Honour above all
THERE is a remarkable groundswell of pride, sympathy and concern for the soldiers following the Kargil operation. In fact, what is felt in the heart of a common man is an amalgamation of hundreds of emotions which cannot be exactly described. It would seem that the undeclared war has given a new meaning to the words “national identity”.

Hysteria v. patriotism
THESPIAN Dilip Kumar is once again in the centre of a controversy created by a section of the misguided political elements in Mumbai. Predictably, the Shiv Sena took the lead by demanding that Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar should return the Nishan-e-Pakistan award conferred on him last year.

Now for IMF diplomacy
A BUSINESS newspaper carries a disturbing report on Friday, which appears to be authentic. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), it says, sent the high profile secretary, Mr N.K. Singh, to Washington to lobby hard for the rejection of Pakistan’s request for a $ 5 billion loan from the IMF.

LoC IN KASHMIR
Delineation is precise, detailed
by Parshotam Mehra
OVER the past several weeks since the Pakistani incursions across the Kargil sector in Ladakh came to light and New Delhi’s herculean efforts to push the intruders back mounted, the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir has drawn a lot of media attention.

“Lost decade” for the world’s poor
by S. Sethuraman
THE debt crisis that erupted in Mexico in 1982, the breakdown of the North-South dialogue and steep fall in commodity prices turned 1980s into a “lost decade of development”, for Latin America and for low-income countries in general.

Star scores in Kargil, CNN ill-informed
by Tavleen Singh
DURING the course of our war in Kargil I happened to spend a week in an East Asian country. Naturally, like any other Indian I was desperate for news of the war and was, in the absence of Indian television channels, forced to rely on CNN for news from home and, without mincing any words, would like to say that I was appalled by the abysmal quality of its coverage.

Facts on mineral water, so-called
by P.D. Sharma
THERE is a growing concern to save humanity from the polluted environments of sorts. The judiciary has been playing a very effective role in this. Environmentalists are also struggling to reduce the menace. So far efforts have remained centred only on vehicular emission and to some extent on emissions and water used in industry.

My friend Nutty — tribute to a martyr
by Sudhir Mittal
I HAD received the news of his death a day earlier. A common coursemate had rung me up to say: “Another one of our coursemates is gone. Nutty was killed in an encounter with ANE’s somewhere near Srinagar”.

75 Years Ago

Sikh Educational Conference
PATIALA: Sardar Sunder Singh Majithia, Revenue Member, Punjab Government, presiding at the 15th session of the Sikh Educational conference, regretted that their attention during the past three years to the most needed reform in the management of the Gurdwaras had resulted in the neglect of their duty towards the educational uplift of the Sikh community.

Honour above all

THERE is a remarkable groundswell of pride, sympathy and concern for the soldiers following the Kargil operation. In fact, what is felt in the heart of a common man is an amalgamation of hundreds of emotions which cannot be exactly described. It would seem that the undeclared war has given a new meaning to the words “national identity”. While this is a positive development, there is a very real danger that like on previous occasions, it may again prove to be a temporary phenomenon. This sympathy, or whatever else one may call it, should not evaporate once the brave sons of the motherland are able to throw the intruders out from the sacred soil. The apprehensions in this regard arise because that is what had happened in 1965 and 1971. The martyrs and their families who were treated as real heroes were forgotten like yesteryear’s film stars. It should not require Lata Mangeshkar’s soulful singing to exhort us to remember the sacrifices of the shaheeds. Now that the focus is firmly on their superhuman exploits, it is high time the treatment meted out to the men in uniform was analysed in detail. The first thing to remember is that Kargil is neither the beginning nor the end of the saga of valour. Nor are the jawans, laying down their lives on the peaks of the formidable mountains, the first martyrs. Hundreds of others have preceded them, on the streets of Srinagar, in the jungles of Nagaland and even in the mined alleys of Sri Lanka. They too require as much respect. While promising the moon to the families of those killed recently, care must be taken to ensure that the widows of the 1965 and 1971 wars are not left in the lurch. One feels extremely saddened on seeing media reports that a child whose father died in the 1971 war is looking for a job 28 years later!

