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Poverty of initiatives Badal on vigil |
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Dying Ganga Or, the decline of Indian civilisation THE Ganga is considered the holiest river of India, so much so that many consider it Mother Incarnate, “Ganga Maiyya”. And look what we have done to the mother! A World Wildlife Fund (WWF) study has included it among the 10 most endangered rivers of the world. Pollution, over-extraction of water, emaciation of tributaries and climatic changes have conspired to bring it close to the point of death.
Naxalbari to Nandigram
Bad or verse
Democrats gear up for war withdrawal vote
News analysis Delhi Durbar
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Poverty of initiatives ALTHOUGH the Planning Commission’s estimate of poverty for 2004-05, released on Wednesday, makes no startling disclosures, some of the facts are quite revealing. Along with the southern states, Himachal Pradesh has excelled in poverty reduction. The situation has remained more or less unchanged in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Though Punjab’s growth rate is far below the national average, income disparities in the state are not as wide as in Haryana, Delhi and other states. Half of the country’s poor live in five states. Orissa has the highest percentage of the poor in relation to its population. A bulk of the population living below the poverty line resides in Uttar Pradesh. The over-all poverty ratio declined from 36 per cent in 1993-94 to 27.5 per cent in 2004-05. Interestingly, while the ratio of the poor decreased in rural areas, it increased in urban areas suggesting a mass migration of the poor from the villages. When the economic reforms were launched in 1991, critics had warned of collapse of industry due to foreign competition, massive unemployment and social unrest. Clearly, they have been proved wrong. The reforms have accelerated growth and reduced poverty, though not to the desired extent. Going by the Planning Commission figures, urban India has benefited more from reforms. That is because reforms have not yet touched rural India, which is still home to 72 per cent of the country’s poor, numbering at 22.09 crore. Agriculture remains unchanged. Land laws are the same. Special economic zones are resisted for non-economic reasons. Road, power, drinking water, education and health facilities remain inadequate. The UPA government has focussed on rural India with a number of programmes like Bharat Nirman and the rural employment guarantee scheme. It is the state governments that have remained non-reformist. The laggard states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh also have non-performing governments. Orissa and Bihar are witnessing a turnaround, opening up to private investment and the results will be evident in the years to come. Punjab is living off its past glory. Parts of Haryana are still backward. The states will have to gear up efforts to reduce poverty and stop looking at the Centre for solutions to their own problems.
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Badal on vigil THE alacrity with which the SAD-BJP government has acted on its plan to have the Punjab Vigilance Commission Act annulled does not show it in a good light. It attached greater importance to the abolition of the commission than fulfilling the promise of providing wheat flour at an affordable price. It is suggestive of the priority the government has set for itself. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who piloted the Bill, failed to give a cogent and convincing argument in support of his decision while Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal frittered away the opportunity to pick holes in the government’s reasoning. Rushing to the Governor with the plea that he should not sign the Bill is to cover up the Opposition’s failure to stall the Bill by convincing the House about its undesirability. The Chief Minister relied mainly on the fact that the Vigilance Commission was not set up on the model suggested by the Central government. For instance, while the model Bill wanted the chairman of the commission to be selected by a committee consisting, among others, of the Leader of Opposition and a member of the Central Vigilance Commission, the Amarinder Singh Government brought in the Speaker and the Chief Secretary in their place. Similarly, while the model Bill wanted the commission to have a four-year term, the Punjab Act fixed a term of six years. All this was part of politics, according to Mr Badal. He may be right but does that mean that the commission should be done away with? Politicians take advantage of power to have their nominees to man various offices of profit. Once a government goes, such officials are expected to quit their jobs. However, in the case of constitutional posts like chairman of the Vigilance Commission, there has been no convention of the incumbents quitting the jobs. The commission came into being only six months ago. So, even its worst critics like Mr Badal can’t say that its performance had been found wanting. If anything, this suggests that the Chief Minister had made up his mind not to have any interference in the affairs of the Vigilance Department, which is directly under his stewardship. It is a different matter that Mr Badal, his wife and their son are facing several charges brought forward by the same Vigilance Department. |
