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Comeback time Media inquest |
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Lessons from oil
Jammu burning, valley simmering
The dream child
Partnership for growth Wind gets second look as energy needs grow Delhi Durbar
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Comeback time There
is no gainsaying the fact that the Congress is in dire need of reorganisation at every level. Well, it has done the exercise in Punjab by removing Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bhattal as the PPCC chief and bringing in former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh as the head of the powerful campaign committee for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. That is a major rehabilitation for the Captain who had been marginalised ever since the Congress suffered a stinging defeat in the state. His comeback is a sign that the high command considers him the right man to counter the Akali aggression in the state. The retaining of Mr Mohinder Singh Kaypee, who has been a minister in his Cabinet, as the working president of the party is another pointer that Capt Amarinder Singh will have considerable say in the selection of Lok Sabha candidates and other related matters during the parliamentary elections. Mrs Bhattal retains her post as Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). She can also take solace in the fact that Capt. Amarinder Singh has not been appointed PCC chief. But the changes will be meaningful only if they bring an end to the continuing battle between Mrs Bhattal and the Captain. The feud has been largely responsible for its decline. The revival of the party will depend on whether they can really bury the past. The rapprochement cannot be limited to the leaders alone but has to seep down to the workers at the ground level. A visibly pleased Captain Amarinder Singh has boasted of winning all 13 Lok Sabha seats for the party. That may be music for the central leaders fighting for every single seat, but it is easier said than done. Indeed, the Congress claimed 11 out of the 13 seats when he was PPCC chief in 1999. But things have changed considerably since then. Now it has to claw its way back from the miserable position of just two seats. That is going to be a long haul by any reckoning. That will be possible if and only if the party learns to function as a single cohesive unit.
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Media inquest THE media is bound to be haunted for a long time by its handling of the Aarushi Talwar murder case. Therefore, even if the case is no longer making headlines in newspapers and on television, criticism of its coverage of the crime is unlikely to die down anytime soon. This is underscored by the Supreme Court’s criticism of the media for acting as a super-investigating agency in the Aarushi Talwar case and for tarnishing the image of the doctor couple who lost their only child. In the course of hearing the “Ghaziabad Judges scam” case, Justice V S Singhvi observed that “irretrievable damage has been done to the couple”, and added, “This is unthinkable in a democracy”. The remarks should make the media, particularly television channels, revisit their conduct in the immediate aftermath of the murder. Television channels, driven by peer pressure and competition for ratings, tend to present the news in as dramatic a manner as possible. More often than not, it exceeds the limits of drama and sensationalises news, especially crime reports. Inevitably, in this preoccupation, media ignores the sensibilities of those affected by the tragedy and is unmindful of the feelings and reputations that might be hurt in the process. The competition between television channels is so ugly and inhuman that nothing is considered too low to score over rivals. In the Aarushi murder case, there were crude attempts to “reconstruct” the murder as in the manner of a reality show. Time was when the courts had to guard against “trial by media”. In the age of television, now there is “investigation by media” with competing channels coming up with their own versions and trying to prove or disprove the findings of official investigations. Far from aiding the investigation in anyway, this ends up not only thwarting the due process but also causing avoidable damage to the reputations of the people involved. It is not the media’s job to intrude into crime investigation. The sooner it exercises self-restraint the better it will be to avoid external regulatory interventions.
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Lessons from oil INDIAN Oil Corporation’s first-quarter net profit has dipped 71 per cent and it has just escaped slipping into the red. The company suffers a daily loss of Rs 413 crore. Since it has no money to buy gas cylinders, it has stopped issuing fresh cooking gas connections. Two lakh applicants are already in the queue which has been growing day by day. The plight of the other two government firms — BPCL and HPCL — is no better. This is because of the wide gap between the purchase and sale prices of petroleum products. Even after the hefty price hike on June 4, each company still loses Rs 14.2 a litre on petrol, Rs 24.90 on diesel, Rs 38.09 on kerosene and Rs 338.53 on each LPG cylinder. The government’s oil subsidy in the 2007-08 budget stood at Rs 11,257 crore. Add to this the subsidies on food and fertilizers, the farm loan waiver and the proposed pay hikes for the Central and state staff, the country’s financial mess is bound to deepen. No matter which party is in power, every government’s first priority is to keep the electorate happy, especially ahead of elections, even at the cost of the exchequer. Given the leaky, malfunctioning and corruption-riddled delivery system, subsidies are largely swallowed up before they reach the needy. Subsidised kerosene is used for adulteration and cheap diesel has attracted luxury car-makers. First, the government, through cheaper fossil fuels, encourages environmental pollution, then spends more to control it. As public health suffers, the health budget shoots up. What is more, it heavily subsidises as well as taxes oil. Besides, be it the subsidised oil, food or power, people tend to waste what is easily and cheaply available. A panel on fuel subsidies appointed by the Prime Minister has suggested a “frequent, but modest increase” in retail prices. The West has accused India and China of financing oil splurge. China, at least, is trying to match domestic prices with global rates in a bid to temper consumption and pursue greener economic growth.
