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All eyes
on the verdict
Cricket shame |
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Well
intended, but…
Turn of
the tide
Preserving
silence
Traits
that hold us back Cell phone + driving
= accident
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Cricket shame
This
is perhaps the darkest day for Pakistani cricket – in fact, all cricket. There are fairly credible allegations that at least seven members of the Pakistani team were charging money to throw matches. Among them is Pakistani captain Salman Butt. Match-fixer Mazhar Majeed has even alleged that he “manages” 10 Pakistani players. That he was the agent of some of these players was well-known. It meant that he looked after their affairs like contracts, sponsorship and marketing etc. But the news that he was an “agent” for shady activities also has caused shock and consternation everywhere. At the bidding of the News of the World undercover team that conducted the sting operation, Majeed made Mohammad Asif and Mohammed Aamer bowl no-balls at the precise moments as promised. The revelation has taken some sheen off England’s innings victory over Pakistan at the hallowed Lord’s. Match-fixing allegations have tainted Pakistan for long. Yet, no serious attempt was ever made to set things in order. Former captain Rashid Latif had warned of “spot-fixing” (fixing small events or portions of a game rather than the match itself) in Pakistani cricket seven years ago in a letter to the ICC but instead of taking any action, the Pakistan Cricket Board admonished him for writing directly to the governing body. That gives credence to Majeed’s boast before the newsmen conducting the sting operation that he worked closely with the PCB. Bill Akass, Managing Editor of the NOTW, has told a television channel that the scandal could be “the tip of the iceberg”. What the whole world would like to know is whether the iceberg is confined to Pakistan or is spread everywhere. Majeed’s remark that he deals with an Indian party, presumably a bookie or a gambler, gives an ominous ring to the whole scandal. Not only Pakistani players but also Australians (Shane Warne, Mark Waugh), South African captain Hansie Cronje and Indians (Md Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Sharma) have sullied their reputations through such illegal activities.
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Well intended, but…
On
the face of it, the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010, shows the Manmohan Singh government’s resolve to deter torture and punish public servants perpetrating it on citizens. While the Lok Sabha passed it on May 6, 2010, the Rajya Sabha is yet to take it up for discussion. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Though 146 countries have already ratified it, India is yet to do so. Against this background, the Centre’s decision is in order. True, there are provisions relating to the matter in the Indian Penal Code. However, these neither defined torture nor made it a criminal offence. Consequently, it was decided that the domestic laws were brought in conformity with the UN Convention in a standalone law so that the UN Convention could be ratified. There are reasonable apprehensions among many sections about the Bill’s efficacy in checking torture. It is said that the Bill is flawed in its narrow definition of torture even though the UN Convention speaks of “severe pain or suffering” rather than “grievous hurt” or “danger to life, limb or health”. There is need for a broader definition of torture in the Bill as otherwise, torture inflicted by the police or a public servant as a form of punishment, intimidation or coercion will not be considered torture under the new law. Fears have also been expressed over the punitive measures for torturing a person, the limited time-period for a victim to file a complaint and the in-built protection it provides to a torturer. Not surprisingly, 10 Opposition MPs of the Rajya Sabha have given notice for an amendment motion on the Bill to refer it to a Select Committee of the House. If the amendment is agreed to by the government or is carried through voting, the Bill would be referred to the Select Committee. In the light of the fears voiced by many sections, the Rajya Sabha would do well to debate the provisions in the Bill threadbare so that the “flaws” could be rectified and the new piece of legislation could really be harmonised with the UN Convention Against Torture.
