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Language matters SC restores order |
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Freedom from life Chasing the last rite SUICIDE is no longer viewed in terms of whether it is an act of cowardice or courage. It is increasingly debated, especially in advanced countries, as a choice that one should be able to exercise as a basic right.
Ifs of Shining India
Of beauty queens and relative gain
Women for peace all around Fixing bikes in a jiffy Birdsong albums fly
off the shelves
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Language matters WE have in these columns asked for a high level of political discourse based on decency and decorum in these elections. Instead, political leaders have been vying with one another to use the vilest language to ridicule their rivals. One of them has described a young candidate seeking a seat in Uttar Pradesh as unacceptable because he was born in a “foreign womb”. It is difficult to believe that the worthy who used this language passes off as a saint and candidate of the ruling party. Another leader from the same Parivar compares the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi with Gandhari and the Helen of Troy because they were “foreigners” who caused disintegration of their adopted countries. However, it was left to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to bring the level of political etiquette further down. At meeting after meeting he addressed in the company of Mr L.K. Advani, he consistently referred to Ms Gandhi as “Begum Sahiba” recalling his vicious campaign in the past against “Mian Musharraf”. He even made bold to call her a “Jersy cow” and her son a “hybrid calf”. Mr Modi has found a new strategy whereby he asks the audience whether they would ever employ an “unqualified” Sonia Gandhi as a clerk in their establishment and her son Rahul Gandhi as a driver. When they say “No” in a chorus, he is happy that his message has reached the electorate. Even those who question Ms Gandhi’s eligibility to lead the nation because of her foreign origin would find this kind of language detestable. It is strange that Mr Advani who claims to have been embarrassed by Moditva did nothing to restrain the Chief Minister, whom he even describes “as great as Vajpayee”. While complaining about the language employed by the BJP, the Congress has not set any standard to emulate, either. Worse, even its leader has been using innuendoes to suggest that the Prime Minister had played an inglorious role in the Quit India movement. Calling Advani a Pakistani because he was born in the Sindh province is a poor repartee and does not show the party in a good light. The electorate expects better standards of campaigning from their leaders. They have a host of issues and subjects to talk about, instead of hitting one another below the belt. |
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SC restores order THE Supreme Court’s judgement on Friday banning the telecast of all kinds of political advertisements, including surrogate ones, by some television channels is a vindication of its role as the sentinel of the Constitution and its avowed commitment to restore public order and morality. The judgement, in response to a special leave petition filed by the Union Government, is expected to help the Election Commission in ensuring free and fair elections. Ever since the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s ruling, there has been a spurt in the TV ads showing top political leaders including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the dissolved Lok Sabha, in bad light. Clearly, the High Court had erred in lifting the ban on advertisements under Section 7 (3) of the Cable and Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1994, and allowing the petition by four cable networks on the ground that it was their fundamental right to do trade and business under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution. The Indian Constitution is very clear on the nature and scope of the fundamental rights guaranteed to the citizens. These rights, though sacrosanct, are never absolute. They are subjected to judicial review and, in the interest of public morality, decency and order, the state can impose reasonable restrictions on their enforcement. The issue in question is whether the Union Government and the Election Commission should keep mum and close their eyes to the continued political mudslinging and character assassination indulged in by some organisations through these advertisements. The existing ban under the Cable Television Network Rules and the Supreme Court’s ruling nullifying the interim order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court should be viewed in this context. Ban or no ban, advertising in television is big business today and a level-playing field cannot be ensured in the elections if some parties are allowed to unleash a propaganda blitzkrieg on the small screen. It is good that the Supreme Court has now directed the Election Commission to regulate advertisements of all kinds. A lot of time was wasted on the enforcement of the Cable Television Network Rules as the Centre and the Election Commission had interpreted it differently. |