Even more shameful is the way some people have been found to misappropriate the funds collected for the soldiers. A close look has to be given to the whole scandal and safeguards put in place. Then there is the issue of ex-gratia grants to the families of those killed. The lumpsum payment is all right but will it be there a decade hence when the family needs it? Perhaps a corpus fund has to be created on a long-term basis to take care of the rehabilitation of the disabled soldiers and the families of the martyrs. And why should grants vary from state to state? The disciplined soldiers do not grumble but it is a fact that there is a lot of disillusionment about the lot of servicemen as well as ex-servicemen. It is necessary that a holistic approach is adopted to remove all their grievances. This includes the removal of the shortage of equipment that the Army chief has hinted at and which has cost our jawans dear. Above all, the brazen attempt to draw political mileage out of the tragedy must end. The manner in which some leaders have been rushing to the victims’ families and the injured jawans amidst the popping of flashbulbs and handing them dole is downright shameful. A jawan lives and dies for the izzat of his country and that of his own. This honour must be preserved. Everything else is secondary.

Hysteria v. patriotism

THESPIAN Dilip Kumar is once again in the centre of a controversy created by a section of the misguided political elements in Mumbai. Predictably, the Shiv Sena took the lead by demanding that Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar should return the Nishan-e-Pakistan award conferred on him last year. The Bharatiya Janata Party was quick to grasp the opportunity for giving the issue a communal twist for future political gains. Now the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party too have thrown their weight behind the demand that the actor should prove his patriotism by returning the award which he accepted last year after getting clearance from none other than Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. An upset and emotionally traumatised Dilip Kumar has again turned to Mr Vajpayee-- "who is a learned and sensitive man himself"- - to decide whether he should return the award in the light of the developments in Kargil. In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister the thespian has stated that "if you feel this [ returning the Nishan-e-Pakistan] serves any national interest,I will definitely lay it down at the altar because nothing is more dear to me than the country". During his illustrious career he was acknowledged as the "tragedy king" of Indian cinema. This time the hurt and the pain in his voice are real. He wants to know from his tormentors, who mistakenly believe that they are serving the national cause by asking him to return the Nishan-e-Pakistan award, whether "they want to rob me of my dignity to prove my patriotism" ?

The self-appointed guardians of the country's nationalist agenda have predictably cited the example of Kapil Dev [and Ajay Jadeja] who was so emotionally devastated after visiting the injured soldiers in Kargil that he made a public statement calling for snapping of sporting ties with Pakistan. Of course, no one whispered in the superstar's ears that his career was launched in Pakistan when sporting ties, severed after the Bangladesh war, between the two countries were restored in 1978. Not surprisingly, his stand has drawn wide support and he and Jadeja are now busy planning a football match between cricketers and film stars for raising funds for the Kargil heroes and their families. However, those who believe that they have the right to question the patriotism of others should begin their campaign from 7 Race Course Road in Delhi. They should ask Mr Vajpayee to suspend diplomatic relations with Pakistan as an expression of solidarity with the jawans and officers of the Army and the Air Force and also because of the periodic attacks on junior-level Indian diplomats in Islamabad. Unfortunately, the politically induced hysteria over the Kargil crisis has blinded even level- headed leaders to the importance of keeping "other channels" of communication open for ending the current phase of hostilities between the two countries. In any case, the political upstarts who have dragged Dilip Kumar into an avoidable controversy need to be firmly told that no one has the right to question the patriotism of others. Every Indian should be presumed to be patriotic unless proved otherwise.Instead of creating needless controversy, the political class should take lessons in "internal diplomacy" from the venerable Jyoti Babu, Chief Minister of West Bengal, who has once again stated that "despite our serious differences with the present government on many issues, we stand firmly behind them in tackling the Pakistani aggression. The armed forced also have our total commitment and support". Mr Jyoti Basu's stand on the Kargil issue is the best example of the difference, which the rest of the political class is trying to blur, between jingoism and patriotism. The self-proclaimed guardians of patriotism are evidently not familiar with John Milton's famous lines that "they also serve who only stand and wait".

