The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

General Officer Thieving
Time for drastic overhaul

AS if living with “ketchup colonels” and “booze brigadiers” were not enough, we now have to contend with general officers indulging in various scams relating to procurement of dals and other rations. It is a shame that the land of Manekshaw, Thimmayya and Cariappa is producing Lieut-Generals and Major-Generals who stoop so low that they will not only misappropriate rations to make money on the sly, but also don’t give a damn about offering their own troops and their families rotting, low quality cereals. More than 1000 tonnes of ‘masoor’ dal, unfit for human consumption, was found in the Army’s store, giving some indication of the scale of operations. Instead of the `generalship’ that should have been apparent in operational planning and execution, combat preparedness, and peace and wartime logistics, the picture that emerges is that of vile, self-serving scheming at the highest levels.

It was time the Army undertook a drastic overhaul of its administrative system to root out endemic corruption. For every jawan who is out on the streets in army vehicles, selling CSD liquor, petrol, tyres, and what not, there is an officer in the barracks, directing the whole sordid affair. Make no mistake – these activities are as dangerous to national security, as are incidents of malicious spying. They degrade the Army, lower its standing within and without, compromise preparedness and operations, cause financial loss and wastage, make personnel vulnerable to blackmail, frustrate and anger the genuine, and further alienate the public. Those responsible must be stopped and prosecuted.

The role of senior officers in these scams is one more pointer to the fact that the evaluation and promotion system in the Army is seriously flawed. Sundry hangers-on and sycophants get promoted over meritorious officers, who languish in low ranks and inappropriate postings with thugs lording it over them. This must change too. The only saving grace is that the system is still robust enough to detect and prosecute these officers. But the Army leadership should not rest here. The old argument about the Army only being a mirror of society will not do. The Army can be, and has to be, different. Start the cleanup now.

Lebanon on fire
Both Israel and Hezbollah to blame

The Hezbollah militia in Lebanon must have anticipated the consequences of ambushing an Israeli border patrol leading to the death of three and kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers last week. But it could not have thought that Israel was only looking for such an opportunity to attempt to destroy the military might of the most powerful Shia militia. There is no other reason why Israel should have pursued its target — the Hezbollah — so fiercely, not bothering about the sovereignty of its neighbour, the international opinion, the massive civilian casualties and the West Asian situation getting complicated considerably. Equally true, the Hezbollah has been behaving like a state within a state, when it should have been disarmed. The Lebanese have been suffering untold miseries, with many losing their lives and limbs for a week, for no fault of theirs. Now, India too has been hit with three Indians killed in Lebanon.

Even if the provocation came from the Hezbollah, Israel could have restricted its “right to defend itself” to a scale which could not have caused the situation it has done. By not maintaining restraint, when it was already accused of targeting innocent Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has created a crisis which is bound to deflect the world’s attention from major issues having international dimensions. Even the most committed supporter of Israel, the US, must be feeling greatly embarrassed. Despite most Arab governments criticising the Hezbollah for being primarily responsible for the Israeli military action against Lebanon, the human problem that Tel Aviv’s arrogant behaviour has caused will further strengthen the anti-American sentiment in the Arab world and beyond.

Israel should respect world opinion and stop its military operations forthwith. The two sides must agree to a ceasefire to avoid further suffering to the civilians in Lebanon as well as in Israel. The release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers can be sought through diplomatic means, which have not been tried at all in the present case. The Hezbollah, which has the backing of Iran and Syria, may demand freedom for its cadres and leaders imprisoned in Israel, and this would mean some give and take. In return, the militia may be forced by the international community to withdraw its forces from the Lebanese-Israeli border in the interest of peace and stability in the region.

Students as labour
This is no way to build schools

THOSE familiar with the functioning of government schools in Punjab’s rural areas may not be surprised to read about students engaged in construction work in a primary school in Bathinda district. Students are often made to run errands and do other chores by teachers in village schools. Earlier, students used to do personal work of teachers as part of the “guru-shishya” tradition. Barring some exceptions, teachers in the past were persons of character who were dedicated to teaching. Times have changed and today’s teachers no longer command the kind of respect their predecessors did.

Hence, if a teacher tells students to help the mason in construction work, it is an offence. The Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, who found students working as construction labour, was dismayed and he immediately suspended the teacher in charge of the primary school. It is possible the school may not have funds to hire labour but the ground reality of students engaged in hard labour is too painful to accept. It is also violative of the law prohibiting child labour.

