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CJI acts, rightly
Kids are not guinea pigs |
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Poor suffer the most
India’s role in Afghanistan
Loss of power
Storm in Iraq
More people living below poverty line: World Bank
Apple has ‘misled iPhone users’
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CJI acts, rightly
Supreme
Court Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan’s decision to constitute a three-judge panel to examine the charges of corruption against a Punjab and Haryana High Court judge is most welcome. The committee, consisting of Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Hemant Laxman Gokhale, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Delhi High Court Judge Madan B. Lokur, is aimed at protecting the image of the higher judiciary.
As an internal mechanism rarely resorted to, it is expected to examine whether the cash-in-the-bag scandal that has rocked the High Court involves one of its sitting judges. In this context, the role played by the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, needs to be appreciated. He promptly wrote to the CJI, bringing the scandal to his notice.
Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, acting fast, had reported the matter to the police and the Chief Justice when a bag containing Rs 15 lakh in cash was “mistakenly” delivered at her residence in Chandigarh. Interestingly, another Judge, Justice Nirmal Yadav, who was named by the Additional Advocate-General of Haryana in a statement to the police as the actual destination for the money, has recused herself and gone on long leave after the Chief Justice began looking into the scam and its ramifications. Besides the appointment of the judges’ committee, the CBI has been directed to probe the scam. Being the country’s premier investigating agency, it has adequate expertise to inquire into the case thoroughly. Of the three accused, Sanjeev Bansal, the Additional Advocate-General of Haryana, and his assistant, Parkash Ram, are in judicial custody and under intense questioning. However, Ravinder Singh, the New Delhi hotellier and Bansal’s friend who allegedly arranged the cash, is still at large. There can be no two opinions about the need to keep the judiciary clean and above suspicion. Despite all its drawbacks, people have enormous trust in the judiciary. Naturally, when allegations of corruption are levelled against the judges, people are bound to feel disturbed over the state of affairs in the judiciary. The CJI’s decision to set up the judges’ committee will establish in the public eye that he and the highest court are keen to weed out the rotten apples. |
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Kids are not guinea pigs While the death since 2006 of 49 children undergoing clinical trials at the prestigious AIIMS is shocking, this needs a thorough enquiry and must address all concerns. The doctors’ expert opinion must be given due weightage, but the voices of protests should also not be ignored.
The paramount concern is to preclude even the remotest possibility of poor Indian children having been treated as guinea pigs for research. The number of deaths is, indeed, large.
Especially when this happens at a premier institution like AIIMS, there are bound to be raised eyebrows, because the situation could be far worse in the institutes with limited reputation. The report of an internal committee would not be able to satisfy all. What is needed is an independent committee of the most eminent doctors of the country. AIIMS has made it clear that the deaths of children were due to high risks and That is the doctors’ take on the whole controversy. But what cannot be lost sight of is the fact that India is being increasingly used by western countries for drug testing. Even AIIMS admits that six of the 42 trials were funded by the pharmaceutical industry and the tests involved 5 per cent of the enrolled children. Last year, 139 new trials were outsourced to India while 98 went to China. There is need for strictest possible regulation in such trials. But can that be possible given the acute shortage of trained staff? A recent Planning Commission report says that this shortage may be as high as 50,000 research personnel. India has to go a long way in health care and safety. |
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Poor suffer the most
The government claim that poverty has been declining in India after the economic reforms stands confirmed by the World Bank. According to the latest figures of the bank, the number of Indians living on less than $1.25 a day has declined from 60 per cent in 1981 to 42 per cent in 2005.
