E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Anything to win UP
THE Bharatiya Janata Party is literally leaving no stone unturned for winning the assembly elections due in Uttar Pradesh in February next year. From laying foundation stones of new projects to promising special packages for the most privileged category of voters the range of the ruling party's political and social welfare activities is truly astounding.

Sinha’s nightmares
FINANCE Minister Yashwant Sinha, a born-again optimist and the original feel-good-factor votary, is under intense work place stress. He admits that the government faces a full-blown fiscal crisis. Revenue is declining and expenditure is booming.

Big jolt to peace efforts
THE spate of suicide bombings in Israeli towns by Hamas activists have posed a major threat to the latest American efforts to help end the Palestinian-Israeli tangle. The incident that occurred in Haifa on Sunday, killing15 persons when a bus full of passengers was blown up by a suicide bomber, was so unnerving for Israel that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was in Washington at that time to hold talks with President George W. Bush, had to cut short his visit to rush back home.

OPINION

Institution of government audit
Enforcing accountability can curb corruption
Dharam Vir
THE Geneva-based Transparency International rates India at 72 out of 91 countries in its Corruption Perception Index 2001 and that makes it the 20th most corrupt nation today. While there may be quarrels about the methodology, approach and consequential “perception” of Transparency International, the over-all picture of widespread corruption in the nation’s body politic with its assiduously corrosive effect is neither disputed nor diminished thereby.

MIDDLE

Karthi’s winter bundobust
K. Rajbir Deswal
THE onset of winter once again brought alive in my memory my friend Karthikeyan, a cool guy who worked in my office. Literally cool. No pun intended since he came from South and was left to fend for himself in the “shivering North”, thanks to his posting in the country’s capital.

REALPOLITIK

A bigger challenge for PM
P. Raman
NO one can any more ignore the strong political undercurrents taking shape in the past few weeks. Equations among different political formations are undergoing subtle changes. While on the one hand old bonds are getting sour, there are signs of thaw in the relationship between what was hitherto considered as bitter political foes.

Mixing drink and literature
Robert McCrum
WE know that drink and literature are indissolubly associated. It is no surprise, therefore, that two of the most interesting books published this autumn have been Roy Jenkins’s Churchill and Kenneth Tynan’s Diaries. It would be hard to imagine two more different men, but what they have in common is a taste for alcohol.

Beans and peas lower heart disease risk
BULKING up the diet with legumes such as beans and peas can lower the risk of heart disease, study findings suggest. Men and women who ate legumes at least four times a week had a 22 per cent lower risk of coronary heart disease over 19 years than those who consumed legumes once weekly, researchers report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

• Eat more often to check cholesterol: study

1933 Physiology or Medicine: THOMAS MORGAN

EDITORIALS

Anything to win UP

THE Bharatiya Janata Party is literally leaving no stone unturned for winning the assembly elections due in Uttar Pradesh in February next year. From laying foundation stones of new projects to promising special packages for the most privileged category of voters the range of the ruling party's political and social welfare activities is truly astounding. Since Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee represents Lucknow in the Lok Sabha, it is but natural that he too should do his bit for improving the BJP's poll prospects in UP. It was primarily with this objective in mind that he announced at a grand function in Hyderabad the launching of the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojna. This housing scheme is very different from the ones launched by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Of course, the short-sighted political leadership cannot be expected to see anything but good coming out of a housing project specially dedicated to the two icons that the Dalits revere, namely Maharshi Valmiki and Dr B. R. Ambedkar, the 20th century messiah of the underprivileged sections of the people mentioned as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution framed under Babasaheb's supervision. Of course, the decision to launch VAMBAY was announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort. Had the project promised the moon to the Dalits, it would have appeared more credible than it is in its present form. Mr Vajpayee assured the nation from Hyderabad that the objective of VAMBAY was to make India a slumless country by 2020. Is it a realistic goal? Is it an honest promise that the Prime Minister has made? The answer to both questions would be in the negative. Many schemes have been floated and many promises have been made by not just Mr Vajpayee but by all the Prime Ministers beginning with Jawaharlal Nehru. Most schemes remained on paper and only a handful of promises were actually kept by the political leadership.

