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Friday,
November 9, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Anandgarh & Sainik Farms Revival of old ties
Standard of political debate |
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Gentlemen, The President
Oil politics & Arab experience
At 10, she falls prey to slimming disease
1907,
Literature: RUDYARD KIPLING
More radiation may help cancer patients
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Anandgarh & Sainik Farms THERE
is nothing common between Anandgarh in Punjab and the Sainik Farms township in Delhi. One is a dead project and the other is a seemingly live issue. The Anandgarh project was offered as special gift to the people of Punjab by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The demolition of Sainik Farms was promised by the Delhi Administration for creating the much needed green belt for the metropolis where fresh air is always in short supply. However, two developments reported yesterday deserve notice. It is evident that Mr Parkash Badal has his eyes firmly on the assembly elections and is doing all that he can by making populist gestures. The Anandgarh project was challenged by the villagers and the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld their plea. Now in a desperate bid to win the trust and later the votes of the angry villagers the Chief Minister has unilaterally decided to withdraw the special leave petition through which the Supreme Court was requested to vacate the Punjab and Haryana High Court order against the Anandgarh project. It means that the rich and powerful real estate speculators have been abandoned by Mr Parkash Singh Badal because he needs the votes of the farmers whose land would have been gobbled up by the ill-conceived project. As an additional sop he has ordered the regularisation of the illegal structures that have come up on the periphery of Chandigarh. This too has been done with an eye on the assembly elections. But Sainik Farms fall in a totally different category. Certain public spirited citizens have challenged the coming up of the unauthorised township on the tract of land that was to serve as the green belt for the fast expanding metropolis. Yesterday the government informed the Delhi High Court that the Sainik Farms complex would not be considered for regularisation as it had come up in gross violation of the land use and building bye-laws. This has been stated on oath. So why aren't the bulldozers being ordered to flatten the entire township known as Sainik Farms? Why is the Sainik Farms complex being allowed to grow and prosper? The new constructions that are coming up in spite of the affidavit that the township will not be regularised somehow present a totally different picture. Non-regularisation obviously suits the influential residents of Sainik Farms. The authorities logically cannot collect house tax from the residents of a colony that is illegal. But how come all the other civic amenities have been made available to the township? The entire city may suffer water shortage during the summer months, but the residents of Sainik Farms face no such problem. And there is no shortage of power supply to the most upper-market unauthorised colony in Delhi. To live in Sainik Farms is considered a status symbol. What the Delhi High Court should ask is when will the bulldozers be used for clearing the vast tract for developing the promised green belt for the honest taxpayers of the metropolis. |
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Revival of old ties BOMBING
of Afghanistan has pushed all other developments to the back of newspaper headlines. In the case of Indo-Russian relations these have been very important even though not fully noticed. The Indian demand for a place in the consultation table, the so-called six-plus-two mechanism and the form of terrorism of all types has dominated the media discussions. But very profitable has been the deal on ensuring security concerns. Russia will supply helicopters and landmine detectors to fight terrorists in Jammu and
Kashmir. The copters are particularly useful in spotting terrorist movement and interdicting it. The mine detectors are expected to be very efficient in locating mines, particularly IEDs (improvised explosive devices, mostly RDX-packed mines). These have claimed a large number of lives of policemen and security forces. India has already procured from Israel some lethal hardware to battle terrorist activities and in conjunction with the Russian help will enhance the ability to counter the militant menace. The arrival of helicopters is particularly welcome since it will provide an eye in the sky to control the activities of terrorists from a high altitude. The landmine detectors are a great blessing as the South African mine detecting trucks have proved to be ineffective. This is for starters. India will receive 140 T-90 tanks by the end of the year. The other 160 tanks of the 300 tank deal will come in the next year. That will fill the vacuum in the main battle division at a time when the border with Pakistan is hotting up and President Pervez Musharraf is asking India to “lay off”. India has finalised the deal to buy a refitted and