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ARTICLE |
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Challenge of a grim security scenario
India's entire neighbourhood is going to be in deep turmoil
Inder Malhotra
The induction of INS Vikramaditya has added to India's maritime muscle but it would be a grave error to underestimate China's rapid expansion of its naval power |
PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the combined conference of the senior commanders of the all three armed forces was remarkable for three main reasons. First, he was unusually candid and, at times, blunt in underscoring the growing threats and challenges this country faces and will continue to face both within the neighbourhood and because of the global environment in which both economic clout and strategic problems have moved from the West to the East.While talking about the neighbourhood, he made no bones about his belief - based obviously on privileged information he is privy to - that there are likely to be attempts from across the border to disrupt the elections, and he wanted the armed forces to be "alert". Evidently, he was referring to the elections to the Lok Sabha due next summer, not to the current assembly polls in five states that are nearing their end. His punch line on the subject was: "There is no doubt we will continue to face formidable challenges". What Dr Singh left unsaid was that threats of cross-border terrorism apart, the entire neighbourhood is going to be in deep turmoil and some of the strife there could spill over into this country. Elections in Nepal, far from solving the crisis that has lasted six years, have aggravated it. The new Constituent Assembly is hung, and the badly defeated Maoists are threatening a fresh revolt. In Bangladesh India-friendly Sheikh Hasina is almost certain to lose the January election, bringing back to power her rival Khaleda Zia, ever inimical to this country. Islamic extremists, enraged by the death sentences awarded to some of their leaders for their treachery during the country's war of independence, are Begum Zia's staunch allies. The threat of jihadi terrorism through that country, suppressed by Sheikh Hasina, will therefore get a new lease of life. Problems with Sri Lanka have already worsened because of the Prime Minister's unfortunate decision not to go the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo. To the west and northwest of us, uncontrolled conflict would not only add to terrorism and sectarian warfare but also endanger the livelihood of seven million Indians living and working in the Gulf region. Secondly, there was a brief and discreetly worded reference in Dr Singh's speech to the great and growing importance of maritime power. "Our strategic horizons," he said, "should include the need to protect our global seaborne trade in goods, energy and minerals". This must be read together with his remarks on security in the Asia-Pacific region. Without mentioning China even once, he drew attention to the "increasing contestations over the seas to our east" and wondered whether these would be settled peacefully. However, this was a challenge his audience "must grapple with" The induction of INS Vikramaditya, formerly Admiral Gorshkov, has added to India's maritime muscle but it would be a grave error to underestimate China's rapid expansion of its naval power. The third crucial feature of the Prime Minister's forthright talk to military leaders was an emphatic plea to "build a strong domestic defence industrial base". He urged the Ministry of Defence, the armed forces and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) urgently to review the reports of various task forces the government had initiated to "achieve a higher indigenous capability in military inventory production". He wanted the military establishment to put to use both international help as well as the "full potential of India's own public and private capabilities". All this is unexceptionable. But the trouble is that more often than not there are glaring contradictions between the government's words and its actions. For instance, the most important Task Force (TF) the government has appointed so far was the one headed by Naresh Chandra, a former Cabinet Secretary, with a mandate comprehensively to review national security and suggest how best to reform it. On the arena of defence production, the TF has made several useful recommendations which the government leaders seem inclined to accept but have not been able to do so for one reason or another. (Other more important recommendations in operational areas that the government has practically rejected will have to be discussed separately.) One of the TF's suggestions for augmenting the quantity and quality of defence production is to increase the proportion of foreign investment in the defence sector. Foreigners bringing in advanced technology and Indian public and private units could then set up efficient joint ventures under the supervision of the National Technology Council the TF wants to be formed. As it happens, Defence Minister A. K. Antony is opposed to any increase in the current limit of 26 per cent on FDI. The TF has also pointed out that the head of the DRDO has too much on his plate because he is also the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and in charge of the wide network of defence laboratories. But no one wants his/her turf to be shrunk. As for the TF's recommendation that the reckless "blacklisting" of suppliers must be ended most policy-makers consider it as sound. But, in the words of a highly placed source, "the ghost of Bofors is still haunting us". This is cruel irony. When the Bofors gun proved extremely useful during the Kargil war, we had to buy ammunition at thrice the normal price because of the thoughtless blacklisting of every entity associated with Bofors. It was around that time that we also "discovered" that the Swedes had transferred all the technology of Bofors to us. We lost more than two decades before embarking on indigenous production of this Howitzer. One brief word needs to be said about the Prime Minister's clear hint that the defence budget might have to be reduced. Presumably because he is better aware of the state of the economy and the resources available to the state, he is repeating the old adage: "We must cut the coat according to the cloth". This is unfortunate. For our defence budget is less than 2 per cent of the GDP and we need to make up the great and growing gap in China's military might and ours.
