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Left is not right Pardon, slip is
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Compact classic Obituaries are written as the CD turns 25 THE ubiquitous Compact Disc (CD) turns 25. Notwithstanding the obituaries already being written, it will be a few years before this versatile digital storage device outlives its usefulness.
Population rise and
distress
Yes Boss
Warfare without
shooting Ostentatious
weddings against Sikh ethos Inside
Pakistan
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Pardon, slip is showing PARDON or premature release of prisoners by the President or governors is indeed allowed under Article 161 of the Constitution and Section 432 of the Cr.P.C. This facility is generally provided on humanitarian grounds to the prisoners who have shown good conduct or are disabled, old or suffering from a terminal disease. But what this power presupposes is that the decision will not be based on considerations of caste, religion or political affiliation. That is why the Supreme Court has been constrained to stay the premature release of 1,500 convicts by the Andhra Pradesh Government on Independence Day. This large-scale amnesty was being granted to many hardened criminals involved in heinous crimes like murder, rape, dacoity and robbery. Among them was former Congress MLA Gauru Venkata Reddy, considered close to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy and serving a 10-year term in a homicide case. The anxiety to release him can be gauged from the fact that earlier too, an attempt was made to remit his sentence through the Governor, which was rejected by the Supreme Court. As the apex court has pointed out, the impact of general amnesty like this on society has to be taken into consideration. It specifically asked the Andhra Pradesh counsel how habitual offenders could be released in this manner, considering that they were a menace to society. It is not only Andhra Pradesh which is turning to be so “prisoner friendly”. The Punjab Government last year tried to grant pardon to Bathinda-based Sandeep Singh, son of former minister Teja Singh, convicted in a double murder case. But there is nothing to beat what the Chautala government did in Haryana in 1999-2000. It recommended to the Governor to grant pardon to several hardcore criminals, who were close to the then ruling party. The grounds for releasing some of them were as flimsy as saying that village panchayats had “strongly recommended” that they should be released from jail. In the case of two lifers, pardoned on the so-called “strong recommendation” of the village panchayats, the release order was passed before they had completed even three years of sentence. Thankfully, the apex court has stepped in to control such blatant misuse of authority. |
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Compact classic THE ubiquitous Compact Disc (CD) turns 25. Notwithstanding the obituaries already being written, it will be a few years before this versatile digital storage device outlives its usefulness. The CD is a testimony to what a well-produced industry standard can achieve. The ‘Red Book’ containing the original CD standards, put out by the Netherlands-based Philips and the Japanese Sony, was published in 1980. But it was not until August 17, 1982, that the first shiny CDs were made in Germany. It soon proved a bonanza for the music industry. Not only did the public lap up the digital quality in new releases, they wanted the same for old labels as well. The death of both the cassette and the vinyl record was predicted. But just as the cassette is still around, the CD may well have a few more good years in it. True, the world of iTunes, digital downloads, MP3 and MP4 has already impacted CD sales, which have fallen in the West. And even as data storage and transportation devices, memory cards and USB devices have proved more convenient. But the CD’s versatility and current low costs will keep it alive. And it will survive in its new generation avatars, like the Digital Video Disc (DVD), for quite a while longer. Audio recording and playback have come a long way since Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph, with a needle scratching - and later reading - a sound wave on a piece of tin foil. When the CD was introduced, there were many who swore that the digital signal was “artificial” and that an analog signal read by a laser, instead of the good old needle, was any day superior. Digital technology has come a long way though, and in any case the CD’s fidelity and durability at low costs made them a hit. Standards and technologies that become prevalent because of market conditions do not always produce the best choices for society. But few will complain about the CD. |
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Friends are like melons; shall I tell you why? To find one good you must one hundred try.
