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Teachers as vultures From farming to knowledge Target practice |
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The round table
Being happy is natural
Tasks before Chidambaram Bird flu: myths and realities Delhi Durbar
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Teachers as vultures RAPE is the most abominable crime because it leaves a scar on the victim, which can never be healed. And if the rapist happens to be a teacher and the victim a student, it becomes even worse. Even before the shock of the multiple rape at Durjanpur in Jind district could subside came the report from Sirsa about a teacher raping a physically challenged student. As if that was not sufficient, a teacher in Ambala did it to a Class VIII student. Instead of reporting the crime to the police, the only witness to the crime took advantage of her helplessness to satisfy his carnal desire. The teacher-student relationship is one of the noblest of all relationships. A student looks up to her teacher as her tutor, guide, philosopher and role model. She is thus vulnerable to the teacher. The vulnerability is per se not bad as it bonds their relationship. Where things go wrong is when the teacher takes undue advantage of the student’s vulnerability. In the instant case, the hapless girl expected the teacher to protect her on her way back to the village from the centre from where she appeared for the board examination. Instead of giving her the much-needed protection, he pounced on her when he got the opportunity. In all these cases, the teachers thought their crime would never come to light, as the girls would be scared of reporting the violation of their bodies. Thus they sought to take advantage of both the girls’ vulnerability and the social stigma attached to rape. Teachers with a criminal bent of mind have no place in the temples of learning. For every teacher whose misdeed is exposed, there are dozens, who exploit their intimacy with their students. There is something systemically wrong, as otherwise such unwanted characters would not have found a place in the teaching profession. While the strictest action against the black sheep is the obvious step, the system needs an overhaul so that no teacher dares to take liberty with a student. On their part, students should feel free to report any deviant behaviour by a teacher. Expressing his anxiety, as Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda did the other day, is not sufficient as his education minister and the department of education need to come down heavily on the rapists lurking in schools.
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From farming to knowledge PUNJAB has a special reason to be happy about President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Address to Parliament on Thursday. The President has announced that new centres of excellence in basic sciences on the pattern of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will be set up in the country. Punjab will have one such centre apart from Kolkata and Pune. The government is already planning to locate it at Mohali. This will partially address the long-standing grievance that the entire North India has been without any Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management and Indian Institute of Science. Punjab and Haryana have progressed on the strength of their agriculture, which has reached a saturation point and where further growth is limited. Rather the states are paying for the side-effects of the Green Revolution. The next leap in growth will be possible only if the region joins the fast-growing, knowledge-driven economy. Knowledge-based industries will set up shop here only if world-class engineers and scientists are available locally. Right now talented youth have to move out of this region to study at top science and business institutes. Also welcome is the announcement of a government plan to create a high-capacity freight corridor from Ludhiana to Sonnagar in West Bengal which will link the state with eastern ports. Ludhiana businessmen and traders, known for their enterprise, have failed to push exports due to infrastructural bottlenecks. With the European Union scrapping textile quotas, Ludhiana can emerge as a hub of textile exports. With a surging demand worldwide for Indian auto parts, Punjab in general and Ludhiana in particular can fully tap its potential. The government, meanwhile, will have to upgrade infrastructure, particularly arrange more power, to boost industrial production that, in turn, will generate more employment.
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Target practice WITH a President - George Bush – known for shooting from the lip, it would be no surprise if the US Vice President – Dick Cheney - was prone to shooting from the hip. So when Mr Cheney went hunting quail – any phonetic similarity to (Dan) Quayle is entirely coincidental – last weekend, his companions-in-arms were surely right to expect that he would make a ‘big kill’. Instead of hitting quail, the Vice President of the world’s “only indispensable democracy” pumped the pellets straight into his friend and hunting mate Harry Whittington. Now, the hospitalised lawyer Whittington is in a bad way and he also suffered a minor heart attack, caused by the birdshots lodged in his heart. Bad enough. Worse is that in the world’s most open society, the White House kept a tight lid on the news for almost a whole day – only on Sunday afternoon did a newspaper post the story of Saturday’s shooting on its web site. In fact, reports suggest that Vice President Cheney’s office was not very cooperative in sharing the information with even the President’s staff. Predictably enough, now critics are out to make a political killing and Mr Cheney is the one in the line of fire. The public and media reaction to the unfortunate incident has been no less unfortunate. Initially it was treated as a big national joke and Mr Cheney was the butt of much satire and derision for shooting a mate. Television talk-show hosts had a field day aiming barbs at Mr Cheney. Only when the infectious hilarity subsided did America wake up to the serious condition of the victim who was undergoing treatment in an intensive care unit. That, in turn, has made many take a hard look at Mr Cheney’s ways, including the tension between him and President Bush. But, at the end of it all, the politics of Mr Cheney remain a bigger preoccupation than the state of the victim.
