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Grim realities
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Homilies on
environment won’t help
Profile Reflections Kashmir Diary Diversities — Delhi Letter
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Grim realities can raise
barriers again FOR
all the hullabaloo over the obliteration of geographical boundaries
courtesy information technology, a simple question survives. What happened
to the mindsets that governed the fingers that drew these boundaries in
carefully executed cartographical designs? Have they changed and, if they
have not, could technology have conquered the geographical obstacles for
all practical purposes?
If not, is there reason to investigate the nature of the surviving
barriers that make nations, nations; that stratifies people within nation;
and that demands attention in terms of stringently specific responses to
specific problems that may or may not have any linkages with the world
without barriers?
This is not to deny the reign of the ‘globalised’ stratosphere that
technology has networked for 21st century man. It has enabled commercial
systems to function at a levitational level that need not encumber itself
with the inconvenient questions on the ground — not even those that the
resourceful DLH courier handles in smart advertising. Nevertheless, this
is a network that bypasses a possible couple of billions of people
worldwide. One fourth of them may be residents of India. Clearly, theirs
is not India of the globalised world; theirs is not even the world of
Indians.
These are god’s ‘nine-fingered’ children, dispossessed and without a
clue that they are so, literally living at the grassroots of the
un-networked terra firma. In a typically Indian case, the villager at
Kiul, Bihar, for instance, who survives on no more than roots that he can
dig out of the soil on a lucky day; his jagged ribs telling the world that
his days are numbered. Yet he survives. Is globalisation for him? Possibly
at some stage as one will be told, what with Millennium Development Goals
and all; but how about a dose of Indianisation for him for starters?
Five decades and more of post-independence planning and development and
India’s nine-fingered segments may well be on the verge of losing two more
with no one any wiser; certainly not the stratospheric Indian. The truth
here is that without first coming into the reckoning as Indians — with
access to the basics of civilised living that universal adult suffrage,
unfortunately, does not bring to their tables — these people stand no
chance of ever becoming global residents. Indeed, they do not even have
the right to be residents, not having roofs over their heads.
What one encounters in this era of creative destruction is a clear rise
in disparities, even in societies that were far better prepared to deal
with the incipient global trends. Over the last two decades of the 20th
century, the bottom 20 per cent earners in the US saw real income of
households grow by no more than 6.4 per cent, of the top 20 per cent by 70
per cent, of the top one per cent by 184 per cent and of the top 0.1 per
cent grew at some obscene pace.
The disparity between the top executive company and the average worker
is a worse abomination. Washington’s Economic Policy Institute places it
at 1,000 times the earnings of the average worker, in a fractious
denouement over a three-decade span. Thirty years ago the average CEO
emolument was $1.3 million that was 39 times the pay of the average
worker. Today it is $37.5 million. At the turn of the millennium,
America’s top one per cent of households earned 20 per cent of all income
and held 33.4 per cent of all net worth.
That the elite will govern is a given for all time; the masses will be
governed. Clearly, the take home package is indicative of what governs the
elitist mindsets that is committed to perpetuating the reign of creative
destruction for universal redemption from poverty.
Globalisation — currently being sold as an ancient system in a more
evolved form in the 21st century — has always thrived on the formula of
creative destruction: how else would one describe the cutting-the-thumbs
of the weavers of Bengal so that the looms of Lancashire would thrive?
Whatever the theories of endogenous corporate growth, from a strictly
development perspective, an Indian perspective, creative destruction, as
it hits the employees of such companies as Xerox Corporation or a Polaroid
with the new dimensions in emergent technology is not possibly the same in
its effects on the groundnut farmer in Andhra Pradesh whose produce loses
markets with the advent of imported oil substitute from the US.
With far stronger social security nets in position, globalisation and
its handmaidens: casualisation and contractualisation that are being
touted as the best way for things to be in corporate order of underpaid
workers with insecure tenures, advanced economies may be able to deal the
trauma of job loss. In India, the threat of impending job losses has meant
enforced voluntary retirements without the mental, social or economic
wherewithal to deal with this affect of the creative destruction.
