Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By Dr B K Fotedar
A common man does not know what a coral is? The corals are organically formed reefs and these...more

By Dr S V Bali & Dr D K Gupta
Keeping pace with the growing food need will remain a glo-bal challenge in future. In Indian....more

MiG-21 pilots keep dying
as Govt. dithers

By D K Arora
The recent MiG-21 fighter jet crash at Delhi airport killing an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer has once again brought focus on the need.....more

Tibetan peep into India through cinema

By Topden Tsering
No medium has helped more in accelerating the Tibetans' tryst with the modern world as films. For a spiritually......more

PAKISTAN'S NORIEGAS:
AN OPEN LETTER TO US CONGRESSMEN

By B. Raman
Hon'ble Members of the US Congress, The ongoing visit of the Indian Prime Minister.....more

EDITORIAL

Plan funds

There is inordinate delay in release of Plan Funds for the current fiscal as regards Jammu & Kashmir State. To be precise plan size itself has not been cleared though State has put up schemes worth over Rs 2600 crore, a hike of almost 900 crore over that of last year. State has requested Planning Commission to release the funds expeditiously as the working season for Ladakh is almost coming to an end while for Kashmir region and Doda district in Jammu region has another two months for various types of works that can be taken up or followed up. Thereafter snowfalls and sub-zero temperature makes many areas inaccessible making it almost impossible to have any project work moving. Based on this submission Planning Commission had advanced Rs 400 crore to J&K State to take up urgent works particularly the ones where working season is confined to four months in Ladakh and about seven months in Kashmir/Doda. One really does not know whether this advance amount has been utilised for the project specific purpose or any other development work. It is for the State to reveal the correct picture. The reason for delay in finalisation of the Plan Size and resultant release of funds is attributed to delayed receipt/acceptance of 11th Finance Commission report meant to devolve funds to the State from Central revenues. Under this devolution scheme J&K benefits substantially. In fact, all poor States get larger share than the progressive ones. EFC however also puts certain riders on the recipient States like better fiscal management and mopping up of more resources through urgently needed tax reforms.

At this stage one can view delayed or non-release of funds so far both from Central and State points of view. The State has outlined its thrust and repeatedly approached centre so that works in hand or new projects to be initiated could be taken up in right earnest. It has also been repeatedly mentioned about its bad fiscal position and pleaded for special grants for non-plan expenditure including loan waivers amounting to Rs 1200 crore. State has also asked application of special category status to have retrospective effect. This implies treatment of all the Central funds on the basis of 90 percent grant and only 10% loan. The centre has failed to take any decision on that which makes the State incur recurring interest liability on the accumulated large central loans. State has as well put forth the point that the problems faced by J&K are quite different from other States like paying to large number of migrants, insurgency related expenditure, maintenance of larger police force per capita, reconstruction of damaged properties, bridges, schools etc. State has also been at pains to point out that its revenue cannot meet even the salary bill of the employees and to that extent it is central duty to bail it out more so because there is near total absence of industrial activity and/or industrialisation due to ongoing insurgency and hardly any scope to enhance revenue. This matter has been discussed and pursued. There have been many rounds of meetings but only to convene another one. At one stage Chief Minister became quite vocal in criticising the Centre for not giving it enough to manage the State affairs.

As regards Central stand, it had indeed advanced Rs 400 crore. Failure to clear the plan size so far is attributed to some factors. First, plan size of the current fiscal has direct co-relation with the amount spent on projects in the preceding year. Last year over Rs 1700 crore were given but State has not been able to explain asto on which projects this amount was spent. In fact there has been very large diversion to non-plan funds. Second, Centre did obtain MOU from all States including J&K to the fact that the amount thus allocated and released as to be spent on projects for which it is meant. Now that working season is almost coming to an end, one really wonders where the money to be received would be spent particularly when it is project-specific. Third, the size itself is not yet decided and probably projections exceed limitations and capabilities. This means there are some inhibitions and apprehensions which have not been satisfactorily addressed and removed either by the Centre or the State. Delay coupled with reluctance makes mockery of the plan size or funds when half of the year is already over and the remaining half is declared as non-working season in most parts of the State when many places become inaccessible.

The blame lies either way. In the process these are the people who suffer most. Be it electricity, water supply, rural development, road-networks, education health and other projects these continue to be given short shrift. This sorry State of affairs must end. The State ought to talk straight and come clean. The Centre should respond adequately keeping in view all adverse factors to which the State stands exposed.

