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Soldiers in stress “Honour” killings |
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Unhappy Indians
Facing upheavals
Miracles — big and small
DOCUMENT Legal Notes
Millions vote on a new top-seven list
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Soldiers in stress EVERY third day a soldier commits suicide and every tenth day another is killed by a colleague running amok. Together the number of soldiers killed in this manner is much more than those killed in counter-insurgency operations, even if some allowance is given for the huge size of the Indian Army. It is not yet clear whether Captain Megha Razdan committed suicide, as claimed by some officers, or was done away with, as claimed by her relations. Only a police inquiry will unravel the mystery. Whatever be the truth, stress has been taking a heavy toll on the soldiers. Statistics show that the phenomenon is not peculiar to the Indian Army. Every army faces this problem, the most acute being among the American soldiers deployed in Iraq. The suicide by a rifleman of 14 Rajputana Rifles two days after the Megha Razdan case hit the headlines shows that the problem has assumed alarming proportions. It is significant that most of the suicides or cases of fratricide occurred in insurgency-affected areas like Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast. It is true that the soldiers are trained to cope with stressful conditions. However, the fact that all of them are not as emotionally strong as they are expected to be cannot be denied. Long absence from the family with danger lurking everywhere as they go out on patrolling and counter-insurgency operations put enormous strains on the soldiers, forcing some of them to wilt. Often, it is the failure of the system to identify those with suicidal tendencies or those who are given to irrational behaviour that result in such incidents. At the recruitment stage itself, the weak-kneed need to be weeded out for which more scientific methods of recruitment will have to devised. In the hurly-burly of soldiering, senior officers fail to take note of the personal problems of their subordinates. If, for instance, leave is not granted to two persons for identical reasons, there is no guarantee that they would accept it in identical ways. In other words, human relations cannot be managed mechanically. The need for better relations between senior officers and junior officers and between officers and soldiers cannot be overemphasised. Ignoring of symptoms and public humiliation of juniors are sure recipes of disaster. The feeling that the Army is a close-knit family needs to be engendered among all its members, irrespective of their rank and position. |
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“Honour” killings That
honour killings still take place is shocking enough. Worse, this barbarism is being practised in many cases despite the police protection provided to the hounded people. The protection did not save the lives of Manoj and Babli of Karora village in Kaithal, a 23-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl from the same gotra (clan) who had married against the wishes of their village elders. It is obvious that the so-called protection is ineffective. What needs to be probed is whether the police slipped up inadvertently or otherwise. There are reasons to suspect that since many of those comprising the lower constabulary also come from the same medieval rural background, they have no sympathy for the new generation which can think beyond the narrow confines of “gotra”. At least the people of the ill-fated couple’s village have no trace of remorse for what has been done to them. There is talk of honouring and protecting the killers too. The complicity of the caste panchayat is absolutely clear. Such incidents, instead of becoming less common with the advent of modernity, are becoming more and more prevalent. Reports keep pouring in from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. When the names of some well-known local leaders also figure among those of the suspects, one’s hopes start sinking. The members of the caste panchayats which order such killings enjoy considerable political clout and escape stringent action. The end result is that the draconian practice continues to recur. The government, political parties, social workers and NGOs have to start an all-out campaign against the evil practice. Only such a drive can send the right message to the self-styled keepers of public morality. At the same time, it is the moral responsibility of the enlightened and educated members of various communities to persuade their elders to discard antiquated beliefs. The whole “gotra” concept is in conflict with the Fundamental Rights of the citizen and the Rule of Law. The State has no choice but to enforce the law; irrespective of the resistance from those who are still not aware that the times have changed.
