|
|
|
|
|
Action,
at long last Countdown
to Lokpal |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
RBI has
done enough
Disturbing
message from Mumbai
“You
shall come back”
Women
are women’s worst enemies… Natural rivals
|
|
Countdown to Lokpal
Thanks
to the traction provided by the Anna Hazare agitation, the much-delayed Lokpal Bill is finally on the move, with the Union Cabinet giving its approval to the government version. It is another matter that this version has disappointed Team Anna and another agitation is on the cards. How good or bad the sarkari draft is will be determined only by the ability of the new watchdog to eliminate the omnipresent corruption in the country. It is not a figment of the imagination of the opposition. The man on the street is indeed disgusted with the extent of corruption. He also wants reforms and good governance. Whether it comes through improvement in the functioning of the present institutions or through establishment of new ones is least of his concerns. What he insists on is measurable improvement on the ground. There are bound to be doubts whether a Lokpal, as envisioned by the government, will be able to fit the bill. But as the Chinese say, the colour of the cat does not matter as long as it catches mice. Given the atmosphere in the country, no political being seems to be upright enough to sincerely want a completely independent investigating body in command. Even the criticism about the CBI being a puppet in the hands of the government is made only while a party or person is in the opposition. The tune changes dramatically once they themselves come to power. It will be educative to see how the Lokpal becomes a bulwark against corruption while the entire political class is ranged against this body. While it would be meaningless to have a paper tiger at hand, it is equally important to ensure that a Frankenstein is not created which becomes an overarching presence without checks and balances. Nor should the Lokpal imprimatur diminish the powers of the Prime Minister to govern and lead. As far as the aspirations of the public at large are concerned, those are unquantifiable and a fine balance has to be struck between what one section of the public wants and what is the wish list of another section.
|
|
|
RBI has done enough
It
is a double whammy for the middle class. On the one hand, home and auto loans have become dearer due to the RBI’s rate hike (the 11th in 15 months), on the other, high prices, including those of food, are stretching household budgets. The plight of the poor is worse. Since they usually do not have access to bank loans, they borrow from private lenders at hefty interest rates. Unlike the salaried class, their incomes are not inflation-linked. The brunt of costlier corporate loans is also borne by ordinary people. While big companies can weather a financial storm, it is the small and medium firms employing large numbers of people that often buckle under pressure. As their projects are abandoned or delayed for want of affordable capital, growth takes a hit and employment opportunities shrink. Though what the RBI did on Tuesday came as a shock to the financial markets, which expected a moderate hike of 25 basis points, it is what Governor D. Subbarao said which attracted analysts’ attention more. He asked the government to do what it had been avoiding all these months: contain fiscal deficit (the gap between government income and expenditure) and ensure adequate supplies of items whose prices are rising. What economists call “supply-side bottlenecks” have remained unaddressed for years. Due to low agricultural productivity, heavy dependence on the monsoon, the absence of cold storages and other infrastructural handicaps, the supply of food items remains erratic and often falls short of demand. The farm sector, which supports a large majority, needs better attention. Bringing in domestic and foreign investment in the supply chain can cut massive food waste. There are factors beyond government control like global oil prices and trouble in the Arab world and the US/European debt problems, which affect the global economic recovery as well as Indian exports. But there are things the government can do like thinking beyond scandals and political survival and focussing on governance and in-house hurdles to faster economic growth.
