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India's TB scare Explosive revelations |
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Lahore, Wednesday, March 25, 1931.
Confrontation on Crimea
The car washers from Nepal
Women’s issues in election manifestos
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India's TB scare Despite
several government and private sector funded programmes, India still carries the burden of 2.2 million tuberculosis (TB) patients, almost one quarter of the global TB patients. Till the 1940s when penicillin was commercially made available, tuberculosis remained a fatal disease. The use of antibiotics defeated the dreadful bacterium causing TB. The almost forgotten fear for the disease has returned-- this time with a mysterious strain which is drug-resistant, found in 12 patients in Mumbai alone in 2012. Panic spread because similar drug-resistant strains were discovered in Russia, China, Italy and Iran. TB is growing as a global epidemic and India seems to be the largest contributor to the global fear factor for its large population is inflicted with TB. Two contributing factors that complicate the treatment of TB in India are poverty and migration. It is a contagious disease and demands the patient to be secluded. Most victims of the disease live in densely populated areas that spread the contagion. Then, the treatment lasts longer, a minimum of six to nine months. Many patients leave in-between to resume work or migrate to other locations in search of work. The HIV-TB co-infection has also emerged as a major health concern. Given the resource crunch, the consequences of this combine are of epidemic proportions. Conquering the epidemic will require multi-pronged effort and political will. To begin with, India needs to launch a campaign, as massive and persistent as it did in the case of polio, for creating awareness. More beds are needed in TB hospitals and better diagnostic facilities in the primary health centres. Documentation of the treatment given to each TB patient, on the lines of polio, will help in keeping a tab on the patients. The drug-resistant strain of TB has created a global health crisis. India needs cooperation and help in drug research from the developed countries to control the new strains of TB from spreading elsewhere.
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Explosive revelations MANY suspected it, some asserted it, but now it has been exposed - the Inter-Services Intelligence agency's hand in the deadly terrorist attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul in 2008. The role of Pakistan's intelligence agency in the bombing in which 58 persons, including two senior embassy officials, were killed and over 140 injured, has been talked about ever since the deadly attack took place. Now, a book by a senior journalist, who spent many years in Kabul, goes on to assert that the attack was sanctioned and monitored by senior ISI officers. The continuing revelations by the journalist, who has also asserted that a former ISI chief knew about Osama bin Laden's hideout, have, no doubt, caused much consternation in Islamabad. Equally disquieting is the author's assertion that the US intelligence agencies knew about the build-up, and that the deputy chief of the CIA, Stephen Kappes, flew to Pakistan to try to avert the strike, but it was too late. It would, in this case, only be logical to ask what prevented the Americans from alerting the Indian and Afghan authorities and thereby preventing the bombing? Subsequent investigation by the Afghan and Indian governments also pointed towards Islamabad. For too long, the ISI has ruled the roost in Pakistan and its writ has run in Afghanistan. Even as Pakistan now faces terrorism within, the ISI's focus is still on cross-border terrorism. The international community will have to act as more and more skeletons tumble out of the ISI's closet. An expose like this can also provide Pakistani civil society and even the army with the much-needed clout to reign in an agency that exports terror and has brought disrepute to Pakistan. The Kabul attack failed in its objectives of terrifying foreign nations into withdrawing from Afghanistan and undermining the Hamid Karzai government. In fact, it stiffened the resolve of the Indian and Afghan governments, which have continued to expand ties even as other nations are withdrawing.
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Thought for the Day
Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing.
