Abhishek Kumar finds the MCD's Ayurveda department appointing pharmacists who hold unrecognised degrees

IIPM Lucknow – News article in Economic Times and Times of India

Invalid degrees, Real jobs

There are 120 pharmacists appointed by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in its Ayurveda Department. It is surprising how all of them have their degrees from the same university and that too from the same college. The college they have appeared from had its affiliation cancelled by the Allahabad High Court in 1967. However, the college still awards the degrees of Vaidya Visharad and Ayurveda Ratan. And it seems these degrees are good enough for the holders to land even government jobs.

It is not that the top MCD officers do not know about this. But they are unwilling to take any action. According to the information obtained by TSI with the help of RTI, it becomes evident that some of these officers have made these appointments of pharmacists in collusion with touts. When TSI tried to elicit responses from Dr A. J. Kurien, additional commissioner (ADC), Health, MCD; Dr Vasu, additional director hospital administration (ADHA); Madhu Jain, DHA Hospital; and deputy DHA Dr Sunanda Nishal, none of them replied. In fact, one of the officers added in good measure that journalists should learn to ignore such 'minor' discrepancies or else unemployment will increase in this country. What he meant, we guess, is that his employment will be at risk if scribes started shedding light inside every black hole.

It is pretty evident that when fake degrees were accepted, it would had been done in lieu of cash benefits or those in kind. What these officers completely disregard is that these untrained pharmacists administer medicines to patients in dispensaries every day and hence their lack of subject knowledge can prove fatal. But these officers are least bothered.

When we tried to meet and talk to deputy DHA Dr Sunanda Nishal, she point blank refused to meet us. We were told that she is easily accessible and she had initially promised to meet us. However, when she came to know the real purpose of our meeting, she feigned prior engagements and refused to meet. But we kept on pestering her for a few more days. In the end, she decided to meet us but refused to answer any question on the issue. She would not even answer as non-controversial questions such as how many Ayurvedic dispensaries were functioning in Delhi. Dr Nishal said that she was new to the post and had little idea. She added that we would have to meet senior officials if we needed any information on the department.

We tried to seek responses at the MCD office at Chandni Chowk Town Hall but every officer we questioned kept us referring to some other officer. The buck kept on passing. One officer, under the condition of anonymity, told us that everyone sitting here at the Town Hall knew that the appointments have been made ignoring the fundamental requirements laid out for that post but none of the present officers could intervene as all the officers, during whose tenure these appointments were made, have long retired.

The university that doles out these degree is called Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and is based in Allahabad. This has been functioning since the pre-Independence days and has been running two courses by the name of Vaidya Visharad and Ayurveda Ratan. It has given out franchises at a few places in Delhi and Haryana.

However, during the 1970s, some of the officials from Uttar Pradesh Health Ministry filed a case against this institution and pleaded the court to withdraw its affiliation on the pretext of unavailability of proper educational infrastructure required to give out these degrees. The court ordered that the degrees of Vaidya Visharad and Ayurveda Ratan given by this institution will only be valid till 1967.

The judgment was forced from the same day. It should be mentioned here that the then Registrar of Medical Council of India based in Uttar Pradesh was dismissed from his job because his degree was awarded after 1967 from the same institution. It was also evident in the reply given by the UP government against an RTI. It said that there has been no appointments of compounders and pharmacists on the basis of a degree awarded by the institution after 1967. Now the question arises that if the degree awarded by an institution based in UP is not valid in the state itself, how come MCD grants jobs based on the same degree.

The funniest part is that apparently one of the sources based in this institution actually told MCD that many of the degrees were fake and have been doled out by franchisees in lieu of Rs 500, completely ignoring the directive of the court. However, the MCD officials refused to listen. The appointments were made and MCD never checked these degrees for their authenticity. The photocopies of these degrees are with TSI and have been obtained under RTI. These degrees have been attested by the MCD officials. Clearly, money has changed hands.

