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Game of disruption Planning for all |
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Dismal decline Arrest hockey’s slow death The decline of Indian hockey has been watched with horror not only by the game’s many fans and followers, but also by those who have always considered it as the quintessential Indian sport, where we excelled almost by default. The travails of the team over the last few years have significantly lowered the expectations, but the failure to secure even a semi-final berth, for the first time at the Asian Games, confirms our worst fears.
Lingering dispute with China
Role reversal
We are all responsible for each other’s security Death by
polonium: a new element in the spy kit Take that, Mr Deve
Gowda!
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Game of disruption In a multi-party democracy there are bound to be differences between political players and this should find expression in healthy debate that is both civil and orderly, and confined to the appropriate forum and occasion. Even assuming that there is a case for joining issue with the Prime Minister’s statement made at the NDC meeting, there is no justification whatsoever for disrupting Parliament. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha should proceed with their mandated business and it is the responsibility of all members, particularly the ruling party and the principal opposition, to ensure that this is facilitated. Far from enabling parliamentary business, the BJP has cast itself as a crew that wants to wreck Parliament from within. The UPA government, despite the BJP’s unwarranted stalling of Parliament, has clarified the Prime Minister’s statement. Therefore, even if there was an issue agitating the BJP, the clarification provided a face-saver for the party to retreat. Far from accepting this, the party is hell-bent on continuing its disruption of Parliament. This is unbecoming of the party’s MPs who have been elected to Parliament for a purpose – and not for bringing its business to a halt every other day. |
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Planning for all The draft 11th Plan has been shaped against the backdrop of very rosy circumstances. The GDP growth target for the Plan period, originally set at 8.5 per cent, was raised by the Prime Minister to 9 per cent on October 18 while chairing a meeting of the Planning Commission with the target of achieving 10 per cent in the final year of the Plan. Planning is one thing and implementation quite another. There are global factors beyond one’s control. Then political compulsions back home make their own demands. Under Leftist pressure, the UPA’s draft 11th Plan has quietly retreated from its agenda of disinvestment of PSUs and labour law amendments. The biggest challenge to implementing the 11th Plan will be in raising enough resources. The UPA government’s commitments on infrastructure, health, education, the rural job guarantee scheme, institutional rural credit, irrigation and Bharat Nirman — all require huge investible funds. Following the reservations expressed by the Finance Ministry in raising the required resources, the revised Plan has slashed the budgetary support to the 11th Plan by 2.1 percentage points of the GDP. The gap between planning and implmentation should not be allowed to widen further. The UPA leadership will have to tread cautiously and carry public opinion as well as the states along on the road to growth. |
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Dismal
decline The Indian men showed some fighting spirit and focus in the last, although futile, game with the South Koreans. This was missing in the earlier outings, especially with the Chinese. But the on-field malaise is only part of the slow death of the Indian game. That hockey has been managed badly is clear, with the team being affected by everything, from talent and coaching issues to unseemly internal rivalries and conflicts. Sports management in India continues to be held ransom to the whims of various bosses, who see the presidentship of sporting bodies as a ticket to prestige and privilege. Accountability is nil, and continued presence at the helm depends on everything but performance. The Indian Hockey Federation, sadly, has become emblematic of this situation. For this to change, the game has to come first. The network and structure, which locate, nurture and hone talent, fusing it together into a match-winning team, are in a shambles. To rebuild this will take full-time commitment and dedication. It cannot be undertaken by anyone for whom the job is only one of many responsibilities. As for the team itself, coach Vasudevan Baskaran and the men have some hard work ahead. The game with the South Koreans showed that they have it in them. But at the highest level, only the best is good enough and consistency is the key. |
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There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
— Mark Twain |
Lingering dispute with China China continues to be in occupation of and lays claim to large areas of Indian territory. In Aksai Chin in Ladakh, China has been in physical possession of approximately 38,000 sq km of Indian territory since the 1962 war. In addition, Pakistan illegally ceded about 5,200 sq km of Indian territory in the Shaksgam Valley, just north of the Siachen Glacier, to China in 1963 under a boundary agreement that India does not recognise. Through this area China built the Karakoram Highway that now provides a strategic land link between Sinkiang, Tibet and Pakistan. China continues to stake its claim to about 96,000 sq km of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh. The Chinese Ambassador in New Delhi reiterated this claim in a not-too-diplomatic manner recently and sparked protests from India. China’s often stated official position is that the reunification of Chinese territories is a sacred duty. It is not so well known that the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, implying de facto control after the 1962 war, is yet to be physically demarcated on the ground and delineated