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Tainted ministers Projects for Punjab |
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Angle of salute Air Force takes a vital decision Every pilot worth his altimeter knows about the importance of the angle of attack — the angle at which the wings and other airfoils of the aircraft meet the airflow. For every IAF man and woman, flyer or engineer, there will be a new angle of attack to consider.
The nuclear deal
Don’t laugh it
away
Law against
domestic violence gets delayed Climate change to
hit farmers Chatterati
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Projects for Punjab Indo-Pakistan trade through the Wagah route will get a boost with the Prime Minister announcing on Friday the upgradation of Attari railway station, expansion of the Customs infrastructure there and establishment of separate on-port, off-port facilities at Wagah. With a sharp increase in passenger traffic and the volume of trade between the two countries, cargo movement gets delayed due to slow clearances at the border. The new facilities will ensure separate clearance counters for imports and exports, thus shortening the waiting period. Traders will also benefit from the proposed widening of the Amritsar-Wagah and Amritsar-Jalandhar roads. Despite being a significant religious and trade centre, Amritsar has not got its due from either the state government or the Centre for years. After Guru Nanak Dev University no major project has come up there. Thanks to the Prime Minister’s efforts, the city has started getting noticed. Amritsar has become an urban nightmare with unregulated growth, chaotic traffic and irregular power supply. The Rs 570-crore package from the Prime Minister may arrest its further deterioration. The holy city’s civic amenities have failed to keep pace with the growth in population. The timely release of Central funds for the Guru Ram Das Urban Development Project and for the elevated, direct route to Harmandar Sahib would, hopefully, ease the woes of residents as also of tourists. To dispel the impression that the sops for Punjab are election-oriented, Dr Manmohan Singh will have to ensure that these do not meet the fate of the Special Economic Zone. Long after its announcement by the Prime Minister, the SEZ is yet to take off. After a needless controversy, the state government has now signed a deal with a private company to develop it. The Prime Minister will have to personally monitor the progress of various Central projects — particularly the upgradation of Amritsar and Chandigarh airports and the new one near Ludhiana — as the country is notorious for systemic bottlenecks. |
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Angle of salute Every
pilot worth his altimeter knows about the importance of the angle of attack — the angle at which the wings and other airfoils of the aircraft meet the airflow. For every IAF man and woman, flyer or engineer, there will be a new angle of attack to consider. The IAF has changed its decades-old, Royal Air Force-derived, salute with the palm facing fully outward. The Army salutes that way too. IAF personnel are now required to execute a salute with the palm facing slightly upward in a take-off angle of 45 degrees. The Sukhoi-30 is capable of doing vertical “cobras” in the air with the “AOA” in the region of 90 to 100 degrees. Watch out with the salute, though. Any adventurism there will be frowned upon severely. As for the Navy man, he salutes with the palm downwards. That is a custom that has been traced to the fact that sailors’ hands were particularly dirty in the days of manual sails and tarred hulls. The salute is a distinctive part of the culture of the armed forces, though like all greetings, it has its origins in the open-handed (weapon-free) and head-uncovering gestures of friendly intention. There have also been some interesting spill-overs. The left side, rear seat of a car, is the most “privileged.” Catch an IAS or PSU babu, not to mention the politician, sitting anywhere else. One origin of that custom is that an officer always sat there, so that he could return a salute with his right hand comfortably. In any case, a salute is about a willingness to serve and obey but never about servility or obsequiousness. About pride in uniform and country, and a commitment to discipline and excellence. Now that is worth a hundred salutes, in any style. |
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I am convinced more and more day by day that fine writing is next to fine doing the top thing in the
world. — John Keats |
The nuclear deal The
