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EDITORIAL The woes of the people continue to be aggravated by the day in this state. There appears to be nothing well in any sphere and remedies being imposed are worse than the disease itself. People are fed up with alibis that continue to be reeled out for this and that problem to which hapless citizens are being exposed recklessly. There is the Finance Minister giving statistical data of the cost of maintaining ......more Induction of three more BSF battalions in the strife torn state though belated is all the same welcome. It may be mentioned that BSF essentially comes under Home Ministry. Home Minister L K Advani during his visit to impact points in Rajouri/Poonch belt had promised augmentation of para-military forces to meet the challenge of terrorists more effectively. It was also decided that pickets would be set up in vulnerable areas ....more |
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MEN AND MATTERS From B L Kak ‘Remodelling’
of Pakistan Getting to terms with When time stands still |
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EDITORIAL The woes of the people continue to be aggravated by the day in this state. There appears to be nothing well in any sphere and remedies being imposed are worse than the disease itself. People are fed up with alibis that continue to be reeled out for this and that problem to which hapless citizens are being exposed recklessly. There is the Finance Minister giving statistical data of the cost of maintaining the plan funds of Rs 800 crore and its co-relation with the expenditure being incurred on employees which continue to rise in geometrical progression. According to his own admission salary bill was 1900 crore when popular government assumed office and within three years it has shot up to 2600 crore and there is the gory prospect of touching 3000 crore before long. There is no denying the fact that indiscriminate recruitment coupled with backdoor entry has been the password since the popular government assumed helmsmanship of the state so much so that by any conservative estimate no less than 50,000 have been added. Now it is stated that the employees strength would be reduced by 30% and that superannuation age brought down to 55. This itself is proof of first doing something mindlessly and then start undoing it. All this has undoubtedly affected the financial health of the state to such an extent that state cannot meet its obligations in any sector. It is certain that political expediency coupled with self-aggrandisement has brought the state to present sorry pass in terms of financial crunch. Second area where deterioration manifests its ugliness relates to security environs that have gone for a dip. Here is the popular government that was given massive mandate by the people three years back with more than two-third majority with voluntary exercise of franchise by over 50% electorate quite unmindful of the threats held by secessionist and terrorists. 13th Lok Sabha election is standing testimony to rapid decline in popularity of the elected government and generation of massive fear psychosis amongst the people which resulted in less than 10% voting. This is largely attributed to non-fulfilment of the mandate and disenchantment of the people with the ruling dispensation. It is certain that National Conference which has mass base in all the three regions failed as a party to provide the link between people and the government. Instead of solving peoples problems and attending to their grievance there is wide credibility gap which remains unplugged. So the people are made to suffer for none of their fault. They had voted for popular government to usher in peace, progress and prosperity by solving their problems. Their expectations stand totally belied today. By far the most severe jolt given to the hapless citizens happens to the power curtailment, disruptions, low voltages and random cuts. It was definitely not so three years back. It was not so even last year when some curtailments were enforced but not the present unprecedented one. The state government owes an explanation to the citizens for denying them their rightful due. Instead of improving the supply and maintaining quality and quantity of power, today the scenario reminds one of primitive age when the people knew only one light i.e. light of the day. Rest all was darkness. Present scenario is worse than even the stone age because here darkness is imposed even during day time. What has gone wrong and where and who is responsible to bring the situation to present sorry pass. People are not interested to know who owns how much to the Power Grid. They know only one thing and that is that the state has miserably failed in improving life of the people by mitigating their hardships. Electricity is an essential commodity on which wheels of daily life move, be it domestic or industrial or bulk consumers. Who will invest in this state with such dismal supply of power. Why should citizens be penalised for the wrong policies and bad management by the powers that be. Can anyone in the ruling clan tell any other state in India or the world where power is supplied only for 12 hours, nay even lesser than that if one takes the quality of power and the indiscriminate disruptions going on recklessly. People are also not interested whether 'A' rules or 'B' rules the state. Governments come and go but administration remains in place. Unfortunately, in this state administration abdicates its responsibility and obligations to the citizens. Long power disruptions besides causing hardships and indignities galore to the people in such severe wintry conditions also cripple industry besides sending an open invitation to the terrorists to strike wherever they like. It also pollutes the environs as traders are forced to start kerosene or petrol generators that are clear health hazard for the unsuspecting citizens. It must be borne in mind that 70% of the country's petroleum requirements are imported at huge drain of foreign exchange. It