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Governance by rules is fine and it has got to be reasonably good to be acceptable to the masses. Misrule, however has its limitations where strength for governance is derived from the people but victims of misgovernance happen to be the same people who mandated them. Misrule need not necessarily stem from corruption. To be precise corruption has come to stay as a way of life and not acceptable to the mature voters as the only criteria for their support at the husting. Yet another way of ruling is the ageold tried formula of 'divide and rule'. It hardly matters whether it ultimately turns out to be rule with a difference or misrule par excellence. It also happens to be safest bet in the survival political game and the rule as much holds good in the home as far the governance. Parents having several offsprings which grow into formidable challengers are often observed indulging in the divisive game to engage them all in matching bouts...more |
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Controlling Population Growth In the
present times the growth of population is .....more There is no ambiguity about the verdict delivered by the .. ....more Polls leave much to learn The results
of the recent assembly elections in Delhi, ....more Onion and
potato garlands were the common sight ....more The US agrochemical giant, Monsanto, which was ....more |
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EDITORIAL Governance by rules is fine and it has got to be reasonably good to be acceptable to the masses. Misrule, however has its limitations where strength for governance is derived from the people but victims of misgovernance happen to be the same people who mandated them. Misrule need not necessarily stem from corruption. To be precise corruption has come to stay as a way of life and not acceptable to the mature voters as the only criteria for their support at the husting. Yet another way of ruling is the ageold tried formula of 'divide and rule'. It hardly matters whether it ultimately turns out to be rule with a difference or misrule par excellence. It also happens to be safest bet in the survival political game and the rule as much holds good in the home as far the governance. Parents having several offsprings which grow into formidable challengers are often observed indulging in the divisive game to engage them all in matching bouts and sparing themselves the awkwardness of direct challenge from anyone of them. History is replace with examples of how 'divide and rule' clinched many impossible issues, converting imminent defeat into victory, perpetuating one's hegemonic role and then let them rot in unending squabbles and wars. The rule was aptly and assiduously applied to the Indian sub-continent by the erstwhile colonial power Great Britain when they created circumstances for division of India. It not only led to massive exodus of population from either country and unparalleled blood-spillage, but also immediate war between the two new-born countries was manipulated. Even as country was divided, there was that ignominous divide of J&K State with the propping up of what they call as POK. Pak caused its further divide by taking away the northern areas from the governing apparatus of POK as also ceding part of the territory to China from the northern belt. Who served whom is not important. The fact remains divide and rule game does help power seekers to strengthen their foothold on specific areas. There was then that divide of Korea into two entities namely North Korea and South Korea who yet remain inimical to each other. And that Vietnam divided into North and South.And that Germany divided with the Berlin wall by the big powers, and that champion of NAM Yogoslavia facing multiple divide. That Palestine divided to carve out the State of Israel. And that historical masterpiece of balkanisation of mighty Soviet Union into smaller Republics so assiduously manipulated. And indeed there are many countries subjected to similar divide so that someone else calls the tunes. In this country, the situation within has been identical. Indira caused the divide of the mighty Congress Party giving birth to Congress (I) and Congress (O). 'O' stands for old. And that is not all. There was also Congress (S). 'S' stands for Sharad Pawar. Then there have been those Congress offsprings like Loktantrik Congress, Trinamool Congress, Tamil Manila Congress and all that stuff. It was Narasimha Rao who thought that this divisive game can indeed assure him simple majority in the Lok Sabha in 1991-96. He went about very articulately to cause multiple divide of Janata Dal. It needs no repitition as present JD is left with only 5 MPs. Tamil Nadu scenario shows that AIADMK alliance with others is broken up. She accuses BJP of manipulating this exercise to cause drift away from her for its pre-electoral allies. Now Akali Dal (Badal) accuses CPI (M) and Congress for hobnobbing with Tohra to break AD and its alliance with BJP so that together they could capture Punjab. Never mind if it leads to revival of terrorism. After all it is the nation of unity in diversity and obviously it looks more eye-catching with that 'divide and rule' culture dominating the political scenario. |
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Controlling
Population Growth In the present times the growth of population is the single biggest challenge that the human race is confronted with unparalled and unprecedented rise in human population is a demographic calamity and catastrophe, that is hanging like a Democles sword on the very survival of human beings. We should always remember the good old saying that excess of every thing is bad. The pressure of population upon the natural resources is tremendous. The situation is more dismal in our country which is home of the second largest concentration of people in the world. The demand on all our resources because of the increase in population is so great that despite the all round progress that we have registered in almost every field. We are still fighting against hunger poverty, and under development with our backs to the wall. Since Independence we have undergone a great economic and social change which is visible and evident if we look at the life expectancy graph. The average life expectancy has gone