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Threat to peace
process When being old is a
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The deaths in
Nalgonda Railways must own blame The death of over 110 passengers following the derailment of the engine and seven coaches of the Repalle-Secunderabad Fast Passenger in Nalgonda of Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of Saturday is the worst ever rail tragedy in recent times.
India’s interests
in Iran
Pangs of Partition
planning
Tackling disasters:
natural and man-made A silent revolution
in Kerala Delhi
Durbar
From the pages of
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When being old is a curse Ram
Chand, who is in his 90s and was left to rot at the Mohali bus stand, is back with his family. The family may not have taken him back home unless it had felt ashamed after the Tribune cam out with a story on the lonely old man. Perhaps others “discovered” by the media living in similar pathetic conditions may also get some support. But there are many more who are left to fend for themselves in their twilight years when they are the most vulnerable. Children who are supposed to provide the support system at this stage – just as the parents did when their wards were young – shirk their responsibility. Neglecting the aged is not only heartless but also criminal. States like Himachal Pradesh have laws against such callous behaviour. That the state has to interfere in such a family relationship is in itself a sad commentary on society. But the fact is that even laws have not helped in protecting the senior citizens. Abandoning an old man or woman is the extreme form of abandonment. There are also many instances where children do allow their aged parents or relatives to live with them but treat them as non-entities. With the breakdown of joint families, they have come to be seen as “necessary evils”. In the West, it is common for the aged to be shifted to old-age homes. In India, this is not only socially unacceptable, but also impractical considering that there are just not enough such homes. The problem has to be tackled at two levels. On the one hand, social organisations and society have to launch a drive to make the errant sons and daughters aware of their responsibility. On the other, adequate facilities have to be provided for those who have nobody to call their own or those whose family members are too inhuman to care for them. A large part of the tax collection in the West goes towards providing such social security net. Given the change that has come about in the social fabric here, there is no reason why a similar practice should not be adopted.
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The deaths in Nalgonda The
death of over 110 passengers following the derailment of the engine and seven coaches of the Repalle-Secunderabad Fast Passenger in Nalgonda of Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of Saturday is the worst ever rail tragedy in recent times. The manner in which the train derailed points to several gaping holes in railway safety. True, the track was washed away because of a suspected breach in a reservoir following torrential rains. But why was the train given the green signal in the first place when the railway authorities were very much aware of the heavy rain and the possible damage to the tracks? Specifically, what were the Assistant Divisional Engineer, the Section Engineer (Permanent Way) and the Patrolman on duty doing? Clearly, the train derailed and claimed scores of lives because of the collapse of authority and functional responsibility at various levels of the railway administration. Unfortunately, the railway safety manual is observed more in its breach than in practice. This is true in almost all the zones, not just the South Central Railway in question. There is virtually no monitoring of the track during the monsoon. For instance, rules require the Patrolman on duty to personally check an area of 7 to 10 km for any possible breaches and promptly alert the Station Superintendent to stop the movement of trains. This is a 24-hour activity and it cannot be compromised at any time. Even when the track is restored, a pilot engine is first scheduled to run to ensure its railworthiness before resumption of the normal train services. Deplorably, the railway officials are passing on the buck to the state government for the mishap. Of course, there is need for effective coordination and information sharing between the two, particularly during monsoon, even though track maintenance is the primary responsibility of the railways. Ideally, the state government should promptly alert the railways whenever a weather alert is issued. This would help step up vigilance. But the railway staff should also do their own duty in tune with the safety code without abdicating their responsibility. |
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Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle.
