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Citius,
Altius, Fortius Born
masters |
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Path-breaking
laws
Military
threat from China
Tears
apart!
Skating
on thin ice This one
isn’t cool at all, seriously
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Born masters
After
Madhya Pradesh and Bihar passed laws guaranteeing the citizens the right to government services within a stipulated time, other states rushed to have similar legislation in place. Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have passed laws making officials accountable for the non-delivery of certain services within the prescribed time, failing which penalties have been proposed. The law covers routine services like certificates of birth, death, caste, income and domicile, which should not normally take much time. There are services related to the issue of ration cards, power and water connections, post-mortem reports, passports, FIRs, driving licences and vehicle registrations for which legal remedy is available, if denied or delayed inordinately. In most states, however, governments have not publicised the citizen-friendly law. The Right to Services Act is as, if not more, significant as the Right to Information Act, but it has not achieved that much success. There are no reports of penalties imposed on officials for not delivering services on time. Being used to the harassment of making the rounds of government offices over minor issues, people still do not stand up to assert their right to timely services. Having drawn good political mileage out of the services law, politicians have stopped talking about it. Haryana is content with issuing administrative orders for the prompt delivery of 36 services but has not bothered to enact the law in the absence of which it is difficult to hold anyone accountable. Government departments are still neither prepared nor equipped for delivering quick, efficient and time-bound services. Bureaucrats will take time to change from being masters to public servants. Since there is no check, junior officials do what they are good at: sit on files. The administration can be made transparent, efficient and accountable by computerising records and putting up on the Internet all official information of public interest but no one wants to give up the power to show out-of-turn favours to friends and voters. Neither politicians nor officials want to change the status quo since it serves their interests well.
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Path-breaking laws
For
victims of molestation, sexual assault and acid attacks, fresh laws are being approved under the much awaited Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2012 to extend an umbrella of protection. Hopefully, the sad saga of Ruchika Girhorta’s life will never be repeated again. The Bill is supposed to take care of the changing nature of sexual violence – against both men and women and also minors. To begin with, substitution of the word ‘sexual assault’ for ‘rape’ will take care of men who become victims of sexual assault. To protect vulnerable inmates of orphanages and reform homes like ‘Apna Ghar’ against abuse for the first time the term ‘aggravated sexual assault’ is incorporated to punish the managers or caretakers of children’s homes, who become party to their abuse. For victims of molestation and acid attacks, in the absence of separate laws to deal with these crimes, the culprits used to get away by a mere two years of imprisonment, which did not work as a deterrent for others. The Union Cabinet is likely to discuss an amendment to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that will recognise acid throwing as a separate punishable offence. A new section called 326-A is proposed to cover injury, hurt, burns and disfigurement of any body part of a person by acid and make it punishable with at least 10 years imprisonment and Rs10 lakh fine. In Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill 2011, the caveat for consensual sexual activity between the age of 16 and 18 was dropped, thereby criminalising adolescent sex between opposite sexes. In terms of same sex relationship, while defining sexual assault, the same will be applied. In changing times, it is an accepted fact that teenagers engage in sexual activity — both heterosexual and homosexual. If the same laws remain applicable for sexual assault, making consensual sex illegal between the age of 16 and 18, it will give more teeth to moral policing.