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Freedom from life SUICIDE is no longer viewed in terms of whether it is an act of cowardice or courage. It is increasingly debated, especially in advanced countries, as a choice that one should be able to exercise as a basic right. However, advocacy of the right to die is premised largely on the need for people who are terminally ill or in a vegetative condition medically to be put out of their misery. Mercy killing or euthanasia, although admittedly prevalent, is a fact of life or, rather, death, to which both state and society turn a blind eye because of the complex legal, moral, ethical and constitutional issues involved; and these cannot be addressed adequately, leave alone resolved satisfactorily. Another common argument in favour of the right to die is that this is the only situation where a successful 'criminal' escapes punishment while the unsuccessful one faces prosecution. Against the backdrop of this controversy that has been raging across the world, the case of C A Thomas Master who committed suicide on April 1 near Thrissur in Kerala falls in an entirely different category. In 1997, Master, a former headmaster, had moved the Kerala High Court seeking permission to end his life on the ground that he had "fulfilled his purpose in life and had no further desire to live". His petition made a distinction between suicide committed by a person frustrated or unsuccessful in life and the "right of a person, who is successful and happy and has achieved his mission in life, to voluntarily end his life". The court dismissed the petition ruling that no such distinction could be drawn and the act amounted to suicide in both cases. Now that Master has had his way, there is little the law can do about it. However, his suicide may add new dimensions to the ongoing debate. The argument that the right to die is a fundamental right may once again come to the fore, because, as Minoo Masani had forcefully put forth, every right implied its negative as well. Thought for the day It is not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts. — Addison Walker
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Ifs of Shining India THE Indian economy faces a problem of plenty. There is too much foreign exchange with the Reserve Bank of India. The country’s central bank and apex monetary authority is trying hard to ensure that this does not result in money supply going up, for that would spur inflation. Despite the fact that many economic indicators are favourable at present, inflation could turn worrisome since international oil prices have flared up. Despite much pre-election hype about the feel-good factor, stock markets remain volatile and the functioning of the infrastructure remains an area of concern. What recently made news was the fact that the Indian currency vis-à-vis the American dollar is stronger than it has been in nearly four years. The rupee-dollar exchange rate recently touched the Rs 45 to US $ 1 mark. Whereas the rupee has not depreciated significantly against the euro, the fall in the value of the dollar acquires significance since the lion’s share of India’s exports to the rest of the world is designated in dollars, even if only around one-fifth of the country’s total exports actually end up in the US. The weakening of the American currency in international markets has had its impact on countries like India. One US dollar was equal to nearly Rs 49 in March 2002, but less than Rs 45.50 in January 2004. During this period, the rupee weakened against the pound sterling and the Japanese yen, besides the euro. In March 2002, one pound was worth around Rs 69.40 against nearly Rs 83 at present; the value of the yen appreciated from Rs 0.3723 to Rs 0.4268; and, each euro went up from Rs 42.75 to Rs 57.32. Between April 2003 and January 2004, the country’s exports went up by 12.8 per cent in US dollar terms against 17.2 per cent during the corresponding 10 months of 2002-03. The same statistics appear quite different when expressed in Indian currency. Measured in rupees, the rate of growth of exports between April 2003 and January 2004 stood at a much lower 7.1 per cent against 19.7 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous financial year. One prediction can be safely made. If the rupee continues to strengthen against the dollar at the rate it has from March 2002 onwards, it may be great for our collective national ego but the rate of growth of exports would certainly be difficult to maintain and will probably slump. A strong rupee would imply that Indian exports — not excluding the exports of computer software — would become less competitive in US markets. As for high foreign exchange reserves, the total hard currency assets with the RBI crossed the magic $ 100 billion level in December and are steadily moving towards $ 110 billion. The RBI is trying to “sterilise” the impact of this inflow by, among other things, issuing market stabilisation bonds. Sterilisation is necessary because high foreign currency reserves add to domestic money supply that, in turn, could bring about inflationary pressures since more money would be chasing fewer goods. In the year leading up to February 20, 2004, M3 (or “broad” money supply that includes currency with the public, demand and time deposits with banks and other deposits with the RBI) went up by 14.5 per cent. This is more or less the same rate at which M3 grew between March 31, 2002, and February 21, 2003, and 0.6 per cent lower than the rate of growth of M3 during the financial year 2002-03. What is noteworthy is that higher money supply has so far not spurred inflation because the industrial economy has been growing relatively fast. The situation could, however, change fast, especially since international oil prices are ruling at very high levels. By the third week of March world oil prices had exceeded the rates that were prevalent a year earlier, that is, at the time US troops invaded Iraq. On March 18, the price of the benchmark Brent crude oil in London had shot up to $ 38 a barrel, the highest in nearly 13 years. On account of the upcoming general election, the Indian government has arm-twisted oil companies by informally “warning” them against hiking the politically-sensitive, highly-subsidised prices of kerosene and cooking gas. At the same time, there has been pressure on these companies not to increase the prices of transportation fuels (diesel and petrol). It seems certain that there will be sharp hikes in the prices of most petroleum products soon after the elections are over. Since the mid-1990s, the quantum of crude oil produced in India has either fallen or stagnated. The country’s dependence on imported crude oil and petroleum products has jumped from barely 30 per cent