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Open Forum
Improve Patient Care:UPGRADE GOVT HOSPITALS, by Dr M.M. Kapur, 23 May 2008 |
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People & Their Problems
New Delhi, 23 May 2008
Improve Patient
Care
UPGRADE GOVT
HOSPITALS
By Dr M.M. Kapur
Air, water and food are the elements of life and health.
Their quality and availability impact our body machine.
The bacterial viral and chemical contaminants are the
cause of disease, disability and death. The provision of safe water, food and
air for all is a binding mandate for the Government as is stated in the
Directive Principals of our Constitution. That sees nutrition and public
health measures as the means towards these objectives
The rise in population today has increased the number
of ‘aam aadmis’ seeking cure of
communicable and non-communicable diseases. This is the burden that the
Government has to undertake to facilitate the means of treatment and cure.
So far no increase in the facilities is seen in the public sector.
Shockingly, today only 14 per cent of the population has
health cover while the rest have to use their own meager resources. Poverty and
under-nutrition (UNN) are linked as are UNN and impaired immune response
leading to infection which requires medical and surgical treatment.
India's wealth is its Human Capital
of a billion strong. And only a part of this resource has led the economy to a
boom through its primal energy and motivation. It would be good economics if
more aam aadmis in good
health could participate in this effort.
Significantly, the infrastructure for curative care is
already in place. There are 22371 Primary Health Centres, 4400 District
hospitals and 170 medical colleges. However, low investments in health have led
to poor, uneven health systems and care across the country. The Draft health
policy has identified Primary Health Centres as the focus of attention. I write
to highlight the urgent need to resource the public sector hospitals to provide
succor to the aam aadmi in rural and
urban India
Sadly, a significant number of public sector hospital
lack adequate manpower and supplies for cure/care services. This is also true
for medical school teaching hospitals. Thus, the rural and urban poor have to
seek services of the urban private sector hospitals at great cost ( for
travel and hospital charges) This resource input will convert these public
sector assets from low to high performing assets
Clearly, an alternate strategy is required to meet the needs
of the aam aadmi today and in the
future. All Primary Heath Centres should be staffed with doctors who should be
provided with a laptop for efficient data recording of disorders in a uniform
manner. This will not only introduce standardisation of data input and
outcomes data but will also insure accountability
The Primary Health Centre needs to be in contact
with the District hospital for referral. Funds for subsidised travel to
district hospitals should be made available. This will also install a hub and
spoke relationship in this part of the health system. The District hospital
also need to be fully staffed and its equipment upgraded to meet the hub
function for the district morbidity burden.
Also, PC workstations for data recording of patients and
their progress should be made available. This will insure storage and retrieval
for review. The workstation should be linked to library services for backup
information support when needed. Software too can be evolved for treatment
protocols for prevalent disorders. A strong viable referral system between
District hospitals and the teaching hospital specialty services needs to be in
place
All these new interventions may require inputs in excess of
the 2 per cent allocated. These inputs are well deserved to improve the working
conditions and quality of patient care. They are possible in the current
revenue position. The improved public health care system will impact
the quality of the private sector health care system and the aam aadmi and the "not so" aam aadmi will both gain
The success of the economy expressed in metric measures of
Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) rate of growth and health statistics hide
more than they reveal. After 60 years of Independence
it is high time that we use Genuine Progress Indicators (GPI) for our policy
guidance towards sustainability. These indicators would look upon all projects
and their gross profits and balance them against the costs.
Namely, financial inputs, natural resources input,
environmental damage costs, pollution of air, water and food and the cost
of health damage to the population. The net profit is obtained after
subtraction of these costs
In sum, if all the costs of these elements are computed
honestly the projects may show low, nil or negative profits. Needless to say,
the sustainability of these projects requires ingenuity in cutting these
costs to improve the net profit. This will lead to long term benefit to
the aam aadmi and the country. ---
INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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Domestic Politics:Eroding Consensus On Foreign Policy, by Dr. Chintamani Mahapatra,20 June 2006 |
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ROUND THE WORLD
New Delhi, 20 June 2006
Domestic Politics
Eroding
Consensus On Foreign Policy
By Dr. Chintamani
Mahapatra
School of International Studies, JNU
As India
marches ahead to play a global role, domestic consensus over foreign policy has
been fast eroding. Despite having a complex democratic polity with myriad
political parties, India
has traditionally had the luxury of having a foreign policy based on national
consensus.