The Planning Commission’s latest estimates also point a downward trend in poverty. The level of poverty that stood at 27.5 per cent in 2004-05 fell to 25.9 per cent in 2005-06. There are about 260 million Indians whose monthly income is less than Rs 356.30 in villages and Rs 538.60 in cities. Figures don’t tell the real story how the poor suffer. The number of Indians living just above the line of deprivation is still very large. Moreover, the World Bank figures are up to 2005 and the Planning Commission too has to update its data. In the last one year the food and fuel prices have climbed up substantially, pushing the inflation rate to above 12 per cent. The price rise affects the poor the most. Many of the poor who were marginally above the poverty line must have gone further down the ladder. More than seeking comfort from the World Bank figures, the government should realise that its fight against poverty requires greater resources and efforts. The Planning Commission has redefined poverty on the basis of access to six basic amenities in addition to the amount of food they consume. These amenities include education, health, infrastructure and clean environment. Economists and academics keep arguing about who is poor and what is the extent of poverty in the country. The need is to provide every Indian an access to affordable food and all basic amenities essential to lead a decent life. That requires the diversion of resources from unproductive to productive areas. It is unfortunate that after 61 years of Independence, the Central and state |
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For I will wear my heart upon my sleeve/ For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
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India’s role in Afghanistan
Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh has just returned from Japan where he attended the G-8 summit as a special invitee, and many in the country are arguing that India deserves a permanent place in G-8 and other international institutions as India is already a major global player. Most of the challenges that the international community faces today cannot be resolved without India’s active participation. There is some merit in this argument and many across the world are beginning Forget China’s rise, global climate change and the nuclear deal. All these dwarf in front of the challenge India faces in Afghanistan, which is on the brink of collapse even as New Delhi continues to dither on how to respond adequately to the rapidly changing ground realities there. India no longer has the luxury to argue that while it is happy to help the Afghan government in its reconstruction efforts, it will not be directly engaged in security operations. The Taliban militants who blew up the Indian Embassy have sent a strong signal that India is part of the evolving security dynamic in Afghanistan despite its reluctance to take on a more active role in the military operations. The progress towards stabilisation and development in Afghanistan is being heavily influenced by India and Pakistan, and the rivalry between them. Pakistan has always been suspicious of New Delhi and Kabul cooperating against it, and as India’s influence in Afghanistan has increased in the post-Taliban scenario, Pakistan remains stalled in its efforts to curb extremists. Pakistan’s failure to contain cross-border militancy has been a key factor behind its deteriorating relations with the Karzai government in Kabul. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have long been complex, with Islamabad’s military-intelligence establishment contributing to the defeat of Soviet troops before 1988; the overthrow of Soviet-backed President Muhammad Najibullah in 1992; and the capture of large areas of Afghanistan by the Taliban after 1994. Several long-standing strategic interests fuelled Pakistan’s involvement in these developments. It has long believed that it can gain “strategic depth” against India by influencing politics in Kabul, something Islamabad felt it achieved in the 1980s and 1990s. It is keen to prevent “strategic encirclement” as a result of closer Delhi-Kabul ties. Pakistan is wary of Afghanistan (or India) exerting influence on its restive populations in border regions such as Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province. However, the perceived gains of the last two decades have been increasingly under threat since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. After the terrorist attacks in the United States, President Pervez Musharraf had to choose between support for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and its “war on terrorism”, and isolation as a backer of radical Islamic extremism. Mr Musharraf promptly signed Pakistan up as an ally of Washington. This committed Pakistan to supporting efforts to stabilise Afghanistan and to strengthen the administration of President Hamid Karzai. However, there are considerable doubts about Islamabad’s capacity and commitment to crack down on militants. Kabul is deeply suspicious of Pakistan, on whom its security is largely dependent. Pakistan’s ISI is linked to the resurgence of the Taliban, whose leadership is thought to be operating from the tribal border regions. The rejuvenation of the Taliban has potential benefits for Pakistan in bolstering its role as a frontline state in the war against terrorism, thereby securing engagement from the United States. The security problems in Afghanistan can be linked to the military’s continuing position as the predominant force in Pakistan, an institution that has, since the 1990s, viewed the Taliban as a means of controlling Afghanistan and undercutting India’s influence there. Having focused exclusively on the Taliban, it is struggling to abandon it now. Meanwhile, as tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have increased, India’s relations with Afghanistan have steadily improved. Unlike Pakistan, ties between India and Afghanistan are not hampered by the existence of a contiguous, and contested, border. India’s support for the Northern Alliance (against the Pakistan-backed Taliban) in the 1990s strengthened its position in Kabul after 2001. Many members of the Alliance are members of the government or hold influential provincial posts. New Delhi is one of Afghanistan’s top six donors, having extended a $750 million aid package and most of its aid is unconditional, directed largely at reconstruction projects as well as education and rural development. Kabul is also encouraging Indian businesses to take advantage of its low-tax regime to help develop a manufacturing hub in areas such as cement, oil and gas, electricity, and in services like hotels, banking and communications. Mr Karzai may not be deliberately crafting a New Delhi-Kabul alliance against Islamabad, but he is certainly hoping to push Pakistan into taking his concerns more seriously. India has opened consulates in Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Jalalabad, in addition to its embassy in Kabul. Pakistan has accused the embassy in Kabul of spreading anti-Pakistani propaganda and views the establishment of the consulates as a way for New Delhi to improve intelligence-gathering against it. After targeting the personnel involved in developmental projects and emboldened by India’s non-response, terrorists have now trained their guns directly at the Indian State. India must now respond with greater military engagement to support its developmental and political presence in Afghanistan. If India is to realise its aspirations of emerging as a major global actor, it must first learn to become a net provider of regional security. This is a difficult task for India, given the wariness with which its neighbours view its capabilities. But India has a few good options given the instability that surrounds it. No major power has emerged historically without providing some measure of stability around its periphery. India should be using its growing capabilities to extend security in the region. A stable, secure and prosperous neighbourhood is a sine qua non for the emergence of a great power. India cannot be merely seen as free-riding on the outside powers for regional stability. For all the rhetoric emanating from New Delhi about India’s rise, it remains unclear as to what India is ready to do to preserve and enhance its interests in its neighbourhood. India’s approach towards Afghanistan is a casualty of this short-sightedness, and it will cost New Delhi dear over the
long-term. The writer teaches at King’s College, London. |
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Loss of power The
chair of authority is
like a philosopher’s stone. It transforms base lead to pure gold,
and plasticine into steel. In democracy power is influence. Influence
is a hard thing to quantify, but you know it when you see it.
