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Vote in J&K
Thackeray’s thuggery |
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Metro mishap
If Obama wins
Hundred years ago
Falling apart
Cheaper oil may hit demand for alternative fuels
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Vote in J&K
FINALLY, the Election Commission (EC) has come out with a seven-phase assembly election schedule for Jammu and Kashmir. Staggering the polls over a period of more than one month — from November 17 to December 24 — was avoidable. Yet, it is a welcome decision. It was delayed because of differences over the timing of the polls within the EC. It is good that the people have been provided with an opportunity to choose their representatives for running the government as in five other states. Any delay in going in for this democratic exercise on any pretext after the expiry of the Assembly’s term would have sent out a wrong signal. The problems that J&K faces like terrorism would continue to be handled in the normal course. Political parties have reacted almost on the expected lines. Except for the separatists, no one has opposed the holding of the elections. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, which earlier favoured a postponement, is yet to express its views. Obviously, it is weighing the pros and cons. If it goes along with the two Hurriyat factions, which stand for boycotting the polls, the PDP will sully its own image. Any party opposing the elections will be working to deprive the people of J&K of their democratic right to exercise their franchise when it is due. The separatists, who say that the elections cannot help in resolving the crisis in the state, are actually scared of the people’s verdict. If they are the “real” representatives of the people they must prove their claim through the battle of the ballot. They can try to get the people’s problems resolved by capturing power in a democratic manner. But the truth is that they have very limited following and hence their unwillingness to try their luck at the hustings. People want peace and progress, which can be ensured in a better manner only by having a democratically elected government in J&K.
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Thackeray’s thuggery
THE three Thackerays —Bal, Raj and Uddhav —seem to think that Maharashtra is their personal fief and they can attack whomsoever they want. They cover their megalomania under the garb of concern for the “Marathi manus” and want to throw out every non-Maharashtrian. Their latest victims have been north Indians who were in Mumbai to take part in the Railway Board examinations. Activists of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) attacked at least 17 examination centres, brutally beat up the candidates and tore their answer sheets. The candidates were also beaten up at railway platforms. Shiv Sena men acted in a similarly high-handed manner at some places. As usual, no arrangements were in place to provide them even a modicum of security, although Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh later said that such “gundagiri” won’t be tolerated. Quite understandably, there was pandemonium in the Lok Sabha on Monday, with the RJD and the Samajwadi Party demanding the arrest of Thackeray on charges of “treason”. Unfortunately, such “gundagiri” has been tolerated repeatedly and that has encouraged the Shiv Sena and MNS goons to indulge in a free for all. In fact, there is a rivalry between these two groups as to which launches more vicious attacks. The situation goes particularly out of hand when the government, instead of calling their bluff, tends to join the hate brigade. Mr Deshmukh himself has said that the problems of Mumbai are because of the large number of outsiders who keep coming to it. While the government has been going easy on the antics of people like the MNS chief, a Jamshedpur court has issued a non-bailable warrant against him for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Biharis. All such parochial people have to understand that Mumbai is the financial capital of the country because of the tears and toils of the people from all over the country. Its prosperity has a lot to do with its cosmopolitan character which they are out to destroy. Strangely, they never have any constructive plan to help the ordinary Marathi who leads a hard life in many other parts of Maharashtra. Men like Raj Thackeray are basically mob instigators. Every time they are allowed to have their way, it is a signal to them to step up the madness. The government must not abdicate its responsibility before such bullies.
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Metro mishap
NORMALLY, a bridge or flyover collapse killing two persons does not merit much attention in this country where bigger accidents with higher casualties are not infrequent. But Sunday’s mishap in Delhi when a portion of an under-construction rail track fell on a bus resulting in the death of the driver and a worker deserves notice because it is associated with the Metro Rail, modern India’s prestigious project and a symbol of excellence. If things go wrong here, as they do so often elsewhere in India, it is time to ensure that deterioration does not set in a project every Indian is proud of. Fortunately, it was a Sunday and the flow of traffic was sparse. Had the accident occurred on a working day when vehicles just crawl due to heavy rush, the loss of life could have been much more. To be fair, it appeared to be an accident -- a result of mishandling, at worst. A prefabricated concrete slab being mounted to support the track fell accidentally. There is no report of any substandard material used in the construction work or some structural fault in the flyover design -- something one suspects immediately whenever a bridge or a part thereof crumbles. Nevertheless, things did move swiftly after the mishap. Metro Rail has ordered an inquiry by a three-member team of technical experts. The Delhi government is holding a separate inquiry. A private company has been entrusted with the task of construction of the track and its office was sealed soon after the mishap. Interestingly, Mr E. Sreedharan, who is credited with operating Delhi’s metro network ahead of schedule, had only last month opposed the building of Hyderabad Metro by a private company on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis and wanted all metro projects to be handled by the Centre to avoid local manipulation and ensure uniformity and efficiency. The mishap in Delhi, hopefully, will strengthen his resolve or efforts in this direction.
