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Pipeline of
prosperity Blood contamination |
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Arms and the man
Ninth round on
Siachen
A latter-day
secularist
Disturbing
Kasauli’s peace Threat of climate
change clear From
Pakistan
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Blood contamination THE Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, which caught the headlines with its startling studies on contamination of soft drinks a few years ago, is now again in the news for conducting a survey that finds unacceptable levels of pesticides in the blood of certain Punjabis. One need not turn alarmist as CSE Director Sunita Narain often tends to. The media too gets carried away with screaming headlines —like “Poison flows in veins of Punjab: survey”— summing up the disputed findings. Earlier, when the CSE’s soft drinks survey caught national attention, it was realised that the issue had been blown out of proportion, though it did expose multinationals’ different yardsticks of public health for Europe and free-for-all countries like India. It is common knowledge that chemicals, including a few banned in more civilised societies, are rather over-used by farmers in Punjab with some obvious disastrous consequences. It is also known that fruits and vegetables, rivers and underground water contain residues of chemicals. Had the CSE been serious, it would have done a detailed, comprehensive study in a scientific way before rushing to the media with alarming conclusions. Instead, it chose to base the survey on just 20 blood samples taken from only four villages — three in Bathinda district and one in Ropar district. That is hardly representative of Punjab. It compared the level of pesticides in blood samples with that in the veins of select Americans without stating what is the acceptable daily intake of chemicals in human body. Having said that, it must be conceded that whatever little effort the CSE has made, laudable as it is, no doubt, should prompt the authorities concerned to study the issue in depth from the agricultural, ecological and health angles and take time-bound, remedial measures. The side-effects of the much-praised Green Revolution must be analysed to find out what price Punjabis have paid for maximising agricultural production in the country. |
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Arms and the man GLOBAL military spending has once again crossed the one-trillion dollar mark, for the first time since the Cold War ended. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has put the spending for 2004 at $1.035 trillion. At number one, the US accounted for 47 per cent, spending $455 billion, with the UK next at 47 billion dollars. India spent $15 billion and is ranked 11th. Interestingly, in purchasing power parity terms, SIPRI calculates that India spent $81 billion to rank third, after the US and China. At Rs 83,000 crore, India’s defence budget for 2005-06 is about $20 billion at today’s prices. World watchers have long agonised over the `guns vs butter’ debate. It is a fact that even a small percentage of arms spending would go a long way in alleviating world problems of hunger, and lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation. One trillion dollars is a mind-boggling sum, but is still only 2.6 per cent of the world’s GDP. India’s own spending is below 3 per cent of GDP. But, as SIPRI observes, “there is an increasing awareness of the ineffectiveness of military means for addressing challenges to security and a growing recognition of the need for global action.” One hopes that is true, for the scope for such action is large, and the need, urgent. It is a telling comment on the state of global affairs today, and the very structure of the international system, that humans have not found a way out of an arms-based paradigm for ensuring security. It wouldn’t take much to justify Indian defence spending in the strategic environment that we find ourselves in. But then, the US would probably come up with its own arguments to justify a spending level that outstrips the entire GDP of many countries. A global conflict can easily be coalesced into the conflict that is routine in human society at all levels, and indeed, in the mind of man. If you are looking for an answer, it can be found there. |
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If we see light at the end of the
tunnel, it’s the light of the oncoming train. |
Ninth round on Siachen
The