There is so much wrong with the way education is imparted at the village-level that nothing short of an overhaul is required. There are not enough teachers. Vacancies have not been filled in the name of fund constraints. Teacher absenteeism is common because of lack of supervision and the student dropout rate is high. Classrooms are usually inadequate and students are exposed to harsh weather. There are no proper toilets. Punjab stands at the 16th position in literacy and, yet, it does not spend enough on school infrastructure. Due to low teaching standards, parents prefer to send children to private schools. However, it is heartening to know that deputy commissioners have started taking interest in rural education. Things will improve if they sustain their enthusiasm.

ARTICLE

Women in armed forces
Risks in combat zone soldiering
by Lieut-Gen Baljit Singh (retd)

A woman’s femininity and vulnerability must never be compromised, not even at the altar of woman empowerment. True woman empowerment implies a societal mind-set which honours and stands guarantee against the vulnerability of a woman’s person.

Unbelievable though it may sound, but the protection of a woman’s honour and the life of an infant are a significant part of the unwritten creed of soldiering. This is imbibed from the very moment when a young man makes entry into the profession of arms. For, he acquires a new persona, which goes by the status “Gentleman Cadet” (GC). The emphasis is on the prefix “gentleman” which implies a host of virtues: honesty, integrity, upright and steadfast character, professional excellence, humility, courage, courtesy and, above all, chivalry. And chivalry in the soldier’s creed is all about honouring the person of a woman from any walk of life and caring for the life of infants during the course of duty.

On successful completion of training and imbibing a gentleman’s virtues, the GC graduates to a “Gentleman Officer” as distinct from a “Civil Servant”. In the milieu of such an exacting officer corps of the Indian armed forces, not only will the “lady officers” be accepted as equals but in addition they will function in a protective and chivalrous environment. No one, man or woman, need have any apprehensions on this count.

Gender discrimination is or ought to be an anathema to a gentleman’s creed. But the circumstances of soldiering and the very nature of every active battlefield is unfortunately (for our lady officers) gender-indiscriminating. From my personal experience of the last 10 years in the Service, when I was in a position to shape policy and watch policy being shaped, it is my firm conviction that the armed forces are not gender-biased. It is just that the incontrovertible nature of the active combat zone and of combat zone-simulated intensive training simply does not and cannot provide the kind of creature comforts needed for privacy and personal hygiene, so vital for the physical and emotional equipoise of the feminine gender. And it is this single factor which is and will create mental and emotional stresses for the lady officers leading to depression, indiscipline, hyper-irritability and even suicide.

There was a time when officers of the armed forces trained for combat but superannuated from the Service without ever going into combat. They simply alternated between two years “peace” and “field” tenures. But since the 1980s the officer corps alternates between low-intensity-combat tenure and “peace” stations. Admittedly, the degree of stress in the latter period is non-lethal, nevertheless it is a time of continuous and high-voltage training carried out in combat zone-simulated scenarios.

Perhaps I can best illustrate these invidious stress-prone situations which lady officers will find most disconcerting by taking random examples both from active combat zones and the present day combat-simulated training regimen.

Brig Sir John Smyth has noted this hilarious episode from World War I in his autobiography, which demonstrates how awkward and, therefore, stress-generating an active combat zone can be for a lady officer. He was the Adjutant (Capt) of the 15 Sikh, the first Indian troops to land in France in 1914. After disembarkation, 400 Sikh soldiers and eight officers marched the whole day to their destination. It was a hot day and their bodies were covered with dust and uniforms soaked in sweat. On spotting a water hose amid an excited sea of French faces, the Sikh soldiers stripped down to their home-spun cotton drawers, opened their hair and beards and set about having a good wash. The men then created a screen around the water-hose by suspending a few turbans and their officers too washed up!

Now if there were one lady officer among the eight, would she have been comfortable to bathe almost in the open? If she abstained, what a torture to remain coated in dust and sweat, may be for another-48 hours. Also, when men’s drawers get soaked in bath water and soap, there remains nothing hidden. Imagine the awkwardness for the lady officer to be around which may well have been required of her as part of duty. And then be seated for dinner with the other seven, spruced up and clean.

Closer to our times, this is the kind of happening which was witnessed daily, for over a year, around the tubewells in the Punjab farmlands where the Indian Army remained combat-deployed following the terrorist attack on the Parliament complex in 1998.