— American proverb |
India’s interests in Iran
India’s relations with Iran continue to be a subject of debate after New Delhi voted in favour of the resolution sponsored by the European Union-Three on the Iranian nuclear issue at the September 24 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna. Will India’s decision not hurt its interests in Iran? How will India protect its interests in Afghanistan and Central Asian countries if Iran ceases to be a friendly nation? After all, Iran is the only country through which India can access Afghanistan and beyond, with the route passing through Pakistan still remaining unavailable. Then there is the question of oil and gas supplies from Iran. These are besides the threatened multi-billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, which was believed to have spurred industrial activity in the region. Of course, the pipeline project had already become doubtful the moment the Iranian nuclear programme became a matter of concern for the world community (read the US and its Western allies). But the other advantages that India has had with Iran as a friend too have got threatened after the Vienna vote. This is a worrying scenario. But the UPA government is receiving flak from its Left allies and the Opposition basically for India having gone into the US-dominated Western camp, saying goodbye to its nonaligned friends. There are few takers in the Opposition and the Leftist camp of the government’s explanation that its principled stand is, in fact, aimed at underlining India’s role as a crusader for the international cause of nuclear non-proliferation. The argument that the Indian stand will also help in preventing the Iranian issue to be referred to the UN Security Council has failed to satisfy the UPA’s Left allies. They are also not willing to believe that what the government did was the best option available to protect India’s long-term strategic interests. The Left viewpoint is that the course the UPA government has taken to will make India a “client state” of the US if no corrective measures are initiated soon. They have, therefore, warned the government of serious consequences if it repeats the past “mistake” when the Iranian nuclear issue is taken up again by the IAEA on November 24. The Leftists are adamant that they cannot allow India to become an ally of the US, which they accuse of pursuing imperialist policies. This was the basic ground why they opposed India clinching the civilian nuclear deal with the US in July. The Left allies of the ruling coalition are, however, not realistic enough. They appear to be living in the past. Yet their stand has led to a complicated situation for the Congress-led UPA government. It cannot risk its own survival on a foreign policy issue. It can also not allow to go waste the opportunity that has come India’s way to have assured access to the latest technologies for nuclear power generation. Hence the effort to explain that whatever is being done towards Indo-US closer cooperation in the area of nuclear energy generation is in the country’s own long-term interest. At the same time, everything possible must be done to safeguard interests in Iran. On October 24, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran asserted while delivering a lecture at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi that had India not gone along with the Western sponsors of the much-talked-about resolution at the September 24 meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, it would have been difficult for New Delhi to present before the world community so forcefully as it is doing today its non-proliferation record as a responsible nuclear power. India is now in a better position to weaken the drive against Iran. India is trying to expose the world community’s double standards reflected in not taking seriously the nuclear proliferation activities of the father of the Pakistani bomb, Dr A.Q. Khan. The cause of justice demands that the supplier of the nuclear knowhow to Iran — Pakistan — is also made to explain its role. In the absence of such an approach, Iran has every justification to call the US-led campaign against its nuclear programme as politically motivated. Are the American ayatollahs of non-proliferation listening? In any case, the US is faced with a tricky situation with Russia and China showing reluctance to extend their support for the American plan to handle Iran through the agency of the Security Council. Russia, a veto-wielding member of the council, refused to accept the US argument on Iran when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently visited Moscow to ascertain its views on the subject. Russia, building Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, has massive interests to protect in the Persian Gulf area. Any move that leads to destabilisation in Iran is bound to cause uneasiness in Russia. China too is reluctant to go along with the US because it sees a serious threat to its massive economic interests in Iran. Beijing, however, is avoiding a confrontationist course vis-à-vis the US as that may come in the way of its march to a super power status of the future. But it is doing all it can to defeat the US drive for the containment of China. By cooperating with Russia through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, China is quietly working to ensure that the unipolar world gets transformed into a bipolar one again. China also is showing signs of keenness to improve its relations with India, keeping aside the bitterness of the past. It is good that India has started working along with Russia and China to ensure that the Iranian issue is settled at the IAEA level itself. If this does not happen the
situation is coming to such a pass that abstaining from the voting at the coming IAEA Board of Governors meeting will be unavoidable for India as sought by the Leftist camp. The government cannot ignore the pressure being built up on this issue. Iran should see the writing on the wall and learn from China. A confrontationist posture is not in its interest. The US can repeat what it did in Iraq, ignoring world opinion and virtually bypassing the UN. Iran should not forget that the US is determined not to allow it to be in a position to generate nuclear power. Who does not know that nuclear power technology for peaceful purposes means nuclear weapons production capability in the future? The Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory, allows the pursuit of nuclear technology for peaceful uses like the generation of electricity. But, as Dr Condoleezza Rice stated in Moscow, “this is not a question of rights but whether or not the nuclear fuel cycle can be trusted in Iran.” This is the crux of the problem. Otherwise there was a time when the US itself was helping Iran in the area of nuclear technology. As early as 1957 the US had finalised a civilian nuclear cooperation pact with Iran and set up a nuclear research centre in Teheran in 1967. The US had also reached an agreement to supply nuclear reactors to Iran. The US-Iranian cooperation was aimed at making Iran a major power. Iran then was called the US policeman in the region. But those were different times. The world then had different
settings.