The Opposition parties did raise their concerns, expressed their distinctive stands on international events
and sometimes questioned the Government positions on foreign affairs, but all
these were done in a sophisticated manner and in a way that would not adversely
affect the national interest. Foreign policy issues
were not contested during national elections, despite their importance.
India’s non-aligned strategy had no major
critics at home, although some political leaders questioned its relevance at
the time of the Chinese invasion in 1962. The Left parties were quite
comfortable with it, since the Non-Aligned Movement almost came to make common
cause with the Soviet bloc of nations by ritually making resolutions against
colonialism, imperialism and giving calls to restructure the West-dominated
international economic order and international information order. Cuba’s Castro and former Yugoslavia’s Tito were great leaders of NAM.
The Rightist parties too could not distance themselves from
non-alignment and plead for closer ties with the US-led bloc, since Washington itself had no
support for them. The Right, the Left and the amorphous Congress all championed the interests of the Third World and the Non-Aligned Movement.
The American alliance with Pakistan,
strategic ties between China
and Pakistan and the
eventual Sino-US cooperation against the Soviet Union
gave little opportunity for Indian political groups and parties to quarrel over
foreign policy issues. The Indo-Soviet
Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was welcomed by all Indians. Although
during the brief Janata rule in the late 1970s, the Indian Government used the
rhetoric of genuine non-alignment, it was short lived.
This rhetoric was used at a wrong time. The US power and influence was on the decline since
the US withdrawal of troops
from Vietnam
and the Soviet influence around the globe was on the ascendant. Genuine
non-alignment meant correcting the excessive
tilt towards Moscow.
But Washington was not too keen to improve its
ties with India.
President Jimmy Carter did make a Presidential visit to India, but was
not prepared to make any concession
on the vital nuclear issue.
Interestingly, China with
tacit support of the US
attacked Vietnam when India’s then Foreign Minister, Atal Behari
Vajpayee was visiting China.
This incident probably ended the desire to have a genuine non-alignment.
During the 1980s, as the Soviets became more and aggressive starting with the invasion of Afghanistan and
the Americans unleashed a counter-offensive under the leadership of Ronald
Reagan, India once again had to stay the course of non-alignment and it was not
difficult to manage a domestic consensus over foreign policy.
The end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 made non-alignment strategy an
irrelevant instrument of foreign policy. While NAM did not disappear, its
activities certainly slowed down. India’s
new gesture of friendship and cooperation with the US against the backdrop of far-reaching
economic reforms once again did not break domestic consensus. India’s
informal entry into the nuclear club and the high rate of economic growth
instilled new confidence and the Indian people came to pride themselves in the
country’s emergence as a new major power on the international stage.
India sought to improve ties with China, restore cordial relations with Russia
and gave a fitting reply to Pakistan’s
intrusion into the Kargil sector of Kashmir.
There was still internal unity on India’s external policies.
However, steady improvement in Indo-US relations since the
March 2000 Clinton visit through the March 2006
Bush visit has threatened to rupture the domestic consensus on India’s foreign
policy. When the NDA Government pursued a policy of establishing strategic
partnership with the US,
the Congress and the Left parties
expressed severe reservations. As
the Vajpayee Government appeared to be toying with the idea of sending the Indian
troops to Iraq under the US request, the
Opposition parties were up in arms and ensured that the Government did not do
so.
The victory of the UPA Government in the next election
initially created an impression that
the course of foreign policy would take a turn away from intense cooperation
with the US.
But soon it was found that the Manmohan Singh Government went several steps ahead
of the Vajpayee government in strengthening strategic ties with the US.
Signing of a Defense Framework Agreement between Defense
Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a
nuclear deal agreed upon between the US President George Bush and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh have raised the prospects of further strengthening of
Indo-US relations. But these two events simultaneously have created fissures in the ruling coalition.
The Left parties are up in arms against the Government’s
foreign policy in general and perceived and alleged tilt towards the United States.