The special housing project launched by Mr Vajpayee may or may not help the BJP improve its poll prospects in UP where it has to reckon with the increasing popularity of the Congress and the hold of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party over the various shades of Dalit vote. However, to use an expression made famous by US President George Bush after September 11 the BJP and other elements of the National Democratic Alliance can be told without fear of contradiction that they should "make no mistake about" the housing project perpetuating what is called the ghetto mentality. Ask any sociologist about the consequences of the process of ghettoisation on the health of the polity for understanding the real ramifications of the housing project launched by the Prime Minister for the Dalits. Such a socially flawed project as was launched by the Prime Minister on Sunday would end up defeating the objective of complete national integration. The nation has to move away from the period when there were exclusive bastis for various sections of people because they represented the values of a caste-based society. The launching of VAMBAY will push the country back to that unhappy period and not help it keep pace with the changing times in which caste-based differences must become an unhappy memory, not a living reality.

Sinha’s nightmares

FINANCE Minister Yashwant Sinha, a born-again optimist and the original feel-good-factor votary, is under intense work place stress. He admits that the government faces a full-blown fiscal crisis. Revenue is declining and expenditure is booming. What is more, he is committed to lower customs duty to the level in other Asian countries to promote imports and industrialisation. It is obvious that this step, to be included in the next budget, will only aggravate the problem. If the two-year-old economic recession continues, even excise duty collection will be less than in the past year, although he feels that the remaining four months of the financial year will witness a turn-around, without sharing the reasons for his optimism. Probably it will not, given the spreading global crisis as reflected in the sharp fall in exports.

So Mr Sinha is forced to toy with two ideas as he told the India Economic Summit on Sunday. One, he wants to increase direct taxes – personal income tax and corporation tax – by three times so that revenue will jump from the present 3.4 per cent of the GDP to 10 per cent. Much of this will come from income tax since big companies have perfected a system of avoiding minimum alternate tax (MAT) which was designed to prevent precisely this. (An analysis published on Monday shows that even leading companies headed by Reliance are in the zero tax companies club by manipulating a small loophole in the law. It says that MAT is applicable only when the net profit is at least 30 per cent of the income. Smart chartered accountants with creative skills deflate the profit and inflate the expenditure to keep the willing tax men out.) Even in the case of income tax the laws are skewed. For a salaried individual in the income group up to Rs 2,50,000 there is very little relief. But in higher income groups, there are exemptions galore and tax on lavish perks is minimum. Mr Sinha has indicated that he will not radically amend the rules; so the chances are that he may increase the rate of income tax and that will hit the low-end salaried men and women. Another idea he is mulling over is to bring agriculture under the rubric of reforms. He wants flexible pricing and futures trading. In other words, he wants free market forces to take over wheat and paddy price fixing procurement. This is a dangerous proposal. Mr Sinha should first examine the state of production and profitability of vegetables and fruits where there is flexible pricing and middlemen rule the roost. The grower gets only a fraction of what the consumer pays and one study says that at least one-third of the produce rots for want of purchasing power. This should not happen in the case of staple food items and an agricultural rural economy as India’s should not even think of it.

Big jolt to peace efforts

THE spate of suicide bombings in Israeli towns by Hamas activists have posed a major threat to the latest American efforts to help end the Palestinian-Israeli tangle. The incident that occurred in Haifa on Sunday, killing15 persons when a bus full of passengers was blown up by a suicide bomber, was so unnerving for Israel that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was in Washington at that time to hold talks with President George W. Bush, had to cut short his visit to rush back home. A day before 10 Israelis lost their lives in another bomb blast in Jerusalem. There is, of course, no denying the fact that there has been enough provocation from Israeli troops which do not hesitate in killing Palestinians on the slightest suspicion of their being suicide bombers. Israel has also been pursuing a controversial policy of target killings without any regard for international opinion, showing greater ruthlessness after the USA declared war on terrorism. On the whole, the situation in the volatile West Asian region is too grim to think of revival of the stalled peace process at this stage. Unwittingly, the extremist Hamas has played into the hands of Israeli hardliners led by Mr Sharon. Now he may not listen to any argument for the lifting of Israeli blockade of areas under Palestinian control, freezing the controversial settlement activity, etc, to start talks for resolving the pending issues involving the two sides. He may become more adamant on his demand for a violence-free week to be ensured by the Palestinians for taking part in a fresh dialogue process. Mr Yasser Arafat, who has declared a state of emergency in the Palestinian Authority areas, will have to show more resoluteness in reigning in Hamas activists, whose destructive activities may undo whatever gains he has made so far for the realisation of the Palestinian dream of a homeland. But there is a catch: his task may become tricky if Israel launches a counter-attack on Hamas — which it may, going by its statement and past record — not only to settle scores but also to demonstrate before the public that the Sharon government knows how to tame terrorists.

