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Shame On You, Mr Vice Chancellor

Abdullah Khan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:58:50 +0000

A student of Aligarh Muslim University, Shahnawaz Alam was shot dead by local hoodlums following a minor tiff over parking of vehicles. Shahnawaz was shot dead at an eatery near the Aligarh Railway Station, because of the fact there is no alternative option available for food here at AMU.

It is highly unfortunate, that University administration did not behave responsibly at that time. It’s really sad that VC of our beloved Alma mater did not come to meet the students for long 3 hours when they were in the Medical College with Shahnawaz’s dead body. Once again this has put a question mark on the administrative credentials of Mr.P K Abdul Aziz, who is already facing lot of criticism for his various controversial decisions. I think Mr Vice-chancellor has forgotten that sometimes these terrible things happen to him or to his friends or loved ones. He must know, how do we react and conduct ourselves is the measure of civilization, decency and courage.

Vice Chancellor’s irresponsible behavior sparked tension among the students. Students are justified in their anger at this cold blooded murder. From the news and from acquaintances from AMU, I came to know that students were peacefully marching; even they faced a threat of suspension and rustication by the administration. It is shocking.

Undoubtedly, AMU Administration have to give a strong signal to the anti social elements who want to disrupt the peace of the University but at the same time innocent students should not be suspended or expelled from the rolls of University. Students have right to raise their voice or agitate peacefully against incompetent administration.

Once again Prof. P K Abdul Aziz has failed to demonstrate that administrative skill, which is prerequisite to run a central university like AMU. I appeal to Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor please come forward for the welfare of the students and the survival of AMU not for your vested interest. VC should give importance to the interest of the students above his personal interest, Otherwise he should resign.

I appeal to the students and the well wishers of the institution to make positive efforts to maintain peace in the University so that its academic functions do not suffer any dislocation.

Monsoon failure to hit agriculture growth

Abdullah Khan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:38:26 +0000

It is official now. Two hundred and seventy-eight districts out of approximately 604 districts in the country are reeling under drought and agriculture growth and in all likelihood they would be in the negative zone. Going by government estimates, the kharif production could fall by over 30 million tonnes this year. Undoubtedly, such a dismal scenario would only result in slump in rural economy which did not augur well for the overall economy.
In the last one year, the domestic industry has been somewhat cushioned from the economic downturn due to local especially rural demand. If the agriculture output falls, local demand falls as there is less disposable income and that would hit the entire economy.

• A look at the size and potential of rural market would tell why decline in demand in countryside due to slump in agriculture growth could hit the nation’s economy Rural consumers account for 64% of the country’s total consumer base
• Out of total rural retail market of US $ 280 billion in the country, Rural retail market stood at US $ 112 billion
• Nearly 50% of the Indian market which includes 220 million rural household is potential car buyers
• With less than 10 % penetration of two wheelers in rural area, the potential is huge
• Growth in consumer durable goods sector is 25% in rural India against 7-10% in urban areas
• According to NCAER (National Council of Applied Economics) , Rural India consumes at least 70% of toilet soap , 50% of TV , Fan , Bicycle , Tea and wrist watches
Incidentally, four of the five biggest rural markets in the country which include UP, AP, Maharashtra , West Bengal also account for largest producers of kharif crops. Given the size of rural consumers and their capacity to spend in these states hit by drought , the economy is bound to suffer .
Needless to say that the Agriculture sector which employs around 60% of the total workforce in the country and contributes 18% to the GDP, any slump would make the economy shiver and nosedive.

State Universities: renaissance or decay?

Abdullah Khan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:20:05 +0000

The Centre and state government are locking horns, even as higher education suffers. Education being a sate subject, Centre blames the poor quality on state government. The Centre Government holds states more responsible as 62 per cent of country’s universities and 99 per cent of colleges are under state domain. But majority of these state universities and colleges have poor quality as per the assessment by NAAC . As per the data of NAAC assessment done by end of 2007 and available with University Grants Commission ; about 22% state universities were in grade A, 72% in B and 4% in CIn case of colleges, about 9% are in grade A, 68% in grade B and 22% in grade C.

However, these data just include 36 percent of state universities (that is 102 out of278and 18 per cent of college (that is 3934 out of 21064) which were assessed and accredited by NAAC by end of 2007.So the Centre proposes introduction of Mandatory assessment and accreditation for universities and colleges so that there must be healthy competition among and students get entitlement to know that what quality they are going to get.

The 11th plan has also recommended the policy of compulsory assessment and accreditation. The centre’s eye is not only set on country’s inside requirement of quality human resources but it is also looking at the opportunity to outsource this quality human resource given the demographic dividend(having more young and working population) India has over European countries. The recently submitted Yashpal Committee report has several suggestion in this direction, but it is to be seen that how far the report is implemented in letter or spirit.