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If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was and never will be. — Thomas Jefferson
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Corrections and clarifications
Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. We will carry corrections and clarifications, wherever necessary, every Tuesday. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Amar
Chandel, Deputy Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is
amarchandel@tribunemail.com. H.K. Dua
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If Obama wins
US presidential election campaigns are in their last lap. Gallup polls give Mr Barack Obama a lead, and his Republican rival John McCain is fighting with his back to the wall. If the rest of the world had a vote, the Democratic candidate would come romping home. But the real test for America begins in a matter of days. The test is whether the majority of voters would have the audacity to elect a black man to the presidency. America has, of course, come a long way from the days of the slave trade and the time blacks, called Negroes, did not have the vote. The laws have been radically altered since then, but human behaviour and habits take much longer to change. In social terms, blacks live their own lives. A new, more confident black middle class has grown up and has prospered, but it lives its separate life for the most part. This is the first time either of the two main parties have put up a black presidential candidate. It was due to Mr Obama’s own rare qualities of heart and head that compelled the party to heed his call. But it also required eight years of the George W. Bush presidency - what with the Iraq misadventure and the tilt towards corporate America - that worsted the Hillary Clinton campaign, despite its obvious appeal to women voters to place a woman in the White House for the first time. It is now crunch time and Americans have to decide collectively whether their views have evolved sufficiently to countenance a black president. Lacking a royal house, Americans have traditionally elevated their flag and the institution of presidency to a status of reverence hard for others to conceive. It would, indeed, be a major accomplishment for Americans if Mr Obama were to win. It would signify that intellectually the nation has crossed the Rubicon. These are difficult times for the United States, which has triggered a worldwide economic crisis. Their famed institutions have bitten the dust and the whole basis of American progress and prosperity is being called into question. It is, of course, a particularly bitter pill for the Republicans to swallow. No wonder, many Republicans held their noses while they passed the bumper bailout bill, some of them calling it a “socialist” measure. But the US government could hardly witness the end of all hallowed American institutions and banks. These extraordinary times were music to Mr Obama’s ears because he needed the economic tsunami to make himself relevant, despite his colour. His appeal for change struck a chord because that is precisely what the people want. Traditionally, many candidates have contested the presidency on the slogan of change, presenting themselves as outsiders resolved to wrest power from the clutches of power brokers doing sweetheart deals among themselves. Witness Jimmy Carter’s successful bid for the presidency. Yet power brokers are the necessary agents of the way the US Administration works. Among several myths in the American political vocabulary is the virtue of the honest Joe against the insiders in the (Washington) Beltway eager to feather their nests. A candidate seeking change must work with the system if he is to achieve anything. We must remember that it was Lyndon Johnson who succeeded in bringing path-breaking legislation because he had been the consummate insider in the Senate, where he worked for many years before assuming the presidency through a quirk of fate. Despite the favourable polls, Mr Obama has to cross the main hurdle of being black. There are doubts on the accuracy of polls on this issue because resentful whites, often belonging to the poorer classes, might not be reachable or choose not to answer the question truthfully. Besides, the propaganda over Mr Obama being a Muslim when he is, in fact, a Christian seems to have gained wide currency. After the Nine Eleven terrorist attacks on US soil, American reaction to the issue of religion is often visceral and it remains to be seen how much damage his race and perceived religion will do to his prospects. Assuming that Mr Obama can surmount these hurdles, what kind of a president would he make? For one thing, he would start with a great advantage in the world because he is by far the favourite American. The anti-American orientation of much of the world would turn to an initially favourable attitude to the new man in the White House. But Mr Obama would have to win his spurs at home, were he to become President. And here lies the rub. It is, for instance, recognised that among Mr Obama’s major benefactors filling his war chest have been corporations, which traditionally finance the candidates of the two main parties. In fact, he has been among the most successful candidates in history in raising money for his candidacy; the costs of fighting elections rise phenomenally every four years. Second, how can he break away from the party machine to herald real change? Other presidents promising change have resisted the constraints of the presidency to initiate innovative legislation, but a black president would have to watch his back every time he would want to honour his commitments. It is true that the Bush presidency has swung too far in the direction of corporate America for many, but the dramatic nature of the economic crisis, with many of those responsible for imprudent conduct walking away with a golden nest egg, has sufficiently scandalised even the votaries of unfettered free enterprise to make them receptive to unconventional remedies. Indeed, the result of the election, if Mr Obama wins, will decide America’s capacity for change and the triumph of sanity over forces of extreme right, of Christian right or other stripes, and the longevity of the American myth of the frontier man or woman living a life unfettered by rules that apply to other peoples. How else can one justify the phenomenon of Sarah Palin the Vice-Presidential candidate, and her wild popularity among sections of Americans? She represents the gun-toting mother of five governing a state, however small and isolated it might be, while holding on to the virtues of the Christian right. Of course, it remains to be seen whether Mr McCain’s gamble
will pay off.
