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Food for the people Jalandhar jail again |
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Spare the rod
Identifying the elite
Of fooling and Fools Day
Taliban frontline Valour in war: only team work ensures victory Delhi Durbar
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Food for the people The rising prices of commodities in global markets, particularly of food items, have sent inflation soaring in countries like China, Japan and India.High growth, reduction in poverty, rise in populations and changing food habits have pushed demand for foodgrains while production has remained almost stagnant. Wheat prices have risen 88 per cent in the past one year. The demand-supply mismatch is also visible in rice, corn, edible oils and pulses. Last year India was forced to import 6.5 million tonnes of wheat and this year it has already contracted for 1.8 million tonnes though domestic production will be marginally up. The relentless rise in farm commodity prices in the past one year should have cheered and enriched farmers and propelled them to bring more area under crops which give maximum returns. However, the government pays only the minimum support prices to local farmers and the market rate farmers outside the country. Corporate buyers and traders mop up stocks at slightly higher prices. Small farmers suffer the most as the ill-targeted sops and subsidies do not reach them. The government buys farm produce cheap on the pretext of feeding the poor too. However, subsidised food distribution through the leaky PDS remains a problem and entrenched interests and middlemen inflate the costs. In the run up to the general election, high food prices have unnerved the government, which has resorted to fire-fighting measures like duty changes to ease imports and discourage exports, expensive wheat imports and the loan waiver. Ministerial meetings have yielded little. The government has little say on global prices, whether of oil or food. Temporary relief is possible by letting the rupee appreciate to cut the cost of imports. For the long run, the need is to rescue agriculture by raising productivity through better inputs, effective water management, result-oriented research and extension services. Dependence on agriculture has to be cut and spending on rural infrastructure increased.
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Jalandhar jail again Not
even the jails are being managed properly. The administration of jails across the country in general and Punjab in particular is scandalously inefficient. This sorry state of affairs has continued for years. What is worse is that there are no arrangements even to keep the inmates under control, otherwise how could those at Jalandhar have taken over the jail on Sunday, less than three months after a similar incident took place there in January? For three hours, there was none to challenge the rioters as they destroyed jail furniture and much else. The jail administration has become so lax that even when the malaise is identified, precious little is done to remedy it. Sunday’s free for all by hundreds of prisoners was triggered by the death of an inmate. Explanation is needed from the jail authorities about the circumstances in which he died. To this was added the grouse of lack of drinking water and medical facilities. But the rot goes much better. Most jails have four to five times more prisoners than they can hold. Due to overcrowding, basic infrastructure is always stretched. Medical facilities are on paper only. Living conditions are not just harsh but inhuman. Then there is runaway corruption and drug addiction that completes the tragedy. Influential inmates manage to smuggle in everything from drugs to mobile phones. Obviously, all this cannot happen without the connivance of the jail staff. But they rarely get punished adequately.aEven after the January 7 riots, a magisterial enquiry had identified the supply of drugs in the jail as one of the main reasons for unrest and subsequent clashes there. Yet, one week later, there was a clash between two inmates over the use of an unauthorised mobile phone. Despite the ruckus in which five inmates were injured, the phone was never found. Jails, which are supposed to reform the criminals, are actually promoting exactly the opposite qualities. Even undertrials get exposed to the evil ways of the old inmates, and the jail becomes a nursery for future criminals and terrorists. The situation is scary, but the authorities seem unconcerned.
