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It’s not turban, but mindset is the issue, Monsieur Another police panel! Of unemployable engineers |
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Rightward Ho!
Half the salary and double the husband
Dear Mr Bush
Delhi Durbar
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It’s not turban, but mindset is the issue, Monsieur THE expulsion of three Sikh students from a French school in Bobigny casts a reflection on French laws and values. They have been thrown out of school simply because they wear a turban. The French have also expelled at least eight Muslim girls who wore a headscarf, or a hijab. It is believed that as many as 63 children are facing action because of their religious symbols in their attire. It is obvious that students attending public schools under the current dispensation in France cannot enjoy equal educational opportunities as other children do. There have been various assurances from the French government that some accommodation would be made for Sikh students, but these have proved to be hollow. The basis of the French law is the application of the principle of secularism, which calls for the separation of the church and the state. However, this is an odd interpretation of the law, since it denies essential freedoms to many schoolchildren, and encroaches on core human values. It is common knowledge that the French law is essentially meant to address concerns about rising fundamentalism, specifically Islamic, since the nation has the largest Muslim population in Europe. However, it does not address the basic issue, which has more to do with the mindset and less with the dress. Sikhs in France are a tiny community of a few thousand, and most of them are of Indian origin. The Government of India must bring diplomatic pressure to bear on the French government to sort out this matter at the earliest. Basic religious freedoms are supposed to be safeguarded by every nation in the world. The French law, as it is now interpreted, goes against the principles of natural justice and even the Charter of the European Union, which came into existence because of an idea that originated nowhere else but in France. The French government needs to have another look at its law and come out with an amendment to ensure that no one is discriminated against in the land of liberty. |
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Another police panel! PRIME
MINISTER Manmohan Singh’s decision to set up a committee of experts to examine the recommendations of all the past commissions and committees for improving the police administration, well-intentioned though, is bound to be viewed with scepticism. The Directors-General of Police conference in New Delhi may have lauded Dr Singh for the decision, but what is needed today is not yet another committee but political will to stem the rot in the system and reform the police administration. Sadly, successive reports, including that of the National Police Commission headed by Dharma Vira which gave its report way back in 1981, have been gathering dust in the cupboards of the Union Home Ministry. The Centre and the states have done little to implement scores of constructive suggestions meant to modernise the outdated police administration and its values. This is unfortunate because of late there has been a disruption of the command structure of the police in the states, especially at the three most crucial levels — the DGP, the Senior Superintendent of Police, and the Station House Officer. The effects of such disruption can be seen in the low level of discipline in the force, indifferent registration of cases at the police stations, poor quality of investigation of cases and increasing public grievances against the malfunctioning of the police force due to politicisation, corruption and nepotism. There is a general failure of the prosecution machinery. Disturbingly, police officers are selected for crucial positions like DGP and SSP for reasons other than merit, integrity and professionalism. This has vitiated the system leading to public distrust against the police. If the police are portrayed as “corrupt, inept and lawless” today, the reasons are not far to seek. The N.N. Vohra Committee has graphically examined the so-called nexus between politicians, criminals and the police. There is a need for breaking this nexus. The Prime Minister has rightly asked the political parties to focus on this issue. It is also essential to have a proper command structure for the police and to restore to it independence from the demands of the politicians. Honest and competent officers should alone lead the police units at various levels with a fixed tenure. The Dharma Vira report should be implemented in toto to check further deterioration in the creaking police system which is not really serving the people. |
