The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Mystery fire at BARC
There is no room for complacency

There is cause for concern over the mysterious fire that broke out in the chemical laboratory of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai on Tuesday in which two researchers were charred to death. According to the Director of the Chemistry group of BARC, Mr Tulsi Mukherjee, the chemicals in the lab were “non-inflammable” and the lab did not have any explosives. Yet, the fire erupted with “a loud bang” shattering a couple of windows, pointing to the possible presence of explosives. That the mishap occurred against the backdrop of a recent Intelligence Bureau alert which said that India’s nuclear facilities could be under a terror threat cannot be dismissed as inconsequential. Significantly, a former Director of BARC, A.N. Prasad, has been quoted as saying that it could be “some one’s” way of checking the preparedness of the nuclear centre in the backdrop of the intelligence reports of a possible terror attack. While the Department of Atomic Energy spokesperson S K Malhotra was emphatic that there was no “reactor, radioactivity or radiation” involved in the accident, that too is not enough to lull the authorities into complacency.

This is the third time in the recent past that a nuclear establishment in India has been the victim of mishaps. The first incident occurred at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka where a ‘disgruntled’ staffer allegedly contaminated drinking water with a small amount of heavy water. Routine urine samples from a number of staff at the plant were found to have elevated levels of radiation. The second incident occurred at the Tarapur Atomic Power Station where CISF personnel nabbed several people attempting to smuggle out some computer-related parts. That in the Kaiga incident investigations have hit a dead end and in the Tarapur one no deterrent action has been taken speaks for itself.

It is indeed imperative that the latest case of the fire at BARC not be taken lightly. After the forensic probe is completed, the authorities must get to the root of the incident and fix responsibility without fear or favour. Besides, there is no escape from a heightened vigil.

Lawless in Lalgarh
Blaming the Centre or the state is pointless

While expressing his satisfaction over an “eventful but peaceful year”, Union Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram admitted his disappointment at the situation in Lalgarh in West Bengal. The situation, he said on Thursday, was “pretty depressing” and admitted that even the presence of a strong contingent of central para-military forces in the area had failed to restore normalcy. Lalgarh first came to limelight a year ago following a landmine blast triggered by the Maoists and targeted at the West Bengal Chief Minister and the then Union Minister for Steel, Ramvilas Paswan, who were traveling together. The police crackdown that followed alienated the local people and within a few weeks, the Maoists forced the state government to retreat and the police to abandon their posts in the area. Emboldened, the Maoists encouraged local people to revolt and take law into their own hands. Local strongmen owing allegiance to the ruling Left Front were killed, their houses burnt and CPM offices vandalised. The CPM retaliated in kind and soon violence spun out of control, giving the Maoists a free run and prompting them to declare Lalgarh a “liberated zone”.

Central para-military forces with 6000 men were dispatched in June last year to assist the state police to enforce the writ of the state. But six months later, the situation actually appears to have worsened. There has been no end to violence. Police stations have been attacked, policemen kidnapped, para-military forces ambushed and people continue to be killed in the area. The state government is unable to control the situation, and as late as last month the government submitted before the High Court that it was unable to find civil contractors willing to work in Lalgarh. Even the forest rangers have been found seeking protection from the Maoists.

Lalgarh has exposed the weaknesses of the entire political and administrative system and the longer it remains adrift, the administration is bound to look more vulnerable. Tougher and more coordinated measures , and not a blame-game, are required to put an end to lawlessness and bring the culprits to book irrespective of their identity or ideological affinity.

Thought for the Day

Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides. — The Rig Veda

ARTICLE

Reversal of HIV infection
Distinct possibility of success in sight
by Usha Rai

Great strides have been made in the care and treatment of people living with HIV, and at the core of the transformation of the lives of those infected and affected are the positive people themselves. It is with great courage that they have come forward to acknowledge their status and do advocacy for those not so brave to speak up or even access the life-saving ART (anti-retroviral treatment).

