O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Terror trick
Security does need to be tightened
The e-mail carrying the bomb threat to Parliament revived the memories of the attack on the seat of Indian democracy four years ago. Since it came just four days after the anniversary of that gristly event, it sounded all the more real.

Probe and probity
Inquire into charges against Chautala
Widespread corruption was one of the main planks on which the Congress had a runaway victory in the Haryana Assembly elections. With less than three months left for completing one year in office, the Bhoopinder Singh Hooda government has little to show by way of unearthing scandals.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Logic of separation
It is to India’s advantage to go ahead with N-deal
by K. Subrahmanyam
The July 18, 2005, joint statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George Bush was about exceptionalising from the NPT technology denial regime, a non-signatory of the treaty, and not about accommodating India as a nuclear weapon state in the NPT. The United States by itself cannot amend the treaty and make India a nuclear weapon state with equal status with five states recognised as such under Article 1 of the NPT.

MIDDLE

Quizzed
by S. Raghunath
Wizened old Uncle Sam suffers from many strange hangups and one of them is his touching belief that he has a divine right to lord it over the rest of the world. As a result, a greenhorn Senator or a Congressman belonging to some obscure sub-committee of the US Congress thinks that he is well within his rights to summon, with regal hauteur, an Ambassador accredited to Washington to answer questions on domestic happenings in the latter’s country.

OPED

FDI in retail
Groping for direction
by Chetan Chadha
Addressing the ASEAN Business Advisory Council meeting in Kuala Lumpur on December 12, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh expressed the hope that the government would soon be able to come up with a ‘positive’ policy formulation for the induction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector.

Save yourself from self-help books!
by Jemima Lewis
A 10-year-old Hampshire schoolgirl, Libby Rees, has been hailed as a prodigy, after writing a self-help book for children on how to cope with life’s problems. She is currently engaged in a whirlwind publicity tour, jetting about with her mother.

Chatterati
Cultural diplomacy
by Devi Cherian
It was a night of pure magic as Pakistani Singer Begum Fareeda Khanum took the audience down the memory lane with her melodious renditions. She was in India on an invitation by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations headed by Dr Karan Singh and Pavan Verma.

• Cadre boy politics

• Duryodhana’s men

From the pages of

 

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Terror trick
Security does need to be tightened

The e-mail carrying the bomb threat to Parliament revived the memories of the attack on the seat of Indian democracy four years ago. Since it came just four days after the anniversary of that gristly event, it sounded all the more real. It is still not clear whether it was just a mischievous prank or there was really something to it, but either way, it could not be brushed aside lightly. There are enough foolish people around who make such blank calls just for the vicarious pleasure of seeing a flight or train being delayed or even cancelled. But one can never be too sure in such matters. Even if there was no bomb at all, there is always the possibility that the potential attackers might be using this trick to see the level of preparation of the security staff. To that extent, the security agencies should also utilise this development as a mock trial to gear up their preparedness. It is better to err on the side of caution.

There has been December 13 after all. It is necessary to have such foolproof security in place so that those in charge are confident that nothing could have gone past their eyes. After all, Parliament is not a public place where everybody has access. It is a huge complex indeed but still it is not impossible to secure it.

Ironically, the MPs are so used to special privileges that they protest loudly against any safety measures despite the fact that these are for their own benefit. Recently, an MP’s car was found with a fake security sticker. It is such worthies who make the job of security agencies all the more difficult. It will be necessary to cut them to size. At the same time, there are many other vital buildings where round-the-clock vigil will have to be maintained. That is the price one has to pay for living in a world where terrorists of all sorts are out to spring a surprise at chosen targets. They need to be dealt with before they strike.

Probe and probity
Inquire into charges against Chautala

Widespread corruption was one of the main planks on which the Congress had a runaway victory in the Haryana Assembly elections. With less than three months left for completing one year in office, the Bhoopinder Singh Hooda government has little to show by way of unearthing scandals. When the party was in the Opposition, it had submitted a detailed memorandum to the Governor listing specific charges against the then Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala. But for inexplicable reasons the government has been fighting shy of inquiring into the charges against the previous regime. This has given rise to the belief that the Congress has lost much of its enthusiasm to fight corruption. If such an assumption is allowed to persist, the people will conclude that that the government has merely inherited the corrupt system bequeathed to it by the Chautala regime.