on military maps. The LAC is quite different from the disputed 4,100 km boundary along the McMahon Line. The un-delineated LAC is a major destabilising factor as incidents such as the Nathu La clash of 1967 and the Wang Dung standoff of 1987 can recur. The only positive development has been that after over a dozen meetings of the Joint Working Group and the Experts Group, maps showing the respective versions of the two armies have been exchanged for the least contentious central sector, the Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh borders with Tibet where no fighting had taken place in 1962. It clearly shows how intractable the challenge is. Early last year, India and China agreed to identify “guiding principles and parameters” for a political solution to the five-decade old dispute. Many foreign policy analysts hailed it as a great leap forward. This is not the first time that India signed a “feel-good” agreement with the Chinese. The Border Peace and Tranquillity Agreement (BPTA) signed with the Chinese in 1993 and the agreement on Confidence-Building Measures in the Military Field signed in 1996 were expected to reduce the operational commitments of the Army from having to permanently man the difficult LAC with China. However, it has not been possible to withdraw a single soldier from the LAC so far. In fact, despite the 1996 agreement, several incidents of Chinese intrusions at Asaphi La and elsewhere in Arunachal Pradesh have been periodically reported in the Press and discussed in Parliament. While no violent incident has taken place in the recent past, there have been occasions when Indian and Chinese patrols have met face to face in areas like the two “fish-tail” shaped protrusions in the north-east corner of Arunachal Pradesh. Such meetings have an element of tension built into them and despite the best of military training the possibility of an armed clash can never be ruled out. An armed clash in which there are heavy casualties can lead to a larger border incident. In the western sector in Ladakh, the LAC is even more ambiguous because the paucity of easily recognisable terrain features on the Aksai Chin makes it difficult to accurately co-relate the ground situation and the map. Both sides habitually send patrols up to the point at which, in their perception, the LAC runs. These patrols leave “tell-tale” signs behind in the form of burjis (piles of stones), biscuit and cigarette packets and other similar markers in a sort of primitive ritual to lay stake to territory and assert their claim. While the government invariably advises caution, it is extremely difficult for commanders of troops to advocate a soft line to their subordinates. There is an inherent contradiction in sending soldiers to patrol what they are told and believe are Indian areas and then tell them that they must not under any circumstances fire on “intruding” Chinese soldiers. This is the reason why it is operationally critical to demarcate the LAC on the ground and the map. Once that is done, the inadequacy of recognisable terrain features can be overcome by exploiting GPS technology to accurately navigate up to the agreed and well-defined LAC on the ground and avoid transgressing it even unintentionally. In this light, the Chinese intransigence in exchanging maps showing the alignment of the LAC in western and eastern sectors, while talking of lofty guiding principles and parameters to resolve the territorial and boundary dispute, is neither understandable nor condonable. It can only be classified as another attempt to put off resolution of the dispute “for future generations to resolve”, as Deng Xiao Ping had reportedly told Rajiv Gandhi in 1988. The military gap between India and China is growing steadily. Clearly, China’s negotiating strategy is to resolve the dispute when the Chinese are in a much stronger position in terms of comprehensive national strength so that they can dictate terms. It is in India’s interest to strive for an early resolution of the territorial dispute with China so that India has only one major military adversary to contend with. India will then be able to re-deploy some of the mountain divisions of the Army and squadrons of the Indian Air Force to its western border to gain a decisive military edge against Pakistan. India may even be able to consider “downsising” a few Army divisions and utilise the savings for the qualitative upgradation of the Army. It is in this direction that the Government of India must nudge the Chinese leadership. The writer is Senior Fellow, Centre for Air Power Studies, New
Delhi. |
Role reversal
The other day I woke up and found that my status had changed. I was on long leave from office and my wife had suddenly found employment. In other words, I had become a “housewife” while my better half was now the “man” of the house. The prospect of role reversal amused me that morning. Wait till she finds out how tough office life can be, I mused and grinned viciously. As for myself, I was delighted. With her out of the way I could get down to some serious writing and reading — the two things for which I had taken the year-long sabbatical. On the first day I got up grudgingly to drop my son at school. I returned to surrender before the persuasive charms of the “master” of the house to brew some tea as she was getting ready for office. And since I was in the kitchen, I thought it would be “shooo shweeet” if I made breakfast too. At that moment I was happy that I had slipped into the housewifely mode so effortlessly. She got ready (like I used to) amidst a flurry of activity. She couldn’t find her hanky and then she got the wrong shoes on. I patiently helped her (like she used to) and after the mandatory “have a great day, honey. See you at six”, sat down to have my cold tea in peace. But it was not to be. The maid came and did a shoddy job. I followed the woman from room to room (like her) repeating instructions as pleasantly as I could. By the end of an hour I was emotionally drained. During my illustrious working years, I had always maintained that cooking is extremely relaxing. But it is indeed a horrendous task when you have to rush to make