Events And Issues

New Delhi, 14 January 2008

Myth Of Incumbency

LESSONS OF GUJARAT ELECTIONS

By T.D. Jagadesan

The Gujarat elections have thrown up several lessons which the leaders of political parties can ignore only at their own peril. A few important among these deserve special mention.

The first is the repudiation of the incumbency theory. Whenever an election results in the defeat of the party in power, it has become a regular practice to name incumbency as the villain responsible for it. However, if we carefully analyse the various causes for the defeat of the parties in power, it will be seen that inefficiency in administration and corruption have been responsible for such reverses.

The incumbency argument has come to be advanced in the defence of those defeated only in recent years. Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister continuously 1946 to 1964 and led his party to victory in successive general elections. Instead of incumbency becoming a disadvantage, his record, both on the grounds of efficiency and cleanliness in administration, only strengthened his indispensability for his party and the nation.

The Congress Party was then not a monolithic organistaion with one supreme leader. Its leaders included several persons with grassroots level experience and sizeable following in their respective states. The Chief Ministers and heads of party organization in various States continued for long periods in their respective positions and led their party to victory, time and again without incumbency proving to be a handicap at any time.

K. Kamraj, for instance, was Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1954 to 1965; B.C. Roy was Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 to 1962 and Gobind Ballabh Pant was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1946 to 1955 (when he moved to the Centre as the Union Home Minister). Modi in Gujarat is certainly not on par with a B.C. Roy or G.B. Pant or a Kamaraj as a national leader, but one can say that his record of efficiency and integrity was a major factor in his success in the elections as had been in the case of the aforementioned national leaders in their respective States.

Many ardent supporters and admirers of Modi have, in the exuberance of their loyalty to him, claimed that his victory in the elections was historic as it was achieved in spite of the incumbency. Yet the fact is that incumbency is never a handicap for a leader who provides clean and efficient administration. The Gujarat elections have clearly exploded the myth of incumbency theory.

The second lesson of the Gujarat elections is that development is the most potent argument for winning an election in a country like India, which is still struggling to cross the threshold of social and economic progress. A lot of information based on facts and figures was placed before the electorate by Modi in support of his claims that substantial gains had been made in development. They were no doubt challenged by counter arguments and statistics by the Opposition. Ultimately, however, the people are the best judges about development and no argument can convince them except their own experience.

A third lesson from the Gujarat elections is that people are inclined to repose their confidence in a leader who has proved to be capable of taking bold decisions in the interest of the State rather than in others who try to win votes by promising every good thing to everybody. Modi’s detractors in Gujarat seem to have calculated that certain bold measures he had taken like, for example, enforcing payment of arrears of electricity dues, would cost him the votes of the farmers, and even tried to make it an issue in the elections. But such bold action by Modi seems to have only enhanced his reputation for courage in taking unpopular decisions.

Again, his decision to deny tickets to as many as 47 sitting MLAs based largely on their poor performance had showed him up as a leader who would not make compromises with sloth or inefficiency. The fact that 33 of the 47 new faces won the elections, has confirmed the people’s perception about him as a leader who can take sound and bold decisions. The lesson from such actions is that people will repose their trust more in persons with courage to take quick and sound decisions than in leaders with a “please-all” policy.

The Gujarat elections have also served to deflate the exaggerated importance which has been attached to caste and sub-caste loyalties at the time of elections. This is not to say that caste is not a major factor in Indian elections. On the other hand, what the Gujarat elections have proved is that in a socially advanced State, caste and sub-caste loyalties will have only a limited influence in deciding the fortunes of the candidates.

Another important lesson is that people do not favour opportunistic party-hopping by their leaders and that the parties which welcome such persons to their fold are certain to suffer from such decisions rather than be benefited from them. The Congress indirectly contributed to the victory of the BJP in certain constituencies where it put up last-minute defectors from the BJP as Congress candidates. If these people were criminals and vicious communalists when they were with Modi, a quick change from saffron to khadi could not have washed away their guilt instantly.

The ordinary people saw this action as opportunistic endorsement of defections without any consideration for principles and ideology. This affected the credibility of not only these candidates but also of the Congress as a champion of secularism. The refusal of the people to lend their support to most of such defectors has proved that the people will no longer follow their leaders blindly. They cannot be taken for granted. --- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

PEOPLE & THEIR PROBLEMS

New Delhi, 29 December 2007

Wind Power In India

PREPARING FOR GUSTY FUTURE

By Radhakrishna Rao

The abundantly available, non polluting wind is all set to become a significant contributor to India’s endeavor towards meeting its growing energy needs. Right now, the country is the fourth largest generator of wind power in the world after Germany, Spain and USA. Moreover, India was one of the five countries that added more than 1,000-MW wind energy capacity during 2006-07.