In the past, the practice had been to set up commissions of inquiry but seldom had such commissions instilled a fear in the minds of the guilty. Rather, they encouraged them to cry about vendetta and thereby gain public sympathy. The Shah Commission, which inquired into the excesses committed during the Emergency, is a case in a point. In the end, it only helped Indira Gandhi to re-establish her credentials as a fighter and thereby win back public sympathy. There is, therefore, no reason to believe that the situation in Haryana will be different if a judicial commission, which does not have enough penal powers, is appointed to look into the charges against the Chautala regime.

It is in this context that the Chief Minister’s letter to the CBI requesting the agency to inquire into the charges against Mr Chautala and Co. should be seen. Already, the CBI is seized of some of the charges against them like the recruitment scam as the courts concerned had asked it to look into them. The CBI alone can take up such cases which have wide ramifications and involvement of influential people. Merely writing a letter is not sufficient. The Hooda government should provide all the necessary assistance so that the CBI is able to do a thorough job and get the corrupt punished without losing much time.

Dastardly act
Provide security to women employees

THE rape and murder of a 24-year-old woman employee of a multinational call centre in Bangalore is a dastardly act. It is to the credit of the police that the alleged perpetrator of the crime has been arrested. However, what is difficult to comprehend is why the company involved and the industry at large do not provide proper security to women employees, who are required to work round the clock. No doubt, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has, through its president Kiran Karnik, given the assurance that the industry would work “with the police to ensure that such incidents are not repeated,” and admitted that it was for the industry to provide security. However, one must question why this has not happened so far.

When the amendment to the Factories Act, 1948, came into effect earlier this year, it enabled women to work in night shifts. While the Act provides equal employment opportunities to women, it also demands that their security be looked after by their employers, which was clearly not done in this case. The government has made it clear that the onus of ensuring the safety of the employee was on the employer.

Even simple, common sense measures like scheduling routes so that the first and the last person in a vehicle is not a woman can help, and obviously all drivers and other staff must be recruited only after proper police verification. Moreover, the company must alert any staff member of any changes in the scheduling, including any change in the driver, etc. The BPO industry is one of the major employers of women like the textile industry, and the onus is on the industry to clean up its act and provide safe, healthy and secure conditions to workers. The latest incident should serve as a tragic wake-up call, and immediate measures must be taken to ensure that the safety of the workers who put in long hours late at night is taken care of. Women employees in particular and workers in general have the right to a conducive environment in which they feel safe to live and work.

Thought for the day

A still tongue makes a wise head. — A proverb

ARTICLE

Logic of separation
It is to India’s advantage to go ahead with N-deal
by K. Subrahmanyam

The July 18, 2005, joint statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George Bush was about exceptionalising from the NPT technology denial regime, a non-signatory of the treaty, and not about accommodating India as a nuclear weapon state in the NPT. The United States by itself cannot amend the treaty and make India a nuclear weapon state with equal status with five states recognised as such under Article 1 of the NPT.

The exceptionalisation is being done to enable India to have access to civilian nuclear power within the overall framework of the nonproliferation regime. Once this basic fact is understood it would follow that all rights and obligations equal to those of nuclear weapon states envisaged to be conferred on India is still subject to this overall caveat. India will be accepted as a nuclear weapon state outside the treaty and not as a weapon state within the treaty. Therefore, there will be differences between the rights of weapon states and India. No amount of verbal acrobatics can do away with this basic fact of life as of today. It may change some years from now but today this is the reality.

Even with this caveat it is to India’s advantage to accept this deal than to be continued to be subjected to nuclear isolationism by the international community. India faces the harsh fact till now hidden from the public that this country does not have an adequacy of uranium ore. Even the present uranium ore used is of extremely poor quality and it is only the extraordinary skill of our metallurgists and engineers which has sustained our nuclear programme, civilian and military, till now. Our programme cannot be sustained for long if we do not get international support.

The international community obviously will not give uranium to sustain India’s weapons programme. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to separate the civilian nuclear reactors from the military ones. If it is argued that they cannot be separated as they are seamlessly integrated (which is not true) the international community will tell us to get along with our programme without any help from them — especially uranium. Our programme will come to a grinding halt in a few years. Those who oppose separation should come up with alternatives about how we are to sustain our nuclear programme when we run out of uranium. The fast breeder technology will take some 20 years to stabilise. Even that requires plutonium to make which uranium is needed.

