Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL ANTI-HOARDING DRIVE The six-point package announced by the Vajpayee Government to discipline burgeoning prices of virtually all essential commodities is a welcome step though quite belated. The damage as far as hapless consumer is concerned is already done. It is going to be quite a herculean task to roll back prices as prevailed when the BJP Government took charge of country's economy. Economy has been continuously sliding down week after week and month after month. The optimism often . ....more LACK OF WILL The news of at least 600 madrassas and 240 mosques being used by ISI-fundamentalists for taking shelter and using them for terrorist activities is quite mind-boggling and awe-inspiring. It should set any governing apparatus to go for the kill. The news is all the more alarming because J&K State occupied the top slot with 200 madrassas and 120 mosques being used as hubs for anti-national activities. These places provide safe hideouts....more		The challenge of safer cities By: Bindeshwar Pathak Alarming escalation of urban violence is now a global phenomenon. Be it New Delhi, New York, London or Moscow, it is no longer safe to move about alone after dark. While reasons for spurt in violence differ from nation to nation, the . ... more 30 crore people may *get skin cancer* From B.L. Kak More than 30 crore people all over the globe would be affected by skin cancer during the next century if the ozone layer depletion continues unchecked. This is the finding of Mr Pradeep.....more Localised conflicts and covert arms deals By : Arjan Singh The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has voiced his concerns over the clandestine small arms transfers to conflict zones in different parts of the world. Surprisingly, no media..more

EDITORIAL ANTI-HOARDING DRIVE The six-point package announced by the Vajpayee Government to discipline burgeoning prices of virtually all essential commodities is a welcome step though quite belated. The damage as far as hapless consumer is concerned is already done. It is going to be quite a herculean task to roll back prices as prevailed when the BJP Government took charge of country's economy. Economy has been continuously sliding down week after week and month after month. The optimism often displayed by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on the price front has proved to be just an illusion that stems from over-confidence. Keeping the inflation within reasonable limits is the safest bet for sound economy. If this aspect is not taken care of all other steps howsoever good and well meaning fail to click. The Government has been invariably putting cart before the horse as far as priorities are concerned. There is no denying the fact that present scene on the price front is directly attributed to bad policies and wrong anticipations. Even where anticipation was authentic failure of the Government to step in effectively with remedial steps continues to defy logic. The six point now announced do indicate panic reaction as the time is fast running out as regards assembly elections slated for November 25 in four States. It was well within the competence of Vajpayee Government to take timely action on the supply management in respect of all scarce items. Again, the causes of scarcity syndrome have not been addressed either deliberately or for expediency. There are basically two factors that lead to scarcity. First, less production. Second, hoarding. Production of some items now sought to be tackled was far below the demand. This was known to the Government at least three months back. That edible oils are short in supply and mustard oil imbroglio added to this syndrome should have forced the Government to go in for massive imports and waive the import duty besides putting it on OGL. It has been done piecemeal which negated the impact. There is simply no logic in edible oils consumed by the common man logging more than fifty percent increase in less than six months. Same is true of onions which continued to be exported by NAFED at around Rs 15 per kg even when local prices had crossed Rs 35. It went on and on until the half century mark. And here is the panic reaction. State Governments allowed to import directly. W. Bengal Govt has placed an order for import for 10,000 tons and opened letter of credit for Rs 22 crore. Delhi Government is already airlifting it. Although it is put on OGL list, private traders just won't place any order for import because of uncertainty. They cannot subsidise