retooled Admiral Gorshkov, the mothballed aircraft carrier for about $2 billion. The money is essentially for refitting and equipping it with two squadrons of MiG 29 planes. India needs, very badly at that, an aircraft carrier to counter the threat that increased activism of Chinese fleet poses in the Bay of Bengal. But the most sensational development is that Russia has been supplying low enriched uranium for use in Indian nuclear plants. What is significant is that America has banned shipment of enriched uranium demanding full-scope safeguard, meaning the scrutiny of the uranium in subsequent processes. For some time France filled the vacuum and then China. Now Russia has taken over. It is in line with its eagerness to build two 1000 MW nuclear power plants at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, in defiance of US restrictions on transfer of nuclear technology. Russia is eager to proclaim that it treats India as a special partner in economic and diplomatic relations. It is happily back to the old times. |
Standard of political debate NOBODY expects India’s present rulers to play by the Queensberry Rules but the recent exchanges with Pakistan indulged in by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Information Minister Sushma Swaraj must rank as a watershed in the conduct of Indian diplomacy. The level of name-calling and the crudeness of the metaphors employed are eye-openers in bringing the language of the street into inter-state affairs. It is pointless to argue that Pakistan started it all and that it was General Pervez Musharraf who stooped to using the language of bangles to suggest that he would not be intimidated by India. Traditionally, Pakistan has resorted to barrack-room language and humour to drive home its points. The crudeness of Pakistani propaganda can be gauged by how its state television reports Kashmir events. This is not entirely surprising, given the background of its rulers and the unfortunate regularity of periodic coups and military rule the country has been subjected to. India has no similar excuse nor a tradition of prime ministers and their cabinet colleagues competing with neighbours in the language of the street. The metaphor of bangles is, indeed, a common one in colloquial conversation in North India and Pakistan, flowing out of a culture of male chauvinism. In view of his military training and background, General Musharraf felt it was an appropriate allusion to drive home his point that Pakistan was capable of paying back India in the same coin. Indeed, the metaphor did not seem out of place with one’s expectations, given his public persona. The shock was in the Indian Information Minister and the Prime Minister descending to Islamabad’s level. With her propensity for the foot in mouth phenomenon, Mrs Swaraj said that it was the person wearing bangles -- to wit Mrs Indira Gandhi -- who had administered a humiliating defeat to Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh war. In her chequered career in public diplomacy, the Information Minister had earlier distinguished herself by speaking out of turn at the Agra summit. It was more surprising to hear Mr Vajpayee join issue with General Musharraf on the bangles theme, suggesting that bangles on Indian arms were interspersed with ‘kadas’ of steel, an allusion to the martial Sikhs and their bravery. It would appear that at least in part the Prime Minister’s street rhetoric was timed with the election campaign season, in an effort to give a push to his Bharatiya Janata Party’s fortunes in the forthcoming elections to key states assemblies. This is hardly a recipe to be recommended in the conduct of inter-state relations and does not provide the complete answer to the extraordinary gaffe committed by a seasoned politician who has held the External Affairs portfolio in an earlier federal government with some distinction. Rather, one must try to discover the answer elsewhere, particularly in the new coarseness that has emerged in domestic political debate. An elitist leadership was in the forefront of the struggle for Indian independence. The political mores in independent India were largely set by Jawaharlal Nehru and parliamentary and assembly debates featured such men as Bhulabhai Desai, H.N. Kunzru and P.G. Mavlankar, not to mention Krishna Menon whose sharpness of tongue was couched in civilised language. In a sense, it is a triumph of Indian democracy that subsequent generations of rulers have been less elitist and are more representative of the people. The level of political debate suddenly plumbed to the level of the street, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Balasaheb Thackeray coming to mind. They also provided a measure of comic relief in the game of politics, taken altogether too seriously by most Indian politicians. The contribution of the Bharatiya Janata Party ruling the country at the federal level for the first time, albeit as leader of a coalition, was to give the language of the street respectability in affairs of state. Perhaps the main impetus came from the ranks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, judging by the television performances of such men as Narendra Modi, now Gujarat’s chief