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After Saddam, what? Netaji desires… The python and the girl |
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Export of talent from Punjab
Knowledge is bunkum
Forging a bond in a government hospital DELHI DURBAR
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After Saddam, what? FEW tears are going to be shed over the fate of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, now in US custody. Many Iraqis, if not all, might be feeling relieved with the man who played with their destiny meeting his nemesis. With the mystery surrounding his whereabouts having been unravelled, two questions arise. Will it be the end of attacks on the US troops in Iraq? Will it lead to the discovery of the dreaded weapons of mass destruction? Experts believe that Saddam’s capture is unlikely to have a bearing on the ongoing insurgency and the suicide bombings by the anti-US elements in Iraq. Rather they may intensify their activities. The news of Saddam in US custody may, in fact, strengthen the resolve of the Iraqi insurgents to put more pressure on the occupying forces to leave Iraq to the Iraqis. These anti-US forces include the Iraqis who are happy with the Baathist dictator having been thrown into the dustbin of history, but cannot tolerate their country being run by the Americans. However, Saddam’s capture is a major psychological gain for the US. It may also give a boost to President George W. Bush’s popularity at home, though it is difficult to say with certainty whether this will help him in getting re-elected in next year’s presidential race. The world will be waiting for the outcome of Saddam’s interrogation with great curiosity. What he reveals should set at rest the controversy over his dreaded WMDs. The absence of proof about the existence of the WMDs has always been embarrassing for President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. It will be more so if Saddam’s capture does not yield any evidence that he had hidden such weapons at some place unknown to his captors. In any case, Saddam’s capture is not going to end the uncertainty facing Iraq. |
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Netaji desires… THE release of the Katwal audio tapes, in which Mr Virbhadra Singh and two of his colleagues, Mr Singhi Ram and Mr Kuldeep Kumar, had allegedly sought from Mr S.M Katwal, the then Chairman of the HPSSB, the favour of appointment of some candidates when they were in Opposition, has evoked utterly predictable reaction. The BJP has demanded a CBI inquiry and the ruling Congress has said that the timing of the release is mischievous and aimed at diverting people’s attention from the war against corruption launched by the Virbhadra government. But the central issue is whether or not these leaders tried to influence the selection process. Ironically, the Virbhadra government is investigating a similar allegation against the then BJP government. Irrespective of whether it is proved in this particular case or not, the cruel truth is that quite a few seats get filled on the recommendations of influential people. If political pressure is absent, then there is the omnipresent corruption. Leave alone the subordinate services, the malady is present even in the case of state public service commissions, as the Ravi Sidhu case had so graphically illustrated in Punjab. Now that various major parties have been found with their hands in the till, there is a very real chance of them reaching a tacit understanding for not exposing each other. That is a dangerous possibility because the sufferer is the meritorious candidate who is denied a job that could be his. Wherever he goes with his curriculum vitae, he finds that he has already been pipped at the post by someone recommended by one neta or the other. It is imperative to hermetically seal the selection process from political pressures and money power. That can be possible only if the selectors themselves are appointed impartially and independently. There should be statutory provisions so that they can carry out their constitutional duty without fear or favour either from the ruling party or the Opposition. The current practice of appointing pliable persons to responsible positions, that too on the basis of political affiliations, is playing havoc with the selection system as well as the hopes of deserving candidates. The way Mr Katwal prepared his defence in advance tells its own story. |
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The python and the girl ALL is not always fair in love. Cupid is also blind in inventing credible lies. The strange tale of a love-smitten teen-aged girl, Guddo, being gobbled up by a python in a village near Unnao in Uttar Pradesh baffled wildlife officials and also her parents and the local police. The family must have been devastated to learn about the "tragic end" of their 16-year-old daughter shortly after they had found a "suitable boy" for her marriage. Her sister, who broke the "sad news" without batting an eyelid, would qualify for the simpleton’s Oscar, if there is one. It took the police and the wildlife experts two days to find out the truth. Guddo was found in the arms of her teen-aged lover from the same village. They had decided to elope and the reviled python was supposed to cover their tracks. Should the police be praised for unravelling the mystery or the girl given some sympathy for the abrupt end to the incredible tale of love? All is not always well even if it ends well. Not in this case. As far as the parents are concerned, their daughter was better off inside a python than alive as a spunky lass who defied social customs and taboos and is now explaining her conduct to the police. The tale did not have a happy ending for the animal world. The simple villagers believed the story and dug up the pit in which the evil "ajgar" lived. They did find a 10-foot-long python sitting over its eggs. Satan in his serpent form paid with his life because of the story the teen-aged lovers had evidently invented for enjoying the forbidden fruit of togetherness. Thought for the day If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. — William Shakespeare
