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Insensitivity of Bush Crime and punishment |
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Signal for life
The issue of N-tests
The beads of my rosary
Agriculture market system reform needed If you want to wag your finger, remove it from the pie… Chatterati
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Insensitivity of Bush THE insensitive remarks of US President George W. Bush about prosperity in countries like India being the cause for higher global food prices have, predictably, set off a storm in this country. It is unfortunate that the President of the world’s most powerful economy should flay the non-affluent people elsewhere for the growing food shortage. Mr Bush’s remarks, besides being crude and insulting, betray an ignorance of the realities of the situation at home and in the rest of the world. That his remarks were preceded by similar observations by his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shows that these are not off-the-cuff utterances. In fact, those who perceive a pattern in Washington making scapegoats of the poor of the world for the spiralling cost of food cannot be blamed for the outrage with which they have reacted. Mr Bush’s unwarranted remarks have been slammed by almost all political parties regardless of their differing views on the reasons for the rising inflation. Those, including a minister of the UPA government, Mr Jairam Ramesh, who have come out against the US President’s criticism of “prosperity”, would appear to be justified in saying that Mr Bush is not known for his knowledge of economics. More to the point is that Mr Bush appears to be ignorant of the plight of the poor who, far from driving up the prices by their need for nutrition, are actually finding that inflation has put food out of their reach. The US consumes and wastes more food than any other country in the world, and several times more than India. Rising US energy needs have led to the cultivation of foodgrains being replaced with crops for biofuel production. This change of land use for biofuel in the developed countries is one of the major reasons for declining foodgrain production, which has worsened the scarcity and pushed up food prices. Instead of seeing the problem for what it is, and where it lies, the US has taken the easy way out by blaming India and China. This is hard to swallow and bound to evoke protests.
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Crime and punishment THE Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill, 2006, cleared by the Union Cabinet, is a bold and progressive piece of legislation. It is aimed at helping the litigants and victims as well as providing relief to the police, courts and jails. It covers, among other things, the procedure of arrest, the arrested person’s right to meet an advocate of his/her choice and recording of statements in electronic form. The changes suggested for dealing with rape cases are particularly welcome because these will lessen the agony of the victims and expedite trial. The Bill provides for completion of trial of rape cases in two months, having women judges hear cases “as far as practicable” and recording statements of victims at their homes or places of their choice. At present, the rape victims are subject to untold humiliation during trial. Many a time, they are forced to answer inconvenient questions, often bordering on vulgarity, in the presence of unknown persons. Over the years, several women’s organisations and the National Commission for Women have been demanding a humane law that will deal with the rape victims more sympathetically. When the Bill becomes an Act, the prosecution won’t be able to grill the victims like before. Questioning of the victim in the presence of her parents or a social worker of the locality or at the location of their choice will help reduce the psychological pressure on the victim and provide protection to her in her hour of crisis. The Bill also empowers victims to appeal against acquittals. Consider how justice was derailed in the Jessica Lall and Priyadarshini Mattoo murder cases. In the light of increasing instances of collusion between the prosecution and the accused, the provision of appeal is expected to act as a deterrent. Equally important is the provision to punish hostile witnesses for perjury, with imprisonment of seven years. Similarly, the proposal to amend Section 41 of the CrPC will check the indiscriminate arrests and ease congestion in the jails. Instead of arresting a person accused of committing a cognisable offence, a police officer will, under the new provision, first issue a notice of appearance to him, seeking his cooperation in the probe. The Law Commission has often recommended this reform to promote human rights and check overcrowding in the jails.
