Lives sacrificed: Women and health in South Asia

By Deepti Priya Mehrotra

A new World Bank report looks at the state of reproductive health of poor women in five countries -- Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- and makes a case for decentralised planning, delivery and expansion of health services, with a clear focus on enhancing inclusion

‘Sparing Lives: Better Reproductive Health for Poor Women in South Asia’, by Meera Chatterjee, Ruth Levine, Nirmala Murthy and Shreelata Rao-Seshadri, the World Bank, MacMillan, 2008

This World Bank report, released on March 5, 2009, investigates the state of reproductive health of poor women in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It also makes a case for increasingly decentralised planning, delivery and expansion of health services, with a clear focus on enhancing inclusion.

The report highlights a number of significant concerns. Sri Lanka, despite ongoing conflict, fares remarkably better than the other four countries in terms of maternal mortality, pregnancy and delivery care, infant weight and death rates, contraceptive acceptance and fertility rates. This is attributable to a high commitment to health on the part of successive governments. With decentralised planning the cornerstone of health delivery, services are provided at all levels, as an integrated package. The report notes that Sri Lanka’s relative success is “not because it spends more per capita, but because it uses resources more efficiently and equitably… Low unit costs in Sri Lanka contribute to high reproductive health access…”

Gopalakrishnan, a representative from the prime minister’s office, India, noted that the findings of the report are “disconcerting”; he reiterated the “urgency of concerns” to be addressed. Enormous disparities exist in India throughout the realm of maternal health and services delivery. For instance, while some antenatal care and tetanus toxoid reached 77-78% of women in 2005-06, only half of the poorest women received care as compared to the richest. Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women have far lower maternal health service coverage levels than other women. While overall fertility reduction and contraceptive use have improved, the improvement is not as much as is desired. Between 1998-99 and 2005-06, fertility declined from 2.8 to 2.7 births per woman, the greatest change occurring among 15-19-year-olds. Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have achieved replacement-level fertility, while Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa will contribute over 50% of the country’s increase in population over the coming decade. As for contraceptive use, only 48.5% of couples used modern methods of contraception (in 2005-06), one-fifth of these being temporary methods. Terminal methods, ie sterilisation, continue to be dominant. The average age for female sterilisation is amongst the lowest in the world (below 25 years). The poorest women in India are four times more likely than the richest women to have an ‘unmet need’ for contraception, underlining the urgency of ensuring wider access to temporary contraceptive methods. The gap between the poor and the rich in contraceptive use is much less in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as compared to India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The average risk of maternal death in these five South Asian countries (1 in 43) is almost a hundred times greater than that of a woman in the industrialised countries (1 in 4,000). Maternal mortality rates in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan are still two to four times higher than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015. While the lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy for a woman in Sri Lanka is 1 in 430, in Bangladesh it is 1 in 59, in India 1 in 48, in Pakistan 1 in 31, and in Nepal 1 in 24. India needs to reduce its maternal mortality rate by two-thirds to meet the MDG -- from the current estimate of 301 to 100 (by the year 2015).

Malnutrition contributes to maternal mortality, and infant and child deaths. Over two-fifths of all children under five in the region are malnourished, the figure even in Sri Lanka being as high as 22%. While 34.3% of women are acutely undernourished in Bangladesh, in India nearly half (47%) of mothers aged 15-19 years are undernourished. Compared to the richest quintile of urban women in India, the poorest urban quintile is 4.8 times more likely to be undernourished, and the poorest rural quintile, 5.6 times more likely. Over 45% of rural children under five years of age are undernourished, and almost one-third of urban children: a total of about 50 million undernourished young children in India.

The five countries together have a huge population of poor people: approximately 500 million. About four-fifths of the population of Bangladesh, India and Nepal live on less than 2 dollars a day, and two-fifths in Sri Lanka. Governments are certainly not directing sufficient resources into reproductive health services for the poor. Integrated health services and nutrition are critically needed and ought to be very high on the priority agendas of all the nations. Noting that poverty and poor reproductive health form a vicious cycle, the report emphasises the need for a renewed focus on adolescent health and nutrition, and accessible contraception, pregnancy and childbirth services. It also acknowledges that gender discrimination exists in society as well as in the health services sector, and that needs to be tackled.

While the report provides useful information on poor women’s reproductive health, it does not attempt correlations with macro factors like food security, unemployment, access to potable water, political participation and so on. Such correlations are needed, to arrive at a more comprehensive analysis of causes and policy implications. Several elements required to help South Asian poor women to climb out of the abyss may still be missing from the jigsaw.

During the video conference at the simultaneous release of the report in the five countries, Dr Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, director general of family planning, Bangladesh, gave voice to a woman-friendly policy understanding: “We want to provide and strengthen safe birth practices wherever the woman wants to be.” He noted that maximum births could take place at home, and spelt out Bangladesh’s commitment to community clinics, where referrals for high-risk and emergency services could be made available. Indu Capoor, a women’s health professional and director, CHETNA (Centre for Holistic Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, Ahmedabad) pointed out that rejection of home births and traditional birth attendants, to be replaced wholesale by institutional births and ‘trained’ attendants, is a deeply flawed and highly questionable policy for South Asian countries.

Pakistan, India and Nepal would do well to heed the practical wisdom inherent in Bangladesh’s policy choice. This debate highlights the need for policymakers to listen far more to grassroots health activists who may have different points of view on how to handle issues. As Gouri Choudhury, director, Action India, remarked: “We have been saying much of this for the past 20 years. What is new?… The health volunteers appointed by the government are called ASHA now, but they are still underpaid and overburdened… This is not decentralised service delivery!”

The India You Don’t Know

By M H Ahssan

Travellers in India usually have their itinerary all mapped out—it’s generally the tried and tested routes. The Golden Triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur) or Goa. And since unstable Kashmir is out, Kerala is in. That is an Indian holiday in a nutshell. There are a few who do special interest tours.

Lakshadweep and Andamans for the diving, Kipling Country for jungle safaris, the Buddhist pilgrim trail, the heritage train rides. But beyond these busy pockets, there is a vast treasure trove of secret places.

Talk to any Indian about a favourite childhood memory and he or she will wax poetic about their “native place.” Ponds they used to swim in, fruit eaten straight off the tree, family feasts, temple festivals. They may also speak of memorable holidays to special destinations, often very close to home but still unexplored, preserved as if in amber. Here are seven spots off the tourist map but well worth seeking out.