Thousands of Left activists demonstrated against the recent Indo-US military
exercises. The BJP has also time and
again blamed the Government for compromising on the country’s independent
foreign policy under the US
pressure.
Significantly, the Left parties and several trade union
leaders came out open on the streets to protest against the UPA Government’s
policy towards Iran.
It was alleged that the Government’s anti-Iranian vote at the International
Atomic Energy Agency was cast at the behest of the United States. Several Muslim
groups in Uttar Pradesh too openly expressed
their anger over the Government’s Iran policy.
All these developments and many others are symptomatic of the
growing fissures in domestic
consensus over Indian foreign policy. Two issues
are particularly likely to develop divisions in the country in the matters of
foreign policy in coming years. One is of course the extent of India’s support to the US policies and
the other are issues and events in
the Islamic world. These two issues
are indisputably inter-related.
The continuing US war against terrorism unleashed since the
9/11 incident will pose an intermittent challenge to its emerging strategic
partner, that is India,
which is the second largest Muslim country in the world with a non-Muslim
majority. The political parties with keen eyes focused on the vote bank could
play havoc with the Indian positions on events and issues
in the Islamic world by conveniently interpreting and misinterpreting issues. The real challenge before India is to
disenable democracy from disabling Indian foreign policy.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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YAWN, WHAT’S NEW?:INTERNAL SECURITY REVIEWED AGAIN, by Poonam I Kaushish,10 September 2006 |
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POLITICAL DIARY
NEW DELHI, 10 September 2006
YAWN, WHAT’S NEW?
INTERNAL SECURITY
REVIEWED AGAIN
By Poonam I Kaushish
Yawn! Yet another meeting on internal security. Reflecting once more a seminarian approach. The same monotonous actions and reactions, with
minor changes of a comma here and a full stop there. All to make it appear
something spanking new and different. Of a Government on the ball, talking and
acting tough. Really? As the old saying goes, if wishes were horses, beggars
would ride. Indeed, talk of terror and more terror has become a big, big yawn.
Sitting in New
Delhi’s sanitized environs of 7 Race Course Road (Prime Minister’s
residence) Manmohan Singh and the Chief Ministers knocked their heads together to
find a solution for putting a stop to the shocking internal security failures
and the consequent threat that gravely looms large over the country. “We have
to meet these threats firmly, with determination and with a will to destroy,”
he asserted. His remedy? Marshal
resources. Nothing more nothing less.
How? By setting up an Empowered Group of Union Ministers and
some Chief Ministers to “closely monitor the spread of the terror and the Naxalite
movement, improving intelligence generation and collection, as also the overall
strengthening of your intelligence mechanism." Adding, "We need a
blend of firm, but sophisticated, handling of Naxalite violence with sensitive
handling of the developmental aspects. Chief Ministers must personally take in
hand what deliverables are possible
even while preparing to meet Naxalite violence through effective law and order
measures.”
So far so good. But rewind. Didn’t the Prime Minister speak more
or less the same words three months
ago at a similar conference with the Chief Ministers. When he made a strong
pitch for more of the same---- effective police response, effective
intelligence gathering, increasing the financial allocation for anti-Naxal and
anti-terrorist operations and a multi-pronged strategy with an emphasis on
socio-economic development. His message
could not have been blunter: Treat this as “high priority.” Result?
Scandalously, the States gave short shrift to his wise words. Leading to this
meeting and the same ghisa-pitta
Government reaction.
Sadly, instead of taking the States to task for their
lackadaisical approach to the gravest challenge to India’s internal security –
terror from across the border and
Naxalites---the Prime Minister, as in the past, once more droned like a
screechy worn-out record, “The terrorist modules are instigated, inspired and
supported by elements from across
the border….if these are not controlled it would be exceedingly difficult to
carry forward the peace process.”
Brave words, indeed. Yet, he is all set to hold another guftagu with Musharraf on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Havana.
Mumbai, Srinagar,
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh…The tandav of
death terror list is unending. None knows where the next hit would be simply
because our intelligence sucks. Think. This low cost proxy war has already cost
India more than 62,000
civilians and 10,000 security personnel since terrorist activities started in India.
