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Arjun’s quotas Stepping up exports |
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Child marriages
Cooperative common future
Remembering Bansi Lal
A peep into the recent past Money is cheaper than blood Chatterati
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Arjun’s quotas Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh’s plan to introduce reservation of seats up to 49.5 per cent for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes in the IIMs, the IITs and Central universities is most unfortunate. He does not seem to understand the serious implications of what he is doing. Merit will be a casualty if these are packed with candidates on the basis of their caste. Mr Arjun Singh is not alone in the move aimed at garnering votes than dispensing social justice. In principle, all the political parties are united on the issue of reservation as they cannot afford to lose their vote banks. They do not bother about its fallout on the IIMs, the IITs and super-speciality courses in engineering and medical colleges. Apparently, the present move is aimed at wooing the OBC votes in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year and creating a larger constituency in the subsequent election, including parliamentary election three years hence. The OBCs, which are a formidable constituency in UP, will have 27.5 per cent quota with the latest move, in addition to the existing 22 per cent for the SCs/STs. The Anti-Mandal agitation in 1990 sharpened divisions in society after the V.P. Singh government introduced quotas for the OBCs. How will the people react to the present move is anybody’s guess. Discontent is already brewing among students, academics, intellectuals, scientists and industrialists. Will the private sector, which has firmly opposed the UPA government’s move to introduce quotas for jobs, reconcile with the proposal for the IIMs and the IITs? Quotas and preferential treatment for the sections of society who have been left behind may be justified up to a point, but certainly not in perpetuity, that too, in professional institutions. To raise the standards of the socially disadvantaged classes, let the government give them liberal scholarships, coaching, training and all other facilities so that there is a level-playing field for all sections to compete for seats and jobs. Politicians should better rise above narrow partisan ends and ensure that the nation makes rapid strides to achieve its goals. Nothing should be done what may discourage the meritorious from joining the IIMs and the IITs. |
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Stepping up exports The annual supplement to the 2004-2009 trade policy has managed a populist touch with its focus on encouraging those industries which the government sees as boosting the rural sector and creating employment. It is indeed a good idea to boost handlooms, handicrafts, leather, fish, gems, jewellery and khadi, besides automobiles and automotive parts. The idea behind new schemes like Focus Products and Focus Markets is that certain products indeed generate more employment per unit of investment than others do, and that emerging markets in Latin America and Africa also need to be targeted. But the government must never forget that export success ultimately comes from quality and competitiveness, not facile populism. Towards that end, road-maps for core priorities like infrastructure building, and liberal taxation, labour, duty and currency regimes should never be lost sight of. Much of the thrust for this focus in Commerce Minister Kamal Nath’s package comes from studies like the one conducted by the Research and Information System (RIS), which has forecast 136 lakh new jobs in the next five years. Last year, merchandise exports crossed the $100 billion mark, registering a 25 per cent growth. The idea is if export opportunities are exploited in labour-intensive goods, merchandise exports can touch $ 165 billion, generating more than two crore jobs by the end of the decade. Mr Nath estimates that even a 20 per cent growth this year will create 20 lakh jobs. Of course, our imports have also grown, by 32 per cent, to $ 140 billion. Oil alone accounts for $ 43 billion, and with prices showing no signs of abating, this is one pressure point to watch out for. It is significant that our service sector exports, touching $ 50 billion, have alone managed to cover the oil import bill. The “served in India” focus is indeed paying some dividends. But just how much more needs to be done can be seen from the fact that our share of global exports is just 1.5 per cent. |
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Child marriages The Supreme Court’s decision to examine the marriageable age for girls is most welcome as it involves an important question about the lacunae in the provisions of law and disparities in its enactment. The Bench consisting of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Justice C.K. Thakker and Justice R.V. Raveendran stayed the orders of the Delhi High Court and the Andhra Pradesh High Court which upheld two runaway marriages involving brides of 17 and 13 years of age respectively. The National Commission for Women and the Delhi Commission for Women had urged the apex court to end the existing disparities in laws and to evolve a structure that would end the exploitation of the girl child and empower women. Both High Courts had expressed their helplessness to quash the marriages as they felt that the existing law did not leave any scope for them to take a different opinion. The apex court, however, felt that if the High Courts’ orders were not stayed, these would encourage child marriages. The legally permissible age for marriage for boys and girls is 21 and 18 years. But this is not strictly followed in most states. There are also conflicting legal provisions. For instance, though the Child Marriage (Restraint) Act of 1929 empowers the states to prevent child marriage, the exception to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code allows a 15-year-old girl to be a “wife” and “bear a child”. The law must rectify this anomaly to strictly enforce the ban on child marriages. Child marriages are increasing mainly because of the lack of awareness among the people. The number of minor brides is as high as 71 per cent in Bihar, followed by Rajasthan (68 per cent), MP (64 per cent), AP (62 per cent), UP (47 per cent), Maharashtra (46 per cent), Karnataka (45 per cent) and Haryana (40 per cent). While motherhood below 18 years entails complications during pregnancy and delivery and a risk of maternal death, their children have higher levels of morbidity and mortality. Early child bearing is also an impediment to improvement in women’s educational, economic and social status. The apex court’s initiative against child marriage is indeed timely. |
