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Thumbs up for RTI Rupee shines |
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Poverty of sports
Talibanisation of
Islamabad?
Designer wedding
Victims of price
rise Army indifferent to
ecology? Ethanol carries
health risks: study
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Rupee shines The
Indian rupee appreciating against the US dollar in the past few weeks spells good news for importers, consumers and those planning holiday abroad. In July last year Indians had to pay Rs 47 for one US dollar. On Monday Rs 41.86 fetched one dollar. The saving is huge when seen in the context of imports of oil, aircraft and defence requirements. Those planning to buy gold will not be affected by its rising price in the international market. Indians importing electronic items will also find their prices more attractive. Exporters, on the other hand, stand to lose. IT companies, which investors grabbed at exorbitant prices, may fall out of favour as the strengthening rupee dents their profitability. There are different reasons for the rupee gaining in value. One, the dollar is weakening against various currencies world over. The US economy is no longer as rosy as it used to be. India and China are now more attractive destinations for foreign investment. Two, the RBI has reduced its dollar purchases considerably and is deliberately letting the rupee appreciate. The RBI lapped up dollars amounting to $12 billion in February. However, in March and up to April 16 it had made total purchases of only $4 billion. The RBI’s objective is clear: control inflation. With imports becoming cheaper, the manufacturing cost will fall. If the government passes on the oil benefits to consumers, transportation will cost less, having a direct impact on prices. However, as inflation falls to acceptable levels, the rupee may be allowed to depreciate. The RBI cannot afford to slow down the growth in the country’s exports. China has not allowed its currency to appreciate much against the dollar. As a result, its exports are more attractive and rising faster than India’s. |
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Poverty of sports Hosting
an international sporting event like the Asian Games is considered a signal honour and the bidding for this privilege is as hard fought as the attempt to win, say, an Olympic medal. No wonder South Korea was firing on all cylinders to get it for Incheon in the year 2014. Delhi had an even chance, considering that it was hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games as well. But when it came to the crunch, India not only became an also-ran, thanks to its Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, but also made a laughing stock of itself. It must be the first time ever for the Sports Minister of the bidding country to say just days before the crucial decision that the holding to big games made no difference to the poor. The minister may have known that this statement apparently proved to be the clincher. Ironically, the minister had also opposed India’s bid when the matter came up before the Union Cabinet, which however approved it. But the die was cast. No wonder IOA President Suresh Kalmadi sarcastically called the defeat “Aiyar’s victory”. We not only lost the Asian Games, but also came out as a house divided. That is one ugly spectacle India could have done without. It is no secret that the earlier Asian Games held here in 1951 and 1982 helped change the face of Delhi. Many of these effects trickled down to other places. The 2014 Asiad could have given some sense of urgency to the badly needed infrastructure upgradation. But that was not to be. The minister’s concern for the common man is touching. One hopes that he and his ministerial colleagues will desist from holding and attending various political jamborees, or going abroad without serious reason. That also costs a bomb and does nothing for the man on the street. After losing the bid, Mr Aiyar has added that the huge amount of money that will now be “saved from organising the games” can be used to build better sports facilities for the youth of the country. Most of them, he knows, continue to remain poor. Let’s hope he keeps his promise. |
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Chaos umpire sits,/And by decision more embroils the fray.
