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CRPF in the Valley
To the polls
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The rout of LDP
Death by negligence
Married to the military
Empowerment of women
Israel has Iran in its sights
Murky world of private security
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CRPF in the Valley
THE two incidents of militant attack on CRPF personnel in Srinagar on Monday
These leaders, mostly belonging to the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP, had been arguing that if CRPF withdrawal was not possible, the jawans on law and order duty should be disarmed, keeping in view the sentiments of the people. Ultimately, the CRPF authorities, who had been under pressure from the Chief Minister also, went in for deploying jawans with only batons in their hand. The result is disastrous. One baton-wielding CRPF jawan was killed by militants on August 1 also. Unarmed CRPF men are sitting ducks, particularly when there are reports that militant infiltration from across the border has increased lately. Modules of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, which targeted the CRPF jawans in August, had been obviously waiting for the disarming of the paramilitary personnel. It is surprising why the CRPF authorities could not foresee the threat to the jawans’ lives. Their decision reflects poorly on their understanding of the situation. Changing the strategy now is allright, but those who have lost their lives due to the thoughtless policy decision cannot come back to life. The vilification drive against the CRPF is like the campaign by misguided politicians launched against the Army earlier. The time has come to tell these politicians and others that the jawans are posted at various places for providing security to the people. These jawans cannot do their job effectively if they are not properly armed. Of course, they can be given instructions to respect people’s human rights and to avoid using their weapons even under provocative circumstances. But all the jawans on duty must be armed adequately to meet the challenge posed by militants. |
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To the polls THERE is bound to be considerable disappointment in Jharkhand which will not be going to the polls on October 13 along with Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh. It has been under President’s rule since January 19 and it was widely expected that it will have elections at the end of the rainy season, as had also been indicated by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament.
But that was not to be. The other three states are to have elections on a single day and, given the good track record of the Election Commission in conducting free and fair elections, should be looking forward to a trouble-free date with the electronic voting machines. The election will be an important test for the Congress which is ruling in all the three states. The party has opted for early elections in Haryana, following its good showing in the last Lok Sabha polls in the state. Given the trouble in Opposition ranks, it may not be too difficult for the Congress to sustain its hold over these states, but the candidates are going to have a subdued Divali because the counting for the October 13 elections is to be done only on October 22, after the October 17 festival of lights is spent in uncertainty. This long gap is intriguing, considering that it is a single-phase election and EVMs Here is hoping that all parties will honour the model code of conduct and refrain from doing anything which vitiates the atmosphere. The Election Commission, which did a commendable job during the Lok Sabha polls, will have to ensure that the election code is strictly adhered to by all candidates and parties. No one who chooses to violate the code should get away unpunished. |
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The rout of LDP THE sound thrashing the Liberal Democratic Party has got in the parliamentary elections in Japan at the hands of the left-of-centre Democratic Party of Japan is a testimony to the groundswell of dissatisfaction against its performance in recent years. That the LDP ruled the country for all but 10 months since it was founded in 1955 and has now been roundly trounced is a reminder that the people have voted decisively for change against a party that had lost its moorings.
The LDP had already lost its majority in the Upper House in 2007 but it failed to see the warning signal and mend its ways. Its defeat ends a three-way partnership between the LDP, big business and bureaucrats that turned Japan into an economic juggernaut in the aftermath of World War II, but drove it to prolonged stagnation when Japan’s “bubble” economy burst in the late 1980s. The bureaucracy in particular came under heavy attack from the DPJ. Significantly, DPJ chief Yokio Hatoyama promised the voters a “revolutionary change”, pledging to focus spending on social welfare, including cash handouts for job seekers in training and families with children. But the Democrats are up against huge challenges, with economic experts suggesting that their spending plans could inflate Japan’s massive public debt. On the external front, the DPJ government is expected to re-jig the US-Japan relationship. The DPJ believes that it has been too subservient. It was passionately against the support that former Prime Minister Koizumi gave to President George Bush for his invasion of Iraq. It is now time for the new dispensation to redeem its promises. There is hope tinged with skepticism over its ability to steer the country out of stagnation. The skeptics point out that the DPJ has no real blueprint for action to re-invent Japan’s export-addicted economy. There is also little clarity on where money will come from for $178 billion in new spending. Much more than mere good intent would be required to pull the country out of its current morass. |
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I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, |
Death by negligence THE Supreme Court judgement in the Anuradha Saha medical negligence case is a landmark in the annals of medical jurisprudence. The apex court not only adjudicated on how to determine criminal negligence on the part of a doctor or a group of doctors in the event of a patient’s death but also imposed greater responsibility on them on the universal treatment protocol. It has also reinforced a patient’s right to know the line of treatment being followed by doctors, including the risks involved in the treatment. Significantly, the Bench consisting of Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice Deepak Verma The compensation to be paid by AMRI and the doctors individually will be decided by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, where Kunal has claimed Rs 77.7 crore as damages. The judgement is being viewed by many as the judiciary’s acknowledgement of the deficiency in the medical service given to
Anuradha. The apex court has upheld the Calcutta High Court ruling acquitting three doctors — Dr Abani Roy Chowdhury, Dr Sukumar Mukherjee and Dr Baidyanath Halder — on the ground that they had no “mens rea (intention) of being rash and negligent”. After a prolonged trial, Kolkata’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate let off Dr Chowdhury, and the High Court the other two doctors in 2004. Kunal Saha then approached the Supreme Court.