ninth round of negotiations between the Defence Secretaries of India and Pakistan ended on May 27, 2005, again on an inconclusive note. It is sad that the two sides could not resolve their differences. However, the Indian delegation did not sacrifice the nation’s interests. The resolution of this dispute is not all that difficult provided Pakistan accepts the ground realities. In brief, the ground realities are that the Indian Army has been in occupation of the Saltoro ridge, which constitutes what is known as the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) since 1984. All that India wants is that this reality should be formalised, by delineating the line before any shifting of troops takes place. Pakistan, on the other hand, has been shying away from accepting the ground reality, perhaps because it hopes to reoccupy it at some future date! Pakistan wants the Indian troops to withdraw to the positions which existed prior to the occupation of the Saltoro ridge in April, 1984, when in a pre-emptive move, the Indian Army had occupied these forbidding heights and had successfully stymied a similar planned move by the Pakistani Army. The joint statement issued at the end of the ninth round makes all the right noises, but I have no doubt that the spin doctors of Pakistan would already be making their stories about the perfidy of the Indians who do not really want the dispute to be resolved. Remember, they have been saying so since the 1989 and 1992 rounds. They will also be joined by some Indian peaceniks, who will try to convince you that it is in India’s interest not to belabour the issue of delineation, because of many reasons like the continuation of the momentum of the peace process; the heavy cost India is incurring in human, material and monetary terms; the realisation that “not a blade of grass grows there”; and that in any case the area has no strategic value. We should do not believe one word of such yarns. National interest is much too important to be sacrificed on such grounds. Before we discuss what happens next, we need to recapitulate what the dispute is all about, for here too the spin-doctors have tried their utmost to obfuscate the issue. It is well known that the Line of Control (LoC), which was delineated after the Shimla Agreement of 1972, stopped at a point now well known as Point NJ 9842, immediately south of the glaciated areas, as did the earlier Cease-Fire Line (CFL), delineated by the Karachi Agreement of 1949. The area to the north, where no fighting had taken place, either in 1948-49 or 1971, and which was considered highly inaccessible because of the nature of the terrain, was not delineated, but the direction of the LC beyond NJ 9842 was unambiguously stated as “ thence north to the glaciers”. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s, some international maps wrongly depicted the Siachen glacier area as part of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), by showing a dotted line joining NJ 9842 and the Karakoram Pass to the northeast. This mistake was a direct result of the line depicting Air Defence Information Zone (ADIZ) markings, which provide zoning boundaries for air controllers and do not delineate the borders being shown, inadvertently perhaps, by the US Defence Mapping Agency on their maps. Pakistan took full advantage of this cartographic mistake and commenced issuing permits to mountaineering expeditions for this area. It is interesting to note that no Pakistani map before 1985 showed the area as part of PoK. It was only in 1985 that Pakistan published its official atlas - for the first time - where Gilgit Agency was removed from the status of “disputed territory”, leaving only Baltistan as “disputed”. So much for cartography! Now, a bit about geography. The Siachen glacier lies directly north of NJ 9842, between the Saltoro ridge to its west and the Karakoram range to its east. It is the biggest glacier outside the polar region and is about 78 km long and two to eight km wide. The AGPL moves from NJ 9842 through Bila Fond La, Saltoro Kangri, Sia La, and Indira Col, and then joins the Shaksgam Valley, which has been illegally ceded to China by Pakistan. Indian troops are occupying the Saltoro ridge, which is the watershed. It controls all major passes on the Saltoro ridge, like Sia La (20,000 feet) and Bila Fond La (19,000 feet). Pakistan, despite all its hype, is not occupying any part of the Siachen glacier. The Pakistan Army posts are on the western and southern slopes of the Saltoro ridge (at about 10,000 feet height), a fact not disclosed to the people of Pakistan, since the Qaid Post was lost by the Pakistani Army to a gallant action by soldiers of 12 J&K Light Infantry, led by a brave JCO, Naib Subedar Bana, who earned the highest gallantry award, Param Vir Chakra (PVC), for this action! It is now called the Bana Post. It is true that “not a blade of grass grows in the area”, but why should that be a reason to give away this area to Pakistan? A look at the map will confirm the reason for its importance. China is already in illegal occupation of large tracts of Ladakh, in the Aksai Chin region, to the east. It is only this area of the Saltoro ridge, the Siachen Glacier and areas to the east up to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, which are like a wedge between the areas occupied by Pakistan to the west and by China in the east. It is precisely for this reason that the Saltoro ridge was occupied in 1984. After all, we had a bitter experience in the late fifties when we had lost the