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Cup of joy |
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Erosion of faith Monks on the march
How to keep the military young
Rerun of ecstasy
Stop
murdering the girl child Call Left’s bluff on nuclear deal Watch out for poison toys
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Cup of joy FINALLY, India’s long suffering cricket fans got that moment they had been dreaming about. That it came about in the game’s newest format seemed to make it even better. As underdogs in 1983 in the one day international tourney, a ragged Indian team laid low the mighty West Indies, and images of Kapil Dev popping champagne from the Lord’s balcony and Indian supporters invading the grounds with the tricolour waving behind them still resonate. And at Johannesburg in South Africa, in the final of the ICC’s inaugural Twenty20 tournament, there it was in a new avatar. A young, passionate Indian team, grabbing Indian flags from willing spectators in the stands, trotted around the stadium to rousing cheers. We had got quite close in 2003 and crashed out early this year from the World Cup. When redemption came, it happened in classic fashion, the whole thing a little unexpected, and climaxing in a nail-biting thriller whose great moments will be remembered for a long time. That it was an India-Pakistan final made it all the more special. Both teams fared very badly in the ODI World Cup, and both were looking to re-establish themselves. Both featured young guns eager to make a mark. Few would have thought that when the two rivals clashed early in the tournament, and tied the game only to have India win in a dramatic “bowl out,” that they would meet again — in the final, nothing less. Both teams played cricket to be proud of, defeating top teams like Australia. India-Pakistan games take on a life of their own, and India has never been beaten by its neighbour in any World Cup game. Contributions were made by every member, and who can say that Uthappa’s run out of Nazir was not as important as Yuvraj’s sixes in the earlier games or Gambhir’s dominant batting throughout the series? Mahendra Singh Dhoni has led well, with tactical acumen, cool nerves, a fresh approach and an ability to rally the boys around him. With this success, he will be ready to take on not only the ODI captaincy, but, and it may well be the best choice India can make, sooner or later, the very different ball game of the Test captaincy. The game is in transition and so is the Indian team. This one’s for history.
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Erosion of faith THE Supreme Court has rightly voiced concern about the indiscriminate judicial delays and held that the recent lynching of 10 thieves in Bihar is a manifestation of the people’s increasing erosion of faith in the judiciary. What Justice A.K. Mathur and Justice Markandey Katju said on Monday leaves no one in doubt that things must improve if the people’s faith in the judiciary is to be restored. Unfortunately, there is no accountability at any level of the judiciary. If lakhs of cases are pending in various courts today, both lawyers and judges should share the blame. Why was a petty case of ownership of dry fish at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu not settled for six decades? Similarly, why was a land dispute case in Uttar Pradesh allowed to drag on for five decades? Surely, the lower courts themselves should have settled both cases without warranting the Supreme Court’s intervention. There is need for serious introspection to stem the rot and restore people’s confidence in the judiciary. There is no dearth of recommendations by expert committees, including the Law Commission, to cut judicial delays. The problem is the lack of political will and administrative support to implement them. The government alone cannot be blamed for the mess. What is the contribution of individual lawyers and judges to speed up justice? Unfortunately, despite the amendments to the Civil Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, little has been done to cut delays. If the judiciary’s main purpose is to help litigants and ensure speedy justice, both lawyers and judges should understand the gravity of the situation and act accordingly. The judges may have the power to adjourn hearings but they ought to exercise it with utmost restraint. Moreover, by granting indiscriminate adjournments, the importance of the remedy sought for the cause of action gets diluted. The apex court’s concern about recent incidents of instant justice should be viewed seriously by all the people concerned to prevent the law of the jungle from taking roots. |