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Our senses show us the mortal world. Love helps to make it immortal. — The Upanishads
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Turn of the tide Are
the Maoists running out of steam? Will Arundhati Roy have to look for another lost cause? It is too early to say, but there have been a few positive signs lately. The repeated murderous attacks by the Maoists on the police have stopped. It is possible that the latter have become more careful. There is little doubt that they were extremely casual earlier, presumably because they were unaware of the ruthless nature of the threat which the insurgents posed. Unlike the street demonstrations which the police customarily faced, the Maoists were a determined, ideologically motivated group, armed with sophisticated weapons rather than with stones or, at most, home-made bombs which the urban protesters used. The Maoists were also larger in numbers than the infiltrators in Kashmir or the rebels in the north-east. It is these factors which the security forces seem to have learnt from bitter experience. Had they been better trained in guerrilla warfare and properly briefed before being sent out, they might have avoided the unfortunate casualties. Now, however, the forces are apparently no longer making the mistake of violating the so-called standard operating procedures, which made them appear like sitting ducks when the Maoists attacked. The Maoists may have also regrouped and even withdrawn from certain areas. Whatever the reasons for the decline in the casualties, the psychological edge which the insurgents had earlier acquired with their frequent attacks on the CRPF, the Eastern Frontier Rifles and other forces has been blunted. Arguably, the rebels themselves have reworked their tactics. They seem to have realised that the killing of policemen could have an adverse impact on their Robin Hood image, and also on their sympathisers among the Left-leaning intelligentsia, since the dead belonged to poor families and were often their only bread-winners. What was more, the deaths could stiffen the government’s resolve to confront the Maoists with greater determination. This may have already happened, for no government can allow the impression to gain ground that it is at a loss to deal with the insurrectionists. The report that helicopter-borne forces can return fire while looking for the Maoists underlines a reversal of the earlier decision not to launch military-style attacks, which can cause considerable collateral damage. Apart from emphasising a virtual no-holds-barred approach to the anti-Maoist offensive, the decision shows that the hardliners in the government have won the day, ignoring the dissenting voices of social activists like Aruna Roy, a member of the National Advisory Council, who is quoted in a Maoist pamphlet as saying that the “state will fail if the army and air force are used against the Maoists”. As for the Maoists themselves, the belief that their leader, Cherukuri Rajkumar aka Azad, who was apparently killed in a fake encounter, had emerged from his hiding place for peace negotiations points to the presence of moderates in their ranks. This is not surprising because every political formation has similar divisions between hawks and softies. However, what is noteworthy is that the moderates have come to the fore at so early a stage in their armed struggle against the Indian state. Considering that the CPI (Maoists) was formed only in 2004 with the merger of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the People’s War Group (PWG), the movement in its present form can still be considered to be in its early days. Six years, after all, is not long enough for overthrowing the state. Besides, it is only in the last two or three years that their depredations have become noticeable. A Maoist site on the Internet lists their activities only from 2005. Therefore, if a moderate group has already taken shape in the party and acquired enough internal support to send an important leader like Azad to talk to the “bourgeoisie”, it means that misgivings have arisen about their ability to carry the “revolution” to a successful conclusion. The latest offer of talks from Koteshwar Rao aka Kishanji suggests a similar mellowing of their revolutionary ardour. Such a turn of events is not surprising. For instance, before the MCC and the PWG merged, there were clashes between the two groups and a third one called Party Unity throughout the 1990s, which resulted in the deaths of “hundreds of cadres and sympathisers”, according to the party’s publicity material posted on the Internet. The clashes ended in a cease-fire in 2000. But ideological differences remained with the MCC favouring Maoism and the PWG Marxism-Leninism. The solution was for the new party to accept Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as its doctrine, although its meaning must be clearer to the acolytes than to outside observers. Considering that the Naxalite/Maoist movement has been riven by intense factionalism ever since the formation of the CPI (ML) in 1969, divisions in their ranks are probably the norm rather than an exception. Such rifts can also widen at times of trouble, of which the present period may be one. The Maoists are not only facing continuous pressure from the security forces, their life in the forested areas can hardly be as romantic as their intellectual supporters in the cities believe. Except for the Adivasis, the middle class component of the leadership cannot find it easy to spend month after month as fugitives in jungle hideouts. They are also more isolated than ever before. During the Naxalite uprising, they received constant encouragement from Beijing radio about the “prairie fire” which they had supposedly lit. Their visiting delegations to China also received words of advice and caution from Mao Zedong himself and also from Zhou Enlai. Their practice of killing policemen was criticised as the acts of anarchists by their Chinese mentors while the slogan — China’s chairman is our chairman — was denounced for being insulting to national pride. The Maoists, however, have no one to turn to for counsel and guidance. Even their counterparts in Nepal are not as close to them as before since they have renounced the revolutionary path and accepted constitutionalism. Throughout the history of communism, the concept of proletarian internationalism enabled the various communist parties to keep in touch with one another for material and moral support. Such camaraderie can help at times of stress. But the Maoists today are seemingly leading a lonely existence. Their sense of seclusion is probably enhanced by the fact that their ideology cannot be as inspiring as it was at the time of the Soviet and Chinese revolutions and the Vietnam war when to be young was to be a communist. It isn’t only the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of China into a market economy which must tell the Maoists how the times have changed. The same message is conveyed by the rejection of the doctrine by the Maoists of Nepal. The latter now believe that a multi-party system is possible under socialism and that the “experiment”, which they are carrying out, is “not only for Nepal, not only for South Asia, but for the people of the world”, according to their leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda. He has also said that “we communists are flexible and dynamic. We try to develop our ideology according to the new conditions”. In his book, Naxalbari: Before and After, Suniti Ghosh, a Naxalite leader, said that when Mao met Kanu Sanyal, Jangal Santhal and others before their departure for India, he told them to forget everything that Zhou Enlai and Kang Sheng might have said and apply their minds to the concrete conditions in India. Perhaps the Indian Maoists should recall the chairman’s advice and blend it with Prachanda’s
experience.
