Green, Gene and Evergreen Revolutions: Interesting wordplay

Suman Sahai
Infochange

By successfully morphing the popular Green Revolution with the Gene Revolution, proponents of agricultural biotechnology appear to indicate that the latter will bring in all the benefits of the former, and in perpetuity. But there are glaring differences between the two so-called ‘revolutions’


Agbiotechnology is presented in many forms, the most common being that it will solve world hunger. To reinforce this claim there is interesting wordplay at work. Agbiotechnology is referred to as the ‘Evergreen Revolution’ or the ‘Gene Revolution’; both terms are an attempt to link agbiotech with the Green Revolution.

In the view of most political leaders, policymakers, farmers and citizens, the Green Revolution was a positive event that brought benefits. It did, in fact, increase food production, principally cereal production. It made India independent of food imports and firmed up its political spine. It ensured surplus grain that could be stored as buffer stocks to be rushed wherever and whenever the need arose. And it tried to ensure that famines were not a feature of the Indian reality.

These gains were so visible that the downside, the unequal distribution of benefits, of land and water degradation, the accompanying loss of genetic diversity, and persisting endemic hunger and poverty, could not take the shine off the Green Revolution.

Because of this positive image, promoters of agbiotech draw semantic parallels, invoking the earlier agricultural revolution. The subliminal message is: if the Green Revolution brought so many benefits, the Evergreen Revolution would bring all those benefits in perpetuity.

This play of words and imagery has actually been quite successful. Political leaders and policymakers carry over the positive association with the Green Revolution to the Evergreen one. If the earlier version brought such benefits, the newer one (more precise, with greater possibilities, as the industry says) would surely bring even greater benefits to farmers and the poor. Conveniently left out of the picture are the essential and crucial differences between the two ‘revolutions’.

The Green Revolution (GR) was a publicly-owned technology belonging to the people. The research was conducted with public money to fulfil a public need -- inadequate food production -- and it created public goods to which everyone had access. There were no Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), no patents vested with multinational companies, no proprietary technologies or products. If there was ownership of the GR, it was with the farmer. Once the seed reached the farmer, it was his; he moved it where he wanted. Therefore, despite its drawbacks, the Green Revolution addressed farmers’ needs and India’s food production showed an upward curve.

The Evergreen Revolution (ER) is almost the exact opposite. It is a privately-owned technology. Six corporations (Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, DuPont, Dow, and BASF Plant Science) control practically all research and output in the field of transgenic plants. Processes and products, including research methodologies, are shackled in patents and the farmer has no say, let alone any control. The technology creates only private goods that may be accessed only at significant cost (a bag of Mahyco-Monsanto’s Bt cotton seed in India costs Rs 1,600, as compared to between Rs 300 and Rs 400 for superior varieties produced locally).

The seed belongs to the company, which strictly controls its movement. With the development of the popularly termed ‘terminator’ or sterile seed technology, the farmer is reduced to a helpless consumer, not a partner as in the case of the GR. The Evergreen Revolution has in its 20 years not yet produced a crop variety that has any direct connection to hunger and nutritional needs. The most prevalent crops remain corn, soya, cotton and canola, and the dominant traits are herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. Despite its other faults, the Green Revolution was able to put out a number of crop varieties in a short span of time that enabled direct yield increases, which brought immediate benefits to farmers. That, in short, is the contrast between the two revolutions, so assiduously camouflaged by the agbiotech spinmeisters.

India participated enthusiastically in the Green Revolution and is on its way to equally enthusiastically embrace the Gene Revolution or agbiotechnology. Yet there is little debate in the country on whether any lessons have been learnt from the Green Revolution. There is even less discussion by policymakers and other stakeholders about the path that agbiotechnology should take in India. There is no consultation with the public, as in many other countries (for example, in Europe), or any sharing of information as is done in almost all countries that are implementing GM technology.

The department of biotechnology has promoted research projects randomly in universities and research institutions, without any assessment of farmers’ needs and the best way to fulfil them; civil society has been uneasy about the lack of transparency and lack of competence in regulatory bodies; the media is largely uninformed; and political leaders remain unaware of the direction this new and controversial technology is taking in India and have no say in determining what it should or should not do.

It is time that the country came up with a well-thought-out national policy on agricultural biotechnology. The policy should be framed after widespread consultations with all the stakeholders. The process of consultations should be inclusive and transparent, allowing a range of expertise and insight to be brought into the decision-making process. The greater the ownership of the outcome of the consultative process, the better will be the acceptance of the policy that is framed.

(Suman Sahai has a PhD in genetics. She is the Director of Gene Campaign, a leading research and advocacy organisation working on farmer and community rights, bio-resources, IPR, indigenous knowledge and GE food and crops)

CPI's call to review support to UPA

The Hindu, 22 April

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Communist party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan has said the Left parties will have to do a collective rethink on the support being extended to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and Presidential elections.

Mr. Bardhan told a news conference here on Saturday that his party was of the view that the UPA should not be allowed to take Left support for granted and go ahead with policies that were detrimental to the interests of the large majority of people in the country. The CPI, he said, was of the view that the UPA should be told in clear terms that it could not go on without addressing the core issues contained in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and persist with its blind pursuit of growth rates, jeopardising the livelihood of large sections of the people.