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Spare the rod Why is it that the incidents of children getting hurt and even dying after being beaten up are not drying up? They keep on cropping up with distressing frequency, be it the recent case of a Delhi schoolgirl who was beaten up so badly that she went into a coma and later died, or a Jalandhar student showing ghastly gashes inflicted on him by his teacher. Children have been administered electric shocks in Andhra Pradesh, and a child collapsed after being forced to run on the school grounds as punishment for coming late in Ahmedabad. The malaise is widespread all over the nation. It is particularly distressing that all this happens even as corporal punishment is banned in schools and from time to time, when such incidents are highlighted by the media, teachers are punished. There is simply no excuse to discipline children in this manner. In all civilised nations, children’s rights to education and to dignity are respected and there is strong social stigma attached to corporal punishment, even at home, let alone in schools. Unfortunately, in India, there are sections of society that believe that sparing the rod will result in spoiling the child. This is an absolutely antediluvian attitude that should have no place in modern society. The judiciary has been coming out strongly against such harsh methods since the year 2000, but a lack of political will and social indifference have resulted in tardy implementation of the laws, often with disastrous consequences. Even when corporal punishment does not take extreme and inhuman forms, it is widely recognised that it causes psychological damage to affected children and hinders their all-round development. Teachers have a crucial role to play in shaping the lives of the future generations and they must be trained to discipline them without having to resort to physical punishment. There should be no place in schools for the teachers who lose control of themselves and resort to
violence
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It is more blessed to give than to receive. — Mother Teresa
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Identifying the elite Mrs
Sonia Gandhi, inaugurating the new airport in Hyderabad, is reported to have said, “… air travel was not elitist anymore”. With airports jammed and congestion in the air leading to delays in take-off and landing, many would come to that conclusion. However, saying that more people are travelling by air now compared to five years back is not the same thing as saying that it is not elitist anymore. Who do we consider to be elite in India? The statement reflects the view of our top leadership about society. It is particularly important since it is Mrs Sonia Gandhi who moved the Congress to its evocative slogan, “hamara hath aam admi ke sath” and it helped the party regain power in 2004. Further, it is she who forced the powerful trio of PM, FM and Dy Chairperson of the Planning Commission who believe in the pro-corporate and pro- rich policies based on the neo-liberal philosophy, to accept the NREGS and now the farm loan waiver scheme. Thus, she has been the ally of the poor in the Congress party. Yet, her statement reflects where her empathy is. The Unorganised Sector Report based on the NSS 61st round (2004-05) shows that 77 per cent of the population lives at less than Rs 20 per day. So, most people would hardly even use trains, much less flights. Those who do use the railways mostly travel by the ordinary unreserved compartments in our trains. The overcrowding of these compartments suggests that a vast majority does not even have the money for reservation, much less AC or air travel. The statement is similar to the argument that India is prosperous since a large number of people use cell phones. In the metropolitan centres one can spot a rickshaw-puller or a gardener flaunting a cell phone. However, this does not signify that these users are able to afford these gadgets or are better off than earlier. They may be cutting other expenditures, perhaps on essentials for the family, like on food or education of their child. High-pressured advertising and peer group pressure is known to force people into irrational choices where they sacrifice their essential expenditures for the sake of prestige, etc. Can one say that those who consume alcohol are able to spend enough on food for the family? It is well known that many of those who drink heavily leave their families destitute. Women’s movement against drinking in Andhra Pradesh in the mid-nineties focused on this. The plight of many such families moved Gandhiji to demand prohibition. Malnourishment among children and women is higher in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa. Food consumption per capita has declined in the country after 1991 and this has affected the nutritional status of the poor, children and women. To argue that those who do not have adequate calories are eating more of high value food does not stand scrutiny. Production of one unit of meat takes six units of foodgrains and of one unit of chicken takes two units of foodgrains. So, as the well-off sections consume more of these items, their per capita consumption of foodgrains rises even though their direct consumption may fall. Since the overall consumption per capita is falling, the brunt of this decline in the average would fall on the poor who are in no position to go for higher-value food items. The confusion regarding who are the elite is similar to that of who are the middle class in India? By definition, those who are the middle of any ordering of the population can be called the middle class. In India, if we classify the population by their incomes, then 500 millions would be in the middle. But these are not the middle class as understood in the international context of the “consuming classes”. According to the survey, in 2004-05, only 4 per cent of the population (numbering 44 million), at the top of the income ladder and categorised as the high income group, spent more than the princely sum of Rs 48 per person per day. This category spent an average of Rs 93 per day. Thus, in reality, even these people can hardly afford air travel in spite of the drop in air fares. It is quite likely that given these figures, less than 1 per cent of the population or about 11 million people would be middle class and would be able to use air travel. This is certainly also the elite unless for any arbitrary reason one wishes to call the top 0.1 per cent as the elite. There is a catch: these figures are based on the reported data. The economy has a roaring black economy which now accounts for about 50 per cent of the GDP. Much consumption is based on these incomes, but surveys do not capture it. Just as the black income earners do not reveal their black incomes, they also do not reveal their consumption out of the black incomes. So, consumption in the economy is higher than revealed. But black incomes are concentrated in the hands of, at the most, the top 3 per cent of the population and so it is they who have the extra consumption and not the poor. Actually, the rest suffer since they have to pay bribes, etc, to line the pockets of the top 3 per cent and they have to curtail their consumption. In brief, at most 3 per cent of the population would be able to afford air travel, but would this still not be the elite? Mrs Sonia Gandhi could have said that the elite need air travel because they travel frequently. What her statement indicates is the distance between our leaders and the common man who lives at less than Rs 20 per person per day. Even Big B is reported to have said that now poverty is a thing of the past. How insulated the top is from the reality — blinded by “India shining”? All this is not surprising given the fact that our leadership rubs shoulders with the rich in India and abroad and not with the common man. Even the party of the Dalits demands from aspirants for its election tickets a donation of a few lakhs of rupees, if not more. Lakhs are spent on birthday bashes and big diamonds sported. In Parliament, designer clothes are flaunted which perhaps cost as much as the yearly expenditure of the common person’s family. To attend Parliament, MPs are known to fly in daily in their private planes. The top leadership rubs shoulders with this lot and socialises with them on a daily basis. Recently, for the wedding of his son, one CM gave an invitation card package estimated to cost Rs 15,000 per invitee. The top leadership is imitating the businessmen in their lavish lifestyle. As they say, a person is known by the company he keeps. They do not any more identify with the destitution of the common man. On days when the leaders make a political show of their concern for the poor, they make speeches to them or to hired crowds looking like the poor. Or, they pay a flying visit to the villages and slums and wave at the common people since they are cut off from the masses by the security bandobast. Unlike Gandhiji, they do not go and live in their midst. Empathy with the poor is missing. The leadership does not even need it because others also do the same and there is no competition. The statement that air travel is no more elitist when hardly 1 per cent of India uses this mode of transport is bereft of an understanding of the country; a bit like the Queen supposedly saying that if they do not have bread, let them eat
cake.
