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Welcome at Wagah! Killing of Meher Bhargava Tamil pollscape |
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A tale of two Indias
Plane Jane
Brand Bangalore is
staging a comeback Bird flu: Fear is the disease Delhi Durbar
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Welcome at Wagah! THE more things are said to change in India-Pakistan relations, the more they appear to remain the same. That is the unmistakable impression one gathers from the entirely avoidable controversy over the denial of entry at Wagah border to seven members of the family of Justice Rana Bhagwandas, the acting Chief Justice of Pakistan. He and his family came by the Lahore-Amritsar bus on the way to Lucknow. Apparently, they did not have visa for Amritsar, but wanted to board a train from there for Lucknow the same day. Despite the Judge giving an undertaking and photocopies of the train tickets, the immigration authorities threw the rulebook at them with the result that he and his family members had to go back. This was taking the silly regulations too far. If as prominent a person as the acting Chief Justice of the neighbouring country, or his family, cannot be shown any consideration, what is the point of all the talk about building bridges and developing people-to-people contacts? The authorities may have honoured the word of the law, which is often an ass, but have obviously missed the spirit. What is all the more unfortunate is that an attempt by senior Indian judicial officers, who had gone there to receive the Chief Justice of Pakistan, to contact Home Ministry officials in New Delhi proved futile. Actually, this is something which should have been done by immigration authorities themselves on learning that they were dealing with a senior Judge. That only goes on to show that if lower-level officials make a faux pas in their over-zealousness, there is no hope of correctives being applied by higher-ups even in a special case. What the officials perhaps do not realise is that their stand has undone years of efforts at developing goodwill and camaraderie. The incident is bound to cause deep concern in Pakistan. Since two can play such a game, there may be a tit for tat sooner rather than later. That is the tragedy of the two countries. There is always some unfriendly gesture done by one side or the other to justify a similar rebuff. It is time this endless debate about which side fired the first bullet was brought to an end and we walked the talk of mending fences.
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Killing of Meher Bhargava THIS could easily happen even in the capital of UP. Four criminals seriously injuring a mother-in-law when she objects to their passing obscene remarks at her daughter-in-law. Meher Bhargava, who symbolised the old “tehzeeb” of the city, was shot at on February 28 and died after remaining in a coma for nearly four weeks, but the real culprit is yet to be arrested. Only on Wednesday, after a full one month, could the police spot the suspected killer, Sachin Pahari, but he managed to escape. He is said to have been injured when policemen open fire on him. Till then Sachin and his associates had been moving about in Lucknow free from the fear of law. It is now possible that Meher’s killer will be brought to book because of the pressure mounted on the system by the media and civil society. After all, the victim was not an ordinary person. She was once a successful lawyer, who later became a proponent of the cause of women’s emancipation. She was also married to Luv, a scion of the famous Bhargava family of Lucknow, known as a champion of the rights of the minorities.Whatever the reasons for the sustained focus on this broad daylight muder, the incident has highlighted the fast deteriorating law and order situation in UP. People do not feel safe during the rule of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. They rightly say that if Meher can be done to death in Lucknow by goons, it can happen to anybody anywhere in the state. The growing lawlessness in UP can be cited as the latest example of what happens when criminals succeed in highjacking the power structure. They can be found in any party, no doubt, but no other party is identified with bad characters as much as the SP in UP. That is why the SP rule has come to be known as the “goonda raj”. Names of the ruling party’s leaders or workers invariably figure in most murder or abduction cases. Even in the Meher murder case, reports have it that the killer and his associates were the guests of a block pramukh of the Samajwadi Party, Mr K. D. Singh. People have the basic right of security to their lives and limbs. A government that fails to fulfil this minimum responsibility cannot expect their support when the time comes.
