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Thrust on diversification No child’s play Modi’s company |
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Defence not short of money
Special diet
Bhagat Singh’s mystique New bus safety rules soon Heading in the right direction?
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Thrust on diversification THE only significant departure the Punjab Budget for 2005-06, presented on Tuesday, makes from the previous budgets is in its thrust on crop diversification, which is now seen as a remedy to the crisis in agriculture in the state. In a bold move, he has imposed a cess on diesel and petrol to raise money for the proposed “Agri-Diversification Infrastructure, Research and Development Fund”. The diversification plan, drawn by the Johl Committee, has been dumped by the Union Government. Yet Finance Minister Surinder Singla plans to seek Rs 1,280 crore from the Centre to fund it. So the success of the grand diversification plan, thus, depends, at least partly, on funds from the Centre. The wisdom behind levying a cess on petroleum products, the only new tax the Budget has imposed, is debatable— especially when cricket sponsors get relief,
entertainment and liquor are spared. The global oil prices are already high, having touched $57 a barrel recently. Despite the latest Union Budget slashing the duties on petroleum products, the Centre may have to raise the oil prices soon. In Punjab the diesel and petrol prices are already higher than those in Chandigarh and Haryana. The new cess will add to the consumer’s burden. The inflationary effect of the cess will hit maximum the marginal farmer, whom the government wants to help with the diversification plan. Mr Singla could have tapped more sources for raising additional revenue for a faster growth of Punjab. The Budget makes little effort to control wasteful government expenditure and correct the fiscal imbalance. There is no push to the privatisation or disinvestment of loss-making state enterprises, currently headed by MLAs. The last Budget had put the state’s debt at Rs 40,327 crore and the only relief the state has got is from the rescheduling of Central loans. Liquor auctions can yield more, but the government seems to be encouraging a cartel. The salaries, pensions and debt repayments leave little money for development. Punjab’s growth rate, already lower than the national average, may not look up in the near future as the diversification drive will take time to show results. The service sector is the only one that is growing. Otherwise, industry and agriculture are either stagnating or going downhill. The proposal to set up an investment commission for mobilising funds for both agriculture and industry is, therefore, commendable. |
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No child’s play THE Supreme Court’s direction to Collectors and Superintendents of Police in every district to take immediate steps to prevent child marriage mirrors the gravity of the problem. Far more such marriages are being solemnised than are being reported. The court is rightly concerned about the damage that the illegal practice is doing to the fabric of society and lives of thousands of children. These boys and girls who should be at school are cruelly pushed into matrimony. Imagine someone becoming a mother at 14 when her friends are still in middle school! Such unfortunate victims are robbed of their childhood as well as youth. The attitude of the authorities towards the evil has been casual at best. The Child Marriage Restraint Act had been passed a long time ago but has not been too effective in curbing the inhuman practice. The Bill for making the law more stringent will take quite some time to be passed. Appreciating the urgency of taking effective measures at once, the apex court has made the Collectors and SPs responsible for implementation. The court has also asked district officials to concentrate on mass marriages to start with. In these, thousands of children aged between nine and 17 are driven to wedlock. To make sure that the indirect social acceptance that this menace has acquired is eroded, the court has even directed states to take action against public figures who take part in such functions. While the Collectors and SPs have been detailed to put the fear of the law in the minds of wrong-doers, the battle against child marriage cannot be won till the general public revolts against the practice. Ultimately, society itself has to realise that such marriages are a crime not only against children but also the entire humanity. Perhaps the moral pressure exerted by religious, social and community leaders can curb the practice, may be with a helping hand from the police. |
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Modi’s company MAHATMA Gandhi must have stopped worrying in his life after death. After all, how much defilement and denigration can even a departed soul take. Now Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi likens himself to the Mahatma; of whom Albert Einstein was to say that generations to come would scarce believe that such a one ever walked upon this earth. Lest the fact of his awesome contribution to humanity be rendered suspect, Mr Modi is doing everything he can to assure himself a place in the history of not just India. Determined to make the most of the United States denying him a visa, he is now out to impress that this is an act fraught with global consequences. Remember Mohandas Karamchand being thrown out of a first class coach of a train in South Africa by a British official? That one local affront shook the foundations of the British Empire. Now Mr Modi thinks denial of visa to him will play