O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

A sublime innings
Sachin has a tryst with greatness
India’s defeat by three runs on Thursday was one which not many talked much about. After all, Sachin Tendulkar had given them 175 other reasons to celebrate. What an innings he played on a day when Australia had hammered India every which way it could. A knock of 175 in a one-dayer is a wonder on any given day. It was particularly so under these trying circumstances.

Farmers vs housewives
Traders are running away with moolah
Farmers’ dissatisfaction with the hike of Rs 20 a quintal in the minimum support price of wheat is understandable. Since paddy did not give them the desired returns, they had expected to profit from wheat. But they need to understand that global wheat production is quite higher than demand and prices are low and will stay so if the Indian crop is normal.

Decks clear in Maharashtra
Cong, NCP must now focus on governance
It is a matter of relief that the Congress and NCP have finally struck a deal which clears the way for government formation in Maharashtra. That they dragged their feet for two weeks after Mr Ashok Chavan was re-appointed chief minister did little credit to the two parties and to the political milieu in which they function. It has become a pattern in states for work in the government to come to a virtual standstill in the run-up to the elections.

• Thought for the Day

ARTICLE

Shortcuts won’t do
States diluting SC fiat on police reforms
by V. Eshwar Anand
It is a pity that even after three years, the state governments have not implemented the Supreme Court’s guidelines on police reforms. Even the legislations enacted in 12 out of 28 states so far do not address the issue adequately because they are a highly watered down version of the directives.

MIDDLE

Spellbound!
by Raji P. Shrivastava
Mr A.N.Ray (of course that’s not really his name) entered the Indian Administrative Service with enviable academic credentials. His Oxford degree set him apart as did his dignified demeanour and scholarly stoop.

OPED

Keep Dinakaran out to save Supreme Court’s image: jurists
by R Sedhuraman, our Legal Correspondent
Never before has the legal fraternity been so agitated as in the wake of charges of corruption and land-grabbing against Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran, and rightly so. No one can find fault with it since at stake is the reputation of the highest court of the country and, above all, the people's faith in the judiciary.

Was Stalin really so bad?
by Megan K. Stack
When Russian businessman Yevgeny Ostrovsky decided to name his kebab joint Anti-Soviet Shashlik, he thought of it as black humor.

Turning a blind eye to doping scandals
by Ravi Dhaliwal
Recently, 5000m Beijing Olympic champ Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia called on the international athletics body (IAAF) to blood test the leading lights of the athletic world keeping in view the fact that several high-profile athletes like Javier Sotomayar and Merlene Ottey failed dope tests in the not too distant past.

EDITORIALS

A sublime innings
Sachin has a tryst with greatness

India’s defeat by three runs on Thursday was one which not many talked much about. After all, Sachin Tendulkar had given them 175 other reasons to celebrate. What an innings he played on a day when Australia had hammered India every which way it could. A knock of 175 in a one-dayer is a wonder on any given day. It was particularly so under these trying circumstances. India’s run machine not only crossed the 1,7000-run barrier, but also posted his 45th one day international hundred. The Bradman of the modern era now stands so tall that it is a privilege to have watched him play. And it need not be by going to a stadium. Even those who watch him on the TV can feel some of the greatness rub on to them. They will surely be telling their grandchildren some day what an adrenalin-rush a chubby youth used to give them in their time.

The country loves him so much that it expects him to score a century every time he goes out to bat. But that level of expectations can be scary, but expected of those who have achieved greatness. In the previous matches of the present series, the master blaster was faltering badly. Ironically, whenever he goes through such a patch, there are always sniggers that he is past his prime. After all, we not only like to deify our cricketers, but are also over eager to pull them down from the pedestal. But once again, Sachin has silenced all his critics with this immaculate, but measured and thoughtful audacity.

