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Not cricket Politicians queer the pitch THERE can be no area of business or sport in the public eye, especially if it is glamorous and profitable, that does not draw politicians like moths to a flame. Of course, the flame does not get snuffed out, for it is the moths that perish.
Not by
quick-fix
Paperless
office
Now, the
dragon acts on the world’s stocks Why
killing stray dogs doesn’t work Delhi
Durbar
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Pouring oil over water THE Punjab Termination of Agreements Act (PTAA), 2004, annulling all agreements on river-water sharing between Punjab and other states was arguably the most controversial decision of the Amarinder Singh government. It pandered to a volatile section of populace within his own state, but earned the wrath of the Union Government and the Congress high command. The new Chief Minister, Mr Prakash Singh Badal, seems keen to go one-up on his predecessor. Among the very first policy decisions he has announced on coming to power is his intent to scrap Section 5 of the PTAA, which safeguards the usage of the present quantum of river waters by the neighbouring Haryana and Rajasthan. That will mean that neither of these states will have any right at all over water that they have been getting from Punjab. It will be the sole prerogative of Punjab to make any allocation. The Amarinder Singh Act had categorically stated that the “supply as per the current usage would be protected”. The Badal amendment will remove even that fig leaf. Needless to say, the proposed action can have far-reaching political implications. To begin with, it can be depended on to sour relations with Haryana and Rajasthan. The issue that had been dormant for quite some time will return to the front burner like never before. It will also act as a cue to others in Punjab and other states to renege on inter-state agreements merrily. Had the announcement come during electioneering, it could have been dismissed as a political stunt. But since it has been made after coming to power, it shows that the Badal government attaches top priority to it. That does not bode well for inter-state and Centre-state relations. The PTAA did not ensure Mr Amarinder Singh’s victory. We will have to wait and watch if Akalis prove to be any luckier. Experts have been saying in another context that future wars will be fought on the water issue. That may be some distance away, but Mr Badal has already set the stage for a lot of friction between states of a country. |
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Naxalite menace THE killing of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Sunil Mahato and three others on Holi day is the worst Naxalite attack in the recent past. They were so audacious that they came in a vehicle, got down at the place where the MP was inaugurating a sports meet, shot him and his aides, set ablaze his vehicle and escaped. If at all policemen were present on the occasion, they could do nothing except remain mute witnesses. Chief Minister Madhu Koda seems to have done his duty by announcing that the case would be handed over to the CBI. There is no mystery about the attack, which the CBI has to unravel. Hundreds of people witnessed the killing and their escape. On his part, a Central minister has rushed to Ranchi as if his airdash would solve the problem. The fact of the matter is that the writ of the government does not run in a vast area of Jharkhand where Naxalites are in control. They have virtually “liberated” the area, to use a term they are fond of. The state has proved unequal to the task of meeting the challenge. They have in the past looted trains, waylaid police officers to snatch their weapons and killed officials and political leaders. Each time, announcements about crushing the movement are made only to realise that it is easier said than done. While politicians in power fret and fume, the Naxalites have been consolidating their hold, acquiring sophisticated weapons and technology to cause maximum destruction with minimal risk. The Chief Minister, who survives on a razor-thin majority, has neither the time nor the inclination to deal with the problem. It is convenience that prompted him to hand over the case to the CBI. The Centre, too, cannot wash its hand off the problem by claiming that law and order is a state subject. It cannot pretend ignorance about the problem when a home ministry report says 76 districts in a large contiguous area spread over several states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal are in the grip of Naxalites. They can be dealt with only when the Central and state governments concerned make concerted efforts to root out the problem. The solution does not lie in strong-arm methods alone, which have a tendency to boomerang, but socio-economic steps that strike at the root of the growing alienation of a section of the rural population. |
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Not cricket THERE can be no area of business or sport in the public eye, especially if it is glamorous and profitable, that does not draw politicians like moths to a flame. Of course, the flame does not get snuffed out, for it is the moths that perish. However, when it comes to politicians trampling on extra-political territory, it is the metaphorical flame that is messed up. Cricket is a good example of a politician’s plaything that is capitalised upon and messed up by politicians. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at the helm of the BCCI has come in for criticism for being more involved with the cricket empire than the food situation and the plight of farmers in the country. Understandable, considering that in cricket, India sees itself as a global power and, regardless of whether the team wins or loses, there is money to be made. The BCCI platform, built on hundreds of crores, is certainly redolent of more power, success and glamour than agriculture, the growth rate of which is nothing to make anyone proud. Mr Pawar, of course, is unfazed by the carping as he may well be if only because no one has accused him of doing any harm to Indian cricket though it is messy to mix politics and sport. However, if anyone was looking for cricket being reduced literally to a political stomping ground, it could be seen in Mohali on March 2 when the Akali Dal-BJP cabinet of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was sworn in at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium. The world-class stadium, including the cricket pitch, was vandalised so thoroughly that if mobs had set out to dig up the pitch and wreck the ground, they could not have caused more havoc. Sadder still than a SAD-led chief minister doing this is that this was done in the presence of cricketers like Navjot Singh Sidhu and cricket aficionados like Arun Jaitley. If politicians can’t leave cricket well alone, at least they can spare the cricket stadium from such political abuse.