minister. Many BJP leaders’ interventions in political debates were marked not merely by aggressiveness but also a crudeness of language one had not formerly associated with responsible discourse. It was as if persons with RSS background were confusing aggressive rudeness with forceful assertion of Hindutva and crudeness of language with the strength of their beliefs. Whatever the conduct of the general run of BJP leadership, Prime Minister Vajpayee’s espousal of street language in conducting diplomacy with Pakistan came as an unpleasant surprise. If he is the acceptable face of the BJP for the general public, he has moved down a notch further in people’s affections. Every time Mr Vajpayee has sought tightly to wrap the BJP’s saffron Hindutva colours around himself, he has caused disillusionment in the secular liberal community. Indeed, it was not so long ago that he had to explain his beliefs by taking recourse to the extraordinary method of long newspaper articles. Is India then condemned to suffer name-calling and worse in conducting relations with Pakistan? These are trying times as India and the world adjust to fast-moving developments in our neighbourhood, with New Delhi sardonically assessing the conduct of a robber turned cop. Mr Vajpayee’s original instincts were right in initiating bus diplomacy and in inviting General Musharraf to Agra, despite the Indian team’s inexplicable inability to articulate the country’s position in public. Nobody can deny the provocations that have come from the Pakistani side in the shape of its Kargil misadventure and in refusing to turn off the tap of “cross-border terrorism” in Kashmir. Mr Vajpayee is probably right in declining to meet General Musharraf in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly when the latter’s rhetoric holds so little promise of a meaningful dialogue. One must also take into account the Pakistani President’s difficulties in balancing his support for the American campaign in Afghanistan with the visceral opposition of many of his people to the bombing of Afghanistan. Given Pakistan’s role in Kashmir, Indian people and politicians are scandalised by General Musharraf’s public posture on terrorism. But emotions should not rule the mind in determining the conduct of diplomacy. India’s ruling class cannot aspire to big power status while being obsessed by Pakistan. In short, India is only belittling itself by returning Pakistani rulers’ penchant for crude talk and propaganda in kind. The writer is a former editor of The Statesman. |
Gentlemen, The President THE British were drawing up a list of goody-goody knights and dames who could possibly be appointed the Governor General of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) after their departure from that country in years gone by. On top of the list they prepared was a gentleman called Sir John Kotlewala (my apologies for mis-spelling, if so) or something equally amusing. His one great quality was that come rain or snow, he could be trusted to see to it that Ceylon would remain eternally loyal to His Majesty, the King of England, Scotland and Wales. Nearabout those very times, a Governor General had to be appointed in the newly created State of Pakistan. There was no difficulty in making that selection. M.A. Jinnah was the obvious choice. But when he kicked the bucket, a fellow called Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din was picked up to replace him. He was from East Pakistan. He, too, had loyalty to the powers that created Pakistan running in his veins. It so happened that Kotlewala and Nazim-ud-Din were in Oxford or Cambridge together. Both were known to be perfect buffoons and pulled on very well. Kotlewala was tall and hefty. He took pride in the fact that like Abraham Lincoln, who was tall, he had punctured the old Napoleonic theory that in order to be great, all men had necessarily to be short in size. Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din, unlike Kotlewala, was an enlarged version of our very own Mulayam Singhs and Laloo Yadavs who are currently parading the political fashion ramp in India. When Kotlewala learnt that Nazim-ud-Din had become the Governor General of Pakistan, he sent a telegram to him saying, apart from other things, “Who could ever think that a roly-poly idiot like you would one day become the Governor General of Pakistan?” Khwaja Nazim-ud-Din hit him back in no less laudatory terms. “And who could,” he said in his retaliatory telegram, “ever imagine that a grotesque caricature sans any brains of some mythological giant like you could descend on Ceylon as its Governor General?” That repartee between the two has been recorded somewhere in some annals of history. Obviously exaggerated though, it could not come close to what happened between Gladstone and Disraeli back home in England. “The way you are going,” said Disraeli to Gladstone, or vice versa, “I can predict that you will end up either in a lunatic asylum or a V.D. hospital.” Quick-witted as all British Prime Ministers and Opposition leaders are, the gentleman thus attacked replied back: “That depends on whether I embrace your politics or your mistress”. Forget about Disraeli, Gladstone, Kotlewala, Nazim-ud-Din (may their souls rest in peace!). Come to times just slipping by. One day, the Chief of Army Staff, next day that as well as CEO (whatever that means) and the day following, the President of Pakistan, in addition to whatever else he was. “How come, General Sahib?” I asked him. “In the best traditions of our country,” was his prompt reply. “And mind you,” he added, “I am no longer just General Sahib. I am the President. Your own country has confirmed me as such.” |
