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Unfair US attitude
Concerns over currency |
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Why target one man?
Ends and means
“Lipstick” on my club
Victim of delays
Why Iran can’t be contained
Health
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Unfair US attitude
The
way the US has been behaving with India on matters relating to arrested Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley exposes once again Washington’s self-centred style of functioning. Had it kept India properly informed about the activities of Headley perhaps the November 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai could have been averted. The US shared some information with the Indian authorities in September and October 2008, but the LeT masterminds proved to be too smart and aborted their dirty missions on both occasions. As it appears, the US kept India in the dark about Headley as he had been helpful to Washington in gathering details about the LeT’s operations. But all that has come to the surface about the way the US authorities have been handling Headley reinforces the belief that he worked as a double agent — for the US and the ISI-floated LeT. The entire matter is a cause for grave concern for India. Headley, the Pakistan-born US national, earlier known as Dawood Gilani, was not new to the US authorities when he was arrested by the FBI in March this year for his role in 26/11. He made several visits to India and had been under constant US surveillance. He has a history of having worked for the US Drug Enforcement Agency. Headley began to cooperate with the US authorities after he was first arrested in 1997 on a charge of drug smuggling. He is a past-master in turning adverse situations in his favour. Reports of his cooperative behaviour after the FBI took him in custody should be seen against this backdrop. The US is reluctant to allow Indian officials associated with the 26/11 investigations to question Headley obviously because he may reveal facts embarrassing for Washington. This is being unfair to India. This country has every right to interrogate Headley. Propriety demands that India must be given access to Headley. Moreover, as India has allowed US officials to question arrested terrorist Ajmal Kasab, the US should also be forthcoming in the case of Headley.
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Concerns over currency
The
government has once again recognised that the problem of fake currency is “alarming and dangerous”. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has admitted in the Rajya Sabha that currency note security breaches have not been updated since 2005. One effective way of dealing with the menace of counterfeit notes in circulation is to periodically update the security configurations of currency notes to stay ahead of forgers. It is not enough to take a serious view of the situation, corrective action should be followed without delay. It will take at least two more years for the government to introduce new features in notes. Although Mr Mukherjee says it is difficult to quantify the counterfeit currency in circulation, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena had estimated it in August this year at Rs 1,69,000 crore. The RBI believes that the number of fake notes in the country is three to six per million, which is not an alarming figure going by global standards. The threat of counterfeit currency has become particularly ominous in recent years as it is used to fund terrorists. Investigations in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks have revealed the links between terrorist operations and fake currency operators. Apart from fuelling terror, the aim of the saboteurs is to destablise the economy by flooding it with fake notes. The government security agencies have traced the source of counterfeit currency to Pakistan. But it will not be enough to blame the neighbouring country if our own borders can be penetrated so easily. Evidence suggests that fake notes arrive in bulk from Dubai and Pakistan through Nepal Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The entry points on the borders with these countries need to be effectively guarded. Secondly, the RBI has suggested the installation of note sorting machines in all bank branches throughout the country. This work should be taken up on priority. Besides, an awareness campaign should be launched to help the public distinguish between fake and real currency notes. Finally, deterrent punishment to counterfeit currency racketeers is a must.
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Why target one man?
The
manner in which the Maharashtra government has been targeting the then Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor for the police lapses during the audacious terrorist attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 is most unfortunate. Home Minister R.R. Patil has announced that the government will take action against Mr Gafoor for his reported remarks against the alleged laxity of four officers on 26/11 that resulted in the death of three brave officers — Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar — who fell to the terrorists’ bullets. When it was a collective failure involving various agencies like the Anti-Terrorist Squad, the Intelligence, the Coast Guard and the National Security Guard, singling out one person for the whole mess is unfair. These agencies were clueless about the terrorist strikes. Worse, the NSG could not reach Mumbai promptly due to the delay in getting an aircraft. Clearly, accountability should be fixed on every agency of the government for the collective failure to enforce the standard operation procedures at various levels. The government has decided to table the R.D. Pradhan Committee report, which has pointed out serious police lapses on 26/11, with a rider that only 30 legislators of both Houses will have access to it. With the report having prematurely found its way to the media a few weeks ago, one wonders what purpose would be served by selective access. Senior IPS officers of the Mumbai Police need to work in unison to improve security. If they continue to trade charges it will send a wrong message to the nation and demoralise the police personnel down the line. Sadly, the government has failed to fix accountability on those responsible for providing a faulty bulletproof vest (which itself is surprisingly missing) to the late ATS chief Hemant Karkare. It would do well to concentrate on improving policing in the megapolis rather than looking for scapegoats for lapses.