dal-roti before the lil cherub’s school closes. And children can be tiresome. My son said that the dal was not of his choice and he didn’t like the veggies I had cooked. I scolded him and stomped out of the room (like she used to) determined to get a shut eye for a couple of hours. However, the maid came in promptly for the afternoon washing and the paranoid me (like her) couldn’t help supervising the cleaning. By the time she left it was four thirty and I did not know what to do with myself. So, I turned on the TV and watched saas-bahu intently even as I checked whether my son had worn enough woollens for a chilly evening. And, can someone please explain why the door bell rings when you don’t want it to? It rang at the ‘right’ moments — when I was in the loo, when I was about to bathe, when I had just gone under a blanket, etc. By six, I was a harried man (woman?). I looked at the watch every 10 minutes. She had said, “See you at six,” no? What was keeping her? She walked in at seven. “Did you do anything today,” she asked (like I used to) frivolously. I had no energy to reply. I closed my eyes and beautiful visions of being back at work floated across like faraway dreams.n |
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We are all responsible for each other’s security
Nearly 50 years ago, when I arrived in Minnesota as a student fresh from Africa, I had much to learn--starting with the fact that there is nothing wimpish about wearing earmuffs when it is 15 degrees below zero. All my life since has been a learning experience. Now I want to pass on five lessons I have learned during 10 years as secretary general of the United Nations that I believe the community of nations needs to learn as it confronts the challenges of the 21st century. First, in today's world we are all responsible for each other's security. Against such threats as nuclear proliferation, climate change, global pandemics or terrorists operating from safe havens in failed states, no nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. Only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves. This responsibility includes our shared responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. That was accepted by all nations at last year's U.N. summit. But when we look at the murder, rape and starvation still being inflicted on the people of Darfur, we realize that such doctrines remain pure rhetoric unless those with the power to intervene effectively--by exerting political, economic or, in the last resort, military muscle--are prepared to take the lead. It also includes a responsibility to future generations to preserve resources that belong to them as well as to us. Every day that we do nothing, or too little, to prevent climate change imposes higher costs on our children. Second, we are also responsible for each other's welfare. Without a measure of solidarity, no society can be truly stable. It is not realistic to think that some people can go on deriving great benefits from globalization while billions of others are left in, or thrown into, abject poverty. We have to give all our fellow human beings at least a chance to share in our prosperity. Third, both security and prosperity depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law. Throughout history human life has been enriched by diversity, and different communities have learned from each other. But if our communities are to live in peace we must stress also what unites us: our common humanity and the need for our human dignity and rights to be protected by law. That is vital for development, too. Both foreigners and a country's own citizens are more likely to invest when their basic rights are protected and they know they will be fairly treated under the law. Policies that genuinely favor development are more likely to be adopted if the people most in need of development can make their voice heard. States need to play by the rules toward each other, as well. No community suffers from too much rule of law; many suffer from too little--and the international community is among them. My fourth lesson, therefore, is that governments must be accountable for their actions, in the international as well as the domestic arena. Every state owes some account to other states on which its actions have a decisive impact. As things stand, poor and weak states are easily held to account, because they need foreign aid. But large and powerful states, whose actions have the greatest impact on others, can be constrained only by their own people. That gives the people and institutions of powerful states a special responsibility to take account of global views and interests. And today they need to take into account also what we call ``non-state actors.'' States can no longer--if they ever could--confront global challenges alone. Increasingly, they need help from the myriad types of association in which people come together voluntarily, to profit or to think about, and change, the world. How can states hold each other to account? Only through multilateral institutions. So my final lesson is that those institutions must be organized in a fair and democratic way, giving the poor and the weak some influence over the actions of the rich and the strong. Developing countries should have a stronger voice in international financial institutions, whose decisions can mean life or death for their people. New permanent or long-term members should be added to the U.N. Security Council, whose current membership reflects the reality of 1945, not of today. No less important, all the Security Council's members must accept the responsibility that comes with their privilege. The council is not a stage for acting out national interests. It is the management committee of our fledgling global security system. More than ever, Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system. Experience has shown, time and again, that the system works poorly when the United States remains aloof but it functions much better when there is farsighted U.S. leadership. That gives American leaders of today and tomorrow a great responsibility. The American people must see that they live up to it.