onion sale like Delhi is doing or W Bengal slated to do or Maharashtra which has decided to sell onions at around Rs 10 through ration cards. As far as supply in the open market is concerned it remains tight. The new crops stand either hoarded or sold out to traders in bulk on the field itself. All this indicates messy situation. Import duty on pulses is abolished but only after they too started logging upward trend. Other items have begun to move in sympathy, the chain reaction, the latest being salt. Potatoes have gone the onion way. Now meeting of the Chief Secretaries of the States is called on Nov 7 to review anti-hoarding measures. As on now there is no evidence of any large scale anti-hoarding drive. Unless this aspect is addressed immediately all over India simultaneously, things would deteriorate further. Why no such drive was initiated two months back on first signs of scarcity manifesting their severity. What is the need for convening chief secretaries meeting. The drive must have begun the moment package was announced. It shows insincerity and lack of initiative. While appeasing the traders the Government has earned the wrath of the common man which is going to cost it very heavily in terms of electoral fortunes and stability of the Government. On the macro management of the economy it must be stated that no steps have been initiated by the Government to reduce the fiscal deficit. Unless this is done, inflation shall continue unabated. The only silver lining visible pertains to two items. First, macro power projects import shall be duty free and second rationalising of internet with vast potential to become user friendly with foreign equity upto 49 percent besides promulgation of ordinance for buy-back of shares. There are indications of opening up Indian market further to give boost to our economy. Some other industry friendly policies announced together with RBI directives for the busy season are welcome. But the key to the success of such endeavours lies in controlling inflation by judicious management of supply to match the demand. This means besides imports massive de-hoarding drive. Otherwise all packages announced by this Government would be an exercise in futility. LACK OF WILL The news of at least 600 madrassas and 240 mosques being used by ISI-fundamentalists for taking shelter and using them for terrorist activities is quite mind-boggling and awe-inspiring. It should set any governing apparatus to go for the kill. The news is all the more alarming because J&K State occupied the top slot with 200 madrassas and 120 mosques being used as hubs for anti-national activities. These places provide safe hideouts, arms dumps and communication centres to facilitate sustenance of insurgency in this wretched State. The end-product of such madrassas happens to be hardcore fundamentalists fully indoctrinated against the State, country and the people. The fact remains our State Government has not addressed to the problem in right earnest. Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah is publicly committed to close down such madrassas that spread disharmony and venom as also not allow any latitude to pro-Pak militants for inflicting further damage, least of all from religious places. One is indeed sorry to note that till this day popular Government shows lack of will to wipe out the sources of anarchy and mayhem with single minded pursuit. The State has full list of not only such places being misused but also by whom and where their loyalties rest. Time and again, intention of taking on them is publicised to play to the gallery but action remains as much elusive today as it was earlier. Such lackadaisical approach of saying something and doing nothing is perhaps the largest of source of providing breathers to ultras and allow them time for regrouping and reframing strategy to remain in the game. That is why insurgency still persists and show no signs of abatement. When the State is in full know of anti-national activities being carried out from places of learning and worship, it defies logic asto why inaction is the rule rather than exception. The Government is silent on action but otherwise full of so-called 'good intentions'. This is the thrust of the Government that has more than two-third majority. The massive mandate was given for stability, peace and rooting out militancy. It is in this context that people have a right to know asto why there is total lack of will to take on even known anti-nationals operating from places of worship and learning with gay abandon.