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I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. — Emma Goldman
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Military threat from China
ON July 10, an intelligence report issued by the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) warned of the clear and present danger of a conflict being initiated by China along its border with India ostensibly to divert attention from mounting domestic problems, including political dissent, economic challenges and social discord. On July 26, Mr Ranjit Sinha, Indo-Tibetan Border Police chief, said that China was not a friend and was not to be trusted. The Naresh Chandra committee on defence reforms has also sounded a warning about China’s military preparations. The R&AW report points to increased activity by units of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the areas across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) by way of enhanced surveillance and military training exercises which could be tantamount to full dress rehearsals. Recent exercises have included one on the rapid induction of airborne divisions into Tibet in 36 to 48 hours from bases in adjacent military regions. J-10 air-to-ground strike fighters have been battle-tested to hit targets in high-altitude terrain. SU-30 MKK and SU-27 UBK fighter-bombers have also been practising landings in Tibet and have been deployed there during summer months. The PLA has been steadily engaged in developing military infrastructure in Tibet. The railway line from Gormo to Lhasa, which is to be extended further to Shigatse and on to Kathmandu, has made it possible for the PLA to quickly induct and then sustain much larger forces in Tibet than had been the case before it was commissioned. All-weather roads totalling 58,000 km have been constructed so far. Five fully operational air bases have been built at Gongar, Pangta, Linchi, Hoping and Gar Gunsa. New helipads, missile bases, storage sites for ammunition and for fuel, oil and lubricants are being constructed rapidly. Modern military encampments with multi-storey buildings are coming up close to the border with India. This will considerably reduce mobilisation time for deployment on the border. Both landline (optical fibre cable-based) and radio communications are being improved. Microwave towers now dot the countryside. Several new command and control nodes have come up. By no stretch of the imagination can it be presumed that these developments are for the welfare of the sparse population. Nor are these designed to support tourism as China claims. Some years ago the conventional wisdom was that the PLA would need one summer season for stocking and inducting troops and would be able to launch military operations against India only over the next summer season. With substantive improvements having been made to improve the PLA’s military posture in Tibet, it will now be possible for the PLA to induct troops and wage war in a single campaign season. Some analysts have estimated the number of fighting formations that could be inducted in a high-level threat scenario in one month as 30 infantry divisions (12,000 soldiers each). In stark contrast with developments across the border in Tibet, India’s own efforts to improve its defensive posture and military infrastructure along the LAC have been lagging behind. Most of India’s forward infantry divisions are dependent on a single road axis that is mostly one-way throughout its length, and sharp bends do not permit the smooth induction of heavy guns and rocket launchers. Even the most conservatively drawn up plans for infrastructure development have failed to achieve targets for one reason or another. It has been reported that only 50 per cent of the work has been completed on 73 road projects sanctioned so far — Arunachal (27), Uttarakhand (18), J&K (14), Himachal Pradesh (7) and Sikkim (7). Additional plans have been made to construct 277 roads with a total length of 13,100 km in all. However, the issue that needs to be analysed is whether Chinese efforts in Tibet are aimed at bringing about routine improvements in the habitat of the troops in some of the harshest weather conditions in the world, or if there is a clearly offensive aim in upgrading the military infrastructure. In military parlance, a threat equals capability into intention. While there is absolutely no doubt or ambiguity about the PLA’s concerted efforts to enhance military capabilities in both Lanzhou and Chengdu military regions so as to be able to launch and sustain operations from the LAC along Tibet’s border with India, it is difficult to discern a clear intention to do so in the short term. The formulation that China might do so to divert attention from domestic discord does not appear to be realistic and is, therefore, unconvincing. The strategic stakes would be very high and the Chinese leadership will not risk sanctions and international opprobrium as well as the multi-billion dollar mutual trade relationship with India simply to divert the attention of people on the mainland. However, as long as the territorial and boundary dispute between India and China is not resolved to mutual satisfaction, while the probability of conflict remains low in the short term, its possibility cannot be ruled out. This is so because even 15 rounds of border talks involving the politically appointed interlocutors have failed to lead to the demarcation of the LAC — the first essential step to ensure that a major patrol clash does not lead to an ugly incident. Patrol face-offs are common as both sides patrol up to their perception of the LAC and this often results in the transgression of the LAC from the other’s perspective. Though both sides have been adhering to the laid down procedure of warning the opposing patrol through large banners that it has transgressed across the LAC and must immediately go back, a face-off can quickly turn into a shooting match if there is a hot-headed patrol leader on either side. A small incident of this nature can lead to a border conflagration if the situation is not handled with maturity and calmness by the military and political leadership on either side. What India needs to do is to upgrade its military strategy from dissuasion to deterrence. Genuine deterrence comes only from the ability to launch and sustain major offensive operations into the territory of one’s military adversary. Towards this end, the early raising of at least one strike corps for the mountains is an inescapable operational necessity. As manoeuvre is extremely restricted in the mountains, simultaneous efforts must be made to upgrade the firepower potential of the Army and the Air Force by an order of magnitude. Also, the development of military infrastructure along the border with Tibet must be taken up as a key priority area of the Ministry of
Defence. The writer is a Delhi-based defence analyst.
