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Powerless in Haryana ‘Patka’ in France |
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Gung-ho Ganguly
Clash of civilisations
‘Patka’ unravelled
Combating cancer Cashing in on craze for high-fad diets Delhi Durbar
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Powerless in Haryana IT is common to see normally patient citizens losing their cool when denied electricity in this hot and humid weather. In the past few days irate citizens have been out on the road at various places in Haryana, particularly Ambala, Rohtak and Jhajjar, to protest unscheduled and frequent power disruptions. While the protesters lose public sympathy when they block roads, causing inconvenience to fellow citizens, the display of collective anger hardly moves the authorities into taking long-term concrete action. Year after year it is the same story. All that the authorities do is to divert power from one sector to another, depending on the level of protest or pressure. The problem boils down to this: the power supply is much below demand. The states, be they Haryana, Punjab or any other, have hardly any investible funds to generate more electricity. Short-term purchases are resorted to, often at the last minute, depending on the availability of funds. Both states have paddy as one of the two main crops and both supply power on priority to paddy-growers. Farmers constitute a major vote-bank. It is a known fact that the heavily subsidised power to the farm sector benefits the big landlords the most. By waiving their power dues, the Haryana Chief Minister has not only further helped the big farmers, but also encouraged the tendency of not paying power bills. The gap between the demand and supply of power keeps widening. The frequent shutdowns at the ill-maintained power plants add to the problems. The power reforms, initiated by Mr Bansi Lal as Chief Minister, were discontinued by his successor, Mr Om Prakash Chautala. Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda has to make to resume the reforms, but he says that the state will have enough power in four years. That will remain a boast unless the state makes massive efforts to cut transmission losses and the cost per employee as also to increase generation. The only other alternative is to encourage private investment and competition and discourage political interference in the power sector.
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‘Patka’ in France THE French authorities have rightly taken a positive step in allowing Sikh students to wear ‘patkas’ or under-turbans while at school. It is evident now that a certain behind-the-scenes intervention by the Government of India, along with the efforts of the community in France and in the European Union, helped in bringing about a change. The present controversy owes its origins to a rather strict interpretation of the principle of ‘laicite’ or secularism that calls for the separation of the Church and the State. The French introduced a secularism law in September last year, under which all school children in government-funded institutions were banned from wearing visible religious symbols. Thus, Christian students could not wear a big cross, Jews had to do without their religious caps and Muslim girls came without traditional headscarves. Evidently, when the law was proposed the Sikhs and the turbans were not considered. However, when the law came into effect, Sikh students were told to either attend school without turbans, or leave. This became a big issue for the Sikhs Wearing a turban is integral to Sikh identity, and a turban is not just a religious symbol. The Sikhs have successfully fought legally in many countries for their right to wear the turban proudly. Trying to ban the wearing of a turban also denied students, French citizens and others alike, of their right to education. The First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which France is a party, states: “No person shall be denied the right to education.” Clearly, the French rule banning turbaned children from attending school violates this protocol, as it does Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which maintains that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, worship and observance. It is hoped that the heads of all schools where Sikh children study would take cognisance of the change in the attitude of the French authorities, and allow Sikh children in France to study even as they wear their ‘patkas’ to school. Having taken this important first step, the French authorities should now go the whole hog and allow the Sikhs to wear turbans, while at school or at work. The next step should not take long.
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Gung-ho Ganguly After a brief fade-out, the Prince of Kolkata showed a flash of his famous and familiar shades in the triseries cricket match against Sri Lanka in Dambulla on Wednesday. No doubt, sceptics would argue that it is too early to say if this is more than a flash in the pan. Never mind the 51 that Sourav Ganguly scored against the islanders. All that the former skipper needed was 33 of those runs to join the elite club of cricketers who have completed 10,000 runs in one-day internationals, and that he did manage handsomely. In achieving this feat, Ganguly joins the ranks of Sachin Tendulkar and Pakistan captain Inzamum-ul-Haq in what has been a club of two for long. India’s former and most successful captain, who came back from the cold, as it were, after a spell that found him out of form has, indeed, given a heartening account of himself in this first re-appearance. Only months ago, the ban imposed on him was seen by many as an honourable exit for a player who, inexplicably, suffered loss of form in a succession of matches. Returning to international cricket after the four-match ban and free of the burdens of captaincy, Ganguly did declare his presence impressively in Sri Lanka. He was the top-scorer in a match where the Indian team snatched defeat from the jaws of what could have been certain victory. While it may be early to place all one’s bets on Ganguly recovering his fabled form, his first match after a very forgettable lean period , and that too as an opening batsman, has raised hopes of better performance ahead. If he has any chips on his shoulder at a captain having to return and play under his former No. 2, they were hardly visible in Sri Lanka. As he looks forward to more productive and rewarding contests ahead, crossing the 10,000-run milestone is a boost that should boost his morale, which has been low for quite some time.