havoc with the United States. For those, like the US, who may have forgotten the episode, Mr Modi is determined that they should be condemned to recall the effects of that “insult” to Gandhi and the land of Gandhi. It is only a gentle reminder, for, as Mr Modi says, “I am not warning the US”. In this 75th year after the Dandi March, BJP chief L. K. Advani tells us that even a small incident can have major ramifications. All the more so, when he finds Mr Modi, once identified with Gujarati gaurav, to have become “a symbol of national pride”. However, for those who wish to quibble, there are a few minor differences between Mahatma Gandhi and Modi. Gandhi united people across religious, linguistic and cultural divides to win independence. Mr Modi wants to thrive on sharpening the divides with his hate politics. Gandhi won us the citizenship of a free country. Mr Modi turned citizens of Gandhi’s Gujarat into refugees in their own country. Mr Modi deserves the company of some other figures in history — of those who preached hatred; not of Gandhi who taught love. |
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Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. — Rudyard Kipling
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Defence not short of money AIR Commodore Jasjit Singh in his article, “Defence needs more funds” (March 2), has contended that defence requires more funds for modernisation and gaining technical advantage, whereas it is the other way round. The allocation of Rs 34,472 crore shows an increase of Rs 1000 crore over last year’s arms acquisition funding of Rs 33,472 crore which amounts to a fresh allocation, as Defence Ministry for the first time in five years has been able to spend all the allocated funds under the head. After having gone through the commentaries on the Budget in the media one comes to the conclusion that though defence is so important, being linked to the nation’s security and survival, it has not been properly served at all. Except for a few specialists engaged in the study of issues connected with national defence and security, others skirt around this particular area. Even in Parliament matters pertaining to defence are discussed only sporadically and cursorily, with the government sharing with the members only the minimum information necessary to have the grants of the Defence Ministry approved. This is a strange situation because the government’s outlay and expenditure show that defence occupies a position next to that of interest payment. With more than a million-strong Army, Air Force with 35 combat squadrons and a two-fleet Navy, India’s defence spending has been registering a perceptible rise from Rs 55,661 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 65,300 crore in 2003-04 and Rs 77,000 crore in 2004-05 and now Rs 83,000 crore in 2005-06 with the capital expenditure of Rs 33,483 crore in 2003-04 and Rs 34,472 crore this year. It is heartening to note that the capital expenditure of Rs 33,483 crore has been completely spent for the first time in the last five years on the instalment payments of 126 Mirage jets from France, 66 Hawk trainer fighters from the UK, refit of Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, 18 MiG 29 fighters, six submarines from France, 1500 Howitzers and eye-in-the-sky early warning system, the Falcon from Israel. This year’s capital outlay of Rs 34,472 is wholly available for the modernisation and technological
upgradation of defence equipment. With this huge allocation on capital outlay, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee can now go ahead with major arms acquisition programmes like buying of submarines from France, long-range Smerch rocket system from Russia and low-level transportable radar which has been pending for more than a year with the Cabinet Committee on Security. The capital outlay funding, in fact, almost constitutes 41.4 per cent of the total defence outlay though there is only an increase of Rs 6,000 crore in defence allocation from the previous year. Between 2003-04 and 2004-05 the total development expenditure rose to 4.8 per cent. Whereas the total defence expenditure jumped to 9 per cent (in terms of percentage) of the GDP, India’s defence expenditure for 2005-06 is just 2.2 per cent which is much lower than China’s 6 and Pakistan’s 5.5 per cent. Defence still finds nothing more than skimpy mention, if at all, in important official documents on the activities of the government. Surprisingly, the Tenth Plan is totally silent on the defence outlay. The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) has just one cryptic sentence, “The UPA government will ensure that all delays in the modernisation of the armed forces are eliminated and that all funds earmarked for modernisation are spent fully at the earliest.” The Budget speech of the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, is also in no way indicative of its high importance. The general attitude of everyone not belonging to the armed forces’ circle in the Defence Ministry and Services headquarters is to leave this esoteric domain to the judgment of the government, which is presumed to know what is the best defence policy and strategy for the country. An idea of the immense harm that can be caused by exploiting people’s ignorance of defence matters can be had from the reports of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the US and Hutton and Butler Committees in the UK, which vividly document the way these two countries were dragged into the invasion of Iraq on questionable grounds. Defence preparedness and strategic readiness were very much the issues in India in the case of China’s attack in the Northeast in 1962 and the