Oil politics & Arab experience Nationalism is not a strong point of the Arabs. Fundamentalism is. It comes easily to them. And it explains why they have remained so backward, and why they have been a drag on the march of Islam. Much of the Arab world was in disarray during the last century. Israel was the cause. Camp David brought about the first division among the Arabs. The Iran-Iraq war the second. Today the Arabs are caught between the “great satan”, America, and the little satan, bin Laden. Arab fortunes rose and sank — all within a period of four-five centuries. Today, the Arab world is heavily dependent on the West. Indeed a strange irony, when it should be otherwise ! Western economists have characterised the present relations between the West and the Arab world as a classic case of dependence between the centre and the periphery. The Arabs are largely responsible for this. The strength of the Arab world is in its oil and gas reserves. But they are largely controlled by the West. OPEC may be an important factor in the world of energy today. But it is the West which has the final say in all matters. And the Arabs have allowed this shame to continue for ever 70 years ! Oil sales began in 1927. But it was only after 1972 that oil became a lucrative factor in Arab life. In 1947 oil was sold at two dollars a barrel. It rose to a maximum of 36 dollars a barrel. By the end of 1979, the Arabs accounted for 34 per cent of world oil production. This brought them unprecedented wealth. Their per capital income became equal to that of the west. Did the Arabs use their wealth wisely? Some went for oil refining and petro-chemical industries. Others have become debtors by their profligacy. All are, of course, conscious of the fact that oil fortunes is as shifty as the sand of Arabs and that oil will dry up one day. But not all are providing for a rainy days. Most have gone for high lifestyles. “Nothing but the best”, they say. More than half of the increment in the GDP is still accounted for by oil, except in Algeria, where two-thirds of the increase is due to the growth of industries. Construction, transport and communication — these have received considerable attention in the Arab world, particularly in the Gulf states and Libya. More than 55 per cent of the population is under 20 years of age. They are sill to enter the labour market. In the meantime, the Arab wold depends on imported labour, for which it pays about $ 10 billion yearly. The money is transferred to the home countries of the immigrants. Consumerism is rampant. It is supported by imports. There are also high income disparities. One day this will convulse the Arab world with revolutions. Religious fundamentalism is a portent. The emergence of a rentier class, which thrives on interests, dividends and commissions, is unique to the Arab world. It is a middle class minus the virtues of the world’s middle class. They are little interested in industrialisation or scientific advance. Agriculture is the weakest link in the Arab economy. But the grandiose scheme to make Sudan the “bread basket” of the Arab world failed. They could have made India another “bread basket.” But Muslim politics came in the way. Yet India supplies a number of perishables to the Arab world. Dependence on food import from Europe and America has increased. But it is at a high cost. This is draining away much of the Arab wealth. If agricultural self-sufficiency is beyond most Arab countries, they cannot go for industralisation, either, for they do not have mineral resources. And the climate is hostile to most industrial processes. Even if they tried industrialisation, it will not be cost efficient. With high cost of production, Arab goods will not be competitive in the world markets. They will be compelled to sell in the home market. But the home market is so small, that it will be uneconomic to produce the goods. In the meantime, the rich invest their surplus in the west — in banks, US government bonds and in real estate, while the Islamists like bin Laden denounce the West. To bin Laden, America is the Great Satan, but to most of the rich Arabs, it is the second home. In 1980, 70 per cent of all forms of assets of OPEC countries (mostly Arab) were in Western Europe, 20 per cent in the USA and the rest in the rest of the world. The OPEC is, of course, trying to help the developing countries. The Arab Fund and the Arab bank for economic development of Africa have schemes to help the poor countries. But preference goes mostly to Muslim countries. So, what are the prospects before the Arabs? When the oil wells dry up, industries based on oil and gas will begin to decline. By then, the population of Arabs will shoot up at the present rate of birth and the Arab world with the its high living standards will continue to import most of their needs. The Arabs may not go back to their camels, but life can be pretty difficult. The Islamic upsurge will then die a natural death. Is there a way out? Yes, but only if the Arabs are given the benefit of democracy, if they are given a voice in how their countries are run. |