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His foe was folly and his weapon wit. — Anthony Hope
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Clash of civilisations MOST of the reactions from across the Islamic world to the London bombings have been remarkably similar. While condemning the bombing, almost everyone has pointed out to the “root causes” that have spawned Islamic terrorism. These “root causes” range from alienation and lack of assimilation in Western societies to “Islamic rage” at the perceived “injustices” being perpetrated on hapless Muslims around the world (Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine - the list is endless) and from the political expression of anger against illegitimate dictators and monarchs who are ruling over Muslim countries with the support of the West, to the abysmal social and economic conditions in the Islamic world. But the implicit justification offered by the so-called moderate Muslims to acts of terrorism by pointing out at the “root causes” begs the question: does the “root cause” lie in social, political and economic conditions in Muslim societies or do they lie in the religion itself? Do the root causes lie in “grievances” or do they lie in the way Islam is perceived, taught and imbibed by its followers? To say that “no religion teaches hatred” is utter nonsense. The fact of the matter is ALL religions teach hatred (anyone who disagrees needs to read “Religion in Politics” by Arun Shourie). They also teach love and compassion and tolerance. What matters is the ruling paradigm of any religion at any point of time, and this depends on what the followers of a religion make of their faith. Until the separation of the Church from the State, Christianity was hardly a religion of peace - remember the inquisitions and the desire to “harvest the souls of heathens and pagans” by whatever means necessary. However, today, Christians, if not their Church and priests, are far more tolerant of other religions and cultures. Hinduism too has its share of institutionalised hatred. It is hardly important whether the obnoxious caste system has religious sanction or not. What is important is that many practising Hindus still discriminate against the so-called lower castes. But caste discrimination, while it still exists, is no longer the ruling paradigm of Hindu religion. Whether this is the result of a political churning taking place in the country or the result of “enlightenment” is hardly an issue. In the case of Islam, there is enough religious sanction available to justify terrorism. In Pakistan, for example, terrorism is an essential part of military strategy and derives inspiration from the Quran. In his book, “Quranic concept of War”, Brig S.K. Malik writes, “Terror struck into the hearts of the enemies is not only a means, it is an end in itself”, and finds justification for this in the Quranic verse Anfal (Sura 12) which reads as “Remember, the Lord inspired the angels (with the message), “I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers”. Thus, for every Quranic verse that preaches love, brotherhood and equality of man, there is another verse that preaches the opposite. Therefore, to say that “suicide bombing” is an un-Islamic act is simply a matter of how someone interprets and understands the religion. Those who tie bombs around their bodies and blow themselves up actually believe that they are waging war in Allah’s name. Those who blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas also thought they were doing God’s work. The problem in Islam today is that the ruling paradigm is increasingly gravitating towards violence and intolerance. The moderate and enlightened voices are getting snuffed out by their failure to take an unambiguous stand against terrorism. Every time they mention “root causes” in the same breath as they condemn an act of terrorism they effectively end up providing a tacit justification for terrorism. What is more, this state of denial prevents a deeper soul-searching within the community on the direction the religion is taking and prevents any course correction. An example of this is the position Pakistani leaders take on the issue of jihad, which they consider (probably for political reasons) to be obligatory in their religion. Of course, for political and diplomatic reasons again, they will put a spin on what constitutes jihad. But the signals this sends out are, to say the least ambiguous. Even the so-called “root causes” need a closer examination. There is a lot of anger in the Islamic world over the civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pakistani Press and TV channels like Al-Jazeera have been in the vanguard of using these casualties to implicitly justify terrorist acts in Iraq and Afghanistan and indeed in the rest of the world. But there is a great difference between the “collateral damage” in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorist attacks on civilian targets. The American or British troops have never deliberately aimed at the civilians and, in fact, the entire US hi-tech military capability is designed to limit civilian casualties to the minimum. On the other hand, the terrorist who targeted the Twin Towers in New York, or the trains in Madrid or the Tube in London, were deliberately targeting civilians and non-combatants. Another very important point that is often missed in any discussion on Iraq or Afghanistan is: Who has caused maximum civilian casualties? The fact of the matter is that most of the civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Kashmir have been caused by the “holy warriors” or jihadis. In Kashmir, for example, even though most of the civilian casualties have been caused by the terrorists, this fact is often glossed over by the Pakistani propaganda machine because it is so inconvenient. Such is the state of denial in Pakistan over the barbarism of its proxies in Kashmir that even the most blatant acts of terror are explained away by blaming them on “Indian agents”. This tendency of not accepting the blame for what their co-religionists and compatriots do was again on display when the Pakistani ambassador to the UN, Mr Munir Akram, called Britain “a breeding ground for terrorists too…(it) has its own radical preachers and now home-grown suicide bombers” and glossed over the role his own country played in turning these people into human bombs. But this state of denial is not only limited to the Pakistanis. It also extends to their proxies in Kashmir, like the APHC, the JKLF and others. Why else would they deny the religious cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley and in turn blame it on the then Governor, Mr Jagmohan. In fact, by cleansing the valley of the Pandits, the separatists proved that their movement was not one of national liberation but inspired by a nationalism based on religion. The bottom line is that today the Muslims are working themselves into a victimisation psychosis and driving the world towards a “clash of civilisations”. In this the responsibility lies with Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan which have propagated and promoted radical Islam for achieving political and diplomatic objectives. Instead of cosmetic measures like crackdowns on radical groups every time there is an international incident, what is required is the rooting out of the entire infrastructure that has given rise to radical Islam. It is also the responsibility of ordinary Muslims to snatch their faith from the “thekedars” of Islam, who are pushing them towards radicalism, and base their faith on the more benign rather than aggressive and regressive aspects of their religion. Finally, it is critical that no justification is provided to terrorism by talking of “root causes”. The war against Islamic terrorism has to be really fought within Islamic societies if a “clash of civilisations” is to be avoided.
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‘Patka’ unravelled
PAPPA, I don’t want to go to school”, declared the son on his return from the school one day. Why? “Because my classmates tease me. They ask me whether I have hidden a snake in my patka. No other student wears a patka in our school”. Even before the child told him this, he and his wife had been noticing a change in his attitude ever since he was admitted to this prestigious school in New York. In India, where he studied earlier, he was an outstanding student, brilliant in studies and excellent in extra-curricular activities. Now he resented going to the school. Worse, he was no longer interested in studies. Admitting him to another school was easier contemplated than done. What was the guarantee that he would not be teased in that school also? More than four decades ago, it was almost impossible to find a school in New York where Sikh students had a large presence. It was unthinkable to send him back to India as both parents doted on him, their only son. Little did he – an External Affairs Ministry official – know when he accepted the posting in the US that it would land him in such trouble and that too soon after reaching there. He knew there was no point in blaming the school, which had an excellent track record, or the students who teased his son, as they were all children. With no solution to the dilemma in sight, he decided to take the bull by its horns. One day, he went to the school and met the principal. She gave him a patient hearing. He told her that the children teased him only because they were curious about the patka he wore. He felt that once the curiosity was ended, the problem would automatically end. He had a suggestion with which she concurred. The principal asked him to come the next day, in time for the morning assembly. Next day, as advised, he reached the school with his son. The principal introduced him to the assembled students and, then, gave the microphone to him. He told them that Sikhism was a religion with a large following in Punjab like Christianity in America. He also told them that Sikhs did not cut their hair and wore turbans to cover it. While saying so, he removed his own turban and unfolded it to the amazement of all. The students found that what appeared to them as an out-of-the-world headgear was nothing but a long piece of cloth nicely, if not intricately, folded. He, then, bowed his head to show them that there was nothing hidden on his head. Thereafter, he removed his son’s patka and told the students that there was no snake hidden there. It was the first time most of the students had heard about Sikhism and its tenets. His demonstration had an immediate impact on his son’s classmates — their curiosity was satiated. They stopped teasing his son. Soon, he regained his self-confidence and began enjoying his school life. He is Achin Vanaik, anti-nuclear activist, journalist, author and professor in Delhi University. At times Achin regrets, as he once told me, that he no longer wears a turban as, otherwise, the world would not have known that he had become bald. But, for his father Mahinder Singh, it is an anecdote he is never tired of narrating.
