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Clinching N-deal
Tata’s ultimatum |
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Olympic-size excellence
Clash of identities
Pulling a superfast one
Olympic medals Cost of living in wrong
location
Chatterati
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Clinching N-deal
THE Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) unexpectedly failed to clear the India-US nuclear deal during its two-day session that ended in Vienna on Friday. The NSG has a unique system of reaching decisions through consensus. But this could not be done because some members wanted to introduce changes in the US-prepared draft waiver for clearing their doubts about India’s intentions.
These sceptics insist that the NSG clearance for the deal should have a caveat that in case India conducts a nuclear test in the future the permission for nuclear trade with New Delhi will stand withdrawn. The NSG will hold another meeting on September 4 and 5 and strive to secure a consensus. This is, no doubt, a disappointing development for both New Delhi and Washington.
But, hopefully, a way can be found to overcome the problem created by the sceptics. As Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon pointed out after the Vienna meeting, no NSG member was in principle opposed to India getting an exemption for nuclear commerce. There has been a “narrowing of differences” over the issue during the Vienna meeting. Under the 2005 joint statement signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George Bush, it is the responsibility of the US to ensure that the NSG clears the nuclear deal so that it can go to the US Congress for its final approval. India’s role virtually ended with the signing of the safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA). India has fulfilled all the commitments it had made to make it reach the stage of operationalisation. The US must convince the countries on the fence that the questions they have raised have no relevance as India has been observing a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear tests. Their doubts ought to be dispelled by a look at India’s record as a responsible nuclear-weapon state. It is now the responsibility of the US to make these countries clear the deal. Asking India to agree to some changes in the draft waiver to humour a few NSG members, as US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher has hinted at, will be unfair at this stage. The draft has been finalised after tough and lengthy negotiations. It is for the US to bring the sceptics round to the view that limiting the scope of civilian nuclear cooperation between Washington and New Delhi, as is their intention, is against the very spirit of the agreement. |
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Tata’s ultimatum
Ratan Tata is not known for giving threats. After months of protests and violence, if he has declared that Tata Motors will move out of Singur if the situation does not improve it is because the factory cannot be run under prevailing conditions. It is the Tata Motors’ factory that is threatened and Mr Tata is rightly concerned about the safety of his employees, their families and the factory.
And, when Mr Tata says that the project may be moved out of West Bengal, then, regardless of the cost, he can be trusted to do it. If that happens, West Bengal would not only lose its showcase industrial project which had caught global attention for aiming to produce the world’s cheapest car, but also find itself on the domestic and global blacklist for private investment. The issue at stake is not just whether the owners get reasonable compensation for the land the state has acquired. The issue is also not limited to whether the state can forcibly acquire agricultural land for facilitating an industrial project. That is for the Supreme Court to decide. The issue now is whether West Bengal wants industry, investment, employment and growth or remain deprived of these. The message that the Tatas’ exit would send is not something anyone interested in the economic development of West Bengal would like to endorse. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, admittedly, couldn’t care less about the state’s economic compulsions. She is far too involved in seeking political mileage and, consequently, indifferent to the larger implications of her opposition to the But why has a seasoned politician like Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee allowed himself to become a mute spectator? He seems to have abandoned the Singur cauldron after initially burning his fingers. The state government has a responsibility to enforce the rule of law without allowing atrocities to be committed by party cadres. Equally, it has a responsibility to ensure that the Tata venture is not driven out by political threats. The people of the state have to come forward to rid the state of politicians who revel more in opposing projects that promise development. If the Tatas leave, Tata Motors would suffer a heavy loss, which it could soon recoup. But the loss to West Bengal and its people would be irreparable. |
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Olympic-size excellence
THE curtain has finally come down on arguably the world’s most spectacular show in Beijing, which the Olympic Association of Asia has described as the “most outstanding and friendliest Games”. The Chinese indeed did not spare any effort to make it so, even if that involved putting in place a suffocating but effective security net. But once the images of the grand spectacle have faded what will remain etched in public memory are some outstanding performances.
