|
|
|
|
|
Violence at Manesar
Planting fission
|
|
|
Syria shakes
Danger signals from Baghpat
In ‘Aradhana’ of Kaka
Besides being a deadly health hazard for both men and women, oral cancer afflicts youngsters in large numbers
every year in India. Awareness and preventive measures are urgently required to contain this disease
|
Violence at Manesar
The
country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant has been shut down after a clash between workers and managers over a minor issue. The trouble-prone Maruti unit, which produces the popular Swift car, had earlier witnessed labour problems on three occasions: (a) when workers wanted to form a union; (b) when the management asked workers to sign a “good conduct bond”; and (c) over the demand for the reinstatement of 44 permanent employees and 1,200 casual workers. Two years ago Honda’s Manesar plant had suffered heavy production losses due to a strike. Labour unrest in Haryana’s industrial hub does not augur well for its growth. The Japanese have invested Rs 4,283 crore in Haryana, which amounts to 33 per cent of the total foreign direct investment in the state. They plan to set up an eco-city in Manesar. But their most ambitious project is the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. They need reassurance about personal safety and cooperation in maintaining peace. In the absence of a congenial investment climate, the state has already lost a number of projects. Unitech’s Rs 22,000-crore project at Kundli in Sonepat district has been put on hold. Reliance Industries has dropped its special economic zone project. The DLF housing venture at Panchkula is in trouble. Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia’s Rs 1,800-crore Nanocity proposal has not taken off. If Haryana is growing fast it is because companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motors and Escorts have helped automobile ancillary units to come up, generate tax revenue and create employment. The government and companies must work together to develop an effective response mechanism to settle labour disputes without delay. Trouble-makers should be dealt with sternly. The state’s political and bureaucratic leadership has not displayed any tact or talent in handling the frequent Jat agitations for reservations, the farmer protests at Gorakhpur and Rewari, and the labour trouble at Manesar. In these days of slowdown, shrinking demand and an uncertain global environment, private investment, both domestic and foreign, is hard to get. Violence, protests and strikes send wrong signals and can be financially suicidal.
|
|
Planting fission
The
Haryana Government has declared its ‘public hearing’ on environmental concerns surrounding the proposed nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad district a success. It has also started handing out compensation to farmers for the nearly 1,500 acres of land to be acquired for the purpose. However, the government’s battle with farmers — on for the past two years — may just have entered a new phase. A passive fight thus far, various parties are likely to draw firm lines now, given that any scope for negotiations is over. There are two issues at hand — concerns over the safety of nuclear plants and compensation for the land — and either can flare into a physical confrontation, given the involvement of various political parties. As admitted by some of the farmer leaders, compensation is their primary concern. It is a valid concern, and the government has to ensure a fair relief. The question remains how much is ‘fair’. Market rates can only be a guiding factor, not the determinant, as the acquisition is not under market conditions — a farmer does not have the choice of not selling. Life as they have known it should not become worse, and the government has to ensure that, whether by ‘sufficient’ compensation, or a rehabilitation package. At the same time, local leaders as well as political parties are likely to incite farmers, dangling the carrot of greater compensation if they upped the ante. That could lead to an explosive situation, and would be a disservice to the farmers. Safety is an issue that is likely to draw a wider and more aware mass of activists. Given its energy security concerns, India — for good or bad — has decided to go with nuclear power. But it is incumbent upon the government and its agencies such as Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to demonstrate beyond doubt to the people that their lives are not being put at risk. It has failed on that count — in Gorakhpur as well as Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu). Environmental and nuclear safety clearances for Gorakhpur are yet to be procured.
|
|
|
Syria shakes
The
killing of three key figures in a bomb blast in Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday can be treated as a powerful signal to the world community to take the civil war in this important Arab country with utter seriousness. Syrian rebels, fighting for democracy since March 2011, had planted a bomb in the room where a high-level security meeting was to be held with the help of bodyguards of top leaders. This led to the elimination of Defence Minister Dawoud Rajha, Deputy Defence Minister Gen Assef Shawkat, married to President Basher al-Assad’s elder sister, and former Defence Minister Hassan Turkmani. The victims were members of the inner circle of the Syrian President, who too can no longer consider himself safe. The loss of the three top leaders by the Syrian regime is the biggest setback it has suffered in the rebellion that began against the autocratic rule in the wake of the Arab Spring. The regime is losing grip over power with every day passing. It has experienced large-scale defections also. Many have deserted the regime because of the ruthlessness of the second most powerful person in Syria after President Bashar al-Assad, his younger brother Maher al-Assad. Assef Shaukat, now dead, and Maher were known as the “two other Presidents of Syria”. That is why when the Syrian President held a sham election to perpetuate his rule, a cartoon caption said, “… Vote for one President, get two more absolutely free.” Now President Assad has no justification to cling to power. His troops have so far killed over 13,000 people to silence the pro-democracy forces, but in vain. The revolt is unlikely to end so long as he clears the way for a peaceful and democratic regime change. The UN Security Council has not been able to force it to disband itself because of the support of two of its five veto-wielding permanent members — Russia and China — which have their own business interests to protect. But it seems the time has come when no force on earth can save the tottering regime in Damascus.