In very real terms, where does all this talk about global poverty
reduction take India’s 270 million poor in a country in which the business
elite believe that the common minimum programme is a stumbling block?
These are grim realities that raise the barriers once again in the
technology-induced borderless world where local and regional compulsions
force the drawing of mental boundaries. In the final analysis, it is the
mind that matters and if the globalised world does not have the will to
take the realities of the terra firma on board, the grassroots will ensure
that the boundaries are erected steep and strong.
Global corporations have for so long manipulated policy directions from
battles to bottles (Iraq to Coca-Cola in India, for instance) that the
distinction between the domain of corporate enterprises and national
managements becomes blurred. However, if business governance equates
itself with political management it must realise that political governance
has its own constituency that is vastly more elaborate than the
constituency of corporate shareholders and stakeholders. The former can be
ignored at the peril of the entire corporate structure: globalisation,
creative destruction et al. |
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On
Record
Former Chief Justice
of the Delhi High Court, Justice Rajinder Sachar, has been in the
forefront of the fight against human rights violations and espousing the
cause of underprivileged sections. He has been appointed Chairman of the
Prime Minister’s high power committee for preparing a report on the
social, economic and educational status of Muslims. In an exclusive
interview to The Sunday Tribune, Justice Sachar speaks about the nature of
the task assigned to the seven-member committee.
Excerpts:
Q: Why was the need felt to examine the social, economic and
educational status of the Muslims after 58 years of Independence?
A: The question can better be answered by the government.
However, as per the terms of reference of the committee, Muslims are the
largest minority community in the country. The satisfaction of minorities
in any country is the test of a civilised nation. We have been assigned
the task of collecting material and statistics and submit it in a
consolidated form to the government. It will take appropriate action on
our report.
Q: What do you think are the reasons for Indian Muslims remaining
socially and educationally backward?
A: The committee will not go into the reasons. Our job is to
make a factual presentation of the Muslims’ status. The government alone
can assess the reasons and take a decision. Besides me, the panel has six
other experts from different fields, including Saiyid Hamid
(educationist), T.K. Oommen (sociologist), M.A. Basith (planner), Rakesh
Basant (economist), Akhtar Majeed (academic) and Abu Saleh Shariff
(economist) as its members.
Q: Muslims in India are generally engaged in various activities of
self-employment like glass and brass hardware industry, handicrafts,
artisan and other similar jobs. Has it contributed to their bad
condition?
A: I can say it can be co-related to globalisation of the
economy. Excessive emphasis on globalisation necessarily affects
small-scale ventures though the people engaged were Hindus, Muslims or
from any other community. If you open the economy too much, the small
artisans are likely to suffer.
Q: Why did the community fail to throw any towering leader after
Independence?
A: The question of leadership does not apply to the Muslims
alone. How many towering or popular leaders have emerged among other
communities who can match the stature of the pre-Independence era. If we
count Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, their positions were different
because they belong to the family of Jawaharlal Nehru. This applies to all
the communities as our post-independence leaders have failed to measure to
the standard set by those who fought for Independence.
Q: It is generally believed that Muslims have large families. Is
this the main reason for their economic backwardness?
A: We will go into it. But such a belief is not supported by
statistics as the latest census report showed that there was not much
difference in the growth rate of Muslims than the Hindus or any other
community. Only a marginal difference of about two per cent existed. In
Kerala, the Muslim population growth rate is as that of non-Muslims in all
over the country. This has come in a WHO report. It shows that the
population growth is linked to education as Kerala is a high literacy
state. This change can be brought by political motivation.
Q: What do you feel about a Muslim’s right to have four wives?
A: There is a wrong notion about it. Practically, this is no
more a common practice but could only be an exception. There are more such
instances among the Hindus having more than one wife even if it is
prohibited under the law. In the Quran, it has been clarified under which
circumstances permission to a Muslim was given to have four wives as
during those days lot of wars were fought and several young women used to
become widows. To ensure social security and better living for them, this
remedy was devised. But it has been clearly laid down that a Muslim cannot
marry more than one wife if he can’t treat them equally.
Q: What methods the committee will adopt for data collection?
