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Uncertainty in B’desh Death for a killer Haryana to fight AIDS |
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Veil or no veil
By Order: Bihariji
IAF, Army should stress joint operations Delhi Durbar Global warming catastrophe “a near certainty”
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Uncertainty in B’desh Bangladesh President Iazuddin Ahmed taking over as the head of the interim government in Dhaka on Sunday was quite surprising. When immediate past Chief Justice K.M. Hasan refused to accept the invitation to head the interim administration in view of the controversy generated because of his past links with Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the offer, in accordance with the constitution, could have gone to the next retired Chief Justice, Mr Mahmudul Ameen Chowdhury. But this could not be possible because it did not fit in with the scheme of things of the BNP-led ruling coalition. Hence the go-ahead to the titular President to do what he did as a former BNP functionary. That all this has claimed at least 22 lives in the violence that followed does not concern the politicians. Sheikh Haseena’s Awami League is justified in boycotting Sunday’s swearing-in ceremony organised by the Bangladesh President’s office for his own installation as the head of the interim administration. The BNP-led coalition wants to recapture power by any means. Its leadership seems to be desperate after recent reports suggested that the Awami League-led alliance had a greater chance of scoring victory in free and fair elections. In desperation it is using every tactic it can think of to ensure its electoral success. But its recent actions may impair the Bangladesh constitution seriously. The BNP may have to suffer in the coming elections as people may consider it solely responsible for creating the situation of uncertainty that prevails today. The way she has gone about during the just concluded tenure, Begum Zia has proved that she has little respect for democratic institutions. Resentment against her style of functioning has been growing within her own party, which led to a number of her ministers and MPs joining a party formed by her former loyalist, Mr Badruddoza Chowdhury, last week. She not only refused to consider the opposition’s demand for electoral reforms for holding a free and fair poll, but also ignored a court ruling that the Election Commission should be reconstituted in view of the opposition’s charge that its chief and his colleagues were BNP loyalists. Although India cannot interfere in Bangladesh’s internal affairs, it is bound to be concerned with the kind of developments taking place in a neighbouring country.
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Death for a killer The order to hang Santosh Kumar Singh for the murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo comes at a time when some perennial agitationists have been clamouring for clemency to Afzal Guru, the man convicted in the Parliament attack case. The demand to abolish death penalty altogether is also raised whenever a person is sought to be hanged. Even these mercy-mongers will find it difficult to demand the lesser sentence of life imprisonment for Santosh Kumar Singh. He had almost escaped just punishment through his high connections. It is only because of the public uproar and the media interest that the case underwent such a U-turn in the higher court. There is no reason why mercy should be shown to such people. What has to be borne in mind is that life sentence in any case is given in the rarest of rare cases. There are certain crimes in which anything less than that will amount to giving the criminals a free rein. This is because there are some hardened criminals for whom life imprisonment is no deterrence. Just as criminals have a right to life, ordinary citizens too have a right to life. In fact, the latter’s right takes precedence. Those who take somebody’s life deliberately and consciously have no right to feed on the magnanimity of society. A thought must be spared for the near and dear ones of those who have been killed or maimed by inhuman brutes. Allowing such beasts to spend a few years in jail and then roam free will be an insult to the memory of innocent victims. And we must be conscious of certain ground realities as well. There are many dreaded terrorists in Indian jails who have killed scores of people. Showing leniency to them will be an open invitation to greater trouble. One care that must be taken is that the judicial process should not take interminably long and lead to judgements that are flawed. Unfortunately, even the clemency petitions sent to the President are not decided for several years. In fact, some convicts use this ploy to buy time. A sense of urgency will ensure that nobody is able to take undue advantage of the slow legal process.
