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Final break Poisonous
prosperity |
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Teachers
as predators
A
food crisis ahead-II
Music — a weapon
for fighting hatred
Human
Rights Diary Indian
art films a big hit in Berlin
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Final break THE Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Lok Dal had been cohabiting in Haryana like an estranged couple. They maintained the farce more because of the good ties between Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr Om Prakash Chautala. The state units were always at daggers drawn. The friction was best illustrated by a recent remark by the BJP leader in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Mr Krishan Pal Gujjar: “Hum to us din ka intezar kar rahe hain jab inse mukti mile”. Well, Mr Chautala has finally uttered the “talaq” word, although BJP national President Venkaiah Naidu had given a clear indication of the shape of things to come a day earlier. Both parties have enough grievances against each other. While the BJP feels that it was treated like dirt, the INLD has accused it of not following the “coalition dharma” and criticising the government at every step. This pent-up anger has now burst out in the shape of Mr Chautala’s fulmination that the BJP was an anti-farmer, pro-rich party of capitalists, which even sided with the Congress. While the estranged parties take potshots at each other, it may not be possible for them to do a cool analysis of the situation. But neutral observers cannot help looking at the likely consequences. In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections they had won five seats each. Both talk boldly of increasing their tally greatly but it will be a surprise if they even maintain their present strength. The BJP’s plans to have a tie-up with the Haryana Vikas Party are proving to be a non-starter, with Mr Bansi Lal even denying that an understanding is in the offing. Mr Chautala is not affected much if his party suffers a sharp decline in the Lok Sabha. His concern is more about the Vidhan Sabha. A tie-up with the BJP would have benefited him in urban areas but since the elections are a year away, he has thought it more prudent to go it alone. He is also open to coalition with any party except the Congress. Now that the two have parted ways, it is unreasonable to expect him to hold early elections. |
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Poisonous prosperity THOSE who add colour to the lives of so many, themselves live with the black clouds of disease and disability lurking around them. The very colour of the Budha Nullah, which runs through Ludhiana, speaks for itself — dark, brackish water, which is being systemically polluted by nearly 200 dyeing units, which vent their effluents straight into this drain. The fly ash discharged by such units causes air pollution, which is responsible for an estimated 10,000 cases of tuberculosis, largely among the workers. This is an appalling state of affairs and it is unfortunate that the authorities concerned, including the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the city’s Municipal Corporation, are allowing this to happen. The impact of this pollution is directly on the groundwater of the area, which is already depleted because of over-exploitation. Once pollutants enter the groundwater, these become a part of the food chain, which has disastrous consequences. Unfortunately, the prosperity of the region’s richest industrial town seems to be based on poisonous pollution. Indeed, many industries in the state, including distilleries, are defaulters. They have also been cited as large-scale polluters. Even rivers have been polluted to an extent where the natural flora and fauna of the area are killed. The discharge of ammonia from the NFL’s Nangal plant was linked to the death of the fish in the Sutlej. Fly ash from the Ropar thermal power plant was “accidentally” released twice into the Sutlej, directly affecting thousands of downstream inhabitants. Small wonder that Punjab has recorded one of the highest groundwater-pollution levels in the country. Increased vehicular traffic and industrial units have also contributed to a high degree of air pollution. The PPCB is no longer effective. It had issued ultimatum to 1,400 industrial units that had not been able to do effective hazardous-waste management. They paid no heed to the ultimatum. The only solution is that polluters must be made to pay, which is easier said than done. Since the administration has not been effective, the time now is ripe for judicial intervention. |
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Teachers as predators MS PUNEETA VERMA, a research scholar in the Department of Physics at Punjabi University, Patiala, will not get back the nearly eight years she spent working with Dr Hemraj Verma as her guide. Ms Verma is lucky in the sense that at least her complaint was heard. The Indian system of higher education in its present form simply does not encourage the blossoming of genuine scholarship. Dr Hargobind Khorana had to leave India for doing research in the field of genetics that earned him the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1968. Teachers like Dr Verma should be shown the door. He is guilty of having violated most norms of good conduct as a teacher. But getting rid of one bad guide is not going to help make the system transparent and conducive for the growth of genuine scholarship. The harassment of students begins at the post-graduation level, where they become unwitting victims of the inter-departmental politics of their teachers. There are far too many black sheep in the teaching community who are stalking the corridors of academia. The region itself has reported several shocking cases of sexual exploitation and mental harassment of students by their teachers and guides. A case that was a shade more shocking than the present one too was reported from Punjabi University about two years ago. The person at the centre of the controversy was the then Vice-Chancellor himself. He was sacked following the media expose of his other alleged acts of misdeeds and was later tried for the attempted rape of a student. Has the media become alert or the moral fibre of the members of the teaching community gone down? It is a bit of both. The remedy, perhaps, lies in providing the protection of the law against workplace sexual harassment to the student community also. |
