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Punjab’s new land policy The stink of railways |
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Cribbing cricketers
Central Asia is vital
Haircut, then and now
Killing unborn daughter Television is making torture acceptable Delhi Durbar
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Punjab’s new land policy FROM the almost forcible takeover of land for a private company to offering farmers a stake in development projects undertaken on their land, the Punjab government has come a long way in framing a workable land acquisition policy. The basic thrust of the new policy is that no land would be acquired without the owner’s consent. If he agrees to sell, he would have two options: either accept the negotiated compensation from the developer or/and a stake in the commercial, industrial or housing project being developed on his land. In the former option there is a risk of compensation being misspent or wrongly invested and the resultant loss to the uprooted family. The second option provides a fixed asset or a source of regular income to the displaced family. The new policy should be acceptable to farmers as it adequately takes care of their interests. In March this year the Punjab Chief Minister had talked of the proposed land acquisition policy including a provision of “uproot allowance” of 30 per cent to be paid to the farmer in addition to the land price. But there are no reports of this clause being included in the new policy. Anyway, a stake in a project is good enough to provide some economic security to the unsettled farmer. The new policy, cleared in principle, should end all uncertainty surrounding new projects. There are, however, other hurdles. Land prices have risen so high that SEZs might become unviable. The cancellation of NOCs of several housing projects by the Punjab Pollution Control Board has halted the real estate boom. The recurrent power shortage also comes in the way of rapid development. More importantly, the rising threat to the law and order situation in the state and fears of revival of militancy caould dampen fresh investment. The political leadership will have to show vision and create an investor-friendly environment for industrialisation to take off. |
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The stink of railways THE Harvard boys who have become fond of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav’s performance are in for a shock. The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India’s report on cleanliness and sanitation tabled in Parliament shows the poor state of affairs at railway stations. The report, first of its kind, based on a joint exercise by auditors of both the CAG and the Railways, covered 298 stations across the country. It contains photographs to prove its findings. It has also incorporated a sample survey of passenger opinion. Surprisingly, New Delhi station ranked far below other premier stations. Of the stations graded, the top score was a mere 183 out of 300 marks earned by Secunderabad and Chennai Central stations, indicating that even the best had a long way to go in improving passenger amenities. Overflowing dustbins and dirty toilets without water supply greet passengers at Delhi, Howrah, Rourkela and Durgapur stations because the Station Managers view cleanliness as a “secondary activity”, according to the report. Not long ago, the railways launched with fanfare the mechanised cleaning of stations. While some failed to take off, others have become defunct. At Howrah, Patna and Bhubaneswar, these could not be used either because of no trained staff or the platform’s hard surface. If this is the condition of important stations, one can well imagine the fate of small stations. The report reveals that most stations fall short of the Railway Board’s norm of 10 toilets and 10 urinals for the ‘A’ category, six and four each for the ‘B and ‘C’ category stations respectively. Rail Bhavan’s mandarins miss no opportunity to show-case railways through seminars and functions. They also observe special weeks to sensitise the staff and spread general awareness. But all these are of little value if public conveniences are not improved. When the minister boasts of high earnings, what prevents him from providing good waiting rooms and more toilets? The Harvard boys need to travel by Indian Railways for a change. |
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Cribbing cricketers RAHUL Dravid is not the complaining type. So, it is all the more surprising that the otherwise reticent gentleman should have picked the non-issue of “over-crammed schedules” to complain about. Expectedly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has brushed aside Dravid’s concern over the “cramped” schedule. It is irrelevant whether Dravid said “crammed” or “cramped”, as terminological exactitude is not a strong point with either cricketers or BCCI officials. In fact, it may be a Freudian slip on Dravid’s part when he spoke out, after the rain-aborted first Test against Bangladesh, which ended in a draw, and said, “the schedules are cramped, over-cramped”. After being thrashed roundly by Bangladesh in the group match of the World Cup and staying put at home during the rest of the matches, it is understandable that the Indian cricket team would be afflicted by a bad case of cramps. After all, they have been sitting for far too long; not playing, not winning and not even losing. Despite this prolonged period of rest they enjoyed during the World Cup, to complain of a heavy schedule on their very first outing suggests that our cricketers are either tired of playing or have other things on their mind. The team is scheduled to play 100 days of cricket over the next 10 months. Cricket is no more a pastime. It is big business. Our cricketers rake it in like film stars and politicians, and like them they should play as much as they can while they can. If they want to work like the salariat, well, even then 100 days of cricket in a year is not backbreaking. But, if they are complaining, it means the cricketers are tired. Those who are unable to keep up with the schedule can always retire and make way for others, especially the young guns, who are raring to get out there and make a go of it. |
