O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Advani pays the price
Parivar crisis deepens further
IN quitting the leadership of the BJP, Mr Lal Krishna Advani has succumbed to the pressures of the hardliners in the Sangh Parivar. It is not surprising that they were upset by the statements he made while he was in Pakistan.

Plug the leaks
Merit makes way for trickery
THIS is one remedy which has proved to be as bad as the disease. The common admission tests for getting entry into various professional colleges were introduced to make sure that no school or college was able to provide unfair advantage to its wards with the help of unfair means.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

LCA needs policy directive
Ensure project implementation in time
by Maj-Gen Ashok Mehta (retd)
BARRING the ballistic missile programme, our experience with the indigenous production of military equipment has not been impressive. The MBT Arjun is a spectacular failure. Despite huge embarrassing time and cost overruns, we have a tank that will not fight the Army’s future battle.

MIDDLE

Lassi jaissi koi nahin
by Chetna Keer Banerjee
THIS appears to be the greatest makeovers of recent times. No, I’m not talking of the daily dose of soaps, but of dairy diets.

OPED

Knowledge based farms
by Dr M.S. Bajwa
AGRICULTURE in our country in general and in Punjab in particular is at a crossroads today economically, technologically and ecologically. In fact, the scenario has become dismal. The growth rate of food grain output has declined to 1.17 per cent, which is lower than that of the population growth rate.

Every fourth American has mental problems
Rick Weiss
ONE quarter of all Americans met the criteria for having a mental illness within the past year, and a quarter of those had a ``serious’’ disorder that significantly disrupted their ability to function day-to-day, according to the largest and most detailed survey of America’s mental health, published on Monday.

The myth of upward mobility
Michael Kinsley
ACCORDING to America’s founding documents and its national myth, we are all created equal and then it’s up to us. Inequality in material things is mitigated in two ways: first, by equal opportunity at the start, and, second, by full civil equality despite material differences.

From the pages of

• Exhibition of women

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Advani pays the price
Parivar crisis deepens further

IN quitting the leadership of the BJP, Mr Lal Krishna Advani has succumbed to the pressures of the hardliners in the Sangh Parivar. It is not surprising that they were upset by the statements he made while he was in Pakistan. A dispassionate reading of Mr Advani’s comments suggests that he has not said anything of earth-shaking consequence. In fact, most people in the country consider the demolition of Babri Masjid as a sad event. And who does not know that Mohmmad Ali Jinnah was a secular leader who exploited religion for political purposes? But what the Togadias and the Singhals in the Parivar could not digest is that they were uttered by Mr Advani, who has the image of an advocate of hardcore Hindutva.

In a way, they can’t be blamed when, having had gone on a Somnath-Ayodhya Rath Yatra with the express purpose of building a temple on the very spot where the mosque stood, he had turned around in Pakistan to say that the day of demolition was the “saddest day” in his life. Similarly, it was difficult to believe that he could call Jinnah a secular leader when back home he dubs every secular leader “pseudo-secular”. Of course, his attempt was to cultivate a new image for himself – sober, moderate, reasonable and rational. But for some of his cadres, who were brought up in the belief that he would never countenance anything that would dent his image, this was something they could not comprehend. Unfortunately, they even went to the extent of abusing him and calling him a “traitor” – a grossly unfair epithet for him – so much so that he was left with no option but to put in his papers as party chief.

For once Mr Advani would have realised that it was difficult dismounting the chariot of political extremism than mounting it soon after the 1984 elections. Also, he would have found that it was inconsistent to call December 6, 1992, the saddest day when he remains a strong defender of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who represents Hindutva of the gutter variety. Whether he is eventually persuaded to withdraw his resignation or not, Mr Advani, who fancied himself as the “iron man” of India, a sobriquet reserved for Sardar Patel, has failed to redeem himself. And so has the Sangh Parivar, which is unable even to let in a breeze of fresh air into its warped thinking.