Sooner or later, even he will tire out and call it a day. He would love if someone — particularly from this own country — could break his sterling records some day. But his exploits are already the stuff legends are made of. His name will always be in the house of fame. Not only that, he has taken it upon himself to encourage and hone new talent. So, even when he is not there on the pitch, the boys who have looked upto him as a role model will carry his torch forward. Right now, he is very much there. It is time to stand up and cheer. Lustily!

Farmers vs housewives
Traders are running away with moolah

Farmers’ dissatisfaction with the hike of Rs 20 a quintal in the minimum support price of wheat is understandable. Since paddy did not give them the desired returns, they had expected to profit from wheat. But they need to understand that global wheat production is quite higher than demand and prices are low and will stay so if the Indian crop is normal. The country has 11 million tonnes more wheat than the buffer stock requirements. For want of adequate storage space, foodgrain stocks are stored in the open and exposed to rain and pest damage. At times of plenty, the government too plays like the average trader.

Despite comfortable stocks, the wheat prices have soared in the past one month. Media reports indicate wheat shortage with traders in the region forced to buy the grians from Delhi and UP. Consumers have been unnecessarily made to pay a steep price for wheat floor too. They are already facing the heat from potatoes, onions, sugar, eggs, pulses and oilseeds. The government recently sold some wheat in the open at Rs 1,300 a quintal, which has contributed to the price rise. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s unwarranted statement that high food prices will continue until the arrival of fresh produce may encourage speculators and traders to keep up the prices. Why more wheat is not released in the market to soften the prices remains a mystery.

By keeping the wheat MSP hike to the minimum possible, the government has annoyed the farmers. By letting the current market prices of wheat and wheat floor to rise, it has fuelled the housewives’ ire. Despite Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia not accepting it, the ground reality is the middlemen are taking advantage of the situation. One could accept if price rise benefits were flowing to farmers. They do need such boost occasionally. But why the government is letting traders, hoarders and speculators to fatten at the cost of growers and consumers is beyond comprehension.

Decks clear in Maharashtra
Cong, NCP must now focus on governance

It is a matter of relief that the Congress and NCP have finally struck a deal which clears the way for government formation in Maharashtra. That they dragged their feet for two weeks after Mr Ashok Chavan was re-appointed chief minister did little credit to the two parties and to the political milieu in which they function. It has become a pattern in states for work in the government to come to a virtual standstill in the run-up to the elections. Now, with political wrangling taking up so much time even after the elections, as it happened in Maharashtra and Haryana, that period of governmental inertia has got further extended. Vital decisions are put off for days together with damaging consequences for the state.

Clearly, the bone of contention in Maharashtra was the sharing of ministerial berths and the division of portfolios between the Congress and the NCP. With the Congress having won 82 seats and the NCP 62, mercifully, there was no dispute over the council of ministers being headed by a Congressman. The pressure tactics by the NCP centred around retaining the major portfolios of Home, Finance, Power and Rural Development as was the case after the elections in 1999 when the two parties first shared power and then in 2004. The Congress, on its part wanted a new power-sharing formula in which some of the key portfolios would come to it. That the NCP has finally succeeded in forcing the Congress to stick to the 1999 pattern is a measure of the intense jockeying done by NCP leaders. At one stage, senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal even held out the threat that his party may decide not to join the government but to lend outside support.

Now that a deal has finally been struck, one can only hope that the new government would get down to the business of governance in right earnest. The Congress and the NCP have much to do to justify the trust that the electorate has reposed in them by returning them to power for the third time in a row.

Thought for the Day

May your deeds be only righteous. — The Upanishads

ARTICLE

Shortcuts won’t do
States diluting SC fiat on police reforms
by V. Eshwar Anand

It is a pity that even after three years, the state governments have not implemented the Supreme Court’s guidelines on police reforms. Even the legislations enacted in 12 out of 28 states so far do not address the issue adequately because they are a highly watered down version of the directives.

The Centre cannot be blamed for the tardy implementation of police reforms. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram have done their best in impressing upon the states the imperative need for reforms. Moreover, the Centre has its limitations because police is a state subject and it is primarily the state governments’ responsibility to usher in reforms at their level.