The CPI general secretary said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been reaping the benefit of large-scale disenchantment among the people with the UPA rule. The Left had repeatedly warned the Government of the disastrous consequences of its policies, for example on the question of price rise. However, these suggestions were ignored resulting in massive discontent among the masses. The Left had extended support to the UPA to keep the BJP out of power. With discontent growing among the masses, the BJP was deriving the political benefits, despite its moral bankruptcy as seen in its MP indulging in trafficking in women. "It is not love for the BJP, but anger towards the UPA rule that is turning people towards the BJP," he said.

Mr. Bardhan saw no merit in the ongoing discussions on the future President. He said the outcome of the Uttar Pradesh elections was crucial to the Presidential election because of the strong presence of MLAs from the State in the electoral college. He also refused to be drawn into a discussion on the possible candidature of Infosys Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy and said it was too early for any such discussion.

He hoped that the UPA Government would get the Supreme Court stay on 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Communities (OBCs) in higher education institutions vacated at the earliest.

Mr. Bardhan said though his party was fully appreciative of the need for industrialisation in the country, it could not agree with the decision to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs) all over the country. The SEZs would only pave the way for grabbing of prime agriculture land by industrial monopolies, which would then become real estate monopolies as well. This would adversely affect the farm sector.

A glossary of Indianness

Shashi Tharoor
TOI, 21 April

What does it mean to be an Indian? Our nation is such a conglomeration of languages, cultures, ethnicities that it is tempting to dismiss the question as unanswerable. How can one define a country that has 2,000 castes and sub-castes, 22,000 languages and dialects and 300 different ways of cooking the potato? Sixty years after Independence, however, it will no longer do to duck the question. For amidst our diversities we have all acquired a sense of what we have in common: the assumptions, the habits, the shared reference-points that constitute the cultural and intellectual baggage of every thinking Indian.

Of course, India's complexities make the task a little more difficult than that of the British friend who defined Englishness as "cricket, Shakespeare, the BBC". Any Indian equivalent "cricket, Bollywood, the Mahabharata?" would be far more contentious. Instead of a phrase, therefore, one would need an entire glossary, an A to Z of Indianness. I've decided to embark on one in this space, not every week but from time to time, and readers' suggestions for must-include topics are most welcome. And since each Indian has his or her own view of India, this glossary must be treated as being as singular and idiosyncratic, as wide-ranging and maddeningly provocative as India itself. Let's try the 'A's this week.

Just a couple of decades ago I would have had to begin my glossary with All India Radio 'Akashvani': the voice of the sky, which was also the voice of millions of radio-receivers, transistors and loudspeakers blaring forth from puja pandals and tea shops. Its ubiquitousness reflected the indispensability of radio in a country where most people could not read, and where television was largely absent (can anyone still remember those days?). Despite the often heavy hand of government on its programmes, the anodyne cadences of its newsreaders and the requests for filmi-geet from improbably remote locations, All India Radio mirrored the triumphs and trivialities that engaged the nation.

But its moderation also meant mediocrity. In the first five decades of our Independence, when an Indian wanted real news, he switched on the BBC; for detailed analyses, he turned to the newspapers; for entertainment, he went to the movies.

The rest of the time, he listened to Akashvani. Today, AIR's monopoly has long since given way to a proliferation of cable television channels and the mushrooming of FM stations. So no Akashvani; but even in 2007 one cannot eliminate, as our first entry, the...

Ambassador: Ambassador cars are the classic symbol of India's post-independence industrial development. Outdated even when new, inefficient and clumsy, wasteful of steel and petrol, overpriced and overweight, with a steering-mechanism like an ox-cart's and a frame like a tank's, the Ambassador dominated Indian routes for decades, protected and patronised in the name of self-reliance. Foreigners were constantly amazed that this graceless ugliness enjoyed two-year waiting-lists at all the dealers right up to the 1990s. What they didn't realise is that if they had to drive on Indian roads in Indian traffic-conditions, they'd have preferred Ambassadors too.


Amitabh: the star who refuses to fade away, the 'Angry Young Man' of yesteryear has epitomised the hopes and dreams of a nation for nearly three decades. Bachchan remains a superstar in an overladen firmament, a cinema-hero of unprecedented popularity whose impact on the nation has been out of all proportion to his talent. To appreciate Amitabh Bachchan, you have to confuse action with acting and prefer height to depth, but there's no denying the way in which the now Complacent Middle-Aged Man has hummed and hammed his way into the nation's hearts. When he had a serious ailment, the nation prayed for his recovery; every vendor of garlands and coconuts stood poised for celebration or mourning. When the ruling party wanted to capture a difficult parliamentary seat and dispose of an inconveniently strong opponent, it turned to Amitabh Bachchan. When he realised politics couldn't be enacted like the movies, he quit, went into business, flirted with bankruptcy and reinvented himself as a TV game-show host, before returning to the big screen with a beard to complement his baritone. Through it all, Amitabh has remained the 'Big B', but in a glossary of India, he leads the 'A' list...