Now for IMF diplomacy

A BUSINESS newspaper carries a disturbing report on Friday, which appears to be authentic. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), it says, sent the high profile secretary, Mr N.K. Singh, to Washington to lobby hard for the rejection of Pakistan’s request for a $ 5 billion loan from the IMF. The application will come up for consideration in a few weeks time and India wants the lending agency to crack the whip over the non-implementation of the conditionalities attached to a 1997 loan of $ 5.5 billion. As is customary, the IMF then wanted Pakistan to taper off defence spending and allot more money to the social sector. It is an open secret that this undertaking has been violated these two years, with the defence budget going up by 11 per cent this year. If Pakistan is found guilty of not honouring the earlier conditionalities, it can lose its right to a fresh one, although of the $ 5 billion it seeks now, fully $3 billion will go to reschedule the unpaid part of the old loan. This so-called financial diplomacy was set in motion by the PMO (as against the Cabinet) to activate another front to force Pakistan to call off the intrusion in the Kargil area. Behind this was a hidden fear that the USA may suffer a change of heart and ease the pressure on Pakistan and allow it to maintain the present level of tension.

On the face of it, this attempt at denying the neighbour the much-needed loan may appear to be legitimate or even clever. But it is not. For one thing, it goes against this country’s long-held policy of opposing both conditionalities and IMF supervision. That opposition did not stem from any lofty idea of economic sovereignty but practical politics. The two multilateral lending institutions should confine themselves to looking into the creditworthiness of the borrowing countries and not their domestic policies. One has only to remember the loud controversy in 1981 in the wake of a $5 billion loan negotiated by the Congress Government. The entire opposition screamed “sellout” and rightly so, and that included the BJP. By its latest negative campaigning, the same BJP is lending diplomatic and moral legitimacy to crude tactics to deny a loan to a Third World country. This is also derailing the Lahore process and reveals a tendency to treat Pakistan and its people as permanent enemies, not worthy of the high ideals this country preaches and practises in its dealings with others. It is possible that the lobbying may succeed; there is an overt anti-Pakistan mood in western capitals. Tomorrow, when feelings change some other country will do the same dirty thing to this country and it will be vain to cry foul.

Also, the BJP, as a political party as distinct from being the leader of the ruling coalition, shows an unfortunate tendency to often revise its rules of behaviour. It keeps saying that a special Rajya Sabha session on Kargil will send out wrong signals (read demoralise the jawans) but at the same time declares that the party will make the fighting an issue in the coming elections. Home Minister Advani said this at the meeting of the Chief Ministers and party chief Kushabhau Thakre said this at Patna. Thus the elected representatives of the Upper House are being denied the right to express their views and seek answers while rabble-rousers are encouraged to raise the issue at streetcorner meetings. It is inexplicable. India has taken over 50 years to build a consensus against interference in internal affairs by outside powers and agencies and the present coalition government has taken merely 50 weeks to wreck it. Sad.

LoC IN KASHMIR
Delineation is precise, detailed
by Parshotam Mehra

OVER the past several weeks since the Pakistani incursions across the Kargil sector in Ladakh came to light and New Delhi’s herculean efforts to push the intruders back mounted, the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir has drawn a lot of media attention. Among others, the Pakistan Foreign Minister in the course of his recent one-day visit to New Delhi (June 12) referred to “some confusion” about the “actual line of control” in that though there was “demarcation in the maps”, it had “not been delineated on the ground”. This was “especially” so in the hilly areas leading to lack of clarity in the melting of snow. There was also the charge that “thrice” over in the past, New Delhi had “violated” the LoC in the Siachen area. Stoutly repudiating all suggestions about its vagueness, India has maintained that both countries had agreed “on the map” where the LoC runs and that Islamabad was not unaware of its alignment. It should help the intelligent reader if he had a clearer idea about how the LoC came to be drawn and a little more precise definition of such terms as “delineation” and “demarcation” which, not unoften, are somewhat loosely bandied about.

The LoC was the end-product of the Simla Agreement of July, 1972, which brought to a close the third bout of hostilities between two not exactly friendly neighbours. It may be recalled that the war itself, which led to the birth of Bangladesh as a separate political entity, had drawn to a close in December, 1971. And the India-Pakistan agreement at Simla had, inter alia, stipulated that insofar as the Cease Fire Line in Kashmir, agreed to in 1949, did no longer exist, after the hostilities of 1971, a new line had to be drawn.

It may be of interest to note that in 1949, as later in 1971, the new alignment took time to be in place. Actually, this long-drawn out exercise engaged the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) for almost seven months, January-July 1949, before the military advisor to the Commission prepared the map which delineated the Cease Fire Line, later accepted by both the parties.