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Tears apart! Tears
flow in many ways. They fiercely flood, wallowingly well up, tend to trickle, flow slowly, slip sloppily, brim exceedingly and are basically emotion spurred. Shocks and thrills too bring tears, while happiness makes them purer. “I hate tears, Pushpa” — being a common refrain at many a mention of tearful situations after the Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila starer lit up the screen to let the gleam of the glowing dialogue travel till today when one is to refer to tears. I remember Dilip Kumar in “Ram Aur Shyam” softly plucking the tiny, shiny twinkling tear-ball drop-land on his fingers trying to please his niece, but the scene lingers in my mind till date. The films have also shown the idols or statues either bleeding from the heart, or rolling down tears at the plight of a particular protagonist on whose predicament even providence takes a pity and is moved. There are people who cannot withstand the sight of tears, particularly when one is so very emotionally attached to the other that one cannot stand the pain and predicament of the loved one. Tears in the eyes of women are believed (mostly by men!) to be the most powerful weapon with them. The English people are known to be possessing and recommending a stiff-upper-lip sans tears, particularly for military generals, dictators, despots, royals and even bureaucrats. At Diana’s death, none of the Royal family, though sullen, betrayed any signs of a sense of loss (on the face of it), while many Britons were seen shedding tears, besides Alton John, singing his ‘Candle in the wind’, making many a tear find their emotional nemesis in flowing out of the eye-uncontrolled. I remember an instance when having lost their parents, two brothers and a sister were fighting a bad patch in life, to slug it out painstakingly. Unfortunately, the younger of the two brothers, joined a dacoit’s gang. A police officer extracted money out of him to favour his brother ‘a little’. The bread-earner boy had to sell off their tractor to pay the bribe. He too was then in the final year of his graduation, with his younger unmarried sister being another one to take care of. The boy summoned up courage to approach the Superintendent of Police. He narrated the bribe story with his eyes flooding with tears, becoming red. But the boy did not let a single tear drop from either of the eyes. They were held on his eye lashes so as not to convey any weakness in his fortitude and conviction of staying bold under all circumstances. The SP ensured that the bribe money was restored to him. I recall Lord Tennyson’s “Home they brought her warrior dead” when the widow doesn’t weep and let flow her tears. Many wise people around exclaim, “She must weep or she will die”. Nothing seems to work till “Rose a nurse of ninety years/Set his child upon her knees — Like summer tempest came her tears/ ‘Sweet my child, I live for thee’!” Tears can move even the stones into some kind of a predicament, letting flow only elixir of hope. I remember another story of a tombstone maker who is approached by a widow to make a tombstone for her husband. She keeps looking at each one of his chisel strokes while he keeps telling himself the same thing — ”She must weep or she will die”. When till two days she doesn’t break down, the tombstone maker has to make two tombstones. Despite all that goes with the tears, Mahatma Gandhi wanted to wipe every tear from every eye. A tall order, Bapu! But you could do it — tears
apart!
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CINEMA: NEW Releases RATINGS:
Skating on thin ice
Ice
Age 4: Continental Drift is the fourth installment of the Ice Age series after the parent film, The Meldown and Dawn of Dinosaurs, but the first one was not directed by Carlos Saldanha and this shows clearly. Two heads are not better than one; there must be a pyramidal structure with one leader. Directors Steve Mastino and Mike Thurmeier struggle along with the focus more on FX that the narrative, which is wafer-thin. The characters remain the same with Manny (voice of Ray Romano), the great big mammoth, his wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) and their feisty teenage daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer) who has a crush on Ethan (Drake) but it is mole hog Louis (Josh Gad) who throws his hat in the ring. So, we have a love triangle for a change with a watchful father never keeping her out of sight. The old favourites are still around, like Sloth Sid (John Leguizamo), his 80-year-old Granny (Wanda Sykes) and Scrot the troublesome squirrel always on the look out for acorns, Shira (Jennifer Lopez), a catty cat and Diego (Denis Leary), the saber-toothed cat. Not to forget the prehistoric ape Capt Gutt (Peter Dinklage), the villain whose moving mass of snow is meant to pirate animals. One of his crew whom you could miss in the blink of an eye is Gupta (Kunal Nayyar). That's how Hollywood treats Indians, like the blacks (as a member of the Jury) in the 1960s before Sidney Poitier came along. It's the description of characters that takes most space. As for the story it is Scrat who sets the ball rolling when trying to break an acorn he triggers the break-up of the landmass known as Pangaea into continents as they have come to be known. So expect Ice Age 5 to be set in one of the newer continents. With this break up Manny is separated from Ellie and Peaches. He's floating along with Sid, Diego and Granny, who is easily the best cameo and delivers the best lines (Capt Gutt comes next) in this rather lacklustre sequel. Razzle-dazzle FX are in abundance, designed to block one's ears because of the high decibel level. The saving grace is it is only 84 minutes long. Also remember the word "drift" doesn't apply to the continents only but primarily to Ice Age 4, the movie.