upto sixty years. This is further testified by the net resultant increase in the number of elder people. This is a good and healthy parameter of development but as we have failed to check our birthrate per thousand the result is that on the both sides of the scale the population is growing. Some years ago eminent intellectual and social philosopher Prof. Noam Chomsky was on a visit to India. He conveyed his apprehension about future of India as a viable nation in very harsh words. He said, "To me India looks like a land of creeping worms.'' He was puzzled by the demographic explosion every where.'' There is urgent need to control the population speedly otherwise we will loose the battle against it and India will soon witness a calamity unparalled in scope and scale. Since 1963 when Green Revolution started India has increased its agriculture yield per hectare several fold. Similar progress has been achieved in milk production through operation flood programme. Now India is largest producer of vegetables and second largest producer of fruits after Brazil. These achievements will pale into insignificance if steps are not taken to check the rate of population. To halt increasing rate of population we should undertake very drastic measures and implement them on a war footing. We have to tackle the problem both at grass root and apex level through legislation and laws. Those laws should not stay on paper but work. The other measures which will go a long way to control the population are viz A National Policy, Legislation, Increasing allocation of funds, Rural Upliftment, Mother and child care Incentives and Education. NATIONAL POLICY When India achieved independence our population was about three hundred thirty million. Now it has reached about 980 million. It was due to the absence of clear National Policy that population control concept never really took off the ground. We have only changed the names of the programmes from family planning to family welfare where as the main thrust of the programmes has remained irresolute. Our interest was not focussed upon the effective and viable control measures. When we look at the present scenario we become helpless. Leaving the mad race for power aside all the political parties should sit together and irrespective of their political aspirations must evolve a concensus so that population control programme undertaken by any Govt. enjoys the total and tacit support of all the political parties. Previously it has been seen that any measure undertaken by the Govt. in power has been overtly or covertly subverted by the opposition for the cheap end of Placating vote banks. Sometimes an honest programme has been exploited in the name of religion by the political parties to achieve their narrow ends. We should call a halt to all these tendencies. National and regional parties should evolve a broadbased consensus regarding the population control programme. LEGISLATION The constitution of India is one of the most complete document drafted by the citizens of a nation to govern itself. The Citizens of India enjoy many fundamental rights one of which is right to life. This right to life should not be taken as a right to procreate indiscriminately. When the very basis of a nation that has provided us with these liberal fundamental rights is faced with grave danger, then it is the sacred duty of all its citizens to rise and from the laws of the State for the sake of the very survival of the State. All experts and responsible people like social scientists, social workers, intellectuals, advocates, judges and political activists have to ponder over the problems and come forward with a strong legislation. The example of China is very much before us. How successfully they have been able to put a break upon the birth rate. Parliament and State Assemblies should immediately enact laws which put a limit on the number of the children per couple. In this way we shall be able to reverse the ever menacingly rising trend of the population graph. RURAL UPLIFTMENT It is an established fact that when there is poverty there is an increase in population. Prof. Amartiya Sen's study of famines of 1942 in Bengal, Saharan Countries, and Euthopia as well as the study in rural societies points out towards this fact very clearly. India has about seventy percent population in villages. This population is poor, famished and backward. When we raise the standard of people especially in the rural areas we shall be able to bring down the population growth on a sustained basis. Through increased allocation of funds we should lay emphasis on rural based employment programme-like agro based schemes, cottage industry, handloom etc. Unemployed youth should be given easy and readily available loans-The rise in the standard of living puts a sure stop on the population growth. MOTHER AND CHILD CARE India has one of the highest child mortality rate per thousand. The high infant mortality rate creates a sense of insecurity in the poor people and thus they as a general trend opt for three or more children. If we provide a better mother and child care this trend can be reversed. India is a poor country, we cannot provide allopathic system of treatment in every nook and corner. We should blend our local systems of medicine (whose practitioners are present in the remote interiors) with modern allopathic system. This can provide a cheaper health care to mother and child. ROLE OF MEDIA Media has an important role to play especially in a democratic environment like ours in raising the awareness of people towards population control. Now we are better equipped with satellites and ground broadcast stations. Health related programmes should be continuously broadcast and telecast over radio and television. People should be taught through regional languages over media about the importance of population control. Audio-visual programmes create a lasting influence on the minds of the people and should be readily adopted. To conclude it is high time that we devote all our individual and collective energies towards curbing fast growing population otherwise in our own life time we will be witness to the collapse of India as proud and self reliant nation. We will not be able to rid our nation of the age old malady of poverty and hunger. We shall never come up as a respectable influential and a developed country in the comity of nations. |