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Haryana to fight AIDS Given the alarming spread of AIDS in the country, any state taking steps to control the menace deserves praise. Although the number of HIV positive cases reportedly is not very large in Haryana, the government has lost no time in setting up 22 integrated counselling and testing centres at government hospitals and community centres in the state. According to the UNAIDS and WHO figures for 2006, Haryana has reported 486 new HIV/AIDS cases compared to Punjab’s 292, Himachal’s 252 and Chandigarh’s 1,260 cases. If the number of AIDS/HIV cases is comparatively small in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, it may not be because the incidence of AIDS is low in these states, but because there are not sufficient reliable and effective detection facilities in place. Besides, not many people come forward to seek help from the health authorities. This may be due to lack of faith in the official set-up or the tendency to keep the disease a secret due to the social stigma attached to it. Since there is no known cure available, victims quite often choose to stay away from hospitals. The latest countrywide figures made available by WHO are shocking and call for immediate steps to arrest the fast spread of the disease. Tamil Nadu — where AIDS first hit the country two decades ago with sex HIV cases — tops the list of states with 52,036 cases followed by Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. In total, according to the WHO report, India reported 1,11608 fresh cases of AIDS in 2005. This is a cause for worry, especially because nobody knows how many such cases go unreported. Still the number of cases detected is very large. This calls for coordinated efforts by the Centre and the states to combat the disease. The budgetary allocations for health need to be raised so that the preventive efforts can become effective.
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Modern science was largely conceived of as an answer to the servant problem. — Fran Lebowitz
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Veil or no veil
Veil-wearing Muslims have suddenly become the most- feared women in Britain! Wearing the veil has become an explosive issue in the UK, after Mr Jack Straw, Leader of the House of Commons, argued that it was a “statement of separation”. He has requested that his female constituents remove their veil when they come to talk to him. Only a minority of Muslim women in the UK wear the niqab (veil), but overnight they have become the national focus in the debate over Muslim integration in Britain. It is being argued that it is against British culture to cover your face because you cannot see facial expressions, without which communication is impossible. “How are you supposed to talk to them?” people are asking. “They are scary and intimidating. You can only see their eyes and you cannot tell if they are angry or happy with what you have said to them. It is not fair, they can see us but we can’t see them.” There is a lot that is upsetting and worrying about the new direction in the debate on how to tackle Muslim integration in Britain. Many are worried that Islamophobia is increasing, both on the streets and in the Press. However, Mr Jack Straw’s comments have triggered a debate and created an opening for discussion. In Britain, where so much value is placed on looks, veiling the face is seen as the ultimate negation of the self. The wider British public does not understand why some women wear the veil. They especially do not understand those women who say they are not oppressed and are wearing it out of choice. Some argue that since many Muslims themselves agree the veil is unnecessary, it cannot be regarded as a religious requirement. The inability to identify the person behind the veil means that some people are opposed to it due to rising anxieties about terrorism. The dislike of the veil is also part of a shift towards secularising public spaces, with both the BBC and British Airways recently requesting their staff to ensure their crosses are not visible. There is certainly a lot of entrenched prejudice against the niqab, but this debate has at least increased awareness of the veil and what it means to some Muslim women, even if people ultimately do not agree with the decision to wear it. Niqab-wearing women have been speaking out in interviews on national television to help people understand why they wear the veil. Even though discussions have usually ended with the TV presenters disagreeing with them, these women have demanded respect for their choices and have shown that they can engage in communication from behind their veils. Whether they have won respect is unclear, but they have at least made their voices heard. Asking women to remove their veils is not, in my opinion, the best way to encourage integration. It will only needlessly exacerbate tensions. By learning to respect each other’s choices, there will be a much better chance for integration and multi-culturalism to succeed. However, debating it is important. In order to find respect for other cultural practices, we do first have to understand them. It was only through meeting women who wore the veil that I learned that the niqab does not provide an insurmountable barrier to communication. Travelling in Pakistan two years ago, I made my first veiled friend. I had never wondered whether I would have problems communicating with a woman wearing a niqab. But when I saw Farah for the first time, the question that has recently been discussed in every British newspaper crossed my mind too. How do I get to know her without seeing her face? Apart from her eyes, Farah was covered in black from head to toe. But, through her voice she radiated outwards. The veil, while initially unsettling for me, did not preclude us becoming friends. However, most British people do not often have the chance to talk to women who wear the veil. In this context, the public debate has been useful. It has created the opportunity for the veiled and the unveiled to discuss their varied opinions. The heated exchange of views that followed has been healthy for integration. Although I am not a Muslim, I have great respect for women who wear the hijab. However, my feelings about the veil are mixed. On the one hand, I do not think that a woman should have to veil her face. But, on the other hand, this is my personal view and I do not have any right to impose that opinion on another woman. If a Muslim woman interprets Islam as saying that she must wear a veil and she wants to observe that, then that should be her right, her choice and should be respected. That is what real freedom means. Showing your face is not the most important feature that defines British culture. More relevant is how (until now) in Britain women have had the freedom to dress as they wish. The argument that women should not veil is challenging this idea. For, if a woman is free to show as much of her body as she wants, then a woman must also have the right to cover up as much as she wants. The veil is clearly a controversial issue that has divided opinion in the UK and has the potential to increase racial tensions, but this is all the more reason why it needs be rigorously discussed. If Muslims and non-Muslims are afraid of talking about such issues, we are more at the risk of a gulf appearing between us. The question of “to veil or not to veil” has provided new challenges in attempts to improve social cohesion in the UK. However, the only way forward is to keep talking. The success of integration depends upon
it. The writer is a scholar of Peace Fellow with Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP) and is conducting her D. Phil research at Oxford University.