Slow Progress

China has blamed this country for nil progress on delineation of long borders with India. Although 13 meetings of the Joint Working Group have been held, no headway is made in any sector and border remains frozen. Although there is no imminent threat of borders becoming alive but timing of the Chinese concern in putting the blame on India cannot be without reason. There is no denying the fact that China had agreed to freeze the borders because it has been engaged in re-building its economy and armed forces to become super power by the year 2010. Until that time it will not resort to military action anywhere including Taiwan. Second, when China signed the agreement for freezing borders, India was not a nuclear power. It has now announced putting 300 Prithvi series of missiles in operational readiness all along the border. Although this series of missiles with a range between 150 to 250 kms pose no threat to China, it is the announcement of serial production of Agni missiles that has compelled China to address to the border delineation with speed. China is aware that as India becomes more and more powerful both economically and militarily it would be difficult to make India concede anything. So it puts India on notice to be more businesslike and produce at least some results in terms of delineation. China is as well at pains to say that it has to be on the basis of give-n-take. For China it is now or never.

As regards India its position is entirely different. First, it is a democracy and anything decided must get the seal of Parliament. Once it comes to formalise already occupied territory by China, no Government worth its salt could do it except at its peril and political extinction. China is a dictatorshp and faces no such problem. Its Government could give or take anything and there are no questions anywhere. Second aspect relates to China being in physical occupation 38000 sq. km. of Ladakh (Aksai chin area) and another 5138 sq. km of northern areas ceded by Pakistan to China. Both these areas are part of the composite J&K State as it existed at the time of partition. Instead of vacating aggression from these occupied areas, China puts up more claims in Ladakh even as it claims almost entire Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim etc. The total additional claim is 90,000 sq. km. of our territory. It refuses to recognise Macmohan Line terming it as Colonial legacy. India can ill afford conceding any more territory as asked by China on the basis of give-n-take. Slow Progress or no progress is the political necessity and expediency even as status quo helps either side but its formalisation in terms of delineation is not possible for any Government in New Delhi. So the stalemate persists.

The decline of the coral wealth

By Dr B K Fotedar

A common man does not know what a coral is? The corals are organically formed reefs and these are helpful in maintaining the marine ecology. In favourable situations in tropical seas, corals together with all the organisms to which they give shelter and attachment grow in such profusion that they build up reefs and islands of very considerable size. Without knowing their existence in the past, they often proved dangerous to navigation and difficult to explore, but equally they have been tantalising to geologists who sought to account for their existence. Darwin was the first to face the problems in scientific spirit and by him coral reefs were divided into three main classes:

(a) Fringing Reefs: consist of a veneer or platform of coral which at low tide is seen to be in continuity with the shore, the width is often half a mile or more and the sea ward slopes down to the normal sea floor.

(b) Barrier reefs: situated upto several miles off shore with an intervening lagoon. The thousand mile complex of reefs known as the Great Barrier Reef, which forms a gigantic natural break water off the north east coast of Australia, is by far the greatest coral structure in the world. More barrier reefs, however, of which there are countless examples are island -- encircling structures forming irregular rings of variable size more or less interrupted by open sea by passages on the leeward side.

(c) Atolls: resembling barrier reefs, but without the central island. They are essentially low lying ring shaped islands enclosing a lagoon which again is generally connected with the open sea by passage onthe lee-ward side.

Reef building coral live in colonies of thousands of tiny individuals (polyps) each occupying a cup shaped depression in a calcareous framework also branches upwards and outwards and grows into forms that resemble plants, some being like shrubs and others like cushioned rock plants. The interspaces between the dead coralline structures are cemented and bound together by calcareous algae called mullipores. These precipitate calcium carbonate within themselves and still more as encrustations which coat their surfaces and cover the coral growths to which they are attached. Other contributions are made by shelled molluscs, foraminifera, calcareous worms and bacteria and the whole assemblage accumulates to form a white porous limestone, which gradually becomes more coherent as it is buried and subjected to prolonged saturation by sea water.

Corals require a mean temperature of not less than 69 degree F and reefs and Atolls are, therefore, restricted to a zone lying between latitudes 30 degree N and S except locally where warm currents carry higher temperatures to the north and the south of these limits. One more conditions that is pre-requisite for coral reefs is the clear water and salt. Opposite the mouths of the rivers where the diluted sea water and sediments get deposited, the corals cannot survive.