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The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you will make one. — Ellen Hubbard
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The round table THE Government should not permit any person or group to exercise a veto on Jammu and Kashmir. This follows the rejection by Yasin Malik (JKLF) and Syed Ali Shah Geelani (Jamaat-e-Islami) and possibly others of the Prime Minister’s invitation to a landmark J&K round table on February 25. Dr Manmohan Singh is willing to involve every shade of opinion in discussions to find a lasting solution; but if sections of the Hurriyat and other separatist elements wish to stay aloof, so be it. It will be for them to explain why they demand dialogue with Kashmiris but refuse to participate or choose to lay down preconditions. What are they afraid of? The very gun that they have invoked from time to time but now claim to reject, yet are mealy mouthed in condemning, when it brutally murders their own? The agenda for the round table has not been divulged but will presumably be open ended, leaving participants to offer their views and priorities and enable everybody to get whatever is bothering them off their chest. There are clearly two distinct, though ultimately interconnected, aspects of the J&K question – internal and international. The former is the more important of the two and relates to the sufferings experienced as a result of years of armed struggle, human rights violations, alienation, exile, unemployment and erosion of autonomy. The latter relates to Pakistan’s claim to J&K and cross-border intervention laced with jehadi terror within and beyond that state. The third round of the composite dialogue with Pakistan is currently under way as part of the ongoing peace process. The forthcoming round table should not be allowed to end inconclusively without some clear indication of the next steps. There should be a call for specific proposals for discussion under a structured agenda to be taken up at a second meeting in Srinagar soon after the budget session. This could be preceded by an exchange of papers that could be discussed by one or more smaller groups on issues like moving towards an internal ceasefire with appropriate ground rules; a consequent thinning or even withdrawal of security forces from habited areas; a limited amnesty; and a preliminary examination of proposals for enhanced autonomy, both Centre-State and intra-regional, together with their corresponding constitutional, political, administrative, budgetary and other implications. As a parallel exercise, the Government should put together a group of experts to spell out a perspective plan for the economic development of J&K in the medium and near-long term in view of a number of milestones that are going to be attained fairly soon. These include the operationalisation of the Udhampaur-Baramulla railway by 2008; the completion of the new all-weather national highway from Jammu to Srinagar along a shorter alignment that pierces the Pir Panjal at a far lower altitude than the Bannihal tunnel; the commissioning of the Dul Hasti (480 MW) hydro project this coming autumn and (hopefully) Baglihar (450 MW) by 2008, together with transmission links to the Valley; and the opening of the Srinagar international airport. This combination of improved connectivity and power availability will give a major economic boost to the State and create a host of investment opportunities. The preparation of a “J&K Vision 2010-16” document could be the launching pad for a major J&K-CII/FICCI road show in Srinagar later in the year alongside the winter games. The announcement of such a process will fire the imagination of the people of J&K. Those who object will risk losing credibility. As far as the external equation is concerned, President Musharraf must be asked to elaborate his understanding of “self-governance” for the two sides of J&K. Minus the verbiage and window dressing, the contrasting ground realities between the two sides of J&K is stark. Should the Indian round table process start rolling, the hapless people of “Azad” Kashmir and the Northern Areas will soon ask President Musharraf to get real about human rights and self-government in J&K and do something about these matters nearer home. Dr Manmohan Singh and President Musharraf have between them agreed that there can be no redrawing of boundaries (the LOC) in J&K but that these boundaries must be made irrelevant. Growing cross border movement and trade between the two sides of J&K will put in place mechanisms for their regulation and control that could be institutionalised as the interactions spread to tourism and other forms of economic, social and cultural exchange. Conscious of the fact that the 1960 Indus Treaty did not exhaust the full potential of the river, Article VII of the treaty calls upon both sides to dedicate themselves to securing “optimum development” in the common interest through joint cooperation. With growing water stress in both countries and the looming threat of climate change, there is a strong mutuality of interest in realising that goal. The Treaty, as it stands, restricts India’s exploitation of the three Western rivers, namely, the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, allocated to Pakistan, which that country in turn is able to harness inadequately, if at all, as their upper catchments lie on the Indian side of the LOC. What better way of rendering the LOC/boundary “irrelevant” in the service of the common good than by initiating joint surveys of the untapped potential of the Indus system in all of J&K? This could lead to the joint construction and management of viable and environmentally sound water resource projects in the upper Indus catchment on either side of the LOC. Such an “Indus-II”, grafted on Indus-I, could provide additional storage, flood moderation, hydro generation and sediment control – and drainage benefits in the lower reaches – to mutual advantage. The overarching, cross-border structures and mechanisms such developments necessitate in J&K could mark a transition in Indo-Pakistan relationships from confrontation to cooperation, and in J&K’s status from being a barrier to a bridge. Everybody stands to gain. These are the kinds of imaginative ideas that need to be thrown into the ring at the roundtable and in the unfolding peace
process.
