The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

After Rashtra, Maharashtra
Congress bid to retain power in state

Maharashtra is one state where the Congress has been in power for full 10 years in the company of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar. That is a long enough period for the anti-incumbency factor to take roots firmly in any state. Both parties are aware of their vulnerabilities and that is why they seem to have decided to paper over their differences and strike an all-is-well-in-the-family pose. Why, they have even decided to launch a joint campaign and manifesto for the Assembly poll on October 13. It does not mean that there are no differences, but these have been prudently narrowed down because both know that any wrangling will hurt them both.

While the Congress is to contest 174 seats, the NCP has been given 114. They are planning to go to the polls with the theme of Rashtra ke baad Maharashtra (after the country, now Maharashtra) to hammer home the point that the alliance which has been looking after the country will also look after the state. The smart catchline also aims to blunt the Marathi edge of the Shiv Sena.

The biggest worry of the Congress is the demand by the relatives of many senior leaders for tickets. Fortunately for it, there is far greater bickering in the BJP-Shiv Sena combine over the distribution of tickets. There is a revolt in both parties, not only over the seats of one party being given to another but also over the selection of candidates. If former MP Pradeep Jaiswal has resigned from the Shiv Sena after being denied the Aurangabad ticket, in Ghatkopar West, the local corporator and BJP leader Pravin Chadha’s supporters have quit the party protesting against the candidature of Poonam Mahajan, daughter of the late leader Pramod Mahajan. The party says things will be sorted out but chances of that happening are slim.

Restoring mental health
It should get high priority

Health is hardly a priority in India and mental health is an abjectly ignored area. The National Mental Health Programme’s shocking revelation that there is a treatment gap of over 50 per cent in cases of severe mental disorders, the fact that National Rural Health Mission makes no mention of psycho-social disorders are worrying pointers. Clearly, India with a woeful patient-physiatrist ratio seems to have abdicated its responsibility towards its mentally ill patients that need utmost care and treatment.

Mental health is a significant measure of one’s well-being. If treated, mental health can take care of many physical illnesses too. According to a recent multi-centre study, nearly 15 million Indians are afflicted with serious psychiatric illnesses and another 30 to 50 million suffer from mild-to-moderate psychiatric problems. Yet the grandiose objective of the National Mental Health Programme to “ensure availability and accessibility of minimum mental health care for all in the foreseeable future, particularly to the most vulnerable and underprivileged sections of population.” remains largely unfulfilled. The government apathy is evident in paltry allocations and absence of political will to expand the mental health program at the district level. Despite 7 to 15 per cent children having significant mental disorders, there is no special programme for them. Depression and anxiety disorders are more common among women and many of them continue to suffer silently. Even otherwise fear of stigma dogs mentally ill patients.

To drive home the point that mental illness can be treated, education and communication plays a crucial role in the mental health programme and no compromise can be made on its budget. Besides proper institutional care and awareness drives, there is need for more doctors who can tackle mental disorders. Since only a miniscule percentage of the mentally ill need in-house treatment at a psychiatric facility, community and family support is a must. It is time mental illness does not carry a stigma and is viewed as any other health problem to be treated with equal urgency and care.

Thought for the Day

All our knowledge is, ourselves to know. — Alexander Pope

ARTICLE

Cut wasteful spending
Save money for infrastructure
by Jayshree Sengupta

With the kind of wasteful expenditure that the government visibly makes under normal circumstances all year round, it is hard to think of austerity. Huge amounts of money are spent by the government for foreign travel of ministers and their entourage. They go first class and stay in five star hotels abroad and have a number of big cars waiting for them to ferry them around, round the clock.

The embassies are not run on a shoe-string budget either and they are expected to pamper and look after the visiting dignitaries that include wining and dining and sight-seeing and quite often shopping. But it is still heartening to note that a parliamentary delegation to Greece and Egypt has cancelled its trip and two prominent ministers have vacated their five star lodgings after three months.

The government pays hefty amounts to lobbyists in the US and other important countries and finances posh seminars and conferences in five star hotels in India and abroad. But, perhaps, the most glaring wasteful expenditure is in the area of subsidies for the poor because instead of the poor benefiting, a chain of middlemen pocket most of the money by nefarious means. It doesn’t mean that the subsidies should be abolished, but that the governance and delivery system should be vastly improved. Subsidies will be needed as long as poor and marginal farmers exist in our agriculture and the very poor reside in our countryside.