Aksai Chin area to China by default. Pakistan has no real locus standi in the Siachen area. Its claim is based on cartographic reasons, the correct position in respect of which has already been given above. Their other contention is that the occupation by India is against the provision of the Shimla Agreement, which states, “ neither side shall alter the LoC unilaterally”. However, no alteration of the LoC has taken place as the LoC ends at NJ 9842! India has conveyed, on many occasions, that once the delineation of the AGPL is carried out, we would be amenable to any reasonable proposal for the management of this area. Many proposals are on the plate, like converting the area into a peace park, setting up a Siachen Science Centre, joint management of expeditions, environmental research, and so on. However, unless the first action of delineation is carried out, they are all non-starters. I am in full agreement with the highest leaders of India and Pakistan that a solution to what is called the Siachen dispute must be found. It is not a difficult task at all, provided the ground realities are first accepted. The Indian Army has been in occupation of this area for 21 years. It has fought battles which are truly remarkable at this highest battlefield of the world. It has shed blood and has suffered terrain and weather-related fatalities. Its soldiers have not only conquered the enemy but also the weather and it has kept the enemy at bay, despite all its stratagems. Are we to just up stick and come back? Surely, the nation will not accept it; the interests of the nation must always be foremost. n The writer is a former Vice-Chief of Army Staff. |
A latter-day secularist
JOURNALISTS know how difficult it is to hold on to a story after it has been written. They want it to appear in the next edition of their newspaper. Editors have the unenviable task of listening to the writers whose contributions they are unable to accommodate for one reason or another. Now imagine the condition of a journalist-biographer, who wrote an eminently readable biography and was told that the book would have to wait till the subject of the book was no more. This is what happened to my friend D. Vijayamohan, who attempted the most authoritative biography of Swami Ranganathananda. The swami headed the Ramakrishna Mission till he passed away in April this year. Though the swami led a vigorous life coordinating the activities of the Mission throughout the world, few people knew about his personal life. As was his wont, he would not speak about his early life in Kerala, his parents and relations, his school life and how he was attracted to spirituality. At the same time, he would speak for hours on the Gita. If anything, this showed how difficult it was for his biographer to gather information about the swami. Mr Vijayamohan found a new way to collect details about his life. He would sit with the swami in his ashram, draw him into a conversation and gather titbits about his life that spanned two centuries and two millennia. The swami did not object to Mr Vijayamohan recording the interviews on tape. For the biographer, all this entailed acting the role of a mini Boswell in the life of one who was easily one of the tallest religious leaders of the country. It was armed with these innumerable tapes and research material gathered over several years of reporting that he sat down to write the biography. Most journalists fancy themselves as potential authors. They realise how difficult the job is only when they pick up their pen. But Mr Vijayamohan persevered and over several sleepless nights the book took a definite shape. That is when Swami Ranganathananda put his foot down on the project. Mr Vijayamohan was free to publish the book but not before his death. That is a tradition of the Belur math which he did not want to break. But for the author, it was a bolt from the blue. He could do nothing but stack away the manuscript. He respected the swami so much that the thought of an early publication of the book never crossed his mind. Nearly a decade later when Swami Ranganathananda passed away, he dusted the manuscript and published some chapters in the newspaper he works for. While the book is now in print, Mr Vijayamohan will have to add a postscript to it, necessitated by the L.K. Advani episode. Before Independence, Swami Ranganathananda was posted at Karachi for six years. One of the regular listeners of his discourse was Mr Advani, who continued to maintain his relationship with him. The last time they met in 2004, the swami asked the BJP chief whether he had read Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s speech in Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly expounding his secular belief. The swami also wanted the BJP leader to send him a copy of it. Mr Advani described this incident in his speech at Karachi while quoting from Jinnah’s speech. Little did he know that he would have to pay a heavy price for his latter-day interest in Jinnah, induced by Swami Ranganathananda.
