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Terror in Boston
Gold loses shine |
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Popular appeal
From tragedy to farce
From Italy, with love – lots of it
Check population too for food security
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Terror in Boston
The
Boston Marathon finished before it was over after two bombs were set off on Monday near the finishing line of one of the oldest and most prestigious long-distance running events in the world. The explosions left three people dead and at least 140 injured, many of them seriously. Prompt action by various emergency services undoubtedly saved many lives, and as the FBI investigates the explosions, the world is searching for answers about the tragedy that has befallen the US. Naturally, the bomb blast have received widespread condemnation worldwide, from leaders and common people alike. Even as President Barack Obama admitted, “We still do not know who did this or why,” and cautioned people against jumping to conclusions, there is no doubt that the massive search will unearth who committed this cowardly act. The US President’s words have had a calming effect on a wounded nation that seeks answers, and then justice, which he has promised. The US for long had felt immune from terror, even as it battled various incidents of domestic terror, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia; the 2001 anthrax attacks and many other incidents of shootings. The horrendous attack on the Twin Towers of World Trade in New York on September 11, 2001, left over 3,000 civilians dead and made 9/11 a metaphor for terror. The Boston Marathon started in 1897, a year after the first Olympic marathon. It is held on Patriots’ Day in the State of Massachusetts every year. The marathon celebrates man’s victory over odds, and it is a mega-event with around 27,000 participants this year, and lakhs of spectators. As one of the bombs exploded, a 78-year-old runner fell on the footpath. Soon thereafter, he got up again and finished the race. That’s the spirit that must be kept alive, even as US federal and other security agencies find and bring to justice those who set off the explosions.
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Gold loses shine
Gold
prices have been on the decline since 2011 but the plunge was sudden and sharp on Monday (it fell by Rs 750 to Rs 27,600 per 10gm), sparking interest among new buyers and worrying those who had bought it at higher prices. India and China are the two largest markets for gold. The crash in China on Monday was even sharper as future traders went on a selling spree to cut their losses. The question parents with daughters of marriageable age are asking is whether it is the right time to buy gold. Experts and gold traders quoted in newspapers say the prices could fall further. One should understand why the prices have slumped. The immediate trigger is the report that Cyprus plans to sell its gold to raise cash for a bailout. This may drive other troubled nations in the euro zone like Spain, Italy and Portugal to offload gold to meet their financial commitments. An increased supply will naturally dampen prices. Then there are investors who buy gold to counter the effect of rising inflation. Now inflation is moderating in the US and elsewhere. Therefore, capital is moving from gold to other avenues like share markets. The US dollar and gold prices usually move in opposite directions. Lately, the dollar has strengthened against the yen and other global currencies, while gold prices have weakened. There are indications that interest rates in the US may start rising. This may reduce money supply and shift investment from gold, where returns are declining, to bonds. Normally, a crash in gold prices should bring good news to the Indian government, which faces a high current account deficit (imports far exceeding exports). After oil, India spends maximum on gold imports. But the relief may be limited as lower gold prices could push up demand, resulting in higher imports. At times like this people not only buy the precious metal for the present but also tend to accumulate it for future.
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Popular appeal
The
Centre’s proposal to help Punjab plant the poplar tree over 2 lakh hectares looks like a hastily prepared plan by whoever is burdened with spending the diversification fund of Rs 500 crore. Punjab’s outright rejection of it, however, seems as hasty. Yet, the positive indication from this is that both have started actively considering diversification at a mass scale, and not just as an experiment. This was the first initiative from the Centre directed specifically at moving Punjab away from paddy. The point to be borne by both the governments is the issue should not be politicised, as neither can afford to spoil the fields of Punjab. Two lakh hectares under poplar in all is not unreasonable, but the consequences of bringing that much area under a single new crop within a year have to be thought through. Punjab has said so many saplings won’t be available in one go, but that can be overcome in a year’s time. The question is what will happen to the market economics of the poplar crop when all of it is harvested at the same time. Incremental shift is the answer, whichever the crop, because the consumption end of any produce also has to develop, and that takes time. Those many factories to process poplar wood will have to come up. As for the issue of return not being regular, farmers may set aside only a small part of their land for poplar. With cash from the crop coming after six or seven years, it will also be a kind of forced saving. Punjab needs to take the Centre up on its offer of bearing the cost of poplar plantation, only without setting any quantity targets. The Centre made the proposal because Punjab is yet to prepare a specific area-wise plan for diversification despite the time to sow kharif crops coming up fast. This is a lapse. The key to diversification would be to initially have eggs in many baskets, see the results, and accordingly keep modifying the plans. It will be a process of evolution, and not a one-time scheme charted out by mandarins sitting behind desks.