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Of unemployable engineers IF professionals like engineers and architects go jobless or are forced to take up work other than what they are trained for, it is a pointer to how grim the situation of unemployment and underemployment is in India. Figures compiled by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research show that the number of engineers almost doubled from 5.97 lakh in 1993 to 11.8 lakh in 2003. There has also been an explosive increase in the number of engineering colleges in the country. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, the number of colleges rose from 77 in 1995 to 255 in 2003. Punjab too has witnessed the large-scale opening of engineering colleges, some of them only a shade better than academic shops and have been granted affiliation by Punjab Technical University regardless of the infrastructure and quality of staff. The mass production of engineers, apart from being a waste of limited national resources, has led to a deterioration in quality. To be commercially viable, many engineering colleges admit whosoever is able to pay their often hefty charges. As a result, the students manage to get degrees without acquiring the required skills. They remain unemployable. In these days of stiff competition and fat salaries, the industry is strict about hiring only quality manpower that can deliver. Campus recruitment is done only in select colleges known for quality education. Many students and their parents have learnt this the hard way after wasting huge amounts of money and precious time. Engineering colleges in Punjab tried hard this year to lure students through massive advertising in the media, but could not fill all their seats. The Punjab Government has lately woken up to the new reality and banned the opening of new engineering colleges in the state. The mismatch between demand and supply has to be corrected while ensuring quality to meet the industry’s needs. The U.R. Committee on technical education has asked for slashing the engineering seats in the country from the present three lakh to 50,000. This recommendation was ignored in the din over its suggestion to cut the IIM fee. |
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Man is born to live, not to prepare for life. — Boris Pasternak
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Rightward Ho! THE US presidential election has several lessons for America and the world. Apart from Mr George W. Bush’s triumph and Mr John Kerry’s loss, the consequences of the verdict are far-reaching. The incumbent President’s exploitation of the fear complex in the wake of unprecedented terrorist attacks on American soil in September 2001 undoubtedly influenced the vote, but the outcome also indicates a sharp turn to the right in the American political spectrum and the gradual erosion of the constitutional distinction between religion and state. If the sixties represented the revolt of the young, enhanced by the Vietnam war, and the growth of what became known as flower power, the beginning of the 21st century reflects a return to religion and nativist beliefs. True, America remains divided between more secular coasts in the East and the West, now representing less than half the population and the solid Republican red colour in large swathes of the heartland tipping at over 51 per cent. If is as if Americans are increasingly turning to religious fundamentalism in a paradoxical world of unchallenged US military power and vulnerability. In a sense, the unashamed American public display of religiosity by its leaders and politicians is unique, if quaint, in a highly industrialised society in the post-Enlightenment age. One has only to recall the televised prayer meetings of President Bill Clinton as an act of public penitence after his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. And evangelists of the ilk of Billy Graham have enjoyed the status of matinee idols. But there has not been a recent serving President claiming to be a born-again Christian wearing religion on his sleeves. There is a virtual stampede as people gather at the gates leading them to their individual or collective versions of God, egged on by a seemingly benign administration. There has always been an extremist religious fringe in America given over to fundamentalism or exotic religious beliefs, some of them self-destructive. But never before has the mainstream public been converted to the frenzy of evangelical Christians and mixed their beliefs with dollops of patriotism. The more the coastal areas are inclined to libertarian beliefs and ideas such as gay marriage, abortions or stem cell research, the greater seems to be the inclination of middle roaders to take the radical evangelical path. The United States is a country of immigrants and the worship of the Stars and Stripes and deification of institutions, particularly the presidency, have been used as cohesive tools in the making of the nation-state. The Nine Eleven tragedy accentuated these trends because after the upheavals of revolution and the civil war and the abolition of slavery and agitations against discrimination of blacks, feelings of collective American vulnerability have grown. President Bush has been flaunting a lapel pin with a likeness of Stars and Stripes ever since Nine Eleven. (It was strange to see the then External Affairs Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, suddenly sporting an Indian flag pin as a homage to Mr Bush, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.) In America, the less educated White male in the South and women and minorities have not had time to digest the disturbing changes stemming from the information revolution, with services replacing manufacturing as the mainstay of American economic power. They are now asked to cope with a world beset with terrorists, striking at the very heart of American military and political power. Decades ago, when I first lived in America for a time, I was struck by the uniformity of tastes and clothes dictated by an industrialised society. You had