Land Acquisition in India

By Vinod Varshney 

Bhatta Parsaul in western UP saw violent protests by people against land acquisition for a housing project without giving proper compensation. In Gorakhpur, farmers obstructed takeover of land for a nuclear plant. Villagers in Kaler Ghuman, Punjab, refused to part with their land for any non-agricultural purpose. The Maharashtra government had to withdraw proposals for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) on account of people’s stiff resistance. Rewari farmers too are up in arms against land acquisition. Singur made history of sorts when the affected farmers’ cyclonic  protests blasted away the 32-year old Left government into the Bay. 

The land acquisition issue, mushrooming agitation by farmers all over the country,  is  creating an explosive situation requiring the Union government’s urgent attention,  especially in the context of the 12^th Plan which envisages 100 million new jobs in ten years.  Unless this burgeoning conflict is resolved peacefully and huge chunks of land are made available for various projects, all our development plans will be in jeopardy. 

Currently land acquisition is done according to the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 which has been amended 17 times since. The last amendment in 1984 empowered the government to take over land even for private enterprises, and this dispossessed millions of farmers of their basic means of livelihood.  Forty percent of the affected are tribals, 20 percent dalits and 20 percent other backward castes. The rise of Maoists is attributed to massive displacement of tribals. So the Government has a mammoth problem to address. 

The government’s efforts to sort out the complex issues of land acquisition on the one hand and resettlement and rehabilitation of the affected on the other are not made easy by the opportunistic attitude of politicians. A vocal group fiercely opposes any land acquisition for private companies. For them production of goods and services, creation of jobs and paying of taxes cannot be said public interest! Another bogey they raise is that 80 percent of people that would be affected must certify that the proposed project is in public interest!!  This is outright baloney. More contentious is the question: who should be compensated—only land owners or all those deemed to be affected by it. 

Another difficult part of land acquisition is, determination of fair compensation. The proposed Act provides for four times the market price. But the market price shoots up the moment the  project is approved.  It is a vicious cycle.

The point all concerned should remember is that provisions of the new Act should not prove self-defeating. If we have to remain competitive internationally, we have to see that cost of production remains absolute minimum. Exorbitant land prices can only make us lose out in the world market and depress Indian economy irrevocably. 

Arguments have been made against acquisition of multi-crop agricultural land. A blanket ban would exclude all such areas from the pale of industrial development.  It would do lasting injustice to the people of the area.  

Thus there are several dimensions to the land acquisition conundrum.  A balanced approach should see that no stumbling block is created in the overall development of the country. Law makers must be pragmatic and think about our people’s interests, their future; they should not go by opportunistic rhetoric.  
(The article was first published in "Lokayat" magazine, published from New Delhi, India)

France no more liberal !

Liberalism on the decline in the liberal France 
By Vinod Varshney

Though voters of France have given their mandate in favour of socialists after keeping them out of power for 17 years, the worrying trend in France is that voters have also extended support to the ultra-right political party of Le Pen. Not only the poor, uneducated and unemployed people rallied round this fire spewing ultra-right telegenic lady, but large number of the educated middle class, owners of small business and even employees of large corporations have also approved her anti-immigrant and anti-EU approach.  Irony is that the ultra-rightists have masqueraded their anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-Euro Zone stance under the slogans of human rights, secularism and gender equality. Le Pen calls herself a ‘feminist’ and has the highest following in the age group of 18-24. The rise of ultra-right sentiments has undoubtedly been facilitated by the severe economic crisis, which invited harsh austerity measures and created skyrocketing unemployment. 

(This piece was first published in May, 2012 issue of Lokayat)

 

Change in France

Socialists return after

17 years of ‘vanvaas’

By Vinod Varshney

Francois Hollande has been elected France’s first Socialist president in nearly two decades. This moderate socialist, however, could defeat the pro-American conservative incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy by a narrow margin. Why voters showed him the door at a time when he was more needed to bail the country out from the economic morass? They seemingly punished him for not delivering what he had promised five years ago.

