Congress at 125

Mahatma Gandhi thought he would live up to be 125. Alas, that was not to be. But the Indian National Congress to which he devoted the last thirty years of his life has reached that landmark number. Whatever is good and bad about India can be laid at the door of the Congress.

Winston Churchill once boasted that history would be kind to him. He added, 'That is because I intend to write it.' The Congress has fashioned much of modern India's history. But it has also written India's history in such a way that no one gets any credit for any of the big successes India has witnessed. It would have us believe that single-handedly it delivered India's independence and no other group made any contribution. It then delivered the Constitution and made India into a vibrant democracy. Then of course it established a secular polity and gave India stability against its enemies, both internal and external. Then almost as an afterthought it gave us liberal economic reform which has now made India a great economic power.

This is, of course, a gross distortion of the truth. The Congress did do a lot of good no doubt but many others helped as well. Before Independence, there were many idealistic patriotic men and women who rejected Congress's moderate non-violent strategy and took up arms. They may have failed but they did make an impact. So did the Constitutional wing which collaborated with the British. After all, the Constitution derives largely from the Government of India Act 1935. The Congress played no part in its construction since it did not go to the first Round Table Conference and then rejected the Act after its publication. It was under this Act that the Constituent Assembly was elected and gave the Congress the chance to fashion the rest of India's Constitution after 1946.

The one major contribution of the Congress has to be India's democratic polity. Without Jawaharlal Nehru's democratic behaviour, India would not have retained its democracy after Independence. Neither the RSS nor the Communists championed democracy. But after his death, and especially after 1969 when the Congress split, the democratic culture was abandoned within the Congress. Soon all Indian parties abandoned any democratic practice internally. To this day, leaders of parties are not elected but enthroned. How long can democracy last in a polity where the leaders do not subject themselves to any democratic challenge?

But perhaps the most galling aspect of the Congress record is its failure to tackle poverty. Having been in power for fifty out of the sixty-three years, the Congress makes no apology for the appalling record of poverty it has presided over. For the first forty- two years after independence except for two years of the Janata, Congress had total command over the economy. It failed to generate economic growth, or employment or eradicate poverty or pursue land reforms, or educate the masses of India or look after their health. All this was called Socialist Pattern of Society. In the meantime, neighbours of India like Malaysia and Sri Lanka, to say nothing of Asian tigers like Taiwan, South Korea surged ahead of India. India, which was the best endowed and most industrialised country in Asia in 1947 (Japan did better before the War but by 1947 it had its economy bombed out) fell behind steadily. It neglected its industrial base in textiles and consumer industries and went on to build monuments of folly since the Soviet Union was our model. Generations of Indians paid the cost for the grandiose structures of machine building.

India's real progress dates from the period when Congress monopoly of political power ended. That is when the backward castes at last got their voice heard in politics. Mandalisation is wasteful but it is the only way the downtrodden could get anywhere within the Hindu social order, which the Congress had failed to reform.

The real economic breakthrough came in 1991.Three things helped. The Congress did not have a commanding majority. The Prime Minister did not belong to the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Finance Minister was a non-Congress technocrat.

The winning formula then is Congress in power but without a majority and the Prime Minister from outside the family and preferably not a Congress veteran.

Source: Indian Express

Horticulture Technology Mission a Success in Mizoram

Aizawl, Nov 8 : The Horticulture Technology Mission has scripted a huge success story in floriculture in Mizoram, making it possible for even ordinary women to earn handsome sums of money.

One of the notable beneficiaries of the Horticulture Technology Mission's efforts is Lalthuamliani of Durtlang village, about eight kilometers north of Aizawl.

Lalthuamliani, who began her anthurium cultivation with 1,000 plants, now has 10,500 plants and earns up to Rs 35,000 a month.

She has even been praised by former President A P J Abdul Kalam and Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh at her residence when they came calling to appreciate her efforts.

Another success story is that of Lalzamlovi, a housewife living in Aizawl. She earned Rs 1 lakh from her anthurium garden at Ramrikawn, about an hour's drive from the city, in 2007. She has tripled her annual income since.

The director of the state horticulture department, Samuel Rosanglura, said the launch of the technology mission for northeastern states in 2001-02 was a turning point for the horticulture department in Mizoram.

He said the potential of horticulture as a sustainable means of livelihood has gained more recognition since the mission was launched.

The impact of the technology mission in the state can mainly be felt in the production of cash crops and fruits, but womenfolk in the state mainly benefit from the body's floriculture initiatives.

Anthurium cultivation was introduced under the technology mission by the state horticulture department in November, 2002, by selecting 24 potential growers.