Indo-US nuclear deal inked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush ushers in a new era in India’s five decades’ quest to harness nuclear science and technology for rapid economic development alongside nuclear weapon deterrent. The accord paves the way to realise the full potential of building nuclear energy capability in India. In the first place, it will, in the Prime Minister’s words, give a quantum jump to India’s plans for nuclear electricity generation in the short term, and in the long term pave the way for nuclear power to fill the gap in India’s vast electricity needs. This has become possible by a link-up of indigenous nuclear capability and infrastructure with international nuclear technology and reactor imports. The accord empowers India to tackle a major bottleneck in the country’s nuclear quest, namely, meagre uranium resources, the mainstay of nuclear fuel for power reactors. The bar on uranium imports is to be lifted. In fact, the accord assures full support by the United States in obtaining nuclear fuel for all civilian nuclear power reactors — the existing indigenous nuclear power reactors as well as those which are to be built in the decades ahead, indigenously or by imports. And this support is for the “life time” of these reactors. The benefit of international scientific interaction and trade in nuclear material opens up. The hurdles imposed on Indian nuclear institutions by the sanctions regime, which had barricaded India for three decades since 1974 from access to international know-how, nuclear material and reactors of advanced nuclear capability nations, are to be lifted. India is no longer a nuclear pariah. Instead, India is being accepted as an advanced nuclear capability nation, and a nuclear weapon state — a responsible member of the global nuclear club. This new status being bestowed on India imposes responsibilities too — and India’s impeccable non-proliferation record comes in handy for this purpose. India has to act as part of the international nuclear community that works to stave of the pitfalls of nuclear proliferation by assuring that nuclear technology and equipment are used solely for peaceful purposes and do not spill over to weapon-making. What is the price that India has to pay for the Indo-US deal? The price is (a) separation of India’s civilian and military facilities, and (b) placing the civilian facilities under the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, which are to be “in perpetuity”. What are these IAEA safeguards? The IAEA has two sets of safeguards — one for nuclear weapon powers and another for non-weapon member-states of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The latter are extensive and intrusive, to ensure that nuclear capabilities being built by non-weapon states is used solely for the generation of power and other peaceful applications, not weapon-making. There is a different set of safeguards for the five weapon states — this includes China which has a massive nuclear reactor imports and other nuclear trade as well as scientific interaction — which are soft and far from intrusive. India falls in a category of its own since it is being accepted as a weapon state outside the NPT. India will have to work out “India-centric” safeguards with the IAEA. The protracted nine-month’s negotiation between India and the US to give shape to the nuclear deal was no smooth ride. The concepts of the two sides differed. Besides, the process of separation was complex since India’s civilian nuclear power programme and build-up of nuclear weapon capability have been intertwined. In fact, India’s nuclear weapon programme has been a spin-off from the power programme and in some cases the same facility has served both the civilian power programme and weapon capability. For example, the 100 MWe Dhruva high flux research reactor and the similar CIRUS research reactor built by Canada that have served both the civilian nuclear power programmes and India’s weapon capability. The Indian case was that the Indo-US accord was to boost civilian nuclear electricity generation; it was this segment alone that had to be separated for being placed under the IAEA safeguards. No constraints could be accepted on India’s strategic programme and related facilities. Nor could there be any curbs or intrusion in India’s R&D centres — BARC, IGCAR, the Indian Institute for Plasma Research, the Centre for Advanced Technology, Variable Energy Cyclotron, the Saha Institute of Physics, the Centre for Advanced Technology, TIFR and the Tata Memorial Centre being the outstanding ones. The American concept of civilian facilities to be separated for safeguards included all non-military facilities, including R&D centres and laboratories not directly related to the nuclear weapon programme. The Indo-US agreement finally arrived at was entirely satisfactory for India. It ensures a big push to Indian plans for civilian nuclear power capacities, while keeping India’s strategic programme — the nuclear weapon deterrent — free from restraints. It also ensures that there are no curbs or intrusion in India’s R & D activities. The compromises arrived at met the Indian point of view, safeguarding India’s strategic interests as well as research and development, which are the acme of nuclear science and technology. The fast breeder programme, for instance. Cyrus was another such contentious issue. Yet other contentious issues were spent fuel reprocessing plants, enrichment research and test facilities, the nuclear fuel complex at Hyderabad, the mainstay for developing