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Combating cancer The 78-year-old cancer specialist was happy but surprised. Talking to The Tribune she said, “I was very much surprised. Because I believe in Bhagvad Gita, which says ‘Action is thy duty, fruit is not thy concern.’ I have never thought I will be awarded for our work.” Dr Shanta, Director of the Cancer Institute in Chennai, considers the award “not as an individual attainment but an international recognition given for our institution and our work.” Did the niece of another Nobel Laureate astro-physicist, Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, feel that recognition has come too late for her? “I told you we do not serve for returns. We are very much happy that our work has been internationally recognised,” Dr. Shanta replied. It has been a long way for a 22-year-old graduate from the Madras Medical College in 1949 who later specialised in gynaecology and obstetrics to give up a cushy government job after being selected by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission. Oncology, treatment of cancer, was practically absent in India in the early fifties. She joined hands with the founder of the present cancer institute, Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, the first woman medical graduate in India and started a 12=bed cottage on June 18, 1954. She could have practised as a gyaenocologist and earned millions but she decided to dedicate her life to patients who had no ray of hope. So much so that the petite and charming lady never got the time to even get married. “ I am married to my work,” she said. It was the cancer institute which started the College of Oncological Sciences in 1982. “It took ten years for people to accept and understand the concept of oncological sciences”, she said. Today the institute boasts of two campuses in Chennai with 428 beds and of which 60 per cent are free for poor patients. “Our motto is to provide the same treatment to poor patients which only the rich can afford,’ said Dr. Shanta. So what does she plan to do with the award money? “I want to use it for poor women. But I also hope to raise funds for the improvement of the institute. We always want to develop it in some way or the other and enhance our ability as much as we can. We want to open more cancer treatment centers so that early detection is possible,” she replied. Dr Shanta felt, “We need an education programme to increase awareness and enhance cancer research, which is on very low priority in our county.” She said, “I feel very happy when my treatment succeeds. I feel very sad when a patient dies but every failure is a challenge for us.” Though she is the chairperson of the institute, she is not just a mere administrator. Every day from morning she is busy attending not only to patients but also in the operation theatre performing surgery. For journalists seeking an interview during the day from this overnight celebrity is impossible because she will not compromise for publicity. “I am basically a physician and only after 4 pm I do some administrative work,” she said. A strong proponent for banning tobacco products, she said, “I feel these should be banned immediately. Forty per cent of cancer patients in India are those who consume tobacco in some form or other. If a ban is imposed it will come down to 15 per cent.” One last tricky question: “You have dedicated your life to save the lives of patients who have slim chances of survival. How does it feel to take an award associated with a name like former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay on whose orders millions of political activists were killed in the Philippines?” “I do not know of that. But he is widely respected for weeding out corruption and bringing in some form of discipline in a country which was in a shambles.” Her inspiration: “Working with cancer patients is my inspiration. It had always been from the beginning and I want to provide service to all irrespective of their class, caste or religion.” Hoping for a Nobel Prize like her great granduncle and uncle? “Who knows? But as I told you in the beginning, I do not expect anything in life but to try to save cancer patients or at least increase their longevity.”
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Cashing in on craze for high-fad diets IT all started with the publication of a bestselling diet book. Before long,
Americans were gleefully downing T-bones and piling on the eggs and vegetables
— and somehow losing weight anyway. The book’s author and his eponymous
diet were attacked repeatedly by doctors who warned that the low-starch
approach was unhealthy over the long term. We refer, of course, to the
Banting diet. If you don’t remember that one, perhaps it’s because you
were born after 1864, when British mortician William Banting published his
hugely popular ``Letter on Corpulence’’ and launched the high-protein,
low-carb (even if they didn’t call it that) diet craze. Fast-forward a
little more than a century to 1972, when the late Dr. Robert Atkins published
``Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution’’ and used his modern variation of
Banting’s approach to build a dieting empire. Atkins was followed by Barry
Sears, creator of the Zone diet, and Dr. Arthur Agatston, creator of the South
Beach diet, and all of them were preceded by many other low-carb devotees
besides Banting, such as Dr. Blake Donaldson, who published a treatise on the
benefits of Inuit meat-only diets in 1929. Which goes to show that fad
diets, like unwanted inches, seldom go away forever. The Atkins diet’s fall
from favor was demonstrated with Sunday’s bankruptcy filing by Atkins
Nutritionals Inc. It wasn’t a surprise. The company, which was behind
perhaps the most popular diet in U.S. history, brought about menu changes at
restaurants across the country and spawned a host of new businesses catering
to its adherents, while its name was cursed by the likes of Krispy Kreme and
the makers of other carb-laden treats. But surveys have shown for more than a
year that consumers were losing interest in low-carb diets, and the market for
Atkins-inspired products has tanked. The Atkins diet works. So do a host of
other fad diets that have emerged over the last century and a half that, like
Banting’s, restrict one type of food in favor of another. People crave
variety; when the type of food we can eat is restricted, we don’t feel like
eating as much, so we cut calories and lose weight. But then we start to
pine for those forbidden fruits (or fudge, or French bread) and we fall off
the diet, and the fat cells flock home and lie around like freshmen in June.