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Hundred years ago Rummaging
in a kabariwala’s shop the other day, I chanced upon a little book entitled “In India” written by G.W. Steevans and published in 1899. The pages had yellowed with age, and brittle, but still readable. The first sight of India, says the author, is “amazing, entrancing, stupefying.” Bombay, where he landed, presented itself to him as a city of “monstrous contrasts”. He compares the elegance of public buildings with the lowly huts of matting thatched with leaves. He then plunges into a description of various types of humanity that he sees in the city. He picks up an Arab horse-dealer of whom he says: “Compared with an Indian, his mien is high, his movements free and dignified, his features strongly cut and resolute.” Then there are the Baghdad Jews, the Afghan money-lenders, the Maharashtrians and the Gujaratis. He is greatly impressed by the Parsis and says: “To the nervelessness of the Bombay native one race furnishes the exception --- the Paris. He walks out with his wife --- a refined looking creature in a pale, pink or lemon-yellow gown with a pea-green, crimson-edged shawl passed over her head --- to hear the band at sunset, and she talks to her husband as a man might talk to a friend!” Next to the Parsis, the author admires the Rajputs whom he encounters while visiting Jodhpur as a state guest. After expatiating on the excellent stable kept by the Maharaja and his prowess at a polo and pig-sticking, he says: “Conceiving the British to be the only true sportsmen in the world, besides themselves, the men of Marwar are loyal beyond suspicion to their suzerain”. Delhi the author calls “the most historic city in all historic India.” He gives a brief account of the beginning and its fate under different rulers. “There are three Calcuttas,” says Steevens. “The winter capital of India, the metropolis of the largest white population in the country and the tightest-packed human sardine tin known outside China.” The book contains an interesting description of the administrative machinery of the time with the district officer as its pivot. There are chapters devoted to “native self-government”, meaning municipalities, education, justice and the frontier question. In conclusion, the author calls India “the land of ironies. Other countries”, he says, “have a measure of consistency. They are either wholly civilised or wholly barbarous, affect spalendour or accept squalor. India sees stateliness in the filthiest faded silk, shot with pearls.” The last paragraph reads, “It is far too early to despair of India yet. It is not only the land of ironies, it is also the land of
patience.”