Pakistani intrusion in Kargil in 1999. China looked all set to overrun the northeastern states but it declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew. It was touch and go in Kargil until the then US President, Mr Bill Clinton, saved the day. The military had to fight Pakistani forces on very unequal terms. Some of the problems noticed during those hostilities are yet to sorted out. It is hoped that the Services’ top brass would learn some lessons as to what went wrong because till today successive government have not encouraged any national discourse on the findings of the in-house committees (headed by Mr Henderson Brooks on the Chinese invasion, Mr Arun Singh on the working of the defence establishment, Mr K. Subrahmanyam on Kargil) pointing to the loose ends in its vast military machine and intelligence set-up which could compromise national security. No policy can pass muster unless it takes into view the security environment and is based on the suggestions made in the course of a full-fledged debate in Parliament. This year’s defence outlay has been placed before Parliament keeping in view the threat perception, both internal and external, of the country. With the police becoming less dependable and effective in safeguarding internal security and in containing the acts of sabotage, subversion and insurgency and in view of the civil administration increasingly failing to play its role effectively in times of natural calamities like the tsunami, the role of the defence forces is changing from that of a back-up arrangement to being the frequently used guarantor of national security. The higher defence outlay is, therefore, fully justified for continuous modernisation and technical upgradation. The writer is a defence analyst. |
Special diet AFTER passing through a few smaller hospitals, I finally landed up in Military Hospital Delhi in Jan 1965. Lieutenant Noel Ferris and I had been evacuated together from Ladakh as pulmonary oedema patients. There was one snag - the hospital food. The quality and quantity did not measure up to our youthful appetites. Means had to found for a superior feed. Noel suggested that I bribe a nurse to smuggle in snacks from outside. I feared trying, despite his assurance that females succumb as easily to bribe as they do to flattery. We mustered our minds. Finally a plan suggested itself. Sister Fonseca was a notable nurse. Built along large lines, she had a bulldog face, buttonhole eyes, jet-black hair and a matching complexion. Her nostrils reminded one of the muzzle view of a 12 bore gun. Despite her vertical surplus her corpulence showed generously around her middle. In sum, her appearance was such that if she visited a zoo, and the caretaker saw her exiting, he would rush back to the gorilla cage and take a head count One day we decided to implement our plan. I gathered courage and approached Fonseca during her teatime round. Having painted a grim background of our ration conditions in Ladakh, I requested her to have us put on “special diet”. Tense moments ensued. She gave me an angry look. Her nostrils dilated. She began hissing as if her fuse was afire. I attempted a smile but it did not come. I wondered whether I should run, put up my arms, or shout “fire” to create diversion. Mentally paralysed and I found myself incapable of deciding. The Army had trained me to deal with irate brother officers, but no provision had been made for sister officers. Time froze. Noel, who claimed superiority in knowing female minds, now came to my rescue. “We promise sister”, he said with almost professional ease, “to treat you to dinner when we get well”. Fonseca instantly thawed. A deepening furrow in the vast expanse of her cheek gave the vague hint of a smile. Without a word she turned and walked away. Next morning we were dutifully in our beds as the medical specialist came on his round. “These two patients have been evacuated from remote areas in Ladakh where food was scanty” Fonseca repeated my words with impressive earnestness as the doctor bent over to probe my heart. “Can we put them on ‘special diet’ sir?” The doctor looked at the two of us detachedly. We tried to look famished. Fonseca readied herself to take down instructions. Noel threw me a hopeful wink. I was already dreaming poultry. It was after some time that the doctor spoke. “Put them on multivitamin tablets” he said, walking away, “One tablet TDS”. |
Bhagat Singh’s mystique This year the martyrdom of these three revolutionaries enters its 75th year and two years from now it will be the Bhagat Singh centenary. Among the many who laid down their lives for the freedom of the country, Bhagat Singh stands out as the unique hero whose life and image have always given strength to those fighting for justice across linguistic barriers. His most famous photograph remains the one with the hat taken at a studio in Chandni Chowk 1929 where he is seen in the very garb that belonged to those whom he was fighting. Go to any corner of the country, be it down south, far east or west and, of course, in the North and this image still remains the most favourite of posters, calendars and other popular art. So moving is this image that its magic always works. In fact, Bhagat Singh stands out from among his contemporaries because of his zest for life and the courage to lay it down for his ideals at the age of 23. Also, it is rare to find someone so young thinking, writing and speaking with such clarity and vision. This is a day when social and political activists all over the country gather to commemorate the martyrdom and seek strength to fight for just causes. While Left-wing activists in Punjab will gather at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of