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Pay and performance No excuse for apathy Who
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Musharraf pops out of box
From ‘Rathkhana’ to ‘Baggikhana’
Moving nukes: India must join world initiative Paying with blood for healthcare Chatterati
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Pay and performance WITH the Union Cabinet approving of the proposal to increase the pay and allowances of the members of Parliament, their monthly emoluments will go up to Rs 65,000, a cool gain of Rs 25,000. So far, they used to get Rs 40,000 as total salary, which, as they would point out, was less than what was paid to the MLAs in some of the states. They may have a point, and nobody should grudge a fatter pay packet to the people’s representatives. After all, everybody in any area of activity wishes to receive a raise in wages for the work done. The matter does not end there, however. The essential question is whether our Honourable MPs are giving to the nation the money’s worth. The people have begun to wonder whether the MPs are ever bothered about their performance in the august House. Do they ever think that their primary job is to make laws for the good of their electors, to give vent to the people’s grievances, raise issues of relevance to the nation, to enrich the debates in Parliament with their participation and guard public interest? The way they have been functioning, with a few exceptions, makes one believe that they have been the least concerned about their performance as representatives of the people. They never hesitate to disrupt the proceedings of the House by storming into the well of Parliament, creating uproarious scenes or staging a boycott over flimsy issues that could be discussed. The latest spectacle they presented of their behaviour was when the Justice Pathak Enquiry Authority report was tabled in Parliament. It is time to remind the MPs that each one of them cost the national exchequer over Rs 55 lakh before the latest increase in their salaries. Obviously, the cost will now be much higher. The country has to spend more than Rs 37,000 every minute to keep Parliament functioning. The loss to the nation by the non-functioning of our parliamentarians runs into crores of rupees every year. And it is the taxpayer’s money which goes down the drain. The nation suffers for this irresponsible behaviour of the MPs, who perhaps think that they have been elected to cause uproar and disrupt the proceedings. The rule of “no work, no pay” should be applicable in their case if it applies to other salaried people, though this will not be enough punishment to the people’s representatives. They expect the nation to give them a raise; the nation expects them to be worthy of it.
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No excuse for apathy THAT official laxity routinely compromises national security is a bitter truth that we all live with. Yet another instance of it has come to light with the reports that the Airports Authority of India has not executed Civil Aviation Ministry orders to introduce biometric screening at all major airports. The orders were passed more than two years ago, but the AAI is yet to decide even on the type of biometric system that would be suitable for it. Biometric screening uses a person’s fingerprint or the retinal “signature” of the eye to determine the identity of people. At airports, it can be used to check all passengers against a data bank of known offenders, or for ensuring that no unauthorised person enters the airport in the guise of ground staff or air crew. That there are logistical, technological and even ethical issues with regard to biometric screening and its effective implementation is obvious. But nothing can excuse official inertia. The Civil Aviation Minister has during the last two years failed to ensure implementation of a decision which is vital for security at airports. If the agencies involved have genuine difficulties in implementation, these should be tackled. The experience of other countries with regard to biometric screening should be studied and lessons learnt. India has enormous talent in both bio and information technologies, and if tapped, this rich pool can provide many innovative solutions for using biometrics. This is all the more important considering that biometrics is likely to play an increasingly important role in our lives in the future. Already, the idea of smart cards which are inextricably tied to our lives, containing everything from our basic blood and other medical information to advanced DNA data, is being envisioned. While there are security benefits to such a system, there are legal and ethical questions about privacy, and the possible effect of such an all-pervasive bio-digital invasion on the human mind and society. In any case though, we are yet to discover a cure for some of the oldest of human habits – apathy, resistance to change, and a lack of imagination.
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Who needs the pill? NEWS that a German scientist has come up with an “anti-stupidity” pill has sent hopes soaring in a world besieged by a surfeit of stupid people who have made life and living more difficult than it need be. Dr Hans-Hilger Ropers, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin has tested the pill— on mice and fruit flies — and found that it eliminates hyperactivity in certain brain nerve cells, helping to stabilise short-term memory and improve attentiveness. The first question that springs to mind is whether the famed institute and its distinguished scientist have nothing else of greater priority that requires their attention and research. But, if one lets that querulous interjection pass, then there are more important questions that need to be addressed right away to make the most of this invention. In a world overpopulated with stupid people — in politics, government, professions, education, scientific research, films, marketing and the celebrity circuits — why were the initial tests confined to mice and fruit flies? There is not much a mice needs to know or remember for its memory and attentiveness to be improved. It doesn’t even have to ask “Who moved my cheese?”, but get on with gnawing its way through life, scrounging for food and multiplying. Not very different for the fruit fly — it has to just land itself on a fruit and keep out of the ointment. This requires shorter than short-term memory, unless it wants to know and remember the colours and attributes of the many varieties of fruit. Now if the anti-stupidity pill is to be made people-friendly — fit for human consumption and cure — it should be funded generously without further delay. Of course, then comes the gargantuan task of identifying, classifying and prioritising the people who are in dire need of a stiff dose. This would be no easy task considering that some of the world’s most powerful people in every country would scramble to get the first prescriptions for mankind’s deadliest affliction. The danger is that the politicians who come to possess the stupidity pill might ban its distribution to others. They would not like to see their vote-bank shrink.