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Of fooling and Fools Day
First of April is considered a traditional “Fools Day”. On this day we love to fool around with people, especially close friends, neighbours and or dear relatives. We play pranks on people only if we are sure that the trick will work as an immense surprise and yet won’t cause any serious harm to the targeted person. How did this custom of fooling start off, nobody can say with authority. The historians, however, say that it started sometimes after 1564, when King Charles IX of France adopted a revised calendar whereby the commencement of the new year was taken to start on First January. Earlier on, a New Year was reckoned to commence on First of April. Some people, however, refused to accept the change and kept insisting on commencement of the new year from first April as before. Those who adopted the change subjected the people who had not accepted the change to ridicule and jokes. The non-conformists were called “April Fools”. The day is associated with many important historical events. The Reserve Bank of India was set up on this day in 1935. The Indian Postal Order was launched on this day in 1936. William Harvey (1578-1657), the scientist who first discovered circulation of blood in human beings, was born on this day. American actress Ali McGram, famous for her role in Hollywood film “Love Story” was born on this day in 1938. Our cricketer Ajit Wadekar was born on this day in 1941. Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee became independent India’s first Indian Air Chief on this day in 1954. The list of important and very important events which took place on the Fools Days is interesting and inexhaustible. To me as an individual, however, this day is very important for I fooled myself badly on that day during 1958. The writing of my B.Sc. (Punjab University) final examination was going on during that March-April. Mathematic paper II was scheduled for afternoon shift on April 2. On first April a fellow examinee told me that there is a change in the schedule of the paper from Evening to Morning shift as per a newspaper report. I thought that the fellow was fooling me. I did not bother to check the veracity of the news myself. On second April when I reached the examination hall, my befooling was confirmed and so sadly, because the paper had already been over in the morning
shift.
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Taliban frontline GARMSIR, Afghanistan – Perched on the banks of the Helmand River, this desolate town occupied by British forces marks Afghanistan’s de facto border: Beyond here, the Afghan government is powerless and Taliban insurgents hold sway, their ranks replenished by recruits who enter unchallenged from Pakistan. A small contingent of British troops here is manning a cluster of dusty hill forts, several of them built by the British more than a century ago during the Anglo-Afghan wars. On this stark front line, they wage war against hundreds of insurgents dug into bunkers and ditches running between minefields in the canal system below. Since 2006, Garmsir and other parts of Helmand province have changed hands between the British and Taliban forces at least three times, largely because there have been too few British ground troops to hold captured territory. The British have lost 89 troops to fighting in the province, where violence surged 60 percent last year, testing NATO’s ability to stabilise Afghanistan’s ethnic Pashtun heartland. President Bush will attend a NATO summit this week where he hopes allies will pledge additional combat troops for Afghanistan. In Helmand, even an expanded British-led force of about 7,000 must now concentrate its efforts on the north, while the company in Garmsir controls a small segment of the southern front. “You can’t hold it against them for wanting to repel the invaders,” said Warrant Officer 2 Jason Mortimer, 37, manning a sandbag-lined bunker in the ruins of an old British fort here that comes under daily attack. Afghan fighters, he noted, sent the British “packing with a bloody nose” in three wars, starting in 1839. Reinforcements are on the way. Beginning next month, Helmand will be a main destination for thousands of U.S. Marines dispatched to bolster the NATO effort in southern Afghanistan. But the Pentagon has stressed that the seven-month Marine deployment is an “extraordinary one-time” commitment, and British troops say it will not suffice to end the fighting in Helmand, where the population remains wary, local security is fledgling and the Taliban replaces its losses with recruits who pass freely over the Pakistani border about 75 miles to the south. The shortage of ground troops has led to reliance on airstrikes and artillery barrages, complicating the goal of winning over civilians. Mortimer, who has been deployed to Iraq and Kosovo twice since 2000, sees political dialogue with the Taliban as the only way forward. “This campaign will drag on and on until we sit down at a table with the Taliban,” he said. Otherwise, “we’ll drop 1,000-pound bombs and make martyrs of a generation of men in a part of the world that needs its healthy young men.” During an operation this month to seize two hills – both old British forts – near Garmsir, Moran’s platoon infiltrated the area in darkness, bridged a canal and, backed