Let us take a look at a counter-insurgency-simulated training in the North-East. A lady officer and a group of soldiers in battle fatigue are tasked to march through a dense tropical forest for the whole day to set up an ambush for insurgents after dusk. At the regulation halts, a man would simply turn his back on his comrades and just a few paces away from them, relieve himself. What about the lady officer, especially where tiger leeches rejoice at the exposed human body? Besides, she may well be in the phase where she would need at least a few snatches of privacy for essential personal hygiene. If her temperament revolts at accepting the rough with the smooth for the whole day and perhaps one night as well as, she is bound to be traumatised, to say the least. And repeated exposures to similar and more demanding assignments can emotionally unhinge anyone.

The greatest threat of trauma to a lady officer in active combat arises from the eventuality of falling a PoW. It is a fact that war does brutalise a soldier’s or any man’s psyche, and he may commit the most horrid excesses. Take for instance the case of Major Rhonda L Carnum of the US Army whose helicopter was downed in Iraq, most graphically recounted by Pritam Bhullar in his fortnightly column, “Fauji Beat”, in Chandigarh Tribune of July 4. Major Rhonda had fractured both arms and one knee and had a bullet in the right shoulder. Despite the pain of injuries, she was “ violated manually, vaginally and rectally.” Must we expose our women to such barbarity merely for attaining what some consider the ultimate in the empowerment of women?

The Indian armed forces are certainly not gender-biased by keeping the combat arms and active combat zone off-limits to its lady officers. No one segment of any society is truly perfect. Nor are our armed forces. But yes, our armed forces understand the risks involved to a woman’s dignity in combat, and let us hope the three Service Chiefs will stand by their well-founded conviction, no matter how persistent and politically motivated the demands to the contrary.

Indian women in the armed forces’ uniform are as capable as their male counterparts when employed on combat support roles. For the sake of honour of our women, let us not confuse this truth with the prevalence of tendencies reflecting male chauvinism in the armed forces.

MIDDLE

After the storm
by Kiran Narain

THE sky was a clear blue dotted with a few white clouds. The sun shone brilliantly but the mountain breeze was gentle. I was basking in the luxury of a brief holiday at a hotel at Gulmarg — lazily watching the hoopoes pecking at the lush lawns and the bees visiting the foxgloves and peonies. Lupins had grown wild on the slopes and far off, on the opposite hill, flocks of sheep grazed hungrily.

I had invited Janet for a cup of coffee. Her husband was busy preparing his presentation for the university at Srinagar. We exchanged pleasantries over a cup of coffee while my husband was busy playing bridge with the hotel owner, while my daughters aged four and six had gone for a pony ride.

Suddenly, the azure sky turned dark with clouds and a mist covered the dense forest of spruce and deodar on the snow streaked slopes. A few drops fell into the coffee mug and the ever efficient waiter escorted us indoors. Soon it started pouring. So he lit the large stove stacked with wood, which gave gentle warmth and sense of comfort that is peculiar to wood fires. But, soon I perceived my guest’s uneasiness. Speaking of American mothers being more worried about bringing up daughters, she cautiously asked if I was worried about my daughters who had gone for a pony ride with an unknown horseman.

As if to answer her anxious query, the horseman knocked at the door and in came my daughters, all dry and safe, pleading, “Mama, you must thank ‘Baba’, he got drenched in the rain protecting us with his ‘Lohi’ (rustic coarse blanket)”.

After sending the old man away with a generous tip and a profusion of thanks, I had told the foreigner how Kashmir was a very safe place with the lowest crime rates in the world.

It was the summer of 1978, yet it is so vividly etched in my memory. Much water has flown down the Jehlum since. Things suddenly went wrong in my carefree, happy valley and a threatening wave of stone-pelting crowds turned into bomb hurling and machinegun wielding terrorists, taking charge of the political scene. The mass media has been full of tales of the violence, the trauma of migrants leaving behind their homes and hearth in search of safer havens and the futile search of some for a medieval identity.

The traditional strength of Kashmir’s pluralism lay in its ability of binding together, different religious and ethnic groups into a harmonious society. It somehow gave way to the culture of violence that has prevailed for more than a decade and a half. When in the summer of 1978, I boasted of a peaceful Kashmir, should I have touched wood, instead of tempting fate?

Those familiar with Gulmarg weather know that the beauteous calm of a bright sunny morning is usually disturbed by thundering dark clouds in the afternoon, but as soon as the sun moves to the west, a colourful rainbow spans across the horizon. I pray the gloomy political climate would soon give way to the serene atmosphere of peace, prosperity, brotherhood and secularism.

OPED

Fatal attraction
Save Punjab youth from the drug menace
by Varinder Singh

Drug abuse has penetrated the state so deeply that comparatively deadlier drugs like heroine and smack have made inroads into colleges and educational institutions, replacing “traditional” intoxicants like opium and liquor.