From purely urban locales, their networks have spread deep into the districts, and small bands of trained peer educators are actually tracking down and bringing for treatment not only all those infected but also those who have defaulted from treatment.

The vice-president of the Indian Network of Positive People (INP+), Senthil, recalls that just five years ago in Chennai, a pregnant woman, who went for delivery of her child to a Primary Health Centre and declared her HIV positive status, was locked up in a room. Nevaprine tablets and a bottle of water were chucked into her room and from closed doors she was ordered to take it to prevent the transmission of the infection to the child in her womb.

Even when she delivered her baby no one came to help the mother or give the mandatory drug to the newborn. It was only when the complaint reached the district medical administration that someone was sent to cut the cord.

Now in South India, thanks to the strong advocacy of the positive people’s network, 75 to 80 per cent of PLHIV are not only able to deliver their babies in PHCs but also have surgeries too. But in North India the stigma and discrimination persists and accessing health, education and other basic services is still not easy. Despite the slow pace of awareness in the vulnerable states of central and north India, when 350 PLHIV recently got together in Delhi to discuss access to care and treatment, the hall resonated with hope and a new vigour.

The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria (GFATM), an international financing organisation, showed confidence in the joint efforts of the well-known health NGO Population Foundation of India, the National AIDS Control Organisation, the positive networks and their partners to commit $ 500 million over the next six years.

This puts an end to the uncertainty over the continuation of India’s ART programme in the six high prevalence states and the eight vulnerable ones as the current phase of GFATM funding comes to an end in the six high prevalence states next March. The government’s target now is to scale up to 375 ART centres from the present 227 that are currently giving treatment to 2.8 lakh people with the help of 256 Community Care Centres and 204 Link ART centres.

In fact, Mr Taufiqur Rahman of the Global Fund feels that with the current level of political commitment to the treatment of and support for PLHIV, India can hope so see a reversal of infection in the next six years. This unique public-private partnership of four years under the Global Fund has turned the infection from being considered a death warrant to a chronically manageable disease.

There is a woman, HIV positive for 20-odd years, who has managed without ART. Today close to 300,000 PLHIV have access to care and treatment. The second line of ART is available even if so far only a few educated, urban elite with the right connections have access to it.

So, how has the turn-around happened? The district-level networks (DLN) are the key to transformation. Some 283 DLNs have been established in 27 states. It is these networks of positive people that follow up all issues, whether it is availability of ART, stigma or discrimination or a close scrutiny on defaulters who are tracked down, counselled and persuaded to go back to drugs.

By 2012 another 220 districts will be covered by the network and by 2015, the entire country will benefit from the advocacy and service delivery mechanism of the DLN. Support group meetings are held thrice a month at the DLNs and there is a sharing of views, challenges and successes of positive people.

Despite access to ART, managing opportunistic infections like tuberculosis, malaria and hepatitis is a problem because the PLHIV have to go to other departments for treatment. The INP+ had to fight for ART, then treatment for opportunistic infections and subsequently the second line of ART. Not even a thousand of the 200299 people registered with INP+ are on second line ART. After being on first line ART for about two years, it is important to test the PLHIV for the second line ART. But there are just about 20 machines in the country for doing these tests.

The champions of the DLNs are the peer educators, all of them volunteers. They are members of the community who have been selected and trained for their leadership qualities, standing in the community and their communication skills. There are some 13,500 peer educators in the country and each of them is responsible for 10 cases or clients. It is they who are responsible for bringing back into the fold defaulters or those who have dropped out from treatment and care.

Between 2007 and 2009, some 5457 dropped out and 60 per cent of them were brought back for treatment. Those who drop out are those who are still scared of being seen at an ART centre because they have not told the family about their status. In fact, it is easier to trace defaulters in a village, where everyone knows everyone else, than in a city, says Senthil. That is how deep and strong the arms of the network are!

