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Divide and rule N-deal in limbo |
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Cops as
robbers
Law for senior
citizens
Aman the
angel
Trying to deal with
future Finally, a cure for
common cold? Delhi Durbar
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Divide and rule MUMBAI can rightfully claim to be the most cosmopolitan city of India. The Maximum City has always taken pride in its composite culture and inclusiveness. But that exemplary character is under grave challenge because of the fulminations of parochial leaders like Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supremo Raj Thackeray who has started a shrill campaign against North Indians settled there. His followers have attacked several innocent hawkers and taxi drivers from Uttar Pradesh. A tirade has been launched against Amitabh Bachchan also and two men on a motor cycle even threw glass bottles at his Juhu residence “Prateeksha” on Sunday night. Theatres screening Bhojpuri films have been attacked and there are protests even against non-Marathi festivals like “Chhath puja”. The Marathi-versus-outsiders battlelines that the estranged nephew of Bal Thackeray has drawn may get him Marathi support but will do considerable harm to the cause of Mumbai and Maharashtra. All this divisive politics militates against the idea of a unified India. The mindless “Mumbai for Marathis” slogans have already started having reverberations in places like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These states, too, have self-serving leaders, remember! If they cannot give good governance, they would merrily pick on the grouses of the people to start an agitation or a riot. One wonders how Raj Thackeray will react if Marathis are attacked elsewhere. At a time when the world is claiming to become a village and we protest against the ill-treatment meted out to Indians settled abroad, does it make any sense at all to protest against the influx of non-Maharashtrians into Mumbai? The success of the metropolis is the result of the combined efforts of all its residents. Mumbai is not just another Maharashtra town but the heart of India. It is the duty of everyone who loves it to make an effort to make the heartbeat stronger. Raj Thackeray is certainly not doing that. In fact, he is doing exactly the opposite. It is imperative to stop him and others of his ilk in their tracks.
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N-deal in limbo EXTERNAL Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has once again highlighted the significance of the Indo-US nuclear deal. This is a very crucial time as discussions are on for an India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). There may not be much difficulty at the IAEA level because most of the big players there — like the UK, France and Russia, besides the US — are interested in the deal coming through. The problem is on the home front, as the draft agreement has to be discussed at a meeting of the UPA government and its Left supporters before India signs it. One hopes the Leftists will see the writing on the wall. India cannot afford to lose the deal as Mr Mukherjee pointed out on Sunday. India needs as much nuclear power as possible to meet its growing energy requirement. Depending on the traditional sources of electricity — fossil fuel and hydropower — forever is not a wise idea because of their declining availability and the environmental problems associated with them. No country can go on polluting the environment. Nuclear energy is the cleanest fuel and can help save the environment. India is bound to face sanctions and international isolation, as Mr Mukherjee has said, if it ignores the call to protect the environment. The country’s industrialisation programme may also get affected. There is not much time left to get the nuclear deal operationalised. India has to approach the Nuclear Suppliers Group, too, for getting its clearance because of the country not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The life of the George Bush administration will be over by this year-end, and then there may be problems. That is why the US reminded India on January 28 that the deal processes must be hurried up as “we must understand that there will be a new administration in the US and also a new Congress”. The UPA’s Left allies should keep politics aside in the nation’s larger interest. India must not lose the opportunity that has come its way.
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Cops as robbers SERIOUSLY, the Punjab Police proposal to make people pay for their ‘services’ should be treated as a joke. Except that the state Director-General of Police appears to be serious about making people pay for the police to do routine work such as passport verification. According to reports, the DGP has already authorised “community policing resource centres” to collect facilitation charges for a range of services. These include not only verifications for passports and arms licences but also for certified copies of documents, vehicle registration, permission for fairs and no-objection certificates for hotels, petrol pumps, etc. Clearly this appears to be a case of the police department placing itself above the law and resorting to barely-veiled extortion. This move in a police culture where underhand payments for the police to do their lawful duty is widely prevalent can only increase transgressions by the police. A passport is a citizen’s right and the passport office is paid the processing cost by the applicant. The citizen cannot be made to pay for every stage of the process, for then it could be taken to ridiculous extremes. The same holds for vehicle registration, for which vehicle owners pay when they get their registration done. The very thought of such proposals is appalling in a society reeling under police excesses ranging from custodial deaths and brutality to extortion and collusion with criminals. Such proposals being mooted at the highest level, and being considered, betray a mindset that is corrupted by commercial considerations. There might be much commerce, even of the undesirable and illegal variety, thriving in the police department. However, to give it lawful sanction would lead to more corruption and encourage the police to prey more on the people they are supposed to protect.