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It has been well said that ‘the arch-flatterer with whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence is a man’s self’. — Francis Bacon
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Ends and means The shoddy and unconscionably delayed Liberhan Report — still unavailable to ordinary mortals in print — does not bring closure to the disgraceful demolition of the Babri Masjid. The debate in Parliament was polemical, with the BJP steadfastly obfuscating the issue and crudely attempting to drown the Home Minister’s response in the Lok Sabha with a raucous chorus of “Jai. Jai Atalji” on the ground that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had been insulted by a Congress member even after the offending remark was expunged and the member and the Home Minister both apologised. The many flaws in the Liberban report were exposed at length without detracting from his primary conclusions. Much emphasis was placed by the BJP on the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s responsibility. He was inactive and helpless on the fateful day because he was taken in by the solemn promises of the BJP leadership, including UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, to Parliament, the Supreme Court, the National Integration Council and the country until it was too late to intervene. The Taliban had made no promises to anybody when they vandalised the Bamiyan Buddhas. The BJP and Paivar ideologues used deceit. Neither act changed history or altered civilisational facts. Liberhan described the destruction as a deliberate, well-prepared and premeditated conspiracy by the Pairvar and not something done spontaneously by a frenzied mob. Vajpayee was not specifically indicted but named, as a leading party icon who knew what was happening but did nothing to discourage the event. What is expected of leaders is leadership, which was again found lacking in 2002 in Gujarat. Chidambaram lamented the lack of even a semblance of remorse or shame. Indeed Kalyan Singh and members of the Parivar asserted that there was nothing to regret. Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS chief, went further. Releasing a book on Partition in Delhi on December 4, he said the “division of the subcontinent would have to be undone for everybody’s good”. This is a highly inflammatory statement by one who appears intent on assuming direct control over the BJP behind the purdah of “cultural nationalism” or Hindutva, based on the enunciation of the two-nation theory by Savarkar, a father figure for the Parivar, as far back as 1927. What we are witnessing is a struggle for the soul of the BJP, to determine whether it should morph into a conservative, secular party or assume a more fascist and chauvinistic role. The demolition of the Babri Masjid was part of this on-going struggle. The Centre must expedite hearings on all the Ayodhya/Babri suits in various courts and work out an appropriate solution for what is essentially a political issue that is being used, like the Ram Setu matter, to invoke religious passions for political gain. The pandering to rank communalism in pursuit of vote bank politics — in which the Congress is equally adept — has resulted in hollowing out Indian secularism. One useful measure would be to revive a less political and bureaucratised National Integration Council with standing committees to discuss and advise on issues affecting communal and community relations. Even as the Liberhan saga was unfolding, Telangana came on the boil with Chandrashekhar Rao’s fast unto death. Such emotional blackmail must be severely discouraged as it bears no relation to Gandhiji’s fasts at a time when the country was under alien rule and recourse to democratic consensus building was not possible. If Rao can fast for his cause, so can others for the opposite cause or yet other “causes”. What then becomes of the democratic process? Though electoral support for Telangana has waned recently, the cause can certainly be canvassed. In this case, the means were wrong. The Centre was regrettably stampeded and has landed itself and the country in a pretty pickle. The answer to vociferous demands for new states unleashed by the Telangana contretemps is to appoint a new States’ Reorganisation Commission with fiscal, administrative and economic experts (not judges or politicians) to report within three to six months on what might be done and how. A case can be made out for Telangana on the ground that this could stimulate investment and employment in this relatively backward region. An autonomous development board for Telangana within Andhra could be envisaged as provided for Maharashtra and Gujarat under Article 371. But statehood has a wider ambit and could be far more effective. There is an optimal numerical and areal span for good governance and many states exceed these parameters. Small is not necessarily ideal, nor is big bad. India will attain a population of 1700 m in 50 years from now and could reasonably have 50-60 states, 1000-1500 districts and maybe 15,000 blocks for better and more inclusive participative government. Simultaneously, zonal councils and other aggregative bodies of a functional nature (railway zones, regional electricity grids and river basin authorities) could pull together different units for coordination and close cooperation. Some argue that Hyderabad should be made a UT. Why? The fact that it is an industrial hub and generates income is an insufficient reason. Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema could find or build new capitals, green field cities in a rapidly urbanising India. Having state capitals in metros is a nuisance. New York and LA or San Francisco are not the capitals of New York State or California respectively. In an expanding urban environment, building a new city entails no additional cost. So, we need to get real and not get into a tizzy over departures from the norm without forgetting the larger good or ends and
means.
