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Tit for tat Justice
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Not for
grab Save farmers from land sharks AS the government is encouraging the setting up of special economic zones (SEZs) on the Chinese model, private companies are acquiring large chunks of land. There is a boom in the housing sector due to low interest rates, easy availability of finance and tax concessions. Thanks to a policy backup, infrastructure projects, too, are coming up fast.
Sustainable growth
Blasts from the
past
Save the children China
increases pressure on Tibet Chatterati
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Justice matters THE Union Cabinet has cleared the Bill proposing several changes in the Criminal Procedure Code. On the anvil are reforms such as women judges to try rape cases, a witness protection regime, statements of witnesses and accused to be recorded before the magistrate, video recordings to be treated as admissible evidence in the court and the right of appeal for all victims when the accused are acquitted. Among them, the proposal for women judges for rape cases is long overdue. Rape victims are often tortured by insensitive advocates who ask loaded questions in the court, treating them more as suspects than as victims. Such embarrassing cross-examinations in an open court fluster the victims so much that their attention is diverted to the advantage of the defence lawyers. While examining the Bill, Parliament would do well to consider in-camera trial of rape victims. Equally significant is the proposal to have a witness protection regime. The problem of witnesses turning hostile has made a mockery of the criminal justice system. The Jessica Lall murder case in which a sessions court acquitted all the nine accused on grounds of insufficient evidence is an instance of gross miscarriage of justice, particularly when she was shot in the presence of many people, including senior police officers. If confessional statements of witnesses are recorded before a magistrate, as also video-recorded, this will prevent them from turning hostile. Had this provision been incorporated in the statute book, Zahira Sheikh would not have indulged in the flip-flops in the Best Bakery case. Nor would have Shyam Munshi and others been able to retract their testimonies in the Jessica Lall murder case and go scot-free. The amendment will also meet the demand of the law enforcement agencies to protect witnesses from pressure of any kind. For instance, while Zahira Sheikh is rotting in the jail, those who influenced her through money and muscle power are having the last laugh. The successful working of the criminal justice system depends on the individuals’ willingness to tender evidence without being intimidated or bought. |
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Not for grab AS the government is encouraging the setting up of special economic zones (SEZs) on the Chinese model, private companies are acquiring large chunks of land. There is a boom in the housing sector due to low interest rates, easy availability of finance and tax concessions. Thanks to a policy backup, infrastructure projects, too, are coming up fast. This has led to a sharp rise in land prices. In some areas farmers have become crorepatis overnight. However, when the government, empowered by the Land Acquisition Act, acquires land from farmers, disputes usually arise over compensation. There have been protests and court cases filed by farmers who see the government acting like land sharks, buying their land cheap and selling to private companies, builders and even housing societies at hefty profits. The government agencies, following the Act, calculate the price of land on the basis of the sale deeds registered during the year prior to the date of notification. Since sale deeds are not usually executed according to the market value, this leads to low compensation. Besides, in a booming market, prices shoot up on a day-to-day basis, making an accurate assessment difficult. The Punjab Government faced allegations of favouritism when it handed over land to Reliance. The Trident group’s attempt to get land in Sangrur district has run into trouble. The Haryana Government’s SEZ deal with Reliance has also been facing opposition. The Chandigarh Administration also incurred farmers’ wrath when it took over their land for setting up an IT park. To ensure trouble-free land transfers, the government will have to act as a facilitator, adopt a transparent procedure and ensure fair compensation to farmers. Since land-holdings are shrinking and returns from agriculture declining, industrialisation alone can keep up the growth momentum. |
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Better build schoolrooms for ‘the boy’, Than cells and gibbets for ‘the man’. |
Sustainable growth Suicide