Statistics show that Naxalism is presently casting a shadow over 17 States in
the country,170 districts and 40 per cent of terrain where the Government’s
writ no longer runs. And out of the total of 12,476 police stations, Naxal
violence was reported from 509 police stations in 11 States last year.
More. The CPI (Maoist) is trying to increase its influence
and activity in parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttaranchal and also
in new areas in some of the already affected States. With the help from Pakistan’s ISI
which is giving financial support to the militant groups all over the country. A
“Red Brigade” corridor runs through the entire length of the country, from Nepal’s
Maoists to Sri Lanka’s
LTTE and encompasses the North-East’s
ULFA. What to say of the Lakshar-e-Taiyyaba, Harkut-ul–Ansar et al.
Several measures need to be taken to tackle the menace. One,
the lacunae in the Naxal’s ideological framework and simultaneously launch a
political offensive with a humanistic vision has to be exposed. Two, the
distortions in the social system need to be tackled on a war footing, to
alleviate poverty, ensure speedy development and enforce law and order strictly.
Three, take up land reforms with a fresh revolutionary zeal and approach. Look
at the present dichotomy. With a majority of India’s population engaged in
agricultural pursuits, one would expect the tillers to be rich. Instead, they are
not only poor but continue to be at the mercy of the rich landlords.
This provides the Naxals a perfect opening to wean away the
agricultural labourers with the promise of not only getting them their rightful
dues in terms of wages but also getting them confiscated surplus land from the
landlords for distribution it among the landless
labourers. It also laid the ground for running a parallel government in remote
areas, conducting people's courts, extorting money from "landlords"
and distributing booty among the poor a la Robin Hood. Simplistically, the
Naxal USP is that they have sold the poor the pipe dream of breaking up large
feudal landholdings and dividing the surplus land among the poor. Successive governments at the Centre and in the States
have lacked the political courage to do so. This is no longer acceptable to downtrodden
who now demand the end of oppression
and exploitation.
More. There is an urgent need for the badly-affected States
to undertake joint operations and set up joint unified commands for continuous
monitoring of the arms profile of various Naxal groups, as the Prime Minister
highlighted during his meeting with the CMs. Urgently needed alongwith this, is
identification of sources and networks, coordinated intelligence gathering, and
a well-equipped police force, if this grave security threat is to be combatted.
The Prime Minister is correct when he asserts that an efficient and vigilant police could
surely prove to be an effective deterrent to the terrorists in any mohalla, district or the State. A
well-equipped police force alone can be effective in intelligence gathering.
From the beat constable right up to the Director General of Police. But do we
have such a force? No. Are we taking measures to build one? No, again.
Look at two absurdities. The national average of the
police-population ratio is about 1.3 policemen per 10,000 citizens. Yet in
Bihar, a Naxal-prone
State, the ratio of
policemen to the public per 10,000 is a meagre 0.9 i.e hardly one policeman for
10,000 people. With the result that times out of number, the police and civil
administration are missing in the
Naxal areas. Gujarat, not only lacks an anti-terrorist and detection squad but the
Government Railway Police (GRP) still works on a staff strength sanctioned in
1962, despite increasing vulnerability of its railway stations. The State has
around 500 policemen as against the sanctioned strength of 1,940 in the State.
Thus, there is need to strengthen the local police on all
fronts --- and ensure that it is better trained and equipped, with improved
weapons and greater mobility. Competent officers should be posted in the
affected districts and given a stable tenure of at least 2 to 3 years to make a
difference. Over-centralisation should be replaced by decentralization and functional
autonomy to the police from the Thana
level onwards and their goals and objective set with the cooperation and
consultation of the local population. A
properly structured and representative body of local residents should be associated with setting priorities and goals as also
monitoring.
New Delhi fails to realize that normal
deterrence doesn’t work against a faceless
and fearless enemy who has no
borders and no scruples. When the State’s existence is in peril, the only way
to hit back is to carry the fight into the enemy camp effectively. It is not
enough to assert ‘we have might and muscle.
One has to display that power.