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Don’t hurry — start early. — American proverb
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Cooperative common future
Even as small agreements are being arrived at between India and Pakistan under the composite dialogue, Dr Manmohan Singh has in his own quiet way outlined a grand vision of “a cooperative common future”. Speaking at Amritsar on March 24, when he flagged off the bus to Nankana Sahib, he complimented President Musharraf on taking bold measures to curb extremism but stressed that more needed to be done. The message is clear. Terrorism is increasingly hurting Pakistan more than India, and Islamabad must subdue the monster it has bred and unleashed. The post-quake unfolding has revealed that many “banned” jehadi organisations along the LoC are flourishing while the Taliban is again raising its head in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister also urged Pakistan to face the ground realities. He committed India to joining Pakistan in finding pragmatic solutions for the Kashmir question, but delinked this from normalisation on other fronts. The resolution of less complex and prickly issues immediately benefiting both sides will build trust and render it easier to secure a just settlement in J&K. Urging Pakistan to face the ground realities, the Prime Minister made two most significant observations. First, in response to President Musharraf’s fuzzy variations on the theme of conferring “self-governance” and then moving on to “joint management” in J&K, he suggested both sides “begin a dialogue with the people in their (respective) areas of control to improve the quality of governance so as to give the people on both sides a greater chance of leading a life of dignity and self-respect”. Pakistan has studiously avoided any discussion or introspection regarding governance on its side of J&K while making strident comments about and demands on the Indian-controlled part of the state. This is a totally unreal position, which the Hurriyat too has masterfully sidestepped unmindful of the huge contradictions under which it labours. This is an exercise that each side must commence. India has made a beginning with the last RTC on J&K held in Delhi but has to move the debate forward. There can be no submission to vetoes from any quarter. The Mirwaiz is again in Islamabad meeting President Musharraf. If he has something worthwhile to communicate on his return, let him do so. But in India he must talk for himself or for that part of the Hurriyat that he represents. India can and should help General Musharraf, but there are certain limits which none can cross. At Amritsar, Dr Manmohan Singh again repeated that “borders cannot be redrawn, but we can work towards making them irrelevant… just lines on a map”. Given increased movement and trade across the border (LoC), the Prime Minister envisaged a situation “where the two parts of J&K can, with the active encouragement of the governments of India and Pakistan, work out cooperative, consultative mechanisms so as to maximise the gains of cooperation in solving problems of social and economic development in the region”. This is a profoundly important statement whose full import has scarcely been grasped by those who continue to debate pettifogging side issues. It calls on peoples on both sides of J&K autonomously to exercise internal self-determination on their own side of the border on matters of socio-economic and cultural relevance (other than foreign affairs and defence) without impairment of the respective sovereignties of India and Pakistan. Having done that, step-by-step, it will be time to design the architecture of overarching, cross-border cooperative and consultative mechanisms for managing this evolving regime in all of J&K. Dr Manmohan Singh saw an Indo-Pakistan Treaty of Peace, Security and Friendship as setting the seal on this arrangement and giving meaning and substance to a shared quest to overcome chronic poverty and to foster economic cooperation among South Asia, West Asia and Central Asia. It was an emotional Dr Manmohan Singh who spoke at Amritsar. Despite everything, the hope underlying Partition on both sides, traumatic and painful though it was, was that this was a separation of states but not of people who would come together, each secure in their own country, as friends and neighbours, linked by bonds of a shared history, geography and culture. The time has come to resurrect that hope and make it a living reality. A settlement with India will enable Pakistan to overcome its unspoken identity crisis of being “the other”. It must shed the unreal fear of being absorbed or destroyed by India, caricaturing its history in the manner that fundamentalists in India do likewise. The Indian bugbear has entrenched the Pakistan Army as the country’s principal power-centre, the feudals and religious right at the cost of democracy and social change. The edifice of SAFTA (including Afghanistan) and, hopefully, a South Asian Community to follow, is on the way to construction. Extended gas pipeline arrangements linking Iran and Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to South Asia are under discussion. Working together, India and Pakistan can do so much to uplift their own people and regenerate South Asia and the wider neighbourhood in the interests of global peace and
prosperity.