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I’ll not listen to reason... Reason always means what someone else has got to say. —Elizabeth Gaskell
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Jammu burning, valley simmering
For
over five weeks at the time of writing, Jammu has been burning day after day. Instead of being doused, the fire has been allowed to spread across the whole province. The fury of the agitation, based obviously on the pent-up anger against “step-motherly treatment” by the valley-dominated state governments, is so great that neither the imposition of curfew, nor police firing, nor even the calling out of the Army has stemmed the mindless march of violence and arson. Inevitably, there is steadily escalating reaction in the Kashmir valley. The belated all-party conference called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has produced an unexceptionable resolution, appealing for peace and overcoming the Jammu-Kashmir divide, but has offered no concrete solution. One can only hope that the all-party delegation to the inflamed areas might help, and that Jammu’s Sangharsh Samiti would agree to negotiate with a committee nominated by state Governor N.N. Vohra. It is only fair that during the talks the agitation should be suspended. Whether that would happen remains to be seen. But on one score the governments in both New Delhi and Srinagar, indeed the entire Indian state, must be called to account in the prolonged “blockade” of the national highway that connects Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India. Sure enough, such disruptions have taken place elsewhere, such as by the Gujjars of Rajasthan or the hill-folk in Darjeeling. But the difference between those places and the most sensitive of the Indian states, constantly under military and militant pressure from across the Line of Control (LoC), cannot be lost on even the meanest intelligence. Yet no one seemed to care, not even after the Supreme Court had rebuked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, and Union Minister T. R. Baalu, for unlawfully enforcing a statewide bandh. Strangely, the highway folly in J & K, with all its dangerous consequences, was the handiwork of not only the Jammu agitators and their supporters in neighbouring areas. In Punjab, a BJP minister in the Akali-led coalition government was busy “enforcing” it in violation of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s assurances to the contrary to Governor Vohra. Fruit-growers of Kashmir wanting to take their perishable produce to Muzzafarabad and beyond were persuaded to be patient. But the separatists anxious to exploit the situation have since reissued the threat with greater vigour. In any case, no one spares a thought for the people beyond Banihal suffering because of disruption of supplies. And has it occurred to the morons “celebrating” the blockade as to what would happen to the supply line of the Indian Army that is gallantly defending the country against overt and covert challenges from across the border? Pakistan’s army and the ISI must have having a hearty laugh? Come to think of it, the trivial nature of the Amarnath land row that has caused the present upheaval is obvious. A small area of forest wasteland was only allotted to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB). Its ownership was not transferred to anyone. Moreover, the land was to be used only for temporary shelters for pilgrims during the two-month pilgrimage period. Curiously, the People’s Democratic Party ministers in the Congress-led coalition who passed the order themselves revolted against it, and joined the mobs that were shouting that the land transfer would “change Kashmir’s demography”. The minimum demand of the Jammu agitators, backed by BJP president Rajnath Singh, is that the original land allotment should be restored. If accepted, this might create Jammu-like havoc in the valley. Under the circumstances, the best course would be to accept the compromise formula proposed by Dr Farooq Abdullah, patron of the National Conference and a former Chief Minister, that instead of being allotted to anyone, the land in question be “made available” to the pilgrims during the two months of Amarnath yatra. That, however, would only avert the current mayhem, not solve the underlying problem of both communalisation of the issue in dispute and the escalation of the regional hostility between the two main regions of the state. Some stray remarks at the all-party conference underscore this. For instance, Dr Abdullah said that he would have to go to the grave of his father, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, to ask whether it was wise to keep Kashmir with India in 1947. He added that some day he “might need a visa to visit Jammu”. On the other hand, BJP leader Arun Jaitley stated that “Kashmir’s psyche” having been invoked in the past, it was time to pay heed to “Jammu’s psyche”. It also needs to be stressed that quite apart from what political leaders and activists have been saying, the media has contributed its mite to the mounting and catastrophic conflict. A full-page newspaper article under the screaming headline, “Hindu Intifada”, is a case in point. Some other articles have blandly declared that the struggle of the Hindus of Jammu was an “apt riposte to jihadi terrorism”. It is good that 10 members of the SASB have resigned to facilitate its reconstitution. But that is not enough. The law that made the Kashmir Governor head of the board (provided, of course, that he or she were a Hindu!) was bad. It should be repealed forthwith. The same fate should visit the similar law about Waqf properties that makes the Chief Minister the head of Waqf Board, the assumption being that he or she would always be a Muslim. Governments, Central and state must never mess around with religious bodies. The tragedy that we are witnessing in Jammu and Kashmir is in many ways the result of the consistent and persistent mishandling of the state and its myriad problems over the last six decades by successive Central governments. But there is one essential difference between the present situation and those in the past. Then it was broadly true that happenings within the sensitive state remained confined within it, and had little impact elsewhere in the country. That clearly is not the case this time around. One glimmer of hope at the otherwise contentious all-party conference on Wednesday was that all concerned showed some flexibility in their partisan positions. But a national consensus is still a distant dream. Without beating about the bush, the reason for this is that the level of mutual hatred between the Congress, the core of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, and the BJP, the principal opposition party, continues to be dangerously
high.