The tragedy is that government after government continue to
miss the wood for the trees. The
terrorist is an invisible enemy who uses our resources, freedom and laxities to
hit at us. Adept in exploiting the latest communication technologies, he identifies
and exploits our weakness. While we
talk, he acts. Inflicting maximum loss
at minimum cost. All at our expense.
Add to this an effete polity bereft of any out-of-the-box ideas,
wallowing inane, obsolete and muddle-headed formulations to complex and
important strategic issues.
Resulting in a complete paralyses in policy-making and the operational command
of enforcement and security agencies. Addressing
which has become critical within the context of relentless,
utterly unscrupulous and unconstrained movements of terrorism within India.
In sum, terrorism is no longer terror in someone else’s
backyard. Or, the prerogative of spy thrillers. Malegaon’s horrendous blasts on Friday last is
a case in point. New Delhi must stop groping in the dark and face
the reality. Terrorists and so-called jehadis are not liquidated through
battles of the mind but by cold-blooded wars of flesh and blood. Remember, when
our liberalism and freedom becomes the enemy’s Kalashnikov, it is time for
India to wake up, think beyond the headlines do some honest soul searching and
act decisively. --- INFA
(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)
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Reserved For Muslims:WHERE ARE THE JOBS?, by Poonam I Kaushish,10 November 2006 |
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POLITICAL DIARY
NEW DELHI, 10 November 2006
Reserved For Muslims
WHERE ARE THE JOBS?
By Poonam I Kaushish
Circa July 2004 - November 06:
The Congress-led Andhra Pradesh Government promises five per cent reservation
for Muslims in government jobs and educational institutions. No matter, it is
struck down by the High Court. The Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre
reserves 50 per cent seats for Muslims in the 140-year-old Aligarh Muslim
University. Followed by a National Commission to examine
the question of quotas for socially and economically backward sections among
the religious and linguistic communities. Next came the Justice Sachar
Committee “on social, economic and educational status” of the Muslim community.
To a Ministry of Minority Affairs.
Circa November 06: “Pyare Musalman. What more can I do for
you?” This dear reader, is the latest political vote-catching line.
Simplistically, minorityism has replaced cronyism as the nouvelle fashion statement of the week. Take a 360-degree turn
anywhere and minority appeasement hits you in the face. All in the garb of
improving their quality of life (sic) which translates into “please give me
your vote.”
How else should one react to the Prime
Minister’s latest bonanza for the minorities of getting them a "fair
share" in central and state government and private sector jobs. Asserting that the nation "does not
belong to any single race,” he grandiosely made it an “essential” perquisite of
maintaining “communal peace and harmony”. Speaking at the Conference of State
Minorities Commission in the Capital last week, Manmohan Singh also stressed
the need for providing the youth from minority communities with skills to
enable them to get their legitimate share in employment.
More. He asked the Chief Ministers
to put in place a monitoring mechanism for better implementation of minority
welfare schemes. Adding that a Bill to provide constitutional status to the
National Commission for Minorities for it to play a more proactive role for the
benefit of the minority communities would be taken up during the forthcoming
winter session of Parliament.
True, statistically speaking none
can deny that the Muslims need a better quality life. Data collated by various
commissions bring out the fact that socio-economic indicators for Muslims were
below those for OBCs. About 59 per cent were illiterate, only 10 per cent went
to school and a mere eight per cent opted for higher education. Worse, even as they
were vastly under-represented in official jobs, they were grossly
over-represented in India's
prison population. None can deny that the Government’s fundamental mission is
to provide job opportunities, education and upliftment of the minorities and
backward classes.
But the moot point: Is
reservation based on religion and community the answer? How does it better the lot of the mass of Muslims, if a few
persons get jobs? Whatever happened to merit and excellence? When does justice
supercede competence? Questionably is reservation an end in itself? Is the
Muslim identity distinct from that of the Indian? Is he an Indian Muslim or a
Muslim Indian?
Given the level of dishonesty and
irresponsibility which increasingly governs our political system, this step
will be an invitation to disaster. One, it would open once gain open the political-judicial
can of worms. Remember, first the Andhra High Court struck down any reservation
in jobs for Muslims as it went against the tenets of equality. Later the
Supreme Court struck down reservation in private educational institutions as
unconstitutional. Not only that. Barely had the controversy over job quotas in
the private sector been strangulated by an incensed India Inc who politely told
the Government to bugger off.
