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Defeat polio Keep the fight going WITH the worldwide incidence of polio rising, it is as critical as ever to keep the fight against the crippling, paralytic disease going. October saw a recorded 1500 cases worldwide, up from around 1414 for the same period last year. The eradication target year of 2005 has come and gone and, understandably, no new one has been set. Polio campaigners are undeterred and we need their enthusiasm.
Voucher system for education
Encounter with a “terrorist”
Key to Gates Pak turmoil likely to grow Delhi Durbar
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Danger ahead THE situation in Bangladesh is getting more and more complicated in the run-up to the elections in January next. Life in most parts of the impoverished country remains paralysed with the transport blockade called by the 14-party Awami League-led alliance headed by Sheikh Hasina Wajed. She and her alliance partners have vowed not to allow the caretaker regime of President Iajuddin Ahmed to function till their demands are met. The opposition wants the President to prove his neutrality by accepting its demands, including electoral reforms and removal of the “biased” Chief Election Commissioner and his deputies by November 11. Since the President did not budge, the Opposition resorted to a country-wide transport strike, throwing a new challenge to the caretaker regime. Sheikh Hasina seems to be working on a strategy that she and her allies can force the government to accept at least their main demands with the help of street power, very common in Bangladesh politics. This tactic worked in preventing the pro-BNP former Supreme Court Chief Justice from taking up the reins of administration. The Opposition fears that a fair election is not possible under the present Election Commission and hence the effort to get it reconstituted. Constitutionally, no government can remove the election commissioners before the expiry of their term. But if the BNP and its allies decide to resist the demonstration of street power by the opposition, which can easily be expected, there will be an anarchy-like situation in which nobody will be a gainer. The army has already been called in to assist the civilian administration in maintaining law and order. But the danger of the army going a little further and taking over the government cannot be ruled out. It is believed to have become apolitical but then it had once tasted power. Therefore, it will be better if the politicians of all hues shun their confrontationist approach and try to find a way out of the crisis through dialogue. What they are doing today will only push Bangladesh into a political morass from where it may be difficult to come out. |
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Poll Yatra AS elections approach, it is back-to-the-people time for politicians. Since in India, the ruling party and the government are almost synonymous, this exercise has to be given an official status. So, the ‘Vikas Yatra’ of Captain Amarinder Singh had the full backing of the sarkari paraphernalia. If anyone has the temerity to call it a misuse of official machinery, the Chief Minister has the perfect retort: “Didn’t Mr Parkash Singh Badal do the same thing in his time?” Perfectly valid and so the two deeds even each other out. So, either both are wrong or both are right. In such matters, mere mortals are not expected to have any independent opinion and the voice of protest can only be raised by the opposing party, if it can, without being liable to uncomfortable counter-questions. If the yatra began on such a questionable note, it was to get mired in greater controversy thanks to the morphing incident. But there is no doubt that the Chief Minister did manage to reach out to a large number of people, even in the Akali bastions. There were photo opportunities galore to eat lunch sitting atop a sand dune, conversing with bare-bodied farmers and administering polio drops to children. All this will help the good Captain remove the impression that he is distant and inaccessible. He should have been meeting the people all these years. Anyway, it is better late than never. The route of the yatra was carefully chosen not only from a political angle but also keeping in view the religious significance of the various places on the way. He studiously touched all the regions of the state. Indeed, crowd was fairly large at many places. The idea was not only to educate the public about the “strides” Punjab has made but also to translate this feel-good factor into votes. The reports of the litmus test will be out only on election day. But for the time being, the Chief Minister has several reasons to smile and be smug. |
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Defeat polio WITH the worldwide incidence of polio rising, it is as critical as ever to keep the fight against the crippling, paralytic disease going. October saw a recorded 1500 cases worldwide, up from around 1414 for the same period last year. The eradication target year of 2005 has come and gone and, understandably, no new one has been set. Polio campaigners are undeterred and we need their enthusiasm. Some scientists now suggest a shift from ‘eradication’ to ‘control’, marshalling evidence to attest that complete eradication may not be possible at all. That might well be the case but even sceptics agree that but for the worldwide campaign, millions of children would have been affected. The pulse polio campaign in India has reflected worldwide trends, with a large measure of success. Eradication has not been possible, in spite of premature government celebration on that count. The vast army of workers striving to ensure that no child is allowed to get away with that do
bond deserve to be commended. But cases continue to crop up, even in a place like Chandigarh, not to mention states like Uttar Pradesh. It is all the more regretful, therefore, that unfounded rumours have gained currency in some quarters that the oral polio vaccine (OPV) drops will eventually make a male child impotent. The campaign should pull out all stops to ensure that awareness is a priority in vulnerable areas. In Nigeria, there was a rumour that the OPV would destroy the daughter’s fertility. It is a fact that some have developed polio because of malnutrition and lack of hygienic conditions, in spite of receiving repeated doses of OPV. It is also a fact that OPV itself, which is a weakened but live polio virus, can induce the disease in children with poor immunity. To add to the disquiet, this virus can increase in strength and transmissibility while it spreads. Such an evolved virus can stealthily circulate for a long time. Some doctors, therefore, suggest a shift to the injected vaccine using dead viruses. This is an expensive option but if a strategy shift is required, it must be made. In any case, the fight should be kept up. |