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The dream child
Will you go to the Residency?” His voice was tentative, his eyebrow arched and there was as much challenge as enquiry in his voice. We had been at the university together, and he had been friends to both of us. Now, 42 years later I had just finished conducting a workshop at his school. When he put his car at my disposal to revisit whatever landmarks of that long distant past I might want to, he was unable to resist thatreference to a situation he had, till now, studiously avoided. Long and many were the days N — and I had spent in the quiet serene atmosphere of the Residency. We had shared the hopes and aspirations that all young couples share, woven the dreams for the future that all young couples weave. We would have a son and a daughter. The daughter would look like me and bear her name while the son would look like her and be named after me. And then, as it happens, in many young couples lives, we had realised that we were not really in love: only in love with the idea of being in love.
We had drifted apart, drifted away from Lucknow and the memory of our togetherness and the memory of the Residency had been lost in the mists of time. Now here I was again, in Lucknow and my host, had asked this question. I felt no churning of the heart, no stirring of memory and I shrugged my shoulders and said “Yes, I will go to the Residency.” It had changed, the way it was bound to change. There were many more people, more noise, more movement. The ambience of calm and peace that I
remembered was missing and this prevented, even if I had been so inclined, my giving way to any nostalgic reveries. I stopped to drink water at a tap. There was a child ahead of me, and when he stooped and cupped his hand to drink, the past did at last catch up
with me. He had her aquiline Parsi nose, her pale complexion and, yes, even the soft brown hair that fell across his face and which he pushed back impatiently when he finished drinking. He turned and smiled at me. “What’s your name?” I asked “Harish”, he said, with something akin to pride in his voice. I know time doesn’t ever stop, but it did seem then to have stopped. What might have been became, for a moment, what is. “How often have I told you not to talk to strangers!” A shrill voice called me back to reality and, with one quick backward glance one flash of that once familiar smile, he ran towards the lady, who was obviously his mother. The moment passed. I had my drink of water and turned away, smiling sadly with the knowledge, that in a little time, this image too would be consigned to the shelves of dusty memory and, perhaps, like so much else, be
forgotten.