It is in India’s interest to get the necessary legislation passed by the US Congress, and in order to do that to persuade Congress to accept that India has a credible plan to separate its civilian and military facilities in stages. Persuading the US Congress has to be done by the US Administration, and since this proposal originated from Washington it will be reasonable to assume necessary goodwill on their part irrespective of what Ayotallahs of nonproliferation in the US may say.

Congress has already made it clear that the legislation will be decided on the basis of strategic and political considerations. Since the country is short of uranium it is in India’s own interest to have as many of the power reactors to be declared civilian and get imported uranium for them to conserve all our indigenous uranium for weapon production purposes.

The US Congress is unlikely to object to India’s continuous production of weapons grade plutonium so long as there is no credible evidence of China having stopped its weapon grade fissile material production and the Fissile Materials Production Cut-Off Treaty comes into force. That is not round the corner.

According to Western literature, India has produced around 100 warheads worth of plutonium in the last 15 years of arsenal building. Therefore, at this rate of very modest production determined by the NDA government, it should be explained to the Americans that there is no risk of India producing anything but a credible minimum arsenal. It would also mean that either the Indian decision makers did not come to any decision on the size of the minimum credible arsenal or did not have in mind a very large one. The pace of the effort and the rate of production of various platforms for weapons by the NDA government would also mean that they did not have anything but very modest arsenals in mind.

In these circumstances, the scare about capping of an arsenal does not appear to be realistic but just an after-thought to deny credit to the UPA government. In this globalised and increasingly interdependent world, the chances of a nuclear war happening do not appear to be very high.

There has been much ado about the fact that while five nuclear weapon powers will have the right to take back the reactors put under safeguards, India is not likely to have that right. While India needs imported uranium to fuel its reactors and is likely to put under safeguards only those reactors which require imported uranium fuel, that is not the case for the US, Russia, the UK and France. We may have to ascertain what would be the case in respect of the Chinese reactors which may use imported Australian fuel and press for the same rights to be extended to India. These are matters for negotiation with the US Administration.

At this stage. even before the negotiations are started it is premature to jump to the conclusion that those in the Bush Administration who have accepted India as a nuclear weapon power would like to cripple India’s minimum credible deterrent capability, irrespective of what the Ayatollahs of nuclear nonproliferation may demand.

The issue of the fast breeder reactor and research on it will have to be separately discussed. The examples of Russia, France, Japan and Germany are there. Since these are research projects still under development the issue of intellectual property rights will also feature in discussions. Since this issue is complicated perhaps the decision on it will have to be phased into later stages. Burning up the plutonium in fast breeder reactors is better from the nonproliferation point of view than keeping them in storage ready to be reprocessed.

The issues involved may require a few rounds of discussion. Consequently, earlier the real negotiations start better the scope for early clearance of Indian doubts and US reservations and building up of mutual confidence between the two nations. It is somewhat bizarre to see commentaries reaching worst case conclusions even before the negotiations start.

Unfortunately, there is not much attempt to examine and assess what the US stakes are in helping India in its drive to become a world class power in the 21st century. Instead, there are some hasty conclusions based on the lineal evolution of the past US policies towards India, the US is capable of taking a U-turn in its policies, in is own self- interest, as it did in the case of China in 1971. China benefited enormously by responding positively to US moves, though unlike in the case of India, China and the US had fought a bitter war. While India should be cautious, it should not forego the opportunity that China exploited so much to its own advantage to become a world class power.

MIDDLE

Quizzed
by S. Raghunath

Wizened old Uncle Sam suffers from many strange hangups and one of them is his touching belief that he has a divine right to lord it over the rest of the world. As a result, a greenhorn Senator or a Congressman belonging to some obscure sub-committee of the US Congress thinks that he is well within his rights to summon, with regal hauteur, an Ambassador accredited to Washington to answer questions on domestic happenings in the latter’s country.

Fair enough, but diplomacy being a game of give-and-take, why shouldn’t the Consultative Committee of the Lok Sabha attached to the Ministry of External Affairs summon the American Ambassador in Delhi for a closed-door question-and-answer session?

“Mr Ambassador, this committee is appalled and shocked beyond words to read American newspaper reports that President George Bush feeds his dog stale chicken bones and we demand a satisfactory explanation. We consider the President’s heartless action a deliberate and calculated ploy to derail the ongoing diplomatic normalisation and confidence-building measures between our two countries.”

“Gentlemen, I, too, have only media reports to go by, but I’ll immediately take up at the highest level in the State Dept the question of the President feeding his dog stale chicken bone and I shall get back to you shortly.”