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The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error. — Bertolt Brecht
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Voucher system for education
THE HRD Ministry at the Centre has sent 5000 circulars to universities and colleges giving “guidelines for implementation”. Although euphemistically described as guidelines, these circulars are indeed instructions asking all the colleges to go in for caste-based reservation in faculty selections and promotions, right up to the level of professors. In a parallel move, the Prime Minister has voiced concern over the absence of Muslims in high-level jobs and has expressed a desire to get more Muslims into all variety of services, which will naturally include professorial positions. Before we consider the implications of these moves, we should look at the statistics that form their basis. “Missing persons” has become a popular and evocative expression to describe the shortfall in the representation of various groups like women, backward castes and minorities at the higher levels of economic activity. The statistics is right; it is a fact that all these groups are under-represented. The problem with statistics is that it can easily mislead. For example, compared to their population, Muslims are under- represented in the judiciary. On the other hand, if we were to measure the share of Muslim judges from among the number of Muslims in the legal profession, this shocking disparity will vanish. Measured in that manner, the fact of missing Muslims will be seen less as a question of prejudice and more as the result of unavailability of enough lawyers in the Muslim community. The same result will emerge when we consider the representation of backward castes and women too. For instance, it is a universal fact that girls outperform boys at the school level. However, at the university level, a sudden reversal takes place: boys outnumber girls in the more challenging and lucrative professional courses like engineering. Even then, the statistics remains misleading. It is a fact that the IITs have very few girls in their B. Tech. classes. On the other hand, only a few girls attempt the IIT entrance examination. Once again, when the actual number of contestants is taken into account and not the total population, the apparent disparity vanishes. In this situation, we have two choices. One, treat the final share as sacred whatever be the number of eligible contestants; two, ensure that from among the eligible contestants every group has a balanced share. For our policy makers and for the media too, the excitement is about the absolute shortfall, not the relative shortfall. Currently, reservation is the sole remedy accepted by both the political class and an influential body of intellectuals. For the political class, ends justify the means: reservation offers them the means to capture the support of opinion makers among the backward communities. For the activists, means justify the ends. For that reason, they claim to occupy the high moral ground. For them, reservation is the moral imperative. They do not mind the fact that reservation has not helped a large majority of the dispossessed. They do not care for the fact it has cost them much goodwill. They are not concerned either about the hardship suffered by genuinely poor but deserving upper caste youth. For activists, the process of reservation remains sacred even though the results are flawed. Emboldened by this situation, for the first time in India’s history, the HRD Ministry has imposed reservation at all levels in faculty positions. That will stuff colleges with less than able teachers. In doing so, the ministry overlooks the fact more than anybody else underprivileged students need able teachers. This policy of reserving teaching positions on the basis of caste, and at the expense of ability, is like plying malnourished children with junk food and depriving them of healthy diet. Already, in elementary schools, teachers are selected on the basis of reservation. One of the most influential personages in the country told me that many of those teachers do not teach at all; instead, they pay a pittance to a proxy to take their place. He was amused rather than alarmed about it. Nor was he concerned about the harm done to innocent children. He tamely accepted his inability to enforce discipline: He dare not impose discipline because all those teachers are political animals, not professional academics. Thanks to their explosive growth, most engineering colleges employ substandard teachers. The results are showing: employers are complaining that most engineering graduates are unemployable. The HRD Ministry’s directive will make the situation worse. Thus, the decision of the ministry to impose caste-based reservations introduces double jeopardy: One, it denies students the minimum acceptable quality of education; two, it makes the government too impotent to enforce discipline. Unfortunately, the HRD Ministry has pre-empted the issue in such a manner that no one in the government will dare oppose it. Thus, the future for quality education is bleak. If backward castes are under-represented in universities, the blame rests not with colleges and universities but with high dropout rates in schools. In turn, dropout rates are high only because most government schools are too politicised to function effectively. As poor children can afford government schools only, they are the sole sufferers of indiscipline among government school teachers. The phenomenal growth of telecommunications has shown that too much control, and not too little of it, leads to poor governance. In the light of that proven experience, competition among schools and colleges is the best solution for ensuring quality education for all. Student vouchers have been proposed as a means for introducing competition among educational institutions. In that system, the government does not offer grants to schools directly. It does so indirectly by giving students vouchers, which they can use to pay for education in a school or college of their choice. Once the voucher system comes into force, educational institutions will earn their income only by attracting students. Teachers will earn their salaries only when they perform well enough to attract students. Thus, vouchers ensure competition, and competition will ensure quality. In turn, quality education will make reservation unnecessary. Though the voucher system will improve teaching quality, politicians hesitate to accept it: They are not sure which will fetch more votes — pampering a few thousand teachers from backward groups or ensuring quality education for millions of students from the same groups. Currently, the former option is fashionable. We have to wait patiently for one of them to realise that the latter is a more reliable
option.