— John Milton |
Talibanisation of Islamabad? Over
two decades ago a visiting Indian journalist charmed by the old world splendour of Lahore and the vigour and vitality of the bustling commercial city of Karachi, where I was then India’s Consul-General, described Islamabad as a city of “bureaucrats, bores and boulevards”. Islamabad has always been a sanitised city, far removed from the reality of what is Pakistan. The army and the bureaucracy that have received preferential allotment of housing plots are comfortably ensconced there. It was always presumed that the capital would remain immune to ferment elsewhere in that country. Two events in recent days have shattered this comfortable belief of Pakistan’s privileged classes. The first has been the unprecedented solidarity of the legal fraternity, after Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry unexpectedly refused to yield when peremptorily sacked by President Musharraf, dressed up in his attire of a four-star General. The more ominous development has been the defiance shown by two clerics, Maulana Abdul Aziz and his brother Abdur Rashid Ghazi, who appear determined to challenge the established order and coerce it into adopting Shariah laws, initially in the capital. While it was widely expected that the ouster of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 would lead to a reduction in Islamic radicalism in neighbouring Pakistan, the opposite seems to have happened. With the Taliban and Al-Qaeda seeking haven in Pakistan, their radical supporters, particularly in the tribal areas (FATA) and elsewhere in the North-west Frontier Province and in Balochistan, have risen to challenge the writ of the Government of Pakistan. These areas bordering Afghanistan are now becoming progressively Talibanised. The first real challenge to the writ of General Musharraf came when he sent in over 80,000 troops to FATA to force tribals to end support for the Taliban. The Pakistan army got a bloody nose in FATA, losing over 700 soldiers. More ominously, over 300 officers and men reportedly face disciplinary action for refusing to take up arms against fellow Pashtuns. Paradoxically, even as his soldiers were getting killed, fighting supporters of the Taliban in Waziristan General Musharraf permitted Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders to seek haven in Quetta. With General Musharraf’s writ over the NWFP under challenge, pro-Taliban elements established Shariah courts, banned videos and music, forbade barbers from cutting and trimming beards and prevented girls from receiving modern education. In Peshawar and other places in the NWFP, local Taliban activists have warned schoolgirls to veil themselves and ordered men not to shave their beards. Elsewhere in FATA, armed Taliban men stop vehicles and remove cassette players and radios and force men to grow beards. What is shocking is that the two clerics in Islamabad are threatening to enforce similar measures in the capital from the precincts of a masjid-madarsa complex they control, which is located barely one mile away from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, the Supreme Court and Parliament (National Assembly building). Maulana Abdul Aziz runs the Lal Masjid set-up with the tacit approval of the powers that be in the very heart of Islamabad. His brother Abdur Rashid Ghazi runs two madarsas - Jamia Hafsa (for girls) and the Jamia Faridia for bearded male students. A few months ago, girl students of Jamia Hafsa forcibly occupied a children’s public library after the administration demolished seven illegally constructed mosques, evidently on security considerations. The two brothers then proclaimed their determination to enforce Shariah laws in the capital. They set up a Shariah court to hear public complaints, with their male students warning owners of video parlours and musical cassette stores to close shop, while females driving cars were warned to stop doing so. A campaign against vice was commenced with the abduction of a woman accused of encouraging prostitution and two of her family members. When the Islamabad police sought to rescue the kidnapped women, they had to beat a hasty retreat when police vans were seized in retaliation. The clerics issued a fatwa against Pakistan’s gutsy Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar for being hugged by a paragliding instructor in Paris. In the meantime, the Shariah court even started entertaining complaints from women police personnel, who complained of sexual harassment. The entire episode is now threatening to get out of hand. There is an understandable disinclination to use force against the masjid-madarsa complex. Over 70 per cent of the students — male and female — are Pashtun. They are evidently well armed. Given the fact that around 20 per cent of the Pakistan Army is made up of Pashtuns and recent experiences in Waziristan, any significant loss of lives would provoke Pashtun outrage. Moreover, responding to appeals from the clerics, a large number of madarsa students from across Pakistan have converged on the Lal Masjid complex. Seeking political accommodation with the clerics, General Musharraf has deputed the head of the Muslim League (PML-Q), Chaudhry Shujat, who like many of his ilk is given to yielding to pressures from religious extremists, for talks with Maulana Aziz. Chaudhry Shujat has held talks with the clerics, with the Musharraf dispensation showing signs of buckling to their demands. The government has agreed to reconstruct the seven illegal mosques it had pulled down. It has also agreed to act against alleged centres of prostitution. The clerics have refused to close down the Shariah court they have set up and remain firm on their demands for the introduction of Shariah law. Measures to deal with the situation will figure prominently at the meeting of Pakistan’s real rulers, the Army’s Corps Commanders. Reflecting on developments in Islamabad, the Editor of the Lahore-based Friday Times, Najm Sethi, notes: “More Mullahs (across Pakistan) are likely to follow suit, if the issue is not ‘closed’ swiftly. Brothels, billboards, veils, music, film, haircuts, dress and schools — there will be no end to ‘concessions’ demanded in the name of jihad and Islam.” The process of Talibanisation moving eastwards from the NNWFP appears to have commenced. In Lahore, the student wing of the Jamat-e-Islami, the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba, has beaten up “un-Islamic” students and proclaimed “Islamisation” of the campus. Can this process of creeping Talibanisation of Pakistan be halted? It can, if General Musharraf and the Army establishment take a few crucial steps. These include an irrevocable break with their traditional partners — the Islamic political parties, an end to support of groups like the Lashkar-e-taiba, which declare “Hindus, Christians and Jews” as “enemies of Islam”, an end to support for the Taliban and the secularisation of education, with mainstream political parties being allowed to function freely. Whether General Musharraf has the inclination, will or ability to undertake these measures remains to be
seen.
