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Blast after blast Republic of Bihar |
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Workless PPSC Constitutional body or political tool? TO be sure, there are many government offices where not a spot of honest work is done. It is a pity that this contagion has been allowed to spread to a constitutional entity like the Punjab Public Service Commission.
The ‘sleeper cells’ of ISI
Back to earth
Checking AIDS in Andhra English to help Haryanvis in IT sector Future of Internet in question
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Blast after blast THE fresh eruption of terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir is thoroughly upsetting. If terrorists killed four persons by detonating an explosive-laden car near Jammu and Kashmir Bank’s headquarters in Srinagar on Wednesday, they attacked a rally organised by a former People’s Democratic Party minister at Tangmarg in Baramullah district on Tuesday and a CRPF camp in the state capital the day earlier. This is in accordance with the fears expressed by certain concerned citizens before the installation of the Ghulam Nabi Azad government. An indication of their apprehensions not being imaginary was available the very day Mr Azad was sworn in Chief Minister, when the change of guard in Srinagar led to the killing of 10 persons in a bomb blast at the venue of the function. The truth, however, is that Pakistan has started playing a dangerous game in Jammu and Kashmir despite repeated reminders from India that Islamabad must abandon terrorism as an instrument of its Kashmir policy. A genuine and effective drive to eliminate terrorism is imperative for the survival of the ongoing peace process. India had agreed to enter into peace negotiations with Pakistan only on the condition that Islamabad would launch a multi-pronged attack on the terrorist monster. But Pakistan has yet to honour its commitment. On the contrary, it has allowed most terrorist leaders to consolidate their support base by doing relief work in the earthquake-hit areas. Now they may find it easier to get fresh recruits for their destructive activities. Those in charge of the dirty tricks department in Pakistan had, however, started feeling uneasy after the formation of the PDP-led coalition government. The reason was that the former Chief Minister’s soft-touch policy and his government’s image of being a locally-run regime were eroding the support base of the terrorist outfits in the Valley. The Azad government is ill-equipped to match the Mufti ministry from this angle. In any case, pressure must be mounted on Islamabad to read the writing on the wall. Any setback to the dialogue process will be a victory for the enemies of peace, which will be in the interest of neither India nor Pakistan.
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Republic of Bihar WHAT happened in Jehanabad is mind-boggling even by Bihar’s own wretched standards of law and order. There are many explanations for the phenomenon. They range from the withdrawal of security forces from the area after the third phase of the ongoing elections to the crass failure of the administration. Whatever the reasons, the state as an entity failed when hundreds of “Naxalites” stormed the high-security jail, released their comrades in arms and abducted some of their class enemies whom they summarily killed. Had there been a popular government in the state, there would have been cries for its dismissal and imposition of President’s rule. If Governor Buta Singh had any shame, he would have resigned a long time ago when the Supreme Court indicted him on the issue of dissolution of the Assembly. Jehanabad has for a long time been the nerve centre of left extremism, which has in its wake spewed a whole lot of caste senas with or without the support of the administration. Together these senas have made mincemeat of law and order, which the authorities in Patna, just 50 km away, have been overlooking. It is easy to blame Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav for the situation. Having lorded it over Bihar for nearly 15 years, he cannot escape responsibility but to blame him entirely is to turn a blind eye to the reality. Caste-based conflict engendered by the oppression of the landless labour by the landowners has exacerbated the crisis while the state has, for all practical purposes, withdrawn from the area. Often, the attacks and counter- attacks have their roots in caste differences. In this scenario, it makes little difference whether Ms Rabri Devi or Mr Buta Singh is in power in Patna. The ones who call the shots are the ones who mobilise support in the name of fighting class — read caste — enemies. When land reforms and minimum wages are concepts that remain only on paper, the state provides the ideologically charged with a cause to carry on and the offended to take recourse to slogans like “khoon ka badla khoon” (murder for murder). Caught in the crossfire are the law-abiding citizens who have nowhere to go. They have little to hope that things will change in a few days when the votes are counted and a popular government is put in place in Patna. This tragedy is greater than that of Jehanabad.