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Pangs of Partition planning
THE
Cauvery, flying the flag of Senior Officer, Persian Gulf, had just berthed in Karachi when a message was received that the naval subcommittee of partition secretariat comprising Captain Soman, Captain Choudhry, Commander Dayashankar and Commander Mumtaz was visiting Karachi in connection with allocation of naval assets in favour of either country. Then, the Indian navy had six frigates, the Krisna, the Cauvery, the Sutlej, the Jamuna, the Godavri and the Narbada. It had already been agreed that out of these, two frigates were to be given to Pakistan and the rest four to India. Earlier, the Narbada, playing the role of flagship, had been fitted with an additional flag cabin on the top deck. The team returned to New Delhi and recommended that the Godavri and the Narbada were to go to the Pakistan navy. Even before any formal announcement was made a news item in the Times of India stated that the flagship of India was being handed over to Pakistan. All other sorts of rumours also started floating. Years later, Cabinet Secretary HM Patel, while on board INS Rohilkhand, narrated to me the following happenings in New Delhi. Naval headquarters and senior government officers concerned had been utterly dismayed at turn of events as ignorant fingers were being raised from all directions. The news reached Sardar Patel sooner than expected. He lost no time in summoning senior government officials, including Defence Minister Baldev Singh, Cabinet Secretary H.M. Patel, Defence Secretary Captain Soman and Commander Dayashankar. All were standing. The scene was tense. Indian members of the naval subcommittee were facing the Home Minister who was furious. It appeared as if hell was going to be let loose. Without waiting for any formalities or any type of greetings the Sardar spoke: “The trust reposed by the country in you has been shamefully betrayed. You are traitors of the worst kind.” The brave and brilliant officer standing in front of him was Commander Dayashankar (later Vice-Admiral) who was already a recipient of Distinguished Service Cross for his personal valour in capturing enemy ships in the Persians Gulf. He stepped out of the line, respectfully bowed and spoke firmly: “Sir, those who have leaked information to the media as well as you do not know the facts. Recently I have been Chief Engineer of the Narbada. Her material state of machinery is such that she will not be operational for the next two years. Having an additional cabin is thus a minor matter.” Sardar, fully satisfied, regretted his outburst and shook hands with all present. Considering the sensitivity of the matter at that time further expert elaboration was not considered advisable. Partition came and subsequent reports confirmed that recommendations made by our valiant officers were more than justified. In due course INS Delhi joined the Indian naval fleet as her flagship. |
Tackling disasters: natural and man-made Tammy, Rita, Katrina, Emily, Dennis, the 40-plus Betsy or whatever. They are definitely not our bar girls, trying to migrate to the USA. They are the wicked Atlantic sisters. Recently, Katie and Rita tried to embarrass George Bush and Co. They did. The macho, Stan the mudslinger, created havoc in Central America. Followed closely by South Asian Shaker and Quaker, who visited the scenic Kashmir valley and destroyed it out of shape. This guy also shakes-up his brother terrorists in PoK. Their cousins visited Mumbai twice - in July and August - and devastated the city. They are the new breed of global terrorists. The past nine months have been a sort of record for disasters around the world. From the boxing day tsunami, which wrecked the coasts of Sumatra, India and Sri Lanka; to the Pacific ocean typhoons in Japan, Taiwan, China and SE Asia; to the super hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, devastating the coasts of Cuba, Caribbean Islands, Mexico and southern United States; to the deadly mud-slides & flooding of Mumbai, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico (4th to 6th October); and onto the Muzaffarabad earthquake in Kashmir of 8th October. All are super disasters, killing hundreds of thousands and destroying everything in their wake. That is nature’s fury. The man has also chipped-in with his indigenous disasters during this period such as, the second set of Bali blasts of October, 2005 and the London bombings (7/7). Well, that’s not all. The world is in danger of a pandemic — avian flu (H5 N1 virus). Hoping for the best may not be enough, to prevent this potential catastrophe. The unsuspecting detection at Lake Qinghai (China) may well kill millions and wreck the global economy. Over 150 million poultry birds have died and been culled in East and SE Asia, due to this virus to date. With fresh cases from Siberia, Turkey and Romania, it is another disaster in the making. Natural and man-made disasters have a long, sad history. So what has happened in the past nine months since December 26, 2004, had also happened earlier. Such tragedies bring us together, so it is time that, we resolved for the future. The nations of the world must learn their lessons and have suitable plans of actions in their respective countries to tackle disasters in the future. In the American model, the Department of Homeland Security, acts as a nodal agency for the federal government (President) to manage all kinds of disasters. It has the federal emergency management agency (FEMA) and disaster assistance response teams, which work in conjunction with the states. The State Governments have the FEMA teams, fire-fighters, National Guard and control rooms, where inputs from scientific, meteorological, FBI and other such agencies are coordinated under the