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Designer wedding We
want an exciting wedding, said the bridegroom sounding very earnest. “Something memorable, please”, whispered the bride shyly. Both were celebrities. Media blokes were trying hard to peep in from outside the window. The pun.dit.ji (he was computer-savvy!) smiled indulgently. Big match, big cash! He suggested several packages, but they crinkled their powdered noses. The couple accepted the essentials like tying the mangalsutra and going round the fire seven times. But “some thing exciting” please! That’s when the pun.dit.ji turned to me for help. He was an old pal. “You can go round the fire first time in Rajasthan,” I suggested,” the second round could be in a desert, the third under the sea, the fourth in the sky, the fifth in Antarctica, and the sixth on a snow-covered mountain. Well the last can be done riding a camel or a bullock-cart right in the middle of the city.” “Wow! What fun! But listen, can we do these rounds along with my ex-husbands and boyfriends? They can take different vows not to interfere with the current marriage. They would also love a bit of fun like this fire stuff.” “Dah’ling”, intervened the star-groom,” you can’t omit our little ones from earlier marriages. I mean, your kids and my kids. Let’s be totally broad-minded.” The pun.dit.ji, though quite modern, squirmed uncomfortably. “It’s a sacred fire”, he pleaded weakly, “it’s not a bonfire”. “As a novelty,” I proceeded, “You can do the mangalsutra bit also seven times. You tie it sitting on the ground, on a tree, swinging on a rope jhoola, hanging upside down, lying down flat, rolling on the ground, and skating.” They were excited. “You are a genius, man! Tell us about the other arrangements”. “Guests will be given vitamin injections every morning for facing the
rigorous of the wedding. They will stay in specially constructed caves and will wear artificial skins of monkeys, tigers, bears etc. They can choose. Just like in ancient times — Like a period piece, you know. The wedding theme will be like — A cave Man Takes a Woman — or something like that.” “Terrific. What about the nuptial bed? I am dying to feel it”, cooed the bride who had become coy, coy by now. The pun.dit.ji squirmed again. “That’s for the first-timers, you know what I mean.” “No problem, please”, I intervened, “It will be the first night after this particular wedding”. Then I whispered to him about the big cash bit. He stopped squirming. “But I want a special bed”, the star-bride insisted, “I love this man so-oo much. Get the world’s most expensive bed made, we will pay, I mean some channel will pay in return for the first rights”. “Yes, of course”, I said, “you can auction it soon after the event. It will bring enough cash for a few more weddings. Scores of warm pocketed patrons in the world are always eager to buy such stuff”. “Oh yes!” the coy bride said, “all the clothes, even our celebrity guests’ socks, soap, handkerchief and bedsheets were auctioned after my previous wedding. God, it rained cash!” We all lived happily ever
after. |
Victims of price rise THE other day a clerk killed his wife and tried to take his own life by taking a poisonous substance. The rising cost of living had virtually crippled him emotionally and depressed physically, thus forcing him to take the extreme step. He had taken even a loan to meet his growing expenditure. A few days ago, a washerman hanged himself. For him raising a family of nine members had become a difficult task. Many more examples of people ending their lives because of the financial stress caused by the spiralling prices of essential commodities like atta-dal are available. India’s economy is growing as the Manmohan Singh government claims at 9.1 per cent and they say that even it is poised to achieve a double-digit figure in the near future, but it is also a reality that poverty-stricken people are committing suicides in the country. It is another matter that the so-called thinkers with an elite mindset are not ready to write on suicides in the manner they relish to write about the growth figures. The government can say that as all poverty-stricken people are not killing themselves so the situation is not that bad requiring its attention. Earlier, cases of suicide by debt-ridden farmers were catching the attention of people. However, the committing of suicides by poverty-stricken people is a new addition to that phenomenon. There is a difference between deaths caused by starvation and famine, as happens in certain districts of Orissa, and deaths by suicide because of the rising cost of living. Let the rich survive and others die. This has become the goal of the global economic order that is being dictated by rich nations led by America. And most affected by this phenomenon are countries like India having a big mass of poor people. The Manmohan Singh government, which is leading the Indian economy’s engagement with the global economy, is not bothered about what is happening to aam adami. Instead of providing dal-roti to aam adami, the Government dishes out statistics, like 9.1 per cent economic growth, asking over 40 crore poverty-stricken Indians to fill their stomachs with figures. Statistics, which often mesmerise India’s political elite and its backers in the media, cannot and will not become a replacement for “dal-roti”. The sooner it is realised by the government the better for the country as well as the Congress. Otherwise, decimation of the Congress is as clear as the proverbial writing on the wall . The fact is that the Manmohan Singh government in the past three years has not only