 |
|
Speaker has no
other choice Crisis in Nepal |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Energy for Assam
The mood in Colombo
Pain in the leg
Dateline
Washington Don’t bother with
cough medicine Chatterati
|
|
Crisis in Nepal
The eruption of fresh violence in Nepal shows that people are no longer prepared to tolerate the suppression of their democratic urges by King Gyanendra. They fought pitched battles with the police when it swooped down on anti-King demonstrators on Saturday. The government resorted to large-scale arrests and imposed a day-long curfew to foil an attempt for holding a rally by members of the seven-party opposition alliance in Kathmandu on Friday. Yet rallies were held outside the curfew zone. The crisis deepened further when 17 Maoists and six security personnel lost their lives in an overnight clash in Makawanpur district. The massive anti-King demonstration held a few days back in Kathmandu seems to have unnerved the royal government. The King knows no other way than to resort to strong-arm tactics, which have evoked condemnation from New Delhi and many other concerned world capitals. India’s expression of “grave concern” is understandable not only because of historical reasons, but also owing to its obvious interest in the goings-on in its immediate neighbourhood. India has been advising the King to restore democracy at the earliest to take on the Maoist menace but in vain. The result is that today the King finds himself in a trap created by his own successive blunders. The situation calls for fresh thinking by all. It is surprising how the King is trying to hold municipal elections on February 9 without lifting the curbs imposed on political activities. The widespread opposition to the elections is understandable. The killing of a mayoral candidate belonging to a pro-palace party on Sunday indicates that the electoral exercise will not be free of violence. The King, who is least worried about the difficulties of the people, remains exposed in the eyes of the world community. It is time he realised that the use of the iron fist would be neither in his own interest nor in the interest of the people of Nepal. People are passing through a period of grave crisis. Their difficulties cannot come to an end if the King continues to behave in the manner he has been doing after suspending democracy in February last year. |
|
Energy for Assam Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh’s interactions in Assam have been characterised by a much-needed focus on infrastructural development that is central to the vision of an economically developed, well-integrated Northeast. The Rs 3000-crore, 500 MW, Bongaigon Thermal Power Project at Salakati has been inaugurated; another Rs 3000 crore will go towards a major coalmine. Coal for the Bongaigon plant would be mined from the Ledo Margherita area, which by itself will employ several thousand people, apart from earning revenue. The Prime Minister has also announced plans to turn Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts into special economic zones, and even the setting up of an information technology park. Assam needs all this and more. The proposed Northeast Water Resource Authority, to oversee both flood containment and use of water resources, should be set up. The Centre’s stated focus on rail and road transportation needs to be translated into action, with upgradation of the national highways running through Assam and other parts of the Northeast. All major bridge works need to be completed as well. They are a sorely felt need in this region, and a beginning can be made with the Bogibeel bridge. The state has also sought a change in the funding pattern for major projects, seeking to put a higher share of the burden on the Centre. Though the Centre’s financial position precludes this, there is scope for more assistance in sectors like education. The state has sought central assistance to implement a 14-point, UGC-approved, plan on colleges and universities, apart from a grant to set up a model school in each of the 219 developmental blocks. The Prime Minister has outlined a vision which has it that in four years every village in Assam will have roads, drinking water, power and telephone connectivity. This vision has to be realised if the Northeast is to be the “spearhead” of the Look-East policy. |
|
Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old.