It is very unfortunate that corals are meeting a virtual death in the last about 50 years. According to a study conducted by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, US, 1998 was the warmest year in 1200 years. Since 1970, the rate of warming has been observed to be on rise. This gives many scientists reason to believe that corals are but a victim of global warming. This is also supported by the experiments carried out by US Coral Reef Task Force in March, 1999.

Many other studies all over the globe also reveal that higher temperatures caused the largest die off of corals in recorded history and catalogued coral decline in 60 countries. Temperatures of the year 1998 in the Indian Ocean, for instance were about 2 degree C higher than the normal, enough to cause the bleaching of corals. Thomas Gorean, President of GCRA, also believes global warming as the main cause of destruction of corals throughout the globe. Thomas Gorean further warned that the worst is yet to come because sea temperatures are expected to soar to record highs again in the coming years. Also in many parts of Pacific El Nino appears to be a significant factor contributing to severe coral bleaching events. Most of the coral scientists do not belive that El Nino is the sole reason for bleaching of corals, but there are many corals in different oceans of the world, where El Nino effects occured least, but still bleaching of corals resulted due to vast change in climatic cycle. In short survival of corals appears to be in stake. Presently the question is "Will corals that have survived natures occasional acts of destruction through the centuries survive 50 year's of human pressure? Coral reefs curvived major environmental events such as ice age, meteor strikes, increased solar activity since the Mesozoic era (about 200 million years ago). Notwithstanding these events, corals have recovered to form the extensive reefs we see today. However, in just 50 years human activities coupled with natural ones have stressed corals far too much.

These stresses are threatening the existence of reefs in some areas and will diminish the value of reefs in other areas.

It needs to be mentioned here that reefs provide one fourth of the fish catch in developing countries and employment for millions of fisherfolk. Coral reefs have about one million species with only 10% described, living in its extensive networks of crevices or along the reef. Reef damage off the Philippines has been blamed for fishery losses totalling $80 million per year and the elimination of 127,000 jobs. The pharmaceutical industry also relies on the coral reef ecosystem for drugs. In recent years, it has been found that a wide variety of toxic compounds --- such as morphine -- are found in abundance in marine organisms found in coral reefs. Several promising drugs have already been identified developed and tested. Loss of corals could deprive humans of a host of life saving drugs. Then there is tourism. People from all around the world come to dive, fish and bask in the coral sands. Tourism in the 2000 km Long Great Barrier Reef in Australia, for instance, generates $ 1.5 billion a year for Queensland, Australia according to U.S. Report. Inspite of the fact that most of the diseases have been found common in the corals, still so much of stress is put on them anthropogenically. In Indo-Pacific Region, tossing of dynamite is common practice for killing the fish. There are some other destructive fishing techniques practised the world over. Though reefs occupy only about 0.2 percent of the world's oceans, they provide an estimated 10 percent of all the fish harvested world-wide, says Bischof. The destructive methods used world over for catching fish, which is of great commercial value in the Caribbean, has virtually disappeared from the regions's reefs. Many other harmful activities for corals are that coral rock is mined from reefs for building materials, coral sands for cement production, rare species collected to be used as jewellery. Reef damage from anchors is also frequently reported.

In order to better understand the global decline of corals, it will be necessary to investigate coral ecosystems in detail by the coral scientists. Modest improvements in Greenhouse pollution levels if made properly can save the reefs to a great extent. It also is imperative that mass awareness among local communities be created which can surely help rejuvenate corals. And above all, scientific management is needed for the survival of corals in the times to come.

Tibetan peep into India through cinema

By Topden Tsering

No medium has helped more in accelerating the Tibetans' tryst with the modern world as films. For a spiritually advanced people, the richness of whose civilisational heritage could give Egypt a run for its sphinx, this might sound a little absurd.

But before the verdict veers towards sheer blasphemy, let's consider the following : In the later half of the last century, no other people have had a more dramatic face-lift than the exile Tibetans; no other people have gone through such a drastic mental overhauling as the displaced people from the Land of Snows. And throughout the whole process, cinema has lived up to its role of reaching out to people, its midas touch absolute as ever.