Influence is power without coercion. Power attracts people, as honey
attracts bees. Shambu came to see me with a letter of introduction from one of my bosses. I had just taken over as District SP. A sweet mix of cunning and convention, he had the mannered subservience of a five-star waiter. After some time he started acting as my informer, and accepted Rs 200 as remuneration for his services. He had a glib tongue, with satin smooth behaviour. I moved to another district, and then to Delhi. He kept in touch with me. He joined active politics.
After Mr Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination a large number of Heads of State had come to Delhi to attend his funeral. I was in the MHA. I was drafted to be with the Vice-President of America. As we were coming out, I spotted Shambu in the company of senior leaders. He was looking suitably bereaved. He got a ticket, and became an MLA. Once I told him to go in for principled politics. He laughed, and told me that having morals and principles in politics is like wearing a chastity belt in a brothel. It is necessary to bait the hook to suit the fish, he said. He became a junior minister. After my stint in Delhi, I was back in the State and was posted as Range DIG. Shambu visited me in my office. His body language had changed, and his tone was patronising. He handed me a list of SHOs to be shifted, I refused. He told me that the flag on his car was more effective than the flag on my car.
I told him that my flag was permanent till retirement, and he may lose his flag after the approaching elections. He left in a huff, and told me that he would take up the matter with the Chief Minister. He lost the elections. I came to Chandigarh on promotion.
Shambu met me at a wedding. He was looking like a deflated balloon. The arrogance was replaced with humility. He told me that he continues to be my old “chela”. He sought my help in a land-grab case, against him.
In case of bureaucrats and police officers loss of power after retirement brings about a qualitative change. Once the weapony of office is gone, they shrivel. Most of the bureaucrats and cops exercise tremendous authority by developing closeness to politicians. Non-elective power in a democracy lies in influencing the elected machine. Politicians prefer amoral bureaucrats and cops because of their flexible morals and scruples. Change of government always devastates some bureaucrats and cops. People holding very important jobs find themselves on the margins. There is a very thin line between a Hero and a Zero. In life, skyline keeps on changing. After retirement most of the bureaucrats and cops talk about values and morality. While in power, these very people display more a sense of property than a sense of propriety. They remind me of an old Sanskrit proverb “Vriddha nari pativarta” (An aged woman is loyal to her husband). The loss of power also affects the female friends. I remember a lady “neta” who professed loyalty and closeness to a top politician. Sitting in Delhi golf club, after her third Vodka, she asked me whether she should switch party. I asked her about the “closeness” to her old mentor. She replied casually that one has to move with the times, and added slyly, that he was getting old. Henry Kissinger had said: “Power is a great
aphrodisiac.”
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Storm in Iraq
There
is a gathering storm on Iraq’s horizon. Over the last several weeks, its central government has embarked on what appears to be an effort to arrest,
drive away or otherwise intimidate tens of thousands of Sunni security volunteers — the so-called Sons of Iraq — whose contributions have been crucial to recent security gains. After returning from a trip to Iraq last month at the invitation of Army Gen. David H.
Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, we are convinced that if Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki and his advisers persist in this sectarian agenda, the country may spiral back into chaos. Much of Iraq’s dramatic security progress can be traced to a series of decisions made by Sunni tribal leaders in late 2006 to turn against
al-Qaida in Iraq and cooperate with American forces in Anbar province. These leaders, outraged by
al-Qaida’s brutality against their people, approached the U.S. military with an offer it couldn’t refuse: Enter into an alliance with the tribes, and they would turn their weapons against
al-Qaida rather than American troops. Throughout 2007, U.S. commanders capitalized on this Sunni movement, the so-called Awakening, to create an expanding network of alliances with Sunni There are now about 100,000 armed Sons of Iraq, each paid $300 a month by U.S. forces to provide security in local neighborhoods throughout the country. In recognition of the key role the Awakening played in security improvements, President Bush met with several Sunni tribal leaders during his trip to Anbar last September, and
Petraeus, who cites the program as a critical factor explaining the decline in violence, has promised to “not walk away from them.” But Iraq’s predominantly Shiite central government seems intent on doing precisely that.
Al-Maliki and his advisers never really accepted the Sunni Awakening, and they remain convinced that the movement is simply a way for Sunni insurgents to buy time to restart a campaign of violence or to infiltrate the state’s security apparatus. In 2007, with Iraq’s government weak and its military not yet ready to take During our trip, a common theme among U.S. military commanders, intelligence officers, diplomats and Iraqi political leaders we spoke with was the growing hubris of
al-Maliki and his closest advisers. Recent government successes in Basra, Sadr City and Mosul seem to have convinced
al-Maliki’s inner circle that Iraq’s army does not need American help as much as it used to. A newly emboldened prime minister is now moving out aggressively against his adversaries, including the Sons of Iraq. Plans to integrate these Sunni fighters into Iraq’s security forces or provide them with civilian employment have been consistently “slow rolled.” While
al-Maliki has committed to incorporate 20 percent of the 100,000 Sons of Iraq members under U.S. contract into Iraq’s army or police forces by the end of this year, only a small fraction have actually been hired. When asked if the Iraqi government had created stumbling blocks to integrating the Sons of Iraq, Petraeus said in a recent interview, “That certainly has been the case.” It gets worse. Over the last several weeks, Iraqi army units and special operations forces (which report directly to
al-Maliki) have arrested Sons of Iraq leaders, dismantled checkpoints and otherwise harassed local security volunteers in Diyala province and greater Baghdad. There are reportedly plans to detain hundreds of Sons of Iraq members in the coming weeks. “These people are like cancer, and we must remove them,” an Iraqi army general in Abu
Ghraib, a Baghdad suburb, told a reporter last week. Another Iraqi commander in Baghdad confided, “We cannot stand them, and we detained many of them recently,” before telling that reporter of plans to instigate a major crackdown as early as November. We talked to a number of tribal and Sons of Iraq leaders during our trip. When It is obvious where this road might end. The last time tens of thousands of armed Sunni men were humiliated in Iraq — by disbanding the Baath Party and Iraqi army in May 2003 — an insurgency began, costing thousands of U.S. lives and throwing Iraq into chaos. Yet
al-Maliki and his advisers risk provoking Iraq’s Sunni community into another round of violence. The rising tensions in Iraq reveal a weakness in U.S. strategy and the Bush administration’s approach to the war: the unconditional nature of our support to
al-Maliki’s government. The “surge” strategy in Iraq, as described by President Bush in January 2007, rested on the belief that tamping down violence would provide a window of opportunity that Iraq’s leaders would use to pursue political reconciliation. But this has not occurred, despite the dramatic security improvements. Indeed, if the problem in 2006 and 2007 was
al-Maliki’s weakness and inability U.S. strategy must be re-engineered to exploit our diminished but still significant leverage. Despite recent military successes, the Iraqi security forces remain critically dependent on U.S. air power, logistical support, intelligence and training. The United States must make continued security assistance conditional on The security gains in Iraq have been remarkable, but U.S. leaders in Washington need to do whatever is necessary to prevent this threatening storm from sweeping away all that has been achieved at great cost and sacrifice. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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More people living below poverty line: World Bank The
World Bank said on Tuesday more people are living in extreme poverty in developing countries than previously thought as it adjusted the recognized yardstick for measuring global poverty to $1.25 a day from $1. The poverty-fighting institution said there were 1.4 billion people — a quarter of the developing world — living in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day in 2005 in the world’s 10 to 20 poorest countries. Last year, the World Bank said there were 1 billion people living under the previous $1 a day poverty mark. The new figures are likely to put fresh pressure on big donor countries to move more aggressively to combat global poverty, and on countries to introduce more-effective policies to help lift the poorest. Even so, the new estimates show how progress has been made in helping the poor over the past 25 years. In 1981, 1.9 billion people were living below the new $1.25 a day poverty line. The new estimates are based on updated global price data, and the revision to the poverty line shows the cost of living in the developing world is higher than had been thought. The data is based on 675 household surveys in 116 countries. “These new estimates are a major advance in poverty measurements because they are based on far better price data for assuring that the poverty lines are comparable across countries,” said Martin Ravallion, director of the World Bank’s Development Research Group. While the developing world has more poor people than previously believed, the World Bank’s new chief economist, Justin Lin, said the world was still on target to meet a United Nations goal of halving the number of people in poverty by 2015.