the patriot, to pay tributes, a mammoth rally takes place at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on this day. Theatre activist Shamsul Islam, who is participating in the rally with street plays based on the life of the martyr, says, “The favourite song of Bhagat Singh — Mera Rang de Basanti Chola — still has the power to bring tears to the eyes of the people. It is in his context that the slogan of Inqlab Zindabad does not sound hollow.” Even though the Lahore Central Jail has been demolished to make way for a colony, the love for Bhagat Singh is shared equally on the other side of the fence. It came as a surprise recently when Munib Sultan, a singer from Sanewal in West Punjab, broke into a ghodhi of Bhagat Singh at a concert in Delhi. Ghodhi is a Punjabi word for wedding songs sung from the boy’s side and the ghodhis to this patriot were dirges that women of Punjab sang out in the streets to protest against his execution. These are still sung even in Pakistan. A few months ago a young theatre director of the Punjab Lok Rah theatre group of Lahore, Shoaib Iqbal, was in Delhi with a play called Sidq that was based on the life of Bhagat Singh. Talking of the theme Shoaib said: “Bhagat Singh was a hero of the masses. For Pakistanis, he is no longer a hero. They have forgotten his legacy. We want to tell people that although he was a Sikh, he can still be a role model for the Muslim community.7” The image of Bhagat Singh has always guarded the memory of courage struggle and sacrifice. Christopher Pinney, a senior lecturer in Material Culture, University College, London, says thus: “Bhagat Singh’s popular appeal was, and still is, enormous and this is usually presented as an intriguing anomaly. Jawaharlal Nehru’s is usually cited noting Bhagat’s ‘sudden and amazing’ popularity.” Bhagat Singh has been the subject of chromo-prints since 1931 and from 1954 to 2002 as many as seven popular films have been made on his life. The year 2002 saw the release of three films on this theme. Jagmohan Singh, Ludhiana-based nephew of Bhagat Singh, who has preserved the legacy of the patriot on a website says, “I am currently gathering and reading the books that Bhagat Singh used to read to see what gave him strength. He was a voracious reader. His favourite authors were Upton Sinclair, Ema Goldman and Jack London.” And Bhagat Singh in a letter to his comrade B.K. Dutt, written from the Lahore Central Jail in November 1930, envisions the role that his comrades who escape death can play: “I will climb the gallows gladly and show to the world as to how bravely the revolutionaries can sacrifice themselves for the cause. I am condemned to death, but you are sentenced to transformation for life. You will live and, while living, you will have to show to the world that the revolutionaries not only die for their ideals but also live to face every calamity.” Such is the legacy of this young man that history has passed onto legend. He is not just a man but a metaphor for all that is pure, sacred, just and brave. And so he lives and will live on in the collective memory of a people. |
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New bus safety rules soon EVERY day millions of Indians are forced to ride on buses that are sure to fail basic safety tests in other countries. But things are set to change thanks to safety regulations designed by government agency. The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the nodal agency under the road transport ministry for testing and certifying vehicles, has for the first time evolved a code that seeks to standardise bus body building in the country. “Poor bus design can not only spoil the performance or increase operating cost, but also result in more fatalities in the event of an accident,” a road transport ministry official told IANS. Under the new set of rules, which are likely to be notified early next year, bus body builders in the organised as well as unorganised sector would be required to build coaches whose designs meet safety standards set by the Pune-based ARAI. To begin with, ARAI itself would develop bus designs for adoption by body builders. These designs would take into account all features of a bus right from construction material to the design of the driver’s seat. “Driver’s workplace should have sufficient interior space considering, safety and comfort,” the official said, quoting from an ARAI document. The main features that would be standardised in all future bus designs would be service doors, emergency exits, steps (number and dimensions), floor height, gangway, hand rails and holds, driver and co-driver seat, passenger seat layout and dimensions, standee passenger area, fuel tanks and bumpers. “At present, there is no standard code governing safety features in buses. Once the rules are in force all buses should have a specific number of emergency exits, or escape hatch irrespective of who builds it,” the official said. In a country, which has about 150 bus body builders, the ARAI has also mooted giving accreditations to the builders so that the implementation of safety features could be uniform in all states. A body builder should have at least design and development of bus body facility, fabrication components, seat assemblies, inspection and testing facilities to qualify for accreditation. Once the new rules are in place, even accredited body builders developing a new design would have to get it approved from ARAI for safety. These designs would then be subjected to strength and occupant safety tests, including physical roll over test and pendulum test using prototype bus bodies. “These features are but the first step to making bus travel in India enjoyable and safe,” he said.