Amritsar: is engraved on every Indian heart; the city of the Pool of Nectar drips blood onto the pages of India's history. The tragedy of the massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh in 1917 gave a focus and a cause to the incipient struggle for nationhood a nationhood on which the deaths in the Golden Temple in 1984 did more than anything else to cast a shadow.

Ashoka: the great conqueror-turned-pacifist is the one figure of history who has most inspired independent India's schizoid governmental ethos. For decades, his tolerance and humanitarianism, his devotion to peace and justice, infused our declarations of policy; his military might, his imposition of a Pax Indica on his neighbours, informed our practice.

Our national spokesmen inherited his missionary belief that what was good for Magadha was good for the world. And in choosing a national symbol our government preferred his powerful trinity of lions to the spinning-wheel advocated by Mahatma Gandhi. Typically, though, the only institution they saw fit to give his name to was a five-star hotel.

Astrology: has not only survived, it has grown in importance, as more and more important decisions are made by those who believe in it. Marriages are not arranged, flights not planned, elections not called until astrological charts are drawn up and consulted. An Indian without a horoscope is like an American without a credit-card, and he is subject to many of the same disadvantages in life...

THE FAILED STATE

It’s army rule behind a civilian facade in Bangladesh. And everybody, save the politician, is said to be happy.

SANKAR SEN
The Statesman, 22 April

Bangladesh has again come under a military regime though nobody openly calls it a coup. In January this year, the army stepped in and asked President Izazuddin Ahmed, to declare a state of emergency. Basic rights were suspended. The President stepped down as the head of the caretaker government that had been formed to oversee the elections. He was replaced by Fakhruddin Ahmed, a former World Bank official, who now heads a technocratic administration. The army’s intervention had became inevitable following frequent clashes between the supporters of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the main opposition party Awami League. The violence had plunged the country into virtual chaos. A dysfunctional Parliament was dissolved. The national security chief, head of the power ministry, and the Attorney-General were ousted. A large number of local gangsters were arrested.

The caretaker government has launched a fullfledged anti-corruption drive. It arrested a large number of senior members of the two ruling parties which had looted and misruled Bangladesh over a decade. Bangladesh, as per Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, is regarded as one of the most corrupt countries of the world. In its clean-up drive the military-backed government has already jailed 30 top level criminals, mainly politicians and businessmen. Another 100 are wanted. A law to deal with people, charged with corruption, within 60 days is on the anvil. The government has formed teams of military and civilian investigators for the task and feels confident that they will be able to collect the evidence to get the culprits convicted.

To prove that its anti-corruption drive will spare none, the authorities arrested Tarique Rahman, son of Begum Khaleda Zia. on 9 March. The house of Begum Hasina Wazed, the former Prime Minister and leader of the Awami League, was raided but no arrests were made. The detainees were mostly from the groups that prospered when either Begum Zia or Sheikh Hasina was ruling.

The common people of Bangladesh, who are poor but politically alert, are rejoicing at the discomfiture of the politicians. “Everybody but the politicians”, as the Economist puts it (20-26 January) is apparently happy.

Zia’s son and presumed successor, Tarique, had in recent years become the symbol of corruption, violence and kleptocratic misrule. He was referred to as “Mr ten per cent”, because of his cut in any deal effected by the government. Indeed, the people had become sick of corruption and the spiraling violence.

The caretaker government has vouched to de-politicise the enfeebled institutions. It has appointed a new election commission and has also weeded out Khaleda’s acolytes who were in charge of the government’s anti-corruption wing. It has announced plans to make the state banks accountable and recover the money from the politicians and their cronies who had taken massive loans and were reluctant to pay back. Initially the caretaker government also announced a clamp on the media, but good sense prevailed and it decided to relax it. The administration has also taken a number of other sensible steps. It is trying to deal with the looming power crisis and overhaul the malfunctioning seaport at Chittagong. For dealing with the chronic power shortage it has approved a long pending deal with an Indian firm to build a 240 MW power station.

It seems that the army’s objective is to force the two ladies to quit by starting corruption cases against them. The strategy has been nicknamed as “Musharraf solution”, after the success of Musharraf, in forcing two redoubtable civilian leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to leave Pakistan. Latest reports suggest that Khaleda has agreed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Hasina has left Bangladesh, and is unlikely to return soon.

The army is proceeding carefully and is not going to allow elections to be held within a year. The National Democratic Institute, a US based monitoring group, discovered in December that the electoral roll in Bangladesh has 13 million bogus names. Even the BNP concedes that there are problems with the electoral rolls.

Revision of the voters’ list will take several months and the administration says it wants to issue fraud-proof identity cards. This will take more than a year. It is clear that the army, though not apparent on the face of it, would like to extend its rule. It will not be easy to send it to the barracks.

The administration has announced the setting up of a National Security Council which will include the chiefs of three services and also civilians led by the head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed. The new council gives the army a formal mechanism for effectively controlling the administration that it has installed in January 2007. The army top brass feels that it is not possible to govern the country from behind the curtain any longer. It fears a backlash by the BNP loyalists.

With the decline of the influence of the BNP there is now a political void. Md Yunus, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, for his pioneering work on micro-credit, is trying to build up a new political force. But this will need the army’s backing which Yunus wants to avoid. Commenting on Yunus’ plan, Hasina has remarked ~ tongue firmly in cheek ~ that she saw “no difference between usurers and corrupt people”.