However, excluding China from overall calculations, the world fails to meet the U.N. poverty targets, Lin
said. The World Bank data shows that the number of people living below the $1.25 a day poverty line fell over nearly 25 years to 26 percent in 2005 from 52 percent in 1981, a decline on average of about 1 percent a year, he said. Lin said the new poverty data meant there was no room for complacency and added that rich donor nations need to keep their promises of stepped-up aid to poor countries.
“The sobering news that poverty is more pervasive than we thought means we must redouble our efforts, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Lin, a leading Chinese academic. The new figures come ahead of an updated assessment of progress in meeting the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, which will released late next month at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
While most of the developing world has managed to reduce poverty, the rate in sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s poorest region, has not changed in nearly 25 years, according to data using the new $1.25 a day poverty line. Half of the people in sub-Saharan Africa were living below the poverty line in 2005, the same as in 1981. That means about 380 million people lived under the poverty line in 2005, compared with 200 million in 1981.
Elsewhere, poverty has declined. In East Asia, which includes China, the poverty rate fell to 18 percent in 2005 from almost 80 percent in 1981, when it was the poorest region. In China, the number of people in poverty fell to 207 million from 835 million in 1981. In South Asia, the poverty rate fell from 60 percent to 40 percent between 1981 and 2005, but that was not enough to bring down the total number of poor in the region, which stood at 600 million in 2005. In India, the number of people below the $1.25 a day poverty line increased to 455 million in 2005 from 420 million people in 1981. But the share of the population in poverty fell to 42 percent from 60 percent. The World Bank noted that better-off countries have higher poverty lines and said it was more appropriate in regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe to use a $2 a day rate. The bank has estimated that 100 million people could fall into extreme poverty due to soaring food and energy prices. But Ravallion said it will take up to two years before there is clarity on the impact that soaring costs have had on poverty. However, he said early indications from survey data “are pretty convincing |
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Apple has ‘misled iPhone users’ The iPhone, the latest must-have gadget from Apple, fails to give users complete access to the internet, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled on Tuesday. It said the combined phone, music player and computer is flawed because of the absence of two common website programmes, Flash and Java. As a result, the authority said Apple’s claim that the iPhone gave access to “all parts of the internet” misled customers about its power as a web browser.
Users of the iPhone cannot access the graphics, videos and games on many websites, including the BBC’s, because of the absence of Flash. Java’s absence deprives users from making use of website shortcuts, typically the copying of personal details on In its ruling, the ASA said Apple failed to take account of the shortcomings in a TV advertising campaign. An iPhone owner was shown using the device to check the weather in Cape Town, a Heathrow airport map, hotels and a stock market site. The voice-over said: “You never know which part of the internet you’ll need. The ‘do you need sun cream part’? The ‘what’s the quickest way to the airport part’? The ‘what about an ocean view room part’? Or the ‘can you really afford this part’? Which is why, all parts of the internet are on the iPhone”. Two viewers complained, saying the claim was
misleading. Apple said the aim of the advert was to highlight the iPhone’s ability to offer availability to all websites, in contrast to other handsets which offered only limited web browsing (WAP) or sites selected by service providers. It argued that surfing the internet with an iPhone was similar to surfing from a home or office computer and the appearance and the websites were the same. The ASA said: “We noted Apple’s argument that the ad was about site availability rather than technical detail but considered the claims ‘You’ll never know which part of the internet you’ll need’ and ‘all parts of the internet are on the iPhone’ implied users could access all websites and see them in their entirety. “We considered that, because the ad had not explained the limitations, viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a website normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website. “We concluded the ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone.” The ruling is a blow to the iPhone’s otherwise strong reputation. Reviewers have praised its slimline design, sophistication and versatility. Priced up to £159 each, the iPhone allows users the chance to switch instantly between voice calls, music and email. But there have been two major criticisms. It is only available through an exclusive deal with the O2 network, meaning customers have to sign up to 18-month contracts, costing between £639 for the 8GB model and £1,350 for the 16GB model. By arrangement with
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