Lucknow, Uttar PradeshFor Mumbai-based model Ashutosh Singh, Lucknow is home. “Whenever I return, it’s as if I’ve never been away. There is an old world courtesy unique to my town.” He says that the frantic development that characterizes other Indian towns hasn’t altered Lucknow’s essential structure. The Old City still preserves the fading glories of this capital of the Nawabs of Awadh.

Towering gates, domes and arches define the cityscape. Even the Charbagh railway station looks like something out of the Arabian Nights. There are also charming havelis with intimate courtyards and interconnected rooms, just like the one where Ashutosh’s own family still stays. In the evenings people would stroll out unhurriedly to socialize over Lucknow’s famous chaat, sweets or paan.

Many of Lucknow’s iconic landmarks have made their presence felt in films like Umrao Jaan and Shatranj ke Khilari:

The Bara and Chota Imambaras, Rumi Darwaza, the labyrinthine Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Chattar Manzil and Jama Masjid. The Bara Imambara complex, which also houses the famous maze, is essentially a Shia Muslim shrine. This grand project was undertaken by 18th-century Nawab Asaf ud Daula to generate employment during a time of famine. While the common people worked during the day, the equally impoverished but unskilled nobility were secretly hired to destroy what was constructed during the night, so that the task would continue till the crisis was over. He was the general architect of much of what we see today. “The magnificent Lucknow University buildings are an architectural marvel, with a vast campus,” says Ashutosh, “I’m proud to have studied there.”

Delhi-based writer and filmmaker Vandana Natu Ghana fell in love with Lucknow while she was a student there. She recommends the old markets of Chowk and Aminabad for delicate shadow embroidery (chikan), rich zardozi and badla work in silver and gold threads. This bustling area also houses the legendary Tunde ke Kebab shop, over a century old. “You can base yourself in Lucknow and do some fascinating day trips out of the city. Barabanki, with its ancient Mahabharat connections, and Malihabad, famous for its mango orchards, are redolent of a bygone era and only 25 kilometres away from the city centre,” she suggests.

There is also the village of Kakori, which has given its name to silken smooth kebabs, created to indulge a toothless nawab. Lucknow is also very much a gourmet destination. Vandana, who has an Army background, advises that I not miss the British Residency, said to be haunted by ghosts of the 1857 Mutiny and siege, and the long drive through the cantonment area to the War Memorial, fringed by laburnum and gulmohar trees. “In summer, the road becomes a carpet of red and yellow flowers. People tend to visit Delhi, Agra and Varanasi and bypass Lucknow altogether. They don’t realize what they’re missing,” she sighs.

Kasauli and other cantonment townsI have always liked cantonments. They stave off rampant development, preserve heritage structures and are often in beautiful locations. If you’re interested in old churches, military graveyards and history, you will definitely have a sense of stepping back in time.

Married to officers of the Indian Army’s Gurkha Regiment, Naji Sudarshan and Daphne Chauhan live in Delhi, but have had homes in cantonment towns all over the country. “It is a world all its own,” says Naji. “We are a stone’s throw away from chaotic towns and crowded metros, but the instant you enter Army territory, everything is disciplined and beautifully maintained.” A cantonment town is a time machine. And still properly British. You need a dinner jacket to dine at clubs where the menus have been the same for generations. Gardeners maintain seasonal flowerbeds with military precision and since wooded areas are protected, you find an astounding variety of birdlife.

Self-contained cantonment towns like Ranikhet, Lansdowne and Deolali have a quaint character all their own. Foreigners are not permitted to visit Chakrata in Uttarakhand, which is a restricted access area while Mhow, near Indore, is actually an acronym for Military Headquarters of War. There are artillery and combat schools, sanatoriums, military colleges and regimental headquarters scattered through all of these.

Army families keep getting posted to far-flung stations, but everything remains reassuringly familiar within the cantonment. “So while you get to discover a different place every time you are transferred, the set-up never really changes. Cocooned within the Army, you couldn’t be more secure,” adds Naji.

Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh is one of Naji’s favourites, a flower basket of a hill station with its typical upper and lower mall roads, a delightful bazaar and Victorian cottages with roses around the door. It is also across the hill from Subathu, where the Gurkha regiment has its headquarters. Daphne returned recently to Wellington, home of the Madras Regimental Centre in the Nilgiri Hills, where they had been posted 20 years ago. “Nothing has changed. It is still the same sleepy town, with perfect weather. Yet it is close enough to the social whirl of Ooty,” says Daphne. “A good place to base yourself for treks and tea gardens. Not many hotels, but there are home stays and farms in Wellington as well as in nearby Coonoor.”

Ashtamudi, KeralaAshtamudi is a sprawling expanse of water, the second largest and deepest wetland ecosystem in Kerala.

Like an octopus, it is eight-armed (ashtamudi literally means eight locks of hair). Vembanad (which includes Kumarakom) is larger and much promoted by Kerala Tourism, but lesser known Ashtamudi has much to offer. All the canals and creeks of these backwaters converge at Neendakara, a hub of the state’s fishing industry.

For Naresh Narendran, a rubber businessman in nearby Kollam (formerly Quilon), Ashtamudi is home territory. “Unlike the other backwaters, you see dense stands of coconut trees, rather than the usual scene of rice paddies,” he says. “There are also sand bars in the estuary which fishermen use. From a distance, it looks like the man is actually walking on water.”

I remember visiting an uncle whose backyard extended to the water’s edge. We could buy karimeen (pearl spot fish) and river mussels straight off the fishing boats. For fresh coconut water or toddy, a man would be immediately despatched up a coconut palm. Much of what we ate was picked from the kitchen garden. Naresh himself is proud of his own “little farm” not far from here, where he experiments with varieties of banana, yam, fruit, and vegetables. This is quintessential, picture-postcard Kerala with palm-fringed lagoons and dense tropical vistas in a hundred shades of green. “You could rent a boat and go around,” suggests Naresh. “But there are commuter ferry services to Alleppey at a fraction of the cost, which will give you much the same views.”

The much-photographed Chinese-style fishing nets of Cochin are seen around Ashtamudi as well. You could use the ferries to visit neighbouring islands, villages and lesser-known towns in and around the backwaters, much as the locals do. There are temples, sacred groves and churches to discover. Water birds like cormorants and herons abound. “I love photographing the backwaters in its many moods. In the monsoon it is quite spectacular,” says Naresh. “A few resorts are coming up here but it is still largely unspoilt.”

