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Question of equity Withdrawal a wise step |
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In cousin country
It’s commercialised media
Ek din ka badshah
India on world stage Lifestyle key to slowing brain’s aging Delhi Durbar
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Question of equity THE recent Supreme Court
judgment on private unaided institutions is threatening to become a major controversy. Political parties seem to be one in questioning the wisdom of the apex court in laying down that the state cannot impose its reservation policy on such institutions, including engineering and medical colleges. Nor can the state carve out its quota from the total number of seats. Two state governments – Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh – have decided to file a review petition. On its part, the Central government is weighing various options to tackle the situation created by the
judgment. The reason why the parties are upset is not far to seek. Under the
judgment, the state cannot ask such institutions to give reservation to, for instance, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, not to mention the “socially and educationally backward castes” and the minorities. The political parties can ignore the demands of such castes only at their peril. Though the founders of the Constitution saw reservation for SC/ST communities as a short-term measure, there is political consensus on its retention for several more years. The addition of newer groups like the Other Backward Castes to the list of beneficiaries has further complicated the problem. It is virtually impossible even to remove the “creamy layer” from among the beneficiary castes as suggested by the apex court. There can be differences on the quantum of reservation but the need for some affirmative action to provide a level-playing field to the competitors cannot be denied. With the state increasingly withdrawing from most sectors, the private sector is bound to play a greater role in education in the future. The question is, can the need to have equity in their selection process be left entirely to its discretion? If the Supreme Court can specifically ask them how to fill the NRI quota, why not in the case of other quotas? To expect a private institution to follow the reservation policies of the state government – it is more than 75 per cent in Tamil Nadu, for instance – is unjustified. But to give total freedom to the private managements, many of which have only profit motive, is not the remedy. The present
judgment is the result of a review of its earlier verdict, which was the result of a review of a still earlier verdict. In the given situation, another review may become unavoidable. |
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Withdrawal a wise step Perhaps, only Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could get Israel’s Disengagement Plan implemented as he has already started doing it. All his life he has been a hawk and a votary of the policy of more and more Israeli settlements on the captured Palestinian territories — the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He now realises that there is no better alternative to accepting the withdrawal idea for the Israelis to live peacefully. The process has, therefore, begun to finally hand over the entire Gaza area and 300 sq miles of the West Bank to the Palestinians. Israel’s road-map for peace is certainly different from the one sponsored by the UN, the US, the European Union and Russia, but it has their backing. Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas accepted Mr Sharon’s idea when he met the Israeli leader in February this year at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank had come under Israeli occupation following the six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967. With the handing over of a major part of the occupied Palestinian territories to the Palestinians, Israel has ultimately accepted the theory of two states — Israel and Palestine — existing side-by-side and learning to live peacefully. Happily, the two Palestinian militant outfits, the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, have agreed to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority. Mr Sharan has taken a major step, but there is more to be done by Israel in the days to come. It will have to gradually abandon its control over Gaza’s land borders and sea and air routes, and review its controversial West Bank barrier project. The barrier, once complete, will totally isolate the Arab East Jerusalem from the West Bank and Gaza. In such a situation, a viable Palestinian state may not be possible. Mr Sharon has to prove wrong the people who doubt his intentions, saying that the Gaza withdrawal is actually aimed at consolidating Israeli control over the disputed parts of the West Bank. He can do so by preparing a plan for phased withdrawal from all the captured territories. But that can be possible only when the Palestinian militancy comes to an end. In fact, both sides will have to shun the path of violence and resume negotiations for resolving such issues as the return of the refugees and the future of Jerusalem. The withdrawal indicates that there is some hope to be seen on the horizon now for peace in the troubled region. |