—Bernard Baruch |
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Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev executed. Lahore, Wednesday, March 25, 1931. No "Last Interview" with relations; Shouts emerge from jail; Dead bodies secretly disposed of; Removed to distant place. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were executed at about 7:15 p.m. on Monday. Earlier in the day two petitions, filed in connection with their case, had been rejected by the High Court. Counsel Telegraphed to the Viceroy to stay execution as they were moving the Privy Council against the order of the High Court. Unfortunately owing to certain conditions imposed by the jail authorities, the relations of the prisoners could not even interview them. Information to hand points to the fact that Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged this evening at about 7.15 p.m., about that time loud and continued shouts of “Inqilab Zindabad” emerged from inside the Central Jail, and these shouts made the people in the locality suspect that the executions were taking place. Dr. Gopichand has sent the following telegram to the District Magistrate, Lahore, Superintendent. Lahore Central Jail, and the Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab:— “Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev hanged this evening. Where and when should we present for taking the dead bodies? Wire. Sardar Kishan Singh, father of Sardar Bhagat Singh, and mothers of Rajguru and Sukhdev, are at Lahore.” Thick veil of secrecy; Relation’s futile quest for dead bodies. Sardar Kishan Singh, father of Bhagat Singh, and Lala Chintram, uncle of Sukhdev, with others went to see a high official of the Central Jail, Lahore, for claiming the dead bodies, and it is said though he was at home he sent word that he was not at home. At the Central Jail too he could not be found. A high local official, who ought to know, was phoned to; and he began speaking on the phone, but when he knew what it was about he gave no reply and closed the phone. Bhagat Singh’s letter. Bhagat Singh and his comrades while refusing to make any petition for mercy, in the course of a letter to the Governor of the Punjab, asked to be shot dead. “The only thing we want to point out, they said, “is that according to the verdict of your court we are said to have been waging war and are consequently war prisoners. Therefore we claim to be treated as such. i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of being hanged. It rests with you now to prove it through action. We very earnestly request you and hope that you will very kindly order the Military Department to send a detachment or a shooting party to perform our executions.” Silent demonstrations. Gandhiji's advice. Mahatama Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Dr Ansari, Mr C. Rajgopalacharaiar and others, who left tonight for Karachi, got the news of the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev at the Railway Station. They were stunned to hear the news and Mahatama Gandhi was specially moved greatly. They were grieved at heart when they came to know that the relatives were not allowed interview before the execution. Mahatama Gandhi has expressed his desire that all demonstrations that may be held should be silent and only one resolution be passed at the meetings where there should be no speeches — FP. Dead bodies removed, not given to relations. The dead bodies of Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru and Sukhdev have not been handed over to their relations. It is not definitely know how they have been disposed of, and repeated requests of the relations of the condemned prisoners for their dead bodies have failed to elicit any response. It is, however, reported that the dead bodies were secretly removed in motor lorries from the jail and transported to some place on the banks of the Sutlej near Ferozepur, where they were disposed of at dead of night.
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Confrontation on Crimea Preoccupation with trivia over the forthcoming Indian elections, where tamasha has largely replaced serious and meaningful electoral debate, has deflected media attention from unfolding developments in Crimea. The Crimean peninsula was always culturally and demographically Russian and home to its strategic Black Sea Fleet. But it became part of Ukraine in 1991 on the basis of the then administrative boundaries when the Soviet Union broke up.
Latterly, with that country facing an economic crisis and the West encouraging Ukraine to join the European Union, the pro-Russian President of the Ukraine, Yunukovych, was overthrown by a Western-aided movement for regime change. Alarmed by this attempt further to unbalance Russia strategically and economically by extending NATO's tentacles deep into Russia's Eurasian heartland, Putin struck. Crimea was militarily occupied and a referendum conducted that voted for reunion with Russia. The West has threatened sanctions and a new cold war looms on the horizon. The West may huff and puff but its own policies in erstwhile Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan have been self-serving. Russia is seeking to build a Eurasian Economic Union to rebuild its strategic and economic clout as a counterpoise to the European Union. The West sees this as restoring the Soviet Union in another guise and is out to prevent any such consummation. India understands Russia's interest in Crimea and has pleaded for diplomatic rather than more muscular responses. This country has strong reason to want to have Russia as a strategic counterweight against US unilateralism, often dressed up as upholding democracy and righteousness. American unilateralism This American tendency to press its own interests in the guise of some higher principle of freedom and fair competition is evident in its recent onslaught on Indian pharma competitors. US firms would like to make marginally incremental changes in molecules earlier developed by them to claim new patents and thereby keep out competition, especially from developing counties like India that have been able to make similar formulations at a fraction of the monopoly price of the original vendor to the enormous benefit of poor patients in the Third World and less affluent sections of society elsewhere. India is acting within the WTO parameters for TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) and is not in violation of international norms. The same unilateralism is to be seen in the Anglo-US led effort to discipline Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on March 28 through a resolution calling for the establishment of what the British Foreign Secretary calls an "international mechanism" to address past violations of international law "and secure meaningful progress on a political settlement, accountability, human rights and reconciliation". On the same day that the British Foreign Secretary wrote this article in The Hindu (March 17), the same newspaper carried an article by John Vidal from The Guardian. Vidal reported the setting up of a committee by HMG to see whether it is feasible to resettle 1,000 (to 5,000) Chagos Islanders who were expelled from the archipelago some half century ago to lease the largest island, Diego Garcia, to the US as a strategic air, naval and submarine base from where the Americans have fought major illegal wars in an effort to bomb and bludgeon Indo-China, Iraq, Afghanistan and others to submission. The deceit and deception underpinning these wars make a disgraceful story. The forced and crude expulsion of the Chagos Islanders was an illegal act of cultural genocide and found to be so but continues to be defended on the most callous, absurd and dishonest grounds. To prevent the right of return of the Chagossians, the Islands were declared a precious ecological and marine reserve in 2010 that would sink were the native population to return even as 5,000 US military personnel live there and B-52 bombers thunder down runways. If returning Chagossians fish in the archipelago's clear waters, this could endanger the species, but the US military is licenced to catch 50 tonnes of fish for sport! The utter hypocrisy and humbug of its all! And these are the people preaching virtue to Sri Lanka and others. This is not to defend any wrongdoing by Sri Lanka or anybody else, but to argue for elementary standards of decency and integrity in international relations and in defending something as precious as human rights.