Kollam itself is a historic port town worth exploring. The coir and cashew industries made it prosperous but it was well known on ancient trade routes. Marco Polo came here, as did Ibn Battuta, the famed Islamic scholar and traveller. Not far from Kollam town is Thangassery, a little Anglo-Indian enclave that was once settled by both Dutch and Portuguese colonizers. It has a layout reminiscent of towns in Goa, beaches and a stately lighthouse. But the Anglo Indian community which gave it much of its character has largely emigrated.

Analysis: Why BJP-JD(U) Split Will Be Good For India?

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

The impending exit of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) from the BJP-led NDA is the best thing that could have happened to both the parties – and the polity. Reason: alliances should be based on fundamental principles and similarity of views, not mere electoral math or convenience.

There is a difference between an alliance and a power-sharing agreement. An alliance has to share some core ideas and principles. A power-sharing agreement is about compromising principles and ideals to gain power. In this sense, neither NDA nor UPA is an alliance. They are pre- or post-election power-sharing arrangements.

'Higher Education' In India Is On The Brink Of Collapse!

A series of hastened ‘reforms’ are putting the very foundations of our public higher education at the brink of collapse. Last November, UGC had sent guidelines forcing all universities to implement the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) from the 2015-16 academic session. 

It has now been followed by a ‘Make in UGC’ approach (very much on the lines of Modi’s ‘Make in India’) of preparing centralized syllabi for undergraduate courses, with universities being given just 20% deviation while preparing the syllabi.

Murder, rape, loot: We’re talking MPs

By M H Ahssan

CRIME INFESTED | It’s not just about a few parties and states anymore. HNN finds that the rot of criminalisation in politics runs deep, with roots spread far & wide

You have probably heard before that of the 543 men and women elected to the Lok Sabha in May 2004, 125 had criminal charges against them. Many among us have consoled ourselves with the notion that only a few of these 125 would have been charged with serious offences. Further, the malaise was largely restricted to a couple of states and finally that only certain parties were guilty of encouraging such ‘tainted’ candidates.

The reality is that each of these assumptions is seriously wrong. A large chunk faced serious charges including murder, rape, dacoity, kidnapping and corruption. The 125 MPs were from 17 different states and two Union territories which between them account for 499 of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats. Also, these MPs belonged to 17 different parties. Clearly, the rot is spread — both spatially and politically — much worse than we normally think it is.

Of the 125, there were at least 96 who faced charges with potential sentences of two years or more. Under the Representation of the People Act, a person sentenced for two years or more is disqualified from contesting elections. The number could be even larger than 96, since in several cases the affidavits filed by the candidates detailing charges against them were either vague or illegible.

In the five years since then, some of the 125 — like Navjyot Singh Sidhu — may have been acquitted, while others have died. But we believe it remains relevant to analyse the situation as it was in April-May 2004, since that was what was available to parties when they nominated these candidates and to the electorate when it voted for them.

We analysed the charges faced by candidates and broke them up into categories based on the maximum potential sentence for each charge. Sections of the IPC which attract a life sentence, death or 14 years we treated as one category and at least 27 of those elected in May 2004 faced such charges at the time.

Another 14 faced charges which had a maximum of 10-year sentences. Apart from these, those with maximum 7-year potential sentences if convicted numbered 16. In other words, at least 57 had really serious charges against them.

We looked at which parties accounted for how many of the 96 MPs whom we could categorise based on the maximum possible sentence. It turned out that the BJP headed the list with 23 followed by the Congress with 17. It is true that the RJD’s seven, the SP’s nine and the BSP’s five constitute a much larger proportion of those parties’ MPs, but what is clear is that these smaller parties have no monopoly on MPs with criminal charges pending against them. What should be more worrying is the fact that all the parties that fielded candidates with criminal charges against them won 494 of the 543 seats in the April-May 2004 elections.

An analysis of which states these MPs come from was also revealing. While UP and Bihar did top the charts, as most would expect, the only states which had none of their MPs figuring in the list were the eight north-eastern states and the three northern states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Barring Assam, which has 14 Lok Sabha seats, what is noticeable is that these are among the smallest states.

It is also worth pointing out that many of 125 winners who faced criminal charges were not becoming MPs for the first time. Several among them had already served more than one term in Parliament. More than a quarter of them had already done three or more terms.

All of the data, in other words, points to the same conclusion. Criminalisation of politics is no longer a matter for minor worry, if it ever was that. With virtually every party and every state embracing such candidates, the trend is getting more and more established.

Focus: Sidhu Quarantined By BJP After Attack On Akali Dal

By Harmeet Singh / INN Live

Once considered to be among the BJP’s most popular and articulate legislators, Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BJP MP from Amritsar, is increasingly becoming an embarrassment for the party.

The cricketer-turned-politician recently took on the Akali Dal leadership, putting the SAD-BJP alliance in the state at risk while jeopardizing his own position in the party.

Veteran Actor Farookh Shaikh Dies Of Hear Attack In Dubai

By M H Ahssan | INN Live

Renowned Veteran film actor Farooq Sheikh passed away after massive sudden heart attack. Born on 25 March 1948, he died at the age of 65. His body will be brought to Mumbai later in the day after completing the formalities in Dubai. He was on a holiday in Dubai with his family.

From Satyajit Ray to Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Farooque Shaikh worked with some of the best directors of Bollywood of his era, leaving behind a body of work stands out for sheer quality. In a career spanning over three decades, Shaikh was last seen in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani but will be remembered more for classics such as Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Garam Hawa, Katha, Noorie and Umrao Jaan.

DEADLY 'PARTY DRUGS' IS NEW CRAZE IN DELHI

By Kajol Singh / New Delhi

India's capital hits a new high as seizure of party drugs such as ecstasy and speed shows a fivefold increase. Delhi's party circuit is perched high on cloud amphetamine. The Capital has emerged as a major supplier of pseudoephedrine, the key raw material for manufacturing Amphetamine Type Stimulant ( ATS), whose variants are popularly known as ecstasy, speed, base and ice in party drug circles.

Commentary: Why Uttarakhand Is Crumbling?

By V. K. Joshi (Guest Writer)

The holy shrine Kedarnath is very much in the news. It witnessed one of the worst natural disasters in the recent years. On the morning of 16th June, 2013, as per the newspaper reports, there was a loud explosion in the Gandhi Sarovar, about four km upstream from Kedarnath. Thereafter a huge mass of rocks and mud and water began engulfing the whole valley. The mudslide was so powerful, that it did not spare anything in its wake.

