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Tuesday,
December 18, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Restraint is the word A cheaper fuel ABM is out, arms race is in |
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Phenomenon of micro-politics
Ruffled allies add to woes
1951, Physiology or Medicine: MAX THEILER
Australians abandon their pets — more often than others
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Restraint is the word December 13 terrorist attack was a direct challenge to Indian nationhood. The parliamentary complex, the symbol of the nation’s democracy, was made a target by audacious militants. It calls for a response to prove that this country is strong enough to meet the situation. Yet the hardliners in the ruling alliance and the opposition should be told to keep their cool. After all there is a time to act and a time to think. And to plan. Now is the time to think and plan. The entire world has unanimously condemned the attack. In other words, everyone is in India’s corner, so to speak. It is a big gain, considering the indifferent attitude or lukewarm sympathy of the past. Even General Musharraf has changed his tone. He now says that armed intruders are responsible for the attack; until now he talked of Kashmiri freedom fighters. Intruders could not have come from Nepal or Bangladesh and hence his statement is an admission that his country harbours people who are armed and ready to wreak havoc in this country. The Delhi police has done a commendable job by tracing those involved in the attack by following the clues provided in the papers and cellular phones left behind in a bag by one of the terrorists. It is strange, if not unbelievable. that there was even a bill for nearly Rs 1000 in a non-star restaurant, indicating that they had unnamed guests. In the days to come they will be unmasked. By the present trend, India should be able to build a powerful case against Pakistan-based terrorists and their financiers (the ISI?). That will tighten the noose around the terrorist network in the neighbourhood. Restraint is also warranted by two external factors. Old friend Russia and new friend the USA have appealed for caution and against any precipitate attack on training camps across the line of control. President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Colin Powell have chorused this line and they have a point. They need time to formulate their policies and mobile support as indeed does India. It is well to remember that the mighty USA took nearly a month before attacking the puny Afghanistan. India does not have the same favourable equation with Pakistan. Further, hot pursuit is a discredited policy, which is also risky. Anyway, the world is totally focused on Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden and it will be rude to divert its attention. |
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A cheaper fuel In a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha last week, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik announced the government’s decision to allow the mixing of petrol with ethanol, a renewable indigenous fuel. The decision, given its far-reaching implications, has not received the notice it deserved. The ethanol use in petrol, unfamiliar here but fairely common abroad, is actually encouraged with tax incentives in developed countries like the USA. Brazil, which has been using this blended fuel for the past two decades, allows a 20 to 25 per cent ethanol content in petrol, while the Indian Government is confining its use to 5 per cent for the present, though the Union Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources has indicated that the percentage can be progressively increased to 25 per cent. The decision to sell ethanol-mixed petrol is to be implemented in two phases and the first phase covers Punjab, Haryana and six other sugarcane producing states. Ethanol (ethyle alcohol made from molasses) availability is not a problem since the country produces about 300 million tonnes of sugarcane, but its regular supply will have to be ensured, particularly when this fuel is made available throughout the country and with a higher ethanol content. Ethanol can also be blended with diesel, but this is still at the experimental
stage. The government plans to amend the Sugar Development Act to make financial assistance available from the Sugar Development Fund for boosting the production of ethanol along with power generation from bagasse. The benefits of doping petrol with even 5 per cent of ethanol are tremendous. First, the blended petrol, which is commonly used in light vehicles, will be cheaper and the consumer is the obvious beneficiary. Second, the country will save a huge amount of foreign exchange. The country imports about 70 per cent of the required oil and the import bill is a staggering Rs 60,000
crore. Third, the country’s sugar industry has been facing a rough weather for quite sometime. Now it can make additional money from producing ethanol from molasses and power from bagasse. Fourth, if the sugar industry looks up, the sugarcane growers too will get a higher price for their produce. A situation of glut will be avoided. More area will be brought under sugarcane. Sooner or later, corporate contract farming will have to be introduced to ensure regular supplies, which is crucial for the success of this green, biodegradable fuel. Sugar farming will have to be made more secure and rewarding. A countrywide network of marketing outlets for this fuel will have to be set up. In view of the obvious advantages, why it has taken the government so long to take this decision is not clear. |