of the total demand in 1991 to nearly three-fourths at present, since domestic output has failed to keep pace with demand. Domestic production of crude oil went up by a niggardly 0.8 per cent in the April-January period in 2003-04. The point worth emphasising is that high fuel prices comprise the single largest contributor to inflation right now. The annual rate of inflation as measured by the official wholesale price index stood at 5.94 per cent for the week ended February 21, 2004, against 5.53 per cent a year ago. This increase was largely on account of the prices of fuel, power and lubricants going up by 7.73 per cent — against a 3.1 per cent rise in the prices of primary articles and a 6.51 per cent hike in the prices of manufactured products. After the euphoria of the share offers by public sector undertakings led by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the stock markets have not been particularly buoyant. On the contrary, the sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange has declined and there has been considerable intra-day as well as inter-week volatility in share values. Such fluctuations are likely to continue till the outcome of the elections is known in mid-May. In any case, the rise or fall of share price indices has, of late, become excessively dependent on purchases and sales by foreign institutional investors. An area of considerable concern remains the working of the infrastructure. The six core infrastructure industries (coal, electricity, crude oil, petroleum products, steel and cement) together grew at a slower pace of 4.7 per cent between April 2003 and January 2004 against 5.8 per cent in the corresponding period of 2002-03. Power generation went up by a meagre 3.7 per cent in this period. The short point is that India will not continue to shine, nor will the economy grow by 8 per cent for two successive years, unless the state of the country’s infrastructure improves substantially. n |
Of beauty queens and relative gain THE uncrowning of Miss India-World Lakshmi Pandit had gotten me into a delicate situation of sorts. Indirectly, that is. I had before me the task of contacting last year’s Miss India Nikita Anand for her comments on the ugly side of the beauty business. Will she…will she not? That was the question plaguing my mind as I sat staring at the telephone set before me. No, my doubts had nothing to do with procuring the response. I was suffering from a dilemma that the lesser-known relatives of celebrities often experience. There was that faint prospect of not being ‘warmly’ recognised by kin who’d now been catapulted into the Hall of Fame. The reason for my quandary: the girl who was a beauty queen to the rest of the world was to me a niece I barely knew. As I dialled the cell number of Nikita’s mom’s (my cousin), a host of questions crowded my mind: Now that she was a celebrity mom, would she suffer from the selective amnesia that often comes with overnight fame? Should I be formal or call her affectionately by her nickname? After all, it was almost two decades since we’d even seen or talked to each other. I had one vivid memory of our last few encounters — me in pigtails, a chit of a schoolgirl, and she a picture of dimpled charm in her bridal finery. Such was our age gap, almost a generation apart. I remember the excitement in the family at that time, for hers was the first wedding among my paternal cousins. Soon after, she’d moved out of town with her husband. Only to return occasionally, with her bonny babies. Imagine, the gurgling bundle I’d then seen in diapers was now a young lady who, last season, had been draped in the sash of a beauty queen. Our family’s Gen Next had truly arrived in all its crowning glory. The voice at the other end of the line brought me back to the present. The instant flash of recognition from my cousin put my misgivings at rest. After a chirpy hello, she passed the phone to Nikita. And the friendly voice of the girl I’d last seen in a crib didn’t give me cause to crib either. It was a family reunion of sorts, even if a mobile one. My emotions were akin to those of the woman who was reunited with her cousin, none other than the Big B during his recent visit to Chandigarh. In this Manmohan Desai-type offscreen family drama, Amitabh Bachchan’s superstar status and its accompanying inaccessibility may have been the villain that delayed the reunion by nearly 40 years. In my case, it wasn’t Nikita’s inaccessibility, post-Miss India, that played the culprit. I myself hadn’t tried to renew old ties then. If I had, I could’ve at least basked in reflected glory. It is, after all, a matter of relative gain. |
Women for peace all around
MEN fight wars but women bear the brunt. This is a statement that spells universal truth. And contemporary women writers from different countries of South Asia that has seen innumerable wars, the bloody Partition, militancy and communal rioting are vocally crying out for peace both as writers and as activists. Interviews with a cross-section of women writers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India revealed that women are anxious for cross-border unity and putting an end to internal strife within their countries. Thirty writers from these countries had gathered in Delhi very recently for “South Asian Women Writers’ Dialogue” organised by the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia. For Kashmiri poet Naseem Shafai, the long-drawn-out strife in Kashmir has been a painful experience in which not only has she seen death all round but also the rift that came between the Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims. “It was sad that Kashmiri Hindus had to leave their homeland and migrate to other states but even the Muslims have not been safe in their own land. Naseem has borne this pain in her own life. Twice militants shot her husband, who was working as a journalist for Zee TV, in the abdomen. “He was saved with great difficulty and then he went into depression. All my time was taken up