The CFL was disturbed in 1965 when a large number of Pakistani infiltrators entered Kashmir (August). In the ensuing hostilities, New Delhi was able to register sizeable territorial gains. Sadly for it, these were undone by the Tashkent declaration (January, 1966) which practically restored the status quo ante as far as the frontier in Kashmir was concerned.

In sharp contrast to the CFL which was drawn by a UN Commission and agreed to by both India and Pakistan, the LoC was the handiwork of a bilateral arrangement. Senior military commanders of India and Pakistan, Lt Gen P.S. Bhagat and Lt Gen Abdul Hamid, had held their first meeting (August 10-12) to finalise the modalities of the process of delineation. And after some not unexpected hiccups and four months of protracted negotiations, signed and exchanged maps (December 11, 1972) delineating the 800-km LoC from the Chhamb sector to the Partapur sector. A few footnotes may be in order.

The LoC was delineated on 19 very detailed mosaic maps — originally there were 27 — with each map containing the inscription: “Delineation of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir resulting from the ceasefire of December 17, 1971, in accordance with paragraph 4(II) of the Simla Agreement of July 2, 1972.” The signing of the maps and their exchange signified a phase of negotiations between the two senior military commanders which began on August 10, there were 10 meetings between the two before the Line was finalised.

Para 4(II) of the Simla Agreement clearly laid down that the LoC “shall be respected by both sides” and that “neither shall seek to alter it unilaterally.” More, both sides undertook “to refrain from the threat of the use of force in violation” of the Line.

In a statement to the Lok Sabha on December 12, 1972, the then Minister for External Affairs, Sardar Swaran Singh, tabled a separate document describing the LoC in four short paragraphs, A-D; para C refers to the Kargil sector.

A word on the alleged Indian violations in Siachen. Here it is instructive to reproduce a part of para C and the whole of para D referred to earlier:

Para C: “From Richmar Gali, the line of control runs north-wards passing west of Tithwal ... and north of Chet in the Kargil sector, up to Chorbatla in Turtok sector.

Para D: “From there (viz. Chorbatla in Turtok sector) the line of control runs north-eastwards to Thang (inclusive to India), thence eastwards joining the glaciers.

It should follow that the LoC does not extend to the Siachen glacier; in the event, the charge of violating it there does not pass muster.

A brief note on boundary making and three oft-used terms in this context; delimitation, delineation, demarcation.

A boundary is delimited when its broad physical features are spelt out on paper, the written note may or may not be elaborated by a sketch map.

Delineation is always done on maps; the line clearly indicating the boundary and thereby defining the territorial domains of the two states. The map may or may not be accompanied by a written text spelling out the main features of the line.

Demarcation is the culminating process. The two states have their surveyors jointly surveying the line on the ground and, with mutual agreement, marking it by boundary pillars. The boundary pillars establish the international frontier.

Specific instances culled from the recent past may be of interest. To define the northern frontier of India vis-a-vis Chinese Turkestan, the MacDonald boundary line was spelt out in a note delivered by the then British minister, Sir Claude MacDonald, to the Chinese foreign office in Beijing (March, 1899). It described the main features of the frontier, all the way from the Little Pamir in the west to the Kunlun range on the eastern side of Ladakh. It was not deemed necessary to mark the frontier — there was no accompanying sketch map; all that needed to be done was to identify “some of its clearly marked geographical features.” The 1914 McMahon Line, marking the nearly 1,350 km eastern frontier of India from Bhutan in the west to the Irrawaddy-Salween divide in Burma on the east was delineated on a map attached to the tripartite (India, China, Tibet) Simla convention. The map carried the signatures of the Tibetan and Chinese plenipotentiaries, Lonchen Shatra and Ivan Chen and the initials, AHM (Arthur Henry McMahon) of the British Indian representative.

The Durand Line which laid down the Indo-Afghan (now Pak-Afghan boundary was demarcated on the ground. It took almost three years (1894-96) and the help of four Anglo-Afghan commissions working simultaneously. Even then, a small part of the line, in the Khyber, remained undemarcated — until the conclusion of the third Anglo-Afghan war (1919).

“Lost decade” for the world’s poor
by S. Sethuraman

THE debt crisis that erupted in Mexico in 1982, the breakdown of the North-South dialogue and steep fall in commodity prices turned 1980s into a “lost decade of development”, for Latin America and for low-income countries in general.

The 1990s, which saw a rapid spread of liberalisation and expanded trade and capital flows, had held a promise of improvement in the living standards and a reduction in the number of people living in poverty.