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Being happy is natural IN this universe man is the only animal who works for a living. Rest of the species just loaf. Yet (s)he is not happy. He runs from pillar to post in search of happiness which remains elusive. Having exhausted his time and resources in going places and meeting people he chances upon someone pontificating on the secrets of journeys within and without. The desolate soul embarks upon the inner journey aided and assisted by the saffron sporting society. And so on and so forth. Look at the animal world. Bees and butterflies, bovine and canine. Living life on their own terms. Not for them the worries of wealth and health. Diabetes, cancer and cardio-vascular diseases are unknown in the animal world. They eat right and, therefore, need not diet. Have you ever seen an overweight bird or bull, or a slim cat or rat? They all look alike and attractive without wearing any make-up. Yes, they do fall sick sometimes but get well soon. They are their own doctors. What sets them apart is their living in tune with nature. Yes, your pet needs the care of a vet but not so often as you see a doc. Domestication shuts out nature. Man saves for the rainy day. Hoarding for the hard times is his second nature. Animals kill and eat and let their brood share the kill. They refuse to eat it stale. They live from hand to mouth. No overeating, No hoarding. Tomorrow is another day. Human advances in science and technology, instead of making life happier, have given man weapon of mass destruction of human and natural resources. Human depredation is visible in widespread damage to the ecosystem, drilling of holes in the ozone layer, green house effect, extinction of several species due to poisoning of the food-chain, pollution of air and water sources affecting the marine life et al. Research has brought out that a slew of gadgets and gizmos invented by man to make life easier and generate some leisure time have ended up making him poorer! Greed for more has made him poor. On the other hand, if you get in tune with nature and its bounties, the whole universe will inundate you and you will be filled with all the stars and flowers which are inside as well as outside you. That is the real fulfilment. Tuning with the whole makes you happy, healthy and holy. Then alone will you be so full of bliss that you will be able to give it to the whole world, and without getting any poorer for
it.
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Tasks before Chidambaram MR P. Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, is capable of taking innovative and non-conventional fiscal measures to rejuvenate the economy. Credit goes to him for implementing a uniform VAT in a federal set-up like ours where states and the Centre enjoy independent constitutional powers to tax goods and services. Now he should initiate measures to take it to its logical end by integrating the goods and service tax on the VAT principle. Since the states will be the major beneficiaries, he could garner a wide support for such a move. However, it appears that the Union Finance Minister sometimes looks at the economy by wearing Western glasses. In fact, we have not yet reached the stage where we can blindly ape economic policies of the West. For example, take his emphasis on curtailing fiscal deficit, which emphasises on consuming past assets through disinvesting PSUs rather than cutting the coat according to the cloth i.e. wiping out revenue deficit. Even some of his proposals made in the last year’s budget could not see the light of the day because those were foreign to the Indian soil. Tax on bank withdrawals, particularly from saving accounts could not be implemented. Similarly his proposal to implement the Western EET (exempt tax) concept has run into a rough weather. The proposed EET will severely hit the small salary earner who saves Rs 100 and freezes this amount for six years or more simply to earn a meagre interest of 7-8 per cent in order to legally avoid (not evade) the payment of tax amounting to Rs 10 or 20 only. If in the ETT-regime he is asked to pay tax on the total amount which accrue to him at the time of maturity, i.e., amount saved plus interest earned on it, this will hit his incentives to save and invest adversely. And the reduced volume of savings in the economy may jeopardise our efforts to sustain a 7-8 per cent growth rate. If at all on equity considerations such tax incentives are to be withdrawn let it be for those earning beyond Rs 5 lakh or so who are accustomed to save. Then the myopic application of fringe benefit tax (F.B.T.) has also received a stiff opposition. It is true that perks and perquisites, i.e., fringe benefits given to the employees should be taxed either at the hands of the employees or employers. But actual welfare expenditure on employees like contribution to pensionary funds or social security measures must be exempted. Similarly, genuine expenditure for promoting production and sales must be allowed. But it is intriguing that while employees, both in the public and private sectors, have to add to their income the value of perquisites for income tax purposes, there is no such provision for MPs and MLAs, who receive a lot of fringe benefits in terms of free accommodation and other fixed allowances. In last year’s budget even senior citizens were not spared who