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Let them see Not by force |
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India as dustbin Alas, anything can be dumped here Once again, India’s import regulatory mechanism stands exposed. Whether it is the disease-infected blood or live missiles and bombs, anything can be brought into this country. The meaning of liberalisation, it seems, has been stretched rather too far. One need not this time accuse the security forces of laxity in plugging the unauthorised channels in a porous international border.
How the British left India
Clinking cacophony
Young women turn
child saviours Delhi Durbar China celebrates anniversary
Opening hearts and borders
Package from Malaysia
Leftists and foreigners
On protest for peace since ’80
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Let them see THE visit of a group of journalists from Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir is a major development. It is for the first time after Independence that news persons from the other side of the border have been allowed access to the militancy-hit state. This has been made possible because of the liberalisation of the visa regime announced unilaterally by India in the run-up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with President Pervez Musharraf in New York last month. One hopes the Indian members of the South Asia Free Media Association trying to visit Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas will also be allowed free access to these places by Islamabad. India has definitely shown an unusual boldness in letting the Pakistani media people find out themselves whether there are any human rights violations in the Valley as alleged by Pakistani politicians, media commentators and others. Since the Indian media has already been reporting the happenings in J&K and the area has not been forbidden to foreign journalists, there is nothing to hide as such. But the psyche of the people of Pakistan is such that they will believe the truth only if it is narrated by their own journalists. This is quite understandable in view of the history of strained relations between the two neighbours. That is why it is necessary for the Pakistan Government to allow Indian journalists too to visit any area they want to, including PoK. In fact, the time has come for India and Pakistan to break the barriers that exist in the way of free movement of journalists and access to newspapers and television channels. There is a dearth of information about each other. The hunger for news can be satiated only if newspapers and news channels are able to post their own correspondents in each other's country. The present system of reciprocity under which Pakistan and India have a equal number of correspondents covering the countries from each other has outlived its utility. It should be left to the media organisations to choose their own correspondents without any let or hindrance. In any case, what is the point in preventing the supply of newspapers and magazines when they are already available on the Internet? |
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Not by force UNION Home Minister Shivraj Patil has endorsed the proposal for a unified action in the militancy-hit states of the Northeast. Given the worsening law and order situation in the region where bomb blasts have become a dime a dozen, there is a case for tough action against the insurgents blowing away railway stations and market centres. But such actions should not be an end in themselves. It is not difficult to find out why flare-ups have become all too common in the Northeast. It was only recently that Manipur virtually stood up as one man in protest against the mysterious death of a tribal woman taken into custody by the Assam Rifles. What was noteworthy about the protest was the near-total involvement of the people. Such mass participation was a pointer to the sense of alienation that has been gripping the people of the Northeast. The syndrome is not different in Assam and Nagaland either. The state governments concerned had no clue of what was brewing in their backyard until bombs blew away peace and tranquility. Even after the daring attempt made on Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's life recently, his government did precious little to shore up confidence among the people. The United Liberation Front of Asom has claimed responsibility for the bomb blasts proving the point that despite the setbacks it suffered when it was ferreted out from Bhutan, it is still alive and kicking. This would not have been possible without the support it enjoys from a section of the unemployed youth. Lack of jobs, a sense of brigandry and opportunities for easy money drive such youth to join the ranks of the militants. The contractor-politician-bureaucrat mafia in the region gobbles up most of the Central funds earmarked for development in the region. Successive governments at the Centre have talked at length about their plans for the Northeast but have done nothing with the result that, forget job opportunities, the region does not have even decent infrastructure like roads and wells. All this gives an impetus to violence which erupts every now and then. |