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There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,/ Rough-hew them how we will. |
Central Asia is vital
A
recent visit to Uzbekistan showed how the dice has been rolled in this geostrategic and resource-rich junction of the East and the West. This month Russia outwitted the US and the EU by signing a landmark deal with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan for a gas pipeline to Russia which is like carrying coal to New Castle. Central Asia conjures up images of breathtaking beauty against an arid landscape over which once ran the historic Silk Routes connecting China with Europe. Born here was the idea of the Great Game, frequently as frustrating as the custody of a goat’s carcass in the favourite sport, Butkashi, played in this region.Turks, Arabs, Mongols and Taimurs have indulged in map-making, raising and relocating capitals and cities. Former Soviet colonies, the five landlocked Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — became independent in 1991, inheriting the myriad problems of change from Communism to democracy. Soviet exploitation of resources and flawed politics of transition led to environmental disasters such as the shrinking of the Aral Sea, not to mention the complex legacy of Stalin’s reckless policy of resettling eight nationalities from the USSR to Central Asia. The last 16 years have been comparable to the Great Depression in 1930, the decline in incomes, the worst in this century. With a population of 60 million and half the size of the US, the Central Asian republics contain 20 billion barrels of oil reserves and 7 trillion cubic metres of natural gas and are an alternative to hydrocarbon wealth of the Persian Gulf. All the five republics are Muslim-majority secular states with authoritarian rulers. Uzbekistan is the heart of Central Asia and is 80 per cent desert. It shares borders with all the other four states as well as Afghanistan. With a population of 26 million, which is half of the entire Central Asia, rich in gas and gold and other mineral resources and host to the legendary cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, it has the potential to be the trading powerhouse of the region, rivalling the oil-rich Kazakhstan which is growing at an amazing 12 per cent per annum. Uzbeks regard themselves intellectually, culturally and spiritually superior to all others. The ambition to be the regional leader has been unrealised due to the fertile and densely populated Ferghana valley which abuts Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and is known as a fount of Islamic fundamentalism in the region. The two main groups are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (with a splinter group, the Islamic Jihad Union) led by an Uighur, Mr Juma Namunjani, and the Hizb-ut-Tehrir under Mr Jumma Khojaev. The IMU leader was killed in Afghanistan; the outfit is now led by Mr Tihir Yuldashev. The more radical Hizb-ut-Tehrir has a wide following throughout Central Asia except Turkmenistan but this group has not indulged in any terrorist activity. Ferghana’s legacy of violence began in 1989 with Uzbek militants calling for an Islamic state. The first organised bomb attacks in Tashkent were in 1999-2000. These groups along with Uighur rebels from Sinkiang, China, have found sanctuaries in Kyrgyzstan. Under intense pressure from Uzbek counter-terrorism operations, many slipped into Afghanistan to side with the Taliban. In 2004, there were isolated cases of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks outside the US and Israeli embassies in Tashkent and against security forces. Most of the 1300 or so rebels are trapped in Waziristan or in hiding in Kyrgyzstan. After 9/11, fearing an Islamic upheaval and also to rid Uzbekistan of its Russian past, President Ismail Karimov invited US military experts to help foil Islamic extremist activity in Ferghana and arrest the three evils of drugs, weapons and transborder crime. The US gave $ 500m in 2002 alone in exchange for facilities including the use of an airbase in Termez for the war in Afghanistan. The Andijan riots in Ferghana of May 2005 completely mismanaged by the Uzbek authorities blew up into a big international incident due to the ruthless response of security forces. The spontaneous uprising involving grave human rights allegations left 1000 dead and was widely condemned by Western governments and civil and human rights groups. The government described the demonstrations as an attempted coup by Islamic radicals supported by foreign powers. The 23 local businessmen who were attempting to help revitalise the local economy and also spread Islam were charged with plotting an Islamic revolution. The initial euphoria over the US help in tackling Islamic resistance dissipated following the popular revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Andijan. The US advocacy for more democracy and civil liberties and listing Uzbekistan among the countries of particular concern regarding religious freedom deepened the rift. The US became the first casualty of Andijan and was given in August 2005 the marching orders. The US airbase was closed and Uzbek troops withdrawn from Iraq. Karimov was determined to turn back the clock and expelled many NGOs. His biggest opposition are pressure groups and the IMF and the World Bank which periodically condemn Uzbekistan for its poor human rights record and archaic economic policies. The Russians were quick to come back. Today 10 per cent of the Uzbeks are Russians. Erasing the Russian legacy was never a realistic option