BJP ticket distribution Meanwhile at home, the nomination of candidates for the elections, across parties, has degenerated into the rounding up of criminals, thugs and dubious party hoppers on all sides. Small cabals are in charge of ticket distribution and old loyalties have ceased to matter. The BJP has treated Advani and Jaswant Singh badly through opaque selection procedures. It was strange to see Narendra Modi's nomination from Varanasi delayed until the last and then to find him nominated from a second seat in Vadodara. Contesting from two seats may be legal but is a questionable practice. What is the man seeking? Insurance? And should he win from both seats, he must sacrifice one. Advani too wanted to abandon his Gandhinagar seat in favour of Bhopal. What is he afraid of? Neither Modi nor Advani, like Mulayam, is interested in representing a constituency but wish only to ensure his own victory. These are hollow men. The Congress eyeing the Ordinance route to announce anational women's university to be set up in Rae Bareli, Sonia Gandhi's constituency and to be named after Indira Gandhi, marks another new low in small time politics. Why now?
Henderson-Brooks Report Finally, much was sought to be made of the leaked First Part of the Henderson-Brooks Report on the 1962 fiasco. This is by now old hat though the Defence Ministry is pretending to defend some great strategic secret by keeping the rest of it under wraps! There is nothing to hide other than the shame of supreme political folly. When will we ever learn? www.bgvrghese.com
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The car washers from Nepal Blimey!
What on earth is wrong with them? Why do they act as an alarm put on incessant snooze every morning? I pounced on my mother with a pile of questions as I reluctantly woke up on a lazy Sunday, courtesy the Nepalese humming bird of our society - the car washer. She narrated in detail how the duo shampooed my car as if it was their prized possession only to wipe it dry with utmost prudence later. Thapa would sing songs to his son, perhaps in an attempt to ward off their day-to-day worries. Every morning the duo could be seen lifting buckets full of water and gearing up for their job of car washing. Unstirred and unmoved, I dragged myself to the balcony only to observe them closely: the heads adorned with Nepalese caps, multiple layers of woolies, rain boots, bare hands and cilice belts clamped around their waists. What added to my annoyance was the sight of Thapa’s son at my doorstep. I gave the robber of my Sunday sleep an apathetic look. As I was still figuring out the reason for his sudden appearance, I noticed him saying hesitatingly to me: Memshaab, gaadi mein rakha tha ye. Buba ne bola ze aapko dina ka (Madam, it was lying in the car. Father told me to give it to you). He carefully handed me over a packet carrying my house's electricity, water and telephone bills along with Rs 6,500 in cash. Quizzically, I leaned to decipher his expression. He was nonchalant and listless. I stood there in shock when I felt a piercing urge to reward him for his act of honesty. I quickly grabbed some chocolates, a soy milk carton and fruit buns and rushed after him. As I neared him, pat came a reply from Thapa with an accent easy to place Are nahi Madam, rehne do. Itni ashaani shey inaam dina na. Nahi to aage she galti karega! (Madam, please do not reward him. As I can't afford to treat him with all this, he might drift to dishonesty in future). The boy obeyed while wiping my car’s windshield. Utter silence. Contemplation. Till this day, I detest helping my mother with household chores -- unlike Shoma, Thapa's son. I often ask my domestic help to overstay to compensate for my disengagement in such mundane tasks. And here I learnt a deeper meaning of life through a ten-year-old boy, who, despite being entangled in a rut, happily helped his father. How effortlessly a young boy discarded the bounty. We often loathe doing our daily job and try to find shortcuts. Else, we proudly employ others who normally are immigrants. Hats off to the spirit of such immigrants who struggle in harsh living conditions while sporting an encouraging smile!