Besides, if reservation based on
castes is bad, affirmative action on communal basis is horrendous. Ominous
reasoning is being appendaged. It would bring the Muslims into the mainstream.
Ensure harmony between the majority-minority communities. It would prevent Muslims
from being exploited any more as vote-banks by the so-called secular parties.
Really? Aren’t the Congress’s intensions just that? Exploitation in the name of
social and economic upliftment. With our netagan
merrily converting positive affirmation into vote percentage. Specially
when they can reap a political windfall of over 70 per cent votes via
reservation. Never mind if it pushes India back by a century.
Arguably, the Congress has ruled
the country for nearly 50 years since Independence.
What has it done to better their lot? Zilch. Only used it as a milching cow for
votes in return for promises galore of a better deal. Post Independence, Nehru increasingly politicized
religious energy. At the height of his popularity he never got more than 43.6
per cent of the popular mandate. Of this, the Muslim
vote constituted 12 to 15 per cent of the total Congress
vote, the largest block it received in the first few general elections. His
daughter Indira went to the extent of acquiescing in the carving of a separate
Muslim district of Mallipuram in Kerala by the CPM Government of the State to
keep its nationwide vote bank in tact.
Thus, Muslim appeasement was no
longer viewed by Congressmen as a luxury but as a matter of life and death. To
be manipulated and held hostage by dubious promises. The reason why the
Congress came out in favour of a reservation policy on religious basis in the
Common Minimum Programme of the UPA Government and why Sonia chose to play
footsie with the Jamiat-ul-Ulema not so long back. Even today, the Prime
Minister’s job offer was clearly aimed at enabling the Congress to wean the
minority vote bank back to its fold in the just concluded nagar pallikas polls
in UP. Considered a mini-referendum before the State Assembly elections next
year.
Clearly, UP is vital in the
electoral sweepstakes on who sits on Delhi’s
gaddi. Accounting for 80 Lok Sabha
seats, the Congress knows only to well that unless it gets a sizeable chunk of
these, its plans to occupy centrestage will come to naught. As Muslims account
for 15 per cent of the population. It is another matter that it ended up with
mud on its electoral face. Specially as it lost in Gandhi bastion Amethi.
That apart, the danger in
imposing arbitrary quotas in job reservation is two fold. One, any
deterioration in work output which reflects in short-changing Brand India could
jeopardize the country’s remarkable story of economic growth. Whose USP lies in
the brain, skills and expertise of its educated and skilled manpower. This, in
turn, would lead to a subsequent slowdown in the economy and end up hurting the
chances of economic upliftment for the people who are at the bottom of the
economic ladder. Further, it would lead to a brain drain and disillusionment
among the meritorious and qualified denied employment.
At the same time, none has given
a thought to the demoralising impact on the psyche of the qualified individuals
denied jobs. What happens to them? And, where do they head? According to Labour
Ministry statistics, unemployment on a Current Daily Status basis rose from 6.0
per cent in 1993-94 to 7.3 per cent in 1999-2000 resulting in an additional 27
million job seekers. The most disturbing fact is that of these, 74 per cent are
in the rural areas and 60 per cent among them are educated. In addition, while India's labour
force is growing at a rate of 2.5 per cent annually, employment is growing at
only 2.3 per cent. Thus, the country is faced with the challenge of not only
absorbing new entrants to the job market (estimated at seven million people
every year), but also clearing the backlog. Where do quotas fit in?
Importantly, there is no place
for double standards or the Orwellian concept of ‘more equal than others’ in a
democracy. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The Fundamental
Rights provide for equal opportunities for all irrespective of caste, creed or
sex. Let’s not fudge or forget this. India of 2006 is not the India of 1989.
Where a young 18-year old student, Rajiv Goswami, immolated himself in public. Today
are polity has to realize that it has to deal with a savvy Rang de Basanti generation of youngsters who believe in action not
reaction.