A: We will seek the assistance of NGOs working on such subjects,
the National Sample Survey, economic research data and solicit suggestions
from the general public. We will visit different states, specially where
the Muslims are in large numbers. Our first visit will be to Andhra
Pradesh between June 3 and 7. During the visits, we will meet NGOs working
among Muslims, government officials and have extensive discussions with
community members and leaders.
Q: When would you submit the report to the Prime Minister?
A: The notification appointing the committee was issued by the
government on March 9 but it could hold its first sitting only in May
first week. We will complete the job in one year’s time, the tenure fixed
for the panel and submit the report to the Prime Minister. |
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Homilies on
environment won’t help Today is World
Environment Day. Conferences are held every year to voice concern about
environment. But everyone forgets about it the next day. Surely, this will
not promote the cause of environment protection.
Amazingly, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has failed in
its duty. It has not published a comprehensive document on environment.
The environment departments in the states seem to exist on paper. No state
has environment information/education and research centre. The National
Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) at Nagpur has not made
any significant contribution in environmental research.
Environmental deterioration is primarily caused by five factors —
insanitation, discharge of municipal and industrial waste water, smoke
from industries, exhaust gases from vehicles, and the use of pesticides
and weedicides for protection of crops against diseases. Protection of
environment from these factors is difficult but not impossible.
First, saving environment from insanitation is the easiest. Fifty per
cent environment protection lies in sanitation which warrants an effective
sewerage system and collection of solid waste from streets. The cost of
providing sewerage system is Rs 700 per person. Today, 60 per cent towns
have no sewerage system while the remaining have only partial facility.
The total cost of providing sewerage system and solid waste disposal in
3,000 small and big towns will cost Rs 21,000 crore. The system can be
provided in three years provided there is uninterrupted flow of funds from
the government. An investment of Rs 7,000 crore per year by the Centre and
the states is not difficult.
Secondly, to treat municipal and industrial waste water, common
effluent treatment plants with high rate trickling filters are needed.
While the waste water can be recycled for agriculture use, this will
greatly enrich the soil with nitrogen and other micro-nutrients.
Thirdly, the height of the chimneys of the industries (particularly of
thermal power plants and cement plants) and brick kilns should be very
high so that smoke from the chimney’s top end does not flow back to the
threshold level of the inhabitants. The smoke should pass through a column
of water before billowing into the air. Electrostatic precipitators can
remove the suspended particulate matter effectively. During rainfall, the
gases emitted in the air form weak acids which further provide nutrients
to the crops.
Fourthly, the problem of exhaust fumes from vehicles will go if all the
cars, three-wheelers and local buses are run on compressed natural gas
(CNG). Rapid mass transport system based on electric traction, like Delhi
Metro, is also welcome.
And finally, biotechnological tools are needed to break the syndrome of
cash crops’vulnerability to diseases and the use of pesticides. Bt Cotton
is a shining example of this technique.
The writer is former Engineer-in-Chief (Public Health),
Haryana |
Profile by Harihar Swarup “Does Chappell intend to convert the Indian players into vegetarians”
is the oft-repeated question being asked in cricket circle. Some joke,
some laugh at the coach’s fad for vegetarianism. He recommends vegetables
as diet for everyone from athletes to businessmen and credits his
vegetarianism for improving his own health. Will his first lesson to the
Indian players be a strict vegetarian diet? Once a meat eater why he
turned into a strict vegetarian? Giving up meat and dairy products in
favour of healthier foods, including soya and vegetables, made him feel
“stronger and healthier”.
The world’s most nutrition-conscious doctors now advocate vegetarian
diet, he says. Dairy products have been linked to a high rate of
lactose-intolerance; a problem that afflicted Chappell himself . “I gave
up red meat at the same time as I gave up dairy foods, but while the
benefits of avoiding red meat took awhile to become evident, the effect of
giving up dairy foods was immediate”, he says. Chappell himself
specialises in vegetable soups, baked vegetables and pasta. He is fond of
curries, Indian or Thai.