deaths, growing indebtedness, wheat imports and stagnant food production coupled with declining crop productivity signal a farm crisis that can no longer be ignored. Agriculture underpins both the economy and society and there can be no sustainable growth or national well-being unless this regression is reversed. Per capita rural incomes have fallen and the urban-rural gap has widened. Certain pockets and sectors of the farm economy are flourishing, but there is much cause for anxiety. Average yields are low across the country. Even Punjab, Haryana and Western UP report plateauing outputs with technological barriers at current levels of research and farm practice. Growing pressures of population and a lack of commensurate non-farm employment have reduced the average size of holdings to 1.41 ha by 1995-96, with 2.7 parcels in each of these small and marginal farms on account of continuing fragmentation, unrelieved by corresponding consolidation. The National Commission on Farmers, under Dr M.S. Swaminathan, paints a dismal picture, enumerating several negative features, including constraints on leasing-in and leasing-out of land by those seeking viable operational farm sizes and those inclined to let out their lands and seek their fortune in off-farm or urban opportunities. Despite the spread of irrigation, national cropping intensity remains low at 137 per cent. Groundwater is being mined in many areas, listed as “black zones”, while an old-fashioned, supply-side irrigation engineer-led water bureaucracy is unable to cope. Skewed subsidies have largely benefited better-off farmers resulting in over-exploitation of water, imbalanced fertiliser use and micro-nutrient deficiencies Cropping patterns are changing. Farmers are switching from subsistence to market farming, now increasingly influenced by global trends. The acreage under coarse grains has declined while that under oilseeds, fruit and vegetable and other cash crops has registered an increase. Market mechanisms, including regulated markets, remain imperfect, especially for perishables, resulting in harassment and exploitation of small and marginal farmers who are compelled to resort to distress selling. The NCF reports that though the minimum support price and procurement policy covers 25 commodities, accounting for 75 per cent of crop value and 80 per cent of farm acreage, prices often remain below the MSP in most parts of the country. Paddy/wheat farmers in Punjab-Haryana gain more from the system than most. There has been a decline in the terms of trade against agriculture. Overall, there has been a fall in both government and private investment in farming and hunger and malnutrition remain widespread. The NCF notes some positive measures. These include expansion of farm credit at lower interest rates, the creation of a national rain-fed area authority and a national fisheries development board, the consolidation of 16 different food processing regulations into one integrated food law, an enactment making warehouse receipts a negotiable instrument to prevent distress sales, and the spread of rural e-governance. These are commendable, but more remains to be done. The NCF has a recommended list. Heading it is a price stabilisation fund that ensures assured and remunerative prices for farm produce, especially for small and marginal farmers, so that crop diversification is sustainable. Land reform is another vital area with reference to implementation of tenancy laws, consolidation, distribution of ceiling surplus lands, protection of and access to common property resources, and land rights and support services to women farmers. Land records are being updated and computerised and land titles bestowed on owners. Cooperativisation of agriculture and group farming through self help groups are old chestnuts whose time has come, particularly in regard to joint use of pre- and post-harvest farm equipment, irrigation, integrated pest management and nutrient supply, food processing and group insurance. Contract farming and corporate farming are also practical ideas that can work subject to well-defined guidelines. Farming of homestead plots, an essential part of any agrarian reform package, holds out possibilities for intensive garden cultivation near towns with an assured market for vegetables, fruit, flowers and poultry. Kerala offers a good example of successful homestead farming, which would also provide a valuable nutritional supplement. Rainwater harvesting, pani panchayats and shared drip systems would be viable options. Livestock and fisheries have a large unrealised potential, including crop-livestock integrated farming. Fodder, feed and healthcare are the critical issues. Livestock farming can also be linked to high market value organic farming. The NFC has made several other recommendations of a specific as well as systemic nature and urged a fillip to farm research, farmer education and village uplift as a whole so that agriculture prospers both as an occupation and a way of life. It points to the example of China’s town and village enterprises that our khadi and village industries could emulate at a higher level of sophistication than at present to utilise farm produce and agro-wastes to manufacture a whole variety of goods and services, not only for the countryside. The Panchayati Raj Ministry advocates linkages between panchayats and industry to create rural business hubs. Nearly 850 products and blocks have been identified and 73 MoUs signed. These are innovative ideas. Rural India awaits a revolution to lift up India by its
bootstraps.