For the time being the people in Bangladesh have appreciated the emergency arrangements. Western governments and donors are also happy; they feel that an emergency for a year or so will reinvigorate Bangladesh’s crippled institutions.

However, this is a dangerous state of affairs. Army rule is an anachronism in the 21st century. Further, the BNP has many loyal supporters within the army, judiciary and other institutions. They are sulking at the moment; they do not want the present regime to succeed. The BNP still has its men in key positions, in addition to a fair amount of money and popular support across the country.

Though Bangladesh is a Muslim country with liberal and secular traditions, the fundamentalist Islamic groups and parties in recent years, and particularly during Begum Zia’s rule, have gained disproportionate influence. The Jamat-e-Islami and its violent student wing, Chatra Shibir, which controls the campuses of some of the important universities, have acquired both money and muscle power.

For a country like Bangladesh prolonged army rule will do more harm than good. The initial relief will gradually wear off. To remain in power and to marginalise the main political parties the army may have to join hands with the fundamentalist groups as it has done in Pakistan. Jihadis adore a vacuum. Disillusionment with the main political parties will strengthen their hands. Bangladesh is far from being a hardline Islamic state but its so-called secular leaders have done their best to give secularism a bad name.

Authoritarian rule is unlikely to appeal for long, despite the disenchantment of the voters with the two mainstream political parties. The socio-economic problems of Bangladesh are overwhelming. By 2050, its population s projected to reach 250 million. Only democratic rule and institutions can help the country tackle its burgeoning problems.

India has a big stake in the goings-on. It wants a stable and friendly neighbour. Bangladesh has harboured many insurgent groups from the North-east and sheltered many fugitives from India. It is learnt that the present regime will try tio mend fences with India.

At a recently concluded conference between the senior officers of the BSF and BDR, the latter stressed the need for improved relations with India. But the acid test is the willingness of Bangladesh to firmly curb the activities of the terrorist outfits operating against India. Present indications are encouraging.

A Senior Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, the author had served as Director, National Human Rights Commission, and the National Police Academy.

SEZs against India’s Constitution, says activist Medha Patkar

Infochange

An Empowered Group of Ministers on SEZs recently cleared 83 projects, while asking states not to carry out compulsory land acquisitions. The panel also placed a cap on the maximum land area to be used for the multi-product tax-free zones, at 5,000 hectares


The Indian government’s revised policy on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) violates the spirit of the Constitution of India, says Medha Patkar, India’s foremost people’s rights activist. She terms the new policy “wrong and weak”, saying it is against the interests of farmers.

“The decision on SEZs is against the spirit of the Constitution of India. How much land will be allotted to a single company is not explained by the government,” adds Patkar. “The government has neither barred private players from encroaching on farmland, nor is it performing its due responsibilities. The government is giving false assurances to the victims.”

The Indian government recently ended a two-month freeze on SEZ approvals, breathing new life into plans for large tax-free enclaves that ran into trouble over the controversial acquisition of farmland.

On April 5, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on SEZs cleared a further 83 projects, while asking states not to undertake compulsory land acquisitions. The panel also placed a cap on the maximum land area to be used for the multi-product tax-free zones, at 5,000 hectares.

Meanwhile, the much-awaited relief and rehabilitation policy for farmers displaced by land acquisitions for industrial projects and SEZs will soon be taken to the Indian Cabinet. “We have sent the draft of the policy to the law ministry. After it is vetted by them (law ministry), we will take it to the Cabinet in a matter of days,” Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told the media on April 10.

Singh indicated that compulsory land acquisition for industrial projects, including Special Economic Zones, would not be allowed “at any cost” in the policy.

While the rural development ministry has been given the key task of formulating the rehabilitation policy, Singh is not part of the EGoM on SEZs.

He did not specify whether or not the 83 SEZs recently cleared by the EGoM would be covered under the impending rehabilitation policy. However, he did indicate that SEZs already in possession of land may not attract the provisions of the new policy. Singh said his ministry “would ensure that the interests of farmers are protected”.

In the course of the last year, the Indian government approved nearly 400 SEZs and received another 304 proposals from various state governments. All but 63 of these projects have been put on hold, pending ministerial review.

The zones, similar to operations in China and intended to boost growth and exports, have been criticised by farmers, non-governmental groups and political parties both within and outside the ruling coalition.

The commerce ministry expects SEZs to draw nearly Rs 600 billion in investment by 2009, and create 890,000 jobs.

The ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance coalition had embarked on an ambitious plan to revitalise industry through such zones in its quest for 10% annual economic growth. But its plans came to a grinding halt after thousands of farmers across the country protested against the government’s compulsory land acquisition at some sites, claiming they had not been adequately compensated.

Source: ANI, April 10, 2007
The Hindu, April 10, 2007
www.action2007.com, April 6, 2007

163-year lab lag With China

163-year lab lag with China
G.S. MUDUR

New Delhi, Feb. 10: A bit of school algebra may sometimes deliver a reality check. India is hoping that its economic growth will edge closer to China’s 10 per cent, but it still lags over a century and a half behind the northern neighbour in its science and technology workforce.