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Coffee, (which makes the politician wise, And see thro’ all things with his half-shut eyes). — Alexander Pope |
A food crisis ahead-II There
is that old saying about putting your money where your mouth is. We seem to have forgotten this, literally as well as figuratively. This shows in the precipitous decline of the state’s spending on agriculture and irrigation. We seem to have forgotten that our real problem is still too many mouths with too little in the pockets to put enough food each day on their plates. This declining interest can be better seen in both the progressive decline in the state’s investment in agriculture and the declining shares of agriculture in total gross capital formation in the last two decades. The share of agriculture in total GCF at 1993-94 prices has halved from 15.44 per cent in 1980-81 to 7.08 per cent in 2000-01. Government investment came down from Rs 7,301 crore (at 1993-94 prices) in 1980-81 to Rs 4,992 crore in 1990-91 and declined further in the 90s to Rs 4,520 crore in 2000-01. The share of irrigation in the total Plan outlays has halved from 15.31 per cent in the fourth five-year Plan to less than 6.77 per cent in the tenth Plan. Another distressing feature of irrigation spending is that the bulk of the Plan allocation is made to major and medium irrigation projects rather than minor irrigation projects, which are considered more cost-effective. According to the data from the Ministry of Water Resources the cost of creating irrigation potential for one hectare during the eighth Plan, through large and medium irrigation projects was Rs 98,495 as against just Rs 10,051 for small irrigation projects. The gap is certain to have widened. It, therefore, makes more economic sense to focus increasingly on minor irrigation schemes to get more out of the limited budget. But it seems that economic sense makes little sense anymore, particularly since it affects the interests of big contractors for whom the politicians and bureaucrats have a special fondness, for we continue to deploy most of our decreasing irrigation outlays on major irrigation rather than on minor irrigation. With few exceptions, major and medium irrigation projects have accounted for more than three-fourths of the funds allocated to irrigation through the entire planning period. The continuous decline in outlays on both agriculture and irrigation has meant that their combined share in the total Plan outlays has come down from 31.04 per cent in the fourth Plan to just 10.63 per cent in the tenth Plan. If this trend was sought to be reversed by keeping the spending share identical to what it was in the fourth Plan, the sector should have been allocated Rs 4,73,558.34 crore as against the actual planned amount of just Rs 1,62,248 crore. The governments somewhat panicky and hasty announcement of the gargantuan Rs 5,16, 000 crore river linking project only makes sense when seen in this light The distortion doesn’t end with this for most of that is claimed to be spent on irrigation is actually for power generation. Considering that the farm sector consumes only 28.8 per cent of the nation’s generated power to say it is for irrigation is quite an exaggeration. We also see that irrigation is something left entirely to the states to support. Most of the amount being spent in the Plans on irrigation has been on long delayed ongoing projects. Delays in the completion of 162 major, 240 minor and 74 other irrigation projects have resulted in spillover costs of Rs 79,321 crore. This and the irreversibly diminishing shares of irrigation in Plan outlays have resulted in the almost complete absence of the state in creating new irrigation potential in the 1990s. The entire increase in irrigated acreage in the last decade has been facilitated by mostly private investments in tubewells and wells. Consequently, the share of government canals and tanks in the total net irrigated area has come down from 45.54 per cent in 1980-81 to just 35.39 per cent in 1999-2000. Tube-wells and wells which accounted for 45.70 per cent of total net irrigated area in 1980-81 accounted for as much as 58.76 per cent of the total net irrigated area in 1999-2000. One direct consequence of this is the fall in the watertable and depletion of subterranean water resources. According to International Water Management Institute estimates, in many areas of the country watertables are falling at rates of 2 to 3 metres per year due to the growing number of irrigation wells — around one million per year. In addition to the fall in employment, another consequence of this neglect of the agriculture sector is in the precipitous decline in the growth of production in the last decade. In foodgrains, the production of rice and wheat taken together registered an annual growth rate of 2.27 per cent in the 1990s against a much higher growth of 3.59 per cent in the 80s. Production of pulses showed a perceptible decline (-0.58 per cent) in the 90s as compared to a growth rate of 1.52 per cent in the 1980s. As a result the growth of total foodgrains slumped to 1.66 per cent in the 1990s as compared to 2.85 per cent in the 1980s. The growth of all crops taken together slid from 3.19 per cent in the 1980s to 1.73 per cent in the 1990s. Not only has there been a declining trend in growth, there has been a declining trend in productivity as well. The yield of rice and wheat taken together grew at an annual rate of just 1.42 per cent in the 90s as compared to 3.15 per cent in the previous decade. Pulses fared worse, as their yield growth rate plummeted to 0.27 per cent in the 90s, which was a sixth