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Unhappy Indians Here
is yet another finding to reinforce what most Indians already know: that India ranks very low in the world when it comes to measuring happiness index. Obviously being a nuclear and IT power with a surging Sensex and over a lakh of millionaires self-confessed is not enough to take India into the league of the happiest countries. The Global Prosperity Index released by the Legatum Institute for Global Development ranks India 46 out of 50 countries in the list. Political freedoms, the comfort of religious faiths, and family and community bonds are points on which the country scored high. But when it comes to social and economic indices, India fares poorly. Just goes to show that happiness is not simply a state of mind, and even if it is, then it needs to be rooted in economic realities. Of course, there cannot be one model of economic prosperity, for three countries are locked in a tie for the first rank. Norway, Sweden and the United States have occupied the top three notches. Being the engine of the global economy, expectedly the US has the strongest economic profile. Yet Sweden and Norway gain an edge when the social is married to the economic, as they are acknowledged advanced welfare states. Unlike in the US, in Scandinavia the disparities are much less and social security highest. This contrast between competing social models suggests that when economic power translates as mere wealth generation by a minority, it cannot uplift the happiness index of a country of over a billion people. Much more is needed by way of access and opportunities for education and jobs to gain economic freedom. Health care, housing and meeting the minimum needs of the majority are a precondition if a country is to attain a measure of happiness. In short, India’s political freedom needs to be enriched with economic and social content if gross national happiness is to be enjoyed by more people and for long. |
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But when I tell him he hates flatterers,/ He says he does, being then most flattered.
— William Shakespeare |
Facing upheavals From
his first day in office Gen Pervez Musharraf has openly avowed his admiration for the Turkish model which he has not failed to reiterate often. This is not surprising because of his formative years which the General spent in Turkey. Even more because Turkey, with its historical relationship with the Indian subcontinent, was the model of a secular democratic Muslim majority state for Afghanistan from the days of Amanullah Khan, and later for Pakistan from its creation. It is said that Jinnah toyed with the idea of a secular Pakistan in the Turkish mould even though later events made this unattainable. Yet the admiration among Pakistan’s rulers for Turkey has been constant and long-standing. One can even discern a faint resemblance between the national melodies of the two countries. Most recently we had his beleaguered Minister Nilofar Bhakhtiar, during her visit to Delhi, once again speaking of admiration for Turkey. With both countries going through major political upheavals the contrast between them has become stark. The AK Party government, although holding a majority in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, still represents only a third of the total electorate. Thanks to the inability of all but one major secular Turkish parties to cross the minimum threshold in the last general election, about 60 per cent of secular Turks are not represented. To support their opposition to the AK Party trying to foist Abdulla Gul, its Foreign Minister, as the Presidential candidate on the country, the Turkish army, constitutionally the protector of the secular constitution, intervened. That was enough; there was no coup as in the past. Prime Minister Erdogan was left with no alternative but to advance the general election to July 2007. In Pakistan, in contrast, not only do we have a government which has continually pandered to Islamic groupings but a President who refuses to leave his “second skin”. Neither does the over-riding role of the Pakistan Army in the country’s body politic derive from its constitution even though it tries to mirror the Turkish example. In Turkey, the head of the constitutional court, a confirmed secular Turk, vetoed with success the Parliament’s decision on Gul’s candidature, while in Pakistan we see the Chief Justice dismissed and taken to trial for not being pliant. Nowhere is the contrast as great as on the issue of terrorism. Turkey has opposed it, yet continues to suffer from it. The revival of PKK activity from its sanctuaries in Iraqi Kurdistan has once again revived the spectre of cross-border terrorism. On the other hand, we have Pakistan accused of sponsoring cross-border terrorism by two of its neighbours - India and Afghanistan. The re-grouping of the Taliban on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border reflects the accommodation arrived at by the Pakistan Army with them and related groups. Yet the “mantra” of Pakistan’s partnership in the “global war on terror” continues. In Turkey, you have the PKK’s revival with massive terrorist attacks in Ankara and Istanbul with the Turkish Army ready to consider an incursion into Iraq to attack the PKK in its bases. The question of any accommodation with the PKK does not arise. Current political developments in both countries could be seminal, if not existential, and their effects far-reaching on their future direction. In Pakistan, we have the possibility of early elections after tacit US support to the General staying in uniform so long as the elections are seen as being “free and fair”. There are various forecasts about what could happen in Pakistan and all of them have to do with the political and military significance of accommodating the Islamic groups into the current governmental apparatus. Turkey is truly at cross-roads. The secularism of Kemal Ataturk is severely under test. The AKP government with its good record of managing the economy and Turkey’s aspiration for European Union membership has proved that a moderate Islamic-oriented government can satisfy the national interest in good measure. This