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Sir, I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance. — Samuel Johnson
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Musharraf pops out of box LIKE an untiring jack in the box, President Pervez Musharraf pops out his head every time anyone lifts the lid for him, and when no one else does he is quite capable of doing it himself; and perhaps because someone has told him that “thinking out of the box” is a clever new phrase in place of the old one of innovative thinking, he advises everyone within hearing to “think out of the box”. The result is his idea of “joint management”. He did so again a few days ago, and this time he had four new reasons for doing it. First, Ms Benazir Bhutto and other Pakistani leaders who are opposed to him are stepping up their pressure for him to step down and to hold early elections. He needs something to divert the attention of the people from his opponents, and what would be better for this than another “out of the box” idea on Kashmir? Second, public opinion in India and in other countries is clearly becoming harder on anyone’s links with terrorism, and since so many of the links are getting traced to Pakistan and PoK, he certainly needs a diversion. Third, the Indian Prime Minister is making it clearer every day that there is no point in talking about Kashmir with him unless there is something on the table which is clearly worth talking about. General Musharraf’s latest new thought might not do the trick but it could be worth the effort to invent it. Fourth, the more the people of PoK become aware of the democratic rights available to the people on this side of the Line they more they are agitating for similar rights for themselves. He must give them something else to chew on. The bone thrown to them by the “Prime Minister” of PoK, that he is the Prime Minister of the whole state of Jammu and Kashmir, as he is reported to have told Dawn, is good for a laugh, not for anything else. That leaves us with the latest diversion President Musharraf has thought up, “joint management of both sides of the state.” One presumes he means “joint management” of the whole state by India and Pakistan; or, less imaginatively, joint management of the local affairs of the state by the two sides of the state under some kind of an umbrella of joint responsibility of India and Pakistan to the international community regarding the international dimensions of the status of the state. This idea has its points, and it has figured in many discussions at various levels of the non-official dialogues between the two countries, and to some extent between the two parts of the state insofar as there has been any discussion at that level too. It also formed the basis of the later stages of one of the most sustained unofficial dialogues between the two countries. But in that, and in other dialogues too, the idea has foundered on two rocks. The first is that the idea presumes and requires that the two sides of the state have more or less comparable levels of autonomy from the government of the country of which they are a part. Otherwise the government which controls its side of the state more tightly can use the “joint management” as a paw in the affairs of the other country. But there is no greater compatibility between the two countries in this than in any other respect. The second is a sequel to the first. It presumes and requires that the two sides have comparable levels of democracy. The more autocratic rulers of one side would be an unacceptable incongruity at a “joint management” table. Above and beyond all that is the ever present question of terrorism, and that has become a more serious problem today than at any time during the past five years or so. Developments were taking place in Kashmir at the start of the present century which held promise for the future, with Majid Dar at one level and Lone and G.M. Bhatt at another, stirring new thoughts and possibilities in Delhi and in Kashmir, and Prime Minister Vajpayee opening doors which had been shut for more than a decade. But the bullets of assassins extinguished some possibilities and some others were shut by turns in the wheel of politics, both in New Delhi and Srinagar. We must give rest for a time now to hopes of joint new initiatives by the two sides, either at the national level or at the level of the two sides of the state. The impending elections both in India and Pakistan must throw up what they will before either government can assess how much authority the other has for re-starting the search for across-the-border approaches. Both governments are also engaged in other ventures too, each on its own, which may shape the other’s views of its scope for making new beginnings. Before these scenes attain some clarity, the curtain will have risen on new ones in the US which will have a bearing on what India and Pakistan can do for or to each other. But all this adds up to only one message for New Delhi and Srinagar: use this time for putting our own house in better order. While there has been considerable improvement in both in some respects, this is not the case with the play of domestic tensions in both, particularly between communities and the effect they have on broader issues. India’s external concerns have less to do today with the domestic scene in Kashmir than has been the case for a very long time. Concerns with Pakistan may be an exception to this generalisation, but even these are less of an entanglement in Kashmir than they used to be. Therefore, this period of relative peace in the domestic affairs of the Indian side of Kashmir should be used to maximum advantage in attending to some of the long-standing and long-neglected domestic problems of the state. The principal ones among them are three. First and foremost, relations between the two major communities within the state. Second, the somewhat related question of the similar but not identical matter of the relations between the different regions of the state, particularly between Jammu and the valley but also between the valley and Ladakh. And the third and most important, cleaner and better administration of the whole state but more particularly of the valley, upon which the future — and considerable — potential of the state
depends.