The kind of work done by the DLNs is best exemplified by the story of Ramoji, (name changed) 19, from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. As a 16-year-old in class 11 he suffered serious injuries in an accident and was in need of blood for surgery. His parents were poor and illiterate and finally ended up buying blood from an attendant in the hospital for Rs 100. Six months later he developed high fever and persistent coughing and was diagnosed as HIV positive. Ramoji’s parents then rejected him and would not let him into the house.

The Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre, fearing he may commit suicide, referred him to the Guntur DLN which assured him that he could lead a happy life like other members but would have to be on medicines. The DLN members even explained the infection to the parents and asked them to take him back, but to no avail.

The DLN then moved him into a religious institute where he stayed in the hostel and concentrated on his studies. After a few months he fell ill again and was taken by the DLN to Guntur General Hospital where they found his CD-4 count had dropped very low and he was put on ART. Back at the hostel one day, the religious head asked him to give up medicine and trust in God. If he took medicines he said he would have to move out.

Despite knowing the consequences of giving up medicines, desperate for a roof over his head, he gave up medicines. The next time he fell ill, his CD-4 count was 5 and his survival seemed difficult. He was in a care and support centre for 45 days and the DLN members ensured he did not default on his ART medicines again.

After he recovered, the DLN decided to make Ramoji economically independent. After training he was made an outreach worker and given Rs 3000 as wages. Ramoji stayed in a working men’s hostel, paying Rs 2000 towards his board and lodging. He has completed his 12th boards while working for the DLN and has now enrolled for his graduation through distant learning.

But the silver clouds on the HIV horizon need to be nurtured. There is scope for better governance and utilisation of funds coming to India.

MIDDLE

Frogs, snails and puppy tails…
by Aradhika Sharma

Mom… MOM”. My 16-year-old son bangs the door and comes into where I am fixing his milk in the kitchen. He yanks me to him roughly, gives me a careless kiss on my eyebrow and demands something ‘nice’ to eat.

“Cheese toast?

“Nah!”

“Popcorn?”

“No Mom, something exciting”

“Chocolate cookies? Rasgulla? Homemade cake?”

“Boring,” he said morosely and then a smile lights his face.

“I know! I want MAGGIE!” Then seeing my expression he says, “Don’t worry ma, I’ll make it myself.”

The old rhyme was true. While girls are made of sugar and spice and all that’s nice, boys are made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails. My boys manage to constantly shock, disgust and irritate me. The only reason I tolerate them is because no one will adopt them and well, let me admit, they make me laugh…and laugh…and laugh!

“Mom…MOM”

Does the boy think I’m deaf? “Yes boy, here I am two feet away from you.”

“Mom, smell this,” and he comes close to me and breathes out with all his might into my face. When I move my head away involuntarily, he says, hurt: “Mom, smell …smell please, then I’ll tell you why.” Fearing the worst (Cigarette? Alcohol?) I take a full whiff of his mouth odour.

“What?” I demand, backing off.

“Is my mouth smelling fresh? I mean a girl won’t be put off because of bad breath, will she?”

This is worse than cigarettes and alcohol.

“GIRL? Which girl?”

“Oh! No girl mom. Just asking.”

Sure; I believe that. Is it too early to talk about birth control?

“Mom…MOM…I need you urgently.”

He’s standing before the mirror, with the most tragic expression.

“Mom, where did THESE come from?” he says pointing to a rash of acne.

“From your dirty thought about girls.” I said heartlessly.

“Well, would you prefer that I was gay then?” He retorts while poking at his pimples.

I almost said that that would involve dirty thoughts about boys but desisted.

“Mom…mom… see the new picture that I took”

“Goodness! What in the world is it?”

“It’s the picture of a dead cat that I saw lying in the rubbish bin. One of its eyes was hanging out. I’ll show you the closeup”

How wonderfully aesthetically pleasing!

