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Criminals in the fray Killings on campus |
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Shooting the messenger
From OIC To IPI
‘Char Bahuraniyan’
DOCUMENT Health Repackaging literary heritage
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Criminals in the fray In an ideal situation, there should be no criminals anywhere in society. Even in a real world as we have today, they should not be there at least in the lawmaking positions. Yet, in India, they manage to enter assemblies and even Parliament in strength. We have several parties which call themselves paragons of virtue, but don’t think twice before giving their ticket to such worthies. “Winnability factor” is the respectable tag given to this outright criminalisation of politics. What happens in retail in many states is happening wholesale in Uttar Pradesh. In the first phase of the election itself on April 7, there were as many as 131 candidates with murder, theft, rape, extortion and banditry cases pending against them. In all the seven phases, there may very well be a thousand of them. Unfortunately, quite a few will get elected, as in the past. You can well imagine what the assembly of lawmakers will look like. Amitabh Bachchan won’t be able to say “UP mein hai dam, kyonki jurm yehan hai kam” with any conviction. With as many as 40 members with history of crime adoring the Lok Sabha, there is no serious concern being expressed by any party. That is an unacceptable situation. The Bill debarring the criminals involved in the acts of terrorism, anti-national activities and organised crimes, election-related offences, murder, rape, drug and human trafficking and other heinous crimes from the moment charges are framed by the court against them brooks no delay. No doubt, there are instances of false cases being registered against some merely to defame them, but this problem can be solved far more easily than dealing with the daunting task of seeing lawbreakers as lawmakers. Till such proposed legislation comes into operation, it is the duty of every voter to make sure that the criminals, to whichever party they belong, are not given votes. The voters’ ‘No’ to such candidates and parties will, perhaps, force political parties not to patronise these undesirable elements. Only if the voters start rejecting these villains will the parties start looking for the candidates deserving to be representatives of the people. Right now, it’s those with criminal traits who have a distinct edge in the political arena. |
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Killings on campus Educational institutions should definitely be “places of safety and sanctuary and learning”, as President George W. Bush said after the killing of 31 students and an Indian professor at Virginia Tech University, one of the highly rated US campuses, on Monday. That is, however, not the reality, at least so far as security is concerned. The way a blood-thirsty young man could mow down with two handguns such a large number of students in two sessions shows the university, with a student population of over 28, 000, had no proper security arrangement. Many victims could have been saved had there been well-trained personnel to handle situations like this. The killer first attacked a dormitory in the morning and then disappeared. When he reappeared at Virginia Tech’s Engineering School after two hours he moved from room to room unchallenged. He could have killed a few more students, but, mercifully, he decided to pump a few bullets into his own head after felling 31 persons. Perhaps, there was nothing in the name of security. This exposes the complacency or the callousness of the university administration. What happened on Monday was the biggest incident of its kind in US history. Another such horrifying carnage occurred in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin in which 16 students had lost their lives. The killings at Virginia are shrouded in mystery. It is difficult to believe that the massacre is the handiwork of a jilted lover, as the available details suggest. The truth, it seems, is something else, a big conspiracy to create scare at the US campuses. The US remains the top target of high-tech terrorists after the military action in Iraq. Any laxity in security matters will be an invitation to terrorists to strike at their targets, as they have been threatening to make the world forget 9/11. |
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Shooting the messenger The forces of intolerance, which are out to crush pluralist expressions and any presumed ‘deviation from cultural norms’, have taken to venting their fury against the media for reporting news. Two disparate incidents are instructive about how media finds itself in the crossfire, and for all the wrong reasons. The first is the attack by lumpen elements of a little-known outfit, Rashtra Sena, on the office of Star TV in Mumbai: to protest against an inter-community couple being present on its premises as the subject of newscasts. When the channel learnt that the girl who eloped with a man against her parents’ wishes was a minor, it informed the police. It is for the police to deal the offence. That the girl is a Hindu and the man she eloped with a Muslim is irrelevant. Yet, it is precisely this that a mob of fanatics picked on to ransack the office of Star TV. Would it have been acceptable to the fanatics if the minor had eloped with a Hindu? Would that have been less of a crime? Obviously, perceptions of what constitutes an offence are also communalised. The media was only doing its job of reporting the news. In the second case, activists of Hindu outfits especially the Shiv Sena are on the rampage protesting against actor Richard Gere’s cheek-kissing of actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event. The moral brigade is objecting to Shilpa Shetty’s “un-Indian conduct”. Shilpa and the organisers, who did “organise” the show precisely for media effect have accused the media of going overboard. Obviously, unable to take the heat generated by the “event”, the media is a convenient whipping boy. It is hard to see how the public dalliance of Gere and Shilpa serves the cause of AIDS awareness. In fact they have done a disservice by reducing the occasion to celebrity trivia, which does not justify the Hindutva fanatics going on a rampage. Yet, both are united in blaming the media, which only goes to show that celebrities are as hostile to the media as the lumpen hordes when it cannot be used for their narrow ends. |
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You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.