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Women’s issues in election manifestos For the forthcoming election, the women’s rights organisations have focused on 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures. This apart, concerns related to the safety of girls and women in the family, community and society, universalisation of education, land and housing rights, code of conduct with regard to use of misogynist language from public platform, gender sensitive police administration, emotional and economic support to women survivors of violence, support services such as night-shelter, toilet blocks at all public places, day-care centre for children, special provision of housing and livelihood for single women, widows, divorcees and women with disabilities also feature in the list. The long list of demands spells long neglect of women.
In the months preceding elections, we have also noticed that all political parties are accepting invitations of women’s groups to discuss wide range of issues from migration to declining child sex ratio, from violence against women to problems of women farmers. Younger generation of politicians is also seriously discussing gender budgeting, safe city and support to women survivors of sexual violence in their speeches and also making promises to push the recommendations of women’s organisations in the mainstream political discourse. Aam Admi party has endorsed ‘Womanifesto’ released by feminist groups. There is a long history of women’s issues getting foothold in the mainstream political agenda. It was in 1972 when Maharashtra experienced massive drought, tribal women of Shramik Sangathana, who were demanding employment guarantee scheme (EGS) gave a voice to their demands in their songs, “……..Let us enter politics, Continue our struggle And take leadership. Can’t put up with patriarchal power any more, O, Venubai, why do you remain repressed? Come out and join our rally.” This song composed by Shramik Sanghathan of Dhulia and sung by thousands of women was extremely popular in the seventies. In the state politics, EGS became a crucial issue for the election. But it was during the 1980 Lok Sabha election that coincided with the nation-wide anti-rape movement and women became a constituency for the main political parties. Rape as an issue was perceived by them as a ‘law and order’ problem though. A political constituency Major political parties such as Congress, Janata Party, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) included phrases like ‘reduction in crimes against women’ and ‘improving law and order machinery’ to ensure safety of women’ in their manifestoes. During 1989 Lok Sabha election, Telugu Desam Pary of Andhra Pradesh promised land rights to women in its election manifesto. Women’s groups, who were busy with street demonstrations and politics of petitioning, started realizing the limitation of acting as pressure groups. Many of them decided to enter electoral politics but were defeated as they did not have the required muscle and money power.
Women’s reservation The demand for affirmative action in terms of women’s reservation in the electoral seats due to their historical neglect became prominent. Then the question was ‘what percentage? Should it be 15, 25, 33 or 50 per cent (proportionate to population). After a debate that lasted for two decades, it arrived at a consensus that it should be the ‘critical minimum’ of 33 per cent representation of women in the electoral bodies and local self-government bodies since they could not be ignored in the decision making process. In 1993, after the 73rd and 74th Amendments in the Constitution of India, women managed to get 33 per cent reservation of seats in the rural and urban local self-government bodies. All political parties enthusiastically put up women candidates in the panchayat elections and other elections in the urban and rural areas. By mid nineties, women’s groups pressed for 33 per cent reservation for women in the legislature and Parliament too. All the major national level political parties were compelled to incorporate reservation for women in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Vidhan Parishad and Vidhan Sabha in manifestos for the 1996 elections. The Common Minimum Programme of the coalition of political parties led by Janata Dal, declared women’s reservation as a priority concern. But in reality hardly 10 per cent women candidates in these parties managed to get tickets to contest parliamentary election. The government introduced The Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament in September 1996. It is interesting, that the same national level male politicians who supported 33 per cent reserved seats for women in the Panchayati Raj Institutions expressed their outrage against the reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in the Legislative Assembly and in Parliament. They are using the same arguments as our colonial masters used against the natives then, that women will not be able to govern. They are inexperienced. One thing is clear that with women’s reservation in PRIs, over 1 million women crossed the threshold of domestic arena to enter public life. In the election of local self-government bodies, all mainstream national and regional political parties and local candidates include women’s demands such as save the girl child, women’s education, and conditional cash transfer schemes for empowerment of girls in their election manifestos.
