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India-Canada N-deal
Tyranny of change |
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Saina shining
Implications of Kyrgyz crisis
Football frenzy
India has tremendous sporting talent but only a fraction of it gets tapped. Villages and towns lack infrastructure and resources. Efforts are afoot to locate and and embellish uncut gems. A look at two projects — a unique tennis story and a shooting nursery
Shooting stars of Badal village Corrections and clarifications
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India-Canada N-deal
It
has taken Canada 36 long years to realise that it was not fair on its part to accuse New Delhi of misappropriating Canadian reactor designs when India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974. This had led to the relations between the two countries getting frosty. Canada, along with certain other countries, imposed sanctions on India in 1998 after New Delhi went ahead with fresh nuclear tests to emerge as a nuclear weapons state. Now the situation has changed with the signing of the India-Canada Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Toronto on Monday. As a result, India will be able to get nuclear fuel supplies and the latest reactor technologies from Canada, whereas the companies engaged in nuclear trade in Canada will be free to participate in the growth of India’s fast expanding nuclear power sector. Canada is the seventh country to have entered into an agreement to do nuclear trade with India after the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008. Among the other countries are Russia, Britain and France. The historic deal with the US led to the powerful Nuclear Suppliers Group removing curbs on doing nuclear business with India, despite its not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. All this has been possible because of India’s impeccable credentials as a responsible nuclear weapons power. India, however, remains committed to the objective of nuclear disarmament. India’s efforts for access to the latest nuclear technology and uninterrupted fuel supply are aimed at increasing its nuclear power generation to meet the country’s rising energy demand. Nuclear power being the cleanest energy available to mankind, India has been on the lookout for all kinds of help to expand its nuclear power sector considerably. The civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Canada has special significance as it has vast reserves of uranium, besides oil and natural gas. The volume of trade between the two countries is too low despite a large number of Indians having settled in Canada. There is need to enhance their relations in all areas, including trade and industry.
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Tyranny of change
There
is an apparent spurt in the incidents of “honour killing” in the recent past with the latest victims being two minor girls from Sonepat in Haryana. The suspects in this case include the girls’ grandmother and two uncles. What drives otherwise normal citizens to kill their own near and dear ones has to be seen in the peculiar social context in northern states in general and Haryana in particular where a marriage within the same gotra or outside one’s caste invites strong social disapproval, forcing members of a close-knit rural society to resort to what has come to be known as “honour killings”. Murders in the name of honour have also taken place in countries like Syria, Jordan and Pakistan. Some countries had even allowed killings for adultery and incest. As barriers crumble and awareness spreads, change has set in rather too soon, too fast, reshaping attitudes and unsettling relationships. Mindsets in comparatively stagnant rural societies, however, take time to change. Educated youngsters, no longer dependent on parents for a living, turn defiant and assert their right to choose their life partner. Proponents of the social establishment feel threatened and some react violently. Because of widespread social sanction, honour deaths still do not provoke the kind of revulsion that the murder of innocence usually does. It is the media that has brought the issue to centre-stage. The Supreme Court too has stepped in effectively and asked the Centre and states to react to the charge of being mute spectators to the “mass frenzy”. It is the politician who has let society down. He has not come out openly and strongly against the khap panchayats doling out medieval justice. That is because the khaps can influence votes. If the political class dithers, the police too turns lenient in enforcing the rule of law. Law-breakers get away with murder. Hence, the mayhem in Haryana.
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Saina shining
June
has been a dream month for Saina Nehwal. She won the Indian Open Grand Prix Gold title on the second Sunday and then followed it up with the Singapore Open Series Tournament and the Indonesia Open. That makes her only the second Indian to win three international events in a row, the first being Prakash Padukone in 1980. The 20-year-old girl from Hisar now has the unique distinction of being the first Indian shuttler to bag three Super Series titles, an achievement which may become the touchstone for all badminton players to come. When the Indian ace downed Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in the final of the Indonesia Open on Sunday, it was her 15th consecutive match win and speaks volumes about her mettle. She has already bagged 15 titles in her short career. Her fighting spirit comes out loud and clear in all these facile wins. What is all the more creditable is that she has maintained a level head despite all the adulation that has started coming her way. Like her coach Pullela Gopichand, she is not a flamboyant person and retains her cool in all situations. Her humility and sobriety showcase her undoubted talent all the more gloriously. Saina was 18th in world rankings just two years ago but has risen by leaps and bounds to be number three now. The win in Jakarta will not improve her rankings because she only defended points she had won by clinching the title last year, but she has it in her to be the world number one some day. The top spot may have seemed impossible to achieve till last year but is now well within reach. She is ready to have a shy at it. A lot is expected from her in the Paris World Championship and the Delhi Commonwealth Games.