Yet, it goes to the credit of Mr Chidambaram that ever since he took charge following 26/11, he has been working hard to tie up loose ends at various levels in his Ministry, strengthen the police administration and motivate the policemen. This was very important because the Union Home Ministry was virtually in a limbo during his predecessor, Mr Shivraj Patil’s dispensation. Mr Patil miserably failed to lead the team and inspire confidence in the policemen who were badly in need of some adrenalin to face the challenge of internal security in the context of the terrorist and Naxalite violence and march forward.

This largely explains the Centre’s delayed response to the apex court’s guidelines as far as police reforms in the Central Police Organisations and Union Territories are concerned. On September 1, 2009, Mr Chidambaram announced that police officials, above the rank of inspector, in New Delhi and all other Union Territories will get two-year fixed tenures.

In tune with the apex court’s guidelines, the Centre has also directed setting up of Police Establishment Boards in each Union Territory to decide transfers, postings, promotions and all other service-related matters as well as a Police Complaints Authority to address public complaints. While the Centre has made a good beginning, belatedly though, the state governments are reluctant to push reforms for the simple reason that the Chief Ministers do not want to lose their hold over the police. The powers that be have been using the police as a tool to harass their political opponents and serve vested interests. This is true in the case of every state irrespective of the party in power.

Sadly, no state is willing to usher in the reforms as all political parties are only interested in manipulating the police. It is widely believed that if an SHO, SP or DGP is corrupt and inefficient, he/she should be changed after duly recording the reasons in the file. But politicians have no right to interfere in departmental matters and in the investigation of crimes.

At the Chief Ministers’ Conference in August 2009, Mr Chidambaram deplored the manner in which the Directors General of Police were kicked around like football in the states — a reference to their frequent transfers amid political interference. In Uttar Pradesh, the average tenure of police officers above the rank of DSPs is just four months. Punjab and Tamil Nadu also have a very poor track record. Fixed tenure is a must for police officers on operational duties to promote efficiency and provide stability to the system.

In a communiqué to the Chief Secretaries, Mr Chidambaram has told them to give more powers to the DGPs. Unfortunately, though the DGP is the principal head of the police set-up in the state, he hardly enjoys any powers to improve and streamline the system. As he doesn’t have operational and financial autonomy, he is unable to have a say in administrative matters. The states would do well to follow his directive and strengthen the system.

Though some states have followed the apex court directives, they have resorted to shortcuts and left many loopholes in their legislations — a great disservice to the police and the people. According to a study by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi, no state has passed legislation that encapsulates all the Supreme Court guidelines in letter and spirit.

Only 12 states have set up State Security Commissions through legislation or government orders. These are Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Goa, Sikkim and Tripura. But then, these states have undermined the directive regarding the State Security Commissions which, according to the CHRI, suffer from a “skewed composition, limited mandate and curtailed powers”.

Interestingly, some states have put forth strange arguments to justify their non-compliance. Andhra Pradesh says that the establishment of Police Complaints Authority would “demoralise” the state police. Uttar Pradesh contends that the creation of State Security Commissions would “undermine” the power of the elected government.

True, 15 states have set up Police Complaints Authorities so far. These are Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Sikkim and Tripura. But it is doubtful how these can function as effective oversight and accountability mechanisms. Kerala has appointed serving police officers and Gujarat sitting MLAs as members of the district authorities. How would these authorities serve the intended purpose if MLAs and police officers call the shots?

Similarly, despite the Supreme Court directive that the Police Complaints Authority’s recommendation against a delinquent police officer shall be binding on the authority concerned, many states have flouted this in their legislations. Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Assam and Goa are the only exceptions. Haryana has refused to give mandatory powers to the State Police Complaints Authority. As most states have diluted the guideline, doubts have been justifiably raised about the efficacy of these “toothless” authorities.