is a far cry from the heavily Islamic Erbakan government which took office in 1997 and had to leave it under the Army’s pressure soon thereafter. Prime Minister Recip Tayyeb Erdogan, who was the Mayor of Istanbul at the time, had learnt the lesson. Since he took office there has been a constant effort to push the borders of Kemalism towards an Islamic orientation, the most recent in the candidate for the President. Yet that effort has not gone down well with a population wedded to the secularism of Mustafa Kemal. A major objection to Abdulla Gul’s candidature was that his wife was veiled — wore “hijab”, the head scarf. This would never do for the President’s wife. In a caustic comment, the emancipated and modern Mrs Gul herself is reported to have said that surely it is what is in her head that is important and not what she wears on it. That comment defines the current social conflict in Turkey and the rest of West Asia as well. Although its roots go back to the continuing frustration of their “aam aadmi” with his inability to change the system in which he lives, its exacerbation after the invasion of Iraq has been great. One of its signs is the increasing number of women in the region adopting “hijab” to visually demonstrate a movement back to the roots. In Turkey there appears to be a grudging realisation that some of the edicts of Turkish secularism, which may have been entirely appropriate in the 20th century, need to be toned down in current times like attending the mosque or wearing “hijab”. Till today female university students have to get a photo identity card without “hijab” and so also government servants. Kemal Ataturk had decreed that Turkey’s direction was to the West and it still remains the goal. The issue is whether any dilution of Ataturk’s ideal prescription would dilute the goal itself. It will be the underlying theme of the next Turkish general elections. It will pass a judgment on the continued viability of a truly secular Muslim majority state and, no doubt, influence thinking in other Islamic states in the region and beyond. If one considers Turkey’s eastern neighbours, we see the same social conflict in Syria and Iraq where the secular tolerant ethos is on the wane, while Iran appears increasingly uncomfortable with the other alternative. What Turkey decided will hopefully create a new version of its Islamic secularist democratic
model. The writer, a former diplomat, is Honorary Director, Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
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Miracles — big and small
I
have a dear friend from the college days who was equally dear to everyone in the class and whose questions had kept the teachers gaping and classmates smiling. Then we attended his marriage 10 years after the college; 10 more years have passed since then. Standing against the wall of the banquet hall in a basement, I had commented to the group of old classmates “Only time will tell whether it is for good or bad?” And then the marriage had ended soon on mutual consent and he had moved on to Canada for higher studies and then to Norway for an engineering career, before settling in the Art of Living Ashram of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar near Baroda, as a monk, some five years back. Once or twice a year he comes to live with us for a few days; children keep asking for weeks after he leaves “Ashwini uncle phir kab aayenge.” Because where he can explain why miracles happen and why one should be careful while wishing, as wishes come true, he can play, whatever, the whole day with kids. Last time he was here, I had taken him out for a drive to show the chunk of land we had bought for our cooperative housing project. Driving past the site, I was pointing out to the landmarks and telling him fondly how we selected the site, the clean air, the mountains in the backdrop and an abutting seasonal rivulet, though dry. “It is an auspicious site; you will see, water will start coming in the river soon.” We drove a km or two before taking a U-turn. Driving over the bridge on our way back, I had to stop the vehicle and rub my eyes — a sheet of muddy water was running towards the bridge on the dry riverbed, as if to reach there just in time. “Because of the ‘scientific’ conditioning of our minds, we just don’t notice; miracles happen everyday around us.” He said coolly. Then on May 16, my daughter turned a teenager. That day I was returning from Delhi by Shatabdi, somewhat eager to reach home. There came and sat a couple in the front seat with a year old baby. I could feel small currents running in my arms and legs — with same forehead, same complexion and hair, the child was almost a replica of my daughter at that age. Even the frock was turquoise. I shared the feelings with the mother; she allowed me to pick up the child. In a flash I was transported back 12 years, and for a moment both times stood side by side. Then she started crying and I had to restore her to the mother. “What are these miracles in front of the sun, the earth, a flower, a bird, you and me,” he had tried to explain during one of the evening
strolls. |
DOCUMENT Since
their adoption by all United Nations member states in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals have become a universal framework for development and a means for developing countries and their development partners to work together in pursuit of a shared future for all. World leaders set forth a new vision for humanity. They committed themselves “to spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty”. Are they on course to look back, in 2015, and say that no effort was spared? All should recognize the nature of the global trust at stake and the danger that many developing countries’ hopes could be irredeemably pierced if even the greatest anti-poverty movement in history is insufficient to break from “business as usual”. At the midpoint between the adoption of the goals and the 2015 target date the collective record is mixed. The results presented in this report suggest that there have been some gains, and that success is still possible in most parts of the world. But they also point to how much remains to be done. There is a clear need