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PM’s initiative Elections in Bihar |
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A first for Phalke Adoor in the hall of fame AS times change, those chosen to be honoured also change. On the world stage, this was signalled with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to, not a politician or statesman for their role in a conventional conflict, but to a woman who led the campaign to combat desertification in Africa.
Need for petrol pricing policy
A mare’s tale
Bias in education Vibrations to aid car drivers Trapped in abusive relationships
From the pages of
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PM’s initiative THE dialogue between the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the moderate Hurriyat leadership that was held in New Delhi on Monday is a significant step forward in search of peace in the Kashmir Valley. The Hurriyat leaders have indicated that they may continue to extend their cooperation to the Prime Minister’s initiative. They appear to have been overwhelmed by Dr Singh’s sincerity, as he did not take much to agree to review all the cases of detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Public Safety Act. He made it clear that under no circumstances will the harassment of innocent people be tolerated. After all, the people of Jammu and Kashmir are no different from those living elsewhere in the country. Showing respect for human rights and the deployment of the troops in the strife-torn state are two different factors. The troops are there to ensure the security of the people. That is why the Prime Minister told the Hurriyat leaders that the withdrawal of the security forces was not in the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the country as a whole so long as terrorist violence and infiltration from across the border did not end. No government at the Centre can afford to allow the jehadi killers, still there in parts of the state, to have a free run. The Hurriyat can play a role in eliminating terrorism, as pointed out by the Prime Minister, but this depends on its followers in the Valley. The Hurriyat representatives who met Dr Singh under the leadership of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq belonged to only one faction of the conglomerate. There is, therefore, need for involving all shades of public opinion in the dialogue process. Only a broad-based dialogue can lead to the desired conclusion. Since the Hurriyat is not averse to this idea, there should not be much difficulty in getting the support of all for ushering in an era of peace and prosperity in the state.
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Elections in Bihar THE Election Commission’s long schedule for the Bihar Assembly elections has evoked a sharp reaction from all the political parties. Clearly, staggered elections spread over a period of five weeks will not serve the interests of anyone, not even the commission’s. The four-phase schedule — October 18 and 26 and November 13 and 19 — is a long drawn out process and needs to be shortened. Not surprisingly, all the major political parties have called for a short schedule. The Congress is in favour of a two-phase poll. The present programme will adversely affect every section of society, including the students, because teachers will be deployed on poll duty. Normal work in government offices would also be affected for the same reason. A longer schedule would also be a heavy burden on the state exchequer. As elections are a costly affair, the commission should have thought about the serious financial implications of a longer schedule. Consider the huge funds the political parties would have to arrange during the ensuing elections, for the second time in nine months! The commission’s justification of the long schedule on account of non-availability of paramilitary forces is unconvincing. With proper planning and detailed negotiations with the Centre, it could have managed to requisition adequate forces from the Centre. After all, there is no dearth of paramilitary forces. Similarly, its argument that a longer poll schedule will ensure orderly and peaceful elections is weak and not backed by facts. The commission has not learnt lessons from its experience in the Lok Sabha elections last year. Even if it cites law and order as the main reason for a four-phase poll in Bihar, it can still be argued that it would be far easier for the authorities to ensure an orderly poll in the state in a shorter schedule. Maybe, a longer schedule would give the commission more publicity in the media — print and electronic — and nothing more.
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A first for Phalke AS times change, those chosen to be honoured also change. On the world stage, this was signalled with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to, not a politician or statesman for their role in a conventional conflict, but to a woman who led the campaign to combat desertification in Africa. That was a radical departure. Closer home, this year’s Dada Saheb Phalke Award being conferred on film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan is no less a break with tradition. The most obvious fact that has caused surprise at Adoor being chosen for Indian filmdom’s highest recognition is his age. Adoor, at 64, is a stripling compared to earlier awardees. Last year, the Phalke award went to director Mrinal Sen, Adoor’s acknowledged “guru”. The year before the honour was conferred on actor-producer-director Dev Anand. The assumption was that the award, for outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, was meant for seniors, preferably those who had called it a day. However in this age, age need not be the criterion to judge contribution. The choice of Mrinal Sen itself indicated the changing sensibility, for the award was, generally, bestowed only on “mainstream” personalities and ignored the marginal men inspite of their seminal contributions to cinema. So, the question is not whether a shishya can follow so close on the heels of his guru, but why it took so long, in the first place, for the guru to be thus recognised? More surprising and welcome, for that very reason, is that Adoor, too, does not belong to the masala mainstream of cinema. He rose from the margins, as it were, riding the French new wave to not only evolve a new oeuvre but also enrich audiences, here and abroad, with a new sensibility and different language of cinema. This year’s Phalke award marks many firsts, no less important being that Adoor is one of the few to be honoured while he is still an active filmmaker.