The challenge of safer cities By: Bindeshwar Pathak Alarming escalation of urban violence is now a global phenomenon. Be it New Delhi, New York, London or Moscow, it is no longer safe to move about alone after dark. While reasons for spurt in violence differ from nation to nation, the underdog or the depressed sections of society are increasingly being tempted to take the law into their own hands. Deprivation is the root cause of evil. It is symptomatic of the moral decay, social disintegration and economic crisis afflicting our cities. Poverty, unemployment, inadequate health care and insanitary shelter will inevitably give impetus to crime unless steps are taken to launch social development initiatives for dealing with these maladies. An overwhelming majority of the urban poor work in the informal sector which usually operates outside the pale of social security regulations. They are engaged in rag picking, porterage, watch-keeping or as domestic help, occupations which have plenty of scope for exploitation. The anger and frustration of the exploited finds expression in crime or other lawless pursuits. Sometime ago the National Commission on Urbanization conducted a study of riots in Baroda which showed that significant part of looting and arson was caused by gangs from slums. The physical and social deprivations supplement each other in developing a vicious circle. Low educational status, limited skills, low wages, poor working conditions, insanitary environment in slums where they dwell all add up to encourage deviant behaviour. These are serious problems being posed by increasing urban sprawls. It is time we turned our attention to the depressed people who inhabit our towns and cities but live in abysmal conditions. The cities have plenty of wealth, but the poor who dwell there have no share in it. The poor provide services to the city. They clean houses of the rich, they cook for them. They provide labour for factories and shops, they are the main carriers of the goods. In fact the urban poor have become an essential concomitant of progress. Imagine the State of a city without loaders, scavengers and street cleaners. Can the urban rich live without the domestic helpers who toil to keep houses and apartments clean but are not allowed to live with their matters? The rich families do not allow their servants, even female ones, to use their bathrooms. They live in abject poverty amidst, dirt, stench, and squalor in slums. City planners never tire of talking about improving the human condition. Yet very little is being done for the people for whom development matters the most. An emphasis upon social services for the urban poor and linking of social development with infrastructure must replace the callous indifference witnessed now to save the urban situation from further deterioration and disintegration. Whatever solutions are offered must be cost-effective. Otherwise, they will be of no use in view of the low purchasing power of the poor. According to the 1991 census, 37 percent of households in urban India have no electricity, 25 per cent no access to safe drinking water and 42 per cent no toilet facilities. Older city slums, however, generally have better basic facilities and services than the newer squatter settlements. Most often, the worst-affected victims of insanitary environment are children who are particularly susceptible to water-borne contaminants. Rapid population growth is threatening to destabilise urban management all over India. The unprecedented population boom is the single most critical reason for poverty and growing crime in cities. In fact, extreme poverty coupled with mass illiteracy and alarming rise in population feed on each other. Large-scale migration from rural to urban areas aggravates the already explosive situation. Millions of rural poor are coming to urban centres in search of jobs. But they are thrown out on the fringe of city life-in slums and shanty towns-where they live in sub-human conditions. The urban areas are increasingly being swamped by slums and squatter settlements, growing faster than the planned part of the city. There are, in fact, two cities in one city: one for the poor and another for the rich. The population boom and the concentration of wealth has created a dangerous cleavage in urban society. Earlier, the problem was not so grave because the level of migration was manageable as wealth production centres were scattered all over the country. Development and education are the best contraceptives against urban sprawl. Unless we conquer the darkness of poverty and illiteracy, there can be no solution. This is high time to heed Gandhi's passionate concern for villages dotting the Indian landscape. Salvation of rural India in terms of social development and economic empowerment is the master key to ensure a better and safer city life. Massive industrialisation and dominance of science and technology is all very good. But they must be complemented by cottage and village industries based on innate wisdom and brilliance of our traditional modes of production. This calls for a major shift in development strategy, which will lead to participatory growth at village level and arrest many of the unsavoury consequences of the market-driven economy. The role of political and administrative leadership vis-a-vis urban management has been deplorable all these years. Lack of political will, bureaucratic inertia and inflexibility compounded by acute resourcelessness to meet the ever-growing challenges have given birth to large-scale miseries and frustrations. The growing slims, unplanned colonies, absence of adequate services, encroachment on public land and open spaces, inefficiency of civic staff, appalling and widespread insanitation-all these factors and more constitute the ugly face of urbanisation in India. The unsavoury manifestation of growth is the degeneration of old city areas, a negation of planning in the rise of modern colonies and the most uncontrolled growth in peripheral areas. In new towns, specially those which have grown as a result of growth of large-scale industries in backward areas, urbanisation is almost co-terminus with total absence of planning and infrastructure. The dismal scenario demands speedy execution of necessary measures to ensure a better life. A holistic urban vision and a socio-political will to turn the vision into reality is the crying need of the hour. For this the Government will have to think new ways to generate resources and raise funds for mega planning on long-term basis. All this is distant dream but if we really put our heads together and agree to build a better city, we will succeed in our mission, in spite of daunting obstacles.

