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Needless setback Mani unwise |
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Loo and behold
Policing the people
Matter of changing faith
Need for global social action When women want to have it all Defence notes
From the pages of
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Needless setback IT is unfortunate that the India-Pakistan talks in New York could not make any headway. Given the hope the summit-level talks generated, it is a setback to bilateral relations. The positions Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf took in their addresses in the United Nations General Assembly reflect the unfortunate hiatus in their relations. The talks got bogged down essentially on the issue of troop withdrawals from the border districts of Jammu and Kashmir. India, which recently withdrew some Border Security Force personnel from the state, has no reservation on such withdrawals. It is in this context that its difficulty to accede to the Pakistani demand should be seen. The armed forces are deployed in the border districts mainly to deal with infiltration and other acts of aggression. Despite Pakistan’s promise to destroy all terrorist outfits recruiting and training misguided youths to wage a “jehad” against India in the name of “liberating Kashmir”, they continue to exist, if not, thrive. Infiltration along the Line of Control is a reality, which India cannot wish away. Under these circumstances, any withdrawal of forces is tantamount to exposing the people of the state to terrorist machinations. No responsible government can afford to do that. The matter is entirely within the control of President Musharraf. By coming down heavily on the terrorist infrastructure in his country, he can pave the way for troop withdrawal from J&K. It should have been clear to him that neither trying to internationalise the Kashmir issue by using such forums as the United Nations nor waging a proxy war against India will serve any purpose in the face of India’s steely determination to stand up to any threat. Intransigence in the past did not pay Pakistan any dividend. Nor will such conduct pay in the future. President Musharraf will do well to realise that there is no alternative to keep the peace process going through talks and other confidence-building measures. |
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Mani unwise BY trying to pack the boards of oil public sector units with Congressmen of questionable qualifications, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has harmed his own reputation as an aggressive champion of India’s energy security. He has tried to create his own constituency among his party colleagues and joined the band of those in power who reward their own henchmen at the expense of the exchequer. In the process, the minister has undermined his own government’s attempts to provide operational autonomy to the PSUs. This may strengthen the proposal to merge all oil companies to create a monolith so that the scope for their misuse is limited. The scandalous revelation comes at a time when the profits of the government oil companies are under strain due to the rising global oil prices. By not raising the domestic petroleum prices in accordance with the global trend, the UPA government has forced the once profit-making oil PSUs to foot the bill for costlier crude oil imports. The oil PSUs, as also the Petroleum Ministry, need to be run by professionals, who are also known for their integrity and fairness. Anyone who is tainted should not be allowed to run any ministry or come near any PSU, least of all those in the sensitive petroleum sector. The unsavoury episode underscores the need for handing over the PSUs to competent professionals with sufficient autonomy. What Mr Aiyar has been caught doing is a national phenomenon. Members of almost every ruling party, in the states as well as at the Centre, have been found misusing their position at one time or the other for personal gain or to reward their cronies. No wonder, half of the 240 Central PSUs, in which the government has invested Rs 2,70,000 crore of the taxpayers’ money, are in the red. About 90 per cent of the 946 government units in the states are sick. This calls for serious introspection. |
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Loo and behold TALK about a leak. The first thing one was drawn to on Friday morning was a news agency photo of President Bush scribbling a note asking whether he can go to the bathroom. No doubt, the circumstances were pressing. The world’s most powerful man was in a meeting of the UN General Assembly. This is not the kind of gathering where you just up and go round the corner to answer nature’s call. After all, when it comes to the great and the mighty, there can be tiny protocol problems. So, with all due deference to form and occasion, President Bush thought it was only right and proper that he should check with his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice whether it would be appropriate at that moment in the proceedings to step out to go to the bathroom. “I think I MAY NEED A BATHROOM break? Is this possible?” was the cryptic but loaded query he was seen writing. To those of us, who thought that raising a finger to ask, “Ma’am, may I please go to the bathroom”, was well behind us once we were out of school, this development should make us think again. Either one can take the cynical view that men never grow out of being boys, even if they are from Texas. Or, one should accept that the higher one rises in power, authority and glory, the greater the restraints on the smallest of actions. A more commonplace explanation may be that men remain, forever, creatures of habit. It would be extremely crass to suggest that the “Bush Bathroom Memo” testifies to the US Secretary of State being far more powerful than the American President. There was a time — the Nixon presidency — when the redoubtable Dr Henry Kissinger was said to wield more power than his boss in the White House. Today, in all honesty, there is no knowing the power and reach of the US president. |