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Remembering Bansi Lal
It was September 5, 1971, when I got a Teachers Day “gift” in the form of my transfer from the well-established Government College, Gurgaon, to the newly opened Government College, Bhiwani. A transfer from an advanced to a backward area is never welcome. Especially when you are to teach English literature in a college. I felt sore also because I was worried about the prospect of admission of my schoolgoing children to a good school at the new place in the middle of the academic session. To my great dismay, I learnt that only Mr Bansi Lal, the Chief Minister, was competent to cancel the transfer orders. For the simple reason that the Bhiwani college had been started at his pleasure. I rushed to New Delhi and requested Mr Darbara Singh MP, who hailed from my native district of Jalandhar, to speak to the mighty CM of Haryana. My wellwisher spoke on the phone in the sweetest tone the human vocal chords are capable of producing, but the response was: “The lecturer should feel proud of being posted to Bhiwani because I myself wanted the Education Department to post excellent teachers there. So let him join. In case he has any difficulty during his stay at Bhiwani, he can contact me.” Endowed with typical Punjabi humour. Mr Darbara Singh said to me “How can anyone help you? You must pay for being an excellent teacher!” That was that. I bowed to the philosophy of daana-paani and shifted to Bhiwani. There are a lot of incidents that took place during my five-year stay there. Could I relate just two? The first one relates to the occasion when Mr Bansi Lal came to inaugurate the newly constructed building of Government College, Bhiwani. He said: “My critics say that I am partial to Bhiwani in the matter of development. I admit the charge with a sense of pride. But please remember that not a single brick will be added to its emerging edifice when I am no longer in power”. Mr Bansi Lal’s name was awe-inspiring in Haryana, so much so that a lesser mortal looked a dwarf by way of contrast. And thereby hangs a tale. The first prize distribution function of Government College, Bhiwani, was going on with a Central minister as the chief guest. Also present on the occasion were Ms Meenakshi Anand, SDM, and Mr M.G. Devasahayam, DC, sitting side by side on a sofa in the front row. I was the stage secretary. When the lecturer reading the names of prizewinners announced: Bansi Lal....... second in Sanskrit, there ran a ripple of laughter through the audience. I instinctively looked at the SDM and the DC. Their faces were wreathed in
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A peep into the recent past
Two plays of Gurcharan Das were staged in New Delhi recently, each taking you to a different period, neither of them contemporary. It could be because he wrote them at a certain stage of his life. As he states, “writing a play takes a certain amount of audacity which I seem to lack today. I wrote all my plays in my twenties. I had more courage then. I would be very scared of writing a play now. Theatre audiences are very critical now. One mistake and you are through. To write for the theatre you have to know the theatre. A play is not on paper. It is there to share with actors, directors, set designers. Once it is written I usually try to stay away from the stage because I’m not a ‘theatre person’. I find I am often uncomfortable with theatre people and actors, who in some cases, are on the stage all the time.’’ At least he has come out with his thoughts. I have met Gurcharan Das just once — several years ago. It was at one of those leisurely paced lunch sessions where his Nepalese wife did most of the talking, and he spoke little, though he smiled in great abundance. He came across as a gentleman with old world frills intact. Probably, or perhaps because of this, he can’t really relate to today’s settings — well, can’t relate well enough to be able to write plays on what’s going on or not really going on in today’s scenario. On the play 9 Jakhoo Hill, which is set in Shimla of 1962, he says: “After writing two plays based on historic personages, I thought I would turn to contemporary concerns. On one level 9 Jakhoo Hill is about the changing order — the old middle class giving way to the new. Ansuya and her family belong to the old class and Deepak and Chitra to the new. Although this change had begun in the India of the 1960s, when the play is set, it accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. The most striking feature of contemporary India is the rise of the confident new middle class, which is full of energy and drive and making things happen. That it goes about it in an uninhibited and amoral fashion is also true. It is different from the older bourgeoisie, which was leisurely and tolerant. The new class is street smart, it has to fight to rise from the bottom and it has learnt to manoeuvre the system.” It is a well set play but unfortunately, barring two main characters, Ansuya and her mother, the rest could not do justice to their roles. There was something amiss in their portrayals and this brought in disappointment, like the character who played the role of the civil servant. He