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From ‘Rathkhana’ to ‘Baggikhana’
WHEN it is the season of school admissions, anxious parents run from pillar to post to secure the future of their wards. Things were much easier when I was young. Usually, the parents got their children admitted to the school nearest to the house and forgot about it. The arrangement suited both the parents and children. Thus, I studied for four years in a government school at Bikaner in Rajasthan. I can vividly recall the morning of July 22, 1969, when our English teacher, who always dressed up in a suit, announced to our class that man had landed on the moon the previous day. Somewhat like the Budhha, who got enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, and Newton, who discovered gravity under an apple tree, we received the news of this historic human feat sitting in the shade of an old tamarind tree. It sometimes served as our classroom, for my school did not have enough rooms to accommodate all classes. The school was known the “Rathkhana Government Middle School”. I do not know if the school survives today, but its name is engraved in my memory. Apparently, the school derived its name from a rathkhana, i.e., a parking place for horse-carriages near which the school was located. An old worn-down carriage was parked there. The only time it generated some interest among us was when the Hindi film “Victoria No.203” was released in those days. Part of this Rathkhana was also used as a classroom on the rainy days, which were not many, for Bikaner is far from being a wet place. I am indebted to my school. It was my Harrow and my Eton. It taught me many things that have kept me in good stead in later life. But the best lesson I learnt there was that a school is not made by its building or infrastructure but by the character of its teachers. A quarter of a century later, on being posted at Vadodara, I was looking for a suitable school for my daughter. Baroda High School was the nearest to my house. One day, my wife and I went to meet the headmistress. She was a kindly lady, who readily admitted our daughter and showed us around the school. The school was well maintained, but I could not help noticing something odd in its design. On entering from its old imposing gate, you came to an open ground on the sides of which were rows of what looked like renovated old oversized garages wherein classes were going on. I asked the headmistress about it. She told us that originally that place was a Baggikhana, i.e., for parking the royal horse-carriages of the erstwhile prince of Vadodara, which had later come to house the school. Hearing this, my wife had some doubts but I said, “It must be a good school.” I didn’t tell her why I thought
so.
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Moving nukes: India must join world initiative THE Proliferation Security Initiative, PSI for short, is an initiative, initially sponsored by 14 nations including the USA (therefore being seen as an American scheme) aimed at countering proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and related technology by sea, air or by any other means. Seems very desirable, most would say. Then why is there such a hue and cry about the American Congress having expressed the wish that India would also come on board and that this ‘wish’ impinges on India’s sovereign right to make its own independent foreign policy choices? There is a need to understand the ramifications of this self created ‘Soduku’ before we can begin to solve it. The concept of PSI formally took shape in 2004. It required member nations to act upon intelligence regarding movement of WMD and take measures to prevent it. While land, air and seaborne transportation were all included, the emphasis was clearly on carriage in ships, which were, by far, the most suitable platforms as also the most difficult to interdict, once on the high seas. The initiative was received with mixed reactions. International law did not permit search or seizure of ships on the high seas; the PSI did not emanate from an internationally recognised institution like the United Nations and, therefore, such acts would be in violation of the accepted legal framework and so on. The next question was about ‘intelligence’ itself, from where it would come, its selectivity as well as its targets. Even as the PSI issue was being debated, the USA was aware of Dr AQ Khan’s activities but chose not to do anything about them, in essence, ignoring Pakistan’s contribution to proliferation. Another question concerned the responsibility for cargoes damaged while rummaging a ship for alleged WMD materials. Yet another issue arose from the fact that as many as 70 per cent of all merchant ships plying the seas belonged to certain countries but flew the flag of others, being registered there for various reasons, broadly termed ‘Flags of Convenience’ or FOC countries. So, a North Korean vessel could quite easily be under the sovereignty of Panama or Hondura. It was also not clear if a warship engaged in the business would also be subject to board and search. In brief, the situation was a US sponsored ploy which did not have international sanction, violated widely accepted conventions and, finally, appeared to target selected countries e.g. Iran and North Korea. It is not surprising that initial reaction of several countries, including India, was less than lukewarm. Two years down the line the situation has changed dramatically. Nearly one hundred countries have now become party to the PSI and the relevance of the initial 14, or