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Your friend is the man who knows all about you and still likes you. — Elbert Hubbared |
Policing the people Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to integrate the police into development planning to meet the challenges before the nation is most welcome. Addressing the National Conference of Superintendents of Police at New Delhi on September 1, he said that he would consult the Union Home Ministry and the Planning Commission and draw a five-year plan and a long-term perspective plan for upgrading technology and human resource development to improve the police administration. Significantly, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia hailed the decision the very next day. While delivering Dr A. Gupta Memorial Lecture to mark the Foundation Day celebrations of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, he said the Prime Minister’s decision would be pursued to its logical conclusion. Development and law and order are inextricably intertwined and no development strategy would work without peace and security, he said. The SPs’ conference, which this writer had the opportunity of attending as an invitee of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, underlined the Prime Minister’s commitment to improve the quality of governance at the cutting edge of administration. Dr Manmohan Singh took the initiative of organising this first-ever meeting after his interaction with the District Collectors on May 19-20. A
wrap-up of the regional workshops held at Hyderabad, Guwahati, Srinagar and Mumbai, the SPs’ conference provided a forum for the district police chiefs to interact with the Prime Minister on some crucial areas of policing. Admittedly, the police is functioning under very difficult circumstances. The constabulary, which forms 80 per cent of the country’s total police force, is ill-equipped, poorly paid and has no scope for promotions. This has affected its morale and overall performance. The police is also not trained in crowd control and management. Training and upgradation of skills would not only help prevent Gurgaon-type incidents but also refurbish their image. As the Prime Minister is interested to remove the imbalances in the police administration and include it in development planning, he should make a comprehensive review of training and orientation of the police force at various levels. Significantly, as most of the current recruits to the constabulary are well educated, the conference felt that the Madhya Pradesh system of promoting constables to the next higher rank, after a written examination, should be replicated in all other states. The dynamics of policing have not changed much from the colonial days. The Police Act of 1861 is out of sync with today’s needs. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said that a new Act is being drafted, but it is intriguing why the Act was not amended earlier. Apparently, whenever the Centre took some initiative in this regard, it was foiled by those who derived benefits from the system. Sadly, the National Police Commission (NPC) report, popularly known as the Dharma Vira report, continues to be in cold storage mainly because, its recommendations, if implemented, would disturb the status quo and harm the interests of those in power. It submitted eight comprehensive reports to the Centre, covering almost all areas of the police organisation and its work, but these are gathering dust. As Dr Manmohan Singh is committed to reorient the police administration, he should implement the report in toto. Crime prevention, which should have been the first priority of the police, is the main casualty of the current system of policing. The heavy pressure on the police for maintaining law and order, VIP security and anti-terrorist and extremist activities leave the police little time for crime prevention. A policeman has a 24-hour workday and he has to often steal time to visit his family. This has affected his/her work profile and efficiency. One reason why the police has fallen off public esteem is the increasing politicisation and criminalisation of the force. Reports that some policemen are in league with the criminals are not altogether baseless. Obviously, if 75 per cent of Mumbai’s policemen, for instance, stay in slums, rubbing shoulders with criminals, one cannot expect them to function in the chosen path of rectitude. The Prime Minister aptly said that this problem could be tackled effectively if the police is provided adequate housing facilities in decent localities. There are basically four major defects affecting the police functioning