Somehow corruption that has crept into the system is spoiling all efforts to uplift the poor, and though corruption exists in the rich countries also, it is most reprehensible in a country like ours where millions are visibly and genuinely poor.

The colossal waste and misuse of government money that has become a part and parcel of the government’s functioning and culture is very difficult to curb or eradicate. Perhaps, the only wayout is to have national and regional leaders as well as parliamentarians who are not corrupt themselves. This is sometimes not possible because the corrupt get elected again and again through their money power and the equally corrupt entourage clings to them in order to occupy high offices. It seems that the waste of monetary resources and corruption cannot simply be counter-manned by pledges of austerity.

Another huge expenditure that has crept into the system is the regular sops in the form of dearness allowance to the government staff. Recently there has been another 5 per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) for the government’s 8 million workers. No doubt, the government is keen to boost consumption because the slack consumer demand will prolong recession and an additional DA will also ease the difficulties of people facing rising food prices. The DA will cost Rs 4,355 crore to the exchequer. But in this case, government spending will boost sales especially of consumer goods and food.

As is known, inflation, as measured by the consumer price index for industrial workers, is in double digits today, reflecting high food prices, and perhaps it is the biggest blot on the government’s performance in its first 100 days. But the sustained consumer demand that has resulted from government spending has kept the automobile and auto-parts industry going. There has been a big rise in car sales though it is hard to explain why people are going on buying cars when the roads are so congested in metro cities and traffic jams are the bane of urban India.

In addition, the government has offered interest subsidy on farm loans as promised on account of the drought in many parts of the country. This would cost the government Rs 4000 crore. It has also offered to help people in their housing schemes which would cost the government Rs 1000 crore but benefit 1 million borrowers. Big giveaways are definitely going to earn brownie points for the UPA government and ensure the continued support of the people in the future also, but it may lead to problems on the inflation front.

Like in the past the government has a heavy borrowing programme ahead and is going to borrow Rs 3.98 lakh crore from the market to finance its fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent of the GDP in 2009-10. Recently the RBI chief, Mr. D, Subbarao, warned that this might stoke inflation. There would have to be a monetary policy tightening that would result in a rise in interest rates which would not be favourable to industry because, though the Indian industrial growth is showing slow signs of revival, ( 6.8 per cent growth in July 2009), there could be a slowdown. It would not be good for the export industries also which are suffering a setback for the eleventh month now.

There is already a fallout on employment, and if expansion plans of companies are further curtailed due to the hike, there could be more jobs lost. Thus there could be a reversal of the encouraging news that companies are on a hiring spree in India as compared to other countries.

Many would point out that India is now on its way to recovery and a relatively high rate of GDP growth of at least 6 per cent is possible this year ( India’s GDP growth was 6.7 per cent last year). The signs are that Sensex has picked up and crossed 16,000 level due to the huge inflow of $3.6 billion per month between April and July of foreign insititonal investor (FII) funds. This injection of capital has boosted up the stock market.

Since the beginning of 2009, FIIs have bought equities worth $8 billion because India and China seem to be more stable markets than elsewhere. But the problem with the FIIs is that they are unpredictable and the outflow can suddenly increase or inflow can slow down like in the week of September 2, 2009, with a mere $68 million flowing in, which is not even 10 per cent of the average inflows per week between March and July. In fact, there is now a worry that too much liquidity caused by a sudden surge in FII inflows may add to the inflationary pressure.

If the government does not curb its expenditure, especially of the wasteful kind, there will be trouble in meeting its important commitments on the infrastructure and social sector fronts because there has been a fall of 28 per cent in the indirect tax collection till July. A 20 per cent voluntary cut in salaries by ministers and legislators would help in releasing funds for the kind of expenditure the government is contemplating. Moreover, austerity is called for at a time when millions of people are not able to eat two square meals a day due to high food prices, and in such times, not splurging on unimportant things makes a lot of sense.

MIDDLE

The flying Baba
by Uttam Sengupta

He was intent on chewing baked corns from his paper cup when I spotted him. It was the Chandigarh airport and passengers were waiting for the hour-long flight to Jammu to arrive from Delhi.

He was juggling his cup, spoon etc. with one hand and his mobile with the other. A common enough sight anywhere but this young man drew attention because of his saffron robe that stopped at his knees. He also had a saffron headgear and I noticed he had canvas shoes on his feet. Another flying Baba, I reflected and promptly lost interest in him.