|
|
|
The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. — Moliere
|
Danger signals from Baghpat IN some ways it seems as if the Mahatma’s dream of transforming India into a loose confederation of half a million largely self-governing villages has started turning, even if slowly, into reality. But the manner in which it is happening is utterly perverse and hugely perilous. His rather utopian concept — which his principal lieutenants in the freedom struggle, Nehru above all, had told him just would not work in the modern world — was that each village would produce the food and weave the cloth it needed, and everybody would live happily and harmoniously. In any case, the founding fathers adopted the Constitution defining how this country’s federal parliamentary democracy would operate and guaranteeing that all citizens, irrespective of caste, creed, gender or whatever, would be equal. Against this backdrop the challenge to both the Indian Constitution and the Indian state from the Asara village (population 20,000) in Baghpat district of western Uttar Pradesh is so grave that it must not be taken as casually as all concerned are apparently doing. The sequence of events says it all. A hurriedly organised, amorphous panchayat that was not the legally recognised one, out of the blue, issued a Taliban-like diktat that women below the age of 40 cannot have love marriages, nor go to the market unescorted, nor leave their heads uncovered, nor have mobile phones. In response to the countrywide outrage against this unacceptable attempt to push India back into medieval times, village leaders are “daring” the state and Central governments to “try and stop us from deciding how we would bring up our children” and face the consequences. This threat hasn’t yet been put to test by either government. But the fate of whatever little the district authorities tried to do is not at all encouraging. They had detained for questioning, not arrested, two villagers. A furious mob turned up at the police station, blocked the road to Delhi, pelted stones, burnt a motorcycle and raised mayhem until the duo was released. A policeman visiting Asara was thrashed. The wider context in which this occurred was even more dismal. When the news of the disgusting edict first came in, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram commented that there was “no place for such diktats in a democratic society” and he “expected” the state government to see to it that nobody “comes to harm for violating the diktat”. He obviously didn’t think the Centre had any duty to perform. State Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s response was to do or say nothing. His colleague, Azam Khan, pontificated that since the Constitution gave everyone freedom of speech, “the state government can take no action against the panchayat as there is no threat to democracy”! Being a seasoned UP politician, he couldn’t be unaware that if the elders of Asara were allowed to get away with their effrontery the contagion will spread to other villages of North India with substantial populations of Jats. Incidentally, the Muslims of the area, in a majority in many villages, are also converts from Jats and identify themselves with this caste. The unacceptable Asara episode, not an isolated one or an aberration by any means, is many steps ahead of the horrors perpetrated by khap panchayats of Haryana that have not only been brazenly justifying “honour killings” of daughters daring to marry outside their caste but also committing this henious crime time and again without much official action or civil society resistance. The government and people of this country must realise, even if Talibanised Hindus don’t, that Islamic extremism in Pakistan that has acquired such horrific dimensions now also had a small beginning. All that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had agreed to in the mid-1970s was to legislate the Ahmediya sect out of the pale of Islam. He also introduced a ban on the consumption of alcohol that no one honoured, least all him. Then Zia took over and the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan began. The rest is history. The other side of the coin sadly is that the panchayat leaders at Asara can be so astonishingly defiant is that the villagers, including women, are backing them fully, as documented by the reporters on the spot. A telling sidelight to this is the plight of a Muslim couple that had eloped years ago, got married in a court in Allahabad, and after hiding for some time returned to their home. They have had three children since then. But the village elders have now told them that they are no longer welcome because they are a “bad influence on others”. It is impossible to write about Baghpat and the surrounding areas and not mention that the region was the bastion, indeed pocket borough, of the famous Chaudhari Charan Singh, from whom his son and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader, Ajit Singh, currently Union Civil Aviation Minister, inherited it as his bailiwick. Eloquent on all other subjects under the sun, he has maintained a thundering silence on the Asara outrage. He is obviously playing what is popularly called “vote bank politics”. But, then, so are other politicians of all hues, including those that have condemned the diktat, for they too are being mealy mouthed. In these circumstances, Mr Ajit Singh’s son — also an RLD leader, needles to add — has come to his father’s aid. His take is that he cannot understand what the fuss is all about. The Asara panchayat, he adds, has issued no diktat but merely “guidelines” for the younger generation on how to lead their lives. “Marg darshan” are his exact words. Sadly, the government, if not the entire political class, seems wedded to the doctrine of inaction, no matter how grave the crisis or heinous the crime. Unfortunately, there is no social reform movement either to make society aware of dangers of discrimination against women leading up to the spate of rapes and molestation of them a la Guwahati. In vain did Ambedkar go on crying: “Political equality is meaningless, if there is no social equality.” The sad postscript to this frightening tale is that the Supreme Court has just received an expert report pointing out that no law exists to deal with the monstrous acts of khap panchayats, and requesting it to direct the Central government to enact one
immediately.