— Jonathan Swift |
The mood in Colombo COLOMBO is too tense and one could taste the volatile atmosphere. Practically, everyone believes that hostilities between the Sinhala forces and the LTTE will restart before long. One top newspaper owner even asked me what would be India’s reaction “if they were to push the LTTE further north?” This was in sharp contrast to what I experienced last time when I visited Sri Lanka some four years ago. Then there was an air of optimism. People were generally confident that “something” would emerge from the talks between the government and the LTTE. They favoured peace and wanted the ceasefire to continue indefinitely. I ran into important people at that time arguing how peace with the LTTE was the key to Sri Lanka’s development. The mood is different now. The Sinhalese seem to be digging in and preparing themselves to face the worst. The LTTE has killed at least 65 security personnel and over 50 civilians in the last few weeks, apart from the 15 sailors killed near Trincomalee in early January. Army operations in the north have also driven hundreds of Tamils from the government-controlled territory to the LTTE areas. The escalation of violence has created a scare and made many resign to another round of hostilities. Whether the spurt of violence ignites a war or leads to resumption of talks is not difficult to guess. People would like to give the conciliation efforts with the LTTE another chance. Norway, which brokered peace earlier, is back in the picture. But if the talks do not fructify — the guess is that they won’t — and if the incidents of violence continue to make a mockery of ceasefire, the Sinhalese would prefer a war “to settle the matter once and for all.” America’s warning to the LTTE not to return to war is considered “timely and helpful.” India looms large in the eyes of the Sri Lankans. Therefore, the first thing that their President Mahinda Rajpakse did after his election was to fly down to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He sought India’s direct participation in the situation he faced because of the “LTTE’s intransigence.” Without New Delhi, he believes, the LTTE can neither be brought around nor controlled, not even chastised if such a need arose. Even after knowing that Rajpakse drew a blank when he met Manmohan Singh, there is a lot of wishful thinking in Colombo. During my stay in Sri Lanka I found several intellectuals and politicians arguing that the Indian Prime Minister could not have made any commitment even if he wanted to do so because of the impending state elections in Tamil Nadu. (The DMK and its allies, which are said to have sympathy for the LTTE, have 40 members in the Lok Sabha and some of them are ministers in the Manmohan Singh coalition government). That New Delhi does not want to “get involved” was clear when I had a conversation with the Prime Minister a day before the Sri Lankan President met him. India’s “past experience” — the treatment meted out to the Indian Peace Keeping Force and the killing of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE activist — was very much in the mind of Dr Manmohan Singh. He did not want to dwell on the past, although he appreciated the difficulties which Sri Lanka faced. My feeling is that many in India are wary of the emergence of a separate, militant Tamil state at its southerndoorstep if the LTTE becomes independent. India, except a rump of parties in Tamil Nadu, is clear on curbing the LTTE which is seen belligerent and unaccommodative. New Delhi is willing to give all the support “from outside.” Manmohan Singh reportedly conveyed this to Mr Rajpakse that he was not prepared to commit forces, nor sit around the same table when talks resume between Sri Lanka and the LTTE. New Delhi still considers Norway as the best bet. This gives India all the leeway to show “its interest” but does not bind it in any way. My talks with different people in Colombo after President Rajpakse’s return from New Delhi convince me that the Sri Lankan government is not taking Dr Manmohan Singh’s “no” as “no”. It believes that New Delhi will ultimately come around once the elections in Tamil Nadu are over. Little does it realise that India’s main objection is to Colombo’s reluctance to convert Sri Lanka into a federal structure and to decentralise power. The joint statement by Sri Lanka and India issued at the end of the presidential visit speaks of an undivided Sri Lanka. But many in Colombo interpret it as New Delhi’s support to a unitary state. The word ‘federation’ raises hackles among the Sinhalese, and the common man believes that it is tantamount to the division of their country. However loud the Sinhalese claim to associate the Tamils with governance, the fact is that the latter have very little share in it. Whatever steps have been announced to show Sri Lanka a pluralistic state, they have remained unimplemented. If at all, the Tamils have a marginal presence. The three-language formula — Sinhalese, English and Tamil — is primarily on paper. Tamil is not taught in most schools, much less compulsorily. The police does not entertain a complaint in Tamil. In fact, the Sinhalese and the Tamils are as distant as the Indians and the Pakistanis but imagine how they are living in the same country. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga had the opportunity — and commitment — to devolve power. She should have done it unilaterally. But she wasted all the time in selling the idea. Mr Rajpakse should devise ways to implement it. This may at least assure him support of India and even of most Tamils in Sri Lanka, if they come to be convinced that Sri Lanka will ultimately become a federal state. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka’s politicians and even judges have not shown any flexibility when they interpret the country’s unitary system. New Delhi found this when it tried to give effect to the Lankan peace accord of 1987. Powers which were supposed to be devolved to the northeast and other provinces were never transferred by Colombo. Federation may work but not a watered-down
system.