A scientist at the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation in Bangalore has shown that India will take at least 163 years to match China’s research workforce of 850,000 even if Beijing were to freeze the number today.

At the CMMACS, chief scientist Gangan Prathap has spent years doing complex aerospace engineering mathematics. But he has now used simple school algebra to show that even if India’s 4,500 annual science doctorates were to join the 115,000-strong science and technology workforce, the country won’t be able to touch the figure of 850,000 until 2170 AD.

“This is a very optimistic estimate because many scientists retire and many doctorates go abroad or migrate to non-research careers,” Prathap said. His calculations were published in the journal Current Science today.

Top scientists have long expressed a similar concern.

“The biggest problem that India will face in the next decade or so is a human resources crunch in science and technology,” said Professor C.N.R. Rao, head of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister.

“There are several reasons for this impending crisis,” Rao told The Telegraph. “Some of the best talent is picked up by the US, Europe, even other Asian countries.”

Worsening the external brain drain is an internal one: talent veering towards careers in management or information technology, he said.

Senior scientists have in the past warned that information technology has been pulling trained scientists away from research.

“We’ve lulled ourselves into thinking we’re doing great things,” said Rajesh Kochchar, former director of the National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies.

Rao said some effects of the talent drain away from science may already be visible.

“India’s share of global research publications in science has dropped to unbelievably low levels,” he said.

Studies indicate that research publications from India account for less than 2 per cent of research papers worldwide.

The department of science and technology had earlier this year announced plans to invest up to Rs 1,350 crore over the next five years to attract fresh talent into science, offering five-year job guarantees to doctorate students.

But Rao said he’s worried the government hasn’t been able to ease the stranglehold of the bureaucracy over appointments and the release of funds — even when the funds have been approved by high decision-making agencies.

Naxals seize Bihar railway station, trains suspended

latest updates
21 April

JAMUI: Suspected Naxalites of the banned CPI(Maoist) seized Narganjo halt railway station for several hours on Saturday after kidnapping the cabin master and porters to enforce a bandh called by them, leading to suspension of train services on the Howrah-Patna section of Eastern Railway.

Nearly 200 Naxals swooped on the small station in Bihar's Jamui district at around 1 am and held the cabin master and porters captive, railway sources said.

The cabin master informed the divisional control room at Asansol in West Bengal about the incident and that the Naxalites claimed to have planted landmines on tracks, they said.

Trains, including Howrah-Amritsar Punjab Mail, Lalquila Express and Maurya Express, were controlled at Jasidih station in Jharkhand and Danapur-Durg Express and Danapur-Howrah Express at Jhajha station.

Divisional Railway Manager of Asansol division of the Eastern Railway informed the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of Jamui about the incident.

Contingents of special auxiliary police, government railway police, RPF and Bihar police rushed to the spot following which the Naxalites retreated without causing any damage to the station or personnel.

The cabin master and porters were also set free by the Naxals.

The Naxalites have called a 24-hour bandh in Jamui district on Saturday to protest the death of their comrade Balgovind Yadav in Jamui jail recently.

A tower van carrying police personnel was shuttled between Jhajha and Simultala stations on both the up and down lines to look for landmines which were not found. The tracks were cleared for train traffic around 8.15 am, sources said.

Vehicular traffic in rural pockets was badly affected due to the bandh.

"There is virtually no traffic on Sikandra-Narganjo and Jhajha-Chakai roads," sources said, adding so far no incident of Naxalite violence has been reported in the district.

The Naxalites had shot dead two Railway Protection Force personnel and injured three others in a running train near Narganjo station on April Eight. They had also blown up the cabin at the same station in April 2006.

Defence spending - Need For A Five-Year Plan Instead Of Commitment On Funds

By PK Vasudeva
The Statesman, 21 April

On 28 February the finance minister P Chidambaram took only half-a-minute to say 36 words on the defence budget proposals in course of his 100-minute general budget speech covering 12,808 words. “I propose to increase the allocation for defence to Rs 96,000 crore. This will include Rs 41,922 crore for capital expenditure. Needless to say, any additional requirement for the security of the nation will be provided.”

His brief proposals do not provide a detailed picture of the defence expenditure as it blurs certain important issues. The figures of Rs 96,000 crore includes only the revenue expenditure on the army (Rs 34,086 crore), navy (Rs 6,968 crore), air force (Rs 10,193 crore), ordnance factories (profit of Rs 356 crore), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (Rs 3,186 crore) and capital expenditure for modernising the armed forces (Rs 41,922 crore). Inexplicably the expenditure on the ministry of defence and the pensions has been omitted.

Incomprehensible logic

As a result, the figure of Rs 96,000 crore underestimates actual spending on defence. If the sum of Rs 2,046 crore allocated for the MoD and Rs 14,649 crore allocated for defence pensions is taken into account, the actual defence expenditure will come to Rs 112,695 crore in 2007-08. This amounts to over 16 per cent of government spending, not 14 per cent as portrayed.