Greg Chappell is a household name in Australia. He hails from a
distinguished cricket family and his grandfather Victor Richardson and
brothers Ian and Trevor also played Test cricket for Australia. Chappell
has been most talented of them all. He marked his debut appearance by
scoring 108 in a Test against England. He was one of Wisden’s Five
Cricketers of the Year in 1972 and inducted into Australia’s Cricket Hall
of Fame. He led his country in 48 of his 87 Tests, winning 21. Most of
Chappell’s coaching experience has been at domestic level with South
Australia, but he worked as a consultant at Pakistan’s National Academy
and, subsequently, functioned as a coach of the West Indies team.
Chappell has created his own coaching web site: chappellway.com. It
opens with a personal introduction: “Hi my name is Greg Chappell and I’d
like to welcome you to the Chappell way. Every since I was a boy I have
been fascinated with the game of cricket and committed to understanding
its complexities. This journey has taken me to create this site and my
dream of assisting you in becoming a better player or coach. I encourage
you also to take this journey as cricket has many great rewards. I take
great pride in my cricket record and what this great game has allowed me
to achieve. Keeping an open mind to new learning and practice are
principles that should never be forgotten”. “Comprehensive investigation
into cricket techniques — training, nutrition and player and coach
development” is the site’s most educative chapter. |
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New ideas and idioms for success by Kiran Bedi THIS
week I attended an intensive three-day retreat of a very successful
multinational corporate house in the field of Information Technology. It
was held outside India. The communion consisted of over 200 senior and
middle level executives, representatives of many business partners and
select customers, world wide. The retreat was to provide a unique
opportunity to exchange ideas and discover new idioms that define their
success and growth. It was also aimed at enabling participants to meet on
common ground, network and explore new synergies.
At the heart of the forum was a unique, singular thought, one that is
in sync with today’s business paradigm. They called it ‘Excelerate’. It is
not just ‘Excel and Accelerate’ but a merger of both. Their proceedings
reflected a total focus on growth and speed, powered by the virtues of
excellence and efficiency. This is a commitment which this group was
collectively making even when its business was growing at a significant
pace.
It was in the grandest of style. It overflowed with enthusiasm and
plans ahead. A company which was growing and accelerating at a very fast
speed was vowing to continue to excel. It hoped that when it meets next
year even ‘Accelerate’ may have become a cliché and they may have to find
yet more challenges to challenge themselves. I got the opportunity to
observe their celebrations as I was a speaker at the retreat. It was
energy and anticipation all along.
Since I landed the evening before I had the privilege of attending the
hype and their main event of togetherness…their awards night. They
recognised all possible qualities in different individuals that made the
company soar. Such as initiative, hard work, persistence, promotion,
client service, commitment, dedication, team spirit, selfless support,
youngest star etc. They also recognised region wise results, to promote
healthy competition. It was exhilarating to be a part of this presentation
for it was done with great enthusiasm, fanfare and finesse. They even had
a theme song wherein all stood up to sing together. It was truly thrilling
and uniting.
I once again imagined such an event for us all in government
departments where seniors and juniors could be together. On this occasion
the department as a whole recognises outstanding work and the reasons
thereof. They reward honesty, diligence, service, punctuality, team
work, courage, leadership, initiative, sensitivity, perseverance, skills,
attitude and innovation. They too could have a theme song which unites all
in the spirit of public service and patriotism. They too vow to better the
service to the people for the year ahead. They too set goals of
excellence. The day this becomes a reality it will go a long way in
changing the prevailing punitive culture to one of inspiration and
recognition, where exemplary work is richly rewarded and appreciated.
This awards night I attended was truly positive and full of team
awards. For the corporate world such recognitions today have become almost
a necessity. In the world of cut-throat competition it is a case of
survival of the fittest. Hence I wonder if there is another option which
is healthier and wholesome. Comparatively, the government is a monolith in
certain services and can continue to be in employment despite poor
performance never mind the financial health (sic). But one thing
which I observed was missing even in this enthusiastic corporate
celebration. It was the presence of spouses or family. Also recognition of
family support in achieving whatever was being achieved. Such celebrations
without the presence of family are like denying longevity to the joy
experienced.
For when these men and few women go home they will be tired to explain
to their families what happened for they would be instantly back to
‘Excelerate’. We need to recognise that no Exceleration is sustainable
without family support. And no joy is joy enough if not shared with/at
home!