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Disturbing Kasauli’s peace A
variegated flora ribbons the Kasauli ridge. A ribbon that protects the ecology, environment and peace of this charmed expanse of green acres. The horse-chestnut is this cantonment-cum-hill station’s emblem of sanity and civilisation. Along with
pine, oak, walnut, wild cherry, the odd conifer and toon, a leafy canopy of light and shade encircles this vintage habitat. Kasauli is still virtually dust-free. It is also relatively free of noise, and pollution from vehicular hydro-carbons — at least during the week, with the exception of trucks carrying construction material and ill-maintained military vehicles belching smoke. The view from Kasauli is nothing short of spectacular. The snow peaks of the Garhwal Himalaya to the east, the Dhauladhars north-eastwards, westwards stretch the chemically contaminated plains of Punjab and Haryana. But even these, observed from vantage points along the Upper Mall, afford a magnificent perspective. However, this blessed terrain situated between the Shivalik range and the lower Himalaya owes little of its blessings to a neo-modern, independent globalising India. More than the current dispensation of civil and military authority, more than the pull and push of parliamentary democracy, more than the feeble efforts of the odd NGO, it is a clutch of old British colonial laws, rules and regulations that have kept Kasauli’s serpentine green ribbon the way it is, or almost. An elementary common sense illuminates these old cantonment regulations, all of which are a bane for those who would prefer to see this cantonment being put to the spade. The old logic was, still is, simple and sensible. Which is why it is difficult to follow. It was stipulated and ensured that all cottages and villas had to be spaced out with a comfortable intervening area of groves of trees, wild shrubbery and grassland. Little or no modification of the original building plans was allowed. It was strictly forbidden to cut trees and commercial activity was forbidden in the residential areas. A few years ago this writer tried to set up an eco-friendly machan outside his house on the Upper Mall to sell books on ecology and environment. His effort came to naught with the Station Commander arriving on the scene himself with a posse of jawans to demolish the unholy structure! The recent past has seen Kasauli’s green peace and aesthetics of architecture being systematically demolished. Even its protected green ribbon has not been spared. The Air Force has built a plain Jane communications station at Monkey Point after felling a few hundred trees in the process. Besides, to make money (read offerings), the I.A.F. brass has established an unaesthetic temple on the top of Monkey Point. This temple has now gained the reputation of being a tourist draw in a high security zone! Moreover, traffic heading for this temple has subjected the Lower Mall to increasing noise and smoke pollution. The latest addition to the contamination of this oasis in the hills is the new look Kasauli Club. Rebuilt after a suspicious fire engulfed the original 125-year-old building, it certainly has a new look. Built entirely of iron, steel, cement and concrete with a cladding of stone for effect, the new structure is the kind of construction that is entirely unsuitable for these fragile hills. In addition, an over-use of glass, ill-proportioned windows and tasteless interior make it a misfit in Kasauli’s landscape of environmentally sensible architecture. The club has become infamous for other reasons. A watering hole and socialising joint for an outwardly genteel largely public-school educated page threeish biradri, this is where, over whisky and soda, ways are found to get around the law to build new houses where regulations prevent such activity (within the cantonment) and to plan new apartment complexes, resorts and hotels. Builders have found a variety of ruses to side-step the law which prevents agricultural land from being used for non-agricultural activities. Everyone who is anyone has at least a finger in this self-serving biradri: serving and retired officials of the civil and defence services, business tycoons, contractors and freelance buccaneers. In fact, the biggest scandals rocking the Kasauli area lie just beyond the cantonment boundary. Timely action by a group of concerned citizens was able to stop the construction of a complex of around 60 apartments just below the Lower Mall. Yet, other buccaneers have got away with projects that threaten Air Force security or have used hotels and resorts as a camouflage for outright sale of flats and cottages in the name of tourism development. Common sense dictates that proximate concentrations of heavy structures is not the way to build in the hills. But such dictums have little appeal as far as the quick fix socialite “mafiosi” is concerned. And, as the authorities remain hypnotised for certain well known reasons, the Kasauli hillside crumbles away as it cries for its old aura and aroma of green peace.
