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Costlier petrol Sordid saga Whose Bajaj? |
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Sleaze-bomb is ticking
Wah, Kangra tea!
Iran’s China syndrome Protect cows to protect economy Defence notes
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Costlier petrol THE fifth increase in petroleum prices in just two years of the UPA government has finally been effected. That it was inevitable would be small consolation for all users, and whatever the final quantum of increase, the pinch would be sorely felt. The period of any-time-now uncertainty prevailing for several days before the announcement would not have done anything to mitigate the blow either. As for the Manmohan Singh government, it is probably feeling the most besieged – the Left coalition partners are threatening a nation-wide agitation, the trade unions are up in arms, and even the Congress party, in a feeble bid to ward off the negative fall-out, has sought to distance itself from the government it runs by asking for a lower level of increase. The government has been more than kind to the Left, and to the Congress, by holding off on increases till the elections in West Bengal and Kerala were completed. But the Left is unlikely to withdraw its opposition until it feels that the issue has been milked for all it is worth, short of destabilising the government it is supporting. With crude prices hovering around the $70 per barrel mark, and the oil marketing companies (OMCs) crying hoarse about being bled thin, the government’s options were limited. The Left has been asking for a review of the taxation structure, and has made much about the government’s “refusal” on this count. Indeed, there is much to suggest that we are yet to find a way to price petroleum products in such a manner as to remove both the politics and the drama from it. Some of the Rangarajan Committee recommendations, on going back to trade parity pricing and the reduction of customs duty from 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent, have been accepted. The committee also wants OMCs to be allowed to fix the price — governments are unlikely to ever take such a risk — and target kerosene and LPG subsidies more effectively. For now, on both petrol and diesel, the government should reduce the hike as much as possible. Inflationary pressures, on everything from pulses to vegetables, are already telling on the common man — a big hike would only add to the burden.
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Sordid saga THE Rahul Mahajan episode represents the worst in public life. Here is a young man who lost his father barely a month ago when his own paternal uncle shot him for undisclosed reasons. Said to be in a state of mourning a day before he was scheduled to leave for Guwahati to immerse his father’s ashes in the Brahmaputra, he was gulping champagne in the jacuzzi at his residence in the company of the late Pramod Mahajan’s Man Friday. To reach a still higher state, they snorted cocaine, which was actually heroine. That fatal mistake cost Vivek Moitra his life and landed Mahajan junior in Apollo Hospital in a critical condition. The hospital did everything to not only save him but also give him a clean chit while being unable to explain why, in the first place, he reached there if his “parameters” were all right. Few will shed tears for Mahajan, who has been formally arrested under the Narcotics Act. But for the sordid drama, he would have been inducted into the BJP and given a “suitable” post in the youth wing of the party. Such was the clout of his late father in the party that there was even an attempt to bring him into the Rajya Sabha. During the last few days the media have uncovered many shady aspects of Mahajan’s life. The kind of money the family has amassed, the kind of lifestyle those close to the late leader indulged in, all have become subjects of abiding speculation. The speculations are as wild as the parties they enjoyed organising and attending. It is mere happenstance that the spotlight is now on the Mahajans. There are others of the same ilk, who wallow in ill-gotten wealth, give full latitude to their children, who don’t have to bat an eyelid when they spend Rs 3,000 for a gram of cocaine that gives them a “high” for as long as 20 minutes before they get the craving for another dose. It is difficult to believe that they belong to the “leader” class, who amass black money that will stand their future generations in good stead. Unfortunately for the Mahajans, luck had run out for them unlike many others who can remain perpetually “high” while a majority of the people do not get even two square meals a day.