Dr Saipari, the Joint Director of the Horticulture department, said there are now more than 400 anthurium growers, with an average annual income of Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000, who have united under the banner ''Zo Anthurium Growers Society''.

Mizoram’s Love Potion No. 7

Mizoram, the dry North Eastern state of India has started producing wine with introduction last month of a small quantity of ‘Zawlaidi’ label which means love-potion in the Mizo language, thus achieving the unique distinction of becoming perhaps the only wine producing region in the world, which otherwise continues to enforce prohibition and several groups opposing wine production.

Mizoram is one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India, sharing borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and with the neighboring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. It became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987 with Aizawl as its capital-after years of insurgency. The state has been under dry law for 13 years, as the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act was enforced in the state two years after formulation, on February 20, 1997. Wine processing from grapes was allowed in the state after the act was amended in April 2007.

The main reason of this progressive amendment was to increase the earning opportunities for the local villagers who produce bumper crops of grapes but are unable to sell them. In Hnahlan village about 540 families, around 80 % of the total population, has been engaged in grape production whereas 325 families in Champhai area near the Myanmar border, have been engaged in the new activity. According to reports, Hnahlan is expected to produce around 700 cases of wine and Champhai 1000 cases.

Each bottle is priced at Rs 170- slightly higher than the similar fortified ‘Ports’ being produced in Goa and Maharashtra. Wine is allowed to be sold only in Mizoram for the moment. The Excise department of Mizoram has directed that the quantity of the wine should be limited to four liters per person.

As already reported in delWine, a co-operative society had been set up by the cultivators as Grape Growers Society, with Vanlalruata Chenkual, the District Horticulture Officer of Khawzawl as its managing director. Champhai Grape Growers Society harvested 478.5 quintals of grapes this year and expects to harvest 2,056 quintals during 2010-11. Hnahlan Grape Growers Society harvested 6916 quintals and expects the crop of 7910 quintals this year.

The state excise laws dictate that wine has to be sold through licensed retail shops only and before 5 pm. It is interesting that the legal age for wine buyers and sales persons is 18; it is 25 for buyers in most of the other Indian states, though the sales persons may be above the age of 21 as each state is free to have its own laws and policies for marketing wine and alcoholic products.

It is acknowledged by Christians that Jesus changed water into wine. It even seems that Jesus drank wine on occasion.

But the Bible also condemns drunkenness and its effects. The sale of the locally produced wine has been banned within weeks of being launched in one of the localities in the capital city of Aizawl after it was opposed by a committee comprising of different NGOs and the Church of the Christian dominated state.

The churches in Mizoram, who were behind the prohibition law, have expressed their resentment on the liberalization of grape wine.

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Give And Take, Not Giver And Taker

By Shekhar Gupta

New Delhi: On the day Obama arrives in New Delhi, the question you are most likely to hear is, can/will this presidential visit also be a game-changer like the last two (Clinton and Bush)?

You will also mostly get scepticism and doubt by way of answers.

That he is bringing not a big idea but mere platitudes. That he is too weak to deliver a cartful of goodies to his country’s latest “strategic ally”.

That he is coming not so much as the most powerful leader in the world, but mostly as a seeker of jobs for his recession-hit people.

All three are probably right. But is it all good, or bad for India?

Could it be that this visit won't be a game-changer because there is no need to materially alter the relationship as it has been re-set in the past 15 years? This visit, then, would be further evidence that the game of our bilateral relationship has already changed. Therefore, it is about cementing and celebrating that remarkable shift rather than search for unnecessary new paradigms.

Clinton convinced us after 37 years (since Kennedy, 1963) that Americans could be our friends. By declaring that the map of the subcontinent can no longer be redrawn in blood he also sanctified the LoC as a nearly de-facto border. Bush followed by seeking India as a strategic partner in the war against terror and backing his commitment by delivering to India an unprecedented single-country exemption from such a water-tight regime of multilateral treaty restrictions.

These moves were game-changers. These were made between two different sets of governments in the 1998-2008 decade, thereby also acquiring a genuinely bipartisan seal of approval in both democracies. Our engagement with the US from thereon, should be, and is about consummating the gains from this. That is what this Obama visit should, and hopefully will, be about.

Meanwhile, we have to get over our terminal disease of trivialising issues, and undermining our own new status in a world where balance of power has been altered by not just the end of the Cold War, but also the Great Recession of 2008.

The first marked the end of one super power, the second left the remaining super-power greatly diminished, its people living with pessimism, fear and ideological polarisation not experienced by two generations. Obama lands in New Delhi as the leader of that America.

