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Call from Bangalore First round for
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Murderous mindset
China flexes
muscles
Man for the
clean-up job
Blair can’t
really become President of Europe Railways’ mega
profits: How real? Health
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First round for Hooda
There
was never any doubt that Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would win the confidence vote in the assembly hands down. Having secured the support of
seven Independents and with the six-member Haryana Janhit Party of Mr Kuleep Bishnoi unwilling to join forces with Mr Om Prakash Chautala’s INLD, it was clear that the Congress would sail through. Interest would now centre on how stable the Hooda government will be considering that the HJC is still bargaining hard with the Congress and the latter along with the Independents add up to a razor-thin majority. Though Mr Bishnoi has in some media interviews indicated his preference for the Congress, a lot would depend on the kind of deal that is worked out between the two parties. That he and his flock of MLAs have dashed to New Delhi absenting themselves from voting in the Speaker’s election, the trust vote as well as the Governor’s address suggests that the real scene of action would be the national Capital. Now that the trust vote is over, it is surprising that Mr Hooda chose to pack the swearing-in of members, the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the trust vote, the Governor’s address and the debate on it, all in one day. By doing so, he has given his critics a handle to beat him with. The Governor’s address is traditionally prepared by the Cabinet. In this case, however, the Chief Minister has gone ahead with its presentation to the Governor even before the Cabinet had been constituted. The address is, therefore, evidently a product of the thinking of the Chief Minister and of his band of bureaucrats and not of the council of ministers. Now that it is confirmed in the saddle, the new Hooda government would do well to concentrate on good governance. While overall the pace of development during Mr Hooda’s first term was encouraging, there are certain grey areas where greater attention is required. Law and order, controlling prices, balanced regional growth, social reforms and education and preventing the so-called honour-killings by khap panchayats are some of the urgent tasks for the new government. |
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Murderous mindset
The
khap-inspired mindset will stop at nothing to punish the couples that dare challenge their convoluted notions of “honour”. So, it continues to extract a heavy price with a familiarity that is both benumbing and horrifying. In a nauseating familiar scenario, yet another young boy has fallen victim to archaic beliefs. Virender Singh of Mahara village in Sonepat district was allegedly killed by family members of the girl he had married in defiance of the same gotra diktat of the khaps. Once khaps may have served some social purpose in the administration of villages. However, in the 21st century khaps have come to represent regressive social attitudes that have become a political albatross in Haryana. Not too long ago a youth was lynched by the villagers at the behest of khaps right in police presence, thus making a mockery of the law-enforcing machinery. Besides giving ludicrous orders, khaps have repeatedly instigated family members who hound out couples. The fact that the couple in question had eloped three years ago proves their persistent ruthlessness. Even though khaps have no legal standing, these have become an extra-constitutional authority that enjoys not only social sanction but also political patronage. A senior Congress leader defended khaps on same gotra marriage and even called for changes in marriage law to accommodate their views on gotra norms. While the state government has all along remained a mute spectator to the khap’s unbridled power, other political patties too prefer to remain mum, refusing to indict khaps for fear of losing vote banks. It is time the state authorities gave up their inertia and punished the khaps. The state has to ensure that similar incidents do not recur.