There is every likelihood that the US envoys in the region — Gen Anthony Zinni (retd) of the Marine Corps and Mr William Burns, Assistant Secretary of State — who have been discussing with Israeli and Palestinian leaders for some time now to find a way to end violence and to revive the peace process, might have been asked by the White House to get tough with Mr Arafat if he dilly-dallys in coming down heavily on the Hamas trouble-makers without caring for Palestinian public opinion. The message must go down that acts of terrorism can never help achieve one's objectives. However, Israel must also be told that it should facilitate the efforts of Mr Arafat in this direction.

OPINION

Institution of government audit
Enforcing accountability can curb corruption
Dharam Vir

THE Geneva-based Transparency International rates India at 72 out of 91 countries in its Corruption Perception Index 2001 and that makes it the 20th most corrupt nation today. While there may be quarrels about the methodology, approach and consequential “perception” of Transparency International, the over-all picture of widespread corruption in the nation’s body politic with its assiduously corrosive effect is neither disputed nor diminished thereby.

A variety of institutions and instrumentalities are in place to combat the scourge of corruption with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) at the apex level. A number of non-governmental organisations have also pitched in. A recent initiative is the establishment of the Council for Clean India, a loose umbrella-type organisation which, for the present, is a deliberative mechanism for interaction among government institutions and non-government organisations on corruption-related issues. The Central Vigilance Commissioner is quite clear that corruption is too serious a matter to be left to the CVC alone.

An ally in the battle against corruption whose potential has not been fully comprehended and exploited is the institution of government audit. While corruption is quintessentially, to borrow a World Bank definition, the use of public office for private gain, the statutory definition of corruption as per the Prevention of Corruption Act encompasses acts of public servants taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act, or obtaining valuable things without consideration from a person concerned with processing or the business transacted by such a public servant, or criminal misconduct on the part of a public servant. The acquisition and ownership of assets disproportionate to the known and legitimate sources of income of a public servant also come within the ambit of corruption.

Statutory definition apart, acts of corruption can be broadly classified as (a) doing what is right but only after securing a consideration; (b) doing something wrong in lieu of a consideration; (c) not doing what is right and lawful for a consideration; and (d) misuse of public assets, funds and facilities for private purposes. Of these, (b), (c) and (d) may directly impact government revenues and expenditure, but the effect of (a) on public funds cannot be denied since there are no free lunches anywhere. There may be other categories of corruption like favouritism and nepotism based on considerations of caste, community, etc, but these are outside the scope of the present article, which confines itself to acts of corruption that have more or less direct impact on government revenues and expenditure.

The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) is a high, independent constitutional authority responsible for the audit of the accounts of the Central and state governments as well as government companies, autonomous organisations and aided bodies as prescribed by law made by Parliament. A perceived handicap of the CAG’s audit of its absolute, total and exclusive reliance on documentary evidence is also the source of its immense strength. What is presented by audit is based on the written records of the government departments which thereby ensures its authenticity, integrity and credibility. Each statement in the CAG’s Audit Report is expected to be based on and backed by evidence collected from departmental records, and each comment and conclusion flows from the evidence so sifted and marshalled. The CAG’s internal procedures of indepth checking, examining and scrutiny of the audit comments at several levels of hierarchy provide an in-built quality control mechanism.

Also, before an adverse and critical comment is included in the Audit Report, it is invariably sent to the departmental officers at the highest level in a draft form for confirmation of facts and figures as well as their observations and say in the matter. An audit comment may be modified or even abandoned altogether in the light of the response of the departmental officers. Thus what gets finally included in the CAG’s Audit Report is expected to be based on confirmed and proven facts and figures, backed by departmental records, the result of careful examination at several levels in the CAG’s organisation and after fullest opportunity has been given for the views of the department.