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Dying Ganga THE Ganga is considered the holiest river of India, so much so that many consider it Mother Incarnate, “Ganga Maiyya”. And look what we have done to the mother! A World Wildlife Fund (WWF) study has included it among the 10 most endangered rivers of the world. Pollution, over-extraction of water, emaciation of tributaries and climatic changes have conspired to bring it close to the point of death. Even in life, it’s as good as dead and resembles a choked drain at many places. At one time “Gangajal” could be stored and used for decades. Now, its holy water is unfit for drinking, because industrial effluents and other pollutants of many cities are poured into it. The plight of other rivers like the Yamuna is as bad — if not worse. If correctives are not applied, it may not only mean the death of a grand river but also that of a great civilization, which thrived on its banks. One out of every 12 persons of Planet Earth lives on its plains. The degeneration is also taking its toll on more than 140 fish species, 90 amphibian species and the endangered Ganga river dolphin. High-profile, megabuck cleaning operations like the Ganga Action Plan started in 1986 have come a cropper mainly because the people who think nothing of polluting the holy river think nothing of looting the money allotted for it, either. The public will have to step in where the government has failed. Some religious leaders like Seechewal in Punjab have made cleaning the rivers their mission. That is what the Ganga and the Yamuna need too. We could also try out the model prevalent in the West where those convicted of petty crimes are told to do social service. The other day, a court had ordered a juvenile delinquent to do penance by helping clean the Kali Bein. The Ganga, too, requires many such hands. |
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A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. — Alexander Pope
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Naxalbari to Nandigram
FOUR deeply depressing events in recent days have cruelly underscored how swift
— and seemingly irreversible — is the degeneration of both Indian governance and public life. The relentless attack on Parliament’s dignity and authority reached the lowest of the low depths when Bengali and Tamil chauvinisms clashed over the location of Indian Maritime University. It is difficult to find words strong enough to condemn the Nandigram massacre at the hands of the CPM-led Left Front government in West Bengal. No less heart-rending was the slaughter of 55 policemen by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh, in circumstances that bespeak of Naxalite belligerency matched only by official incompetence. And what can one say about the crowd of cricket fans that burnt down, with apparent impunity, Mohinder Singh Dhoni’s house in Ranchi because the “boys in the blue” had suffered a humiliating defeat in the far-away Caribbean? Usually a scorer, Dhoni was this time out for a duck. It does say something for the prevailing political culture that Nandigram, for all its egregiousness, has provided the BJP-led National Democratic Allowance a licence to disrupt Parliament day after day, though all too often has the NDA stoutly resisted a parliamentary discussion on similar outrages in states ruled by it, on the ground that law and order is a state subject. Must the thoroughly discredited and isolated Marxists take shelter behind the same tattered excuse? Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, a heavyweight in the Bengal Congress, has joined the clamour for the imposition of President’s rule in West Bengal --- a demand even more untenable than the Congress party’s earlier attempt at a Central takeover in Uttar Pradesh. However, if the Congress, the core of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, feels so strongly about Nandigram why doesn’t it agree to a parliamentary debate on the painful issue? Such a debate is indeed imperative if there is ever to be a consensus on the highly controversial policy on Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Industrialisation, especially in rural areas, is a must. Agricultural land has, therefore, to be shifted to industry. But must state governments act as land-grabbing agents of the fat cats, or should they put in place an agreed policy that is fair to both farmers and industrialists? As for the decimation of the Chhattisgarh policemen by Naxalites, the problem has obviously become alarming beyond measure. Ever since he became Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has been emphasising, accurately, that the Naxalite challenge is the “gravest” internal security threat facing the country. But what has the UPA government done during the last three years, except for holding meetings at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan that have almost always turned into talking shops? Held usually at the level of state chief secretaries and directors-general of police, no fewer than 150 worthies attend these gatherings. After the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister have delivered their speeches, the senior officials put forth a set of proposals and everyone adjourns for lunch. The suggestions for action are duly tabulated and are sent to state chief ministers for acceptance and implementation. Their invariable response is to reject them summarily on the ground that they “encroach on states’ rights”. What else can you expect from those who have curtly refused disdainfully to carry out even the