“Mr Ambassador, this committee of the Indian parliament has just been reading the White House comptroller’s report for fiscal 2004-05 and it’s appalled to see that First Lady Laura Bush has bought a new polka dot party dress and a pink hat for 25 dollars. We want to lodge our protest in the strongest possible language against her unbridled and unwarranted extravaganza at a time the American economy is sliding into a depression due to President Bush’s wrong economic policies, the inflation is inching up to double figures, unemployment rate has reached alarming proportions and millions of American children are going to bed hungry and crying.”

“Gentlemen, I’ve contacted the First Lady’s press secretary and she has informed me that Mrs Bush’s purchase of a new dress and hat is a one-time exception and it won’t be repeated. We hope that her action won’t affect the traditionally friendly relations between our two countries and peoples.”

“Mr Ambassador, we’re left speechless to see photographs of Vice-President Dick Cheney wearing his hair long and we want an explanation, pronto. We consider this a calculated diplomatic snub to India and pro-Pakistan tilt in US foreign policy, “and to register our protest, we might consider imposing an embargo on the export of Indian naga sadhus, sants and mahants and yoga teachers to the US.”

“Gentlemen, I’ve been in contact with the Vice-President’s office and I’am reliably informed that Mr Cheney is wearing his hair long because Washington area barbers are on strike demanding a ban on the import of South Korean wigs into the US. The US govt categorically denies that Mr Cheney has become a hippie and a peacenik.”

“Mr Ambassador, that concludes our questions for the present, but we want you to stand by to appear again before this committee at short notice to answer more questions on US domestic affairs that are none of our business. In our next session, we intend to examine you closely why former President Clinton’s daughter Chelsea is wearing false eyelashes.”

OPED

FDI in retail
Groping for direction
by Chetan Chadha

Addressing the ASEAN Business Advisory Council meeting in Kuala Lumpur on December 12, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh expressed the hope that the government would soon be able to come up with a ‘positive’ policy formulation for the induction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector. Apparently, the Prime Minister was trying to reaffirm India’s commitment to liberalization of trade and investment, though a consensus on the scope of FDI in retail is yet to emerge.

In fact, the government is still trying to comprehend the various implications of the proposal. Addressing the closing session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in the Capital on November 29, Dr Singh averred that the government was engaged in ‘‘an intellectually stimulating exercise to understand the possibilities in opening up the retail sector and see how best we can harness it for our needs.’’

Even as the government has yet to crystallize its stand on the whole issue, there are clear indications that the various ministries, including the ministries of agriculture and commerce, are lukewarm towards the proposal, notwithstanding the general enthusiasm for increased flow of FDI into the country.

Secretary to the Agriculture & Cooperation Ministry Ms Radha Singh told the WEF meeting that the government was keen on allowing FDI for better post-harvest management, including in cold storages and warehousing. Referring specifically to FDI in retail, she said her Ministry would favour overseas investment to speed up farm diversification through development of processing industries. “We have made our views known to the Commerce Ministry on the issue of FDI in retail. It is now their prerogative to take a stand on the whole issue,’’ she added.

Clearly, the Agriculture Ministry is looking more at the possibilities of FDI in processing industries rather than in retail business as such.

More recently, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath put a fresh question mark on the proposal. At a press conference before leaving for the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, he linked the question of allowing FDI in retail, to India securing certain concessions in the agricultural sector at the multilateral forum. Given the fact that the WTO is still far from clinching an agreement on agricultural issues, it appears that a green signal for FDI in retail is quite a way off. And if Indian entrepreneurs are angling for a lead time to establish their presence in the retail sector, here is a sure guarantee for them.

The Left parties have opposed the idea of FDI in retail on the ground that such a step would displace a large number of small and medium retailers in the country. CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat told a seminar organised by Assocham in New Delhi earlier this month, that the livelihood of four crore people would be jeopardised by allowing FDI in the retail sector.

There are, however, differing views on the extent of displacement of small and medium retailers. Many people think that multinationals would not be able to wrest any significant part of the retail business from established retailers because of the differences in margins, overhead costs and logistics of operation.

Significantly, the current debate on FDI in retail appears to have missed the danger of import intensity in the consumer goods market. Foreign investors would naturally try to source their products from wherever these are available cheaper. But the real problem would arise if the new retail outlets are used by them as conduits for dumping imported goods.