The logic for keeping the MoD and pension allocations out of the defence budget is incomprehensible. Similarly hundreds of crores are allocated to the defence-affiliated units like the Coast Guard, Assam Rifles and Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Rifles. And, defence pensions are directly related to military manpower expenditure. Fudging the defence budget need not be institutionalised as the circumstances have changed.
The finance minister increased the defence budget by 11.6 per cent largely because the previous year’s allocation of Rs 89,000 crore could not be spent in time. However, documents reveal that what was actually spent was just Rs 86,000 crore. Therefore, in real terms, the increase in the current budget is 11.6 per cent or Rs 10,000 crore.

A sum of Rs 41,000 crore has been allocated for capital expenditure against last year’s budgeted figure of Rs 37,500 crore. This indicates that the MoD had spent some, not all, of the capital outlay, as the revised estimates put the expenditure last year at Rs 34,500 crore. Clearly, the services surrendered Rs 3,000 crore.

The biggest chunk of surrendered funds was contributed by the air force followed by the army. Nearly Rs 2,000 crore was returned by the air force on account of non-expenditure on aircraft ~ an obvious indication that there had been no progress on the acquisition of the 126 fighter aircraft that the IAF wants.

The army returned nearly Rs 1,800 crore, a sum that was required to buy equipment. However, the army overspent in buying aircraft. It had a budget allocation of Rs 1,300 crore, but spent Rs 2,015 crore. Otherwise, the surrendered amount may have been larger.

This year’s capital outlay has increased because of the aircraft purchase proposals by the navy and the air force. A staggering Rs 1,965 crore has been allocated to the navy to buy aircraft. Defence minister AK Antony, said there had been some laxity in certain fields during the modernisation drive, and efforts would now focus on ensuring the upgradation of the arsenal of all three services. One has to wait and watch as this laxity has persisted over the years.

In 1999, India spent Rs 48,500 crore on defence, including the cost of the Kargil conflict. Now, the defence forces want that amount to be more than doubled. Going by the current threat scenario the case for such a huge hike in the defence budget is rather inflated.

The peace process with Pakistan is under way, the sporadic hiccups notwithstanding; troops on the Indo-China border now play volleyball matches and talks are on with insurgent groups in J&K and Nagaland. In view of the reduced threat perception the defence budget needs to be reviewed.

However, there is no need to be complacent. Hence, the modernisation of defence should continue. Still more important is to get a better and improved human resource. The quality of the present lot has been diluted. Which is a crucial factor behind such incidents as suicides and shooting down of colleagues, unprecedented tragedies till a few years ago. The quality of the recruits can be improved if the career prospects of the armed forces personnel are made more attractive to get highly motivated youth.

The budgeting system should ensure that the right amount is spent on defence in the light of the pattern of national priorities and the right military capabilities are developed in the light of the structure of security priorities. The identification of a threat to security does not automatically require expenditure in the defence budget to neutralise it. The defence budget, in short, must be seen not only in terms of what we must defend ourselves against but what we have to defend.

The defence budget should be based on the mission and objectives of the armed forces. Once the tasks are defined, the question of building up the capability to perform them follows by formulation of plans for specific programmes. If the scarce resources are to be spent efficiently for defence, the budget has to be the vehicle for implementing the programmes so planned.

Roll-over scheme

This has not been possible in India as defence budgets are drawn up in terms of inputs (amounts spent on acquisition of arms, personnel, etc) and not programmes designed to enable the defence services to meet the tasks set for them. Equipment is acquired without taking account of the personnel required to use them or their training. Budgets are focused heavily on acquisition rather than on building capabilities.

There should be a plan for five years, not necessarily a commitment on funds since such a commitment cannot be given in our system. However, it should be possible to have a medium-term expenditure framework and multi-year expenditure programme, as is being done now in many countries. The budget plan should be rolled over every year so that the next year, the provisional budget for the third year becomes the firm budget for the second year and the tentative budget for the fourth year becomes the “provisional” budget for the third year and so on.

A retired Colonel, the author is now Professor, International Trade, ICFAI Business School, Chandigarh

1956 — a real life story

Moni Chadha
HT, 21 April

Budapest, September 1956: A young man in a casual greenish suit and rough boots walked into the Indian Embassy at Rozsa Dom in Buda and asked to see the Charge d’Affaires. Thirty-four-year old Mohamed Ataur Rahman had just arrived in Budapest and was keen to get his residence in shape. He was inspecting the house from the outside at the time. The young visitor said he was a writer, part of a group of young intellectuals seeking freedom from Soviet dominance. He came with an urgent message for Nehru to intervene with the Soviets with whom India had good relations. Rahman recalled to me recently how frank and disarming this highly intelligent young man was, and how remarkably free he was of any rancour or anger, given the strength of his feelings for his cause. He revealed to Rahman many meetings later that he was an associate of Istvan Bibo, minister in the government of Imre Nagy, seeking freedom for Hungary from the Soviet political orbit.

Some leather-jacketed toughs walked by as they conversed. Intuitively cautious, Rahman glanced up and down, pointing randomly at the walls, to pretend that he was talking about the painting of his house with a workman. It was important to protect the young man’s identity to keep him out of trouble with the government, then under the Soviet thumb. Within the Embassy, the visitor was instantly nick-named ‘The Painter’ — and that is how he was always referred to for reasons of security.