According to sources in the Ministry of  New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the present installed wind power capacity in the country which stands at 7,093-MW is expected to touch 10,500-MW by 2011-12. Over the next five years, the country plans to boost the wind energy capability to the extent of 2,000 MW per year. As it stands, the gross potential for wind power has been estimated at 45,000-MW.

Thanks to the technological advances, the wind energy cost today compares favorably with coal and nuclear power. Presently, Tamil Nadu accounts for almost half of the total installed wind energy capacity in the country. Besides, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan which are also in the forefront of wind energy generation.

Meanwhile, the Chennai-based Centre for Wind Energy Technology (CWET), which is active in research and development, standardization, testing and certification for the wind energy sector, has taken up the challenge of preparing a wind atlas of the country. This wind atlas would reveal the speed and density of wind under varying climatic conditions in different parts of the country. Also, the wind atlas to qualify wind speed and density accurately would be available soon. It would establish how much more wind power could be generated.

According to energy experts, India has completed more than two decades of wind energy generation programme and there are no technical barriers in so far as the devices for harnessing wind power on a large scale is concerned. “Wind is an inexhaustible resource and has zero emission. One does not have to import wind from West Asia because it is a freely available resource”, asserted a fellow of The Energy Research Institute (TERI).

Incidentally, a study carried out by the World Bank and the US Energy Department lists India among the 29 countries that would stand to gain from harnessing wind power on a large scale. An expert from UNDP pointed out that India’s long coastline and vast desert expanses which are endowed with high wind power potentials are best suited for the wind energy generation projects.

Thanks to the sustained initiatives of the State-owned enterprises like Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) and National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) and vigorous efforts by many private companies, wind power generating units are produced indigenously with a minimum of imported contents.

A Chennai-based company, Indowind which produces wind power for sale to power utilities like the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) or corporate houses has become eligible for carbon credits from the United Nation’s Framework Convention For Climate (UNFFCC) under the World Bank’s Clean Development Mechanism. Indowind is essentially a wind farm developing company.

On the other and, Vestas, a global player in the wind energy sector, is drawing up plans to manufacture large capacity turbines from its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary for the Asian market. Export of wind energy generating machines from India is expected to grow rapidly as the global market is set to expand from US$ 20 million in 2007 to $37 million in 2010.

The Pune-based Suzlon Energy, India’s largest and the world’s fifth largest wind turbine maker has acquired global footprints over the last two years. Interestingly, Suzlon has made a big contribution to the popularization of wind energy parks, wherein the company does everything from the identification of the site, planning, technical implementation as well as operations and maintenance. It has already promoted wind energy parks in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Spurred by the gusty prospects of wind energy, oil and petroleum companies such as the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Reliance Energy are busy working on their plans to make it big in this sunrise sector.

While ONGC plans to set up a 50-MW wind farm in Gujarat, Reliance Energy has tied up with US giant GE to develop 500-MW of wind power at an estimated initial investment of Rs.25,000 million. Power majors such as the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Tata Power are also working towards setting up mega wind power projects.

Not to be left behind, the Indian Railways has unveiled a plan to set up a 10-MW wind power project near Chennai. Many of India’s power intensive and polluting industries like cement and textile have now set up their dedicated wind power project to save on power costs and to earn green profits by generating carbon credits.

Gujarat is now making its mark as a major hub for the production of wind power generating devices. While Suzlon has already setup a facility in Vadodara for manufacturing wind turbines, Jyothi Ltd, a Vadodara based company that was so far active in supplying generators to wind mill companies is now offering end-to-end solution for wind generation. Similarly, the Anand-based Elecon Engineering, with core strength in materials handling equipment and gears has now tied up with Turbo winds, a Belgian company for technical know-how for wind generating units.

Clearly, along with the technological innovations, the incentives offered by both the State and Central Governments. have been providing a “thrust and push” to the Indian energy sector. In India where the demand for power outstrips the supply by 7.3 per cent, investment in wind energy qualify for a hefty 80 per cent depreciation benefit in the first year of minimum six months operations.

Investors in wind energy also enjoy easy credit facilities, a ten year tax holiday and free grid linkage. “The market for wind energy is enormous in India and we have feedback that order books of all the wind mill manufacturers are full. There is a space for existing players to expand as well as new players to enter. A number of players are joining hands with foreign partners to set up shops in the country,” asserted the President of World Wind Energy Association. --- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

New Delhi, 22 December 2007

Increasing Road Fatalities

URGENT REMEDIAL MEASURES NEEDED

By Radhakrishna Rao

Among the long list of dubious distinctions India is known for, road accidents and the consequent casualties occupy a prominent position. Shockingly, India has the second highest road accidents tally in the world. With over 96,000 people killed on the roads in 2005, India could overtake China as the country with the highest incidence of road accidents and fatalities, once the figures for 2006 become available.

