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A cry in wilderness
Deplorable attack
Beyond cancer drive |
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Indo-Pak visa diplomacy
The agonising ‘aunty syndrome’
Retail FDI: It’s a challenge
Why not try cooperative model?
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A cry in wilderness AS if no one was paying attention to her anti-retail FDI rantings in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee trooped in Delhi on Monday to threaten the UPA with a no-confidence motion. She forgets that she would not be taken seriously unless she has the numbers to destabilise the government. Though DMK chief M. Karunanidhi has promised to support any resolution moved against the government on the retail FDI issue, neither of the two parties - the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati -- which prop up the UPA government has shown any inclination to join hands with the Trinamool Congress. The retail FDI decision gives every state the freedom to let in or turn away foreign mega stores. But Mamata Banerjee not only wants to shut the doors of West Bengal on supermarkets but also tries to impose her will on other states and the Centre. Seldom accused of being pragmatic, she does not correctly read the current political mood, which is against early Lok Sabha elections. Scared of fast frittering away her political goodwill in West Bengal, she is keen on early elections. But not many political parties share her view. The Samajwadi Party is expected to gain if elections are advanced, but it has given no hints of bringing down the Manmohan Singh government. Even the main opposition party, the BJP, has not yet gone to the extent of seeking a no-trust vote. In fact, the party is yet to decide whether to allow Parliament to function. That leaves the "lioness" from West Bengal roaring in the wilderness. The only leader of consequence to grace her Jantar Mantar stage was NDA convener Sharad Yadav, who too made it clear that he was there as a "citizen". As the Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee used to spend much of her time in Kolkata. Now she is the Chief Minister, and instead of devoting her time and energy to pulling her highly indebted state out of the resource crunch, has announced plans to travel across the country to campaign against retail FDI.
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Deplorable attack THE attack on Lt-Gen Kuldeep Singh Brar in London, which left him with serious but not life-threatening injuries, is deplorable. The 78-year-old retired General was wounded by some "burly bearded men" while he was walking with his wife in London. A third-generation soldier, Lt-Gen Brar was one of the key commanders of Operation Bluestar in 1984. Indeed, it is because of his role in the operation that he has been provided security by the government, although it had progressively become so lax that it became virtually non-existent when he travelled abroad. While the reference to "bearded men" clearly points a finger at militants, who have evidently not forgotten the General's role in Operation Bluestar, the government too must be criticised for failing to protect its officer, who had clearly been a target since the operation. The government was well aware of the threat to officers who were active in Operation Bluestar, especially after the assassination of General A S Vaidya in Pune two years after he had led the operation. It should have been more vigilant in its duty to protect the officer. People in Punjab have moved on with their lives 28 years after Operation Bluestar. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has apologised for the action, as have other senior leaders. Militancy in Punjab is now history. Stray incidents of recovery of weapons or arrest of former militants aside, Punjab has been peaceful for decades. The state is now firmly on the path to economic and social progress. The Sikh diaspora has been particularly active in keeping alive the memory of Sikh militancy and Operation Bluestar, and even though the British police has yet to arrest anyone, or even name any suspect, the finger of suspicion can point in that direction. Now, it is for the Government of India to ensure the security and safety of its personnel, be they serving or retired. It should have not allowed the lapse of time to be an excuse for the lapse of vigilance.
