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Essentially, a good man Trade in brides AIDS menace |
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Foreign policy issues
‘Door Ka Rishta’
Boost export of vegetables Busting myths
about China Delhi Durbar
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Essentially, a good man
As the actor made his last earthly bow, Sunil Dutt would have had few regrets. It was a full and fulsome life and he excelled in every role he played – be it as a film actor or social activist, politician or protestor for peace. If all the world’s a stage, then Dutt was a many-faceted colossus, albeit a gentle one, who wore his many mantles lightly but with unflinching commitment to the task at hand. This was rare in the worlds of the vain and self-important, not to mention the glamorous and the corrupt, through which he cut an inspiring path. Best remembered for his stellar role in Mother India (1957), Dutt, who played opposite the legendary Nargis on the screen, and in real life, too, dazzled audiences with his performance in over a 100 films from 1955 till the recent Munnabhai MBBS. Off camera, he attracted attention for his humane nature, refined intellect and socio-political concerns. The death of his wife, Nargis in 1981, after a protracted and painful struggle with cancer changed his life and marked his plunge into social and political activism. Beginning with raising funds for the treatment of cancer patients, in 1987, at the height of terrorism in Punjab, he undertook a padayatra from Bombay to Amritsar, where he prayed for peace. A year later, he was in Nagasaki and Hiroshima to protest against nuclear weapons. His commitment to peace, secularism and the rights of the poor was evident when he took up the cudgels against his own Congress party on behalf of Mumbai’s slum dwellers; and again when he quit Parliament in protest against the party’s role in the 1993 communal violence in Mumbai. His loyalty to the Congress never took precedence over his values and social conscience. As Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, he enabled athletes to access the ministry directly for assistance and cut the power of the sports mafia. He never let his personal tragedies affect his social and political resolve. On the contrary, every tragedy intensified his involvement with public issues in a way that touched the common man. Which, perhaps, explains why he epitomised the unlikely oxymoron of a “good politician”. |
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Trade in brides
IN the late seventies when an intrepid journalist bought a girl – Kamala – from Gwalior and brought her to Delhi, it caused a national sensation. Nearly three decades later when newspapers report incidents of large-scale trafficking in women, it does not cause even a whimper. As The Tribune story on Wednesday, quoting an NGO which has been trying to prevent human trafficking shows, the nefarious trade is not confined to a small area. There are now middlemen who procure girls from as far away as Nepal and Bangladesh for sale in Punjab and Haryana. It is obvious that there is a demand for girls in the region, which the agents try to fulfil. In other words, the demand and supply system is in full play here. How does this come about? It’s common knowledge that the sex ratio in Punjab and Haryana has been changing to the detriment of women. The girls’ fight for survival begins in the womb. Even when they are born, not all of them are allowed to grow up into adults. Many of them are simply neglected when they need medical attention. The government has banned the use of ultrasound machines to determine the sex of foetus. This has only taken the business of sex determination into the closet. Put in simple terms, the ban has failed to make an appreciable impact on the situation. However, the fall in the percentage of women has adversely affected the availability of brides in the region. It is to fulfil this growing demand that women are enticed from states like Jharkhand on the pretext of providing them jobs. Not all the women so traded are able to find committed grooms. Even if they are accepted by the families concerned, they do not get the status reserved for local brides. As a survey this newspaper published a year ago showed, they are often treated as second class citizens. Worse, some of them eventually land in red-light areas. An arrest here or a raid there is unlikely to solve the problem. What is required is a concerted drive to accord girls the status they deserve – no less than that of boys. It’s a challenge society as a whole has to face. After all, a society is judged on how it treats its womenfolk. |
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AIDS menace