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What will survive of us is love. — Philip Larkin
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Need for petrol pricing policy THE petrol price hike announced on Tuesday had been imminent. It was only a question of when and how much? Whatever the quantum of the price, it is only an ad hoc and stop-gap measure. Clearly, there is no policy or formula. The only formula that seems to be at work is to take the matter to the brink and blink. The Petroleum Ministry needs to come up with a more permanent solution to deal with the rising international prices. A pricing mechanism needs to be devised that keeps the government’s revenue earnings from the petroleum sector constant and does not give it a vested interest in the climbing crude oil prices. At the same time, retail prices should not be left to the profit-making proclivities of the domestic oil companies. Above all, we need a system that is equitable to all the stakeholders — the government, the local oil companies and the consumer. However, the steep rise in the cost of crude oil is not reflected in the domestic fuel prices. Given the intensely competitive domestic politics, where public-opinion considerations dominate policy creation, the government is unable to make informed decisions to tackle this price rise. However, as in every political game there are losers, Indian oil companies are in that position more directly in this case. Losses of the oil sector apart, oil policy is also crucial to the economy in general. Last year over Rs. 120,000 accrued to the Central and state governments combined. This translates into over 22 per cent of the government’s total revenue. While the rising oil prices may not be good news to the general consumer, they do bring cheer to the Finance Ministry. In the latest budget, several changes were made in the tax structure on petroleum. Customs duty on LPG and kerosene was reduced from 5 per cent to nil; and on crude petroleum from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. Excise duty of Rs. 5 and Rs. 1.25 per litre on petrol and diesel, respectively was also added. The ad valorem tax on both was brought down to 8 per cent. A special road cess of Rs. 6 per litre was an additional thing. The Finance Minister additionally claimed that these changes were revenue-neutral, a claim not borne out by facts. The excise duty collection in the first quarter of this fiscal year was down to Rs. 6568.9 crore, Rs. 725.8 crore less compared to the first quarter of 2004-05. However, rising international prices, and thus increased customs revenue bailed out the Finance Ministry this time. The Customs duty revenue was projected by pegging the crude oil prices at $38 per barrel. Current prices are $20 over that level. Naturally, the estimated custom duty revenue also increased proportionally. This was a much-needed windfall. Clearly, something other than luck needs to guide both the revenue collections and the pricing of petroleum in India. Leaving it to the vagaries of the international oil market is to take economic liberalism to its most ridiculous limit. There are four essential components that determine petroleum product prices to the consumers. First and foremost is the prevalent international price. This is a variable over which the government has little influence, given that in the last fiscal year we imported nearly 99 million metric tonnes of crude oil or 74 per cent of our total consumption. Furthermore, certain experts like Matthew Simmons, author of “Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy”, predict that prices will breach the $100 a barrel level by the end of this year! The next component of the petroleum product retail prices is the customs and excise duties on petroleum products. Instead of allowing the total revenues realised from this source to vary with the vagaries of the markets, the revenue rates must be allowed to float, and total revenue be fixed. To facilitate this, the revenue rates should be adjusted on a fortnightly or monthly basis, keeping the target in focus. This mechanism is easy to put in place as the number of entry points is few and the number of importers and producers is just a handful. Revenue collections of the government are a function of international prices, total consumption and tax rates. The former two variables, prices and consumption, cannot be influenced. Thus, to keep revenues fixed, the government needs to keep the tax rate floating. If international prices rise, customs duty will decrease and vice versa. Similarly, if consumption rises, the excise component can be brought down. The third critical component in determining petroleum product prices is the cost of refining and marketing. If this becomes uneconomic, it is a major disincentive to investment. Suppression of domestic prices and the increasing burden of subsidies are costing the oil sector dearly. Last year the upstream oil companies shouldered over Rs. 7000 crore in LPG and kerosene subsidies. What’s more, Indian oil marketing companies made losses of Rs. 1500 crore last July alone due to the suppressed oil prices. It has also been reported that