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Beyond cancer drive WITH the Malwa region of Punjab registering an ever-increasing number of cases of cancer, it is only in the fitness of things that the Punjab government's massive cancer detection drive begins in Faridkot. Indeed, the government's move that involves 50,000 personnel is a step in the right direction, and the drive is expected to cover the entire state soon. Since detection alone is not an answer to the problem, the state government has done well to include relief right from the date of diagnosis. The provisions with regard to an additional sanction of money for more serious cases of cancer and transfer of funds from one hospital to the other referral hospital too seem to be in the interest of patients. But, as is the case with many other government programmes, the real test would lie in the actual implementation of the ambitious drive. No doubt, the classic adage "a stitch in time saves nine" applies as much to cancer as to any other aspect of life. Early detection of cancer can go a long way in saving lives. In a state where villages like Jajjal in Bathinda district remain in complete denial of the disease, indeed awareness holds the key. At the same time, remedial steps taken by the government can help combat the battle against cancer, provided it ensures that benefits reach the patients. While the Punjab government has been disbursing cancer relief for some time now, it was found a year ago that nearly 90 per cent of the cancer grant in Bhatinda remained unutilised. Apart from monetary relief, what the state badly needs is requisite medical infrastructure like government-aided speciality cancer hospitals to deal with the deadly disease. The dismal reality is that till today people from the region have to seek treatment outside the state in places like Bikaner. The issue of high incidence of cancer figured in the election manifesto of political parties. The government, which has ignored cancer for too long, has to deliver on its promise and not by knee-jerk announcements but through concerted and all-encompassing many-pronged measures.
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We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature. — Edmund Burke
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Indo-Pak visa diplomacy ARTICLE 13(2) of the UN Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to leave any country”. There is, however, no consequential right to enter another country. This right gets vested in the nation-state, which adopts rules and regulations to regulate entry of persons. The governments use the instrumentality of visa to achieve this objective. Visa has, therefore, become an important tool in achieving national objectives by all the governments. It is the same when the British Prime Minister wants to attract the best and the brightest from the world, including India, or opts for stringent visa conditions for the stay of international students from non-EU countries under domestic pressure, even though it weakens the links with the Commonwealth countries. It is the same when Malaysia adopts an “off and on” policy on granting visas to Indians on arrival, or India adopts a similar visa facility for a select group of countries. In diplomatic parlance, it is categorised as visa diplomacy. Visa diplomacy is also used to promote the foreign policy agenda. It is a tool for both “recognition and cooperation” or “coercion and protest”. It also acts as a tool for “development and promotion”, as it results in building bridges of friendship among diverse groups. It has also been used in pushing universal values like democracy, good governance and human values. Signing of the India Pakistan Visa Agreement in September, replacing the 1974 Visa Agreement, falls in the armoury of visa diplomacy. The agreement was signed by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries and not by the Home Secretaries, even though all the contours had been finalised. This was to convey a diplomatic signal on the desire to improve bilateral relations. It is a forward movement as it liberalises the existing visa regime, as it existed under the 1974 Visa Agreement. Primarily, its focus was on overall liberalisation on the visa conditions for travel between the two countries. The main thrust is two-pronged. Firstly, to facilitate easy travel by all and, secondly, to facilitate travel by the business community, catering to their needs, in keeping with the increase in bilateral trade. Three major changes were made in the visitor visa category, which include increasing the duration of validity of visa from three months to six months and allowing visits to five places, instead of three, as in the past. Another change was to provide flexibility on the points of arrival and departure and mode of travel, as hitherto before the visitors had to enter and leave from the same point. Special provisions have been made for senior citizens above 65 years of age; they can be issued visa valid for two years with multiple entries and the same would be applicable to spouses belonging to the other nationality. In addition, senior citizens would also be accorded the facility of visa on arrival at the Attari-Wagah border, limited to 45 days. A significant feature of the new visa policy is the creation of a separate category of business visa. Two categories of businessmen’s visa are created, linking to the standing of the business in terms of income and turnover. Businessmen having an annual turnover of Pakistani rupees 30 million or income of Pakistani rupees 5 million would be granted one-year multiple entry visa valid for 10 places. In other cases, with an income of Pakistani rupees half a million or turnover of Pakistani rupees three million would be given one-year visa, with four entries to five places. This meets the long-pending demand