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Whose Bajaj? BARELY a fortnight after insisting forcefully that he had no plans whatsoever to join politics, Bajaj Auto head Rahul Bajaj has thrown his hat in the ring by announcing his candidature as an Independent for the byelection to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. The vacancy was caused by the death of Mr Pramod Mahajan. Industrialist Bajaj’s family has a century-old association with the Congress, with Mahatma Gandhi treating his grandfather Jamnalal Bajaj as one of his sons. But the party is not backing his quest. Instead, he has the support of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the NCP of Mr Sharad Pawar. That is a typical case of coming together of strange bedfellows. The Congress is reportedly incensed by his association with the NCP in the company of the BJP and the Shiv Sena. That only goes on to say that all is not well between the Congress and the NCP in the Centre and Maharashtra and the latter may even be coming closer to the saffron parties. The rift between the Congress and the NCP seems to be widening for quite some time now. Quite clear signs of it were visible during the June 1 Legislative Council elections. Revenue Minister Narayan Rane managed to get four Congress candidates elected, making an NCP candidate bite the dust. The latter was livid over this “sabotage” although the Congress made light of it as a case of “communication gap at the local level”. The electoral calculus is such that the victory of Mr Bajaj is as good as assured. Almost equally unavoidable is turbulence in the state politics. The secular combine has come under a lot of strain. Officially, everyone says that the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the NCP have come together specifically for the Rajya Sabha elections. But the real motive behind the move is not lost on anybody. The days ahead are going to be interesting, particularly in regard to the effect on the coalition at the Centre.
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I love sleep because it is both pleasant and safe to use. — Fran Lebowitz
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Sleaze-bomb is ticking
Unnoted by media, the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Bill 2006 was introduced in Parliament the day before its short session concluded; it is expected to list in the monsoon session. Political attention to this issue is grossly overdue. Each passing year of the globalisation (and AIDS) era has clearly grown human trafficking and its dominant driver — commercial sex exploitation, both globally and nationally. The issues grow increasingly intractable. But while offices of profit and reservations hog the headlines, scant attention is paid to this cancer in our society-vitals, directly inflicting severe violence to lakhs of vulnerable women and children and indirectly undermining the status, dignity and security of all women as commodification of women’s bodies and their sale is condoned, overtly or covertly. The ITPA — last amended in 1986 but still with some edge when used properly — has lain blunted, in limbo for a decade-plus, as amendments to give it more teeth dangled in drafting. With such inexcusable political and administrative inaction, the law and order machinery hasn’t cared/dared to go after pimps/ procurers/ brothel runners who have multiplied over these years alongside the numbers of prostituted women. No authentic figures exist. But while in the nineties the highest expert estimates calculated the number of prostituted women in India at 70,000—100,000, the current estimates put it at 1-3 million; even a10 million hype! No estimates are attempted of the total profits raked around this nefarious trade, but one estimate of just prostitution — transactions totals Rs 185,000,000 daily/37,000 crore annually, children accounting for Rs 11,000 crore. (National Human Rights Commission-sponsored report). The Vora report dissecting governance-ills raised the nexus between prostitution and organised crime. The HRC report also refers to “increasing penetration of organised crime syndicates.” No ordinary issue, this. The US, following its anti-trafficking legislation (2000), has taken on a strong international monitoring role on human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, pushing for remedial actions. The latest US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report places India on a special Tier 11 Watch List, as for the second year running India is observed to have made insufficient efforts to tackle its bad situation. (Tier III invites US sanctions.) The recent report of the UN Global Programme on Human Trafficking categorises India in the “high” list, both as a country-of-origin-of-trafficking and trafficking-destination. Globally, human trafficking is now acknowledged as a leading source of organised crime profits, alongside