|
|
|
If you’re looking for friends when you need them — it’s too late. — Mark Twain
|
Disturbing message from Mumbai
After
the July 13 serial bomb blasts people of Mumbai are asking: Why again and again, and how long are we to suffer? Mumbai had suffered the most serious terrorist attack by Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives under the direction of Pakistan’s ISI on November 26, 2008. And so far no one has been punished in Pakistan. ISI operative David Headley and American-Canadian Tahawwur Husain Rana have given detailed accounts of the ISI operations relating to Mumbai. One of the jihadis who constituted the attacking team in Mumbai on 26/11, Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive. The Indian security authorities, Pakistan and the US are aware of the complete account which Kasab narrated during his trial in a Mumbai court. Sentenced to death, he is now in a high security prison awaiting further judicial procedures. The Pakistani culprits who are being prosecuted there for their role in the 26/11 killings are having an easy time. There is hardly any progress in the case. A series of folders have been handed over to Pakistan but to no avail. In the initial stage, the Pakistan Foreign Secretary blithely characterised the dossiers as literature from India. Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Rahman Malik had promised cooperation. The excuse for the delay in the disposal of the case is the unhelpful attitude of the Pakistani judiciary. Earlier Mumbai suffered major serial bomb blasts in 1993 which were characterised as a revenge attack on India after the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. These blasts were suspected to have been organised and executed by Dawood Ibrahim, who had taken shelter in Karachi under the protection of Pakistan Then there were serial train blasts in 2003 and again bomb blasts in 2006. The latest terrorist attack in Mumbai has a strange story to tell. The Home Minister as well as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra stated that there was no question of intelligence failure since there were no intelligence inputs. It is a strange logic, but the fact remains that there were no advance warnings to the Mumbai Police or the Maharashtra state about the likelihood of bomb blasts by terrorist elements in Mumbai around July 13.This is the crux of the problem, the complete absence of intelligence inputs about the possibility of a terrorist attack in Mumbai. The Maharashtra Chief Minister spoke of his government’s proposal to instal a large number of CCTV cameras in the metropolis. Several CCTV cameras, which are already installed, had yielded some footage and the police chief heading the ATS has promised to release the sketch of one of the suspects. While all these may lead to the arrest of the suspected terrorists sooner or later, the most important issue is about fine-tuning the state machinery for the collection of advance intelligence before the incident occurs. Mr Ram Pradhan, who headed an enquiry team after the 26/11 attacks, has rightly emphasised the need for intensifying the role of the beat constable who walks around the streets and lanes, meeting people of different strata. Intelligence inputs have to emanate from these constables. Traditionally, the police and intelligence officers build up their sources among the various communities so as to collect the required information about suspects and their activities. After the latest bomb blasts, the Maharashtra security authorities have not zeroed in on any specific suspect as yet. There is a wide range of suspects belonging to the Indian Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the HUJI of Bangladesh. Security personnel have been sent to interrogate a well-known bomb maker, now in an Ajmer jail, and some suspects from Azamgarh in UP. Suspects from Kerala, Gujarat, Jharkhand, etc, are all earmarked for enquiry and interrogation. This is, to put it mildly, a wild goose chase. This is the biggest weakness of the Indian security set-up as of today. The national grid of intelligence and counter-terrorism about which the Home Minister has spoken extensively is yet to come into being. An outraged Lord Meghnad Desai from London commented, “Here we go again; first 26/11 and now 13/7. Mumbaikars will have to fall back on their famed ability to cope with adversity without any help from the authorities.” Of course, we know who committed these atrocities, but we will not do anything about this. Polite notes will be sent to Pakistan by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Home Ministry. Alas, the reality is that Pakistan can quasi-officially perpetrate these atrocities as the whole saga of Headley and Rana proved in a Chicago court. On the Indian side, the effectiveness in fighting these actions is still not there. Why is the Indian State so soft? Nothing seems to have improved since 26/11. How many more must die before India comes to realise that human lives matter more than anything else? In the case of the 26/11 