Studies have shown that most people who try low-carb diets don’t stick to
them. Here’s where we’re supposed to come to the obvious conclusion that
people should stop looking for a painless, effortless way to lose weight and
just accept that the only way to do it is by eating less and exercising more.
But who wants to hear that? Banting and Atkins had far more popular
messages, and when memories have faded, somebody else will come up with
another bestseller flogging the same approach. —LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar THE CPI feels left behind as the CPM hogs the limelight. During the Honda workers’ agitation CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta, who heads that union, was constantly at the scene. The late entrants were the CPM leaders, including Subhasini Ali and Brinda Karat. The CPI leaders were red in the face and complained no end in private that the CPM had once again stolen the march over them. The audio-visual media time and again focused on Ali and Karat and Dasgupta found himself in a no-go situation. ULFA ban on leaders The outlawed ULFA has “banned” leaders from Delhi to visit Assam in the run-up to next year’s An Assam Congress leader was quick to point out that the threat will affect the BJP the most as it does not have any leader worth its name in the state. However, the Congress’ star campaigner and major crowd puller (no marks for guessing) may also have to rework the schedule. Rediscovering Vajpayee After the Sangh Parivar aired its wrath against BJP President L.K. Advani, several leaders are making intense efforts to catch the eye of the RSS leadership. The realisation has gone home that without the RSS, it is difficult
to go far. Interestingly, the RSS has suddenly discovered that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had never embarrassed the Sangh Parivar. Vajpayee’s liberal image and guile of balancing the ideologues in the RSS has pushed up his stock in the
Sangh Parivar. Why Rane joined Congress Why didn’t Narayan Rane join Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s NCP? Known for being a hard bargainer, Rane would have upset Pawar’s party colleagues who did not that a rank outsider to be so high in the NCP heirarchy. Pawar did not want to disturb the status quo. So Rane opted for the next best, the Congress, which lacks senior leaders in Maharashtra and promptly got a ministerial berth as well. Stray cattle
menace The Delhi High Court has directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to reward citizens who capture stray cattle at the rate of Rs.2,000 per animal. A divisional bench comprising judges B.C. Patel and S.K. Kaul on Thursday directed the MCD to deduct the reward amount from the salary of each of the veterinary officers posted in its 12 zones. The bench further directed the MCD to later recover the reward amount from the owners of the cattle and repay the amount deducted from the salaries of the veterinary officers. Contributed by R Surymurthy, Gaurav Choudhary, Smriti Kak Ramachandran., IANS
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From the pages of Why is India so poor? WHY do India’s children starve every three months in the year? Her land is fertile, her sons are industrious and temperate, but still famine stares her in the face almost every five years? The answer to this is easy and simple. India has to pay a large sum to England annually for which the country gets no adequate return. The annual drain upon India has become of late so great that one need not wonder at her wretchedness. The Europeans, both official and non-official, come into this country with the object of making money; and as soon as their object is fulfilled, they retire with large fortunes and spend their earnings in England. Those who remain here send large sums of money to support their families and relatives at home; and what sum they spend here is spent mostly upon articles imported from Europe. The most oppressive and exacting Mahomedan Emperors resided in the country; and if they impoverished one province they enriched another. Thus India was wealthier under the Mahomedan than under the British rule, and therefore the former did less material injury to her.
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The path he taught incorporates both intellectual progress plus spiritual progress with practice that reflects compassion, morality, wisdom and concentration while at the same time seeing and understanding the world of existence as it truly is. — The Buddha The pool of knowledge is very deep. Truth lies like a pearl at the bottom. Do you have the strength, skill and preserverance to dive to the very bottom? — Book of quotations on Hinduism When you see a tree, do you doubt the existence of its root? Then why do you doubt the primary cause of all life? — The Upanishads A man who fights on certain conditions should not be selected to lead the army. Who can predict the conditions of battle? If the situation changes and he refuses to fight, the army is left headless. — The Mahabharata And give orphans their property without exchanging bad for good or consuming their wealth commingled with your own, for that is a grave misdeed. — Book of quotations on Islam
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THE famous “Raman effect” ultimately did have an effect of the Nobel Laureate, Sir C.V. Raman’s family. His grand-niece, Dr. V. Shanta has been awarded this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service and was honoured for “her untiring leadership of the Cancer Institute as a centre of excellence and compassion for the study and treatment of cancer in India.”