drugs and weapons, generating ill-gotten profits of billions of dollars. In Asia, 80 per cent of human trafficking is for commercial sex exploitation underlining the intertwining nature of the two. External trafficking is only the tip of the iceberg; the far greater mass is intra-country trafficking between cities and communities. Controlling this growing monstrous body-tumour should be a national anxiety; moreover, now it is under the international scanner. It is curious — and sad — how successive governments over the past decade have remained ambiguous, even indifferent to prostitution, leading to its increasing acceptance and growth. No less than the Supreme Court (Gaurav Jain vs. GOI; July 9, 1997) amply clarified India’s legal position on prostitution and prostituted women and children. The court calls prostitution a “crime against humanity, violation of human rights and obnoxious to Constitution and Human Rights Act.” It also clarifies that “women found in the flesh trade should be viewed more as victims of adverse socio-economic circumstances rather than as offenders in our society” and ruled “the commercial exploitation of sex be regarded as a crime but those trapped in custom-oriented prostitution and gender-oriented prostitution should be viewed as victims of gender-oriented vulnerability.” Therefore, besides administrative actions for arresting immoral traffic through the ITP Act, the Supreme Court enjoined “duty of the State and all voluntary non-governmental organisations and public spirited persons to come to their aid to retrieve them from prostitution, rehabilitate them with a helping hand to lead a life with dignity of a person” seeking all measures and support to ensure that they “do not again fall into the trap of a red light area contaminated with foul atmosphere”. This admirable call, given a decade ago by Justice Ramasawamy before he retired from the Bench, was curiously subverted and ignored thereafter. The needed mechanisms and resources to control prostitution and provide viable exit programmes to the prostituted-victims enmeshed in the trade were never instituted. Contrary-wise, the ITPA lost its credibility with arrests — and harassment — mainly of prostituted victims in occasional shows-of-action, while lack of rehabilitation funds made a farce of even well-meaning rescue operations. The procurers, pimps and perpetrators of prostitution went scot-free. Meanwhile, isolated action supported by enormous international funds under the AIDS prevention umbrella — on what, at best, should have been a small component within a comprehensive vision of major exit programmes bringing women out of prostitution with due compassion and care — perversely grounded a narrow condom-distribution-and-STD-treatment / child-care-crèches within the red-light-areas approach that, in turn, provided the foundation for creating and sustaining a “sex-as-work” lobby. Today, this lobby is powerful enough to stand as proactive political actors in the social scene, speak militantly of “worker-rights”, “non-interference in prostitution by the police”, claiming prostitution itself as a right. Earlier pushing for the scrapping of the ITPA, this lobby is currently challenging such ITPA amendments as inhibit “sex work”. Ironically, media focus has been only on the “sex worker” protests. The self-styled National Network of Sex Workers is reported to have urged reconsideration of the proposed amendments, claiming that they affect the “livelihood of 1.5 crore sex workers and their families”. Interestingly, this network’s spokespersons could meet a whole clutch of senior parliamentarians across the political spectrum, including the Speaker, former Prime Minister Vajpayee, several Government of India ministers and key political leaders to press their viewpoint and claim to have sympathetic reassurances. Their clout in securing quick access to numerous senior leaders is mystifying, as is the silence of women’s groups to question such “livelihood” for Indian women. It is time the nation looked squarely at the sleaze-bomb ticking like a time-bomb in our midst. Srinagar is only one small glimpse of societal/political explosions ahead if we carry on ostrich-like. The ITPA Amendment 2006 Bill needs close examination and national debate to ensure proper framing — but to provide unambiguous legal underpinning and sufficient resource-backing to make the prostitution of persons near-impossible. It must serve as the normative in society to prevent trafficking/ commercial sex; to protect and pull out prostituted women and children already caught in this vicious trap; prosecute and punitively penalise procurers, pimps, brothel runners and others living off prostitution, including the buyers whose demand for women’s bodies spurs their sale. There are countries that have provided such a framework. Does ITPA 2006 fit this bill? Let’s look closer to the Bill’s debate in
Parliament.