We had asked for photocopies of the degrees of all the 120 employees but were given only 86. Out of these 86, barring two, all are from the same institution. It is impossible that this would have escaped the notice of the MCD officials during the selection process.

It is not surprising that Ayurveda hospitals and dispensaries run by MCD find very few takers. There are two hospitals in Delhi, one in Haiderpur and other in Ballimaran. They have 100 and 40 beds respectively. There are 118 dispensaries, two diabetes centres at Rajouri Garden and Aryapura, eight Panchakarma Hospital with facilities of Oil Massage, Steam Massage, Shirodhara and what not. There are 165 vaidyas working. The vaidyas take home anything between Rs 50,000 and 1,00,000 as salaries. The pharmacists have salaries between Rs 30,000 and 40,000. The budget runs into crores of rupees but have you ever visited one? Extremely unlikely.

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Gujarat has rolled up its sleeves to make primary teachers work harder for their money.

A new teachers' performance tracking system is being put in place that makes it mandatory for teachers to have a pan card

The Gujarat government's Gunotsav project, introduced about half a decade back, has been successful in ebbing the drop out rate of primary school students in the state to a great extent. In 2001, the drop out rate in Gujarat stood at 42 per cent, that slid down to eight per cent at the lower primary level in 2008, according to a study done by Union ministry for human resources development.

Gunotsav, which literally means festival of qualities, was introduced in 2003 and was aimed at improving the overall quality of primary education in the state. Last year the festival focussed on improving the health of school-going children. After the conclusion of the Gunotsav last year, the state education minister Ramanlal Vohra had claimed, “Our hard work of seven years has brought down the drop out rate to eight per cent.” To set an example, chief minister Narendra Modi himself went to primary schools and took classes.

“Even after spending Rs. 1800 crore on primary education every year, the efficiency of government-run schools was not satisfactory. Though the schools have got all the basic infrastructural facilities, it was observed that the teachers were lacking in commitment. Then the Gujarat government introduced Gunotsav which is now acting as a third party inspector,” said a top official of education department on condition of anonymity. This year the festival is focussing on the teachers.

This year, the three-day-long festival, which will be flagged off on December 9 and will be held across the 32,939 government-run schools of the state, would focus on improving the quality of teaching. For this purpose, the education department is collecting all the relevant details of about two lakh government teachers, including their PAN card numbers. The PAN numbers, according to sources, would be used as the unique identification numbers of the teachers. These numbers will help the government identify every teacher individually. Besides, the teachers' individual account and career details will also be kept for this purpose. “The teachers have been instructed to submit their details by the end of November. Those who do not have a PAN card have been asked to approach the IT department and get one immediately,” said a source.

Till now, during this education festival government officials approached 18,000 villages of Gujarat and analysed every aspect of education in the purview of students. But this time around the analysis will cover the whole education system and all the employees including the teachers. Apart from state cabinet ministers, more than 3,000 IAS and IPS officers including secretaries from various ministries, district collectors and police superintendents will inspect the December 9-11 Gunotsav. Each officer or minister would visit at least three schools in a day and would overview the overall education scenario. They will ask questions to students and teachers, take stock of the situation in every school under the set parameters and submit their reports. After that, the schools will be given grades and the good performers would be distinguished for government incentives. To judge the performance of schools, the education department has set up about 29 parameters.

Eight years ago, Gujarat was ranked 16th in the country in rural education. But as per a study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industries (Assocham) in 2009, the state jumped to the fourth position in the field of primary education. According to the report, about 85 per cent of the 36,000 schools across 18,000 villages of the state have basic facilities like water, sanitation and pucca buildings.

Last year, it was suggested during Gunotsav to retire non-performing teachers at 50 or 55 years of age. The government mulled to amend the law for this purpose. The news unnerved the teaching community.

The government believes that a capable teacher can make a whole lot of difference to the education system. At the end of the last year’s Gunotsav, the education department held qualifying examinations for teachers of Ahmedabad municipal schools. It was proposed to encourage successful teachers with rewards and, at the same time, organise special orientation course for the ones who failed. The recent order is aimed at collecting information about the teachers and organise it in a systematic way. This would, according to the officials, go a long way in assessing the performance of the teachers.