But to be fair to him, Sarkozy had to face more challenging times than he could have anticipated when he made tall promises. One year after he assumed power, global economic recession came like a bolt from the blue. No wonder Sarkozy not only failed badly to generate jobs, but took unpopular decisions to reduce existing benefits of government and public sector employees. He increased the working years to earn eligibility for pension.

Many believe he could have still convinced the public on the need to make sacrifices, but his authoritarian and ritzy style made him unpopular. Socialists and other leftists took full advantage of this.  

Sarkozy took steps timidly

When Sarkozy was elected five years ago he had generated roseate hopes of giving new competitiveness to France. But he could not take necessary harsh measures due to political expediency, and whatever measures he took, they deeply shocked the working class. He increased the age of retirement from 60 to 62 to become eligible for the partial pension and from 65 to 67 for the full pension.  This led to strikes and agitations. This was truly a bad time for any leader as due to recession the rate of unemployment reached 9.3 percent.

Hollande has also made equally roseate election promises this time—he would increase the growth rate and generate jobs rather than compel people to sacrifice in the name of austerity. And he won the vote with about 52 percent in the second round. In the first round on April 22 he had got 28.6 percent votes to Sarkozy’s 27.2 percent. Though the margin is thin, Sarkozy has become the first-ever incumbent to lose in the first round.

He is Mr Normal

Hollande is popular with French common people, he is being described as a president who would lead a normal life—he used to go to work by scooter. People call him as Mr Normal who understands the cultural sensibilities of French society whereas Sarkozy continued to live a lavish life in spite of people’s suffering amidst economic recession.  Hollande has also promised to cut presidential and ministerial salaries by 30 percent as his first act.  

His other election promises include creating 150,000 new jobs, withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by the year-end and reduce the share of nuclear power by 50 percent by 2025. It may be noted, France depends heavily on nuclear power, to the extent of 78 percent. The economic meaning of retracing from nuclear power is to find $444 billion to install that much generation capacity. Not an easy task for France.
Many wonder how Hollande would spur growth and increase welfare expenditure! His remedy is to tax the rich even more! He has declared to increase the marginal rate of income tax to 75 percent from the current 41 percent. Anybody having income more than a million euro would be taxed at this rate. Leftists wanted even higher tax rate, perhaps 90 percent if not hundred percent! 

France lost its AAA rating

France economically is in bad shape like many other European countries. It has lost its AAA rating and may find it difficult to get the necessary loan to keep its economy running if Hollande implements his poll promises. Fiscal deficit is already 5.2 percent and public debt is 90 percent of the GDP. France is already paying out around 2.5 per cent of GDP in interest payments, even though the interest rates are at record low level currently.

Hollande has articulated that measures to spur growth can be more fruitful for the sagging French economy than pursuing austerity. It may be recalled that in 2002 France had dropped its currency Frank in favour of Euro. Since then the monetary policies for France are decided by the European Central Bank. That was the reason the Sarkozy government had to resort to austerity measures and budget-cuts in welfare schemes.

Election-promises may be shelved

Whatever his commitment, the new president will have to play a cautious game while pursuing his agenda of growth. The pitfall in his plans is that he has made an optimistic projection of 1.7 per cent growth next year, and 2.5 per cent after 2013. Seeing the growth rate of the last 20 years which is just 1.6 percent, Hollande’s assumption seems too optimistic. Most economists believe France will grow by only 0.9 percent.  

Hollande is a novice, never had any post in the government, but observers hope he would show maturity and may shelve a few of his election-promises for the better times, but then there is immense pressure on him from the other two leftist parties which supported him in the second round to make his win possible. Since he needs majority in the National Assembly also, the elections for which would be held in June, he would not change any of his rhetoric just now. But he may proceed cautiously once he reaches the bridge to cross the sea of challenges ahead.   
(This article was first published in May, 2012 issue of Lokayat).  
If you have google account then click the link below to read the original article:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3wNwaRlTpBBZi0xWlNMZ0J4ZTQ/edit 

India's parliamentary system!