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Wah, Kangra tea! AS the steamy aroma of the day’s first cup stirs my slumbering senses; images of the tea gardens of Darjeeling and Nilgiris flash on the mind’s eye. However, our recent ramble from Dharamsala to Palampur along one of the most picturesque hill roads, opened new vistas of tea world. The quietly, winding hill road passing through quaint villages with slate-roofed huts, hill women with wicker baskets and shepherds manning unruly flocks of mountain goats together; set against the backdrop- of the majestic snowcapped Dhauladhars, leads you to the tea gardens. We stop for a little break to savour the panoramic landscape fully. Turning around I discover a perfect photo opportunity — a group of colourfully clad hill women with scarves and baskets, descend down the slope and begin tea-plucking in the garden. Synchronised dainty hands get busy with the age-old practice of plucking “two leaves and a bud”.... Tea planting was introduced to the Kangra valley perched at nearly 4000 feet above sea level, by the British between 1830 and 1840. The first garden, as the guide book informs, was established by the Nissan Tea Company. The valley grows hybrid China tea which compares with the best in the world. Later in the day when we settle down in the veranda of the old colonial style rest house, the chowkidar brings piping hot tea. As the life-restoring elixir goes down, we ask him about the brand of tea being served. yes, it’s the local tea blended with a wee bit of a popular brand, just to impart some colour, as that’s the way most visitors from the plains like it. “Nothing doing....” we thunder, only the pure Kangra tea will do for us! Next morning we go for a stroll to the lush tea garden nearby. Though the slope down here is steeper, we love romping around the tea bushes, plucking them, smelling them and imagining their journey from the field to the “cup that cheers”. We pick up some Kangra tea for home and friends from the local market. The pack of “Kangra Premier Green Gold Tea” — a produce of the local cooperative factory with the picture of a snow-clad meadow and a colourful Kangra bird in the inset, is highly alluring and recommended by the friendly shopkeeper too. Taking the road back to Chandigarh we pass by the old cooperative tea factory, looking rather rundown and withered. Perhaps, a sign of the tough times the Kangra tea industry now faces with global competition. Just then, I espied the blue and cream mountain train chugging by through the green-gold valley; perhaps symbolic of the fleeting erstwhile times. But every morning when I sip my first cuppa; the meadows of Palampur come alive through the fragrance and flavour of its tea. And my heart sings “Wah Kangra
tea!”
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Iran’s China syndrome IN the middle of a tirade about the pointlessness of talking with the United States’ Bush administration, a senior Iranian official I met in Tehran last month abruptly paused and asked if he could speak off the record. Then he said: “What we need is an American president who will follow the example of Richard Nixon going to China.’’ There in a nutshell is what this Iranian government, and most Iranians I’ve spoken to, fervently desire from the United States: not the tactical talks offered last week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice but strategic recognition of Iran as a great civilization and a regional power that must be treated, like China, as a “stakeholder” in global affairs. Grant us that, said the Iranian official I saw, and “just as with China, you’ll find a government that is more responsive to your concerns, more willing to play a cooperative role.” It was interesting to hear that pitch from an officer of a government whose president has recently invited the United States, aka “global arrogance,” to abandon democracy and accept the dissolution of Israel. It was a reminder that, whatever President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may say in public, obtaining recognition from Washington remains one of the Islamic regime’s foremost goals – and perhaps the most powerful nonmilitary card the West holds in seeking to stop Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. But the Nixon-to-China formulation also explains why U.S.-Iranian talks, though now formally endorsed by both sides, are more likely than not to fail, if they happen at all. That’s because Iran and the United States approach the option of dialogue from opposite sides of the spectrum. Iran is seeking a strategic encounter, a historic moment of accommodation between two powers. The United States offers pragmatic bargaining over single issues, such as the nuclear program and Iraq. This disconnect is not new, or limited to the Bush administration. Previous American feelers to Iran, by the Reagan and Clinton administrations, were also aimed at specific problems, such as American hostages in Lebanon. Iranian governments have mostly responded by demanding broad changes in U.S. policy while refusing to engage on what they see as small points. A rare exception was Iran’s quiet cooperation with President Bush during the early months of the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan. But Iranian officials now bitterly point out that, in their view, their reward for that tactical coordination was Bush’s “axis of evil” speech in early 2002, which affirmed the goal of overthrowing the Islamic regime. Last week Rice seemed to go out of her way to rule out the kind of engagement Tehran wants. “Let’s remember what is not happening here,” she said at a press conference. “This is not a bilateral negotiation between the United States and Iran on the whole host of issues that would lead to broader relations between Iran and the United States. ... This is not a grand bargain.” So what, from Iran’s point of view, is to be gained by accepting Rice’s offer? There are possible sanctions to be avoided, of course, and a few economic benefits to be collected. There is also, U.S. officials say, a narrow and twisting path that might lead from bargaining over uranium enrichment to Iraq, to terrorism in Israel and democracy in Lebanon, and perhaps finally to some larger U.S.