For a free-spirited people whose own country might not have seen much of material progress but where the availability of the next meal was as guaranteed as "life after death", their new home was a sad disappointment. That all things edible seemed to burn in hell's fury once they reached their digestive destination only added to the woes of their spartan culinary preferences.

And so it was that, while in Tibet a doomed people were being engulfed in the whirlwind of post-Uprising crackdowns by China's ruthless People's Liberation Army, their compatriots on the safer side of the Himalayas had far from escaped the horrors of occupation. Their physical suffering compounded by the news of their near and dear ones being killed, imprisoned, tortured, and their country condemned forever to slavery, the exiled lot found themselves staring blank-eyed at a future unknown and unrelenting in its promise of adversities.

One shocking discovery after another, they were to find their plight hugely out of step with the outside world into which they had just emerged. Unrecognisable faces of modernity swirled about them in dizzying circles. Buses, trains, aeroplanes, motorcycles, ceiling fans, light bulbs, telephones, bicycles, ball point pens... the list of objects of bewilderment were endless. And then the cinema happened.

Nothing could have prepared them for the seemingly pitch-dark dungeons filled with people, all turned towards one direction, facing what appeared like one wide opening where the most wondrous of phenomena were played out thanks to a shaft of colourful lights passing overhead. Nothing except, maybe, the "See-the-Seven-Wonders-of-the-World" peep-show boxes in which one could see ancient monuments rich in majesty and picturesque landscapes lush with greenery.

Confined within darkness on three sides and light on one, the new experience was to be totally mind-boggling. One moment a man looked the size of a monster, another minute he would be shrunk to thumb-size, squeezed alongside a hundred others like him. One minute a moving train would be chugging full-speed towards the thousand heads; another minute the chaos stood replaced by the serenity of a quiet village.

It is only fitting that the Indian cinema, which was to leave an enduring mark on the Tibetans, saw its birth with Raja Harishchandra, an epic tale of heroic sacrifices by a mythological king who also finds mention in Tibetan Buddhist doctrine as an incarnation of Buddha.

Divine coincidence had reserved its appearance for the moment when a faith, that had transformed the Tibetans from an erstwhile war-like horde into a peaceful, spiritual band, would merge into the realm of cinematic technology to render sophistication to the now stateless lot on a daunting path to survival. Moving on from silent black-and-white to Eastman colour, the "Bombay Talkies" was entering a prime time of blockbusters just as India began playing host to the early batches of refugees.

If language was the barrier, the spectacle of colour and motion bridged the fantasy world to the disoriented refugees. Through cinema they were to get their first insight into the diverse facets comprising real India. Be it in understanding the agrarian landscape of the country beautifully captured in Mother India; the core of historical romance encapsulated by the famed Mughal-e-Azam; the menace of dacoit exposed in Mera Gaon Mera Desh; or India's struggle for freedom from the British so dramatically portrayed in Shaheed. Slowly, but surely the guests were beginning to glimpse the host.

The cinematic influence was gradually unveiling the mist of awkwardness surrounding the union between the two disparate peoples. More identifiable were the faces thronging the streets, amending their mannerisms, as the multitude of strangers faded into swarms of friends. A seed of recognition had been sown, to be blown up into full-sized familiarity with the projection of each "first day, first show".

The Tibetan men chopped their difficult-to-maintain manes in favour of Bengali cuts, a la Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar; they discarded their heavy chupas for the comfort of shirts and trousers, not in treason against tradition but in compliance to rationale as dictated by the Indian heat. The womenfolk opted for redesigned chupas that showed more of their curves to go along with their Sadhana hairstyle, fringes and all. Trying to look good was an acceptable thing, they reckoned, while going about their everyday struggle of foraging for acceptance in the confusing corridors of exile.

In the meeting of two peoples from different sides of the Himalayas, reigning matinee idols played more roles than just inspiring external transformation. As the different worlds continued to collide in a magical intercourse of light and darkness within the world of Bombay Talkies, the richness of India's cultural tradition, the subtle grace of its people's make-up, slowly began to settle in the Tibetan consciousness.

Classics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata served to reinforce the Tibetans' belief in moral righteousness, their message of good's triumph over evil bringing reassurance that one day soon their own Rama and Krishna, the Dalai Lama, will subdue the Red Chinese, the earthy incarnates of Ravana and Duryodhan.

