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Shiv Sena triumphs
Pooling power |
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Fatal hill roads
Poll panel deserves respect
Rationalist with a humanist core
Alcohol abuse, its effects on society as well as habitual drinkers, has become a major topic of discussion in the British society, even as opinion-makers struggle to find ways to cope with systemic abuse and binge drinking.
Binge-drinking can go the way of smoking
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Shiv Sena triumphs
It should come as a major relief to the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in Mumbai that despite the split in the Marathi vote with the Shiv Sena offshoot the MNS making a major dent, it is clearly on the road to power once again in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. It has fallen marginally short of a majority but will predictably romp home with the support of Independents. The Congress, which had this time around tied up with the NCP for the first time, has failed to make a mark. The folly of billing the contest as one between the UPA and the NDA should now be dawning on Chief Minister Prithvi Raj Chavan. It is evident that the election was fought essentially on local issues and that the Shiv Sena stole a march over the Congress because of the grassroots support it enjoys among the people. For all the grandstanding that the Congress-NCP alliance may do, the fact is that the Shiv Sena’s connectivity to the aam aadmi is much greater. Arguably, considering that corruption in the civic body, which has an annual budget of a whopping Rs 21,000 crore, is rampant, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance too needs to introspect why only 46 per cent voters came out to vote. Apparently, many of them were fed up with the Hobson’s choice they had before them. For the Shiv Sena the growing vote and seat share of Raj Thackeray’s MNS is a warning that unless it mends its fences with the fledgling party, power could slip out of its hands the next time around. Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray did display an uncanny eagerness for the MNS to return to the Shiv Sena fold, but his ego is too overpowering for him to make the first move. As for the Congress-NCP combine, the lack of cohesion between the two parties is a cause for considerable worry for them. While the BMC contest is the most crucial of all civic battles in Maharashtra, the Congress can draw consolation from the fact that its ally, the NCP, still holds sway in Pune. In Nagpur, the BJP’s showing has saved face for party president Nitin Gadkari. The civic polls are indeed a mixed bag but the prize catch of Mumbai for the Shiv Sena-BJP combine has a special significance. |
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Pooling power
To spread the momentum of growth in Asia beyond China and India politics must submit to the needs of economics. To start with, there is an urgent need to build on the idea of a common power grid linking Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India. Energy is the key to development and the South Asian region has the potential of generating 200 gigawatt of hydro power for common use. Since investment required to tap hydro potential, estimated at about $300 billion, is huge, it makes sense to involve the private sector, environmentalists and other stake-holders too. The power grid idea stressed at a SAFTA (South Asia Free trade Agreement) summit in Islamabad by Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday was also floated last year at a conference organised jointly by the CII, the USAID and SARI Energy in Delhi. The problem is sensible ideas discussed at such talk shows remain unimplemented for lack of follow-up action at the top level. Efforts at collective economic growth get sidelined in the wake of regional tensions fuelled by terrorist attacks, internal troubles, heavy arms spending and nuclear power ambitions. The dark clouds do have a silver lining. India and Bhutan have entered into cross-border power trading. Also in place are sub-regional power grids in Central Asia and the Pacific. China, Russia, Japan and South Korea already trade in electricity. Like the European Union, South-South cooperation can be stepped up to ensure energy and food security in the region. China excels in renewable energy development, Indonesia in mini-hydropower projects and India has the edge in information technology. Collective efforts can help in sharing technologies and exploiting each other’s strengths. Easier visas and cross-border investment need not fall prey to political short-sightedness or procedural hassles. Political will to overcome petty regional differences has to be displayed first. This is the biggest challenge to deepening regional cooperation. |
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Fatal hill roads