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Encounter with a “terrorist”
IT was a rainy, chilly winter night in January, 1989. Terrorism was at its peak in Punjab and whole of north India was under the grip of fear due to terror-related incidents at the behest of Punjab terrorists. It was past 10 pm and hardly had I settled in my bed to sleep when my telephone rang. The call was from one of my cousins who was connected with some Hindu religious and political groups and had remained associated with the RSS for a long time. His house was situated at a distance of about 400 yards from my residence. This area was thinly populated at that time. On the telephone he told me that his callbell has been pressed several times by someone. Fearing some trouble he did not open the door but he saw through his window but could not see anyone outside his residence. He told me that he had made a call to the police control room and they promised to send the mobile police van at the earliest. After a few minutes he again rang me up and told me that his callbell had again been pushed and he apprehended that it could be the act of a terrorist. I told him that armed with a rifle I will reach him within minutes. My wife Kiran on hearing this got restless and told me that if I venture out she will not allow me to go alone. I picked up my licenced single-barrel gun and loaded it and put on the gown and a cap on my head and an extra muffler to save myself from the chill and rain. I stuffed some extra cartridges in the gown pocket. My wife picked up an umbrella and she armed herself with a stick and a torch. I mustered courage to meet any eventuality and tried to recollect the lessons learnt by me during my training as cadet of senior division NCC and my attachment with the army for three weeks when I had operated a self loading rifle (SLR) and even a light machine gun. Soon thereafter we left for my cousin’s house and on the way my wife, true to the tradition of a Bharatiya Nari, told me that she will not allow me to suffer any physical harm will walk ahead of me. I did not enter into any argument with her and we both hastily but cautiously reached near the residence of my cousin. Sure of an encounter with some ultra I strengthened my grip on the gun and put my finger on the trigger. But when we reached our destination and pointed a torch on the gate of the house we broke in to a loud laughter. We found a donkey outside the house of my cousin which was standing near the callbell. As it was raining and water drops fell on the donkey’s head and face it moved its head to shed extra water from the face. The long ears or mouth of the donkey may have touched the callbell which sent the shivers down the spine of the houseowner who apprehended the act of some terrorist or antisocial elements who wanted to harm him. I pushed the callbell and called my cousin out and told him that we had caught the “terrorist” but did not disturb him as he was shivering with cold. We again broke into a loud laughter and returned to our home without any bloody encounter with any
terrorist. |
Key to Gates THE first head rolled even before the Democrats officially seized control of the US Senate. Donald Rumsfeld, the embattled Secretary of Defense, submitted his resignation, or more likely was asked to do so. And while the timing of the announcement came as a surprise, it was a move that both critics and supporters of the Bush administration had been advocating for some years. Rumsfeld’s second tenure as Defence Secretary was mired in a number of controversies, not least of which were the Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse revelations. He is also among those primarily blamed for getting the United States military embroiled in the war in Iraq, rationalizing American actions using the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and links between Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime and al-Qaeda. Extraordinarily inaccurate intelligence - or worse still, a gross misreading or deliberate fabrication of intelligence material - was employed by Rumsfeld to substantiate these claims. Which is what makes the choice of Rumsfeld’s successor so significant. Robert Gates served twenty-six continuous years in either the CIA or the National Security Council in various capacities, culminating in his serving as Director of the CIA for a little over a year. He remains the only entry-level employee of the CIA to rise all the way to Director, and is likely to place emphasis on the intelligence-gathering mechanism within the US military set-up, perhaps even overseeing much of