the Indian Oil Corporation has put on hold its plan to invest Rs. 15000 crore in a new refinery in Paradip because of its losses in quarter one. Populist considerations are the only factor here and no sense of common good is allowed to permeate into the thinking or, more appropriately, the lack of thinking that goes into the making of policy. As we keep revenues fixed, expenditure on subsidies should also similarly be kept constant. The designated subsidy can then be disbursed on the basis of the production of each product. For example, let’s say the present subsidy on LPG is pegged at Rs. 95 per cylinder. However, if the rate of consumption is more than what was initially expected, this would lead to an increased subsidy bill. Instead, the opposite needs to happen. The total subsidy bill should be kept constant and the rate of subsidy should vary according to consumption. If LPG consumption rises, the rate of subsidy can be brought down to, say, Rs. 90 per cylinder and vice versa. The fourth and last component of the retail prices is the state-level sales tax. Last year, Rs. 43254 crores accrued as petroleum revenue to all the states. This was over 18 per cent of their total revenue. Presently each state chooses its own level of taxation. Naturally, the variation between states will not differ much; otherwise, consumers will start buying their fuel from neighbouring states. Thus, state taxes should be left for the states to decide as it will also have a bearing on their overall economic attractiveness. There are many features of the oil marketing business that are undesirable. Even as we write this, IBP, an IOC subsidiary, has put out a large advertisement calling for applications. The fine print in the terms and conditions clearly suggest that the selection of retail outlets will be dispensed as per patronage and other considerations. In many countries, the situation is different. There are independent retailers; they own their outlets and are free to choose their suppliers. A large number of independent operators will prevent oil companies from price fixing as prices will be driven by supply and demand. What is clear in this discussion is the need to evolve a policy that does not harm the oil sector as we have done to the power sector. The only way to ensure this is to keep it
profitable and capable of generating future investments in this capital-intensive sector. The writer is associated with the Centre for Policy Alternatives, New Delhi.
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A mare’s tale KASUALI is a small, pine-laden hill-station within six hours’ car journey from Delhi. The Louis Pasteur Institute, making life-saving drugs and antidotes for snakebites, which was established more than a hundred years ago, has made the place famous. In the days of the Raj, British troops needing a respite from the heat of the plains, used to be sent up there for a brief spell. Nearby, there are other small cantonments such as Dagshai and Sabathu, all forming part of the Simla hills that Kipling wrote about in several of his stories. One summer, many years ago, my wife and I went up to Kasauli for a few days. After we had rested for a bit and got our “hill legs”, we decided one evening to walk out to a picnic spot known as “Lady’s Grave”, about two miles from where we were staying. Our Indian sun had been merciless. The earth was parched. The hills were carpeted with brown pine needles. But the monsoon wasn’t far off. Even as we walked, dark and angry clouds appeared and hid the sun. And so we arrived at the sheltered hollow known as “Lady’s Grave”. All we could find was a bird-bath which must have looked very imposing at some time but was now badly chipped and disfigured by names and silly remarks scrawled on it by thoughtless visitors. Any inscription that it might have borne had been erased by Father Time. If only the evergreen firs and silent, spreading deodars could speak, we thought, we would have known whose grave it was they protected from the sun and the rain. As we looked up at Monkey Point, a hill rising abruptly from where we stood, we heard a thunderclap and a few moments later a drop of rain fell on my head. The birds, sensing the impending storm, flew helter-skelter to their nests. A pahari boy stopped playing his flute and disappeared down a path cut into the hillside which probably led to his village. Taking our cue from the birds and the boy we began our journey home, walking as fast as we could. That night after dinner we asked our hostess, who had lived in Kasauli for many years, to tell us about “Lady’s Grave”. “Gossip” she said, “made it difficult to know the truth. Some people said that a long time ago a young Irishwoman, teaching at Lawrence School in Sanawar. (a hill just below Kasauli), had been jilted by the man she was engaged to marry. “She took to walking all by herself to Monkey Point. One evening she did not return to the school. A search party was sent with lanterns and her body was found, at the foot of the hill, lifeless and broken like Dresden china. Whether she had slipped accidentally on the steep hillside or jumped down in her sorrow, was never known.” Outside