A Slap On Democracy: A Sheer Undemocratic 'Celebration' With Riot Victims, Poor, Homeless And Needy In UP

By M H Ahssan | INN Live

EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE The Muzaffarnagar riot victims have been left to fend for themselves while leaders of the ruling Samajwadi Party enjoy lavish celebrations and foreign jaunts. 

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav can certainly brave the chill of the January nights. On the night of 8 January, he was at the annual Saifai Mahotsav in his native district of Etawah, along with his son, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. The father-son duo looked absolutely comfortable enjoying the “Bollywood Night” as actors Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit, among others, shook their legs to various dance numbers.

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 'RESHUFFLE' ON CARDS?

INN News Desk

As Congress prepares for the fourth anniversary of UPA-II on 22 May, the buzz of a reshuffle in the AICC has once gained momentum.

Top party sources said a reshuffle in the party is “on the cards”.

The appointment of eight spokespersons in the first week of this month is seen as a clear indication of changes in AICC coming soon, political analysts said.

'Lakhs May Die If High Magnitude Quake Hits Himalayas'

By Sudheer Sharma / Delhi

Over eight lakh people may die if an earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale occurs in the seismically-active Himalayan states from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, National Disaster Management Authority's vice chairman M. Shashidhar Reddy has warned.

The entire Himalayan belt is seismically very active and during a short span of 53 years between 1897 and 1950, four major earthquakes, (Shillong -1897, Kangra -1905, Bihar-Nepal -1934 and Assam -1950) exceeding magnitude 8 on the Richter scale occurred in the region causing vast devastation.

Telangana Movement Enters in a Decisive Phase

With support for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh gaining momentum across the broad political spectrum, it is no longer a question of if but when the Telangana region would be carved out into a separate entity as the 29th state of the Indian Union.

Forces led by the BJP, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Nava Telangana Party (NTP) and others have pulled the rug from under the Congress, which won the elections in 2004 by promising a separate state for the people of Telangana. Now that the opposition parties led by the BJP have jumped on the ‘separate Telangana’ bandwagon, the TDP made a u-turn after opposing the movement all along, leaving the Congress-led UPA in the lurch.

Even the left parties and those representing the OBCs (Other Backward Classes) have veered round to the ‘separate Telangana’ movement which, they hope, would augur well for the future of people in that region, which was exploited by the state leadership on the economic, educational and employment fronts.

The shift in the political landscape of the state has upped the ante against the Congress, which finds itself in a bind. If it goes along with Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM), which wants the Congress to oppose the ‘separate Telangana’ campaign, it risks losing vote during next year’s elections. On the other hand, if it chooses to go with the flow, it could alienate the Muslims. Although the TDP has counseled its ally to back the Telangana movement, the Congress leadership continues to dither for the time being. However, according to all available indications, it is a matter of time before the Congress High Command would give its green light to the movement.


There is a rationale behind all this political drama that is being played out, .both at the Centre and in the state capital. Andhra Pradesh goes to the polls towards the middle of next year, at a time when the Rajasekhara Reddy government is hamstrung by an anti-incumbency factor. Briefing the Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the situation facing his party, the chief minister is said to have stressed that an assembly resolution endorsing the proposal for the creation of Telangana could help neutralise this anti-incumbency sentiment.

With the TDP’s about-turn on the Telangana issue, the Congress is wilting under enormous pressure to oppose the move. On top of this, Chandrababu Naidu is seeking electoral alliance with K Chandrasekhara Rao of TRS in the Telangana region. The ruling party thus finds itself vulnerable to the ebb and flow of the political tide sweeping across the state.


TDP’s change in its political stance came about when Chandrasekhara Rao left the TDP in 2001 and spearheaded the movement for Telangana under the banner of his own political party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Secondly, both the leaders were facing serious threat to their political survival. While the TDP was plagued by defections to the new party of popular film star Chiranjeevi, Chandrasekhara Rao’s position became vulnerable in the wake of a serious threat posed by "Nava Telangana Praja Party” launched by T Devender Goud, the former senior leader of TDP.

Explaining its aims and objectives, Goud said his party will strive for the formation of Telangana state, for which action will be taken both at the political and street levels through agitations. "The party will take up the problems and issues of all sections of society, including the Dalits, tribal and Muslims", he pointed out. Goud, who had resigned from TDP on June 23 this year, said he was forced to launch his new outfit as the Congress and TDP were stonewalling over support to Telangana and its people.

These developments forced the hands of TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu in reaching out to CPM, CPI and TRS leaders for their support to his party's decision to back the demand for a separate Telangana state. Naidu's move is politically significant as the CPM, the CPI and the TRS are in the process of forging an alliance against the Congress and the BJP in the Assembly elections likely to be held in February 2009. "I spoke to the CPI and the CPM leaders as also with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhar Rao. I briefed them about our five-member core committee's recommendations on Telangana and that we are favouring separate Telangana," Naidu said, mapping out his campaign strategy.

Against this background comes the statement of MIM president and other Hyderabad State Muslim leaders who feel that by agreeing to the creation of the new state of Telangana, the Congress would be playing into the hands of the BJP, which has been advocating the Telangana cause ardently.


As things stand, MIM has very little space for political maneuvering given the fact that the TRS, a one-time ally of the Congress, ordered four of its MPs to resign in an act of brinkmanship to keep the heat on the UPA. The move coincided with similar resignations tendered by 16TRS MLAs and its three MLCs from the Andhra Legislative Assembly and Council respectively. TRS wants the Telangana region to be carved out into a separate state—a pledge to which the Congress had committed itself in the 2004 state assembly elections.

It took this line of action when the Congress failed to heed its ultimatum given earlier setting March 6 this year as the deadline for the bifurcation of the state.TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao said the party will also launch a door- to- door campaign to explain the mass the betrayal by the Congress.


However, MIM, Jamaat-e-Islami and other Muslim organizations have distanced themselves from the Telangana movement due to their apprehension that Muslims may not get a fair deal under the new dispensation. They are also upset over being side-tracked during the ongoing political wheeling and dealing concerning the Telangana issue.

To quote MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi who spelled out his party’s stand on this issue, “It is not that we are opposed to Telangana per se. If a new state is formed, the tally of seats of our party in elections will go up. But we have to first ensure the safety and welfare of Muslims and other things such as the future of Urdu language. Whether these will be safe in Telangana is the issue.’’