Plug the leaks
Merit makes way for trickery

THIS is one remedy which has proved to be as bad as the disease. The common admission tests for getting entry into various professional colleges were introduced to make sure that no school or college was able to provide unfair advantage to its wards with the help of unfair means. But there is massive leakage even in PMT and other examinations, with papers being put on sale for as high as Rs 10 lakh. The honest applicants who have to sacrifice their place to those who can afford to pay for the question papers also have to suffer when the leakage is detected and they have to take the examination again for no fault of theirs, as it has happened with the Punjab PMT exam being cancelled. The bright ones will perhaps re-establish their merit once again but this kind of second effort is a huge strain on the young minds. This is not to suggest that examinations should not be cancelled even when they are found to have been compromised. The aim is to highlight the trouble that the meritorious students have to undergo just because the authorities cannot ensure the secrecy of the papers.

This is not the only exam whose papers have been cancelled. Last year, the pre-medical (preliminary) entrance test conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education was cancelled following a similar leakage of papers. Tests for admission to IIMs and the civil services too have had to be scrapped, besides at least 10 state-level tests. Enquiries are promptly ordered but there seems to be no effective solution in sight. If it is the printing department in one case, it is the binding section to blame for the leakage in another.

There are also many instances of impersonation in examinations. Given the low investment and huge profits, a full-fledged mafia-like operation is being conducted. One can well imagine the calibre of those who get admission to a medical college on the basis of compromised tests. What they will do to the lives of their patients if they become doctors is even more frightening. Public faith is badly shaken. Restoring it should receive far greater priority than it is actually getting. 

Hooda’s mantra
Transparency and infrastructure development

FOR some time Haryana had been suffering from the flight of industrial units to Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and elsewhere. This was adding to the already big army of the unemployed in the state. The industrial policy announced by Chief Minister Bhoopinder Singh Hooda on Monday seems to be primarily aimed at tackling these two major problems. If the policy is implemented in right earnest the target of creating one million jobs in a decade is not difficult to achieve. In fact, an employment-oriented approach is necessary to make the people believe that their interests will not be compromised in the process of wooing industries to Haryana.

The new policy is based on a three-pronged strategy: infrastructure development, promotion of industrial activity in backward and rural areas and having a transparent system of clearing projects by simplifying the necessary rules and regulations. The key factor is infrastructure, which the government has promised to develop on a priority basis. It appears that Mr Hooda has in his mind the Bansi Lal model of development, which aimed at providing world-class infrastructure for industrial growth. This means the state should play the role of a facilitator in a big way, which is what is expected in this era of privatisation.

Infrastructure development, however, is not enough if the system is plagued with red-tapism. Mr Hooda has promised to do away with any such roadblock by promoting a single-point project clearance system. The stress on transparency may prevent babus and inspectors from playing their negative role. The idea of setting up an investment advisory council should help in attracting investors to Haryana. The state has not been able to receive as much FDI as it could despite its proximity to the national capital. It remains to be seen whether the Hooda government will succeed in making Haryana one of the most preferred FDI destinations in the country or not.

Thought for the day

The distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion, however persistent.

— Albert Einstein

ARTICLE

LCA needs policy directive
Ensure project implementation in time
by Maj-Gen Ashok Mehta (retd)

BARRING the ballistic missile programme, our experience with the indigenous production of military equipment has not been impressive. The MBT Arjun is a spectacular failure. Despite huge embarrassing time and cost overruns, we have a tank that will not fight the Army’s future battle.

Anticipating the performance and confidence deficit in the programme, the Army ordered T-90 tanks from Russia to plug the inventory gap. Incidentally, nearly 60 per cent of the Arjun components are imported. It is a different matter that the project director was elevated to the post of Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and is also Director-General of Aeronautical Defence Agency (ADA). It is the ADA that manages the indigenous LCA (Tejas) project, which too has undergone strikingly similar teething troubles. After spending Rs 5500 crore the Tejas is the most ambitious aircraft development programme undertaken by India, and if we wish it to take off, the government has to get its act together immediately.

Nearly 400 successful flights from three prototypes have put India on the threshold of potential fourth generation fighter aircraft manufacturing. The LCA, which was once called the “Last Chance Aircraft” (or “Last Chance for Arunachalam”, after the previous Scientific Adviser) must no longer be a bad joke. The stakes are too high. The real and lingering threat to the LCA is from poor direction and management, verily being the role played by the DRDO and the ADA and the virtual “hands off” attitude of the IAF.