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It is only that which cannot be expressed otherwise that is worth expressing in music. — Frederick Delius
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China flexes muscles The
mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, the People’s Daily, claimed on October 14 that the Indians have become “more narrow minded”. It accused India of “provocation” on border issues with China and asserted that as “nationalism sentiment” rises, the Indians are turning to “hegemony” in relations with neighbours. The People’s Daily called on India to give a “positive response” to China’s efforts to resolve the border issue. Pakistan was referred to as one of the countries suffering from Indian “hegemony”, as India allegedly sought to “befriend the far (United States and Russia) and attack the near (Pakistan and China)”. The Chinese conveniently forget how they colluded against India with the Nixon Administration during the Bangladesh conflict in 1971 and with the Clinton Administration after India’s nuclear tests in 1998. While China has relentlessly sought to denigrate and undermine India’s relations with countries in its Indian Ocean neighbourhood, even going to the extent of transferring nuclear weapons designs and knowhow to Pakistan, India has yet to fashion a coherent policy on the fears that China’s East and South-East Asian neighbours have of China’s efforts to dominate the Asia-Pacific region. Assured by the support it received after a visit by Deng Xiao Ping’s to Washington, China launched an unprovoked attack on Vietnam in order to “teach” Vietnam a “lesson” in 1979. Deng proclaimed that the “lesson” was meant to be similar to that administered to India in 1962. China again used force against Vietnam when it forcibly occupied the Paracel islands in 1974.There was yet another military engagement between China and Vietnam, when China occupied the “Johnson Reef” in 1988. In July 1992, China occupied Vietnam’s Da Lac Reef, establishing its first military presence there since the 1988 clash with Vietnam. China claims that its territorial waters engulf 3 million square kilometres out of the total area of 3.5 million square kilometres in the South China Sea. Given such claims about its ever-expanding maritime frontiers, China is today engulfed in maritime disputes with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan and both North and South Korea. Earlier this year, China complained about an “official landing” by Malaysia on the islands it had claimed. The same week, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a decree laying claim to two islands that China had claimed. In February 1995, China militarily occupied the “Mischief Reef” in the Spratlys Islands, which was claimed by the Philippines. A month later Philippines forces seized Chinese fishing boats and destroyed Chinese markers in “Mischief Reef”. Malaysia and Vietnam have joined hands to counter Chinese expansionism, by jointly submitting a proposal to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea questioning China’s claims and definition of its continental shelf. It is precisely such belligerence that prompts China’s Asia-Pacific neighbours to seek a US presence in the region. India would be well advised to seek a more wide-ranging strategic engagement with China’s Asia-Pacific neighbours like Vietnam and the Philippines in response to China’s policies of seeking to undermine India’s relations with its immediate neighbours. While intimidating its smaller neighbours on issues of its maritime boundaries by its growing military strength, China finds its quest for hegemony hampered by two large Asian neighbours --- Japan and India. It seeks to exclude the United States and India from regional forums by calling for the establishment of an “East Asian Community”. Concerned by such Chinese moves, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong asserted: “I think the US has to be part of the Asia-Pacific and the overall architecture of cooperation within the Asia Pacific”. This fear of Chinese expansionism is accentuated by the virtual paralysis in Japanese foreign policy in recent times. The Chinese have spread fears about a revival of World War II Japanese “militarism” and put Japan on the defensive by protesting about the visits of Japanese leaders to the Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to the memory of the soldiers killed in the service of the country. Having emerged as the largest trading partner of Asia’s three largest economies — Japan, South Korea and India — and a major trading partner of ASEAN, China appears determined to combine its economic clout and its military potential to emerge as Asia’s dominant power. Apart from using its maritime strength to enforce its territorial claims in Asia-Pacific, China now seeks to become a dominant player in the sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean. Hence its proposal to the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet that in return for the recognition of American dominance in the eastern Pacific, the Americans should acknowledge that the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean Regions as China’s sphere of influence. China’s growing belligerence on the border issue should be seen in this context of its determination to be the dominant power in Asia. Given Japan’s readiness to succumb to Chinese pressures, Beijing’s rulers see an emerging India, which shows the potential for rapid economic growth while being respected in the comity of nations as a stable democracy, as an irritant and challenge to its larger ambitions. The unresolved border issue serves as a useful tool to keep India on the edge and under pressure. China knows that no government in India can agree to its claims on populated areas like Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. One of the greatest failures of China’s Communist revolution is that despite the Han Chinese constituting 91 per cent of the country’s population, the Chinese are paranoiac and insecure about their ability to handle 9 per cent of their minority population in the strategically important Buddhist-dominated Tibetan Autonomous Region and in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang province, despite bringing in Han settlers to reduce the indigenous populations to a minority. Tawang is seen as symbolically crucial in Chinese eyes as a centre of Buddhist spiritualism. By laying claim to the whole of Arunachal Pradesh, China puts India on the defensive, diplomatically and militarily, and seeks to influence gullible sections of the public in India to “compromise” on Tawang. The Prime Minister told his Chinese counterpart in Thailand that India regarded the Dalai Lama as an “honoured guest” and a spiritual leader. Even as the dialogue with China continues, to maintain peace and tranquillity along our borders, India should not buckle under Chinese pressure, by reversing its decision on the Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang. Firmness, together with restraint in rhetoric, and not appeasement, is required for dealing with a growingly jingoistic
China.