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MIDDLE |
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Caught in protective-parent trap
Madhumita Gupta
 You’ve made him too dependent.” “Now you've even started thinking for him!”These and similar comments were starting to bother me as a mother. Had we been too indulgent for our son's own good? It wasn't a far-fetched possibility. Aditya, being our only child, we may well have unknowingly fallen into the anxious protective-parent trap. And when two colleagues, my great friends and Aditya's grade V teachers also complained that he asked too many questions before venturing on the simplest of projects, I had to concede that we may have become overindulgent. I decided enough was enough. 'No more molly-coddling' I told myself sternly, 'from now onwards the child is on his own.' As luck would have it, a fall confined me to bed with a fractured foot soon afterwards. The only grim satisfaction I drew while nursing my foot was that with me in bed, his dad at work, Aditya would have to look out for himself. Everything went like clockwork the first morning. He made his bed, cleaned his room, completed the homework, all on his own, without being told. But then it was breakfast time. "Oh, I'll manage it," he assured me and added, "I'll fry you an egg too." Before I could protest, he zipped out. Visions of a devastated kitchen floating in front of my eyes, I lay quietly, waiting. I heard the pots and pans banging and clenched my teeth. My son had this effect on pots and pans. They started jumping off shelves and racks the moment they saw him. Then I heard the fridge opening and held my breath. 'Plop'. 'Plop'. A muttered 'oops'. It was distinctly the sound of eggs being dropped. Remembering my pledge, I restrained myself from asking what had happened. It was quiet for a while or did I hear some whispers? And then wafted in the heavenly smell of frying eggs and a few minutes later a triumphant Aditya entered the bedroom bearing a tray in his hands. A sunny-side up, slightly on the runny side but generously peppered, a mug of milky coffee and a flower in a chipped cup — it was undoubtedly the finest breakfast I'd ever had! But
then my curiosity got better of me. "Weren't those eggs I heard being dropped a while ago?" I asked. "Oh yes," Aditya answered unruffled, "I was just seeing if I could carry three eggs at a time and close the fridge door with my knee. I dropped just two". I was starting to hyperventilate, "The floor,
did you…." "Don't worry, mum," he said, "everything is cleaned up!" How? Somehow it was difficult to imagine him mopping up the mess. "Oh, I just called Chhotu, she did it." Chhotu, our egg-crazy pet (then a six-year-old Spitz) entered the room just then, still licking her chops. Now, why had I never thought of such a brilliant idea myself? A few years have passed since then and Aditya, now working at a prestigious MNC, has put all our misgivings to rest. Living alone in new cities, traveling all over the country, he is managing everything incredibly well. Just the other day, I asked him why did he ask so many questions as a child, why did he need so many precise instructions from everybody? He looked at me, as one would at a dim-witted kid. "Can't you guess?" he explained, "I did that just to cut through the clutter. Why waste time when you all were there to do the grunt work?"
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OPED
— Education |
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Academics need their creative space
Shelley Walia
A professor’s work goes beyond the confines of a narrow eight-hour schedule. Academic inquiry and research cannot flourish under constant surveillance. |
Though
definitions often circumscribe the wide role of the university and its human dimensions, the most important of all is the ability to handle adversial opinions that makes the university a dynamic social organ capable of perspectives from multiple directions. It is this main characteristic that needs to be promoted and guarded against the half-hearted and lackadaisical attitudes of the academic leadership that reflects a deep hyper-capitalist ideology compelling institutions to adopt corporate models for themselves. This is the tragedy of modern-day higher education. At the recently held panel discussion commemorating the foundation day of Panjab University, where several notable dignitaries, including the Vice-Chancellors of various universities debated over the accountability of teachers, it was maintained that teachers worked only 14 hours per week whereas they should put in seven-eight hours a day. Further, a biometrics system should be put in place which would log them in (and out). The unanimous consensus of the discussion urged me to re-think about what constitutes teaching in a university department. To borrow Chomsky’s words: “All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.”
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Enough on the plate
Class lectures are not the only assignment in a professor’s schedule. There are lectures delivered at various colleges in the state and outside, papers presented nationally and internationally, doctoral and MPhil students endlessly supervised, examination scripts marked for mid-term and semester exams, and term papers scrutiny. That is not all: professors inspect colleges, participate as experts in interviews, review PhD theses from other universities, and referee books and research papers. Most importantly, they write. They research all the time and publish books and academic papers, both nationally and internationally. The writing of a good research paper in the social sciences and humanities is an undertaking of three-four months of hard labour. A book takes several years. The credit for Panjab University’s top ranking that goes beyond that of the prestigious IITs, and its being first among Indian universities, cannot be taken by Vice-Chancellors but must be given to the faceless academics of the university who work deep into the night, rather than merely nine-to-five like the corporate yuppies. Research is not limited to a time schedule. Indeed, in good universities across the globe which are known because of the books and papers their faculty publish, rather than through their teaching, professors are given periodic relief from teaching to enable them to engage more meaningfully in research. The English Faculty rooms at Cambridge remain uninhabited while professors pursuing research at places where their fancy takes them, never adhering to the illogical constraints of a workplace confined to respective cabins. The argument that intends to cloister professors within their department cabins for eight hours every day is a direct assault on academic freedom and propagates the ideology of constant shadowing which would kill the spirit of academic enterprise, thereby turning professors into managerial employees who validate their productivity through their biometric screening.