The report of the Union Health Ministry that the growth of AIDS has been controlled in India is heartening. But like all statistics it tells only half the story, leaving out the more unpalatable part. What the fine print tells us is that there were “only” 28,000 new infections reported in 2004, which is a considerable improvement over 2003, when there were as many as six lakh. Indeed, the runaway growth has been arrested but still 28,000 is a frightfully large number. The problem is that the number of HIV carriers grows exponentially, given the promiscuity of high-risk groups such as sex workers and truck drivers. Worse, it is common knowledge that the occurrence of AIDS is generally hidden by most patients till it is too late because of the social stigma attached to the disease. So the total number of patients may be many times more than what is actually reported. So, the official figures must not cause any complacency. It is not only individuals who hide their condition. Even states are prone to fuzzing figures at times. When Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Uttaranchal report zero per cent cases, one cannot help remembering the proverbial ostrich. This kind of anomaly has helped the disease spread its wings. Even if these states have actually wrought a near miracle, it is also a fact that there has been a phenomenal growth in the number of AIDS patients in other pockets. For instance, Andhra Pradesh today has 2.25 per cent of its population estimated to be afflicted – becoming the first in the country to cross the 2 per cent population mark. Unless this tendency is reversed, dark prophesies that India may overtake South Africa in AIDS incidence might come true. In fact, experts like Mr Richard Feachem, chief of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria, allege that this might have already happened. Their entreaties should not be dismissed out of hand. States like Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan have begun beating back the disease. The rest can very well do so. What is needed is a concerted pan-India effort in which the government and the public work as one. |
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In short, he was a perfect cavaliero, |
Foreign policy issues
The challenge of Indian diplomacy today is to bridge the gap between the public perception inside India of our country’s image abroad and the reality of the global situation. The gap is increasing as the country makes rapid progress in technology and registers increases in the GDP. The talk of imminent permanent membership of the Security Council and the super power status has further enhanced the impression that the world at large is dazzled by India’s spectacular advancement and that a leadership role is being assigned to us. The fact is that our diplomats have to struggle to secure leadership for India. No doubt, India has captured world attention on account of its recent successes. The successes are spectacular not in absolute terms, but in comparison with our poor record of the past and because of the new policies that it adopted after experimenting with socialism. The existence of absolute poverty pockets in India is no secret. The motivation of the praise is often to ensure that India does not return to its old habits and prove in some way that the triumph of capitalism is reversible. The wide gap between India and the developed world keeps increasing as technology gallops in the major industrial nations. Our quest for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council is a classic case of wishful thinking, fed constantly by polite statements and praise by foreign leaders. We have made it a habit of testing the friendship of every visiting foreign dignitary by seeking support for our bid. As we ourselves have done over the years, it is possible to devise a hundred ways in which declarations can be made to make someone happy even while keeping all the options open. The bitter experience of 1996, when India polled 39 votes in the General Assembly against Japan for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council should not be forgotten. We had confirmed support of nearly a hundred nations according to a tally made in New York at that time. Asian slots came up again and again subsequently and both Japan and Pakistan managed to get elected, but our established rotation became a thing of the past. Statements such as “India is an excellent candidate for a permanent seat on the Security Council” or “We will be happy to see India becoming a permanent member of the Security Council” do not amount to commitment in any sense of the term. Our anxiety to collect these trophies and display them in our showcases is a sad commentary on our self-confidence. India will become a permanent member of the Security Council only if a package of reform is negotiated by the permanent members and presented as a fait accompli to the General Assembly. Recently three American thinkers opined that a U.S.