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By Order: Bihariji After the mandatory cup of tea, the Divisional Commissioner gave the newly appointed District Magistrate his blessings and said: “Seek Bihariji’s blessings before beginning your assignment”. The puzzled DM wisely kept his counsel and left. He wondered about Bihariji, who no doubt was a paan-chewing, profanity-spouting local strongman or tout who had wormed his way into the good books of the Divisional Commissioner. How he wished he had stood up to his senior and told him he would not call on this Bihariji, as he, the DM, had the dignity of a decades-old institution to protect. Even so, he, R. Sampath Kumar of the millennium batch of the IAS, would show this Bihariji that he was made of sterner stuff. He drove straight to his new office only to be greeted by a flustered PA who kept profusely apologising for not making arrangements for his welcome. The DM brushed aside all explanations, his no-nonsense work ethic apparent, and said: “Let’s get down to work. Summon the district officers for an urgent meeting”. “But Sir, Bihariji...” The DM, never one to run away from a situation felt that he indeed must deal with this Bihariji first before he got down to taking his district into the 22nd century. “Get him on the phone”, he barked. The PA’s jaw dropped in amazement. “But, Sir, Bihariji ....” he fumbled. “What do you think”? snapped Sampath. “Do you expect me to go to his office to meet him?” The deflated PA was convinced that the DM was either insane, or, maybe, just maybe, he did not genuinely understand. In the best traditions of the subordinate bureaucracy, trained over the years by dozens of larger-than-life DMs to be articulate and forceful when required, the PA now rose to the occasion: “Sahib, no DM of Mathura has refused. I request you to also act accordingly, otherwise...” “Otherwise...?” roared the DM, who by now was red with rage. “It is merely a tradition, sir; an auspicious start to your tenure here. There can be no harm in paying obeisance to God!” he retorted. It then dawned on Sampath that Bihariji was none other than Bankey Bihari, the dark-skinned, yellow-silk clad, flute-playing Lord of Mathura. That night, Sampath wrote in his email journal: “One important and glaring infrastructural gap that my predecessors have failed to address-Bankey Bihari, who presides over the universe and owns everything in it, is without a telephone connection. BSNL might have failed to reach him, but I wonder why the private sector has not got its act together!” The flurry of smileys appended to the sentence was the only sign of the fact that the poker-faced DM of Mathura had a sense of humour of a rare kind in the civil service.... the ability to laugh at
himself!