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Signal for life THE Pakistan government’s order to delay till further orders the execution of Indian national Sarabjit Singh, on death row for 18 years, deserves appreciation. This can be treated as a positive signal. Though Pakistan’s Supreme Court had earlier rejected an appeal against Sarabjit’s death sentence and President Pervez Musharraf also refused to grant his mercy petition, those striving for freedom to Sarabjit appear to be hopeful that he may not lose his life. The Yousuf Raza Geelani government is faced with the demand from various quarters to find a way to save Sarabjit’s life. He may have been arrested in the Lahore blasts case because of mistaken identity. But he has been convicted “without any substantial evidence”, as former Pakistan minister and human rights activist Ansar Burney has been pleading. The Sarabjit case has reactivated a group of people who have been campaigning for the abolition of death penalty in Pakistan. Their argument is supported by the fact that executions have had no impact on heinous crimes, which have been increasing because of various factors. Moreover, mainly the poor have been affected by the provision for capital punishment in the statute book, as they cannot afford to engage competent lawyers to fight for their case. The new government in Islamabad appears to be inclined to do away with the justice system that discriminates against the underprivileged people. Media reports suggest that very soon capital punishment may be replaced with life imprisonment, though this remains in the realm of speculation. The government, perhaps, is waiting for the hue and cry being raised by extremists to die down. Sarabjit will not be the only beneficiary of the expected change in the law. The development, if it comes about, will lead to saving from the gallows nearly 7000 prisoners in Pakistan having been given death sentence by various courts. Saving Sarabjit’s life may also create a climate for the release of many Indians and Pakistanis suffering in each other’s jails for a long time.
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How few of his friends’ houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick. — Samuel Johnson
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The issue of N-tests
ALMOST 10 years ago India tested five nuclear devices and, more important, declared itself a State in possession of nuclear weapons. The decision to weaponise our nuclear programme had, of course, been taken much earlier; the 1998 declaration was a political decision that underlined self-confidence that was based on the country’s economic performance. Though India had broken no law, it was slapped with global sanctions for having conducted the tests. At that time, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee informed Parliament that the “government has already announced that India will now observe a voluntary moratorium and refrain from conducting underground nuclear test explosions. We have also indicated willingness to move towards a de jure formalisation of this declaration.” Later that year, addressing the UN General Assembly, the Prime Minister said “…after concluding this limited testing programme, India announced a voluntary moratorium on further underground nuclear test explosions. We conveyed our willingness to move towards de jure formalisation of this obligation…India has already accepted the basic obligation of the CTBT…We are prepared to bring these discussions (with the US and other interlocutors) to a successful conclusion, so that the entry into force of the CTBT is not delayed beyond September 1999. “We expect that other countries, as indicated in Article XIV of the CTBT, will adhere to this treaty without conditions.” This policy was repeated several times, both by the Prime Minister and the then Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, to both domestic and international audiences. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1996. India had at that time indicated its dissatisfaction with the treaty and had refused to be a party to it on the grounds that it did not take into account its security interests, even though India had been named as one of the countries required to sign it to enable it to come into force. Subsequently, more than 150 countries signed and more than 60 ratified the treaty, which prohibits “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” and which is of unlimited duration. All nuclear-weapon countries recognised by the NPT as such have signed the CTBT and three — Russia, the UK and France — have ratified it. According to the Vienna Convention on Treaties, signature of a treaty automatically binds the signatory to observe the “spirit” of that treaty, unless the State concerned actually withdraws its initial assent — signature from the treaty. Under these circumstances, it is with a sense of bemusement that one read the statement of a political leader that no other country had given up its right to test — in writing, or through a treaty. They have indeed done so; Russia, the UK and France abjured explosive testing for weapon or non-weapon purposes forever when they ratified the CTBT. The US and China are bound by their signatures to the treaty to maintain their moratoria on explosive testing. China has indicated, informally, that it would ratify the CTBT as soon as the US did so; the latter, having pushed the treaty forward under a Democratic administration, was faced with the embarrassment of having the US Senate, then dominated by Republicans, reject it. Nonetheless, the US Congress has withstood pressures from a Republican administration to resile from its voluntary moratorium, even though the current Senate continues to object to a ratification of the treaty. Article XIV of the CTBT names 44 countries whose signatures and ratifications are necessary to bring the treaty into effect; apart from the five countries recognised as nuclear weapons-States by the NPT and the three non-members of the NPT —India, Pakistan and Israel — all other countries are banned from testing by virtue of their being non-nuclear weapon members of the NPT. Of these eight nuclear-weapon countries, all except India and Pakistan have signed the CTBT. Should the forthcoming US elections throw up a Democrat-controlled US Congress, ratification of the CTBT may become a reality, according to the statements of the Democratic candidates for the US Presidency. It would appear that US politics has determined the stand of that country on this international treaty. The issue of testing has arisen in the context of support for or opposition to the by now much-discussed Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. The agreement, of course, does not deal with testing nor with weapon-related issues. Yet, a perusal of the 123 Agreement would make clear that India’s weapons programme has been deliberately left outside the ambit of the agreement, with adequate recognition of its existence. To quote the former National Security Adviser, one of the most perspicacious analysts of India’s security interests, “There is no doubt about it that there is no bar on India undertaking nuclear tests, (though) .. exercising that option means a lot of hardships — economic and otherwise — because sanctions will inevitably follow.” Mr Mishra concludes that India may have to sign the CTBT: “The CTBT is equal for all. There is no discriminatory treatment in it. Which is why if the other 40-odd countries mentioned in the treaty ratify it, India cannot hold back. India will have to sign it and we will have no argument to go against it.” After May 11, 1998, this appreciation is probably accurate.