blasts, the Headley/Rana trial has given ample evidence to establish who are behind these terrorist atrocities. Headley had a free run of the country and no agency in India spotted him till the Americans nabbed him. This may happen again. Some Lashkar or jihadi group enjoying Pakistan’s financial support may attack India again. This painful message having serious dimensions has been conveyed by the Mumbai serial blasts. Can India be sure of preventing such attacks in any of its metropolitan cities again? Can anyone in the security set-up, either at the national level or at the state level, assert and answer, “Yes, India can.” The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Intelligence Bureau may consider convening a special conference of intelligence authorities from all the states and discuss the dire need for building a preventive intelligence machinery from the grassroots level. This is necessary to ensure that such attacks do not happen again and that those who are conspiring are arrested in good time before the mischief is committed. This is a tall expectation, but not impossible. Merely blaming the Karachi Project of Pakistan — whereby men of the Indian Mujahideen and other jihadist terrorists are given shelter in Karachi —cannot help. David Headley has given considerable details about Karachi gangsters. He has actually spoken of two distinct competing jihadi groups targeting India, and both are headquartered in Karachi. Moreover, the Lashkar chief, Hafiz Saeed, has spoken of launching an all-out war in Kashmir, attacking the Bhakra Nangal dam project and other such targets. But the Pakistani authorities have refused to react to these utterances. Notwithstanding the latest meetings between the Foreign Secretaries and the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan, there is no possibility of any progress in the matter of resolving the issue of cross-border terror originating from Pakistan. India has to set its own house in order by restructuring the intelligence-gathering mechanism to ensure that terrorist attacks like those experienced in Mumbai are prevented to the extent
possible. The writer, a former Governor of UP and West Bengal, is a retired chief of the Intelligence Bureau.
|
|||||
“You shall come back” As
the first page of a book, or the opening shot of a movie, the white airplane with its red belly, standing against rich blue sky interspersed with a few patches of milky white clouds and a waist-high stone wall, as we landed at Leh, was an indication of pristine beauty to be unfolded over the next four days. Noorgu (Ladakhi for Diamond), the compact and quick taxi driver, swirled us through the steep lanes to the self proclaimed oldest hotel of Leh. As we entered the rooms, children and my friend announced in unison they were not living there. After prolonged parlays my friend was able to teach the receptionist of another hotel the magic of finding two rooms in a fully booked hotel. Rental Bullet motorcycles in fancy colours and flowing handle bars thumping up and down the bazaar, as we went for a stroll in the evening, shook 20 years off me and the overwhelming urge to do the 150 km Leh-Khardungla-Nubra valley route washed all sensible advice off my shores. “Bikes run on faith sir!” quipped the smooth salesman as I tested the brakes that challenged my fingers and looked at the bald rear tyre of the only available bike, as if I was only waiting to hear that. Happily though, he proved correct when after a few rounds of re-affirmation in the first half hour or so the next morning, the bike and I recognized each other as soul-mates and joyously puttered up the winding road before shooting through no-road, gravel and water and rocky zones to Khardungla, the highest motorable road in the world at 18380 feet where all three of us, me, my 12-year-old son and the mobike did feel dizzy due to lack of oxygen. Past Khardungla, descent started and the bike’s thump relaxed. My son commented from rear: “This place is so mysterious”. “God did not keep anything to be exploited by humans here, so it is preserved naturally,” bubbled up my mind after sometime. We rode past in silence, the ever changing landscape that was sand dunes of a desert somewhere, a broad pebbly dry river bed here, a purple mountain there, a maroon one here, huge layered tectonic plates pushed up into the skies there. With no vegetation, animals or birds for miles together the feeling overwhelmed that we had ridden into the era when earth was being formed.” We arrived in Hunder at dusk. Sky had turned overcast from sunny, the next morning, changing the landscape entirely as we headed back, after cleaning the spark plug and cranking up the bike. The last day was reserved for Gurudwara Patthar Sahb, with exhausting 425 steps to the Nishan Sahib. Four days were not enough to fully soak the beauty of Leh. As we headed to the airport, the mystical Leh extracted a vow from us to come back soon and see what was left, especially the 65-km-long Blue water Pengong lake where the last scene of “Three Idiots” was
shot.