The CAG’s audit brings to light inter alia cases of irregular, excessive, wasteful, nugatory and infructuous expenditure and payments as well as cases of under-assessment or incorrect assessment of taxes and their non-collection. Such cases show that (a) something wrong has been done, or (b) what was right and prescribed has not been done, or (c) there has been misutilisation/misappropriation of public funds, assets and facilities. It is not, however, the province of audit to verify whether an act of malfeasance was committed with a motive and consideration which is sine qua non for attracting the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

A minister in the British Cabinet stepped down for showing interest in the issue of a citizenship certificate to a private citizen. This was on grounds of propriety as against the legality of corruption, for which there may or may not have been any proof. In the same manner, an essential step in rooting out corruption should be condign punishment for acts of financial malfeasance: it is not necessary to wait for the establishment of motive or consideration which may take years. For this, ample source material is available in the CAG’s Audit Reports, which for reasons already stated may not require any substantial supplementary evidence. Unfortunately, the ineffectiveness of the currently available institutions of follow-up action for the enforcement of accountability has virtually rendered the watchdog CAG’S Audit Reports bark, which may momentarily receive media attention and then get forgotten while the colossal waste of public funds and massive haemorrhage of government revenue continue unabated.

The need of the hour is out-of-box thinking for the establishment of a new and effective apparatus for the enforcement of accountability. Care must, however, be taken to avoid the creation of an atmosphere of witch-hunting and bona fide decision making must not be held hostage to the fear of accountability. Enforcement of accountability should be adequately sensitive to the constraints of executive functioning, and it should rule out even the remotest possibility of action on judgements based on hind-sight wisdom and one-sided mechanical application of regulations. Above all, it should be the outcome of a judicial mind, a balanced approach and consistent with the principles of natural justice.

For this purpose, independent, multi-member accountability tribunals need to be established to institute follow-up action on Audit Reports. Such a tribunal should preferably be a triumvirate comprising of mature and experienced persons drawn one each from public administration, audit and the judiciary, the last being the chairperson. There should be transparency in the selection and appointment of members, based on well-defined norms and qualifications. Broadly, they would be persons of proven probity and competence with wide exposure to public affairs. The terms and conditions of their service should be sufficiently attractive, commensurate with the level of responsibility and expected performance, which enable them to discharge their functions without fear or favour. These should combine the security of a non-renewable tenure with stringent constraints on their eligibility for appointment to any other public office.

The tribunals will have full powers to call for departmental records, summon officials and determine the extent of their involvement in and responsibility for acts of financial malfeasance and award punishment. An appeal against the order of the tribunal shall lie only with the Supreme Court. Enforcement of accountability will not merely ensure better utilisation of scarce national resources and mobilisation of funds but also substantially reduce the tendency towards corruption.

In his memorable address on November 26, 1949, to the Constituent Assembly just prior to the formal adoption and signing of the Constitution, the President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, made several observations whose prescience has stood the test of time. An observation, which is generally not recalled, related to expenditure. “The cost too”, said Dr Prasad “which the Assembly had to incur during its three years’ existence is not too high... I understand that the expenses upto 22nd November (1949) come to Rs 63,96,729.” The almost apologetic reference to expenditure computed down to the last rupee and upto the last working day on this historic occasion betokened the sense of accountability for tax payers’ money at the highest level. Restoration of that sense of accountability with condign punitive action will go a long way in curbing corruption. It will also put an end to carrying out wrong orders ‘from above”, or to presenting such order “from above’ as an alibi for financial malfeasance. The pressure on government audit to enhance its performance will be a valuable spin-off.

The writer is a former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.

MIDDLE

Karthi’s winter bundobust
K. Rajbir Deswal

THE onset of winter once again brought alive in my memory my friend Karthikeyan, a cool guy who worked in my office. Literally cool. No pun intended since he came from South and was left to fend for himself in the “shivering North”, thanks to his posting in the country’s capital.

He met me last year in September, rubbing his palms against each other to generate some heat for himself while sauntering in the corridor. We stopped for a while to greet each other when I noticed he was feeling some cold: “What, are you coming from the Boss’s air-conditioned chamber?”, I asked him. “No, sir, it is just like that…” and he literally translated the local Hindi syntax of vaise - hee shreeman ji!

“You aren’t suffering a pre-malaria shivering and clattering of teeth, are you?” I asked a little concerned. “No, sir, no, it is like that only”, again he repeated and added: “I am feeling a little cold”. “In September?” I queried, a little surprised, “what will become of you in December-January, my dear?” I tried to cut a joke and he informed me that he had made all the arrangements for the impending winters. I asked him if had got made some new razais (quilts). “What is that?” and I informed him about the stitched cotton wrap, which is a weakness for the North Indians to slip into and curl up, at the smallest opportunity available during the winters.

