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Rot in the roti Fighting terrorism |
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Irresponsible insurers Concerned about profits, then the aged AS one grows in age, the need for insurance is felt all the more acutely. This is particularly so in a country like India where few enjoy the privilege of a safety net like social security. Insurance can provide some buffer against the spectre of numerous health problems and untimely death.
Editor’s Column
Everyday a “Day”
Pak’s double game Ecological havoc in the Kasauli hills Defence notes
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Rot in the roti IN a damning indictment of the FCI, the Comptroller and Auditor General has found that in some cases 85 per cent of the rice procured during 2000-05 in Punjab and Haryana was unfit for human use. The substandard rice was to be either replaced by the millers who supplied it or disposed of in the local market. Instead it was moved to other locations in violation of the guidelines for supply through the public distribution system. Even the quantity was deficient. There was a 10 per cent shortfall in the rice procured in Punjab and 18 per cent in Haryana. The CAG findings may surprise only those not familiar with the FCI’s functioning. The state procurement agencies are no better either. Punsup has procured 17,239 metric tonnes of substandard wheat and plans to offload it in the market. Media reports point out that wheat worth Rs 23 crore has been pilfered from six Markfed godowns in the last five years. The quality of even imported wheat has been questioned. The Centre has been accused of importing contaminated, disease-stricken wheat with 500 per cent more pesticide residues than the permitted limit and the matter is currently before the Supreme Court. When India exported wheat a few years ago, it was largely bought for use as cattlefeed. While the cola pesticide controversy has shaken the country, the stink in the food business has hardly been noticed. Corruption in the FCI and state agencies has been known for years. The FCI’s subsidy bill has multiplied over the years without any corresponding benefits to the poor or the farmer. Foodgrains rot in the open for want of storage facilities. The FCI’s handling and procurement cost is twice that of private traders. According to one estimate, foodgrains worth Rs 500 crore are lost in transit. All this makes the food costly for the poor. These reports call for a massive cleanup of the system.
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Fighting terrorism Foreign
Secretary Shyam Saran must have been driven by circumstances to state publicly that India is not receiving the necessary cooperation from the countries like the US and Britain to fight terrorism. India and the US may be partners in the concert of democracy but there is obviously a distressing lack of concerted effort when it comes to making common cause in international anti-terrorism measures. Mr Saran articulating this grievance itself should be serious enough for Washington and London to not only take notice but also respond adequately, and urgently, to address New Delhi’s concerns. Mr Saran is not a diplomat given to hyperbole; if something has to be understated, he is one who would prefer to leave it unsaid. Hence, his explicit statement - that the coordination between terrorist organisations is better than that between the states facing them – must be seen as a warning of a clear and present danger. This is yet another reminder that western powers, particularly Washington, should not look at the danger terrorism represents through tinted glasses and differentiate between terrorist organisations when they all are interlinked and working in close concert. Recognising this would require the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to come down heavily on terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Hizbul Mujahideen. Far from doing that, the West looks the other way, when Islamabad pampers these organisations and pretends that they are not part of any global terror network. If Mr Saran has been pointed in his criticism of Washington, it is because the US is perceived as an uncompromising ally of states faced with terrorism. This requires Washington to live up to that perception and cooperate in the fullest sense. New Delhi has been willing to go along with international anti-terrorism measures such as profiling of air passengers despite the deplorable victimisation of Indians by the Dutch authorities. The international community cannot allow its concerns to be limited if the anti-terrorist operations have to deal with the concerns of all vulnerable nations, and India is certainly one of the most vulnerable and worst affected.