Thus, the question of allowing FDI in retail has to be considered in the overall context of providing legitimate protection to Indian goods against unfair competition from abroad. Cheaper credit, adequate business space, efficient supply lines, technological inputs and training would go a long way to prepare even small and medium retailers to face such competition from abroad.

In this context, it may be recalled that when the idea of industrial liberalisation and foreign investment was first mooted in the early nineties, many Indian industrialists had called for a ‘level playing field’ to enable them to face a fair competition from their foreign counterparts. And it must be said to the credit of Indian manufacturers that they have acquitted themselves admirably, once the government created the right environment for them through tax reforms and reduction in interest rates.

Some major business houses in India do want to enter the retail business in a big way. All they want is time to ready the requisite infrastructure before multinationals start trooping in with all their financial muscle and equipment. Fair enough. Eventually, though, it may not be possible to stop the wheel of liberalisation. But the government need not be in a hurry to throw open the retail sector for foreign direct investment. Moreover, retail is a large area and needs to be segmented and prioritised for purposes of inducting FDI.

The primary role of FDI is to bridge the gap between investment and internal savings, along with the induction of latest technology. From this angle, retail is a low-priority area for FDI, at least for the moment. Right now, higher priority needs to be given to FDI in food processing industries, supply lines and other infrastructural facilities that support the retail business.

Unlike in many other countries, most Indian cities do not have adequate commercial space needed for setting up super stores with all the accompanying facilities of parking and the like. In fact, there is a general shortage of commercial space in these cities. A lot of residential space, therefore, is being used for commercial purposes against all tenets of decent civic life.

The emphasis in all the successive five-year plans hitherto has been on housing without even a mention of commercial infrastructure, which is so important for business, employment and exports. What is needed is a change in the mindset of policy-makers who draw up plans for urban development.

Save yourself from self-help books!
by Jemima Lewis

A 10-year-old Hampshire schoolgirl, Libby Rees, has been hailed as a prodigy, after writing a self-help book for children on how to cope with life’s problems. She is currently engaged in a whirlwind publicity tour, jetting about with her mother.

She is uncannily adept at the lingo of self-improvement. Her parents divorced three years ago and, at her own request she has not seen her father since. “I think when you have something negative in your life, then you realise how important it is to make the most of things,” she chirrups. “I find it a lot easier to have one home and not be going between two places.” Her book is similarly upbeat: a mixture of friendly platitudes and New Age therapy.

“Take a break,” she advises her fellow tots. “Enjoy a favourite film or book. This will give you valuable time off from worrying, also it will help you to relax.” Should negative thoughts intrude into your Me-time, she recommends a self-affirming mantra. “Try looking in the mirror first thing in the morning and say out loud to yourself, ‘I am better and better each day!’ five times. Trust me, I’ve done it and you really will start to feel more positive about your life.”

Readers of an older generation might wonder where on earth she learnt all this guff. The answer is, everywhere: on television, in children’s books, at the cinema and from her friends. The language of self-help is the closest thing the West has to a cultural orthodoxy. It has crept into every corner of society, including the classroom.

An increasing number of psychologists and psychiatrists now believe that the cult of self-help is actually destroying our mental acuity, making us less able to cope with life’s slings and arrows. In The Last Self-Help Book You’ll Ever Need, published this year, the American psychologist Paul Pearsall rails against the unscientific and often plain wrong, ideas that have wormed their way into our collective psyche.

Consider, for example, these modern shibboleths: never lose hope; love yourself; high self-esteem is essential to mental health; living in denial is unhealthy; don’t be judgemental; a positive attitude heals, a negative one can make you sick; guilt and shame are unhealthy; if you pick the right diet and have enough willpower, you will reach your target weight.

Professor Pearsall compiled a list of 20 such commandments and showed them to a group of people who all read self-help books. He asked them to tick those statements which they thought would lead to a happy, healthy life.

The self-helpers ticked, on average, 18 of the 20. Professor Pearsall then showed the same list to a group of researchers working in the fields of psychology, psychiatry and medicine. Not a single one ticked any of the statements. That’s because they — unlike the rest of us suckers — had hard facts at their disposal. Research has disproved every one of those statements.

Positive thinking makes not a jot of difference to your chances of surviving cancer, thank God; guilt is a vital tool for learning from your mistakes; and high self-esteem is most common among bullies and murderers.

The subtitle to Professor Pearsall’s book suggests a simpler route to happiness: Repress your anger, think negatively, be a good blamer and throttle your inner child.