Politics should not be totally divorced from facts.
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The beads of my rosary
I
was fortunate to have studied in Sanawar during a time when the school had a group of teachers who were true ‘stalwarts’. But even amongst these extraordinary teachers one teacher stood out – there was something special about Mr Trevor Kemp, my chemistry teacher and my housemaster. I was a washed out case in school, not good at either games or studies. This is important because in spite of this Mr Kemp reached out to me. He started a house magazine and encouraged me to write for it. Those first bumbling efforts received acclaim from the other boys – I had found my niche and with it, my self-confidence. I am not one to dwell too deeply on the past and do not have many memories of my schooldays to call upon. Those I have, focus mainly on Mr Kemp. I remember a midnight walk to the graveyard – I remember I was afraid and I remember that he knew that I was afraid, because he said: “Help me down, Harry,” and in the warmth of his hand I lost my fear. After the Board exams in November the school leavers left with the rest of the school. My train was the last to leave and I stood on the platform in Kalka waving to my friends as their train chugged out of the station. Then from the window of the last bogie he stuck out his bald head and called in his deep, well loved voice. “God Bless you Harry,” and was gone. Him too? I was overcome with this loss. I sat down on my haunches, put my head in my hands and wept as if I would never weep again. I never saw him again but I never lost him. At every important moment of my life there would be a letter from him with the same Sanawar and, later, Moradabad, postmark. Year after year these letters came. I would take them out and read them again and again, like a beadsman telling the beads of his rosary. When the fire happened and took away all the accumulations of my life, it also took away the letters. I was bereft. But a week later there was another letter. It condoled my loss and said all the things that are said on such occasions and much more. He told me that I must hold my head high, and not let anyone see how deep my loss had been. The children all looked up to me and they would learn to deal with a crisis by watching the way I dealt with this. He wrote one last letter when Sanawar celebrated it sesquicentenary. He congratulated me on the success of the celebrations and said how proud he was of me. He is gone now and all that I have are these last two letters – but they are enough. I have only to take them out and read them and he is here again besides me to give me comfort and
strength.
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Agriculture market system reform needed ON the scale of human needs, food ranks the highest. Farming is known to be a most difficult occupation. It is rightly said “je khaiti hondi saheli, kar lende julahe teli”. Achieving economic sustainability is
the biggest challenge to small and marginal farmers. Production and marketing of all products, industrial or agricultural, are linked issues. But this principle vis-a-vis agriculture has not been given due consideration and marketing of foodgrains has continued to be quite faulty and outdated. This situation became tricky several years back when the farmers felt harassed due to payment of almost half the MSP of paddy. They are always worried that inclement weather may damage the quality of foodgrains and the procurement agencies may not pay them the MSP, not to speak of attractive price. This is typical case of insensitivity of the authorities in the government. Marketing is considered to be the weakest link in the agriculture development chain. The middlemen (arhatias) continue to flourish while the producer suffers and the consumer does not gain. The farmers have always been fleeced by unscrupulous traders. The small and marginal farmers meet their day-to-day needs from the commission agents and are compelled to sell even their subsistence produce under stress. They start buying back the foodgrains at a higher price and pay a high rate of interest on the fast piling debt. This commercial exploitation is the main reason for the farmers’ perpetual misery. Activation of the State Marketing Boards is the need of the day for replacing the outdated marketing system. To accomplish this, there is a need to establish “Agricultural Development and Marketing Centres” in the villages, say one such centre for 500 hectares of cultivated area. These centres will supplement the existing grain market process and may be fully financed by the Government of India. The headquarters of local functionaries of the centres should also be located there. Additionally, grain yards equipped with sets of different sizes of mechanical graders for grading all sorts of agricultural produce, and spacious stores, should be provided. The graded produce of each farmer should be duly recorded in his name by the incharge of the grading yard. A receipt should be given to him and a copy of the same sent directly to the cooperative bank where the farmers’ saving bank