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In cousin country INDIA may or may not become an economic tiger, but, certainly, Mumbai can boast of having a political one. Here is a Tiger, who, in all modesty, would like to say, “After the deluge, me”. The ripples in Mumbai’s unofficial first family are obviously more important than the deluge-stricken metropolis that is now battling an epidemic. Which alone can explain the preoccupation with Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray patting his cubs – son Uddhav and nephew Raj – to kiss and make up. It is all very well for Bollywood and television to purvey the myth of families being one big happy unit notwithstanding the melodrama of tantrums, tears and squabbling. In real life, the family, especially as a foundation of a political party, is a much more troublesome affair, periodically shaken and stirred by competing ambitions between incompatible members. As political parivars go, the Shiv Sena is no exception, and the quarrel between cousins Uddhav and Raj is understandable, given the crisis in the family or, perhaps, in the party after the expulsion of Mr Narayan Rane. The Sena leadership is in the unenviable position of having to impress that such exits have no impact on its clout while, at the same time, it has to pacify others straining at the leash. Mr Raj Thackeray’s outburst against “inactive” members of the Shiv Sena and public demands for their expulsion was clearly aimed at the supremo’s son, Mr Uddhav Thackeray, who is the Tiger’s heir apparent and these days the party’s executive president. The atmosphere was muddied further by friends and loyalists of the cousins, who contributed in their own way to keep a good fight going. Eventually, in keeping with our family traditions, patriarch Bal Thackeray had to intervene to bring the boys together and make them promise to behave. The Tiger’s cubs have not come out purring but they are not roaring at each other in public, at least for now. There may be some truth in the family planning slogan, “Small family, happy family”. But now it looks like even two in the family can be one too many and certainly enough to cause trouble. The truce the Tiger has brought about may not be the end of the drama. |
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I want that glib and oily art — William Shakespeare
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It’s commercialised media
MANY years ago, Krishna Menon, who later became Defence Minister, said that it was the jute Press that India had. The remark generated a lot of heat. It was not a wild one. Indeed, what constituted the opinion then was the writing by half a dozen English dailies, which were in the hands of businessmen dealing in jute. The remark has rubbed off on the Press. It has got linked to industrial or other interests that many newspaper proprietors have. This thought might have rankled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he said a few days ago, while inaugurating a Mumbai English daily at Delhi, that “the convergence of corporate interests and the control that market men have come to acquire on editorial policy can militate against pluralism and even the freedom of the Press.” His fears are not unfounded. The media has been commercialised. Newspapers reflect more of industry’s thinking than of people’s afflictions. A wit says that news is what is written on the back of an advertisement. A couple of leading English dailies have even begun to sell the editorial space to a hic provided he has the money to buy. The purpose is not so much to earn revenue as to throw down the gauntlet to democratic political machine. What it can do is the challenge. There has not been even a whimper from professional bodies or the Press Council of India, which was established to safeguard Press freedom. I recall there was time when a Business Must (BM) chit coming along with a write-up on some
commodity was thrown into the wastepaper basket by the editorial desk. But it has become a must now. Journalists can ignore it at their peril. In fact, many of them have ingratiated themselves with the newspaper’s business department so much that they eat from its hand. The publicity to a commodity apart, there are write-ups to promote it. Information is slanted to suit business interests. The disconcerting part is that unfavourable or negative stories are suppressed to placate business houses, a source of advertisement revenue. It is not difficult to trace the time when the editorial side took a back seat. After the end of the Emergency (1975-77) there was such an outlet of pent-up emotions and ideals bottled up due to censorship that newspapers themselves were taken aback by the freedom they could exercise. Whatever skeleton they could find in the government cupboard, they brought it out and wrote candidly about the crime and corruption committed during the Emergency. This is when the owners got the idea that if mere government fiat could make pressmen surrender, they (owners) have a bigger whip to crack: the job. They took over the reins to tell journalists what to report and what to hide. Editors were asked to comment on a particular subject, especially