It was a small ATR plane and I had a window-side seat. I was amused to find that I had the flying Baba as my travelling companion on the next seat. He was clearly used to flying and buckled his seat belt without any fuss.

Unlike in trains, plane passengers do not start a conversation with rank “strangers” but the Baba provided an opening. As the plane took off, he seemed restless and craned his neck to look outside. Would you like to take the window-side seat, I asked and he nodded happily. We switched seats.

Sant Gurpreet Singh, I learnt, was 31 years old and was on his way to Srinagar. A disciple, a retired DIG, wanted him to visit his home at Anantnag. Curiously, his father was in the Army and one of his brothers, yet unmarried, settled in Italy. One of the uncles lives in Germany but the Baba was yet to travel abroad. “ They have not yet invited me,” was his disarming explanation.

A premature baby, he barely survived and his parents had pledged that if the baby survived, he would be given away to their “guru” Baba Balwant Singh. He had grown up in the company of the senior monk and now looked after the small “ashram” in Ludhiana after the “Guru” passed away.

Why do people come to you and how do you help, I asked. “ They come because they have faith. A father, for example, comes to confide that his son has gone astray and does not listen to him,” my companion said. So, what do you do, I prodded him, pray for them ? “ I tell them whatever comes to my mind,” he replied. I could not help grinning or asking, what did you tell the father ? “ I told him that every month he should take his son to the needy, an orphanage, old age home or whatever and donate whatever he could in the name of the son.” And that reformed the son , I asked. “ It did,” he answered gravely.

The flying Baba, it seemed, does not have an empire. No school, orphanage or hospital. “ My Guru forbade me from begging or raising resources,” he explained, “ He would say that you do whatever you can with the resources you have; and if you don’t have resources, you do not have to do anything.”

If you don’t do anything, I asked, how would you get disciples and how would you fly ? “ You have to be different,” he beamed. Pointing to his shoe, he said, “ see, this is made of cloth and made specially for me by a disciple; I am different.” Baba, you should have been in the marketing department, I teased as the plane touched down at Jammu.

“ I seek a favour,” he said looking into my eyes. “ If you ever write anything on me, please mention that my message to the people is that they should have the wedding feast or the party only a year after the wedding,” he said earnestly.

“A large number of youngsters come to me because they are unhappy in their marriage. They are not compatible. So, celebrate but celebrate only if you are sure that your marriage will last,” he mumbled as I hurried to the exit.

OPED

On energy, we're finally walking the walk
by Lester R. Brown

The United States has entered a new energy era, ending a century of rising carbon emissions. As the U.S. delegation prepares for December's international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, it does so from a surprisingly strong position, based on a dramatic 9 percent drop in U.S. carbon emissions over the past two years and the promise of further huge reductions.

Prominent among these carbon-cutting initiatives are stronger automobile fuel-economy standards, appliance efficiency standards, and the potential to heat, cool and light buildings with carbon-free sources of electricity. On the supply side are efforts supporting the development of U.S. wind, solar and geothermal energy resources.

Part of this decline in carbon emissions was caused by the recession and higher gasoline prices, but part came from gains in energy efficiency and shifts to carbon-free sources of energy, including record amounts of new wind-generating capacity. This impressive decline should enable the United States to push for a steep cut in Copenhagen.

For a country where oil and coal use have been growing for more than a century, the fall since 2007 is startling. Last year, oil use dropped 5 percent, coal 1 percent and overall carbon emissions 3 percent. Projections for this year, based on Energy Department data, show oil use down by an additional 5 percent, coal by 10 percent. Altogether, carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, including natural gas, dropped 9 percent over the two years.

The improving numbers on carbon emissions are not debatable.

Although Congress is considering legislation that would cut emissions only 15 or 20 percent by 2020, it's clear that with just a little effort, the United States could far surpass this. Given the potentially catastrophic climate change the world faces, we should push in Copenhagen for an 80 percent reduction by 2020.

Efforts to reduce fossil fuel use and cut carbon emissions are underway at every level of government and in corporations, utilities and universities. Millions of Americans are altering their lifestyles to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.