But the world economic slowdown, the contagion effect of the Asian financial crisis and sharp decline in global trade and in prices of primary products in the late 1990s have dealt a “stunning blow” to development prospects.

The United Nations, in a report on world economy, says for a number of developing countries, the economic situation will continue to deteriorate in 1999 and beyond. In a majority of countries, growth for the foreseeable future will fall far short of what is necessary to effect a substantial improvement in living standards and a reduction in the number of poor.

The World Bank had similarly noted last month that the financial turmoils of 1997-98 had thrown millions of East and South East Asians below the poverty line, with mounting unemployment and social misery, putting at risk international development goals of halving poverty, cutting infant mortality by two-thirds and achieving universal literacy by 2015. “The world cannot afford another lost decade” like the one Latin America endured in the 1980s, it said.

For India and China, relatively insulated from the volatile movements of capital, the UN report projects uninterrupted growth. India’s strong growth (around 6 per cent) should continue while China’s growth is expected to decelerate but to remain in the 7-8 per cent range. (China’s GDP slowed from 8.8 per cent in 1997 to 7.8 per cent in 1998). Economic success in these two major Asian economies augurs well for the large proportion of the world’s poor they account for, the UN report added.

The UN global growth projections are much less than IMF estimates, namely two per cent for world output (2.3 per cent by IMF), 2.5 per cent for developing countries (3.1 per cent of IMF) and a decline of 0.5 per cent for all economies in transition (Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia). Russia saw no growth in 1998 and the IMF sees a bigger output loss at 7 per cent in 1999.

Poverty reduction requires at least a per capita output growth of 3 per cent a year and only 13 of the 100 and odd developing countries will meet that benchmark in 1999, says UN senior official Mr Nitin Desai.

Although the world financial markets have recovered from the turbulence of last two years, the international environment is aggravating the difficulties for developing countries. The new inflow of 31 billion dollars in 1996 swung into a net outflow of over 110 billion dollars in 1998. In the South and East Asia region, there was reversal in the net cash flow from all types of finance (loans, investment, aid and interest charges).

The UN report cautions that countries which experienced large currency devaluations are likely to experience higher inflation. Unemployment in most developing countries and economies in transition has worsened as a result of recession.

Globalisation has increased the uncertainties and downslide risks faced by individual countries and the world economy, the report says and cites Brazil’s large fiscal sector imbalances and decline in China’s export growth and weak consumer demand.

The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had urged the group of eight leading nations at their Cologne summit last month, to take measures to boost world economic growth and shore up international financial structures. But the G-8 response was one of further strengthening the IMF which has been asked to give priority to basic health, education and safety nets in designing economic programmes for crisis countries.

While agreeing that developing countries have to work for sound macro-economic fundamentals, with sustainable fiscal position, current account balance and low inflation, the report says the pace of financial sector liberalisation (capital movements) should be determined by a country’s stage of development and capacity to make effective use of international expertise in both private and public sectors. (IPA)

My friend Nutty — tribute to a martyr
by Sudhir Mittal

I HAD received the news of his death a day earlier. A common coursemate had rung me up to say: “Another one of our coursemates is gone. Nutty was killed in an encounter with ANE’s somewhere near Srinagar”. The news bulletins that night carried the same news and it was also splashed across the front pages of all major National dailies the next day.

Lt. Col. N. Vijay Raghavan of 15 Kumaon had made the ultimate sacrifice, that of his life. And the nation paid homage like it does to hundreds of others in uniform who have laid down their lives for their motherland in the wake of Operation Vijay.

We hadn’t been in touch at all. I probably last met Nutty when we passed out of the IMA in June, 1982, with the 70th Regular Course. Nutty was the Senior Under Officer of Sinhgarh Company while I was a Junior Under Officer in the same company. Our cabins were separated by a solitary cabin and in those days we were the best of friends.

Nutty wasn’t one of the stereotyped stern Senior Under Officers normally found in the IMA. He was tough all right, but he wasn’t rigid. Inside he had a heart of gold. His smile betrayed everything, especially to a junior shivering in his pants while loaded with a “double pack bajri order” and standing at attention outside his cabin. Nutty was a leader of men. He could instil discipline, but he wouldn’t harm a fly.