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Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,/And shares the nature of infinity.
— William Wordsworth |
Not by quick-fix Not
many people outside Sri Lanka know that as Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa went ahead building his political career, he acted in a Sinhala film, “Men who die”. Years later, he laughs about his brief appearance as a general in the film. I do not know whether the ‘general’ tried to resolve any emotional or political situation in the film. But as President and as Supreme Commander, he is now called upon to resolve the crisis facing his country and restore peace in the troubled island. President Rajapaksa does not suffer from the intellectual ambiguities of the Colombo elite, which has ruled Sri Lanka for years. His reflexes are those of a grassroots politician who has tenaciously fought his way through politics to challenge the hold of the Colombo set of the Bandaranaikes and the big business lobby of Ranil Wickramasinghe. That he is from the South and is a Sinhala defines his politics and the hard-line policy he is prone to following. Mr Rajapaksa’s concern for keeping his country united is genuine, but he is not the kind of political leader who would like to fritter away his southern Sinhala base just for winning applause from the international community for agreeing to sign a political settlement with V. Prabhakaran and his LTTE. Having interviewed him for more than an hour (The Tribune, March 4, 2007) and others who have some idea of the Sri Lankan crisis, I get the impression that President Rajapaksa has come to the conclusion that only a military victory will create conditions for a political settlement. He says that he is not opposed to a political settlement per se, but maintains that Prabhakaran would not come forward and talk peace. Prabhakaran, in his view, does not want a settlement short of a separate Eelam for the Tamils which no Sri Lankan President can accept. The President does not think highly of the Norwegian facilitator’s role, nor of the ceasefire, which has been there on paper for the last five years and which has been violated often by both the LTTE and the security forces. The President, however, would not ask the Norwegians to pack their bags, or abrogate the ceasefire. In any case, the Norwegian peace-making as well as the ceasefire have turned out to be innocuous and neither of them is being taken seriously. Doing away with, or, retaining both of them hardly makes a difference. Certainly, neither the Norwegian effort nor the existence of the ceasefire agreement has deterred Prabhakaran’s men from killing Sri Lankan foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, and launching attacks on the Army Commander and Defence Secretary. Luckily, both escaped. Nor has the ceasefire agreement prevented the Sri Lankan Army from scoring a military advantage over the LTTE in the East. This and the defection of Karuna from Prabhakaran’s company appear to have convinced President Rajapaksa that having lost the crucial eastern sector, Prabhakaran is in a weakened position and the Army can afford a crackdown on the LTTE. It is possible President Rajapaksa will aim at negotiating a deal with non-Prabhakaran Tamil leaders like Douglas Devananda, one of the ministers in the central government, or with Mr V. Anandasangaree, leader of the moderate Tamil party – TULF. If President Rajapaksa succeeds in tackling Prabhakaran in the north, he might think of striking a deal with Karuna – the man who broke away from Prabhakaran. Any deal with moderate Tamil parties, or with Karuna, is going to be anathema for Prabhakaran, who has always claimed – unconvincingly – that he is the sole representative of the Tamil people. Next few months might unfold President Rajapaksa’s hard-line policy further, perhaps escalating into a military onslaught on the LTTE in the north, pushing back chances of a political settlement for quite some time. Mr Rajapaksa is not just a nominal President. For help he has given two of his brothers considerable power in running the government. Mr Basil Rajapaksa has the modest designation of an adviser but he has powers, perhaps, more than that of the Prime Minister; Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, as Defence Secretary, along with the Army Chief Sarat Fonseka, decides army strategy and ground operations. All of them are eager to push through the hard-line policy on the ethnic question. And it cannot be without reason that the President says the ceasefire is only on paper and scoffs at the peacekeeping boy-scouts. Sri Lanka, indeed, needs peace without which it cannot live as a united and harmonious nation. This also demands the melting of frozen attitudes, statesmanship among the leaders of various political parties, an understanding and accommodating disposition and search for a peaceful solution that can reconcile the varied interests of the majority Sinhalas, the Tamils of different vintage and the Muslims and devolution of authority to provinces or regional units, and a sense