is time the government puts its house in order and act in conformity with the mandate given by the people. It is the job of any elected government to do things for the good of the people and remove their problems. It is definitely not mandated to aggravate their woes. This government is in a position to improve its financial health by withdrawing cabinet ranks and the resultant facilities extended to many (besides the cabinet), wind up sick units and auction out their lands and put in operation the austerity measures announced in budget session besides go full throttle in effecting recoveries, 600 crore alone from sales tax. The citizens want good governance. Good governance implies solving their problems and mitigating their hardships. How they do is their job. After all J&K alone does not face resource crunch. Almost every state is in the red but none of them have subjected the citizens to such indiscriminate power cuts. Induction of three more BSF battalions in the strife torn state though belated is all the same welcome. It may be mentioned that BSF essentially comes under Home Ministry. Home Minister L K Advani during his visit to impact points in Rajouri/Poonch belt had promised augmentation of para-military forces to meet the challenge of terrorists more effectively. It was also decided that pickets would be set up in vulnerable areas like Mahore, Bani and other places where terrorists continue to mark their presence with reckless massacres and shootouts. This was during his first stint as Home Minister. It was also decided that pro-active plan would be put into operation. Its contours were widely discussed and strategies mentioned thereof. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort has been translated into action despite repeated demands by the state government to augment force level to meet the emerging situation. There is invariably delayed implementation or no implementation at all which explains rapid deterioration in security environs in Jammu region as well. The so-called establishment of pickets yet remain elusive leaving the field wide open for terrorist to strike the hapless citizens and force their migration every now and then. Now that 3 more battalions of BSF are assigned to the state, it would be in the fitness of things to deploy them in Jammu region which has been put on top agenda by the ISI for large scale subversive and terrorist strikes as per Home Ministry reports. |
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MEN
AND MATTERS From B L Kak Opposition parties are getting ready to raise a hue and cry in Parliament during its budget session commencing next month. The Government will have to explain many of its decisions, once Parliament begins to debate the hijack episode. Many failures, on part of the Government, and many charges can be levelled against it. At the same time, many extenuating circumstances can also be cited in favour of the Government. Objectivity is always difficult when human lives are involved. Any Government anywhere in the world can face a hijack challenge. No Government or country in the world can ever really be immune to a hijack challenge. Hence, it becomes necessary to arrive at a balanced assessment in judging Governmental performance. The assessment cannot be made in terms of pure white or black. The gray areas have to be taken into account. Some examples of failure cited by Opposition leaders are reasonable and based on valid grounds. But such failures are not specific to hijacks. Lack of coordination in handling the crisis, the failure to put crisis-management efforts in place on time, the avoidance of bureaucratic snafus, the Prime Minister’s reluctance to associate all concerned and relevant elements in the decision-making-process - all these are failures which are noticed whenever any crisis grips the nation. Were not similar charges levelled after the super cyclone hit Orissa ? After Kargil ? The truth is that neither the people, nor the Governments at the Centre and in the States are brought up on an administrative and political culture geared to encounter crises of national dimensions. In other words, we have all the makings of a soft State-in our approach to issues and in our capacity to overcome them. Complacency is the bane of our lives. Much has been said on the rights and wrongs of the Government’s handling of the hijack crisis. The Government, on its part, has a strong case to defend itself in some respects, but on many others it is quite vulnerable. Much of the criticism against the Government is based on hindsight. Similarly, much of the defence being advanced in favour of the Government is also based on hindsight. The Government was ignorant of many factors associated with the hijack. Hence, it failed to formulate a coordinated response, it is argued. The Government was also unable to determine the possible consequences of some options open to it. Arguable, as it transpires now, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, deliberately restricted decision-making and response-fashioning to only two individuals, External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, and Principal Secretary, Mr Brajesh Mishra. In the process, he denied himself advice and guidance from persons with experience and expertise in dealing with security-related problems. Of course, many comments, both critical and laudatory, can be made once an event is over. This is what is happening right now. Some commentators stress that the Government did well under the circumstances as its options were severely limited. It saved 170 human lives and also ensured the safety of the aircraft. Critics have argued that the Government’s reactions and responses were faulty and hence its decisions carried an in-built potential for failure. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. The Government, admittedly, was faced with many imponderables. In the first place, many of its decisions were influenced by the fact that the entire officialdom was caught napping. Even the Prime Minister was informed that an aircraft of a national carrier had been hijacked only 40 minutes after the event. Second, it is extremely doubtful if there is a well-laid out official military and civilian drill which must follow moments after the disclosure of a hijack attempt. It is clear that the drill, if any, never came into play. In past instances of hijacking also, one did not hear of such a drill. Third, the Government faced the difficulty of dealing with the Taliban, an unknown entity. The Taliban’s motives and intentions remained unfathomable till the end. Significantly, even five days after the end of the hijack drama, the Prime Minister was unable to comment at Pune at one way or the other on the Taliban’s role. Judging by Mr Vajpayee’s cryptic comments, it can only be understood that the Taliban’s role was anything but neutral. The Taliban displayed unexpected expertise in the difficult art of diplomacy. It was not unfriendly towards Inmdia but it was not hostile towards the hijackers either. This is diplomatic performance of a high order indeed. The Government needs to bear this in mind for future dealings with the present rulers of Afghanistan whom it does not recognise. Last, the Vajpayee Government was under extraordinary pressure between December 25 and December 31 - a time when national attention gradually turmed upon the millennium celebrations to concern for the safety of the hostages. The Government also had to contend with mounting public discontent over its response style to what was patently a drama of human endurance, suffering and fear. The Prime Minister has argued that the decision to arrange an exchange of militants and hostages was taken only after all other options were assessed and found risky and unworkable. The one option, namely releasing a couple of top militants in exchange for 170 citizens, was evidently considered the safest from all angles and implemented. Some critics have argued that another option was available and could have been tried. This option consisted of withdrawing from negotiations with the captors and entrusting the follow-up to the Taliban whose responsibility it was to get the hijackers and the passengers out of their country. In retrospect, this option seems to have merits, but the Government could not have anticipated the kind of forces that would have been unleashed and what the Taliban would have done. The Government was in no position to take chances. Besides, the same critics would have charged the Government with abdicating its responsibility if it had washed its hands off the negotiations. The settlement at Kandahar has been described as a "defeat" for the Government. It is not common to assess the outcome of such hijack dramas as defeats or victories. Where human lives are concerned, such attributes seem irrelevant. |
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Getting to terms with
feelings A friend of mine confided to me rather ruefully, "I find it so hard to confront anyone. Each time I do that, I end up sounding either plaintive or angry. My emotions get in the way." Feelings _ whatever should we do with them? For many of us that's the major issue. Someone tells us something airily and we gasp with outrage, so much so that we can't find the words to express ourselves. Even as we struggle to come to terms with what we're going through, they add insult to injury by telling us not to be angry or to stop sulking. Excuse me, you feel like telling them, but will you tell me how not to be angry? What do I do with my anger? Where do I dump it? I would love not to be angry but I don't know how. People love telling us to fix our feelings. Truth to tell, we all do it. Someone bursts into tears and we plead: please don't cry. Someone loses her parent, and we say: please don't be sad. But how in heaven's name are we to obey these injunctions? As long as we are human, we will respond to events with emotions. Only automatons and computers are exempt. At the same time, we don't want to be at the mercy of our feelings. We have to learn to manage them, to process them appropriately so that they don't come in the way of our lives. After all, we don't want to fester with anget, hurt, humiliation, embarrassment, sorrow or jealousy all our lives. Quite apart from the mental pain and trauma they cause us, emotional upheavals are directly responsible for a variety of physical and psychological ailments: arthritis, cancer, heart trouble, ulcer, etc. There's a new term used to represent the area of feeling management. It's called emotional intelligence. Only recently has science begun to acknowledge the importance of emotions in our lives. Unless we learn how to handle them, even the brightest can go into a tailspin of depression and self-destruction. Emotional stability is crucial to success, as it is to happiness and peace of mind. Emotional intelligence has many components. Many of us aren't really aware of our feelings. Every time we cannot cope with them, we train ourselves not to notice them. However, each time we do so, we deaden something in ourselves and subsequently we cease to feel. We become indifferent. Nothing and nobody matters to you and no feelings get through to you. Indifference, no matter how tempting, is not the answer to coping with feelings. There are times when we ride roughshod over others' feelings without realising it. Remember the time you told your sister she looked terrible just as she was leaving for her first adult party? You can bet she didn't have much of a time. Scientists have discovered that emotions are activated from the ancient part of our brain, the limbic area. Coming from the time the lives of our cave-dwelling ancestors depended on their quick fight or flight responses, the connection between emotions and the nervous system is much quicker than that to the seat of reason, the amygdalla, which is a later development. This is why our feelings so often hijack our reactions. The flying first precedes the reasoned response. Managing feelings calls for being aware of them. We must acknowledge our feelings. All