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Create trust, have peace Outrage at Jehanabad |
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Dignity in politics
Daughters have right to live
No Man’s Land
Human Rights Diary Expectations low on Bush’s Asia visit Delhi Durbar
Natwar Singh’s critics How many illiterate?
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Create trust, have peace Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz got a fitting reply from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when the former said on the sidelines of the 13th SAARC summit in Dhaka that there was a “trust deficit” between the two South Asian neighbours. Mr Aziz wanted to highlight the point that this was so because India had not accepted Pakistan’s demand, though patently unjustifiable, for the redeployment of troops in the terrorist-infested state of Jammu and Kashmir. But in the process Mr Aziz provided an opportunity to India to remind Pakistan once again that it had failed to honour the commitment it had made in January 2004, that no territory under Islamabad’s control, including Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, would be allowed to be used for terrorist activities in India. There could not have been a more appropriate response than what Dr Manmohan Singh gave: “There has been trust deficit”, no doubt. But it is “our obligation to convert that deficit into a surplus”. More trust can be created only when Pakistan fulfils its obligation to end cross-border terrorism and winds up the terrorist training camps. But, unfortunately, instead of taking up the matter with the seriousness it deserves, Pakistan has been allowing Kashmir-centric terrorists to operate from its soil by changing the names of their outfits. The latest proof has been provided by the arrest of a Lashkar-e-Toiba man in connection with the recent Delhi blasts. The Lashkar, as everybody knows, is an ISI-promoted outfit, but today it functions under a different name. That is why Dr Manmohan Singh said that the recent large-scale killings in the national Capital at the hands of terrorists had “external linkages”. Terrorist violence is not coming to an end obviously because terrorist infiltration from Pakistan continues unabated. This state of affairs is bound to have an adverse impact on the public opinion in India, which can only vitiate the atmosphere for the peace dialogue with Pakistan. That will be an unfortunate development, and any government in India will find itself helpless. This has been pointed out time and again, but without any credible response from Pakistan. Continuing support to terrorism will lead to shrinking the constituency of peace in the subcontinent. This will be sad. |
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Outrage at Jehanabad Naxalites have caused a lot of mayhem in Bihar over the past many years. But all that pales into insignificance before the Jehanabad jailbreak they staged on Sunday. The sheer scale of the crime was outrageous. Hundreds of Naxalites entered the town in small groups, cut power lines, attacked the police lines and the prison simultaneously and simply walked away with more than 300 prisoners. At least five persons were killed. Arms and ammunition were looted. Ironically, this happened at a time when Bihar is saturated with security forces because of elections. Most of the police personnel were busy with the election duty and the town situated some 50 km south of Patna was relatively unguarded. Naxalites made full use of this weakness and stormed it, freeing many dreaded killers with impunity. The attack was deliberately undertaken on November 13, the anniversary of the Russian revolution. There is another disturbing angle to the sensational jailbreak. The attackers have kidnapped over a dozen imprisoned members of the rival Ranvir Sena, banned private army of upper-caste zamindars. They have left behind posters that the attack was to “rescue our comrades and to award death penalty to select Ranvir Sena activists lodged in jail”. There is a chilling possibility that those kidnapped may indeed be done to death. If that happens the law and order situation may worsen. The Bihar government has sought more companies of central paramilitary forces, but there is no certainty that even that measure would remedy the situation. Bihar’s problem arises from the fact that the criminals enjoy political patronage. Cut that umbilical card and the situation will undergo a dramatic improvement. But the old dilemma remains: who will bell the fat cat? Many of the criminals happen to double as elected representatives. Policemen and bureaucrats who dare to do the unthinkable are sidelined. Many have been simply bumped off. Naxalism in Bihar and in many other parts of India requires a sustained campaign to tackle it. The threat from it is becoming increasingly menacing. |