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IAF, Army should stress joint operations In
any country, the security aspect is mainly the responsibility of its Armed Forces. The Army, Air Force and Navy should operate together in close cooperation. The western countries laid great emphasis on the close cooperation between the three Services in order to achieve success from the First World War onwards. In those countries, there has been a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) system in operation starting from the Second World War. General Eisenhower commanded the Army, Air Force and Navy as the Supreme Commander in the Western Theatre while General Macarthur was the supreme commander in the Pacific Theatre and Admiral Mountbatten was the overall commander of all forces in South East Asia. Even in India, there was an overall commander of all the three Services before 1947. The C-in-C Army looked after the Air Force as well as the Navy. This was an earlier version of a Chief of Defence Staff with the difference that the CDS system as now proposed in India means that the Chiefs of the Army, the Air Force and the Navy would head the three services in turn, giving no special advantage to any Service. This would ensure complete cooperation between the three services. But when India achieved Independence, Mountbatten, using his influence, ensured that each Service had its own commander. He advised the Indian Government, to have a separate Chief for each Service, even though in the UK all the three services functioned under one commander. Since 1947, the cooperation between Army and the Air Force has not been satisfactory. In the 1947-48 Indo-Pak war, the IAF lifted troops from Delhi to Srinagar just in time to save the city from Pakistani raiders. The IAF also supported the 161 Infantry Brigade attack in the battle of Shellatang just West of Srinagar. This was the only occasion when IAF fighters gave close air support to the Indian Army in the 1947-48 war. If IAF had given similar air support to the Army in the battles fought in Uri and Tangdhar area, the Indian forces would have fared much better in the operations. The IAF also did not give close support to the Army formations advancing forward from the Jammu side to link with the Poonch garrison, for reasons not known. However, the IAF lifted troops, supplies and ammunition to Leh as well as to Poonch when it was surrounded by Pak forces. In the 1962 India-China war, the IAF again provided administrative support by dropping supplies and ammunition to the Army formations. But the IAF was not used to give close support to the Army. It was not even used to carry out reconnaissance of the battle area which would have revealed the wide, outflanking movements that the Chinese troops were making, to cut off various army formations in the Sela Pass - Bomdilla area. The government was at fault, for out of fear of Chinese air attacks on our cities, it did not want the IAF to take part in the war. However, the point to note is that the Army Generals did not ask for any air support either. The IAF did not volunteer to give close support also. After the debacle in the Sela Pass area, General Kaul was strongly recommending that US air support be arranged to stop further advance of the Chinese forces! The debacle in 1962 made the Indian Government pay more attention to the development of the Indian armed forces. But the lack of coordination between the Army and the IAF continued. It came out clearly in the 1965 Indo-Pak war that a system of ensuring proper coordination between the Army and the IAF had not been made functional. So the Army made its own plans without consulting the IAF. In fact, the Army's plans were kept secret from the IAF. The IAF could have actually helped the Army's operations in the plains of Punjab by giving close air support to the three divisions of XI Corps, but that was not to be. This adversely affected the operations of 15 Division in particular, which was attacked for nearly two days by the Pakistan Air Force before the IAF came on the scene. Our great victory in the Bangladesh war in 1971 did not mean that there was coordination between the Army and the Air Force. Actually, the relations between the IAF Chief Air Marshal Lal and General Manekshaw were quite strained, and the same conditions have prevailed since 1971. This only points to the necessity for establishing a proper mechanism for improving Army-Air relations. The Kargil war of 1999 highlighted the differences between the IAF and the Army, as becomes evident from the recent statements of the Ex-Chief of Air Staff and the Ex-chief of Army Staff. But the lack of cooperation between the two Services is deep rooted in the past incidents. At present the Army has its own doctrine which does not incorporate the role of close air support for attaining success in ground operations and does not demand close air support for its plans. The IAF has its own doctrine which gives low priority to air support for ground operations. So the two Services seem to be planning to conduct operations according to their own priorities. It would be ideal if the Army and the IAF make joint plans in which Army operations are given high priority by IAF. The plans for waging war should be decided in close cooperations to ensure success. It is the duty of not only the two Services, but also of the Ministry of Defence, to bring the two Services together in order to look after the security of the country. To start with, the Defence Ministry should ensure that command HQs of both IAF and Army are located together, to help in drawing joint plans. The Ministry of Defence seems to be ignoring the differences between the two Services. It gives the ministry the excuse to postpone introducing a Chief of Defence Staff System, so that the Defence Secretary can continue to function as de-facto CDS.
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Delhi Durbar Congress President Sonia Gandhi has an evident liking for Himachal Pradesh which she has been visiting for over three decades. The state, which elected a Congress government in 2003, has been changing governments every five years over the last few elections. The party has already begun preparing the ground for the round of assembly elections in 2008 which will be closer to the general elections scheduled for 2009. Sonia Gandhi, who intervened to end public wrangling by some Congress leaders in Himachal Pradesh, will be keen to see the state remain in the party fold in 2008. Her rally in Dharamsala is being seen as an effort by the party to gain the initiative in the Kangra region, where it has been facing charges of political discrimination following the downsizing of the ministry. Self-appraisal
by CRPF Generally, all in-house publications of various government departments contain articles and materials which highlight only the positive aspects of their functioning. However, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) appears to have made a bold departure. This year, in the Anniversary Special of their in-house magazine CRPF Samachar, they have included certain articles from neutral experts which are quite critical in nature. An article titled Left Wing Extremism in India is a critical analysis of the situation and the evolving strategies for containment. It is a welcome change, worth emulating by other wings of government. Joshi’s Diwali milan This year too, as is his practice, senior BJP leader and former Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi invited scribes to his residence for post-Diwali
celebrations and the turnout was impressive. However, barring one party spokesman in Prakash Javdekar, no other senior party leader was in sight. This set tongues wagging that Joshi was being ignored. Sensing that this may go out of control, Joshi immediately went on a damage control exercise saying that the majority of senior leaders were out of town. General Secretary Arun Jaitley, who is one of the most visible spokespersons of the party, was on a foreign trip and the other spokesperson Sushma Swaraj was out of circulation as she was nursing an injury, he told the assembled journalists. Thus, unwittingly, he also came to the rescue of his bete noir L K Advani who did not attend the office bearers meeting of the party on the same day.