— Claude Mermet |
Population rise and distress
With
every human being, the economy gets two hands to produce and a body to consume. The former creates supply of goods and services, utilising and simultaneously generating productive resources and the latter generates market demand. Larger the number of hands employed, greater is the production and supply of goods and services. As the opportunities for gainful employment fall short of the hands demanding productive work, imbalances start emerging to the detriment of inclusive growth and development that lead to economic distress and social unrest. This mismatch can emerge due to (i) the high density and growth of population that cannot be sustained by the available productive resources, (ii) the productive resources not expanding consistent with the growth of population, limiting the availability of gainful employment opportunities leading to unemployment, underemployment and disguised employment, (iii) the composition of population with disproportionately larger number of dependents (children and the old) that generate demand but do not add to the supply, (iv) disproportionately larger number of youth demanding jobs that are not available. On the other hand, very low, no or negative population growth leads to a larger and larger proportion of old population that puts heavier and heavier demand in the market, but contributes little on the supply side of goods and services. Indian society is suffering from all the above four variables of demographic dynamics that create a situation of distress for large majority of poor segments of society. In market driven economy with highly skewed distribution of incomes, large majority of poor population does not earn enough purchasing power to buy even the basic amenities of life. In view of the high base of more than 1.07 billion persons in India, even a lower level of population growth adds tremendously to the total population, outbalancing the available gainful employment opportunities. Here it is a paradoxical situation. If like China, the population growth is controlled through one child norm, our social system of marriages, wherein brides move to the house of their in-laws, leaves half of the couples without anyone to tend to them in their old age. If the second lowest norm of two children is followed, the growth bloats the total population on existing huge base to unmanageable level. With huge base, China style norm of one child, still remains less problematic than Indian approach of lackadaisical nature. Yet, another aspect of low or negative growth in population is that the growing older segment of the population puts higher and higher demand on supply of goods and services and withdraws itself from productive activities, which dampens the growth of the economy. Thus, aging societies too run the risk of adverse economic consequences. For instance, a World Bank report indicates that Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union comprising 28 countries from Russia to Albania is the region that is facing the combined challenge of rapid aging, relatively poor populations. This region is expected to shrink by about 24 million population in next two decades and Russia alone will lose 17 million in their total population. Therefore, from a certain level of low base, addition to population, specially to the younger segment of society is a boon. But, economies like India and China need to shed considerable load of population to make their development visible and inclusive in nature. India needs to adopt the one-child norm at least for five decades to check the population blob which is usurping the productive lands, creating jungles of concrete, degrading the ecology, promoting crimes of all shades, spreading rampant corruption and unhealthy competition in all walks of life right from education sub-sector to administration, police, judiciary and politics. When ambitions soar high propelled by demonstration effect,but opportunities do not match up to the demand, corruption and crime takes society into its iron grip. That is what has happened in India. Unfortunately, the policy makers in India are not paying due attention to the problem of fast growing population, which is the mother of all problems in the country. Uncontrollable corruption, black money, disrespect of law, lax administration, uncertain security of life and property, illiteracy, ignorance and poverty, all are the offsprings of excessive level of population growth. Whatever progress the economy makes is being absorbed by the blob of population and is washed off to a considerable extent. Whether it is food, fiber, housing, water, sewerage, education, health or infrastructure, all run short of demand. Most of these life sustaining facilities have to be provided at the cost of public exchequer, because large segments of the poor population do not earn enough to pay for these essentials of life. Take the case of universal free and mandatory education to the children up to 14 years of age provided under the law of the land. It has remained a law on paper only. It cannot be enforced, because