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Dignity in politics With the passing away of Madhu Dandavate, the country has lost a political leader who symbolised dignity and grace in public life. He was widely known as a hard working minister in the Morarji Desai and V.P. Singh governments. He was an able parliamentarian and an important trade union leader. What impressed people most were his simple lifestyle, catholicity of outlook and strict adherence to value-based politics. By standards set by some of the other Socialist colleagues, he led such a simple life that he was never swayed away by the official trappings of a Union Minister. His ministerial style was more earthy and was easily accessible. As the Railway Minister, he regulated the indiscriminate use of “saloons” or special coaches by top railway officers during inspection. It is mainly because of his concern for the lower middle class that he tried to make second class travel almost preferable to first. The trains like the Konark Express and the Geetanjali Express are his gifts to the nation. His desire to be austere was not an affectation, but a cherished value that he had imbibed from men like Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya J.B. Kripalani. Significantly, despite being a political heavyweight and a powerful minister during the Janata Party rule at the Centre, concern for the poor never ebbed in him. As a gentle, erudite and articulate parliamentarian, he fought for effective and judicious use of Zero Hour in Parliament to raise issues of public importance. His successful intervention for a safety clause to allow dissent during the enactment of the Anti-Defection Act of 1985 is well known. Madhu Dandavate belonged to that rare breed of politicians who never compromised on principles and ethics in public life. He was deeply disturbed by the growth of corruption and its adverse effect on the polity and the system as a whole. A grateful country will always remember him as a politician who fought for principles and value-based politics. |
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Terrible is the temptation to be good.
— Bertolt Brecht |
Daughters have right to live Added to the long list of things India is infamous for is the fact that we have female foeticide – elimination of the unwanted girl even before her birth! Prenatal sex-determination tests followed by quick abortions destroy thousands of foetuses much before they could become daughters! The effects of this are seen in the vast human resources that are lost to the nation and the alarmingly declining female-to-male ratio. India has one of the lowest sex ratios in the world. Punjab, the richest state, has reflected this trend in the latest census, a matter of great concern. This widening gap between the female and male populations is not because many more are allowed to die. Throughout the world nature balances the female-male ratio by its own biological mechanism, but in India nature is overruled by nurture. What is this society in which even the only equal opportunity of birth is denied to the female child! Is it possible for India to march forward when half of its tomorrow’s citizens have to struggle for the basic right of survival? We expect women to be the pivots of social change and development, yet we deprive them of the right to be born. Even those girls who somehow survive till birth and beyond find that the dice is heavily loaded against them in a world that denies them equal access to the means of survival (food, health care, education, employment, etc). Born into indifference and reared on neglect, the girl-child is caught in a web of cultural practices and prejudices that divest her of her individuality, and mould her into a submissive self-sacrificing daughter and wife who in future agrees for sex determination and female abortions irrespective of education and employment status. In a society that dreads the birth of a daughter and idolizes sons, to be born female comes perilously close to being born less human. Thus, the issue is not female foeticide but being the “unwanted girl,” which ultimately leads to female foeticide. The universal desire for a son and the obsession to view a daughter as a burden is prevalent in all sections of society. Sons are considered ritually and economically desirable, essential not only to light the pyre of parents and release their souls from the bondage of the body but also because of the requirement of the lineage and economic support for their parents in their old age. The son is a resource and the girl is a resource-drainer even if she acquires the capability to become a wage-earner later on. A grown up girl-child supporting her parents is seen as an aberration and a taboo. Even the needy parents find it somewhat demeaning. In spite of the continuous, unrecognised, unpaid and