My association with Nutty began in 1978 when we joined the NDA Wing at Ghorpuri, Pune. We shared a barrack and many other things that one normally shares in such relationships. We became friendly because I found him soft-spoken, intelligent and genuine. Besides, we also shared similar apprehensions at the time of joining First Term in the NDA.

Then Nutty went to Bravo Squadron and I went to Echo Squadron in the NDA. We would meet, but not very often. Time restrictions never permitted it. Nutty excelled in sports. He was a Blue in squash and played for the Academy both at the NDA and at the IMA. His keen wit and intelligence endeared him to his coursemates as well as seniors. Nobody had a bad word to say about Nutty.

On June 12, 1982, we both marched out of Chetwode Hall together and were the first ones to congratulate each other. We were both delighted as we had got our choice of arms: He the Kumaon Regiment and I the Bombay Sappers. Little did I know then, that that was our last meeting. Many years later, I left service for another profession while Nutty went on to lead soldiers in one of the most difficult kind of warfare.

Nutty died as a soldier, with a bullet in his chest. He achieved the ultimate honour, death on the battlefield. And what a battlefield: One where a soldier finds it difficult to identify a civilian from an enemy. An enemy whose seeds were sown within us by our very own political leaders.

There aren’t sufficient words to honour soldiers like Nutty. But do men like him deserve to die for the folly of others? Our politicians must learn not to mix political rhetoric with national interests. Also, our armed forces would do well to have the will to ensure that politicians do not fritter away the gains made on the battlefield by dint of blood and guts.

We are honouring our heroes today, when the nation finds itself cornered by Kargil. But did we react the same way when hundreds of soldiers died fighting insurgencies in the North-East, in Punjab and in J&K, prior to the Kargil flareup? Were they stepsons of the motherland, whose names found mention only in the obituaries columns in newspapers? The nation, led by its political leaders, should pause and reflect for a while.

It would be wise to keep our heroes in mind even when our political leaders decide whether or not to cross the Line of Control. If the same story is to be repeated, their supreme sacrifice would have been in vain. I wonder if such thoughts ever cross the minds of our political leadership when deciding the next move on the chessboard. When will our politicians, especially those of the variety of the Hon’ble Jayalalitha whose picture was splashed across newspapers while paying tributes at Nutty’s funeral realise that it’s human lives they are dealing with and not puppets?

Star scores in Kargil, CNN ill-informed

by Tavleen Singh

DURING the course of our war in Kargil I happened to spend a week in an East Asian country. Naturally, like any other Indian I was desperate for news of the war and was, in the absence of Indian television channels, forced to rely on CNN for news from home and, without mincing any words, would like to say that I was appalled by the abysmal quality of its coverage. The Indian sub-continent may not be terribly important to viewers in the USA but surely a news channel that is now seeing viewers internationally should have considered the fate of a billion people more important than that of 2 million people in Kosovo. Not so. Kosovo was considered so important that it remained first lead through the week and sometimes took up as much as 15 minutes of so-called world news bulletins.

What was even more worrying was the fact that even when CNN did notice that there was an almost full-scale war raging in Kargil their reportage was amateur and ill-informed. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Sartaj Aziz, was interviewed on CNN’s Q & A (questions and answers) programme. At the outset we were informed that India had been requested to send someone to speak on our government’s behalf but we had refused. Alright, fair enough. Perhaps, nobody from our government wanted to have a television face off with other side but what was worrying about the programme was the anchor’s complete in inability to ask Pakistan’s Foreign Minister anything that remotely resembled the right questions.

Allow me to give you an example. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister announced that 60,000 persons had been killed in Kashmir in the past 10 years. He was not questioned about this figure. Even worse, when he proceeded to then announce that no Pakistani troops were fighting in Kargil it did not occur to the anchor to ask him how the so-called mujahideen had managed to get upto 18,000 ft without any assistance from the Pakistan army. Who was supplying them? How did they get up there in the first place? Who provided them with heavy artillery? With sophisticated communications equipment?

So, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister was allowed to get away with saying that his government would not ask their mujahideen to desist until India pulled back. From our own territory? He was also allowed to get away with saying that what was happening in Kargil should not be allowed to ‘cover up for the very brutal repression’ by India. By this point, incidentally, it was fairly common knowledge in India that Pakistani troops were doing the actual fighting and the mercenaries were merely serving as armed porters. But, CNN appears to have been oblivious to this.