Normally, a fighter aircraft programme is driven by three players: R&D providing technologies; the aeronautical industry manufacturing aircraft along with the user, in effect managing the programme. In India this building block has been turned on its head with R&D commandeering the triad of functions and rendering the user — the IAF — and the builders, HAL, peripheral to the project.

In some ways, the IAF and HAL have contributed to the DRDO becoming the sole arbiter of this programme. It is true that in the 1980s it was the DRDO that actually launched the programme and had, by March 2004, carried out 220 test flights on technology demonstrator aircraft to complete “proof of concept” without any major problems.

However, since then there have been glitches in the production of the fourth aircraft (PV2) which is critical to the initial operational clearance aimed for in 2007 so that the IAF can get its first LCA squadron by 2009. While the ADA has arrogated to itself the triple role of funding, managing and monitoring the LCA programme, it is time for rationalising the burden of labour. Political will is required to get the Tejas to go into operational service.

Two key decisions have to be made: freezing the air staff requirement (originally made in 1984) and productionising the first two squadrons worth of LCAs with imported fire control radars and engines. The plan for installing the indigenously developed multimode radar, which is incomplete and an untested sensor in the PV 2, must be overtaken by rational and pragmatic decisions, followed by the integration of the LCA’s chosen weapon systems which must proceed urgently with the imported sensor in place.

Meanwhile, work on the indigenous multimode radar (MMR) and Kaveri engine should continue without risking further cost and time overruns for the IAF’s long term re-equipment plan. After the technology demonstration phase is over, HAL should logically take over from the ADA the task to build the aircraft and the IAF must step in to take executive charge.

A silver lining on the clouded management profile of the LCA programme is the recent appointment of the now famous (Life After Retirement) Air Marshal Harish Masand as “Adviser to the Director-General of ADA”. Air Marshal Masand is a good choice as the DG has neither the time nor the experience in aircraft development, having spent most of his time on the Arjun MBT. A brilliant fighter pilot, he was whimsically dumped by the previous Chief of Air Staff and only restored to service by the Supreme Court in an unprecedented judgement. He is eminently qualified to drive the LCA project. Apart from being one of the finest MiG-29 pilots the IAF has had, he is a former Director of Air Staff Requirement and has been a Project Manager of the MiG-21upgrade programme which was necessitated by the LCA delays in the first place. It is this class of aircraft that the LCA is meant to replace. Air Marshal Masand can make all the difference but only if he is given a fair and free hand and the time — as there are no miracles in this exacting science !

The IAF has placed no orders yet for the LCA although it has made a commitment for 20 aircraft. The eyes of the air warriors are elsewhere, scouting for 126 medium-range multi-role combat aircraft from abroad as replacement for the ageing the MiG-21s/MiG-23s/MiG-27s. The IAF has already shortlisted these fighters as from among the Mirage 2000, Gripen, MiG-29 and F-16 class of aircraft. The LCA is estimated to cost around Rs 100 crore while the M-MRCA’s may cost upwards to Rs 200 crore. The IAF, already down by half a dozen combat squadrons since 2000, and well short of the 45 squadrons approved in 1963, has usually managed to have around 39 squadrons, and the CAS wants to maintain a permanent force of 40 squadrons. However, when the cost is factored, the numbers of aircraft and squadrons are bound to go down, as all over the world.

Pakistan has reportedly kept a close eye on our LCA programme. Its style of management is markedly different. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex is in charge of its own LCA, called the JF-17 (Thunder) which is being jointly developed and produced with China. The project director is an Air Marshal from the PAF who reports, through his Chief of Air Staff, directly to President General Pervez Musharraf. That is the short and swift chain of command.

The first test flight of JF-17 was in September 2003, just 11 months after the project was launched. The JF-17 in its initial version will have an Italian radar, Russian RD-93 engine and a mix of western and Chinese missiles. The PAF will commission the first squadron in 2007, several years before our LCA is operationalised. Pakistan has initially ordered 150 aircraft while another 250 would be bought by the PLA Air Force. The JF-17 will also be vigorously marketed for export, unlike the Tejas which is likely to have only one, albeit reluctant, buyer.

It is high time the government issued clear policy directives to all the players associated with the LCA to ensure that the project was implemented in accordance with the stipulated time for production and operationalisation. Perhaps, a group of ministers should be appointed to oversee the project and ensure that the Tejas avoids the bumpy track treaded by the Arjun MBT.