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ABM is out, arms race is in Call it the haughtiness of the super powerful or simply a case of ill timing, but the USA has reneged the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty when it should not have. It is engaged in an all-out war against terrorism and heads a loose coalition to give this mission the look and feel of an international endeavour. The decision to walk out of the ABM will only lead to friction and have an adverse impact on the current campaign. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is trying to convince the world that the decision to go in for a ballistic missile shield will not start a new arms race. In practice, exactly the opposite might happen. It will encourage induction of more sophisticated nuclear weapons and missiles, especially in Russia and China. To that extent, the US move must have warmed the hearts of hawkish generals in these countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the decision a mistake and the Chinese reaction has been even more forthright. However, all this has not had any effect on the American view, with the result that the future security architecture is set to undergo a sea change. The American justification is that its decision is aimed at guarding itself against missile attacks by rogue states. However, as the September 11 horror has proved in a brutal manner, rogue states or terrorists can circumvent the most elaborate security arrangements with the help of most primitive stratagems. Instead of raising impregnable electronic walls against such attacks, what is needed is the making of a common cause with all the right-thinking nations of the world and be as alive to their plight as to that of the Americans themselves. Acts of terror in other countries have been a precursor to similar incidents in the USA. Still, America has not changed its mindset. Look, for instance, at the lukewarm response to the attack on the Indian Parliament last week. India itself is feeling the strain of American audacity and does not know how to react to some of the recent acts of its new-found ally. It has not criticised the withdrawal from the ABM in so many words and has confined itself to commenting that "India has consistently advocated a cooperative approach and opposed unilateralism". That is neither here nor there. The policy planners have reasons to be worried. It is obvious that the national missile defence system will goad Russia and China to go in for massive arms upgrading, which in turn will force India to increase its spending on defence. The pet American dream is set to become a nightmare for many countries of the world. |
Phenomenon of micro-politics Although privatisation is a key concept in the present-day form of democracy and it is a crucial component of the larger contemporary phenomenon called liberalisation, when it is put into practice in the sphere of politics it does tend to erode, even explode, the very framework of democracy. Parliamentary democracy has to have for its success a multi-party system, with a definite constitution and code of conduct laid down for political parties. We did make a proper start as a democratic republic with proper political parties, namely the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party of India, followed by the Socialist Party of India and the Jana Sangh. All these parties were ideologically oriented and functioned on the principles and policies laid down in their respective constitutions and followed the norms and standards of parliamentary democracy. This first phase of our democracy ended with the rise of regional parties in the sixties with their strong regional agendas based on language or religion. The DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Akali Dal in Punjab and the BKD in UP are some of the examples of these local parties. Later in the seventies more such outfits cropped up to complicate the Indian politics. The Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, the AGP in Assam and a whole lot of smaller outfits in the North-East made their presence felt on the political platform of the nation. With the split in the Janata Party in 1979 began a phenomenon of micro-politics which knew no ending. Split after split kept taking place reducing political parties to bands of individual leaders commanding followings based on caste or community. To take one example only, the socialist component of the Janata Party has led to several smaller outfits each headed by Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mr Sharad Yadav, Mr George Fernandes, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan and Mr Ramakrishna Hegde. Even the regional parties stand today divided into micro groups, each headed by one or another individual with the only agenda of perpetuating his/her hold for as long as the individual or his/her clan lasts. The DMK and the ADMK are headed by irreplaceable individuals. The Akali Dal and the TDP again are headed by irreplaceable individuals. No less irreplaceable are the individuals heading the two splinter group of the original Lok Dal. Nor can anyone replace Mr Kanshi Ram and Mr George Fernandes. All these leaders are replaceable only by their legitimate successors — their sons and daughters. Where there are no clans, there are those closer than the clans. Mayawatis and Jaya Jaitleys alone can replace Kanshi Rams and George Fernandeses. One need to ponder over the modus operandi of these political outfits to comprehend the future direction of our democracy. Let us try to look into the interior of these outfits and gain some knowledge about the political system we have evolved over the years! No doubt, all these political outfits, which can be rightly characterised as the remnants of regional parties, are surviving owing to their regional base rooted in their leader’s caste or region as a sort of sub-nationality. But since their original agendas of protecting and promoting the regional or caste interests have been replaced by personal agendas of perpetrating individual hold on a political pressure group, strategies of survival have also undergone a sea change. It is quite logical that a private limited company has to have complete hold over the finances of the company as well as over its administration, for otherwise any individual or group of individuals can