When compared with CNN’s reporting, and even that of the BBC, our own television channels have done superb coverage but of these it is Star News that has been way ahead of the others. Star News have four camera teams up in Kargil at any given time and if anyone has succeeded in bringing the horrors of the war to us, who watch from the safety of our homes, it is reporters like Vikram Chandra and Barkha Dutt. They have been with the troops in their bunkers, they have walked with them up those merciless mountains and they risked their own lives to tell us what it is like to be up there fighting a war in what is considered the most brutal battlefield in the world.

It is this kind of television reporting that has brought the horror of what is happening home to all of us. And, this has to be the main reason why we have never before seen the country so united behind our troops.

If our television reporters, especially those on Star News, have done stellar service the same is not entirely true for the print media. With a few honourable exceptions, like the Indian Express, most newspapers have confined themselves to reporting the daily briefings from the ministries of Defence and External Affairs and to providing us with reams of expert opinions from those who watch the war from the air-conditioned comfort of their homes in Delhi.

Newspapers and magazines have one advantage over television and that is the time to follow a story through, to fill up the empty corners that television reporting necessarily leaves. This has, sadly, not been done. So, for instance, we know nothing about whether someone is actually looking after the widows and the families of the men who died for us in Kargil. We do not know either whether the vast amounts of money that are pouring in from all over the country are actually going to those who really need it or whether it is not, as it usually is, simply going into some central fixed deposit to be distributed at some very late date. This is what tends to happen when money falls into hands of government agencies and anyone who doubts this should go to Bhopal and find out how many of the victims of the gas tragedy actually got any assistance and if so when.

One of the biggest failings of the Indian print media has been the ancient tradition whereby editors and proprietors travel first class and stay in five-star hotels while those who really bring you the news rarely get enough money to travel. Till magazine journalism began to provide some healthy competition 20 years ago most of our newspapers rarely bothered to send reporters anywhere to that Indian journalism was nothing but a ‘gracious form of clerkship’ as V.S. Naipaul so memorably described it.

Things have changed since then but clearly not as much as they should have. After the war in Kargil is over would be a good time for newspaper editors to sit down and ponder over why television news bulletins are taking away so many of their readers. They could end up discovering that the only reason is because newspapers have not bothered to recognise that with television already giving you the news the night before the only reason to read a newspaper the following morning is if it can tell you more than just the bare facts. The Pakistani soldier’s story that appears in Time magazine this week in an outstanding example of what print journalism can do if it seriously wants to compete with television.

In the story the soldier, who firstly admits to being in the Pakistani army, describes how he was sent up unarmed and in civilian clothes and how they had simply not expected Indian soldiers to fight back the way they did. There must be thousands of stories that our own soldiers could tell that have so far remained untold.

Facts on mineral water, so-called
by P.D. Sharma

THERE is a growing concern to save humanity from the polluted environments of sorts. The judiciary has been playing a very effective role in this. Environmentalists are also struggling to reduce the menace. So far efforts have remained centred only on vehicular emission and to some extent on emissions and water used in industry. There are so many things of common daily use which are becoming big health hazards and these have escaped the attention of centres of concern.

Take the case of toys for children. Most of them are made from cheap plastics which is usually extracted from syringes; medicine bottles, pesticide containers; shoe soles and common carrybags. Almost 90 per cent of toys are made from plastics; less than 10 per cent from rubber and only 0.01% from traditional materials like clay, bamboo, rags, paper and wood.

Plastic is melted to temperatures ranging between 200° and 250°C which is not enough to kill germs of deadly diseases like Hepatitis-B; AIDS; salmonelia or coli. A small child tends to put everything into his her mouth and can become an innocent victim of these diseases. Further to make these toys soft and pliable chemicals like salts of thylate are added. Harmful pigments are added to give bright colours.

Leave alone plastic toys even the innocuous looking soft toys are not less harmful. They use fabrics and children can get allergies as they cuddle them or put them into their mouths. Fabrics attract dust, pungent odours and pollutants lurking inside the house. Children suck these toys to get disorders of sorts.

There are no stringent laws governing the toy industry and it does not fall under the BIS specifications. The bulk of this unorganised industry worth over Rs 250 crore is concentrated in the sprawling slums of Delhi. This aspect should make it easy for the government to enforce safety norms.