-Europe understanding of the kind that evolved in 1945 was necessary for the reform proposal to succeed. The time has not yet come for the evolution of a package that will please India. Foreign policy appears to evolve as an opiate of the people, a kind of comfort that we are doing well abroad even if our development at home is stunted by corruption and mismanagement. If the world out there is finding India irresistible, there must be something right that we are doing. The number of foreign visitors, particularly at the summit level, who come to India even braving the foul weather in Delhi, boosts the morale of the people. If it was the Taj Mahal that beckoned them in the past, it is Wipro and Infosys that lure them today. Success of these visits is inevitable, but they appear spectacular from a distance. A country, wounded by the defeat in cricket, was gladdened by the change of heart of President Musharraf, demonstrated in his willingness not to hold normalisation of relations hostage to the “core” issue. Never mind the concessions made by India by not insisting on “integral part” and “cross-border terrorism” mantras. As long as our position of not redrawing the borders is maintained and we gain by moving on other issues, the victory in Hyderabad House far outweighs the defeat at Feroze Shah Kotla grounds. The Musharraf of Lahore, Kargil and Agra is forgotten and his change of heart without spilling a drop of blood is attributed to our growing clout and new-found friendship with China and the United States. Islamabad has suddenly become “Islamagood”. Washington too has given reason for joy to our foreign affairs enthusiasts. We discovered that M5 Rice is not so nice when she reprimanded us for dealing with Iran and poured cold water on our Security Council aspirations. The announcement of supply of F-16s to Pakistan was a bitter pill to swallow even with the sugar coating of a similar offer to India. But everything was forgiven and forgotten when the US announced that it would take India to global power status and when President Bush received our External Affairs Minister in the Oval Office and spoke warmly of India-US relations and pledged his best efforts to promote them further in his second term. The Chinese Premier stole the show in New Delhi by proclaiming Sikkim to be a part of India. No one in the world had any doubt about Sikkim’s status except China. Should we be overjoyed by China conceding to us what was ours in the first place? Is the finalisation of the principles that should determine the settlement of the boundary a concession by the Chinese? Wasn’t the discussion on principles all these years a ruse to avoid a discussion on the border itself? Isn’t a pledge to maintain peace and tranquillity on the Line of Actual Control a concession by India as it is China which is occupying our land? But people are ready to go back to the bhai-bhai slogan again. The opiate is working. Every government flaunts its accomplishments abroad. That is one way of making up for shortcomings at home. Generally, the public and the media follow the lead of the government in assessing developments in foreign affairs, particularly because they have an aura of mystery. The impression is that the governments know better. But the embellishments added by the media make them appear larger than life. Negative developments are rarely mentioned as these are not reported by the government and do not get covered by the international media. The continuous flow of good news from international organisations gives an exaggerated picture of our acceptability as a world power. Successes in international elections are publicised, while the defeats get no serious attention. Indian media and the public give great attention to foreign affairs, but public participation in policy making is rare. Foreign affairs think-tanks are a new phenomenon among non-governmental organisations. The practice of foreign policy experts alternating between the government and the think-tanks in the United States is a product of the system there, but it should be possible to have greater interaction between policy-makers and think-tanks even in India. If there is greater public analysis of foreign policy issues and the government is more attentive to informed advice of the public, foreign affairs will cease to be a mere opiate of the people. The writer is a former Ambassador of India. |
‘Door Ka Rishta’
THE closest I came to Sunil Dutt was when we flew together from Delhi to Mumbai, he in the first class and I in the economy. I cannot claim to have seen all his films. In fact, I remember having seen only two – “Dard Ka Rishta” and “Nehle Pe Dehla”. But they were sufficient to leave a lasting impression on me. When we chose to see “Dard Ka Rishta”, I had an idea of the story but was not at all prepared for what eventually happened. It appeared my wife had decided to cry throughout the film, for I did not know at what point she began to shed tears, and copiously at that. Of course, she was not in a minority in the theatre as most of the viewers were sobbing and sneezing as Dutt, in the lead role of a doctor, was trying in vain to save a cancer patient. What lent poignancy to the film and moistened the eyes of even “hard-hearted” viewers like me was that it was drawn from Dutt’s own bereavement. He had lost his wife Nargis to the dreaded disease and the film was his celluloid tribute to her. It was in this film that I first saw a pager. Dutt receives an urgent message on it and he rushes to the nearest telephone to find out the details. I tried to figure out how the contraption worked without any wire – not because I was techno-savvy but because I wanted a distraction