The writer, secretary general of the United Nations, will leave office on Dec. 31. This article is based on an address he later delivered on Monday at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Missourie, USA. By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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A low-dose exposure was blamed for causing the death of Irene Joliot-Curie, the daughter of Marie Curie, who first isolated polonium. Irene died in 1956 of leukemia caused by accidental exposure when a sealed capsule of the metal exploded on her laboratory bench. Polonium's alpha rays damage DNA, although in Irene's case they took more than 10 years to do their deadly work. Litvinenko passed away much more quickly. On Nov. 23, the 43-year-old died in a London hospital from the intense radiation polonium emits, having ingested it sometime in late October. Even though the dose of poison was tiny -- maybe no more than the weight of a speck of dust -- it was deadly. Litvinenko was admitted to University College Hospital on Nov. 3, suffering from an undiagnosed illness, but clearly he was seriously ill. A week later his hair started to fall out, and soon he was completely bald. To the doctors treating him, the answer seemed clear: He had been poisoned by thallium. Salts of that deadly metal were used by a serial poisoner of the 1970s, Graham Young, to kill his colleagues at a photo lab. They had died in London hospitals at a time when there was no known antidote. By the 1980s, there was an antidote, and it was needed to treat the victims of Saddam Hussein's secret agents, who used it to poison Iraqi dissidents living in London. When a sample of Litvinenko's blood was analyzed for thallium, however, doctors found very little of that toxic element. So they suspected he had been poisoned with a radioactive form of it. This had to be thallium-201, an isotope with an average lifetime of only six days, meaning it would have almost disappeared by the time his blood was analyzed. Tests showed that Litvinenko was passing radioactive urine, but it was coming not from thallium-201, but from a deadlier element, polonium-210. This would explain his loss of hair -- a symptom of high exposure to radiation. This poison has a long residence time in the body, with only 2 percent excreted each day. Sadly, the doctors could do nothing to save his life. Polonium-210 is made from bismuth in nuclear research reactors, of which there are around 50 in the world. The isotope was used as a heat source to generate thermoelectricity for the Russian moon rovers in the 1970s. Most polonium-210 is produced in Russia. The maximum safe body burden of polonium is only 7 picograms (7 million millionths of a gram). It appears that Litvinenko was given something like a milligram (a thousandth of a gram), which is a billion times the safe level. Polonium-210 is regarded as one of the most dangerous substances known because it ejects alpha particles. A milligram emits more than a billion such particles per second, and in the body they wreak havoc with living cells and vital organs. Outside the body these particles cause little damage because they cannot travel very far and they can even be stopped by something as thin as a sheet of paper. Whoever the assassin was, he or she had some method of concealing the poison (no doubt in some ingenious James Bond-type device) before it was given to Litvinenko. The hidden poison would be undetectable because this isotope emits almost no telltale gamma rays. However, polonium has a tendency to leak from containers. This probably explains why traces have been found in five airliners, particularly those used for flights to Moscow. (Passengers in those aircraft were not at risk.) Where Litvinenko was poisoned is still not known. But wherever he went after he was poisoned, he left traces of polonium, including his home in the north London suburb of Muswell Hill, a sushi restaurant near Piccadilly Circus where he dined with a friend, a luxury hotel where he met two unidentified Russians, and the home of Russian billionaire exile Boris Berezovsky. His room in the hospital was the most contaminated. His body will continue to be dangerously radioactive for a long time because polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days, which means that it will take more than three years before almost all of it has disintegrated away. The writer is a chemist and teaches at Cambridge University. By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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Take that, Mr Deve Gowda! In fact, Siddaramaiah has cocked a snook at Karnataka’s