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Workless PPSC TO be sure, there are many government offices where not a spot of honest work is done. It is a pity that this contagion has been allowed to spread to a constitutional entity like the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). It is not as if the staff members are not willing to work. It is just that the government has not given them much to do during the past three years, as highlighted by The Tribune. Many posts have fallen vacant but the Amarinder Singh government has failed to utilise the PPSC to make selections. Insiders reveal that except for dealing with some cases pertaining to induction into the PCS from among serving government officials, the commission has been, more or less, idle. This is an unfortunate situation to be in for an organisation which already has its reputation in mud thanks to a former chairman called Mr Ravi Sidhu. The ostensible reason for the reluctance of the government to give the PPSC any work is that the previous SAD-BJP government had appointed three of its seven members. The present government is said to have little faith in them. If that indeed is the reason, it is all the more regrettable because such an august body as the PPSC has been converted into a political tool. If some other party comes to power in future, it too may maltreat the present set. That will shatter the public’s faith in its impartiality and integrity. It is imperative to devise a mechanism so that only fully qualified and meritorious persons can become members of the PPSC. Since politicians have made a hash of it, perhaps, this power has to be withdrawn from them. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the kind of corruption which once prevailed there does not raise its head again. If the PPSC itself happens to select the wrong kind of persons, what it will do to the level of efficiency in the administration can well be imagined.
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Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics. — Godfrey Harold Hardy
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The ‘sleeper cells’ of ISI ADDRESSING the SAARC summit in Dhaka, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that “there should be zero tolerance for cross-border terrorism and for the harbouring of hostile insurgent groups and criminal elements”. He added that progress that the SAARC countries desired in promoting cooperation and good neighbourly relations could be achieved only if they observed these norms. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz rather facetiously suggested that India-Pakistan relations were not moving ahead because of a “trust deficit”. The normally low-keyed and polite Dr. Manmohan Singh retorted that what was causing problems was not a “trust deficit” but a “truth deficit”. Dr Manmohan Singh’s sharp comments followed continuing denial by Pakistan of the role of ISI-supported groups in terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir and in the Delhi bomb blasts of October 29. When terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked Parliament House in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, Pakistan denied any involvement and disingenuously suggested that it would help in investigations. It has taken an identical position after the October 29 Delhi bomb blasts. But when the Jaish-e-Mohammed trained its guns on General Musharraf himself, Federal Minister and former ISI chief Leut-Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi told Pakistan’s National Assembly on March 10, 2004: “We must not be afraid of admitting that the Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved in the deaths of thousands of Kashmiris, the bombing of Indian Parliament, in Daniel Pearl’s murder and in attempts on President Pervez Musharraf’s life”. Though restrictions may have been placed on sections of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, there is substantial evidence that the Pakistan military establishment has not yet given up its efforts to “bleed India with a thousand cuts” and to seek “strategic depth” by assisting the Taliban in Afghanistan. On November 7, two former Taliban leaders, Mullah Abdul Manan Khawajazai and Mullah Mohammed Akbar, were gunned down when driving from Peshawar to acquire weapons in a nearby arms bazaar. Khawajazai was a close aide of Taliban supremo Mullah Omar — a provincial governor and the military commander who destroyed the historic Buddha statues in Bamiyan. There is documented evidence that while General Musharraf