mauled the common man physically and emotionally but also made life miserable for the middle class. Policies followed by it are failing to deliver. For the common man the percentage of inflation is much higher than what is projected at the national level by the Union Government. For him what inflation means is the rise in the price of wheat flour and pulses. Forget the aam adami. He is not on the agenda of the Union Government. Aam-adami is just a political phrase used to serve the political requirements of the Congress-led government at the Centre. For blatantly ignoring aam adami, the Congress has paid heavy political price in Punjab, Uttaranchal and Delhi’s Municipal Corporation elections. In the past few days, the Manmohan Singh government has taken steps which have hit even the middle class hard. The middle class has to pay a back-breaking service tax almost on every facility from the utility sector. It has to pay 12.5 per cent service tax for sending wards to education coaching centres for entrance tests of IITs, medical and engineering colleges. Sending wards to coaching centres has become a compulsion because of the falling standards of education in government schools which, by and large, are without adequate staff. During the last financial year, the Union Government increased the credit reserve
ratio (CRR) by 1. 5 per cent, thus sucking out a huge chunk of money that was available with banks for circulation in the market. With the latest increase of CRR from 6 to 6.5 per cent, about Rs 15,500 crore has been sucked out from circulation in the market. The government says that the step of tightening the money market has been taken to check inflation. With an increase in the CRR, banks will have to deposit that money (Rs 15,550 crore) with the RBI. But the government has not realised that it has directly affected about three crore people who have taken loans on the floating interest rate basis from banks to build houses. The interest on home loan that was 6.5 per cent in November, 2004, has now gone to 12 per cent. It means that the interest rate has almost doubled. People who took loans in 2004 or earlier will have to pay near double the amount of the instalment to return the loan. As most of the people had opted for a floating rate of interest while taking a loan to build their dream house, they would have to pay the instalments tabulated by banks on the basis of enhanced rates. And in the process banks will be making huge profits. No financial opportunity can be better for the banks in India than the one provided by the Union Government by allowing them to charge 12 per cent interest on the money they had advanced just at 6.5 per cent two or three years ago. Obviously, those who took housing loans feel cheated by their own elected government.
Likewise, car loans have hit the roof. With the construction sector ( housing building activity) hit by higher interest on loans, the Union Government has also not spared the daily wage labour. Lakhs of daily-wage labourers working in the construction sector, that is one of the biggest employers of casual labour, will lose their daily income because of the slowing pace of activity. As the Manmohan Singh government has choked poor sections as well as the middle class, both these sections have begun to strike back at the government. |
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Army indifferent to ecology? When
an eminent journalist like Kuldip Nayar states that the ecology of the Delhi Ridge is seriously imperiled (April 6), his concerns cannot be brushed aside. He also pointedly faults the Army for certain acts which have “endangered the flora and fauna in the area”. It is difficult to reconcile Kuldip Nayar’s harsh indictment of the Army’s “green” credentials coming as it does just 24 hours after what The Tribune had reported, “Green Governance: Army Gets First Prize.” Admittedly, this award was for the good work done in Ladakh’s Leh region but it related to the “conservation of fauna”. In 2004-05 the Army had won a similar recognition in the Kargil region. They had not just planted some two lakh tree saplings on the barren slopes of Kargil heights, post the 1999 war, but the survival rate of the plantation was judged independently by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at an incredible high of 80 per cent! Now what is green governance? Well it was the BNHS who had come to the conclusion that as our economy grows, so also concurrently grows our environmental degradation. So they conceived the strategy to (a) award recognition to government organisations for outstanding efforts to conserve biodiversity outside their mandate, and (b) likewise recognise public and private enterprises with assets over Rs 100 crore for similar achievements. In the latter category, last year Godrej was awarded for restoring the mangrove forest, which once had dotted their industrial estate at Vikhroli in Mumbai, to its original status. Now where the Army’s efforts at preserving the ecology of the Delhi Ridge and the surroundings are concerned, there are two bench-marks worth recounting. A few years ago when illegal and indiscriminate mining in the Aravalli hills in Delhi had resulted in severe environmental degradation, the daunting task of healing the damage was entrusted to one of Army’s eco-battalions. The results achieved were beyond imagination and won instant universal applaud. At another level, it is a source of great satisfaction to know that the Army cantonment on the Ridge has been and continues to be a haven for India’s National Bird, the peacock. Its calls can be heard over the din of aircraft taking off from the nearby Palam airport. It is unfortunate that Kuldip Nayar has not clearly stated the Army’s ecological misdeeds on the Delhi Ridge. Maybe the Army’s adherence to their operational imperatives which possibly led to the ecological damage in question, was either not comprehensively explained during the public hearing or it was not given a hearing with an open mind by the high-powered committee. Be that as it may, let it suffice to remember that the Indian Army is irrevocably wedded to the green culture, minor aberrations now and then notwithstanding. And to borrow from Kuldip Nayar, the Indian Army remains “committed to the supremacy of the Constitution”, which enjoins on every citizen to preserve the Country’s ecology. |