In May 2008, the Supreme Court appointed a three-member Monitoring Committee headed by Justice K.T. Thomas, a former Supreme Court judge, to look into the issue of compliance on police reforms by the states and Union Territories. It reviews the compliance level in three states in each sitting. However, civil society organisations and human rights bodies are concerned over the lack of communication about the committee’s sittings which are not publicised in advance and can be obtained only from the apex court.

The Monitoring Committee has a two-year term and one does not know its track record so far. Is it able to persuade states to implement reforms? Civil society organisations wonder why the apex court has followed the committee route even though it has untrammeled powers to make states comply with its directives. There is a general impression that if the apex court does not crack the whip and pursue an aggressive posture as it had done earlier, the recalcitrant states will scuttle the whole move and refuse to fall in line.

The crux of the problem is that the police image has taken a severe beating today because of the states’ resistance to reform. The common man finds it difficult to file even a first information report because of the police inspector’s reluctance to help. Obviously, the inspector cannot afford to displease his political bosses and bureaucrats by showing a higher incidence of crime rate in his jurisdiction. In the process, the police has more enemies than friends and is also dubbed a criminal.

There are no shortcuts to reforms. The states need to implement the Supreme Court guidelines in toto, improve the police image and restore the people’s faith and confidence in the police. Along with governmental efforts, there is a need to enlist the support of the people, the media and the civil society for better policing. Experience suggests that good people-police relations always help check the crime rate in any area.

Community policing should also receive the attention it deserves. The successful experiment of Mohalla Committees in Mumbai launched during the 1993 riots by public-spirited individuals and dedicated officers like Mr J.F. Rebeiro, Mr B.G. Deshmukh and Mr Satish Sahani should be emulated by all towns and cities in the country for promoting communal and religious harmony, peace and understanding.

MIDDLE

Spellbound!
by Raji P. Shrivastava

Mr A.N.Ray (of course that’s not really his name) entered the Indian Administrative Service with enviable academic credentials. His Oxford degree set him apart as did his dignified demeanour and scholarly stoop.

His most famous idiosyncrasy was his obsession with correct spelling. He would twitch his lips in distaste at the drafts ‘put up’ to him by his subordinates and pretend to be very angry at the “shoddy work” he was forced to edit each day. But he endeared himself to all by using a collection of colour pens to add missing commas, delete unnecessary apostrophes and correct offensive spelling errors with painstaking zeal.

During the course of his 36-year-long career, he converted ‘roasters’ into ‘rosters’, transformed ‘qwerries’ into ‘queries’ and made ‘proformas’ out of  ‘performas’ with dreary regularity. He clucked his tongue over ‘seperate’, ‘eloborate’ and even, good heavens, ‘hallucidate’ ! Words like ‘Secretariat’, ‘utilisation’ or ‘acquisition’ were the usual suspects, till Spellcheck on the ‘Computor’ became a typist’s favourite accessory.

Nothing fazed Mr Ray though his PA once narrated with relish how the boss stoically ploughed through a note marked ‘Disposal of Condommed Vehicles’ — the proposal of a conscientious office that intended to ‘condemn’ its unserviceable jeeps through official procedure.

It was difficult for most people to understand why he did not accept the occasional – ocasional — occassional (well, whatever !) mistake in letters and notes sent up to him by earnest subordinates. After all, how did a few glitches matter as long as the text was understood by both sender and recipient! Such letters were written by busy people to other busy people who did not share Mr Ray’s enthusiasm for impeccable prose.

But for him, it was a labour of love and he believed in perfection even when faced with tight deadlines. The corrected texts were also works of art and could easily have fetched considerable sums at auction a few decades hence when spelling would have become as rare as the Himalayan glaciers – considering v r so mch in2 sms n jst lv d frdm fm splng n othr rstrctns! Alas, the drafts were destroyed immediately by sheepish juniors who thought it prudent not to expose their own ignorance to critical evaluation by posterity.