|
Pain in the leg
I
SHAN’T be a moment said the padre, beckoning me to a chair. “Come and give me your moral support.” I sat down. What was going on round the table looked like a meeting of the mothers’ union, with the padre, a confirmed bachelor, the only male participant. What was I doing there, you might well ask. I had gone to see the priest about the inscription on a tombstone in the old Nicholson cemetery in North Delhi which is so named because it holds the grave of Genl. Nicholson who had led the assault on the city wall in 1857, losing his life in the moment of victory. When my inglorious end comes I would prefer to be taken to the electric crematorium near Rajghat. It’s so quick and clean and cheap. Anyway, someone had directed me to the parish hall and that is how I came to be introduced to this bunch of women, most of them on the wrong side of forty. As soon as the padre mentioned my name the girl — the only young one — sitting next to me smiled at me sweetly, a thing which girls rarely do these days, I being well beyond what is called the prime of life. “I’m M...s’ daughter” she said, drawing her chair a bit closer to me, another thing that girls haven’t done for quite some time. “M...?” asked, sorely puzzled. “Yes” she said, “you knew her as ‘M... B . . .” “Good heavens” I said. “But what on earth are you doing here? You couldn’t be another!” “Indeed I am” she said. “Don’t forget it’s ages since you last saw my mother. Oh, she’ll be thrilled to hear that I’ve met you. Only the other day we were chuckling over your last middle. Something about putting body and soul together, wasn’t it?” “Well” I said, “let’s put paper and pencil together” The padre, sitting on my other side, obligingly handed over his ballpoint and memo pad to me and I took down the girl’s married name, address and telephone number. And then I felt a sharp pain in the middle of my shin-bone. The girl hadn’t kicked me with her spiked heel. The origin of the pain went back 72 years, to a horse. I was galloping along the stretch of road from the station library in Simla to Lakkar Bazar, trying my damnedest to reach Longwood where I was staying with my parents who had asked ‘M . . ,’ to lunch. She was a few years older than I but to a young fellow of eighteen a few years this way or that don’t matter if the girl is pretty, which ‘M . . .’ certainly was. I saw the rickshaw only after my left leg had struck the back rail. I forgot all about ‘M . . .’ for a while and just had enough sense left to me to give the jhampanies my address. It was three weeks before I could walk again and the scar on my leg is a couple of inches long. In the event, I never made use of the address and telephone number the girl had given me. I remembered, with a pain in my heart, that ‘M . . .’ had never once dropped in to see me all the three weeks I was laid up with my left leg in plaster. |
Dateline Washington A prominent Indian American is advising Mr Nicholas Burns as the US undersecretary of state works with his Indian counterparts to implement commitments made in a July 18 civilian nuclear agreement. Dr Ashley J. Tellis, a leading policy researcher in international security and defence studies, has taken a two-month leave of absence from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington to work with Mr Burns at the State Department. The civilian nuclear deal has elicited sharp criticism from Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress. Congressman Ed Markey has authored an amendment that would prohibit nuclear cooperation with countries like India that are not party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and lacking full-scope safeguards. The Congress must agree to amend US laws before the deal can be implemented. In India to work out wrinkles in the agreement, Mr Burns conceded there “are a number of differences, a number of complications” that beset the agreement, but said he was confident these would be settled. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, on a visit to Washington in December, said he had come with “certain ideas” for a plan to separate India’s civilian and military nuclear facilities — a precondition to civilian nuclear cooperation. Officials later privately conceded that the Foreign Secretary had not been properly briefed prior to his arrival in Washington and that his visit did not achieve any breakthrough. Dr Tellis, who served as a senior adviser to former US Ambassador to India Robert J. Blackwill, is an ardent supporter of the deal and brings with him the experience and enthusiasm to push it through. In testimony before the House International Relations Committee on November 16, 2005, Dr Tellis said: “The first question, for the Congress in particular and for the United States more generally ... ought not to be, “What will India do for us?” — as critics of the civilian nuclear agreement often assert. Rather, the real question ought to be: ‘is a strong, democratic, (even if perpetually) independent India in American national interest?’ “If, as I believe, this is the fundamental question and if, as I further believe, the answer to this question is ‘yes,’ then the real discussion about the evolution of the US-Indian relationship ought to focus on how the United States can assist the growth of Indian power, and how it can do so at minimal cost (if that is relevant) to any other competing national security objectives.” Dr Tellis told the committee, led by Chairman Henry Hyde, strengthening the U.S.