Anuradha was diagnosed with a serious disease called Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN). Also called Lyell’s Syndrome, in this disease, the patient gets high fever and occasionally suffers from somnolence and lassitude. Owing to the extensive area of eroded skin, the patient loses huge body fluid with consequent disturbances in the electrolyte and fluid balance. She died in 1998 at the age of 36 following complications from a steroid overdose. Anuradha, a child psychologist, and Kunal, a doctor-researcher on HIV/AIDS, were settled in the US. They visited Kolkata in April 1998 on a vacation. After she suddenly developed fever and skin rash, Dr Mukherjee examined her and advised her rest without prescribing medicine. After a week, when the skin rash appeared more aggressively, Dr Mukherjee prescribed Depomedrol injection (80 mg) twice daily for three days. Yet, her condition deteriorated. She was admitted to the AMRI hospital on May 11 under Dr Mukherjee’s supervision. Dr Halder found that she was suffering from erithima plus blisters. Dr Chowdhury also examined her. After her condition worsened, she was shifted to Mumbai’s Beach Candy Hospital in a chartered plane. She died on May 28. Medical opinion has been sharply divided over the administration of steroids, particularly for those suffering from TEN, discovered as far back as 1956. In fact, there are pro- and anti-steroid lobbies, implying that medical science has a grey area in this respect. The treatment protocol for TEN has undergone change throughout the world. Though doctors used to administer steroid for TEN patients earlier, researchers have later warned against its use after conducting tests of TEN patients with and without the administration of steroids. They found that those treated with steroids did not respond properly thereto. Though researchers have found that the use of steroids was more detrimental than beneficial to TEN patients, some doctors still use steroids.
In Anuradha’s case, experts held that Depomedrol of 80 mg twice daily should not have been prescribed under clinical conditions. Though some use “quick acting” steroids for a short period, at the very early stage of the disease, they quickly stop the same to check side-effects. Her condition is said to have deteriorated because, in addition to Depomedrol (prescribed by Dr Mukherjee), she was given a new steroid, Pednisolone (40 mg), thrice daily (prescribed by Dr Chowdhury and Dr Halder). The specialists at Beach Candy Hospital were aghast at this patent steroid overdose on Anuradha by Kolkata’s doctors. According to them, a patient could be given not more than 40 mg Pednisolone, once daily, to be reduced to 5 mg within the next five-six days. More to the point, as the apex court has observed, the Kolkata doctors did not follow the universal treatment protocol for Anuradha. For a TEN patient, supportive therapy is imperative in character, but no such advice was rendered. Despite well laid down procedures in reputed medical journals, they failed to provide primary emergency care, symptomatic therapy, fluid replacement and antibacterial and nutritional support to Anuradha. Worse, the fact that AMRI did not maintain records of Anuradha’s vital parameters like temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, etc, was itself an act of “gross negligence”. Still, the apex court rejected Kunal’s petition to book the doctors for criminal negligence under Section 304-A of the Indian Penal Code. Charging a doctor under this section, according to the Bench, is very serious as it will affect his professional status and reputation and the burden of proof will be more onerous. It held that a doctor could not be held negligent only because the treatment resulted in the patient’s death. He cannot be held liable for “mischance, misadventure or for an error of judgement” in making a choice where two options are available. Even a doctor’s mistake in diagnosis cannot be necessarily construed as a “negligent diagnosis”, according to the Bench. Even under the law of tort, a doctor can be held liable in respect of an erroneous diagnosis only if his error is “so palpably wrong” as to prove by itself that it was callously arrived at. For imputing criminal liability on a doctor, a very high degree of such negligence is required to be proved, the Bench ruled. Interestingly, though experts had briefed the Bench and given their evidence about TEN and its treatment protocol, it ruled that the court was not strictly bound by the specialist advice as such evidence was only advisory in nature under Section 45 of the Evidence Act. The court must derive its own conclusion upon considering the expert opinion, it observed. The judgement is a watershed in medical jurisprudence because it not only put the onus on the doctors for the patients’ treatment but also laid down ground rules on the basis of its judicial pronouncements over the years. The doctors must observe the current practices regarding infrastructure, sterility and hygiene. No prescription should be given to a patient without actual examination. A doctor should not merely go by the patient’s version about his/her symptoms but also make his/her own analysis, including tests and investigations wherever necessary. Doctors should not experiment unless necessary and even then only after obtaining the patient’s written consent. The judgement reinforces a patient’s right to know. The Bench has made it clear that doctors must tell patients about the risks involved in any line of treatment they are following. By and large, patients are ignorant about the adverse effects of a medicine. If some reaction is anticipated, the patient must be informed. This was not done in Anuradha’s case. The Bench’s warning that whether or not a doctor kept a patient informed about the pros and cons of a line of treatment will be considered in every case of medical negligence hereafter is expected to serve public interest immensely and fill up the vacuum in this vital