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“Lipstick” on my club As I breezed in home with a swagger, a swinging club and a cheery whistle on the lips after scoring “ten birdies” and a “hole-in-one” at the morning golf — the good ol’ girl strangely growled. She came charging in like a single-digit handicap Pro about to Tee-off with the Big Burner. Had I strayed off course? “So you have been at it again?” “What …no, no, yes …uh a little” “What’s that lipstick on the club?” “Lipstick? What lipstick … just some ketchup that dropped on 7 iron” “Acha, ketchup … tomato sauce? Were you golfing with a samosa in hand or a gulab jamun? Or perhaps some other seductive sweet!” “Oh no, nothing, it’s just that one gets very, very hungry … rapacious, after vigorous nine holes on the course. So a little bite is not really such a sin.” The club came crashing down towards my leg like the lathi charge of a latterday Dyer! I ran out into the driveway to save my life, got into the car but it crashed into the gate. The rest is history. SMS messages on my cell phone fixing ‘four-balls’ to be followed by some all boys fun on the “nineteenth hole” have been discovered! Credit card bills paid for indulgences, indiscretions and acts of betrayal left carelessly in the pant pockets, have been found out as clinching evidence. More mess has followed. Loyal playing partners have phoned in revealing juicy details of binges after the game. Good old golfing buddies have turned from gentlemen into cads. The children too have chipped in with their mother as the suffering woman. Perhaps she is right. My annual medical reports had revealed that all the high caloried temptations and titillations imbibed as part of the game had shown up as bulging triglycerides. And as a caring partner through thick and thin, she had obtained a vow from me of food celibacy. As a dietician of and author of a weekly column on fitness — her professional reputation had been truly compromised. After much soul searching I have now decided to take an indefinite break from golf. I have even posted this on my website: “I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my overeating has caused to my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask for forgiveness. I am of course far from being perfect. It may not be possible to stop snacking fully while golfing, but I want to try. So help me God get out of this bunker.” Dear Tiger, you’re not the only one caught by the tail or
tales.
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Victim of delays Delivering a forceful speech in the House of Commons to warn against the prevailing atmosphere of indecisiveness in the British Government in 1936, Winston Churchill said: The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences. It is the appropriate time to remind these words of Churchill to the Punjab Government, which has become notorious for its indecisiveness. Had the SAD-BJP government not dithered, the recent incidents of arson and violence at Ludhiana and earlier at Jalandhar would never have happened. Half-measures, soothing and baffling expedients and procrastination on the part of the state government have made Punjab and its people face far-reaching consequences. The state is in fiscal dire straits. Social harmony has become so fragile that even small incidents lead to the burning of vehicles and violence. “Fire culture” has become a new mode of protest in the state. Whereas innocents bear the brunt of violence, planners and executioners of such crimes go scot-free. The state apparatus has become wobbly obviously because of the soothing and baffling expediencies of vote banks of political masters. At present there are practically two governments in Punjab – one led by the BJP is for the urbanites and the other led by the SAD is for the ruralites. Because of this urban-rural tussle all proposals with regard to the mobilisation of more financial resources have been rendered to a useless exercise. Conceding that there is a division on urban-rural lines, the government had to set up the Sukhbir Badal- Manoranjan Kalia committee to find the way forward to generate more revenue to meet at least the minimum bare fiscal needs of the state. The BJP has made it clear that till the facility of free power to the farm sector is withdrawn, no tax could be levied in the urban areas. For want of money, the implementation of central schemes has been held up. The development process has been paralysed. Punjab has money enough only to meet its committed liabilities such as salary and pension of employees and interest payments etc. Its projected revenue deficit for the current fiscal year is of Rs 4,233 crore and a total outstanding debt of Rs 63,217 crore. Besides, there is a debt of Rs 28,764 crore against the public sector undertakings for which guarantees have been given by the state government. Owing to the precarious fiscal situation, Punjab is suffering. Its education and health sectors have been hit hard. Schools and colleges are without adequate teachers. Imparting of below-average education has made Punjab youth unemployable in the national market leading to frustration and despondency among them. People, who have to depend on private public schools, have to pay through their nose. Medical colleges are in poor shape. Civil hospitals lack doctors, medicines and even bare minimum infrastructure required for emergency services. Diseases such as cancer, dengue and even swine flu are claiming lives. There is virtually chaos in the urban areas. There is no quality drinking water available in most parts of the state. People had a miserable summer as power supply eluded them for hours each day. Take any social sector, the performance report will be dismal except agriculture. These are the consequences of procrastination and delays made in taking decisions on vital issues such as mobilising financial