Maqboolpura’s tragedies

The Maqboolpura locality of Amritsar presents the tragic face of drug-afflicted Punjab. Some 125 families of this locality have been affected by drug addiction, as one or other member of the family has fallen victim to such an extent that he cannot be rehabilitated, or has even succumbed to the addiction.

Mai Namo, an old woman of this locality, epitomises the horrific toll. She had seven sons, all of whom, one by one, became addicts of some drug or the other. One by one, they died. There are several hapless mothers like her.

There are a few exceptions, but in police circles it is believed that there are hardly any higher educational institutes left, where many young boys and even girls have not turned to drugs and where accessing drugs at some nearby kiosk is a difficult affair.

Hundreds of drug-peddlers are busy making supplies and earning hefty profits for themselves and their influential and well-placed masters, at the cost of precious young lives.

Ironically, in most cases, the police authorities end up catching hold of only the peddlers. The masters are rarely booked or arrested. And so, the show of death and despair goes on in Punjab, with politicians and bureaucrats more concerned about saving their respective thrones.

Senior Punjab police officials say that heroin and smack have become so popular among youngsters that the daily sale of these drugs is not less than an estimated 50 kilograms per day.

In the open market, one gram of heroine and smack is available between Rs. 500 and Rs. 700 and prices shoot up whenever, there is shortage of supplies from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Poppy husk is also popular in certain pockets of Malwa and Doaba regions, but, its addiction is confined to those who cannot afford the higher price of heroin and smack. A “cup” of poppy husk was said to be available between Rs. 200 and Rs. 300.

How did we get here? In the eighties, when terrorism had started taking root in Punjab, heroin had found its way to the state from Afghanistan through Pakistan. Pakistan’s ISI, intelligence officers revealed, would offer the drugs to certain militant groups so that they could earn handsome profits by getting it retailed in Punjab.

The money so generated was then used for buying arms. Though terrorism was wiped out, the drug inflow remained almost unaffected as its control just shifted to certain powerful people, who used carriers or peddlers for a variety of purposes, while remaining in the background.

The smuggling of drugs through the Punjab border did not stop in the wake of fencing of the international border. Intelligence officials maintain that a part of the supply line is still alive. Nowadays, said a senior intelligence officer, suppliers from Afghanistan are using the river beds and ravines of the Sutlej and the Ravi to ferry their consignments into Punjab, apart from making full use of a comparatively porous border in Rajasthan.

Though the situation has been going from bad to worse for a couple of years, almost no social or political organisation or any of the government authorities have been able to play an effective role to contain the menace. Rather, there are several allegations that some politicians and middle and low rung police officials were supporting drug peddlers in the state.

Seeking stern measures against politicians who promote drugs during elections, Mr. Parminder Singh, the General Secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) has demanded that any politician, found to be promoting drug-use during polls, should be disqualified by the Election Commission of India. Similarly, black sheep among the police force also needed to be identified and quarantined.

The PPCC is ready to set up a full-fledged, youth-oriented, anti-drug addiction cell. Putting its focus more on rural and semi-urban areas of Punjab, people running the cell would strive hard to wean youth away from the hopeless quagmire of drug addiction, with counselling and support for finding employment.

Mr Singh is also planning to revive youth and sports clubs of the state, to provide an alternative avenue for youngsters’ energies. Mr. Shamsher Singh Dullo, the PPCC President, is contemplating the creation of separate district level units of the PPCC to target drug abuse. The members of the cells would fan out among the people and give feedback on all aspects of drug abuse and drug peddling, before initiation of any action. These measures would be launched from August 15 this year.

“Widespread frustration has led to our youth to get misguided and take solace in drugs. They may be overburdened with studies or their spirits might be low for want of a job. But this does not mean that they should take to drugs. We will go to villages and make youth understand the meaning of life and its value for them and society. We would teach them how they can bring laurels for their parents and the state. We will plug existing communication gaps. We are going to chalk out a detailed plan to provide youth with more employment avenues,” said Mr. Parminder Singh.

Banning blogs, a big blunder
by Roopinder Singh

THE only thing worse than doing something wrong is to execute the deed ineptly. Some bureaucrats in the Government of India have managed to do both by stopping access to blogs on the Internet recently in the wake of the July 11 Mumbai bomb blasts.

The word blog is an abbreviation of Weblog, a Web page that is accessible to the public, and is often used as an online personal journal. You post a blog because you want to share information or express an opinion. The people who read your blog may do so because of curiosity, to get varied opinions on news, issues, and other matters, find persons with similar interests and ideas and for entertainment.