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Baning exports of daily
consumption vegetables Onion and potato garlands were the common sight at election rallies in Delhi. Politics apart, we must remember that far more is at stake than prices of a few commodities. We are faced with an erosion in the fertility of our soil, ever increasing shortage of water, degradation of ecology, destruction of our animal wealth, strategy of survival of all of us that we must now turn. It is the opinion of agricultural economists that high prices have not benefited farmers. Right across the onion belt, said an expert, no farmer got more than Rs 4-5 per kilo, even as city dwellers were forking out Rs 50 or so. Apple growers in Himachal Pradesh have known this all along. Sharad -Joshi, an advocate of farmers' rights, would agree. He has long been saying that despite subsidies on inputs, Indian farmer is supported very little. He has recently released figures of official support to farmers in different countries (we shall shortly return to them) to show that for 19 commodities, the official assistance in India is negative. In plain words, instead of getting any benefit, the farmer has to bear a loss because of government intervention. Lower input prices are more than neutralised by lower output prices. This is because costs are far too high and are inadequately captured by the Agricultural Prices Commission data on costs. For a second Green Revolution, concludes the editorial of another leading economic daily, the Indian consumer will have to pay more. But is he not already paying through the nose for his food? Why not cut the costs instead ? It is to this that we must now turn. (This does not detract from the need to overhaul the distributive system that fattens the middlemen at the expense of growers and users, but that discussion must wait for now.) Food is costly because agriculture is mechanised. So long as the farm policy is geared to promote the use of high yielding variety (HYV) of seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, tractors, pump sets etc there is no hoped of cheap food. Notice first, how one thing leads to another, and second, how each imposes an additional real cost on the farmer. The hybrid seeds are more prone to pests and diseases on the one hand, and give better results with chemical fertilisers, on the other. They, therefore, need expensive pesticides. This is how Herman T Spieth describes them; Pesticides- new synthetic organic chemicals, deadly in their ability to kill pests, precise in their disruption of ecology and, deadly to all life in some ways. The real villain perhaps is chemical fertiliser. Agricultural experts agree that it is not advisable to depend solely on chemical fertilisers to the exclusion of organic manure and compost as it destroys the fertility of the soil. They also say that to convert barren wasteland into cultivable land, it should be given large quantities of dung-based manure. In the light of these facts, it seems to be an amazing folly that the government policy should concentrate on the promotion and production of chemical fertilisers, instead of trying to maximise the production of organic manure and compost. The use of chemical fertilisers enables the plants to strike deep roots. The land loses its fertility and becomes progressively harder. It imposes additional strain on the bullocks during cultivation. The poor animal needs to be replaced much earlier, entailing a loss to the farmer. Also, the stem of the plant grown with chemical fertilisers is so thick that animals cannot eat them. The farmer has to incur additional expenditure on fodder. Soon, the land is longer cultivable ith bullocks and needs a tractor. Nobody has yet proved that tractor improves the yield of the land. For raising the crop, the ground needs to be cultivated thrice, vertically, horizontally and again vertically. It makes no difference whether this is done with a plough or a tractor. Also, the land cultivated with bullocks can be sown after a rainfall of only 25-30 mm, but when cultivated with tractor, it would need rainfall of 125 mm before sowing. This is because the tractor dents the ground much deeper and thereby destroys its inner moisture. We have already discussed the resulting water scarcity, use of tube wells with their attendant costs and ecological problems. It remains to be pointed out that the produce of this so-called modern farming is of substandard quality. This harvest of devastation is nourished inthe developed countries. This brings us once again to the figures published by Sharad Joshi. Globally, agriculture is subject to distortions brought about by government intervention. The Uruguay Round attempted to quantify it with the help of a concept called Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS). A positive AMS denotes a subsidy, while a negative AMS implies a net tax or burden. It is calculated both at the aggregate level and at product level. Sharad Joshi's figures on the aggregate AMS are 70 per cent for Japan, 50 per cent for western Europe and 30 per cent for US while only 4.05 per cent for India. Also, on 19 products, Indian AMS is negative, implying a burden on the farmer. And yet, for most agricultural products, global prices are higher than prices in India. This can be explained in terms of the disparity between the purchasing power of rupee and its exchange rate against the American dollar. But by far, the most plausible explanation is that Indian farmer is less dependent on chemical fertilisers than his counterpart in developed countries. The present official thrust on mechanisation of agriculture can only destroy this comparative advantage that the Indian farmer has managed to retain against heavy odds. Ever increasing subsidies on fertilisers, power and irrigated water cannot help him, and greater credit can only lead him into debt trap till the basic issues responsible for high cost of farming are addressed. Sharad Joshi has been pleadig for removal of restrictions on export of agricultural commodities so that Indian farmer can get justice by selling his produce in the international market at a higher price. While this may benefit some large farmers (or agri-businessmen) with marketable surplus, it will make life worse for everybody else. What they need is a strategy that will enable them to produce more at a lower cost by reducing their dependence on outside industries and agencies. What is, however, important to ban exports of items of daily consumption like onions, potatoes and green vegetables. (INAV)