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Falling apart
IT
has become a routine of sorts. Young and educated Akali finance
minister Manpreet Singh Badal, a nephew of the four times Punjab chief
minister Parkash Singh Badal, often throws up forethought and appeals
to the ‘good sense’ of his colleagues to get rid of subsidies as
these are eating away precious resources and hampering real economic
progress. Senior Badal chides him publicly. He warns him “not to be irresponsible” and refrain from scoring “brownie points by betraying people”. On the vital question of subsiding power to the farm sector and the atta-dal scheme for 13 lakh poor families, the elder Badal asserts categorically, “Cabinet colleagues should refrain from making irresponsible statements... Every minister has to perform creditably within the ideological framework given by the party. I strongly disapprove of the tendency of saying one thing during the election campaign and then doing the opposite on coming to power.” This time there was a written statement from the chief minister’s office and later several ministers came on record to oppose the position taken by Manpreet Singh. The finance minister relents, saying that he will not like to comment on the senior Badal. To quote him, “The Chief Minister is a political stalwart and a highly honourable man. If he has made some observations, I fully respect those”. How could the matters of the state, matters of life and death for millions of Punjabis be allowed to be debated in this cavalier fashion? Someone ought to stand up and be counted. There is certainly something that disturbs Manpreet Singh and he needs to articulate, often enough to invite the ire of his uncle. Yet the harsh realities about the fiscal health of Punjab and governance or its lack cannot be wished away so lightly in the name of clan or filial affection. The Akali Dal, during the 2007 elections, had promised to subsidise electricity to farmers and scheduled castes families. It is costing Rs 2,600 crore this year to the already bankrupt Punjab State Electricity Board. Its debt burden has touched Rs 7,000 crore and not many banks are ready with cash to bail it out. The atta-dal scheme is adding Rs 1,000 crore each year despite the Centre alloting subsidised wheat. The ‘shagun’ scheme for the marriage of daughters of poor families costs the exchequer Rs 500 crore. Punjab needs right now Rs 2,000 or even more to fund various schemes: Rs 2,600 crore for power subsidy against Rs 2,000 last year; Rs 640 crore for pensions — an increase from Rs 2,100 crore last year to Rs 2,750 crore and an expected salary hike of up to Rs 790 crore. Punjab’s debt burden will rise by Rs 3,000 crore this year from Rs 57,000 crore. By this count, the state’s debt could go anywhere near 68,000 crore. Punjab had promised to reduce the deficit to Rs 1,000 crore to earn some grants from the union government for prudence in financial matters. The increase in the VAT collection at the end of this fiscal is targeted at Rs 7,000 crore— up from Rs 5,100 crore in 2007. Other taxes also show some buoyancy. But these do not finish the mismatch between the resources and the expenditure. Manpreet Singh builds his case around two points. He says Punjab is a landlocked and predominantly agricultural state, the avenues of new taxes are sparse, hence his case against the subsidies. He argues that people are not interested in mere sops, but in the quality of service. They would appreciate uninterrupted power with minimum fluctuations rather than free but erratic supply of power. “We should provide better education and health services instead”, he adds with his usual passion. What he, perhaps, does not say is that some rich farmers— 14 per cent the farmers own above 15 acres —are enjoying at the cost of the poor. In Punjab that is dominated by agriculture, 67 per cent of the ruralites own no land. Of the 33 per cent who have land, 26 per cent own 5-10 acres and 9.53 per cent 10-15 acres. The elder Badal loves them as the landowners form the base of the Akalis. The junior Badal wants to take care of the rest. Is that so simple? Does he not know the tax collection in Punjab can easily be doubled or even trebled? Look at the booming markets all around. Is Punjab not one of the most corrupt states? Ask any farmer or any other citizen who has a brush with officialdom. How one would wish the agrarian crisis that has often forced the farmers to desperation and suicide could be ended by subsiding power or the poverty problem solved through subsidised two square meals a day. There is also a powerful argument put forward by the former finance minister and present cooperation minister, Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, that subsidies to farmers are a global phenomenon and these are imperatives if the social and economic fabric is to be maintained. “Punjab can offer nothing more than that in this liberalised atmosphere and its duty is to take care of the food security of the country. Look at the Indian stand at the WTO meetings.” There are many more to support this argument to ward off an agrarian crisis, the fragmentation of land-holdings, the falling productivity and the increasing debt. You would require these sops in a rationalised manner till you touch the core problems. Yet, this is not a permanent solution. Yet Manpreet Badal is rendering a service by focussing on the issues in the highly trivialised politics. What he is not saying for obvious reasons is: “Let us start governing, provide teachers in schools and doctors and para-medical staff and medicines in hospitals and make the flabby and corrupt mass of the government more efficient. Some effort should be made to end corruption.”