Despite the coal industry's $45 million annual budget to promote "clean coal," utilities are giving up the coal ghost. In July, Bruce Nilles, coordinator of the Sierra Club's national program to ban new coal-fired power plants, announced the 100th cancellation of a proposed plant since 2001.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, with a fleet of 11 aging coal plants and a court order to install more than $1 billion worth of pollution controls, is considering closing its John Sevier Fossil Plant near Rogersville, Tenn., along with the six oldest units out of the eight at the Widows Creek Fossil Plant near Stevenson, Ala. Altogether, about 22 coal-fired power plants in 12 states are being replaced by wood-fired power, wind farms or natural gas plants.

Utilities are facing falling demand because of the economic slump and advances in efficiency. The potential is evident in the wide variation among states, with some embracing energy-efficient technologies and others mired in old ones. The Rocky Mountain Institute calculates that if the 40 least-efficient states were to achieve the electrical efficiency of the 10 most-efficient ones, national electricity use would be reduced by one third, allowing the equivalent of 62 percent of the country's 617 coal-fired power plants to be closed.

Last year, 102 wind farms came online, providing 8,400 megawatts of electricity-generating capacity, the equivalent of eight coal-fired power plants. This year 49 wind farms were completed and 57 more are under construction. More important, 300,000 megawatts of wind projects (think 300 coal plants) await access to the grid so that construction can begin.

Oil use has dropped precipitously for several reasons, including the economic downturn but also the growing insecurity about oil supplies and consumer concern about future gasoline prices. Gasoline use will drop further as the fuel economy standards announced in May raise the fuel efficiency of new cars 42 percent and light trucks 25 percent by 2016. The trend is strikingly evident in the new vehicle sales figures for the first eight months of this year, which show a significantly higher average of miles per gallon than the vehicles sold over the same period of last year.

The really big gains in fuel efficiency will come with the shift to plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars. Not only are electric motors three times more efficient than gasoline engines, they make it possible to run cars on domestic wind-generated electricity at a gasoline-equivalent cost of 75 cents a gallon. As the low fueling cost becomes more apparent, the shift to plug-ins and all-electric cars will come far faster than most policymakers anticipate.

The melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau will deprive the Indus, Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow rivers of the ice melt that sustains their flow during the dry season and the irrigation systems that depend on them. China and India are the world's leading producers of wheat and rice; anything that reduces their grain harvests will raise food prices everywhere.

Previously, if countries resisted international initiatives, the international community could resort to trade boycotts, export embargoes or tariffs on exports from the offending countries. Bilateral penalties are also an option. The United States is, after all, China's largest export market.

But this situation is different because some countries are affected more directly by climate change than others and because an aggressive carbon-cutting effort attracts investment in the new energy industries. The two countries building the most coal-fired power plants, China and India, are among the countries whose food security is most directly affected by global warming. Smaller countries such as Egypt, South Korea and Japan can import half or more of their grain supply, but these two population giants cannot because the exportable supplies do not exist.

The answer to India's carbon-cutting challenge lies not only in wind energy but in the solar riches of the Great Indian Desert. The harnessable solar energy there could power the entire Indian economy. The new solar thermal power plants, which can generate electricity several hours after sundown, could wean India from its coal addiction.

Underlying the carbon-cutting question are: Where will the new energy industries be located? Who will be building the wind turbines, solar panels and highly efficient light emitting diodes? The countries that cut carbon emissions fastest will have a competitive advantage.

Stabilizing the earth's climate is a complex undertaking and fraught with risk. If the United States leads – and does so boldly – I believe the world will follow.

The writer is the President of the Earth Policy Institute

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Police officers as footballs
by S.V. Singh

Mr P. Chidambaram is one of the most articulate ministers. I had occasions to work with him closely in the Government of India when he was a minister of state in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Rajiv Gandhi government between 1984 and 1989.

He worked meticulously to strengthen the police and para-military forces through an increase in their numbers by improvement in their training and providing better means of communication and transport.

Punjab police officers of those days still remember with admiration his contribution in strengthening the police apparatus when the force was fighting the cost-challenging menace of terrorism.

Watching his performance then I had no doubt in my mind that Mr Chidambaram was cut out for higher responsibilities and greater contribution in nation building in the years to come. It was, therefore, no surprise to me that he took over the responsibilities of the Ministry of Home Affairs after 26/11.

His comments at the recent annual conference of IGPs and DGPs are very bold. He exhorted the senior police officers to resist attempts by the political bosses in the states to kick police officers as footballs by transferring them in season and out of season.

No Home Ministry has ever given such rebuff to the DGPs. In essence, the Home Minister asked the DGPs to measure up to the requirements of their jobs.