by a handful of armored vehicles, captured one hill. Across the Helmand River, another platoon established a foothold on the second hill. Engineers hastily built bunkers of sandbags and dirt-filled barriers atop both positions. “We’ve pushed out to the east to take on the Taliban in some of their forward positions,” Moran said. Taliban insurgents counterattacked with grenades, mortars, machine guns and a mine that disabled one British armored vehicle. But they were pushed back by an onslaught of British artillery, missile strikes by Predator drones, aerial strafing by A-10 fighters, and several 500- and 1,000-pound bombs dropped by U.S. jets. After months of defending static positions, the three-day operation killed at least 42 Taliban insurgents, extended the British reach several hundred yards into Taliban terrain and succeeded in abating attacks, at least temporarily. Yet in Garmsir, some Afghan elders opposed the British effort to occupy the hill fort near their village, fearing it would draw fire upon their fields and homes. “All you’ve done is bring fighting to the area,” one village elder scolded, turning his back in a gesture of rudeness, recalled Capt. Andy Richards of Royal Regiment Scotland, who advises local police. “I told them we have to fight the Taliban somewhere, and unfortunately it is in their village,” Richards said. In recent months, the sustained British presence has encouraged about 140 Afghans to move back into a relatively protected zone north of the main base. Unable to travel safely, the villagers survive by subsistence farming and selling chickens, goats and produce to the Nepalese Gurkha soldiers based here. But some villagers say they will stay only as long as the British troops remain. “If they go, I will go,” said shop owner Abdul Rashid, 25. Villagers said they fear the Taliban, but doubt that Afghan government forces are strong enough to secure the area. Local forces are in their infancy, British officers said. Afghan police here consist of a local militia that received two weeks of training, said Richards, the police adviser. Their chief, a charismatic landowner who bought them uniforms and supplies, was killed by a car bomb late last month. They lack body armor, a steady ammunition supply and heavy weapons, and so they are outgunned by the Taliban. Corruption is a temptation because they are paid only $70 to $100 a month. Afghan Border Police recently arrived in Garmsir, but only 60 men in the 330-strong force have had any training. The force suffers from illiteracy, drug abuse and a shortage of junior leaders. Helmand is a center of Afghanistan’s burgeoning opium poppy production – which helps fund the insurgency – and poppy farms surround Garmsir. Farther south where the river bends to the west is in an area known as the “fishhook,” a possible destination for Marines deploying to the province. The Marines will be headquartered in Kandahar but will operate as needed across the south and possibly in one western province, U.S. officials said. British soldiers said that the Marines will help block the flow of fighters from Pakistan and shrink the Taliban sanctuary, but that more resources are needed to defeat the insurgency. “It’s not going to end the war in Helmand, but it will go a long ways towards it, hopefully,” Moran said. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Valour in war: only team work ensures victory IT is fascinating to witness the debate on who won the battle of Laungewala in 1971. We should start by questioning the premise of winning a battle. Is it a matter of superior military skills, greater valour, better leadership, superior technology or tactics? The Israelis smashed the Egyptian army in 1967 with in days. Was that war won by the air force despite its complete success? The US forces defeated the Iraqi forces of Saddam Hussein within weeks by using superior technology to ‘shock and awe’ the enemy. Neither campaign could be completed without a land victory. In 1965 and 1971 Indian and Pakistani forces were matched almost equally. Yet the outcome in 1971 was decidedly in favour of Indian forces. Can one claim that the 1971 war was won by the Indian army by itself, or by the IAF on its own? Modern war cannot be won by armies without a substantive role played by the air force. Winning an air campaign is also not sufficient, if the land battles are not won decisively. It is therefore not possible to lay exclusive claims to victory in war, when only a combined effort brings about an end to war on favourable terms. If proof was needed of this truism, Laungewala provided it. During the course of one night and half a day, a small and outnumbered army force and a timely attack by a few combat aircraft demolished the Pakistani offensive which had expected to rapidly reach Jaisalmer. Despite the dramatic success at Laungewala, the battle itself was not planned the way it was fought. Indian senior commanders had not anticipated the Pakistani thrust. Laungewala itself was poorly defended. The air support for a tank battle had not been jointly coordinated. Despite these planning failures, the troops at Laungewala responded with resolve to not only locate the thrust but also kept track of it, informed the higher headquarters, asked for reinforcements, and surprised the Pakistanis by their strong defence. The air force, when asked at