|
|||||
Women are women’s worst enemies… It is true that women just like men have been habitual to the structures of patriarchy, following the same patriarchal terminology, rituals, customs, body language, gestures and so on. Like men, women have also been submitting to the power structures with a gender hierarchy in place within families, kinship and even public spaces, without questioning these. It is generally found that women get along with a greater ease and comfort with male colleagues and bosses simply because they have been habitual to having them around in such positions. With the feminist consciousness creeping in, however, the modern woman, uneasy with the existing power equations, has started perceiving herself as a victim of patriarchy-subjugated, struggling to earn a respectable space, not only from men but unmindful of the gender dimension of it- from both “other” men and women. In the process, she often indulges into “othering” not only men but other women too. In the process of her own struggle for survival, while she is totally engrossed in her own self, she completely forgets that other women close to her-as daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, mother, mother-in-law, domestic maid, friend, colleague, subordinate, boss, too are fighting a lone battle. Obsessed with her own plight she fails to develop a consciousness that by supporting other women her own struggle would get easier. What in fact happens is that while “othering” women along with men, she not only distances herself from other women, but more crucially, often antagonises them in different capacities and intensities. This happens because unlike the Marxian notion of class consciousness, which turns a class in itself into class for itself, by othering the rich and propertied bourgeoisie, these women themselves, too heterogeneous within, have no occasion to develop a class consciousness. Instead, with an aggressive invasion of consumerism and self promotion in the name of individual freedom and personal liberty, contemporary women, especially in developing countries, keep getting increasingly self located, both physically and socially. In developing countries, with an intense competition for scarce and depleting resources, especially in the present context, women are competing not only with men but with other women also, each with a heightened feeling of individuality, often resembling egoism, giving a serious blow to the project of “sisterhood”. All this often gets perceived in terms of labelling women as enemies of women themselves. And with this the whole feminist project is turned very conveniently against women themselves. The irony is that the moment a woman asserts her identity as a separate human entity, she is charged of a coup against not only men, but the total society, equivalent to waging a war against society (with the male at the hot seat), with the assertion that she must learn to live along with society (men). But when she concedes and looks upon the same society to pull her out of the state of subjugation and denial of her individuality, freedom and self esteem, she is directed to seek support in other women and to fend for herself. Society very conveniently tells her that empowerment shall come from within her. Further, absolving itself from the responsibility, the same society tells her that it has never been unfair with her and in fact it is her own community, i.e. women, who thwart her project of empowerment. And thus, very smartly and shrewdly society manages to pull itself out of the responsibility of granting a just and fair treatment to women, leaving them in the lurch. Is it sufficient to frame policies, legislations, create ministries, allocate funds for their welfare and leave it at that? On the other side, women are busy empowering themselves, conducting gender sensitisation workshops and seminars which are often attended only by women as men find these totally irrelevant and meaningless. Very cleverly, the state, bureaucracy and society, granting a few women born with a silver spoon with an elitist status, entrust them with the job of empowering other women, rolling in poverty, physical abuse and inhuman existence day in and day out. Men again in the process keep watching from a distance with amusement and indifference. It is as ridiculous to expect all women to behave like a group as men. Like any other human being, a woman too has multiple identities, viz. gender, caste, religious, professional, linguistic, regional and so on. Gender is therefore only one of the identities she possesses. Is it fair to expect that she lives only on her gender identity, forgetting about others? Further, while being a woman, she performs multiple roles in which her identity keeps on shifting just like men. For example, she keeps shifting between the roles of a daughter, sister, student, mother, wife, friend, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, colleague, worker/professional, boss, subordinate, neighbour, passenger, consumer, victim, perpetrator, patriarch and so on. Each of these having been culturally defined roles. How can society expect a woman to abandon these roles and push herself into “sisterhood”? Take the example of the multiple role performance of a man who tells his working daughter, sister or wife not to overdo her work at office and take care of her household responsibilities properly, at the same time frowning at his female