***** Contributed by Prashant Sood,
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Global warming catastrophe “a near certainty” The possibility of avoiding a global catastrophe is “already almost out of reach”, according to former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern, who has been preparing a comprehensive report on the economics of climate change, on behalf of the UK Government, since July 2005. The long awaited report says that climate change could drive down the output of the world’s economies by an amount equivalent to up to six trillion pounds a year by 2050, almost the entire output of the EU. With world temperatures on course to rise by two to three degrees in 50 years, rainfall could be catastrophically reduced in some of the world’s poorest countries of the world, while others grapple with floods from melting glaciers. The result could be the largest migration of refugees in human history. These problems will be “difficult or impossible to reverse” unless the world acts quickly, Sir Nicholas will warn, in the 700-page report that is expected to transform world attitudes to climate change. It adds: “Our actions over the coming few decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century.” But the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and Environment Secretary David Miliband, will emphasise the positive message accompanying Sir Nicholas’s stark warnings, because the report will also say that the world already has the means to avert catastrophe on this scale, although it will involve huge expense of 1 per cent of global GDP – around 0.3 trillion pounds. “The second half of his message is that the technology does exist, the financing, public and private, does exist, and the international mechanisms also exist to get to grips with this problem – so I don’t think it’s a catastrophe that he puts forward. It’s a challenging message,” Mr Miliband said yesterday. Combating climate change could become one of the world’s biggest growth industries, generating around 250 billion worth of business globally by 2050. Sir Nicholas’s report calls for a rapid increase in research and development of low-carbon technologies, and in ‘carbon capture’, which involves putting carbon emissions into underground storage rather than pumping them into the atmosphere. Mr Brown will write to EU finance ministers today urging a major expansion of the carbon trading scheme which penalises business that contribute excessively to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. One issue he will raise is whether the scheme should be extended to cover aviation, one of the fastest expanding sources of carbon. But the prospect of consumers having to pay higher fuel duty and other ‘green’ taxes threatened to engulf Mr Miliband in political controversy yesterday, after a letter he wrote to Mr Brown earlier this month was leaked to the Mail on Sunday. Mr Miliband urged that when oil prices drop, the tax on petrol should rise so that the cost to the motorist remain the same. He also suggested a higher road tax on vehicles such as 4x4s with high fuel consumption, a switch to road pricing so that motorists pay tax per mile, and that the tax system be used to encourage people to switch to energy-saving household goods like more efficient light bulbs and washing machines. Mr Miliband insisted yesterday that his ideas were not intended to give the government new ways to raise extra tax. “We’re using mechanisms available to government to help change behaviour. They’re not fundamentally there to raise revenue,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend programme. Mr Miliband’s proposals provoked a storm of protest from businesses, but they also presented a dilemma for the Conservative leader, David Cameron, who has frequently called for ‘green’ taxes without giving details of what they ought to be. Yesterday he said his policies “may mean taxing air travel”, but refused to be drawn further. Interviewed on BBC 1’s Politics Show, he said: “I think green taxes as a whole need to go up and I think we need to be very careful that the green taxes we put up aren’t too regressive.”
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See the man who lives happily among those unhappy one who hate. He alone is free from hatred. See the man who lives happily among the unhappy greedy. He alone is free from greed. Like the bright goals, he lives happily indeed feeling radiantly on happiness. —The Buddha All good and beautiful things in life are born of God. The best of every form of life is his manifestation. His glory shines through all that is wonderful. Remember this when you see anything beautiful, anything that makes you pause in wonder. —The Bhagvad Gita
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