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Tamil pollscape IN the battle lines that have emerged for the election of the 13th Tamil Nadu Assembly, arithmetic suggests that the two alliances led by the AIADMK and the DMK are, more or less, evenly matched. However, electoral contests being more than the sum of the vote banks of the respective contenders, a number of other factors come into play. In Tamil Nadu these factors are legion and can make the best-laid plans of either Kazhagam go awry, as both the DMK and the AIADMK have learnt to their chagrin. This explains the unexpected compromises that AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa as well as DMK chief M. Karunanidhi have had to make to gather and hold what they see as a winning alliance. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa struck early to wean away Mr Vaiko’s MDMK, and also the smaller DPI, from the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Front (DPA). This gives her AIADMK, which is contesting 182 of the 234 seats, a psychological advantage. In contrast, the DMK, after the exit of the MDMK from the DPA, gave away105 seats to the allies, lest they be driven away out of dissatisfaction with their seat share. The DMK allies include the Congress, the CPM and the CPI. This “defensive” play of the DMK is also evident in the party’s manifesto, which has promises galore from rice at Rs 2 a kg and a free gas stove for all poor women to a free colour television set to households that do not have one. The string of promises underscores the absence of any obvious anti-incumbency factor at play against Ms Jayalalithaa’s regime. The AIADMK manifesto reflects more confidence, with the emphasis more on the party’s five-year performance. The only promise to the beneficiaries of the AIADMK’s “exemplary rule”, as the manifesto states, is “escalating achievements”. Promises apart, voters can look forward to interesting performances, of the theatrical variety, between now and the elections of May 8.
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God made the country, and man made the town. — William Cowper
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A tale of two Indias PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh recently announced the formation of the National Mission for the Renewal of Urban Centre having a population above one million. The government has decided to invest Rs 100, 000 crore within the next seven years for this ambitious programme. Though a laudable decision, it may not succeed without an integrated approach towards urban and rural development. The two are interdependent. This immediately calls for an integrated national policy for healthy and balanced urban and rural development along with other basic issues. These may be summarised like this: Exodus from the rural areas to urban centres has become a chronic issue in India and in most of the developing countries. Ever-increasing population, unplanned hazardous growth of cities and the neglect of rural areas have created several problems and caused a great threat to the environment and sustainable development. Perpetual poverty in the rural areas, a high population growth rate, lack of employment opportunities, failure in fulfilling the basic needs and providing facilities like drinking water, education, sanitation, health, transport and communications, and social insecurity are the most important causes behind the continuous migration of the people from the rural to urban areas. While in the rich developed world, the population growth rate is virtually zero, in some countries even minus, in the developing countries this rate is above 2 per cent. In India, the average growth rate is as high as 2.2 to 2.3 per cent and it is expected that the growth will stabilise only by the year 2050 when population may be above 1600 million. Out of the total population, nearly 75 per cent live in the rural areas. Because of industrialisation in states like Maharashtra nearly 60 per cent people live in the villages and 40 per cent in cities or towns. The process of urbanisation will be far more accelerated in some parts of the country, with industrialisation and the new economic order. The line between the urban and rural areas is too thin and flexible. The moment some commercial, industrial, educational or social activity starts in a village, it gets converted into an urban centre. Urbanisation is a continuous process. History of all the urbanised centres is eloquent enough to speak about this process. In India, not only that 70 per cent people stay in the rural areas but they are also poor and backward. Seven hundred million people, most of whom are from the rural areas, are still illiterate. Many of the villages have not even pucca approach roads. More than 1, 75, 000 villages are without drinking water supply. Problems of the urban areas are equally acute and serious. Barring the posh and rich areas, living conditions in poor localities or slums are even worse than in the rural areas. Unplanned growth has created several problems, including filth, pollution and disease. One could always witness two worlds sharply divided between the rich and the poor in metropolitan and other big cities. The existing state of affairs in the rural areas and mega cities or urban centres cannot be allowed to continue further as they are most dangerous to human habitation and environment. In this context, it has become inevitable to take certain harsh decisions for balanced growth and to implement them with full determination. For sustainable future I would like to suggest the following: The growth rate of population should be immediately controlled in an integrated manner as shown by Kerala. Health, nutrition, family planning, education and the awareness campaign should be clubbed together. The necessary incentives and economic benefits should be provided with the approval of Parliament or state legislatures and major political parties. It should be a people’s movement irrespective of caste, creed or religion in a democratic way. Cities having a population of more than one million should not be allowed to expand. On the contrary, a concerted effort should be made to decentralise the crowded cities by creating beautiful new townships. Priority should be given to the neglected rural sector. Integrated efforts should be made for creating self-reliant villages or clusters of villages. Along with employment opportunities, health, occupational education facilities, transport, communication, potable drinking water, beautiful greenery and environment should be provided in every village. Emphasis to generate local employment through decentralised small-scale or cottage industries and services should be given top priority. Conservation of soil and water will certainly help in making productive millions of hectares of wastelands, cattle wealth, fisheries, forests, medicinal plants, agro-based industries, etc. Only an approach to prevent the constant influx of the people from the rural areas to the cities can solve the acute problems in the urban areas. No new slums should be allowed to be raised in the cities having a population of two lakhs or above. Without such basic decisions to be implemented with determination, it is impossible to save the cities from further degradation and to radically improve their existing ugly character. Social security in a caste-ridden society in India is equally responsible for migration. The necessary atmosphere has to be generated to provide the equality of opportunities and status to every citizen in the country. All cities above one million population may be having a master plans or development plan. The plans will have to be modified after having regard to next 100-150 years vision. The programme for the renewal of urban centres should necessarily consider the required open land for sports, gardens and maximum greenery within and around the cities. On the periphery of the existing urban cities new growth centres should be properly planned. They should contain spaces for educational institutes, entertainment centres and commercial/industrial complexes along with gardens, play-grounds, open spaces and greenery. The Mission for the Renewal of Urban Centres should insist on effective transparency and acceptable administration along with the involvement of the local people. This is indeed a Herculean task. Rural-urban interfacing for sustainable growth is an international challenge, Gandhian philosophy and “small is beautiful” have great relevance in the present context. Growth with social justice and due care of the environment must be the new
direction. The writer is President, Vanarai, a Pune-based NGO.