turned out looking like one of the characters one spots at school plays. The second play which was staged this week end, Larins Sahib, which as the name suggests revolves around the famous Henry Lawrence. And as to the why such focus on these characters of the bygone era, there’s this from Das —“I began to think of Larins Sahib during my travels in the bazaars of the Punjab when I was learning to sell Vicks Vaporub at the age of twenty four. Henry Lawrence was the most interesting and the least imperial of the Lawrence brothers. He formed easy friendships with the Sikh noble families. I was particularly fascinated by his warm and affectionate relationship with Sher Singh, the scion of the Attari family; the fiery Rani Jindan, the widow of Ranjit Singh and her son Duleep who was taken away from her when he was young and who became the tragic ‘black prince’ at Queen Victoria’s Court.’’ The setting of this play is at that crucial period when Ranjit Singh is no more and chaos begins in the region. The British arrive in Punjab and as Das writes in the very introduction to this play —“I was drawn to the events in 1846 because that is when the British first arrived in Punjab and the first reactions of the Punjabis to the English, and vice versa, determined how we would behave for a hundred years thereafter.” It’s a powerful play, but again, on stage, there is a gap. That personality of Henry Lawrence that Das has depicted so well in the play doesn’t come through. In fact, whilst reading these plays of Gurcharan Das (compiled in a volume by Oxford University Press), I came across these lines from him. “If I had to go back and write these plays all over again, I would have insisted on working with a group of actors as soon as I had the first draft of the play. I would have given lots of room to actors to improvise upon and I would have trained myself to be receptive to what was working on the stage and what was not.” Das should definitely go beyond just writing plays and get involved with the stage. |
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Money is cheaper than blood Caspar Weinberger was the best secretary of Defense that America ever had.
Among the 20 men who have held that post since 1947, there have been some other greats, too. And there have been some big disappointments. Yet Weinberger, who died March 28, outshines them all, and here’s why: He embodied the ancient Roman wisdom: Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum (If you wish for peace, prepare for war). Weinberger wanted peace, but he also wanted victory. And through preparation, he got it: a peaceful victory for America in the Cold War. But first, he proved himself as a warrior. Volunteering for the army before Pearl Harbor, he enlisted as a private and came out four years later as a captain, having served in the Pacific on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff. As secretary of Defense from 1981 to 1987, he presided over the biggest peacetime buildup in U.S. history. A lot of money? You bet. That’s the American way: We prefer to invest in costly machines, including the Strategic Defense Initiative, so as to vanquish our opponents with materiel, or the threat of materiel, as opposed to manpower. Weinberger’s way was a bargain: Money is cheaper than blood. Weinberger did all this in the teeth of a lopsidedly hostile press. There was no Rush Limbaugh back then, only Dan Rather & Company; the liberal media mocked Weinberger at every turn. Yet Weinberger always kept his courtly manners, even as he stuck to his position. In his eulogy at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, Colin Powell, who served as Weinberger’s military aide, recalled that the secretary was unfailingly polite in answering a question — even if he didn’t always answer the question asked. But Weinberger also made a lasting contribution to U.S. policy; unfortunately, it wasn’t lasting enough. In a 1984 speech, he outlined what came to be known as the “Weinberger Doctrine,” which declared that the United States must use force only as a “last resort.” And if force were to be used, the war had to be fought
"wholeheartedly, with the clear intention of winning.’’ What Weinberger was saying was that the United States would make no more half-hearted interventions, such as in Vietnam, Lebanon, or Beirut. Yet, in the years since Beirut, a curious intellectual revisionism has set in, in which “neoconservative” policy-makers have sought to trash Weinberger and Reagan for their “weakness” in the Middle East. So today we have Americans watching over civil war in Iraq, not Lebanon. Whatever one thinks of the Iraq mission, this much is obvious: The last six secretaries of Defense — including the incumbent, Donald Rumsfeld —did not take seriously, as did Weinberger, the “prepare for war” injunction contained in that old Roman adage. Where was the overwhelming force needed to subdue a country of 25 million people? Where was the training for counter-insurgency? In fact, there was a disgraceful lack of military preparation for Iraq, and the war hasn’t been handled well since, either. Still, it was nice of Rumsfeld to show up and eulogize Weinberger – even if Rumsfeld’s presence at the funeral highlighted the stark contrast between the performance of the two Defense secretaries. By arrangement with