need some patting in the twilight years of their life. Although in their case the income tax exemption limit was raised to Rs 1.5 lakh and subsequently to Rs 1.85 lakh, yet earlier they were not required to pay tax up to income of nearly Rs 2.0 lakh. Already economic reforms have adversely affected senior citizens because the low interest regime has lowered their income from the past savings. Then medical expenditure on most of the diseases like orthopaedic, chronic diabetes, etc., from which the elderly people suffer, does not qualify for income tax rebate. The worst hit are those who have subscribed to the NSS, 1987, in whose case the EET principle is already applicable. Then for most of the senior citizens there is no social security. In view of the ever swelling number of this neglected section of society, it is hoped that the Finance Minister will spare some monuments to bring some smile on their wrinkled faces. Moreover, the Finance Minister’s promise of switching to an outcome budget also ran into a rough weather. Presenting the central budget for 2005-06, the Finance Minister said, “During the course of the year, together with the Planning Commission, we shall put in place a mechanism to measure the development outcome of all major programmes”. But later on when he presented the outcome budget in September, it was nothing but monitoring of allocated expenditure for selected departments. In other words, emphasis remained on inputs (expenditure) rather than on output or outcome. In fact, the whole process of budget presentation and evaluation needs restructuring. The departments/programmes, which have outlived their utility or duplicate the efforts, must be closed. Mr Yashwant Sinha, former Finance Minister, did this exercise in the Budget 2001-2002 when he tried to follow zero-based budgeting and merged ministries serving the same objectives. It is hoped that in the coming budget the Union Finance Minister will follow a targeted approach, i,e, wherever feasible set the physical targets and incorporate in-built mechanism to evaluate the performance. The writer is a UGC Emeritus Fellow, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala.
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Bird flu: myths and realities HOW did this start and where is it going? H5N1, the current lethal strain, emerged in mid-2003 in South-east Asia, where most of the human deaths have occurred. H5N1 is considered to be endemic among birds in parts of Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Countries as widespread as Turkey, Japan and Egypt have reported outbreaks. And it has now reached Europe. What is the difference between the current bird flu outbreak and a potential human pandemic? Bird flu has spread through poultry flocks worldwide and some humans who have come into direct contact with infected poultry have contracted it and died. The big fear is that it will mutate into a lethal strain of human-to-human flu, but there is no evidence of this yet. What is the human death toll so far and what would happen if a pandemic occurred? There have been 92 known deaths worldwide since the latest outbreak in 2003. The World Health Organisation estimates that a mild pandemic could cause between 2 million and 7.5 million deaths. Human flu already claims between 13,000 and 26,000 lives in the UK every year. If the strain is less virulent it could lead to widespread infection but a low death rate. Does the British Government have plans in place? A central register for commercial keepers with 50 or more birds was set up in December, with bird owners given 12 weeks to sign up or face a £5,000 fine. If a wild bird is found to have the disease in Britain, a two-mile exclusion zone will be enforced, with a 10-mile surveillance zone. Inside the exclusion zone, all poultry movements will be halted and, where infected birds are found, the entire flock will face being culled. How do humans contract bird flu and how lethal is it? The lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza which is causing concern can only be transmitted to humans through direct contact with infected birds. But scientists are concerned that the virus could mutate into a form which can spread from person to person. What are the symptoms? Symptoms include a sore throat, aching muscles, lethargy, eye infections, breathing problems and chest pain. In its most aggressive form, it leads to pneumonia and multiple organ failure. What about a vaccination? As a vaccine cannot be developed until the pandemic strain emerges, it would take time before the first immunisations could take place. Scientists have developed a generic H5N1 avian flu vaccine which could lessen the impact. Anti-viral drugs, such as Tamiflu, can lessen the severity of the illness and save lives. The Government is stockpiling 14.6 million courses of these. In the event of a pandemic, there are also plans to vaccinate the whole British population which would require doses each. Can it be contracted by eating infected poultry? Cooking destroys the virus in poultry and eggs though handling raw infected meat could transmit the virus. What could this mean for the poultry industry? If avian flu reaches British shores it is predicted to spell economic disaster for the industry. However, the National Farmers’ Union is adamant that sufficient contingency plans are in place to contain any outbreak.