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Cheaper oil may hit demand for alternative fuels Just
four months ago, a conference in Washington on electric cars drew four times as many people as expected. District fire marshals ordered some of the crowd to leave, and the atmosphere was more like that of a rock concert than an energy conference. A brief film depicted an electric car owner driving off with a beautiful woman to the strains of “The Power of Love” while her original companion struggles to pay for gasoline. The audience cheered. One discordant note in the series of enthusiastic speeches came from Bill Reinert, one of the Toyota Prius designers. He cautioned that designing and ramping up production of a new car takes five years. “If oil goes down to $60 or $70 a barrel and gasoline gets back to $2.50 a gallon, and that very possibly could happen,” he said, “will that demand stay the same or will we shift back up?” It didn’t take five years to hit those numbers. One type of oil shock has given way to another. Even more swiftly than the price of oil rose, it has tumbled to the range that seemed far-fetched when Reinert spoke and oil was more than $130 a barrel. Now that drop threatens a wide variety of game-changing plans to find alternatives to oil or ways to drastically reduce U.S. consumption. “Declining oil prices can give us an artificial and temporary sense that reducing oil consumption and energy consumption is an issue we can put off,” said Greg Kats, a managing director of Good Energies, a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm that invests in global clean energy. The credit crisis is compounding that threat by making it more difficult to finance capital-intensive projects, whether they are new auto assembly lines or solar panels or wind turbines. General Motors has been touting the Chevy Volt as the first mass-marketed, plug-in hybrid vehicle. GM, which has been holding merger talks with Chrysler, believes the project will help justify federal financing. It hopes to deliver the car by the end of 2010. The uncertain future of electric cars points to a sticky aspect of the global oil equation. The price of oil can change rapidly, but responses that would cut petroleum use take time. As oil prices climbed, major automakers including GM, Mitsubishi, Renault-Nissan and Toyota moved ahead with plans to produce plug-in vehicles. But the first of those cars won’t be ready for a couple of years. What the price of oil will be then, and what consumers’ appetite for plug-in cars will be then, is anybody’s guess. Doing something about the amount of gasoline Americans use is essential to defusing future oil shocks. The American motorist is among the most profligate in the world. More than one out of every nine barrels of oil produced worldwide ends up in the gas tanks of cars in the United States. The amount of petroleum burned by U.S. motorists exceeds the entire crude oil output of Saudi Arabia, and that has propped up demand — and prices. Yet U.S. cars are among the least fuel efficient in the world. “The U.S. dependence on oil imports is based on waste, not on needs,” said Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Italian oil giant Eni. Electric cars aren’t the only answer. More efficient cars, whether better combustion engines or hybrids like the Prius, may be a cheaper way to achieve big fuel savings. Some firms are creating substitute fuels such as ethanol derived from corn or diesel derived from algae. Biofuel players range from the oil majors, such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell, to ethanol giants VeraSun Energy and Poet, to tiny firms like Solarzyme, which started in its founders’ garage five years ago and is now testing an algae catalyst in a large commercial vat. Many firms are working on cellulosic ethanol, derived from organic materials such as grasses or wood chips, but those factories are still in the pilot or demonstration stage. Almost all of those alternatives rely on federal subsidies or are counting on lower costs as technology evolves. The cheaper oil gets, the bigger those technological improvements need to be to compete. The electric car has the potential for making a bigger impact than alternative fuels because it would be powered by the electricity grid, which relies on a mix of coal, nuclear, natural gas and renewable energy sources. Moreover, recharging an electric car is much cheaper than refueling a gasoline car. But because their batteries are expensive, plug-in cars are going to cost as much as $8,000 more than conventional gasoline cars. The lower the price of gasoline, the longer it is going to take for fuel savings to make up for the car purchase premium. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar As always, the Left parties continue to be unhappy with the economic policies of the government and are even demanding a review. Interestingly, however, with all their economic understanding, they are themselves in need of funds to fight the elections, which are round the corner. The other day, CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury went to the extent of advising investors to “Instead of suffering losses, it would be better for investors to He followed up this remark with a caustic one targeting the UPA’s perceived soft corner for the Malicious party pamphlets
The Congress is notorious for internal sabotage. At the time of elections, anonymous notes and pamphlets start circulating against contenders for the party ticket so that they don’t get it. This time the BJP too is not far behind. A vicious note is circulating in BJP circles about the financial activities of Om Prakash Sharma, the personal assistant of BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, apparently to prevent him from getting the party ticket for the coming Delhi assembly elections. Whatever may be the truth and whoever may have sent the note to the media, the fact of the matter remains that the target appears to be Jaitley, more than Sharma, for how many really know Sharma?
India-Pak media games
India and Pakistan have this old habit of ”planting” stories in the media whenever their top
officials meet. It was no exception this time when the National Security Advisers (NSAs) of the two countries met for their first formal official-level talks.
While India “planted” its own version after the first day of the talks, the Pakistanis, not to be left behind, succeeded in seeing their version in
newspapers the next day. What about the joint statement issued by the two countries after the talks? It was again a bland statement, issued on such occasions by the two sides. The game of one-upmanship continues uninterrupted between the two countries! Contributed by Aditi Tandon, Faraz Ahmad and Ashok Tuteja
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