Supreme Court’s unexceptionable directive on police reforms? Under the circumstances, shouldn’t the Union government think of forming a committee of chief ministers, placing at its disposal the services of best experts, serving or retired, and requesting it to devise appropriate methods to confront and defeat the Naxalite menace that now sweeps nearly a fourth of the country’s districts? India, alas, is the only major country wracked by terrorism of several varieties that does not have a federal agency to deal with it. If the chief ministers still don’t want it, let them at least suggest a suitable and viable alternative. Some of them also need to explain why they entered into ill-conceived and ill-timed ceasefire agreements with Naxalites that enabled the insurgents to regroup and rearm themselves. The latest but by no means the last incident in Chhattisgarh has raised extremely agonising questions. Four hundred Naxalites came and surrounded the heavily fortified police post. Evidently, there was no advance intelligence warning nor adequate awareness of the threat even after it had materialised. There can be no other explanation for the fact that only six Naxalites were killed while every single of the guardians of the law was eliminated. Why were no reinforcements sent to the besieged men, why no one made any use of the army’s UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)? It is a measure of astoundingly casual approach that one luckless officer has been made in charge of two posts -- at a distance of 531 kilometres from each other! Let me also suggest respectfully that the government and its propaganda machine should cease their tall and hollow claims after every major Naxalite outrage, such as “a massive manhunt is on to catch the culprits and punish them”. Cricket is doubtless the craze not only in this country but also all across the Indian subcontinent. Unfortunately, the round-the-clock TV channels have made it their business to accentuate the cricket hysteria, build up the Indian team as “invincible” and its individual members as “heroes”. This aroused extravagant expectations. But when the team collapsed ignominiously in its very first encounter and that, too, at the hands of Bangladesh (let it be admitted that we tend to underestimate our neighbours in almost all spheres, not just cricket), disappointment and anger were natural. But it is beyond comprehension why and how these sentiments were allowed to morph into abuse, violence and reprehensible burning down of Dhoni’s house, under construction on land awarded to him for his admirable performance in previous international matches. Strangely, the critics are now demanding that the land allotted to the cricketer should be “withdrawn forthwith”. The Chief Minister of Jharkhand did deplore the Ranchi crowd’s unacceptable behaviour but surprisingly no one has yet been arrested, leave alone punished. However, why blame and arraign ordinary citizens when the leaders of the nation routinely give a nasty display of their irresponsibility and indiscipline, whether on the floor of Parliament or on the street while leading a “satyagraha”? Yetha raja, thatha praja is an old Indian saying. Roughly translated, it means that the subjects would behave as the ruler
does.
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Bad or verse
Manik Lal Joshi
was managing the Kevalyadham located in the Lonavla area while I was undergoing training in the naval engineering establishment located a few miles away. From school days in Jaipur I was very fond of reciting poems of Sumitranandan Pant, Maithili Sharan Gupt, Mahadevi Verma and Harivansh Rai Bachchan, etc. Kevalyadham catered for inculcating art of living in inmates based on the teachings of Dhanvantri and Patanjali. Once I went to this ashram to quench my inquisitiveness and met manager Joshi. He was a dedicated naturopath with poetic leanings. Our acquaintance grew and I came closer to him by reciting couplets from works of Gupt and Pant much to his delight. Finally, the day came when I completed my training and got ready to proceed to sea for engineering duties on board. After a farewell dinner, he gave me a solemn advice: “You are young and have years ahead to rise in your career. It would be better if you concentrate solely on your naval and engineering duties on board, instead of displaying your talents as ‘rasik’ of Hindi verses. There is time in life for every activity, including display of love for Rahasyawad and Chhayawad. Otherwise, you may give an impression of being a scatterbrain and not a dedicated engineer. Therefore, now concentrate solely on valves, gears and propulsion machinery fitted on board. Once you become a Chief Engineer your same poetic leanings would at once become a good quality amongst all your shipmates.” I had no choice but to hesitatingly accept this advice. Years rolled by. During watchkeeping duties I refrained from sharing my poems with colleagues. Sometimes, unable to control my urges I used to recite favourite verses while sitting alone on the quarter deck during leisure hours watching flying fishes falling near me. As I assumed duties of Chief Engineer I had only to sign reports and periodically inspect machinery spaces for a while. Perhaps my craving for poems now came to be known to my shipmates. During the next party on board even my average standard recitation of selected verses from Bharat Bharti was received joyously. They called me as a “talented” Chief Engineer, a title I hardly deserved. They expected me to recite popular verses which they missed hearing because of being long away from home. While on a visit to the Adriatic Sea my captain and myself met Meera Ben (daughter of a British admiral) who had left India to settle down near Munich. During her last days, although dedicated to Gandhian Philosophy, she was an ardent admirer of Mozart and Beethoven. She persuaded me to recite paragraphs from Bachchan’s “Madhushala”. She was so moved that she held my hands in hers and said “wonderful”. |