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There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning. — Christopher Morley
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From tragedy to farce The Mamata-CPM civil war fought on the streets of Delhi and Kolkata is a new low in politics. Mamata Banerjee was callous and utterly boorish in her attitude towards the avoidable death of a young leftist protestor in a melee mishandled by the Kolkata police. This brought SFI activists in Delhi on to the streets to protest against the West Bengal Chief Minister who was in the Capital to meet the Planning Commission chief. The Delhi police advised Banga Bhavan to request the Chief Minister to avoid the main gate of Yojana Bhavan and use the VIP entrance. Mamata refused. She not only drove up to the main gate but with foolish bravado also dismounted to make her entry on foot. She was jostled but her Finance Minister who was behind was pushed and pummelled. The SFI activists certainly misbehaved but Mamata deliberately courted trouble and cannot escape culpability for the unfortunate event. Montek Alhuwalia and the Prime Minister both apologised for what happened. But the Trinamool reaction was to call its goons on to the streets in Kolkata to assault Leftist leaders and property. This was followed the next day with a mindless invasion and vandalisation of a prized Presidency University laboratory, a criminal act that Trinamool leaders typically first defended. The Bengal Governor properly condemned the attack on the Chief Minister and her Finance Minister in Delhi but went on to castigate the CPM politburo for what he said was a premeditated assault. The CPM understandably found the Governor’s statement excessive, leading the latter to go further and issue a statement through Raj Bhavan that his conclusions about the CPM’s conduct were based on a deep study of Marx and Mao. Serious issues of law and order and gross political impropriety have been reduced to farce. The Governor then went on to apologise to the students and faculty of Presidency University for his failure to protect them as Chancellor and Governor. How should he have gone about doing that? Governors as ex-officio chancellors of state universities should not pursue interventionist policies as some have done and one must hope that this does not now happen in West Bengal, especially as the Governor admitted to interlocutors that he was “going beyond his constitutional responsibilities”. The Governor, howsoever well-intentioned, should tread carefully in not setting what could become a dangerous precedent. Another dangerous precedent is being set by the Akalis and human rights activists in rejecting the Supreme Court’s order that delay in deciding a mercy petition cannot by itself be cause to commute a death sentence to life imprisonment as in the case of Khalistani terrorist, Devinder Singh Bhullar. The magnitude of the crime and its impact on society cannot be disregarded. Bhullar was found guilty of killing nine persons in a bomb attack in Delhi in 1993. His clemency petition, after final disposal of his review petition at the highest judicial level, was rejected by the President in 2011 since when it is now pleaded that he has become mentally unsound and cannot therefore be hanged, a view that the court rejected on facts. Then to argue that Bhullar cannot be hanged on what is termed a dubious self-confession after judicial review is to say that the courts cannot and must never decide. The Akalis now plan to appeal to the President (again) claiming that hurt public sentiment will not tolerate such injustice. This is crude blackmail with the political threat of murder and communal mayhem on the streets as earlier threatened in the case of the Babar Khalsa terrorist, Rajaona, Afzal Guru, and others. Gratuitous allegations of discrimination against minorities are also alleged in these cases in a bid to divide communities. Such repeated grandstanding to defeat due process and democratic governance is gathering currency and such tamasha needs to be put down with a firm hand. To add to the on-going buffoonery, we have Justice Markandey Katju, the maverick chairperson of the Press Council, off on another trip to cloud-cuckoo land in rejecting the Supreme Court’s order and proclaiming his intention of appealing to the President to overturn it. What the latest episodes underline is the need to make disposal of mercy petitions time- bound, say within three months. Thereafter, non-decision should be presumed to constitute approval for hanging, which must be done within a week, no questions asked. The idea that the individual or family rights of a condemned terrorist or murderer are far greater and nobler than the social rights of the citizenry and the state acting in accordance with due process is unmitigated nonsense. The issue of delay is again highlighted in the rejection by a Delhi sessions court of the CBI’s clean chit to Jagdish Tytler, the Congress leader, in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. It has ordered reinvestigation of the case after examining hitherto “missing” witnesses. The procedure is proper but the process, especially the tortoise-like speed of commissions of inquiry, cries out for reform. The axiom justice delayed is justice denied lies buried and courts and commissions are quick to grant postponements and prolong proceedings interminably in the most unconscionable manner. Liberhan holds the record for taking 17 years to produce his report on the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Nanavatiwas asked to head the tenth Commission of Inquiry appointed to look into the 1984 riots and reported five years later but not before taking up chairmanship of the 2002 inquiry into the Gujarat killings. This has yet to report after umpteen extensions. This resume only exemplifies the political reluctance to proceed expeditiously and bring speedy closure to the victims of horrendous riots and pogroms. The BJP and the Congress have been happy to prolong proceedings to obfuscate their culpability and use one pogrom virtually to justify the other in a 1984 vs 1992/93-cum-2002 communal orgy. The Congress thwarted the Marwah Commission, the first of the 1984 inquiries, as soon as it was known that the Delhi police and its masters were going to be indicted. Likewise, Narendra Modi and the BJP have supported every dodge to delay or deny justice in Gujarat. The cover-up goes on. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologised to the nation on behalf of the Congress government for what happened in 1984. Sharad Pawar has now apologised to Maharashtra for the arrogant and contemptible remarks of his nephew and Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar about drought in the state. These apologies are well taken but hardly sufficient. The BJP has been more honest in strutting around, apologising to
none.