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Threat of climate change clear The National Academy of Sciences and 10 similar scientific organizations from some of the world’s most powerful nations released a statement on Tuesday calling for a stronger international response to global warming, arguing there is now more than enough evidence of a changing climate to justify taking immediate action. The unprecedented joint statement, politically timed to coincide with British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Tuesday visit with President Bush in Washington, D.C., , called on developed nations to “acknowledge that the threat of climate change is clear and increasing.’’ It also called on countries around the world to begin setting stricter targets to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gases to prevent the worst consequences of global warming from taking place. The statement was signed by National Academy of Sciences president Bruce Alberts, as well as the heads of science academies from Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom. That includes scientific academies from all G8 nations, as well as from the three largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the developing world. “There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate,’’ the joint statement began. ``However, there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring.’’ The evidence includes direct measurements of rising air and ocean temperatures, retreating glaciers, and changes to biological systems, the scientists wrote. They added that ``it is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities’’ such as the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels. In releasing the statement, the president of the British Royal Academy, Lord Robert May, sharply criticized the Bush administration’s current stance on climate change, which is focused on furthering technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and only asks that businesses make voluntary reductions. The United States, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, was the only major developed nation other than Australia not to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to roughly 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Blair has vowed to make climate change a central issue at next month’s G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. But the Bush administration appears firmly entrenched in its position that making mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases would hurt the U.S. economy. “The current U.S. policy is misguided. The Bush administration has consistently refused to accept the advice of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,’’ May said Tuesday, adding, ``President Bush has an opportunity at Gleneagles to signal that his administration will no longer ignore the scientific evidence.’’ Since the “Charney Report,’’ the National Academy has published several other reviews of global warming — including one in 2001 that had been requested by President Bush — all of which have largely echoed the original’s 1979 conclusions. — LA Times-Washington Post |
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From Pakistan ISLAMABAD: The government has earmarked an amount of Rs 2 billion under the Public Sector Development Programme 2005-06 for clean drinking water project. Under the project, which will be implemented by the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with provincial and district governments, water treatment plants would be established at union council levels. One treatment plant would cover at least a population of 20,000. The total cost of the project has been worked out at Rs 6.50 billion, which will be locally funded. By the year 2015, the government plans to extend the clean drinking facility throughout the country. Overall, the environment division has been given a marked increase in its allocations from the current year’s Rs 373.9 million to Rs 2.930 billion. Another new project — national rivers pollution control programme — though yet to be approved, has been included in the PSDP with an allocation of Rs125 million. —The Dawn Plea to Islamic scholars
PESHAWAR: Vice-Chancellor of University of Peshawar Lt-Gen (retd) Mumtaz Gul has urged the Faculty of Islamic and Oriental Studies of the university to play its due role in disseminating the true picture and spirit of Islam. This he said while inaugurating the first meeting of the Board of Faculty here on Tuesday. He said that the faculty must translate books of learned Islamic scholars in international languages, especially English, so that people at large can understand Islam. General Mumtaz Gul said that Pashto has a great treasure of literature both in poetry and prose. Pashto is enriched with epic forming poets like Rehman Baba and Khushal Khan. The need of the hour is to translate it into various languages and make the world understand the sweetness, beauty and greatness of the language.
— The News
Judges’ language
LAHORE: A Full Bench of the Supreme Court has counselled two judges of the Lahore High Court to be careful and cautious about the use of language in their judicial decisions. In a 37-page detailed judgement on a short order, earlier passed on an appeal against a Division Bench decision of the LHC, the SC bench noted that language used by the DB in four paragraphs of the impugned judgement was apparently derogatory and contemptuous, which cannot be “ignored lightly”. The SC Bench headed by Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui has directed the LHC judges to take care and exercise caution while offering comments on any judgement “in order to avoid the possibility of suo moto action by the Supreme Judicial Council and initiation of proceedings under contempt laws.”
— The Nation |
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From the pages of University: Biggest sham
There
is an Indian proverb which says a boat built of bad wood is decorated most. This saying applies most beautifully to the educational policy of the Punjab University and of the Punjab Government. The University has not yet passed the stage of teething, and yet it pretends to set up a higher standard of education than the old Universities, which have turned out India’s best scholars and literary and professional men. It fixes impossible percentages of pass marks, but the Senate which does or sanctions this work is composed of men the majority of whom are ideal ignorami. It loses no opportunity to decay, to cram, and yet there is no sublunar University whose examinations encourage and necessitate cramming so much. Its professors talk big of original work and what not, and yet no University in the world has such a staff of poor professors as our ideal University. It is, in one word, the biggest sham that was ever imposed upon a people. |
The removal of untouchability is one of the highest expressions of Ahimsa. — Mahatma Gandhi Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle. — Michelangelo Do not blame others, the fault is your own. You only reaped what you sowed. Why then blame others? — Guru Nanak Adoration is the essence of religion. It involves a duality between the worshipper and the worshipped. — Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on The Bhagavadgita Progress in meditation comes swiftly for those who try their hardest. — Patanjali He who is a blasphemer, burns in the fire of hell. — Guru Nanak Ahimsa is a science. The word “failure” has no place in the vocabulary of science. — Mahatma Gandhi Ingratitude is treason to mankind.
— Thomson  |
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