for Karimov. On his third term, despite a constitutional ban beyond two, Karimov is grooming his daughter in family succession. Uzbekistan, a controlled state, is run with an iron hand. Like Tito in former Yugoslavia, Karimov keeps a fine balance of regional interests. The three ministries that count are Interior, Security and Defence, in that order. And this tells it all. Visitors are advised not to indulge in political activity as democracy of the Uzbek brand will find its own way. Due to its centrality and perceived intellectual superiority, Uzbeks consider themselves the natural leaders in the region. This does not go well with the economically rich Kazakhs who, though regarded as nomads, employ many Uzbeks as servants. The affairs of the state and the region are dominated by security issues. Last year, Central Asia was declared a nuclear-free zone. Tashkent has become the centre for the Regional Antiterrorism Structure and Energy Club. Uzbekistan has signed an Allied Relations Treaty with Russia which is currently the dominant power in Central Asia. China is not far behind. Its trump card is cheap Chinese goods, smuggled into Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan, a member of the WTO. China seeks transport corridors and gas pipelines and transmission lines for its energy security. It is also worried about Uighur rebels in Ferghana and Kyrgyzstan. India’s strategic interests are handicapped by the lack of contiguity. Yet, Tashkent is closer to Delhi than Bangalore. India’s strength lies in its soft power, not the least in Bollywood. India has to decide whether to cooperate with Russia or the US in Central Asia as this region along with Afghanistan influences the security of its Western
flank.
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Haircut, then and now
RURHI Ram, the old and bespectacled barber, whose village in the Shivalik foothills fell near our ancestral place, was having old bonds with our family. Like us he had also migrated to Ludhiana decades ago and was a regular visitor to our house. He would arrive in the morning carrying a tin suitcase and small coal run “angithi”. While my father used his services for a shave, me and my younger brother were made to sit crosslegged on a carpet before him for a haircut. Rurhi Ram was the part and parcel of the social fabric of the area and any function, may it be happy or sad, would not be complete without his intimate presence. Though simple and unpolished in his manners, Rurhi Ram was a gifted chatterer. While sharpening his impoverished razor on a piece of leather, he used to break many stories and was a sort of local newspaper to my father. Who is sick or who is in the hospital in the city, who has amassed wealth by good or bad means and whose wife is not treating her daughter-in-law well were all revealed to us by him like a news bulletin. Though given a paltry amount in return he would go happy and contended showering blessings on all of us. As I grew from childhood to youth, Rurhi Ram was no longer on the scene. Pursuing the carrier I changed places and cities and in search of an expert barber and a good haircut went to different saloons but remained dissatisfied with most. With rapid urbanisation and changing times, barbers have not only lost their professional skill but also the social clout. Presently it is the style and sophistication that has taken over their job. Fully airconditioned saloons, electronic gadgets and exotic interiors have made haircut a costly affair, especially for a person like me, who remembers giving a few annas for it. Last week after a lot of persuasion, my son carried me to a five-star hotel in the city for a haircut. Emphasising that it does not suit my standard to get a “cheap” haircut, he got an appointment with the chief hairdresser who runs a chain of saloons under a brand name in big cities. Feeling nervous and out of the times, I entered the saloon which had an aura of ultra modernism. Sitting on the throne-like chair, I saw to my both sides boys with spiky hair on their heads getting their hairstyle more trendier. After the barber performed over me I could not realise whether he has cut my hair or not as they were the same as before the “cut”. I was handed over a bill of two hundred fifty rupees. My son promptly shelled out three notes of hundred rupees and thanked the barber. As I asked him to take fifty rupees back, he whispered in my ear - Papa, you do not know, it is the tip and also an etiquette. Driving back I could not help missing Rurhi Ram and many other such barbers of my childhood days who were simple but skilled and their bond of social warmth which has now become a part of
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Killing unborn daughter Through a blatant abuse of technology, India is now engaged in systematic annihilation of unborn girls with Punjab and Haryana as the worst offenders. According to the 2001 census, of the 500-odd districts in India, Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib has the lowest child sex-ratio, that is a mere 727 girls in the age group 0-6 years per 1,000 boys. The bottom 10 districts come from Punjab or Haryana, while all 17 Punjab districts figure in the last 34. India has a long tradition of murderous bias against the girl child. Thus in 1911, Punjab had only 780 females per 1,000 males as against the national average of 964. Earlier, female infanticide was restricted to certain caste groups in some parts of India, but female foeticide is now cutting across caste and geographical boundaries. In the past, there might have been some remorse or sense of guilt in murdering a baby after birth, but technology-assisted murder before birth is seen as no more than a procedure. Technology can be as effective in killing the conscience as in killing human beings. In 1971 as part of its family planning programme, the Indian government bestowed legal status and social sanction on abortion, permitting