the country does not have enough free schooling facilities and the children and their poor families that depend considerably on the meagre earnings of these children cannot be compensated for the loss of these earnings. Even where voluntary organisations and individuals have put in effort to educate such children in poor colonies and shanties, they have not succeeded fully due to this constraint. Even the law banning child labour is being flouted with impunity, because there is no alternative for these poor children and their families. In case a child is withdrawn from whatever work he or she might be doing, neither there is any opportunity for schooling due to poverty nor there is any alternative engagement in which he or she can be involved. Children begging in tattered clothes at road crossings, religious places and streets are visible even to the policy makers and the parliamentarians, who enacted these laws. These are not the only laws which are being de facto mocked at because these cannot be enforced. In fact, India has come to be a “no punishment” society, because some laws are not enforceable in their very nature and content, which have been enacted without relating them to the realities of life in this society. Our society proves the dictum, “more the number of laws, lesser they are respected”. All these problems and incongruities emerge out of fast growing and bloating population and the demographic dynamics that are affecting the quality of population. Those who can afford to bring up and educate their children are limiting the size of their families to one or two children, but those who cannot afford are indifferent to the number of children they have in the family, because there is no lower rung of life to which they can fall, whatever be the number of children they have. This is adversely affecting the quality of population in its totality. Thus, fast expanding population on huge base, poverty, ignorance and lack of matching opportunities for gainful employment leading to corruption and crime is fast becoming the bane of Indian society, which can be related to the adverse demographic dynamics, to which our governing class and policy makers are acting mute. Yet, this silence is too loud to be ignored and indifference to the impending disaster too serious to be slept over. If we do not wake up to the ground realities now and design definitive population policy, it is not too far that we will be shaken out of slumber by civil unrest and violence.
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Yes Boss
They
are like the flies that descend on sweetmeats. The difference is that they descend to absolutely any extent for their vested interests. Whatever you may call them — sycophant, lackey, toady, chamcha, yes-man/woman, this-licker, that-licker — they perform the same activity 24x7: pleasing and praising the powers that be. Their ancestors were the fawning courtiers who made kings and queens feel invincible, if not immortal (often with humbling consequences). William Shakespeare must have seen quite a few of them in his Elizabethan times. Sample this conversation between Prince Hamlet and his
chamberlain: Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel? Polonius:
By th’ mass, and ’tis like a camel indeed. Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel. Polonius:
It is back’d like a weasel. Hamlet: Or like a whale? Polonius:
Very like a whale. Many of Polonius’ descendants reside in India, where chamchagiri, not Gandhigiri, is a way of life. The BIAR (Boss Is Always Right) principle is strictly adhered to by the opportunists, who use it as a shield to hide their mediocrity. These people are well aware of their boss’ shortcomings, but they give the latter the impression that he/she is God’s gift to their organisation. They visualise the person in charge as a giant toast that must be buttered — on both sides! Rare are those officers who remain immune to all the flattery and subservience. Others just lap it up, even though it reeks of insincerity. Depending on their position in the pecking order, there are fellows who have to play both roles — Here, their subordinates are bowing and scraping before them; there, they are doing it themselves in front of their superiors. Is sycophancy an art or a craft? Basically, it’s a crafty art, requiring infinite patience and persistence. In some cases, subtlety comes in very handy. New practitioners have to forgo their ego as well as superego in order to go places. “Useless” words like self-respect, shame and conscience are not found in the dictionary of natural-born lickers. There is cut-throat competition among them, and no one loses any opportunity to queer each other’s pitch. Their dictum: The lower you stoop, the higher you rise. They regard all those people as foolish who don’t join the rat race, who behave like men rather than mice. It’s the seat of power these self-seekers are really enslaved to, not its occupant. A disillusioned King Lear acutely observes: “A dog’s obey’d in office.” That makes sycophants worse than curs, no matter how successful they become.
