi for the job. He has been travelling between London and villages of the NRIs in Punjab to get finer details of their life and families. This serial is different from others as it traces not only the life and humble beginning of the rich and famous Pravasi Bharatiyas but also what they are now doing for their villages. TV channel’s
dilemma To air it or not is the dilemma of a superfast news channel. Powerful decision makers of the media group are mulling over whether to telecast a half-an-hour episode of the “Seedhi Baat” which was shot on the occasion of completing the 100th episode of the popular programme in which scores of mighty politicians and leaders have been grilled. This time it was decided that it would be appropiate to mark the special occasion by asking Shekhar Suman to interview the personality who had been grilling others in his “straight talk”. Even after some tight editing, the decision makers are caught in two minds whether to telecast it or not. Contributed by Satish Misra, Prashant Sood and Girja Shankar Kaura
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They alone love God who cultivate His fear in their hearts. — Guru Nanak O Son of Being! Thou art My lamp and My light is in thee. Get thou from it thy radiance and seek none other than Me. For I have created thee rich and have bountifully shed My favour upon thee. — Baha’u’llah The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? — Sri Aurobindo |
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