The 17 deaths in the accident in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday would have added towards the tally of 1,100 road fatalities that the state has been averaging for the past three years. The figure is one and a half times the national average per 1 lakh people. Most of the accidents involve public transport, or people being carried in an inappropriate vehicle such as a truck, as it happened on Tuesday. Hill roads are far more treacherous than the plains for obvious reasons. We need to pinpoint areas for preventive measures. The two broad categories to work on are, of course, the driver and the road conditions. After 27 people died in an accident in October last year, the Himachal Transport Minister said in the Assembly that 97 per cent accidents were the result of “human error”. If that is the assessment of the government, it should immediately get cracking on all forms of violation of rules regarding traffic and licensing of drivers, especially those of commercial mass transport. Often accidents have been caused by unqualified, drunk or rash drivers. Himachal especially cannot afford to show any leniency in this regard, though getting tough may not be easy, given the strong transport mafia that exists in the state. The state minister, however, is not entirely correct, which is unfortunate as well as gives hope. Road design and engineering is a grossly underestimated area in India, hills included. As it is the driver that moves, and not the road, it is easy to put all blame on human error. With “humans” driving, there has to be “human error”. The trick lies in designing roads that have margin for human error, and sufficient warnings where needed. Very often, safety elements originally incorporated in road design are dropped at the execution stage to save cost, and in the false assumption that the “frivolous features” won’t help much. After the October accident, Himachal had also announced a two-year Rs 60 crore plan for 500 “black spots” identified on state roads. That’s the way to go. |
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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. — Mark Twain |
Poll panel deserves respect
The matter is not as simple as the government and the ruling Congress make it to be. Law Minister Salman Khurshid breaks the poll model code during electioneering and sticks to the violation even after a warning by the Election Commission. In fact, he defiantly says that he would reiterate what he said even if “they hang me.” Both the government and the Congress party consider his apology adequate. The Election Commission too has not made it an issue. Yet it is too serious a matter to be dropped like this. While campaigning for his wife, Louise Salman, the Law Minister promises a 9 per cent sub-quota for backward Muslims out of the 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes in jobs and education. His purpose was to placate the Muslim voters in UP. Whether he has succeeded or not is yet to be seen. But he has communalised the atmosphere and has helped the BJP which wanted to polarise the voters in the name of religion. The Election Commission had to take the unprecedented step of writing to the President of India, Pratibha Patil, for “immediate and decisive” intervention. Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi says in his letter that the commission has found Salman’s tone and tenor “dismissive and utterly contemptuous about the commission’s lawful direction to him, besides the fact that his action is damaging the level-playing field in the election.” I have known Salman Khurshid as a liberal person who articulates his secular point of view despite the barbs of criticism that the fundamentalist hurled at him. He reportedly left the charge of the Congress party in UP a few years ago because he found the state environs too communal. Therefore, I am surprised to find him joining issue with the Election Commission, and playing the Muslim card. He has defended that there was nothing wrong in owning the community. Wearing the hat of the ‘Minorities’ Minister, he is understandably worried about the plight of Muslims, whose condition is described as worse than that of the Dalits in the Sachar Committee report. But when he commends a quota for backward Muslims he entices a particular segment of society and arouses doubts about his secular credentials. I hope I am wrong in my conclusion that Salman is trying to project himself as leader of Muslims when the community does not have an articulate and credible person to stand up for its cause. If my fears are justified India’s pluralistic society has lost yet another leader to the communalists. In any case, he cannot remain as Minister for Minorities because he has enunciated a pernicious theory of a quota within a quota. The Election Commission has rightly rejected Salman’s specious logic that the sub-quota isn’t mentioned in the Congress manifesto and that it was the private secretary to the minister who sent an official note to the district administration asking for Salman’s security. I am surprised at the cursory manner in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has dealt with the matter when the President forwarded him the Election Commission’s letter. Indecisive as he is, he left the matter hanging till the reaction came from the most unexpected quarters, Priyanka Gandhi. By announcing that such things “happen” during elections, she gave the official line: The government was not perturbed over Salman’s pronouncement and would let the matter be sorted out in course of time. Subsequently, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the Congress had made it clear that “people occupying posts of responsibility should speak responsibly. Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi too reiterated that the Congress wanted all party men to speak “as per norms of public behaviour and law of the land.” Probably, the Manmohan Singh government and the Congress headed by Sonia Gandhi are used to the dilution of institutions. But they should realise, if they have not done so far, that the institutions are the pillars on which the democratic edifice rests. The Election Commission is a constitutional body and lessening of its authority in any way would tell upon heavily on free and fair elections. So far, people have full faith in the commission, but examples like the defiance by Salman may give birth to doubts. The Prime Minister should have sacked Salman the moment he received the commission’s complaint through the President. Still better would have been the minister’s voluntary resignation on moral grounds. But then you do not expect such a response from a person who once said that his ministry had “administrative control” over the Election Commission. Even at that time, Quraishi had complained to the Prime Minister, who had assured him of the commission’s “fundamental autonomy”. I can understand, if not appreciate, the compulsions of the Congress and these were evident when Veerappa Moily was shifted from the Law Ministry so as to give the portfolio to Salman. But the reticent Moily is far better than the articulate Salman, who has come to have the ambition of being a Muslim leader. That the grandson of Dr Zakir Husain, India’s distinguished former President, should indulge in parochialism is a tragedy beyond
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Rationalist with a humanist core
He walked erect, his German Shepherd by his side, and greeted a maali who was tending the lawn. “I have never been able to be the first one to greet Sahib, he always hails me by name before I spot him,” said the maali who was tending the Allnutt lawns of St Stephens College, Delhi. We had just enrolled as students in 1976 and he was talking about Dr Rajendra Kumar Gupta, the then Head of the Department of Philosophy. A Kantian, he was rigorous in the application of reason in all his endeavours, and expected his students to do the same. He brought alive the history of Western philosophy to our minds. It was like listening to a story that we wanted to know more about. He was exacting in expecting us to work on our tutorials, which we had to take very seriously, but they became the foundation of the training which enabled us to think on our own. In his endeavours, he was aided by his colleagues, Dr Ashok Vohra and Dr Vijay Tankha, who explored other aspects of the subject while Dr Harsh Kumar taught Indian philosophy. “What is the meaning of this?” he would ask, circling a word I had written in a tutorial I submitted to him. When I explained it, he would retort: “If you know the meaning then why use jargon? People hide behind jargon if they aren’t clear,” he would say. A degree of irreverence was encouraged in the department, and Dr Gupta would often use subtle humour to drive his point home. Soon the department had become the fulcrum of our life. Every Friday we would meet at Dr Gupta’s house for Philosophy Society (Philo Soc) meetings. They dated back to his illustrious teacher Dr S K Bose, who would sometimes drop in as would Ramu Gandhi, Jeet Oberoi and others, teachers, former students, people interested in the subject, knowing that there would be food for thought; chai and samosas from Rohtas, every week, at exactly the same time. Students like Nitya, Raghu, Aditya, Radhey, Madhu, Thomas, Ranu, Ritu, Amitabh, Bharat… we would all be there. As Philo Soc secretary, the chai samosas were my contribution, along with an occasional paper. It was after an unusually acrimonious exchange at one of these meetings that Dr Gupta explained to me the difference between winning an argument and persuading someone to see one’s point of view. We all knew about how Dr Gupta had spent his entire life at St Stephens because earlier, as a student, he had told Bose Sahib that he would teach at the college. He had studied in Germany and was a much-respected scholar of Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher. His stature would have opened up many avenues, which he did not explore. Dr and Mrs Urmila Gupta were tremendous hosts. Love had brought these two rather distinctive individuals together. She taught at the nearby Miranda House, and was the host of the annual Symposium held at their house. Now, the Symposium, in its Platonic sense, is a drinking party where wine is served and discourse follows. Delicious meals and stimulating company would make it an evening to remember. Many minds, over many years, were shaped by Philo Soc meetings, and Dr Gupta’s influence is acknowledged by generations of Stephanians. It was after meeting him that I realised that morality could exist without religion. Many of his students saw in him the ideal combination of rationality and humanism. We left college. Later, he retired but we still remained in touch. Once, he came to Chandigarh. He was all admiration for the genius of Nek Chand and his Rock Garden. A few years ago, Nitya, Kokila and I went to Dr Gupta’s residence. After meeting him and Mrs Gupta, I exclaimed: “Where are all the books?” His library had been looked at with many a covetous eye. “Oh! I gave them all to my students and some libraries. They will be used there,” he replied. I spoke to him over the phone after that, but did not visit his house. It was on the phone that I spoke to Mrs Gupta, after Nitya informed me that Dr Gupta had passed away at the age of 80 on Wednesday night. As I offered my condolences to her, she replied: “We have just come back from the AIIMS, after completing the formalities. He donated his body to science.” I choked as she said it. Ever the rationalist, ever-ready to use whatever he had — his brilliant mind, and even his body — to further the cause of knowledge, I thought. He was the exemplar for many of us who were fortunate enough to have been in his
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Alcohol abuse, its effects on society as well as habitual drinkers, has become a major topic of discussion in the British society, even as opinion-makers struggle to find ways to cope with systemic abuse and binge drinking.