resources. For the past two years, the SAD-BJP government has failed to decide whether it should continue the free power to the farm sector or not. There are about 10.30 lakh tubewells for which the government gives free power worth Rs 2,800 crore which means about Rs 26,700 per tubewell, per annum. The maximum part of free power is used to grow paddy that has been playing havoc not only with the health of the state’s soil but also has a devastating effect on its environment and subsoil water. Was it wise to give free power to grow a crop, the consumption of which in the state is not even 1 per cent of the total production and that is proving harmful for the overall health of the state? The question is worth pondering. In fact, farmers should be given subsidy to grow cash crops such as vegetables, fruits and set up ventures such as dairy farms instead of growing paddy. Punjab’s farm sector needs a new direction. There are about 2 lakh farmers, who don’t have tubewells and power connections to operate them. What has the government given to them? Was not it discriminating against them? And these are the farmers having small holdings, ranging from 2 to 4 acres. They really deserve subsidy or fiscal help. Do big farmers, who own four or more tubewells and grow commercial crops such as kinnows deserve free power? The number of farmers who own 10 acres or more is about 36 per cent in the state. Free power should be there but only for small and marginal farmers who do not grow paddy. What the state government has failed to realise is that in modern economies more important even than agriculture and industrial economy is the human capital. Punjab has a vast pool of young human resources. To convert them into human capital, the best course for the Punjab Government is to give free education to all from the first standard to the university level in medical, engineering and other fields. The government should pay the fee of every domicile student who takes admission on his own in any school, college or university. Punjab has about 30 per cent Dalit population but its percentage in higher education is just 6-8 per cent. Dalit families cannot afford to pay hefty fee to provide higher and professional education to their wards. One has to pay Rs 1 lakh as fee and other charges per annum for doing an engineering course in a private colleges. Even small and marginal farmers cannot pay such a hefty fee for their wards. After analysing figures one realises the gravity of the situation on the education front. At the primary school level, the number of dalit students in government and aided schools was more than 50 per cent last year. At the middle level the number came down to 40 per cent and it further came down to less than 30 per cent at high and secondary school levels. In courses such as B.Com and B.Sc, M.A and M.Sc classes the number of dalit students was less than 10 per cent. The figure of total students enrolled in M.Phil last year was 409 and the number of dalit students was 30 only – about 8 per cent. The number of students enrolled for Ph.D was 666 and only 18 (less than 3 per cent) of them were dalits. The number of students belonging to dalit and poor farmer families in public school is negligible. Investment by the state government in human resources will be more paying than in agriculture in the long run. Making wards of dalits and small and marginal farmers capable of earning their livelihood is a bigger cause to be handled by the state government than
agriculture.
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Why Iran can’t be contained Iran
is proceeding with an aggressive nuclear weapons program, and a few dogged holdouts notwithstanding, much of the Obama administration has come to terms with that reality. Official Washington has resigned itself to pursuing a containment policy that some argue will limit Iran's ability to proliferate, terrorize and otherwise exploit being a nuclear power. But it is wrong to think a nuclear Iran can be contained. The containment argument runs along Cold War lines: The price of breakout is too high; the regime cares only about power, not about using weapons; containment will be simple because the Arabs are so scared of Iran they'll do anything to help us; President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doesn't have his finger on the button. In fact, these arguments are either false or misleading. The Shiite regime in Tehran is far more skilled than its Sunni counterparts in the world of nuclear aspirations and sponsoring terrorists. A careful student of history, it surely realizes that the international community has meted out little punishment to nuclear transgressors. Tehran probably sees itself more in the mold of India, a great power whose nuclear weapons are acknowledged and now accepted, than of North Korea, a lunocracy without serious global aspirations or influence. Those Iranian officials who advocate withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty do so not because they see Iran becoming the Shiite hermit kingdom but because they think Persia no longer needs to be constrained by status-quo powers and their status-quo treaties. Advocates of containment and deterrence suggest that Iran will be encircled by a "like-minded group" of nations bent on raising the costs of adventurism. This absurd notion rests on weak reeds in Europe and Arabs deeply hesitant to act. And who can blame the neighboring Arabs? Egged on by distant powers to cut Iranian access to banking and shipping, they suspect they will be hung out to dry by the next world leader eyeing a Nobel Peace Prize. Worse, the common notion of deterrence is ill-designed for the regime in Tehran. Perhaps it is unfair to suggest that today's Iranian leadership is fashioned from different cloth than the Soviets; after all, we are often reminded that the doctrine of mutually assured destruction