By Vinod Varshney

Indian Parliament’s journey through the last 60 years has been remarkable. A few members of Team Anna used derogatory language against parliamentarians-- called them ‘looters’, ‘corrupt’, ‘rapists’ and ‘murderers’-- yet if  Parliament’s overall performance  is seen objectively, it would be hard to deny that it has brought about remarkable changes in the country. It has truly epitomised the will and aspirations of over 1.2 billion people. It is the supreme custodian of their fundamental rights and interests.

There is no denying the fact that our political parties increasingly have given tickets to criminals and people have voted for them.  This is a big conundrum of our successful democracy. But this irony has to be judged in the larger context.    

Our elites rate our politics, politicians and Parliament disparagingly; they even do not go out to vote. For such people our democracy is in the hands of largely illiterate people, who are misguided to vote on caste and other sectarian considerations.  Indian polity is also vitiated by the influence of money and mafia; yet our nascent democracy has brought about revolutionary changes in our society and economy.  

Ending untouchability,  bonded labour, providing  assured minimum  employment to rural people, bringing Panchayati Raj and giving 33 percent reservation to women therein, triggering socio-economic transformation through  social engineering,  bringing transparency in administration through Right to Information, and now guaranteed education for children through RTE  are no small  achievements. It may not be long before Lokpal Bill to check corruption in the country is also passed.

Parliament also saw many bad periods the most horrendous being the internal emergency clamped down by Indira Gandhi, but our democracy came out of that unscathed and amended the Constitution to bar any repeat of such aberrations.  

The greatest achievement of our parliamentary democracy has been its ability to keep the country united against destructive pulls and pressures.   We witnessed the great but undemocratic USSR disintegrating. We also saw many countries go under military dictatorships, or destroyed in civil wars.  But India’s strength keeps growing.

Our Parliament continues to enact laws to promote the noble ideals of justice, liberty and equality enshrined in the Constitution.  No matter how ugly the situation sometimes, our parliamentarians have stood rock-like defending the rights of the silent millions. There were times when our adolescent democracy seemed teetering and on the verge of collapse. One remembers with trepidation our early experiments with coalition governments.  Some leaders advocated replacement of our parliamentary system with the presidential form as in the USA and France.  But every system has its plus and minor points; with proper checks and balances alone they will work.  Ours is working now superbly and it is the envy of the world, especially of our neighbours!

Certainly there is immense scope for improvement in our Parliament’s functioning.  Continuous shouting, walk-outs and repeated adjournments are not in the best interest of democracy.  Another aspect which shows our parliamentarians, at least some of them, in very poor light is their intolerance to works of arts, literature and even cartoons. These minor hiccups cannot shake the solid foundations our sterling democratic institutions if we keep unstinted vigil—eternal vigil.

(This article was first published in the May, 2012 issue of Lokayat) 

Educate women to create leaders

Students from Switzerland and Germany came to Banasthali Vidyapeeth in an exchange programme and learnt a lot about Indian society and culture. Students from Banasthali also go abroad similar way to do one semester in several foreign university.

VINOD VARSHNEY

Foreign universities are good only for competition, 
they may have de-culturising effect on youth.

All-women universities are just seven in the country, two are quite new and struggling to find their feet. Among the well-established five, Banasthali University (Vidyapeeth) is unique in several respects. It adheres to its basic Indian philosophy of imparting comprehensive education—intellectual, physical, practical, aesthetic and moral–in the days of globalisation when money making institutes are mushrooming all around. It was founded by Pandit Hiralal Shastri, the first Chief Minister of Rajasthan along with Padma Bhushan Smt Ratan Shastri a “Shiksha Kuteer” with six girls in 1935.

Vanasthali has walked with the time, grew and became University in 1983 and today offers high profile courses in Computer Science, Operational Research, Electronics and Biotechnology. New courses include M.Sc. (Bio-Informatics), M.Sc. (Pharmaceutical Chemistry) and M.Sc. (Applied Microbiology). The latest one in the pipeline is on earth sciences.