In fact, with an increasing number of all types of vehicles crowding the already over-crowded and poorly made roads, the number of accidents per lakh of population in the country has gone up from 38.1 per cent in 1995 to 39.9 per cent in 2005.

Unfortunately, while most countries regularly undertake extensive research work on road safety measures, the last research on road accidents in the country was carried out in 1995. Not surprisingly then the number of road accidents is three times higher than those prevailing in developed countries. Moreover, along with industrial fatalities, road accidents have become the third largest killer in the country, after heart diseases and cancer.

The Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, K.H.Muniyappa, recently pointed out, “The maximum number of accidents, especially those fatal, take place on the straight stretches of highways due to high speed. Not only that. The express highways have become the most accident prone part of the road network in India.”

Among these, the four-arm junctions were the most accident prone, the pedestrians were the most vulnerable and the trucks were involved in most night accidents. Negligence and over-speeding were found to be the cause of 90 per cent of the accidents, states a study carried out by the Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Ministry.

On the other hand, studies carried out at the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) showed that more than two-third of the accidents occurred on the roads of big cities in the country. In many cases, the major accidents invariably involved pedestrians.

For instance, in Bangalore, indisciplined pedestrians were responsible for a large percentage of the accidents. On the other hand, a study of the high-accident frequency locations in the Capital, New Delhi showed that at these locations, 88 per cent of the fatal and severe injury occurred due to a driving error.

Other major causes of road accidents in the country were poorly maintained roads, defective vehicles and an unpleasant environment. Besides,  not only was the accident rate quite high but also the resulting damage to people, especially fatalities, when compared with the figures from other countries.

The population congestion, the concentration of industries and work-spots, the increasing vehicular density and the erratic pedestrian movement all conspired to make India a highly accident-prone country.

Significantly, in sharp contrast, China had succeeded in bringing down the rate of fatalities due to accidents. From 4,50,254 road accidents and 98,738 people killed in 2005 to 3,78,781 accidents with a death tally of 89,455 in 2006. A drop of 15.9 per cent in the number of accidents and 94 per cent in fatalities.

Interestingly, the number of road accidents in China has dropped by an annual average of 10.8 per cent for four consecutive years since 2003. Notwithstanding, a rapid growth in the number of vehicles. However, India is expected to notch up one lakh plus road accident deaths for 2006 alone!

Incidentally, road deaths and injury are considered the world’s most neglected public health problem. The world over, around 1.2 million people succumb to road accidents. This figure is equivalent to those killed by malaria and tuberculosis. It has been observed that the poor get hurt more often than the rich, as they walk, cycle or travel in over-loaded buses.

A World Bank study states that by 2020, death from road accidents are expected to come down by 28 per cent in the rich nations but would go up by a substantial extent in the poorer countries. As it stands, the Global Road Safety Partnership has emphasized better training for drivers and better safety education for children.

The grim ground reality is that in India there is little regulation of people, vehicles and stray animals on the roads network of the country. The complex network of over 3 million kms, which forms India’s communications lifeline, has fast moving vehicles, animal-drawn carts, children at play, footpath vendors as well as pedestrians.

Moreover, a majority of the road accident victims are from the lower income strata and have little access to immediate and proper medical care. Of course, many NGOs have introduced emergency ambulance services to attend to the accident victims in various Indian cities.

Clearly, the main culprit for the growing incidents of road accidents and fatalities is none other than the poor road infrastructure. Besides, of course, non-functioning road signals, fallen trees and mechanical failures. Compounding the problem is the fast-expanding cash rich middle class which has created a huge demand for motor vehicles. With the result that narrow and poorly built roads succumb under the relentless pressure of automobile explosion.

In the ultimate analysis, road accidents can either be minimized or prevented. Through well thought measures such as monitoring of the vehicle speed, promoting the use of seat belts, obviating alcohol consumption by drivers, ensuring increased visibility on the roads with stationary vehicles. As also, by improving the configuration and maintenance of the roads and by strict implementation of the traffic rules and regulations. --- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

People & Their Problems

New Delhi, 14 December 2007

Female Foeticide

END INHUMAN KILLINGS

By Radhakrishna Rao

The relentless female foeticide linked to the sex-determination test in Punjab and Haryana, which has led to an alarming dip in the female population of the two States, have now found a new easy-to-use high-tech gadget to determine the sex of the unborn baby.