of participation in a sort of governance of the country by sharing power with the minorities. Essentially, survival of Sri Lanka as a united country ultimately depends on how it evolves as a democratic polity with values sacred to a plural society. Once this basic truth dawns on the majority of the people of the country, the politicians, Sinhala or Tamil, keen on pursuing divisive politics, will find that there is another route available for them to serve Sri Lanka. All this will not need just the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between President Rajapaksa and the UNP’s Ranil Wickramasinghe; the MoU has already been consigned to a limbo. A spirit of national awakening and reconciliation is necessary so that Sri Lanka’s unity is ensured and, at the same time, the just aspirations of the Tamil people are met. There are a few people in Sri Lanka who understand the logic of winning hearts and minds, but they are in an abject minority, given the present hardened Sinhala and the LTTE positions. Though in a minority, it is necessary for the enlightened sections to begin walking on this track. India has always, and rightly so, stood for a united Sri Lanka and opposed the creation of a separatist Tamil Eelam. But a military operation can lead to more killings and displacement of Tamil people and the consequent influx of refugees into India from across the Palk Strait. The presence of refugees in Tamil Nadu causes local complications, although no one in India can think of supporting Prabhakaran and the banned organisations like the LTTE. Not only India, the United States and the European nations all seem to be advising President Rajapaksa these days not to go in for a military option that will push back a political settlement. Mr Rajapaksa values Indian commitment to a united Sri Lanka and, perhaps, is sure that it will never let any help reach across to the LTTE. Also, he can remain indifferent for some time towards any slow-down in the flow of the EU’s aid to Colombo in case hostilities resume, but not for too long. Possibly, President Rajapaksa can achieve more by giving up the military option and leading the search for a wider consensus, followed by talks aimed at a durable political settlement. There, perhaps, is no quick-fix solution for a prolonged ethnic
strife.
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Now, the dragon acts on the world’s stocks SHANGHAI, China – China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange and its smaller counterpart in Shenzhen, near the country’s extreme southern border, have long been viewed skeptically by global capitalists, even those enthusiastic about the broader Chinese economy. The markets were considered too new, too small, too closed and too quirky to matter. That attitude was put to a test last week when, for the first time, a big drop in the Chinese markets helped spark a global stock sell-off. Suddenly, it seemed, the views of Chinese investors mattered to the rest of the world. And as the Chinese government takes steps to clean up market practices and allow more foreign investments, the rest of the world’s markets are likely to continue to feel its growing pains. Though China’s is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, it remains heavily influenced by the Communist state. The stock markets are not the main source of capital in China – that role is played by banks, all of them controlled or heavily influenced by the Chinese government. Many analysts also see the stock markets as subject to more government manipulation than is the norm in capitalist countries. It remains murky exactly what role the Chinese government played last week, when the Shanghai composite index fell 9 percent, either in setting off the panic by talking about new regulations or in countering it after it started by buying securities. “There were some reports of state buying – I don’t know how reliable those are. But it’s also possible people may have decided 9 percent in one day was too much and they are still bullish on stocks,” said Stephen Green, senior economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai. “I don’t think anyone really knows where we go from here.” Global markets stabilized after Tuesday’s drop and then rose modestly. But the fall left investors wondering whether China’s new influence over stock markets adds fresh risks to a global financial picture already plagued by huge trade imbalances and bubbles in the prices of many assets. China’s strict capital controls – the fact that it is hard to convert the yuan into other currencies and vice versa – for years insulated its stock markets from outside tremors. Concerns about transparency and corruption have also kept some investors away. Although foreign institutional investors have increased the number of shares of Chinese-listed companies they own in recent years, they still hold less than 4 percent in the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets. Concerned that isolation would stall its economic transformation, China has introduced a number of reforms in recent years. As a