MIDDLE

Lassi jaissi koi nahin
by Chetna Keer Banerjee

THIS appears to be the greatest makeovers of recent times. No, I’m not talking of the daily dose of soaps, but of dairy diets.

If the television industry has dished out one of the most memorable make-overs in the face of Jassi in the soap “Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin”, the dairy industry too has churned out a transformation in the flavour of lassi.

The bland lassi has given way to the brand lassi —“masala chhachh” in marketing lingo. The plain Jane among the dairy packs has gradually morphed into the “my fair lady” of the drink racks. All thanks to image management, be it of Jassi’s ilk or of buttermilk.

If Jassi has a sensual pout, lassi has a sensible pouch. If the saucy Jassi now comes draped in trendy wraps, the spicy lassi comes dressed in tetra packs. If Jassi’s bolder body language speaks of a new chemistry (with her co-stars), the ‘biotic’ lassi talks of biochemistry.

Just as the makeover has lent spice to Jassi’s life, it has added masala to lassi’s. If by discarding her huge glasses Jassi has become the flavour of the masses, it is flavour that lassi has brought to the glasses.

Many brew-addicted colleagues now sip ‘spiced buttermilk’ in place of ‘masala’ tea. The cup that cheers has been replaced by the glass that cools. Such is the extent of the white revolution at our workplace that sometimes it threatens to break the glass ceiling—-the ceiling on entitlement of glasses, that is.

Lassi may not have any “Armaan” in her life, but for many she has herself become the “armaan” of life. She may not have had a Queenie Dhody to give her a facelift and service her lips, but the reinvented lassi too is getting her share of lip service. From the countless mouths that find her lip-smacking.

That includes some mouths in my household. Though the packed lassi had entered our home turf ages back, it is only lately that she made a grand entry in the form of the spicy carton, launched by a leading dairy brand.

My husband walked out of a provision store one day, gushing unabashedly. “Wow, this one’s great,” he exclaimed as he walked back towards the car. I looked around, expecting to spot a pack of beauties. Instead, I found him gazing appreciatively at a pack in his hands, half-consumed.

I smiled seeing him hooked thus. As long as the praise was flowing for a drink, that was healthy too, it didn’t need to be brought down a peg or two.

OPED

Knowledge based farms
by Dr M.S. Bajwa

AGRICULTURE in our country in general and in Punjab in particular is at a crossroads today economically, technologically and ecologically. In fact, the scenario has become dismal. The growth rate of food grain output has declined to 1.17 per cent, which is lower than that of the population growth rate.

The challenges at the level of the small and marginal farmer are increasing because of continuing over-exploitation of natural resources. Inefficient management of inputs — seeds, fertilisers, water, pesticides, energy — and a rather inadequate market infrastructure compound the problem. Since our agro-economic condition has reached a critical stage, a revamp of the conventional farming system is needed.

Agriculture has to be revitalized so that it becomes a commercial activity. This calls for the development of a “knowledge based farm economy” through a paradigm shift from conventional farming towards a region-specific precision farming strategy. The concept offers cost-effective and efficient adoption of micro farm-management technologies for integrated management of gene technology (for quantity and quality), soil health, water, pests, energy, natural resources and the eco-system.

The selection and management of farming or cropping systems under the concept will be specifically based upon a number of factors. Site suitability will be evaluated keeping in view in-farm and in-region differences in crop-responses to variability in soil characteristics, water availability, groundwater behaviour, and pest problems. In each region adequate crop and product-specific modern infrastructure for harvesting, post-harvest handling, processing, storage, quality control, and assured remunerative marketing is a must.

Some products like fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, basmati rice, floriculture, soybean products, honey, mushrooms, and the like may be treated as “extreme focus items” and promoted for exports. For adopting precision farming on a large scale, in addition to the present land-use and soil-survey systems, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to create different kinds of maps and computer models for guiding farmers and policy planners.

Such a farming system will ensure maximisation of production efficiency and profitability and minimisation of negative impacts on the agro-ecosystem. Various issues related to agricultural diversification (rice and wheat, in particular) have already been amply debated. The generalised diversification schemes proposed earlier need to be restructured, in view of the fact that success of the alternative crops will depend upon the availability of a remunerative market and crop-specific site-suitability, and adoption of precision farming practices.