claims to be a “key ally” of the US in the “war against terrorism” he continues to provide support to the Taliban on Pakistani soil. New Delhi has to take note of the implications of Washington’s low-key response to and tacit acquiescence in this development. Likewise, the Muzaffarabad-based, ISI- sponsored United Jihad Council (UJC), nominally headed by Syed Salahuddin, has served as the coordinating organisation for Pakistan-supported terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. The organisation in the UJC that remains the hot favourite of General Musharraf is the Lashkar-e-Toiba. According to a well- informed Karachi-based journalist, the Lashkar chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed visited Karachi on August 20 and held a series of closed-door meetings there. The Binori Mosque in Karachi that has hosted Osama bin Laden is the nerve centre of jihadi terrorism. Just prior to his Karachi visit, Saeed and Zakiur Rehman, the head of the military wing of the Lashkar-e-toiba, are reported to have met General Musharraf and were advised by him that the Lashkar could carry on its activities in J&K, but “at a low key”. On October 8 when the earthquake devastated Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Saeed warned India that it will be “destroyed” as a result of its “atrocities” in J&K. A similar warning was given to the United States. The UJC met on October 9 and announced that it would suspend military operations only in those areas of Jammu and Kashmir that were hit by the earthquake. The subsequent killing of Hindus and the assassination of a Kashmir minister in Srinagar were a signal of this policy of continuing resort to terrorist violence. Given the deployment of over 85,000 troops to fight the Al-Qaeda along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, it is not surprising that General Musharraf has advised the Lashkar to carry on its “jihad” at “a low key”. But the Delhi bomb blasts have to be seen in the light of the fact that apart from assisting the Lashkar in its jihad in J&K, the ISI has also assisted it to establish “sleeper cells” and “nodules” in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad and in smaller towns in Gujarat, UP and Bihar. The terrorist attacks in cities like Delhi are the work of this terrorist infrastructure that the ISI has created within India with help from Bangladesh and by infiltration across the India-Nepal border. These “cells” and “nodules” made up of Lashkar operatives from Pakistan, and local collaborators have been launching pads for terrorist attacks on Parliament in December 2001 and last month on the eve of Diwali. The challenge that this development poses to internal security has unfortunately not received proper attention. The aim of the ISI during the days of militancy in Punjab was to create a Hindu-Sikh divide and destabilise the secular and pluralistic basis of India ‘s body politic. Its present aim is to create a Hindu-Muslim divide by getting Lashkar members to operate with a small number of Indian Muslim collaborators from Kashmir and from urban centres in India. Sadly, the political elite in India either uses this development to foment communal passions, or publicly pretends that the problem does not exist. The repeal of POTA at a time when democracies across the world are strengthening anti-terrorist laws has also sent a signal that the government just does not understand the seriousness of the terrorist challenge India faces. While a comprehensive action plan to deal with the domestic challenges posed by terrorist violence is essential, a clear signal needs to be sent to Pakistan and the international community that it cannot be business as usual if General Musharraf proceeds along his present path. At the very least, New Delhi should demand that Pakistan should disband the United Jihad Council and shut down the infrastructure, including the headquarters of the Lashkar, in Muridke. Following the October 8 earthquake, the Lashkar has developed a strong presence in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Thousands of its “volunteers” are engaged in relief activities and in indoctrinating people with hatred for India. The terrorist challenge will become more acute when the snows melt and infiltration gathers steam in May 2006. Sadly, New Delhi has adopted a defensive and indeed apologetic approach to exposing Pakistan’s transgressions on issues of terrorism, nuclear proliferation and human rights violations in the Shia-dominated Northern Areas. One hopes that realism will dawn and that this approach will
end.