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Irresponsible insurers AS one grows in age, the need for insurance is felt all the more acutely. This is particularly so in a country like India where few enjoy the privilege of a safety net like social security. Insurance can provide some buffer against the spectre of numerous health problems and untimely death. Insurance companies, at least the public sector ones, should have been at the forefront of those coming to the rescue of the elderly. But that was not to be. In fact, quite the contrary has been the case. State-owned Oriental Insurance Company has been found to follow policies which amount to organised discrimination against this vulnerable section. It has been discouraging the sale of medical insurance to those above 45 years of age and denying commission to agents for renewal of medi-claim policies by those above 55. All this translates into a thinly veiled bias against those who need insurance the most. It is a healthy sign that this prejudice earned the ire of the elderly who expressed their dismay forcefully at the July 23 meeting of the National Council of Older Persons. The hue and cry raised by them has prompted the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to intervene and tell the PSU to give up this policy. The firm action by the regulator will, hopefully, prod Oriental to mend its ways, although for the time being the insurance company has dug in its heels. The overall situation is so dismal that much more will have to be done. The prejudice of the private players towards the greying population is far more pronounced than those of the state-owned agencies. Most of them just do not offer health cover to those above 50. The select few who do charge nearly twice as much premium as the state-owned insurers do. The government must take a sympathetic view of the problems of the elderly and step in to ameliorate their lot immediately.
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The great act of faith is when a man decides he is not God. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
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Editor’s Column
NO democracy can be run without providing plenty of space for dissent and debate on vital issues of the day. A variety of opinions gives better choices and throws up more workable policies. In a nation like India with all its diversity expressed through various religions, castes, creeds, regions, languages and ethnic groups and vast sections of society experiencing stark inequality, democracy allows some pent-up steam to come out. By opting for a democratic polity, the founding fathers of the Constitution also ensured the country’s unity, belying the predictions of those who had thought India, with so many groups competing with each other for one reason or another, will dismember as a nation not long after Independence. Democracy requires intense questioning of the executive by the citizen, a vigilant Parliament, an independent judiciary, a free Press and the unelected representatives of the people, who are being fashionably called the civil society these days. Their voice must be taken seriously and influence the policies of the government. This will make the State more responsive and give the people a sense of belonging. While the right of the people to have their say in the governance of the country is sacred, there can be situations when different sections of society begin exercising pulls and pressures, which by their very nature can create social and political tensions. These tensions in turn are bound to divert the nation’s attention from the essential task it has set for itself: To emerge as a one of the major powers in the first half of the 21st century. One way to tackle these tensions – in Parliament and outside – is to evolve a consensus among political parties on some national issues that do not permit continued acrimony among the political parties, often leading to an atmosphere of confrontation. The need for a national consensus among political parties on vital issues was rightly emphasised by Dr Manmohan Singh in his address to the nation on Independence Day. The plea for a national consensus came at the end of the address, but it was clear that his experience as Prime Minister for over two years had convinced him that the country could not make a major headway unless the political parties “shun the politics of divisiveness” and adopt the politics of change and progress. “Our political parties and leaders must learn to work together and to build a consensus around national issues”, he said. The Prime Minister did not spell out the issues or who is to bring about the national consensus he was seeking. The obvious leader who can take the initiative in building a consensus is the Prime Minister himself, although he gave no indication that he is prepared to undertake the task. The present is the best time for doing so. Dr Manmohan Singh has virtually completed half of his present term as Prime Minister and as the country drifts towards the next parliamentary elections in 2009, consensus- building will become more difficult. If Dr Manmohan Singh chooses to undertake building a national consensus, he will find that the task is not as easy as it seems. This is mainly because of the sharp divisions that continue to exist in Indian society and politics. Added to this is the kind of people that have come to acquire leadership positions in several political parties and sections of society. Evolving a national consensus will require a capacity to look ahead, tolerance of others’ points of view, willingness to give and take, and at times sacrificing personal and party interest for the wellbeing of the nation. Unfortunately, the severe decline in the quality of leaders, their myopic vision and petty concerns, as also the growing amorality of politics hardly leave any scope for a constructive and forward-looking pursuit of consensus. The search for consensus, however, cannot be put off simply because the task has become formidable. The Constitution was the result of the labours of a national consensus the