unrewarded tasks which a girl, sometimes as small as six years’ old, is made to undertake, the traditional male dominance and female subordination gives the female nothing except the low self-esteem in the majority of Indian homes. It is not uncommon even for well-educated and decently employed women to undergo life-long subordination to her father, brother, husband and son. The women’s existence as an economic entity is rarely recognised. There is a deeply entrenched view that the girl is a burden, liability and “parayadhan”, destined to be transferred to another family, who will accept the burden in return for a fat dowry. The uncertainly of conditions in her future home is the recurring theme in her upbringing. She is taught to be meek and adaptable for who knows what kind of family she will be married to. With this kind of upbringing, it will be hard to imagine a female resisting to go for sex determination and foeticide of her own child — her own flesh and blood, of her own sex! The joy and celebration of the birth of a son and the gloom and taunts to the mother on the birth of a girl are made up in such a way as if the birth of a female is a misfortune. The depression that follows the birth of a girl is instantly severe and is well recorded in medical literature. In fact, soon after hearing of the female birth the depression is so much that the uterus stops contracting; there is retention of placenta —- a complication of delivery. That is why medical ethics demands that there should be no announcement of a child’s sex till the placenta is expelled. There are social, cultural and religious reasons inextricably linked to the “unwanted girl”. The socially designated status of women falls further if she gives birth to a female, which can be redeemed temporarily only on the birth a son! The father, genetically responsible for the sex of the child, suffers no such change in status. Exhorted by tradition to produce a son and not a daughter, many women fast and pray, undertake arduous pilgrimages and visit sears and godmen. If all this does not help they (the family) do away with their daughters. When prenatal sex-determination facility was not available, our society practised female infanticide. Even today some families feel that infanticide is better than letting the girl experience rape, bride-burning and life-long ill-treatment if she becomes a widow. Widely advertised and easily accessible sex-determination and abortion clinics are in abundance in both urban and rural settings and within the reach of all classes of people. Who is responsible for this heinous act? Will banning sex determination help? If laws could generate their own enforcement there would have never been any injustice. The root cause is the low value attached to the girl—-unwanted, unwelcome and surrounded by indifference and obsession with having a son. Even after the birth of five-six daughters they keep trying for a son. By banning sex-determination tests we are unable to touch the root of the problem. People who are obsessed with “no girl” go to a doctor and pay handsomely for the illegal practice. Doctors give verbal information on sex rather than a written report. To save their skin, they record a diagnosis which is permissible under the MTP Act. The doctors concerned argue that if the female is not aborted the couple will go on producing daughters till they have a son and this will unnecessary add to the population of the country. There is another aspect to this —- once sex is known as female, the obsessed family would go to quacks if doctors refuse abortion. Scientific abortions are, no doubt, better than risking women’s life by unhygienic, unsafe and dangerous procedures. The doctors who determine sex also say that foeticide is better than infanticide. How sad! An integrated approach is essential for the creation of an environment in which the girl-child is wanted, respected, valued, saved, nurtured and not exchanged for dowry. To give the girl-children their due, a new brave effort involving a social, cultural and religious mobilisation is needed. The media, the government and non-governmental agencies are doing a lot. But they have to do more. The doctors, in particular, have to play a major role. Doctors are really privileged because they are in direct contact with the target group which has to be educated to end the “unwanted girl” syndrome. They should educate the people who come for sex-determination tests. After all, it is mainly the national wealth which has made us doctors. Doctors should be responsible enough to contribute in all possible ways to eliminate this practice. They have to find ways to empower the girl-child. It is already too late, but, as the saying goes, it is better late than never. The girl-child must get her share of human dignity. —
The writer is a senior paediatrician and allergy specialist.