looking after him and I had to send our only son to Delhi. But what is important is that he stayed for three years there in the home of our Kashmiri Hindu friends. So the strife of Kashmir has not been able to sever the strong bonds of love and trust between the two communities. Naseem adds that Kashmir has seen enough of guns, gunpowder, mines and whatnot and it is time that peace returned to the state. “Kashmir has become a pawn in the game of power between India and Pakistan. Both want its territory but it is time both governments did something to end the misery of its people. Manjushree Thapa, who has just written a book for Penguin India on the turmoil of present-day Nepal, says: “The times indeed are hard for Nepal. Democracy in Nepal came in 1990 and last October the present King withdrew it. So on one side is monarchy, the other side a short-lived democracy and on the third the Maoist movement. The Maoist movement took root in the sixties with righteous anger for monarchy had not done anything for the majority of poor people in the country. But the Maoist movement has degenerated into anarchist violence. “It is sad to see young girls just some 13 or 14 years old wielding guns and turning Maoists.” Manjushree feels that only return of democracy can spell better days for Nepal. Sumathy Sivamohan, a Tamil playwright and director from Sri Lanka, feels that when people are denied their rights then there is bound to be violence. Well-known fiction writer of Urdu, journalist and activist, Zaheda Hina who lives in Karachi in Pakistan, has been a strong advocate for peace in South Asia. Zaheda says: “Both Hindus and Muslims shed their blood in the joint struggle of freedom from British rule. The Rani of Jhansi, Hazrat Mahal, Raja Kumwar Singh, Tantia Tope and Bakht Khan chose to die for Mughal India. In the Twentieth Century, Bhagat Singh and Dada Ashfaq went to the gallows for India’s freedom. Then how did it happen that the Muslims and the Hindus took up the hatchet against each other and launched on a campaign to decimate their rich Indo-Iranian civilisation and secular tradition?” Raising a firm voice for burying the hatchet, Zaheda is gravely concerned about the nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan. “If a nuclear war was to take place between India and Pakistan and if atomic weapons were to be used, the fireworks will be seen in Dhaka and Kathmandu too. The nuclear crowds will also reach Sri Lanka and those Buddhist monasteries of Tibet where the smell of gunpowder has not yet reached.” She adds that this madness must end in the sub-continent. Selina Hosain, a senior fiction writer of Bangladesh who has penned 50 books and has received the highest literary awards of her country, feels that peace is the primary concern for the sub-continent. Having closely witnessed the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and seen the liberation of Bangladesh, Selina says that violence spells misery all around. “I want peace for the entire sub-continent. It is important that the two super powers of the sub-continent, India and Pakistan who are equipped with nuclear weaponry, realise that any war could mean an end of the glorious and shared traditions of the sub-continent.” These are women writers who have lived through turmoil and are determined to make their voices for peace heard in the face of conflict, bigotry and fundamentalism in the interest of maintaining the rich and varied cultural tapestry of South Asia. |
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Fixing bikes in a jiffy New Delhi: Pushpa, 35, and Raj Sodhi in her 40s, sit at their workshop, waiting for a motorbike or a scooter to come by. Neither has studied beyond Class 8 or heard about women's liberation movements around the world. But ask them to fix your two-wheeler and they can have it ready in a jiffy. Pushpa and Raj are perhaps India's first women mechanics. And they know only too well they have broken into a male bastion in a country known for its prejudices against women. They were trained by the Bharatiya Parivardhan Sanstha, an NGO supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), under its Decent Employment for Women in India. With an 11-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter to look after, Pushpa was driven to fend for her family when her husband — who irons clothes for a living — made it a habit to squander away his earnings. Says the fair, frail and otherwise quiet Pushpa: “I wanted to do something different.” Raj, whose husband is an electrician, became a mechanic in order to teach the trade to her four sons in future. “In the beginning we didn’t tell anyone that we were learning to repair scooters. We were scared of being ridiculed. Even the motorists who came doubted our capability because we were women,” discloses Pushpa. “But now things have changed,” she smiles and says. Together, they run the Hind Motor Centre — a name chosen by Raj to symbolise her loyalty to the country — in northeast Delhi and earn around Rs 2,500 each every month. Little by little, city by city, town by town, women, who comprise 48 percent of India's billion plus population — are treading into what has been perceived as male territory. Only a month ago, four women in the Khargone area of Madhya Pradesh took on the risky task of night patrolling, possibly becoming the first in India to do so. Woman cop Kiran Bedi and late astronaut Kalpana Chawla are only too well known for breaking into male bastions. In 1936, Sarla Thakral cut the golden ribbon to become India's first woman pilot. At a time, when flying was still associated with birds, Thakral elevated the womankind of India with a leap into the unconquered. Now in the 2000s, history is being rewritten on terra firma too. Three Indian women — Vibha Kumari, Meenakshi Sharma and Anjali Minz — have taken hold of the wheel of the prestigious Delhi Metro Rail, driving thousands of people every day. These women work in the same conditions and the same hours as their male counterparts.