The visit already had a near-false start as we let a trivial issue of outsourcing and visa fees dominate the build-up. As also, Obama's candid view on India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

The first is a matter of run-of-the-mill trade negotiations. It's an aside but relevant today: in Washington in 1987, Reagan picked up a cashew from the table, and reminded Rajiv Gandhi that it had come from India, and when would his country start buying Californian almonds. From squabbling over serious, strategic differences and insecurities, our relationship has matured so much we now only argue over whether our intelligence people share all the information they have, or only 80-90 per cent (as with Headley).

On arms supplies, nobody goes neurotic with every new shipment to Pakistan and we talk, instead, about what we can buy, and only if the terms are better than offers from Europe, Israel and Russia. And on trade, instead of arguing over sundry tree nuts, we are negotiating tens of billions of dollars in trade.

Indian and American leaders have invested three decades in de-hyphenating our relationship. That achieved, the logical next step should be a relationship of equality, of give-and-take, rather than giver-and-taker. By continuing to harp on jobs and exports, Obama is underlining the changed nature of of our relationship. Our challenge now is to grow a confident belief in this new "equal" status where we need to give as we take. That is the challenge of this new relationship, as also its great opportunity.

Source: The Indian Express

Kendriya Vidyalaya's New Course

Kendriya Vidyalayas to offer skill development

New Delhi: Kendriya Vidyalaya campuses will now be available for skill development courses after school hours, the human resource development ministry said Wednesday.

The decision was taken by the board of governors of Kendriya Vidyalayas Sangathan, chaired by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, following the recommendations of the Academic Advisory Committee of the HRD ministry.

"The minister directed the Kendriya Vidyalayas to prepare a detailed policy, especially with regard to preference to be given to school children for the courses and the skills that may be permitted," a ministry official said.

"The policy would also incorporate the provision of an exit clause in case evening shifts are required," he said.

The guidelines for transfer of Kendriya Vidyalaya staff was also revised.

According to the ministry officials, the new system will "provide a fair chance to every employee of getting a choice posting and will be done in a transparent manner.

"Posting to hard stations will be done only after 40 years of age, both for ladies and others, and minimum three years of tenure will be given at the place of first posting," the official said.

"This will provide a uniform ground for all employees and stop favouritism," he said.

Other decisions taken by the board include in-service training course for teachers, regional incentive awards and commencing foreign language classes.

Source: IANS

Construction Of Mega Dams On The Brahmaputra

By Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman

The series of mega dams being built by India on the various tributaries of the Brahmaputra in the state of Arunachal Pradesh has generated immense political debate and activism in Northeast India, and led to inter-state tensions between Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The concerns of downstream Assam arises from  the likely effects these dams will have in their territory, which includes siltation, floods, impact on infrastructure and development, environmental disasters like flash floods and dam breaks induced by earthquakes, which have occurred in the past, resulting in huge damages.

Political activism has increased over this issue of mega dams in Arunachal Pradesh, which has reflected in political posturing by the state governments of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Dorjee Khandu, has been lobbying in New Delhi for taking up dam projects in his state as planned, and has met several senior ministers and political leaders in New Delhi on this issue. He is strongly opposing the moratorium proposed on these mega dam projects until proper environmental risk impact and other technical aspects are assessed by expert panels, which has been the sustained demand of Assam in recent times.

The state government of Assam has been cautious due to the growing domestic fears in the state over the impact of mega dams in upstream Arunachal Pradesh, which is a regular feature in protests by civil society organizations and in the Assamese Media. Several prominent civil society and political organizations in Assam are against the dams in Arunachal Pradesh; and with the Assam state assembly elections due in early 2011, the political heat is bound to increase. The Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi has also been lobbying in Delhi to impose a moratorium on mega dams. He has had meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and has demanded the setting up of a Central level Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the matter. He has also demanded the constitution of expert committees to examine all aspects of the mega dams.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has come to the forefront of the anti-dam agitation in Assam, organizing mass rallies and awareness programmes on this issue. The Kisan Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), another mass based farmer organization, led by Akhil Gogoi, has been holding huge demonstrations all over the state against mega dams. Regional political parties like the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) have seized this opportunity to attack the Congress led state government, and this is going to be one of the main election issues in Assam. Civil society organizations in Arunachal Pradesh are also working in tandem with their contemporaries in Assam against these mega dams which have the potential to create enormous ecological damage; and as pointed out by many local civil society organizations in Arunachal Pradesh, would adversely affect the tribal way of life in the state by leading to massive displacement and unsustainable development.

The respective state governments have failed however to reach any  consensus or understanding on the issue of mega dams, and vested commercial interests like contractors and companies involved in the mega dams projects are behind the strong pro-dam lobby in Arunachal Pradesh. Interestingly, both Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have Congress led governments, hence they have chosen to leave it to the central government and political leadership to intervene and mediate this issue. The lack of political will and leadership to provide solutions and build a consensus in Northeast India has affected many other aspects of development and governance in the region. Inter-state understanding and cooperation in Northeast India has been abysmally low, despite the presence of a regional coordination body like the North East Council, which lacks any consensus building capacity.