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No Man’s Land
After we sort of settled into our new place, in this new city, I observed with a modicum of dismay, that there is a large tract of land next to the house — an oddity in today’s Chandigarh. I looked out of my kitchen window and threw suspicious and nervous glances at this “khali zameen.” Soon, my fears took concrete shapes, when I saw that the land is frequented by all the neighbourhood rickshawallas and thelawallas, their little kids as well as the dogs on their morning walks. As my urbane self remonstrated, that this compromised my privacy and security, my 10-year-old American daughter argued — “They have no other place, Mama!” “Aren’t we supposed to practise kindness?” Rightly spoken — the zameen does not discriminate. I suffered from the next bout of outrage when we found that labourers constructing an adjoining house were using it as a dump yard. Pieces of discarded household items started to dot the landscape — from broken commodes to cane chairs. We also had the pleasure of listening to genuine folksongs being belted out by the workers as they searched for Neem twigs in the early hours. Soon, came the monsoons and all signs of bad civic sense got buried under the thick, lush foliage of wild vegetation that grew rampantly. Some of the weeds grew up to be mini-trees. The place started to smell like a tropical rainforest. I expected the Boas to slither out of it any day. When the rains stopped, we saw many visitors perched on the branches. Small vultures sat in hordes, so did emerald green parrots. Then came the night owls and hooted all night — much to our delight. Gave us a little bit of home-grown National Geographic. Then of course, came the mosquitoes, in droves. They rose like an obelisk — pouring in through every pore of the house. I ran to the market to get a mosquito net — the saga of purchasing one can fill in another middle. Then came the municipality man — in his bulldozer and started mowing down all in sight — weeds, trees and every other thing green. We heaved a sigh of relief!! Next morning, we saw badger-like creatures running desolately all over the ground. They had lost their den. We were sad. Then, on a particular autumn morning, when my mind was full of clouds of sadness — billowing with memories of loved ones I have lost and sorely miss — I looked at the land and my heart skipped a beat. Amidst all the rubbish and tattered cardboard boxes, has risen a long and lonely strand of lily, with an enormous pink and white flower gloriously abloom — ethereally beautiful. The sight was quite surreal. My heart lifted — it was sign — I haven’t really lost anybody’s love — it is somewhere around — very close — obfuscate by only what our eyes can see. Thank you, No Man’s land. I know, soon an enterprising realtor will come along and steel pillars will impale the green and dense grounds. We will be rid of the eyesore, but we will also lose our Twilight
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Human Rights Diary The death of a city is no different from that of a person. Like him, it has its childhood, gets old and is then reduced to ashes. Tehri, a town in Uttaranchal, has the same story to tell. After reaching the age of 190, it is meeting a watery death. This is not because of any national calamity but because of the government’s decision to build a high dam, the fifth highest in the world, which has nearly inundated a pulsating town. Activist Sunder Lal Bahuguna fought a relentless battle to save it and even met two Presidents of India to request them to intervene. But a long list of benefits which officials adumbrated had a better of his pleas. He vainly argued that the dam was built in the volcanic area which, if ever active, can wash away Meerut and a host of cities right up to the outskirts of Delhi. Bahuguna’s appeal to the Supreme Court was also of no avail. Many expert committees did not think that the place where the dam was coming up was in a seismic area. Today the town is almost under water but still lingers in the memory of many. They recall the time when they were living there and bathing in the Bhagirithi which, down below, takes the shape of the Ganga. Some people are still visiting the dying town and telling their young ones from afar about the years they spent in the town. They are not still reconciled to the fact that Tehri town is no more on the map of India. In his book, Jean Christopher, Romain Rolland says that the old man must die for a new man to be born. Should cities meet the same fate? In fact, the older a city the more endearing it becomes. Take London, Paris or, for that matter, Delhi. Why Tehri had to vanish for a dam to come up? Were no adjustments possible? The rehabilitation of the uprooted does not give them the same old life, even if the comfort of road, water or electricity is there. People are not robots which can be picked up from one place, put at another and then switched on. They have feelings which get crushed when they are plucked from a place where they had grown up. Has the state any right to ask them to quit a place and go to another, to begin their life all over again? This is the biggest violation of human rights, their feelings and their aspirations. I went through the same loss of emotions when I had to leave my house in Sialkot city after partition in 1947. My mother asked me, why should we leave the place where our forefathers had lived? She put a double lock on the door, but said haltingly that if an outsider could break one lock, he could break the other one too. We left, but the city, unlike Tehri, lived. When I revisited Sialkot city 25 years later, I felt that nothing had changed; the same type of bamboo curtains once had shielded the windows, the same cemented projection with the flower pots incongruously against the shabby surroundings. But it was a different house, somebody else’s; a refugee from Delhi now occupied it. I thought of going in, but decided against it. Why should I disturb the privacy of the new owners? Word went round that an Indian was in their midst. There was no hostility but much curiosity. People stood in small knots at a distance — just looking and talking among themselves. To me they were all strangers and I felt out of place. Suddenly