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India as dustbin Once again, India’s import regulatory mechanism stands exposed. Whether it is the disease-infected blood or live missiles and bombs, anything can be brought into this country. The meaning of liberalisation, it seems, has been stretched rather too far. One need not this time accuse the security forces of laxity in plugging the unauthorised channels in a porous international border. Frequent reports of human trafficking and drug smuggling have ceased to surprise. Tainted blood, bombs, mortar and missiles are the latest additions to the import agenda. And these were not secretly slipped into the country. The cargoes came through recognised, legal channels. As Ghaziabad exploded, experts immediately got busy expressing their outrage on TV channels at security lapses. Caught unawares, the government, however, failed to piece together a convincing explanation to a dismayed nation. The country also has a National Security Adviser, who, instead of coming out with a fact-based reasonable reaction, opted to take on the TV experts for sensationalising the issue. Like its control set-up, the government’s response system too has been a letdown. The truth is no one seems to know for how long such imports as the deadly consignment from Iran have been coming into the country. What is not in doubt is that India has emerged as a convenient dumping ground for all types of waste, specially emanating from the developed world. There is hardly any agency to check the toxicity of the imported material. Small wonder, drugs and chemicals, banned in the West, are in circulation here. The entry into the country of the obnoxious congress grass should have alerted the government long ago to be vigilant to such dangers in future and put in place a reliable mechanism to ensure a strict check on undesirable imports. Liberalisation does not mean free for all for companies. The Ghaziabad episode should impel the government to fortify its regulatory mechanism. |
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An intellectual is someone whose mind watches
itself. — Albert Camus |
How the British left India By the end of World War II the British had realised that they would not be able to hold out against a possible Congress-led mass movement. In fact, Lord Wavell, then Viceroy, advised the Cabinet early in 1946 that the British should withdraw from India by June 1948. He was regarded as too defeatist by a Labour government seeking to postpone Indian independence to the kalends. At the very least, asked Whitehall, couldn’t the British present a transfer of power as an achievement? Since neither the British nor the Congress wanted Partition, why couldn’t they join forces against the League? For Congress leaders, Partition would be the antithesis of the united secular India they were striving to achieve. The British opposed Partition because it would break up the military foundations of their worldwide empire. They wanted to transfer power to an undivided India which could be retained as a military base. Imperial India was the military arm of the British empire, supplying it, at no expense to the British taxpayer, with a million troops. The British Indian Army was a well-trained mobile striking force, which could be deployed at short notice anywhere in the world. The British never informed the Indian parties that a defence agreement assuring the maintenance of their concrete military power would be a condition for Independence. So, at the Cabinet Mission negotiations all three parties were working at cross-purposes: the League for Partition, the Congress for Independence for a united India; the British to retain power at the centre in an undivided India, exploiting the Congress-League rift while extracting a military agreement that would uphold their imperial power. The Mission Plan envisaged a Union government responsible for defence and foreign policy, while creating three groups of provinces. In private discussions the British told the Muslim League that sections would frame their own constitutions and that the British would only transfer power after a constitution had been crafted in accordance with the Mission Plan. This meant that Pakistan could become a reality under the British, before they withdrew. Congress leaders were told just the opposite: that the Constituent Assembly would be a sovereign body. Neither of the Indian parties was aware that the British had given contradictory assurances to the other. Nehru stressed the sovereignty of the Constituent Assembly. The British had agreed to this subject to two conditions: equitable treatment of minorities and a defence treaty between India and Britain. Nehru thought that once Indian parties entered the Assembly they would concentrate on political, social and economic issues. Grouping would then be relegated to the background. This implied that grouping was not the leitmotif of his statement. More importantly, Nehru stated firmly that the British could not dictate to the Assembly on any issue. His remarks were clearly aimed at the British and emphasised the independence of the Constituent Assembly. Jinnah took exception to the British silence on Nehru’s statement. What for the League was a British guarantee against Congress domination was for the Congress British dictation to the Assembly. Congress-League differences were not new: it was the realisation that the British would not implement the Mission Plan in the way they had assured the League, that the League might get nothing from the British, that proved, in August 1946, to be the catalyst for the Jinnah’s call for Direct Action. Direct Action triggered widespread communal riots in Bengal, Bihar and Punjab. The Governor of Bihar admitted the inability of his government to suppress the violence for a variety of reasons: at times some of the villages affected by communal violence were inaccessible by road. In Bengal, the