These conversations took place within the span of a week. The creatures bathe, brush and shampoo only because some girl may look at them. They talk only loudly, they watch all kinds of nonsense and exchange dirty SMSes, and they are totally irreverent and disrespectful about their teachers and parents.

QED: Boys are definitely made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails!n

OPED

Taming the terrorists
Poor deterrence and delays are today’s realities
by Kamlendra Kanwar

The recent report that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has turned down India’s request for extradition of terror suspect David Headley has caused consternation in this country. It is being surmised that Headley’s interrogation in India in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008 could prove an embarrassment for the Americans because he was purportedly working for US intelligence at one stage.

While this is entirely plausible given the record of US intelligence agencies, there is another aspect of the American refusal to extradite which we must not run away from. It has to do with the fact that the Indian legal system is slow, laborious, and prone to corruption. Cases drag on for years and years, and often end up in acquittals because of witnesses being unwilling to come forward and depose against dreaded gangsters and terrorists. Even when punishment is meted out, it is often not enough to deter criminals.

The Americans, on the other hand, mete out swift justice, and where guilt is proved, punishment is hard and deterring. American investigators have already indicated that Headley could be handed out a sentence of up to 300 years imprisonment. If that be so, it is ridiculous to say that Headley could be extradited after completion of his sentence in the US.

In the famous President John F. Kennedy assassination case, the man who killed the alleged assassin of the then President was sentenced to 500 years in prison. In India, though the Supreme Court has ruled in a 2005 judgement that life imprisonment must mean the remaining life of the convict, in effect most convicts are released after putting in 14 years, with commutation for good conduct.

Oddly, even those charged with offences relating to subversion often get away with no conviction or relatively light sentences due to lack of evidence and failure of the prosecution.

There was the classic case of a former alleged Khalistani terrorist who was extradited from the US in 2006 after a 12-year effort but was set free in April 2008 in all the three murder cases registered against him by Punjab police. Khalistan Commando Force activist Kulbir Singh Barapind alias Kulbira was acquitted by a Jalandhar court for want of evidence.

What was embarrassing for the Punjab police was that it failed to provide conclusive evidence before the court during trial against Kulbir Singh. In one case, he was charged with killing three brothers and the wife of one of them in a village near Jalandhar in September 1992. The family of the victims could not identify Kulbir Singh as the killer.

In another, Kulbir Singh was charged for the murder of former Akali Dal legislator from Banga, 45 km from Jalandhar, and three others in 1992. Here also, the case fell for want of evidence. He was acquitted in a third murder case in Phillaur as well.

Though there were cases against the alleged terrorist under TADA, the Punjab police could not pursue those as it had given in writing to the US courts that he would not be tried under any special law (like TADA) after his extradition.

Likewise, there have been cases of terror suspects extradited from Dubai to stand trial in cases of terrorism being acquitted because the prosecution case collapsed on the judge’s scrutiny in court.

The cold reality is that the shocking weakness of our criminal justice system allows dreaded terrorists to go scot-free for lack of evidence since protection to witnesses is inadequate and judges can be intimidated.

It is common knowledge that supercop K.P.S. Gill’s success in virtually banishing terrorism from Punjab soil was largely attributable to the large number of terrorists his police killed in ‘encounters’ which everyone knew were fake. During the height of terrorism in Punjab there was not a single conviction for terrorism because of the scare that terrorists had created around them.

Virtually the same situation prevails in Andhra where activists of the People’s War Group invariably go free even if they are nabbed by the police, because of the fear they evoke.

It is indeed not uncommon for ‘fake encounters’ to be staged by police to eliminate activists who would otherwise not be brought to justice.

The Mumbai bomb blasts case of 1993 was a high-profile case. That it took 13 years for even a special court to pronounce its judgment was in itself a sad commentary on our judicial system and our prosecuting apparatus.

With such inordinate delay in such an important case the message that goes out is of a soft state that is ill-prepared to deal with terror and terrorists.