counsellors and therapists agree that the simple act of acknowledging anger or hurt or pain can take a lot of pressure off us. We must learn to get in touch with our feelings. This means that we must go within and get attuned to our inner state. For most of us, our inner selves area an area of total darkness. So getting attuned to it must become an acquired skill. Another important factor is to accept our feelings. Most of us have been conditioned to resist have been conditioned to resist negative feelings. Don't be a crybaby, don't throw a tantrum, don't yell..... they all make us afraid of negative feelings. So each time we are in the grip of a depression or jealousy, we try to clamp down on it, we desperately try to escape the feelings. Alas, the more we resist, the more it persists. Running away from our feelings is not the answer. Trying to deny them does not work either. Accept them instead. It's okay to be angry, it's okay to be sad, hurt, disappointed, miserable, etc. Why don't we accept our feelings? Because we fear that accepting them means we will wallow in them eternally. But there's a difference between resignation _ which is a sad giving up _ and an active acceptance _- which says it's okay to be angry. The miraculous thing is that the moment we truly accept our feelings, they disappear. Like guests they wait outside the door of our inner selves, ringing the bell for admission. Only when they are given permission to enter will they cease to pester us. Once in, they simply become us and are quickly assimilated exactly like the ragda patty you had yesterday which today becomes you. Awareness and acceptance are a process. They are not instantaneous, but keep at them relentlessly and you will find that your feelings no longer bother you. Anger comes, and is absorbed. Impatience is shown the best guest chamber, as are vindictiveness, hatred, etc. Honoured guests, not pariahs, we finally accept them as estranged parts of ourselves. Through that comes healing and wholeness, peace and happiness. INAV |
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When time stands still Can man ever emulate Miss Bright of the 'faster-than-light' limerick fame, and move so fast today as to get back to tomorrow yesterday? Once the stuff of science-fiction stories, this enduring fantasy may be about to become fact, if the goings-on in some U.S. labs are any indication. Earlier this year, Dr Lene Vestergaard Hau and her dedicated team of researchers at the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Harvard University, achieved one of the most remarkable feats in modern physics by slowing down the speed of light. The scientists used the Bose-Einstein condensate to put reverse thrusters on light and slow it down to a snail's pace of 17 metres per second from its tear-away speed of 300,000 kilometres per second. The Bose-Einstein condensate is essentially a cluster of atoms which has been cooled using lasers to temperatures approaching zero - - that mysterious frontier frost of the physical world beyond which nothing can get any colder. The latest photonic experiments involved sodium atoms which had lost their momentum after being super-chilled and coalesced into super-atoms. Thanks to their increased atomic density and very high refractive index, these super atoms proved to be effective speed dampeners for laser beams which were directed at them. There was, however, a downside to this process in that chilling atoms to just above absolute zero is an expensive proposition. This made scientists look for alternative methods to put drag chutes on light. And they apparently did not have to search for long. Researchers at the Texas University have now come up with a new solution. Instead of cooling the atoms, they heated a cloud of rubidium gas to 87 degree C so that a pulse of light could just about dawdle through it at a modest speed of 90 metres per second. The speed of light in a vacuum has always been one of those inexorably boring constants in nature, summed up by scientists with that small letter 'C', and immortalised by Einstein with a stentorian, 'Thou shall not exceed the speed of light, to dash the hopes of scientists and science fiction gurus alike about emulating Miss Bright some day." That day suddenly does not seem to belong to a distant future any more, with scientists assigning much more achievable values on 'C'. Values which mean you can now comfortably visualise travelling at enigmatic speeds at or close to 'C'. How would it be like to have a machmeter based on 'C'? As your speed increases, you begin to see around the corners of passing objects and although you are rigidly facing forward, things that are behind you appear within your forward field of vision. And as you get closer to the speed of light, everything will seem squeezed into a tiny dot, which stays just ahead of you all the time. If mathematics and physics were used to draw this impressionist picture by Einstein's special relativity theory, still more of these sciences are now bringing such futuristic scenarios closer to reality. All this will now re-focus
the attention of particle physicists on such mysterious
entities as tardyons, luxons and tachyons with which
hyperspace probably abounds. The immediate spin-offs of
the latest experiments, however, may accrue to quantum
optics, with amazing avatars of optical computers, high
speed switches and communications systems becoming a
reality very soon. Although optoelectronics -- the
technology of turning photonically transported data into
electronic form -- is still in its infancy, it may not be
long before the tremendous information carrying capacity
or bandwidth of light is harnessed. And when that
happens, a single burst of laser will be able to
routinely transmit, say, the entire Encyclopaedia
Britannica in a second. In fact, the shape of things to
come is already discernible in such optoelectronic
devices as transcontinental telephone cables and remote
controls for TV sets, which are so common today. |
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