nuclear fuel for all varieties of reactors, heavy water plants and such other nuclear industrial-cum-research units of nuclear infrastructure. It was decided to shut down Cyrus after 2010 because the demand to place it under safeguards was difficult to resist, since the Canadians who built it had done so solely for peaceful uses. In its final shape, the Indo-US accord will place under safeguards, in a phased schedule till 2014, 14 civilian power reactors, indigenous as well as those built with foreign collaboration, out of the 22 operating reactors (or under construction). These are Tarapur 1 and 2, RAPS 1 and 2, and Kodankulam 1 and 2 (under construction with Russian collaboration), all of which are already under IAEA safeguards. Eight other reactors, each of 220 MW capacity (yet to be designated), are likely to be Narora 1 and 2, Kakrapar 1 and 2, Kaiga 1 and 2, and Rajasthan 3 and 4. Of the civilian power reactors that will remain outside the safeguarded list, Tarapur 3 and 4 are of a new genre in indigenous reactor construction, being of 540 MWe capacity each. MAPS 1 and 2 power reactors too are being kept out of the safeguards list. Presumably, spent fuel from these four reactors will be adequate for extracting plutonium needed for building special fuel for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) Programme and the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). It has been accepted that the FBTR, operating successfully, and the PFBR which is still under construction, will be kept out of the safeguards list. Future fast breeder power reactors, the designated civilian power reactors, will, however, be under IAEA safeguards. So too will be future indigenous or imported reactors meant for civilian power generation. But there will be no constraint on future construction by India of military-use reactors or other facilities related to weapons. A new vista opens up for India in its nuclear quest. The Indo-US accord straightaway joins India with the global nuclear community in fusion research. India has become a participant in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) — the Euro 10 billion project which is to deliver mankind from its energy search — together with the US, Russia, France, Britain, Japan, South Korea and China. This amounts to the recognition of India as an advanced nuclear capability nation for the first
time.
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Don’t laugh it away It
is a matter of life and death, I heard somebody saying sombrely. Was it someone’s kin down with a serious illness or, I mumbled, was someone being posted to Iraq ? No, it was neither. It was that............that bugbear ......... the board exam ! Teen suicide, to be precise. A study conducted by a news magazine revealed that Board’s exam drove about 4000 students to take their lives every year. Come, close on the heels, the season of entrance exams for medical and engineering undergrad courses, anxiety levels will reach so high that the aspirants would move heaven and earth to get into a college of their choice. Leave aside the children, it is a “do or die” battle for their parents too who, in Ahmedabad, were seen jumping the queue at chemists’ shops to procure pills which could enhance their kids’ concentration. Is academic excellence a measure of one’s success in life? Is there any correlation between successful people and the marks they secured in their academic career? Companies are reported to have decided not to take top rankers because they were found tunnel-visioned. After all, no country is being run by its academic rank holders. We often forget to tell our youngsters that the achievements of great men and women stood on the foundation of the mistakes they made in their formative years. Behind Winston Churchill’s perfection lay a history of failures. The present system leaves them no room to err, not knowing that error is the backyard of perfection. Parents would do well to realise that it is their genetic material only, which their child carries. Given the genetics, every parent should know the child’s limits of elasticity. That reminds me of an ambitious father who would chidingly tell his teenage son that Pt. Nehru made so and so achievement when he was “your age”. Pt Nehru was Prime Minister of India, when he was your age, squared the son. Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review for over 35 years, when diagnosed for a painful and progressively degenerative tissue disease, was given a one in 500 chance of complete recovery and not very long to live. Cousins moved out of the hospital and started watching comedies like Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin and episodes of Candid Camera nearly non-stop for days together. He slowly recovered and returned to full time work and wrote Anatomy of an illness in 1979. Fifteen years later he suffered a severe heart attack but an overdose of laughter saw him through. He related his experiences in The Heating Heart. So young men, life is too precious a thing to be taken too seriously. Laugh at life and its twists and turns. A KG student laughs 300 times a day against an adult’s 17 times. It is no laughing matter. Don’t laugh it away. But laugh your way to health, and