it was a different town. Something had gone from the place — something never to return. A town is made not by bricks and mortar but by people. And how could I think I could find the old familiar faces? People from Tehri town must be having the same feelings at the new places they have started living. Police reforms Like Bahuguna, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is also an untiring body. It has been relentlessly pursuing police reforms. It holds seminars, publishes papers and conducts consultations with MPs to push the suggestions on the improvement of the police. It recently held a study which encompasses all the Commonwealth countries. The study says: “In too many countries, governments are failing in their primary duty to provide the public with an honest, efficient, effective police service that ensures the rule of law and on the environment of safety and security.” By and large, the study shows that 1.8 billion people do not have the policing they deserve. “Police reform is now too important to neglect and too urgent to delay”. This observation may influence the Manmohan Singh government, which has already received a paper from six retired DGPs to plead for the replacement of the more than 100-year-old police Act with a new one. Home Minister Shivraj Patil has said in a statement that the government is in the midst of drafting a new Bill. The ministry should also retrieve the 28-year-old report on police reforms. What was known as the Dharmvira Commission made many recommendations how to reform the police. But since the commission was appointed by the government which defeated Mrs. Indira Gandhi after the Emergency, its recommendations were never given any importance. For the first time, the commission had recommended the constitution of an autonomous council for postings and transfers of senior police officials. The council included the opposition leaders. I wish the government could keep the idea of an autonomous council intact because that may keep the police above politics which at present is forced on them all the time. |
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Expectations low on Bush’s Asia visit President George W. Bush left for Asia on Monday with a hefty list of American demands, particularly for China: play fair on trade, do more to stop avian flu, improve human rights and step up pressure on North Korea. The wish list is long, and the relationships critical. But many veteran Asia-watchers say the odds of significant breakthroughs appear slim. Bush travels to the region at the weakest point of his presidency, on the defensive over the war in Iraq and the CIA-leak scandal. But if he hoped a little presidential globetrotting might burnish his image at home, this week’s trip seems to offer little that could help him shake what increasingly looks like a second-term jinx. Even the White House is trying to downplay expectations that Bush will bring home any big prizes from the trip, an eight-day swing through Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. But there’s a deeper problem shadowing the president on this trip, according to critics and even one former Bush diplomat — the lack of a clearly articulated Asia policy since Bush’s focus on Iraq and the Middle East in the first term overshadowed almost all else in foreign affairs. About the only thing the White House appears confident it can achieve on this trip is a regional pact for early reporting and rapid response on bird flu outbreaks, as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. Yet the stakes for Bush in the region could not be higher, particularly over China — a vast and growing economic and military force that one day may rival the United States for superpower status. And while the United States may have been distracted in Asia, China has been busy, expanding its trade, diplomatic and military reach in the region. The two nations are at loggerheads over several issues, but the biggest is trade. For every dollar China spends on American products, U.S. consumers and companies send more than $6 to China — a trade deficit expected to grow to $200 billion this year. U.S. manufacturers say they have to lay off workers in the face of competition and price-cutting from cheap Chinese labor and its undervalued currency. White House officials say the President will press the Chinese to play by the rules, but acknowledge that ``he’s not looking for any ... specific outcomes’’ during the visit, said Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security adviser. The White House defends its approach to China and the region, saying the one-on-one meetings lay the groundwork for future results in complex relationships. After a first term in which Bush broke off President Bill Clinton’s efforts to engage North Korea over its nuclear program, Bush appears to have softened his stance somewhat by allowing six-party talks to go forward and enlisting China’s help. Some on Wall Street also believe that China may boost its currency value on this trip — as Bush wants — but if that doesn’t happen, the president will face pressure from some in Congress, such as Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who has sponsored legislation to tax Chinese goods. Others say that Bush coming home with little or nothing from the trip would be corrosive to U.S.-China relations, reinforcing the notion that the president is unable to get the Chinese to move even on matters of critical economic importance. — LA Times-Washington Post |
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Delhi Durbar Telugu Desam party supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu believes it is early to talk about a Third Front taking shape which is opposed to the Congress and the BJP. In his opinion a Third Front can only be forged in the event of a political vacuum which has not happened so far. “An alternative will emerge automatically when there is a political vacuum. Therefore, it is not correct to talk about it every day.” Naidu, who was in the Capital to pay homage to former President K R Narayanan, observed: “if we look at recent political history, the National Front, the United Front, the NDA or the UPA emerged before or after elections when there was some vacuum in the existing political space.”