to be rich to be able to be different. I was also struck by the difference between literacy and education and the inclination of a prosperous society to be self-centred, rather than mindful of the wider world, except for fleeting news clips imbibed on the box. Uniformity of looks and behaviour has the psychological effect of inhibiting dissent. There are large pools of excellence in virtually all fields but they are oases in a seemingly barren land. The bulk of American people remain God-fearing citizens, convinced about the greatness and uniqueness of their country, ready to run up king-size versions of the Stars and Stripes on every conceivable occasion. They are members of parent-teacher associations, do voluntary work in an industrialised society in which the state does not provide adequately for the needs, particularly health care, for the poor. Soup kitchens in New York are the rule, rather than the exception. They go to church at least once a week, and in the first whisper of a threat to the nation, are ready to fight and die for the country. All wars breed frenzy among peoples of affected countries but American frenzy is qualitatively different because it is so intensely felt. The greater the frenzy, the greater the disappointment over wars without end, as the Vietnam war so tellingly revealed. The Iraq war has not reached a similar climax yet. For the present, the majority believes the leaders from the President down. They are told that America is fighting an essential war in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan so that the country does not have to fight anti-terrorist wars at home. They are told that President Saddam Hussein was a dangerous leader connected to Al-Qaeda, whose followers levelled the World Trade Centre, though no weapons of mass destruction have been found. And they root for President Bush and are ready to send their sons and daughters and husbands to die for the country. There are growing signs of disquiet and murmurs of protest as more soldiers continue to die, despite the ban on showing coffins of fallen soldiers returning home. There is more questioning as truth peeps through the clouds of spin and propaganda. In a confusing world, many have found solace in religion, in the certainties of fundamentalist beliefs — of the Jewish state permanently taking over all the occupied territories. And they raise three cheers to a President who is a practising Christian mindful of the interests of the devout, rather than of philistines. They give him their vote. Many questions remain unanswered. What is to become of a highly industrialised society — a hyperpower to boot — awash with religiosity? Has the United States embarked on a new empire-building exercise in an inhospitable age for such a venture without being equipped with a colonial ruling elite taking the trouble to know the peoples they rule? If President Bush’s vision extends to the Wilsonian concept of spreading liberty, as he claims, why is he patronising unsavoury and dictatorial regimes around the world? President Bush might as well reply: It is religion, stupid. The rest of the world will take time to find
out. |
Half the salary and double the husband RETIRING from work is one of the most significant events of one’s life. Our work is such an important part of our lives for such a long time that our self worth becomes tied to it. A job is like a plastic cuff at the end of a shoelace that keeps the rest of the strand from unravelling. After retirement the first area of tension is home. The wife gets half the salary and double the husband. With nothing to do, the husband sits at home —brooding, sulking and interfering in petty household affairs, which has been the exclusive domain of the housewife. Some wives perfect the art of nagging and don’t miss any opportunity to say unkind and uncharitable things. A woman who floats like a butterfly in younger days stings like a bee in older years. Indian husbands expect the relationship with wife like a relationship with man and God — from the heart but fearful. Out-of-job husbands feel lost. When out of power the body language also changes. Out-of-power people are avoided as if they have a serious communicable disease. The chair of authority is like a philosopher’s stone. It changes base lead to gold and plasticine into steel. Authority becomes an addiction. Retirement presses the eject button from authority. I tell people who are due to retire that they should consider the last day of their job as their Sarkari Chautha and uthala. Yeh Dabdaba, Yeh Hakumat, Yeh Nasha-e-Daulat, Kiraidar Hain, Sab Ghar Badalte Rehte Hain. Most of the retired people feel lonely and ignored. Loneliness is not just being alone but it involves a feeling of isolation, disconnectedness and not belonging. Lonely people perceive their world as less reinforcing and more threatening. There is a physiological toll of psychological isolation. French poet La’martin once cried, “ O time, arrest your flight.” Kuch Hasin Khwaab, Aur Kuch Aansoo Umar Bhar Ke Yehi Kahani Hai. Ageism, like sexism and racism, is a negative social reality. Poet Somerville addresses his armchair in old age: So safe on shore the pensioned sailor lies, And all the malice of the storm defies, With ease of body blessed and peaceful mind, Pities the restless crew he left behind, While in a cell he meditates alone, On his great voyage to the world
unknown. |