Among the individuals, the feats of Michael Phelps’ eight-gold haul in the pool and Usain Bolt’s golden treble on the track are the stuff of legends. Lucky are the people who got to see them in action, because such excellence takes place but once in a lifetime. In terms of nations, the Beijing Olympics was the story of the rise and rise of China, which has not only overtaken the US in the medals tally but has also left it, and all others, way behind. In other words, it is not only the superpower in economic growth but in sports too. This has been India’s most successful Olympic outing ever, with one gold and two bronze medals. More important, the jinx has been broken and if all goes well, the 2012 London Olympics may see us going one up on our record. The failure to qualify in hockey continues to rankle, and a turnaround may take place there as well, now that we have hit rock bottom. As has been said time and again, India has an abundance of talent. The recent triumphs will perhaps galvanise the sports authorities into nurturing at least some world beaters in times to come. India went to China with a big contingent of participants, office-bearers and the media. One hopes that the exposure which they have received will come in handy not only in improving their performance but also in preparing them for holding the Commonwealth Games in a befitting manner. Doordarshan, too, should have learnt a trick or two about covering such mega events. If all of them have learnt valuable lessons, then the gap between us and our neighbour on various aspects of performance can be narrowed down in the not-too-distant future. |
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From the troubles of the world/ I turn to ducks/ Beautiful comical things.
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Clash of identities
Nine-day
mass upsurge in the Kashmir valley towards the end of June last and an equally massive march towards Muzaffarabad across the LoC of fruit growers, supported by the Hurriyat parties, some mainstream leaders and a large number of common people on August 11 are reminiscent of mass insurgency in 1990 when militancy began in the state, with a vital difference. The militancy in 1990 had the active involvement of the Pakistan government, in particular the ISI, which gave the militants arms and training. This time the Pakistan government, political leaders and the media remained completely indifferent to what was happening in Kashmir till August 11 when 21 persons were killed in police firing. The movement this time had started against the government order to transfer 800 kanals of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board headed by the Governor on the suspicion, of course exaggerated, that it might be misused.
It provided an outlet to alienation in Kashmir after the outlet of militancy and the separatist movement had declined. As soon as the order to transfer the land to the Shrine Board was revoked and calm was restored in the valley, on July 1, it created a similar massive unprecedented reaction in Jammu in which the Congress and many groups which call themselves secular also joined apart from the Sangh parivar, which had initially combined to form the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Sangharsh
Samiti. Though the movement started with the demand for the return of the land to the Shrine Board, it gathered momentum with the common refrain that Jammu had been discriminated against by the Kashmiri leaders who have ruled most of the time for the last 60 years. The ire of the Jammu movement is directed not against Pakistan or the separatist parties of Kashmir, but mainstream Kashmiri leaders. The Sangharsh Samiti objected to the presence of Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Mr Saif-ud-Din Soz at the all-party delegation sent by the Prime Minister to Jammu. It forced them to leave Jammu before they agreed to participate in a meeting with the delegation. Thus, it is essentially the clash between the identities of the two main regions of the state. As Kashmiris feel a threat to their identity, they tend to seek an outlet in the secessionist slogan or religious revivalism. As the reports of economic blockade of Kashmir by Jammu agitationists spread in the valley, the call for a march to Muzaffarabad across the LoC on August 11 with massive popular support again provided an outlet to slogans of Azadi. In Jammu, communal, ultra-nationalist slogans like full integration of the state with India and a separate Jammu state have reflected the main outlet of regional discontent.
There was a time when after meeting the leaders of the two regions, I found that a via media on the land transfer issue could be worked out. But, firstly, the situation in both regions has gone out of control of the leaders. Secondly, it may be easier to deal with the immediate issue if it is done with an assurance that the long-term problem of a threat to the identity of the two regions would also be discussed. Thirdly, even if the Shrine Board controversy is resolved, the simmering volcano of regional tensions might seek even more dangerous outlets. Some exercises to ensure internal harmony in the state have been made in the past. In 1952 when Pandit Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah were discussing safeguards for the state within India, I was able to persuade both of them to ensure similar safeguards for the regions within the state. Both declared at a joint Press conference on July 24, 1952, that the constitution of the state would provide for regional autonomy. Though initially the Bharatiya Jana Sangh opposed the Delhi Agreement, which guaranteed autonomy to the state, and started an agitation against it through its Jammu affiliate, Praja Parishad, after prolonged correspondence with Pandit Nehru, the founder-president of the Sangh, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukerjee, in his letter dated February 17, 1953, offered to withdraw the agitation and support the Delhi Agreement provided “the principle of autonomy will apply to province of Jammu and to Ladakh and Kashmir Valley”. A 45-page draft document on the provisions of regional autonomy was sent by the state government to Durga Dass Verma, the underground leader of the Praja Parishad who approved it. On July 2 Parishad leaders were released and invited to meet Pandit Nehru on July 3 where they agreed to withdraw the agitation on the terms Mukerjee had suggested. The proposal was also supported by Sarvodya leader Jayaprakash Narayan, leftist parties and the socialist groups.