At Mr Ray’s retirement party, his brother officers extolled his virtues and delivered praise-laden speeches as is customary. One particularly sincere disciple recited a piece of poetry composed in the retiree’s honour:

“Sir, you have mastery of written idiom / it caused you so much tedium / You corrected our drafts / that brought you pain-shafts! / You edited our notes, / which were like sinking boats….” The rest was thankfully drowned in thunderous applause even as solicitous friends thumped a choking Mr Ray on the back and sang, “For he’s a jolly good eff-ee-ell-ell-oh-double u !”

OPED

Keep Dinakaran out to save Supreme Court’s image: jurists
by R Sedhuraman, our Legal Correspondent

Never before has the legal fraternity been so agitated as in the wake of charges of corruption and land-grabbing against Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran, and rightly so. No one can find fault with it since at stake is the reputation of the highest court of the country and, above all, the people's faith in the judiciary.

"If I were in his position, I will first resign and then commit suicide," is the extreme view of former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani. The sentiments of eminent jurist Fali S Nariman are no different. "I think it would be shameful to appoint him" (Dinakaran) as a Judge of the Supreme Court even if he was exonerated of the charges in the final analysis, he said.

Another apex court lawyer Prashant Bhushan holds a far more radical view. It is not sufficient to stall Justice Dinakaran's proposed elevation to the apex court or initiate impeachment proceedings in Parliament to remove him as the CJ of the Karnataka HC. What is needed is to make him face criminal proceedings like any other citizen of the country.

The views of these legal experts somewhat sum up the mood of the nation in general and those in the profession in particular. Participating in a show, hosted by Karan Thapar for CNBC-TV18's India Tonight programme, they expressed near unanimous views on several aspects of the Dinakaran episode, be it on the somewhat belated and unsatisfactory moves taken by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan or the five-Judge Collegium headed by him.

All of them are of the view that there is no point in conducting another round of inquiry, this time through an in-house procedure by appointing a committee of three Judges. "In a matter of this kind, it is not necessary to find proof of corruption beyond reasonable doubt. If there is a doubt about a Judge and his integrity that is sufficient enough to disqualify him even if the doubt is not substantiated," Jethmalani averred.

Even if the reputation of being corrupt is unjustified, the Judge concerned must stand disqualified for the "simple reason that every litigant who loses his case will always carry the impression that there has been something hanky-panky going on." Therefore, in the interest of justice in general and the institution of administration of justice in particular, it is necessary to appoint Judges with "impeccable reputation and integrity," he felt.

Nariman is of the view that the Collegium should have dropped Justice Dinakaran "long ago" following "substantial rumours" about him. Disagreeing with Jethmalani's suggestion that there was nothing wrong in the Collegium going through its "motions," he said he did not find any cause for natural justice in this. "The moment there is doubt" over the integrity of a Judge, "just drop him. There are 500 Judges of various High Courts in this country" who could be considered for elevation to the SC.

Asked about the ineffective handling of the issue by the SC Collegium, Nariman said, "It is much more. It is reducing the image of the apex court and I am concerned about the image. I feel very, very distressed that this image is going lower and lower."

Nariman felt that dropping Justice Dinakaran's name from the list of HC CJs proposed to be elevated to the apex court and pushing for his removal as CJ were two different things. "Of course, he cannot" be elevated even if he was finally absolved "if you want the image of the Supreme Court to remain what it is and has been."

Jethmalani said any person having some self-respect should resign on his own, without having to be told by the CJI as the only option available for the removal of a HC or SC Judge was impeachment.

Endorsing it, Nariman said: "I think he missed the bus. At the very early stage, he should have told the CJI, 'please withdraw my name.' And there would have been no controversy, no investigation." In the alternative, the CJI as the head of the judicial family could have told him to step down.

Notwithstanding all this, "I personally think, such a person cannot possibly enter the portals of the Supreme Court and if he does, the Supreme Court is not going to be the same," he added.

Asked how the Collegium and the CJI had emerged from the crisis that has been raging for two months now, Nariman said "very badly." The other two on the panel nodded in approval.