leaders of the time had succeeded in evolving. It helped the nation tackle the post-Partition travails and steer it on to a track for building a democratic and economically strong India. Despite serious differences in political and economic policies among the leaders in those formative years, the country kept moving, riding on a national consensus. Irrespective of their beliefs, no party or leader tried to rock the boat. Two major events shattered not only the prevailing national consensus but also the elementary consensual approach that is necessary for running a democratic country. One was clearly the imposition of the Emergency by Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, who chose to throw the democratic system overboard and send most opposition leaders to jail, impose censorship on the Press and suppress the Fundamental Rights, and much else. (It was shocking to see the Supreme Court uphold the denial of even the Right to Life by the Emergency Raj.) The second traumatic event that tore the national consensus apart was the Ayodhya movement and the destruction of the Babri Masjid by the Sangh Parivar. It was an act of national shame, which sharpened the communal divide in the country and made minorities feel insecure. While the country has to a large extent come out of the after-effects of the Emergency, it is yet to recover from the psychology and the political situation the destruction of the Babri Masjid created. Narendra Modis, Singhals and Tagodias are still out doing their nasty work and sharpening the divide. If Dr Manmohan Singh is really going to make a serious attempt on a national consensus, he could begin by taking up a few questions of utmost importance to the country. There must be, for instance, a consensus that the Basic Structure of the Constitution should not be fiddled with by the executive and Parliament, whichever political party in power. Although the Supreme Court has not defined the Basic Structure of the Constitution, it can safely include parliamentary democracy, sanctity of the Fundamental Rights, secularism and protection of the rights of minorities, independence of the judiciary, the Freedom of the Press, and a federal polity. This list can only expand, not shrink. Parliament has lately been going through a harrowing experience with walkouts, boycotts, the storming of the well, unending uproars and many an ugly scene. No political party stands to gain from the kind of the situation that has lately been prevailing in Parliament whose reputation with the people will depend on the conduct of the MPs on the floor of the House. The MPs have to use Parliament for making laws, voicing the feelings of the people and influencing the making of policies; Parliament in turn has to provide ample scope for debate and dissent, without providing any quarter to those who want to cause disruption. Evolving a consensus on the smooth functioning of Parliament – may be with the help of the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha – could be the first step that the Prime Minister can take towards a larger consensus on major issues. These could also include serious electoral reforms and banning criminals from contesting elections. Recent experience shows that foreign policy and combating terrorism will also have to be added to the list, among other questions. In the task of building a consensus on larger questions, Dr Manmohan Singh may have to involve former Prime Ministers – who all have faced similar problems – leaders of most political parties, Chief Ministers and many others who are not in the political mainstream, but shape public opinion. Building a national consensus will not be a mean venture, if the Prime Minister decides to embark on it, even if it takes a lot of his time and effort.
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Everyday a “Day”
It’s a “Day” everyday these days—-Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Grandparents’ Day, Friendship Day, Valentine’s Day and Forgiveness Day to name a few. Every year some new “Days” are added to the calendar. For instance, Shakti Divas was born in the memory of Indira Gandhi, “Oorja Divas” in the memory of Rajiv Gandhi and ‘vijay Divas’ in the memory of Kargil heroes. Added to these is a long list of “Days” of lesser importance like Pravasi Divas, Sadbhavna Divas, Hindi Divas, Mahila Divas and Stree Samman Divas which hog the limelight for one day in a lifetime to draw the attention of the public to an issue and then die their own death making way for new “Days”. A day might come when the 365 days of the year would be reserved and “half days” will be celebrated. When we were small, there were mainly four days in a year-Independence Day, Republic Day “Children’s Day” and “Teachers Day”. And they were observed very solemnly. They were marked in red on the calendar and we would wait for them right from the beginning of the year. But as westernisation caught the fancy of the new generation, the so-called “national” days lost their lustere. These days they are celebrated solely to carry on the traditions and are utilised by politicians to promote their career. This is the time of commercialisation. Anything that does not fetch business must be dumped. Hence, the celebration of inevitable bonds i.e. Mother’s, father’s, friend’s and grandparents’ which sells thousands of cards, bands, gifts, flowers and SMS’s. Apart from this, the commemoration of a “Day” to highlight a relationship seems sham in our type of close-knit social structure. The only purpose, if any, these days can serve, is by prompting everyone to indulge in some genuine introspection and then make some earnest confessions. For instance, a son’s message to his father on Father’s Day could be like this: Father, thank you for the sermonising Which was really well-meant, Forgive me for being impudent, Careless and disobedient. I promise to change my ways soon, And turn this day to a boon………….. The father’s reply on “Son’s Day”: I am proud of your name, fame and rank Wish I was more tolerant of your pranks, The changing times are changing my view Soon you ‘ll meet this father
NEW!