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Partnership for growth The
"partnership for growth for our people" was the theme for the 15th SAARC Summit during August 2-3 in Colombo. The declaration issued at the concluding session on August 3 strongly underscored the people-centric approach and focus of SAARC despite tremendous pressures for aligning with a handful of powerful global entities and TINA (there is no alternative) concepts. The tyrannical obsession with "internationally competitive cost effectiveness" for attaining economic growth has been termed as development terrorism. Therefore, the economic logic of the SAARC declaration indicates that unless opportunities for livelihood security and productive employment are expanded in partnership with people, all economic growth becomes meaningless to the teeming millions of poor. This is indeed a welcome and unique departure for any final declaration by a regional economic integration and cooperation bloc in the globalisation era. The usual and standard practice in such a declaration has been to concentrate on trade-related issues like openness, market access, competitiveness, etc. The Colombo declaration makes do with mere four paragraphs on this count. The EU is considered as the oldest regional economic integration model in the world. SAARC most surely has adopted a different people-centric approach. Certainly, it is a vindication of the stand that economic growth, to be meaningful and sustainable, has to benefit the people at large. There are 41 paras in the declaration. Take out four that are salutation protocol and administrative requirements. Of the remaining 37, nearly two-fifth (15 paras) under 9 broad heads repeatedly highlighted partnership with people for development. Interestingly, poverty alleviation occupies the maximum number of paras in this people-centric partnership theme song. The "partnership for growth for our people" is not a new thing for SAARC. It was in 2005 that the decade 2006-2015 was declared as the "SAARC decade of poverty alleviation". Besides, the advocacy group, Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation (ISACPA), worked out details of the SAARC Development Goals (SDGs) on the lines of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is estimated that over three-fourth of South Asians live on less than PPP (purchasing power parity) US$ 2 per person per day. The Arjun Sengupta Committee estimated that in 2004-05 about 76.8 per cent (836 million) of the Indian total population is poor and vulnerable with a level of consumption not more than twice the official poverty line. In fact, another study in early 2008 incorporating estimated consumption expenditure on health and education shows that nearly 36.4 per cent in rural and 34.5 per cent in urban areas would fall below the poverty line in 2004-05 as against the official estimate of 28.3 per cent in rural and 26.03 per cent in urban India. These numbers unequivocally indicate that the South Asian poor are unusually defenceless to market-determined growth elements The 22 SDGs with about 75 monitoring targets have been organised into four broad deliverable windows, namely, livelihood, educational, health and environmental opportunities. The social re-engineering exhortations in the Colombo declaration are explicitly articulated in nearly every four out of five paragraphs. Social regression has emerged as the obverse side of the coin of economic progress. It is indeed heartening to note that many fundamental weaknesses inhibiting the fight against the scourge of poverty will be under a microscopic examination by the inter-governmental mid-term review mechanism of SDGs by 2009 (para 17). The unwavering commitment to implement SDGs by the state as a proactive leader is also demonstrated in the signing of the Charter of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF). The stellar role for the state cannot be disputed but the refrain in the declaration is 'peoples participation', 'rights-based approach', 'right to resources and development', etc. are not merely of ornamental significance in the declaration. It is amply evident from the experience of SAARC member nations that public service delivery mechanisms, once effective, perform income distributive role when local democratic institutions and operating procedures are people determined. The NREGS in India, for instance, is the most successful rights-based programme. Despite criticism it has succeeded in addressing a number of rural wage rate rigidities. In comparison, the fight against terrorism seems to suffer from a fundamental flaw of over-regulation through statutory provisioning. The series of bomb blasts for over a decade in India have taught an unforgettable lesson in the key role for "human intelligence". It appears that evocative lexicon in policing parlance like "rightsizing", "downsizing" and "outsourcing" has had overwhelming influence on the drafting backroom boys/girls. The "rightsizing" disorder, according to the South Asian Intelligence Review 7.3, has brought in a strange spectacle of an average deficit of 9.75 per cent against sanctioned posts in India. In fact, many vulnerable states in India show a deficit of up to 40 per cent. The recommended global ratio for peacetime policing is at least 222 per lakh population. Certainly, combating terrorism is not a peacetime policing. However, SAARC is resting on a firmer foundation as elaborated by the Indian Prime Minister: "Economic cooperation, connectivity and integration will be the cornerstone of SAARC in the years ahead". The writer heads the Strategic Economic Management Initiative in Governance, Delhi.