An Inter-Ministerial meeting on mega dams in Northeast India has been called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but has been postponed many times for various reasons. It remains to be seen how New Delhi will mediate between Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, as it will have to walk a political tightrope due to the upcoming Assam elections. New Delhi has allowed Arunachal Pradesh to sanction a large number of mega dam projects with the objective of retaining its first-use rights over the waters of the Brahmaputra river system against the dams and river diversion plans of China. The development of Arunachal Pradesh is a priority for the Central government, given its geo-strategic significance vis-à-vis China. New Delhi needs to strike a balance between its strategic calculations and addressing the domestic fears and concerns in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, which have the potential to create internal unrest.

Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, Research Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, may be reached at mirzalibra10@gmail.com

Jatinga Awaits its Visitors

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Jatinga has never had too many visitors; only some suicidal birds. For a few months every year, this village that’s about eight km south of Haflong town in Assam, exotic species of birds, like the ashy-headed green pigeon and green-breasted pitta, fly into Jatinga, bang against walls and trees and drop dead, an event that has come to be known as the Jatinga phenomenon among ornithologists.

Till a little over a year ago, the entire North Cachar Hill district (now called Dima Hasao), of which Jatinga is part, was in the grip of militancy and violence. Though Jatinga was not directly affected, it suffered enough collateral damage. Now, the village wants to fight back by opening its doors to outsiders.

“We do not want to perish in this cycle of meaningless violence. Our village, like every other village in this hill district, is a little paradise. People here have realised that tourism is the only road to development,” says Sylvia Suchiang, a school teacher who is part of the Jatinga Mothers’ Association.

Jatinga, a village of 3,000 people, is picture-postcard perfect. Perched on a spur of the Haflong ridge, an offshoot of the Barail mountains, Jatinga is located at a tri-junction of roads leading to Haflong, Lumding and Silchar. It is also connected by a metre-gauge railway track that winds its way through tunnels and over gorges, leisurely or lahe-lahe, as they say in Assamese.

“Jatinga is a 100 per cent literate village,” claims Evelyntice Sajem, who retired as principal of the Haflong Girls’ Higher Secondary School. “Also, women here contribute immensely towards the family income.”

Every morning, women walk down to their fields on the main Barail range, trekking 10 to 12 km each way, carrying home ginger, turmeric, oranges, pineapples, bay-leaf and potatoes. “Lakhonbang Suchaing, the founder of our village, had in 1920 also built a guest house for visitors. Probably he had tourism in his mind,” says Sajem.

“More than anything else, the bird suicide mystery has the potential to attract tourists and ornithologists from all over the world to Jatinga,” says External Siangshai, a youth from this village who is associated with an NGO called Community Resource Management Services.

And that exactly is what the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council—the local-self government in the tribal districts of Assam—is trying to cash in on. The first-ever Jatinga International Festival took off last week and despite teething troubles, tour operators from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata came to the village.

Way back in 1957, when legendary amateur naturalist Edward Pritchard Gee—originally an Anglo-Indian tea planter in Assam—wrote about birds committing suicide in Jatinga in his book Wildlife of India, not many believed him. But when the celebrated bird-man, Salim Ali, agreed that it was indeed a mysterious phenomenon, the Zoological Survey of India sent Sudhir Sengupta to unravel this mystery. Sengupta linked the suicide tendency of the birds to “changing weather conditions” that disturbed the “physiological rhythm” of the birds. Several studies that followed Sengupta’s have tried to solve the Jatinga phenomenon but there has been no conclusive evidence so far.

While people in Jatinga realise that the bird suicide mystery is their unique selling point, they know it can’t be at the cost of the birds.

“There was a time when every household here put up lights to attract the birds during those particular weeks. We can’t stop the birds from banging against walls but with increasing awareness, we have started taking care of the birds and provide them first-aid,” says Manba Sajem, president of the Jatinga Youth Cultural Organisation. Sajem and his friends organise regular awareness programmes for the villagers, telling them that if the birds stop coming to Jatinga, the tourists too won’t come.

The forest department has set up a watch tower where visitors can watch the rush of birds on specific nights, with as many as 44 species of birds recorded over the years.

The list of avian visitors to Jatinga include the yellow bittern, ashy-headed green pigeon, green-breasted pitta, blossom-headed parakeet, greater rocket-tailed drongo, pheasant-tailed jacana, button quail, paradise fly-catcher, slaty-legged banded crake, white-winged wood duck and many more.