for political leaders to take urgent and concerted action, or many millions of people will not realize the basic promises of the goals in their lives. The following are some measures of the progress that has been achieved: The proportion of the people living in extreme poverty fell from nearly a third to less than one fifth between 1990 and 2004. If the trend is sustained, the poverty reduction target will be met for the world as a whole and for most regions. The number of extremely poor people in sub-Saharan Africa has levelled off, and the poverty rate has declined by nearly 6 percentage points since 2000. Nevertheless, the region is not on track to reach the goal of reducing poverty by half by 2015. Progress has been made in getting more children into schools in the developing world. Enrolment in primary education grew from 80 per cent in 1991 to 88 per cent in 2005. Most of this progress has taken place since 1999. Women’s political participation has been growing, albeit slowly. Even in countries where previously only men were allowed to stand for political election, women now have a seat in parliament. Child mortality has declined globally, and it is becoming clear that the right life-saving interventions are proving effective in reducing the number of deaths due to the main child killers—such as measles. Key interventions to control malaria have been expanded. The tuberculosis epidemic, finally, appears on the verge of decline, although progress is not fast enough to halve the prevalence and death rates by 2015. The following are some of the key challenges that have to be addressed: Over half a million women still die each year from treatable and preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The odds that a woman will die from these causes in sub-Saharan Africa are 1 in 16 over the course of her lifetime, compared to 1 in 3,800 in the developed world. If current trends continue, the target of having the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The number of people dying from AIDS worldwide increased to 2.9 million in 2006, and prevention measures are failing to keep pace with the growth of the epidemic. In 2005, more than 15 million children had lost one or both parents to AIDS. Half the population of the developing world lack basic sanitation. In order to meet the target, an additional 1.6 billion people will need access to improved sanitation over the period 2005-2015. If the trends since 1990 continue, the world is likely to miss the target by almost 600 million people. To some extent, the situation reflects the fact that the benefits of economic growth in the developing world have been unequally shared. Widening income inequality is of particular concern in Eastern Asia, where the share of consumption of the poorest people declined dramatically between 1990 and 2004. Most economies have failed to provide employment opportunities to their youth, with young people more than three times as likely as adults to be unemployed. Warning of the climate is now unequivocal. Emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary contributor to global climate change, rose from 23 billion metric tonnes in 1990 to 29 billion metric tonnes in 2004. Climate change is projected to have serious economic and social impacts, which will impede progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. Several developing countries are demonstrating that rapid and large-scale progress towards the millennium goals is possible when strong government leadership and policies and strategies that effectively target the needs of the poor are combined with adequate financial and technical support from the international community. The millennium goals are still achievable if the leaders act now. This will require inclusive and sound governance, increased public investment economic growth, enhanced productive capacity, and the creation of decent work. Success in some countries demonstrates that rapid and large-scale progress towards the goals is feasible if they combine strong government leadership, good policies and practical strategies for scaling up public investments in vital areas with adequate financial and technical support from the international community. To achieve the goals, nationally-owned development strategies and budgets must be aligned with them. This must be backed by adequate financing within the global partnership for development and its framework for mutual accountability.
Excerpts from the “Millennium Development Goals Report 2007” published by the United Nations |
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Legal Notes The
role of the media, particularly the TV news channels, in the coverage of agitations will be examined by the Supreme Court while testing the efficacy of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act (PDPPA), 1984, enacted with a specific purpose of punishing those who cause destruction of the nation’s wealth. But before laying down any guidelines or issuing directions to the government, the court wants to have a first-hand assessment on the twin issues from experts. For this purpose it has set up two panels under former apex court judge K.T. Thomas and noted jurist Fali S. Nariman to go into these issues. The Rajasthan and Delhi police chiefs had blamed the electronic media for “contributing” to the escalation of tension during the Gujjars’ agitation demanding Scheduled Tribes status. They said that the showing of the bodies of victims of violence repeatedly on TV networks had fuelled the tension instead of helping in controlling the situation. The court though was not ready to buy this theory, but said still the role of the media has to be examined before laying down any guidelines and, therefore, it included some heads of both the print and electronics media in one of the panels. The court was of the view that the electronic media needs to have a little more maturity like their counterpart in the west, who had shown a lot of restraint during the coverage of the terrorist strikes at the World Trade Centre and London metro trains. So far as the PDPA is concerned, the court termed the legislation a virtual failure as it hardly had been invoked during the 24 years of its existence.