As an indicator of the shape of things to come, Owaisi cited the recent Vatoli incident when a family of six Muslims was hacked to death in a Telangana village. "That is why the BJP is so keen on a new state of Telangana," some Muslim leaders argue.

The same concern had exercised their minds when Muslims voted in strength against the BJP during the Legislative Assembly elections held in Karnataka in May this year. Although the BJP swept the polls and formed a government by engineering defections from the Congress, the status of Muslim representation in the BJP government remained unchanged—a Muslim minister in charge of Awqaf and minority affairs plus some political patronage here and there.


As a sop for the next year’s elections, they have been given some concessions in terms of education and employment opportunities. Furthermore, infrastructural facilities, such as laying new pipelines for water supply or replacing the leaky ones in some Muslim-dominated areas, were put in place with an eye on the upcoming elections. So the bottom line has remained the same. Whether it is the Congress or the BJP at the helm of affairs, some ad hoc cosmetic measures could always be expected as part of their strategy to tap into the Muslim vote bank.

Under these circumstances, continued Muslim opposition to the formation of a separate Telangana state would not be in the interest of Muslims, as it could provide ammunition to the BJP to further isolate the community. As the situation stands, almost all the political parties are now in favour of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, with the Congress expected to come on board anytime during the run-up to the elections. Surely, Muslims would not like to be seen as the lone dissenters, even though they have taken a principled stand.

As MP Asaduddin Owaisi put it, the BJP would emerge stronger if a separate Telangana State was created. “The so-called secular parties cannot match the BJP after creation of Telangana State. The future of Dalits, weaker sections and minorities would be bleak in separate Telangana,” he pointed out.

Yet, the fact remains that the conflict has assumed a caste dimension, with other backward classes (OBCs) seeking to use the Telangana card to consolidate their political base across the state. This game of one-upmanship is part of their ploy to out-manoeuvre the politically powerful Reddys and Kammas who dominate the political apparatus of the state in spite of their small numbers.


Although TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao is a higher caste Velama, the banner of Telangana across party lines has been hoisted both by OBCs and Scheduled Caste leaders. Even the Nizamabad Congress MP Madhu Yaski Goud, an OBC, berated the AP government for its soft-pedaling over the formation of Telangana.

Sarvey Satyanarayana, Congress MP from Siddipet and an SC leader, also spoke in a similar vein, while. other OBC Congress MPs like Anjan Kumar Yadav from Secunderabad are orchestrating their move to jump on to the Telangana bandwagon. Even Andhra Congress chief Keshava Rao seems ready to toe the same line.


Another point that should be noted is that .BJP has mobilized Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in its campaign for the creation of Telangana state. "The party is organising a massive rally of Narendra Modi in Telangana in December. The dates are yet to be finalised," said party leader Venkaiah Naidu in a chat with newsmen recently. Modi has already proved his mettle by winning the Nano small car project for his state amid fierce competition from Andhra Pradesh and other states after the Tatas decided to pull out of West Bengal last month in the wake of stiff opposition from Mamta Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

Already, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani sounded upbeat recently when he told a massive rally during an electioneering campaign in Hyderabad that the people were now looking forward to the BJP for the creation of the Telangana state. To this end, Modi has been roped in for his pro-development image. Advani also pledged on the same occasion that the saffron party, if voted to power, would expedite the process of Telangana formation within 100 days.


In this context, actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi took the plunge with the launch of his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) that, he said, would support the formation of separate Telangana State. "It is for the Central government to take a decision on creation of Telangana State. If it comes up with such a proposal, our party will not be an obstacle at any cost," he observed.

"I know the people of this region are overwhelmingly in favour of a separate state. I respect your feelings. If you are convinced that creation of a separate state will ensure rapid development, I am with you," Chiranjeevi said, emphasizing social justice as the main plank of his political platform.

Chirnjeevi observed: “It will be a party for backward classes, farmers, workers, women and youth. The party will work for development, modernisation and industrial revolution. Its goal will be 'santosh' and 'ananda' (contentment and happiness)," he said, adding: "I know your problems, pains and sufferings and will always stand by you. Let us strive for achieving it." Muslim parties should factor in these political equations while formulating their stand.

They also need to come up with a reformist agenda that recognizes the importance of English as the medium of instruction in schools run by them. Even Malayalis, who are so passionate about their mother tongue, are admitting their children to English-medium schools in order to give them a competitive edge in the employment market.


By focusing on Urdu, Muslim parties will no doubt firm up their political base in the community. But they will also be playing into the hands of parties with a vested interest to keep them educationally backward. No wonder, the late Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao had promptly accepted Muslim demand for the formation of an Urdu university in Hyderabad during his term of office.

He saw in it a double-edged weapon that could kill two birds with one shot: win the Muslim vote for the Congress and also keep them on the bottom rungs of the ladder of national development. It was a strategic move that harks us back to the time of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, whose far-sightedness inspired the launch of Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875 which was later upgraded into the full-fledged Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. So while there can be no argument over the need to promote Urdu, study of English should also be prioritized in the schools’ curricula.


The campaign for a separate Telangana state recalls a similar struggle during the 1990's when the late Chandulal Chadrakar set up a political forum, the Chhattisgarh Rajya Nirman Manch, to spearhead the drive for the formation of Chhattisgarh from 16 districts of Madhya Pradesh. The campaign, which was propped up by major political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, gained momentum as it coincided with other separatist movements for Uttarkhand and Jharkhand during 1998-99.

During that year, the BJP-led Union Government drafted a bill for the constitution of a separate state of Chhattisgarh. The draft bill was sent to the Madhya Pradesh assembly, which unanimously approved it in 1998, with some modifications. Thus, Chhattisgarh came into being as the 26th state of the Indian Union on November 1, 2000 by the force of circumstances that also triggered the birth of Uttarkhand carved out of Himachal Pradesh as the 27th state on November 9 and Jharkhand out of southern Bihar as the 28th state on November 15 during the same year. The BJP, which has installed its own candidates in Uttarkhand and Chhattisgarh as chief ministers, sees in Telangana a similar opportunity to don the mantle of leadership. No wonder, it has mobilized its political heavy weights to boost its fortunes in the polls.