it personally. His appointment could be seen as compensation - perhaps even overcompensation - for the Bush Administration’s past intelligence failures. Gates is also among the few individuals to have served in a senior role in the administration of the elder President George Bush. But unlike Dick Cheney, Gates is perceived as being ideologically close to the realist school of foreign policy thought, espoused by the elder President Bush and his National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. Under Scowcroft, Gates worked in the National Security Council with Condoleezza Rice. The two also shared a specialisation in the Soviet Union. Therefore, one would logically expect relations between the heads of the State and Defence Departments to thaw, after two years of sometimes public disagreement between Rice and Rumsfeld. Gates has spent the last twelve years outside government. While his tenure as President of Texas A&M University - one of the largest in the United States - may have prepared him for the gargantuan administrative challenges of heading the Pentagon, it could have also kept him slightly out of touch with the policy and personnel changes that Washington has experienced in the past decade. However, Gates was recently appointed a member of the Baker Commission, a high-level bipartisan committee appointed by the White House to recommend a strategy for dealing with the war in Iraq. The Commission’s report is due to be released soon, but rumors of its contents suggest that it has recommended, among other things, a consolidated US presence in Baghdad, talks with Syria and Iran to encourage their involvement in Iraq, troop redeployment, and a phased American pullout. The fact that one of the Commission’s members is to become Secretary of Defence marks a clear indication of how seriously the Bush administration is considering the implementation of some of its recommendations. Gates’ elevation to Defence Secretary therefore signals a tectonic shift for the current US administration’s foreign policies, both in terms of approach and philosophy. But Gates also brings a lot of baggage. Take, for example, his history with Iraq and Afghanistan. In 1991, his role in providing intelligence to Saddam Hussein’s regime during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War - including intelligence that may have been used in the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait - came to the fore. In addition, Gates himself has admitted that covert American activities in support of Islamic fighters in Afghanistan were a cause, rather than a result, of the Soviet invasion of that country. It is ironic that it was on Gates’ watch that the two states with which the United States recently became embroiled in war - Baathist Iraq and Talibani Afghanistan - began receiving sustained American support, and that Gates was personally responsible for some of it. Then there is his mission to the Subcontinent in 1990. During an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan, the elder President Bush sent Gates to the region. There are contradictory accounts of what he told Islamabad and New Delhi, and wildly differing theories as to why he really came. Indian officials have maintained that he did not come to diffuse a potential war. Others, including the New Yorker magazine’s Seymour Hersch, have claimed that his real agenda was to chastise Pakistan for its nuclear weapons program. A careful reading of Gates’ vita exposes other weaknesses. In addition to his questionable record on Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates was also tangentially involved in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s. Gates’ knowledge and possible participation in activities that bordered on illegal could be used by an emboldened Democratic leadership during his confirmation hearings to score a political point or two over the President, even though they could hardly have picked a more favorable candidate themselves. Ultimately, the sacrifice of Donald Rumsfeld holds much more than symbolic significance. Rumsfeld did not appear to be in synch with the more cautious approach to foreign policy that has marked Bush’s second term, following the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles. The emphasis on diplomatic solutions to problems with the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, for example, blatantly contradict Rumsfeld’s decision to stubbornly stay the course in Iraq. It is fitting, therefore that Rumsfeld - a man of action and tough words - is to be replaced by a man who is in many ways his very opposite.