In the same shift three teenagers were brought in before 9pm dangerously drunk – the all drank vast quantities of beer/wine/vodka/odd-coloured-sugary-alcohol-pop, before going out and then collapsed at various places outside the clubs they were on route to. Ambulances were called and they were brought to my care. One was so drunk we had to suction out the vomit from her mouth to stop her choking Alcohol induced fights Later on that evening there had been a punch up outside a nightclub – alcohol induced. Involved were two patients. Injuries were one facial bone fracture, one neck laceration from biting, two broken hands and a ruptured liver from being kicked in the stomach. Between them, the patients had a total of four operations, over 10 days in hospital – four of which were in intensive care and had a total of three A&E doctors, six surgeons, four anesthetists, six intensive care doctors, seventeen nurses, twelve operating department practitioners, three physiotherapists, three pharmacists and an occupational therapist involved in their care. It becomes obvious why alcohol is so expensive for the NHS. But it is not just your typical binge drinker that causes problems. Last week a 68 year old retired solicitor came in. His partner had called an ambulance after he fell down the stairs. He had had his usual daily alcohol; four pints of Stella and a ‘couple’ of whisky chasers not to mention a ‘few’ glasses of claret. He fractured his neck and skull and nearly died from internal bleeding. We had to put him to sleep, take him for an emergency scan and then to theatre and then to intensive care. He will survive but it is unlikely he will walk again. His care will be reassuring expensive for the tax payer. Chronic alcohol use Then there are the effects of chronic alcohol use. A 45 year old man came in as he felt so terrible – so terrible that he hadn’t been able to drink for two days – a very worrying sign. He had been drinking almost daily since he had been married. But he had given himself alcoholic hepatitis. His liver couldn’t cope any more with this level of alcohol and had gone into “shut-down”. Unless he stops drinking it won’t be long before this is a permanent state, liver cirrhosis develops and then he could become another sad statistic. Sometimes at work, you just despair and wonder why it is happening. Of all the drugs there are, alcohol is the most dangerous – in the short term and long term. It is also the drug which causes the most problems and costs the most for the NHS. Drinking glamourised But all that has happened in the last few years is binge drinking has been glamourised and alcohol has become easier to get and cheaper. So what can society do? We need to de-glamourise alcohol – celebrities have a role to play as we know the influence they have. But we all need to be more responsible; teaching our children sensible limits and drinking responsibly ourselves. How many people reading think it is ok to drink a bottle of wine a night? As my patient showed it is dangerous and you need to cut down. Learn how much is safe to drink and stick to it otherwise you could end up in a similar state. But the government needs to act. Self regulation of the drinks industry has failed. We need a co-ordinated approach, which doesn’t damage the pub trade or affect the millions of people who sensible enjoy a few pints a week. The health of our population is more important than the share price of a few drinks companies and supermarkets. Here is my manifesto: We need a minimum alcohol price; supermarkets should be banned from selling crazily cheap alcohol. Not only would it cut alcohol consumption, but would help pubs as people would be less inclined to drink at home. Change culture We should encourage a European style cafe culture and not a let’s get as drunk as possible as quickly as possible culture. Pubs should be forced to have adequate seats and tables and not be ‘vertical drinking’ establishments. Redesigning pubs has been shown to cut down massively on excess drinking. 24 hour drinking hasn’t really increased alcohol problems in A&E, it has just spread it out throughout the night. I would be happy for 24 hour drinking to continue if real changes were made to our drinking culture. Curb promotions Promotions which encourage excess drinking should be banned — drink as much as you can for a tenner, buy one get one free shots etc. We should have a tax which is reflective on how strong the alcohol is and how likely it is to be drunk by underage teenagers. Overall tax should be increased on alcohol as this has been shown to lower demand. It may not be popular but a few extra pence a week for the majority of sensible drinkers would save thousands of lives a year. Clubs and pubs should be fined much more if they sell under age people or drunken people. The extra taxes and fines should go be hypothecated and not enter into general taxation pot. They should pay for alcohol withdrawal programmes and extra A&E staff for evenings when the consequences of alcohol hit us. Don’t glamorise drinking Finally, adverts glamourising alcohol should be banned and there should be explicit labels of how much alcohol there is in drinks shown on the front of drinks. If anyone from the drinks industry doesn’t believe me, then please join me on a Saturday night in A&E. You’ll go home in despair, like I do most nights and you’ll be persuaded that something needs to be done. The writer is a doctor who wrote the book “In stitches; the highs and lows of life as an A&E doctor.”