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Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better. — Samuel Johnson
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Implications of Kyrgyz crisis
The
violence in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, which has claimed a large number of lives, threatens to create regional insecurity. The UN has called on the government of President Rosa Otunbaeva to control the unrest. Socio-economic and ethnic divisions, authoritarian stratagems, misgovernance, corruption and the cynicism of Russia and the US are all inextricably intertwined and could contribute to the country becoming a failed state and a source of regional tensions. Kyrgyzstan has had the misfortune of being under authoritarian rule under the Czarist empire after the mid-nineteenth century, then as part of the Soviet Union, and after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 under corrupt strongmen, who rigged elections to come to power. Not even Askar Akayev, its first post-Soviet, relatively liberal first President, provided decent governance or economic progress. The corruption of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who came to power in 2005, did not matter to either the US or Russia, both of which had military bases there. Indeed, the American base in Manas was run by Bakiyev’s son Maksim, who was notoriously corrupt. Apparently the US, while preaching democracy, human rights and good governance, turned a blind eye to Bakiyev’s corruption because its troops could be transported via Manas to Afghanistan. Now, neither Russia nor the US can or will do anything to help restore order in the country. At another level, authoritarian rulers, by their nature, do not govern by consensus, and in multi-ethnic societies they have always devised a variety of stratagems to divide and rule between communities, making for weak states. This is certainly true of Kyrgyzstan. The history of economic and ethnic divisions has contributed in a large measure to the ongoing unrest. Russians were moved to the area in the 19th century by the Czars and then by Stalin in the 1930s. Under Stalin, the Kyrgyz language was russified, with Cyrillic replacing the Turkic alphabet, and Russian became the official lingua franca. Russians dominated lucrative political and financial posts. In southern Kyrgyzstan, in Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, the Uzbek — 13 per cent of the Kyrgyzstan’s population but a majority in Osh — represented wealth and commerce and controlled 80 per cent of the country’s trade. Disputes over land and water resources were common causes of violent conflict after 1990 when the Kyrgyz demanded land on which to settle their families on land dominated by Uzbeks. Kyrgyz political parties demanded the use of their language, which after independence, became the official language, scaring the Russians and provoking Uzbek demands for an autonomous Uzbek homeland in the Osh area. The Kyrgyz leaders rejected these demands. Kyrgyzstan’s Uzbeks then sought unification with neighbouring Uzbekistan, which heightened ethnic tensions. The immediate causes of the violence which led to Bakiyev’s overthrow in April were a sharp increase in the price of energy in January this year at the height of a freezing winter. Then on April 1, Russia announced a rise in fuel prices to Kyrgyzstan, causing many people to fear greater economic hardship. Anger against the corrupt and undemocratic Bakiyev regime spread and the Kyrgyz rose in revolt — on April 7 — against Bakiyev and forced him out of office. The protestors were inspired by the need to survive. They do not appear to be inspired by revolutionary or ideological ideals. They endorsed the populist Bakiyev in 2005 and threw him out because his authoritarianism and corruption had worsened their plight. Following Bakiyev’s overthrow, Otunbaeva’s government responded by pulling down the prices for water, electricity and heating back to the levels of 2009, and announced plans for a new democratic constitution. That was not enough to contain the unrest. On April 19, large groups of the Kyrgyz attempted to seize plots of land belonging to a Turkic minority group on the outskirts of the capital, Bishkek. Driven by survival instincts and for scarce land, poor Kyrgyz slum-dwellers ignored government and communal appeals for national unity and ethnic tolerance. Land grabbing seemed more desirable. Easy targets, such as Bakiyev’s family homes in Osh, were also looted and occupied. UN sources say that the violence was organised: some think it has been instigated by supporters of Bakiyev. As violence spread, privileged Russians started leaving the country; and more than 150,000 Uzbeks have lost and fled their homes. There are two outstanding factors in the Kyrgyz crisis that could become regional security risks. The first is that ethnic tensions could explode into a conflict with neighbouring Uzbekistan. From Tashkent, the Uzbek government, led by another corrupt strongman, President Islam Karimov, has frequently