— Indo-Asian News Service |
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Birdsong albums fly
off the shelves BIRDSONG has always held a mysterious power to lift our mood. And now, as commerce and urban sprawl reduce our chances of listening to the real thing, we are finding a new way to experience this most primal form of music as recordings of birdsong achieve remarkable sales. The British Library has one of the world's largest archives of recorded sound, and its first double album, compiled from 150,000 wildlife recordings made over the last 50 years, was released in the mid-Eighties. It proved so successful that it was reissued in 2000 and quickly sold another 10,000 copies. The response was unprecedented for a niche product without a big promotional budget. Sales have been building steadily ever since. The British Trust for Ornithology's recent hour-long CD of a single species, the nightingale, also amazed staff at the trust when copies sold in thousands. “There is a big demand just for the enjoyment of listening and there is a demand too for learning how to identify different birds,” said Richard Ranft, of the British Library Sound Archive. “Bear in mind that 400,000 people took part in the RSPB's (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) garden birdwatch this year. There is huge interest.” Songs of Garden Birds, a compilation of 52 birds heard in British gardens, is a guide for the amateur enthusiast, while the second CD, Dawn Chorus, is a pure celebration of sound. “People like to hear birdsong because they want to relive happy moments,” suggests Ranft, who has compiled and produced the albums for the library. “They can relive a sunny spring afternoon or the really joyous moment of listening to a dawn chorus.” Andrew Joys of the British Trust for Ornithology believes birdsong helps us when we are at a low ebb. “At the times of day when we mortals need some inspiration and uplifting of the spirits, the songs are relaxing and calming and in contrast to the noise disturbance that humans impose on the environment,” he said. Birdsong has inspired many great writers and musicians. Composer Olivier Messiaen became obsessed by replicating the sounds of “God’s own musicians”, and Beethoven quoted the cuckoo, quail and nightingale in his Pastoral Symphony. Mozart kept a trained starling to listen to, and the score of Respighi’s Pines of Rome specifies the use of a 78rpm recording of birdsong. But so far no composer or mechanical imitation has reproduced birdsong convincingly. Although sonograms can record its pitch content and patterns, it is impossible to transcribe, and the result is always a shadow of the complex original. The melody of birdsong is not limited to the chromatic scale or restricted to regular rhythms. Psychiatrists and philosophers now believe they can explain the appeal of birdsong. As society becomes more regimented and our surroundings more artificial, people are increasingly in search of the opposite — freedom and nature. A recent study by Reading University found that an encounter with the natural world boosts mental health by giving a “sense of coherence”. It also offers what the Kaplans, a husband-and-wife team of environmental psychologists, have called “soft fascination”, a term for the kind of experience offered by contemplating clouds or sunsets. Used in this way, birdsong can provide a cue for meditation. Top of the avian charts are several enduring favourites: the nightingale, song thrush, starling, house sparrow and blackbird. “The blackbird is my favourite,” said Ranft. “It has a melodious, flutey tone which it delivers in short phrases.” While birdsong is crucial to the British Trust for Ornithology and the RSPB as a way of monitoring changes in bird populations, Joys says that we should resist the temptation to over-analyse it. “Instead of wondering what is the exact “benefit”' to the birds, we should just enjoy it and accept that not all things in life have to be parcelled into neat packets for ecological purposes.” The Wildlife Trust’s annual International Dawn Chorus Day falls on May 2.
— The Guardian |
Good conduct comprises the abandonment of infatuation, aversion, injustice, falsehood and other evil habits and imbibing of non-violence, love, benevolence,
gentleness etc. Religion is the concern of our soul and our dutifulness. — Swami Dayanand Saraswati Countless people vex their hearts to know His limits, but His limits cannot be found. No one has ever discovered them. The more we say about them, the more is left to be said. — Guru Nanak The spiritual man is one who has found his self and lives in that, is conscious of it, has the joy of it; he needs nothing external for his completeness of existence. — Sri Aurobindo The brightest blaze of intelligence is of incalculably less value than the smallest spark of charity. — W. Nevins Our life is what our thoughts make it. — Marcus Aurelius |
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