-Iranian detente. No, that’s not how China has been treated; but U.S.-Soviet relations were something like that. At the risk of further infuriating Vice President Cheney and other White House hawks, Rice offered the barest hint of this last week: “The Iranians can, by seriously negotiating about their nuclear program and seriously coming to a civil nuclear program that is acceptable to the international community, begin to change the relationship that it has with the international community, change the relationship that it has with the United States, begin to open the possibilities for cooperation,” she said. Maybe the Iranians will choose to exploit this tiny opening, or at least freeze their nuclear program temporarily so they can avoid a breach with Europe or Russia and provide their restless public with the visual of a U.S.-Iranian handshake. But it’s at least as likely that they won’t; that they will hold out in an attempt to force the Nixon-to-China gesture they really want. The question then becomes: Could such a step be in the American interest? Would it be wise for Bush, or any president, to recognize Iran’s Shiite Islamic regime as an enduring reality and a regional power whose interests must be accommodated in the broader Middle East? Would such recognition pay off in the form of a stable and democratic Iraq, or an end to Iranian support for Palestinian terrorism, or in the disarmament of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement? It’s hard to find experts on Iran in Washington who believe that it would. Which is why there will be no presidential visit to Tehran anytime in the foreseeable future – and why an Iranian-American understanding could remain as elusive in the next few months as it has over the past 25 years. Alissa J. Rubin and Kasra Naji add from Teheran: Iranian officials signaled Monday that they would look seriously at a new package of incentives offered by world powers European Union, Russia, China and the United States, if Iran suspends its nuclear program. European envoy Javier Solana arrived Monday night in the Iranian capital with the package and was scheduled to deliver the proposal on Tuesday morning. He struck a conciliatory note in a short statement at the airport, urging “a fresh start.” The Iranians’ tone, too, was more conciliatory and careful than over the past several days. The details of the offer Solana will deliver have been kept secret in a conscious effort to emphasize that it is a matter for serious diplomacy.
By arrangement with
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Protect cows to protect economy THE age old system of keeping cows in households is perishing with advancement in technology and mechanisation in agriculture operations, and due to economic considerations. Under the newly prevailing conditions, farmers are forced to replace cows with high producing buffaloes. Cows are left to become strays, an un-required burden in the streets of villages, towns and cities. Gaushalas, Gosadans and Pinjrapoles in India as a community service are helping, but more than 250 Gaushalas in Haryana and 4000 Gaushalas in India are now a days getting overburdened with its cow population. Most of the Gaushalas are short of funds due to decreasing numbers of donors and, therefore, are not economically self sustainable. In the modern scenario of genetic modification and patenting, the increased importance of preserving and documenting traditional knowledge including livestock keeping practices, the Gaushala, with active scientific support, can act not only as indigenous cattle conservation centres but also as traditional knowledge centres. The state government and even the government of India are providing ample inputs to conserve and improve the Murrah buffaloes at the cost of local cattle breeds. Cows have been neglected by the farmers, scientists and planners. Stray animals have become a serious menace to the environment, transport system and people in general. Since ages, the cow has been a household concept and not a dairy concept, as is being considered these days. There was an integrated cycle in rural life as it provide not only milk but also curd, ghee and the like. Dung along with urine provide manure to the fields and also worked as repellant of insects and pests. The bullocks are used to plough the field, pull the cart and carriage and the fields provided the fodder for them. Thus, there was backward and forward integration of the rural economy, with cow as its pivotal point. Although most of the cows in the Gaushalas are culled, stray, infertile, unproductive, chronically sick, economically unsustainable and generally of low grade, with some exceptions, they can give the rural economy a U-turn through the concept of organic farming. In coming years, organic produce will be in