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Blasts from the past
Watching
one’s heroes of yesteryear on television nowadays, in shows like “Cricket Classics”, makes one extremely nostalgic. Much as classical old songs from films reflect a soothing, old world charm amid the hurly-burly of today, TV images of players like Bhagwat Chandrashekhar and Farookh Engineer going about their stuff in matches from the early seventies, de-stress one no end and even bring a tear or two to the old eye. When these cricket series were played in that era, television coverage in India of any kind was as non-existent as India’s chances of playing the soccer World Cup are today! Those of us who were fortunate to see some of them on TV in England do remember the mauling we often received, very vividly. Most people, however, find themselves viewing for the first time those very straight drives and googlies which they had only heard descriptions of, while tuning in to good old All India Radio’s commentary. The cricket in those days was obviously much more relaxed, and laid back. At no time was this more evident than when an opposition batsman was dismissed. Geoffrey Boycott and John Edrich just clapped politely when Gavaskar was sent back to the pavilion. Bishen Bedi made the most serious of faces upon clean bowling Dennis Amis. One wonders whether they were great actors who were simply concealing their emotions, or if the stakes were simply so low, that there was no real excitement anyway, or more likely, that this was just the gentlemanly way of the world in those days. The manner in which Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, India’s spin twins of today, gleefully jump and gesticulate with unbridled joy, at the dismissal of even a Corey Colleymore or a Pedro Collins, perhaps reflects the change in human tendencies as a whole. Humanity, and of course cricket, has definitely become more loud, ostentatious and unabashedly extrovertish today. That relaxed stress-free bygone era can only be relived through such gems on TV as “Cricket Classics”. These blasts from the past indeed convey more feeling and joy than anything that the razzmatazz of today can ever hope to accomplish. |
Save the children
A huge number of the victims of Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon – the dead, the maimed and the dispossessed – are children. The figures are stark. Of the 615 people so far confirmed dead, Save the Children an international NGO, says that almost half are children. They make up one third of the 3,225 injured, and about 45 per cent of the near one million Lebanese refugees are under the age of 18. But despite the shocking images and the harrowing accounts of suffering, there is an acute shortfall of money raised for the children caught up in the conflict. They need help now. The UN and aid agencies say it is unclear why so many casualties in this particular war are children. Some have been victims of mass killings, like 37 of the 60 people who died in the Israeli bombing raid in Qana at the weekend. The disproportionately high death toll among children may be due to the fact that Lebanese families in the south of the country, the scene of the fiercest fighting, are traditionally large. It is also perhaps because of demographics - 30 per cent of the population of Lebanon are under 18. The high rate of killings and injuries among the young are also said to be due to the fact that they tend to huddle together during the bombing and shelling. Like the old, the children are the hardest hit by the lack of basic sustenance. They are also simply too young to make the long journey on foot to escape the combat zone. Children have been discovered left to look after younger brothers and sisters in place of dead or wounded parents. Amelia Bookstein, head of humanitarian policy at Save the Children, said: “Children who are wounded, separated from their families, or traumatised, may be too frightened or unable to leave their homes.” Anis Salem, a UNICEF official said: “Families with four, five and six children are seeking shelter together. Inevitably, a high proportion of children are killed. “We estimated even before Qana that 30 per cent of the deaths were children. But it is a very fluid situation and that figure can quickly become redundant.” Save the Children and other international agencies point out that the public response has been surprisingly slow to appeals for funds. Toby Porter, emergencies director for Save the Children, said: “We have raised, for example, one eighth of the money raised for the second Java earthquake. One reason for this may be that the political anger over what is happening in Lebanon has overshadowed humanitarian concerns. The controversy over what has happened is hiding the human problems. Or it could be that people are rather weary of the Middle East problem because it seems so insurmountable. The fact remains however that we have a major crisis with children there at the moment.” Exposure to daily turbulence - the sight and sound of explosions, watching the deaths of people they