League ministry connived in the organisation of the violence. After August 1946 the communal conflagration resulted in tens of thousands of casualties This was the breaking point. A handful of riots would not have led to it. As the British realised their administrative weakness, the “inevitability” of Partition seemed imminent. So, on February 20, 1947, the Labour government announced its intention to withdraw from India by June 1948. But violence had broken out in Punjab before Mountbatten took up his post as Viceroy in March 1947. Mountbatten tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade Jinnah against Partition. As communal violence raged through Punjab in March and April 1947, Mountbatten realised that there was little possibility of an agreement with a leader who equated the idea of a united India with a bloody civil war after the British departure. The British simply lacked the military resources to control the violence: because of commitments in Europe more British troops could not be brought into India from there. Seeing the writing on the wall, Mountbatten counselled the Labour government to withdraw from India by August 15, 1947, as the last date by which the British could avoid being sucked into a communal war for which they would be held responsible, and which could, eventually, turn against them. The Labour Cabinet accepted his advice reluctantly, for Independence would now be offered unconditionally without any military treaties with the successor states to the Raj. Jinnah alone knew what he wanted — a sovereign Pakistan. The division between the British and the Congress prevented them from combining against the League. If the British and the Congress had been able to work together they could have outsmarted Jinnah in negotiations. But having used him as a counterpoise for several years against their arch-enemy, the Congress, the British could not swing over suddenly, in 1946-47, to the Congress against him. What was politically possible was psychologically impossible. Administrative breakdown prompted the British to divide and quit in August 1947. The good intentions of the Congress were not backed up by Muslim mass support: its acceptance of Partition only pointed to its lack of organisation in the Muslim-majority provinces. Failure to win over Muslim voters was the greatest weakness of the Congress; with mass backing, it could have routed the Muslim League. Independence without Partition would then have been possible. Poor Congress organisation in the Muslim-majority provinces showed that popular support of all communities is crucial for the success of a secular party. In 1947 India paid a heavy price for freedom because communal forces were not defeated. If the 21st century Congress wants India to stop paying this price it must strengthen its secular base and trounce communal forces forever. (Concluded) |
Clinking cacophony It may sound absurd but England, France and Germany pounded the peace in my humble household and the happiest guy in the entire episode was from Almora. No, it had nothing to do with the two World Wars but the result of my wife's doing-an act, which if someone else in the household was found indulging in, was unpardonable. Here we go clinking. A beautiful crystal in the shape of an apple with a twig and leaf, gifted to my wife by Sir Edward Crew, the Chief Constable of Midlands, U.K., on our visit to that country in 2002, was the first to come crashing. It landed first on the glass table we had purchased as made-to-order for a couple of thousand rupees about a decade-and-half back. Then it touched the floor, breaking into countless pieces, strewn all over as if for an enhanced effect. Midway somewhere, it hit the photo frame we got as gift from our hosts in Cergy near Paris, in France. The frame took with it, with a clinking sound, a German vase we bought at a duty-free shop for nearly a hundred Euros. Also martyred in the melee were some half a dozen crystals of the shape of a horse, an elephant, a sea-nymph and a peacock we acquired during various trade fairs in Pragati Maidan. Hearing the rumbling we all rushed to the drawing room to find a nearly fainting Lady of the House. She did not utter a single word and dumbfounded literally, she looked deep as if through the floor. "What happened? Are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?" were the anxious queries from almost everybody. We accosted her to the bedroom and offered her water. After a little while she presented herself to be both elucidatory and apologetic. Sweet and consolatory words were showered on her and everyone thanked providence on finding her unhurt, though physically. She began to settle as also to explain that taking my eldest sister's call informing that she was reaching our place with her grandchildren, to tie me a rakhi, she thought it wise to remove all the breakables out of the reach of the naughty ones. "And the 'apple' slipped out of my hands breaking… (sobs)… (more sobs)… everything!" she broke down once again but soon gathered herself. Seeing her settle down, everyone started exchanging glances with each other. The children left us and made it to the drawing room surreptitiously, one by one. I also followed them only to overhear the titters, "Thank God it was Mamma herself. Or else! Shshsss Papa's here!" I myself couldn't help but chuckle and sneer. The domestic help from Almora was there collecting the broken pieces and giggling. I am sure he must have set off all the broken glasses and chinaware being in our service, for the clinking cacophony blamed on the Lady of the House.