— George Bernard Shaw |
From OIC To IPI
Just a few days ago India and Azerbaijan decided to set up a joint commission. This may be a very minor footnote to current history, but it forms the latest link in a major trend. Counted as secular, Azerbaijan, is also probably the northernmost among that vast cluster of Muslim majority countries which constitute the bulk of what is generally called the Islamic West Asia. This vast area, stretching all the way to the Mediterranean in the south and south-west and to the Indian Ocean in the south and south-east, is the troubled Asian world of Islam, troubled by the conflicts within Islam between modernity and orthodoxy, between Shias and Sunnis, and, in a different version of the same, between Arab and non-Arab Muslims, not to speak of the conflict between Taliban and Al-Qaeda elements on the one hand and everyone else on the other. Iran and Pakistan are two important members of that West Asia group. They are also perhaps the most important members from India’s point of view. They are so currently and have been so historically, and will probably remain so in as distant a future as one can see. At one time, in fact, for about half the time that India has been an independent country, they were also India’s two biggest tormentors in the Organisation of Islamic Countries. Today both are partners with India in what can become the biggest economic joint enterprise between the three countries, the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. This shift from the OIC to the IPI is one part of the change in the West Asia mindset. This shift from political to economic interests is taking place in other countries as well. But a part of it , which is at work in the Islamic West Asia, is of special interest to India. This consists of a willingness to stop looking at India through glasses tinted by religious bias or by hang-ups left over by history. The agreement signed by India in the Azeri capital, Baku, is a sign of that, though the very name of the capital confirms that the change has been made smoother by prospects of future trade in oil. How much smoother has been indicated by India’s Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora. Speaking in Hyderabad a few days ago, he said the IPI would be a $ 7 billion. It would deliver 90 million standard cubic metres of gas per day to India through a nearly 3,000 kilometre-long pipeline. Any differences over the price of oil and over what Pakistan may charge as transit fees would be resolved soon and the agreement would be signed in June. Seven billion American dollars is no mean part of the Indian economy and is a substantial part of India’s oil economy. Of course, there are still some question marks on this relationship, the most troublesome being how India will balance its need and desire for improving relations with Iran on the one hand and with the US on the other, because America wants India to comply with the US policy of an embargo on oil imports from Iran. How badly will that affect Indo-Iranian relations? India is also opposed, as is America too and much of the rest of the world, to Iran opting for the nuclear bomb. How far will these issues affect India’s relations with Iran? The answer will depend upon the outcome of various possibilities, as yet hidden in the future, in the relations between America and Iran. On the one hand Europe is trying to moderate America’s policies towards Iran and on the other hand India, among others, is trying its counsels on Iran. Similarly, India also has to walk a tight rope in opposing Iran’s nuclear ambitions because in that respect India, too, is at odds with much of the rest of the world and particularly so with the US. Therefore, India has to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Guess work on these questions is difficult. But in any case the point here at present is not the problems of Indo-US relations or nuclear ambiguities but the on-going change in relations between Iran and India from the days when Iran was leading the charge against India in the OIC to the present days when both countries are trying to keep afloat a major deal between them on gas which is very important for both, whatever the US and some other countries may think about it. There are more problems with Indo-Arab relations in a few respects. There are two reasons for it. One is the high salience of Palestine in Arab affairs. It has the same salience in Iran as well. But there it is more concerned with Iran’s territorial ambitions, religious affinities, and bitter opposition to Israel. On the other hand, for the Arabs, Palestine is a bomb waiting to burst in their own backyard, and some major countries like Egypt and Jordan are in daily contact with the constant sufferings of the Palestinian people, who are not only fellow Arabs themselves but also in some ways the best among them. India has to keep the depth of these feelings in view while at the same time getting the best out of its sustained and justified equation with Israel. The second reason is that while dealing with Iran, India has to deal only with a single and outspoken government which speaks clearly (even if sometimes it says one thing and means another). But in dealing with the Arab League India, like other countries, deals with governments which are sometimes as much in disagreement with each other as they are with an outsider such as India. Take the case of Afghanistan. Arab countries, Iran and Pakistan are more in tussle than agreement with each other in what they want to do with Afghanistan, and Afghanistan’s own interests and integrity are not their first