— The Independent |
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Binge-drinking can go the way of smoking Often in government a policy surfaces from nowhere and comes to have more impact than those that attract a mountain of words in the media. Harold Wilson’s introduction of the Open University is one such example; his most life-enhancing policy as Prime Minister and one that got virtually no attention in advance, at least compared with his long forgotten pay policies. Think also of the one measure implemented by Tony Blair that will have more positive impact on the NHS and people’s lives than all his reforms and increased investment, important though the higher spending was. Let us raise a glass to the smoking ban in public places, a policy hardly mentioned in all the books about the New Labour era and which attracted relatively little attention at the time of implementation, compared with, say, a row between Gordon Brown and Blair over the wording of a speech on Europe. Of course, there were blazing disagreements over NHS reform, too, but the resulting policies, let alone those being considered by Andrew Lansley, don’t save anywhere near as much money or as many lives as the ban will eventually do. Smoking outdoors Teenagers used to discover a love of smoking in pubs. They are not able to discover the love in such convivial circumstances any more. I see a few of them outside pubs in sub-zero temperatures. They take their drags as they freeze, almost bent over in physical pain. Some of them will give up. Some of those indoors will not start. They will save the NHS a fortune. Foolish libertarians opposed the ban at the time, but even some of those accept now that the freedom for non-smokers to sit in public places without breathing in the equivalent of 20 Marlboros is also a liberty. The former Health Secretary, John Reid, was against the move on the grounds that it discriminated against working-class people who enjoyed a smoke in their clubs. But Reid tended to make the wrong call. The smoking ban is here to stay. Let us raise another glass. Smoking ban worked But let us not raise too many glasses. David Cameron has identified his equivalent cause, highlighting the drinking culture in the UK as the “scandal of our society”. He estimates that the cost to the NHS is up to £3bn. His remedies are to be unveiled next month, but he is apparently resolved to implement a “big bang” approach rather than opt for cautious incremental measures. Let us raise a glass of orange juice. He is right to identify the urgency of the situation and must therefore counter the still vibrant libertarian instincts of some of his advisers and colleagues. Perhaps it is an instinct he shares, too. Cameron opposed the smoking ban at first, although he has since acknowledged that the measure has worked. Some of his proposals might help ease the pressure on crazily overworked A&E wards in hospitals on Fridays and Saturdays, and a few other nights of the week, too. They include more police on patrol in A&E departments, and “booze buses” – vehicles staffed with paramedics to help intoxicated revellers. But the key is to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed. This is not easily achieved. On-the-spot fine When Blair proposed taking drunks to a cash machine in order to pay an on-the-spot fine, the poor old Home Office Minister at the time, Charles Clarke, had to pop up to explain that the idea was a “metaphor”. The more practical route is to make cheap drinks more expensive, either by statutory minimum pricing or by much higher taxes. Maybe such a move penalises moderate drinkers, but they will benefit from the lower level of disorder, and spare cash for the NHS. From within the Government, the libertarians twitch nervously at such a prospect. In his NHS reforms, Andrew Lansley had hoped to ensure that the Health Secretary was no longer responsible for the NHS, so he is hardly going to enthuse about imposing a price on a bottle of cider. He is not alone in having faith in voluntary measures. If Cameron goes along this more cautious route, Britain will remain befuddled by booze. Voters’ permission Blair gave serious consideration to a “voluntary smoking ban”, a classic Third Way measure that would have achieved nothing. At a Downing Street seminar I attended towards the end of his rule, on the relationship between the state and health, he expressed what happened over the ban in a revealing way. “The voters gave us permission to impose the ban,” he said. Polls, focus groups and the rest of the stifling evidence that paralyses leaders into not doing very much at all suggested that the ban would be popular. Using prices to determine behaviour is arguably more sensitive, but when that behaviour starts to improve, we will wonder why such controls were not used before. Preventive measures are the most effective route to saving the NHS money. Tackling obesity must be next. If Cameron succeeds with binge drinking, he will do more for the nation’s health than he will with any of his other more publicised reforms.
— The Independent |
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