the drawing room where we sat the rain was now coming down in bucketfuls. The deep rumble of thunder echoed in the valley below us. The wind howled, making the doors and windows rattle. We waited for our hostess to go on. “More than 70 years ago, she said, a young doctor came out from England to the Pasteur Institute. He was dedicated to his work and stayed a long time carrying out experiments with animals in the cause of medical science. “Cars were unknown in Kasauli at the time but the doctor owned a beautiful, white mare whom he called ‘Lady’. Almost every evening, after his work, he used to canter up Monkey Point on her. “Treading warily, surefooted Lady always brought him safely down the slope. The day came for the doctor to go home. Mare and Master went up the hill for the last time. Perhaps Lady had sensed the parting that was to come. “Feeling her way carefully down the hill she was blinded by a sudden storm, like the one we have tonight. She slipped and hurtled down the stony path. The doctor got away with a broken arm and a cracked rib, but Lady was so badly hurt that she had to be shot. She was buried on the spot and that’s how it came to be called “Lady’s Grave.”
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Bias in education THE verdict by the Supreme Court granting absolute control to managements of engineering and medical colleges in the private sector on admissions has raised a lot of debate. In an era where the market, rather than social commitment, is peddled as the mantra, such a verdict was only to be expected. The point is that it came a little late in the day! And when that happened, we find the parties, across the spectrum, expressing in favour of changing the law. Well, the statutes will have to be changed and one will expect such a consensus emerging when leaders of political parties gather later this month in a meeting convened by Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh. It is also likely that such a statutory change will be challenged before the courts by the forces against change. The forces of the status quo, after all, cannot be expected to accept changes. Recall, for instance, the fact that the status quoists were able to stall the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations for at least four years. The Indira Sawney and others v/s Union of India case settled the dispute for the time being and declared that there was nothing unconstitutional about reservation for the Other Backward Classes in Central Government jobs. The fact is that this small measure to achieve socio-economic justice was delayed by 10 years in the first stage (it was announced in 1990 despite the report of the Mandal Commission submitted in 1980) and by few more years until November 1993, when the apex court upheld the August 8, 1990 order. While all this and a whole lot of other battles fought through the judiciary were necessary to ensure a semblance of equity in opportunities for state and central government jobs, the experience in the education sector has been equally challenging. But then, the fact that parties across the spectrum are now under pressure to speak up for the Dalits and the Other Backward Castes and notwithstanding the fact that they do so only because they are forced to do and not because they are committed to the ideal of affirmative action, is something that must be factored in at this stage of the debate. In other words, the forces of the status quo, entrenched as they are in all walks of our public life and everywhere in the political establishment, have managed to devise other means to deny the Dalits and the OBCs what is their due. And in the process, they have managed to ensure the marginalisation of a whole lot of socially deprived sections. Let us now wonder, in broad terms, the profile of students who aspire and manage to gain admissions in the engineering and medical colleges run by private players in terms of the schools they come from. It will not be wrong to conclude that a majority, if not all, studied in schools run by private players. Putting it differently, only a small section of the students in the engineering colleges run by private managements studied in the schools run by the government. That is, because, most such government schools in villages do not have the minimum number of teachers and lack all necessary facilities. It is a fact, acknowledged even by the governments in various States, including Tamil Nadu, that several primary schools in villages have only two teachers. That is, just two teachers for five classes! And even these teachers go on leave, are employed for electoral roll revision and other jobs. The fate of the students who are sent to these schools can be imagined. So much so, parents who manage to earn little money decide to send their children to private teaching shops. And most such shops, run in the name of schools, are set up and run from small houses. The one where 96 kids died in the fire on July 16, 2004 in Kumbakonam is just one example of the kind. Coming back to our government schools, while several children drop out after their primary education, some land in the high schools and a smaller number