today. First, there is a strain on the command structure in the states, especially at the three most crucial levels - the Director-General of Police, the SP and the Station House Officer. This can be seen in the low level of police discipline, indifferent registration of cases at the police stations, poor quality of investigation and mounting public grievances against police malfunctioning and corruption. Second, the existing system of police chiefs often leads to the placement of persons who are not known for their integrity and professionalism. Thirdly, undue emphasis on crime statistics has resulted in non-registration of cases or their registration under minor sections of law. These have led to further public distrust of the police. And finally, there is a general failure of the prosecution machinery. Discipline, regimentation, hierarchical control and obedience are of paramount importance in the police. But these have taken a back seat because the DGPs and SPs are hardly allowed to function in keeping with the well-established administrative norms and principles. The SPs don’t have any say in the posting of the SHOs. In such matters, the wishes of the political masters prevail. Some police officers are also keen to oblige those who matter, compromising their integrity and ignoring the public interest. Obviously, they know that as long as the political bosses are kept in good humour, hierarchical control will be ineffective. Like the District Collectors, the SPs too do not have a fixed tenure. They say that they are unable to do any constructive work because of short tenures. This has also affected specialisation in the Indian Police Service. Dr Manmohan Singh promised the SPs that he would continue his efforts to convince the Chief Ministers for a fixed tenure for them and the District Collectors. The Chief Ministers should heed his advice. Mr Shivraj Patil said that he would convene an Inter-State Council meeting on this issue. The Chief Ministers should understand that if district officers are arbitrarily transferred, they cannot discharge their duties properly. Nor can they be even made accountable for their actions. The Prime Minister rightly advised the SPs not to succumb to political interference in their professional work. He said they must “draw a line somewhere and say thus far and no further.” But this is easier said than done. For instance, when Mr Sanjay Ratn, the upright SP of Siwan in Bihar, refused to kowtow to the political masters and tried to book the Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, Mohammed Shahabuddin, Governor Buta Singh peremptorily transferred him. For the same reason, District Collectors of Siwan and Gopalganj, C.K. Anil and K.K. Pathak, were shunted out earlier. Consequently, the solution lies in insulating the police machinery from political interference and constituting security commissions in all the states as recommended by the Dharma Vira
report.
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Matter of changing faith
As civilisation advances, poetry declines. That’s what Shelley declared long ago. Likewise, as rationalism grows up, faith goes down. Indeed, there is no place for faith in our scientific age. Blinded by their faith, the believers cannot see reason. I have always found it impossible to hammer sense into the minds of those kirtan-maniacs, those jagrata-walas, who won’t let any one sleep the whole night. Singing bhajans, raising jaikaras, blowing conches, they believe that they are doing something noble and that their Mata will bless them for it. I don’t know about the ways of the gods, but I do know that there are curses galore from the hundreds who can’t sleep.” Such were the lectures to which I was subjected by my teacher of physics in the formative period of my youth. And that killed my faith. No wonder I have been allergic to keertans all my life. Even in my present old age, I refuse to join my new companions, the “senior citizens”, in their evening congregations where they have their daily dose of spiritual serenading. When the session ends, some of them proceed from there to a nearby park for their constitutional walk. That is where I join them. The other day, my friends reached the park a little late but I didn’t have to ask them the reason: they brought with them a doddery old man — the chief speaker of the day. As it happened, he was still riding the evangelical horse: “These keertans, I have discovered from my experience, have great value in terms of psychological health. It is a kind of therapy. When you join a keertan, its ecstasy overpowers you and you get so completely lost that you forget your narrow personal self, your painful problems. For some time at least, you feel relieved of your psychological tensions. Some people call it spiritual bliss; it is peace of mind, in any case.” In the West, where they don’t have this socio-psychological therapy, they have big psychological problems. Hence the ever-growing demand for psychiatrists. We in India didn’t need them: keertans take care of our psychological health—by helping us transcend our obsessions, our tensions, howsoever briefly. “However, thanks to the changed socio-spiritual scenario in India, we too have started having psychic problems. At this juncture, I am sure, our choice is as limited as it is simple: go back to keertan or become psychological wrecks! Mind you, I am not pleading for keertan on religious grounds, I can’t do that. I am a scientist; I’ve been teaching physics all my life.” As he said this, I instantly recognised in him my professor of physics. My excitement at meeting him after half-a-century was offset, however, by the way he was trying to glorify a religious practice that used to be his bete-noire. “Judas!” is all that I could mumble to myself. How could the man who had killed my faith now pull down the alternative structure that he had helped create— the rationalist approach to life? I started wondering if here was Shelleyan proposition running in reverse gear—as rationalism