Indeed, a part of the reason that the two principal suspects – Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon – are sitting pretty in Pakistan (they sneak out to other destinations only to return there), leading a life of opulence and grandeur, is the failure to complete the process of justice for such a long time.

India’s entreaties to the western world to put pressure on Pakistan to hand over Dawood would arguably have carried much greater weight had the conviction come about in proper time.

More than 29,000 people have died in terror attacks in India between 1994 and 2009. And all the perpetrators who were convicted for the dastardly acts are biding time in different jails at the expense of the taxpayers.

Chief public prosecutor in the Special Court for the 1993 blasts trial Ujjwal Nikam summed up the anguish of millions of Indians when he said: “It would be a mockery of justice if the death penalty is not imposed.”

Nikam was speaking after three convicts in the Mumbai serial blasts were given death sentence.

His anguish stemmed from the fact that India was yet to execute a single death sentence awarded to a terror convict despite the fact that from January 2004 to March 2007, the death toll from terror attacks in the country was 3,674, second only to that in Iraq during the same period.

The government has set up special anti-terror courts for speedy trial in cases relating to terror attacks, but once convicted the perpetrators move higher courts and claim clemency from the President. According to a statement by Home Minister P Chidambaram, 28 clemency petitions are pending with the President’s office and each one is considered according to its serial number.

Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted for the attack on Parliament in 2001, is one among many terror convicts, serving death row, who have appealed to the President for clemency. He was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004 and the sentence was scheduled to be carried out on October 20, 2006 but it was stayed. Subsequently, a mercy petition was filed which is still pending.

Likewise, one of the assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Nalini, is languishing in jail for the last 18 years with the death sentence passed on her awaiting the outcome of the mercy petition to the President.

One cannot but recognize that the criminal justice system needs an overhaul so that terrorists and hardened criminals do not get away due to the fear psychosis they create. At the same time, it is vital that justice be meted out swiftly and effectively with adequate deterrent against future transgressions of law.

Technology to heal a nation
by Daniel Howden

At ground level, stuck in Nairobi’s crawling traffic, the city can seem endless. But seen from the air the sprawl quickly dissipates, giving way in Ocean and to the north and east, beyond Mt Kenya, to the wilderness.

Yet it is in these remoter stretches of East Africa that much of the population lives. All across the continent, the vast majority of people live in rural areas far beyond the reach of even the modest type of modern medical care that is available in the cities.

The gulf in facilities between research hospitals like Kenyatta in central Nairobi and the handful of clinics in the semi-desert of Mandera near the border with Somalia is vast. But according to Dr Johnson Mussomi, it need not be unbridgeable.

The Kenyan physician has lent his knowledge and expertise to an effort to use low-cost modern technology to dissolve distance and bring “tele-medicine” to an estimated 30 million people across East Africa.

“It may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the phone,” Dr Mussomi explains, “or as complex as using satellite technology and video-conferencing facilities to conduct a real-time consultation in different countries.” In rural Kenya, telemedicine allows inexperienced doctors to liaise with specialist consultants many hundreds of miles away.

To put it more simply, in the words of Dr Mussomi: “It saves lives.” Computer equipment and training for the project are provided by the UK-based organisation Computer Aid, which is one of the three charities being supported by the Independent’s Christmas Appeal this year.

Telemedicine builds on the past success of the better-known Flying Doctors programme, which flew medics to a circuit of rural clinics to treat patients unable to reach urban hospitals. The new project aims both to make more efficient use of the service that Flying Doctors provides, and to open up the new possibilities technology has to offer.

For Dr Mussomi the project provided a reason to come home after 23 years practising medicine further south in Botswana and Namibia.

Speaking in his office at Nairobi’s Wilson airport, where he runs the Telemedicine outreach programme, Dr Mussomi recalls his own first experience of flying out of Nairobi and into the world in which many of his less fortunate compatriots live.