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The effervescent and raring-to-go head of Soda's panchayat, Chhavi Rajawat, is set to get some fizz into Soda

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Social work is in her blood, she says. Her grandfather served as sarpanch (head of the village) in his native village Soda for 15 years, and even used his own money to bring in roads, electricity and schools to his community. Some twenty years ago, he retired, the government ruled that only a woman candidate could contest elections from Soda, and the only person the villagers would have was Chhavi Rajawat.

“The decision to elect me was of the villagers, not mine, for they were the ones who pushed me into it,” said Chhavi. Recently felicitated with the Young Indian Leader award by Network18, this 30-year-old head of Soda, who is also a LSR graduate and an MBA, was naturally pleased with the honour. “When you’re doing something different and you know that it’s not going to be easy, you need support and motivation. This award comes as a motivation for me,” she beamed.

Elected sarpanch of Soda in February this year, Chhavi has had her hands full. “So far, it’s been good. There are a lot of projects that we want to do. One is to bring them potable water because water in that area, apart from being contaminated, is also extremely saline. When I got the water profiling done, where they took samples from all parts of the village, the report showed that the water was unsafe, even for irrigation. So, our main aim was to dig a few fresh water reservoirs, where our largest reservoir would be a little short of 100 acres, and the cost for that is Rs 2.5 crore. I have only been able to raise Rs 20 lakhs so far. Personally, I am not satisfied with my expectations but the villagers are more than happy, because nobody’s ever done even this much. We also worked on sanitation; we’ve brought toilets to people’s houses. Afforestation is the other issue. We got some 400 plus trees from the forest department.”

The lady, who once worked in the corporate sector in sales for a few years, is still pitching to possible clients; only, her cause has changed. “Raising funds has been the biggest challenge for me,” says Chhavi. “Initially, I thought that there would be some schemes that would help me out, but that didn’t come through. Then I thought that the corporate sector would help as part of their CSR activities, but that was a disappointment because none of the companies that I approached, came forward to help. Their excuse was, "your village is nowhere near our plant." Friends and family and one-off donations have helped her keep Soda’s boat afloat.

With a cosmopolitan lady like Chhavi heading the village, one could imagine an entire generation of women in this little village near Jaipur inspired and liberated. “In our Panchayat, there are 12 of us, including me, of which only four are men. Rest are all women,” she states proudly. While it isn’t her behind the arrangement, she certainly has ensured that all the ladies attend the Panchayat and freely speak their mind. “The difference is apparent. There are also more girls going to school. I’m sure it (her leadership) will have some effect,” said Chhavi. “I feel that there is such a huge need for educated people to come in and help improve the rural areas,” she adds.

Chhavi hopes that other educated people like her will take time off from their office cubicles and family businesses and try and help ‘Bharat’ catch up with India. For a last word, Chhavi says, “In five years, I wish to see my village self-sufficient and happier.” Godspeed Chhavi.

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Earlier this month Several innocent people lost their lives when Bodo militants struck in Assam after a long hiatus.

As both sides refuse to budge from their positions, common citizens face the heat

The anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) caused ripples of terror in the state by killing 23 innocent people in separate incidents of violence on November 8. The militant outfit unabashedly claimed responsibility for the violence the very next day. And three more persons were gunned down by militants on Tuesday, taking the death toll to 22. NDFB spokesperson B Sadbangso told a local TV news channel that the recent violence was in response to an encounter in Sonitpur district where an “innocent Bodo tribal civilian” Mahesh Basumatary was killed. “We took revenge of his death,” he said. A Hindi-speaking person and another belonging to a minority community were shot dead by the militants at Ultapani in Kokrajhar district on the Indo-Bhutan border, while a cycle mechanic Paran Mondal was shot down at his residence in Domgaon village bordering Chirang district. The militant organisation had in the beginning of the month intimated to the press through an email that they would kill 20 Indians in retaliation for the killing of a member of their outfit.