A political storm was brewing in Hungary, but they were no match for the military might of the USSR. Stalin had died recently — and the more liberal Khrushchev had taken over, raising the hopes of some Hungarians. But even Khrushchev was uneasy with the stirrings of freedom in the Soviet orbit, and not quite clear how to handle it.

The Painter met Rahman often in the ensuing days and weeks. He and his colleagues relied desperately on India — and Nehru. They were not wrong. India could not come out openly in their favour but carried considerable clout with the Soviet leadership. Aside from Nehru’s immense international influence, KPS Menon Sr, the Indian Ambassador in Moscow, was well connected with the Soviets, as was his Military Attache, Brig Nalin Nanavati, whose tennis partner — and friend — was Gen Serov, the all powerful head of the NKVD.

Amongst Rahman’s trusted colleagues at the Embassy was his driver, Drechschel, an intellectual — I believe of German origin. Many years later he was to become a Professor in Koln [Cologne] in Germany. Still young then, Drechschel had already won a prize as a composer at the Lizst competition as a 21-year-old. But in the communist ‘paradise’ one had to have more than just talent to get a good job. That depended on the Communist Party, through which in turn the Soviet Union exercised control over its satellites. Another trusted colleague was Kozsmovsky, Rahman’s messenger.

Rahman witnessed the first stirrings of the revolution on his way home from a meeting on October 23, 1956. A massive collection of young people, mostly students, marched along the streets of Budapest. By nightfall, they asked Radio Budapest to broadcast their 14-point agenda. In response, the Radio’s guards came out with their guns blazing. Many of the demonstrators lay dead and dying. But the uprising spread. Elements of the Hungarian army revolted. On October 31, Imre Nagy announced Hungary’s withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and appealed to the USA and the UK to recognise Hungary as a neutral state. Soviet tanks were rolling in.

In his deliberations, Khruschev also met Tito in Belgrade. They decided that the uprising must be crushed. By November 4, the Hungarian revolution was effectively over. The battle was unequal; courage alone could not withstand might. Much of the world looked on passively at the rape of Hungary. Rahman told me how astonished he was to see the extent of destruction by the Soviets.

The security forces began to round up suspects. The first lot of accused, including the famous patriot Imre Nagy, were tried — and most were sentenced to death in early 1957. Nagy was hanged in June 1958.

The Painter was arrested in May 1957. In February, he helped send abroad Imre Nagy’s manuscript In Defence of the Hungarian People On Communism; In Defence of the New Course. His arrest was on capital charges. The death penalty was a certainty. Kozsmovsky, Rahman’s messenger, was arrested soon after.

As for the latter, Rahman, caring as ever, intervened vociferously with the Hungarian Foreign Office — and also sent them official notes for his release, insisting that he was an official of the Embassy. But that, in fact, was the fundament of the problem. The new authorities knew about the Indian Embassy’s “nefarious” role. Kozsmovsky had been in touch with The Painter and, after the latter’s arrest, with his wife. He was harassed by the authorities to “get the keys.” Thanks to Rahman’s tenacious persistence, however, he was finally released on bail.

Rahman lost no time. He hid Kozsmovsky in the luggage boot of his official Mercedes — with diplomatic number plates — and, with Drechschel at the wheel, headed for the safety of Vienna. En route, security officials insisted on inspecting the boot — but fortunately did not look behind the large carton where he was hiding. Kozsmovsky escaped trial in Hungary and was soon free in Vienna, awaiting better times to return to his motherland.

Rahman pleaded through his friends in Moscow on behalf of the Painter and others. Decades later, he recalled how Krishna Menon, India's famous defence minister who had Nehru's ear in foreign affairs, sent Ambassador KPS Menon a secret cable: “I have had enough of these reports from Budapest.”

At Nehru’s behest, following Rahman’s urgent pleas, Ambassador KPS Menon and Brig Nanavati in Moscow used their clout with General Serov and others to plead for leniency. On August 2, 1958, the Painter was sentenced to prison for life — but was saved from the gallows. During his years in prison, he learnt excellent English and spent his time translating English literature. He was released under the 1963 amnesty.

Some of the moderate Hungarian demands were conceded by the Soviets to keep further dissidence in check. But Hungary, like the other countries in the Soviet orbit, got its true freedom only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Following Hungary’s first democratic elections in 1991, this is what the new President said in the Hungarian Parliament: “In those months (in 1956) the Indian Embassy in Budapest became the Embassy of the Revolution”.

The Hungarians never forgot Rahman. One of the first acts of their new President, Arpad Goncz, was to visit India. Rahman had long retired by then, but the Hungarian Ambassador in Delhi told the Indian Ministry of External Affairs that the President would like to meet him. Of course, said the Joint Secretary in the MEA. They would include Rahman in the banquet of the Indian President. The Ambassador came back to say: No, the President would like to meet him personally. Sure, said the Joint Secretary, we shall arrange for Mr Rahman to call on the President.

The Hungarian Ambassador returned soon with another message: No, he said. It would be the other way around. The President of Hungary would like to call on Ambassador Rahman.

This was out of sync with standard protocol — indeed rather unique — but who were we to deny the visiting President his wish?