declines [in old age], faith advances. But, no, he was mentally alert and could argue with conviction and clarity—albeit in a low, hoarse tone. And when I told him who I was, he did not take long to place me. Nor did he take long to convince me that, apropos of kirtan, he had not glorified a religious practice; he had only discovered a scientific rationale for a spiritual phenomenon. |
Need for global social action
Bill Clinton, former President of the United States, was recently interviewed for Global Viewpoint by Euripedes Alcantara, Editor of Veja, at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y. On September 15, Clinton convened the first meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York along with Bill Gates, Kofi Annan and others. You were, for many people, a symbol of the positive side of the process of globalisation of the economy. Recently you said that the world needs to enter the post-globalisation phase. What does that mean? The globalisation of the economy has had very positive effects, but a lot of people have not benefited from it. The only way to broaden these beneficial effects is to bring civil society to the scene. I think time has come for non-governmental organisations, companies, workers’ associations and international organisations to try to develop a social and environmental policy that is in keeping with the challenges and opportunities created by globalisation. The global economic system alone cannot solve all problems, either locally or globally. Issues such as environment and the increase of poverty and inequality cannot be confronted only by the market forces. Therefore, I think it is not very realistic to imagine that we can have a globalised economy without the counterpart of a global social action. My idea is to contribute to the creation of a global civil society with partnerships that transcend national and regional borders. Global civil society has rapidly expanded since the end of communism. If you look at what happened in the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, you will see that three major and little-celebrated phenomena are giving shape to the contemporary world. The first one is the fact that, for the first time in history, more people are living under democratic governments than under dictatorships. The second one is the geometrical expansion of the Internet. The third one is the consolidation of NGOs as action organisations with global reach. The boom of use of the Internet as a citizenship tool has been vital. The Chinese, for instance, used the Internet to force their government to acknowledge the seriousness of SARS and take the necessary measures to prevent the progress of that epidemic. After the terrible tsunami that razed Southeastern Asia at the end of last year, 30 per cent of Americans made donations to the victims. And half the donations were made via the Internet. If you add to this the networks and linkages between the NGOs in developing countries and in wealthy countries, then we have a very optimistic scenario for change. What might be some concrete examples of these networks? The boom of the NGOs goes from the Bill Gates Foundation, which spends billions of dollars in health treatments in India and Africa, to the smaller organisations that grant micro-credit in Latin America, in Africa and in Southern Asia. Well, what I think I can do to help is to provide all these people with the opportunity to focus their actions so as to make them more effective. I hope to create an environment in which entrepreneurial, labour and political leaders and NGOs can sit together and say, “Well, these are the things we must begin and end within a year; these are the areas we think are vital for our common future.” With such grand projects and so much money, do you worry about corruption? Projects do not need to be great. They have to be functional. Brazil, for example, has at least two successful cases that may serve as a model for the rest of the world. One of them is the programme of distribution of antiviral medicine for AIDS patients. The medicine reaches even the more distant populations, including indigenous patients who do not even speak Portuguese. This is something extraordinary. No other country in the world has a project comparable to Brazil’s. Another programme of which Brazilians must be proud of is the one in which mothers of poor families periodically receive an amount of money as an incentive to keep their children at school. I believe that there are many ways to finance projects without running the risk of fostering corruption. For this, the quality of people is fundamental. In many countries of the extinct communist bloc, there are many times 20 or 50 people who are really skilled in the government, in the middle of