of the level, it attained in the 80s (1.61 per cent). The decline in the annual growth rates of both food and non-food crops resulted in a decline in the yield growth rates of all crops taken together, which came down from 2.56 per cent in the 80s to 1.02 per cent in the 90s. The productivity picture looks even grimmer when Indian agricultural productivity is benchmarked against other countries. India, which has the maximum area in the world under the production of rice and wheat, ranks second in their production. However, India ranks 52nd and 38th in terms of yields of rice and wheat respectively. As if things were not bad enough as it is, they are compounded by another crisis. This is the growing fragmentation of farm holdings. Over the years the proportion of marginal holdings, that is less than one hectare, has been increasing sharply. They have gone up from 50.60 per cent in 1970-71 to 59.40 per cent in 1990-91. The latest data on this from Census 2001 is not yet available, but we must get ready for further marginalisation. But what is even more worrisome is that 34.26 per cent of holdings were smaller than 0.20 hectares. Overall, the average size of holdings has gone down from 2.30 hectares in 1970-71 to 1.55 hectares in 1990-91, and the average size of marginal holdings has fallen from 0.41 hectares to 0.39 hectares. This trend has no doubt contributed to the decline in productivity. But the state has not responded to the challenge with any scheme to encourage the purchase of adjacent land-holdings to facilitate their consolidation into economically viable sizes, even with land ceiling restrictions in place. The prospects are grim and running away from the problem is no longer a policy option. The only long-term solution to our economic problem is to bring down the number of people employed in the agricultural sector. Paradoxically, the only way to do this is by increasing agricultural production and productivity, which in turn requires huge increases in investment on infrastructure. This enhanced spending will lead to greater employment for cultivators/marginal farmers in other sectors. The solution does not lie as much in bringing down agriculture’s share in the GDP, as much as agriculture’s share in
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Music — a weapon for fighting hatred THE Supreme Being always comes up with a way of making two loved ones meet — in my case music and me. In the wake of heightened tension between India and Pakistan I am reminded of an event which took place some years back. It all started one day when I happened to be invited to the first programme of the SAARC festival-’96 Pakistan Day. I was in possession of two passes for the festival for which I was determined to go. However, young girls are usually not allowed alone in Indian society especially on cold and dark winter evenings. So I literally had to beg for company and finally my younger brother (who play grandfather to me) reluctantly consented and so my parents agreed to sent me. Thus began the journey of my being into the Hamsadhvani theatre of Pragati Maidan. We reached on time to find ourselves surrounded with all the glitter, security checks, policemen and people of all shapes and sizes running to and fro for the best possible seats. At around 7.15 pm when everyone, including the press, diplomats, officials and viewers had assured their respective vantage points we were introduced to the doyen of Sufi singing tradition — Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan by the Pakistani High Commissioner. I was impressed by the arrangement — the sound system, the pandal, the order in which it prevailed. As soon as the first rendering began I felt my concentration increasing. Exquisite, enchanting, gorgeous was what I felt like saying aloud but better sense prevailed and I remained quiet. The strains of his voice mixed with the superb sound systems made the auditorium alive. I simply wondered at the unimaginable permutations and combinations which could be created with just a set of seven notes. His style of singing — classical blended with qawwal and folk traditions — compelled the audience to throw of their personas off for once. Everybody listened in rapt attention as if under an enchanting spell. At that point of time I felt (on noticing others around me) that a sort of a bond had been built which bound us all together to form a single audience and not just individuals with their personal interests. A communion of love, brotherhood and unity was in view for everyone to see and emulate. That one singer had managed to uplift everybody’s spirits so high that one dreaded the thought of coming back to face the harsh realities of the world once again. As I listened to him, his music began to grow on me. My entire body participated in this along with my mind — my hands clapping, feet tapping and lips singing. My mind and body blended entirely with the difficult “alaaps” and “taanas” which he took with considerable ease. His voice went up and down cascading like the flow of a river leaving the audience, enthralled and spellbound. But the great moment came when he sang couplets describing Ram, Rahim, Mandir, Masjid as different paths of getting to the one and only God. Through this music he explained that these are means to an end and not an end in themselves. His songs transcended the boundaries of countries and diminished the distinction between people. I can vouch that the entire audience comprising a varied mix of people — Hindus, Muslims, Indians, foreigners, Pakistanis — felt and realised the eternal truth. At that moment NPT, Indo-Pak conflict, tanks, missiles wars, rivalry appeared irrelevant and only melody prevailed. Compassion, humanity and brotherhood predominated. That evening changed my entire way of thinking and while coming back home I pondered about the irrelevance of suspicion, malice and hatred. One evening changed it all for me and I hoped that it would do the same for everyone present there too. Because this would eventually lead to India and Pakistan being the best of
friends.