accused Kyrgyzstan of harbouring radical Islamic militants. Uzbeks are the dominant ethnic group in the Osh area, and ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, involving the Uzbek community, could reinforce Uzbek nationalism. This in turn could lead to a questioning of Kyrgyzstan’s current international borders and legitimacy. Kyrgyzstan’s Central Asian neighbours also fear a revival of jihadism. In the late 1990s, Islamist guerrillas based in the mountainous region of southern Kyrgyzstan initiated attacks deep inside Uzbekistan. The spread of Taliban activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the increasing reliance of NATO forces on the supply lines passing through Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) make it possible that instability can increase in the region especially if the Kyrgyz state is unable to control its own territory, at a time when Pakistani-sponsored Taliban violence in growing in Afghanistan. Neither Russia’s toothless Collective Security Treaty Origanisation, which includes Kyrgyzstan, nor the Beijing-sponsored Shanghai Cooperation Organisation comprising the Central Asian states (with India as an observer) has come up with any solution to defuse the tension in Kyrgyzstan or in the region. And the Obama administration is looking helpless and embarrassed as it could lose its military base at Manas, which is logistically important for Afghan war supplies. It is in the interests of India and the world that the Otunbaeva government should stem the violence and address its causes. Otherwise the domestic Kyrgyz conflict could easily become a regional one, with dangerous consequences for Russia, China and South
Asia. The writer is Visiting Professor,
Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, New Delhi.
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Football frenzy Football fever has gripped the globe at the moment. Painted faces of football fans and young, beautiful cheerleaders are beaming into our bedrooms through TV channels. It is a kind of virus which spreads every four years. None, of course, complains except for some women who cannot understand men’s hysteria about the game. It is not WWF but WFF, the Worldwide Football Frenzy. Super stars Brazilian Pele (a Portuguese name), Ronaldo Luis and Argentinian Diego Maradona are considered living legends all over the world. Despite being a great sporting nation, India is still a babe in the world of football. Even a tiny country like Nepal has beaten us in Asian football. To catch up with countries like Japan, South Korea and China, is a tall order for India, which watches in all bewilderment an attack cutting through a maze of men like a knife cutting through a slice of cheese. We remain backward for the simple reason that we always invent excuses for our defeat. Politicians, players and sport administrators — all talk of poverty and poor infrastructure as the main reason. But countries like Cameroon and Ghana in the World Cup show poverty is no reason for poor performance by any nation. What we actually need is toughness in mind and body and the will to work hard, harder and hardest. That is the key to success in this game of skill, stamina and tough and rough tackling. Once a minister was called to see a football match. He saw boys kicking and even jostling with each other for the possession of the ball. He was appalled to see the bumpy ground on which the boys played. At the end of the match, the politician held a great promise for the game. “Though I was happy to see the match, I was shocked to see that 24 players were playing with just one single ball, kicking it, dribbling it and passing it to friends who fought for its possession. Now I know why we are so backward. A total of 24 players played with just one single ball. I also wondered why a man in black clothes and a whistle in the mouth did not stop boys from quarrelling with each other. I promise to arrange balls for each player to improve his game and thus prevent boys from kicking and hurting each other.” In another instance, a man was passing by a ground in which a football match was on. He had no knowledge of the game. He asked a spectator why the players were kicking the ball. “Go(a)l karan vaste,” replied the spectator. “But the ball is already gol (round),” said the
man.
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India has tremendous sporting talent but only a fraction of it gets tapped. Villages and towns lack infrastructure and resources. Efforts are afoot to locate and and embellish uncut gems. A look at two projects — a unique tennis story and a shooting nursery The game of tennis has traditionally been a sport for the elite, a game affordable to the affluent. Over the last 20 years Chandigarh has created champions from among highly gifted village children from the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The vibrant institute, Chandigarh Academy for Rural Tennis (CHART), is a part of the Tennis Stadium, appropriately located in the sylvan green Leisure Valley in Sector 10.