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Pak’s double game ISLAMABAD – For the past five years, Pakistan has pursued a risky, two-sided policy toward Islamic militancy, positioning itself as a major ally in the Western-led war against global terrorism while reportedly allowing homegrown Muslim insurgent groups to meddle in neighboring India and Afghanistan. Now, two high-profile cases of terrorism—a day of gruesome, sophisticated train bombings in India in mid-July and a plot foiled this month to blow up planes leaving Britain for the United States – have cast a new spotlight on Pakistan’s ambiguous, often starkly contradictory roles as both a source and suppressor of Islamic violence, according to Pakistani and foreign experts. Moreover, increasing evidence of links between international attacks and groups long tolerated or nurtured in Pakistan, including the Taliban and Kashmiri separatists, are making it difficult for the military-led government here to reconcile its policy of courting religious groups at home while touting its anti-terrorist credentials abroad. “The conundrum for the military still persists,” said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani army general. “The question always is, should we totally ban these organizations or keep them for later use?” Although the government has “selectively” prosecuted extremist groups, he said, “at the conceptual level, it has deliberately followed an ambiguous policy.” The basic problem for Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is that he is trying to please two irreconcilable groups. Abroad, the leader of this impoverished Muslim country is frantically competing with arch-rival India, a predominantly Hindu country, for American political approval and economic ties. To that end, he has worked hard to prove himself as a staunch anti-terrorism ally. But at home, where he hopes to win election in 2007 after eight years as a self-appointed military ruler, Musharraf needs to appease Pakistan’s Islamic parties to counter strong opposition from its secular ones. He also needs to keep alive the Kashmiri and Taliban insurgencies on Pakistan’s borders to counter fears within military ranks that India, which has developed close ties with the Kabul government, is pressuring its smaller rival on two flanks. “It is clear that our current policy of stout denial fools nobody,” columnist Irfan Husain wrote in the Dawn newspaper last Saturday. By allowing Islamic militant groups to flourish while seeking praise for helping to break up the plot in Britain, he said, Pakistani officials are “determined to see only one side of the coin,” but “the rest of the world is bent on examining the other side very closely indeed.” Until recently, Musharraf had handled this balancing act with some success, Pakistani and foreign experts said. He formally banned several radical Islamic groups while quietly allowing them to survive. He sent thousands of troops to the Afghan border while Taliban insurgents continued to slip back and forth. Meanwhile, his security forces arrested more than 700 terrorism suspects, earning Western gratitude instead of pressure to get tougher on homegrown violence. But this summer, a drumbeat of terrorist violence and plotting in India, Britain and Afghanistan have begun to blur the distinction between regional and international Islamic violence. Pakistan, which has a large intelligence apparatus, is now in the awkward position of denying any knowledge of local militants’ links to bombings in India and Afghanistan, while claiming credit for exposing their alleged roles in the London airliner plot. “It is ironic that our very success in thwarting plots and arresting a large number of terrorists reinforces the perception that this country is a bastion of terrorism,” said Shafqat Mahmood, a former Pakistani legislator, suggesting that Islamic militancy has been permitted to flourish in Pakistan at the country’s peril. “Our triumphs in the war against terror have become advertisements of our failure,” he said. In a recent interview, Riaz Mohammed Khan, Pakistan’s foreign secretary, said his government “opposes all terrorism” and had worked diligently to expose the role of Pakistanis in the London plot. Pakistan has arrested a British national of Pakistani origin, Rashid Rauf, whom sources described as a member of a banned sectarian group, Jaish-i-Muhammed. Pakistan also placed under house arrest the former head of Lashkar-i-Taiba, another militant group blamed by India in the bombings. (Now released. – Ed) Despite the arrests, Indian officials suggested that Musharraf, after sincere efforts to curb militant groups, was now giving them freer rein in order to secure their electoral support. They said that both the Taliban and some pro-Kashmir militants had now gone beyond their original