short notice to support the troops at Laungewala responded with elan to mount sortie after sortie and destroyed the Pakistani tank column. The reality of there being no Pakistani air force in this action made the destruction of the tanks a virtual certainty. No Indian aircraft was lost while over forty eight Pakistani tanks lay pulverised. Who was a greater contributor to success in this remarkable action is an interesting question to ask. Was it the young officer who first grasped the significance of tank noises heard in the cold desert night? Was it Major (later Brigadier) Kuldip Singh Chandpuri who retained his composure in the confusion to encourage his men to hold their positions, kept in touch with his headquarters, moved from one group to another to coordinate their actions against the advancing tanks? Was it the air commander who rose to the challenge of mounting the air attacks at short notice? What about the men in Chandpuri’s company who bravely did what was needed under fire, or, the pilots who dived repeatedly to destroy the Pakistani tanks? What about the ground staff at the air base who ensured the quickest turn round of the attack aircraft? We should also spare a thought for the troops who had to move at speed during night to reinforce the Laungewala position? The battle outcome was the result of combined action at every level, performed without regard for personal glory. There is the well known adage of success having many fathers but a failure always remaining an orphan. When a battle is won, many claim credit for it. This is evident in the recent misplaced claims on who won the Laungewala battle. This is particularly true in the case of gallantry awards and public recognition which follows such events. Gallantry awards and honours are given as recognition of the role performed in battle and in keeping with the significance of the action in the overall campaign. A high gallantry award would be given even for a small action., if it turns the outcome of war significantly. A major action with thousands of troops supported by the air force may not earn the same level of recognition, other than for valour in combat. It is invidious to lay claim 37 years after the war on who was a greater hero. The people who were on ground and fought, know of as to who did what. The public knows of it is much by the folklore which gets formed around the event, as the dignity with which gallantry award winners conduct themselves. The writer was an Army Commander and a Lieutenant Governor. He was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for the capture of Haji Pir Pass in J &K in 1965.
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Delhi Durbar The Congress party’s media department has proved lucky for its spokespersons. Whoever has been associated with it has made it to either of the two Houses of Parliament. While chief spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy made it to the Lok Sabha in the last general election, former media department chairperson Ambika Soni and her successor Janardan Dwivedi are in the Rajya Sabha. Their other colleagues Anand Sharma and Abhishek Singhvi also keep them company in the Upper House. The latest to make it there is another spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan, who got lucky after a prolonged wait. The only two who are still out are the present media department head Veerappa Moily and AICC secretary Tom Vadakkan. While Moily is learnt to be eyeing the chief minister’s gaddi in Karnataka (provided the Congress wins, of course), Vadakkan is keen on contesting the next assembly elections in his home state Kerala. Left welcomes
Red America The Left parties are known for their pathological dislike for America and anything American, and US-bashing is their favourite past-time. However, among those who were given an exceptionally warm welcome at the ongoing CPM congress in Coimbotore, included two representatives from the Communist Party of America. The two members were felicitated with a shawl along with other international delegates. Their presence at the CPM congress was a revelation for two reasons: it showed that there are takers for Communist ideology in the world’s leading capitalist country. And second, our desi Communists are not averse to all Americans provided, of course, they are on the same ideological
wavelength. Hind-Chini film exchange After the much relished Chinese cuisine and the amazing variety of Chinese goods now available in the market, it is now Chinese cinema that is all set to catch the attention of Indian viewers. A six-day Chinese film festival, organised by the Directorate of Film Festival and the Film Bureau on the Indian side and the China State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), opened here last week. This is a reciprocal festival following the Indian film festival held in Beijing and Shanghai two years ago, and it will screen nine films. The head of the Chinese delegation said Indian films are very popular in China and SARFT is encouraging Chinese film distributors to purchase Indian films and release them in cinema houses and on television. He said Hindi film songs are a rare treat for Chinese listeners as they are played on special request by some radio channels. Contributed by Anita Katyal and
Tripti Nath
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