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Preserving silence MAN has always evolved to natural surroundings around him and not otherwise. Nature does not adapt itself to man. It only tolerates, but to a certain point. So, people in plains can survive in extreme hot conditions but can find difficulty in acclimatising in the cold desert of Ladakh, where the natives run and jump around easily. But when man starts tampering with nature too much, it reacts, often, in fury, as happened recently in Ladakh — the land of high passes, barren mountains, little vegetation and oxygen, cruel cold desert but home to learned lamas. Seven years ago when I had first visited the place to cover the Indo-US joint mountain warfare exercise, I had asked a group of tourists what brought them there in such large numbers. “We come here to enjoy the silence,” was the reply, “and learn from it.” they added. The words echoed all these years. Last fortnight when I landed there amidst death and destruction, people, both locals and foreigners, mostly discussed why it happened. People talked about evil spirits and global warming in the same breath. They cursed the increasing population, vehicles and upcoming permanent settlements. Many think atonement of their sins (both real and imaginary) as well as of society as a whole would prevent such occurrences. Met experts seem to suggest that the clouds that came to deliver snowfall on higher peaks around Leh had some “chemical locha” when they could not find friendly temperatures to suit their job. They burst open and caused misery. “It had to happen. People have interfered with the work of nature. They had to suffer. Buddhism teaches not to throw litter and garbage in rivers and rivulets as people, besides livestock, may be drinking it downstream. Yet, this pollution is rampant here,” said my taxi driver when I asked him. He grumbled about greed and cheating: “Poor are being exploited more and paid less. There is general greed for material pursuits.” Greed may be rampant everywhere in the world but lamas believe God has given them the message to warn the world about global warming. Senior lamas have already started a purification drive in and around the city to cleanse the sins. Tourists come for spiritual solace as well to this land. They come to seek answers. But I was leaving without knowing why it happened. As I was about to leave Leh along with a swarm of panic-stricken tourists running away from the place they had made their second home over the years, I met Erica, a tourist from Switzerland, who was visiting Leh for a decade now and had started bringing groups of trekkers and meditators. She was living in the same guest house as ours but was mostly quiet. “So, will you come back next year,” I asked her stressing, “with the tourists?” “Yes, only if the Silence is preserved,” she
said.