great demand. This will required gobar kheti. Utility of dung and urine will make even the old and disabled animals to earn their own livelihood. For this purpose they will essentially need the services of animal and agriculture scientists both for professional input, who will have to make a good network with Gaushala and rural people, and for training, marketing and making links between farmers and entrepreneurs. Landless labourers and rural poor will be associated in Gaushala Kuteer Udyog. By making the cow and Gaushala sustainable, we will help in improvement and conservation of the local breeds, good health, rural self employment through the cow based cottage industry, good economy reduction in dependency on allopathic drugs, electricity, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, sustainability of agriculture, maintaining soil fertility and above all clean environment. There is need of an organisation like ‘Go Seva Ayog’ for this purpose. The states of U.P., M.P., Rajasthan and others have already established ‘Go Seva Ayog’ in their respective states. The writer is Head, Department of Animal Breeding, CCS-HAU, Hisar (Haryana)
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Defence notes THE recent visit of Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to China reflected a major change in India’s policy towards its neighbour. One, from being potential enemy number one (famous quote of defence minister George Fernandes) China has now become a source of “no threat” to India. Second, there was a lot of bonhomie during the visit of Mr Mukherjee, which was also reflected in the opening of a permanent exhibition by noted Indian photographer and art historian, Mr. Benoy Behl, at Dunhuang Research Academy. Titled “The Path of Compassion”, the exhibition showcases 71 of his photographs. Inaugurating the exhibition, Mr Mukherjee said the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, also known as the Thousand Buddha Caves, are one of the most important symbols in China of the historical contacts between the peoples of the two countries and cultures. He said the exhibition will take the visitors on a visual pilgrimage from the birth place of Buddha to his place of Nirvana, giving a comprehensive perspective of Buddhist monuments and art of India from the earliest time. He hoped that the exhibition will play its modest role in our endeavour to restore and revive a significant ancient link between our two peoples.
Coast Guard to the rescue As has been the case on many an occasion, the Indian Coast Guard again rescued stranded fishermen off the Malpe harbour after they were stuck in inclement weather. There were about 300 to 400 fishing boats stranded off Malpe due to adverse weather conditions and preliminary reports had suggested that two boats had sunk and six fishermen were reported missing, when the Coast Guard got into action. It immediately dispatched two rescue boats, Annie Besant and Kasturba Gandhi, from Mangalore, and in liaison with the District administration at Malpe, managed to rescue the fishermen.
Speed up delivery of Su-30s After the Comptroller and Auditor General pulled up the Government for the cost overruns in the indigenous production of the Sukhoi-30 MKI multirole fighter aircraft, there are now reports that the Government has asked the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to actually speed up the delivery schedule for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The Government has asked HAL to reduce the delivery schedule from the earlier 14 years to 11 years. For this it has also asked HAL to get in touch with its Russian collaborators, to ensure that the delivery schedule is brought down to 11 years. This would help the IAF maintain its force strength in the scenario of phased decommissioning of its mainstay fighter aircraft, the Russian MiG-21.
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From the pages of The Mudgal Affair THE Mudgal Affair has brought to light certain facts which fully confirm popular fears about the sinister influence of money in our political life. Neither Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru nor the Committee which investigated Mr H.C. Mudgal’s conduct has considered it necessary to comment upon the ethics of the Bombay Bullion Association’s dealings with Mr Mudgal. There is no doubt that the Association’s dealings with Mr Mudgal were of a thoroughly reprehensible character and deserve to be censured equally with Mr Mudgal’s conduct. A member of Parliament who uses his position to promote personal ends must be fully exposed and condemned but has parliament nothing to say about those who seek to influence administrative policies or legislation by unfair means? Can we do nothing to minimise the influence of money in our public life and save democracy in this country from degenerating into a plutocracy? Frankly speaking, the attitude of the Congress Party on this question has been most deplorable.
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The person who winks at gross immoralities or forbears an attack upon his honour or chastity may be said to forgive, but his forgiveness is a weakness that strikes at the root of nobility, chastity and self-respect. No sensible person could praise it as a high moral quality. — The Koran Live detached amidst attachments like the lotus in the water. — Guru Nanak Futile is the human birth without the awakening of spiritual consciousness. — Ramakrishna
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