The state People’s Convention, convened by Sheikh Abdullah in 1968 and attended by 300 delegations of the entire political spectrum of the valley, unanimously accepted my draft on internal constitutional set-up of the state which provided for autonomy to the regions and further devolution of power to districts, blocks and panchayats. In my report, as head of the Regional Autonomy Committee, appointed by the then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, I elaborated the same proposal after discussions with each and every section of the state and consultations with leading political and financial experts of the country. The report suggested division of subjects between the state and the regions. The latter would have legislative, political and administrative powers on subjects delegated to them. The lower tiers were to be empowered more or less on the pattern of Panchayati raj in the rest of India. The report also dealt with cultural safeguards for all ethnic communities. For financial allocation to various levels, an objective and equitable eight-point formula was suggested which included population, area, road mileage in proportion to the area, female literacy, infant mortality, share in government jobs as the percentage of population, admission to technical institutions as the percentage of population and contribution to the state exchequer. This blueprint could be the basis for a wider debate to arrive at a consensus. In any case, the present over-centralised system would continue to generate suspicion in one region against the other and is not conducive to solving even short-term problems. Already an agitation has started in both regions. While the Jammu agitation slogans seek an end to discrimination, the revived Kashmir agitation has the usual slogans of the separatists. Nowhere the land to the Shrine Board has remained the main or the only
issue. The writer is Director, Institute of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, Jammu. |
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Pulling a superfast one
THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Lok Sabha has severely castigated the Railway Ministry for collecting a “superfast surcharge” even from passengers travelling on trains moving at a leisurely, snail-like 15 km an hour and has called it a “reprehensible” and “indefensible” practice.
A senior official of the ministry has been filling in newsmen about the “superfast surcharge”. “We regret very much that an august parliamentary body like the PAC should have passed adverse strictures against the superfast surcharge without examining the issue from all anagles and in its entirety. We’ve recently introduced several new passenger trains and we can make out a strong and convincing case for levying a surcharge because everything connected with these trains is superfast.” Continuing his media interaction, the railway ministry official said: “When beggars and mendicants, petty thieves, luggage-lifters and pickpockets and other anti-social elements board reserved AC and first class sleeper coaches, bodily evict “bona fide” passengers and brazenly occupy seats and sleeper berths and the victimised passengers call out to the Travelling Ticket Examiners and Coach Attendants for immediate help, the railway staff, sensing trouble and wanting to avoid unpleasantness at all costs, will do the disappearing act in 10 seconds flat. Aren’t the railway, therefore, justified in collecting a surcharge seeing the superfast speed with which our staff vanish into the thin air?” “We’ve recently introduced several new superfast express trains which pass thru’ Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh and it’s safe bet that armed and dangerous dacoit gangs will board the compartments at midnight and rob the passengers of cash, jewellery and other valuables at knife point and when the terrified passengers cry out for assistance, the Railway Protection Force constables travelling in the brake van will jump off the train and disappear into the darkness in exactly 5 seconds and even by world standards, this is a superfast timing and this is just one reason why we’re collecting a surcharge.” “Railways are committed to providing all reasonable amenities to the travelling |
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Olympic medals
AS China has piled on the Olympic gold medals, it is justifiably proud of its accomplishments. National glory is great. But for Chinese athletes, who have slaved away in sports camps for most of their lives, the monetary payoff isn’t such a bad thing either.
Communism? What’s that? China’s medal winners will be the best rewarded in the history of Chinese sports as celebrity culture and commercialisation strengthen their grip on the country. China, much like other countries, has embraced the practice of rewarding its most successful Olympians beyond the medal stand. Every Chinese athlete who brings home gold is guaranteed at least $51,500 from the central government, nearly double what their counterparts received at the 2004 games. And, by the way, that’s all tax free. The athletes also stand to enjoy substantial paydays from provincial and local governments bursting with pride over their native sons and daughters. Often off the books, these sums can dwarf the proceeds from Beijing.