accounts should are maintained. It should be optional for the farmers to sell their whole produce or part of it at that very time, or some time later, when the market rates are higher, by paying storage charges for the intervening period. Establishment of such ‘Marketing and Grain-Yard Centres’ will generate good employment potential in the area as a whole for handling of the produce, working of graders, etc. The Delhi Government is said to be establishing such a centre near Narela. With the replacement of the present marketing system as suggested above and linking the farmers assets and liabilities with the cooperative banks, there will be a build up of huge savings with the cooperative banks. The investment of these savings in industrial pursuits will generate significant capital with these banks, which can be earmarked for starting “Farmers Welfare Fund”. This fund can be utilised for helping the small and marginal farmers in all eventualities. Another big advantage in the proposed marketing system will be that the farmers’ debt problems are apt to be significantly ameliorated. For safeguarding the interest of the farming community, the Central Government had adopted the procedure of fixing the minimum support price of foodgrains. The timing of the declaration of this is, however, erratic. The announcement of wheat price in March when the crop is near harvesting, hardly works as an incentive. It is, therefore, necessary that the MSP be announced for all the kharif crops in the month of January and for Rabi crops in August as a “Forward Price Policy”. It should also cover expenditure on land development, installation of tubewells and water channels, improved tools and implements and also loans for crop production and land lease charges. The Agriculture Economics Section of the CCSHAU, Hisar should work it out precisely. It will enable farmers to plan their cropping strategies well in advance. Secondly, no farmer is attracted to switching over to another crop if the net returns from the latter are not more than that from the existing one. On the basis of past trends, when the production is more, the market price has been going down drastically. Some years ago, there was distress sale of potatoes, onions, sugarcane, cotton and wheat in the season but their prices in the off season went sky high. Postponing the change in declaration time of the MSP is sure to continue aggravating the farmers’ problems. The government should devise genuine ways for improving the Marketing System and Price Policy as suggested here. It should proactively assist and protect farmers’ interests, especially of small and marginal farmers, who are facing financial crisis and whose land holdings are continuously getting fragmented, and thus are too small to be sustainable. The writer is former Director Agriculture, Haryana
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If you want to wag your finger, remove it from the pie… LAST week in Tiananmen Square, I was moved to tears. It was not, I’m afraid, the thought of the thousand or so protesters massacred there 19 years ago that had me wiping away the tiny droplet of salt water unexpectedly trickling down my nose. It was the sight of thousands of people standing in silence to watch the lowering of their national flag. I had expected tourists and tourist tat. Tourists there were, in abundance – groups of giggling teenagers, young couples, families on a day out and coach parties in red baseball caps, some waving little red flags. But if China’s vast manufacturing industry extends to Tiananmen Square snowstorms or T- shirts, there was no sign of it here. You couldn’t even get a postcard. You couldn’t even get a bottle of water. Instead, in this vast space, where Mao held rallies and where people come to do t’ai chi and fly kites, tourists, nearly all Chinese, took photos of each other, and of me, and lined up to watch skinny young soldiers with wasp waists march around a flagpole and take a flag away. Many were smiling. If they weren’t on holiday, they were out for an evening stroll. And watching them, and watching them watch me, I saw something I’d rarely seen in my life – a relaxed expression of national pride. The pride is evident from the moment you arrive at Beijing airport’s new international terminal. Like Tiananmen Square, like the Forbidden City, like the Great Wall, and like China itself, it is gargantuan, a glittering symbol of the new China, teeming with elegantly uniformed staff, all eager to please. Even the immigration desk had a sign saying “You are welcome to comment on my performance” above a buzzer that you could press for the options, from smiley face to frown. In Wangfujing Road, Beijing’s Oxford Street, among the traditional tea shops and the pharmacies selling dried sea horses and knobbly roots, and the McDonald’s and KFCs and Morgans, there are numerous shops bearing the proud slogan,”Beijing 2008 Official Licensed Product Centre” and, everywhere, the mantra “One World, One Dream”. And in front of the vast Wangfujing Bookshop, boasting entire sections devoted to “application for job”, “how to be an eloquent speaker” and “succeed