stage a coup and overthrow the owner. No wonder then that all our political outfits functioning as private limited companies of individual entrepreneurs follow these fundamental principles. Administration remains centralised because the irreplaceable chief of the party enjoys absolute powers. Similarly, the party finances remain in the secret and sole custody of the owning individual of the party, its president. The Election Commission has tried to preserve the democratic functioning of the political parties by insisting on the holding of elections and submission of accounts on a regular basis. These privatised outfits, however, have had no difficulty in making a show of observing the mandatory instructions of the Election Commission. Elections are regularly held and accounts are maintained, and yet the political parties remain intact as private limited companies without either elections held in reality or accounts made transparent. Not that the Election Commission is ignorant about the realities obtaining in the political world. But it is always wise to observe the form when the contents are no longer in your control. Democracy in India has travelled from the government of the people, by the people and for the people through the middle phase of the government of the party, by the party and for the party to the final phase of the government of the family, by the family and for the family. The style of functioning of these outfits does not undergo any change when they come to power in the states. The individual ownership or family rule remains intact even within the form of an elected government and centralised bureaucracy. Ministers as well as officers managing various districts and departments are picked up on the basis of personal preferences of the ruling individual. The simple and only criterion is personal loyalty, not loyalty to the law or the Constitution of India. The individual, of course, includes his clan or companion. Ministers and heads of districts or departments cannot, in this system, take any decision involving purchase or posting. All decisions have to be taken by the centralised authority. Ministers, if wanting to get any particular job done, have to make personal requests to the chief, mostly through the good offices of one or another member of the clan. The system is not without “order”. There is always distribution of power among the various members of the clan. As in the Moghul order, the sons, sometimes even a daughter, are assigned areas of control in the administration so that there are no avoidable clashes among the members of the clan itself. The flexible bureaucracy is finely turned to the system and faces no difficulty whatsoever in discharging their duties to the “state”. Logically, the relation between the ruling family and the people today is just the same as that between the royal family and the people in the state. We have the rulers and their touts on the one hand and the ruled on the other. There are no real participants in the democracy of our day. As for the band of followers, they are gathered on the only principle of personal loyalty to the ruling family, which comes to acquire gradually the privileges of a royal family. The surest way of testing one’s royalty is his/her contribution to the coffers of the “party” and his/her ability to muster or mobilise voters for the family’s private crusade for power. In every constituency, there are contenders for party ticket to contest elections to the state Assembly. The chief allows them free and fair competition to show their ability both as contributors of funds and collectors of crowds. Over the years, the competition has become increasingly tough. Simple malas of currency notes or even theli of rupees amounting to a few thousands is not enough. Malas and thelis have been replaced by the crowns and icons of silver and gold. One advantage in this form of collection is that the presented items, quite reasonably, are meant for the ornamentation of the chief’s person or home. Such items are not collected in the treasure of the party, which, for sure, is not a museum for exhibition. One significant change this practice has brought about in our polity is that only those having money enough and to spare can join the business of politics. Others relying solely on earning by the sweat of their brow have to remain content as honourable citizens to our democratic republic. Another significant change that has come about as a direct consequence of the privatisation of our polity is in the manner of imparting justice to the individual citizen or even to institutions managed by groups or communities. The distribution of justice has come to be strictly done in accordance with the principle to proximity of the ruling outfit. If the perception of a law-enforcing officers is that a certain individual or group or community is not among the supporters of the ruling outfit, then he or they do not qualify for any benefit the law permits. A simple case will illustrate the point. The other day a theft of jewellery was committed in the house of an individual by someone engaged for painting the house. Although the FIR lodged clearly stated the particulars of the individual, who was kept in police custody also for a day or two, no recovery reached the aggrieved party because the police officer has gathered the useful knowledge as part of his investigation that the aggrieved individual was known to be an opponent of the ruling outfit. As for the more vocal opponents of the regime, they are freely implicated in criminal cases ranging from rape to murder. The “law takes its own course” in such cases, whereas those many who carry the loyalty’s licence to commit any crime remain outside the clear course of the law. Detailing of such cases is not needed, for it is a matter of common knowledge. Besides, the number of such cases is unlimited. Not that the people are ignorant about the realities of the politicians and parties governing their destinies. They are only helpless. They do change the