Let’s incorporate this in our work culture and nurture it to the
maximum. This may be one of the best management concepts India may offer
to the corporate world. I shared this observation with the communion
in my presentation as it emerged through questions and answers. And guess
what? They instantly realised themselves that they did miss out on the
family participation and announced that they will share the next retreat
with spouses or a member of the family. This is as well a lesson for those
of us in government whenever (if) such positive events are held: That they
ensure the presence and participation of the family for sustainable and
joyful ‘Exceleration’. May this tribe increase… | |
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How a Srinagar school shaped Kashmir’s societal
change by David Devadas MY
friend Khurshed Ali has been a teacher at Tyndal-Biscoe school for more
than a decade now. He is a charming, soft-spoken young man, perfectly at
ease conversing in English with foreign tourists near his home just off
the road to the Dal lake. He prefers to wear jeans on casual evenings. His
father on the other hand is generally dressed in a phiran. A typically
Kashmiri lace skullcap sits on his head, over a salt-and-pepper beard. He
is a gentle old man, ever ready with a smiling welcome in the bare-boards
tailoring shop at which he sits, stitching phirans and other traditional
outfits under a naked light bulb.
The contrast between father and son can be attributed in part to
Tyndal-Biscoe. The mission school has been an integral part of Srinagar
life for more than a century and has played a significant part in the
societal and intellectual evolution of Kashmir throughout the twentieth
century. Perhaps its westernising influence is the reason why militants
targeted the school last month. Several students and teachers were injured
by the grenade, which exploded near the school gate adjacent to the Lal
Chowk city centre. The blast occurred just as school was giving over for
the day.
The fact is that young students at such prestigious schools are not,
broadly speaking, enamoured by Islamic fundamentalist ideas or with
militancy any longer. That is a sea change from the Eighties. Teachers at
the Burn Hall school and Melhanson girls school, Tyndal-Biscoe’s sister
school, speak of their bafflement at the trends among students then. Even
what some children chose to paint during their art class at times left
their teachers amazed. Of course, as with so many other micro-level signs
of impending trouble, those pieces of paper were not noticed by those who
should have been monitoring the ground situation.
Ishfaq Majid, the chief commander of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front that spearheaded militancy in the early phase, was a product of
Tyndal-Biscoe. In the mid-80s, he would routinely swagger across Lal Chowk
after school, still dressed in the white shirt, gray trousers and bright
green striped tie of the school uniform, towards a tea stall across the
Amira Kadal bridge on the other side of Lal Chowk. There, several of the
boys who were destined to become leading militants around 1989-90 would
gather to listen to Azam Inquilabi, who had dabbled in insurrection since
the Sixties and had crossed the Line of Control more than once in search
of arms and other assistance.
It is students such as Ishfaq that provided the intellectual core of
leadership for the independence struggle that burst violently into the
open in 1988. They were fired in the course of their sophisticated
education with glorified ideas about the Islamic revolution in Iran and
the jihad in Afghanistan that the Western media was lionising through
images such as Rambo. Their liberal education had also led to disgust over
the corruption, nepotism and paranoid manipulation by the Centre that was
so much a part of Kashmir’s experience in the Eighties.
In 1950 too, the Tyndal-Biscoe school played a crucial role in
Kashmir’s political history, but at a different level altogether. The then
principal, an Australian named Dr Edmunds, was apparently a conduit
between Sheikh Abdullah and the Australian judge, Owen Dixon, who had been
appointed as the United Nations Representative to try and resolve the
dispute over the state between India and Pakistan. Many of those who were
politically active at the time believe that Abdullah influenced the Dixon
Plan.
Abdullah’s one-time mentor and advisor Ghulam Ahmed Ashai, whom he had
appointed Registrar of the University, was close to Edmunds, who of course
had a ready equation with his fellow-Australian. The Dixon Plan might have
paved the way for independence from both India and Pakistan, which
Abdullah was clearly looking for. Of course, both India and Pakistan
rejected that plan.