concerning Indian politics, in the way they (owners) wanted. Indira Gandhi’s return to power in 1980 signalled their hold. On the one hand, they fell upon one another to make up with her and on the other they “disciplined” journalists. She liked the scenario. She had herself suppressed the Press. It was during her regime that the owners introduced the contract system that restricted journalists’ tenure to a particular period, to be renewed after two or three years. This was like a Damocles’ sword hanging over the head of journalists. Her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, had given the working journalists permanent appointments. Owners could not dismiss them under the law. Nehru thought that the security of job would enable them to resist pressure and to write objectively. It is another matter that most of them have made peace with proprietors. Journalists generally write what the owners would like to read. Still worse, they anticipate owners’ interests and argue a point accordingly in their leaders and columns. They normally shut out the other point of view. A handful of proprietors have gone out of the way to humiliate editors to “bring the journalists down to earth,” as one of them put it. “I made them sit on the floor and write addresses on invitation cards for a social function.” When journalists had caved in during the Emergency because of comforts and perks, they had no gumption to stand up now. Owners have expected obedience, and they have turned to be right. Ninety-nine per cent of Indian newspapers are today owned and edited by the same family. Leaving a few apart, the newspapers are run like any business. The son inherits it, passes it on to his son and so on. The owner’s name appears as the editor. The old, classical type of editor is vanishing. Journalists generally do what takes to stay in the good books of owners. Their freedom is limited to the extent an owner gives them. This is how market men have come to acquire control over the editorial policy because owners’ interests are in the money they make, not in the quality of the newspapers they produce. People who control the Press in the country think that a newspaper is like any other commodity. It should be nicely packaged. And their idea of “nice packaging” is to fill the pages with semi-nude colour pictures of models and actresses and trash. The shallow, unthinking attitude gets reflected even in the news stories and articles that are printed. Reporters do not always crosscheck the information they get. They often give one-sided versions of events and people who do not matter — absolute non-entities. Often good stories are not followed up properly. Planted stories make the front page. Even factual information given in a newspaper is often incorrect. Yet, the Press by and large has acquitted itself well in the field of pluralism, one of the key elements the Prime Minister underlined in his speech. The Press has risen to the occasion when secularism has been sought to be replaced by fundamentalism. Take the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Gujarat carnage. On both occasions the Press took the BJP, the culprit, to task and made it apologise. The remedy that the Prime Minister has suggested to remove deficiencies in the Press has been tried and found wanting. The Press Council has been a washout because it has become another court of law. The ombudsman appointed by a leading English daily found that the entire newspaper was not open to him. He could give his opinion only on the matters referred to him. It is time to look at the entire media, print and electronic. A Media Commission — on the lines of the two Press commissions since Independence — should be appointed to find out the relationship between owners and journalists, newspapers and TV networks, and radio and the online media. Only then will the Prime Minister find out whose
interests lay where.
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Ek din ka badshah IT was no ordinary sight except that the jam we were caught up in had people laughing to their guts’ content. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry to rush past. No cop was around, as usual, to unwind the traffic snarl. No driver behind the wheels exhibited road rage. Rather, everyone seemed to forgo his or her right of way. On the other hand, a curious me was asking the driver to keep moving till we found a gap. And he did the bidding. We almost reached ground zero. The happening place, atop a flyover. Let me digress here for reasons of holding up the suspense and narrate a practice Akbar used to follow during his times when he practiced Din-e-Ilahi. Whenever the Badshah rode the streets on the royal elephant with all his Mughal regalia and he noticed a groom being led in a barat procession to fetch his soul mate, he would order halting of the royal pageant. Akbar would then dismount, go up to the nausha (groom) and offer him an asharfee — a coin. This coin was given not only as a mark of respect but for the fact that the benevolent king believed that every groom in his wedding attire and being led in a barat was no less than the king himself at least for that day. Now I come back to the jam I left the readers in. I alighted from the car and made it to the groundswell on the flyover. Lo and behold, a groom and his bride were there. Dressed in their nuptial largesse of clothes. Frills and appendages included. He wearing his sehra and sherwani and she wearing her churas and lehnga-choli. No “just married” inhibitions or hesitations. Both were all smiles. Want to know what they were doing there for which the entire traffic had come to halt? They were giving their ramshackle but frugally decorated Maruti a push. When others joined them for help, they refused it saying it is their “ghar ki gari” that they would like to steer themselves against all odds. People though caught in the jam spared them their “way of life to follow”. Like Akbar, I wanted to make an offering to the couple but only wished them all the very best. The king and his Queen. To live happily ever after. Small things in life make the knottiest of the jams untangle and gain their lost resilience.