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Export of talent from Punjab RECKONED in terms of its population, perhaps no other state in India has been exporting as much talent as Punjab has been doing. According to most well-informed estimates, more than a million Punjabis have already settled down in other countries, and the trend has not yet been halted. The UK has accommodated around 4,00,000 Punjabis. The US too is playing host to approximately the same number — incidentally, a large number of them are highly trained professionals. Of all countries, Canada seems to have attracted the largest number; something like half a million. Is this development a cause for jubilation or otherwise? A small number of persons migrating to other countries is in order. But considering the small population of the Punjabis (here one is talking of the Indian Punjab), a million plus is a large number. In numerical terms, it may not be all that large. In terms of talent, a substantial number of them represent the cream of the state. They have migrated abroad basically because the state, as also the country, did not have the right kind of use for them. They had talent but it was not put to good use. Those of them who had a sense of adventure chose to venture out. A substantial number of them have done well for themselves. They could have contributed a good deal to the growth and prosperity of the state only if it had been possible to retain them here. A quarter century ago, more particularly when the Green Revolution was as its peak, Punjab had the highest per capita income in the country. The explanation for it was simple. What was happening was in the field of agriculture. Since the bulk of the people in the state are engaged in agriculture, this particular development was something which embraced a wide mass of people and helped most of them in their economic growth. No wonder, Punjab has the lowest number of people below the poverty line today; they are not even 10 per cent of the total whereas in the rest of the country it is around 30 per cent. Why has happened since then? A number of answers have been floating around and several of them have something to commend themselves. In overall terms, we all know what requires to be done, but we are unable to do it. It is to this dimension of the problem to which I wish to call attention. Most people know what happened during the days of the Green Revolution. Something had to happen after that (diversification of agriculture and a lot else) but those developments did not take place. For almost two decades, the state had been caught up in a frenzy from which it recovered only recently. But having recovered, it has been unable to pick up the threads again. The first few years after recovery were wasted in doing things which were essentially unproductive. Even currently it cannot be said that we are launched on the path to progress. The point is simple. We have to evolve a set of creative solutions and implement them. Neither the earlier government not the present one has been able to even get started. It is not only agriculture which is stagnating; even the small-scale industry which flourished more or less in the same measure as the Green Revolution did is not making any significant progress. This is not to suggest that nothing is happening. Something is happening but it is not substantial enough to change the face of the state nor innovative enough to launch us on the road to progress. As of today, unemployment is fairly widespread. While unemployment is an country-wide problem, the fact is that with the kind of economic potential which the state had built for itself a quarter century ago and the entrepreneurship which the Punjabis had displayed, Punjab could have built on it further. The capital was there and the requisite manpower was available. Two things are lacking however. One is the right kind of leadership and the second is the right kind of education. In regard to both, we are fumbling as well as bumbling. Linked with it is also the issue of social attitudes. These are typified in the fact that the affluent peasants prefer to engage hired labour rather than work on their own. As long as this development was a marginal phenomenon, one could overlook it. But, as it is, the phenomenon is becoming more prolonged as also more persistent. Not to be able to work with one’s hands is a serious handicap. Fortunately, machines can do a large number of jobs which at one time were done with hand. Those who have gone abroad have seen for themselves how this capability can be put to use in our situation. What is sought to be underlined is that the issue is not only political or economic; it is also social in character. The widespread use of drugs is a pointer to the fact that things are going wrong somewhere and radical steps have to be taken to reverse the negative trends. Some of those who have settled down abroad are being uncommonly helpful. But their number is not all that large. In any case, things would improve immensely if more of them could join in. If that comes to pass, one could ultimately call upon the state machinery to be a help rather than a hindrance. Currently, there is no movement from below, but some kind of a push from that source needs to be generated. Those Punjabis who have stayed behind need not bewail their fate. Instead, they should organise themselves differently, turn their back upon the existing political and economic outfits and initiate something new. What we need are a couple of new concepts. For instance, SEWA was a concept which was developed and popularised in Gujarat more than a quarter century ago and achieved phenomenal success. (Something of this kind happened in Bangladesh too.) But what we in Punjab need to do is to give evidence of that dynamism of spirit and action which those who migrated abroad have demonstrated. At the same time, it is important to be somewhat concrete. As hinted above, the two bottlenecks are (a) the state administrative machinery and (b) the kind of education which is imparted to the young people. Regarding the first bottleneck the most obvious thing to do is to minimise the control of the state and promote private initiative. This would require a new way of thinking as also new initiatives. The role of Punjab Agricultural University and the Department of Agriculture would be crucial. The bulk of the people involved are in agriculture. Evidently, much more is required to be done at that level than there is evidence of. There is need for an imaginative plan for the small-scale sector and its intermeshing with the kind of instruction now being imparted in the classrooms. it would be misleading to assume, however, that this can be done without changing the existing mindset of the teachers and all that goes with it. Indeed, this is where the principal bottleneck lies. Both require a degree of imagination of which one has not seen much evidence so far. The issue is how to put Punjab at the top again. While industrial growth is imperative in every sense of the word, what will bring prosperity to the common man is diversified agricultural growth and its greater productivity. Having done this once successfully, why can it not be repeated again? |