Dear Mr Bush On previous occasions the message from the Indian Prime Minister to a reelected President (Clinton or Reagan) was what the protocol called for. This time Dr Manmohan Singh’s congratulatory message to President George Bush is of a totally different kind. The two have met only once in September in New York and, therefore, the extremely warm language of the message and its extraordinarily meaningful content cannot be explained by just personal rapport the two developed at their first meeting. It is indicative of the Indian desire and expectation to promote close Indo-US relations and the Indian assessment that George Bush is most likely to reciprocate that sentiment. Unfortunately, the nature and content of this message have not been taken detailed note of in our media. One hopes that it has not been lost on the White House and the US State Department. Dr Manmohan Singh has taken not of the strong mandate George Bush has gained and its implication that the US as a nation expects him to be a wartime leader and press on with the war on terrorism. He has also assured the American President that as a partner against terrorism and WMD proliferation, India will stand by the United States in strengthening international peace and stability. In doing this he has also referred to the global war against terrorism and efforts to combat WMD proliferation deriving enormous benefit from Bush’s steadfast resolve and leadership. This is a very handsome tribute to President Bush at a time when his war in Iraq has been subjected to enormous criticism all over the world. But Prime Minister Singh is making a distinction between the global war against terrorism and efforts to combat WMD proliferation and the war in Iraq. He, however, admits that India has a stake in the early return of Iraq to international mainstream as a democracy and, therefore, is ready to contribute to the electoral process early next year. There is a hint here that India favours democratisation of West Asian countries and is, therefore, ready to contribute to the electoral process. It also signals that on democratisation of West Asia India shares common objectives with the US. The elections in Iraq are mentioned in combination with the successful presidential elections in Afghanistan, which he describes as being in vital interests of both India and the US. Following this, the PM mentions very delicately that one major goal of our policies must be to continue to deny any comfort or encouragement to religious extremism or terrorism and resolve to ensure their complete elimination as an acceptable instrument of state policy. There is an element of exhortation in this sentence and the obvious references are to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The US dealings with these countries are dominated by tactical considerations and hence the reference to ensuring the complete elimination of religious extremism and terrorism as acceptable instruments of state policies. This is mentioned as a goal implying India’s understanding that it will take time to reach that situation. The next sentence that “we are confident that at the United States and India are on the same side in this effort” is the gentle exhortation to the US not to make too many compromises in this effort. In the next para the PM sets out the agenda for the progress in Indo-US relations during the second term of George Bush. He starts by paying a tribute to the US President for his personal commitment and efforts in bringing about a qualitative transformation in Indo-US relations. He impliedly assures him of India’s commitment to integration with the global economy and to draw up an economic roadmap and make it an integral element of broader Indo-US relationship. This one sentence should remove all doubts in Washington about the UPA government’s future policies on economic liberalisation. Then the PM announces India’s intention to embank on a longer and a more ambitious agenda for broader strategic cooperation and spells out that high technology, commerce and defence hold particular promise in this regard. His mention of defence is interesting since India and the US have had very little interaction in defence hardware transactions. This is partly because of Indian suspicion in the light of past experience that the US was not a reliable supplier. The PM’s reference to defence would indicate his confidence that mutual inter-dependence that is bound to grow between the two countries would justify Indian confidence in the US in future and there is not much possibility of circumstances of the type arising in future which may lead to the US interrupting supplies. While our media is full of pessimistic prognostications on the next steps in strategic partnership (NSSP), the PM, in his letter, looks forward to moving ahead expeditiously on the NSSP. He must have reasons for his optimism and laying that much emphasis on it. He asserts “India and the United States together and in partnership based on trust and mutual confidence can make a positive difference on issues of global significance in this century”. Surely President Bush cannot be receiving too many letters from foreign Heads of Government expressing such warm sentiments and optimism in the potential of their cooperation with the US. One wonders whether in the last 57 years of our Independence any previous Prime Minister had talked of partnership between India and the other country making a positive difference on issues of global significance. Dr Manmohan Singh has spelt out clearly in conceptual terms what Indo-US cooperation would imply in global terms. In a way he is reciprocating George Bush’s gesture in the US National Security doctrine, terming India as a major global actor. It is obvious from this letter that India’s march towards globalisation and economic liberalisation are not likely to be subjected to vetoes by coalition partners. It is also a call to the Indian politicians and bureaucracy to shed their cold-war mindset and language. |