for multiple-entry visas for a longer duration. Another new visa category was also introduced such as group tourist visa for 30 days for groups between 10-50 persons, organised by approved tour operators. These facilities would also be available to students of educational institutions. Both governments agreed to exchange details on tourist destinations and recognised tour operators. Another interesting feature was the fixing of the time limit for the processing of visa applications: 30 days for diplomatic visas, 45 days for non-diplomatic visas and 35 days for business visas. Visa liberalisation has been hailed as a major step as it is expected to bring about greater connectivity at the people-to-people level and help in further building commercial linkages, as the bilateral trade is expected to increase from the current level of $ 2.5 billion to $ 10 billion in a couple of years. It looks big optically, seen in the India-Pakistan context, although it is a small step and many more such steps are needed. Missing from the list was the liberalisation of visas for the media and academics — two important segments — which could help in generating greater awareness of each other. Such exchanges would obviate the need for our depending upon foreign institutions like PEW, an American think tank, to know how Pakistanis and Indians view each other. The Visa Agreement is a recognition of the changing reality. The proof of the pudding would be the manner in which the agreement is implemented. We have seen this happening in many other countries, where policy gains have been lost at the implementation stage. Let us look at the British government’s tardy implementation of the visa policy for highly skilled migrant professionals (HSMP) and international students from non-EU countries, or the US government’s tightening of screws on company transferees. In the case of India-Pakistan, stricter implementation had stood in the way of providing connectivity, as could be seen from the denial of visa to a leading journalist who had to accompany the External Affairs Minister on a visit to Pakistan. The refrain for dialogue dominates the agenda of all well-meaning persons, including leaders, on both sides of the border. Connectivity, on the other hand, is the buzzword of SAARC summits. Liberalisation of the visa regime, is therefore, a right step in this direction. Hopefully, visa diplomacy would help in building bridges of friendship. Both Foreign Ministers declared their wish in the joint statement that “facilitating contacts between peoples … should remain at the heart of the relationship between Pakistan and India.” We are seeing this happening as in the case of the revival of India-Pakistan Mushaira, at Ambala and the Health Camp in Punjab, where Pakistani artists and doctors respectively participated. This is a good augury, as people start reaping the benefits of connectivity resulting in enhanced linkage at all levels. Let us hope that such visits result in changing the mindset, leading to a reduction of the trust deficit, which stands in the way of good neighbourly relations between our two countries and
peoples.
The writer is a former ambassador.
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The agonising ‘aunty syndrome’ IT was well past midnight, and we were returning home after attending a New Year party in Chandigarh Club. For a change, it was not my husband but I was on the driver’s seat. My husband had taken a drink and we were aware that the police had put up nakas to nab drunk drivers; hence purposely I was driving the car. Half way through the drive, the car was signalled to stop. As I stopped, a young policeman on duty came up to the car and, finding me behind the wheels, remarked, “Yeh to aunty jee drive kar raheen hain.” (This is aunty driving the car). The moment I heard the word ‘aunty’, my heart sank. I was crestfallen. The cop might have uttered in a lighter vein, but what he said in good humour left a bad taste in my mouth. Needless to say, with deflated ego, I drove back home in a sullen mood. Howsoever hard I may try to drive the ageing blues away, every now and then I am reminded of my middle age, aunty status. Like any other middle-aged woman, I am a victim of the agonising ‘aunty syndrome’. Almost everyone, from the maid, who works for me, to the fruit-vegetable seller, the ‘akhbarwala’, the ‘kabariwala’ and any stranger on the road, all conveniently address me as ‘aunty’. I hate this ‘universal aunty’ status accorded to me, not only by the people who know me well but also acquaintances and total strangers. It is disgusting, a big blow to my self-esteem when I am called aunty by the people not-so-young. In fact, I have grown so allergic to this term ‘aunty’ that I want it to be banished from the common parlance. (I won’t dare to use the term ‘vanish’ for obvious reasons. Remember, the cartoon controversy!) In fact, no middle-aged woman likes to be addressed as aunty by all and sundry. At a stage in life when she is leaving no stone unturned to defy her age, the term ‘aunty’ is a cruel reminder of her advancing age. All her efforts to ‘look young’ and ‘feel young’ come to a naught. She resents when she is called aunty but, of course, she does not mind addressing the relatively older women in the same manner. The elder females may not relish this elevated status, but the relatively younger women love to address them ‘aunties’. How typical of women! I resist the temptation of addressing women older to me as aunties but others are not so considerate. When people not-so-young call me aunty, I feel like retorting and telling them to look into the mirror. But I exercise restraint and let go. What is the point in fretting and fuming? I have come to realise that if I cannot stop every maid or any fruit-vegetable seller from calling me aunty, I should better reconcile myself to the aunty
status.