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Warfare without shooting I had served as an infantry officer in Afghanistan in 2001-02 and in Iraq in 2003, but this was my first time on the other end of an American machine gun. It’s not something I’ll forget. It’s not the sort of thing ordinary Afghans forget, either, and it reminded me that heavy-handed military tactics can alienate the people we’re trying to help while playing into the hands of the people we’re trying to defeat. Welcome to the paradoxical world of counterinsurgency warfare – the kind of war you win by not shooting. The objective in fighting insurgents isn’t to kill every enemy fighter – you simply can’t – but to persuade the population to abandon the insurgents’ cause. The laws of these campaigns seem topsy-turvy by conventional military standards: Money is more decisive than bullets; protecting our own forces undermines the US mission; heavy firepower is counterproductive; and winning battles guarantees nothing. My unnerving encounter on the highway was particularly ironic since I was there, at the invitation of the US Army, to help teach these very principles at the Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy. The grandly misnamed “academy” is a tiny collection of huts and tents on Kabul’s dusty southern outskirts. Since May, motley classes of several dozen Afghan army officers, Afghan policemen, NATO officers, American officers and civilians have been learning and living side by side for a week at a time. The academy does much more than teach the theory and tactics of fighting the Taliban insurgents who are trying to unseat President Hamid Karzai and claw their way back to power. It is also a rare forum for military officers, civilian aid workers, academics and diplomats – from Afghanistan and all 37 countries in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force – to unite in trying to bring good governance, prosperity and security to Afghanistan. The curriculum is based on the Army and Marine Corps’ new counterinsurgency doctrine, released in December. Classes revolve around four so-called paradoxes of counterinsurgency. Unless we learn all four well, we’ll continue to win battles in Afghanistan while losing the war. The first tenet is that the best weapons don’t shoot. Counterinsurgents must excel at finding creative, non-military solutions to military problems. Consider, for example, the question of roads. When UN teams begin building new stretches of road in volatile Afghan provinces such as Zabul and Kandahar, insurgents inevitably attack the workers. But as the projects progress and villagers begin to see the benefits of having paved access to markets and health care, the Taliban attacks become less frequent. New highways then extend the reach of the Karzai administration into previously inaccessible areas, making a continuous Afghan police presence possible and helping lower the level of violence – no mean feat in a country larger and more populous than Iraq, with a shaky central government. Reconstruction funds can shape the battlefield as surely as bombs. But such methods are still not used widely enough in Afghanistan. After spending more than $14 billion in aid to the country since 2001, the latest US disbursement, of more than $10 billion, will start this month. Some 80 percent of it is earmarked for security spending, leaving only about 20 percent for reconstruction projects and initiatives to foster good governance. The second pillar of the academy’s curriculum relates to the first: The more you protect your forces, the less safe you may be. To be effective, troops, diplomats and civilian aid workers need to get out among the people. But nearly every American I saw in Kabul was hidden behind high walls or racing through the streets in armored convoys. Afghanistan, however, isn’t Iraq. Tourists travel through much of the country in relative safety, glass office towers are sprouting up in Kabul, and Coca-Cola recently opened a bottling plant. I drove through the capital in a dirty green Toyota, wearing civilian clothes and stopping to shop in bazaars, eat in restaurants and visit businesses. In two weeks, I saw more of Kabul than most military officers do in a year. This isolation also infects our diplomatic community. After a State Department official gave a presentation at the academy, he and I climbed a nearby hill to explore the ruins of an old palace. He was only nine days from the end of his 12-month tour, and our walk was the first time he’d ever been allowed to get out and explore the city. Of course, mingling with the population means exposing ourselves to attacks, and commanders have an obligation to safeguard their troops. But they have an even greater responsibility to accomplish their mission. When we retreat behind body armor and concrete barriers, it becomes impossible to understand the society we claim to defend. If we emphasise “force protection” above all else, we will never develop the cultural understanding, relationships and intelligence we need to win. Accepting the greater tactical risk of reaching out to Afghans reduces the strategic risk that the Taliban will return to power. The third paradox hammered home at the academy is that the more force you use, the less effective you may be. Civilian casualties in Afghanistan are notoriously difficult to tally, but 300-500 noncombatants have probably been killed already this year, mostly in US and coalition air strikes. Killing civilians, even in error, is not only a serious moral