When I did not see Karthikeyan in October for some days, I enquired about his well being from my colleagues, who told me that he had gone to his native place to leave his wife there for she would not stay in Delhi anymore apprehending the intensity of the imminent cold wave conditions said to be prevalent in winters.

First week of November arrived and Karthikeyan was back to his work. He met me in my office and appeared a little bulkier. I again cracked a joke: “You have put on weight being at your village, haven’t you!” “No, sir, it is the body warmers that I am wearing in layers …ha ha ha …!”, he giggled. I offered him tea and he said he would have it in a glass instead of a cup and again grinned. I saw him holding the glass wearing the gloves thereby getting a feeling of some warmth. While parting, he offered me some date palms and groundnuts saying that he was enlightened by one of his North Indian colleagues that they helped in giving inner body heat for immunity against cold.

During December I could not interact with Karthikeyan since I too, like all other government functionaries was enjoying the bliss of exhausting the casual leaves. Then suddenly on New Year Day, I noticed Karthikeyan entering my office wearing a monkey cap when I immediately called out the attendant to bring a set of hot tea, as fast as he could.

“Oh, nice to see you Karthi”, I welcomed and greeted him with a “Happy New Year” and he too reciprocated very warmly as if in reciprocation itself he would generate some heat for himself and transfer some to me holding my hand for an unusually long and irritating duration. “You look as if you are coming after experiencing a snowfall. Did you visit some hill station during the winter vacations, or…!” “No, sir,” he cut me short, “I have made a quilt for myself. Besides, in fact, I have brought back my wife and we are comfortable”, he smiled mischievously at me.

A hot guy indeed and I had been foolishly taking him to be a real cold one. I noticed Karthi unlayering most of his wrappings for “inner warmth” and he looked to be normal once again in the month of February. With the onset of March, I didn’t see my friend for about a week. And when he turned up later he informed me while mysteriously smiling at me, “Sir, although I have managed my deputation to Chennai for the coming three years but I’ll give you a good news by this year end!” What I guessed at that time was perhaps right!

REALPOLITIK

A bigger challenge for PM
P. Raman

NO one can any more ignore the strong political undercurrents taking shape in the past few weeks. Equations among different political formations are undergoing subtle changes. While on the one hand old bonds are getting sour, there are signs of thaw in the relationship between what was hitherto considered as bitter political foes. However, the good news is that even if all such developments take a concrete shape, it may not pose any immediate danger to the Vajpayee government.

This is because the present Lok Sabha is that of Atal Behari Vajpayee. And so long as there is no radical change in the equations of one or more NDA constituents in states with their local rivals, his government will continue to enjoy numerical stability. Even a total opposition consolidation in this Lok Sabha cannot unseat him unless the former is able to wean away the state bosses of some of the NDA allies. Again, luckily for Vajpayee, the opposition is not even thinking on these lines.

Up to now no Opposition leader has bothered to build bridges with any of the NDA allies. Leaders of the old Janata parivar in the opposition argue that since their former colleagues have fully aligned with the BJP, they will now be forced to depend more and more on the saffron support. The more such parties are seen as silently supporting the saffron policies, the greater will be their isolation from the mainstream support base on the ground. The more well established parties like the DMK and the TDP alone could withstand this saffron syndrome.

The really bad news for Mr Vajpayee has not been the first-ever decision for floor coordination by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress. This is a significant step. It can, if both sides make necessary accommodation, lead to a better understanding on the ground. But the real meaning of the floor coordination with the presence of such leaders as Sharad Pawar and Chandra Shekhar at the patch-up meet have been the virtual acceptance of the Congress supremacy by all others. True, the Congress has neither made it a condition nor others formally conceded it. Yet every one seems to have accepted this reality.

Three years have made all the difference. Sonia Gandhi was then unacceptable because she was yet to prove her existence within her own party. She was seen as an untested usurper under whom the Congress had even lost leadership and direction. This has been the general impression. The Congress tally in the Lok Sabha had touched the rockbottom. With a heavy baggage of old sins, the party was seen as fumbling in Parliament. It became a butt of ridicule when it found itself under compulsion to support most of the NDA decisions.