The Telangana movement shares with these three states a common factor—under-development resulting from the exploitation of its economic and natural resources. As P.L.Vishweshwer Rao, Professor and Head, Department of Communication & Journalism, Osmania University, notes in his article: “No movement, no struggle has ever started from the top: from intellectuals, thinkers, political and other leaders, elected representatives and so on. Inevitably, the struggles begin from people - the people give expression to their suffering because it is they who are victims of status quo. The long-dormant hope in the people of Telangana was awakened with the announcement as statehood for Uttarakhand by the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Within a year it has gathered so much strength that politicians, realizing its potential have jumped on to its bandwagon”.

He elaborates that the Telangana region has the lowest literacy rate and minimal educational infrastructure in the state. As many as eight districts of Telangana out of 10 (including Hyderabad) figure among the most backward educationally. “Mahbubnagar has the lowest literacy rate, both among males (40.8 per cent) and females(18 percent). The entire Telangana, except Hyderabad city and Ranga Reddy Urban areas which are in Hyderabad, has lagged behind educationally. Not a single mandal of Telangana has the national literacy rate of 52.19 percent.”

It is against this background that that a move is under way to prevent the exploitation of Telangana-based college managements by their counterparts from coastal districts. Hundreds of colleges belonging to Telangana managements have reportedly crashed in the competition. For this reason, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has warned that colleges run by non-Telangana managements would be banned in separate Telangana.

In fact, the birth of Maoism in Telangana, is said to be partly an offshoot of exploitation by people from the Andhra region, some of whom obtained fake degree certificates to corner jobs in Hyderabad. They also used these tricks to remain entrenched in government positions which, in turn, armed them with decision making powers.

On the economic front, they exploited its rich mineral resources as well as the Krishna and Godavari rivers that are the major sources of irrigation for the entire state. Andhra farmers reportedly went even further by cultivating water-intensive crops depleting its water resources. They also preferred cash to food crops to boost their own income while jacking up food prices as a result of these misplaced priorities.

For these reasons, Telangana has been ranked among the most under-developed regions in the country with all its nine districts, excluding Hyderabad, designated “backward” by the Centre. These districts now receive special assistance from the Central government’s Backward Regions Grant Fund. Under these circumstances, the people of Telangana and its parties see statehood as the only viable route to development.

One of the strong points of Telangana is its IT industry which gained prominence during the tenure of the former TDP Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu. Thanks to its highly skilled manpower base, Hyderabad carved out a niche for itself as India’s second Silicon Valley after Bangalore with its IT and IT- enabled services, pharmaceuticals and entertainment industries. It should leverage its strength in these sectors to create more job opportunities for the people and stimulate economic development to a new pitch.

It is a tribute to Telangana that IT bellwether Infosys of Bangalore has embarked on the construction of its second campus, spread over 447 acres, at Pocharam, near Hyderabad, with a total investment of Rs 1,250 crores. The ground -breaking ceremony of the Infosys SEZ campus was held at Pocharam village in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd. N R Narayana Murthy has said that their decision to locate the project there was taken in view of the high infrastructure facilities in Hyderabad to make it a premier IT destination.

The Infosys campus at Pocharam is expected to accommodate over 25,000 employees and will be completed over a period of 10 years under a three-phase plan. Work is in progress on the first phase, scheduled to be completed in a three-year period, with a seating capacity of 10,000 employees. The initial investment will amount to Rs 600 crore. Telangana can be justifiably proud of its track record in the IT sector as it looks forward to its future as a separate state.

Insight: Drug Industry 'Making Rich At The Cost Of Sick'

By Narayan Lakshman (Guest Writer)

Unless a deeper, institutional change is ushered in to break the nexus between drug companies and the regulatory regime, Indians consuming drugs may be exposing themselves to serious risks.

Even before I walked into the Mayflower Hotel in the heart of Washington on a crisp autumn afternoon to meet Dinesh Thakur, whistle-blower and former director of India-based pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, I had a hunch that this conversation would spark some troubling questions on India’s malfunctioning drug industry.

Today, Solar Power is the Best Bet

By M H Ahssan

Recently we had a 16-hour power outage commencing from midnight until 4.00 next afternoon. The inverter saw us through the hot and stuffy night but it, too, lost its energy by the next afternoon. There was no alternative but to bear the acute discomfort of an air-less hot afternoon. Outages are frequent but this was out of the ordinary.

Lazing around through the day drenched in sweat in the sweltering heat my mind wandered and sauntered down the years that have gone by. In the early 1940s I used to be a child in Gwalior which was the capital of the eponymous princely state. Although we had electricity in our rented house there were many others in the neighbourhood, including that of a minister, which did not. Apparently, even then it took quite a bit to have one’s house electrified. Living off the arterial road, we still had gas lamps to light up our rather broad, generally, deserted lane. Every evening a man would trudge down the lane with a ladder on his shoulders to light up the lamps mounted on somewhat low posts. He would repeat his trip in the early mornings to put out the lights. The lane got its electric streetlights much later.

Apart from lighting up the houses and streets electricity had very little non-industrial use in those days. Hardly any electrical appliances were available for domestic purposes except, of course, fans – table or ceiling. Right through the ‘40s, I recall, we managed the hot Gwalior summers with two table fans in combination with thick khas curtains with water dripping on them through perforated pipes. Radios, symbol for the well-to-do then with their roof-top antennas, were very few. The per capita carbon footprint was, naturally, negligible.

As I grew older radios became ubiquitous, so much so that they would be raucously blaring out film songs from paan shops. Even during the first few post-Independence decades of “Hindu rate of (economic) growth” (of around 3%) the middle classes were inflating, though tardily, and electrical equipment and appliances appeared in the markets to feed their demand. Soon electric kettles, hot plates, mixer-grinders to refrigerators made their appearance for making things easier in the kitchen. For the living rooms there were radios, of course, followed by electrically operated turn-tables, record-changers, even radiograms and tape (spool) recorders. To meet the exigencies of the weather there were either heaters or coolers, even an occasional air conditioner.

All these were confined to a very thin upper crust of the society – the rich and upper middle classes. Liberalisation of the economy in the early 1990s brought about a sea change. Not only MNCs descended in the country in large numbers, transfer of modern sophisticated technology also took place. The rapidly expanding middle classes accessed a whole new range of electrical appliances known as “white goods” and luxury items at prices that were competitive owing to the phenomenon of “globalisation”. What were confined to a small segment progressively came within the reach of a much larger section of the population. As a result, electricity today doesn’t simply light up the houses; it runs kitchens, helps in washing clothes, crockery and utensils, cools and heats the houses, entertains the family and provides 24X7 connectivity. No wonder, the per capita carbon footprint rose from 0.8 in 1990 to 1.3 in 2006 and yet nowhere near the footprint of giants like US which was 32.8 in 2006.