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Traits that hold us back I
wish
I had never visited Japan. A favourite pastime of Indians, be they from any background - linguistic, educational, professional, class and so on - has been to discuss why India has not shown the sort of development one had hoped it would. Why, despite having the most qualified human resource repository, we still cannot be counted among the developed nations? Why nations with meagre natural resources are major players in the global market while we lag behind? Why countries with populations smaller than a state in India manage to get more medals in a single sport than all Indian athletes put together in the various international sporting events? A large number of reasons are offered to account for the slow, sometimes non-existent progress in the country, varying from poverty and overpopulation, to the laid back chalta hai attitude of the average Indian to the absence of killer instinct in us, the all-pervasive corruption in the nation, to the 'system hi aisa hai' or 'you can't fight the system' explanation, to the 'foreign hand'. The disillusionment with our country becomes even more pronounced when scams like the one tainting the forthcoming Commonwealth Games are unearthed. Like many of my fellow Indians I, too, engage in such armchair deliberations. And, whether we admit it or not, like many of my fellow Indians despite this disenchantment, there has always been a glimmer of hope in my mind, that one day hum honge kamyaab, that with the new technology and a more rational, scientific temper, we too, will be regarded as a nation that matters. But that was before I visited Japan. As a fairly well-travelled person I was aware that countries considered as 'developed' are in many ways different from ours and that would apply to Japan as well. However, nothing had prepared me for what I witnessed and experienced there. Admittedly, two weeks is too short a duration to understand or analyse a society but having spent most of my time in trains (both local and intercity), buses, shopping centres and railway stations, interacting with a cross-section of the people in seven cities and observing their day-to-day behaviour did give me a peek into their life and ways of thinking and behaving. Sadly, it also made it clear why India will continue to be a 'wannabe' without really scaling those heights. There are so many traits that demonstrate the Japanese way. However, let me mention those which struck me the most - discipline, commitment, civility - all of which are by and large absent in the average Indian. Let me demonstrate by providing contrasting pictures from the two societies. We are already aware that in all developed countries the cities are clean, the trains and buses run on time, there is no jumping of queues and no corruption, at least not one that is easily visible. Japanese, however, take discipline to a new high. Take the example of traffic rules. In India, while waiting for the walk sign (if at all it exists) to turn green, our instinct is to look around and see (a) if there is any vehicle coming our way and, more importantly, (b) if there is a traffic policeman in the vicinity. Once we establish the absence of both, we walk across and there is not a single disapproving glance from anyone around. In fact, there is a whole crowd joining the rule breaker, celebrating the non-appearance of a cop. Now consider this picture. In Kobe city I, with my Japanese friend and at least hundred other persons, mostly Japanese teenagers, are waiting for the walk sign to turn green, which is taking a while. There is no police personnel in sight. The Japanese stand there quietly while some American and European tourists are getting fidgety. Finally, the latter decide to cross the road while the sign still says 'Don't Walk' (have we 'Indianised' the west?). There is a gasp of horror from the Japanese, who I gather from their expressions and from my friend's explanation, cannot ever dream of such behaviour, even if they are in their teens, the so-called rebellious age. The Japanese are known for their job commitment. I saw an illustration of it almost every day. My favourite memory is that of watching an elderly janitor in a mall going about his work with the ubiquitous I-Pod earphones in his ears. From where I was observing, I could not see anything on the floor that he was sweeping clean, and yet he seemed to be concentrating on a particular spot. I walked past him and to my amazement realised that he was trying to pick up a small, almost unnoticeable piece of thread from the floor. When I said to my Japanese companion: "Why is he going to the trouble of picking up a nearly invisible thread", she said in a matter of fact tone, "but that is his job". Leave aside the janitors in India, how many of us would go to these lengths to keep even our homes clean and thread-free! It is civility, however, where the Japanese score over every other culture. Their custom of bowing is well known and even ridiculed in some films and television programmes. But to see it in practice is an experience in itself. I had the Japanese bowing to me everywhere - the person selling the ticket to me at the railway ticket counters, the ticket checker and the ladies serving refreshments in the trains, the salespersons in shops, the waiters in the restaurants, the teachers and students in the universities where I lectured, and even the fellow travellers on the trains or buses whom I had smiled at and at times even jostled! They truly are the politest and most courteous people that I have encountered in all my travels. Contrast this with the immigration officers at the New Delhi airport who scowled at me while departing and on return, both time asking me to 'prove' that I had gone to Japan for academic purposes. And from what I have seen