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Plane Jane IT is sad but true, I am a plain Jane. Plain in body and mind—in fact as plain as a pikestaff. The only difference, however, between me and many of my friends is that while they prefer to travel by trains and buses, I am a plane Jane. Catching a running train is passe. In May 2004, coming out of the John F. Kennedy airport and just about to miss the flight towards Atlanta, I managed to catch a flying plane all with divine help. However, the worst of all my flying experiences was recently in the Indian domestic airports which was stinking rich with the garbage strewn around, because of the strike by the airport employees. Nevertheless, there are several advantages to plane travel. Planes are safer than trains because there is lesser period of danger involved. If it takes 24 hours for you to reach a destination by train, you reach in just two hours by plane. My budgeting husband always convinced me into using this mode of travelling. “See if you travel by train you will spend an x amount. Then you will buy magazines for y rupees, then you will buy dinner for z rupees and then you will feel like spending on a coolie.” He will calculate the amount and add: “So much to reach the railway station. So how much money you will save..? Just a pittance. Why not be wiser and travel by plane then? Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.....” Every time I have to travel long distance, this would be his way of convincing me. “It would be night and then you will have to look for an accommodation.....” and so on and so forth he will continue till I start believing that he is right. Sweet memories fill my mind as I write this piece. Way back in the late fifties, when I was just transiting from infancy to childhood, my father had taken a special permission to allow us to see the Santa Cruz airport at Mumbai. Those were the days when hijacking was unknown and we were allowed to see-it-all how planes flew into the air like large machinated birds. Soon after, it shocked my parents that I didn’t cry for a doll as I was expected to. Instead, a flying plane was all I fancied and brought the roof down till Dad brought me a flying plane. I flew the plane, piloting from the outside and it crash-landed several times till it finally crashed forever! I did not dare to ask for any other toy afterwards. Several years ago, I had left by Pan Am airlines for the US, leaving my daughter aged four and my son aged 10 with their father. To beat the loneliness, my husband decided to take both of them to Srinagar, to his parents. When my daughter boarded the plane, she went on searching from one seat to another, crying out — “Where is my mummy? Where is my mummy? She had left by this plane.” The welcoming crew grew suspicious of my husband, who gave a meek and embarrassed smile to them and then said to my kids, “Mamma is not here.” This further escalated their doubt that my husband was a kidnapper and was going away with some kids, not belonging to him. It took a lot of convincing to make them believe that they were his own
children.