a rotten bureaucracy that no longer works. What can we do? Identify the good people and help them. I agree that, when a government is dishonest, help is equivalent to throwing money down the drain. In other words, good people in the right place can make a difference? Yes. Even in countries without a very effective governing system, there are helpless but clever people who are managing to survive even when everything conspires against them. When a good network of NGOs arrives in a place like this, their work can save many lives, establish companies and promote economic growth. Won’t growth that raises the consumption standards of hundreds of millions of people in Asia and Africa hasten the depletion of natural resources and create environmental disaster? The shortest answer is yes. But the longest is that it is possible to create wealth without destroying the environment. This is the great challenge. All over the world, water reserves are diminishing, fertile soils are being eroded and seed production is showing a downward trend. South America is one of the few regions in the world that was able to increase the production of soy and other seeds thanks to technology and the abundance of fertile lands. But this is an exception. The rule is the shortage of water and of arable lands. Therefore, one of the dearest purposes of my initiative is to find ways to turn environmental preservation into a path to attain economic prosperity. Otherwise, the reaction of people, let us say, in China and India may be very negative. They might think that environmental preservation is an ambush by Americans and Europeans to prevent their countries’ economic growth. For this reason, we have to stimulate the use of solar energy, of eolic energy, and help to popularise highly productive cultivation techniques that will help us preserve water and the soil. Thus, people will understand that preservation makes them richer, not poorer. Another beneficial effect of raising the standard of living and consumption of the population is shown by statistics: As countries grow rich, population growth diminishes. When we know that the greatest population impact in the planet is in the countries that shelter the big forest reserves, the importance of helping them grow rich becomes clear. — Tribune Media Services/Asia
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When women want to have it all Women who try to have it all may lose the one thing that matters most — the opportunity to have a family, they say. In the starkest warning yet about the dangers of older motherhood, three senior obstetricians from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London catalogue the problems that can befall older women who try to become pregnant, ranging from high blood pressure to diabetes and foetal abnormality. Men are also affected by delay as sperm counts decline with age and the risks of schizophrenia and genetic disorders in their offspring increase. Many couples wrongly believe they can fall back on IVF if all else fails. But this “expensive, invasive” treatment has a high failure rate, they say. Seven out of ten women who have IVF do not achieve a live birth, rising to nine out of ten over 40. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the obstetricians state: “Women want to have it all but biology is unchanged ... If women want room for manoeuvre they are unwise to wait till their 30s.” The age of first motherhood has been rising since the mid-1970s, with the sharpest increases in births to women in their late 30s and early 40s, but the “biologically optimal” time for childbearing is 20 to 35. Although the risks to individual mothers are still low, the rate of complications and abnormalities seen in maternity units is increasing. Doctors, including Lord Winston, the fertility pioneer, have issued previous warnings about the trend but they have focussed on older mothers. Susan Bewley, consultant obstetrician at Guy’s and lead author of the BMJ editorial, said: “If you want a family — and most people want a couple of children — and you are going to complete your childbearing by 35 and leave time for recovery in between, you would be wise to start before 30.” “People are aware that ageing is a bad thing but the bio-panic women had on their 30th birthday has moved up to the 40th birthday.” “I don’t know why women are delaying. Surveys of older mothers show half say they delayed because they had not met a suitable partner. Maybe instead of waiting for Mr Right they ought to wait for Mr Good-Enough, if they want children.” A quarter of patients at Guy’s were over 35 and the proportion was even higher in other hospitals. Social and psychological benefits of older motherhood were slight by comparison with the physical risks. Children of older parents tended to do better at school but this could be because older parents tended to be better off and better educated. “My expertise is on the biological side, that is why I have stressed it. But this is a collective issue. There is a sense that we are healthier than we have ever been and its ok to wait but as obstetricians we see people falling off the cliff and it saddens me.” The warning was backed by Infertility Network UK, the charity that supports couples with fertility problems. Clare Brown, the chief executive, said: “Delaying having children until you are in your thirties is a choice many women make