aims and forged ties to al-Qaida. “Whether this is a loss of control by Musharraf or a deliberate shift in strategy, for us the results are the same,” said a senior Indian official in New Delhi. In Afghanistan, officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of harboring and aiding the revived Taliban insurgency, which has launched a wave of violent attacks and suicide bombings across the southern part of the country this spring and summer. Pakistan has denied the charges and periodically arrested some Taliban figures, but there are widespread reports of insurgents operating freely on both sides of the border. As for India, Pakistan is eager to resolve the Kashmir issue, but its relations with New Delhi have been hostile for years and remained captive to the persistent violence in the territory. India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of sending armed insurgents across the border, but Pakistan has insisted it provides only political support to the separatists. But critics said Pakistan’s problems with Islamic violence cannot be resolved as long as the military remains in power. In an unusual move last month, a diverse group of senior former civilian and military officials wrote an open letter to Musharraf, warning that the country is becoming dangerously polarized and that a uniformed presidency only exacerbates the problem by politicizing the armed forces. The only solution, the group wrote, is a transition to a “complete and authentic democracy.” —
By arrangement with
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Ecological havoc in the Kasauli hills THE Kasauli hills are at present threatened with ecological havoc. Big ticket colonisers and property developers, alongwith a network of real-estate agents, are acquiring thousands of bighas of land from peasants and farmers to put up multistorey apartment blocks, resorts and hotels. In doing so they are using the government, which is working with an overdrive to make a mockery of the 1972 Land Tenancy Act and of laws pertaining to land-use, land preservation, forest cover and environment protection. It is particularly reprehensible that all this, and other forms of environmental and ecological damage, are being perpetrated even in, outside and around a string of military cantonments, and air defence installations that dot Kasauli’s terrain. And, in the process the flora and fauna (human and non-human) are being forced to bear the burnt of a wounded natural resource base, pollution, health and life hazards. Plans are afoot to create pleasure and ‘happy hunting grounds’ for the absentee rich, high and mighty, drawn principally from Punjab, Haryana and the National Capital Region. There are Santas and Bantas, mini rajas, Congress-BJP wallas, retired and serving service officers, page three golfers and corporates buying out hundreds of gullible agro-zamindars off thousand of acres. Plans and blueprints are being drawn out for spas, exotic golf courses, restro-bars, so-called chalets, villas, resorts hotels and apartment blocks to take over shamlat (community) hillsides and fields, ghasnis (grasslands) and wild pasturelands. Thousands of trees are being felled, public roads and their culverts are being slashed mercilessly and deep bore wells being dug. Old, time-tested water sources, springs and artesian wells (chashmas and baolis) are running dry, or being forced into a rickle by bore wells and mining activities. Water and energy meant for irrigation and daily needs in villages is being diverted for luxury bathtubs, bidets, western-style toilets, jacuzis, steambaths and saunas. Even more ominously, the government has decided to extend its industrial areas and estates away from the plains deeper into the hills, especially on the road that links Dharampur with the Gurkha cantonment of Sabathu. The Kasauli hills have already started to experience the devastation being caused by this mindless decision. Hotels and factories are beginning to pop up bang on the roadside almost every four hundred meters or so. As for the Town and Country Planning Department, and the H.P.P.W.D., both are working overtime to encourage shanty towns dotted with 5-star oases in the rural hinterland, even while making the towns shabbier and more unlivable than they already are. The area between Parwanoo and Shimla now being subjected to “eco-terrorism” is a geologically fragile formation subject to seismic thrusts and movements. Not only geologically fragile, it is also ecologically strategic. All nallahs, streams and rivers flowing eastwards from here empty out into the Yamuna-Ganga system, and then into the Bay of Bengal. Obversely, all water courses that flow westwards drain into the esturian waters of the Arabian Sea. Thus, it is plainly evident that the Kasauli Hills are a strategic terrain for ecological security.