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Man for the clean-up job Pakhana Pathak is what Lalu Yadav would invariably call him. It never failed to draw peals of laughter. But nobody would object because Bindeshwar Pathak , hailed as one of the heroes of environment-2009 by Time magazine, had indeed made a career out of shit. He himself put it differently. His mission, he would say, is to serve the cause of sanitation and free the country of scavengers. He once stormed a four-star hotel with a 100 scavengers and ordered tea for everyone. On another occasion he persuaded prominent citizens in the national Capital to each “adopt” a family of scavengers. The extended family, he explained, would celebrate festivals together and the better-off citizens would take up the responsibility to educate the lowliest of the lowly, thus imparting to them dignity, confidence and the ability to face the world. The public urinals he initially built were disastrous. There was no provision for flushing them and the urinals soon became impossible to use because of the stink. He then improvised public toilets on mandatory but nominal payment. This turned out to be a major hit and state governments bent over backwards to invite him. Recognition and awards followed. His critics accused him of making a fortune out of shit by misleading governments. Most Indian cities, they point out, continue to suffer from poor sanitation. The slums continue to be equally bad and while Pathak collects awards and addresses meetings at the UN, millions of Indians continue to relieve themselves in the open. Pathak’s own style made him vulnerable to criticism. He would throw lavish parties, distribute expensive gifts and would carry plane-loads of people at his own expense to witness awards he collected. He would also employ a string of retired bureaucrats. He would sometimes lament that though a Bihari, it was impossible for him to work in the state. People are jealous, he would tell me, and pulled down people who rose higher than their surroundings. “How can anyone allege that I take all state governments for a ride,” he would complain bitterly. I will, however, remember the day I was finally converted and became an unabashed admirer of Pakhana Pathak. I had just finished talking to him and had got up to leave. I had asked him several uncomplimentary, uncomfortable and hard-hitting questions and was in a hurry to leave. But Bindeshwar Pathak would have none of it. “You must have a cup of tea before you leave,” he said and offered to show me the photographs he had taken on a recent visit to China. I was resigned to seeing him standing on the Great Wall of China or beaming at the Tiananmen Square. But what I saw left me speechless. There were several hundred photographs of toilets, of Chinese men and women carrying human excreta and of Chinese farmers spreading the excreta in their fields with their feet. “We treat human excreta as something dirty but they treat it as valuable manure — it is a cultural thing, you know,” he explained. Anyone who goes to China and takes 300 pictures of toilets and of human excreta, I told myself, was, well, just
admirable.
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Blair can’t really become President of Europe
It’s like finding out your new boss is the PE teacher who used to thrash you with his belt when you were in the shower, or your local councillor is Hughie Greene, or having Black Lace move in next door and sing Agadoo every night. This is someone who made himself one of the most despised people in Europe, so loathed that Britain came bottom of the Eurovision Song Contest because of an orchestrated protest. So that’s the ideal President of a continent, the person who had even the judges in a music contest saying “Hello – Lithuania here, ooh what a splendid night and hard to choose between so many dreadful tunes, the only easy part is giving nought to the warmongering running dogs of poodle-boy Blair’s blood-soaked United Kingdom.” Anyway, isn’t he supposed to be Middle-East peace envoy? Surely he won’t want to give that up just while he’s achieving such staggering success in that post. But this appears to be what happens to him; he wrecks a place, then gets the job of uniting it. Even Bin Laden didn’t have the cheek to say “Aha, there’s a vacancy for President of the New York Tall Buildings Appreciation Society. I think I’ll put in for that.” In support of Blair, David Miliband said the post should go to someone who’s a “well-known international leader”, and who is “not a shrinking violet”. And it’s true, Blair fits into both those categories – as does Robert Mugabe. Or maybe this explains why Karadzic didn’t turn up for his trial – he’s busy planning his campaign, in which his slogan will be “I’m no shrinking violet”, at which point Austria will put forward Josef Fritzl as a compromise candidate. Blair’s supporters also say the new President has to be someone who “stops the traffic” when he arrives abroad. So the whole campaign revolves around his celebrity status. And in a way he is a political version of Paris Hilton, desperate for whatever role will keep up his global profile. If he gets the job he’ll probably