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This one isn’t cool at all, seriously When
a movie touts itself as an adult comedy you expect it to be irreverent alright, even brimming with sexual humour, yet funny and terrifically comic. And the least you anticipate is that it will be targeted at adult thinking persons. Instead what you get is a wafer-thin story line, two good for nothing dreamers, a bagful of obscene one-liners, two pretty girls and a dog on a sexual overdrive. If that is not ludicrous enough… hold your horses there is more. A Bollywood aficionado who not only collects film memorabilia but even adopts five children suffering from progeria (remember Paa) and believes his mother is reborn as a she dog, all thanks to a fraudulent baba. Even this combination would have been fine if the strange potpourri, one moment a love story yet another one a parody, had been a laugh riot. Alas, the coolest thing about this film is its title. For in this story of dumb Adi (Tusshar Kapoor) and dumber Sid (Riteish Deshmukh) two ideal (oops idle) dreamers at least for the first half-an-hour there is hardly anything remotely funny. Even otherwise the funniest parts are mixed up words…so vet becomes wet and a disc turns into a profane unprintable one. Profanities anyway abound in the movie that derives and drives humour from sexual jokes. Whoever thought innuendoes were cool, welcome to the world of in-your-face downright crass jokes that leave nothing to the imagination. To accentuate the sexual quotient of the film the love angle weaves in homosexuality, gay clubs and even a subplot of a lesbian relationship. All meant to elicit laughter, but the end result is no more than derogatory. Of course, we understand it's a comedy not meant to be taken seriously. In the very beginning, the producer Ekta Kapoor even takes a dig at herself. Not that the film spares other makers or movies. Right from Singham and Ek Tha Tiger to Vicky Donor all come under its radar. Vicky Donor in particular is the chosen target and we even have a dog fashioned after its lead protagonist. Indeed, it's all for good fun but the moot point - where is the fun? Sure it exists albeit rationed. Some dialogues like "we had heard of valet parking but not valley parking" after their car goes downhill and some more in a similar vein do bring a smile. But most laughter is laboured. Jokes are stale as well in poor taste. There is a whiff of fresh air by way of the two lovely girls Neha Sharma and Sarah Jane Dias though one wishes Neha had taken off the cheesy smile of her face. Ritesh's comic timing, however, is right in the movie that doesn't otherwise strike a right note. As the film climaxes with Adi saying hum ordinary film ke ordinary hero hai….one couldn't agree more and even tempted to add less-than-ordinary. So if you are a stiff upper lip avoid it like plague. And even if you count yourself among the liberal non-puritan club who believe nonsense makes comic sense, brace yourself for below-the-belt howlers. When will India learn adult comedies are not for imbeciles?
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Movies on
TV Saturday
July 28 Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) is the archetypal honest cop who keeps his native village, Shivgad, crime free with his special system of dispensing personalised justice. However, his idyll is broken after a chance encounter with city goon, Jayakant Shikre (Prakash Raj) who rules over Goa with his ill-gotten wealth and power. Out of a sense of vengeance, Shikre gets Singham transferred to Goa and tries to wreak havoc in his life. But he obviously underestimates the power of this diehard cop who knows how to work the system his way. ZEE CINEMA SAHARA ONE STAR PLUS SET MAX STAR GOLD ZEE ACTION INDIAN TALKIES HBO Sunday
July 29 Kahaani Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) arrives in Kolkata from London to find her missing husband. Seven months pregnant and alone in a festive city, she begins a relentless search for her husband. With nothing to rely on except fragments from her memories about him, all clues seem to reach a dead end when everyone tries to convince Vidya that her husband does not exist. She slowly realises that nothing is what it seems. In a city soaked in lies, Vidya is determined to unravel the truth about her husband- for herself and her unborn child- even at the cost of her own life. ZEE CINEMA SAHARA ONE STAR PLUS SET MAX STAR GOLD ZEE ACTION INDIA TALKIES HBO
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Film 
Singham