|
||||||
In ‘Aradhana’ of Kaka The other day as my spouse and I watched a television programme recapping the life and times of Rajesh Khanna, it was a rewind to the days when we had a song on our lips and a spring in our steps. It made us misty-eyed and nostalgic because the programme brought back memories of the times when stars actually twinkled and Facebook and Youtube were yet to make
an entry. The songs, a perfect blend of melody and lyrics, touched the core. Perhaps because these were the songs that were like an anthem for all those who were young in the 1970s. It all came back — the tenderness and longing for “Kora kaghaz tha yeh man mera” and the thrill of watching “Aradhana” and listening to the iconic song “Mere sapnon ki rani...”, as the handsome star flung his arms with abandon and the smouldering intensity of “Roop tera mastana” was unmatched. The pathos in “Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hain jo maqam” left a mark and made one sad. All shades of emotions were essayed to perfection. After the news of his death came, we were reminded of the 1970s in Shimla. Shooting for a film was in progress and the crowd watched animatedly as the hero sent ripples of excitement with a mere tilt of his head and narrowing of
the eyes. The girls in the crowd went hysterical. He was the first iconic superstar of Hindi cinema to generate hysteria and evoke extreme reactions from girls, who would write his name with their blood and smear his car with lipstick marks. Sangeeta or Chabs, a college friend, now with Goldman and Sachs in the US, was responsible for the rest of us participating in the Rajesh Khanna hysteria avidly. She would dutifully perform an “aarti” of Kaka’s picture, which she slept with religiously, keeping it under her pillow. She would even give the rest of us “prasad” the next day. So contagious was Chabs’ devotion that even Sister Collette, our English teacher, was acquainted with Kaka’s charisma. Along with Chabs, we would all go moony-eyed everytime the superstar’s movie was released. In our enthusiasm to watch even an also-ran film like “Chalta Purza”, we sat in the first row, for the first show. The embarrassed manager accommodated us in the box because he found it awkward that four girls should be seated right in the front! We had bunked college to see the shooting of “Kudrat” and also landed up at Oberoi Clarkes, where Rajesh Khanna was staying with Dimple and his daughters, just to get a glimpse of the icon and hear each word uttered by him. The anger and aggression of Amitabh’s era was yet
to come. The passing away of Rajesh Khanna has brought back memories of softer, gentler times when there was subtlety and sensitivity in dialogues. Love was understated. Romance was the flavour of the season and it wafted so gently through the
air.
|
||||||
Besides being a deadly health hazard for both men and women, oral cancer afflicts youngsters in large numbers
every year in India. Awareness and preventive measures are urgently required to contain this disease
An
age-old adage says, “You are what you eat”. The diet people consume, undoubtedly, has a direct bearing on the kind of diseases that may afflict them in life later. Conversely, the disease that affects a person could also reveal the kind of food the victim may have abused. With cigarettes and chewed tobacco (gutka) being comparatively cheap and available all over India, the oral cancer is a big danger for men and women alike. In people aged 30-69 years, the number of cases of oral cancer is more than twice the number of lung cancer — a pattern that varies greatly from the developed nations and indicates that India needs substantial controls on the sale of tobacco.