“It was a shock,” he remembers. “My first impression was of people neglected by their own government. The hospitals or clinics had been built but there was nothing in them.” He insists that making a real difference to what these clinics can offer does not require large amounts of money. “If you provide one computer, one scanner and one digital camera, it can change the whole hospital.” With some basic IT facilities, hospitals can produce reports which reveal everything from the number of patients treated, the diseases encountered, and the prevalence of malaria and HIV.

These statistics have radically improved the effectiveness of the Flying Doctors programme, allowing the medical personnel who run it to plan their visits more accurately.

As well as enabling clinics to order what they need when they need it, the “e-learning” programme has helped “to end the isolation of rural doctors and nurses”, Dr Mussomi explains.

The kind of problems the programme treats run from patients with cleft palates, which should have been treated when they were babies; to women who have suffered for years with urinary problems after childbirth for want of an operation that takes less than one hour to perform. “In the last year,” Dr Mussomi says, “these operations have been able to change the lives of 9,000 people.”n

— By arrangement with The Independent

An impasse in Iran
by Ray Takeyh

The mayhem that has swept over Iran in the past few days is once more calling into question the Islamic Republic’s longevity. Recent events are eerily reminiscent of the revolution that displaced the monarchy in 1979: A fragmented, illegitimate state led by cruel yet indecisive men is suddenly confronting an opposition movement that it cannot fully apprehend. It is premature to proclaim the immediate demise of the theocratic regime. Iran may well be entering a prolonged period of chaos and violence.

In retrospect, the regime’s most momentous, and disastrous, decision was its refusal to offer any compromises to an angered nation after the fraudulent presidential election in June. The modest demands of establishment figures such as Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, including for the release of political prisoners and restoring popular trust (via measures such as respecting the rule of law and opening up the media), was dismissed by an arrogant regime confident of its power.

Disillusioned elites and protesters who had taken to the streets could have been unified, or their resentment assuaged, by a pledge by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the next election to be free and fair, for government to become more inclusive or for limits to be imposed on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s prerogatives. Today, such concessions would be seen as a sign of weakness and would embolden the opposition. The regime no longer has a political path out of its predicament. Ironically, this was the shah’s dilemma, as he made concessions too late to fortify his power and broaden the social base of his government.

Another irony is that the Islamic Republic today is led by a politician as vacillating as the shah was. Khamenei’s forbidding posture conceals an uncertain personality. Like the shah, Khamenei seems reluctant to order a massive crackdown that would involve summary executions and random shootings of the thousands of protesters. Whether the regime’s security forces have the strategic depth and willingness to engage in such conduct is unknown. Thus far, the regime has opted for a containment strategy: unleashing Basij militias to beat and intimidate the protesters while arresting many of its former loyalists. Yet this not only fails to quell the demonstrations but also erodes the cohesion of the security forces who have the demoralising task of routinely confronting their compatriots. Meanwhile, as the movement continues to defy authorities, it is likely to become more radicalised.

Unlike in 1979, the clerical state today has had the luxury of confronting an opposition movement that is incohesive and lacks identifiable leaders. The candidates who challenged Ahmadinejad for the presidency, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi, seem more like intrigued observers than masterminds of recent events. This should be cold comfort to the regime, however, because the longer the movement survives, the more likely it is to produce its own leaders.

The most remarkable aspect about the events in Iran since June has been the opposition’s ability to sustain itself and to generate vast rallies while deprived of a national organisational network, a well-articulated ideology and charismatic leaders.

Put another way, the Islamic Republic has reached an impasse; it can neither appease the opposition nor forcibly repress it out of existence.

As the United States and its allies wrestle with the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, they would be wise to recognise the changes to the context in which their policy was framed. The Obama administration should take a cue from Ronald Reagan and persistently challenge the legitimacy of the theocratic state and highlight its human rights abuses. The Islamic Republic, like the Soviet Union, is a transient phenomenon. America’s embrace of individual sovereignty will place it on the right side of history as the fortunes of history inevitably change.n

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post