-India relationship does not imply that New Delhi will become a formal alliance partner of Washington at some point in future. “It also does not imply that India will invariably be an uncritical partner of the United States in its global endeavours. India’s large size, its proud history, and its great ambitions, ensure that it will likely march to the beat of its own drummer, at least most of the time,” he said. While New Delhi has agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and Washington has vowed to push the US Congress to amend laws, neither side is certain who should move first. The Bush administration also is not convinced that the first separation plan presented by the Indians will pass muster with members of Congress, many of whom are concerned the deal undermines Washington’s non-proliferation goals. Another sticking point for some lawmakers and non-proliferation advocates in Washington is India’s Cirus reactor. Leonard Spector of the Monterey Institute of International Studies says skeptics look at the reactor as an example of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi “diverting a civilian reactor to a non-peaceful purpose which India had pledged to retain as a peaceful-use reactor.” Dr Tellis believes the July 18 agreement will “produce important and tangible non-proliferation gains for the United States ... just as it will bestow energy and environmental benefits on India.” Mr Burns told members of Congress the ongoing diplomatic efforts to conclude the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement “are not simply exercises in bargaining and tough-minded negotiation; they represent a broad confidence-building effort grounded in a political commitment from the highest levels of our two governments.” Despite such forceful signals of commitment, Dr Tellis is mindful of the challenges the deal faces. Noting that many previous administrations had sought a similar agreement with India, he said these were “hobbled by the constraints of US non-proliferation laws that treated India as a problem to be contained rather than as a partner to be engaged.” “These prior American efforts, however, served an important purpose: they taught us that trying to transform the bilateral relationship with India would always be frustrated if it was not accompanied by a willingness to re-examine the fundamentals on which this relationship was based,” he told lawmakers. Whether both sides can maintain that willingness to turn the ambitious partnership into reality is still to be seen. Dr Tellis will certainly be doing his part to keep up that momentum. |
|
Don’t bother with cough medicine We’ve
all had it: a cold with a nagging cough. So you go to the drugstore for some cough syrup. Not so fast, suggests a new set of treatment guidelines from the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). Taking over-the-counter (OTC) cough medicine may do no good for a cough tied to the common cold, the report states. Adults are better off taking naproxen (sold under several brand names including Aleve) or an older antihistamine that contains ingredients found in brands such as Benadryl and Chlor-Trimeton. And children shouldn’t take OTC cough and cold medications at all, states the report. The news affects millions of people who self-treat with drugs that the new report says lack evidence proving they work. About 29.5 million doctors’ visits every year in the United States are due to cough, according to the ACCP. Consumers spent about $ 3.4 billion on cough and cold medicines in 2004, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade group that represents distributors and manufacturers of OTC medicines and nutritional supplements. But the “don’t bother” advice applies only to those with coughs due to the common cold, not due to chronic conditions such as asthma or other diseases, said Richard Irwin, professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and chairman of the committee that revised the guidelines. The report says that components of many OTC cough medicines and cough drops — including expectorants (which thin mucus), suppressants (meant to block the cough reflex) and zinc — were not effective. These ingredients include guaifenesin (found in Robitussin and other cough remedies) and dextromethorphan (found in Robitussin, Vicks, Triaminic, Sucrets and other drugs). But the report also found that naproxen does quiet cough tied to the common cold. The guidelines, updated for the first time since 1998, make first-ever recommendations for children with common colds. Kids 14 and under shouldn’t take OTC cough and cold medicines because they’re not effective and may be harmful, states the report. Some medications that have a sedating effect in adults, for instance, can cause a child to become dangerously hyperactive, putting them in a “situation where they’re agitated and not thinking clearly (and) they could really get hurt,” Irwin said. The recommendations are based on an extensive review of published, randomized, controlled clinical trials. The panel evaluated only trials that met this gold-standard quality, Irwin said. The recommendations also suggest adults up to age 65 get a new whooping cough vaccine. Cases of whooping cough (also known as pertussis) are increasing worldwide, Irwin said. Older antihistamine and decongestant combinations (such as brompheniramine and pseudoephedrine) — which can make you sleepy — help relieve cough, even though they’re not usually marketed for that purpose, states the report. But newer non-drowsy antihistamines — such as loratadine, found in Claritin — are ineffective at reducing cough tied to the common cold, Irwin said. People considering any of these drugs need to be aware of side effects. And anyone with high blood pressure should steer clear of decongestants. — LA Times-Washington Post |