Prof (Dr) Aditya Shastri, its illustrious Vice Chancellor, after completing his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and working one year in Tata Institute in Fundamental Research joined Banasthali in 1992 and has put in a lot of energy to make the university self-reliant through bold initiatives. He spells out the governing philosophy and future vision for the university in an interview with Lokayat.

Vice Chancellor Prof Aditya Shastri

Banasthali has grown phenomenally during last few years, its infrastructure is impressive, what is the view and vision for the future?  

The long term vision cannot be defined by infrastructure alone. To understand what we intend to do in the future can be understood in the backdrop of the four phases it has already gone through … It is an exciting journey from where we started …. Banasthali started seventy six years ago… those days there was no tradition of sending girls out of home for education. The school representative had to visit door to door to convince parents and draw girls out of home to seek education. The former speaker of Rajasthan Assembly Sumitra Singh, a Banasthalite is one example of that period... she says--had she not got education here, she would have been tending cows and bufallows like many of her childhood sahelis (friends)… this was the first phase…

The second phase started in 1960…. now most families had developed a desire that their daughters should go to school … seek modern education, but there was one big problem … the age of marriage was still very low… most parents would take their girls out of the school for marriage too soon…. only few girls were completing their high school. The issue once was raised before Rajagopalachari… he said you have to work within whatever social space you have to work… he advised prepare short duration programme… thus an 8-year course ‘Sanskrita’  was launched… this was course keeping in mind the concept of comprehensive education… which is now discussed in various school boards…. see the vision of those people… they started it Banasthali in 50s and 60s… The third phase was to motivate girls to do BA, BSc…

What about the professional higher education, which is the latest craze?  

I come to that…. let me tell about this… this is now the ongoing phase… you see, the drastic change in the field of women education came in 1985… girls by now had developed a desire to compete with men in every field of education… and seeing the changed requirements of the society, we started MBA and MCA courses… these became immensely popular… placement level was hundred percent…. companies like TCS and IBM just these two were recruiting two thirds of the total candidates… all well-known names Arisant, Accenture, HCL, Infosys come for campus interviews…

The real issue is what next?

Yes, this is the real issue….. our vision is to impart education to girls for leadership roles… no matter which field they go… see Meira Kumar, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Dr Kamala Beniwal, the Governor of Gujarat are two Banasthalite examples…. but we would like to have an entire crop of leaders to come… we need to motivate girls during their education to take up leadership role later in life, industrial or public.

The current trend is to have tie-up with some foreign universities. Is Vanasthali also trying to do this?

European girls learnt Indian dances and gave a performance in a cultural show

Not that kind of tie-up but we run student-exchange programme under which Banasthali students go abroad and complete some part of their education there… similarly girls from US and Europe come here to do the same. We allow girls to complete one semester abroad and whatever credits they earn there, are counted here. Incidently more girls come here … than Banasthalite going abroad in the exchange programme… every year some fifty students come from the US and Europe…  during their stay for 4-5 months here they come to know about Indian classical music, dance horse riding, they come to know about Indian culture …. I shall be happy if Indian girls go abroad in larger number for a semester, but because of budget-constraints of their families or the conservative considerations, many girls want to go abroad… but are not able to go for this kind of exposure. I recall…. girls from Switzerland came last time and they learnt Rajasthani dance…. when they returned to their mother-land they performed a programme of Rajasthani dance... what a fantastic cultural exchange along with education…!

Central government body NAAC in 2003 had pointed out that some departments have not been able to do curriculum revision and no career orientation is given in a few traditional courses… so what remedial …?

Every year twice, Academic Council meeting takes place and we take care of the changing industry requirements, we keep in touch with companies like IBM… but let me tell you what they say… they say technology changes happen quite fast… so what is required from students that they are strong in fundamentals and the rest can be done by the industry itself… and yes there are many institutes that introduce courses sounding the latest but the knowledge of students remain superficial. Companies prefer candidates who have sound grasp of fundamentals.