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Wind gets second look as energy needs grow Miles of mountain ridges hugging the state's western border could hold the key to Virginia's search for alternative energy sources. That is where developers are looking to build more than 100 wind turbines taller than the Statue of Liberty, side by side, on 18 miles of the George Washington National Forest. FreedomWorks, a company with projects in four states, wants to generate electricity for the power-hungry Washington area and beyond, despite concerns about disturbing wildlife, spoiling untouched lands and creating noise and light pollution. As the United States searches for ways to lessen its dependency on foreign oil, wind energy is getting a second look in states such as Virginia that had not embraced it. The national push, along with new state financial incentives for renewable energy, has prompted more interest in wind turbines in Virginia. "Wind is catching fire," said Preston Bryant, Virginia's secretary of natural resources. "It is literally all the rage." Virginia is one of a dozen states, most of them in the Southeast, with no wind farms. But that might change this year. The State Corporation Commission has approved a request by another company to build 19 turbines in remote, mountainous Highland County, known as Virginia's Switzerland. That is expected to produce enough electricity to power 15,000 homes in the mid-Atlantic. Construction is expected to begin this year. Two smaller projects would power Tangier and Wallops islands off the Virginia coast. And Dominion Virginia Power, the largest energy provider in the state, with 2.3 million customers, is working with BP Alternative Energy North America to build and operate wind farms in Virginia. No locations have been announced. "There is a lot of really good opportunity in Virginia," said Frank Maisano, a lobbyist for 13 wind developers in the mid-Atlantic states, including Virginia and Maryland. But the new push for wind energy in Virginia has highlighted a conflict within the environmental community. Some groups, which have long clamored for more renewable energy sources and encouraged wind power instead of a new coal-burning power plant in southwest Virginia, oppose the FreedomWorks project, the largest wind proposal in the state, because of the potential harm to plants and animals. "We are strong advocates for renewable energy and wind energy," said Glen Besa, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club. "But we would like to see it developed responsibly." Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, one of the few groups that supports the FreedomWorks project, said the problem in Virginia is that by the time developers came, their opponents were well-organized. But, Tidwell said, he thinks opponents in Virginia will change their minds about wind energy when they see a wind farm for themselves and that it is harmless. "Acceptance will grow," he said. More than half of Virginia's energy comes from coal, a third from nuclear and a small amount from gas, oil and other sources. The state's energy needs are expected to grow by about 1 million homes in the next decade. Last year, Gov. Timothy Kaine presented a plan that calls for in-state energy production, including wind, to increase 20 percent. Some experts have estimated that wind energy in Virginia, on land and offshore, has the potential to produce as much as 20 percent of the state's electric needs. Today, wind power generates enough electricity in 34 states to power 5 million homes — slightly more than 1 percent of the U.S. electric supply, according to the American Wind Energy Association in Washington. Maryland officials have approved one wind farm and are considering two others in the western part of the state. None of the projects has been built. "It's no longer an alternative energy source," said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. "It's mainstream." In May, the U.S. Energy Department released a first-of-its kind report that calls for the country to generate 20 percent of its electricity through wind power by 2030. That national push, combined with state incentives, has fueled the flurry of activity in Virginia. Last year, when the General Assembly rewrote the complex laws that govern Virginia's power companies, legislators set a goal that 12 percent of the energy generated in the state come from renewable resources by 2022. The legislation includes financial incentives for power companies that allow them to raise rates by a half-percent if they meet one of the goals. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav have more than their surname in common: each has a Man Friday. Thus, if Amar Singh enjoys the confidence of Mulayam Singh, Lalu has his Prem Chand Gupta. Lalu did not think twice before renominating Prem Gupta to the Upper House. Prem Gupta enjoys a Cabinet rank in the UPA government and is almost always there in the train of followers behind Lalu Yadav, whenever he is seen in public. However, when the RJD leader wants to send out a political message to his constituency, Prem Gupta is immediately dropped. Instead, one finds Jaiprakash Narain Yadav, Anwarul Haque or Raghuvansh Prasad Singh standing beside Lalu Yadav. This was evident at Paswan’s lunch where all three met after nearly 20 years. Prem Gupta was conspicuous by his absence. Ready for Beijing The Olympic fever is in the air and everybody, especially the Capital’s babus, are finding ways of getting to Beijing. Not to be left out of this race, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) has also made a strong case for sending two of its officers for the Beijing Olympics. It has been argued that the visit will expose the PIB officials to the media management skills of the Olympic organisers. A proposal was framed after the Government of India recently assigned the role of media manager to the PIB for both the Commonwealth Youth Games to be held in Pune this October and the Commonwealth Games, 2010. An estimated 4,000 journalists are expected to cover the 2010 games and the PIB thinks it needs the required expertise to handle them. The PIB actually wanted to send three officers but decided to drop one considering the UPA government’s stress on “economy measures in these inflationary times”. Azad vs Soz It is well known in the Capital’s political circles that Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and Saifuddin Soz, Congress J&K Pradesh president, are not exactly on the best of terms. Although the two leaders take care to exchange pleasantries in public, there are occasions when the mask slips and they start sniping at each other. This is exactly what happened when the two leaders were called for a briefing on the current volatile situation in Jammu by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Azad was predictably on his defensive best as he clarified his government’s role in the Amarnath shrine land transfer issue. But not for long. The senior Congress leader was quick to retaliate as Soz blamed Azad for his ham-handed handling of this sensitive issue. Had it not been for Sonia Gandhi’s presence, the sparring may have taken a turn for the worse. Contributed by Faraz Ahmad, Aditi Tandon and Anita Katyal
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