Risk factors Oral cancer (or mouth cancer) can occur in the lining of the cheek, gums, roof of the mouth, tongue and lips. It could also affect the oropharynx, which includes the middle part of the throat as well as its side and back walls, the soft palate and the tonsils. It may occur as white or red patches, or non-healing ulcers in the mouth. Significantly, oral cancer is wholly preventable. The use of tobacco — cigarettes, pipes, cigars and smokeless tobacco — is the biggest causative factor. Avoiding tobacco is the best means to prevent oral cancer. Alcohol, especially beer and hard liquor, are also linked with a higher risk of developing oral cancer. The threat is more pronounced in those who consume both. Avoiding or decreasing the consumption of tobacco and liquor could, therefore, lower the risks of oral cancer. This is easier said than done because most potential victims do not comprehend the dangers of tobacco addiction. More worrisome is the fact that because gutka and other kinds of chewable tobacco are sold in small sachets across India priced as cheaply as Re 1, youth and even children fall easy prey to this addiction. Considering these facts and with 80 per cent of tobacco being consumed in the form of gutka, social activists have demanded that the Central Government should ban gutka consumption under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Activists also assert that tobacco taxes should be hiked considerably to precipitate lower consumption. Madhya Pradesh and Kerala have recently banned chewable tobacco products, based upon the FSSAI regulation that debars the addition of tobacco or nicotine in food. The trigger in Kerala was the fact that oral cancer cases had tripled in recent years, with up to four million addicted to tobacco, a large number apparently being children. Whenever laws have been enacted, the industry’s machinations have ensured the steps were aborted or, even if passed, rarely implemented and enforced. The extent of the problem can be gauged from the fact that the World Health Organisation pointedly declared ‘tobacco industry interference’ as the theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day on May 31. The tobacco lobby argues that many jobs will be sacrificed and millions of rupees lost in tax revenues. But the actual facts are that for every rupee earned by the Exchequer through taxes on tobacco products, the amount that is spent in curative and preventive measures against ailments caused by tobacco abuse is almost four times more. As per the Planning Commission, revenue generated from tobacco products in India every year is $1.62 billion, but the direct annual healthcare costs just from three tobacco-related ailments (cancer, coronary artery diseases and chronic obstructive lung diseases) is $6.32 billion. Scary statistics
Incidentally, more than 80 per cent of the globe’s one billion smokers hail from low and middle-income nations, where consumption is increasing. Since most tobacco users die prematurely, many families are deprived of bread earners, while the nation’s economic growth is hampered and healthcare costs soar. Many people cannot afford cigarettes, so they use beedis or smokeless products. Tests indicate there are more than 4,000 toxic substances in cigarette smoke, of which at least 250 are dangerous and more than 50 are carcinogenic (cancer causing). Gutka is more harmful than tobacco as it causes sub-mucous fibrosis where one cannot open mouth widely. The SMF is a pre-malignant condition. Oral cancer is preceded by oral submucous fibrosis, which holds a 24 per cent higher risk of transforming into a malignant lesion. Unlike cancer deaths in the West, the majority of which arise from difficult-to-detect internal tumours, oral cancer occurs in easy-to-detect sites such as small patches in the mouth. Despite this, death rates from oral cancer in India are higher because of low awareness and late detection. Line of treatment Once the diagnosis of cancer is confirmed, a line of therapy is planned for the patient, depending on the stage of the disease. Cases are generally discussed by a team of doctors, which may include surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, reconstructive surgeons and pathologists. In most cases, surgery is necessary to remove the malignant growth, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. After the treatment is over, the team of doctors helps rehabilitate the patient at the earliest, based upon the extent of the disability and the type of treatment required further. This could include wearing a dental prosthesis and having dental implants. Speech therapy, dietary counselling and other services may also be required so that the patient resumes normal activities as soon as possible. Patients are advised regular follow-up visits primarily to detect recurrence and secondarily to address late complications of treatment. Such patients are prone to develop a second cancer in the upper aero-digestive tracts. Patients must stop tobacco and alcohol use during and after treatment of oral cancer. Remember, tobacco users never grow old; in other words, they never live long enough to reach old age. The choice is yours — choose cancer or change your lifestyle. The writer is Medical Director, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
According to a study by Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital and Toronto’s Centre for Global Health Research, cancer single-handedly kills 600,000 Indians every year. Of these, about 120,000 are young people. India reports the highest number of oral cancers worldwide with up to 80,000 new cases annually. Tobacco usage is said to be the biggest cause of various cancers, leading to 42 per cent of overall cancer deaths among Indian males and 18 per cent among females, according to statistics provided by the National Cancer Institute 
Patches in the mouth or on lips: A white or red patch – or a combination of the two – inside the mouth or lips are the most common signs of oral cancer. Initially, these patches indicate a pre-malignant condition or abnormal cells. If untreated, these can turn cancerous. 
Any non-healing ulcer, growth or patch inside the mouth, gums or tongue should never be ignored. It is important to remember that anything causing chronic irritation to the mucosa - tobacco abuse, ill-fitting dentures, a broken filling with sharp edges — could be a cause of cancer. Given these facts, it's important to visit the dentist once a year to a undergo routine checkup.
According to Tobacco Fact Sheet (May 2012), World Health Organisation, tobacco kills almost half of all users or nearly six million people globally, with one person succumbing every six seconds. More than five million of these are users and ex-users, including more than 600,000 non-smokers, who fall victim to passive smoke.