transgression but also a lethal strategic misstep. Wayward US strikes have seriously undermined the very legitimacy of the Karzai government and made Afghans resent coalition forces. One of my many gratifying moments at the academy came at the start of a class on targeting. I told the students to list the top three targets they would aim for if they were leading forces in Zabul province, a Taliban stronghold. When I asked a US officer to share his list, he rattled off the names of three Taliban leaders to be captured or killed. Then I turned and asked an Afghan officer the same question. “First we must target the local councils to see how we can best help them,” he replied. “Then we must target the local mullahs to find out their needs and let them know we respect their authority.” Exactly. In counterinsurgency warfare, targeting is more about whom you bring in than whom you take out. The academy’s final lesson is that tactical success in a vacuum guarantees nothing. The US military could win every battle and still lose the war. That’s largely because our primary enemies in Afghanistan still have a sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan. Rather than make a suicidal stand against the allied forces invading Afghanistan, many Taliban and al-Qaida fighters melted away to create a parallel “Talibanistan” in the lawless tribal areas of western Pakistan. Chasing terrorists and the Taliban around Afghanistan leads to little lasting progress as long as they can slip across the border to rest and regroup. Since 2001, the United States has tolerated this quiet reconstitution of the Taliban in Pakistan. The writer is a former US Marine. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Ostentatious weddings against Sikh ethos A code recently set out by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on how to avoid ostentatious weddings within the Sikh fold, needs to be not only lauded but propagated within a viable time frame, with the active backing and participation of the Sikh supreme governing body in such matters, the SGPC. There is no doubt that in the present times, a simple and dignified marriage ceremony that the Sikhs started with, has often been turned into an extravagant and somewhat garish display of wealth and societal standing. With the baraat being hosted by the girl’s side, it was the done thing, that I witnessed in my village, that the entire community chipped in to help with the milk and vegetables and other preparations for the single meal that was to be served after the ‘lavan-pheras’ were over. There was certainly no liquor or meat dish served on that day. The baraat came with about fifty people in all, and did not hang around for the next two days wining and dining at the cost of the bride’s parents, as happens these days. Marriage ceremony costs have risen astronomically and coupled with the said or unsaid demands for dowry in one shape or the other, the girl child is being increasingly looked upon as somewhat of an unwelcome arrival in many Sikh homes. This is the plain, simple truth, minus the sugar coating. An unbiased examination of DSGMC President P.S. Sarna’s code, now under execution in Delhi, reveals the economic sensibility of controlled spending by the bride’s party. It is a veiled reminder to greedy dowry seekers that the entire community, and the DSGMC, which controls not only the Delhi Gurdwaras but all its Sikh run educational institutions, is watching. If there is a uniform code on marriages for the community in Delhi and even far off places like Indore, then may be it is time that the SGPC too concurred on this sensible measure on an all-India basis, so that girl infanticide is eliminated. The Sikh Gurus have been reformists of a high order, and in fact, the Sikh religion derives its strength from the reformations that marked it apart from the practice of ritualism. Both the poor and the rich derived equal strength. Conspicuous spending at wedding and compelling the bride’s parents to part with dowry (and harassing the girl afterwards if the demands have not been met), are alien to Sikh customs and ethos. Actually, it would have been better had the SGPC on its own set up such a code of conduct for all its followers many years ago, and possibly helped many a marginal farmer or a trader of modest means to not get into a debt trap on the occasion of his daughter’s engagement and marriage. The SGPC certainly has the sanctity, the reach, the machinery and infrastructure, and more importantly, the finances, to implement such a social reform. It is another matter of course that eventually the divergent political philosophy of much of the Sikh leadership at any one time leaves its mark in the religious arena, and many worthy projects never attain fruition. The Delhi Sikhs in democratic debate in all their Singh Sabhas have voted to follow the marriage reforms, and one can only hope that the SGPC will follow suit in the coming winter in the marriage season. Another aspect in which the SGPC could use its influence and might is in the matter of the fly-by-night Sikh NRI bridegrooms, many of whom hoodwink gullible parents and girls into quickie marriages, with the latter finding out a little later that the young man already has a wife abroad. A monitoring system where the bridegroom’s credentials of employment abroad are officially certified by the host country notary, as also his marital status, (in all probability the young man would be a tax payer) could go a long way in ensuring happier lives all around.