Why led to the sudden growth of Banasthali during the last decade?

Yes, there has been speedy growth in recent years…. now this residential university has more than 10, 000 students. This is in line with the new vision… or mission worked out by the central government. Three four years ago India had gross enrolment ratio of just 9-10% in under graduate courses vis-à-vis global 24-25 percent. If the country wants to become an economic super power then it has to work for the national mission of achieving the global level of 25 percent. By this year the enrolment ratio is 13-14%. We have introduced several professional courses like MBA, Pharmacy and Bio Tech.  We have established a new Centre for Earth Sciences in the wake of new requirement of green technologies to save the earth…the book “Is this the last century?” has predicted the human race may not last more than 100 years… he has raised the question of the human existence…that is why the issues of water, climate change and environment have become so important... entire world is working on developing green technologies…we are awake to the new requirements...by next year our Centre for Earth Sciences is going to start MSc and MTech courses in Remote Sensing and Environmental Sciences, Geo Informatics, Geology and Geography. We are also planning to have joint research programmes with government agencies.

Tell one--thing why Indian universities figure very low in the international ranking of universities?

It is because of the criteria …. Indian Universities cannot acquire high ranking. This is different game, for example… if an Indian university hires a Nobel Laureate as its professor, its rank would go up very high…but the question is---by having a Nobel Laureate, can the quality of education would really go that high? Second big reason is that our universities focus less on research…this keeps their ranking low…if ranking is done among Engineering colleges alone, definitely our IITs would figure at a much higher slot…similarly if ranking is done among women universities, Banasthali University would be at quite a high rank.    

What impact will the Foreign University Bill have on Indian education system?

Foreign universities will create a new environment of competition….to that extent it would be good, research and teaching would get a boost, so let foreign universities come…..but education cannot be seen in a narrow perspective, the more important aspect of education is the conservation and improvement of culture … but their education system may  have deculturising impact on India….they may create a notion that anything Indian is bad, such thing may not be good….the universities that would come from abroad…they would come with their own purpose in mind…it should be our purpose in our mind that we have to retain the cultural aspect too.

There has been mushroom growth of private institutes in the country, and many of them just sell degrees rather than imparting education, of what use are such institutes, are they not just money-making businesses ?

There is a dichotomy… there are certainly institutes, who seek donations, many have been caught also, since government wants speedy expansion, such unethical players would also come….the government will have to look at this issue of money-making, it will have to devise mechanism to keep malpractices out of the system… but at the same time policies should not be strangulating to good institutes…the policies should be to help good institutes...another mechanism is market force…if there are bad institutes, market forces automatically would take care of them. Only good institutes would ultimately flourish. 
(This interview of Prof Aditya Shastri was first published in monthly magazine Lokayat)

When the economist PM fails…

VINOD VARSHNEY

Indian PM Manmohan Singh

Among major economies of the world India has clocked the highest price rise in recent years. This has stark implications to various sections of our people. It means 221 million odd households had to shell out Rs 5.8 lakh crores more to meet their needs during the last 3 years. In effect this is a covert tax mainly on the poor and the middle class. 

The above figure has not been trotted out by communists to justify their relentless war on capitalism. It is the outcome of a research done by the global rating and consultancy firm Crisil, which works for national and global companies that  top the  profit makers’ list with turnover running into billions. They are touted as shining examples of successful capitalism, not socialism.

The price rise has been steady during the last three years and, though  it showed  some decline for a few months, there is no sign of a relief any time  soon. While raising the prices of petroleum products much was made out by the spin doctors of the government that it  spent more than 20 percent of  revenue income  from all sources on oil, food, fertiliser and interest subsidies. But Crisil’s research notes that total  Central  subsidy is less  than what people  spend extra due to price rise.

The revelation may embitter, even enrage, the common man. But will it prick the conscience of our economist prime minister who seems worried more about the growth index than the common man’s plight?  He does not care if the high growth curve has been achieved by punishing the common man.  