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Retail FDI: It’s a challenge
THE recent decision of the Central government to further liberalise foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail marketing and allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail, paving the way for the opening of mega stores in about 50 major cities of the country is under debate for its possible economic, political and social consequences. It appears that we lack inner strength and fear to get exploited in the process. Let us accept this opportunity as a challenge. Apart from political whims, the prevailing production and marketing system, if altered, would certainly have implications on growth, economic disparities, employment and various social issues. For a common man (as a producer and a consumer), the ultimate concern is improving the economic efficiency in the marketing process so that quality products move in the system with minimum cost, at reasonable competitive prices and facilitating the establishment of appropriate market infrastructure. Stagnation in farm growth About two-third of the working force of the nation is still engaged in agriculture. Punjab and Haryana have only wheat, rice and cotton as the three major but natural resource exhaustive crops. Production has almost reached at the plateau. Marketing by value addition in these crops, to a large extent, is already done. Diversification of agriculture is widely recognised as a way out to break growth stagnation. Alternatives suggested have highly perishable products such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, milk, fish and meat. But a long chain of market middlemen and their high profit margins, high wastage, spoilage and quality deterioration in the process due to unscientific and small-scale handling, transportation, storage, processing are the basic constraints, resulting in unremunerative prices to the farmers on one hand and high prices and poor quality produce delivered to the consumers on the other. Over time the economic system has taken a U-turn. A consumer with high purchasing power cannot be forced to accept what is available in the market but he dictates as to what is to be produced to meet his pocket and taste. Therefore, the quality parameter, variety of processed and fresh products and market conveniences apart from price have assumed greater importance. The production system, therefore, has to cater to the specific demand aspects. Strengthening of the market information system by a frequent assessment of market forces at the national and global levels should have broadened the market sphere of the country, where again we are lagging far behind. No doubt, a vast majority of the population is struggling at the poverty line but the number of the rich is not that small. If we are unable to improve our own house by catering to the requirements of all sections, what is the harm in engaging MNCs to meet the growing requirements of such consumers? It is strange that some people are worried over the failure of some existing chain stores. Research and development has been another weak link being constrained by funding. An investment of $590 billion is expected, of which half has to be invested in the form of infrastructure like cold chains, processing, packing, grading etc which would help in organised marketing and technology. Minimising waste Wastage in small quantities aggregates to an intolerable figure of 40 per cent in perishables and 10-15 per cent in case of semi-perishable food items, which has to be minimised through scientific post-harvest operations. Direct purchases from farms through legal contracts would further shorten the channel. The charging of VAT on sales could also amount to no less than the mandi taxes foregone by the state government. A financial loss would definitely occur to preventable middlemen or cutting the size of those earning disproportionate to the services provided. A fear of unemployment of petty traders is also not well placed as more value addition would generate more and systematic employment potential. The experience of some countries such as Australia, Thailand and the Philippines has demonstrated that with every such store, a large number of small ancillary production and trade units coexist and thrive well. Advocates of small farmers often lose sight of the fact that their economic future lies in getting organised even without such developments. A similar controversy arose before our entry into the WTO in the early nineties and a lot of pessimism was injected in public mind. Now, we have already tasted the liberalisation of world trade and to a great extent acclimatised to the new economic order and now need to further strengthen it, for which infrastructural development with appropriate technology is an essential step. For instance, to boost exports, sanitary and phyto-sanitary and technical barriers of trade norms have to be maintained. But lacking suitable infrastructure, we have many times faced serious consequences of return of export consignments. However, some defensive measures are also necessary. One safeguard essentially required is to effectively check the deviation of such investment from the agreed norms. For example, investment in real estate in India is a lucrative business at times, in which direct or indirect investment may lead to distortions in resource use.