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Back to earth I want to go the moon,” the daughter said, looking up from her science book. Taking it to be a normal school age fancy we ignored the declaration. Visibly hurt that so important an announcement should go unnoticed, she changed strategy. “Pa, would you like to go the moon?” she said, throwing me a direct question. “Well…” I dragged on the word to gain thinking time. “Yes…it is a point worth considering…not a bad idea…as a matter of fact…why not…yes, I would love it”. “Even if you have to undergo training for two years?” she asked, betraying a strong disdain for anything that entailed effort. “Yes, of course”, I said, now confidently, “Even if it means a training that long”. I wanted to tell her some side- benefits of a training course but she had already turned away. “What about you Rahul?” she asked her brother. “No chance”, he said dismissively, “It is too boring up there”. One has to admire the modern college kids for their decisiveness. “And ma you, would you like to go?” “Go where?” the wife counter-questioned. It was hard to believe she had not been listening. May be it was her way of gaining time. “Oh”, the daughter said impatiently, “To the moon of course”. “No baba no”, the wife replied, shaking her head in emphatic negation. “I have seen on the TV how these astronauts float upside down in those machines. It will be terrible for my back”. Then, coming to the more pragmatic reason, she added: “Besides, I am told cooking would take much longer on the moon”. The daughter chewed her nail pensively. She was obviously churning the matter over in her mind. “Can’t they reduce the training period to six months Pa?” she asked. “May be they can”, I felt happy to be of some help in keeping her dreams alive. “Then I can consider going”, she said condescendingly, “Provided I could take Rohini and Shagun with me”. She took our silence for approval and added another condition. “Of course I won’t go without Lipchu”. The dog lifted a sleepy head on hearing his name mentioned. Not spotting any eatables around he yawned and re-rested it on his paw. The poor beast didn’t know what historic opportunity he was being considered for. What does one tell an 11-year-old who has dreams? Does one tell her that her ambitions are divorced from reality and thus kill her enthusiasm? Or does one stoke her hopes to keep dreams alive? All I knew was that as a father I was expected to say something but didn’t know what. As on so many similar occasions in the past the wife bailed me out. “Alright”, she said sternly, “Now finish your
milk”.
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Checking AIDS in Andhra The situation in parts of Andhra can be termed as a sub-national epidemic”, according to AP Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Dr I.V. Subba Rao. The state recorded the highest frequency of sex with non-regular partners in the country. According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) data, among men, 19.2 per cent said they had had sex with a non-regular partner in the previous year, as did 7.4 per cent women. Prakasam district reported the highest incidence of HIV with four per cent prevalence in urban sites, followed by Guntur and Karimnagar with 3.5 per cent and East Godavari with three per cent. Among rural sites, Nellore topped with 2.5 per cent. The national prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is less than one per cent. The inevitable fall out is that Andhra has one of the highest levels of sexually transmitted disease prevalence in India. More than 20 per cent of these patients in urban areas and 30 per cent in rural areas tested positive for HIV. Last year’s figures show that 88 per cent of the infections are contracted through the sexual route and less than two per cent through blood transfusion and infected syringes. Other causes account for the remaining 10 per cent cases. Condom usage is also only 25 per cent as against the national average of 32 per cent. Efforts are on to tackle this problem at the grassroots level as rural populations especially have less access to diagnosis and treatment. Since sexually transmitted diseases increase vulnerability to HIV infection, NGOs have taken the initiative to ensure protection from these curable diseases. Population Services International India, a public health organisation, has created a network in South India for treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. Called “Key Clinics,” this network of qualified health care providers in the private sector is committed to counselling and treating their patients in a sensitive and non-judgemental manner. Described as “social franchising”, this technique of networking doctors for public health is a recognised method to bring quality services at mass scale, efficiently. Actor and co-chair of the Heroes Project, Richard Gere, who supports HIV/AIDS prevention in India, was in Hyderabad recently and visited a Key Clinic. “It is important to ensure that men feel comfortable in seeking services without fear of stigma or discrimination. Only then can we win the battle against the HIV epidemic”, he said. The Heroes Project aims to mobilise societal leaders and media organizations in the fight against AIDS. Leading South Indian stars Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi also participated in the programme as an expression of support. “In the South, our focus is more on HIV/AIDS prevention. Since sexually transmitted diseases increase a person’s risk of transmitting or getting HIV/AIDS from two to nine times, PSI India aims to improve the treatment seeking behaviour among clients of commercial sex workers,” explained Ramakrishnan Ganesan, marketing