Politics over Kargil War

Abdullah Khan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:00:34 +0000

About 5000 officers and soldiers died pushing back intruding Pakistani soldiers from the heights of the Himalayas during the Kargil War. But 10 years after,The politics over the Kargil war is refusing to die down..... After almost politically distancing itself all through the years from the Kargil victory, the UPA government has now begun to embrace the victory at Kargil. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the country yesterday in paying homage to the martyrs of Kargil war. However, two services’ chiefs did not attend the ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the victory, indicative of the importance, or lack of it, being attached to it by the UPA government. Both of them had some other engagements and sent their deputies in their place to accompany the Prime Minister, who led the country in paying tribute to the martyrs.
Unlike other war victories in the past, the victory in Kargil has become a political issue between the BJP and the Congress...... so much so that the Congress MP Rashid Alvi went on to remark that victory in Kargil was a victory for the BJP and, therefore, Congress had nothing to do with it. One can’t forget the fact that the Congress party boycotted the then Defence Minister George Fernandes in parliament over the coffin scam during the Kargil war. Kargil war, for some strange reasons, has come to be bracketed with the BJP, unlike victories of 1965 and 1971.

Left Parties: Change Needed in Policy and Attitude

Abdullah Khan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:10:56 +0000

The 14th Lok Sabha election registered an unprecedented result for the Left parties. Whether it is Left ruled Kerala or West Bengal, the party showed its first ever poor performance in the last several decades. The result, however, indicated that the party is losing its roots among the masses. This only shows that the party central leadership is devoid of any ideological spirit or central leadership does not have knowledge of mass politics. At the present world of globalization where Communist countries like China and Cuba are developing their thinking, their Indian comrades are going with the decade old anti-American ideology along with the objection on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and several others.

In the recently concluded Municipal Election in West Bengal, the Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance bagged 13 seats leaving only three (3) seats for the Left. In the 2006 Assembly elections in Kerala, the Left Democratic Front bagged 99 seats with a vote percentage of 48 per cent. The United Democratic Front bagged 40 seats with a vote percentage of 42.92 in the 140-member state Assembly. The Democratic Indira Congress (K) bagged one (1) seat. The opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) swept the Lok Sabha polls in the state, winning 16 of 20 seats. The LDF had 19 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha. An analysis of the results shows that the UDF won in 102 of the 140 Assembly segments, further highlighting the LDF’s poor showing. The frequent squabbles in the CPI-M–between the majority faction led by state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and the other faction, which is now left virtually with only Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan–caused major hiccups in the party on numerous occasions.

Three years ago in May 2006, the LF won the West Bengal Assembly elections by a whopping margin bagging 235 seats out of 294 seats. Statistics says that the LF lost as much as 191 assembly segments of the 294 and has lost more than 5% vote share down from about 48% in the last parliamentary elections to about 43% in this election.The picture appears to be gloomy for the LF in the coming Assembly elections too and the party appears to be on the verge of losing power unless some herculean effort is made to woo back the vast majority of minority Muslims, the poor and marginal farmers and to a lesser extent the Adivasis. For the LF, the rot is total in the urban belt in and around Calcutta as well as large chunk of rural areas losing all the seats from the districts of Kolkata, Howrah, East Midnapore, North and South 24-Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda districts.

West Bengal would witness a few Assembly by-elections in the coming days. With Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee exploring all possibilities for the state Assembly election before the scheduled date, the Left Front would have to make some gigantic effort in Bengal apart from keeping its party in Kerala intact. 30 years fabled unity in the Left Front in Tripura is ruling the state for the past several terms.

India's moon mission

Abdullah Khan — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:16:09 +0000

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the moon. Launched on July 16,1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon, while Collins orbited above. On July 24, 1969 landed on earth after 8 days 3 hours 18 minutes and 35 seconds. When Armstrong stepped off Eagle’s foot pad and into history as the first human to set foot on the another world, described it as “one small step for a man, one joint leap for mankind”.