The writer is a former Professor & Head, Department of Economics & Sociology, PAU, Ludhiana
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Why not try cooperative model? Dr. Verghese Kurien
not only made India the world’s largest milk producer through Operation Flood, but also demonstrated how a cooperative movement among the dairy-farming community can succeed and emerge into a world-class procurement and marketing company. Working under difficult rural conditions he helped thousands of dairy farmers create cooperatives to produce and market milk, all by themselves, making it remunerative for them. The genesis of this unique experiment by milk-farmers, which got rid of middlemen, was depicted admirably in the 1976 feature film ‘Manthan’. Kurien applied the model later to other commodities like vegetable oil where he tried to restructure the marketing system to protect the small producer from middlemen, or the oil kings. Fruits and vegetables are now produced and marketed through a cooperative network of over 250 farmer-owned retail stores in Delhi. A question comes to mind: why can’t this co-operative model be applied to the farming community growing wheat and rice in the country? More so, because though the annual production of these two foodgrains is more than adequate, the open-market trends and distribution have created a paradox that hungry millions and grain mountains co-exist! What is even more worrisome is the financial lot of farmers, driving some even to commit suicide. Therefore, why cannot the co-operative marketing model be applied to the grain-producing farmers of this country so that they handle the marketing and distribution themselves, disbursing a reasonable profit to be decided by farmers’ cooperatives to farmers, and wiping out the huge extra profits made by middlemen, thereby keeping the open-market prices of foodgrains also affordable. If it can be done to milk and dairy-products, which are perishables, then it should be much easier to do so for foodgrains.
Exploitation by middlemen Over the years, the lot of an average farmer has not improved much, barring the possible difference that he brings his produce in tractor-trailers now, vis-a-vis bullock-carts in olden days. The arhtiyas (middlemen) make sure that the monopoly purchase of wheat by the FCI is made through them on a commission basis, and any farmers’ co-operatives do not appear on the scene. Incremental hikes in the procurement price of grains made every year by successive governments have not been adequate to offset the rising costs of farming. Barring a few progressive farmers, most small farmers have struggled to break even, because they always need advances against the future crops to pay off for the increasing cost of inputs like seeds, pesticides, diesel for pump-sets, etc. This makes them go for raising loans from unscrupulous money-lenders or ‘arhtiyas’, underlining the dependence of farmers on middlemen. The increased grain production over the years has also brought forth related issues like an excessive use of pesticides, causing health and environment problems, and excessive pumping of water by farmers which sent the water table down. Sops like free electricity were hardly effective due to huge power cuts. Many of these problems, which escalated with time, were not unique to Punjab, and came up in other states, too. Provisions of soft bank loans or loan-waivers did not ameliorate the financial condition of farmers. We see the after-effects of all this in suicides committed by some farmers. Inadequacies in the system expected to handle millions of tonnes of grains within a short time-window of the procurement season has led to storage and transport problems. The differential in open-market prices of grains at point-of-source, say rural Punjab and urban places like Mumbai, where I live, are too large, mainly due to profiteering.
Profiteering supply chain I used to wonder in the early 70s, why good quality wheat was sold in Mumbai at over Rs. 3 per kg, when the price of ration wheat was only Rs. 1.03 per kg? Even today good quality wheat costs twice as much as ration wheat in Mumbai. Surely, it does not cost so much to transport wheat to justify the large differential, which is created by the profiteering supply-chain. The point is, as long as traders and middlemen don’t have scruples, peasants and consumers will continue to be exploited alike. If farmers can come forward to form a nationwide co-operative network, which can handle the procurement of foodgrains and related products, and their storage, sales and marketing, and distribute all profits equitably to its members, it would be a boon to farmers of this country. Luckily, the cooperative model has already been established by Kurien, whose Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation disburses Rs.15 crore everyday in cash to its members! But there is a caution that the new movement should be in the true spirit of a ‘co-operative’ and not where the management of a co-operative is hijacked by some influential members like in the case of some of the sugar-mills in the co-operative sector.
The writer is a former Associate Director, Physics Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. Email: ya_kmi@yahoo.com
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