Computerisation of courts After implementing the computerisation scheme in the higher judiciary and linking the Supreme Court and the high courts with a common network, the computerisation of subordinate courts will to be completed in the next two years. The scheme, if implemented as per the schedule, will reduce unnecessary paper work in the subordinate judiciary, help in speeding up its work and phase out the typewriter. The scheme also includes a provision of video-conferencing facilities to record evidence in certain cases where witnesses face threats or the accused lodged in jails cannot be brought to court due to security reasons in cases like organised crimes and terrorism. The apex court has already laid down the guidelines for recording evidence through video conferencing and recognised their evidentiary value if the recording is done as per the laid down norms. The decision regarding the introduction of e-filing in lower courts has for the time being been left to the discretion of each high court by the Conference of Chief Justices of High Courts.
HCs to have vigilance cells To keep a vigilant eye on the judiciary and its staff, vigilance cells will be set up in each district court in the country and the functioning of those already existing in the high courts will be geared up. This was decided at the conference of high court Chief Justices. To keep watch on the subordinate judiciary, the vigilance cell in each high court will be headed by a judicial officer of the rank of district judge. He will work directly under the Chief Justice of the high court. To monitor the activities of staff, the high court will set up a separate vigilance cell to be manned by a judicial officer of the rank of senior district judge. The Chief Minister of each state has promised to provide liberal grants to meet the expenses on the infrastructure and on the appointment of the staff for these cells to make them fully functional within a short span of time. Any complaint of misconduct against any judicial officer or court staff has to be filed before the vigilance cell concerned, which would first examine the authenticity of the allegations to form a “prima facie” opinion whether they merited to proceed further. This would help in filtering away frivolous complaints. The purpose of such an exercise is to maintain the dignity of the judiciary and protect it from any slanderous campaign but at the same time keep a strict vigil on any unsavoury incidence that might bring bad name to it. |
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Millions vote on a new top-seven list There’s
a lengthy election campaign going on, and it has nothing to do with U.S. politics. Since early last year, people around the world have been voting in a contest to name the new seven wonders of the world – choosing from nearly two dozen man-made monuments and buildings that have historical or cultural importance. The only U.S. site on the list is the Statue of Liberty. More than 50 million votes have been cast, many of them by kids, contest organizers say. You can vote until Friday, and the results will be announced Saturday at a ceremony in Portugal. KidsPost recaps what’s been going on.
Wonders, Through the Ages More than 2,000 years ago, Greek and Roman writers described some amazing structures that have come to be known as the Seven Wonders of the World. Of those sites, only the Egyptian pyramids at Giza are still intact. Earthquakes and fires destroyed the rest. Other lists of wonders began appearing after the Middle Ages. The focus began to shift away from the Mediterranean to include sites in Europe and Asia. The effort to create a new seven-wonders list with worldwide voting was begun in 1999 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. A list of 200 possible sites was trimmed to 77 in a series of public votes. A panel of architectural experts cut it further – to 21 sites. The ancient pyramids were taken off the ballot this year after Egyptian officials protested. According to news reports, one official said it was “ridiculous” for his country's beloved 4,500-year-old ruins to be included in a gimmicky 21st-century popularity contest. (Egypt also objected recently when Portugal wanted to put the pyramids on postage stamps featuring the contest.) The pyramids were taken off the ballot and given honorary status (like a family friend you call “aunt” or “uncle”). That left 20 possible wonders, and it’s from this lineup that the winners are being selected.
The top 10 vote-getters: –The Acropolis, hilltop section of ancient Athens, Greece, where important public and religious buildings were located. –Chichen
Itzá, Mayan city with a famous pyramid, on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. –The Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. –The Colosseum in Rome, where gladiators and others battled. –Easter Island's giant stone statues in the South Pacific. –The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 world's fair in Paris. –The Great Wall of China, more than 4,000 miles long. –Machu
Picchu, an ancient city built by the Incas high in the mountains of modern-day Peru. –Petra, an ancient city in Jordan known for buildings carved into sandstone cliffs. –The Taj Mahal marble tomb in Agra, India, built by a 17th-century emperor for his wife. By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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Ishwara is gracious to him who earns his living by his own labour and not by begging.
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