CHART was established in 1988 by the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA), an autonomous elected body affiliated with the All India Tennis Association. Every two years or so six to eight physically gifted boys and girls are selected at the age of 9 from among hundreds of aspirants from the rural hinterland through a scientific talent search. The initial trials evaluate the candidates on their physical fitness and athletic ability. Technical experts, headed by a former Professor of Physical Education, shortlist some 40 candidates. At the final stage of selection in Chandigarh, the boys and girls are assessed for their aptitude for the game of tennis on such factors as hand/eye coordination and ball sense. The Academy does not demand of CHART candidates any prior knowledge of the game. None of the village children selected in 2009, for instance, had ever held a racquet before entering the Academy, but they displayed high potential. Interestingly, the entire group of eight children selected in 2009 is from families of marginal farmers and landless agricultural labour, subsisting below the official poverty line. To embellish these uncut gems, the academy bears the entire cost of the children's board and lodging in its own hostel, their education in a reputed public school, and training and equipment and participation in tournaments. The project requires a financial commitment of Rs 15,000 per month in respect of every performing trainee until he or she attains the age of 18. Since its advent CHART has produced champions at the junior and senior levels, notably Sunil Kumar, India's senior national champion though he is only 16, Robin Dhingra, Asian junior champion, and Vijayant Malik, a current probable for India's team for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games 2010. Besides, a string of junior champions in various age groups have emerged from the same stables. Some products have become reputed coaches and umpires. Impressed with the visible results from CHART, top international trainers have been visiting Chandigarh. Doug McCurdy, a Director from the International Tennis Federation, was in Chandigarh on three different occasions to appraise the coaching scheme. The pursuit of excellence continues. CLTA's faculty of 30 coaches and physical trainers runs a scientific junior development programme for as many as 450 boys and girls in the age group 4-18 years. Whereas the CHART trainees stay in the hostel within the campus, the majority, being locally based, live at home. The campus has 12 synthetic and clay courts, six of them flood lit, with four smaller courts for children in the 4-7 age group. If the credo for CHART is “catch them rural”, the training school as a whole aims to “catch them young, and teach them young.” The regimen includes rigorous training, linked with tough physical and mental conditioning. The faculty, including some of the best coaches in the country, hails from many places, including Kolkata and distant Manipur. Over the years reputed players from all over India, and even abroad, have been using the facilities at CLTA for advanced training. The interaction between varied regions, social groups and tennis skills stimulates performance of all. On any afternoon, as many as 250 children of all age groups can be seen engaged in serious tennis lessons, which they seem obviously to be enjoying. The land and buildings of the stadium complex, established tastefully by the Chandigarh Administration, are a property of the Administration, conforming to the grand design of Le Corbousier, the city's famous architect. The management of the facility is a model of partnership between the official establishment and CLTA. While the government, as the owner, provides and upgrades basic infrastructure, CLTA is expected to conduct all tennis-related activities as a professionally run, financially self-reliant organisation. The structure of management was established by a former Administrator of Chandigarh UT, Mr. Siddhartha Shankar Ray, in 1987. Mr. Ray took the visionary decision to lease out the tennis stadium complex on a 10-year lease to CLTA. The lease agreement, subsequently extended by Mr. Ray's successor by another 20 years, holds the lessee accountable for quality in performance. The executive body comprises seasoned administrators and professionals from public life. Two office bearers, the Chairman and the President, are former Chief Secretaries. The present Honorary Secretary is a former Director General of Police, who is a distinguished sportsman (he was a national weight lifter in his time). Eminent members are drawn from the field of education and industry. CLTA has among its mentors such sporting legends as former and current national champions and captains of the Indian Davis Cup team. Naresh Kumar, Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes provide invaluable guidance on tennis matters as CLTA's honorary advisers. These links have helped in bringing the city of Chandigarh on the international sports map, the city having hosted numerous national and international events, including two Davis Cup ties. Every year players are given scholarships and incentives for outstanding performance in various tournaments. CLTA is a non-profit organisation. It receives no official grant for its training schemes. Any revenue generated is ploughed back into the game for supporting players and improving infrastructure. No member is entitled to, or draws, any sitting fee for meetings. They are expected to work in an honorary capacity, for the love of the game, which binds together the players and the management. The Association specifically prohibits by rule its members to have any business interest in any tennis-related activity. The function of a nursery is to identify, breed and nurture quality. It prepares its subjects to enter the tough world of competition. The products of Chandigarh's nursery for tennis are surely worth watching. The writer, a former Chief Justice
of the Allahabad High Court, is a patron of the CLTA
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Shooting stars of Badal village Badal, the native village of Chief Minister Parkash Singh, came on the Olympic map when Avneet Sidhu, a trainee of the local shooting range, participated in Beijing Olympics in 2008. Before that, Avneet grabbed the gold medal in 10 metres Air Rifle pairs event at Commonwealth Games at Melbourne in 2006. She was given the Arjuna Award for her rare achievement.