their behaviour is not much better with the visitors to our country. But my most memorable experience is one that made me realise the difference between them and us. By the tenth day of my trip it suddenly occurred to me that although every Japanese I encountered, from pre-teens to those in late eighties, carried mobile phones, I had not heard a single phone ring. On inquiry I was told that it was a practice among them to keep the mobile phones on the vibration mode. When asked why, the simplicity of the answer "as a courtesy to the others", dumbfounded me. When I recounted this to an Indian friend, he said: "Then what is the use of spending money to download caller tunes agar logon ko sunana hi nahin". Whenever I share my experiences with friends and acquaintances I get reactions varying from 'really?' and 'amazing' to 'how boring' and 'they must be like machines'. Maybe they are. But this boring mechanical lot has risen from the ashes of the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and gone on to become one of the leading countries in the world, without losing their culture, their character, their civility. And when I look at the mayhem, the chaos around me in India - I wonder, no I am almost sure that we have miles to go…. Yes, I wish I had never gone to Japan. The writer is Professor of
Sociology, Panjab University
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Cell phone + driving = accident
Many
studies have proved what commonsense told us all along that the risk of accidents increases manifold if drivers - or even pedestrians - use mobiles. But it seems we never learn. Such accidents, often fatal, continue to occur and drivers using mobiles have become as commonplace on Punjab's streets as hawkers. Car drivers, two wheelers, truck drivers, bus drivers, auto drivers and even rickshaw pullers are using mobiles at will endangering everyone's life. You may not even hear a train hurtling towards you when you are busy on the phone. Seems unbelievable? Here is a real story. A Tollywood makeup artist, Prabir De, died in June 2006 because of talking on the phone. De was at a film shoot near railway tracks when he took a call on his cell phone. Deep in conversation, he wandered on the tracks, but failed to hear the coming train and his colleagues trying to warn him. It is illegal to drive or ride a vehicle while using a hand-held mobile phone. This means that talking, sending or receiving text messages, playing games or taking photos are illegal when using a hand-held phone. It is also illegal to perform these activities when your vehicle is stopped but not parked, for example when you are waiting at traffic lights. A hands-free device can reduce the physical effort to make and receive calls but it doesn't necessarily make it safe to use a phone while driving. Penal provisions available with enforcement agencies are too mild to be a real deterrent. According to Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act 218(2), 1988, the use of mobile phones while driving attracts a fine of Rs 100. But if it causes further inconvenience a fine of Rs 1000 can be levied for negligent driving and a compounding fee of Rs 500. Statistics do not always reflect the gravity of the menace. In many fatal cases where cell phones were responsible, we don't find the phone on the spot. Either the phone is first thing stolen from the accident site or they are flung away from the spot. But later on during the probe it is found that the mobile phone was responsible for causing the accident. It is easy enough to see why using phones can be dangerous. The divided attention of the driver talking over the phone, even if he is using hands-free kit, often triggers accidents. The situation is even worse in case of two wheelers, though the bikers have taken the trick of wedging the phone between shoulders and the ears to the level of fine art. We must book such motorcyclists, but in most of the cases they use hands-free gadgets. At times the mouthpiece is hidden. According to a study from the Highway Loss Data Institute USA published in February, driver inattention is estimated to be a factor in 20 to 50 per cent of all police-reported crashes. Driver distraction, a sub-category of inattention, has been estimated to be a contributing factor in 8 to 13 per cent of all crashes. Of distraction-related accidents, cell phone use may be the culprit in 20-25 per cent cases. Studies show that when young motorists use mobile phones while driving their reaction time increases manifold. In fact, a 20-year-old driver talking on the mobile phone will behave like a person of 65 years of age. Driving is all about alertness but reflexes go down that drastically. Studies also show that drivers talking on the mobile phones are about 20 per cent slower in pressing the brakes. The reason is attention blindness where motorists gaze at the conditions on the road ahead, but don't really see them because they are distracted. The writer is Member, Punjab
State Road Safety Council
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Corrections and clarifications
n In the report “650 Indians on Interpol’s wanted’ list” (August 30, Page 2) an apostrophe after wanted was uncalled for. n
In the headline “Dailogue only way to resolve issue: Centre” (August 30, Page 6), the word Dialogue was misspelt. The same way “Amir rips thorugh England batting” (August 28, Page 22), it should have been “…rips through…”. n
The headline “Women’s group protests at Bawala college” (Chandigarh Tribune, August 30, Page 4,) should have been “... protests against Barwala college”. n
The headline “No HC respite for I S Bindra” (August 28, Page 3) should have carried the name A. S. Bindra, father of Abhinav Bindra, not I. S. Bindra. 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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