discipline. |
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Married to the military
PERHAPS you would say that the correct English would be, “married into the military”. Well, we will come back to this later. First the military lexicon.
My marriage was taken as a casualty for my husband and so noted in his service record. Why marriage should be taken as a casualty! There appears to be an explanation for this affront to the wife. Lt-Col Roberts who commanded a cavalry regiment in the early part of the 20th century, records that Captain Williams, on getting married, never rode with the same dash and daring. That fire and fury diminished and there was less of action and more of reflection. So this lexicon seems to make sense. At age 35 he took command of his unit and was instantly called an “old man”. Well, here too there appears to be a rationale. In the old days, command of a unit came late and by then there was much silver in the hair and the “old man” adage seemed to fit. Since then this term has stuck. Mercifully no one calls wife an “old lady”. Soon after marriage we were separated. Not legally, but militarily. He was posted to a field area and I became a separated family. I could live in separated family accommodation, rejoin my job in the school and live in the hostel for the staff or go off to a seminary. There was the final option: live with my parents or in-laws. I chose the latter only to regret later! Above all, it is the term, “separated family” that gets my goat. Surely the military could work out a dignified and less offensive term! As a separated family you learn to be independent. Bring up children, attend to their education, their illnesses, do the household chores, live frugally on limited budget, attend to the repairs of your old jalopy and keep the faraway husband updated on the latest. Only time seems to run out in attending to the daily chores and coping up with all the travails of a separated family. Life in the military has its own excitement, thrills, joy and pathos. In all shifting from station to station after every two years or so, from living with the husband or separated, living out of suitcases or in large bunglows, the prospects of seeing new places and making new friends is the recompence of military life. Though living separately has a different set of perils. When after a visit to the canteen, while on leave from a non-family station, my husband told me that a young girl of about three years rushed to him and clung to his leg and called him “daddy-daddy” the alarm bells went off. I wanted to meet the mother and have a close look at the child! Of all the benedictions of life in the military, it is the bonding and the feeling of being part of a larger family which overshadows all else. It is the magic of regimental life and spirit that binds one for ever: in the most rewarding and fulfilling ways. The agonies of war time fears and exhiliration of home comings, and being on top in various peace time activities all add zest to life in the military. Bringing up children in disciplined and healthy environments, making them understand the value of simple living and watch them doing well are some of the rewards. Eventually one finds oneself completely immersed in the ways of the military and that is why I claim to be married to the
military! |
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Empowerment of women
IT is indeed heartening to know that the Central government has cleared a Constitution amendment to reserve 50 per cent of seats for women in all tiers of panchayats. The proposed amendment will increase the reservation for women to 50 per cent in zila parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats — at the district, block and village levels, respectively. This will go a long way in empowering women in the decision-making process at the grassroots level. Article 243D of the Constitution that currently provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in panchayats, will be amended to provide for the enhanced reservation. With the passage of this amendment, every second member of India’s village panchayats will be a woman. Already five states — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand — have 50 per cent reservation for women as the states have the power to bring in amendments in state laws to increase women’s representation up to 50 per cent. Rajasthan has also announced 50 per cent reservation to be
implemented in the next panchayat elections in early 2010. Kerala too has followed suit.