So the Hungarian President, followed by a motorcade of officials and security, made their way to Rahman’s house at A-9/25 Vasant Vihar. President Arpad Goncz warmly embraced Rahman as he entered.

It was an intensely emotional moment. Thirty five years had passed since those eventful days in Budapest in 1956 when Rahman had last met The Painter at his home.

Epilogue: The Painter’s daughter, little Kinga, was nine years old when her father met Rahman for the first time in Budapest.

In 2006, the highly educated and erudite Dr Kinga Goncz became the Foreign Minister of Hungary. She visited India soon thereafter. Like her illustrious father, she met with Ambassador Rahman.

(The author was in the Indian Foreign Service)

We dare not look too deeply into ourselves

Simon Jenkins

A Planet Earth-style view of the human race will reveal the cauldron of antagonisms beneath the patina of diversity.

TELEVISION IS fine for gorillas and glaciers, but can it really do human beings? This week's news that Bob Geldof and the BBC are combining to produce a Planet Earth on Homo sapiens sounds like a good idea forged over a cappuccino. I fear it may end in disaster. We humans dare not look too deeply into ourselves. As the poet said, humankind cannot bear very much reality.

Today's most phoney slogan is "save the planet." The planet can and will look after itself just fine, as it has for aeons. What the slogan really means is "keep the planet safe for me in the style to which I am accustomed."

That is quite different. I am all for species-ism when it is my species we are saving, but let us call it what it is. Meanwhile, film-makers roam the Earth showing jackals interminably chasing gazelles, snow leopards chasing antelopes, and poisonous frogs swallowing moths with astonishing speed. A sonorous voice, usually David Attenborough's, wails that this animal cruelty is at risk because of some original sin on the part of mankind.

Geldof's project is undeniably radical. It is for "a Domesday Book for humanity" or, as a BBC release puts it, "a digital catalogue of all human existence and an enormous resource for the exchange of ideas and information." The intention is to "record every single culture that exists," along with the "mechanisms that man has invented in order to survive in whichever environment he has found himself."

The project is not to be the usual pop television anthropology of tribes in rainforests. This is despite the idea apparently coming to Geldof when "sitting on a tree stump in Niger." Geldof assures us: "It isn't going to be just lost tribe stuff; it's about the Upper East Side as well."

Explosive science

Anthropology is the most explosive of sciences, which is why it keeps most of its gunpowder hidden. It has more skeletons in its closet, more unmentionables in its past, more hypersensitivity and political delicacy than any other realm of learning. The mere mention of ethnic diversity has academics plugging their ears and slamming paper bags over their heads. The story of group differentiation is so fraught as to render it no-go territory for intellectual research. The species "Homo sapiens" has enough trouble pretending to be homogeneous without television recording the many ways in which it is not.

This is why traditional anthropology averts its eyes from the Upper East Side and buries itself in rainforests and deserts where lost tribes can be treated like other threatened species, under assault from Nestle, McDonald's and that dreaded predator referred to as "us." But outside these isolated locations, we cannot collect peoples as we might chimpanzees.

The differentiation of these groups yields much of the creativity, stimulus and humour of human intercourse. As Henry Higgins pointed out in Shaw's anthropological satire, Pygmalion: "It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him." If Geldof really is to examine the different "survival mechanisms" of all the people in the world, he must surely examine differences in cultural advancement and in educational and physical performance. He must ascribe ethnic characteristics.

Scrape the surface of human diversity and you find not a cool toolkit of survival mechanism but a cauldron of sensitivity and antagonism.

Geldof's cameras may delight in Andaman bowmen, Bedouin tribes, and Swiss dirndls. But talk of preparing an ethnic Domesday implies a map and a list of dates — and maps are the first step to war. Besides, who is an aboriginal, who a tribe, who a native and who a settler? The question is even now tearing apart "native America," as tribes fight over casino revenues. Unlike nature, mankind is both a single species that revels in its unity, and one that stresses its diversity at every turn, usually to support some claim to superiority or preferential treatment.

Dangerous alliance

Anthropology is already in fascinating and dangerous alliance with archaeology. The mapping of molecular genetics shows traces of earliest man settled in waves across Europe, despite centuries of migration and miscegenation. The archaeology of language is throwing up related groupings.

The Basques, speaking Europe's last pre-Indo-European tongue, have a markedly higher frequency of rhesus-negative blood, so much so that some Basques have suggested blood tests to qualify to vote in local elections.

American democracy, constitutionally rooted in territory, has found it impossible to disengage from the politics of ethnicity. Genetic and linguistic mapping may yet find "original" inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of Na-Denes and Eskimo-Aleuts from Siberia. It is conceivable that traces of European DNA from ancient Vikings may emerge in Canadian tribes, as traces of extinct Tasmanians are emerging in some Australians. What might this mean for land-claim litigation?

I find the origins and differences of peoples ceaselessly intriguing. They paint humanity in ever richer hues. But the ferocity of the animal kingdom depicted in Planet Earth is nothing to the competition inbred in the single species of mankind. That is why references to group differences are so sensitive, and why group defence mechanisms are often so explosive. That, in turn, is why one definition of civilisation is the courtesy of not drawing unnecessary attention to what divides members of the human race. To do so is playing with fire. Geldof is in dangerous country.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007