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Defence notes THE Ministry of Defence will seek additional funds from the Ministry of Finance over and above the allocation of Rs 89,000 crore in this year’s Union Budget, to meet projected additional spending. The ministry, however, has not been able to meet the overall target spending for the Tenth Defence Plan. As against the Rs 4,18,000 crore earmarked for defence spending in the Tenth Defence Plan, so far the ministry has been able to spend Rs 3,62,000 crore. The Tenth Plan projections were formulated by the MoD and an overall plan size had been accepted by the Ministry of Finance. This was subject to availability of resources with the Government at the relevant point of time, capacity to utilize funds, pace of expenditure, contractual agreements and other committed liabilities.
Off target shooting Reacting to media reports about one of its senior officers seeking funds from the force to shoot a film based on a book written by his wife, the Army has removed the officer from his present posting and shifted him to a relatively less sensitive area. Reports emerging from the MoD said that Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) Lt Gen Deepak Summanwar, who at one time also headed the Army Liason Cell (ALC), has been shifted to Southern Command. He was first asked to proceed on leave for seeking funds and facilities for shooting a film based on a book written by his wife. He has been replaced by Lt Gen D.S. Bartwal. He will take charge of his new posting in September on promotion to the post of Lt General.
Suicides by women officers The MoD has said that since 2005, suicides by four women officers of the Indian Armed Forces have been reported. While two cases each were reported in 2005 and till date in 2006, there were three cases of harassment reported in 2004, three in 2005 and two so far this year. The MoD has also reiterated that there were no officers involved in the case in which three army personnel were found to have links with the terrorist outfit LeT.
Polyclinics The Government has sanctioned a total of 227 Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinics to be set up by March 31, 2008. As on date, 222 ECHS polyclinics have already become operational. Ex-servicemen pensioners and their authorized dependents benefit from the scheme. The ECHS was introduced with effect from August 1, 2003 and is still in the formative stage. Under the scheme, a polyclinic, besides treating minor ailments, is also the referral point for patients for treatment of major and complicated cases, to empanelled hospitals and diagnostic centres. 519 such hospitals and diagnostic centres have so far been empanelled under the scheme.
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From the pages of GOLD FOR SALE IN announcing the Government’s decision to sell gold to the public the Union Finance Minister expressed the hope in his Budget speech that this would help check smuggling and bring down gold prices. While these objectives are in the realm of possibility, the one certainty will be that the Government will raise domestic resources from the sale to cover part of its huge budgetary deficit. The price of gold did decline in the week after the Budget — standard gold fell from Rs 690 per 10 grams to Rs 635 — but it has started rising again. Indeed, in a country mining just three tonnes of gold every year but with a domestic consumption of around 75 tonnes, prices cannot be expected to fall steeply. But the Government will not be keen on too steep a fall in prices as the aim is also to mop up domestic savings. As for gold smuggling, the only way to end it is to close the gap between the domestic and international prices.
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And when we pray to Him for gifts, He gives, as He is the giver. —Guru Nanak When the Guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does the trick. —Kabir Give not what you want not as a gift. —The Upanishads
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