It all started with the 73rd and 74th Constitution amendments, when India moved towards a big change in the institutional framework of governance. With 33 per cent reservation for women at the local level i.e. panchayats and municipalities, it was a new beginning for women empowerment. Through participation in politics, women are making use of power and resources to bring about necessary changes. Water scarcity, education and prohibition are some of the important issues that have been dealt with by women. Potable water through a common tap has been introduced in
several villages. However, though the decentralisation process has come into force, there are structural and procedural bottlenecks still to be taken care of. These include poverty, lack of education, patriarchal mode of society, lack of financial independence and lack of awareness of political rights which hamper women’s ability to take independent decisions. Caste discrimination is another obstacle at the village panchayat level. Further, even if women are elected to the panchayats, they have to face so many other problems, including harassment and physical threats. In some cases men want to retain power by proxy, thus they coax their womenfolk to fight elections on reserved seats.
Women are under-represented at the political level in the central and state governments. In this context, we may recall that giving 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament has been pending for so long. At the societal level male dominance in Parliament, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the army and the police point to lack of political power in the hands of women.
It is often argued that women’s political leadership would bring about a more cooperative and less conflict-prone world. Lack of political and economic power adds to the subservient and unequal position of women. In order to create conducive conditions and open avenues for women’s political participation, we need a change in social attitudes and the mindset of civil society. The local administration also needs to be more gender-sensitive. Women’s political participation and empowerment issue cannot be confined to mere political rights. Education, social awareness and economic power are its important and basic components.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has argued that development is the way to provide capabilities to women to bring out their fullest self. Literacy,
health and other necessities are her basic rights and give her a chance to improve her position in the social strata by changing her economic status. This will go a long way in claiming
political power too. Laws may not remove structural inequalities but they can definitely assist social change. We need to bring about an awareness through education and work on the culture of non-violence and non-bias to achieve a just and equitable society. What we need are systemic corrections rather than limiting our success to individual cases.
However, the political empowerment of women at the grassroots level should not be taken lightly as this will lead to further development. Networking of women village panchayats is vital as this will lead to collective strength, a feeling of solidarity and a learning experience from each other. At present, women account for 36.87 per cent of the total 28.1 lakh elected panchayat representatives. On implementation of the revised reservation the number of elected women’s representatives at the grassroots level is expected to rise to more than 14 lakh. This will be another step in strengthening the democratic process in India.
The current enactment is indeed a landmark development. It may create new opportunities for women to be forerunners in economic and social progress. Gender equality is critical to the development process. It calls for creating opportunities for women to be part of this development process. Merely enacting legislation will not help. What is required is its proper implementation. Economic and political powers go hand in hand. To make inroads into male-dominated institutions, women need a level-playing field.
Political participation is not only a symbol of women’s development and empowerment but it also creates further awareness and mobilizes other
women to be a part of the political arena to promote their and societal
interests at large. The writer teaches political science in the University of Delhi |
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Israel has Iran in its sights
IRAN has until late September to respond to the latest international proposal But if diplomacy fails, the world should be prepared for an Israeli attack on Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons facilities. As Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently acknowledged: “The window between a strike on Iran and their getting nuclear weapons is a pretty narrow window.” If Israel attempts such a high-risk and destabilizing strike against Iran, President Barack Obama will probably learn of the operation from CNN rather than the CIA. History shows that although Washington seeks influence over Israel’s military operations, Israel would rather explain later than ask for approval in advance of launching preventive or pre-emptive attacks. Those hoping that the Obama administration will be able to pressure Israel to stand down from attacking Iran as diplomatic efforts drag on are mistaken.
The current infighting among Iran’s leaders also has led some to incorrectly believe that Tehran’s nuclear efforts will stall. As Friday’s International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran’s nuclear programs revealed, throughout the political crises of the last three months, Iran’s production rate for centrifuges has remained steady, as has its ability to produce uranium hexafluoride to feed into the centrifuges. So let’s consider four past Israeli military operations relevant to a possible strike against Iran.