to control my emotion. I realised it was a hopeless exercise when after the movie, my wife teased me for succumbing to the emotional pressures of the tear-jerker. My admiration for Dutt grew when I heard about other tragic incidents in his life like the drug addiction and eventual arrest under TADA of his only son Sanjay Dutt and the death of his daughter-in-law, whom he doted on. He was a loving husband, a great father and a star among stars. So, on Wednesday morning when a colleague passed on to me the message she got from her conscience-keeper and Art-of-Living expert Rhea Pillai about his death, I felt a pain in my heart. I was suddenly reminded of an incident a few months ago when my wife called me from Delhi. It was apparent that she was in an exuberant mood. “Can you tell me whose voice this is?” she asked as I began listening to a speech in Hindi. Whoever he was, his was a booming voice. As I strained my nerves to listen, I could make out that it came from a loudspeaker. Suddenly my wife came back on the line: “Now tell me who the speaker is?” she asked while I could still listen to the speech in the background. “Are you playing the radio for me?” I asked a little impatiently. “No, I am standing in our balcony and watching Sunil Dutt. He is inaugurating the sports meet at Indraprastha International Public School”. The “fully airconditioned school” occupies the plot adjoining our apartment at Dwarka in New Delhi. It was the first speech I heard on the mobile. This time it was my turn to tell my wife: “Let me hear it for some more time”.
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Boost export of vegetables
A viable alternative to make agriculture of the state an economical and sustainable venture lies in the adoption of agro-processing and value addition to alternate crops, especially vegetables and fruits which have tremendous demand in local and international markets. Vegetables in Punjab are grown on about 1.50 lakh hectares with an annual production of 26 lakh tonnes. The important vegetables are potato, onion, tomato, brinjal, garlic, cauliflower, cabbage, chilli, okra, peas, cucurbits and root crops. The production of these crops is seasonal with a short span of production that results in market gluts and price crashes during the crop season. The price of vegetables available to farmers is hardly 25 per cent of the retail price. A long chain of intermediaries through an inefficient and unorganised marketing system robs farmers of their due share of income. Vegetables fetch very high prices during off-season but these cannot be easily stored on account of their highly perishable nature. Hardly one per cent of vegetables produced in the state are processed as against 40 per cent in other developing countries and 70-80 per cent in developed countries. The post-harvest losses of vegetables vary from 25-30 per cent which can be avoided by appropriate technology and producing value-added products with better market avenues and profitability. Seasonability of fruits and vegetables makes the processing facilities unviable due to very low capacity utilisation. At present only a small quantity of vegetables is being processed into various products like frozen peas, potato chips and small proportion of vegetables in canned and dehydrated form. The Agricultural and Processed Food Product Export Development Authority (APEDA) has identified a vast potential for production and export of onion, potato, okra, garlic and ginger paste, frozen vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, capsicum, canned beans and tomato and chilli paste. Growers cannot afford to adopt modern modes of post-harvest handling, including cleaning, pre-cooling, packing, grading, storage and refrigerated transportation to distant markets. So there is need to have some specialised area with all such facilities, including that of processing through quick-freezing and other state-of-the-art techniques for value addition and retention of natural taste and nutritional quality of vegetables. An increase in area and production of vegetables in Punjab has become essential not only as a viable alternative to paddy but also to improve the economic profitability and sustainability of agriculture. The available facilities for post harvest handling and marketing of vegetables, however, are not adequate even to sustain the existing acreage under these crops. The capacity of the Punjab farmer as a producer of vegetables needs to be up-scaled with an entire chain of supportive operations to sell his fresh and processed product in the world market. Some specialised agro-processing industrial units need to be encouraged to provide the necessary infrastructural facilities. Such industry will create employment opportunities. The facility of international airport makes Amritsar an ideal place to develop as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for export of vegetables. A package of incentives in the form of tax holiday, exemption from sales tax, property tax, stamp duty and regular power supply etc. can be provided to attract private investment in the development of required infrastructure. The