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Inside Pakistan The
Pervez Musharraf regime has “not abandoned” its emergency option. It is weighing its pros and cons. Fresh efforts seem to be on for a clearance from Washington. Ruling PML (Q) chief Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain has indirectly confirmed this through his latest stance on the imperative of imposing an emergency. According to Business Recorder (Aug 15), “President Musharraf’s close aides, who constitute his proverbial Kitchen Cabinet, including Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, want the emergency only for a short while, just to secure a safe and helpful environment to get him re-elected by the present parliament and provincial assemblies. But the PML (Q) bigwigs are for full one-year-emergency, with a prime minister of their choice.” Writing in The News (Aug 15), well-known columnist M. B. Naqvi explains why Chaudhary Shujaat – who stands for General Musharraf retaining the two most powerful offices of President and Army Chief – is advocating an otherwise unpopular move. The Chaudhary “seems to be afraid of (a) the Q League losing the 2007 elections; (b) Musharraf’s ganging up with Benazir Bhutto for the coming elections; (c) for the Q League, Musharraf is its lifeline, and should his affection for the League falter it would soon sink; (d) some defections from the Q League have already started and more may follow.” Attempts are being made to remove the judicial obstacle to exercising the emergency option. Legal luminaries have been employed “who would happily divide the lawyers’ ranks” and win over the hearts of some judges. Superior judges’ salaries have been raised by 25 per cent and Rs 10 crore is being transferred from the government’s coffers to the lawyers’ apex body for the “welfare” of those in the legal profession, according to Naqvi. However, very few are convinced that the strategy will work. Declining
popularity General Musharraf is no longer as popular as he was when he captured power in 1999 through a bloodless military coup. His popularity is at the lowest today. He admitted this on the eve of Pakistan’s 61st Independence Day during a live TV programme. People’s disenchantment with his rule was clearly visible during the lawyers’ agitation launched in protest against the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The much-publicised drive against extremists has helped him little to regain the lost ground. As The Nation points out, the General’s regime has failed to address “the genuine concerns” of the people: “provide them a respectable living and ensure security of their lives and property, to mention just two fundamentals of a happy existence”. There is a widespread feeling that the government has almost failed to enforce the law uniformly. It has been doing what suits the General’s scheme of things. General Musharraf has become “even more unpopular than the government itself because of his refusal to give up the post of Army Chief, insistence on his getting re-elected by the present assemblies and seeking a possible deal with a political leader whom in the past he openly spoke against and called corrupt”, as The News said in one of its editorials. A million
voters a day The Election Commission of Pakistan has never worked under as much pressure as it is functioning today. It got only 30 days to register at least 30 million voters whose names are missing from the electoral rolls. According to a report in Dawn (Aug 13), the commission wanted 140 days which it felt would be needed for “door-to-door enumeration”, but the Supreme Court, hearing a case filed by Ms Benazir Bhutto’s PPP, rejected the request. This led to Federal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi expressing doubts in the Pakistan National Assembly about the fairness of the coming elections. In his opinion, not only the time given by the apex court was inadequate, but also there was the possibility of under-age people getting registered as voters “in the absence of a mechanism to ascertain the identity of the voters”. The minister has, however, been taken to task for indirectly admitting that the electoral machinery was incapable of ensuring fair elections. “Registering a million voters a day is, no doubt, not an easy task, but since the polling day is barely a few months away, the authorities would have to pool all possible resources to fulfil the fundamental requirement of letting every eligible voter exercise his right”, The Nation commented. “The omission of such a large number of voters’ names is a serious lapse that could produce a distorted picture of the people’s wishes and nullify the very purpose of their going to the polls”, the paper said. |
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