The veritable explosion of the middle classes and the accompanying growth of industry and commerce preordained a rise in demand for power. The supply, however, could never match the demand making shortages endemic. The country currently lives through a regime of extensive power cuts and prolonged outages. All talks of sufficiency in the near future are misleading as, firstly, there are not enough power projects in the pipeline and, secondly, in the current times of faster economic growth demand is always likely to outstrip the supply.

The problem is likely to get compounded as environmental considerations may inhibit the country’s efforts to install many more coal-fired power plants unless it is able to, miraculously, find a cleaner thermal power technology. Similar considerations may hamper development of hydro power. Already there are protests, for example, against proposals for scores of hydro-power projects in the states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. The current government seems to be banking on nuclear energy. That too carries its own rather heavy baggage. Apart from the long gestation, not only there are concerns relating to security of the plants, there would also be difficulties in locating safe sites for disposal of the nuclear wastes.

So far coal has been the main source of our energy. Evidently the country has to now go after renewable energy in a big way. Among the renewables are solar, wind, tidal and biomass. However, for reasons that are obvious, solar power holds the key and could be the best bet for India. With about 300 clear and sunny days in a year India’s theoretical solar power reception just on its land area is enough to produce energy that could be a thousand times greater than the likely demand in 2015, even if conversion efficiency of photovoltaic modules is pegged at a modest 10%.

Currently solar energy in the country works out to merely 0.4% of the total energy produced. The grid-interactive solar power as of June 2007 was merely 2.12 MW. Government-funded solar energy in India in 2005 accounted only for approximately 6.4 megawatt. However, the generation is disintegrated for applications that are mostly off-grid and petty in nature like street-lighting, water-heating, solar lanterns and so on.

Since the potential is enormous what is now required is a huge push for solar power generation that can be integrated, at least, with localised and regional grids. It is said that more energy falls on the world's deserts in six hours than the world consumes in a year. Africa's deserts receive enough power not only for Africa and Europe, but for the whole world. Hence, the Thar Desert with its locational advantages could become India’s solar-energy hotspot

Instead of entirely depending on the photovoltaic technology, which proves to be costlier unless subsidised like in Europe, concentrating solar (thermal) power needs to be given a big push. There are varied technologies that produce energy by concentrating the light rays onto a small surface to generate heat and use that heat to drive a turbine, which in turn drives a generator. Experts believe solar thermal power can play a significantly important role in meeting the yawning demand-supply gap (claimed to be 12% but actually is much more) for electricity.

While the Clinton Climate Foundation is mulling huge solar power initiatives of around 3000 MW each in the Rann (Gujarat) and Thar (Rajasthan) the Centre has launched the Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission. Mercifully, the Mission proposes, apart from striving for global leadership in solar manufacturing, to launch a major R&D programme in solar energy – a crying need for the country, given the availability of surfeit of knowledge-workers.

According to Americans, solar power is no longer an “eco-fantasy”. One wishes we Indians could ape Americans, especially the Californians, at least in respect of production of green energy. Power-starved as we are, like the Californians were in 1970, we need to act like the state by inducing the consumers to use less power, legislating for energy-efficiency in buildings, appliances or whatever, to foster entrepreneurial spirit among the industrialists and require the utilities to provide one-third of their power from renewables by 2020.

Given the circumstances, that shouldn’t be too much to ask for!

India Genetics: The Fault, Dear Brutus, Lies In The Genes

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

Genetic testing for health risks holds plenty of promise in India, so long as enough people take to it. As he peers over the diagram of a family tree, one among several he has drawn in the past five months, Dr Amit Verma runs his fingers along the arrows to trace cancer in his patient’s family. Two of the patient’s aunts were detected with breast cancer in their forties, and their father (her maternal grandfather) had died of prostate cancer. “[The patient] is now 34 years old and is worried that she might have inherited the ‘cancer gene’, as it were,” says Dr Verma, a molecular oncologist who has been studying genes and genetic mutations that cause cancer for ten years and set up a counselling centre for it this January at Max Hospital in Delhi.

The Telangana Prophecy: Will More States Mean Conflict?

With the government clearing Telangana as India's 29th state, long-standing demands for separate states in other parts of the country have gained fresh momentum. This could be a foretelling of many more states to come, but would that necessarily augur ill for the unity of India? Noted historian Ramachandra Guha shares his thoughts.

Earlier in August, the UPA government decided to give the nod to India's 29th state Telangana, predictably setting in motion a spate of debates across the country.

INDIAN TRAVEL FIRMS KEEN ON 'VACATION VOLUNTEERING'

By Krishan Mohan / Mumbai

Travel companies across the country are organising holidays for those who want to light up lives, even on a leisure trip. INN explores the various options tour companies provide.

What do you plan to do with the one month you get off from your high-stress job? Go bungee jumping in Bhutan, ride with the rhinos in Kaziranga, camp in Kullu-Manali or go hippy in Hampi? Wherever it is you’re going this summer, spare a thought for a social cause. And pick the right travel company to plan your trip around it.

The Fermenting India

India these days seems to be in ferment. If one picks up a newspaper one gets hit by headlines that certainly do not bode well for the country, at least, not in its immediate future. While one can discern a severe churning taking place in the country’s social, political and economic life, the government, at the same time, is largely perceived to be drifting along.

Protests against governmental actions/inactions both, at the Centre and in some states have been raging for months. Tamilnadu in the South has witnessed an agitation against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant that is only few months away from attaining criticality. The pathetic fate of far-away Fukushima in Japan and its ill-fated victims have justifiably induced fear in the surrounding villages of Koodankulam. People in general have become resistant to the idea of nuclear power and fearful of the nuclear power plants.

Another anti-nuclear protest by villagers earlier this year in the idyllic Konkan region in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri District against a mega Nuclear Power Park had boiled over for weeks and had even become violent. Acquisitions of fertile lands under an antique law for mining, industry and power – thermal or nuclear – in pursuit of double-digit GDP growth gave rise to agitations of farmers and tribal communities in several states. The government has been hard put to subdue them.