appropriate facilities of cold-chain, cold storage, refrigerated containers, marketing intelligence etc. can be provided to the farmers throughout the state so that their surplus vegetables and fruits can be processed and packed for export from one terminal place. At such places even the facilities of controlled atmosphere (CA) and modified atmosphere (MA) can be created which can enhance the shelf life of vegetables. The Punjab Horticultural Post-harvest Technology Centre in Punjab Agricultural University has a well-equipped laboratory for testing of vegetables and fruits for residue of pesticides and poisonous heavy metals. The stipulated certification to meet the EUREGAP standards for export can be carried out in this laboratory to ensure the quality requirements for export. MARKFED, PAGREXO and private industrial houses involved in export business may be invited to develop this Special Economic Zone to execute the processing and export of vegetables in various forms. Public-private partnership in setting up agro-processing units will provide a wonderful opportunity to direct research efforts for growing vegetables in non-conventional growing seasons through net-house and low-tunnel technology for off-season cultivation of vegetables for export. The establishment of such a Special Economic Zone for vegetables would prove to be the most pragmatic and realistic model of sustainable prosperity of agriculture in the state. It is high time that an already accepted concept of SEZs at the national level is extended to the agriculture sector in Punjab to attract private investment for economic profitability and sustainability of agriculture in the country. Punjab can ultimately become a major producer of horticultural products for the Indian market as is California in the USA, and major exporter of off-season fruits and vegetables for the rapidly expanding Asian and European
markets. The writer is the Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana |
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Busting myths
about China Beginning with Marco Polo’s sojourn in China in the late 13th century, there have been two Chinas — the China of the imagination, as interpreted by Westerners, and the real China as experienced by the Chinese. Post-imperial China provided some of the most powerful images of the 20th century. As we still see in old newsreels and magazines, Shanghai in the 1930s was a center of international glamour and intrigue. Next came the utter destruction of World War II, then Mao’s China and the rampages of the Red Guard. Today, China’s economic rise, symbolised by space-needle towers and construction cranes in major cities, occupies a similar romanticized place in the minds of foreign commentators. As I write this article while flying over China, I am reminded of what lies beneath. China has its own vast and enduring reality, its own strengths and its own weaknesses. When outsiders speak of China, when you see media images of China, you should remind yourself that most of what we Westerners see and discuss are simply journalistic myths. The problem with these myths is that they interfere with our ability to understand what is really going on in China, and what is really going on is hugely important to everyone on the planet. Chinese history is barely studied in the United States. I find that many people who talk about China sprinkle a few facts on a well-worn agenda. I often hear comments that the Chinese are taking our jobs and stealing our intellectual property. The 2 million U.S. workers who have lost their manufacturing jobs probably don’t realize that many millions more Chinese have lost theirs over the same period of time, mostly because of restructuring of state-owned enterprises. U.S. media companies upset over intellectual property violations in China seemingly don’t remember when similar laws were flouted in Japan. Things got better when Japanese companies grew and needed these same protections themselves. Protection of intellectual property is by and large a developmental problem shared by all countries at some point in their history. Another oft-cited claim is that the imbalance of Chinese men to women will lead to roving bands of single men who will build an army based upon sexual frustration, which will inevitably attack the United States. These are just a few examples of cocktail party wisdom about China that reveal our lack of basic knowledge. Here is a myth: China is a juggernaut. We have to do something stop them, like force them to revalue their currency. The best possible outcome for the U.S. consumer is for China’s economy to keep expanding at its current rate. China’s middle class works and saves so that the Chinese government can buy billions of dollars of U.S. Treasury bonds, low-interest debt that supports the spending habits of both the U.S. government and American consumers, who in turn buy Chinese-manufactured goods at Wal-Mart, which keeps the whole cycle going. Realistically, even a massive revaluation, on the order of 30 percent, would not get U.S. companies now manufacturing in China to shut down and reopen in the U.S.