India’s moon ‘fantasy’ was triggered in 1980s after Rakesh Sharma’s space flight aboard a Russian spacecraft. The study , though, was put on the back-burner since India did not have the launch capacity nor the money needed for a moon mission. The advent of PSLV( Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV(Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket launchers in the mid-to late 90s brought the moon dream back to the fore. The Chandrayan-1 mission, launched in October 2008, putting the spacecraft in an orbit around moon, became quite a success. Chandrayan-1 is the first Indian planetary science and exploration. Chandrayan -1 is a scientific- by spacecraft- of the moon. The scientific goal of Chandrayan-1 is to prepare a three dimension remote sensing of the lunar surface. It is there to conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire surface. Now,Indian Space Reaserch Organisation(ISRO)is planning second moon mission Chandrayan-2 plan of putting a rover to map the Earth’s Satellite by 2012 is very much on schedule. A man moon landing by an Indian is planned for 2025. This would put India in a very elite club. Of course, India is not the only country making all these lunar plans. Other space-faring nations, such as China and Japan are planning several missions involving unmanned and manned missions to moon in next decade and after.
The moon study had taken back seat for the past two decades but again it has come into prominence. Three main three reasons can be counted behind it. One, the moon can be a good parking place for missions to outer planets. Two, the Earth is getting overfilled and man would need an alternative place to live in. And the three, all the space- going nations want to survey the moon’s surface to explore for minerals and materials of value.

Rahul’s Youth Movement

Abdullah Khan — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:24:05 +0000

Youth was one of the trump cards of the Congress party which paid huge dividends in its unexpected victory in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and also returning the Party to power with stronger mandate.

A year ago when Rahul Gandhi embarked on his mission to democratize the Youth Congress and National Students Union Of India (NSUI) with the idea of attracting youth to politics, hardly anyone believed that he would be successful.

But, after the recent turnaround in Congress political fortunes , the youth power has become flavour of the season . According to an estimate, India is going to become the biggest hub of the youth force . In 2009, 71.4 crores voters cast their votes as compared to 67.1 crores in 2004. The additional 4.3 crores new voters consisted mainly of youth.

Emboldened by the fact that youth force could play decisive role in future elections, Rahul Gandhi would begin youth drive in other states also. Uttar Pradesh is particularly important as Rahul Gandhi wants to put in place a youthful party cadre before the assembly polls in 2012 as the Congress hopes to take on Mayawati’s BSP in a big way.

Youth factor of Rahul Gandhi worked nicely in the country with more than 200 millions electorates aged between 18 to 35. He proposed his idea in Congress meeting to give more tickets to young leaders in last election .

Its effect could be seen in the results having more victorious young MPs like RPN Singh, Jyoti Mirdha, Ravneet Singh Bittu ,Prateek Patil ,Sachin Piolt,Naveen Jindal,Jitin Prasad,Milind Deora ,Meenakshi Natrajan. Having missed ministerial berths in the Union council of ministers,young turks (mostly first time parliamentarian) in the Congress are hoping for meatier roles in the All India Congress Committee .

Rahul’s laboratory is fully ready and youth experiment is in full swing , but it could be seen as fruitful only after the experiment culminates into come back of the Congress party with full majority based on youthful mandate.

Women Candidates and 15th Lok Sabha Election

Abdullah Khan — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:37:16 +0000

Amid the glimmer and glitz of the 15th Lok Sabha elections, the silent victim in this largest festival of Indian democracy has once again been the fairer gender. Women, who constitute half of the population and electorate, have once again been left out by the political parties in giving their due representation in this election. And even as the women reservation’s bill stands pending in Parliament for the new government to take it forward, the 15th Lok Sabha elections is merely witnessing tokenism by political parties in fielding women candidates.

It has been the same old story but unfortunately the fate of women in Indian electoral politics fails to change. Though the rise of likes of Sonia Gandhi and Mayawati in Indian politics may give a picture of women empowerment in Indian polity, unfortunately it is only a mirage. The ensuing elections to the 15th Lok Sabha has once again exposed the insensitivity and apathy of the political parties towards the fairer gender. Leave alone the tall claims of providing 33% reservation to women in Parliament and state assemblies, political parties cutting across ideologies have only limited themselves to tokenism in giving ticket to the women candidates.

Out of the 443 candidates declared by Congress, the party has pitched only 40 women candidates which is even less than 10%. Opposition BJP is no better with the party fielding only 43 women candidates out of the total 427 seats being contested by the party . Left parties, the self claimed flag-bearer of the cause of women reservation, have the worst record of women representation in their list of candidates with the left parties not even giving 5% ticket to women candidates for the 15th Lok Sabha elections. While, the CPM has only fielded four candidates out of the 80 declared seats, the CPI has also given only 3 candidates out of the 45 seats it is contesting.Third front leaders and fourth front have equally the worst record in this regard. While Samajwadi Party fielded mere 6 candidates out of its 75 candidate in UP, Lalu Yadav-led RJD has also given mere 2 seats to women in its quota of 28 seats in Bihar.