In October 1956, Israel, Britain and France launched an ill-fated assault against Egypt to seize control of the Suez Canal. The day before, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles grilled Abba Eban, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., about Israel’s military buildup on the border with Egypt, but Eban kept quiet about his country’s plans. In June 1967, Israel initiated the Six-Day War without notice to Washington, On June 7, 1981, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak shortly before it was to be fueled to develop the capacity to make nuclear weapons-grade plutonium. Again, Washington was not informed in advance. President Ronald Reagan “condemned” the attack and “thought that there were other options that might have been considered.” A few days later, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told CBS News: “This attack will be a precedent for every future government in Israel. ... Every future Israeli prime minister will act, in similar circumstances, in the same way.” Begin’s prediction proved true on Sept. 6, 2007, when Israeli aircraft destroyed what was believed to be a North Korean-supplied plutonium reactor in Al Kibar, Syria. Four months earlier, Israeli intelligence officials had provided damning evidence to the Bush administration about the reactor, and the Pentagon drew up plans to attack it. Ironically, according to New York Times reporter David Sanger, President George W. Bush ultimately decided the U.S. could not bomb another country for allegedly possessing weapons of mass destruction. An administration official noted that Israel’s attack went forward “without a green light from us. None was asked for, none was given.” These episodes demonstrate that if Israel decides that Iranian nuclear weapons Should Tehran prove unwilling to meet the September deadline and bargain away its growing and latent nuclear weapon capability, we can expect an Israeli attack that does not require U.S. permission, or even a
warning. — By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post |
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Murky world of private security
PARANOID, competitive and fuelled by guns, alcohol and steroids. That is how one senior contractor in Baghdad describes the private security industry operating in the city’s Green Zone.
It was the world to which Danny Fitzsimons, a 29-year-old former soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia, and with an extensive criminal past, returned three weeks ago. Despite rules against alcohol, his ArmorGroup colleagues welcomed him with a drinking session. A fight broke out and he shot and killed two of them – a Briton, Paul McGuigan, and an Australian, Darren Hoare – then wounded an Iraqi, Arkhan Mahdi. He faces a premeditated murder charge and execution if found guilty. Mr Fitzsimons’s family is determined to save him and say he was suffering from severe psychiatric problems after a brutal career in the Army and in the security industry. But those on the ground hold little hope. Figures in the industry told The Independent that the shooting could not have come at a worse time. They are already resigned to Mr Fitzsimons’s execution and say that he is a tiny pawn in a huge, expensive and vicious game of chess. They say the private security business in Iraq is in a vice-like crush. The gold rush that began with the conflict in 2003 is drying up. Contracts are not as lucrative, the trend is towards employing Iraqis instead of Westerners and, crucially, the Iraqi authorities – for so long impotent when it came to controlling the armed men swaggering around their cities – are clamping down. “We are loathed out here. We are the single most hated entity in Iraq,” said Ethan Madison, a security contractor who has worked in Baghdad for five years. “They are going to hang him if he is found guilty. The Iraqis are desperate to put their foot down and make an example, say this is our country and we make the rules.” The big companies – including ArmorGroup – are fighting it out for a lucrative Foreign Office contract worth more than £20m and are determined to survive the fallow period in the expectation that within a few years the big oil companies will bring with them another cash cow. But just months after the private military contractors lost immunity, the Iraqi police are flexing their muscles. For the first time, foreigners are coming under intense scrutiny, compounds are being searched, licences checked and practices – such as blocking roads or banning locals from driving too close – banned. In this cut-throat industry, there is open astonishment that a man like Mr Fitzsimons, who had been sacked from two companies, Aegis and Olive, was hired again. “It’s a small world. It is easy enough to check on someone with a few emails to former colleagues. I get them all the time,” said a former Parachute Regiment officer. Despite assurances by the British Association of Private Security Companies that the industry takes post-traumatic stress seriously, few on the ground seem to care. Private security contractors live with intense pressure as they escort clients in the “Red Zone” or in convoys through Iraq. “Every car could be a bomb,” said Mr Madison. “There is a management attitude that, if you don’t want to do the job, there is plenty more where you came from. There is a divide, open loathing, between the management and the men on the ground. There is no loyalty. “It is a pressure cooker and you can see guys physically deteriorate. You watch people coming in fresh-faced and two months later they are snappy and irritable. It is constant, nervous pressure. It is a quite regular occurrence for people to die out here, although it doesn’t get
reported.” — By arrangement with The Independent |
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Corrections and clarifications
The headline “1-year jail for ex-health director” (Page 6, Sept.1) is incorrect. It should have been “1-year jail for ex-director of health”. The headline “Students fail to overcome red tape” (Page 4, Sept.1) should
have been more specific as in “Scholarship forms submission an arduous
process for students”. In the headline “Admn again moots deemed varsity status” (Page 1, August
31, Chandigarh Tribune) the word “seeks” would have been more appropriate
than “moots”. The headline “Theft on the rise on women special trains” (Page 2, Aug. 30) should instead have been “Thefts on the rise on women’s special trains”. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears thrice a week — every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections”
on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com. H.K. Dua
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