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Young women turn
child saviours
They are called shishu rakshaks or child saviours of Orissa, which has the country’s highest infant mortality rate — 85 per 1,000 live births. Each village nominates its three best "bahus" for ensuring child survival. (Daughters cannot be nominated for if they marry they leave the village.) From the three, just one girl is finally selected for a year of rigorous training before she is sent back to her village with three simple tools of her trade — a thermometer, weighing scales and a watch — that enables her to monitor the health of the new born. Drawing from the knowledge acquired over five-month training, Manjulatha Sambal lists the value of her three tools — the watch enables us to keep count of the newborn’s pulse rate, the weighing scales which are colour coded enable us to know if the child is underweight (2500 grams or less) and, therefore, at greater risk. And with the thermometer we check the baby’s body temperature because hypothermia can prove fatal. Each shishu rakshak has responsibility for a population of just a thousand so that she is able to walk from home to home, keep in touch with families and monitor the birth and growth of every infant. Though the shishu rakshaks are selected by the community and all of them are literate and articulate women, the parents of the newborns are wary of this new team of paramedics. They want to know what forms they are filling and resent all the questions being asked. Despite some teething problems there is a great deal of enthusiasm and the shishu rakshaks are confident of improving the survival rate of the newborns in their care. The fact that the community backs them improves their status and confidence level. The fact that the shishu rakshak visits the pregnant woman at least thrice before the birth of the baby and about 10 times at the neo-natal stage of the child’s life adds to the bonding. Dr Saraswati Swain, Secretary-General of the National Institute of Applied Human Research and Development, that is overseeing the project, says 64 per cent of the 5,000 million neo-natal deaths in the world occur in the first weeks of a child’s life. In India it is 47/1,000 live births, which is two-third of the infant deaths. A major fraction of the post neo-natal deaths occur in the second month. So from birth to 60 days a child is extremely vulnerable and needs maximum care. Fifty per cent of the newborn deaths are due to infections manifesting as septicemia and pneumonia and diarrhoea. Birth asphyxia and injuries and pre-maturity at birth are the other major causes of neo-natal deaths. Problems get aggravated because of poverty, illiteracy, low socio-economic status and poor maternal health status. Dr Swain says the
Gadchiroli model of Maharashtra where home-based newborn care, including
treatment of sepsis by village-level workers, has brought down neo-natal
deaths by 50 per cent and IMR to 25, has spurred the Government of India
to start similar interventions to reduce infant mortality rate in some
six districts of the country — Cuttack in Orissa, Patna in Bihar,
Yeotmal in Maharashtra, Rajsamand in Rajasthan and Barabanki in Uttar
Pradesh. |
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Delhi
Durbar Sanyasin
Uma Bharti and traditional Hindu “grahni” Sushma Swaraj are trying to edge out each other in the ongoing power struggle within the BJP. Both have ambitions and are known and liked for their oratorical skills. Ever since L K Advani declared that he along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee may not be on the political scene if the UPA government lasts a full term, the two women leaders have been leaving nothing to chance. While temperamental Uma aligned herself with suave urbanite Arun Jaitley, Sushma opted for Pramod Mahajan. Sushma has been awarded the maximum number of public meetings in the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra. Uma will get her chance during the assembly elections in Bihar. But the million dollar question is: who will have the last laugh?
China celebrates anniversary
CPM protests and Chinese look the other way China is slowly but surely dismantling relics of the past. The function to mark the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which used to be organised on the embassy premises, was now held in five-star comfort. The Indian comrades said cheers to the great Chinese Revolution in plush surroundings after protesting so valiantly about the presence of the “foreign” experts in the Planning Commission and forcing their exit.
Opening hearts and borders
It started in an impromptu manner last month at a meet organised by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) where the Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers were present. External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh made an off-the-cuff announcement that journalists from Pakistan can visit any part of India. The scope of this policy statement was enlarged a few days later when doctors, students, senior citizens and others were also made beneficiaries of the liberalised visa regime. As a result, an 18-member team of Pakistani journalists has begun its week-long visit to Jammu and Kashmir from October 3 and Indian journalists will visit Pakistan occupied Kashmir and northern areas in November.