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Monks on the march WHAT began as a protest against a fuel price hike last month appears to be taking the form of a major movement for the restoration of democracy in poverty-stricken Myanmar, earlier called Burma. Proof of this was provided on Monday when Buddhist monks led nearly one lakh protesters in Yangoon with the ruling military junta not daring to crackdown on them as it did in 1988. Monks have been leading marches in a few other cities, too, for some time, but the latest march was the biggest since the military grabbed power through a coup in 1962. Since the march remained peaceful, the ruling generals had no excuse to order the use of force to disperse the angry monks and others. However, some of the marchers displayed playcards indicating that it was basically a drive in support of democratic reforms as sought by National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. China is believed to have prevailed upon the military junta not to behave in the manner in which it did when it shot down over 3000 student protesters 19 years ago. China, which has the closest relations with Myanmar, cannot afford to face a crisis-like situation in its immediate neighbourhood at a time when it is busy organising the next Olympics. China fears that the use of force against the monks and other protesters will have its repercussions in China, too, spoiling the atmosphere required for the Games. Besides this, any action against the peaceful monks may lead to a situation threatening the survival of the junta itself. The monks are unlikely to abandon the struggle they have launched. Their campaign, which initially appeared to be non-political, is gradually getting political. They have now started talking of political reforms as demanded by democracy icon Su Kyi. China, too, has of late been sending feelers to Myanmar’s generals to find a way for political reforms. Beijing, perhaps, believes that its own interests in Myanmar will remain protected if there is no chaos in the friendly neighbourhood. After all, Myanmar — rich in natural resources — is a major supplier of oil and gas needed for the fast growing Chinese economy. |
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Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts. — Saki
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How to keep the military young
THE old adage “too many cooks spoil the broth” comes to mind as one looks at reports that the government is considering creation of nearly 150 posts to be filled by officers of the rank of Lieutenant-General and Major-General and their equivalents in the armed forces. The motivation for this proposal comes from the report of a committee headed by a former Defence Secretary, Mr Ajay Vikram Singh. In the first phase, several hundred new positions up to the rank of Colonel were approved, ostensibly to bring down the age profile of officers placed in the command of battalions; that this has not helped can be seen from the fact that age continues to hover around 38-39 years compared to 35 or less in most other armies. The rationale for the creation of posts in the higher ranks is that a much higher percentage of officers in the civil services reach positions of Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary and that, consequently, officers of the armed forces suffer grievously in comparison. The first constraint of military command is that it is, of necessity, highly pyramidical. A brigade can have only one Brigadier, a division only one Major- General and a corps just one Lieutenant-General. This pattern can simply not be changed. On the staff, at the command level and at headquarters in New Delhi, we can have many more in these ranks, but if this number becomes unduly large, the command chain is weakened. So, there are limits to where one can go. Previous cadre reviews have already seen upgradation in ranks which has only resulted in their degradation because what was done earlier by an officer of one rank is now done by one of a rank senior. It might be argued that this is not uncommon elsewhere too because in most states which had just one Chief Secretary earlier there are now quite a few in that rank. Similarly, against just one Director-General of Police, many states have more than half a dozen, each in charge of some petty work — prison reforms, home guards, civil defence, etc. So, if such dilution of rank is acceptable there, it should also be accommodated in the military. This is a specious argument. First, because the ill effects of what is happening in the civil sector are clearly visible in terms of the falling quality of administration. More important, such degradation does not directly affect the security of the nation. Similar erosion will cripple combat efficiency in the military. Dilution of ranks, just to keep up with the Joneses, is not in our best interest. So, what does one do? Frankly, the equations with civil officialdom come into play mainly in New Delhi and are not so troublesome elsewhere. It is in the capital that one sees the numbers of Secretaries, Additional and Joint Secretaries, and begins to compare them with officers of equivalent rank in the armed forces. Naturally, there is just no parity; hence the urge to have more positions in senior ranks. But no matter how many additional posts are created, the military can never hope to come close to the civil services as their structure and functioning is not pyramidical. So, it will always be a losing battle, not only because the desired objective will not be met but also because whatever little is gained will degrade the command and control system. An interesting example is that of the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS). Two decades ago, a Defence Planning Staff was created in the