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Delhi Durbar FIERY Sanyasin Uma Bharti is difficult to restrain and the BJP leaders know this fully well. She is known for her frank and candid observations and her talk on a television programme in which she hurled allegations against high-profile party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan has put the “party with a difference” in a tight spot. “Iron man” Lal Krishan Advani, realising the damage that she has done to the party, asked the party spin-doctors to undertake a damage control exercise. They have been working over time to tell media friends that a mountain was being made out of a molehill and there was nothing in it. Uma, who has been on the forefront of the Ayodhya movement along with Advani, thinks that corruption has sunk in a party and that is one reason for the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and now in the Maharashtra assembly elections. If she follows her nature, then she has to be frank, but party discipline shackles her. The BJP spin-doctors have to do a lot of work. Asia’s man at the UN He boasts an impressive collection of rare watches and antique cars, but that’s just a stress buster. At 43, Thailand’s Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai is criss-crossing global capitals as he braces himself for Mission 2006 to be Asia’s man at the UN. Sathirathai has a fetish for the initials SS, shared by his entire family. They are supposed to bring him good luck. He’ll need that in abundance to be Asia’s man at the UN. Though this was not the main reason which brought him to New Delhi in the first week of November. Backed by his boss, Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, Sathirathai is ASEAN’s official candidate for the UN Secretary-General’s job when Kofi Annan retires in 2006. Within a short time, Sathirathai has developed a close rapport with External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh with a convergence of views on regional partnerships as the foundation of multilateralism. If he succeeds, he would be the youngest UN Secretary-General and only the second from Asia after U Thant of Burma. But it’s not going to be easy as there are many candidates and many more countries to be won over. Sathirathai was instrumental in getting Thailand to pioneer initiatives like the Asian Cooperation Dialogue and BIMSTEC. His role as a dominant voice in ASEAN has given him a global profile. In Sathirathai, India has a friend who has worked for deepening Indo-Thai ties. He was earlier instrumental in strengthening economic co-operation with India as an economic adviser to the Prime Minister. Hans Blix in Delhi The Capital had an interesting visitor from abroad in the week just ended. Hans Blix, the mild-mannered Swedish diplomat, who as the chief of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq proved to be a thorn in the flesh of the US, came to participate in the Hindustan Times Leadership Initiative. As a diplomat, his forte has been to keep his cool. But it hasn’t been easy. The constant American sniping against the UN inspectors’ failure to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq led to the uncharacteristic outburst in November 2003 when Blix called his detractors “bastards who spread things around... who planted nasty things in the media.”
Contributed by: Rajeev Sharma, Satish Misra |
All Vedic evidence affirms the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be the final concept of the Absolute Truth. Realisation of the Supreme Person is higher than impersonal Brahman realisation or localised Supersoul realisation. — Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Humility is the foundation of the Jain faith. The practice of self-restraint and austerity should make one humble and modest. To a person who is not humble, righteousness and austerity are of no avail. — Lord Mahavir Merit lies only in serving God. All other service, cunningness and feigned goodness are of no avail. Hold, therefore, to his name; that alone will free you from your shackles. — Guru Nanak Personal God is as much an entity for Himself as we are for ourselves, and no more. God can also be seen as a form, just as we are seen. As men we must have God; as Gods, we need none. That is why Sri Ramakrishna constantly saw the Divine Mother ever present with him, more real than any other thing around him; but in Samadhi all went but the Self. —
Swami Vivekananda Fame is a vapour; popularity an accident; riches take wings; the only certainty is oblivion. — Horace Greeley |
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IT is customary for Heads of Government to send congratulatory messages to Heads of State when they win elections. When a US President wins a second term, heads of State and Government vie with one another in congratulating him. These messages are couched in a language just formal or with warmth, depending on the state of relationship between the countries and personal relationship between the two Heads of Government.