30 crore people may get skin cancer

MEN AND MATTER
From B.L. Kak
More than 30 crore people all over the globe would be affected by skin cancer during the next century if the ozone layer depletion continues unchecked. This is the finding of Mr Pradeep Srivastava, a scientist at the Central Drugs Research Institute, Lucknow.

He has warned that the damage to the ozone layer would weaken the protection against ultra-violet radiation, endangering life forms, including human. He has let it be known that the chloro-flouro carbons, primarily used in refrigeration, are destroying the ozone layer and at present there are 7.5 lakh metric tonnes of chloro-flouro carbons in the environment.

Mr Srivastava also says that the ozone layer has depleted all over the earth's atmosphere, except over Asia and Africa. The chloro-flouro carbons can warm the planet 10,000 times more than carbon dioxide. Global warming will lead to such an increase of the sea level in the next 100 years that Egypt, Bangladesh and Maldives will be submerged.

In fact, two of the 196 islands in Maldives have already submerged in the last six months. If a UNDP report is any guide, six million hectares were turning into desert and 10 crore forest lands were being denuded every year globally. Acid rains are destroying forests. More than 118 million cubic metres of wood worth 16 billion dollars will be destroyed in Europe in the next century if the trend continues, Mr Srivastava has predicted.

He has also calculated that more than 200 drug-yielding plants, worth millions of dollars, will be extinct by the end of this century due to environmental degradation, More than 6 lakh hectares of rural land will be lost to urban use. Presently, 1.94 billion hectares have been degraded since 1995, of which 850 million hectares are in the Asia-Pacific region.

There is no denying that air pollution and disposal of untreated water into rivers is causing grave concern to India. Mr Srivastava has also calculated that 86 lakh tonnes of waste is generated in India every year, a major part of which is toxic and hazardous to the eco system.

Delhi with 28 lakh vehicles is the world's fourth most polluted city. It is universally known that carbon monoxide affects the brain, respiratory and nervous systems. Peepal tree, which releases 8100 kg of oxygen in an hour, is according to Mr Srivastava, the "best source'' for protecting the environment.

Now a bit about political environment. On a project like evolving a "Third Front'' as a counter to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), developments are bound to be slow given the conflicting and contrary pulls and pressures which inhibit the non-Congress and non-BJP political groups in India. Even so, the first glimmer of hope in the direction of a mid-way formation emerging in the near future is available from the agreement between the CPI(M) general secretary, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha chairman, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, to include former Bihar Chief Minister, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, in the proposed "Third Front.''

It is too early to anticipate the reaction to this development from other parties interested in the creation of a third force, but there will be general agreement among them that Mr Laloo Yadav is definitely a political factor to be reckoned with in any calculation on the outcome of any elections, in Bihar.

Indeed, if any argument helped change Mr Surjeet's mind and forced him to abondon his resistance to Mr Laloo Yadav it was that despite all the negative points against Mr Laloo Yadav, he is the only leader in Bihar who can take on the combined challenge of the BJP and the Samata Party. Notwithstanding the numerous cases he was involved in and notwithstanding the fact that he was forced to spend a stretch of time in jail, Mr Laloo Yadav managed to keep the BJP-Samata Party combined at bay in the last round of Lok Sabha elections.

Mr Laloo Yadav's performance was quite creditable considering that his opponents mounted a bitter campaign against him on the ground of corruption. Of course, Mr Laloo Yadav's adversaries can build a formidable case against him on the strength of his performance as Chief Minister, as they can against his wife, Ms Rabri Devi, who succeeded him in that post.

But, when it comes to the nitty-gritty of politics and polls Mr Laloo Yadav's sins of omission and commission are pushed under the carpet, and his capacity to sway the popular sentiment in his favour is taken into account for assessing electoral prospects. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, undoubtedly, had a point when he told Mr Surjeet: "If you want to beat the BJP in Bihar, you have got to have Lalooji with you.''

In other words, whichever party manages to secure Mr Laloo Yadav's support has a better chance at the polls than all others even if their ideology is shades better than Mr Laloo Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal. At the same time, however, the question can legitimately be raised whether Mr Laloo Yadav believes in an ideology at all other than routing the BJP and its "communal and fundamentalist politics.''

If asked, he may well say that his objection to the Samata Party is not because it pursues casteist politics, Which Mr Laloo Yadav also does in his own way, but because it is in alliance with the BJP. However, Mr Surjeet and Mr Mulayam Yadav have crossed only one hurdle in their efforts to evolve a "third front.''

They have yet to obtain the support of the Congress which will no doubt make its own assessment about the wisdom or otherwise of associating itself with a grouping which will rely a great deal on the political clout of a leader facing a spate of corruption charges involving Government funds.

Localised conflicts and covert arms deals

By : Arjan Singh
The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has voiced his concerns over the clandestine small arms transfers to conflict zones in different parts of the world. Surprisingly, no media attention has been paid to the issue in our country. What is, however, more galling is the fact that the small arms producing big league nations are the major beneficiaries of such deals. Covert arms deals certainly bring together the strangest of bedfellows. It has been confirmed recently that the Clinton Administration had turned a Nelson's eye on the shipment of thousands of tons of small arms and ammunition to Kosovo. This was against an international embargo put into place mainly by the US through the Security Council. Apparently Washington had no compunctions about dealing with an alleged patron of terrorism with nuclear ambition. The fact that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), which was kept in the dark, wound up investigation into its own Government was, to observers, the cherry on top of a very curious confection.