arrange for the meetings to be covered by the paparazzi, so the reports will begin “Tony Blair, 53, seen falling out of Beijing’s exclusive ‘Long March’ nightclub, glared at photographers when they suggested he’d been involved in a flare-up with Colonel Gadaffi over a bottle of tequila spilt on the Libyan leader’s strapless snakeskin top at last night’s climate change summit after-party.” Because fame is his only selling point, unless the argument for electing Blair will be that, faced with today’s global challenges, Europe needs a strong voice that can speak up loudly in favour of doing whatever America tells it to. That may be why his only definite ally so far is Berlusconi. Which means if Miliband was honest he’d say “Tony’s the ideal candidate to unite Europe and America – in one continent he’s known as the most strident supporter of the most unpopular President ever, and in the other he’s endorsed by a man who at 70 can still surround himself with prostitutes. Top that.” In any case, many countries could be bankrupted after he’s flown in to stop the traffic, when they receive Cherie’s demand for an appearance fee. Typically, it’s claimed Blair hasn’t officially put himself forward yet, and the story has been derided as “only speculation”, even though he’s been lobbying for months. As ever, you almost wish they’d make more effort with the lying. But there’s marvellous potential here, since his main rival is the current Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, who said, “If called upon I would have no reason to refuse”. So can you imagine the feverish dealing and smearing Blair’s team will be organising against Luxembourg, with rumours being spread that they’re building missiles that could reach the edge of Luxembourg, and issuing hypnotic stamps. But it means this could end gloriously, if only whoever the people are who decide these things have it in them – to make Tony Blair, in his quest for the job he wants so so much, lose to the Prime Minister of bloody Luxembourg. Is there any way we can influence this? There must be bribes that can be made, like they do with the Olympics. Someone must come up with a plan – it’ll be the cathartic boost the country and the world so desperately needs.n — By arrangement with
The Independent
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Railways’ mega profits: How real? Media
reports during the third week of October indicate that far from subscribing to the theory evolved during the Lalu Prasad Yadav regime in the Indian Railways (IR) from 2004 to 2009, the Prime Minister has instructed the Planning Commission to “independently reassess the much-touted success story of the Railways”. What is more, in a letter to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, he has also asked the planning body to identify measures to be taken in order to bring IR on a par with the Railways in China, “which is far ahead, structurally and financially, than its Indian counterpart in a time-bound manner.” Not that Dr Manmohan Singh is not aware of the recent improvement in the financial health of IR but has pointed out that grounds for this were already in place before Mr Lalu Prasad took over. Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Railways, according to one report, is thinking in terms of levying a cess for financially unviable projects and asking the states to finance, at least partially, such projects. However, away from the possible conflict between the Railways and the Planning Commission, and pending the submission of a White Paper on the railway finances to be prepared by a team led by Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary-General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), what is at stake, prima facie, is the fate of the Rs 2 ,51,000 lakh crore Eleventh Plan of the Indian Railways. According to the October 6, 2008 report of the Standing Committee on the Indian Railways, the size of the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) would be Rs 251,000 lakh crore to be financed through internal generation of Rs 90.000 crore, extra-budgetary resources amounting to Rs 75,000 crore and gross budgetary support (GBS) of Rs 86,000 crore. (One may ,however, state here that the gross budgetary support, to be provided by the Ministry of Finance is not a grant, but a “loan in perpetuity” on which interest, called dividend, is to be paid every year by the Railways to the Finance Ministry. The Planning Commission, according to the Standing Committee report, did not agree to the high gross budgetary support of Rs 86,000 crore and had suggested more resource mobilisation from the private sector. This projection was subsequently scaled down by the ministry to a level of Rs 65, 000 crore, but the Planning Commission had approved only Rs 50,063.36 crore. Together with an estimated Rs 12,000 crore to be available for the National Projects (those fully funded by the Centre without taking recourse to the railway ministry’s budget such as the Kashmir