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Brand Bangalore is staging a comeback
INFOSYS Chief Mentor NR Narayana Murthy’s comments on the lack of any infrastructure development in Bangalore and the company’s decision to invest elsewhere seemed to signal the end of the city as the “knowledge capital” of the country only six months ago. The Infosys chief was not the only one to lose faith in “Brand Bangalore”. There were others like Biocon head Kiran Majumdar Shaw who asserted that Bangalore would not be able to maintain its prima donna role in the Information Technology (IT) sector for long. It has taken an unlikely political coup and a young Chief Minister who knows nothing about computers, and has never used e-mail, to change all that. Ironically, the new Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is the son of former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) President HD Deve Gowda, a man who had openly asserted that that the IT sector could not be “pampered” at the cost of the poor. Within months of coming to power, Kumaraswamy has over-turned nearly every policy announcement used by Gowda to steer the earlier Congress - JD(S) alliance government. The ambiguity over the speed of work on the International Airport is over. The State cabinet has cleared the Metro project despite protests about its alignment by city residents, an issue which Gowda had earlier demanded should be settled before clearing the project. Expecting funds for the
project to be released soon, the government has also moved a proposal for a Mono Rail project to act as a feeder to the metro. Kumaraswamy has done even more than could be expected to correct the course of “Brand Bangalore”. The government has approved an Infosys proposal to acquire 845 acres of land on the outskirts of the city. It was the issue of land acquisition which had soured relations between Infosys and the previous government after Gowda claimed there was no way the State government could dole out such large tracts to all IT companies operating from the city. Infosys had reacted immediately stating that since they did not have any land in Bangalore they could not expand its base in the city and would be looking elsewhere. The latest approval for land acquisition has gone down well with Infosys. Narayana Murthy, while commenting on the same recently, said he was very impressed with the new Chief Minister and hoped the “new team” would make Bangalore a better city and Karnataka a better State. The company has disclosed its intentions to buy the land at market rates to create a new Rs 1,500 crore campus in the city. Even Kiran Majumdar Shaw is ready to give another chance to the new dispensation to set things right. She has had a one-to-one meeting with Kumaraswamy and has come back impressed; she now feels Bangalore can be saved through decisive action. The Chief Minister is making the right noises and has also come up with concrete plans to decongest the city, a problem which has everyone worried. The government has come up with a plan for five elevated expressways, more flyovers and establishment of elevators instead of cumbersome skywalks to cross busy roads. Public- Private Partnership has taken on a new meaning with the government now being the aggressive party and coaxing private players to chip in to improve the infrastructure
in the city. And finally, earlier pompous talk of “we are not in competition with anyone” is over. The new dispensation realizes the challenge of both Hyderabad and Chennai. Kumaraswamy made it clear that the city would be competing tooth and nail for major projects, something it was seeing not to be doing when it lost the two billion dollar Fab City project to Hyderabad recently. “Whatever Hyderabad offers, we will offer more”, was the Chief Minister’s answer to warding off competition from Hyderabad during a CII meeting recently. The new government has also in an unprecedented move cleared mega projects worth Rs 27,662 crore in one go. The projects include setting up of an IT hardware park by Shapoorji Pallonji at Devanahalli on the outskirts of the city at a cost of Rs 8,820 crore, IT SEZs in Mysore district at a cost of Rs 1,132 crore, in Sarjapur at a cost of Rs 5,867 crore and one in the city at a cost of Rs 889 crore. |
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Bird flu: Fear is the disease FEAR is a deeply rooted emotion—one that can serve as a lifesaving response to imminent danger. But because we humans often magnify risk, fear can also cause us to overreact to remote threats, such as bird flu. According to a significant study published in the prestigious British journal Nature recently, the H5N1 bird flu virus is at least two large mutations and two small mutations away from being the next human pandemic virus. This virus attaches deep in the lungs of birds but cannot adhere to the upper respiratory tract of humans. Since we can’t transmit the virus to one another, it poses little immediate threat to us. So why did the “flu hunter,” world-renowned Tennessee virologist Robert Webster, say of bird flu on a television channel that there are “about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human,” and that “society just can’t accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die ... I’m sorry if I’m making people a little frightened, but I feel it’s my role.” I’m sorry, Dr. Webster, but your role is to track influenza in the test tube, not to enter into broad speculation on national television. By your way of thinking, we should all be either building an escape rocket ship or killing every bird we see before it can kill us. Fear causes the public to blur the distinction between birds and people, and so, as the H5N1 virus infects flocks of birds in Pakistan and Israel, nightly news watchers track the path to the United States. The poultry industry cringes as migratory birds that may be carrying H5N1 make their way closer to the northern shores of North America. But though this bird flu appears to be quite deadly in many species of birds, killing 10 out of 10 chick embryos in test-tube conditions, we humans are a different matter. In 1997 in Hong Kong, for example, where there were 18 human cases of bird flu and six deaths, thousands of people were screened, and 16 percent developed antibodies but never got sick. There appears to be a spectrum of disease in humans, not nearly as deadly as many media reports have supposed. Even if the H5N1 virus does mutate enough to spread easily among the upper breathing tracts of humans, there are multiple scenarios in which it would not cause the next massive pandemic. In fact, the Spanish flu of 1918 made the jump to humans before killing a large number of birds. Even as the virus spreads in birds, the chances of a mutation occurring over time appear to be less likely. For every doomsayer who declares that “it’s not a matter of if, but when,” there is a sober scientist who says that H5N1 may well dead-end in animals and not be the next pandemic virus. Flu changes its shape and size and is a killer worthy of respect and attention. But the most contagious virus among humans is our fear. (Siegel, an associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine, is the author of Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic).