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At 10, she falls prey to slimming disease A girl of 10 has been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa as the average age of those with the emotional disorder that leads to weight loss declines in Hong Kong. People are falling prey to the slimming disease for the first time at an average age of under 16, compared with almost 18 a decade ago, the data suggests. Eighty-eight patients being treated for anorexia were studied over a nine-year period by the Chinese University in Hong Kong in conjunction with Tufts University in Boston. It found three patients — or 3.4 per cent — died within the study period, two by committing suicide and one from emaciation, giving the group a death rate 10 times higher than non-anorexia sufferers in the same age range. In addition, 54 per cent of anorexia patients had either attempted suicide or tried to harm themselves. The age of victims being treated at a special eating disorders centre in Hong Kong has fallen steadily, the study found, with the youngest patient being a girl aged 10. The study indicated an increase eating disorders among Hong Kong youngsters following changes in diet, and increasing fashion-consciousness in the territory in recent
years. DPA |
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More radiation may help cancer patients When it comes to treating breast cancer with radiation, more may be better, according to research published in New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers reported that a “booster dose’’ of radiation can dramatically lower the risk of the cancer reappearing in women aged 40 and under. The results from a study of 5,318 women “may influence the treatment of young women who have undergone’’ surgical removal of their tumor and would normally only receive one series of radiation treatments. After a breast tumor is removed, doctors typically give about 50 units of radiation over five weeks to prevent the cancer from reappearing. But the success of the treatment is limited. To test the impact of additional radiation, Dr Harry Bartelink of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam and his colleagues gave 2,661 of the women an extra 16 units. After five years, the booster dose had little effect on the survival rate for women 41 to 50. But for younger women, the chance of having the tumor reappear was just 10.2 per cent, compared with 19.5 per cent for women who didn’t receive the extra radiation. Although the results are “promising,’’ the Journal’s editors said, the study “will have to be continued with a long follow-up to determine whether the booster dose of radiation affects survival without increasing the risk of long-term complications’’ of radiation therapy.
Reuters
Controlling blood sugar improves survival Belgian researchers found that using insulin to keep blood sugar levels close to normal when a patient first arrives at a hospital’s intensive care unit dramatically improves survival rates. Reporting in New England Journal of Medicine, the research team headed by Dr Greet Van den Berghe of Catholic University of
Leuven, Belgium, also found patients whose blood sugar levels were kept in check had fewer infections, fewer cases of kidney failure and required fewer blood transfusions. And those who received insulin also tended to leave the intensive care unit sooner than those whose sugar levels were allowed to remain higher. The team’s results are based on the observation that critically ill diabetics do better when their blood sugar levels are tightly controlled.
Reuters |
Prayers:- May the thought of displeasing Thee, or disappointing Thee, be my only fear, dear Lord. *** May Thy life be made manifest in mine, dear Master. *** Fulfil Thy will in me each day, O Master mine. Use me as much as Thou art able. I am not skilful, but the old artist’s motto shall be mine, “The utmost for the highest”. Be strong! We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, We have hard work to do, and loads to lift, Shun not the struggle; It is God’s gift. Lord help me to win this mark. Search deep into the hidden springs of my being and see if my motives are right. Make my speech sincere, My actions true to my creed. Put thou a measuring line in my hand, And show me how to measure myself, That I may be in very part sincere. — From Charlotte Skinner, The Marks of the Master *** O Lord, mayest Thou fill Our hearts and minds with sweetness, May it flow like a stream of honey. — Rigveda, 9.17.8 *** As the great fire destroys creation in the hour of dissolution, so does the fire of my Name consume the sins accumulated through crores and crores of birth. O sinner, Here am I waiting for you. Fear not. — From C.
Varadarajan, The Divine life of Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath. |
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