The first incident took place at Sijucha where the Bodo militants targeted a bus travelling from Sonitpur to Sijucha in Arunachal Pradesh. According to sources, a militant signalled to stop the bus at a deserted spot by posing as a passenger. Once it stopped, armed militants, who were hiding in the jungle on both sides of the road, stormed the bus. They separated male passengers from women and children. Then they made all the male passengers stand in a row and opened fire on them. Eight persons died on the spot. The second incident occurred at Belsiri of Dhekiajuli area in which at least five people lost their lives. One after another, nine gory incidents of killing and violence rocked the state. Normal life in Assam suddenly came under the shadow of terror and people were shocked.

NDFB was formed in 1986 at Udalguri area of the Kokrajhar district under the leadership of Ranjan Daimary and the main objective of the organisation was to create a separate sovereign Bodoland for the Bodo people of Assam.

Meanwhile, the Union home minister P. Chidambaram, during his recent visit to the state, talked of intensifying the army operations against the insurgents. Chidambaram felt that Ranjan Daimary, who is currently in judicial custody after his arrest from Dhaka, was not interested in peace talks. “The demands of the Bodo people have been met substantially by the creation of Bodoland Territorial Council. It is a role model for self-governance and the BTC administration is doing well and the area under its jurisdiction is now developing. But NDFB has some more demands which are not acceptable under the Constitution of India.’’ The home minister referred to the BTC that was established according to the Memorandum of Settlement of February 10, 2003 between the Governmnet of India and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT). The BTC has 12 electorate members each looking after a specific area of control called somisthi. The area under the BTC jurisdiction is called the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD).

The director-general of Assam police Sankar Barua termed the recent attack as unfortunate. “It is unfortunate and the Assam police will start a massive operation against NDFB on the Assam-Arunachal border with the help of Arunachal police,” he said. The DGP, however, refrained from disclosing any details about the operation.

On the other hand, a national convention of the Bodo people is being organised at Kokrajhar to unite various Bodo organisations and to bring them on to one platform. More than 5000 delegates from various Bodo organisations are likely to participate in this convention which is scheduled to be held on November 18 and 19. Interestingly, at a time when NDFB chairman Ranjan Daimary has declared his support for the Bodo national convention, his cadres are found to be involved in violence. The president of Bodo People's Progressive Front (BPPF) Rabiram Narzary said, “The killing of innocent people is a heinous crime. The people who have lost their lives in these incidents were not enemies...they were the common, hardworking people of our state. One wonders why the Assam government did not take necessary steps although the militants had warned of a terror strike a week before.”

The spokesperson of the Hagrama Mahilary-led BPF Prabin Bodo said while talking to TSI, “We condemn such barbaric activities. The people who are involved in these killings should understand that in this day of globalisation no one can live alone. The 1:20 formula - that if one Bodo activist is killed at the hands of the Indian Army, then they would kill 20 Indians - is not acceptable at all. Ranjan Daimary should keep his cadre under control.” He also said that an army operation was not a permanent solution to the insurgency problem. Instead, the government should go in for political dialogue with insurgent groups. Mahilary and most of his colleagues had once been active as another militant outfit known as Bodo Liberation Tigers or BLT. In December 2003, they laid down arms and formed a political party called Bodoland People's Front (BPF). But they have remained unrelenting and aggressive about their demands.

Criticising the present Congress-led government, the former chief minister of Assam and the leader of the Opposition Prafulla Mahanta said, “It seems that some militant groups are running a parallel government in Assam. Even after receiving the warning from NDFB, how come the government failed to protect innocent civilians?” In reply to the Opposition's criticism, chief minister Tarun Gogoi has said that the state would not compromise with the terrorists and that the government would continue its operations against the outfit. “We are not going to be cowed down by terror. The army, police and paramilitary forces have already launched massive operations in NDFB strongholds. The government will tackle militancy strongly,” said Gogoi.