Package from Malaysia
It was not too long ago when cruising was known as the holiday option for the rich and the famous. But in today’s cut-throat competition among tour operators, international cruising has become affordable even to the common man. Consider the latest India-specific package offered by Tourism Malaysia and Star Cruise. Under this special offer, a traveller gets a two night’s cruise on SuperStar Gemini from Malaysia and three nights stay in Kuala Lumpur with breakfast, hotel transfers and sight seeing, all at a cost of Rs 13,999 per head.
Leftists and foreigners
Two persons were seen engrossed in an animated discussion in a coffee shop in the Capital. One person, with a beard puffing away his pipe, wondered why foreign experts should be there in the Planning Commission. Is there any dearth of talent in the country, he asked aloud. The other person, who was listening to the argument for long, observed in a sheepish tone: “Aren’t Leftist ideologues foreigners as Marxists draw inspiration from the works of Marx, Lenin and Mao”. Any doubts? Contributed by Satish Misra, Rajeev Sharma and R Suryamurthy. |
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On protest for peace since ’80 On a humble, but a very significant patch of land, Concepcion Picciotto, a short gutsy woman in her late sixties and every inch curious, greets the visitors with a broad smile. And as she places in your hands a poem, Dead Little Girl in Hiroshima, and feeds peanuts to hurrying squirrels, her deep intent eyes ask the visitor, “What do you think about the nuclear weapons threatening to extinguish all life on earth?” Wearing a headgear, perhaps symbolic of a shield against nuclear attack, this little woman on a great mission is not a doomsayer as the slogans on small placards hung loosely all around may lead one to believe. In a tent pitched near the White House, Mrs Picciotto leads a tough campaign from a modest space of a sidewalk. When wars ravage all around and talk of peace is considered the job of either lunatics or the weaklings, this woman from far off Spain has been unfazed. Her protest dates back to August, 1980. “Those who live by bombs die by bombs” and “Civilised people do not nuke fellow humans” are the messages what she would like the people to spread across the world. “It seems you are from India, the land of Gandhi, that apostle of peace?” she asks me. When I nod yes, Picciotto’s face brightens up and she says: “We need many more Gandhis in each country, but more in Washington D.C. You cannot do this to the world and all in the name of democracy and freedom. This war-mongering is dangerous for the world. Ignorant people are occupying places of power and doing grave injustice to the world they lie… they are cowards…” Come winter when the mercury goes minus 15 and fast icy winds blow you out, her protest remains unfazed. She takes shelter in the corridors nearby, from where too at times she is evicted and has to rush to her small tent. The winter in Washington is unbearably harsh and any suggestion to wind up the protest temporarily brings out a clear no from this woman. Her protest now is part of the landscape of this avenue. She has at times been joined in by fellow protesters and visitors to the White House stop here to share their thoughts and lend support. The visitors also offer small donations, which otherwise she never solicits. She reads a short poem and tells visitors to ask their Presidents and Prime Ministers to answer the little girl from Hiroshima. The poem “Dead Little Girl of Hiroshima” reads thus: “I came and stand at every door/But none can hear my silent tread/I knock, but remain unseen/For I am dead. I’m seven, though I died/In Hiroshima long ago”. |
If one wants to be independent of God, one is put under the control of the inferior material potency. The only way for materially conditioned souls to achieve perfection, therefore, is through devotional service to Krishna. — Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Bhakti is greater than Karma, greater than Yoga, because these are intended for an object in view, while Bhakti is its own fruition, its own means and its own end. — Swami Vivekananda I beg from You, my Lord, the alms of chastity and modesty as rice; compassion as wheat; attainment of Your grace as the receiving of charity in the leafy bowl; good deeds as milk and contentment as butter. — Guru Nanak The first wealth is health. — Ralph Waldo
Emerson Man’s conscience is the oracle of God.
— Byron |
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