Ministry of Defence to provide cohesive planning in force development, formulation of a joint doctrine and better synergy among the three wings of the military. This organisation, under an officer of the rank of Vice Chief, included two officers of Major- General’s rank and about a dozen Brigadiers/Colonels, and answered to the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC). Today, these functions are performed by the IDS, also under the COSC. It is a massive bureaucratic monolith, under a Vice Chief-level officer but including another four Lieutenant-Generals, ten Major-Generals and about 45 officers of the rank of Brigadier/Colonel. It is not surprising that instead of becoming a facilitator, this new entity has become yet another hurdle to be crossed in a course already full of obstacles. The issues involved are really quite simple if looked at rationally. First, the salary structure in the military has to be on its own and not linked to the civil services. The terms and conditions of the services are entirely different and must be compensated on the basis of appropriate criteria. Looked at broadly, the salary packages must be significantly higher. Then there is the question of status and protocol where some kind of equation is unavoidable. One way is to keep increasing the number of senior ranks to try and match up to equivalent civilian counterparts. As explained earlier, this will always be a losing battle, a bit like chasing shadows. The other option is to upgrade the equivalence. When the first cadre review of the military was under consideration in 1980, I recall an observation of noted strategic analyst K. Subramanyam, then Additionally Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, that the exercise was wholly unnecessary and would prove counterproductive. What was needed to be done, according to him, was to equate the Brigadier with the Joint Secretary as had been the practice many years ago. This would bring Major-Generals on a par with Additional Secretaries, and Lieutenant-Generals with Secretaries and automatically ensure that much larger numbers in the military reached higher positions, not still comparable with the civil services but, nevertheless, more so than at present. Twentyfive years down the line, his words make a great deal of sense. Finally, it is absolutely essential that the age profile of officers in the military command should be reduced; it is way above that prevalent in most modern militaries. This can be done, not by adding to the numbers of senior posts but by making command assignments much more selective than they are at present. Merit must be the sole criterion and younger officers must be able to easily supercede their seniors. Taking the right road is not such a difficult thing if one knows where one wants to go. Having more cooks will not result in a more tasty
broth.
The writer served as Director-General, Defence Planning Staff.
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Rerun of ecstasy
HOW can one sum up the Twenty20 final? It was happiness in totality. No half measures there. It was as if the gods up there held nothing back. They gave us arch rivals, both winners in their own way. And what followed was sheer suspense: terrifying moments, fine hits, bad hits, deadly bowling, clumsy bowling, great fielding, not-so-great fielding, and finally the hard-to-sit-through climax that ended in all that one could have ever asked for. If watching the final was pure ecstasy, then the action replay was not any less heartwarming. The magic, the beauty, the thrill were all too palpable in the recall as I went for my walk the next morning at Sukhna Lake. Take one: A group of senior citizens were unable to contain their decibel levels as they poured their hearts out over India’s conquest. One said, “Hey, I’d almost given up hope and retired to my room till I heard my son yell with joy.” A cynical one piped in, “It was anyone’s game. Had there been one more sixer from Misbah, we would have been nowhere.” The third, finding the match too perfect, joyously declared, “The time too was just right… ideal for children at 5.30 pm….the late night ones get too late for them. The fourth fan couldn’t get over the moolah involved. “Ajee do crore mil rahein hai…chandi chandi hi unki. Aur Yuvi ko ek crore…kya kismet….” Take two: A couple met a group of Twenty20 talkers coming from the opposite side. The man shook hands and boisterously congratulated all the revellers. His partner continued with her walk, but the cricket buff joined the tempting after-play commentary and headed with the group in the opposite direction. Take three: A bunch of young walkers were busy dissecting India’s bowling. “Sreesanth is good. He might have given too many runs in his first over… but he’s too good.” Another remarked, “What was Bhaji doing giving full tosses like that?” The third wisely commented, “The man of the match should have been shared by Gambhir and Pathan.” Take four: This was the icing on the cake, which came in the form of ladoos. Two regular woman walkers came with two dibbas of sweets. They offered them to all around them. Keeping with the spirit of the game and giving a go-by to calorie count, most walkers cheerfully lunged for the ladoos. Even as I was doing the lake stretch twice over, I caught snatches of talk about the “two madams” and their sweet gesture. What made the action replay unforgettable was the pride writ large on the face of every cricket lover. It was as if they had faced the Pak raiders and had finally touched the trophy and tasted the champagne. At the end of the game, captain Dhoni declared it was one of the things he would treasure for the rest of his life. Seeing the rerun at the Lake, I, too, can say that it was a match all Indians would treasure for all times to