For instance, crops like maize, pulses, and most of the fruits and vegetables, cannot replace rice in salt-affected, high water-table soils; cotton will not replace rice in high water-table areas unless adequate drainage is provided; soybean will not be successful in sandy, low-organic matter, high-concretion, saline soils; rice should be withdrawn from light-textured sandy soils and areas receiving poor quality, saline water.

To commercialise the system of contract farming, different public and private sector companies and multinational agencies should supply quality seed or planting material of suitable variety and provide guidance to the farmers about cost and eco-efficient crop production and protection. They should also assure procurement at remunerative pre-negotiated prices and declared buy-back arrangements and take care of post-harvest handling and processing, brand development and marketing.

A global approach to producing high quality products (fresh or processed) is necessary keeping in view the fact that certain countries even conduct DNA tests to determine quality before allowing imports of agricultural products. This calls for development and adoption of high yielding crops and varieties that have consumer-acceptable and export-oriented quality traits.

Given the fact that global standards of quality and bio-safety regulations have come to stay, farmers, entrepreneurs and traders have to be appropriately trained and given adequate quality control support through state-of-the-art quality control laboratories, which should be established in different regions. A sound, rural agro-processing industrial base must be established through participatory efforts of workers, entrepreneurs and policy-makers to ensure value-addition of agricultural produce, and minimize post-harvest losses. Such losses are estimated to be between 5-15 per cent in cereals and oilseeds, 20-30 per cent in semi-perishables and 30-50 per cent in perishable vegetables and fruits.

For agriculture to be globally competitive, development of a modern storage facility is a pre-requisite. Public and private sectors should create large-sized, professionally managed, certified warehouses and silos. Small and micro-sized silos (100 tonnes capacity) can be installed even at the village level, and managed by the panchayat or farmers’ associations.

Establishment of commodity specific market promotion cells and intelligence networks in each zone will ensure rapid dissemination of information to the producers about requirements of prospective importing markets, latest domestic and global production trends, domestic and foreign competitors, required commodity-specific quality standards and timely accessibility to global markets. Marketing of seasonal and perishable products would require systematisation of appropriate on-farm post-harvest handling and processing, cold storage, refrigerated transportation and sanitary measures. The emerging competitive global economy demands integration of agricultural productivity with economics and adoption of a holistic, knowledge-intensive, integrated-farming system. We must take advantage of the genetic, technological and information and communication revolutions in revitalizing farm technology.

****

The writer is a former Director of Research, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.

Every fourth American has mental problems
Rick Weiss

ONE quarter of all Americans met the criteria for having a mental illness within the past year, and a quarter of those had a ``serious’’ disorder that significantly disrupted their ability to function day-to-day, according to the largest and most detailed survey of America’s mental health, published on Monday.

The survey focused on four major categories of mental illness: anxiety disorders (such as panic and post-traumatic stress disorders); mood disorders (such as major depression and bipolar disease); impulse control disorders (such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder); and substance abuse.

Almost half of Americans meet the criteria for such an illness at some point in their lives, the survey found. Most cases are mild and probably don’t require treatment. But every year about six percent of adults are so seriously affected that they can’t even perform routine activities — for periods averaging three months. Since schizophrenia, autism and some other severe and relatively common disorders were not included, actual prevalence rates are somewhat higher, said Ronald Kessler, the Harvard professor of health care policy who led the effort, called the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.

Although parallel studies in 27 other countries are not yet complete, the new numbers suggest that the United States is poised to rank No. 1 for mental illness globally, the researchers said.

The exhaustive government-sponsored effort was based on in-depth interviews with more than 9,000 randomly selected Americans. Less than half of those in need get treated. Those who seek treatment typically do so after a decade or more of delays, during which time they are likely to develop additional problems. And the treatment they receive is usually inadequate.

Younger sufferers are especially overlooked, the survey found, even though mental illness is very much a disease of youth. Half of those who will ever be diagnosed with a mental disorder show signs of the disease by age 14, and three quarters by age 24. But few get help.

Many factors contribute to these failings, the reports conclude, including inattention to early warning signs, inadequate health insurance and the lingering stigma that surrounds mental illness.