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Human Rights Diary
THE government has not done well in rejecting the demand for extending the authority of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to the military and paramilitary forces in Kashmir, the Northeast and elsewhere. Conceded that they are engaged in operations which do not strictly come within the contours of ordinary laws. But the forces cannot be above the moral obligation of society which organisations like the NHRC try to enforce. How to humanise the otherwise fierce operations has been the persistent demand. The government relented to the pressure and appointed a committee of retired judges to look into this aspect, apart from some other handicaps which the NHRC faced. The committee found no reason to keep human rights violations by the military and paramilitary forces outside the purview of the NHRC. At a time when New Delhi has opened its channels with Hurriyat Conference leaders to find a solution to the Kashmir problem, the acceptance of the NHRC as a body to look into the cases of excesses would have gone a long way to mollify their fears. New Delhi’s obduracy on even the topic of human rights violations is not understandable. Whenever the Hurriyat or the organisations in the Northeast have complained about excesses of the Army or the paramilitary forces, the government has pulled down its shutters. How can any democratic government insist on having different standards on violations — one for the security forces like the police and another for the Army? It looked odd even when the original Act made the preposterous distinction between the two forces, both in khaki. Now that a committee of retired judges has said that the military and paramilitary forces should be as much under the scrutiny of the NHRC as the police, the government has no plausible reason not to do so. More pathetic is the casual manner in which the Law Minister has rejected the demand. He has mentioned it during a public meeting. The government will have to come out with a detailed explanation if it wants its side of the story to be heard. Strange, the government should take such serious matters in a cursory manner. The military and the paramilitary forces continue to be assailed for using too much force. The criticism may be exaggerated or unfounded at times. But in the absence of scrutiny by the NHRC, the explanation of the Army and such other bodies will carry little conviction. In its 2001-2002 report, once again one year late, the commission has said that it had exchanged views with the armed forces on human rights matters. “These contacts, conducted at the highest level,” the commission has asserted, “have had a definite impact on the conduct of the Army and paramilitary forces.” But this contention is not supported by any evidence and there are still examples of excesses. Take the two cases from among the many mentioned in the annual report. One is that of Jalil Andrabi, an advocate of Jammu and Kashmir. This relates to the alleged abduction and subsequent “killing” of Andrabi by the security forces. The Secretary of Srinagar’s Bar Association filed a habeas corpus petition. The NHRC also intervened. The high court appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to make an inquiry. Its report says: “The concerned Army unit has refused to hand over the accused to the SIT. The matter continues to be subjudice.” The NHRC
says: "It has repeatedly raised the matter in its annual report and with the senior echelons of the Army. It intends to pursue the matter, but has to await the outcome in the high court.” The case, if I remember correctly, is many years old. By this time the Supreme Court should have been approached to get an early judgement from the high court. The other case is that of disappearance of Mohammed Tayab Ali in July 1999 after he was taken away to the headquarters of the Assam Rifles battalion. The Assam Human Rights Commission went into the case and submitted its report to the NHRC which, in turn, sent its report to the Ministry of Defence. The commission also ordered Rs 3 lakh as immediate interim relief. A compliance report is awaited even after three years. The NHRC has, however, collated the different facts which “clearly indicate that Tayab Ali while he was travelling on a Luna moped was picked up apparently by some armed forces men in a Maruti van without any registration number and was taken to the headquarters of 17 Assam Rifles. There is the irrefutable testimony of several witnesses who had seen him being taken in this fashion. Since then Tayab Ali is missing. The stand taken by the defence authorities that Ali was killed in an encounter on July 25, 1999, must be rejected since the dead body of the person killed in that encounter was not that of Ali. It must, therefore, be concluded that 17 Assam Rifles in whose custody Ali was last seen, has failed to account for him, thereafter”. It is obvious neither the NHRC has done any follow-up nor the government. THE victim families of “enforced disappearances and arbitrary executions” in Punjab have formed an association called the AFDP to protect and promote the enforcement of human rights. The association alleges that the state has systematically violated the rights of life and property. It contends that