— The Independent
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Delhi Durbar THE
battle for the Rajya Sabha has begun in earnest. No fewer than 16 BJP MPs are retiring in April of whom only a handful can get renominated. They include Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Bal Apte and Kalraj Mishra. Balbir Punj, a faithful of L.K.
Advani and S.S. Ahluwalia. Some of them may not be selected. Even as two seats get vacant from Bihar, former Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will be trying hard for re-election. Also in the fray is Shahnawaz Hussain, the only Muslim face in the BJP. There is a buzz that A.B. Vajpayee may push the case of his former aide, Brajesh Mishra, from Madhya Pradesh.
Mahajan up, Jaitley down Pramod Mahajan has emerged stronger as BJP chief Rajnath Singh reconstituted the party’s various state units. On the other hand, the position of Arun Jaitley appears to have weakened. While Mahajan has got charge of Maharashtra, Goa and Uttaranchal, Jaitley has been replaced in both Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Party insiders say that Mahajan’s RSS links have helped him consolidate his position. Will Mahajan emerge even stronger if Mohan Bhagwat takes over the mantle of the RSS from K.S. Sudarshan? That is a big question.
F-18 simulator on display The recent Defexpo-2006 had a large number of companies exhibiting their products to woo the Indian buyer and the government. From the GPA systems to tanks everything was on show. However, one thing that had the visitors curious was the F-18 fighter aircraft simulator put on display by the Boeing. It saw a large rush of people wanting to try out their hands at being able to fly a fighter aircraft. A lady received a lot of encouragement from the American Air Force pilot who was at the stall. Encouraging her to take the loops and then to also land the aircraft the pilot ended up telling the lady that she was better than even some of the pilots who were already under training in the US. That encouraged her to remark “I think I should take flying lessons.”
As the new Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury believes there should be a creche in Parliament to facilitate parliamentarians leave their babies there
and grapple with the affairs of the state inside the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Chowdhury has written in this regard to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The ministry is somewhat agitated that this basic facility is not available for working mothers in Parliament. She impressed upon the Speaker to create this facility as early as possible so that working mothers could take care of their babies and attend to their work as well. Contributed by S Satyanarayanan, Girja Shankar Kaura and R Suryamurthy.
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From the pages of THE BARDOLI BUNGLE While we are prepared to give full credit to the Bombay Government for its eagerness to settle the Bardoli dispute, a perusal of the terms actually proposed by the Governor at his interview with the deputationists makes one wonder why he should have been at pains either to go all the way to Simla to consult the Viceroy or on his return journey to have a busy day with the representatives of the peasants at Surat. Those terms, to say the least, show no change of heart on the part of the Government; and there is nothing in them which the Government of Bombay might not have offered to the peasants at the very commencement of the struggle and without any reference to the wishes or views of any superior authority. In the press communiqué announcing the Simla visit it was stated that His Excellency felt that, while as the head of the administration it was his obvious duty to uphold the supremacy of law, it was no less his duty, as representative of His Majesty the Kind-Emperor, to do what he possibly could to prevent the development of a situation which must ultimately inflict great hardship and suffering on many persons.
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Within every one is the soul, and the soul is God Himself who pervades all and everywhere. — Guru Nanak Rise, O learned One, and Walk confidently on life’s razor-edge. — The Upanishads Challenge is a source of great ire to the proud warrior. He forgets his humility and begins to speak in rude accents thereby lowering himself in the eyes of the wise and saintly. — The Mahabharata
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