— By arrangement with
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Delhi Durbar IT was only to be expected that the Congress would mock the BJP’s twin yatras, dubbing leader of opposition L.K.Advani’s yatra as ‘Jinnah yatra’ while BJP President Rajnath Singh’s yatra has been called as ‘Sudershan Yatra. But these plans, apparently announced unilaterally without any consultation with Rajnath Singh, has raised a lot of eyebrows in the BJP itself. Several party leaders are questioning the usefulness of these yatras and are wondering what exactly would be achieved by undertaking them at this juncture. There is no general election in the near future; the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls are not due till early next year while the yatras are not expected to boost the BJP’s fortunes in the upcoming assembly elections since it does not have much stake in any of the five poll-bound states. On the other hand, BJP leaders feel, these yatras have only ended up showing the divisions in the party which has two clear power centres in L.K.Advani and Rajnath Singh. That Advani still calls the shots in the party became evident from the routes of the yatras that the two leaders will undertake. While Advani will travel through the BJP-ruled states, Rajnath Singh has been left to traverse through the opposition-ruled states.
No autographs please The British High Commission took ample care to ensure that Their Royal Highnesses Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall and the visiting English cricket team were not troubled in any way by aggressive electronic media crews or enthusiastic autograph hunters at the special reception hosted by British High Commissioner Sir Michael Arthur last week at his residence. While well-built security persons unsparingly pushed media persons away from Prince Charles and the Duchess , the charming Heir to the British throne went around and shook hands with the members of the English cricket team, who were coincidentally in Delhi that day, and other invited guests. If Prince Charles was on the “protected list”, the cricket team was also similarly shielded from by their hosts. The team only made a brief appearance on the lawns before retreating indoors while a notice that read, “we would be grateful if you respect the privacy of the England cricket team and refrain from asking for photographs” was conspicuously placed at the entrance itself.
Missing in action Shortly after Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced her resignation from the Lok Sabha and as chairperson of the National Advisory Council, party MPs and ministers holding additional positions lined up at her residence and offered to emulate the example set by her. But the colourful and voluble minister from Andhra Pradesh Subirammi Reddy was conspicuous by his absence. Under normal circumstances, Mr. Reddy would have been heading the band of sycophants but the newly appointed minister had every reason to do the disappearing act. As head of the trust which manages the Tirupati shrine, Mr. Reddy’s name figured in the list of those considered to be holding an office of profit. Having managed to get a berth in the Union Cabinet only recently, he was clearly in no mood to even offer his resignation from the Rajya Sabha, just in case it was accepted. Mr. Reddy has not been sighted for over a week and his party colleagues are wondering if they will have to file a missing persons report to figure out his whereabouts.
**** Contributed by Prashant Sood, S.Satyanarayaranan and Tripti Nath
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From the pages of Indian Cricket Team On the eve of the departure of the Indian cricket team from England, the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram refused “to comment on the play during the tour.” The reason is obvious. There was nothing creditable in the record of the team to which the Captain could refer with pride. The tour was, as a matter of fact, a miserable failure from every point of view and the Maharajkumar himself cannot be absolved of responsibility in the matter. India may not lack cricket talent, but Indian cricket certainly lacks the most essential ingredient of the game — team spirit.
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The ‘generous’ give but a little in charity; but demand a thousand-fold return, with worldly honour to boot. — Guru Nanak Surely Allah commands you to make over trusts to those worthy of them. — Islam Do not be impressed by empty numbers. A poem may have thousand lines yet mean nothing. One word of sense which makes a man reflect is better all such poems. — The Buddha After the destruction of the universe, at the end of a great cycle, the Divine mother garners the seeds for the next creation. — Ramakrishna
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