family number one and got away with it. It is this development which has dangerous portentions for Gowda and his Chief Minister son H D Kumaraswamy. But here again they have only themselves to blame for the turn of events which have boomeranged on them. Gowda threw Siddramaiah out of the party as well as the Deputy Chief Minister’s post when he realized the backward caste Karuba community leader was emerging as a creditable leader both as Deputy Chief Minister as well as Finance Minister in the N. Dharam Singh led Congress - Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government. Thrown out on a limb, Siddaramaiah had nowhere to go and formed a new political organisation aimed at getting a better deal for the backwards. Siddaramaiah or Siddu as he is affectionately called would have remained on the fringe had the Gowda family not played its next card -- withdrawing support to the Congress government and aligning with the BJP to form a government led by the family’s political heir apparent-H D Kumaraswamy. This helped Siddu to gravitate to the Congress, whose central leadership took him in despite reservations from the State leadership which is already chock-a-block full with Chief Minister aspirants. So it was Siddu, ridiculed by the JD (S) all along, who was in the driver’s seat after resigning from the assembly and joining the Congress with the aim of standing for re-election from the same constituency. In characteristic style the Gowda family took up the gauntlet with the Chief Minister also declaring once during electioneering that he was the real candidate against Siddu and not JD (S) nominee Shivabasappa. The CM loosened the strings of the State treasury by announcing a number of development works before the election code came into being. He also went around sleeping in the houses of members of the weaker sections to wean them away from Siddu while his father Deve Gowda talked of internal reservations among the backwards to drive a wedge between the Karuba and other communities in the State. Siddaramaiah on his part rose to the challenge and struck up strategic ties to counter the Gowda family. He was helped by actor cum newly inducted Union Minister Ambareesh, who is a leading Vokkaliga leader, the same as H D Deve Gowda, and the scion of the Mysore royal house Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar. Siddu’s fight against the Gowda family also caught the fancy of the dispossessed and weaker sections who rallied behind him. Siddu’s victory is expected to have a telling effect on the Vokkaliga dominated districts of Hassan, Tumkur and Mandya which are the stronghold of the Gowda clan and contagious to Chamundeshwari constituency. Consolidation of the Karuba and backward classes behind Siddaramaiah will further damage the prospects of the J D (S) and help the Congress tremendously. The JD (S) had faced a near rebellion two months back with legislators expressing their displeasure at being ignored by the Gowda family who they feel has a stranglehold on the government. The delay in appointments to Boards and Corporations has also added fuel to fire. Efforts are already on by the Congress to enlist the support of some disgruntled J D (S) ministers and legislators to dislodge the government. The JD (S) has also lost ground vis-ŕ-vis the BJP. It had to make concessions to the party before the Chamundeshwari by-poll to ensure the BJP did not put up its own candidate from the seat. The BJP’s demands may increase now. It is also an open secret that CM Kumaraswamy is in no mood to give up the Chief Ministership once he completes twenty months in office despite an agreement with the BJP. Kumaraswamy is approaching one year in office and it is to be seen how a weakened Chief Minister will stick on to the CM’s post and not allow senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to take over from him. The JD (S) is trully weakened after the loss in Chamundeshwari and it is to be seen whether Gowda cam measure up to his claims of rising like a phoenix from the political ashes yet again. |
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Health is the greatest gift, contentedness is the best riches, trust is the best of relationships. But the highest happiness of all is Nirvana. — The Buddha
God Himself is the relisher, the relish and the enjoyer as well. He himself is the bride and the spouse in bed with her. He is my Master who, immersed in love, pervades everywhere. — Guru Nanak Do ordinary things with extraordinary love. — Mother Teresa
If you do not break your ropes think ghosts will do it for you later? — Kabir |
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