Blogs are interactive and visitors can post their message on your log, something that they can’t do on Web pages. There are lakhs of blogs, according to one estimate, over 50 lakh — some good, some bad, many disorganised and most very subjective.

Blogs are the latest way of sharing what you feel with others, and it is this freedom of expression, granted to Indian citizens under Article 19 of the Constitution that was seriously impaired when, in one fell swoop, the government managed to alienate Internet users, generate negative reactions from the media, both in India and abroad, and got itself in a position where it is unfairly being put in the same list as China and Pakistan, both of which have a history of censorship through the Internet.

“Is your blog blocked in India, Pakistan, Iran or China?” asked a website which then showed ways of outwitting the ban. It is ironic that this site had originally come up when Pakistan Telecom Authority blocked blogspot.com in February, 2005.

China makes no bones about controlling access to the Internet and periodically punishes persons who express political dissent through blogs and other means.

Indian bloggers are relatively new. If you type the words “India blogs” on Google blog search, you will find 1,83,338 results. Of these, not more than top 50 are commonly visited. Most blogs start with great intentions, but are seen by only a few. Launching a blog is like casting a pebble in the vast cyber-blog ocean and hoping to see results.

Indian bloggers have, however, done a singular job during the tsunami and the Mumbai blasts by acting as an alternative means of communication and giving valuable information to the public. Many, like mumbaihelp.blogspot.com, had responded to the recent horror in Mumbai also by listing phone numbers of hospitals where victims were being taken, and the like.

It now transpires that the government had listed 18 blogs that posted extremist views. In a ham-handed attempt to block these 18, all blogs of such common sites as Blogger, Geocites and Typepad, have been blocked too. Blogs are one of the ways in which the people communicate. Should mobile phones, too, be blocked because terrorists certainly use these? What about mail? What about e-mail?

The focus should remain on identifying and arresting the terrorists, not the public services that lakhs of Netizens use. The security agencies should find those who are misusing facilities like blogs for illegal activities and punish them. They should not look for scapegoats, either in the real world, or in cyber world.

Legal notes
SC guidelines against ‘titillating’ material
by S.S. Negi

When voices are being raised against the Broadcast Bill aimed at regulating electronic media, the Supreme Court has expressed grave concern over mainstream newspapers publishing “titillating” material on a regular basis. The Court, which had admitted a PIL against the growing tendency among newspapers, including some leading dailies, to publish semi-nude photographs of women and objectionable material in the “guise of sex education” in their supplementary editions, has taken serious view of the continued practice even after notices were issued to some news organisations.

A Bench headed by Justice A R Lakshmanan observed that it has become “difficult” to open even the newspapers in the morning these days when one was sitting with family members. The court indicated that it would lay down guidelines to maintain minimum decency by the print media. The court in August last year had sought replies from the Press Council of India (PCI), and two leading dailies — The Times of India and The Hindustan Times — whose copies were cited as proof of publication of such material.

The Court was not satisfied with the Government’s stand that once the PCI had stepped in, in a regulatory role, the Centre’s role in the matter was over.

Competition over heritage

A.H. Wheeler was the company selling books at railway stations for 120 years, until Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav ordered them to pack up soon after he took charge of the Ministry. The argument of the Railway Minister in his 2004 budget speech was that there should be open competition in allotting book stalls at stations. The company did not take it lying down and went to the Allahabad High Court, which set aside the Railway’s order. Wheeler contested on the ground that the Minister had lost sight of something called heritage and had forgotten “the unblemished service” rendered to passengers. The Government moved an appeal in the Supreme Court. The apex court last week admitted the appeal challenging the High Court order, but refused to grant any interim stay and permitted Wheeler to continue with its shops.

Vacation benches

The Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal has expressed satisfaction over his experiment of setting up two special benches to have regular hearings during the annual summer vacation, to dispose of urgent and old pending matters. The move has proved to be a fair success with the disposal of 368 cases out of a total 1,110 heard by the Court during the seven-week long holiday. According to the apex court Registrar General V K Jain, as many as 673 new urgent matters came up before the vacation benches and 263 were disposed of, while verdicts in 22 others are expected. Besides, 447 pending matters were also taken up, 49 were decided and in 56 cases judgements were reserved.

The success of the initiative was attributed to the collective efforts of the CJI and other judges who were more than “ready and willing” to sit during the vacation. The CJI had drawn a roster of seven judges who sacrificed their summer holidays partially to sit in rotation, to decide the cases. Not only this, Justice Sabharwal had also reduced the two-month long summer vacation by a week from this year.