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When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal. — Richard Nixon
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Law for senior citizens With
India’s population greying — some 90 million are 60 plus — the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, is timely. By 2026 the number of senior citizens would be 173 million or 12.4 per cent of the population. While human development activities have successfully raised the life span in India, they have failed to improve the quality of life of the elderly. In fact, never before have the elderly felt as insecure and lonely as they are today. The old social fabric of the country is getting tattered. Nuclear families are replacing the traditional joint family, which provided in equal measure support and care of the young and the very old. Western values are seeping into the country and the young people caught in the rat race of the upwardly mobile have no time for their old parents and grandparents. There is an exodus of young people from the metros as well as the smaller towns and rural areas for education and lucrative jobs in the US, the UK, Australia and the Middle-East. Many of them do not return. Some try to compensate by sending home money. Many of the children living in India, too, have neither the time nor the inclination to care for their old parents and grandparents. In fact, with the tremendous appreciation in property rates, children’s greed for the shelter of their parents has further vitiated the atmosphere for the elderly. Daughters are said to be more caring than sons, but recently a daughter, who claimed to have been harassed by her in-laws, moved in with her old widowed mother, wheedled her to have the house transferred to her name and then threw her out into the cold. According to HelpAge India, an NGO that works for the elderly, four out of 10 elders are victims of abuse. Shockingly, a staggering 47.3 per cent of the perpetrators of such abuse are adult children. Often, even grandchildren are guilty. Almost 9 per cent of all abuses are by grandchildren. Even these disturbing statistics don't give the full picture because it is estimated that only one out of six cases of elder abuse is reported. The new Act is an attempt to solve some of the problems of the senior citizens who are dumped by their children, and not given any monetary, physical or mental support. Even an elderly who is not 60 but is unemployed or sick can use the new law to compel children to provide support. Under the Act, a tribunal is to be set up in each district of the country to help senior citizens, including parents who are unable to maintain themselves. They can get the maintenance from one or more children. Within 90 days of approaching the tribunal, either directly or through a concerned member of civil society, relief is to be provided. The maximum maintenance allowance which may be ordered by the tribunal and as prescribed by the state government shall not exceed Rs 10,000 a month. Abandoning senior citizens could lead to imprisonment for three months or fine up to Rs 5000 or both. But what happens to the seniors in the labour class when they do not have the stamina to continue work. Their children are indigent and marginalised and would not really be able to look after them. Fortunately, the poor and those in rural areas still care for their old parents and grandparents. However, it is feared that wherever there is migration there will be greater resistance to giving maintenance. This holds true even of Kerala, which has the highest incidence of suicides in the country. When women marry they expect husbands to settle down and be with them but they continue to go the Middle-East for work. Some even abandon their wives and this leads to depression and suicide. Old age homes are also to be set up in every district, each housing at least 150. The budget for this in the Eleventh Plan is Rs 173 crore, but with the passing of the new law it is expected to increase substantially. Day Care Centres for old people and a mobile medical van are also proposed. The Centre’s contribution to old age pension has been raised though it is still far too little and, even with the state’s contribution, would not exceed Rs 500 per month. Only those below the poverty line are entitled to the pension. According to a study by Prof Irudaya Rajan, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala, just half of the 90 million are getting pension - 10 million under the Annapoorna scheme, 20 million the state level pension, 10 million from the organised sector and five million from the Welfare Fund Board. With such paltry sums being given as pension, Rajan argues for pension to all 90 million seniors. Providing Rs 200 a month is not much for the Centre, but it means a great deal for the elderly. In Tamil Nadu, where pension is disbursed in the first week of every month, with Rs 200, an elderly can get 500 kg of rice and need not starve to death. Yes, starvation deaths among the elderly are being reported and adding another 45 million to the ranks of senior pensioners would not be such a financial burden on the exchequer. However, it may take some time for the new law to come into effect. The responsibility of implementing the law is that of the states. No special monetary provision has been made for setting up the tribunals, so one of the existing offices will serve as the tribunal under a subdivisional officer. However, the rules under the Act have to be framed by the state governments before the Act is effective. The case is referred to the tribunal only after all efforts by the conciliation officer, the district social welfare officer and the SDO to resolve the dispute amicably have failed. An important reason why various welfare measures and laws instituted by the government fail is the lack of commitment and failure to put in place the required infrastructure and personnel to implement them. In the health sector, for example, the ANM (auxiliary nurse midwife) was expected to handle immunisation, care of pregnant women as well as population stabilisation work and all new programmes of the government without being given the requisite transport facilities, etc. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act will be a difficult Act to implement. Steeped in traditional values, old parents would be reluctant to approach the tribunal to get maintenance. No law can compel you to do “good” or to be fair to old parents. It is either in you or it is not. In fact, the fear is that strident enforcement of laws can only deepen the fissures in society. If a grown up adult is publicly humiliated by a tribunal telling him or her that he or she is wayward and wanting and will have to pay up, there will be further rift and tension in the family. While money to keep body and soul together is important for old people, equally important is companionship, someone to talk to in the family and the peace of mind. Despite the reality of indifference of children to older people, it will not be easy to enforce this law. The decision to have an old age home in every district is a laudable one, but the government should not run these homes. The responsibility should be given to NGOs with proven track record. Government functionaries do not have the sensitivity required to look after the old and infirm. An advisor to NALSA, the national organisation for legal aid, reports that on a surprise visit to an old age home in Murshidabad, West Bengal, with a judge, the home was found locked from outside. With great difficulty, the lock was opened and it was found that all senior citizens were locked inside. In fact, an audit of state-run old age homes should be done before embarking on setting up more homes. Many of them function without light, fan, water and basic sanitation. Senior citizens are living longer. They are a tremendous resource, a store-house of knowledge and experience. The community should learn to tap this resource and give them place in society. In Delhi University, the senior-most citizen doing a course is 81 years and the youngest is just 19. The Institute of Life-Long Learning hopes to employ seniors to run crèches and in the process to get rejuvenated. What a better way of keeping Alzheimer’s at
bay!
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Aman the angel
I
rushed
into the arms of Mamta Jain, my dearest friend, at the Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi. She wailed “My baby” “My Baby” and broke in tears. This was my second time to the hospital straight from the railway station since Mamta’s only son Aman was admitted there in the April of 2005. All around her relatives and friends cried anew with the mother’s sobs as her son struggled between life and death from an acute asthma attack rendering him comatose. As Mamta’s tears poured down my neck, suddenly she lifted her head and announced that she and her husband Arun Jain had decided to donate all the organs of their 14-year-old son who was declared brain dead. The announcement by this couple from Gurgaon took everyone by surprise and overwhelmed even those unknown to them, while the hospital suddenly showed signs of furious activity. The couple, their family and friends had tried every possible means to revive the son who was the youngest after two daughters Rashi and Disha. Oxygen tent, rushing to gurus, “mannat” to reiki, no stone was left unturned, as round the clock the family prayed for a “miracle”. Mamta and Arun even recorded their voice telling Aman how much they loved him, reminding him of their good times together and conveyed their message through a walkman to rekindle the desire to fight back and live again! When all hope failed they decided that their beloved son would not go unsung — he would go as an “angel”. They donated all his organs and gave fresh lease of life to 11 people. In a moment alone Mamta answered to me that she feels proud to have been able to carry out such a decision and didn’t let the thoughts of his teenage body being cut even as his heart was kept beating to flush the organs, ever cloud her mind. I felt like saluting this courageous and brave woman! Many letters of condolences praising the couple poured in for months. Many were read out at his “chautha” ceremony. It reminded me of the first time we had come for Aman’s birthday celebration to Gurgaon and the present scenario of kidney racket in the same city that threw up suggestions in favour of cadaver donations. A recent article about an army hospital research and referral in Delhi truly showed the way to organ donation and a wakeup call to all those who truly feel close to god unmindful of dogmas and superstitions of their religion. As one poster in this hospital reads, “Don’t carry your organs to heaven because God knows we need them here more ….” Aman truly became an “angel” not only for his parents who still cradle his memories in scrapbook and the 11 who benefited from him but for all those who hear his
story.