happiness. |
Law against domestic violence gets delayed Fifty
million women are missing in South Asia. They are missing because of the increasing number of cases of foeticide, dowry deaths, honour killings and other acts of violence being inflicted on them. India enjoys the ignominy of being in the forefront of crimes against women. This spiral of violence is sustained by glaring, one would say criminal, shortfalls in investigation of crimes by our investigatory agencies as also because of the growing judicial bias against women who have been forced to seek legal redress. How is the government hoping to counter this state of affairs? Have any members of the police force who have conducted these shoddy investigations been brought to book or do they continue to be let off the hook? This sorry state of affairs can be best exemplified by the example of the Truth Commission, organised by the Bangalore-based Vimochana, in which former judges and activists looked at 24 violence-related cases. They found that in 12 of these cases, the police had not bothered to even assess the nature of the case, in another five cases; their investigation was downright shoddy while another five smacked of judicial bias. No wonder the police seldom feels the need to give copies of the FIR to complainants. Such lacunae in the investigation machinery have led the Lawyers Collective to ensure that future women-related Bills sidestep these limitations. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005(PWDV) is the latest legislation which aims to provide relief to millions of women affected by violence in their homes. Although the Bill was passed last year, the government has still to notify the date from which the Act becomes operational. The rules under the Act are still to be finalised. Activists of Action India and the National Centre for Advocacy Studies met recently in the Capital to demand that the central government commit financial resources and infrastructure as also draw up strategies for the implementation and enforcement of the Act. Many of the provisions in the Act are a first of their kind. The law calls for the building of a new cadre of Protection Officers who will operate in every district of the country and will help abused victims file cases before magistrates. The law has taken the unprecedented step of stipulating that the magistrate concerned must hear the case within three days of its registration. Senior Supreme Court advocate Indira Jaising points out that these Protection Officers can be either government officials or representatives of NGOs. Determined not to add to the backlog of cases, the Act further stipulates that every case must be disposed of within two months of its hearing. The Bill also called for the setting up of more courts and also of hiring more judges in order to cut down delay. Another departure from the past practice has been to title the reports prepared by the Protection Officers as Direct Incident Reports and not call them FIRs . Jaising maintains, “The whole idea of getting a new cadre in place is to ensure that they function more effectively. The courts are already so overburdened that we need to have a new team in place.” The creation of a new cadre as also the setting up of more courts requires additional funding. The amount that has been tabulated by the Lawyers Collective is miniscule. They have asked for an additional sanction of Rs 178 crore annually. The money will go towards token payments for the Protection Officers as also in building up additional infrastructure. The new legislation empowers women to seek relief and services from the judiciary, the police, shelter homes, hospitals and other institutions. Since the attempt is to protect women from physical, verbal, psychological, emotional, sexual and financial abuse, the Act also ensures women the right to continue to live in the marital home. It is for this reason that the household is referred to as `shared household’ rather than `matrimonial household.” If the protection order is breached, the man can be subjected to imprisonment The Act is an expression of concern at the escalation of violence against married women. India has one of the highest rates of violence during pregnancy. The Washington-based International Centre for Research on Women in collaboration with independent researchers has some alarming statistics to confirm this trend. Fifty per cent of women interviewed reported to being kicked, beaten or hit when pregnant. Seventyfive per cent of those who reported repeated violence have attempted to commit suicide. Violence is so endemic that it stretches across regions, communities and classes. Already, statistics collated by the Department of Women and Children indicate that domestic violence figures are spiralling at 40 per cent per year and they expect seven lakh complaints to be registered in 2006-7 alone. One of the main reasons for the escalation of violence is that