With 11 Chief Ministers under it, the Congress is no more being dismissed as a sinking ship. All its vigorous “congressisation” have not enabled the BJP to reach anywhere near the Congress in terms of vote percentage, geographical spread and popular acceptability. Its winning spree in state elections, partly due to the failures of the NDA constituents, has made those who had derided Sonia Gandhi’s “suicidal leadership”, change their mind. Practical as they are, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Pawar seem to have realised the pre-eminent position of the Congress in any future coalitional arrangement.

Mulayam Singh Yadav’s efforts to spread his wings to other states did not click. This has left him with the option of either reluctantly accept the Congress domination at the Centre or let his arch rival BJP rule the roost over him. Sharad Pawar’s predicament is worse. Having burnt his fingers, he will have to find a face-saving formula to make another “home-coming” – a term he had used in the early 80s.

Unlike Mulayam Singh Yadav, he is a junior partner even within his only stronghold. The coalitional arrangement in the state reduces the scope for the party’s expansion. Again, unlike Yadav who has the Left backing, Pawar is practically friendless in national politics. He did try hobnobbing with the BJP-Shiv Sena opposition but realised that such an action would further erode his base.

If the domination of the Congress is a virtual reality, so is Sonia Gandhi’s. Her party has made it clear that she is its leader and there would be no compromise on this. To be fair, her own conduct ever since she took her hierarchical reins has been truly credible. Over the years, she has developed a fairly sound leadership style. One can charge her with being indecisive or confused. But she has never acted whimsical and abrasive like her late husband or authoritarian and aggressive as Indira Gandhi. This may be due to Sonia Gandhi’s own limitations. Or may be, she might act differently as and when she emerges stronger.

Some of us were too hasty to conclude that she was under the influence of Fotedars and Arjun Singhs. Now we realise that she has developed an elaborate system of consultations and decision-making with maximum role for moderates and untainted. This has helped the party regain more acceptability. Coterie and caucus have disappeared. The Congress under her is the least faction-ridden – even in states where the party is in power. The Opposition and ruling party representatives find no fault with her personal conduct. All this can add to her acceptability.

Apparently, the Congress too has climbed down in the bargain. The party has buried its Pachmarhi doctrine of “go-alone”. It has been forced to revise its policies on a variety of issues, including economic reform, and sit with minor opposition groups as equals and put up with all their tantrums.

It is, however, too premature to read too much into the decision for floor coordination. The whole thing is still uncertain. Even if such a coordination does have a smooth sail. The UP elections are bound to produce more frictions. There is already resistance from the Congress ranks to the party becoming a minor partner in UP. In case it is forced, it will complete the process of its marginalisation and add UP to the list of Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal.

Mr Vajpayee has also reasons to worry about the jarring voices within the NDA. Though not directly linked, Janata splinters like the JD(U), the Paswan party and Samata minus Fernandes have been unhappy about their shabby treatment. They have been frequently airing their protests against the BJP taking away all important ministries from them. Since then there has been talk of reunification of the splinter JD groups.

There have also been feeble efforts to function as a front within the NDA to strike joint bargains. They had another meeting this week. At the moment, this may not be a big deal because senior leaders of the groups have so far discreetly remained in the background. In any case, those like George Fernandes can easily pacify the disgruntled lot. Yet such irritants may add up to the growing trend, if things go worse.

Mixing drink and literature
Robert McCrum

WE know that drink and literature are indissolubly associated. It is no surprise, therefore, that two of the most interesting books published this autumn have been Roy Jenkins’s Churchill and Kenneth Tynan’s Diaries. It would be hard to imagine two more different men, but what they have in common is a taste for alcohol.

According to Jenkins, Churchill was not a drunk, just a man who liked to have champagne with every meal and ‘buckets of claret and soda in between’. Churchill, says Jenkins, was `a sipper, not a guzzler’; maybe that’s the crucial distinction. He once refused a bet of US $ 3,000 to renounce alcohol for the year (1936) on the grounds that `life would not be worth living’. We know the feeling.