Various corporations have jumped into the act, including Beijing-based Yanjing Beer Co. The beer company is offering $146,000 for each gold medalist in the 32 water sports events, $70,000 for each silver and $28,000 for each bronze. That’s a great leap forward compared with a few decades ago when Chinese athletes were expected to be content with their daily wages and their patriotism. China’s first gold medalist, Xu Haifeng, who won in 1984 in a shooting event, was awarded a $2,600 bonus.
“In the old days, they just gave you a plaque,” said Wei Hanfeng, executive editor of Sports Illustrated China. “Now Chinese gold medalists walk away with more than many athletes in developed countries.” Still not satisfied? How about the kilogram of gold and $80,000 in cash offered by a China foundation, which might assuage winners who discover their “gold” medal is actually gold plated.
Add it up and Chinese gold medal winners can expect to pocket an estimated $300,000 on average. That amounts to more than 100 years worth of wages for the average Chinese city dweller and 300 years for rural residents. U.S. gold medalists, by comparison, receive about $25,000 from the U.S. Olympic Committee. Those who become media darlings can make major bucks, of course.
Prohibitions against paying Olympic athletes were lifted in the 1980s by the International Olympic Committee. Despite his leg injury, hurdler and 2004 gold medalist Liu Xiang is expected to keep most of his endorsement deals, which amounted to more than $20 million last year from Cadillac, Coca-Cola, Nike, Visa and more than a dozen Chinese companies.
And if you’re the first Chinese gold medalist, considered a sign of good luck in Chinese culture, the payoff could be huge. That honor this time went to female weightlifter Chen Xiexia. The National Sports Administration, local government and the foundation each are expected to give her $150,000 and sponsors are expected to provide $1 million more, plus houses and cars.
Winners also might receive apartments, government jobs, cars and instant admission to university. A lifetime pension from the central government is under
consideration. Last week, when Qiu Jian unexpectedly won a gold medal in the men’s 50-meter rifle competition his wife exclaimed: “We can pay our mortgage in advance!”
Many athletes insist all the money won’t erode their discipline. “The money is a bonus,” said Zhang Guozheng, a 2004 gold medal winner in weight lifting. “But it’s the spirit and prestige that matter.”
Whatever the incentive, other nations this year have shown a willingness to increase the prizes available to successful athletes. At the start of the games, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a doubling of rewards to $150,000, $90,000 and $60,000 for his nation’s gold, silver and bronze winners, respectively. In Germany, gold medal winners are entitled to 50 liters of beer per month, while in Belarus gold medalists get, among other things, a lifetime’s worth of free sausages.
India, which like China has more than 1 billion people, has much less in the way of gold medals. The country is offering its first solo Olympic gold medal winner, shooter Abhinav Bindra, a doubling of his pension and a lifetime go-anywhere free pass on first-class, air-conditioned Indian trains. Other nations name streets after their medal winners, exempt them from military service and issue stamps in their honor.
Mongolia last week gave judo star Tuvshinbayar Naidan, its first-ever gold medal winner, the telephone number 9999-9999. That’s considered a lucky number on the steppe. North Korea does it the way China used to. No big monetary reward, but the knowledge that you’re due for special medals, such as the “Hard-working Hero” award. China’s system of rewarding medal winners financially was just getting started in the mid-1980s when Susan Brownell competed in the heptathlon as a student at the Beijing Sports University. But Chinese academics were considering how best to motivate athletes, said Brownell, a the professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Many of today’s rewards follow on their research. Ranked in order of importance, the incentives were: money and bonuses, the chance to go to university, the chance to eat well, still a factor in some rural areas, and patriotism. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Cost of living in wrong location
FROM the value of our homes to the price of a pint at the local pub, we all know that where we live affects our living costs. But your postcode can also affect This, they claim, makes the assessment of risk more accurate, and premiums cheaper for everyone, but if you don’t fit the profile or you fall on the boundary you could end up paying thousands of pounds more for the same products and services. The theory goes that the more affluent you and your neighbourhood are, the longer you live. Glaswegians, for example, have an average life expectancy in their early sixties, while people living in Surrey will on average live well into their eighties.