LA-Times–Washington Post |
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Chatterati After the fashion fiesta concluded in Mumbai with the wardrobe malfunction controversy, the Delhi fashion week had all the big wigs of industries crossing their fingers and praying for the best. The fashion week does have a great impact and influences trends but western markets and global powers, it seems, are scouting for fresh talent. If Mumbai had Bollywood on the ramp, the capital had hundreds of fans waiting to catch a glimpse of the cricket “models” Dhoni, Yuvraj and Brian Lara on the ramp. The Delhi show always starts fashionably late, with a lack of basic facilities. But our fashion designers put out their creative best not only in the clothing displayed but also in the stalls and ramps. After all the international buyers see the over all effect. Rohit Gandhi had a “ship-like image” with transparent digital prints, ripped carpet flooring, Italian chandeliers, and fancy hanger-stands, plus there is a store-cum-trial room. The effort is to make it as convenient as possible for buyers, and more organized for the designers. The walls of designer Deepika Govind’s stall, lined with a screen printed fabric, showed off an interesting mix of Sanskrit language alphabets. While Rohit “Gudda” Bal’s stall had been done in crème, Nikhil and Shantanu’s stall had a Rajasthani theme. Delhi’s entire wannabe model population was here, portfolio in hand. Just the sort of hunting ground so many Delhi designers like to prowl about in. India’s fashion wear market stands at a little over Rs. 300 crores. It is very clear that Mumbai was all about showing of the guest list whereas in Delhi it was the serious buyers. During the fashion week, we have enough parties where right from business to fun, with the mingling of the crazy young generation where laughter reigns supreme. Where style and substance with networking is never enough. After all, buyers like Harvey Nicholas, Saks, Fifth Avenue and dozens of buying houses from France are here. Midsummer dreams William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream spoke in an amazing variety of languages in Delhi last week: English, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi, Tamil and Sinhala. Staged at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts recently as part of the first leg of its all India tour, the rollicking, ambitious and experimental productions put together an interesting ensemble of actors chosen from across the country. While the two-and-half-hour play is set in the city of Athens, it is India that is mirrored in the dreamlike reflection of reality, which this awe-inspiring production is all about. It delved into the country’s rich diversity without undermining the originality of the play, proving, yet again, the timelessness and universal relevance of Shakespeare’s plays. The most striking aspect of the play was its physicality. The sets (which beautifully bring alive the fairyland woods), lighting and sound effects all mingle to give the play a feel that highlights the inherent elements of tragic-comedy, magic and myth, love and treachery. The cast infuse a fresh energy and buoyancy to the play. Theatre Director Tim is enamored by India. And it is the echoes of his romance with the country that resonate throughout the play, albeit through the Bard’s words. The first day saw a rush of Delhi’s glitterati in full force. After a long time we saw a play which was enthralling. |
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From the pages of January, 29, 1939
Imperialism in States
As Mr Jawaharlal Nehru has declared, “everywhere it is becoming apparent that the struggle in the States is not with the helpless Rulers but with the grim might of British Imperialism”. After retreating from the provinces British Imperialism took shelter in the States. It thought that it could stay there in perfect security. But the sudden awakening in the States changed the situation and it found itself confronted with tremendous opposition. Now it is building up defences there and offering dogged resistance to the democratic forces. Left to themselves the Rulers would have come to terms with their subjects. Did not the Thakore Saheb of Rajkot, when a free agent, enter into an agreement with his people? That agreement has been thrown on the scrap-heap at the instance of British Imperialism. The Maharaja of Jaipur would have also conceded the demands of the Praja Mandal, if he had been free to do what he liked. |
Compassion is not awakened (in the present age) simply by beholding a supplicant’s face; For, none will
move for another without an understanding of give-and-take. May I use my eyes for seeking good in all things. The king plants trees, Lovers of lust and delusion laugh at the lovers of God. Have you seen a cowherd counting the cattle of other people? You will find many such people in the world. They know all the scriptures and can recite them most elegantly but they have never practiced what they learnt. They are the cowherds with cows belonging to others.
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