the ‘Core Group’, has disappeared. China has not yet become party to it but has not expressed much opposition either and could become a PSI nation sooner rather than later. One major reason for this change is that the fundamental cause for opposing it, that it lacked international sanction, has been obviated. In October 2005, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a subsidiary institution of the United Nations, has passed a Protocol to the Suppression of Unlawful Acts at Sea Convention of 1988 (SUA) which has brought transport of WMD materials as an ‘unlawful activity’ within its purview. All the FOC countries have also signaled their readiness to have ships under their flag boarded and searched if suspected of carrying WMD related equipment. India is a signatory to the SUA Convention. It has an obligation to conform to its provisions and had done so three years ago when it arrested a Japanese merchant ship hijacked in Indonesian waters in the Arabian Sea. The PSI, for all practical purposes, is a non issue because we are committed to observe its provisions, now incorporated in the 2005 SUA Protocol. So, the allegation that we would be kowtowing to the USA if we signed the PSI is not only misinformed but quite laughable. In fact, India is, probably, the first country to have arrested a ship suspected of carrying WMD materials. Three years ago, a North Korean vessel, the Sol San, was arrested at Kandla port. It was carrying Centrifuge parts from Pakistan to North Korea and had not declared them in the manifests. Kandla, of course, came under our jurisdiction but even if the ship had been on the high seas in our area, and there was good intelligence that she was carrying these materials, it can safely be assumed that Indian maritime forces would have searched for and located her and brought her into one of our ports. We have done this in the past. More than one ship, suspected of carrying arms for the LTTE, has been apprehended on the high seas in the Bay of Bengal and dealt with ‘appropriately’. When national interests and security are at stake, we are not going to quibble about the niceties of rules and procedures. We have a serious interest in the illicit movement of contraband in the North Indian Ocean, whether these are narcotics, the illegal arms and explosives that they lead to, or WMD, because India is one of the end targets of all of them. It should not be forgotten that all the explosives used in the Mumbai blasts of 1993 had been brought in through the sea route. So, to say that we are being coerced into joining the PSI and its contingent actions is not only shortsighted but quite ridiculous. India should, actually, have subscribed to the PSI several months ago. If we have not done so already, possibly timing is the issue. This is a matter for those who are responsible for national security and it is best to leave it to their judgement. But the fundamentals should not be obfuscated. We need to be aware and cognizant of what is going around in the seas of our interest and do everything to ensure that activities inimical to our interest are countered and not allowed to take root. By this yardstick, there is every logic and advantage in subscribing to the tenets of the PSI. What the US Congress says or does not say has nothing to do with it. The writer is a former Director General, Defence Staff
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Paying with blood for healthcare MEXICO CITY– Silent figures filled every plastic seat under the dim fluorescent lights. Two men slumped on the tile floor in the corner, heads buried in their knees. A rattly cough was the only sound. It was 7 a.m. in Xoco Hospital, where uninsured Mexicans pay for medical services, quite literally, with blood. Bernaben Ruiz, a 23-year-old busboy, rubbed his red-rimmed eyes and studied the little prick mark on his right arm. “It wasn’t so bad,” he said. The little bag of blood Ruiz had just given up would pay for the Caesarean section that made his friend a father, and it was part of an elemental ritual of life here. In Mexico, patients who have no health insurance or who are covered by bare-bones government plans are required to recruit two to six blood donors – friends, relatives, even total strangers—in order to receive free or discounted medical care. It is an obligation accepted matter-of-factly. Nearly half of the population had no health insurance in 2005, and almost everyone – except for the estimated 5 percent of the population that can afford deluxe private insurance can readily spool off a list of surgeries that their blood has made possible. At Xoco Hospital, the minutes passed in drowsy silence. The clock said 7:45 a.m., and Ruiz was still waiting for his post-donation consultation. It was so quiet that no one could miss the weeping that soon grew into great, belly-heaving sobs just down the hall. A hushed semicircle formed around a man in a baseball cap, a man overwrought with grief. “Please,” the man said, “I beg your support.” Carlos Reyes had brought friends to Xoco to give pints of blood following the car accident that crumpled his father’s body. But that didn’t seem important anymore. A man in a white coat had told him his father was gone. All Reyes could think about now was the money he needed to take his father home to be buried in Cuernavaca, 55 miles south of Mexico City. A small woman stepped toward Reyes and handed him a coin. “Bless you,” he said. By 8 a.m., the long corridor could no longer hold the dozens of blood donors who shouldered in alongside patients awaiting orthopedic examinations