Knowledge is bunkum MY son was six year old when he asked a question, “Papa, what is the length of toothpaste?” I told him, “Beta, it has weight and not length.” He said, “Your GK is poor, Papa. Come and measure two sides of the carpet in the sitting room, that is the length of the toothpaste.” I ran to the sitting room to see the empty toothpaste tube and the paste neatly spread in lines over the carpet on which I had spent honestly earned silver from Babu fiefdom. I did not say a word to him but recollected the quote from “Good Impressions” — “Even a professor soon discovers how little he knows when a child begins asking questions.” And professors, My Gosh! An anatomy professor once told the class. “ I have a packet with me in which I have brought a dissected frog. Please examine it carefully to understand its anatomy.” He unwrapped it and found two sandwiches and an omelette in it. He was surprised, “What is this? I have already eaten my lunch that I had brought in another similar packet.” He started vomiting. Knowledge snatched bliss from him that ignorance had bestowed upon him. Another instance. When I went to Udaipur, I asked the receptionist in the hotel, “What is the nearest worth seeing place here?” He said, “Zinc plant, sir.” My immediate query was, “When does it bloom?” And on my return, they made me the President of a local society called “Shimla Amateur Garden and Environment Society”. Knowledge, therefore, my friends, is bunkum. It does nothing, only raises your curiosity. That means “beware call” for cats. I was surfing the net and there I found Dilbert’s Theorem. It gives three postulates. The first is Knowledge is Power, i.e., Knowledge = Power. The second is Time is Money or Time = Money. And the third one is known to every “science” student, Power = Work/Time. Power is Knowledge, so Knowledge is also Work/Time. But Time is Money, so Knowledge = Work/Money or Money is Work/Knowledge. It means as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity. Without knowledge, one is moneyed and honeyed and what more one wants in this life. So, knowledge is bunkum. Quod Erat Demonstrandum, i.e., demonstrated what was to be. I was awakened late because it was after superannuating that I came to know of this theorem. Throughout my service career I remained totally puzzled as to why and how my boss got higher salary than the knowledgeable I. |
Forging a bond in a government hospital
BEING in a government hospital, even if it is one of the top ones in the country, can be a nightmarish experience. Nurses are never around to help you when you need them, though they have no compunctions about waking you up at the crack of dawn to take the temperature even though there is no symptom of fever. It is a job that has to be done. So irrespective of whether you slept at night or not, the light is switched on and the thermometer shoved under the tongue or under the armpit. Even in the post-operative recovery room, where most patients are groaning and moaning as they surface from their anaesthesia and painkillers, nurses are scarce. Your family or the one personal attendant that is permitted into the ward has to do everything, from providing bedpans to catching your vomit. The sole nurse on duty in the recovery room is busy dispensing medicines, giving injections and fixing the drip. But this lack of professional care and even basic infrastructure is more than compensated by the unique bonding that occurs among patients and the ones attending on them. It was at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences that I underwent this deeply psychic experience. I first met Mr Sahni, the 74-year-old, who was to undergo a knee replacement surgery, and the young Oriya lady, who had come all the way from Bhubaneswar to have a recurrent tumour removed from her knee joint, a day before surgery. The three of us were being operated on the same day and were herded together for x-rays, ECG, blood tests and the works. As we exchanged notes and empathised with one another we became caring people. Their relatives and attendants became my friends - my guardian angels when I was in distress. They would get me that much-needed cup of tea from the dhabhawala outside AIIMS; allow me to jump the queue (ahead of them) for the x-ray when they saw I was in too much pain to stand waiting indeterminately, or even pick my blood reports. After the operation all of us were in the same post-operative recovery room. As we resurfaced from the surgery our attention was on the fourth bed in our unit and the young schoolgirl Rashme from Patna, who had undergone a major spinal surgery and was in agonising pain. She would neither eat nor drink. She seemed almost lifeless. All of us coaxed her to eat, assured her she would recover and would keep calling out encouragements to her from our respective beds. The mother, who had been staying in an ashram for two months with her daughter waiting for private room at AIIMS, seemed to be leaning to us for moral support and we gave it happily. Back in our respective rooms in the new private ward, the bonding, the encouragement continued. Walking with the support of a walker I would call on Mr Sahni morning and evening to find out why he was not up and about. The man had been bedridden so long that he was almost scared to try his repaired limbs. Seeing me he somehow got courage to get on his feet. Soon we were exchanging notes on who was doing how many rounds of walking. Since there was a shortage of wheel chairs, we also worked out an arrangement to share the wheel chair that would take us for physiotherapy. The lady from Orissa took a long time to recover. Her husband was longing to get home to his two young school going children who he had left in the care of a maid. His job, his children had all been kept on hold as he nursed his wife day and night through her second operation on the same knee. Rashme was in the old private ward of AIIMS and we did not get a chance to see her progress. Fifteen days after surgery when I went to get the neat row of stainless steel staplers, that served as stitches, removed, who should I see but Rashme and her mother. The young girl's spine was straight again and she was a happy teenager waiting to get back to school in Patna. I met Mr Sahni again on a visit to AIIMS. He was no longer in his wheel chair. The lady from Orissa I am sure is back, happily ensconced in the warmth of her young ones. The lack of infrastructure in the hospital, the poor nursing care did not bother us too much because we had shared the ups and downs of a major surgery in a big city hospital. It was a unique bonding.