there are scores of cases relating to the disappearance of people and extra-judicial killings in the state, particularly during the period when the militancy was rife. The matter is already before the NHRC, which for reasons best known to it, has not been able to give its sustained attention. The purpose of the AFDP is to “obtain a public accounting and acknowledgement of the abuses committed by the state and for guarantees of non-repetition to ensure that families of the disappeared and arbitrarily executed are provided just compensation, restitution and rehabilitation; and, for an effective judicial system”. The AFDP says it is committed to non-violence as a political pursuit of its objectives of justice — acknowledgement, reparation and the end of immunities — enjoyed by members of the police, security forces and public services. What is the problem? Why are things not moving? |
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Indian art films a big hit in Berlin “Alternative
Indian cinema”, a euphemism for art films, is drawing good crowds at the Berlin Film Festival now under way in Berlin. Gretman Sommer of the Berlin International Forum of New Cinema, a special section of “Berlinale” (as the festival is called), says the “mood at the screening of Indian films has been excellent”. “The number of fans of films coming from India is increasing,” she told IANS. “And I mean not just people of Indian origin but also mainstream fans.” The discussion after the screening of each Indian film has been “interesting and intense”, she added. The film festival began on February 5 and will conclude February 15. Indian entries this year include Vishal Bhardwaj’s Macbeth adaption “Maqbool” and the Shah Rukh Khan-Preity Zinta starrer “Kal Ho Naa Ho”, the latter being described here as a “musical” because of its songs. Bollywood celluloid products, because of their songs and dances, are described in German as “musicals” or “musical fantasies”, though, in the strict sense of the term, they have very little in common with the Western notion of a musical. “Maqbool” was well received because of its raw treatment of the underworld. The dialogue of the film is tersely cogent, even though it loses some of the impact when one hears the diluted translated version. Some Germans, familiar with this genre of Indian films, were predicting that Indian filmmakers will make more such films, provided these films are not defeated at the box office. According to the 34th International Forum of New Cinema festival organisers, this year’s Indian entries show that the traditional dichotomy between art and commerce is slowly dying out. A new generation of Indians is starting to rediscover politically and socially responsible filmmaking, using the tools of popular cinema. Gabriela Seidl, the Forum’s spokesperson, told IANS that in the past India would send mostly Bollywood films as entries. “However, it is heartening to see an increasing number of films from the alternative cinema in India. Many of these films are thought-provoking and promising,” she said. She said she had “heard a great deal” about Rakesh Sharma’s “Final Solution”. Sharma’s 218-minute documentary is described as the longest at the festival. It deals with the Hindu-Muslim violence that ravaged Gujarat in 2002. “It is a shockingly precise analysis of the political wheeling and dealing that led to the gruesome slaughter of thousands of defenceless people,” said one German viewer after seeing the film. According to the Forum, of particular interest is Partho Sen Gupta’s debut film “Hawa Aney Dey (“Let the Wind Blow”), described here as an “apocalyptic film” about the deceptively carefree attitudes of spoilt youngsters set against the backdrop of India’s conflict with Pakistan. Another entry, “Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (“A thousand Dreams Such as These”) by Sudhir Mishra tackles the revolutionary student movement during the Indira Gandhi era. India has also sent a children’s film called “Heda Hoda” (“the blind camel”) by Vinod Ganatra. It has been entered in the children’s film competition. Several Indian filmmakers have accepted the invitation to attend the Berlin
festival. Mishra was the first to arrive. Others expected here are Rakesh Sharma and Vishal Bharadwaj.
— IANS
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You never identify yourself with the shadow cast by your body, or with its reflection, or with the body you see in a dream or in your imagination. Therefore, you should not identify yourself with this living body, either. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya Avarice is dog, falsehood the
scavenger and cheating is the eating of carrion. — Guru Nanak Cut off the head, O Nanak, That bows not to the Lord; Burn the wretched flesh That feels not the pain of separation — Guru Angad Dev A devotee’s life is the life of fearlessness. He is not afraid of anybody, because he has achieved his object of life. His only object then is to serve humanity. — Nirankari Baba
Hardev Singh Renounce your personal selfishness and attachments. Purify yourself of motives and desires. Turn into the fundamental element of love. You will then find yourself the centre of attraction in the world. — Swami A. Parthasarathy |
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