It’s not clear why Americans have such high rates of mental illness, but cultural factors clearly play a role. People who move here from abroad quickly increase their risk of mental health problems, especially if they do not live in native ethnic communities. Minorities also tend to have lower levels of mental health problems despite their lower economic status, suggesting that the social support they provide each other is protective.

Thomas Insel — chief of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the $20 million study —said the nation needs to recognize that mental illness is a chronic condition that requires expert medical attention just as heart disease, Alzheimer’s and diabetes do.

He said he was disappointed to learn from the survey that about a third of people in need rely solely on nonprofessional sources such as internet support groups and spiritual advisors.

``You wouldn’t rely on your priest for treatment if you had breast cancer,’’ Insel said. ``Why would you go to your priest for major depressive disorder? These are real medical and brain disorders, and they need to be treated that way.’’

—LA Times-Washington Post

The myth of upward mobility
Michael Kinsley

ACCORDING to America’s founding documents and its national myth, we are all created equal and then it’s up to us. Inequality in material things is mitigated in two ways: first, by equal opportunity at the start, and, second, by full civil equality despite material differences.

The 20th century added two somewhat vaguer elements to the myth. One is that even material inequality will be limited, at the bottom end, by social guarantees against absolute deprivation or vertiginous plunges. Another is that prosperity will gradually make us all more equal even in the material sense.

Three of America’s top newspapers have been examining the national myth recently. The Wall Street Journal has looked at social mobility. In recent decades, financial inequality has been increasing, not shrinking. That didn’t matter, many said, because studies show a constant shuffling of the deck. Where you are today says little about where you might be tomorrow and even less about where your offspring will be in 25 years.

But it turns out these studies were flawed. Where you are is the best predictor of where your children will be. And immobility over generations is what congeals financial differences into old-fashioned, European-style social class.

A New York Times piece compared three victims of heart attacks. The series has been especially good at capturing the subtle ways in which privilege manifests itself and gets transmitted over generations. It’s not just money. It’s not just IQ or education or blue blood or even good values. It is how all these combine into knowing which hospital to ask for when the ambulance arrives.

The Los Angeles Times featured a scary look at downward mobility. The national myth imagines the ascent from poverty to the middle class as a ratchet. But sliding out of middle-class prosperity is getting easier every day.

You can do it by losing your job, as the result of an accident or other health emergency, or by squandering your savings. Globalization and technology may make everyone better off on average (I believe they do), but they land like a boulder on individuals who lose their jobs to foreigners and machines. Health-care becomes more costly and employers get stingier about paying for it. And US President Bush wants to make Social Security more of an opportunity to do well and less of a guarantee against doing disastrously. In short, if insurance means shifting risks from individuals to society, what has been going on lately is the opposite: shifting risks from society back onto the individual.

Money is playing an ever-larger role in the mechanics of democracy. People increasingly go to schools with people of their own class, live in class-sifted neighborhoods, hold their Fourth of July picnics in their own backyards rather than the public park. Does it matter whether your place in life is determined by your IQ or your schooling or your parents’ wallets — all of which are beyond your control? As we learn more about the human mind, even qualities such as self-discipline seem to be a matter of genes, not grit.

The problem, in short, may not be that reality is receding from the national myth. The problem may be the myth.

—La Times-Washington Post

From the pages of

May 1, 1889
Exhibition of women

One of the latest developments of Western civilisation is the exhibition of beautiful women like cattle and horses. They have their professional beauties — women who live by exhibiting themselves to the public — they have regular Beauty Shows, in which pretty women are collected from different countries, or different parts of a country, to be exhibited to the public and to compete for beauty prizes. The world is indeed progressing — only the question is whichward—heavenward or hellward?

The fashionable woman has but one occupation—painting, padding and dressing. She has one sort of dress for her breakfast, another for her tea, another for her dinner—one for walking, another for driving, yet another for riding, not to speak of her dresses for balls, evening parties, and other entertainments. An Indian woman would, we fear, commit suicide if she were required thus to eternally dress herself.

This exhibition of women has something very coarse and indecent about it; it degrades women, makes men lose their sentiment of chivalry towards them. Neither can it fail to make the women immodest and vain.

REFLECTIONS

— Mahatma Gandhi