Fast growing use of mineral and bottled water needs the government’s and consumer’s close attention. Water is going to be the best beverage of the new millennium instead of coffee, tea, beer or something else. Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE) has found that even the leaders of the mineral water market do not meet the BIS norms. Surprisingly the leading brand with 80 per cent market share has not met BIS norms. Of the 12 brands tested by VOICE, only four qualify as mineral water.

Standards laid down by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA), 1954, do not prescribe any minimum quantity of such minerals for the water to qualify as mineral water and hence even tap water can qualify as mineral water. Lax definition and a tax holiday have drawn even those who do not have the wherewithal for scientific purification into this business. There are 250 big and small companies in this business of mineral water worth Rs 500 crore with 50 in the organised sector.

Samples of VOICE were free from pathogenic micro organisms. However, some displayed a high viable colony count. This could be for two reasons; the use of non-sterile bottles/cans or air carrying bacteria in the space left in the bottle.

Despite the recommendations of the Central Committee on Food Standards stipulating that mineral water should be packed and sold only under the BIS mark, not one bottler has come forward to get standards. The provision being voluntary and not mandatory is responsible for this laxity. It is no surprise that even in the most consumer conscious country like the USA bottled water in many cases is worse than tap water.

Safe drinking water is becoming a scarce commodity despite plenty of water. Consumer consciousness, health awareness and elite life-style are factors behind this fast upcoming business growing at a pace of over 50 per cent. It has been estimated that the market was over 100 million litres in 1993-94 and is likely to touch 1,300 million litres soon. This demands serious attention of the government to evolve and enforce strict standards for public safety.

At present hardly any brand qualifies as mineral water. They are all filtered or purified water. The total dissolved solids (TDS) content should fall in the range 150 to 400 mg/litre. If it is less than this the sample is not mineral water and if more it will give taste of metal in the mouth. Other parameters are alkalinity and fluoride content. As per the WHO standards if fluoride is more than 1ppm; the bottle should indicate “contains fluoride”.

Mineral or bottled water attracts 18 per cent central excise. When pure drinking water is becoming so scarce especially during travels bottled water should not attract any duty. Rather the government should encourage this industry through other tax exemption, including local taxes. Alternatively, the tax collections from this segment should go to a separate pool to be used for providing drinking water to the poor.

Another area of concern is the misuse of pesticides. The subsidy by government on pesticides is largely responsible for the misuse and over use of agro-chemicals.

Pesticide poisoning is a problem which had not been identified as a health problem in the Third World until recently. International eco-consciousness movement “Green Peace” has alleged that several women in India who have still-births are found to have high residues of DDT and Aldrin in their blood circulatory systems. Women workers involved in pesticide spraying operations in grape gardens had abortions. Studies have also found that in the case of men exposed to pesticide there is a decrease in the level of fertility. Green Peace has expressed concern that while DDT and Aldrin are targeted for global phase-out, India continues to manufacture them.

With the emphasis on checks and balances on pollutants there is urgent need for R&D aspect for various ingredients of eatables at least. Synthetic dyes used in eatables are by themselves a big health hazard. Since pre-historic times we have been deriving natural dyes from plants. Even waste onion peelings give yellow and orange dyes. Countries like Germany have already moved in this direction. We have 458 types of plants which yield a range of colours. Faculties like taxonomists and economic botanists should be encouraged to contribute in this regard.

75 YEARS AGO

Sikh Educational Conference

PATIALA: Sardar Sunder Singh Majithia, Revenue Member, Punjab Government, presiding at the 15th session of the Sikh Educational conference, regretted that their attention during the past three years to the most needed reform in the management of the Gurdwaras had resulted in the neglect of their duty towards the educational uplift of the Sikh community.

If they were to take their proper place in the policy of the Indian Empire, they must not leg behind others in education.

He referred to the critical times through which the Khalsa College, Amritsar, was passing and if the community could gird up its loins and wished to raise the Khalsa college into a University, that object would receive a further practical proof of the Maharaja of Patiala’s generosity.

Education, he said, should not be divorced from religion. His heart broke when he found that men clamoured for a few crumbs of the public service.

Great communal jealousies and serious differences arose amongst the communities for a few paltry posts.

The Sikh community, said Sardar Sunder Singh, had recently been passing through trying times and the horizon was still not clear and clam. He deplored the unfortunate happenings at Jaito and the loss of life. Their sympathies went with the bereaved families.