know - has inevitably left scars on young minds. Parents talk of little girls and boys having nightmares, clinging to them out of fright. Rania al-Ameri, a child psychologist, pointed out: “It is hardly a surprise that these children are being traumatised. They are seeing things people of their age simply will not see in Europe and America. And this is not something that is short term. These effects will last a long time.” There are other long-term problems. Even after hostilities cease, many families will have nowhere to go back to with their homes shattered. Schools, too, have been destroyed. Others are being used to house the displaced. Thousands face the prospect of spending months – perhaps years – in refugee camps. Despite Israeli assurances of a safe passage, the UN and charities are finding it extremely difficult to deliver aid to the south, past the city of Tyre. As well as the dispossessed within Lebanon, around 150,000 had crossed over into Syria, a country which already shelters 300,000 Palestinian refugees and 450,000 Iraqis who have left since the US-led invasion of that country. With no prospect of an immediate ceasefire, aid organisations are resigned to the situation getting even worse. They fear the brunt of the suffering will continue to be borne by children. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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China increases pressure on Tibet BEIJING – China’s Communist Party has been tightening its grip on Tibet in recent months, resorting to language and measures not seen since the repression of the late 1990s. The pressure comes as the Dalai Lama’s envoys continue to negotiate with Beijing about his possible return to Tibet after more than 40 years in exile. The religious leader is regarded by the Chinese as bent on independence for the region, and his followers are seen as subversives. “In the last few weeks, we have seen an increasingly repressive political climate on Tibet as Beijing emphasises its domination of the region,” said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet. “It’s difficult to discern the intentions of the senior leadership on the ongoing dialogue between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and Beijing.” Non-governmental organisations in Tibet say they have started to feel the pressure. Some contracts to work in the region reportedly have not been renewed. Last month, a study programme between American universities and Tibet University was closed in the city of Lhasa after 20 students arrived and were turned away, sources said on condition of anonymity. The official reason for the closure was that the teachers were too busy. Also last month, authorities shut down the blogs of a well-known Tibetan writer who posted a photograph of the Dalai Lama and wished him a happy birthday, his 71st. Some Tibet observers say the timing of the tightening could be a sign that various factions in the Communist Party are engaged in a power struggle, with hard-liners opposed to any deal that would bring the religious leader back from his exile in Dharamsala, India. But others argue that Chinese leaders have several cards and are playing them simultaneously. A story run in two Chinese newspapers and carried by the official New China News Agency asserted late last month that, while the Dalai Lama has told the world he seeks autonomy or a “middle way” rather than independence, he is not to be believed. “Given the fact that the Dalai Lama gives out different signals at different times and even at the same time, one can hardly agree his ‘middle way’ is different from ‘Tibetan independence,’ “ the article said. The Chinese government has moved to block any influence the Dalai Lama has over Tibetans. Earlier this year, after the religious leader made a plea to protect endangered species and his followers began destroying their fur-lined traditional robes, the Chinese government banned Tibetans from burning fur pelts. Then, after monks clashed in a dispute over clay statues of an obscure deity at a monastery near Lhasa, the city’s mayor accused the Dalai Lama of stirring up trouble and trying to “sabotage the unity of Tibet.” There have long been cycles of repression and relaxation in Chinese policy toward Tibet. The previous two party secretaries in the region were considered technocrats who were more focused on economic development, observers said. But the current secretary, Zhang Qingli, who once served in the Communist Youth League with President Hu Jintao, has a strong record of making ideological statements against separatism. A former commander of the paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Zhang had been charged with border security and presiding over the migration of millions of Han Chinese to
Xinjiang. By arrangement with LA-Times–Washington Post |
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Chatterati Delhi