aegis of the Governor. Thus, the state administration plays a primary role for disaster relief. This role can be given to the defense department and the military on the orders of the President. Many of the European nations have similar models. This system has been effectively tested and the disaster response for 9/11 and other emergencies has been satisfactory. But nothing can be fool-proof. There was a system’s failure during hurricane Katrina. Sluggish response and lack of coordination between FEMA and the military led to looting, shoplifting and much more. In fact, New Orleans was on the verge of anarchy. But within three weeks before the onset of Hurricane Rita, all this had changed. The organised evacuation of Houston and other coastal cities involving over two million people, was exemplary. The disaster relief and the management of supplies was efficient. Over 50,000 troops were deployed in the affected area. Looting was prevented and losses to life and property were minimal. Sometimes, a failure can improve a system/organisation. The Indian management of disasters has been primarily dependent on the armed forces. Post-tsunami of December 26, 2004, a few state governments and the central government have made some models. But all these need to be further improved upon. Copy a little innovate the rest. Our future disaster management model must be built on the civil administrative services — at the state, district, zila-parishad and down to the community level. This must be coupled with suitable infrastructure. At the helm, the PM needs a council for the formulation and implementation of the disaster management schemes. Members of this council must be serving officials, be competent, accountable and committed. The head of this council could be a serving chief of the armed forces. Similarly, state governments could have their own crisis management groups, to act in conjunction with the central body. Finally, a nodal ministry to coordinate and handle disasters. While the climatologists, meteorologists and atmospheric administrators of the world are busy designing and installing advanced warning systems, the Greens blame the increase in natural disasters, on global warming. They feel that changes in the natural cycle of ocean temperatures are responsible for intemperate rainfall and frequent killer-storms. From Aceh, Velankani, Taiwan, New Orleans, Lake Charles, Beaumont, Panabaj, Atitlan, Biloxi, Tapachula, New York, Madrid, Bali, London, Mumbai, Balakot, Uri and Tangdhar everywhere millions of unsuspecting victims felt that God could have saved them. In these moments of grief we all look upwards and inwards for his help. It is high time that we learnt to help ourselves. In the game of wits with the humans, nature is one-up. The writer is a former principal and member of the Academic Council of Bangalore University |
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A silent revolution in Kerala Kudumbashree, a micro-credit scheme in Kerala, has helped women mop up billions of rupees to set up small business ventures, bringing about a silent revolution and becoming a model for women’s empowerment. The financing scheme has helped women, especially from the lower and middle strata, to become financially independent. There are at present 25,456 thrift and credit societies in the state. “Under the scheme, Rs.5.37 billion ($117.6 million) of thrift and Rs.11.9 billion ($264 million) of credit has been raised and utilised by the women,” Kudumbashree executive director T.K. Jose told IANS. Kudumbashree’s mission, he said, was to eradicate poverty within a decade through concerted community action under the leadership of self-help groups. Starting off as a project of the UN Children’s Fund in just seven wards in the coastal city of Alappuzha in 1992-93, it underwent a few facelifts before being reborn as Kudumbashree in 1998 when it came under the aegis of the state government and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). Jose, who has led from the front since the organisation’s inception, has ensured that there has been no media hype attached to the pioneering venture. “We were quite clear that we would not resort to any sort of media hype for this as past experience has shown that government-run programmes have not reached the desired levels because of overdose of media hype,” Jose said. Kudumbashree, he said, merely acted as a facilitator to bring together the efforts of women in society. And looking back, Jose has been hugely successful because Kerala now boasts of a record 158,831 neighbourhood groups (NHGs), locally known as ‘ayalkootam’, comprising mostly women from the lower strata of society. Each group has 23 women on an average, and as many as 3.2 million families have benefited from the scheme. Each NHG has five functional volunteers — community health volunteer, income generation volunteer, infrastructure volunteer, secretary and president. These groups are coordinated at the ward level through an area development society by federating 8 to 10 NHGs. The coordinating apex body at the panchayat level is the community development society. “In the weekly meetings, women discuss problems and make effort to find solutions with support from the functional volunteers. The women discuss plans for starting small enterprises which provide employment and income for the members,” said Vinod Nair, a consultant to Kudumbashree. The capital for their enterprises comes through small savings, which begin from as low as Rs 5 that the members contribute every week to a thrift society they form. The silver lining to the scheme has been the help provided by commercial banks that, through the NABARD’s linkage banking programme, have disbursed Rs 2.58 billion to these NHGs, said Jose. “So far, 61,623 NHGs have been linked with the commercial banks.” Aided by the credit scheme, there are 30,044 individual and 21,362 group enterprises that run canteens, catering units, group farming, soap making, book making and various other activities. “Our biggest challenge was to convince both the women and the authorities that this was possible... Today the state government is confident and has given us the go ahead for pursuing the programme with more dynamism,” said