ruling outfit every five years or so. But the choice they face is the Hobson’s choice. In place of one family’s rule they get another family’s rule. Even when a proper political party comes to power, the modus operandi does not undergo any significant change. Although the party legislators elect leader, the mode of administration quickly turns into a family affair. The sons and daughters, sometimes even wives or sons-in-law, take over the reins of administration. The legislators, of course, are not left entirely high and dry. They are allowed all the comforts and some earnings to enable them to keep floating in the cesspool of politics. They do earn some sort of social status and political position which enable them to join the privileged classes. How long the present form of democracy will go on is hard to predict. But with population and unemployment multiplying faster than fiscal growth, no repression will be able to keep the suffering masses dormant or docile forever. The signs of the shape of things to come can be clearly seen even now. They will become clearer with every election, so long as elections remain feasible. It is high time the so-called parties took up the real national agendas of increasing population and unemployment and did something to contain the potential explosives. Otherwise, we don’t need any prophet to forecast the terrible fate the country is bound to face in the not very distant future. The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University. |
Ruffled allies add to woes The promised Cabinet expansion is going to be the immediate casualty of the Vajpayee government’s confrontation with the unified Opposition and the resultant troubles. The dejected ministers, unrepresented partners and the BJP’s own jobless veterans have all been waiting for a chance after the winter session of Parliament. It now looks that all such aspirants will have to wait indefinitely - perhaps until after the assembly elections. Mr Vajpayee has been under immense pressure to undertake a major recasting of the pack before the session. His managers had done lots of negotiations but could not proceed due to the uncompromising claims by the powerful aspirants. This was when an out-of-power George Fernandes has been showing the signs of unrest. Those who are familiar with Fernandes’ behaviour realised how dangerous could he be when pushed into desperation. Thus the pre-session reshuffle has been totally Fernandes-centric, and much against Vajpayee’s own instinctive wisdom. Unknown outside the close circles, the bargaining that preceded reinduction of Fernandes has been a testing case for the Prime Minister. After the persuasions failed, the latter used the usual trick of the trade. Like the need for a balancing treatment for the equally impatient Mamata Banerjee who had quit on the issue of Tehelka. But Mamata had set her own conditions like restoration of the Railways and honourable positions for her party nominees. And Nitish Kumar would not part with the prized portfolio once again. Finally, Vajpayee had to buckle under the old socialist’s threats. As quid pro quo, Fernandes had reassured the Prime Minister that he could pacify Ramvilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav in case they revolted on the issue of the change of portfolio. Thus three ministers belonging to the old Janata parivar had to suffer in varying degrees to pave way for the return of Fernandes. In the normal course, this could have been the end of the story. But in the background of the changing political mood and an array of fresh imponderables, the reshuffle muddle will continue to haunt the Prime Minister in the coming weeks. This is because factors which otherwise could have been dismissed as inconsequential have begun assuming new importance. Take the Mamata-Nitish Kumar tiff for the control of the railway ministry. Though languishing after a humiliating electoral rout, it will be further loss of face for Mamata if she accepts any other portfolio. For her, it is a prestige issue before her West Bengal voters. There are already derisive comments about her present plight. Last week, after her return from Delhi she had confided in her close friends that Fernandes and the PM’s managers had assured her of the Cabinet induction soon after the winter session. Mamata is already reeling under the displeasure of her berth-seeking colleagues some of whom have got emboldened to seek fortunes even outside. Sections of her middle-level crowds are having second thoughts about her ability to provide them with power. There are reports of some of them shifting loyalties due the sudden rise in Sonia Gandhi’s stocks. In fact, even some senior colleagues argue that if Fernandes and the Prime Minister could go back on their promise to her and her senior MPs, there is nothing wrong if they too looked up to a seemingly resurgent Congress. Watch the way her estranged colleague Ajit Panja hobnobbing with leaders like Somen Mitra. The BJP leadership cannot any more ignore the sudden changes in the Congress strategy. Unlike earlier, the Congress no more sits in the ivory tower of its own single-party rule at the centre. The party may not declare so now, but it is apparent that it will be ready for a coalition if it comes to that. Again, it may not say so on record, but the Congress has also begun building bridges with other parties, bigger or smaller. It is not short of the services of go-betweens for the work. The BJP will also have to take note of the changing mood of the Janata parivar. The failure of George Fernandes to force Nitish Kumar drop Railways has been an indicator of its leaders’ dissatisfaction with the power crumps thrown at them. Last time when he was given railways, Nitish had made it clear that now he would not part with it, come what may. JD leaders in the NDA say that in case Fernandes presses the issue further, he was bound to face isolation in Bihar where he cannot win elections without the support of Nitish Kumar. The move for the consolidation of Janata