conviction rates are showing a downward trend. During the 70s, judicial conviction rates were as high as 70 per cent but today they are down to 40 per cent. Nevertheless, some key observations need to be kept in mind regarding domestic violence. No doubt, it is an intractable problem which is getting worse. But the flip side is that many women are willing to remain silent and suffer an abusive situation because they do not want the lives of children to be adversely affected. In extreme cases where they are forced to go and report cases of domestic violence, it is because they want an end to these incidents and not because they are seeking divorce. Their hope is to both preserve their marriage and also put an end to abuse. Marriage is what grants a woman privileges through her husband and her children and also provides some social security for her future. They are not keen to return to their parental home where also, they can find themselves in an extremely vulnerable situation. The Act is an attempt to ensure that the implementation process is built into it. But at the same time, enough flexibility has been built into it to allow a greater level of manoeuverability both for the aggrieved victims as also for the law enforcing bodies. The question the activists ask is: why is the government dragging its feet on its notification. Women need speedy redressal of grievances and the Act is a one more step in this direction. |
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Climate change to hit farmers Over
70 million Africans and an even greater number of farmers in the Indian sub-continent will suffer catastrophic floods, disease and famine if the rich countries of the world fail to change their habits and radically cut their carbon emissions. The stark warning, contained in a private Government document commissioned by Gordon Brown, comes days ahead of an announcement that will show Tony Blair backing away from his promise to “lead internationally” on climate change. The Government has decided to delay setting targets for industry to cut carbon emissions until other EU governments set theirs. Previously, Mr Blair has made a virtue out of leading the way in Europe. The bleak facts on how climate change threatens the third world were laid out in a briefing paper drawn up this month by the Department for International Development. It pointed out that a quarter of Africa’s population lives within 100km of the sea coast. As sea levels rises, when global warming melts the ice pack, the number of Africans at risk from coastal flooding will increase from one million in 1990 to 70 million in 2080. In India, rising temperatures could drive down farm incomes by as much as a quarter, while the cost to Bangladesh of changes in the climate could be more than half the £58bn that country has received in foreign aid. “It’s the poorest people in the world who suffer from climate change, but they are the least responsible for it.” John Magragh, of Oxfam, said yesterday. The report emphasises that — despite the recent focus on New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — 94 per cent of all natural disasters, and 97 per cent of deaths from natural disasters, occur in the developing countries. All the work that aid agencies do to end hunger, improve education, combat disease, and close the gender gap will be jeopardised, the report warned. In Bihar, India, for example, flooding can shut schools across the state for three months of the year. Flooding caused by Hurricane Mitch brought a sixfold increase in cholera in Nicaragua. Mozambique’s annual economic growth dropped from 8 per cent to 2 per cent in a year after a cyclone. The briefing paper was drawn up for a review ordered by Gordon Brown into the economic impact of climate change. It was made public after a request by the BBC made under the Freedom of Information Act. The review team, headed by Sir Nicholas Stern, will report in the autumn. Sir Nicholas has already warned that climate change could push millions back into poverty, or force them to migrate. Heating up: * By 2025, China will overtake the US as the leading emitter of greenhouse gases. It is already the world’s biggest driver of deforestation. * Current levels of carbon dioxide are higher than at any time in the past 650,000 years. * Last year, the thermometer reached 50C (122F) in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria. The northern hemisphere is warmer than it has been for 1,200 years. Temperatures are expected to rise by 6C in some places by 2100. * The UK will fail to hit its 2010 target of reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent on 1990 levels. The Government predicts a cut of 10.6 per cent. * 2005 was a record year in the intensity and frequency of tropical storms: 26, compared with 21 in 1933. Fourteen were hurricanes. Hurricane Wilma was the strongest on record. — The Independent |
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Chatterati Interior