—LA Times-Washington Post |
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Delhi
Durbar Union Sports Minister Sunil Dutt, who died of a heart attack in Mumbai on Wednesday, had fixed a crucial meeting with sportspersons from 18 disciplines on Thursday to hear their grievances. The Sports Ministry decided to go ahead with the meeting as that is what in their opinion Dutt would have liked to do. More than 700 sportspersons and athletes had converged in the Capital on Tuesday and Wednesday for the meeting with Dutt in Vigyan Bhavan. Dutt was keen to tell the sportspersons that they could apply directly to his ministry for monetary help rather than come through their respective sports federations. This message was conveyed to the sportspersons. Embassy in Nepal
The Indian Embassy in Nepal had to tackle an unusual problem in the wake of King Gyanendra’s royal coup. A senior Nepalese politician, Padmaratna
Tulakdar, requested the mission to intervene as some dailies in this country were carrying his photograph in place of outlawed Maoist leader
Prachanda. A former Nepalese minister Tulakdar pointed out that despite repeated entreaties, the mistake had not been corrected.
Sonia Gandhi’s papers
There was a mad scramble by Congressmen of all hues and colours, especially those from Punjab, wanting to grab the spotlight for signing Sonia Gandhi’s nomination papers for the post of party President. One set of nomination papers bore the signatures of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President H S Hanspal, PPCC Vice-President M M Singh Cheema, senior minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, new Rajya MP Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, Ashwani Kumar and Shamsher Singh
Dullo, among others. One person conspicuously left out from the signing frenzy was Jagmeet Singh Brar, though he was present on the occasion at the Congress party headquarters.
Flight from summer
Come summer and its travel time to greener pastures for ministers, politicians and MPs. Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha Charanjit Singh Atwal is heading a goodwill delegation to the Ukraine. Another group has left for Pakistan. President A P J Abdul Kalam is away on an official four-nation tour of Russia, Switzerland, Iceland and Ukraine. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel was on the inaugural Srinagar-Birmingham-Toronto flight along with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and some of his Cabinet colleagues.
Paswan relaxed as usual
Those who thought that LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan would be a bit tense after the midnight dissolution of the Bihar assembly were in a for a pleasent surprise next morning to find the Union Minister giving TV bytes with the ususal
elan. Paswan did not show any signs of anxiety. Paswan is hoping that his uncompromising stand on having a Muslim as a Chief Minister will deliver electoral dividends.
Contributed by Gaurav Choudhury, S Satyanarayanan, R Suryamurthy and Prashant Sood. |
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From the pages of
The Government of India, in the Finance Department, has recently recorded a Resolution on the Decentralisation Scheme in connection with the new contracts which are about to be made with the Local Governments in accordance with the recommendations made by the Finance Committee. This document, which explains the principles regulating the relations of the Imperial and Provincial Governments in respect of the provincial Contracts, clearly shows what an altogether one-sided arrangement the so-called Decentralisation Scheme is. Under this scheme the Government of India, while handing over certain departments of the administration to the immediate financial control of Local Governments, has from the beginning reserved in its own charge several departments involving very large expenditure. |
Adham (inferior) are they who in spite of receiving and understanding instructions, refuse to act. — The Upanishads The noble king does not wish to continue enmity with is kinsmen. He wishes them good for the evil done and shames them into silence. Thus does he make them realise his virtue. — The Mahabharata There are Danish children who make sacrifices in order to be able to offer others a glass of milk every day. And German children do the same...these are concrete ways of teaching love. When these children grow up, they will know what it means to give. — Mother Teresa There are two worlds: The world that we can measure with line and rule, and the world we feel with out hearts and imaginations. — Leigh Hunt We see Him in Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. — Guru Nanak  |
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