director of PSI India. There are presently 1200 Key Clinics in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The Key Clinics concept is part of Avahan progamme taken up by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a five-year project targeting male clients of commercial sex workers to reduce the prevalence of curable sexually transmitted diseases. The Foundation has committed $35 million for the project, targeting South India. PSI will spend this money over a period of five years. The initiative started in November 2003. Research studies reveal that more than half of the men with sexually transmitted diseases do not seek treatment from qualified medical practitioners. Lack of access to qualified doctors, stigma associated with these diseases and misconceptions regarding causes of transmission are some of the reasons for the present state, said Ganesan. The need to bring about awareness to seek medical help is more acute in suburban and rural areas. As a result, NGOs have expanded their activity into these areas in a big way. Since Tirupati has the largest number of sex workers in the Rayalaseema region, PSI has opened a full-fledged office here to work among the affected persons. “The town has a large floating population, which could be the reason for the high prevalence of sex workers here. We have already created 15 Key Clinics in Tirupati to help patients affected by sexually transmitted diseases,” said Abhilash Philip, Area Franchise Manager for PSI in the temple town. To motivate men suffering from sexually transmitted diseases to seek treatment, PSI has launched a mass media campaign on TV, hoardings, and in cinemas across South India. The communication strategy targets men aged 25-45 years belonging to lower socio-economic strata, and attempts to connote sexually transmitted diseases in a non-offensive way to avoid the clinics being stigmatised. |
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English to help Haryanvis in IT sector THE Haryana government has decided to introduce English at the primary school level with a clear objective — to help those studying in government schools cash in on the employment opportunities in sectors like the information technology. At present, English is taught from Class V onwards in Haryana. The introduction of English at the primary level can create greater awareness in society about progressive values and customs. Apparently, the Education department as such is not interested in such lofty ideas; it is primarily focussed on improving the capability of Haryanvis in the employment market. As the IT industry is making waves in Gurgaon, the state government felt that without proper training in English, Haryana’s boys and girls will find it difficult to get jobs in this sector. Owing to the failure of Haryanvi boys and girls to come up to the expectations, those trained in public schools in Delhi and elsewhere are having a monopoly of these jobs. As it is, though call centres are mushrooming at Gurgaon, Haryanvis are hugely under-represented in the industry. Ever since the Congress’ return to power in Haryana, the government’s new-found love for English has been very much evident. Actually, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) government first decided to introduce English at the primary level. After Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda became the Chief Minister, the government gave practical shape to the decision. The first step taken in this regard was to recruit English teachers. Subsequently, the government raised the minimum qualification for JBT teachers to graduation with English as a subject. The earlier minimum qualification for JBT teachers was matriculation. Those who are already working as JBT teachers will be imparted training on English teaching. The government also plans to recruit teachers exclusively for teaching English at middle and primary levels. At the middle level, the social studies teacher also teaches English now. While the Chief Minister has approved the proposal, the Finance Department’s clearance is awaited. As regards the recruitment of English teachers for primary schools, the Chief Minister’s office has raised questions about their proper utilisation. If the proposal is not cleared, the JBT teachers will take the English classes as well. The government has also teamed up with an organisation to teach “soft skills” to the local students. The scheme, which has been initially introduced in six colleges of the state, is aimed to improve the students’ English pronunciation, teach them spoken English, improve their telephonic manners, and so on. The whole idea is to gradually make Haryanvis competent enough to secure employment in the new vistas opening up in the state and elsewhere. |
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Future of Internet in question A United Nations summit, in the unlikely setting of Tunisia, will attempt to thrash out the future of the internet. More than 40 world leaders, including Kofi Annan, are set to attend and the ownership of the World Wide Web itself is at stake. What the delegates won’t discuss is the creeping spectre of censorship. What began as a military research project at the Pentagon has exploded into the most powerful network in the world and an entity upon which the global economy increasingly relies. Now its future character is in question. At present, the closest the internet has to a governing body is an obscure American, non-profit corporation called Icann. This quasi-independent body has, for years, quietly regulated domain names and allocated addresses. But its lease is nearly up. And the world’s rich and powerful will battle for control of what they see as a commercial goldmine. The