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From Italy, with love – lots of it The expression of regret by the Mayor of Taranto for the killing of Indian fishermen by Italian marines and his offer to take up the responsibility for the education of the children of the Indians has a deep significance. The city of Taranto has historical association with India. This brings back memories of my experience in the city of Taranto way back in 1967 when I was an officer on board INS Brahmaputra and my ship was diverted to the city since there was a coup in Greece and King Constantine was overthrown, forcing the ship to be diverted there. The ship berthed alongside in Taranto in the early hours of a Sunday. There was no one there apart from the shore berthing party of a few men. As time went by, a large number of the citizens of Taranto, including several senior citizens started congregating near the ship. They carried placards welcoming the Indians to Taranto. It was a mystery to us as to why such a crowd was building up. We were told that the news of the Indian ship’s arrival was announced on the local radio. By the evening, the crowds had swelled. Several residents held placards inviting us to dinners, lunches and picnics. I was invited to dinner by the family of the late Ines Ghosh, the Italian wife of the late surgeon, Rear-Admiral J.N. Ghosh, of the Indian Navy. Ghosh met Ines in Taranto where he was a prisoner of war. Here we heard heart-rending stories of World War II. They narrated how when the British 8th Army comprising British, Australian, Canadian, Indian and troops of other nationalities invaded southern Italy in July, 1943, the soldiers from all armies except the Indian Army indulged in rape, molestation and plunder. One of the elderly ladies present told us how she was being chased by two Allied soldiers when an Indian soldier intervened and protected her. He told them not to harm her because she was his sister! In another instance a posse of Indian soldiers voluntarily guarded an apartment building and prevented soldiers from the Allied armies entering it. There were numerous stories of heroism like this. These marvellous episodes bore testimony to the ethical standards and professionalism of the Indian Army. The following day there was a special reception in honour of the personnel of INS Brahmaputra in the town hall. Meanwhile, invitations from the citizenry continued to flow, so much so that the late Captain Erach Debu, Commanding Officer of the ship, volunteered to keep harbour watch in the ship himself and let all his officers go ashore to attend the functions. Several shops of Taranto refused to accept money for the merchandise purchased by the ship’s personnel. When the ship left the port finally after four days, virtually the entire town was on the jetty with several bands in attendance to bid adieu. It was a very moving and emotional
experience.
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Check population too for food security To
ensure food security for its burgeoning population, the emphasis of India has mainly been on increasing total crop production and crop productivity per hectare, putting great pressure on its land and water resources. Policymakers have basically disregarded the fact that food problem can be addressed in another way, i.e., by controlling population growth. A balance between increasing food production and controlling population could also be a viable strategy.
Natural resources India’s population in 2012 was 120.51 crore (17.3 per cent of the world population), whereas China’s population was 134.32 crore (20 per cent of the world population). The figures culled out from the data provided by the US Census Bureau (see graph) represent populations of India and China between the period 1950 and 2050. The graph reveals that in 2025, India, with a population of 139.60 crore, is set to surpass China’s population of 139.46 crore. While India’s population is expected to keep growing, China’s population will start to decline after 2030. The predicted populations of India and China for 2050 are a whopping 165.66 crore and 130.37 crore, respectively. China, not being a democracy, has been able to achieve effective population control quickly, but the efforts of India have been inadequate in controlling its population. Even India’s National Population Policy of 2000 erroneously predicted that the country’s population would exceed China’s population in 2045. The World Bank prediction agrees with the US Census Bureau’s prediction that India’s population would surpass China’s by 2030. In 2011, India’s population density stood at 382 per kilometre, whereas that of China was 141 kilometre. During 1901-2000, while the world population tripled from 200 crore to 600 crore, India’s population almost quintupled from the existing 23.8 crore to 100 crore.