Political interference is not such a dirty word as it is made out to be. In fact, it is expected of all politicians to fight for genuine problems of the people. And duty-conscious officers at all levels should welcome it.

However, it is only illegal and administratively inappropriate recommendations which have to be resisted. Even the political bosses do admire officers who have the guts to say “No” to them firmly but politely.

But, unfortunately, quite a few officers develop an unhealthy nexus with the powers-that-be to enjoy plum postings. So it is not always the politicians who are to be blamed.

In the early seventies of the last century an IGP took over in Punjab. He was no example of a strong officer. He could not transfer a single SSP from any district. They were well entrenched.

But the IGP had to give an impression of his strength. So he issued a transfer list of seven-eight young junior SPs and gave a press brief of a major reshuffle in the Punjab police. Well informed people were, however, aware that the fact was otherwise.

In 36 years of my service in the IPS, I had 20 assignments. In the initial six years, I was transferred six times, each transfer involving avoidable personal hardships and was a completely counter-productive exercise.

The only time when I did a full tenure of posting at one station was as the SSP, Faridkot. But the credit for that should go not to the government of the day but to the extraordinary challenge of the first onslaught of terrorism facing the state between 1981-84.

The situation was first of its kind in Punjab and so the government did not find it appropriate to disturb me. But the day the peace returned after an unfortunate operation, I was not needed any more. As for the present and future challenges that lie ahead, I hope and pray to the Almighty to give enough strength to the elbows of IGPs and DGPs in the country to say “No” to the political bosses politely and firmly when the legal and administrative propriety so demands.

The writer is a former DGP, Punjab

Spare a thought for the “cattle class”
by Amar Chandel

Whether or not Shashi Tharoor should have made the “cattle class” remark is being debated endlessly, but the fact remains that his action has brought the term into currency like never before, at least in India.

The Union Minister of State for External Affairs surely cannot be given credit – or discredit – for coining this word. It has been in existence for as long as there have been commercial flights and is actually an oft-used description of the hardship the poor economy class travellers have to face day in and day out.

The sufferers themselves have used the term “cattle class” to draw the attention of powers that be to the sorry state of affairs, but that has not made any difference. Now that Mr Tharoor has popularised the word, perhaps someone will have some pity on them.

Indeed, insensitive airlines have been herding them into this class like cattle. Anyone who has travelled economy (who hasn’t? Only those on company accounts or ministers and others of their ilk who enjoy life on taxpayers’ money can afford to travel business class or first class which cost a packet) knows that the leg space is woefully inadequate there, and so is the size of seats, even on flights which last 15 or 16 hours.

If the person in front has tilted his seat backwards, you virtually have his head in your lap. Getting up and going to the washroom involves treading on many toes. Moving your legs can be an ordeal. In fact, deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), the formation of clots because of lack of movement, is widely known as the economy-class syndrome.

Only a few airlines maintain the optimum quality of air in the economy class cabin. Most scrounge, making it tough for the already harried travellers to breathe properly.

The quality of food is also scandalous for those condemned to fly economy. Airhostesses know that the men who matter sit up front and should be kept in good humour. Those in the economy class can go hang themselves.

As aircraft become bigger and bigger, getting into them can be as much of an ordeal as deplaning. And retrieving your luggage from the carousel can be a tough proposition as well.

If indeed the political holy cows travel the way common cattle do, they will perhaps be more alive to the woes of the aam admi. But ministers being ministers, they can be depended on to wriggle out of the hoi polloi category on one excuse or another. My hunch is that the VIPs will once again get themselves insulated from the cattle class after some time citing security reasons. But as long as they are flying economy, whether to impress the party bosses or to get good Press, they might as well spare a thought for the common man and do something for him.

One minister said that he could not fly economy because had to attend important meetings soon after reaching his destination. Did he mean that the non-VIPs have the luxury of sitting idle on reaching their destinations?

Another protested that he cannot fit in the tiny economy seats because of his tall frame. As far as we know, there are tall or fat people among the paying public also. Why has no one ever bothered that they also cannot fit into the impossibly congested rows?

Perhaps the anger against Shashi Tharoor is not for his use of the expression “cattle class” but to that of “holy cows”. However, isn’t it a fact that the holy cows have enjoyed numerous immunities in that capacity? In a typical display of Machiavellian cleverness, the holy cows have turned the common man against the minister who was inexperienced enough to break ranks with them. Cattle will be cattle and the holy cows will be holy cows, it seems.