The Indian Foreign Service Association (IFSA), while expressing its deep sorrow and regret at the passing away of K R Narayanan, eulogised his services as a multi-faceted personality. In a condolence message the IFSA noted that Narayanan always stood courageously by his convictions and worked tirelessly for the uplift of the oppressed. He had a special affection for the Indian Foreign Service, which he retained throughout his life. It is a matter of great pride for the IFS that Narayanan is the first and only member from the service to hold the highest office of President of India.
Natwar Singh’s critics Congressmen are known to just gang up against anyone who is in the eye of a storm. It was no different when the Paul Volcker Committee report named the Congress and former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh as being non-contractual beneficiaries in the UN’s oil-for-food programme in Iraq. Though officially the Congress took its time to react, Congressmen, including senior ministerial colleagues of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had taken exception to Natwar Singh refusing to resign. It is no secret that Natwar Singh has reasons to believe that certain senior Congressmen had ganged up and done him in. Ultimately, as expected, Natwar Singh was stripped of his portfolio. That came as a shock to his critics. If he is absolved of any wrong-doing, then Natwar Singh is expected to return as the External Affairs Minister with a bang. That again will cause heartbreaks to Congressmen who like a minister being shunted to political oblivion.
How many illiterate? India has been quick to protest its inclusion in the category of countries with a relatively large number of illiterates by UNESCO in the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006. While the report notes that India has more than five million illiterates, Secretary Elementary Education and Literacy Kumud Bansal claimed otherwise. However, when Director General of National Literacy Mission Vandana K Jena was asked to furnish the exact illiteracy rate to buttress India’s claims, she was left scratching her head. Even as the audience waited for her to reply, it was Ms Bansal, who saved the day by hurriedly whispering the figures to a flustered Jena. —
Contributed by Prashant Sood, R. Suryamurthy and Smriti Kak Ramachandran. |
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From the pages of Mr Gandhi’s leadership
In the interesting cable which Mr Gandhi has sent the outstanding fact is the discovery which the incarcerated leaders have made on their release about the unexpected powers of endurance and suffering shown by our countrymen. Mr Gandhi says: “We were astonished at the unlooked for ability shown by indentured Indians without effective leadership to act with determination and in perfect cooperation and discipline.” We were fully confident of this in spite of the malicious reports of active resistance and spirit of lawlessness which our political opponents were industriously spreading in order to justify acts of intimidation and unlawful shooting. There is no question of rebellion or disloyalty. Loyalty to the sovereign and to the Constitution is undisputed. It is purely a question of inability to assist Government in the enforcement of unrighteous laws. Rather than submit to such laws Indians elected to suffer the consequences of civil disobedience. |
All shall undergo reckoning at the Divine Portal. No one shall be saved without having good deeds to his credit. — Guru Nanak Let us not envy others’ knowledge but strive to learn from them. —
The Upanishads The people sigh in admiration. Their hearts fill with pride as the king swoops by on a mighty charger; his weapons flashing, the sunrays reflecting off his polished leather gauntlet. It is necessary for a king to appear valorous and mighty. —
The Mahabharata We must grow in love, and to do this we must keep on loving and loving, and giving and giving until it hurts. —
Mother Teresa If you speak with knowledge, speech is priceless. Weigh it in the scales of the heart before it comes till your lips. — Kabir The wise man begins by steadying his fluttering and trembling thoughts which are so difficult to hold back. Only when he has restrained them completely, does he even begin to aim for salvation. — The Buddha |
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