While India accounts for 17-18 per cent of global population, it has only 2.4 per cent of the land area of the world. This imbalance puts much strain on India’s natural resources, drinking water, arable land, habitat, and availability of infrastructure. Consequently, a large number of Indians struggle to eke out a living as they continue to live below the poverty line. From the standpoint of literacy also, India’s situation is less than desirable. Much more needs to be done to make it a success.
Overtaking China
National Population Policy To determine how much progress India has made in controlling population, we should first examine the goals of the National Population Policy 2000. The main goals of the population policy were: to provide facilities for birth control and healthcare, supply information on voluntary family planning and methods to reduce birth rate, balance fertility rate and replacement rate by 2010, stabilise population growth by 2045, reduce infant mortality, encourage girls to marry after the age of 18 years, make primary education compulsory, and reduce the dropout rate for primary and secondary education to below 20 per cent. According to the 1951 Census, the birth rate in India was 40.8, death rate 25, infant mortality rate 146, and fertility rate 6 (per 1000 population). In 2009-2010, these rates fell to 22 (birth), 7.4 (death), 50 (infant mortality), and 2.6 (fertility). These figures indicate that the country did make some progress during the 1951-2010 period. Despite this progress, the current population and birth rate are much higher than the targeted levels. One of the reasons for this was that India, being a democratic country, allowed family planning to be done according to the wishes of the people, and the success of family planning depended on the ability of the government to motivate people toward population control. Illiteracy also played a role in achieving less than satisfactory outcomes. For example, in Kerala, in 2011, the literacy rate was the highest in the country (93.9 per cent) and its annual population growth rate was the lowest (0.48 per cent). In comparison to other states, Bihar had the lowest literacy rate at 63.82 per cent and the state’s annual population growth rate was 2.26 per cent. The high literacy rate of Kerala also seemed to be a major factor responsible for its highest sex ratio of 1,084. Literacy is certainly the foundation of all positive outcomes. Another reason for the increased population is poverty. Poverty-stricken households regard the arrival of a newborn as a means of increasing family income. Further, in many remote areas across the country, facilities for healthcare and birth control are not available. Thus, people in those areas are not able to adopt family planning measures. There are other social reasons for the trend as well. Traditionally, many parents marry off their daughters at a very young age. This also contributes to the increase in population because such actions increase the reproductive period of a married woman, during which additional children can be born. This causes the fertility rate to increase. Controlling the numbers
Public Awareness: On the website of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, a population counter has been installed that provides information on second-to-second growth in global population and minute-to-minute decrease in arable land. Likewise, our governments need to create awareness among citizens about the grave problem of the ever-increasing population of India. Population and arable
land counters should be installed on all public websites and buildings, and airports. Inspired by the IRRI website, a few years ago, I had gotten a population counter installed on the official website of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, which unfortunately has now been removed. With the help of that counter, I was able to determine that the population of the country increased by 42,000 within 24 hours. Such counters are more valuable, useful, and educational than time-and-temperature counters. Compulsory education: As in developed countries, India also needs to make high school (10+2) education compulsory for all children. Under such a system, parents should be held accountable if their ward does not attend school. There is a dire need to pay particular attention to the education of girls because as per the 2011 Census, there is a large disparity in the literacy rate for males (82.14 per cent) and females (65.46 per cent) in India. Mahatma Gandhi’s words: “Educate one man, you educate one person, but educate a woman and you educate a whole civilisation” signify the importance of women’s education. There should be various programmes in place for adult education. In the US, if for any reason, men and women, 18 years of age or older, could not obtain high school education, they can earn a General Educational Development (GED) certificate offered by the American Council on Education, which is considered equivalent to a high school diploma. Thus, people of all ages can pursue studies and become literate. American President Barak Obama had remarked during his 2010 trip to India that India was fortunate to have more than 50 per cent of its population below the age of 30. If we want to properly harness this “demographic dividend,” we must improve the literacy rate from the current 74 per cent to above 90 per cent. Otherwise, instead of becoming an asset, the youth will be a liability for the nation. Financial aid: To promote smaller families, the government should provide financial incentives to those with one or two children; for example, reduced income tax rates or scholarships for children’s education. Girls who wait to marry after the age of 25 should be given some sort of financial help under a scheme. To improve the standard of living of all its citizens, India must act to reduce its population, and quick. The country has only limited natural resources and a growing population will only act as a massive drain. An ever-increasing population growth defeats the purpose of welfare schemes as it is a hindrance to alleviating poverty and improving the quality of life of the masses. The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of PAU, Ludhiana
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