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Trying to deal with future At stake is a vision of the future of computing, a clash of paradigms and, of course, billions of dollars for the companies that are fighting for a place in the Internet world of tomorrow, and the advertising revenues that accrue from it. Microsoft has offered to buy out Yahoo! in order to add a competitive edge in its battle against the industry leader, the search engine company Google. It has offered $44.6 billion in a mix of cash and stock for Yahoo, and if the deal goes through, would be Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever. Microsoft has been struggling in the Internet space. Many, many years ago, it managed to ward off the threat of Netscape browser by launching Internet Explorer and bundling it with the Windows. The tactic was a success, although it exposed Microsoft to anti-trust charges that have bedevilled the software giant since. Microsoft bought Hotmail from its co-founder, Sabeer Bhatia, in
1997 for $400 million. At that time, it had more than 8.5 million subscribers. Hotmail soon became the world’s largest e-mail service and in February 1999, it had more than 30 million active members. How numbers change, as do the players. Now Yahoo! has the biggest e-mail service in the world, with 300 million Yahoo! Mail users, while Hotmail has 250 million users. By all accounts, Gmail is way below, at the 50 million mark. Thus, if you were to have Yahoo! Mail and a Hotmail (or Windows Live Hotmail, to use the current Microsoft term) combination, they would totally dominate the e-mail sector, which is what draws eyeballs to advertisements, whose revenue all the players are fighting for. However, things are seldom as simple as they seem to be. While e-mails fulfil the need to communicate, search engines satiate another need of the modern IT-enabled person, that to find information-immediately. It is in this sphere that Google dominates the market. The search engine built by two Stanford students has become so ubiquitous that it has become generic – you “google” for information rather than search for it. Google has added many value additions to the search engine, including g-mail, picture sharing through Picasa, blogging software and other services. It is also now adding software that allows you to use word processing and spreadsheet programmes over the Net. Not only are they free, it is also very easy to share them with other and take in their comments etc. In a slow but significant manner, the future of computing is moving away from the individual computers to networked machines. We know that most of the computers worldwide are powered with some or the other version of Microsoft Windows, and have the Microsoft Office suit of programmes. The company just made billions of dollars on strong sales of Vista operating system and Office suit this year. If Google’s offerings are taken up by large number of people, it gives the users the option of being independent of any operating system software, as well as of not paying for the Office suit. In any case, there are options, like Linux and Apple operating systems, and other free software that competes with MS Office, like the WordPerfect package. Who can predict the pace of innovation? Computer users find different ways of using their machines every day. Their needs and expectations change and companies have to evolve with them. Google has made many inroads because it has been able to keep its finger on the pulse of the Internet users. You just have to look at the vast number of offerings from Google and you see where Internet trends are headed. Many analysts are rightly questioning whether the deal will be allowed to go through, given anti-trust examination that is bound to slow down any potential merger. Also, there will be many issues regarding the integration of work cultures and different technologies that both companies use. There is a definite danger that two also-rans in the business will not combine to be a market leader, but become bigger also-rans. There is also talk about Google and Yahoo forming an alliance. Yahoo is very clear in maintaining that “no decisions have been made.” The Microsoft bid for Yahoo! is, to the mind of this writer, a business decision in the industry where innovation changes the playing field with tremendous speed. Remember when Google declared unlimited storage space for Gmail! The company left everyone playing catch-up and generated for itself tremendous goodwill, publicity and consumer loyalty. Soon everyone was announcing that they would give more free space, but none could match Google in élan. Even now, while Google makes most of the money in the online advertising business, it is aggressively exploring the avenue of delivering advertising over mobile phones. The online advertising dollars that Microsoft and Yahoo! are chasing, which Google seems to have cornered for the time being, are not where the future of the Internet is. Perhaps pundits will do well to look at Stanford University’s young students. It was Stanford researchers that created Excite, one of the earliest search engines, in 1993. A year later, Jerry Yang and David Filo created Yahoo! And by 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were collaborating on BackRub, a search engine named for its ability to analyse the “back links” pointing to a website. You know where they all went to school? No prizes for guessing that it was Stanford.
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Finally, a cure for common cold? For
fifty years researchers have tried and failed to find a cure for the common cold. But now scientists are claiming a significant breakthrough that could herald the development of new treatments and drugs to prevent the scourge of the nasal passages. They announced yesterday that they had been able to pass on the virus to a special strain of genetically modified mice – the first time a non-primate has caught a cold. Until now, only humans and chimpanzees were known to be susceptible to the virus that results in the common cold. This is one of the reasons why research into possible cures has been so slow, according to Professor Sebastian Johnston, a virologist at Imperial College London who led the mouse research. Being able to infect laboratory mice with rhinoviruses – the main group of common cold viruses – means scientists can now investigate how the virus infects an animal other than a human being, which could speed up the rate at which new drugs are developed, Professor Johnston said. About three quarters of people with common colds, which are not to be confused with influenza, are infected with one of the more than 100 rhinoviruses. Most people shrug off colds within a few days but in some people with respiratory problems – such as asthma – a cold can be fatal. Colds can result in babies and small children being admitted to hospital, lead to