hospitals to determine and disclose the sex of the foetus. It soon became clear that for people at large a small family meant a girl-free family, and only female foetuses were aborted. Accordingly, the arrangement was discontinued in 1978, but now private players were ready to fill the vacuum. India’s first commercial sex-determination clinic opened in Amritsar early 1979. The era of the ethic-less, greed-driven medico had begun. The development in the West of the ultrasound imaging technique, though primarily meant for detecting genetic disorders, provided a convenient and non-invasive way of sex-determination. In 1990 the American General Electric Medical Systems (GEMS) set up an ultrasound machine production unit in Bangalore in collaboration with Wipro. In 1996, the government banned the use of ultrasound for determining the sex of the foetus, but the 2001 census data showed that the law had been ineffective. Finally, responding to public interest litigation, the Supreme Court issued orders for overhauling the earlier Act and ensuring its enforcement. The modified law, which came into effect in 2003, absolves the pregnant woman of any crime, but seeks to punish the husband or relatives who pressurise the woman. It asks the clinics to maintain proper records and specifically bans sex determination and sex-selective abortion. Punjab has initiated effective measures to destigmatise itself. A particularly successful effort has been what has come to be recognised the country over as the Nawanshahr model. It has restored natural sex ratio through a combination of means: monitoring each pregnancy, compilation of computerised databases, involvement of non-governmental organisations, innovative scheme of incentives and disincentives, appeal to the collective social consciousness, personal zeal of the Deputy Commissioner and, above all, the real threat of severe punishment for law-breakers. Similar success has attended the efforts in Hyderabad city. Laudatory as these initiatives are, they are limited by the fact that they are personality-driven rather than systemic. Female foeticide is a crime that is socially acceptable. Criminals are not social riff-raff, but respectable members of society whose education, affluence, social and political connectivity and trade unionism make it difficult, if not impossible, to touch them. Probably only a handful of doctors are indulging in these criminal activities, but the fact remains that there is no sense of outrage at their conduct in their more scrupulous colleagues. The administration has a difficult task on hand. Sex determinators and foetus exterminators are merrily doing their work, while government officials and social activists have to be on high alert all the time. The extant laws are based on the assumption that ultrasound technology is sacrosanct and only administrative forces can be marshaled to combat its misuse. This assumption is not valid. Ultrasound, no doubt, is a powerful diagnostic tool in the hands of a doctor. It is nobody’s case that the technology be banned because it is being misused. At the same time its wide applicability should not be used to condone or divert attention from its abuse as a murder weapon. It is quite obvious that abortion economy is driving the ultrasound industry in India. The mega-market GE and other companies are targeting in India and China is the sex-determination market and not the health care market. There is need to make a distinction between the two. A high-powered commission comprising medical scientists and other experts should ascertain India’s need of ultrasound machinery for genuine purposes and suggest steps for regulating and even controlling the machinery’s technical specifications, manufacture and installation. Sufficiently high minimum academic and professional qualifications should be laid down for opening an ultrasound clinic. It can even be mandated that stand-alone clinics will not be permitted and that they must necessarily be part of a hospital or a poly-clinic. There is need to continually assess the genuine requirement for and the economics of ultrasound and other medical technologies, especially because rapid technological developments can quickly overtake legal and administrative
measures. The writer is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Heritage,
Niper, Mohali |
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Television is making torture acceptable THE blows were excruciating, and the anticipation of them almost as bad. For several weeks while held hostage in Lebanon in the late 1980s, I and my fellow captive Brian Keenan were at the mercy of a guard who took a twisted delight in inflicting pain. Sometimes he would burst into our cell, screaming and striking out with the butt of his rifle. The only sensible response was to roll up into a foetal position until his fury was spent. At other times he would enter silently. Stand over us - or even on us - pushing the barrel of his gun against our temples. It took a long time for our bodies to recover from these batterings and for our minds to be clear of the sickening dread the man inspired. But in comparison with the horrors inflicted on many clients of the British charity the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, of which I am a patron, the damage was slight. It has been 16 years since I regained my freedom, but I still find it difficult, if not impossible, to witness on screen images of the deliberate infliction of pain by one individual on another. Today, however, such images are increasingly difficult to avoid - for extremes of violence involving torture have become prized ammunition in the battle of the box office and the television ratings war. And with this relish for depicting the darker side of human nature have come a number of lies that must be countered, if we are to continue to live in a world where the rule of law, and respect for other human beings, remain paramount. It is becoming increasingly clear that what we enjoy as entertainment shapes the world in which we live. As the American Psychiatric Association said recently, in calling for a reduction in television violence: "The debate is over. Over the last three decades, the one overriding finding in research on the mass media is that exposure to media portrayals of violence increases aggressive behaviour in children." There is research too showing that the lessons learned are copied over into adulthood, while adults exposed to violent entertainment can become desensitised and begin to identify with the aggressors, and the aggressors' solutions to problems. The biggest lie that has gained currency through television is that torture is an acceptable weapon for the "good guys" to use if the stakes are high enough. Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, so the logic goes, a line of reasoning that is particularly pernicious given the excesses that have marked the "war on terror". It is a lie that underpins Fox Television's thriller 24, which features the ruthless agent Jack Bauer in a series that Time magazine recently dubbed "a weekly rationalisation of the 'ticking bomb' defence of torture". The "ticking bomb" scenario, in which torture is justified if there is a limited period in which to prise from a suspect information that would avert a catastrophe, is the argument of choice for torture apologists everywhere. Certainly the co-creator of 24, Joel Surnow, makes no bones about where he stands in the debate, telling The Independent recently: "If there's a bomb about to hit a major US city, and you have a person with information... if you don't torture that person, that would be one of the most immoral acts you could imagine." Torture is never justified. It maims or kills the individual, while eroding the moral and legal principles on which a just society is based, and corrupting those branches of the state which sanction and inflict it. The second lie that surrounds its fictional depiction is that torture works, despite the long held recognition - dating back to at least the time of Aristotle - that a victim will often say anything to stop the pain. Late last year, the US Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan met the producers of 24 to suggest they tone down the content. He was concerned not just at the impact the torture was having on the reputation of the US, but on how it was influencing the behaviour of troops in the field. One former US Army interrogator has publicly admitted that he and his colleagues in Iraq copied behaviour and techniques seen on TV when questioning prisoners. The entertainment industry is also guilty of minimising the true horrors of torture by failing to show the very profound impact it has on its victims' lives. James Bond's ability to joke while his genitals are beaten in Casino Royale, for instance, makes a mockery of the pain, humiliation and degradation felt by the real victims of sexual violence helped by the MF. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Delhi Durbar PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh has an evident liking for Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. During a conference on rural roads in the Capital recently, the Prime Minister was lavish in his praise for the minister who has given a new profile to the ministry. Calling him an “esteemed, valued” and “distinguished” colleague several times during his brief speech, the Prime Minister said that the minister’s commitment to rural development was truly remarkable and a source of inspiration. Not many ministers in the Cabinet can hope to get such effusive praise from the Prime Minister, who is known for being measured in his words.
Mutual admiration At the brief function on Tuesday marking the three years of the UPA government, Dr Manmohan Singh lauded Sonia Gandhi for being a great inspiration “for us all, particularly the poor people across the length and breadth of the country.” On her part, Sonia Gandhi stressed that the Prime Minister had worked with dedication and needed to be congratulated. However, the Left parties were conspicuous by their absence. CPM Generl Secretary Prakash Karat was seen entering the venue of the function at the official Race Course Residence of the Prime Minister. Another notable absentee was special invitee Mayawati.
BJP’s blame game After the dismal performance of the BJP in the recent UP poll, party men have begun to raise an accusing finger at not only BJP president Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh, whom the party had projected as the chief ministerial candidate, but also at M Venkaiah Naidu, who coordinated the election campaign. While Kalyan Singh has resigned from the ceremonial post of being in-charge of UP, Rajnath Singh is not ready to own responsibility for the debacle. UP BJP leaders say that the issue would come up for discussion at Jaipur next month where the party’s National Executive is meeting. The state leaders, meanwhile, have selected Om Prakash Singh as the BJP legislature party leader. His only qualification is that he is close to Kalyan Singh.
Next President With speculation rife about the next occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan, N D Tiwari’s name has gained some currency. The octogenarian leader has nursed quiet ambitions to occupy the country’s highest constitutional office. The arithmetic of the electoral college and political factors could work in his favour if the Congress does not decide in favour of Pranab Mukherjee. Tiwari is a Brahmin, which suits both the Congress and Mayawati in UP. There is a possibility of the Samajwadi Party not opposing his candidature. Critics, however, will recall his words when he wanted to be relieved of the post of Uttarakhand Chief Minister citing age.
— Contributed by Prashant Sood, S. Satyanarayanan, Satish Misra |
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