Pakistan has also been one of the contributors to the arms pipeline into Afghanistan making this a strange case of role reversal. After all, for years the pipeline from Europe had been functioning in the opposite direction with Pakistan at the receiving end of billions of dollars worth of weaponry.

The last lot that benefited from this free for all seems to have been the Chinese Uighurs, a minority ethnic group of the Xinijiang province, who have provoked the China enough to elicit a public notice of disapproval and concern. Another strange case is the shipment of US arms to Somalia in the wake of the US led intervention in the country. Washington supplied the transitional government with a shipment of weapons consisting mainly of small arms and light weapons.

A widely quoted study by an American analyst notes that American weapons or military technology were supplied to keep aflame 90 per cent of the significant ethnic and territorial conflicts that were waged between 1993-97. Once the conflict was in full swing, weapons supply and services were not cut off, as generally supposed but carried on in more than half the cases in the same time period. Precise figures indicated that in Somalia and Haiti, the US was the main supplier to the government, providing between 25 to 40 per cent of all arms shipped during the run up to the conflicts. Often, these 'aid' packages bypassed legislative controls. The US law curtails the sale or supply of weapons to any government that follows a consistent pattern of gross violation of human rights and to those that use the equipment to purpose other than internal security or sell defence. That allows Congress to rap the Administration sharply should it find that these rules are contravened. However, there is a case for arguing that though the US remains the largest supplier of arms and therefore must remain most accountable.

It is now an accepted fact that previous governments in India too had armed and trained disaffected elements in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and to some extent even Burma, in a an attempt at giving a forceful push to our somewhat lacklustre diplomacy. Those governments , of course, retaliated with (or initiated) similar measures, thus causing a situation of everybody arming everybody else- with some intelligence agencies apparently getting the game wrong and arming 'theirs' instead of 'ours'. Today these policies have made various parts of our country one continuous hot bed of insurgency-and victim of insurgent crossfire' with elements of different groups taking on government forces, and withdrawing to neighbouring 'safe areas' to recoup and further arm themselves. Ironically, there is evidence to prove that some of these groups, sometimes inimical to each other's causes and owing 'loyalty' the different intelligence agencies, are cooperative with each other as and when it becomes necessary. The result is an over-armed society, with more and more arms being sucked into the vortex from an increasingly open and well supplied black market.

In other areas like Afghanistan, where the supply of guns and other weapons has already reached saturation, point, interested parties continue to pour in more deadly weaponry. Apparently, they ignore the fact that these weapons will, sooner, rather than later, seep into the societies of the same 'interested' states, contributing to instability and political turmoil. Pakistan, which surely should know better after witnessing the mayhem throughout the country, continues to be one of the main sponsors.

No doubt many countries will use fair or foul means to further their perceived national interests. But it is the right of every citizen to know, and if possible to correct, those policies for no other reason than the fact that in all the conflicts that are raging across the globe it is the ordinary bystanders- women, children, and innocent persons- who account for as much as 90 per cent of the casualties counted.

It is regrettable that transparency is viewed with such suspicion in many democracies, including many of the advanced societies with bureaucrats jealously guarding their own particular bit of turf. Yet, transparency ultimately benefits governance and long term policy. We need to examine the source which may tell us, just what went wrong with the whole peace keeping operation in Sri Lanka. It is worth nothing that the government of President Premadasa had authorised the supply of weapons to the Tamil Tigers which were ultimately turned against the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).

We are a regional power to reckon with and we need to st a precedent that others can follow. Meanwhile the military and security value of covert arms supplies needs to be re-evaluated at global level, as also the factors that are feeding the black market. Countries with excess weapons, who trumpet the cause of disarmament, find it convenient to siphon off these arms to fulfil foreign policy objectives in the cheapest manner possible. It is nothing but a continuation of the policies that sustained the Cold War. Brilliant analyst may declare the end of history, and the opening of a new 'international world order'. But from the point of view of those who practise the second oldest profession in the world everything happily looks much the same. In any case, arms dealers never had it so good. Cold war machinations and conflicts could never provide such a good market for the suppliers of small arms as the new wars of ethnicity and religious strife are now. Of course, beneath these so-called new conflicts run the same tensions that created the old ones. (INAV)