|
Chatterati Behanji
Mayawati celebrated her birthday as usual with a big tamasha, laddoos and, of course, collection of funds with coupons for all to fill in their donations to the Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader. Kanshiram was there to give support to Behanji. It is amazing how our leaders go overboard in spending crores on nothing. Mayawati’s temple and Mayawati’s idol! Mayawati’s crude use of language is like parshad for her followers. Pink salwar kameez is her favourite colour with the pink strawberry cake and her mentor is wheeled in. Mayawati has learned the art of springing surprises. This year she has come out with a book “A Journey of My Struggle in the Bahujan Movement”. The book has quotes from Ambedkar saying that Gandhi led a dual life — as a Mahatma and as a politician. Mayawati spends three hours every morning and evening to pen her thoughts about her life from her student days to the present position as a leader of the Dalit political movement. In between bards sang a song at the lavish lunch. Mayawati has also launched the “Bahujan Prerna Trust” for which all are accepted to contribute generously. Congress session Now during the Hyderabad AICC session the Congress is planning to spend nearly Rs 1 crore. The organisers have gone out of their way to make sure that no item of the menu is repeated twice whether it is Hyderabad Biryani, a kulfi or jalebi. The delegates will also be shown a dance called “Gandhi to Gandhi”, which is conceptualised by Rao, who is Union Minister for Coal and Mine. Rao has directed many Hindi and Telugu films. Nearly 50,000 Congressmen are going to be busy for three days. Lots of networking, enough entertainment, pick-pocketing and back-biting. And now more so after the Karnataka shock! Wonder, why the AICC did not see it coming. It was inevitable the way things were moving. Vajpayee’s birthday In the Capital former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee saw the Pooranmashi Moon a thousand times. So as Mr Pramod Mahajan organised a perfect evening for his mentor, he went to the extent of comparing Vajpayee with Jesus Christ as Vajpayee shares his birthday with Jesus Christ on December 25 and, in doing all this, Mahajan showcases his organisational skills, admiration and gratitude to Vajpayee as Atal walks towards the sunset. So a perfect evening of showcasing a video on Vajpayee’s life and then to an elegant moonlight dinner. A lot of people of his age wonder what is great about it. Of course, Mr Pramod Mahajan, the new Lakshman of the BJP, had to make a statement and promote himself. Thus everything he does is in style. Vajpayee’s Lakshman spared no effort. The BJP brigade was, of course, in full force but full marks to Pramodh. He got President Kalam and the Prime Minister to felicitate Vajpayee with a memento. Pandit Jasraj lent the evening a soft musical touch. So what if there are deaths due to starvation. In our country the leaders of the Aam Admi have to make merry and spend crores during occasions, which really do not have anything to do with the common man except that the money used is of the public. The symbols and leaders may change, the tamasha remains the same in every party. |
|
From the pages of The Borsad victory
The Government of Bombay have at last realised the unwisdom of persisting in a course of action at Borsad directly opposed to the will of the people concerned. The Bombay Government has remitted the collection of the Punitive Police cess which was levied on the residents of the Borsad Taluqa for maintaining an additional police “for suppressing and hunting down the outlaws.” “The Governor”, says this press note, “has made special enquiries through the member in charge of the Home Department. His Excellency has decided that a case has been made out for remitting the collection of the extra charge at present involved.” Had this decision been arrived at before the cess was actually levied, the people of Borsad would have been saved a lot of trouble and the Bombay Government itself the humiliation of a defeat.
|
Remember, Death has you by your hair. He’ll strike at home or in foreign lands, you’ll never know when or where. Keep Ram in you heart. — Kabir With my minds as the scales, consciousness as the weights and devotion the gold-tester, I will weigh You with them, my Lord! within my heart; and, thus, restrain my mind from its wanderings. — Guru Nanak Never despair of justice in God’s courts. He sees and hears all though he may not appear to do so. — Sanatana Dharma |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