Every year during the preceding days of  national budget presentation  it is  common  for  white collar employees  in various offices  to speculate and pray  for  some relief in personal income tax. If the finance minister grants even a tiny relief, it makes   banner headlines in newspapers. Whereas the indirect taxation through price rise on common man during the last three years have turned out to be 35 percent, higher than any rich person including Mukesh Ambani has to pay on his income as income tax.

According to the research cited above, if prices increase by just three percent, say from five to eight, the outgo from the common man’s pocket in a year comes to Rs 1.6 lakh crores. This is a huge burden – in fact, invisible, indirect taxation. Common people feel the squeeze, the poorer they are, the more they are crushed. Sadly, they can do little about it except to think about a change in the system.

My dream is the prime minister ensures that prices never rise higher than 5 percent per annum.

(The article was published in the July, 2011 issue of Lokayat)

Next woman Prime Minister of India ?

By Vinod Varshney

The election results have finally put the stamp of reality of woman power in India. Mamata Banerjee and J. Jayalalithaa have just joined the elite ranks of chief ministers, demonstrating the might of women in our politics. Mayawati already rules U.P. unchallenged for the fourth term and Sheila Dixit in Delhi. These four deviyan are not the only paradigms of female power in Indian politics: Sushma Swaraj is a woman of rare political calibre, probably the best female candidate for the PM’s post. Sonia Gandhi is another powerful woman who, as Chairperson of the UPA wields more power than the PM in the current dispensation.

Sucheta Kriplani and Nandini Satpathy were Chief Ministers decades ago; more recently   Vasundhara Raje, Mehbooba Mufti and Uma Bharti occupied the top elected post in their respective states. Indisputably they became chief ministers on their own steam, though like Indira Gandhi who had the Nehruvian legacy to push her initially, Jayalalithaa and Mehbooba Mufti too had inherited some political seed capital to start with. 

Others earned it through sheer hard work among the people.  Mayawati’s ascent to power is singularly anecdotal: she had to transcend the traditional biases of the caste  Hindus  towards her. Even today many of her achievements are ignored by the media and conservative politicians.

One notable aspect is that most of these women leaders made it to the top without any reservation props indicating that Indian voters had no gender bias as in many Western countries.  Women here can rise in politics to any heights if they try real hard.

With the woman power on the ascendant, one is tempted to ask if any woman stands the chance of becoming the Prime Minister of India when the next opportunity comes around in 2014. My dream is that it is about to happen.  I can still feel the reverberations during the last LS elections when the media speculated that Maya-Mamata-Jayalalithaa trio would decide who would  be the next PM. But the Indian voter turned as unpredictable as the south-west monsoon. So the woman who got the king-making opportunity once again was Sonia Gandhi.

Mayawati effervesced in 2009 at the discomfiture of Manmohan Singh, who somehow saved his government amidst fierce opposition from all quarters on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal and declared that only she would be the candidate for the PM in case the proposed opposition alliance wins. Voters, however, decided that it was too early for her to be India’s PM.

             
But 2014 is not too far off. If she repeats her electoral feat in UP in 2012 and wins the CM’s mantle for the fifth time, surely she would be a potential candidate for PM, not to be out-shadowed by Sushma Swaraj. Unluckily, Sonia is ruled out as PM and there is no other woman of similar stature in the Congress who could claim this top political office.  Mamata and Jayalalithaa might also entertain prime ministerial ambitions, but they may not be ready yet in 2014.   
(The article was published in the June, 2011 issue of 'Lokayat') 

                       

Who after Manmohan Singh ?

Vinod Varshney

Election is the reigning flavour of the month. Some may disagree and say—no, the malodour from the numerous fresh skeletons that tumble out of the government’s cupboard one after another is the stifling ‘flavour’ of the season. Yet others who may constitute the largest segment may claim that the true flavour of today is cricket mania. Actually the three flavours represent the three facets of India.