Points to ponder
Each cabin accommodates two to three professors. Do our university departments allow the kind of environment which would be congenial to complete privacy of work and unhindered attention? The condition
of professors and students from April to September is pitiable for there is no air-conditioning and temperatures soar above 40 degrees Celsius. They perspire profusely in summer and shiver miserably in winter. The Internet
works only in fits and starts. Lack of hygiene in
toilets on the campus adds to physical misery.
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Keeping the schedule It was a little shocking how out of touch the academic leadership is with the day-to-day functioning of their faculty. Most teachers (‘most’ because there will always be the hard working people distinguished from their indolent colleagues in every discipline) are painstaking and conscious of a class full of students they have to face and deliver to each day. Lecturing is not easy work: it is not merely the content that matters; it is furthermore the way it is delivered. Can we say that decisions such as these are responsible for bringing down the excellence of teaching and research? They are indicative of a strong inclination for corporatising education or “the ideology of the big lie” that circulates the myth of corporate discipline as the only mechanism to ensure academic progress. Why else would one of the Vice-Chancellors suggest that universities should be headed by a CEO instead of a VC? It reminded me of Dr John Wood, former Vice-Chancellor of University of Oxford, who being a CEO of Robertson Foundation, New Zealand, called upon the fury of the university that collectively wanted an academic in the post. A professor’s work goes much beyond the confines of a narrow eight-hour schedule. It is ignorantly presumed that physical presence in the department ensures higher productivity, overlooking the truth that academic inquiry and research has never known to flourish in seclusion or under surveillance. An academic is one whose work extends beyond the 5 pm mark and begins much before the 9 am line. Her work comprises rigorous mental labour including the shake-up of received assumptions, arriving at a rational understanding of ideas so as to organise according to the respective requirements of lectures or research work, always evolving a critical pedagogy that aims to examine the world we live and its authoritarian ideologies that need to be taken apart. Her mind is the ground where thoughts are planted, nurtured, and enlivened by open engagements with widespread concerns of social responsibilities. It is therefore an appallingly blinkered approach which brackets a professor within the corporate lines of a nine-to-five job. Henry Giroux, the Canadian pedagogue, blames this on “neoliberalism or market fundamentalism that cloaks its interests in an appeal to ‘common sense’, while doing everything possible to deny climate change, massive inequalities, a political system hijacked by big money and corporations, the militarisation of everyday life and the corruption of civic culture by a consumerist and celebrity-driven advertising machine.” These systems of domination stand ignored by the policy makers of higher education who are complicit along with many of us in promoting the capitalist power structures. We are witness to institutions like Kellogg’s College and Nissan Institute at Oxford or the proliferation of private universities across India that are run by CEOs and where the funding for research is controlled by the industry, thereby killing any independent pursuits. Researchers in such institutions are increasingly swept into the incorporated orbit. Sucked into the whirlpool of capital they fear to digress lest it costs them their funding. Building walls Moreover, such confinement, though draconian and academically absurd, would however seem less so if the infrastructure could be refurbished. Currently, each cabin in many departments accommodates two to three professors. Do our university departments allow the kind of environment which would be congenial to complete privacy of work and unhindered attention? The condition of the professors and students from April to September is pitiable for there is no air-conditioning and temperatures soar above 40 degrees Celsius. They perspire profusely in summer and shiver miserably in winter. The Internet does not work without stalling every half hour. The lack of hygiene in urinals of the departments adds to the physical misery. If then they rush back to their homes, it is not to take an afternoon nap but to work in better conditions. Well-reputed universities outside India, in fact, make sure their faculty is comfortable, and use their university rooms not just from nine to five, but from nine to midnight if they choose to do so. Hygienic lunches are available, filtered water is no problem, and well heated offices often gives them more comfort than their homes. It is a matter of great surprise that on the one hand, inter-disciplinary studies are being stridently encouraged and campaigned for, and on the other hand, this decision to enclose the professors within a time-bound and a space-bound environment threatens the very essence of cross-disciplinary studies that allows a liberal atmosphere conducive to research. Nothing would be accomplished if they are demeaned and placed under time-bound schedules that throw to the wind the democratic values so necessary for a civic society that stands as an antidote to a world of consumption and market-driven values. We at the academy need to reclaim our voices, raise the consciousness of our students, helping them to speak out, and display moral indignation against the growing tide of authoritarian disciplining at the workplace. We academics must realise, in the words of Chomsky, “the intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if we didn’t betray it we’d be ashamed of ourselves.” The writer is Professor, Department of English and
Cultural Studies, Panjab University
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