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Ethanol carries health risks: study Ethanol, widely touted as a greenhouse gas-cutting fuel, would have serious health effects if heavily used in cars, producing more ground level ozone than gasoline, particularly in the Los Angeles basin, according to a Stanford University study out Wednesday. “Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and author of the study in the online edition of Environmental Science and Technology. “But our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage.” Ozone is a key ingredient in smog and inhaled even at low levels can harm lungs, aggravate asthma and impair immune systems. The health effects are the same for ethanol whether it is made from corn or other plant products, Jacobson found. The study determined that a 9 percent increase in ozone-related deaths would occur in greater Los Angeles and a 4 percent increase nationally by 2020 if a form of ethanol called E85 was used instead of gasoline. In the Southeast, by contrast, mortality rates were slightly lower. The type of fuel used in the study, 85 percent ethanol to 15 percent gasoline, emits less greenhouse gas than other types, some researchers say. “Today, there is a lot of investment in ethanol,” Jacobson said. “The question is, if we’re not getting any health benefits, then why continue to promote ethanol.” Jacobson used a computer model to simulate air quality in 2020, when ethanol-fueled vehicles are expected to be widely available in the United States. His study is the first to combine emissions data with a host of other variables, including climate, population density and already existing amounts of air pollution, he said. “The chemicals that come out of a tailpipe are affected by a variety of factors, including chemical reactions, temperatures, sunlight, clouds, wind and precipitation,” he said. “Overall, health effects depend on exposure to these airborne chemicals, which varies from region to region. ... Since Los Angeles has historically been the most polluted airshed in the U.S., the test bed for nearly all U.S. air pollution regulation and home to about 6 percent of the U.S. population, it is also ideal for a more detailed study,” he wrote. President Bush has made the increased use of ethanol and other alternative fuels a centerpiece of his strategy to increase reliance on domestic fuels while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In his State of the Union address in January, Bush called for annual national production of 35 billion gallons of ethanol by 2017, up from 5 billion gallons in 2006, and nearly five times the target set by Congress. The president’s deputy press secretary requested a copy of Jacobson’s study Tuesday but had no immediate comment. Kristen Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said she had not had a chance to review the study but reiterated the administration’s support for ethanol. “I think there are pollutants that contribute to ozone which may slightly increase as a result of more ethanol use, which can be managed by tools which we have available under the Clean Air Act,” Hellmer said. California Air Resources Board spokeswoman Gennet Paauwe said staff researchers are designing their own research to study potential effects of ethanol on air pollution and health. Study author Jacobson said there are already an estimated 5,000 premature deaths annually tied to ozone exposure, in spite of Clean Air Act regulations. He said he had assumed large reductions in emissions by 2020 because of more stringent air regulations, but that even then, there were significant health risks. Brooke Coleman, director of the Renewable Energy Action Project in San Francisco, described Jacobsen as a respected air-quality expert but criticized him for saying there would be increased deaths from E85 and smog. “He is ignoring the fact that E85 greatly reduces emissions that are much more harmful to humans than smog, such as toxics and soot (particulate).” Coleman said in an e-mail. Jacobson replied that “there is no evidence available to indicate that particulate matter will decrease with the use of E85. ... The effect of E85 on increasing mortality is firmly ground in science based on information available today, and not misleading. What is misleading is the claims made to date that ethanol will improve air quality and
health.” By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post |
God of Himself created Himself, and assumed the Name then. Secondly, He created nature, wherein He lives and beholds it with delight. — Guru Nanak The rituals and the sacrifices described in the Vedas deal with lower knowledge. The sages ignored these rituals and went in search of higher knowledge. —
The Mandukya
Upanishad Literacy is not the end of education nor even the beginning.
— Mahatma Gandhi
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