pneumonia in people with weakened immune systems and can trigger asthma attacks. They can also cause acute attacks of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, sometimes with fatal consequences. In 1946, the Medical Research Council set up the Common Cold Unit in Wiltshire where 30 human volunteers at a time were infected with cold viruses to study how their bodies responded to the infection over a period of about 10 days. The unit was closed in 1989 after failing to find a cure. Professor Johnston said: "Until now, it has not been possible to study rhinovirus infection in small animals. This has been a major obstacle to developing new treatments and there is currently no effective treatment for rhinovirus infection. "Rhinoviruses are a major cause of the common cold and if you have a small animal model, it speeds up the rate of discovering new potential treatments. And rhinoviruses are not innocent viruses. They kill people in large numbers from acute asthma attacks and chronic bronchitis and emphysema," Professor Johnston added. The scientists, who were funded by the Medical Research Council, modified the genes of the mice so that the cells lining their respiratory systems had a human version of a "receptor protein" called ICAM-1, which rhinoviruses use to infect the cells. "We previously found that once inside the mouse cell a rhinovirus reproduces itself as well as it does in human cells. But the virus couldn't infect the mouse cell because the receptor – which acts like a door key – wouldn't let the virus into the cell. "Now we've modified the mouse receptor so it is more like a human one. This means the virus can infect the cells of these modified mice. We found that mice with the modified receptor were susceptible to infection with a rhinovirus," he said. The study, which is published in the journal Nature Medicine, will also prove important in the understanding of life-threatening respiratory attacks resulting from acute asthma, bronchitis and other serious lung infections. Professor Johnston said that the genetically modified strain of mouse he and his colleagues had created could also be used to study what happens during these more dangerous infections when the function of the lung is threatened and people can die as a result. "If combined with an allergen – such as the protein found in egg white – that could cause an allergic reaction in the lungs, the virus could make the response worse and lead to an 'asthma attack'. "These mouse models should provide a major boost to research efforts to develop new treatments for the common cold, as well as for more potentially fatal illnesses such as acute attacks of asthma and of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," he said. The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and the charity Asthma UK. The chief executive of the Medical Research Council, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, said: "This important and fundamental discovery will enable us to understand the effects rhinoviruses and common colds have on our health. "It will open up new paths to finding treatments which have been delayed for many years and provides us with the opportunities for further breakthroughs in the future." Leanne Male, assistant director of research at Asthma UK, said: ''Ninety per cent of people with asthma tell us that colds and flu trigger their asthma symptoms but as yet there is no specific treatment for virally induced asthma attacks and steroid treatments are only partially effective against them. "We welcome this latest advancement as it will lead to a greater understanding of viral infections and their link with asthma and may help the development of a suitable treatment for virus-induced asthma attacks, thus greatly improving the lives of the 5.2 million people with the condition in the UK." By arrangement with
The Independent
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Delhi Durbar Since India’s high-profile Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen, is all set to demit office by March-end, a number of aspirants have thrown their hat in the ring for the prestigious job. Among the names doing the rounds is Satyabrat Pal, India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan. Pal’s candidature is apparently being pushed by his friend and mentor, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who had also helped him get his present assignment. According to Delhi’s grapevine, Menon is backing Pal primarily to push former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran out of the race. Saran is considered the best choice for this post since he was and still remains an important member of the team which sealed the Indo-US nuke deal. Since Menon is junior to Saran and the latter has direct access to the political leadership, the Foreign Secretary would prefer to see Pal ensconsed in Washington D.C. as he will then be able to call the shots.
For a cause
While his other Congress colleagues ushered in the New Year by hosting a series of luncheon parties on their lush lawns, Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs, and his wife decided to go off the beaten track. Instead, they organised a special screening of the currently popular film, “Taare Zameen Par” at the Films Division’s Mahadev Road auditorium for a small gathering, which included a few journalists, personal friends, diplomats and officials from Sharma’s ministry. Sharma and his wife probably chose this film because of their interest in the cause of challenged children. And if the sniffling in the auditorium was anything to go by, the audience loved the movie.
Seasonal birds
Members of political parties can be classified into twot groups. There is one lot which works for the party round the clock throughout the year. Then there are others who surfce only prior to an election. With elections to several state assemblies due this year to be followed by the Lok Sabha poll next year, these “seasonal birds”, which include filmstar-turned-politicans, can be seen hovering round. This was evident at the BJP’s recent national council meeting when guest artistes like Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna, Smriti Irani, Mukhesh Khanna and Suresh Oberoi, were being particularly friendly with the party leaders.
On tenterhooks Water Resources Minister Saiffudin Soz has been getting congratulatory messages for being made PCC chief in Jammu and Kashmir but there is no official word on his appointment. The media has reported extensively that Soz has been sounded about this additional assignment but the high command has neither confirmed nor denied the stories. Soz is also keeping a studied silence to avoid getting caught on the wrong foot. In the Congress nothing is considered final till it is out in black and white. Contributed by Anita Katyal,
S Satyanarayanan and Prashant Sood
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