"Yes, I agree. They have looked very bad," Bhushan said, while Jethmalani concurred, "There are many things which prima facie do not look good."

Bhushan said the enforcement of the law that provided for prosecution of the accused could not be thwarted, citing a Supreme Court judgment in the Veerasamy case. The court had ruled that no criminal investigation could be launched against a sitting HC or SC Judge without the permission of the CJI.

Meanwhile, the Advocates Association of Bangalore has sought to mount pressure on Justice Dinkaran by calling for a boycott of courts on November 9.

The jurists, however, made it clear that they were not ready to give up hope. "Let us wait for the Collegium to take further steps and then we will draw our conclusions. We are quite sure that the Collegium will act right," they said.

So are the three crore litigants and their family members, estimated at more than 12 crore, and other concerned citizens who have been watching the developments in dismay.

Was Stalin really so bad?
by Megan K. Stack

When Russian businessman Yevgeny Ostrovsky decided to name his kebab joint Anti-Soviet Shashlik, he thought of it as black humor.

It was a little tongue in cheek, a little retro, a little nod to the old-timers who still remembered when the meat grill, across the street from the famed Sovietsky hotel, was known by just that nickname.

But it was also, in that ambiguous, extrajudicial way so common in today's Russia, a little bit illegal.

Three applications for an "anti-Soviet" sign were rejected by the city without explanation. And when Ostrovsky went ahead and hoisted one without a permit, a local politician warned him that he was insulting the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known here.

Then came the coup de grace: a crane and work crew, accompanied by police escorts. With a groan and a clatter, the government of Moscow erased all evidence of lingering dissidence against the bygone Soviet Union.

Ostrovsky hadn't banked on the burgeoning admiration and nostalgia for all things Soviet – a sentimentality tangled up with pride that has come about as the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin seeks to restore Russian patriotism and reawaken imperial self-regard.

"The authorities are just taking advantage of Soviet symbols and values to secure their own personal interests," Ostrovsky griped.

But the visceral attachment to the icons is also the consequence of a country that never quite shook off the shadow of the Soviet system. The world may regard Russia as a place distinct from the Soviet Union, but here in Russia, where government buildings are still festooned with hammers and sickles, there is an abiding sense of continuum.

"The same doctors, teachers, builders and steelworkers continue to live and work in the same country, and everything in our midst was built by the hands of people in the Soviet Union," Russian author Mikhail Veller said. "The state changes, but the country remains the same." The kebab house quarrel was one small battleground in a swelling war over identity. The unresolved question of how modern-day Russia ought to relate to its Soviet past continues to rattle through society, one culture clash at a time.

On Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took to his blog to decry the millions of Soviet citizens who died "as a result of terror and false accusations" – and to lament the revisionism that seems to blanket contemporary Russia's remembrance of its past.

"It is still possible to hear that these many victims were justified by some higher state goal," Medvedev said.

The president cited with dismay a poll in which 90 percent of young Russians were unable to name a victim of Soviet purges and prison camps. Russia must remember its tragedies, he said.

It was a striking departure from the general drift of the country, which takes a complicated, if not positive, view of longtime Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. But Medvedev, who often has provided a rhetorical softening to the ruling elite's hard-line stances, is regarded as politically weaker than Putin – and thus far, his more liberal statements have done little to change the Russian status quo.

Last month, a Moscow court heard a libel suit filed by Stalin's grandson. The descendant claimed that a lawyer had besmirched Stalin's "honor and dignity" in newspaper columns that referred to him as a "bloodthirsty cannibal."

In the end, the court ruled against the Stalin family. But the finding was cold comfort to many in Russia, who were appalled that the case had made it to trial at all.

The defendant, Anatoly Yablokov, said that even a decade ago, he couldn't have imagined being summoned to court for having written pejoratively about Stalin. Today, however, he wasn't particularly surprised.