is back with a bang. The Page 3 regulars, designers, socialites and wannabes are back to partying big time. The chilled-out evenings are usually at nightclubs or rooftops. Plenty of beer, wine, fun-food and skin-showing seem to be the mantra here. Whether it is the Army Chief’s wife or Rohit Bhal or Singer Sonu, the flash bulbs just go off like crazy. The latest are the theme parties. A fashion show with ‘Aqua’ as the theme featured water on stage with top models wearing eye-catching beach wear. Art exhibitions have started and really spooky ones at that. One had a topless artist, Stacy Sternberg, lying on the floor with her face down as she was being massaged. Little wonder that all the men and the shutterbugs left all other exhibits and surrounded her. The venue was quite spooky too - the landscaped wet lawns of a farmhouse. There was Samaya, “the witch”, who was apparently practicing her witchcraft in a tent lit with candles. And a painter from Cuba who painted on sarees. Another painter, Stefani Garret, flaunted her painting of a bindi while Kerri Alycia Daniel showed his vision of a rickshaw. More books After the launch of Jaswant Singh’s controversy-creating book, the book release of media advisor to the Prime Minister obviously had high curiosity value. Dr Sanjay Baru’s Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance was released by Jaipal Reddy. Shiela Dixit, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and nearly every one from the PMO were there, as was the Pakistani High commissioner. Books are in the news these days. After Jaswant’s book came John Wright’s Indian Summers. So it is no wonder that union information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi could not refrain from talking about books himself. His proposed book, ‘Two faces of Advani’, would interestingly carry a foreword by former BJP heavy-weight Madan Lal Khurana. Perplexed by this, media persons are wondering whether the book is really being planned (and written) by the I&B minister or whether it is Khurana’s brainchild. Communication gaps Finally, the Congress has a media team in place headed by Janardhan Dwivedi. The articulate Mukul Vasnik rose from the NSUI to the Youth Congress along with the fiery Jayanti Natrajan. But one only sees Singhvi talk on every issue. The high profile Rajiv Shukla’s exit from the media team has set tongues wagging as usual in the Capital. But Janardhan Dwivedi’s act of calling ministers to his office for briefings does not seem to have gone down well at all. Congressmen are impatiently waiting for a reshuffle in the AICC and the Cabinet. Thanks to the disgruntled Congressmen at the top, various Chief Ministers, who come to the Centre seeking support for programmes in their states, go back trying to figure out what is wrong with the Congress leadership and advisors. After all, it affects the performance of the Chief Ministers in their States if the advisors in the centre are not capable of understanding the ground realities.
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From the pages of Sant Fateh Singh
A realist par excellence, Sant Fateh Singh rode the Punjab scene like a colossus for a decade during which he gave a welcome twist to feudal and sectarian trends. Emerging from an obscure corner of Rajasthan (where, too, he had brought about a transformation in another field) to enter Punjab politics, he rapidly rose to eminence by virtue of his deep sincerity, broad vision and a string of sacrifices. Basically a man of God, he never allowed his religious beliefs to colour his handling of the Akali Dal’s political activities. His political astuteness made him realise the importance of moderation and a rational approach which several politicians of the time lacked. Actually, his markedly secular approach came like a breath of fresh air in that period’s murky atmosphere which retarded the State’s progress. It brought him some criticism, but soon his enlightened gospel spread and he became the unquestioned leader of the Akali Dal. In a letter to Mr Nehru, he said: “We want a linguistic, and only a linguistic unit, where Punjabi culture and language is prevalent, regardless of whether Hindus or Sikhs are in a majority or minority there.” By common consent, that was his biggest and most enduring achievement. |
Cry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will certainly see him. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children. They swim in tears for money. But who weeps for God? —
Ramakrishna The knowledge of Truth brings with its power. But if the power be mixed with arrogance, it slides back into ignorance. Power with humility is the hallmark of the learned one. He never boasts of his accomplishments or achievements. Instead, he tries silently to help others. —
The Bhagvad Gita The fight of Satyagraha is for the strong in spirit, not the doubter
or the timid. — Mahatma Gandhi Falsehood is sweet like sugar and honey. It has involved and drowned boatlands of men. —
Guru Nanak Falsehood exhausts itself. What the truth ordains, comes to pass. — Guru Nanak Creator! you belong to all; for all alike — Guru Nanak From false talk, one gathers only falsehood. — Guru Nanak |
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