Democrats gear up for war withdrawal vote WASHINGTON — The United States House of Representatives headed toward a historic vote on Friday to require the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, Democratic leaders are taking their party to a place it hasn’t been since American soldiers were dying in the jungles of Southeast Asia. No US Congress in more than 30 years has tried to end a war. The gambit is not without risk for a political party that has spent the three decades since it tried to stop the Vietnam War struggling to prove it is not weak on defense issues. And Democrats are still unsure if they have the votes to pass the measure, part of a $124 billion war spending bill. But with public opinion squarely behind them, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat-California, and her lieutenants are charging ahead further and faster than even some of the war’s staunchest critics believed possible. Most Democrats have embraced a strict timeline for withdrawing American combat forces by next year, a goal that was barely mentioned when the party took over on Capitol Hill in January. They have brushed aside presidential veto threats and the relentless attacks of congressional Republicans who accuse the majority of undercutting the military and embracing defeat. “This is huge,” said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of the influential liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org. “We’re going to have a bill that will have a deadline that the president is going to have to sign or veto.” MoveOn members this week endorsed the House plan. The legislative drive to force a withdrawal still faces formidable obstacles, including opposition from some liberal lawmakers who want a more aggressive timeline for pulling out troops. But just 11 weeks after Democrats took power, the House plans to vote Friday on a military spending bill that will require President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. forces no later than next March. Democrats moved the vote from Thursday to Friday to give themselves more time to round up the 218 votes that will be necessary to pass the withdrawal plan. The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, Thursday will take up the Senate version of the bill, which calls for a withdrawal to begin within 120 days of the bill’s enactment. Not long ago, such legislation was almost inconceivable. Although Democrats were propelled into the congressional majority by frustration with the war, party leaders initially downplayed their power to use funding legislation to compel a withdrawal of U.S. forces. And at the mere mention of military funding, Republicans pounced on Democrats, accusing them of threatening to deprive American soldiers of the equipment and support they needed. The attacks struck a nerve for a party still stinging from years of being labeled soft on defense. A generation ago, it was largely Democrats who led the legislative campaign to force an end to the Vietnam War, pushing measure after measure to limit what President Nixon and the military could do in Southeast Asia. Although legislative bids to compel withdrawals failed, Democratic-controlled Congresses in the early 1970s prohibited U.S. troops from fighting in Cambodia, banned American military operations in Southeast Asia after the 1973 peace agreements and ultimately cut off funding for South Vietnam after American troops had left. The campaign against the war on Capitol Hill enjoyed public support at the time. But Democrats paid a price. “After the funds were cut off, Democrats became known as the anti-war party,” said John Isaacs, a longtime arms-control advocate who served in Vietnam with the foreign service and worked on Capitol Hill in the mid-’70s. “That . . . has hurt Democrats ever since.” Every week, party leaders show their members polls that highlight public dissatisfaction with the president and support for congressional action. Of particular interest to Democratic leaders is growing pessimism among independents, who were critical to Democratic victories last fall. In a recent Newsweek poll, independents expressed support by nearly two-to-one for a withdrawal by fall 2008. At the same time, Democrats are not now linked to controversial causes like they were during the counterculture and civil rights movements of the 1960s and ‘70s, observed Claremont-McKenna College strategic studies professor Edward Haley, who has studied congressional involvement in the Vietnam War. As the vote looms, an increasing number of centrist Democrats – who were once leery of mandating a troop withdrawal – are lining up behind the plan and scoffing at Republican charges of being soft. “It’s a button that President Bush has been pushing ever since 9/11,” said Rep. Adam Smith, Democrat-Washington, who co-chairs the 61-member House New Democrat Coalition. “But that argument certainly has a lot less resilience than it did in 2003 or 2004.” On Wednesday, the coalition of moderate Democrats endorsed the withdrawal plan.