priority. On the contrary, Pakistan and Iran are, or are trying to, eat up Afghanistan from opposite ends, and with such mutually antagonistic ambitions that the more they succeed the more likely they are to start staring at each other one day somewhere in the middle of southern Afghanistan. It is largely by the efforts of India and other countries which are outside Islamic West Asia that Afghanistan has been brought into SAARC. This has given the back-up of the whole region to its integrity and independence. It is no mean achievement of Indian diplomacy and foreign policy that in such a hostile situation India has been invited to be a guest at three successive sessions of the highest deliberative body of the Arab League. It may well be that some Islamic countries were interested in inviting India only to balance off China, which had also been invited to the same sessions. But it is the essence of diplomacy to harness such cross-purposes instead of letting them over-ride foreign policy.n
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‘Char Bahuraniyan’
Though I did not understand it then, I know very well now that my late parents did make some earnest effort to limit their family. Sadly, during their time there were no properly workable family planning devices adequately known to the common people. So, they finally ended up having 10 children, not at all unusual for that age. One of us five brothers went missing in a “kumbh mela” at Allahabad some 45 years back. The rest of us duly brought four “bahuranis” (brides) to our household — Vijay, Anjana, Usha and Sunita — in course of time. My parents remained happy and contented about them till their last breath. So far as women are concerned, every society has blood on its hands. Over the ages, the “bahuranis” in particular have suffered terribly hard. Even their parents are made to feel humble. Our Hindu scriptures require their fathers to touch the feet of the bridegroom at the marriage ceremony. In some of our communities the mother-in-law touches the feet of her son-in-law as the first thing in the morning! No wonder, quite a few female foetuses end up in drains. Yet, quite a few knights in the shining armour are around us now to fight for our human female — the legislatures, the National Commission for Women and the Crimes against Women cells of police (where some over-zealous officers go to the length of having the errant husbands slapped and shoe-beaten by their estranged wives). Still, their future continues to be a lottery. Viewed in the above context, our “bahuranis” would appear to be singularly lucky. I do not recall a single instance when any of them had to suffer slightest humiliation or hear a harsh word for being a “bahu”. Ours has been a world where the so common “sas-bahu” phenomenon just seems to have missed the bus. I often wonder whether this is just a happy coincidence or somebody has really worked towards it. Our parents encouraged the “bahus” to discard the traditional “ghunghat” (veil) right from Day Two so that they might move about freely as daughters. Their dowries were never allowed to be discussed and their blood relations were always referred to with respect. On their part, they just mixed in our family like water in milk. I often forget about the “shraadh” of my mother, but my wife would never. None of our “bahuranis” created any sort of fuss over the sizeable estate left behind by our parents. Rather they dutifully fast for their welfare wherever they are. This, I believe, is the situation in many other families too. It is precisely for these reasons that our family life is the envy of the West. All this, however, should not distract us from the fact that a lot still remains to be done for our women, particularly the bride phase of their
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DOCUMENT In South Asia, current water delivery and use patterns for agriculture are quite wasteful. Farmers often tend to use wasteful flood irrigation methods instead of drip and sprinkler irrigation, which economises on the use of water. The irrigation infrastructure is growing increasingly dilapidated owing to maintenance efforts that are grossly inadequate. Hence, delivery losses of the irrigation system are extremely high. In most countries, wastages due to technical management problems have been compounded by corruption and water misappropriation. The limited water resources are giving rise to explosive rivalries/disputes in the region. Although water has not been the cause of inter-state conflict in the military sense, it has been a major source of regional discord. Disputes have arisen essentially in relation to water sharing in rivers that either transcend national boundaries or flow along them. While some of these divergences have been resolved through treaties, others simply refuse to go away. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the water sharing issue acquired special intensity in South Asia. The division of the basin between Pakistan and India cut the upstream reaches of the tributary rivers of the Indus. Pakistan was a lower riparian nation with its choices from the eastern rivers extremely limited. After long, intensive and difficult discussions and international mediation over a 13-year period, the Indus Water Treaty was signed between Pakistan and India on September 19, 1960. The water sharing under the treaty was quite simple. The three western rivers (the Jhelum, the Chenab and the Indus itself) were allocated to Pakistan. On the other hand, the annual average of 29 million-acre feet (MAF) from the three eastern rivers (the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej) was allowed to be fully used by India. India was also permitted to build a number of dams, barrages and link canals to distribute water from the eastern Indus tributaries. However, Article III of the Indus Water Treaty does not allow India to interfere with the waters of the western rivers except for specified uses like domestic use, non-consumptive use, agricultural use and generation of hydroelectric power. The treaty precludes the building of any storages by India on the rivers allocated to Pakistan. The treaty also mandates certain institutional arrangements. There was to be a permanent Indus Commission consisting of one Commissioner each for India and Pakistan. Moreover, under its Article IX, the treaty provides for an elaborate dispute resolution mechanism in cases where the two governments fail to agree. Despite extreme political differences between India and Pakistan, the operation of the Indus Water Treaty has been smooth and reasonably satisfactory. It was never abrogated —even during periods of war. The treaty is an internationally appreciated and well-quoted example of successful trans-boundary agreements on river water sharing. Unfortunately, some serious disputes have gradually gained ground under the ambit of the treaty. The Baglihar Project has been in the arena of intense public debate for the last five years. The issue has assumed classical proportions of an Indo-Pak dispute since the invocation of the arbitration clause of the Indus Water Treaty for the first time in its history. In addition, the proposed construction of the Kishanganga hydro-Power project by India is now also emerging as a serious bone of contention. Kishanganga is a 330 megawatt (MW) project on the Ganga river in held Kashmir. Pakistan anticipates a serious water deficit in the Neelum River once the project starts operating. Attempts to solve the dispute bilaterally have failed to allay Pakistan’s concerns with regard to the design of the project.
Baglihar Dam controversy The Baglihar Project is divided into two phases each designed to produce 450 megawatt (MW) power. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for construction of the first phase was signed in March 1999. The project envisages the construction of a 308 metres high dam on River Chenab near the place known as Baglihar. The dam will have a storage capacity of 321,000 acre-feet. Of this, live storage (pondage) is 30,400 acre-feet. This pondage is meant to supplement the discharge during low flow period. This is precisely what Pakistan is opposing. Pakistan’s stance is that the Baglihar Dam involves the creation of storage beyond what is legitimately allowed to India under the terms of the Indus Water Treaty. Hence, Pakistan’s objections primarily relate to the design of the plant and they do not ipso facto question India’s right under the Indus Water Treaty to construct hydroelectric dams. Pakistan fears that the dam will cause it a loss of 6,000 to 7,000 cusecs of water every day, equivalent to 27 per cent water loss in the Jhelum River. Some experts also claim that the Baglihar Dam will have major economic and security implications for Pakistan owing to increased Indian control over its share of water supplies. The Pakistani objections are thus partly water-related and partly security-related. However, India considers the security fears as totally misconceived and claims that the Baglihar Project is within the minimal rights granted to India on the western rivers by the Indus Treaty. Excerpts from the report “Human Development in South Asia 2005” brought out by Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre. |
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Health The splitting headache, the parched mouth and the overwhelming desire to vomit. It's the morning after the night before. Sweating and retching, you drag your weary limbs to the bathroom and, staring through the speckled rim of the lavatory bowl, you swear never, ever, to drink again. Dr Paul Stillman, a member of the Expert Group on Hydration, a panel of experts that raises awareness about the importance of drinking enough fluids, says: "As well as being toxic, alcohol causes dehydration and metabolic disturbance, especially of the kidneys." Alcohol causes the kidneys to stop reabsorbing water, sending it straight to the bladder instead. Your brain then gets dehydrated and begins to shrink, stretching it away from the inside of your skull. Cue that piercing headache. Stillman says it would be "crazy" to use hangover cures as a safety net for binge drinking. He says: "If you've got a headache in the morning, you've probably damaged some brain cells. That would seem to me to be far more serious than the search for a short-term cure." But if this advice is too late, which are the hangover cures that really work? Cactus: It might not look appetising, but a study from the US discovered that an extract of prickly pear cactus taken as a capsule before hard drinking significantly reduced the hangover misery of young adults. After a fast-food dinner and four hours spent slugging spirits, the volunteers at Tulane University, New Orleans, found their symptoms – nausea, dry mouth and appetite-loss – markedly improved by the cactus extract compared with the poor fools who had been given a placebo. Caffeine: Caffeine is often cited as a cure for drunkenness, let alone the subsequent hangover. Unfortunately, a trip to a late-night Starbucks on your way home after a binge will leave you just as drunk as before, but possibly unable to get to sleep due to its stimulant properties. A