Clearly, the Government has to
end this evil of separatism. Reservations are no answer for fulfilling the
peoples’ aspirations. It will not only further divide our people on creed-caste
lines but is also short-sighted and antithetical to any hope of narrowing
India's burgeoning divide between the haves and have-nots. The Government has
no right to limit opportunities for the deserving or to shrink the public space
for autonomy and free association.
In the ultimate, our petty
power-at all-cost polity has to think beyond vote-bank politics and look at the
perilous implications of these decisions. What exactly is the message the
government proposed to send across the country by this? Does it want to be the
first to sow the seeds of another partition? It is willy-nilly encouraging the
Muslim leadership to go communal and resurrect the Muslim League. Which could
in turn result in reservation for Muslims in Parliament and State Assemblies
and even separate electorate a la the British Raj?
How long will we allow this
vote-bank politics to continue and play havoc with India’s unity and integrity? Alas,
no one remembers Ambedkar’s wise words of caution against appeasement and the
hidden monsters behind it. Said he, “Reservation too should be done away with
because it becomes a hindrance to development.” The buck stops at Manmohan
Singh’s door. ------ INFA
(Copyright India News
and Feature Alliance)
NEW DELHI, 10 November 2006
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Vande Mataram:MUCH ADO ABOUT NATIONAL SONG, by Poonam I Kaushish, 2 September 2006 |
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POLITICAL DIARY
NEW DELHI, 2 September 2006
Vande Mataram
MUCH ADO ABOUT NATIONAL SONG
By Poonam I Kaushish
Much ado about nothing! That is the sum total of the great
big hungama over Vande Mataram. The
beautiful and melodious national song has turned behsura, in the hands of our political drumbeaters!
Each political party is singing a different tune of Vande
Mataram to suit its petty parochial ends, read vote-bank politics. It all
started with an innocuous order by the Human Resource Ministry to all the State
Governments, making singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in all schools on 7
September to mark completion of the centenary celebrations commemorating
adoption of the national song. Little realizing that it would have the Muslims
up in arms and lead to a cacophony of discordant political notes.
Muslim clerics in UP opposed the order on the ground that
singing of Vande Mataram was anti-Islamic and amounted to worshipping the
motherland. This went against the concept of tawheed (oneness of God), according to which a Muslim cannot
supplicate to anyone except Allah. Expectedly, HRD Minister Arjun Singh
hurriedly retracted the order, making the song's recitation voluntary. First at
a madrassa in Uttar Pradesh and then
in the Lok Sabha. Notwithstanding the fact that Vande Mataram is compulsorily
played at the end of every session of Parliament.
Predictably, this was musical manna for the BJP to launch a
national tirade against the ‘political infidels’ for their flip-flop on Vande
Mataram. Raising its old, tired slogan: "Is desh mein rahna hai to Vande Mataram ganna hoga,” it asserted
the recitation of the national song was a matter of regard for the motherland
and the duty of all citizens. Adding, those who did not conform to this ideology
could seek refuge in countries where Vande Mataram was not a national song.
More. It ordered the State Governments to ensure that students in all schools
sang Vande Mataram on 7 September. Forgetting that in 1998, the NDA like the
UPA, too had withdrawn a similar circular by the then UP Government
making the recitation of Vande Mataram compulsory.
Soon the double-speak in the Sangh Parivar came to the fore.
The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi was the first to tow the HRD line:
voluntary recitation. The BJP spokesman dittoed the same. "It is not a
question of mandatory or compulsory. It is a question of respect for the
national song, a national symbol.” Countered the RSS Sanghsarchalak Sudershan:
“One who does not consider mother India
one's own mother cannot be a citizen of India.” But mum was the word when
it came to spelling out the action a Government could take against
non-compliance of its directives on the national song.
All this came as a boon to the beleaguered Samajwadi Party’s
Mian Mulayam, who was thrilled. With
UP set for the Assembly polls in March next year, he promptly used Vande
Mataram too serenade his Muslim vote-bank by simply humming their tune. For the
Left, it was a toss between crooning minority- appeasement one day and rooting
for Vande Mataram’s Bengali author Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the next day. The
southern allies of the UPA could not, however, understand the musical chairs
being played over a song.