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Stop murdering the girl child As Sheela Bhatt, the managing director of rediff.com, described at a recent workshop held by Population Foundation of India in Gurgaon: “As a child born and brought up in Gujarat, I remember seeing paintings depicting the doodh-peeti (drinking milk) custom prevalent in our society. Under this custom, a female infant was killed by immersing her in an earthen ware vessel full of milk and her body was buried in the backyard of the house.” Not only Gujarat, but Punjab too has seen such crimes – though not in the form of a custom. People in many areas in Punjab are known to have killed their female infants by strangulating them with a sack of sand “It would not be wrong to say that Amritsar came up as the epicentre of all these (sex-determination) activities, around two decades before the 2001 census came out with the grotesque figures,” says Dr Sabu George from the Centre for Women Development Studies, New Delhi. Amniocentesis first started in India in 1974 as a part of a sample survey conducted at the All India Institute of Medial Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to detect foetal abnormalities. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) later stopped the tests, but their value had leaked out by then and 1979 saw the first sex determination clinic opening in Amritsar. One ‘enterprising’ doctor set up the first private amniocentesis technique centre. “Further, setting up of the department of genetics at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, only added fuel to fire. Many of the graduates from the early batches claimed roaring practices and some people in the department at that time went on record saying that they were contributing greatly towards Punjab’s economy by not letting the girl child take birth,” exclaims Dr Puneet Bedi, a leading gynaecologist at Delhi, who has been working on this issue for the past decade. Experts say that 20 per cent of ultrasound tests conducted are done to determine the sex of the foetus. India has become the favorite ultrasound machine dumping area for companies form China, US and Germany. Far from being found only amongst the poor and illiterate, sex selection is most prevalent in regions that boast high levels of educational attainment and relative prosperity, like Punjab. Interestingly, while well-educated and economically sound and upper-caste families prefer undergoing the test for want of a son, the scheduled castes in Punjab are God fearing and tend to avoid such things. As researchers from the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh, Monica Munjial and Poonam Kaushik point out, “We came across a number of SC couples who wanted to adopt family planning methods but at the same time did not have the courage to be involved in female foeticide.” Both came across these findings during their study on growing awareness and increasing acceptance of family planning among scheduled castes in Punjab. Though the Punjab government has gone a step ahead by taking erring people from the medical fraternity to task, little is being done to curb this thriving industry. Though Punjab surely has marched ahead of other states by prosecuting the erring doctors, yet it has failed on certain flimsy grounds and much needs to be done. Terming the Punjab government’s initiative to honor panchayats showing significant improvement in child sex-ratio of concerned village as a farce, Dr Sabu adds: “Scientifically speaking, to ascertain the improvement in child sex-ratio, we have to take into account 25,000 live births. A village is too small a level to be honored for this thing. Punjab as well as Himachal Pradesh government are doing this and may in fact set up wrong examples.” Even the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) III conducted from December 2005 to March 2006 has pointed to a strong son preference as an area of concern. Though the sex-ratio findings of NFHS III are yet to be announced, workers claimed to have come across large disparities in the sex-ratio. “So strong is the son-fixation in Punjab, women and their relatives avoid going in for institutional deliveries, especially in government health centres. They fear that if they have a male child, he might get swapped with a female! And this is one of the major factors behind just 50 percent institutional deliveries in Punjab,” says Dr Manisha Bhatia, research scholar with the Population Research Centre (PRC) CRRID, which conducted NFHS III for Punjab and Haryana. Those girls who are lucky to be born, face untold discrimination and misery that are not only reflected in their intellect and economic growth but even in their physical