Bush administration wants Icann turned into a private corporation, on US soil and subject to US controls. Much of the rest of the world objects to that but the loudest opponents are countries with a history of censorship and repression, such as China and Iran. The likely balance of power in that struggle rests with the European Union, whose position is not clear. Remarkably, for a meeting called the World Summit on the Information Society, there will not be a single seminar or discussion panel held on freedom of expression. “The internet is not just a technical issue,” Julian Bein from a media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, told The Independent. The summit was originally conceived to address the digital divide — the gap between people who can get online and those, primarily in developing countries, who can’t. Instead, it has been dominated by an argument over who controls the internet. The rather dull-sounding, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), a legal body, based in California assigns domain names and addresses for practically every major web site in use today. Just because Icann’s decisions seem very technical, does not mean they don’t have direct political repercussions. The unelected Californian corporation could, in theory, block access to entire country domain names (e.g. all sites ending in .co.uk could be taken offline). However, the alternative to that, so far benign hegemony could, its defenders argue, be much worse. The countries leading the calls for control of the internet to be internationalised, under the aegis of the UN, are the same ones that have led the way in censoring their own citizens. “How can countries like China, Iran and Cuba be discussing internet governance?” Mr Bein asked. “It’s not only China anymore, this is a worldwide problem. Now every dictator or repressive regime in the world is attempting to control what their citizens can access,” he added. However, the host of the summit, expected to attract 12,000 to 15,000 delegates and up to 50 world leaders has hardly reassured those concerned that the spectre of censorship is being ignored. The Tunisia Monitoring Group has highlighted the cases of seven men now on a hunger strike in the country and estimates that about 500 more have been jailed for expressing opinions. Reporters Without Borders secretary-general, Robert Menard, has been banned from attending the UN summit. “Banning the head of an organisation that defends free expression from attending a summit about the information society is utterly absurd and unacceptable,” said Mr Menard. The exponential expansion of the internet has been accompanied by staunch resistance from countries anxious to prevent their own people from getting greater access to information.
— The Independent
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From the pages of Economic jealousy
What was at one time spoken of as the “drain theory” in the economic adjustment of India and England has been explained to be only an economic jealousy or error arising from unequal conditions. There is really no drain from India since India receives benefits in return for the large amount of money she pays. In explaining the economic conditions of the Mysore State, Mr Chatterton has recently drawn attention to the existence of “a considerable drain upon the resources of Mysore, owing to the fact that the trade and commerce of the State are largely in the hands of natives of the other parts of India. Thereupon “New India” justly retorts as follows: Quite true. Does it not also follow that there is a considerable drain on the resources of India?
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Love and hate have one property in common. If you love others, they will also love you. If you hate others, you too will be hated by them. History is replace with instances of men who by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents. Hereafter, man’s words and deeds are scrutinised. and he is brought to account for them. People utter shout of joy when the king hits a target. They are silent when another does the same. This is because they love their king and love him even more when he meets their experience. These are those who denigrate work by pointing to its maleffects or to circumstances which are unfavourable. The work by itself is neither good nor bad. Our ways of thinking make it so. Any work done well becomes good if its intentions are also good. In our conscious mind we think and feel ourselves to be a physical body with some intangible spirit within it. Yet, right now our real identity is the soul that is sensing through its multiple bodies, physical, emotional and mental experience. Dear Arjuna, you ask me to define a cheat. A cheat is the person who pretends to have given up all work but, in his heart of heart envies others around him. He is the greatest cheat because he is deluding his own self. Faithfulness to the little things will help us grow in love. Give not what you want not as a gift.
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ANDHRA Pradesh has high HIV/AIDS prevalence and is currently one of the six hard-hit states. Besides Chittoor district, where Tirupati is located, five other districts including Guntur, East Godavari, Warangal, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool have been identified as hot spots for HIV.
In 18 out of 23 districts in the state, at least one per cent of women attending antenatal clinics tested positive in 2004.
The high prevalence of HIV discovered among housewives at 28.7 per cent is alarming.
“HIV epidemic has moved beyond high risk population like sex workers, truckers and men who have sex with men and become a generalised epidemic in the state.