Jose. — Indo-Asian News Service |
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Delhi Durbar The
Congress leadership may not admit it, but it is a fact that the resignation threat held out by 15 Jammu and Kashmir legislators was a decisive factor in going ahead with the scheduled change of guard in the state. The rebellious MLAs, in their meetings with the central leadership, apparently let it be known that the government would not exactly be stable in case Mufti Mohamad Sayeed continued as Chief Minister. These legislators from Jammu are also learnt to have told the leadership that it would be impossible for them to get re-elected if the Congress was seen to be reneging on its poll promise of forming government under Ghulam Nabi Azad’s leadership. Although the MLAs eventually had their way, it was not before they were given a dressing down for a breach of party discipline. Behind-the-scenes intrigue In the change of guard in Jammu and Kashmir, the role of two leading party players — AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni and Mr Ahmed Patel, Congress President’s political secretary — can hardly be overlooked. The two leaders, whose antipathy to Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad is wellknown, provided the critical inputs to party President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which finally swung the decision in favour of the Congress. Mr Patel was apparently keen that Mr Azad moved out of Delhi as it would also mean his departure from the core group, the all-powerful and crucial decision-making body comprising Mrs Gandhi, Dr Singh and Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil and Mr Azad along and Mr Patel himself. According to the party grapevine, Mrs Soni wanted Mr Azad out as it would leave the field open for his replacement with another member of the minority community. She would like her protege, Mr Salman Khursheed, UPPCC chief, to be accommodated either in the AICC or in the Rajya Sabha, which would then pave the way for his induction in the government. Jagmeet Brar is back Former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar, who has a running battle with several Punjab Ministers and is best regarded as the chief dissident of the Punjab Congress, has been lying low for over a year. He has, however, now decided to emerge from his shell and is gradually getting involved in party activities in his home state. He was spotted recently at a special function organised by the Punjab PCC in Delhi for the induction of the BSP district chief from Mansa. With the BSP facing internal troubles and assembly elections a little over a year away, Mr Brar decided that this is probably a good time to emerge from his self-imposed
hibernation and make inroads into the Dalit vote base. Congress faces a dilemma The Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to honour all former Chief Ministers on the state’s foundation day has put the Congress in a dilemma as this list includes senior party leaders Arjun Singh, Motilal Vora and Digvijay Singh. While it would be churlish to decline the
invitation extended to them since the programme is billed as a non-partisan and non-political one, the fact that BJP President L.K. Advani is presiding over it has complicated matters. Naturally, Congress leaders would not like to be seen sharing a platform with their arch political opponent. (Contributed by Prashant Sood, S.S. Negi and Anita Katyal) |
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From the pages of A Unique strike
An interesting and sensational story of a priests’ strike is reported from Orissa. The facts were disclosed in the Calcutta High Court for it had led to violence. The seat of operation was Sakkhigopal, near Puri. It appears that a member of the Sakkhigopal Endowment Committee appointed a priest to perform the puja of the god. According to the local custom, the deity is carried in procession during a fixed time and offerings are made at fixed places. The member of the Committee was in charge of the temple who ordered the ceremony to be performed at a place to which the priests objected and they refused to perform the ceremonies. One of the priests was induced to work which led to a serious disturbance. The “bhog” or offering was spoiled and heads were broken and the matter had to be taken to court. |
The eyes cannot see him.
Because of him, the eyes see. — The Upanishads Generally our ignorance clouds this glowing truth. We reconcile ourselves by blaming fate for our accidents. The learned one knows that the cause of the accident. The learned one knows that the
cause of the accident was some deed in the past; not fate. He examines his past behaviour and makes amendments in the future. —
The Mahabharata You call him Ishwar, some call him Allah, some simply God. But we all have to acknowledge that it is he who made us for greater things: to love and be loved. —
Mother Teresa |
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