growth. The NFHS III findings point out that while 38 per cent women in 15 to 49 years age group were found anaemic, this figure was just 13 per cent for men in the same age group. The shortage of females will never translate into improved conditions for girls who survive. As experts have pointed out, shortage of females only leads to more crime against women, which may be very difficult to handle. In rural Punjab, where there is lack of enough brides, the strong desire to keep rural family holdings intact is now driving a trend towards polyandrous unions. Here one woman is often married or bought for a clan of three to four brothers to avoid division of property further. Polyandry – which may otherwise sound unusual, repulsive or scandalous – has found social acceptance in Malwa, with every tenth family of a village having it. Many villages in Mansa district of Punjab have at least five to 10 such families where two or three brothers jointly take a wife. Though publicly the woman is married to one of the brothers, within four walls of the house there is a mutual understanding among them that other brothers would not make a marriage to prevent the division of the land. The women are not only from Punjab but from West Bengal and Bihar as well. The main reason for perpetuation of polyandry is the highly skewed sex ratio. (In Mansa there are just 762 females for 1000 males). Even hukumnama issued by Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) threatening to excommunicate couples who abort female foetuses has done little from discouraging couples to seek doctors’ services in killing their unborn girl children. Besides breaking into the nexus of doctors, midwives and other people in the health system, the government needs to crack down on the kind of well-knit reference system these people harbour. The crime is going unnoticed with even district authorities like chief medical officers in some cases being a part of the liaison. “Asking a doctor to report against a doctor is like asking Dracula to guard the blood bank. It is the most organised genocide ever and we need to treat it like a crime. Apart from focusing on social factors and the mindset of the common man, the government also needs to net the doctors at the earliest,” says Dr Bedi.
The writer, Tribune Correspondent at Kharar, attended a workshop on female foeticide at Gurgaon recently |
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Call Left’s
bluff on nuclear deal IF India’s Left powered by Parkash Karat and his garrulous band spent more of their time on the rising price of onions and other like day to day matters affecting the common man, it would enable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get on with operationalising the critical nuclear energy deal with America. But then, to expect such rational thought and action from our own brand of commies wherever and whenever the letters USA feature, would be hoping for too much. It does not matter to them that the original communists like Russia and China are in deep consort with America on all issues concerning the nuclear field, and neither do they seem to comprehend that government to government agreements signed between two sovereign countries cannot be just side lined and back tracked much less cancelled, without irreparable loss of credibility in the comity of world nations. The paramount issue that should decide the foreign policy of any nation are its vital national interests. The benefits accruing in the energy field are too well known to be repeated, but it is the strategic access to the military nuclear punch that this deal will bring that needs to be understood and appreciated. In the nuclear environment of the present day, where even some ‘rouge’ states are suspected of possessing some nuclear capability, it would be suicidal to not arm ourselves with an assured, continuous and state of the art nuclear capability so as to be not trampled over by some of our adversaries in the neighbourhood and elsewhere. In a land battle and in the interests of our maritime security in the Indian Ocean, a comparable nuclear armed parity with China is a must, and I am not even mentioning Pakistan, where readers need no reminder that every time we may not have a localised Kargil type of war where only conventional warfare was resorted to. The Chinese would not have come down in hordes down the Sela Pass in NEFA in 1962 had we then possessed some kind of a nuclear deterrent, and which capability America had offered us in those early days but we had declined because of our myopic vision in such matters. Why should the Indian government be shy of spelling out the over ranging military benefits of the 123 Agreement with America? Unlike the Left, which closes its eyes to reality, the sane Indian cannot overlook the necessity of possessing military muscle in the world of murky politics and greed for territorial and economic expansion. The question that begs an answer is that had the erstwhile Soviet Union or Russia today broached such a deal with India (and not the United States), then what would have been the stand of our Left? It is also pretty hilarious to see the clever-by-half approach of the Left, in recommending a six month wait to operationalise the deal. The