In the eye of a storm :
Monsanto The US agrochemical giant, Monsanto, which was once known for its ''range of dirty chemicals'' and now describes itself as an environment friendly life sciences company devoted to improving the quality of human life, is now in the centre of a controversy for its attempts to test and introduce the so called ''bollgard'' cotton seeds in India. Over the last one month, there have been violent protests and demonstrations against Monsanto's experimentations in India. Both the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh state assemblies have expressed serious concern over the permission granted by the central government to Monsanto to pursue its ''questionable and harmful experiments'' involving genetically modified plant materials. In a significant move, the Andhra Pradesh government has already directed Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Ltd, a joint venture between Monsanto India and Jalgoan based Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company, Mahyco, to stop all its fied trials being conducted in 11 places in seven districts of the state. In fact, this move makes Andhra the first state to restrict the activities of Monsanto in India in deference to the wishes of the farmers in the state. Farmers in both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have, in a frenzied outburst against Monsanto, destroyed the so-called ''bollgard'' cotton crops being grown in the State. While a spokesman of Monsanto says that the development of ''bollgard'' cotton suited to India's agro-climatic milieu could help farmers reap a bumper crop without much of an investment on pesticides. It is claimed that the bollgard cotton seeds which have already been introduced in China and Latin America, is resistant to bollworm insect, a major cotton pest. Monsanto has been propagating the view that bollgard gene would provide the farmer with only one productive growing season like any other hybrid seeds. But reports from Europe say that the bollgard cotton has failed to live up to the claims of its promoters. In Europe, there is a groundswell of protests against the genetically modified crops being introduced by Monsanto. In August this year, after the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISC) made available its research facilities to Monsanto, Prof Nanjundswamy, the mercurial head of the militant farmers ' outfit Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) had threatened to attack IISC. However, after a IISC spokesman made it clear that the tie-up with Monsanto has nothing to do with the development of the controversial terminator technology, Prof Nanjundaswamy chose to remain silent. But he along with 200 members of the KRRS burnt half an acre of the total crop of bollgard cotton in Bellary district in November this year. It may be recalled that way back in 1992, KRRS activists had ransacked the facilities of Cargill Seeds India in Bangalore and Bellary. Incidentally, Monsanto India has acquired the Cargill Seeds, India, the largest producer of sunflower seeds in the country. Meanwhile KRRS has stated that it will file criminal cases against Monsanto. Said Prof Nanjund- aswamy, ''We are compiling evidence to show that no safety measures were adopted by Mahyco and Monsanto while conducting trials. We are waiting for irrefutable evidence.'' Referring to the seeds developed by Monsanto, he said, ''Canada sent 600,000 kg of the seed out of the country. Brazil prosecuted Monsanto for smuggling the seeds into the country through Argentina.'' In parliament, BJP member K R Malkani warned that these were 'seeds of disaster' aimed at promoting American interests in biological warfare techniques. Obviously Malkani was referring to the so-called ''treminator seed'' technology whose patent is held jointly by the US Department of Agricultural and Delta and Pineland Ltd. Media reports say that Monsanto has already acquired Delta and Pineland Ltd though the company maintains that the merger is still tobe effective. Essentially terminator technology allows the development of genetically modified seeds that block germination after one season. This implies that a farmer going in for this technically will be forced to buy seeds afresh every sowing season. It is also feared that pollens from the terminator seeds could affect other corps and plants in the vicinity. As such, most NGOs have described the move to introduce terminator seeds as a global threat to farmers, biodiversity, food security and ecological health. It was a North American NGO Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) which coined the word ''terminator''. These NGOs have also alleged that the American agriculture department is supporting Monsanto to hilt in its attempt to subvert the farming and economic foundations of the third world through large scale introduction of terminator seeds through ''manipulations, force and bribery''. The New Delhi-based Gene Campaign which is fighting against biopiracy says that ''the interests and goals of the Indian agriculture and Monsanto are diametrically opposite and the latter is developing terminator technology for self destructive seeds. What is good for Monsanto is not good for India. Dr Suman Sahai, chief of Gene Campaign elaborates ''Our goals are food and nutritional security for our people and maintaining genetic diversity and easy availability of seeds in all agroclimatic zones.'' A spokesman of Monsanto in India said the so-called terminator technology is still in its conceptual stage and it will take years for this technology to assume a practical shape. But Monsanto claims that the ''terminator technology''' is useful as it improves productivity of the crop. On the other hand, the bollgard cotton, points out, Monsanto involves the use of seeds containing a micro-organism called basillus thuringensis (BT) which protects the cotton from bollworm. The Federation of Andhra Pradesh Farmers Association has however described the claim of Monsanto as totally false. PTI Feature |
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