The country has also seen protests in the North-East, in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, as also in the Himalayan states of Himachal and Uttarakhand against construction of dams for irrigation and generating hydro-power. While people, especially rural and tribal communities, have become more alert about safeguarding their rights and livelihoods, the governments, both at the Centre and in the states have been tardy in shedding their autocratic attitudes and have failed to take people into confidence before conceiving projects that impinge on their wellbeing.

Today, with information being available at the remotest of outposts ordinarily people refuse to be taken for granted by governments and their functionaries. A decades-old movement for creation of the Telangana state (to be carved out of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh) has gathered strength and is continuing now for months with no solution in sight. The Congress Party which had merged the region with the then newly-created Andhra Pradesh more than half a century ago against the wishes of the locals and against its own better judgement has now been facing the music. With passions running high, life in the state and its capital, Hyderabad, is paralysed with considerable impact on it administration and economy.

The social activist Anna Hazare’s two successive fasts, with unprecedented country-wide support, for enactment of a strong “Janlokpal” (anti-corruption ombudsman) law and later the government’s capitulation are recent history. India Against Corruption (IAC), led by Hazare and his team, are still hitting headlines. It has decided to canvass against Congress candidates at the 2012 state polls if the Parliament reneged from its commitments given during its last session for legislating for a strong “Lokpal” – the reasoning being the Congress leads the coalition at the Centre.

Although the context might be different, IAC’s efforts of swinging elections away from the Congress remind one of the campaigns of The Tea Party in the US during the 2010 Congressional elections. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s first tenure appeared sedate until, of course, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, insisted on signing the Indo-US Nuclear Deal even at the cost of losing support of one of his important allies – the Left – risking his government’s survival. The government did survive and win the “Confidence vote” only after the “cash-for-votes” scam exploded in the Parliament in 2008. The Congress-led ruling combine’s brazen efforts to soft-pedal investigations into the scandal invited a scorcher from the apex court. And yet, the trial that was hurriedly commenced, based on seemingly skewed investigations, appear to be farcical as none from among the beneficiaries – the Congress-led UPA government – of the scam has so far been hauled up. After IAC’s massive anti-corruption movement the government’s attitude appears somewhat brassy.

UPA I’s survival by dubious means has come to haunt it in its second avatar. All the scams that are currently hogging the headlines are of UPA I-vintage. The biggest of them all – allotment of 2G spectrum – saw a cabinet minister, a member of parliament (both of a southern ally) and a few corporate honchos into the jail, besides embarrassing the Prime Minister who tried to hide behind the nebulous “coalition compulsions”. He was, nonetheless, forced to act by an aggressive Supreme Court. Later, even the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) got into the act, putting the finger at the loss of incredible hundreds of thousands of billion rupees.

The relentless media exposes of scams of another few hundred thousand billion rupees during the run up to the Commonwealth Games in 2010 forced the Prime Minister into action to have it investigated by a former CAG. Having shot himself in the foot, he lost credibility. And, it led to a curious crisis of confidence that stalled governance and induced a policy-paralysis even as sycophants of Sonia Gandhi undermined his stature by repeated assertions about eligibility of her son to occupy the highest executive position.

Today, the busiest organisations are the courts, especially the Supreme Court, and investigative agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and other police outfits. While virtually every day there are reports of court orders pulling up a public organisation or an individual, every new day brings also the news of a big wig either being put in the coup or refused bail. A large number of politicians of different hues are in Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail. While the Law Minister, strangely, feared for drop in investments with so many corporate heads in jail, the apex court was taken aback when warned by a government lawyer of destabilisation of the government if it went after high functionaries like the home minister, a case for whose prosecution contributing to the 2-G scam is also currently being heard.

A recent headline spoke of “scams, graft (are) hitting growth”. Indeed, GDP growth has slowed down. Scams and graft could well have been very important reasons. No less important has been the reason of inflation which has been biting the industry and the common man, the very aam aadmi, whom the UPA swore by. The prices have gone through the roof and what hurts the most is the food inflation that has moved beyond 10%. The declining value of the rupee has pushed a few more millions below the poverty line. And yet, the government unmindfully has sought to peg the poverty line at a ridiculous Rs. 32 .00 and Rs. 26.00 per day in urban and rural areas, respectively, fuelling fresh controversy.

None in the government seems to have bothered to enforce checks on the inflated prices of essentials like vegetables and food grains. While the prices of agricultural produce rule high squeezing the common man the farmers commit suicide and, ironically, the cartels and middlemen make their piles. Even, the middle classes have got the wrong end of the stick with repeated hikes in interest rates to combat the prevailing inflation, pushing, inter alia, housing and automobiles out of the reach of many.

Economic growth has, on one hand, been accompanied by growth in numbers of billionaires, enriched ministers and MPs/MLAs, rising numbers of private aircraft, luxury yachts and high-end luxury cars on the roads and, on the other, by huge numbers of discontented and resentful poverty-stricken, malnourished and hungry – by some estimates around 60 million (77% by the reckoning of the late economist Arjun Sengupta) – in rural and urban India. Jobs remaining scarce, petty and other crimes have shown an inordinate rise. Snatchings, thievery, rapine, kidnappings etc. have become common. Worse, while mafias stalk the honest and whistleblowers, murder and rape have registered a sharp rise. Security of life and property has become tenuous.

Polarisation in politics has bred acute intolerance for a contrarian view. Two prominent IAC activists were assaulted – one was beaten up on camera for holding views on Kashmir disagreeable to the extreme right and the other for canvassing votes against the Congress if it did not fulfil its commitment of legislating for a strong Lokpal. While unbridled pursuit of economic growth has made only the rich and the unscrupulous prosperous and happy, it has spread unhappiness and misery among a very large section of the people. At the same time, it has demolished the anchors of Indian society in a mad rush for money; the get-rich-quick syndrome is eating into its moral fibre. Ethical life in India today has been shoved on to, no, not the back seat, but the boot. Reversing this now well-established unholy trend might well be an impossible proposition.

India Is Slowly Cleaving Into Two Countries – A Richer, Older South And A Poorer, Younger North

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

Support to the elderly is fraying in India. But no one appears prepared for this – not families, not companies, not the government.

At traffic intersections, drivers in Delhi tune out the brown-haired, snot-nosed waifs who tap and scratch insistently at their car windows. Sometimes, the children are joined by equally ragged parents, mostly in their 20s, trying to sell cheap Chinese-made junk – from plastic flowers to cellphone and steering-wheel covers. The defining feature of destitution in North India appears to be youth.