purpose of course is to miss out the crucial IAEA and NSG approvals without which the deal is not deemed ‘done’,and thereby take the whole chapter to 2008 when the US Congress and George Bush would be engrossed in the more pressing task, as far as they are concerned, of their elections. Surely the debate in Parliament and in the public arena in India has been on for over a year now, and there is little that is not known that calls for further deliberations. Also to be noted is the fact that sundry political parties are never called upon to sign international treaties and Agreements with other nations for this is a task assigned to the government of the day, and the Left would surely be aware of this. Even otherwise the Hyde Act will be of little consequence unless the US Congress ratifies the deal, and it is time that the government went ahead with the further steps needed and called the Left’s bluff. If the government falls because of lack of Communist support and fresh elections are called, the Congress and its allies would have gained immensely because they would have acted in national interest, whereas the Communists would have missed out on the political bus for all times to come. Their brand of opportunistic politics would be hounded out and new power equations formed, where they could find themselves unwanted and uninvited in the national arena. The government should also not be unduly perturbed with this non-cooperation, for if it comes to the crunch there is still time for action on a fast track basis for the deal to go through in all its aspects, provided the US State Administration and the Indian Government do not lose their nerve or pitch. |
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Watch out for poison toys Rubber duckies are great – unless they’re the kind that are loaded with chemicals called phthalates. These softening agents can make up 50 percent of the plastic in toys children love to stick in their mouths. The trouble is, these unhealthy chemicals don’t stay in the toy’s plastic. They get chewed and sucked right out, just like the flavoring of bubble gum. The vast majority of chemicals used in consumer products have never been tested for their effects on human health. In criminal courts, suspects are innocent until proved guilty. When it comes to protecting our children, a reverse standard should apply: Chemicals should be guilty until proved innocent. And when it comes to phthalates, innocence is far from established. Phthalates are a family of chemicals that are put into plastic products – including toys, teething rings and rattles – to make them soft and pliable. Yet phthalates pose a particular health risk to infants and young children. Kids’ curiosity makes them put everything in their mouths – virtually guaranteeing exposure to phthalates – but their bodies are less able to detoxify themselves. And as their organs develop, they pass through windows of vulnerability when even tiny doses of these toxic chemicals can have harmful effects. One scientific study after another has shown that minuscule doses of phthalates – doses that previously were assumed safe – can disrupt the hormonal balance of developing children, potentially causing serious, lifelong effects. Researchers have linked phthalates to early puberty in girls, reproductive problems, abnormalities of the penis, impaired sperm, liver and thyroid damage and testicular cancer. In fact, California has put several types of phthalates on its list of reproductive and developmental toxicants that, under certain conditions, require warnings. The timing of the exposure to these hormone-twisting chemicals during early stages of development matters as much, if not more, than the dose. Unfortunately, a 2005 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed nearly all children already have unhealthy levels of phthalates in their bodies. The good news is that there are safe, economical replacements for phthalates. The European Union and 14 other countries have banned or restricted the use of phthalates in children’s products. In the U.S., several leading toy manufacturers also have restricted their use of phthalates over the last few years as a result of research confirming health concerns. However, the vast majority of children’s products available in the U.S. still contain phthalates. With available alternatives, why are toy companies unnecessarily exposing children to toxic chemicals? Because current law allows them to. Now, after a decade of worrisome research and foot-dragging by the chemical industry, California is poised to give its kids the same protection as those living abroad. Earlier this month, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1108, which would ban six phthalates from children’s toys, teethers and feeding products. It is a modest but important step to protect our children. The bill is on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk, and all he needs to do to protect kids is to sign it. Chemical industry lobbyists are putting enormous pressure on the governor to veto this bill. But ask any parent and their perspective is clear: If a chemical is toxic, it simply doesn’t belong in a teether or toy. Period.
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