Why should elections in just four States and one Union Territory be such a pervasive affair? The ouster of despots and usurpers in north Africa and gulf countries by agitating crowds makes us see the true worth of free and fair elections. Our people seek to dethrone unwanted elements who occupy the seat of power simply by the exercise of popular will--zealous participation in elections-- as happens now in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Assam and Puducherry. There are enough indications that history will be created in West Bengal if Mamta is able to trounce the CPI(M) at the hustings, after 34 years. People will also wait with bated breath for the poll outcome in other States, especially Tamilnadu, to see whether they can dump some of the worst scam-tainted politicians and their henchmen.

Democracy’s many over-riding merits over authoritarian, feudalistic and theocratic systems notwithstanding, we cannot be oblivious of the fact that in India it is being misused and subverted by vested interests and power-brokers with impunity while the common man looks helpless in stopping them. Peaceful and fair elections conducted at regular intervals are, of course, the powerful instrument at the disposal of the people to rein in such public enemies, but they alone cannot provide good democratic governance for the welfare of the people. To ensure that a lot need to be done by people themselves.

And this is my dreamy assumption that people of India will realize their solemn duty to the country and do their utmost to cleanse the system, not just once but incessantly year after year. The opportunity comes their way almost every year by way of elections. For instance, after the current poll, in 2012 we will have elections in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat among others. The following year 9 states will go to the poll. Then it will be turn of Lok Sabha elections which will definitely throw up the question—who after Manmohan Singh.

In fact this grave matter is already the most active subject of whisper in the corridors of power. But my dreamy desire is that people ask ‘what’ after Manmohan Singh, rather than ‘who’ after him, because nobody likes the same canker of corruption continuously carving at the vitals of the nation. Fictitious surveys are being touted as genuine to ‘establish’ the supremacy of one leader and his coterie over others. But people must understand the ramifications of this insidious campaign -- do not be carried away by the pejorative probing..

‘What’ has bigger implications. It implies urgent need for systemic improvements, as for instance, in preventing generation of black money, main cause of the ubiquitous corruption. Total transparency in decision making through better application of technology seems to offer some hope. But my hunch is that without better social and political culture based on strong ethics, any technology would work only as servant of the corrupt.

So far as the question ‘who after ………’ is concerned, there cannot be any ambiguity. People of this great country definitely want a leader who has proper control over the governing apparatus and who has the cerebral ability to know if and where the machine is spluttering and fix it immediately. And they want a ‘leader’, not just a bureaucrat, who can ‘lead’ not just in politics but in all matters-- economic, social and cultural.

The difficulty is we have to choose from the available lot only. That is to say, our choice will have to be confined to Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram (if the Congress is voted back to power at head of an alliance) or Lal Krishna Advani and Sushma Swaraj ( if the lot falls to the BJP). Alas, only these! Or would there be a dark horse to lead? This dark horse can be only from among the second rung leaders like Nitish Kumar, Narendra Modi, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Digvijaya Singh, and so on. Some of these gentlemen are best kept out of any democratic government.

The problem is we cannot design and create a leader of our choice either digitally or genetically. If it were feasible, the people of India would have created one by mixing the attributes of Jyoti Basu, Sushma Swaraj and Anna Hazare. May the hopeful inculcate the political acumen of Basu, grace and audacity of Ms Swaraj and honesty of Anna Hazare to provide a leader the great India deserves.

(The article was first published in the April, 2011 issue of Lokayat)

Sing a Song of Action for Healthcare

By Vinod Varshney

India is the place of spectacular economic growth on the planet earth, much lauded and glorified. Many rejoice when news of high growth numbers breaks in quarter after quarter. But for millions it carries no swish of cheer and therefore for them no drink and dance of celebration. Their struggle and challenge remain as ever; rather get worsened with their finances shriveling quarter after quarter. Many of their dreams fall flat on the ground as prices of things they need most to survive increase quarter after quarter. 