—IANS
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Heading in the right direction? PUBLIC support for sustainability is rising fast, if recent figures are anything to go by. Consumers are increasingly prepared to pay a premium for a product to ensure farmers in the developing world are guaranteed a stable income against a backdrop of fluctuating market prices. Product development is making it easier than ever to aid sustainability. “Take televisions,” says an expert. “The standby power of the latest ones is minuscule compared to a few years ago. Most computers now turn themselves off, and the emissions and fuel consumption of modern cars has improved radically.” Nevertheless, many of us — whether individuals, manufacturers, employers or even Government departments — still need a push in the right direction, which is where the strategy comes in. —Recent research has found that behaviours are slower to change than attitudes, accounting for the carefully devised recipe of regulation, standards, incentives and support programmes that all make up the Government’s plan of action. Recycling is a good example of something which has public support, but where regulation - in this case, incentives to councils for providing box collections - has actually brought about the lifestyle change that’s needed on the ground. Similarly, the obligation on electricity companies to provide subsidised home insulation encourages individuals to waste less energy. The Government has learned that financial incentives can be particularly effective. That’s why car tax schemes have been changed to focus on emissions rather than miles. Another example is the landfill tax which works against people disposing of materials, whether it’s companies or councils. Then there is the climate change levy on companies, which gives an 80 per cent discount for those who meet agreed energy savings. Money from that levy goes to the Carbon Trust, which in turn gives grants to companies for energy savings devices. What the strategy does not do, however, is forget the importance of winning hearts and minds. Regulation alone can lead to people changing the way they live begrudgingly and only in the short-term, jeopardising any long-term change. That is the reason for the myriad of current television advertisements, separately trying to win viewers over on areas ranging from recycling to energy efficiency. Neither is the Government forcing businesses to do things like provide flexible working for its workers or take up corporate social responsibility, but instead is trying to persuade them of the benefits. But it’s not just households that produce waste, which is why not-for-profit organisations are also being supported by the Government to introduce other pioneering programmes: There is need for providing safe cycle and walking routes for pupils and the results can be promising. The Department for Transport has announced £10 million of funding to develop hundreds of safe walking and cycling routes to schools and other funding to help persuade adults to leave their cars behind. Car sharing schemes are also high on the agenda of the strategy, following a report entitled “Smarter Choices”, which looked at the impact and potential of “soft” measures like this.
—The Independent |
Why do you cling to what is pleasant or decry what is unpleasant? Not seeing the pleasant can be painful. Just as painful it can be to see what is unpleasant. — The Buddha You have seen what happens when a mighty river floods the land. People no longer go to ponds for their water needs. When the light of Truth will flood through you, you will no longer require gurus or scriptures. — The Bhagavadgita When a king invites his kinsmen and friends to the holy sacrifice at his court, he must make time to attend to them or appoint sweet tongued, gentle and caring princes to do so. —The Mahabharata  |
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given date in the unending cycle of time suddenly takes on the name and face of an event. The date March 23 has been significant at different times and at different places. On March 23, 1708, Patrick Henry, an advocate of the American Revolutionary War, delivered the famous speech “Give me liberty or give me death” in Williamsburg, Virginia. On March 23, 1903 Wright Brothers applied for a patent on their invention of the first successful airplane after much hard work. In India on March 23, 1931, patriots Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Raj Guru went to the gallows in Lahore Central Jail for freedom of the country from British rule.