But the longer you live, the more expensive your pension is for the insurance company paying your income in retirement, as it will be paying out for longer. And in recent years, some insurance companies have started taking account of customers’ postcodes when deciding what annuity rate to pay them. It makes sense that if your house gets flooded every year, your home insurance will be pricey. The same goes for the risk of subsidence, or areas with high crime rates. But experts warn that insurers are pushing up the premiums for ‘at risk’ areas and if your property or car is in that area, your insurance premiums will be high, regardless of whether your own individual circumstances fit that assessment or not. But simply living on or over the border of two areas could mean a significant difference to your insurance costs. And you may be a very careful driver, but if the motorists around you are not, your premiums are still likely to be higher than average. Those living in East London, with a postcode starting with the letter E, for example, will pay an average of £315 for their car insurance a year, almost £200 more than those in Dundee with a DD postcode, whose motor cover will typically only set them back £116 a year. “There are no hard and fast rules about assessing location risk,” warns Richard Mason, of Moneysupermarket.com. “An affluent area which is relatively free from crime, but is in a built-up city may still suffer from high premiums. Insurers should assess premiums on a case by case basis, rather than blacklisting cities or areas “Different insurers weight these factors differently, so anyone who finds their
insurance premiums too high should look for insurers who will assess their premiums on an individual basis. Consumers would do well to shop around
every year instead of renewing with the same insurer as this will probably save them a great deal of money.” Most of us have heard the stories of being able to get life saving cancer drugs in one part of the country but not in another other, the so-called healthcare “postcode lottery”. But what about your personal insurance premiums? As things stand, your lifestyle, your medical history and that of your family are A number of private medical insurance or PMI policies already take this into account, and will require your postcode early in the application process. But Michael Whyte, chief underwriter for Norwich Union, believes it may only be a matter of time before your postcode affects all your protection premiums. “Most of the factors affecting your health are already taken into account elsewhere in the application process, and the use of postcode data to help determine your health risks is still new” he says. “But the information will become more accurate as time goes by and could lead to more competitive premiums, and will probably be taken into account whenever you apply for personal insurance in the future.” Even if you’re relying on the NHS for your healthcare, your postcode is incredibly important. If you live in an area with an affluent primary care trust, your doctor is more likely to be given the green light to prescribe more expensive drugs. Furthermore, hospital facilities are likely to be better.
Likewise, if you end up needing to move into long-term care, the financial situation of your local
authority will be crucial. Many cash-strapped local authorities provide very poor quality By arrangement with The Independent |
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Chatterati Poetry
and politics. Law and verse. What a combination! Kapil Sibal’s poems had a large crowd enthralled. His audience included leaders like Chidambaram, Shiela Dixit, Amar Singh and Narayanan. A whole lot of Delhi’s Page 3 crowd was also present.
But most adoring was his father, visiting from Chandigarh, who not only heard his son read out a poem dedicated to him but also provided the poetic ambience in which Sibal said he grew up. Though he wrote on subjects ranging from the trust vote to love and the law his audience was most amused perhaps by his take on Indians in a London summer.
Not satisfied with just a mere book, Sibal gave buyers a bonus on the launch by offering a CD in which he has personally recited some of his favourite poems. Politics may keep him busy in the months ahead if his Cabinet work does not, but “My poetry is honest and it comes from the heart” was the politician’s refrain to all questions to do with the need for being politically correct.
Kapil has made his mark in politics, winning his Lok Sabha seat from Chandni Chowk, as a lawyer and now as a poet as the celebrities present voiced their “wah, wahs”!
Set for polls Rahul Gandhi is all set for the next elections. Like his father, he is forming his own team. Youngsters from NGOs and professional backgrounds are finding themselves a place in his team.
He is taking an active part in all publicity meetings for the coming elections. His mantra with the babalog of the Congress now is hard work, go to villages, slog, form new equations with women and youth. Win them over: sell your various schemes to all. His inputs now come from seniors and his own team of savy IIM and IIT guys. Every youth Congress and NSUI chief is his choice. Their work is outlined by him.
Even though Sonia Gandhi hinted at Manmohan Singh as the next Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi is working hard to make sure the UPA again forms the government. The Congress is always a bit apprehensive about naming the next Prime Minister He is a low-key functionary who will refer all major political issues as usual to Mrs Gandhi, which suits all.
And that will have enough time for Rahul’s team to come in also in full strength later in the day.
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