result, China’s equity market is becoming increasingly integrated into the rest of the world’s. Dual listings of Chinese companies have meant that rumors that start on the mainland can jump to Hong Kong. Economic success in China and other Asian countries has given the region large foreign reserves, producing a global money glut that has driven down interest rates and driven up the price of assets from San Francisco to Sydney to Shanghai, creating worries of an asset bubble in China and elsewhere. The Chinese government has been trying to address those imbalances, but it is unclear whether that can happen in an orderly way in an economy so heavily controlled by a Communist government. An announcement by the Chinese government that it was cracking down on illegal trading contributed to the Shanghai stock exchange’s dramatic slide on Tuesday. Established in 1990, the Shanghai market for most of its existence has been considered one of the world’s worst stock exchanges. From 2002 until the beginning of 2006, even as the Chinese economy grew 10 percent a year, the stock market fell. And as late as mid-2006, large Chinese companies would not list their stocks on the mainland markets as a matter of course. But Chinese policy-makers pushed changes to improve the credibility of the market. Instead of requiring only annual or semiannual reports, for example, companies now have to release quarterly reports. Three years ago, Chinese officials took control of five brokerages that had engaged in illegal trading. Last year, securities regulators freed the more than 1,300 listed companies to sell their state-owned shares over time, in effect putting $270 billion in government-controlled assets into the public sphere. Analysts think that was at least partially responsible for setting off the recent stock market boom. Another factor was the increasing number of Chinese consumers borrowing against real estate and investing in stocks. State-owned enterprises and large Chinese investment firms control 40 to 50 percent of shares, with the rest owned by individual Chinese shareholders. This differs from the United States and other more mature markets, where institutions control 80 or more percent of shares. But in recent months, “we’re finally seeing for the first time, good, big companies listing rather than heading straight for Hong Kong,” said Peter Alexander, founder and principal of Z-Ben Advisors, an investment consultancy in Shanghai. Many challenges to achieving a fully transparent and fair stock exchange remain, however. Part of the difficulty is that the typical structure of Chinese companies listed on the exchanges differs from those of the United States in that most have state-owned parent companies that are not listed. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Why killing stray dogs doesn’t work Two
questions arise in respect of the management of India’s stray dog population: Why does mass killing not work? What makes the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for dogs work? One reason why killing fails is the speed with which dogs breed. Besides, most stray dogs are looked after by local people who hide them – or bribe municipal employees not to lift them – whenever they are sought to be removed for killing. Finally, dogs are territorial and keep other dogs out of their territories. Soon after stray dogs residing in a locality, say A, are killed, dogs from elsewhere move into A. Thus municipal employees who have moved to locality B after killing all stray dogs in A find the latter occupied by a new set of stray dogs after they have finished with B. So it goes on with municipal employees moving back and forth from area to area without making any real headway. Nor will any attempt to kill off all stray dogs in a city at one go, help. Municipalities do not have the resources and the staff for that. Even if a miracle brings success, dogs from the adjoining areas will move in after local stray dogs have been exterminated. No city can be sealed off from the rest of the country. In sharp contrast, the territorial nature of dogs is the ABC programme’s strength. Dogs that are neutered and vaccinated and, therefore, neither breed nor cause rabies, keep other dogs out of their territories to which they have been returned. Sterilisation prevents fights between male dogs over bitches during mating seasons, thus reducing their aggression level. Nor do bitches develop the aggression they do when they have littered and are protective about their puppies. Also, neutering causes hormonal changes that reduce aggression. Even otherwise, stray dogs that are familiar with their surroundings, know who is a friend and who is not, what spells danger, where to find food and shelter, are at ease with their environment. They do not perceive danger at every step and are not perpetually in an aggressive mode as a defence mechanism. Stray dogs moving into a new area are often aggressive because they are under attack from local dogs, cannot distinguish between friend and foe, do not know where to find food and shelter and are hence on the edge. Any