Politicians of all shades seem to have forgotten that they have some responsibility towards them. All those who sing drinking songs of growth need to know that true growth lies in human happiness. And there can be no happiness in any unjust society. When I write this, the Finance Minister Pranab Da might have finalised his budget proposals, and I as an earthy dreamer can only wish he does something for them.   

I also pray that he pays attention and do something for the most neglected basic human right, the right to health. Ancient Indian dream used to be to live happily to hundred years. But what we witness around! Millions take birth, grow a little and die even before they are five and add to the bad statistics making it even  worse and lowering India’s rank further in the index of human development. Who is to blame? My negligence! Your negligence!! Or their negligence!!! Or everybody’s forgetfulness of Indian Constitution, which enshrines right to life. 

Twin sister of right to life is right to health. And health in India is surely neglected. I don’t say so, the statistics scream. We spend just 1.05% of our GDP on health, the developed world 7-9 %. We as a country rank 171^thout of 175 countries surveyed by World Health Organisation in terms of GDP spend on healthcare. 

Healthcare does not mean just doctors, medicines, nurses, costly diagnostics and procedures. For hundreds of millions it also means sanitation, safe drinking water and basic nutrition. Half of our children suffer from malnutrition. On this count parts of India are worse than sub-Sahara Africa. Yet economists would brag of our healthcare industry standing at rupees 1, 60,000 Crores and positioning to make a pole vault jump to reach 7, 00,000 Crores by 2017. 

Many proud Indians would forget to count how many more millions would be excluded from the net of affordable healthcare by that time. Currently more than 80 percent of healthcare is in private sector, which is just another business to make money, devoid of any humanitarian mission rendering it inaccessible for most Indians.   

We signed Alma Atta declaration. And by doing so we committed ourselves to the goal of ‘health for all’. Where is buried this promise, resolve and national commitment!  Why this goal remains elusive? It is great that Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has taken up the cudgel to make it an issue for all. 

He is able to hear what people ask for, here and there, in distant parts of India and I dream he succeeds in making our rulers listen their voice through him. After food, desire for health is the voice, unheard so far. It is not just a sweet idea to serve humanity, but should be a solemn duty for all. 

Cheapest & commonest it is to advise and sermonize and say you do it. My dream is we all hear the voice unheard so far and covert into a song of action. This will be the only convincing act, my dear leaders. Improving public health is our prime constitutional duty.

(This article was published in March, 2011 issue of Lokayat)

Cyber Threat To India

Gear up to fight cyber war

ASHOK B SHARMA

India is gearing up to face cyber threats to its national security. The Indian Defence Minister AK Antony has called upon the Armed Forces to be vigilant against emerging cyber threats.  Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Corps of Signals here on Thursday he called upon the Armed Forces to keep abreast of latest technologies.  Terming the Corps of Signals as the “21^st Century Arm of Our Forces”, Antony said it has a major role in promoting inter-service synergy and joint operations.

“The Corps is at the forefront of transforming the Indian Army to a network-centric force.  It must continuously enhance its ability to absorb latest technologies in collaboration with the Industry and R&D establishment. The Corps has done commendable work, be it in fielding futuristic strategic defence communication networks, or development of state-of-the-art tactical communication systems.” 

Speaking on the occasion the Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju said that besides being vital to the Armed Forces, telecommunication and cyber infrastructure is a national and strategic asset as various other key sectors such as the Railways, Airlines, Banks and Industry depend on it. He said that ICT will be a key factor in reshaping the methodology of war fighting in the future.  

“Any serious disruption can jeopardize our functioning including our responses to the war being raised by our adversaries. The ramification of cyber attacks launched by an unknown adversary or individual has necessitated a relook at the planning and security of Command and Control infrastructure at the highest levels of national governance,” Raju said.

 Underlining that the modern warfare has undergone a paradigm shift, the Chief of Army Staff General VK Singh said that the Corps of Signals has emerged as the proverbial “nervous system” of the Armed Forces in contemporary times.  

“In all future wars, information superiority will be one of the key battle winning factors and future battlefield milieu would require communication system that are secure, responsive and reliable,”  said General Singh.