but they need to be aware of the added problems.” Marion Frostick, 47, a management trainer in Oxford, spent a decade trying to get pregnant from the age of 30. “I had been working and I was enjoying my career and I thought it could wait. But when I tried, it didn’t work.” She started on three years of tests and investigations, the stress of which contributed to the breakdown of her first marriage. After re-marrying at 36, she was still unable to get pregnant. Her last resort was IVF. “I was one of the lucky ones — I got pregnant first time. I thought I would have another go at 41 and again I was incredibly lucky.” But Ms Frostick is sceptical about telling women they should start their families by 30. “It may the right advice medically but things happen. Real life is not like that.” www.infertilitynetworkuk.com — IANS |
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Defence notes Since indigenous development is the only way to ensure self-reliance, the Indian Navy has created a new Directorate of Indigenisation at IHQ, MoD (Navy). The Navy’s quest for self-reliance was hampered by cumbersome procedures and limited financial powers. The new directorate is aimed at tiding over these impediments and become the nodal agency for all indigenisation activities of the Navy. It will provide a single-window interface with the industry, thus cutting procedural delays. The directorate, in conjunction with the industry, will undertake research, development and manufacture of engineering and electric equipment.
India beckons super powers The recent strides made by India has led the super powers to do business with New Delhi. A number of companies from these countries have set up shop here with an eye to sell weapons. Delhi was witness to two such events last week. A big aircraft manufacturer from the US set up an office here, while a Russian company signed a joint venture with an Indian company. On September 9 a 20-member Russian defence delegation made presentations to top defence officers to highlight after-sales repairs and maintenance issues that rose after the collapse of the Soviet Union. During an interaction with the media on the eve of the formal presentation, Rear Admiral Anatoly Negreev, Chairman, Rosoboronservice India Ltd, explained that his company was created by a decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of F-16 fighter aircraft, also announced its formal arrival and said that it was setting up an office here with a substantial staff. Although there is another US manufacturer in race for the order of 125 fighter aircraft required by the Indian Air Force lately it is the Lockheed Martin which has emerged as the front runner. It is no surprise that it needs to station men here to maintain constant liaison with the government.
Warfare training A seminar on “Holistic approach to sub-conventional operations” was organised at the Army War College Mhow, last week as a part of the “Tactics and Doctrine Conference”, conducted by the Army Training Command, Shimla, annually. The conference was
attended by the Chief of Army Staff, Gen J.J. Singh, and senior officers of the Army. The Chief emphasised the importance of training and preparation for sub-conventional warfare. He said the Army will follow the policy of “iron fist” for terrorists and “velvet glove” for the people. |
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From the pages of DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
If there is one conviction more strong than any other which recent events in India have driven home to all classes of our countrymen, it is that our future depends a good deal upon ourselves. “Heaven helps those who help themselves” is a maxim the truth of which every Indian interested in the welfare of his motherland should fully realise. In India the workers are few and the work that has to be done is considerable. We need workers at every turn. In all directions, political, social, educational and industrial work awaits doing. We are convinced that unless we work with a whole heart and in a disinterested manner we cannot hope to achieve much. Honesty of purpose, singleness of aim, straightforwardness in dealings, patience and perseverance under trials and difficulties are some of the virtues which all who aspire to be in any way useful to their country should try to cultivate.
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The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten is all fantasy. What is found now is found then. — Kabir They may hide from the people, but they do not hide from God; for God is with them when they scheme in words God does not sanction. And God comprehends whatever they do. — Book of quotations on Islam One cannot bring the holy image into a temple if the droppings of bats are all around. The eleven bats are our eleven organs, five of actions, five of perception and the mind. — Ramkrishna Make everyday of your life an effort to reach God. Make all your actions selfless and caring towards others. Each good deed is a step towards heaven. So keep adding up your good deeds. — The Buddha People of medicore ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quite. Most men succeed because they are determined to. — Book of quotations on
success We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another. —Book of quotations on
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