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India on world stage IN his second speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the Independence Day Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a historic declaration which has not attracted adequate attention either in the domestic or foreign media. He said: “There comes a time in the history of a nation when it can be said that the time has come to make history. We are today at the threshold of such an era. “ The world wants us to do well and take our righteous place on the world stage. There are no external constraints on our development. If there are any hurdles, they are internal. We must seize this moment and grab this opportunity. “We need to have the resolve to make our country prosperous. We must have the self-confidence to realise that we are second to none, that Indians are as good as the best. “Our political system and leadership must show sagacity, wisdom and foresight so that we are able to make the best of the moment and make India a truly great nation”. No Prime Minister, in the last 56 years, has made such a statement with such optimism. Some observers are of the view that the above perceptions are Nehruvian-except that the times are different. In his “Tryst with destiny speech” Jawaharlal Nehru talked of “dedicating himself in all humility to the service of India and her people to the end that this ancient land attain her rightful place in the world and make her full and willing contribution in the promotion of world peace and welfare and mankind”. Jawaharlal Nehru was talking at the beginning of the cold war and birth of bipolarity in the international system. Subsequently, in the next half a century India was subjected to various external constraints to its development. Primarily India had to deal with various technology denials by the Western countries on the one hand and the encirclement and containment strategy of the China-Pakistan combine on the other. There was, in fact, a tacit alliance among the US, China and Pakistan against India from 1971 to 2000. Dr Manmohan Singh focussed attention on the changed circumstances in the international system caused by various reasons, particularly the end of the cold war, the changes in the international hierarchy of power, 9/11 and war on terrorism. Because of these changes, he pointed out, “The world wants us to do well and take our righteous place on the world stage. There are no external constraints on our development. If there are any hurdles they are internal”. Please note the reference to the Nehruvian phrase about India’s rightful place. Obviously, this is a reference to latest developments which have made it possible for India to have access to latest technologies and world financial flows even as our politicians are creating hurdles in the country’s growth and development on account of parochial, partisan, political considerations. Many in this country find it difficult to adjust themselves to a world where a major ideology, communism, has collapsed. They find it ununderstandable that two antagonists of the cold war made peace without fighting a war. There has been no precedent in history for two sides, which faced each other armed to the teeth, eyeball to eyeball for 40 years and yet concluded a peace agreement. This is today a world beyond communism, beyond cold war, beyond non-alignment and beyond the classical economics and politics of the 19th and 20th centuries. Unfortunately, the difficulty of our politicians, media and academia to adjust themselves intellectually to this new world order leads to internal difficulties in our development. Towards the end of his speech, he called on our political system and leadership to show sagacity, wisdom and foresight to enable this country to make the best of the moments. Here again he was not pointing his finger at any political party or leadership, but to the general deficit in understanding about the fast changing world. Jawaharlal Nehru too faced a similar difficulty when he wrote his essay on the “Middle path” in the AICC journal in 1956. There is, however, one crucial difference between 1956 and 2005. It was a world riven by ideology in 1956. Today it is a globalising world which is calling on India to become one of the players in the global balance of power systems which would stabilise peace. Even the Chinese leadership has understood the new developments and talks of India as a global player in the wake of the US announcement of 25th March to help in assisting India to become a world power in the 21st century. The Prime Minister has also referred to the need for self-confidence to realise that we are second to none and that Indians are as good as the best. Presumably he could have had in mind two categories of people. The first category belongs to those who do not realise that in the changed post- cold war world with a new balance of power system there is no need to fear unduly a non-existent sole superpower. In the emerging new six power-centred balance of power system the US needs India as much as the latter needs the former, if not more. The second category are those who think that the Chinese could discard communism, adjust themselves to globalisation but India cannot. People with such commonly shared self-confidence deficit and fundamentalist in their approach are to be found both in the left and right of the political spectrum and in the Congress party itself. Is it not a pity that when the Prime Minister had delivered such a meaningful speech, most of the commentaries focused on Pakistan? |
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Lifestyle key
to slowing brain’s aging AMERICANS are performing mental calisthenics, taking Italian classes, deciphering crossword puzzles and hunting for other ways to try to keep their minds from fading. A large body of evidence indicates that people who are mentally active throughout their lives are significantly less likely to suffer senility, and a handful of studies have found that mental exercises can boost brain function. Elderly people who go through training to sharpen their wits, for example, score much better on thinking tests for years afterward. The minds of younger people who drill their memories seem to work more efficiently. But it remains far from clear exactly which of the myriad use-it-or-lose-it methods promoted by researchers, self-help books and health groups protect the brain in the long term, and actually reduce the risk for dementia. So scientists, increasingly employing high-tech brain scans, have launched an incipient wave of research to determine what works and why. “We’re right at the cusp of understanding this,’’ said Sherry Willis of Pennsylvania State University. ``Because brain imaging work has become so much more technologically sophisticated, we’re now at the point where we literally look inside people’s brains to try to understand what’s going on.’’ With the population aging, and the number of cases of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia rising rapidly, experts say preventing mental deterioration from occurring in the first place will be crucial to minimizing the mounting suffering and costs. “It’s really critical that we find ways to prevent, or at least delay the onset of, cognitive decline,’’ said Neil Buckholtz of the National Institute on Aging. “Once the pathology is established in the brain, it’s very difficult to treat. We need better ways to prevent the disease in the first place, which could make a huge difference for the future.’’ Several large studies are examining antioxidants such as selenium, vitamins C and E and folate, as well as the popular herbal remedy ginkgo biloba. Researchers also remain hopeful that anti-inflammatory painkillers such as Celebrex and the hormone estrogen may prove useful, despite safety concerns. Other researchers are exploring whether cholesterol drugs might protect the brain as well as the heart. It has become increasingly clear that the same strategies that cut the risk for heart attacks and strokes — eating well, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, avoiding obesity and diabetes, and exercising regularly — protect the brain, too. Among the most tantalizing evidence are studies that have given rise to the use-it-or-lose-it theory. Several large projects have found that people who are more educated, have more intellectually challenging jobs and engage in more mentally stimulating activities, such as attending lectures and plays, reading, playing chess and other hobbies, are much less likely to develop Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Scientists suspect that a lifetime of thinking a lot may create a “cognitive reserve’’ — a reservoir of brain power that people can draw upon even if they suffer damaging silent strokes or protein deposits that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.
— LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar ONE of the several unilateral decisions taken by India for promoting greater people-to-people contacts with Pakistan has failed to evoke the expected enthusiasm across the border. Or is it because the people on the other side of the border are not aware of the facility? This pertains to Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran’s announcement early this year that India would grant visa on arrival at the Wagah border to Pakistani citizens above 65 years and children under 12 years of age. This facility is the first of its kind that New Delhi has with any country. The CBM was implemented in March with special counters for this purpose at the Wagah check post. Information gleaned in the Capital reveals that no Pakistani has availed this facility. The enthusiasm at Wagah on issuing visas on arrival is petering out as Pakistani rangers refuse anyone from crossing the Wagah border without a valid Indian visa. Congress plan for Bihar Although the Congress will have a truck with the RJD in the Bihar elections, the party is acutely aware that it is a losing proposition. Congressmen believe Lalu Yadav’s defeat in Bihar will at least stop the Railway Minister from demanding his pound of flesh all the time. There is widespread support for JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar becoming the Chief Minister. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is keen that his Samajwadi Party should play its part in keeping the RJD out of power. In such a scenario, can the BSP’s Mayawati remain far away from the electoral fray? Appointing
SC judge There was talk in the corridors of power of appointing one of the legal officers of the UPA government belonging to a minority community as a judge of the Supreme Court. Then it was found that if the legal officer concerned was elevated as a judge, his tenure would be more than a decade and he stood a very good chance of becoming the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for at least two years. This appears to have caused some hesitation and the legal officer, on learning that the government has reservations on his becoming the CJI, has politely but firmly told the political masters he is not interested in being elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court if he loses out on becoming the CJI. After
Tytler, Modi? Has the Congress retrieved the situation in the wake of the Nanavati Commission report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots? Only partially, it would seem, as the resignations of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar might pave the way for seeking the scalp of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. There is no doubt that Modi is a more important figure for the BJP than Tytler and Kumar are for the Congress. Certain BJP leaders are not averse to telling Congressmen that “your 1984 anti-Sikh riots cancel out our Gujarat mayhem...”
**** Contributed by S Sathyanarayanan, Satish Misra, R Suryamurthy and Prashant Sood. |
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From the pages of President Roosevelt
The new President of the United States is a man who comes under the ancient Hindu definition of Punvasloka, i.e. one the contemplation of whose life and work is in itself a “virtuous act”. A mortal cannot attain to a prouder position than that of the elective head and rule the most enlightened, enterprising and progressive race on earth. President Roosevelt occupies a position which the greatest of hereditary potentates may well envy. He has won by sheer merit, grit and ability helped by never-failing good fortune, a place in the front line of the rulers of the world. Is there any King or Emperor who has such a strong guarantee of undisturbed and unquestioned rule, based on the willing loyalty and submission of his people? It is not only for his exalted, more than kingly office, that President Roosevelt’s name is today on everybody’s lips. He is equally distinguished as a wrestler, boxer, governor, organiser, Senator, writer, speaker, administrator, rider, hunter, soldier, scholar and lay preacher! Versatile as he is, there is nothing of the attitudinist in him. At first sight he looks like a bigger edition of the Kaiser, but on closer view one sees that he is solid throughout, unlike his contemporary ruler. |
Some think of life as “I”. Some think of life as “We”. Who is richer; he who restricts himself to one or he who embraces many? — Book of quotations on Hinduism He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often and loved much. — Book of quotations on
success God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. — Book of quotations on
religion What greater worship can there be than nature’s own festival of lights! — Kabir The setting sun gathers all its energy into itself. So does the Spirit when the body sleeps. — The
Upanishadas Anger is great vice. So too is pride. Together they can destroy man’s common sense. Their explosive combination can even destroy his basic sense of self-preservation. — The Mahabharata A large income is not always the best recipe for happiness. — Book of quotations
O believers! Do not consume your wealth among yourselves in vain. But may there be trade out of mutual consent among you. And do not kill yourselves; for truly God has been merciful to you. — Book of quotations
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