Meanwhile, the NDFB has again threatened that if the army operation continues against them, they will also continue such brutal killings. They have also warned the people of Assam not to help the Indian Army and if they did so they would face dire consequences.

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With a robust economy and a stable political environment to sustain it, Brazil is all set to play a bigger role in global affairs, says Saurabh Kumar

In the 70s and till the better half of the 80s, there used to be an utterly unfunny joke in America that was said ad nauseum whenever somebody talked about the “prospects” of Brazil as a nation. It was said that “Brazil is a country of the future and will remain so forever”. It was well into the second half of the 90s that Americans stopped laughing on that joke.At the turn of the decade, even the reminiscences of that joke are gone. Brazil's future, it seems, has finally arrived. In fact, one of the most epochal issues that the US seems to be currently dealing with is the rise of Brazil and its manifestations in the world in general and in Latin America in particular. There is a basis for that.

Firstly, the economy. Nearly all the economic tidings coming out of Brazil in the recent past have been positive, and Brazil’s international status has colossally leaped as a result. The biggest economy in Latin America and now the world’s 8th largest, Brazil’s egress as a middle-income BRIC economy, with robust growth rates propelled by the worldwide commodities spike, have placed Brazil as a global actor. Annual growth is proposed at close to 8.5 per cent for the better part of the next decade. Economic steadiness has been well-kept by consecutive administrations and continues to be a high precedence. Inflation is controlled and dirigible, and liabilities are investment grade. In fact, Brazil is probably the only developing nation that has been successful in containing the inflation below five per cent in spite of the robust growth. Direct, fiscally-accountable steps are being taken to cut down poverty and the income disparity. Banco Itaú, Embraer, Petrobras, Vale, and a number of other firms are internationally rivalrous.

“We can render inclusive growth as in all likelihood no other economy can, given the magnitude and the level of inequality,” said Marcelo Neri, economist at the Center for Social Policies at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, while talking to TSI. “Brazil is treading what people like to call a middle path. We are respecting the prescripts of the market and, simultaneously, we are doing very forward-looking social policy."

This waterfall of good economic tidings has had crucial worldwide entailment. Possibly the most apparent has been Brazil’s wallop in international trade discourses, where the nation's hold has now proven equal to its reach. Brazil can no more be taken for granted, it is now an international voice on trade. In fact, its endeavours to hammer a fresh, non-parasitic centre of gravity have fundamentally altered negotiation kinetics going onward. Alongside other concerned players, Brazil now has an essential and in fact historic possibility to overture the international and hemispheric trade and investment agenda in a mode that is in accordance with its attempts to be realised as an accountable international actor.

Brazil is not very vocal in international energy discourses, but it’s coming up real big and is willing to stay here forever. Already the economies are sucking up cane molasses based ethanol as fast as the factories in Amazon can make it. Having said that, it’s Brazil’s late finds of offshore reserves of oil and gas that are truly seizing the world’s attention. With these finds, Brazil has the potentiality to become the nation with the 8th largest oil reserves, surpassing Russia. That indeed is a game changer. Once this reaches to production stage, Brasilia will have an even robust and positive role in hemispheric and global affairs.

So what are the areas where Brazil can make its presence felt? To start with, it can play a momentous role in appreciating the cause of international nuclear non-proliferation, especially with reference to tussle between Iran and the west. Brazil is one of the few countries which have voluntarily relinquished the development of nuclear weapons. Yet it keeps a progressive nuclear platform for peaceful intents. The Lula regime has also called on statesmen from the West Asia for summit discourses on a developing commerce, investment and energy programme between the two regions. And that has started bearing fruits.

After China, Brazil has turned out to be the second most favoured address for foreign investment. It indeed shows that worldwide businesses are surefooted in Brazil. Like China, the nation has altered beyond realisation over the past two decades and political stability is one of the primary factors behind this good show. Also, it is because of the stable government that Brazil has been able to bring in a lot of restructuring on the economic side. It is at present a creditor to the IMF with a brand-new, brawny currency. And to boot, its trade surplus, mostly held in US Treasury notes, now makes it the fourth-largest creditor of the United States.