Poor Libby Rees is not to know any of this. She is just 10. She only knows what society has told her — and that, it turns out, is a pack of lies. If I were her mum, I’d get her off the publicity trail and into a new school, before it’s too late. And I’d pop a copy of the good professor’s book into her satchel, to help her on her way.

— The Independent

Chatterati
Cultural diplomacy
by Devi Cherian

It was a night of pure magic as Pakistani Singer Begum Fareeda Khanum took the audience down the memory lane with her melodious renditions. She was in India on an invitation by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations headed by Dr Karan Singh and Pavan Verma. The legendary singer mesmerised listeners with her rich repertoire of gazals like Julane aayi rut sawan ki and the timeless Aaj jaane ki zid na karo. The event was another step in the on-going effort at cultural diplomacy aimed at reinforcing the existing ties between India and Pakistan.

She obliged guests with their requests, and her enchanting performance was laced with interesting anecdotes that revealed her five-decade long musical journey. Ustad Amjad Ali Khan commented on how Begum Khanum carries the legacy of an entire era. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Pakistan High Commissioner, television personality Salma Sultan and other people of eminence were present to set the ball rolling for a cultural exchange from across the border.

Cadre boy politics

People in the capital do not know how to react to the installation / appointment / nomination / re-election of the third Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in less than two years. The state’s people gave a mandate to the BJP to rule for five years. They expected the Government to first fulfil its promises made during the elections, and secondly, to take mid course corrections before approaching the half-way period of their reign. It is none of their business if the party could not find a leader to lead them. Why should the voters suffer?

The people gave a clear mandate, but the MLAs and a couple of BJP satraps could not give a clear decision in favour of a leader for a long time, plunging the state into a period of uncertainty and despair.

The time has come for an examination of such issues by the political pundits, constitutional experts, NGOs, and political parties themselves. If this is democracy, then it is a very costly experiment.

A chief minister without any governing experience has been installed, for being a good “cadre boy”, and is backed by a powerful combine of the second rung leadership of the BJP. Who pays for all this? The poor public! Has any Chief Minister been held responsible for not allowing the state to develop? So, what is the use of democracy, as Uma Bharati is rightly pointing out?

Duryodhana’s men

It is with amusement and disgust that one notices that in spite of the revelations of “Operation Duryodhan” on Aaj Tak, the 11 MPs caught taking money for raising questions in Parliament are still very comfortably socialising in the so-called Delhi circuit! Of course, they are righteously incensed about invasion of their privacy since they feel they are above any public scrutiny. The best part is that the famous “political conspiracy” theory cannot work this time, since four major parties are involved. So it has to be something like a combined American-Russian plot hatched all the way from here to Nicaragua!

The response of the political parties has also been on expected lines. One leader after another, cutting across party lines, fumbling for words, expressing sorrow over the incident and asking for a probe at a higher level! If the people who elect these representatives are asked to give a verdict, many of them will be sacked from Parliament. Why a probe when it is conclusively proved that the MPs took bribes? We just have to see the latest movie called Apharan to know what is possible in this world where power matters most. It may be a bit far fetched, but is none the less not too far from reality.

From the pages of

February 19, 1919

League of Nations

At last the scheme of a League of Nations has been drafted and placed before the Peace Conference. The occasion, as President Wilson, who read the draft at the plenary session of the Conference said, was the turning point in the world’s history. Never before had so ambitious and so comprehensive a project been drawn up for the realisation of so great a purpose. One of the delegates described the league as “a character of life born in the sorrow and anguish of countless dead.” It could scarcely have been born in any other manner. It is only great sorrows that prepare men for new and high destinies.

No man knows that we may not yet witness a war of even more terrible magnitude. But we live in hope…

REFLECTIONS

The mind is a very powerful instrument. It can lead us astray, away from the chosen path. It can also make us more determined than ever to reach the goal. What it will do depends to a great extent on the channels in which we allow it to move.

 — Bhagavadgita

A man who is not much educated or learned in the wisdom of doctrines, but is serene, temperate and has forsaken passion: he is the one who has found the path of truth. He does not need to search hither and thither. The path is within him.

 — The Buddha

Our possessions and our selves are tests of how we manage them; we inevitably go through ups and downs in our material and psychological fortunes, and we never have everything entirely our own way. In all of these respects we are sure to be tested.

 — Islam

If a thief having robbed a house, offers the loot in the worship to propitiate his ancestors, it will be recognised in the world beyond, and the departed souls will be impeached there as thieves.

  — Guru Nanak