drive to kill stray dogs leads to migration from one area to another and greater aggression on their part. The incidence of dog bites and rabies goes up. J.F. Reece and S.K. Chawla, write in “Control of rabies in Jaipur, India by sterilization and vaccination of neighbourhood dogs” (Veterinary Record, journal of the British Veterinary Association, Volume 159, issue 12), “Any action that causes instability in dog population encourages an increase in the transmission of rabies.” Now the question: why has the ABC programme not eliminated stray dogs from India? The answer is simple: the authorities have criminally neglected it until recently, leaving its implementation to NGOs, doing little to monitor their activities, and allocating inadequate funds. While some NGOs have done remarkable work, others have done little. Even then, progress has been made. There have been significant results in Chennai, Jaipur, Kalimpong, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. The most outstanding, however, has been the achievement in Ahmedabad where 45,011 stray dogs were sterilized and immunized against rabies in 2006. Much more needs to be done. Fortunately, the AWBI has launched a major effort to accelerate the ABC programme’s implementation and has rightly decided to bank on the Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release (CNVR) method, which has done so well in Ahmedabad. The availability of the oral anti-rabies vaccine for dogs, the efficacy of which has been certified by the WHO as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, and which is designed to act as baits, has facilitated the annual revaccination of stray dogs-a major hurdle until now. The AWBI has set up pilot projects in Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore-and plans to set them up in Ludhiana, Jodhpur and Chennai-to further assess the efficacy of the CNVR method and the oral rabies vaccine. The Union and State Governments and the municipalities have to be compelled to implement the ABC programme seriously and ensure effective removal of garbage, which sustains a large section of stray dogs. |
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Delhi Durbar Information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi is flying high these days. When he was to dash off to Kolkata for a Prasar Bharati function on Friday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh very kindly offered him the use of one of the new Embraer aircraft; the minister had wanted to get back the same evening which would not have been possible if he had to take a commercial flight. Clearly thrilled, Dasmunsi was heard inviting journalist friends for a joyride to his home state. Animal farm Finance minister P. Chidambaram’s bugdetary proposals to cut duty on pet foods has spawned a whole genre of jokes in Parliament. “Congress ka haath, kutte billi ke saath” mocked the opposition. Most Congressmen were cringing over these jibes but there were a handful who took it sportingly and even added to the lengthening list of wisecracks. A quick-witted Congress MP remarked that since the finance minister is so concerned about animals, he could have provided some concessions for the cow instead of dogs and cats. “At least, it would have helped us sweep the coming Uttar Pradesh elections,” he said in mock seriousness. Different tracks Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh, a sitting Lok Sabha MP are on different tracks. At least, that’s the impression one gets from their reactions to last week’s rail budget. While the chief minister expressed his disappointment over the inadequate funds provided for the hill state and promised to take up the matter with the Prime Minister, his wife Pratibha Singh had no quarrel with the budget. She was lavish in her praise, describing the rail budget as “dynamic, development-oriented and pro-poor.” The more charitable attribute this to their different perspectives. As a chief minister, Virbhadra Singh’s interests are understandably confined to his home state. On the other hand, the first-time Lok Sabha member, his wife appears to be looking at the budgetary proposals from a national perspective. Vocal hit When Prasar Bharati officials invited veteran singer Manna Dey for a live performance at the Doordarshan auditorium last week, little did they realise that it will turn out to be quite an embarassment for them. The well-known vocalist expressed his disappointment with Doordarshan’s lifeless microphones, and when he asked the audience for their opinion, most of them agreed with his assessment. Nevertheless, those who had gathered to hear him were enthralled with evergreen numbers like
Tu pyar ka sagar hai, Ai bhai zara dekh ke chalo, Laga chunaraiya mein daag and late Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s
Madhushala. Contributed by Girja Shankar Kaura, Prashand Sood, Tripti Nath and Anita Katyal |
Let us all keep the joy of loving God in our hearts, and share this joy of loving one another as He loves each one of us. — Mother Teresa |
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