All Tynan’s friends and acquaintances liked a drink, but no one (not even Churchill) could have kept up with Hemingway. On one evening in Venice, Tynan reports Hemingway consuming ‘three double martinis with the headwaiter’, then ‘a double gin and Campari in his bedroom’. So much for sharpeners. Then it’s off to Harry’s Bar where ‘the Colonel’ and his girlfriend shared eight double dry martinis and five bottles of wine. ‘Finally, the Colonel retires to his room and empties another bottle of Valpolicella.’ In my experience, booksellers today are generally among that class of person who believe that alcohol is best understood as a food. Both Churchill and Tynan took their wine seriously, but it’s the paradox of alcohol that the effects of drink have generally inspired any number of humorous writers. James Thurber’s If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomatox is justly famous in American literature:

‘Nev’ mind about me,’ said Grant, helping himself to a second. I can take it or let it alone. Didn’ya ever hear the story about the fella went to Lincoln to complain about me drinking too much ?’ “So-and-So says Grant drinks too much,’’ this fella said. “So-and-So is a fool,” said Lincoln. So this fella went to What’s-His-Name and told him what Lincoln said and hecame roarin’ to Lincoln about it. “Did you tell So-and-So I was a fool?” he said. “No,’ said Lincoln. “I thought he knew it.”’ The General smiled, reminiscently, and had another drink. That’s how I stand with Lincoln,’ he said. Thomas Love Peacock has an epigram that perfectly addresses this condition:

Not drunk is he who from the floor

Can rise alone and still drink more

But drunk is he, who prostrate lies,

Without the power to drink or rise. The Observer

TRENDS & POINTERS

Beans and peas lower heart disease risk

BULKING up the diet with legumes such as beans and peas can lower the risk of heart disease, study findings suggest.

“Increasing legume consumption may be an important part of dietary interventions to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease,” Bazzano write. Reuters

Eat more often to check cholesterol: study

CONTROLLING cholesterol levels may be a case of not only what we eat but how often. Men and women who eat six or more times a day have about five per cent lower concentrations of cholesterol than less frequent eaters, which could translate into a lower risk of heart disease, the number one killer in many Western countries. “If you are already eating well and want to have further benefit, at least for cholesterol, dividing what you eat into more frequent meals may have additional benefit,” said Professor Kay-Tee Khaw of the University of Cambridge in eastern England.

“The more frequently the better — four, five or six (meals) spread out over the day so smaller amounts are eaten more frequently,” she told Reuters in an interview. Khaw and her colleagues questioned more than 14,000 people aged between 45 and 75 about how often they ate, including meals, coffee and tea breaks and snacks.

They also measured the volunteers’ cholesterol levels. Their research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The people who reported eating more frequently had approximately five per cent lower cholesterol levels than the participants who consistently ate fewer meals and snacks.

Khaw and her team found lower levels of cholesterol in the frequent eaters regardless of their body mass, physical activity or whether they smoked.

But she added that people who eat more frequently tend to be more physically active than others. Reuters

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

To the sanyasin means to remain young forever. The body will become old but you can remain young always because consciousness knows no ageing; it never grows old, it is always young, always fresh. All that is needed is a constant cleaning, a constant awareness so that the cast does not become accumulated, so that the dust of experience does not gather on the mirror of consciousness. Then it always remains youthful.

A Buddha dies young although he is old in body... Mahavira dies young although he is old physically. But physical age means nothing. Your body is part of time but your consciousness is beyond time; it is part of eternity. And to enjoy eternity is the real pleasure. All other pleasures are only reflections, faraway echoes of the Reality.

— Osho, Scriptures in Silence and Sermons in Stone

* * *

Are there in the world greater betrayers of thrust, more unuseful, oppressive and sinful persons than those who cut the throats of useful animals like cows, goats, camels, buffaloes, sheep and fill their own stomachs?

Oh God, why dust Thou not show mercy to these animals who are being killed for no fault of theirs? Dust Thou not love them? Is Thy court of justice closed for them? Why dust Thou not hear their cries? Why dust Thou not inspire the souls of the meat-eaters with mercy,and take away from them the evils of inhumanity, hard-heartedness, selfishness and ignorance so that they may not commit such evil deeds.

Oh Almighty God, if no body saves these animals, then Thou shoudst soon become ready to protect them.

— Swami Dayananda, Gaukarunanidhi

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It is a wrong notion that meat gives strength which a non-meat diet does not. It is sometimes said that for a soldier, meat diet is a necessity. Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of Germany, is a standing refutation of this notion. Bernard Shah, perhaps the greatest writer of the present age is a living example, of a vegetarian enjoying good health, long life, and admirable brain power.

— Har Bilas Sarda, Life of Dayananda Saraswati