and plaster casts. Jose Alvarez, a window installer with droopy eyelids and thick forearms, fingered the slip of paper that told him his place was at the back of the line—way at the back. Number 45, he said dejectedly, and slumped against the wall. Alvarez knows Xoco well. He radiates health. His family doesn’t. Alvarez had previously given blood to pay for both of his brothers’ kidney surgeries and for some procedure that his brother-in-law needed but that Alvarez never quite understood. Somewhere in between there was a cousin who hit him up for half a pint, too. On this day, he was here for his sister’s heart surgery. “If you can help, it’s good,” he said. Across the corridor, Cristian David Reyes Trujillo and Raul Morales were getting acquainted. They had met for the first time the day before, the day a doctor told Morales that his wife would need an emergency Caesarean section to give birth to their second child. Morales’ aunt is a regular at a bar near her home and she just happened to know that her favorite bartender—Reyes Trujillo—had O-negative blood. She made the introduction, and Reyes Trujillo agreed without hesitation. Someday, he figured, he might need the same. By arrangement with
LA-Times–Washington Post
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Chatterati Dr Manmohan Singh addressed the nation from the Red Fort on 15th August, the 59th year of our Independence. Appearing confident yet emotional after his three-year tenure, he even wrote his own speech. While lauding the progress made on the economic front, he also made the right noises about combating terrorism. Being the Head of the Super Power of Asia, his calm and composed stance was a fitting riposte. Manmohan is right about the economy — the railway corridor is shining, manufacturing industries are looking up and a buoyant private sector is buying companies abroad. India has certainly arrived as an economic power. What is irksome, however, is the security alert year after year on Independence and Republic Day. Frankly, I don’t remember any Independence Day for the last fifteen years when the threat was not high. Even the National Security Advisor spoke about the threat from the Lashkar-e-Toiba to every VIP and important institution in our country. How long are we going to celebrate these events in the shadow of fear? How long will vote bank politics influence our governance? Terrorism requires a well deliberated, coordinated response. The Mumbai terrorist strike calls for a major security revamp. Our politicians need to take lessons from the British and American response to the events of 9/11 and metro bombings respectively. It is the criminalisation of politics which has really slowed the country’s advance in all respects. The penetration of criminals, mafia and corrupt businessmen in the political hierarchy has not only sullied the image of politicians but is also responsible for slowing down our social, political and economic reforms. So what does the road ahead require? To set right the internal security management is one issue which requires a courageous and bold initiative. A call perhaps for a nationwide security swoop and measures for a major revamp. Vote bank politics has already put this country back by fifty years. Unless the criminals and mafia in the garb of politicians are ostracised, condemned and summarily rejected by the electorate, we will continue to be mute spectators to their shenanigans.
Colourful kites Delhi Police may have had plans to ground the city’s kite flying tradition this Independence Day. But old Delhi saw Chinese dragons, Spiderman and Dhoni fight for space on the August 15 skies. From five-feet-high glittering kites to dainty Rampuri and Jaipuri ones, all were there. A simple Re 1 tiranga kite or a more ostentatious Rs 180 Chinese Chimgadar. Even though the Chinese kites are more colourful, most opted for the Indian kites this year. Those made in Bareilly and Jaipur were most sought after. From the staggering Rs 10,000 kites made of real notes to the ominous black Chinese bat, a hard decision to make. There were Veer-Zaara and Dhoom kites as well. If you have a yen for history, you can go for the Tipu Sultan manja (the glass-encased thread that cuts through other kites) or opt for the more topical Saddam Hussain brand. If you really want to prove your skills, the manja is the best weapon. These, incidentally, don’t come cheap. Starting from Rs 100, the rates can go up to more than Rs 300. Well, it’s a nice way of keeping tradition alive at any cost.
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From the pages of Carter attacks U.S. role
Mr Gerald Ford was propelled into the White House by fate, Watergate and the 25th Amendment. Mr Jimmy Carter, who has won the Democratic nomination for the presidential race, has said: “The people of this country want a fresh face, not one associated with the long series of mistakes made at the White House and on Capitol Hill.” In recent years of White House tenancy by the Republicans it was not mistakes alone that were made. Even crimes had been transferred from the streets to the White House. At least that is what most Americans thought of Mr Nixon’s days. For 16 years since Kennedy, every single major party nominee has been a Senator or a former Senator. Mr Carter has broken this circle. He has never been in the Senate. He was only Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975... He has been particularly forthright in denouncing his country’s role as the world’s leading arms salesman.
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