go to the higher secondary schools in villages and small towns. True, they get free bus passes and are blessed with bicycles in Tamil Nadu if they continue to study after their class X. But then they are certainly not equipped to compete with children whose parents are rich enough to send their children to unaided private schools. Consider the social profile of children whose parents are not rich enough to educate their wards in private schools. They happen to be the Dalits, the backward castes and other deprived sections of society. And in the event these children decide to join an engineering college or a medical college in the private sector, their parents will have to borrow huge sums of money. This, they cannot afford. And they all end up joining the arts colleges where the fees are not as high as they are in the private professional colleges. The point is, the poor and the socially deprived are even otherwise excluded from pursuing higher studies in professional colleges. Hence, the imperative for the powers and the political classes is to ensure that all schools are of the same kind. The idea of common schools. Anil Sadagopal, a Gandhian and an educationist of repute has made a case for this in his recommendations to the government. The Constitution has been amended now and Article 21 contains a clause that all children between 6 and 14 have the fundamental right to education. The Union Government will now have to enact details of the Bill to enable implementation of this fundamental right. It will be useful and meaningful if all parties raise this issue and ensures that the necessary changes to the law on reservation in educational institutions are brought about soon. But then, these changes will not make sense without ensuring a common school system. In other words, abolish the system where the rich can send their children to schools that are well equipped and the poor are condemned to sending their children to schools without a building, to schools without an adequate number of teachers and schools without blackboards and schools where nothing is taught.
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Vibrations to aid car drivers DRIVERS will soon be able to feel their way through traffic with the help of the sense of touch. Scientists at Oxford University are working with a Japanese car manufacturer to design vehicles with tactile warning alarms built in to the seat, seatbelt, steering wheel and even foot pedals. The aim is to send vibrations to sensitive parts of a driver’s body so that they can be warned of possible danger within a fraction of a second of it being detected by the car’s computer. Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at Oxford, said that the sense of touch has never before been exploited by car makers and yet touch is a key aspect of human awareness. “We think that touch is so completely unused at the moment. We need something else other than sound and I think touch is the really exciting thing to work on,” Dr Spence said. “We’re only going to present vibrations in an uncomplicated manner to parts of the body already in touch with the car,” he said. Denso, a Japanese supplier of car parts, predicted that all new cars will have tactile instrumentation by 2015. Up to a half of the most common type of traffic accident — when one car runs into the back of another — are the result of a lack of concentration and yet the technology exists to warn drivers of potential danger, such as getting too close to the car in front, he told the Science Festival. Studies suggest that improving a person’s reaction time by as little as a tenth of a second could make the difference between life and death. Up to 15 per cent of some accidents might be prevented by in-car alarms, Dr Spence said. The best way of attracting a driver’s attention is a loud alarm but this can be too distracting in heavy traffic and too annoying when it is linked with false alarms, he said. “We can use attention-grabbing signals in cars but they are very irritating for the driver. The more attention-grabbing a signal is, the more irritating it is for the driver,” Dr Spence said. “What car makers want is a warning signal that gets to the driver as quickly as possible telling them to look up now, do this or do that because you are about to crash,” he added. The Oxford group are developing ways of sending the sort of vibrations used in mobile phones to car seats, steering wheels or foot pedals. “Vibrations are cheap, they are very personal and they are pleasant compared to sounds. They automatically grab your attention, and they are implicitly directional. If you feel something from your belly you feel it is out there in front, if you feel it in your back you know you should look behind,” Dr Spence explained. “We’re very keen that the vibration will only be provided by a part of the car that is already in contact with the driver, such as the seat bottom, the back and sides of the seat, the seatbelt. “We’re also thinking about a vibrating steering wheel to give directional cues and others are looking at a vibrating foot pedal to get you suddenly to move your foot off the pedal,” he told the conference.