worked with the Soviet Union for half a century. But even the most ardent hawks have serious doubts about U.S. resolve to "totally obliterate" Iran in the event of a nuclear attack on, say, Israel – despite Hillary Clinton's threat, as a presidential candidate, to do just that. Rather, most see the usual hemming and hawing about "certainty," "provocations" and "escalation" as the far more likely rhetoric should such an event occur. And if we in Washington see it that way, why would the Iranians think differently? Many also scoff at the notion that a responsible Iranian leader would risk using or transferring nuclear weapons or technology. We are told that Ahmadinejad (who most acknowledge is crazy enough to use such a weapon) won't make the final decision. But the regime is remarkably opaque, and shifting power centers ensure that even capable intelligence agencies have low levels of certainty about decision-making in Iran's nuclear program. If our intelligence community's prognostications about Iran's reaction to the Obama engagement policy are any indication (apparently they predicted that Iran was desperate to talk), then it seems safe to conclude that no one knows whose finger will be on Iran's nuclear trigger. It is possible that Iran will amass enough fissile material to make a bomb and then choose not to fashion a weapon or test. But that is not the history of states that have clandestine nuclear programs, particularly those with advanced delivery systems and warheads. Advocates of a containment policy suggest that in the absence of effective diplomacy or sanctions that deliver results, the stark U.S. options are acquiescence or military action. Privately, Obama administration officials confess that they believe Israeli action will preempt our policy debate, as Israel's tolerance for an Iranian nuke is significantly lower than our own. There are few good options available to roll back Iran's nuclear weapons program. Nonetheless, after a year of false starts and failed initiatives, the Obama administration should be pressed to find a new way forward. At the very least, we must hope the president's new policy will not find footing in the false notion that a nuclear Iran can be contained.n —
By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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Health Widespread
overuse of CT scans and variations in radiation doses caused by different machines and different operators are subjecting patients to high radiation doses that will lead to tens of thousands of new cancer cases and as many as 15,000 deaths for each year that the scanners are used, researchers reported Tuesday. Several recent studies have suggested that patients have been unnecessarily exposed to radiation from CTs or have received excessive amounts, but two studies reported Tuesday in the Archives of Internal Medicine are the first to quantify the extent of exposure and the related risks. In one study, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found that the same imaging procedure performed at different institutions – or even on different machines at the same hospital – can yield a 13-fold difference in radiation dose, potentially exposing some patients to inordinately high risk. While a normal CT scan of the chest is the equivalent of about 100 chest X-rays, the team found that some scanners were giving the equivalent of 440 conventional X-rays. The absolute risk may be small for any single patient, but the sheer number of CT scans – more than 70 million per year, 23 times the number in 1980 – will produce a sharp increase in cancers and deaths, experts said. "The articles in this issue make clear that there is far more radiation from medical CT scans than has been recognized previously," wrote Dr. Rita F. Redberg of UC San Francisco, editor of the journal, in an editorial accompanying the reports. Even many otherwise healthy patients are being subjected to the radiation, she said, because emergency rooms are often sending patients to the CT scanner before they see a doctor. Whole-body scans of healthy patients looking for hidden tumors or other illnesses are also becoming more common, even though they rarely find anything wrong. The irony is that, by exposing healthy people to radiation, they may be creating more problems than they solve. CT scans, short for "computed tomography," provide exceptionally clear views of internal organs by combining data from multiple X-ray images. But the price for that clarity is increasing exposure to X-rays, which cause mutations in DNA that can lead to cancer. Scanner manufacturers are designing new instruments that use lower doses of radiation, but many older machines rely on higher doses. Machine settings for particular procedures, furthermore, are not standardized, and individual radiologists use the technology differently in different patients, leading to variance in doses delivered to the subjects. The highest doses of radiation are routinely used for coronary angiography, in which cardiologists image the heart and its major blood vessels to look for blockages or other abnormalities. Using normal dosages of radiation for the procedure, about 1 in 270 women who receive it at age 40 and 1 in 600 men of the same age will develop cancer down the line as a result, reported Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor of radiology and epidemiology at UC San Francisco, and her colleagues. For a routine head scan, 1 in 8,100 women and 1 in 11,080 men will develop a tumor. Patients should keep their own records of the number of scans they have received, question why repeat studies are necessary and even argue for other types of imaging, such as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to minimize exposure to radiation.n — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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