colleague or subordinate when she shows her inability to stay beyond office hours in order to cater to her household priorities. Definitely then the project of women’s empowerment is not a society’s project but primarily and solely a women’s project. Women too like men live out their socially defined roles which are not only multiple but conflicting too. It is too unfair to expect every woman to be a permanent feminist, fighting for her gender rights all the time. She too as an ordinary human being performs multiple roles, forgetting at times that she is a woman and that she is pursuing the project of women’s empowerment. Enslaved to social taboos and cultural norms, she too like her male counterpart, likes to earn social acceptability and in the process, hurts the project of sisterhood. It is unfair to expect all women at all times and at all places to be working for women’s empowerment. It is doubly unfair to blame them for their own victimisation, keeping society that controls them out of view. It is a pity that for any failures or hiccups, the society mocks at them, treating them responsible for their plight, lacing it with the phrase “women are the worst enemies of women.” The writer is the Chairperson, Departments of Women’s Studies and Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
|
|
Natural rivals In
a bid to garner support, the US Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin once said at a rally: “There is a place in hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.” She whipped up a storm and instead of getting unqualified approval of the fairer sex, she was attacked for her ludicrous remark. Indeed, while Palin, who has a knack of putting her foot in her mouth, may have gone overboard in her campaign, is it not a given that women should support women. In fact, many organisations use this as their credo line. The motto of Mission of Guild of Women Achievers is simply—Be a friend to another woman. But is a woman a woman’s best friend? Not quite would be the unanimous refrain. So much so that Shere Hite the feminist sex researcher in the Hite Report of Women Loving Women not only talks of rivalry between sisters but even between mother and daughter. Ironically, in a world where women are competing against men all the time, many perceive women and women alone as their rivals. From a board meeting to a party, women are subconsciously pitting themselves not against men but other women whom they measure on several yardsticks. From looks to wit to intelligence, women try to outdo members of their own sex. Feminists explain this rivalry as a fall out of years of conditioning of patriarchal values, a male conspiracy to keep her down. Hite opines that in family women are invariably competing for love in way that men or boys never have to. Her assertion that more than one girl in the family is often considered one too many is likely to find an echo in Indian social set up where female foeticide is a harsh but inescapable reality. From fighting for space within the family to seeking social approval, Hite goes on to elaborate on the many reasons why women don’t get along with each other. While battle lines are drawn between attractive and plain-looking, single and married women find it tough to find a meeting ground. To cap it all she even zeroes down on why women hate working for women. While many of her theses may seem blown out of proportion for controversy is her middle name she does have a point. According to one study, 40 per cent of bullies at office are women. So, one would argue, are men who by the way still outnumber women. But the report suggests that the only difference between female and male bully is that while men don’t distinguish between gender, women tend to be harsher with women subordinates. Does that mean women automatically take a position opposed to members of her sex? It isn’t as if women don’t empathise with each other. Female bonding is as real as their jealousy. Women can be friends, even lovers as movies like Deepa Mehta’s controversial Fire have shown. That they can come together to fight male oppression once again reflects not only in movies like Mirch Masala but also real life. Often travesties of women have been brought to light by women alone. There are a host of bodies committed to the cause of women. Organisations like All-India Women’s Education Fund Association had at the helm sterling personalities Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Aruna Asif Ali and Sarojini Naidu. Many women’s organisations like SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) have consistently worked for the welfare of women. The All-India Democratic Women’s Association tries to help women victims of family violence get justice and campaigns against wife beating and dowry demands, etc. Indeed, time and again cudgels have been picked on the behalf of women by women alone. Yet perhaps in an individual vs. individual situation women do not always make natural allies. They could often be antagonists working at cross purposes both within the family structure and at workplace. No wonder, a few can’t get rid of the nagging suspicion that women are inimical to other women.. Yet, we must remember that only a few do not represent the majority, and we can see this from how women rights’ activists continue to raise their voice against gender discrimination, time and again.
|
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
M