—The Independent
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Trapped in abusive relationships MY husband and his family gave me two choices: Abort the baby or return to India... I was already almost six months pregnant... My husband called me several days after my son was born and threatened that if I pursued child support, he would have me deported.” These are the words of an Indian immigrant woman in America, trapped in an abusive relationship and at the mercy of her spouse. It’s a decision a woman should never have to make: staying in an abusive relationship to protect her immigration status, or facing deportation and separation from her children because she leaves her spouse. Domestic violence affects all communities, but it profoundly affects immigrant communities. Many South Asian women in America face the terror of being trapped in abusive relationships, staying with their spouses to avoid being uprooted from their families and their lives. According to a nationwide survey, 12.8 per cent of Asian and Pacific Islander women in the US reported experiencing physical assault by intimate partners at least once during their lifetime; 3.8 per cent reported having been raped. For South Asians, that number is even larger: One in five South Asian immigrant families experience domestic violence at some time. Despite some progress in recent years, there are legal barriers keeping immigrant women trapped in abusive relationships. After blocking their wives from attaining residency status, abusers may threaten to have their spouses deported or cut off their access to social benefits if they leave the relationship. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed in 1994 to free women from the legal traps that kept them in abusive relationships. This landmark legislation was a great step forward for women around the country and immigrant women in particular. On June 30, I introduced the Immigrant Victims of Violence Protection Bill. This bill would shield women who leave their abusive spouses by offering them the same protections and social services they would have had in a healthy relationship. My bill would create a sanctuary for these women by preventing DHS from seizing them in shelters, crisis centers and protection order courts. Additionally, the bill would provide these women a safety net by allowing them access to health insurance, food, work permits, and other social services essential to their economic well-being. In the land of the free, too many women are being trapped in their own homes with a terrorist. Their lives and possibly their children’s lives are endangered by an abusive spouse. These protections would give these women the keys to their freedom. Immigrant women often suffer higher rates of battering than US citizens, and there are legal barriers keeping immigrant victims with their abusive spouses. Inclusion of my bill, or any that advances this cause, in the broader VAWA legislation would go a long way toward improving our policy. We should lift the legal barriers that keep women trapped in abusive relationships. Immigrant women should never be prisoners in their own homes. Instead, they should have legal protections and access to social services that empower them to escape abuse with their lives in America intact. — IANS
**** The writer is a Democrat Congresswoman from Illinois. The article was made possible by the Washington-based Indian American Center for Political Awareness
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From the pages of Shadow on golden fields AH! The world has fooled itself.” So cries a victim of modern civilisation. It has thought its problems settled. It has dreamed that its villainy is justice. But wait! It is rubbing its eyes at last; it will soon be awake. And then the churches will have less to say for themselves — the school will have less to say for themselves — the benefactors and the endowers will have less to say for themselves. Poor world! It has been so well done, it has got burned; it has been so virtuous, it has lost all the habits of virtue; and it has been so just, it has missed the perspective of justice! It will tell you it is all right; the priests will tell you it is all right; the politicians will tell you it is all right; the money-makers will tell you it is all right; the money-losers will tell you it is all right; everything will tell you it is all right. Yet it is not all right. It knows it is not all right. It dreams, it nightmares, it shivers in cold sweat. It is so certain, yet it is so uncertain. It is so happy, yet it is so unhappy.
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No one ever excused his way to success. — Book of quotations on Success It is the confession, not the priest that gives us absolution. — Book of quotations on Religion God, please give me only that much which will maintain my family that I will not remain hungry nor will any sadhu go without a meal. —Kabir Our karma is the bow and spirit the arrow. The Supreme Consciousness is their target. — The Upanishads All through his life, a King must do good deeds, dispense justice and help all those who need it. He does all this to build up a storehouse of good will for himself which he can call upon in troubled times. — The Mahabharata Happiness can be built only on virtue, and must of necessity have truth for its foundation. — Book of quotations on Happiness God instructs you to redeem your pledges to the people due them; and when you judge with justice between people that you judge with justice Excellent indeed is that which God advises you: for God hears and sees all. — Book of quotations on Islam Why run away from a tiger, which is also a manifestation of God? — Ramkrishna |
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