line), the total budgetary support would be Rs 62,063.36 crore. The 11th Plan outlay by the Railways, amounting to Rs 251,000 lakh crore, in reality has a size of Rs 2,19,717 lakh crore, the remaining Rs 20,000 crores being private sector investment. The Ministry of Railways now finds itself in a quandary regarding the financing of 109 new lines project of which only 12 have been found to be financially viable. The suggestion by the ministry for the states to finance the bulk of the unviable projects is unlikely to get support, given the poor financial health of most state governments. It is said that the ministry has now approached the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for assistance in implementing these unviable projects. One would like to recall, in the context of the present state of the railway
finances, the statement by former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad while presenting his last budget on February 13, 2009, that “I can proudly say that Indian Railways scaled a new pinnacle every year (since 2004) and now stand at the zenith of success from where, without imposing any burden on the common man, the Railways are set to establish the historic landmark of earning a cash surplus before dividend of more than Rs 90,000 crore in the five years ….This august House will be pleasantly surprised to know, that even in such adverse times the Indian Railway Finance Corporation in November 2008, has successfully raised a 10-crore dollar loan, equivalent to Rs 500 crore, at a rate of only 4 per cent from the international market”
(IRFC raises funds for acquiring railway assets, mainly rolling stock, and then leases them to the Railways charging hefty lease charges). One also recalls the hype caused by the release of the book, “Bankruptcy to Billions written by Mr S. Kumar, Laluji’s Man Friday and Officer on Special Duty, explaining how Indian Railways had achieved those pinnacles of financial glories. Both the Prime Minister and Dr Ahluwalia had issued statements on that occasion eulogising the success of
Laluji. |
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Health Children
should be taught about the importance of a good night’s sleep as part of the national curriculum, health campaigners say. Sleep experts say it is just as important as a healthy diet and exercise in ensuring children get the best out of their schooling. They add that children would be less likely to nod off
during lessons. Lack of sleep, they argue, can lead to an inability to concentrate in lessons – and, of course, falling asleep in the classroom instead of in bed at home. It can also make children irritable, causing behavioural problems. A survey of more than 2,000 parents by the Sleep Council published today reveals that nearly half did not realise that their children needed 12 hours’ sleep a night at the age of three. And fewer than four out of 10 were aware that teenagers need between eight and nine hours’ sleep a night. As a result of the survey, a petition has been launched on the Downing Street website calling for sleep education to become part of the national curriculum. Chris Idzikowski, of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, said: “Our education system must take this subject on board in a serious and “We teach children about nutrition and ensure regular exercise is part of their weekly activities but the third critical ingredient of a healthy lifestyle – sleep – is barely touched upon.” The survey showed two-thirds of parents (67 per cent) admitted to worrying about the amount or quantity of sleep their children got and 96 per cent agreed lack of sleep or poor quality sleep is damaging to the health and wellbeing
of children. It also showed that 80 per cent of parents interviewed recognised how important sleep was for a child to do well at school. Regular bedtimes followed by a comfortable bed were said to be the most important factors in getting a good night’s sleep. Other factors were a dark room, no gadgets, exercise and a nutritious diet. Nick Stanley, an independent sleep consultant, said: “Sleep is a basic and fundamental human requirement and is vitally important for good physical, mental and emotional health. “It’s crucial for memory, learning and growth which means it is necessary for children to get enough sleep.” The Sleep Council points out there is no mention of the word “sleep” in national curriculum guidelines while there are several mentions of the necessity to ensure a healthy diet and that children should take exercise. Jessica Alexander, its spokeswoman, said: “The lack of education about sleep and the factors critical to achieving the necessary quantity and quality must be addressed in schools as well as home if today’s children are to take the subject seriously.” Taking the subject seriously and instilling healthy sleeping habits into children could help a school improve its exam and test score results. Meanwhile new research out today from the Independent Schools Council shows the average cost of state education is more than £8,000 a year – rather than the £6,000 figure cited by the Departmental for Children, Schools and Families. The ISC argues the increased cost underlines the importance of its sector in saving the state the cost of educating its
pupils. — By arrangement with The Independent
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