The writer is with CNN-IBN in New Delhi. He was previously a Scowcroft Award Fellow at the Aspen Strategy Group, Washington DC. |
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Pak turmoil
likely to grow PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Two months ago, Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, triumphantly announced a peace pact with Islamic extremists in the North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, saying he hoped it would become a model for curbing domestic Islamic militancy and cross-border insurgent attacks in Afghanistan. Today that model lies in shreds. Northwestern Pakistan's fragile political peace has been shattered by two devastating attacks: a government missile strike that killed 82 people at an Islamic school in the Bajaur tribal district on Oct. 30, and a retaliatory suicide bombing last week that killed 42 army recruits at a training camp in the Malakand tribal district. The missile strike was based on U.S. intelligence reports that the school was being used as a training site for Islamic insurgents, who have found sanctuary across the semi-autonomous tribal areas where Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida figures may also be hiding. Now, officials are predicting a new wave of violence, as anti-government anger spreads and religious extremists call for holy war against the Pakistani military and Western forces fighting in Afghanistan. “This is a disaster. We all recognize the gravity of the situation,” said a senior military official in this northwestern provincial capital, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s a nightmare to have an army being attacked on its own soil and by its own people.” After the two incidents, he added, “the doors to peaceful negotiated settlements are closed. I am afraid we are on a war course in the tribal areas.” Public condemnation of the missile attack has been almost universal in Pakistan. Many people say they believe it was actually carried out by a U.S. Predator drone, which witnesses described as circling overhead before Pakistani helicopter gunships arrived. U.S. and Pakistani officials have denied that. Local leaders have also vehemently asserted that the school, run by a cleric from a banned extremist group, was used only for religious studies and that many young students were killed in the strike. No physical evidence of a training camp has been publicly produced, journalists have been barred from the site, and most of the victims’ bodies were too disfigured to identify. “This was a crime against humanity. Everyone hates America now, and they hate Musharraf for giving in to American pressure,” said Bashir Ahmed, 25, a produce trader in a Peshawar market crowded with crates of bananas and pomegranates. “America is the enemy of all Muslims, but they will never defeat us, because we are all becoming al-Qaida now, even me.” Pakistani military and intelligence officials said they had little choice but to bomb the site after they received overwhelming proof from U.S. intelligence sources that it was being used as a training center for insurgents. A refusal to act, the Pakistanis said, would have badly damaged their relations with the United States, which counts Pakistan as a key ally in the war against al-Qaida and fundamentalist Islamic terrorism. “They loaded us with evidence. The strike was absolutely inevitable,” said a senior intelligence official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Another official called the attack a “major test” of military and intelligence cooperation between the United States and Pakistan. Public outrage has also flared over Wednesday’s suicide bombing, in which a man wrapped in a cloak strolled among army recruits exercising on a field and detonated powerful explosives, killing more Pakistani troops than any previous terrorist attack. But many Pakistanis view that bombing as a predictable response to an ill-conceived military action taken under U.S. pressure. One political leader in Peshawar said the Bajaur site was definitely a terrorist base but that it was not “politically correct to say so” in the region. Bajaur elders had reached a peace accord similar to the Waziristan pact, he said, but the missile strike came just hours before they were to sign it. “People find this mind-boggling and impossible to understand,” he said. Musharraf's recent attempt at compromise, a series of negotiated settlements with armed Islamic groups and tribal leaders, has been controversial. Critics charge that pacts in North and South Waziristan left both areas under the control of extremists who continue to export violence to Afghanistan. They say the deals were aimed only at extricating army troops from the tribal areas, where they had suffered heavy casualties. By arrangement with
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Delhi Durbar Differences seem to have arisen within the otherwise cohesive Left Front in West Bengal on the role of unions in the IT sector. While the CPM backed CITU marched ahead in the race to form an association, outwitting the Congress-led INTUC, differences have cropped up on the right to strike by the tech workers. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddadeb Bhattarcharya, the reform face of the Communists, wants to protect this sector from the "gherao" culture in order to attract investments in the state. However, the CPI-M"s trade union wing and allies are seeing red in this approach. How can a Communist quell the rights of the workers, asked a communist leader, closely associated with the workers movement. Perhaps, Buddadeb wants to be eugolised by the likes of Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram, he added.
Medical muddle Union Chemicals and Fertilisers minister Ramvilas Paswan has been making efforts to convince the pharmaceutical companies to bring down their high trade margins by threatening them that their drugs could be brought under price control. The industry was quick to respond after the Supreme Court asked the government to bring 354 essential drugs under price control. Pharma companies voluntarily proposed a cap on margins at 15 to 30 per cent, on 886 drugs. However, everyone was baffled when they found that most of these drugs were not even available in the market. Moreover, there was confusion about how the final price was being calculated. The minister has now indicated that the government may notify the trade margin on drugs that was agreed upon.
A date with the President A P J Abdul Kalam's passion for teaching and for being in constant touch with tomorrow's leaders, children and youth, is now legendary. He displayed the same zeal and enthusiasm when more 630 elected women panchayat representatives met him in the chandeliered Asoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan. He administered a pledge to them. He urged the women to make their respective panchayats free of gambling and protect their husbands and sons from the evil of drinking. While he maintained that men should listen to women, he urged the panchayat leaders, as mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, to take the reins in their hands and save the men from self-destruction. The women also took a pledge to make the panchayats literate, ensure equality of the female child and activate all water bodies. The village women, mainly from the Hindi heartland and Karnataka, were awestruck by the President's simplicity and candour.
Contributed by R Suryamurthy, Manoj Kumar and S Satyanarayanan
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Though a man strives, his knowledge will not be perfect while his thoughts remain scattered to the winds. While his faith wavers unsteadily like a flame in the breeze, his knowledge will not shine forth in total radiance.
—The Buddha Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set.
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