There's no question that Stalin is undergoing a sort of renaissance in today's Russia. Despite the many millions killed or sent to labor camps during his reign, many Russians view his rule with a sort of hazy nostalgia. True, they say euphemistically, he made difficult decisions, but it was a time that called for tough measures. And at least in those days, they often add, Russia was powerful.

Others go further.

"The personality of Stalin is covered with lies and slander. There is tremendous injustice done to this person," said Leonid Zhura, a former government bureaucrat who spearheaded the lawsuit against Yablokov.

"The cynical position of the Stalinphobes is that only innocent people were kept in the gulag," he said. "Criminals who violated the law were kept in the gulag. And let the Western reader ask himself, should criminals be kept in spas or resort hotels?"

Meanwhile, Stalin's image and name, systematically bleached out as the waning Soviet empire began to grapple with its bloody past, are creeping back into Russian life. His name was restored recently to a Moscow metro station. His unmistakable mustached face beams from the wall of Soviet Meatpies, a kitschy diner downtown.

"This place is popular among those who are driven by nostalgia," said the diner's manager, Sergei Mogilo, 39. "And, of course, Soviet times were better."

And yet the trend is wider. Even as Stalin's image is burnished, many Russians are reconsidering cultural icons who were shunned by the Soviets.

Anti-Bolshevik White forces commander Aleksandr Kolchak, for example, is the subject of a popular Russian biopic being serialized during prime time on state television. Kolchak was reviled by the Soviet government, and attempts to rehabilitate him posthumously had been rebuffed repeatedly by Russia.

This autumn, excerpts from "The Gulag Archipelago" were introduced into the curriculum of Russian schools. The masterwork by dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn had been banned during Soviet times, the author himself hounded out of the country. The book remains among the most scathing depictions of Soviet prison camps.

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Turning a blind eye to doping scandals
by Ravi Dhaliwal

Recently, 5000m Beijing Olympic champ Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia called on the international athletics body (IAAF) to blood test the leading lights of the athletic world keeping in view the fact that several high-profile athletes like Javier Sotomayar and Merlene Ottey failed dope tests in the not too distant past.

In blood doping, fast catching up with Indian athletes, blood is withdrawn from an athlete, stored for a period of time and then reinfused. Following the initial withdrawal of blood, the body compensates by increasing the production of blood cells until a normal level is established.

Then when the athlete's stored blood is reinfused, a higher than normal level of red blood cells is established and the ability of the blood to transport oxygen is significantly enhanced.

Sports medicine experts opine that the “blood-doping” technique may be “elegant” in its simplicity but in the long run is “sinister” in its implications.

In this endless war against doping, where do the Indian athletes stand? The Sports Authority of India (SAI) lab in New Delhi is not accredited with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and hence has no legal sanctity.

By and large, the Indian mode and manner of testing is just a deterrent rather than a foolproof method to test and enforce sanctions.

Moreover, the rumour that certain National Sports Federations (NSFs) are allegedly hand in glove with the SAI laboratory mandarins simply refuses to fade away.

The Indian Weightlifting Federation is a body perennially in trouble because of the fact that top lifters, both in men and women's sections, are regularly being caught on dope by both the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA).

Moreover, fearing that they will have egg on their face, the top brass of the Federation very conveniently tries to sweep such scandals under the carpet. Nothing concrete is ever done and when a scandal does surface, a blame game starts in right earnest.

Some years ago the Indian athletics officialdom was caught napping when some junior athletes tested positive after a random checking. Instead of acting promptly, the AAFI thought it prudent to turn a blind eye.

This case can be compared to a situation in which a harmless looking tumour was slowly growing, was noted, but then ignored only to burst forth with an unanticipated intensity and malignancy.

The dope crisis in sport is just like the population explosion. It happened yesterday but everyone says it will not happen tomorrow. Some hard decisions have to be taken.

Do we continue to turn a blind eye to the clear violations of the rules? Or do we seek to exercise our ethical sensibilities and begin to end a situation – which some would say make them winners – but ultimately make us all losers. It is a challenge we must not sidestep.