psychology”, as well, of course, as “Party history and party building”, there are display boards with pictures of the Olympic torch, including carefully cropped photos of Konnie Huq and Gordon Brown. “We’re quite supportive of the government right now,” said Sun Ning, director of Platform China, a gallery that opened last year. “We can see people starting to have a good life. When I was a child in the 1970s,” she added, “to eat a banana was the most exciting thing I could imagine.” It’s hard to imagine now. Today in China you can eat anything. You can buy Nike and Rolex and Chanel. (The Chanel concession at my hotel, when it opened, was the highest grossing in the world.) You can watch skylines spring out of paddy fields. You can watch a giant bird’s nest grow before your eyes. And you are damned if you’re going to let countries whose economies are collapsing, countries whose poor people are getting poorer, countries that plundered and doped you in the past, and which are now gagging for your trade, spoil the party. “We tried Communism to equalise,” says an email now circulating among Chinese worldwide. “You hated us for being Communists./ Now we embrace free trade and privatize,/ You berate us for being Mercantilist,/ HALT! You demanded: a billion-three who eat well will destroy the planet!/ So we tried birth control, then You blasted us for human rights abuse.” Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has lifted 350 million people out of poverty. It has overseen the mass metamorphosis of peasants into the world’s biggest middle class. It has performed the world’s biggest economic miracle. You can sort of see the reason for the pride. Of course it’s wrong to oppress the people of Tibet. Of course it’s wrong to imprison people who speak out. Of course it’s wrong to control the press (wrong in Italy, and wrong in China). And of course it’s right to say so. But sometimes if you want to wag your finger, you have to take it out of the pie.
By arrangement with The Independent
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Chatterati INDIAN cities are notoriously reluctant modernisers. Yet, the pressures of massive population increase, including through increased migration, combined with higher expectations, will make city governments dream up projects to make life easier for their citizens. Delhi’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which seems to have become a punching bag for the media, is one such example. Chaos, confusion and criticism have been its main features till now, but clearly the tide is turning. A TV poll gave the media itself proof that consumer reactions were drastically distant from their own hysterical reporting. It is a rare thing for eighty percent of those polled to show support for a project. Given that the BRT will provide links to the metro and is almost one tenth the cost per kilometer, innovations like this will set the direction for other cities to follow. But all this requires bold political will, combined with technical excellence and public cooperation. Shrill negative voices tend to get media play at the moment, but city governments will have to recognise that as the cities grow and modernise, the vast number of citizens are still going to be poor, and will need to have cheap public transportation. This will also allow high pressure urban life to be more tolerable and pleasurable. Rahul’s journeys In a far-flung corner of the country in Uttar Pradesh youngsters and professionals are working day and night to ensure a hassle-free journey for Rahul Gandhi. After joining issue with the authorities of Bundelkhand over the shoddy implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, MP Rahul moves on. His foot soldiers go in first to do all the home work with the help of professionals. There is a pan-Indian flavour as every team has members from different state units. Rahul always has a core team consisting of around six members. They are a multi-task force. The team members shuffle files, jot down opinions from locals and make suggestions about Mr Gandhi’s interactions and how they should be conducted. NSUI guys carry plastic sacks full of T-shirts with NSUI logos. Rahul had refused a ministerial berth in the Manmohan Singh government, insisting that all he wanted to do was rejuvenate the Youth Congress. Kanimozhi’s rise DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi’s daughter, Kanimozhi, is emerging as a power centre in the national capital. She is the most important link between the Tamil Nadu chief minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. So, when Kanimozhi toyed with the idea of mastering Hindi, she was obviously flooded with teachers from all spheres. AICC spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan was the first to propose herself, followed by Supriya Sule, politician-daughter of Sharad Pawar. But she took Sonia Gandhi’s advice to enroll herself in some good Hindi-teaching shop. Kanimozhi is more fluent in Hindi now. In fact, a lot of South Indian MPs are now trying to learn Hindi to be more comfortable in the capital.
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