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DELHI DURBAR FORMER Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, who retired last month, was known to be a stickler to rules till the last but when the news of posting of his Director Renu Pal to Washington as Minister Press became public, eyebrows were raised. Ms Renu Pal, who had been brought to the Foreign
Secretary Office from Paris where she had worked along with Mr Sibal, was rewarded for her work by her boss who went out of the way to award her an A plus station by an unprecedented executive order which has to be mandatorily signed by all the Secretaries. What has ruffled the feathers in the imposing South Block is that Mr Sibal circumvented the well-defined rules that an officer would be posted to a B or C station after he or she has served in an A station. From Paris to Washington via Delhi means from A to A plus. Lobbying for Washington With a few months left for the return of Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh from Washington, lobbying for the key posting has intensified in the Capital. Leading the race are former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pande. Mr Pande, who is related to Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and has an excellent rapport with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, with whom he had worked in tandem as the Home Secretary, seems to have the upper hand but then Mr Sibal is no pushover as a little bird tells us that his case is being lobbied by a top official. Mr Sibal, who was on the verge of getting an extension as Foreign Secretary, lost out only at the last minute. Punjab Govt outwitted The Punjab Government was clearly outwitted by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s lawyers in securing bail for him and his son within a week of his being remanded in judicial
custody by the Special Court at Ropar. Badal’s counsel Harish Salve had drawn a two-pronged strategy to take up the matter simultaneously at the trial court and the Supreme Court, raising a question over the legality of the Special Judge’s order refusing interim bail to the Shiromani Akali Dal leader. On the other hand, the Punjab Government, represented by a battery of senior advocates, including P Chidambaram, Udai Lalit and Rajiv Dutta, seems to have failed to judge the moves of the opposite party. Withdrawal of their petition from the apex court for transfer of their case outside Punjab after getting the bail gives an indication that its filing was also a well calculated move. Wine and cheese parties Come December, the party scene assumes a frentic pace. But what is new this year is that wine and cheese parties are becoming increasingly popular and sought after if the attendance at such dos is any indication. Many seek invitations, but others gate-crash to such parties as the hosts can’t afford to send them packing as they invariably describe themselves as members of the the Fourth Estate. NRI minister
in Canada Ontario in Canada boasts of having the largest South Asian community. Indians there are on cloud nine as one of their community has been made transportation minister. Harinder Takhar’s appointment as transportation minister was announced by Prime Minister Dalton McGuinty last month. A jobless Takhar, 52, went to Canada in 1974. He is the first South Asian in the legislature of the province and will oversee an $ 800 million budget. Takhar is known for his public service and business acumen. He was an associate director of education and chief financial officer of the Peel District School Board, one of the biggest in Canada, for the last nine years. Takhar’s ministership is the culmination of his experience of studying through night school to get a Canadian degree even as his day jobs,
included selling shoes and working in factories. Takhar is married to Balwinder and the couple have two daughters. Contributed by Satish Misra, Rajeev Sharma and S.S. Negi |
Though I do not know the proper ways (modes) of praise, reflection, flower offering, or worship, I can be protected by just holding on to the Supreme Lord even as the son of Mrkandu (Markandeya) was revived from death by reaching Your lotus feet. — Shri Adi The false find no refuge in God’s court. They are marched to hell with blackened faces. — Guru Nanak Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny. — Shri Ramakrishna Rare benevolence! the minister of God. — Carlyle |
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