outfits within the NDA has clearly irked Fernandes. On his part, Nitish Kumar blesses the Janata unification as it would help strike collective bargaining within the NDA coalition. Originally, the Janata groups had 22 MPs. After Sharad Yadav and Paswan formed their own outfits, all important ministries have been taken away from them. The allegation against Fernandes has been that he is interested only in his personal aggrandisement even at the expense of Nitish Kumar’s genuine claims. While every minor NDA has been acting with the sole aim of wresting a bigger share of the power cake, the TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu alone has stuck to a more meaningful game plan of his own. He has to back the NDA to counter the Congress, his main rival. To be fair, Naidu’s role in restraining the BJP hawks from pedalling an all-out parivar agenda should not be understated. Yet he would not allow his impatient MPs to join the ministry. This is clearly to maintain his rapport with the large minority segment. Even during the current session the BJP has been fervently enticing the aspiring TDP MPs to act fast. But unlike the late N.T. Rama Rao, Naidu has a firm grip on his flock. All such confusing inter-relationship and conflicting claims from the allies make Vajpayee’s task extremely difficult. Apart from the emerging alternatives open to those like Mamata and JD groups, the long ignored BJP stalwarts like Khurana and Shatrughan Sinha have already jumped the lakshman rekha. When the government’s ratings rapidly slide, hitherto admirers can turn nasty. Though Vajpayee’s own standing within the NDA has considerably eroded, strategically he still holds the leverage. But the point is how will he act before he loses even that advantage. |
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Australians abandon their pets — more often than others Australians own more pets than any other society in the world, but animals are being put to sleep and abandoned in record numbers. The latest annual statistics show 135,000 pets were abandoned in Australia last year, and almost 60 per cent of those animals were put down. Next year is shaping up to be similarly dire for thousands of Australian pets, the reports said. National RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) President Hugh Wirth said the figures are an indictment on an increasingly selfish community that has continually failed to show regard for the welfare of its animal companions. “There’s reliable figures that show, per capita, Australians own more pets than any other society in the world, yet while we need animals for all the reasons that are well known, we still don’t care about them,’’ he
said. DPA In Japan women’s sumo wrestles with tradition Crouching at opposite sides of a clay-floored ring, muscles taut and bodies glistening with sweat, the two sumo wrestlers stare each other down. Then, grunting with effort, they lunge furiously, colliding with resounding thwacks, red-faced and panting. They grapple and flail until one falls to the floor with a painful-sounding thud. It’s a typical practice session for Japan’s signature sport except the two wrestlers are women, defying more than a thousand years of tradition that forbids females from even setting foot in a sumo ring lest their presence pollute it. The ultimate goal of this growing band of enthusiasts is to get women’s sumo, which has already spread overseas and has competitors in at least 17 countries, into the Olympic games. For women, though, more than half the battle is outside the ring as they grapple for a chance to even take part in the tradition-proud sport, said to have begun some 1,300 years
ago. Reuters Civil servants bribed with sex trips Twelve civil servants in Hong Kong were arrested for allegedly accepting bribes from government contractors with free sex trips to China and Macau, anti-corruption investigators have said. The men — 11 from the Architectural Services Department and a Buildings Department engineer - were allegedly taken on regular trips to visit prostitutes in return for ignoring substandard work by government contractors. The engineer is also alleged to have accepted cash payments and free trips to Singapore, a spokesman for Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption said. Investigators say the contractors used inferior materials on one of the maintenance projects.
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Who am I, Who am I, Who am I? I am in wonderment Who am I? As the sun should be in wonder, in pursuit of Light! The fish should seek water and water should seek wind! A star should seek a galaxy, A wave should seek the ocean! A drop should seek rain, A king should seek a Monarch! All is He - Who is in wonder? To Sachu, God himself hath said so. Having abandoned heaven I have come to earth; I could not be contained in the Divine Chair. If you consider yourself a beggar, you are a beggar. If you consider yourself a God, you are God. I am since eternity-the very shadow of God; That which is nothing- that also I am not. — From Kalyan B. Advani, Sachal Sarmast *** We are shaped and fashioned by what we love See what happens when you love God. You are you, therefore enjoy being your real self. — Thought for Today *** A Though we may crave for everything, we only get according to our actions. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Gauri Bairagan, M 1, page 157 *** Conquering the hearts of others by the power of love is the greatest victory you can win in life. — Paramhansa Yogananda, “Eliminating the Static Fear from the Mind Radio” *** Devoted to the fruit of acts, whatever kind of acts a person covetous of fruits, good or bad that he actually enjoys partake of their character. Like fishes going against a current of water the acts of a past life are flung back on the actor. The embodied creature experiences happiness for his good acts and misery for the evil ones. The Mahabharata,
Shanti Parva, CC1, 23 |
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