For parents who consider a male progeny as a prized possession, this innovative kit imported from the US and Canada and costing around Rs.20,000 has become a most sought after gadget in the States. The gadget enables the identification of the gender of the foetus within seven weeks of the pregnancy.

Both in Punjab and Haryana where a skewed sex ratio has caused an acute shortage of “local brides’, this new kit could definitely undermine the efforts at minimizing the menace of female foeticde. Against such a bleak social situation, women’s groups and religious organisations in both the States are now in the thick of a campaign aimed at ending the rampant and widespread menace of female foeticide.

As things stand, the female-men ration in India is 933 females for every 1,000 men. However, in sharp contrast Punjab has 874 females and Haryana 857 females for every 1,000 men. Kerala seems to be the only exception. There are more women than men in this lush green South Indian State.

According to the Punjab Medical Council, "There are reports that doctors who are believed to be indulging in the illegal practice to carry out sex determination tests through the ultra-sound technique are selling the kit to the clients.” To cry a halt to this, the State’s medical fraternity has now called for widening the scope of Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act to take care of the latest development.

Incidentally, Punjab is known to lose one fourth of all girls who would be born. Appalled by the growing and unchecked trend of female foeticide and abandoned female children, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhanadhak Committee (SGPC), the highest seat of Sikh spiritual and temporal authority, has not only issued an edict against female foeticide but has also decided to take care of the abandoned female babies.

Towards this end, the SGPC would soon ask the gurudwaras all over the State to place cradles at their entrances and exhort unhappy parents obsessed with “a boy” syndrome to leave “the innocent female children at  God’s door and not the devil’s”.

According to media reports, in recent months, there has been an increase in the number of new-born female children being abandoned in public parks, railway compartments and roadsides.

Further, as pointed out by the Centre for Advocacy and Research, “The preference for a son is a reality but we have to create enough processes to make sex determination costly and difficult. Without this happening, talking of putting an end to sex-determination is like crying in wilderness.”

In Rajasthan, ten out of 28 districts have a sex ratio between 850 and 900 girls per 1,000 boys. Recall, the discovery of a few female foetuses in a deserted place outside the township of Nayagarh in Orissa sometime back had created country-wide revulsion. It was alleged that a few doctors working in the Government hospitals had a role to play in this heinous act.

Following the public outrage, the Orissa State Health Department raided 277 nursing homes spread across the State. Shockingly, it was found that about 78 of these were unregistered. The truth finally emerged. Nayagarh had become a nerve centre of female foeticide.

According to a demographer, “The unholy alliance between tradition (son preference) and technology (ultra-sound) has a played a havoc in Indian society.” Added a doctor, “Ultra-sound was invented in the 1950s for safe motherhood but it has not only killed millions of foetuses in India, it is also a leading cause of matrimonial mortality.”

In States such as Punjab and Haryana, where there is a serious shortage of local women, men are forced to marry girls from outside their home states. For instance, Jat men from the pre-dominantly agricultural hamlets of Haryana, enter into wed-lock with girls from the North Kerala township of Payyannur. However, many of these girls from the impoverished social background, unable to withstand the ignominies heaped on them, have returned back to Payyannur.

Men from the Punjab villages “import” brides from parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the North-Eastern States. What is more, some Punjabi men have managed to get brides from as far off as Philippines. These brides are not only expected to take care of the rigors of the household work and agricultural operations but also bear, ideally, a male progeny.

In some cases one “bride” is shared by a number of brothers in the family they are married into. Thus polyandry is raising its ugly head in the rural backyards of Haryana and Punjab.

Sociologists are clear in their perception that a huge dowry associated with marrying off a girl is a major factor pushing the people of Punjab and Haryana (to a large extent) and Western Uttar Pradesh (to some extent), into the clutches of the “female foeticide.”

Moreover, as per the Hindu tradition, only a male can lit the pyre of his dead father or mother. Besides, a male child is considered a “safety net” in the evening of one’s life. In fact, a favourite justification for supporting the practice of female foeticide is that it serves as an effective tool of family planning.

However, many field surveys show that sex-determination tests can only ensure multiple abortions with perilous consequences for the well-being of the female. As it stands, the lack of food, clean drinking water, economic security and safe clinical facilities could lead to a situation where women has to have over six children to ensure one surviving male child.

Indeed, as one research study points out, any further reduction in the sex ratio in North India would signify a continuing decline in the relative status of women. Moreover, it would be unlikely to offer any benefit to the women. Thus, the ongoing practice of female foeticide completely negates the glorification of women in India’s religious texts as the “Mother Supreme.” ----- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)