The royalty of Rajputs, uprightness of Brahmins, humour of Sikhs, conservativeness of Muslims, daring of Marathas, comical snobbery of Parisis; the god-fearing impulses of Christians, the street-sophistication of Mumbaiyas were all brought home to the refugees by the stock characters that paraded across the celluloid screen.

On a dusty pavement of some northern town, a nubile Tibetan sweater-seller shoos off a bunch of overbearing local roadside-Romeos, her fiery language inspired by no less an influence than the reigning avenging angel of the day. Back at her rented room, and rather long into the routine girlish chatter with soon-to-be-married landlord's daughter, the two discuss - with hardly any "What's that?" punctuating their conversation - Sagai, Suhaag Raat, Sasural, Karvaachauth, all intricate rites of ritualistic Indian marriage. Deprived of proper schooling, these children of road-side stalls seek their occasional artistic indulgence through the Rishi Kapoor-delivered Shairi (poetry) in impeccable Lakhnawi Urdu.

Amid the message of social equality, an inherent theme of all cinema, the traditional stronghold over the refugee community of age-old class divide was to lose its relevance. Instead, human relationships were to reinvent for themselves a place of prominence. Films that cherished filial devotion, sibling affection and friendship, such as Dosti and Raksha Bandhan only reinforced these Asian values.

At a time when newspapers were of little use to Tibetans, such insights into the socio-economic conditions of India were largely due to cinema. But educational value apart, the films were to provide as much a means of escapism for a nation recovering from the trauma of Chinese occupation and coping with exile frustrations, as for their counterparts grinding under the weight of Indian poverty.

Heads swooned when Indian celebrations of Holi and Diwali splashed the screen with colour and music. Hearts skipped a beat when the handsome Rajendra Kumar serenaded Waheeda Rehman with a song on its trademark piano. Dormant passion was rekindled when beautiful Nargis lay vulnerable in Raj Kapoor's arms, her lips half-opened, his eyes exuding sad redemption; both rendered idol-like images amid the raging wind and pouring rain.

A glimpse of picturesque Kashmir here, metropolis Bombay there, deserted Rajasthan now, green Ooty then, topped with the angst of a cross-section of humanity, and in three hours Tibetan filmgoers would have toured the entire physical and emotional landscape of their host country. This meagre luxury, their only entertainment, a refreshing break after a day of back-breaking labour.

Then came the '70s and '80s when Indian cinema was all about blood and revenge. If angry young man Amitabh Bachchan unleashed a streak of rebellion in Indian youth, the Tibetans were not to remain unaffected. An anti-establishment attitude, sparked by a deteriorating political situation and coupled with bureaucratic disasters in the host country, began to take root in the Tibetan race for survival. The mantra worked miracles for their refugees who were culling a livelihood from a resource which fed another billion of their Indian counterparts.

Earlier on, in the name of foreign films, Hong Kong martial arts flicks were the only commodities in circulation. As Bruce Lee became a household name, the Tibetans' physical similarity to the movie legend earned for them an undeserving reputation as Kungfu masters, evoking fear from any potential harrassers on Indian college campuses or elsewhere. Dread of "bad boy" Danny Denzongpa, a Sikkimese star, helped further build the formidable image surrounding the Tibetans who took no less a pleasure in playing the part.

Back in Tibet, where such Kungfu films formed a staple entertainment diet, Indian cinema was also making inroads. Popular songs like "I am a Disco Dancer" from Mithun-starrer Disco Dancer, wafted across the Barkhor area, reminiscent of the days when the popularity of Raj Kapoor-starrer Awaara songs were imported from the then USSR to China before making their way to Tibet.

Once Hollywood arrived in India the refugees' worldview was no longer the same. The little of the world most Tibetans had glimpsed from Indian films like Love in Tokyo and An Evening in Paris was soon to be replaced by in-your-face Americanisation of Hollywood.

Tibetan exiles' Westernisation had come full circle by the time some thousand Tibetans landed in America after 1992, fuelling an unprecedented wave of immigration by Tibetans to the land of promise in the following years. Younger generations of Tibetans are as much at home in a pair of Levis as with the songs of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

Today, a young Tibetan in New York might be as cosmopolitan in his etiquette and as international in his personality as his American counterpart, but it was undoubtedly his father's Dev Anand-inspired Bengali hair cut that did the trick - CNF.