Gender awareness Lack of gender perspective is a marked feature of the party manifestos of the major political parties. For the past two decades, while every national level political party has been offering lip service to promote women’s agenda due to pressure from National Alliance of Women’s Organisation and united efforts of all the eight national women’s organisations, such as All India Women’s Conference (AIWC), National Federation of Women (NFIW), All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Mahila Daxata Samiti (MDS), Joint Women’s Programmes (JWP), Forum for Child Care Services (FORCES), Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS) and Young Women Christian Association (YWCA), the fact is, parties of all shades and leanings have betrayed women’s cause. The glaring example is the absence of a concerted effort of these parties to pass the bill for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament that has faced 14 failed attempts between 1996 and 2011. Since 2000, women’s groups have been sending memorandums to all political parties to fulfill their charter of demand and not to give tickets to men with criminal records and past history of violence against women in their personal or public life. But none of them have included this demand in their election manifesto or in their political practice. Memorandums by women’s groups to politicians on gender budgeting, declining sex ratio and judicious implementation of PCPNDT (Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act, incentives for education of girls, prevention of domestic violence, special provision for women headed households etc. resulted in political parties including several of these demands in the 14th Lok Sabha election in 2004 and in 2009 Lok Sabha election. For the 15th Lok Sabha election, BJP and Congress asked citizens and women’s groups to contribute to their manifesto and also started a web-portal for the same. The 2009 Lok Sabha Election Manifesto of Indian National Congress stated, “The Indian National Congress will introduce special incentives for the girl child to correct the adverse sex ratio and to ensure education of girl children. Girl children in districts that have an adverse sex ratio and/or low enrolment of girls, monetary incentives will be given to the girl child to be credited to the girl child’s account on her completing primary school, middle school, secondary school and higher secondary school.”
All political parties are conducting special campaigns to establish rapport with the newly eligible (18+) electors and to register them in the electoral roll. Young voters are being wooed. Aam Admi Party made a fresh beginning by getting three young women elected in the Delhi Assembly Election in 2013. None of the other political parties managed to have even a single woman candidate win the Delhi Assembly election, 2013. The party also endorsed the 6-point programme drafted by major feminist groups. They included it in their Delhi Assembly election manifesto. It lays special emphasis to women’s security and promises, “Citizens’ Security Forces would be formed with a branch in each ward, who would provide security to anyone in distress, but with special focus on security of women, children and senior citizens. CSF would be ensuring swift dispensing of justice in case of crimes against women by establishing special fast-track courts; implementation of recommendations of Justice Varma Committee, ensuring lighting and security provisions on roads, parks, buses and all other public spaces.”
The Arab Spring has brought tremendous change in the psyche of younger generation about their ability to change the system. Aam Admi Party has attracted thousands of youngsters armed with IT enabled communication strategies to change the political power equations. They are more concerned about the current issues such as corruption, inflation, nepotism, safety of women and girls rather than ideologically determined agenda. Protests and dharnas by young women and men across country, post gang-rape of the 22-year-old physiotherapist on December 16, 2012 has pushed the issue of ‘safety of women and girls’ centre stage for 2014 elections. Women’s issues have acquired media attention as never before and are discussed at public or political gatherings, business meetings, professional forums, at the get-togethers of the young, educational institutions, in government programmes, official conferences, symposia, consultations etc. It had to become part of the political discourse in a vibrant democracy like ours.
Is it a central concern in this election? This election will be different in the wake of three laws; Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), amendments in the laws for sexual crimes and 10 key proposals of Justice Varma Committee Report that include the recommendation that India should institute a "Bill of Rights" for women, along the lines of similar bills in South Africa and New Zealand. The Bill would guarantee the right to life, security, bodily integrity, democratic and civil rights and equality to women along with the implementation of The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
Since 2000, women’s groups have been sending memorandums to all political parties to fulfill their charter of demand and not to give tickets to men with criminal records and past history of violence against women in their personal or public life. But none of the parties has included this demand in their election manifesto or in their political practice.
The long wait * In 1972 when Maharashtra experienced severe drought, tribal women of Shramik Sangathana demanded employment guarantee scheme
(EGS). * During the 1980 Lok Sabha election that coincided with the nation-wide anti-rape movement, women became a constituency for the main political parties. *
In 1993, after the 73rd and 74th Amendments in the Constitution of India, women managed to get 33 per cent reservation of seats in the rural and urban local self-government bodies.
— The writer teaches at SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, and has been active in the women’s movement since 1972.
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Politely, she explained, "He is our Thapa who patrols at night (as a watchman) and turns a car washer as the dawn breaks. This is the only way of earning bread for him, being illiterate and unskilled. Lately, his ten-year-old son has also started accompanying him to work. 