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News analysis A patient in Kathmandu getting treated on advice from a super-speciality hospital in India. Flood-ravaged Chittagong (Bangladesh) drawing food from a Food Bank in Pakistan. A common fund for the South Asian region for alleviating poverty. This scenario may not remain a pipe dream for long as a rejuvenated South Asian Association for Regional Winds of development are going to sweep the SAARC region as the 14th SAARC summit (April 3-4) will witness two first-time developments: expansion of the regional body and five major powers attending the event as observers. Afghanistan is going to attend the summit for the first time as a full-fledged member of SAARC, making it an eight-nation body. This is the first time ever that the SAARC has been expanded. Also for the first time, US, China, Japan, the European Union and South Korea are going to attend the proceedings as observers. The Japanese Foreign Minister, Taro Aso, will be attending the meet. The other four countries are yet to decide on their level of participation. Concrete development-oriented projects like SAARC Development Fund (for which New Delhi has already The 14th SAARC summit’s main theme will be ‘Connecting People, Strengthening Ties’ and a concerted effort will be made to dwell on the oneness and diversity of the region like never before. There will also be an attempt to tap the vast potential of intra-SAARC trade, investment and tourism opportunities. The immense untapped potential of intra-SAARC trade is reflected in the fact that in 2004, the total value of merchandise exports reported by the South Asian countries (excluding Bhutan) was US $102.9 billion, of which only US $6.4 billion was destined for the SAARC member states. Thus, intra-SAARC exports constituted just about 6 per cent of the total exports of SAARC countries. This makes a strong case to use SAARC as an effective platform to harness geographical proximity of member states for faster growth in the region and taking care of the economic imbalances. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has summed up the trade potential of SAARC as follows: “If we wish the next twenty years of SAARC to be different, we should take the first decision to reconnect the countries of the subcontinent on the one hand and then reconnect the subcontinent to the larger Asian neighbourhood on the other.” SAARC has already taken some concrete steps for the region’s coordinated development. A specific example is that of setting SAARC Energy Centre (SEC) in Islamabad late last year with the primary objective of throwing an "Energy ring" around the region. The member countries have also agreed to prepare an Energy Data Base to help tap the vast energy potential -- conventional and unconventional, renewable and non-renewable – for this energy-deficit region. The SEC will lay emphasis on the vast potential of such non-conventional energy sources as wind and solar energies where countries like Bhutan can make significant contributions. At the same time, the SEC will continue to have a sharp focus on exploiting coal-based energy options as well as hydel power. To mould SAARC in the EU model is a long haul, but not difficult. All the eight members will have to adopt the “development now, politics never" approach as SAARC is not a forum for resolving bilateral political, territorial or ideological disputes. India has an onerous
responsibility on its shoulders to realise this common dream of the peoples of eight nations. This is not just because it is the largest member country and is going to take over the rotational presidency of the grouping from Bangladesh at the forthcoming summit. It is because India is like the soul to an outfit like SAARC. Till the inclusion of |
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Delhi Durbar The everyday chaos at metro stations prompted the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Managing Director E Sreedharan to appeal to Metro users last week to learn some passenger etiquette while using the facility. Concerned over the way passengers behave or rather misbehave at stations and on the trains, this was the first time since the launch of the prestigious Delhi Metro on December 24, 2002 that the DMRC chief was forced to react. Citing the example of how metro users behave in western countries, he said: “Very often we witness incidents of pushing and shoving as commuters try to enter and exit the trains at the same time.” Now, it seems that the DMRC is going to employ a private vigilance agency to keep tabs on passengers who misbehave.
Railway heritage The two-and-a-half year old Heritage Directorate of the Indian Railways has shifted base to the National Rail Museum (NRM). On a day when Rail Bhawan was abuzz with activity following the presentation of the Railway Budget, the Executive Director, Heritage, Railways was pacing up and down the corridor overseeing the transfer of his belongings. Rajesh Agarwal, the first ED (Heritage) in the 153-year-old history of the Indian Railways, says that the NRM is one of the main focal centres of Indian Railways’ heritage. Agarwal says it is a move for the better.
Foot in the mouth Congress MP Rahul Gandhi created quite a storm by his remarks that the Babri mosque demolition would not have taken place had a member from the Nehru-Gandhi family been in active politics at that time. The young MP, who has plunged into the task of reviving the Congress in UP, apparently does not endorse the views of that section in the party which favours adopting a soft Hindutva line. The MP is evidently keen to restore the traditional strength of the Congress among minorities. While the dust raised by his remarks concerning Bihar settled soon due to their off-the-record nature, his latest remarks are not likely to be forgotten in a hurry.
In full bloom The Mughal Gardens in Rashtrapati Bhawan is in full bloom and has been open this week for “category-wise public viewing”, for which specific dates have been set. Open from 1030-1730 hours, the advisory underlines the need for the last visitors to come at least one hour before closing time. While Tuesday was for physically challenged persons, and Wednesday for the visually challenged, Thursday was for defence and paramilitary personnel. Friday is for farmers and Saturday for senior citizens. In each instance Rashtrapati Bhawan has also notified the specific gates of entry. Yet again President A P J Abdul Kalam’s unorthodox style comes to the fore.
Contributed by Vibha Sharma, Tripti Nath, Prashant Sood and
R. Suryamurthy
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The deathless Self meditated upon himself and project the universe As evolutionary energy. From this energy developed life, mind, The elements, and the world of karma, Which is enchained by cause and effect. Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal. When one has love for God, one doesn't feel any physical attraction to wife, children, relatives and friends. As the web issues out of the spider And is withdrawn, as plants sprout from the earth, As hair grows from the body, even so, The sages say, this universe springs from The deathless Self, the
source of life.
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