Strangely, the Congress,
which made Vande Mataram India’s
national song was non-committal in the entire controversy generated by one of
its senior leaders. In fact, there are many red faces at the Party headquarters
in New Delhi following its State Government in Assam
making the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in schools. In this context, it
is pertinent to understand how and why Vande Mataram came to be recognized as a
national song. Set in 19th Century India, Vande Mataram was written in
1875 and published for the first time in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel, Anandamatha in 1882.
Anandamatha is the story of a Bengal
ravaged by the famine of 1770, then under de
facto rule of the East India Company, which had reduced the nawab to a puppet after the Battle of
Plassey in 1757. The famine was caused when the East India Company forced the
farmers to cultivate neel (cloth
whitener) instead of foodgrains as it was a big export earner for the Company.
The cultivation of neel also made the
fields uncultivable for the next crop, precipitating matters and triggering an anti-gora
(British) peasant revolt.
From the fields to the streets, Vande Mataram soon became
the popular battle cry for freedom from the British Raj. Large rallies all over
the country worked themselves to a feverish pitch by shouting Vande Mataram. Many
were jailed and the song was banned. But it failed to stop the patriotic
fervour. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore sang it in 1896 at the Calcutta
Congress Session and Lala Lajpat Rai started a journal called Vande Mataram
from Lahore.
The Congress formally adopted it as a national song through
a resolution at its Varanasi Session on September 7, 1905. Thereafter, it
became the opening note for all the Congress meetings and sessions. Its
powerful patriotic lines stirred the whole nation. Neta Subhash Chandra Bose
made it the Indian National Army's principal song and his Singapore-based radio
station regularly broadcast it.
In October 1937, some Muslim leaders objected to Vande
Mataram on the ground that it contained verses that were in direct conflict
with the beliefs of Islam. True, the first two stanzas of the hymn eulogise
Mother India and its beautiful natural bounties with “hurrying streams,
gleaming orchards…..” But the fourth stanza of the song, for instance, addressed
Mother India as, "Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen, with her hands that
strike and her swords of sheen, Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned…." It was
argued that by singing this, a Muslim was forced to equate his country with the
Hindu goddesses Durga and Lakshmi. This went against the concept of Islam according
to which a Muslim could not supplicate to anyone except Allah.
Nehru understood his Muslims brethrens’ religious
predicament and soon worked out a compromise formula through some fine
balancing. Even as he underscored the hymn’s national importance in the freedom
struggle. The Congress Working Committee met in Kolkata in 1937 under Nehru’s
presidentship and adopted a resolution, whereby only the first two stanzas of
Vande Mataram would be sung. Moreover, freedom was given to the organisers to
sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the
place of, Vande Mataram.
Interesingly, while Vande Mataram was treated as India’s national anthem for long, Jana Gana Mana
was chosen as the national anthem of free India
following Independence.
The song was rejected on the ground that Muslims felt offended by its depiction
of the nation as "Ma Durga"—a Hindu goddess— thus equating the nation
with the Hindu conception of Shakti, divine feminine dynamic force. What is
more, objection was taken to its origin as part of Anandamatha, viewed as a novel with an anti-Muslim message.
But 2006 is not 1937. And Arjun Singh is no Nehru. Nor is today’s
Congress the Grand Old Dame of Indian politics and of patriotic freedom
fighters. The tragedy of it all is that our polity has trivialized and trashed
a national song, which instilled pride in Mother India, ignited patriotism, galvanised
Indians to gang up against the British Raj and throw the firangis out and won India its freedom. It has also ignored the
decision of the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950 that Vande Mataram
would enjoy “equal status” with Jana Gana Mana. All to appease the minority
community, garner their votes to keep their kursi
intact. Never mind the nation and its sacred national symbols! ----- INFA
(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)
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More...
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Kaam Haraam Hai:INDIA ON HOLIDAY, ENJOY!, by Poonam I. Kaushish, 18 August 2006
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Muslim Development Zones:WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?, by Poonam I Kaushish, 17 May 2008
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Women’s Reservation Bill:NO MORE BELAN Vs PAGRI, PLEASE, by Poonam I Kaushish, 10 May 2008
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Transnational Terror Mounting:MAKING IB ACCOUNTABLE, by Dr. Monika Chansoria, 19 May 2008
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