Designer Sunita Kohli, founder and Chairperson of the National Museum of Women in Arts, organised a function where fashion designer Ritu Kumar presented an amazing fashion show. Ritu Kumar, of course, is timeless with her creations. There was a set on reviving Indian textile traditions. Devika Bhojwani from Bombay had specially flown in as this evening was also for a fight against breast cancer. Women achievers like singer Zila Khan, author Madhu Trehan and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni joined the bandwagon for this Women’s Cancer Initiative by Tata Memorial Hospital. The function was hosted by Ms Sofia Blake of the American Embassy. Dharmendra in Parliament After a long gap, Bollywood actor and BJP MP Dharmendra made his appearance in the Lok Sabha last week. He attended the proceedings of the House for at least 15 minutes. As the next day was Holi, Dharmendra was asked to say something. The Bollywood star immediately recalled a song from his superhit movie Sholey, which was
picturised on his wife, Hema Malini, who is a BJP Rajya Sabha member, “Holi ke Din Sab Ghul Mil Jateen Hain Rango Mein Rang Mil Jaaten Hai”. Dharmendra felt nostalgic as the first Holi song he did was in Phool Aur Patthar,” in which he co-starred his yet another old flame, Meena Kumari. He could not remember the exact words. The other Bollywood star Jaya Bachchan waved a “dirty” currency note in the Rajya Sabha as proof that banks were disbursing soiled currency notes. But just as she waved the note, Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat observed: “Give it to me I will get it exchanged.” The members burst out laughing. The topic of currency notes led to yet another light moment in the Rajya Sabha. When BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said that counterfeit notes could damage the country’s economy and that banks must not disburse soiled notes, Mr Shekhawat said: “Aapko noton ke vishay pe bahut gyan hai”. Joshi retorted, “I am a poor man and so each currency note matters to me”. Newly wed’s gesture The newly married couple, Shubhajit Dutt and Khaleda have donated the money given to them as “shagun” to the PM’s Relief Fund. Shubhajit is a self-employed journalist in Sweden and has lived there all his life, while Khaleda was a teacher in a Kolkata school. The contrast between them and those in need of this money cannot be more stark. They begin a life full of hope and joy whereas those in need of succour have had their lives plunged into darkness. The only emotion linking the two is compassion because that’s the only thing that can make a difference. Shubhajit’s mother, Krishna, came to India in December in the midst of the tsunami tragedy. As the toll and the heart-rending stories of sheer survival started pouring in, she and Shubhajit decided to do their two-penny bit. In the invitation cards for the wedding, friends and relatives were urged to give the couple whatever amount of money they wanted in the form of cheques to the PM’s Relief Fund. The cheques, given to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund by Krishna, brought in Rs. 29,000. The gesture was unique as the money was a wedding gift for the couple. Instead, they gave it for the needy.
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From the pages of Jinnah’s parting message We cannot congratulate Mr Jinnah on his message to his community on the eve of his departure for England. It is not a message of peace but of war, and will not enhance his reputation either for justice and impartiality or for statesmanship. “Muslims”, he said, “were in a very difficult position. The policy of the Hindu Mahasabha was dominated by considerations of complete Hindu supremacy in the future. The Muslims could not be expected to work hand in hand with them. Even in the Congress there was a section which was dissatisfied with Muslim patriotism, although in all important divisions in the Assembly the Muslims had supported popular opinion. Let us hope Congress leaders with their greater experience and political training can overcome that section and assure us in the future that it would not be a Hindu Government but an Indian Government in which the Muslims would have their equal rights.” Every part of this statement is either incorrect or misleading.
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The warrior who seeks to cow another by insulting him on issues beyond his control (for example, birth) should be discouraged. Bitter taunts ill befit a valorous man. His might should be proved in combat, not in extraneous issues. — The Mahabharata Only bodies die. Hopes and delusions are immortal. — Kabir Charity should be dispensed with wisdom. — Guru Nanak Surely Allah loves not the treacherous. — Islam Bondage and liberation are both of her making. By her maya worldly people get entangled in ‘woman’ and ‘gold’ and again through her grace they attain liberation. — Ramakrishna It is skill that is to be determined in combat. Strength, perseverance, wit and courage are to be tested in combat. Pride and status are not at issue. So the humblest warrior may engage with the proudest. — The Mahabharata |
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