Although the Edmunds episode has made it to several books on Kashmir,
the real value of the school was the role it played in the previous
decades to mould a generation of young Kashmiris. Under Pathan, Sikh and
then Dogra rule, Kashmir had for the most part become an extremely
impoverished, backward area through the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. The idealism of the school’s founders and their successors gave
generations of young Kashmiris around the turn of the twentieth century a
fresh window to the scientific and humanist developments in the outside
world.
Judging from the vibrancy with which the city has sprung back from last
month’s attack, the school will surely continue to play such a
role. | |
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A special evening for French Open
Final by Humra Quraishi YES, it’s the extreme of summer here and yet evenings lie packed.
In fact, like last year, this year too,
on this Sunday, French Ambassador
to India Dominique Girard is hosting a
special evening for the French Open final. Invitees
and guests could view it in
the French embassy premises,
on a specially large screen, with food
and drinks bandobasts lined up in the background.
The
evening would be co-hosted by the Lacoste group.
There’s more news from the French here, from
the Alliance Francaise, to be precise. It’s
an exciting invitation and I’m quoting from it,
so that I don’t add further inputs to
the excitement, “As a run up to the Music Day,
the Alliance Francaise de Delhi invites
you in its premises all week from 13-17 June, to sing,
play and do music. Be you an amateur or
a professional, a nightingale or
a bathroom crooner, you
can let out your voice and we’ll
welcome you with open arms...who knows
there’s a budding talented
singer lying buried somewhere. Let’s discover it
all.”
To mark World Refugee Day on June 20, the
UN refugee agency and the
Habitat Film Club will screen the Oscar
nominated film ‘Hotel Rwanda’ at
India Habitat Centre. An automatic focus on
the refugees and the challenges they face.
In India alone, the refugees under
the UNHRC mandate are approximately 12,000.
These include Afghans, Myanmarese and in
smaller numbers — Somalis, Sudanese, Iraqis and Iranians.
Interestingly, 85 per cent of the Afghan refugees here
are either Hindus or Sikhs.
Then, there are those refugee groups
who are considered
refugees by GOI and are supported by them.
These are the Tibetans
and the Sri Lankans who
are supported by GOI. The Tibetans who first
came here in 1959 are today numbering 100,000
and are not just living in New
Delhi and Dharamshala but I
was pleasantly surprised to see Tibetan
refugee colonies in the heart of Srinagar. Random House opens in
Delhi
In keeping with the growing number of books,
international publishing house, Random House,
has opened its offices here, with Vivek
Ahuja being appointed its managing director for India.
Amongst Random House’s notable international authors are
many Indian writers, including Madhur Jaffrey, Ketan Patel, Salman Rushdie
and Vikas Swarup.
The forthcoming titles from
this publishing house include Salman Rushdie’s ‘Shalimar
the Clown’, Mark Tully’s provisionally entitled ‘The Certainty of
Uncertainty’, and ‘Tourism’, an outstanding first novel by the UK-based
writer Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal. |
For the man who is temperate in food and recreation, who is restrained in his actions, whose sleep and waking are regulated, there ensues discipline (yoga) which destroys all sorrow. — Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in The Bhagavad Gita Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself. — Plutarch It is not complete abstinence from action but restraint in action that is advised. When the ego is established in the Self, it lives in a transcendent and universal consciousness and acts from that centre. — Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in The Bhagavad Gita That system alone is worth pursuing which sings the praises of God. In it does rest your true glory. — Guru Nanak The happiest life is that which constantly exercises and educates what is best in us. — Hamerton  |
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IT may seem
strange but Australian cricket legend Greg Chappell begins his
two-year-long term as India’s national coach with a public plea against
killing animals and eating meat. “The secret of good health is to become a
vegetarian”, he asserts. Running 56, he has teamed up with a voluntary
group called “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal” (PETA) to appear
in advertising campaign that promotes vegetarianism. For Greg
vegetarianism means a diet free of meat, eggs and diary products. The
advertisement shows a fighting fit Chappell holding a bat below the
tagline with a screaming caption — “Don’t settle for less than a century;
go vegetarian”. Also simultaneously with the beginning of Greg’s stint as
coach of the Indian team, two Indian editions of his bestseller, ‘Cricket
— The making of Champions’, will be launched, followed by a CD for global
distribution.