There is much more irony attached to the whole debate of women empowerment in Indian politics. Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalithaa may have emerged as an icon among women politicians but their own track record exposes the myth of the efforts being done by them to correct the gender bias in Indian politics. Mayawati, who is eying the PM post, has fielded 454 candidates across the country.

However, she could only find 23 suitable women candidates across the country. In her own bastion UP, where she heads the government, she has only put 6 women candidates in fray out of the 80 seats in the state. A similar case is with parties led by women including Trinamool Congress of Mamta Banerjee and AIADMK of J.Jayalalita. The other side of women empowerment is equally ironical. Sharad Pawar, the Maratha giant, may have decided to pass his political legacy to his daughter Supriya Sule but his efforts to increase the representation of women in politics, it seems, has only confined to passing the baton to his daughter. His party NCP has given only 7 tickets to women out of the 67 seats it is contesting across the country.

Till the much hyped Women reservation bill pending in the Rajya Sabha gets the passage, it would be binding on the next government to take the issue forward and prove its sincerity in its promise.

Politics: A flourishing industry in India

Abdullah Khan — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:35:40 +0000

Poorer the states richer are the netas. The hurly-burly politics appears to have gripped the world’s largest but arguably chaotic democracy which is going into its most important exercise of holding 15th General ElectionsThe days of struggling, socialist politicians are over. The state is now producing a new breed of crorepati candidates. Has the Lok Sabha become an exclusive club of the super-rich and the powerful ? If the affidavits of personal wealth submitted for the elections are any indication, it seems you need to be a crorepati to become an MP.

The Lok Sabha elections are no longer a poor man’s playground and this statement is getting vindicated everyday during the ongoing nominations when candidates are coming out with mind-boggling financial revelations. The Election Commission has made it mandatory for each candidate contesting the Lok Sabha elections to reveal his/her financial wealth to public. Going by the statements many of our politicians have filed, their assets has grown by 300 to 3000 per cent since five years. These rich politicians hail from almost all the political parties. Lagadapati Rajagopal, the owner of power generation and infrastructure company Lanco, and the Congress candidate from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh has shown assets worth Rs 299 crore. In 2004, he had declared assets worth just Rs 10 crore. In other words, during the five-year UPA rule, his assets went up to 30 times or by almost 3000%. And Rajagopal isn’t the only politician whose wealth has grown, but also others politicians– there are many more who have bigger assets. The BSP, which claims the party is a party of poor and dalits. The party has given ticket to crorepati Karan Singh Tanwar from the South Delhi constituency. Karan Singh Tanwar declared aeests worth Rs 122 crore.
Not only the national parties are in the front line when it comes to crorepati candidates, but also the regional parties are also not lagging behind. The Samajwadi Party, which claims to adopt the socialist ideology, has given a ticket to Abu Sim Azmi, who has assets worth over Rs 122 crore. On the other hand, film maker Prakash Jha, who created sensation in Bollywood by making films on politician-criminal nexus like ‘Gangajal’ and ‘Apaharan’, is not lagging behind in crorepati race. He has declared his asset worth Rs 55 crores.
In such a scenario, one question keeps haunting whether these rich political leaders make any difference, especially to the states they are from or the people they represent ? Going thorough these affidavits of the netas, one thing can be said that due to global economic recession, no business is flourishing and large companies became bankrupt. But, the declaration of assets by the Indian politicians is a clear indication that after the 1929’s biggest global recession, if any business survived in India is -the business of politics. Because despite the slowdown, our politicians are flourishing.

Should there be a debate between prime ministerial candidates?

Abdullah Khan — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:46:04 +0000

Come elections and tongues begin to waggle. Responses ranging from tongue-in-cheek to mouth-in-foot and from slip-of-the-tongue to overdrive, begin flying to rake in the poll moolah. The ongoing war of words between Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani, has assumed acerbic proportions. Advani did not know that he has whipped up a novel cause, as far as television debate on Indian elections is concerned, while inviting Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for a television debate.

Though debates on television could be a new phenomenon in Indian elections as we are used to some on-the-field fireworks. However, in the US such debates form inseparable part of elections there. In US, candidates try to score over opponents sifting through the charter of allegations and propositions put by their opponents as well as the hawk-eyed media. Common electorates too keep a keen eye on these debates which have the capacity to influence public psyche in general. However, the ground realities in India are far different than that of the US. In our country where mosaic of society is vivid and multitudinous, would television debates cut across the masses.

The pros and cons of a probable debate on television have to be well understood before proposing them. Television debates could be an intricate issue with many issues like regulation and alike intertwined into it. Whatever, healthy and informed debates that offer common voter a glimpse into the affairs of political parties and their bosses, are always welcome.