cup of coffee or some de-fizzed Coca-Cola the morning after, on the other hand, can help you feel more chipper than you may deserve to be. Caffeine will alleviate a headache, too, because it reduces the size of the blood vessels swollen by alcohol. Just make sure that you drink plenty of water to counteract the dehydration and stomach irritation that caffeine also causes. Stillman says: "Caffeine works to a degree but mostly as a stimulant and painkiller. It will make you feel better generally but won't necessarily counter the effects of the alcohol." Water: There are cranks who would have you believe that a glass of water can cure you of everything from a common cold to cancer, but when it comes to hangovers, they may have a point. Yes, water combats dehydration, but it also dilutes all the nasty by-products left over in the stomach from that night on the tiles. Those with the necessary foresight and the ability to hold glass to tap at the end of the night can go some way to preventing the next day's hangover by drinking water before bedtime. Those with a little too much foresight can match each drink with a glass of water during the evening, if they can handle the suspicious glances of their friends. Eggs: Fried, scrambled or poached eggs are an essential part of Britain's favourite hangover staple: the full English breakfast. But hardened hangover sufferers advocate a more extreme method of ingestion: downed, raw, first thing in the morning. The logic is that eggs contain cysteine, which helps fight free radicals, and that in their raw state they are more effective at doing so. Treat with caution, however: depending on the severity of the hangover and the weakness of your constitution, there could be some rather unpleasant side effects. Oxyzen: Seasoned scuba divers will know that a blast from the oxygen tank in the morning is key to surviving one piña colada too many. But those not lucky enough to be enjoying an idyllic Caribbean holiday can also benefit from this remedy. Simply substitute flippers and a wetsuit for trainers and a comfortable pair of tracksuit bottoms, and embark on an energetic walk. Alternatively, pick up a mini canister and take a few puffs of the neat stuff. The theory is that the increased oxygen flow speeds up the metabolism, thus quickening the pace at which the body breaks down poisons. That said, if you've already overcome the hurdles of getting off the couch, dressing and gathering the morale to brave the British elements, you are probably well on the road to recovery. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Repackaging literary heritage Gone are the days when Wordsworth’s ‘daffodils’ “verily laughed with the wind.” Now, it’s time they “tossed and reeled and danced” to the winds of change. To the beats of rap, to be precise. Yes, the poet’s famous work, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” has got a contemporary connect. It’s been turned into rap to make it relevant to the YouTube Gen. Though the hip-hop version remains faithful to the original verse, the accompanying pop video tweaks the lyrics a wee bit to get GenNext tapping to Wordsworth. The poem, published way back in the early 19th century, is among the best remembered of Britain’s poetic gems. In giving it foot-tapping music and footage on the Net, the Brits have set an example in two ways. First, by reinventing Wordsworth’s 200-year-old legacy to keep it alive for many more centuries to come; and second, by rekindling tourist interest in the landscape that inspired his work, Lake Ullswater in UK’s Lake District, where the new video has been shot. Maybe, therein lies a cue for the custodians of our own literary heritage. Sure, there have been stray cases wherein Indians have repackaged national icons to retain their relevance. The most recent being of Raj Kumar Hirani’s “Lage Raho Munnabhai” that has virtually achieved cult status by lending a contemporaneous context to Gandhism. That no amount of textbook teaching could transform Gandhiji into a pop icon the way this flick did speaks volumes for the need to recast the past for the sake of the future. Also, Rabbi Shergill’s debut album on sufi saint Bulle Shah, “Bulla ki Jaana Main,” that was a chartbuster a few years back, can be cited as an effort in this direction. For, it did for our ancient minstrel what the Brits are doing for their treasured bard. With a touch of the guitar here and a twang there, Rabbi brought sufiana kalam to the lips of an entire iPod generation. But these instances are few and far between. A more proactive approach would be needed to resuscitate our fading literary icons, vernacular as well as national. Instead of letting our cherished works of poetry or prose recede into the archives of present memory, where posterity is scarcely likely to log in, our policy-makers too could fast-forward the techniques to connect to the YouTube Gen. How about repackaging a “Madhushala,” the way so many vintage musical scores are? Poets as pop icons may be one way to get the remix generation to tune in. It would also spare us the bawdy lyrics of much of Indipop that erupts on the charts like a rash every other day. Maybe our Tourism and Culture Minister, freshly returned from hard-selling India’s medical and tea tourism to wine-sipping nations, instead of just waxing lyrical about her success could now get innovative about marketing desi bards and other literary lights to her own coke-guzzling youth. There’s a catch though. Heritage going hip-hop may not go down too well with the moral and culture cops. |
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