As Chief Minister, Badal gave liberal funds for setting up a shooting range in the local Dasmesh College in 1999-2000 to make expensive sport facilities available free of cost for rural girls. The trainees of this shooting range, the only exclusive range for the girls in the country, have now missed the bull's eye as none of them has been selected for the coming Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi in October. The trainees of the shooting range, which is used as a centre by the Sports Authority of India (SAI), have failed to excel in any international competition in the current year so far despite the fact that in the past ten years or so they had managed to collect a number of international medals. “We have to practise under open sky and a blistering sun for the point 22 rifle and sports pistol events as the 50 metres and 25 metres shooting ranges are yet to be constructed,” says Lakhbir Kaur Sidhu, who won medals in three prestigious international competitions from 2005 to 2009 and could not make it to Commonwealth Games 2010. “We should be trained by international-level coaches. Our training camps must be held in foreign lands so that we can learn from players of other countries. Adequate funds should be given to us for participating in international competitions by the SAI for a better exposure,” claims Preeti Tomar, who has participated in three international championships and who is still one of the biggest hopes for a medal for the country. “How can we achieve excellence when we are training with electrical targets in the 10-metre shooting range, which has come up only recently when electronic targets are being used in international competitions," points out Shefali Tomar, another international. "We fully agree with Preeti”, say Veerpal Kaur and Ram Lal, both coaches. However, Karam Singh, Assistant Director, SAI, while disagreeing with Preeti and her coaches, says that most of the girls who had been here for the past eight years or so, started suffering from stagnation and hence could not make their mark at the international level. Moreover, the coaches working here were not trained. “We have dropped eight girls from the SAI centre this year and we will induct fresh blood ,” he points out, adding that funds to shooters can be given as per the norms of the SAI. “The weapons, shooting kits and ammunition are available. But the shooters after practising on this range may find it difficult to shoot at the electronic range. Also the International Federation recommends only the electronic targets and hence the local range should be equipped with these,” says Avneet, currently working with Air India. She adds, “There are some shooters who are good in both 50m and 25m events. Had these ranges been completed on time, it could have been a great benefit for the shooters and local trainees could have become members of the core groups of Commonwealth Games 2010.” "The dirty politics which has gripped the management of affairs of the shooting range has also taken away its sheen and has triggered a wave of disappointment among the trainees. This is one of the major factors, which has made the Badal range lose its glory so quickly," said some of those connected with the shooting sports directly or indirectly. |
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Corrections and clarifications
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The headline “528 vacant posts of teacher at PAU” (Page 4, June 25) should have been “528 posts of teacher lying vacant at PAU”.
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“Met dept” and not just “Met” should have been used in the headline “Met predicts excess rainfall this monsoon” (Page 8, June 27).
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Instead of “guides”, “norms” should have been used in the headline “Sino-Pak N-deal must meet global guides” (Page 11, June 27).
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In the article “How All India Radio Jalandhar-Amritsar came into being” (Page 12, June 27), the year of opening of both transmitters is given as 1947. The writer of the article has now informed us that it was actually 1948. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is
kanwar@tribunemail.com. Raj Chengappa |
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