“The potency of the Brazilian economic system was illustrated during the fiscal crisis, when it experienced only two contractions before crisply rebounding. Brazil is no more high beta on the international system. It has domestic services that stabilise things rather than merely trusting on commodities and the global economy,” says noted economist Michael Konstantinov who keeps an eye on Latin American economies, while talking to TSI.

Surely all this could not have been possible without visionary leaders. Two popular presidents have collectively carried out four terms since coming back to stable, civilian regime. It has enhanced its soft power too. The nation is beaming to be hosting the 2014 Soccer World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

But it is important that it keeps the momentum going. Brasilia woke up to a new president last week who brings in an assurance of four more years of the policies of incumbant President Luiz InÁcio Lula da Silva after electorates picked his annointed heir Dilma Rousseff, 62, a former Marxist guerrilla turned civil servant, to become its first female president. Rousseff, who similar to Lula is fashionably called by one name “Dilma,” took 56 per cent in run-off poll, easily vanquishing her centrist rival Jose Serra, who got close to 44 per cent. Experts believe that this triumph was due in large part to Rousseff's deep association with Lula and her assurance that she will uphold most of the same policies that sparked Brazil's rise in the global economy and made Lula's eight years in power a huge success.

The victory was due in large part to Rousseff's close ties to the incumbent and the pair's promise that she will continue many of the same policies that catalysed Brazil's rise in the world economy and made Lula's eight years in Brasilia a massive success story. Most importantly, he made living better for Brazil's underprivileged and his reformist policies helped fold the yawning gap between the haves and have-nots.

Lula's legacy is acknowledged by friends and adversaries alike. Not only did he keep it stable at both political and economic fronts, he was also instrumental in giving Brazil a larger and dignified role in global politics. Lula discarded Brazil's traditional argumentation of non-intervention and got positively involved in conflicts in Haiti, Honduras and yes, Iran. The way he stole the show at Tehran with his Turkish counterpart rattled the west massively. It would be interesting to see if the president-elect will be successful in carrying forward his polices or not.

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The Most corrupt state

Held brazenly to ransom by the Bellary mining lords, Karnataka outstrips Maharashtra by far

The question is a no-brainer. There’s no competition. Take a bow, Karnataka. You win hands down. From being considered one of the more secular, sensitive states in south India to being `hailed’ as the most corrupt state in the entire country is no mean achievement. The present rulers of Karnataka have striven tirelessly to achieve this goal and made it a reality in a short span of just two-and-a-half years.

Chief minister B. S. Yeddyurappa and the Bellary mining lords led by tourism minister Janardana Reddy are the agents of this inglorious change. They have, of course, been assisted by BJP, which is hell bent on retaining power south of the Vindhyas even if it means taking the help of unscrupulous politicians.

This script drawn by Yeddyurappa and the Reddy gang has all the masala ingredients that have become part and parcel of `modern’ Karnataka’s democracy. Today, caste is as important as cash in winning elections; brute muscle power as essential as shameless blackmail to hold on power; homas, havans do not suffice so even black magic is indulged in to ward off the `evil eye’ of critics and the opposition; temples and religious institutions are pandered to in the name of `service’ to the people. Amid all this, the rulers’ attitude has been `to hell and beyond with the voters’. The result: an embarrassment of riches as far as scams go.

The first inkling of what lay in store for Karnataka was apparent when the Reddys gave a new twist to the `Aaya Ram gayaa Ram’ tradition. It was even given the honourable title of `Operation Lotus’. Cocking a snook at the anti-defection bill and mocking the ideals of democracy, they set about purchasing legislators from other parties. Later, every trick in the book was used to get these `people’s representatives’ to resign, contest on a BJP ticket, and therefore strengthen the `seat’ of Yeddyurappa’s power.

Corridors of power and newspaper columns had then whispered some well-known facts. Everyone spoke of `crores of rupees’ having been spent on `Operation Lotus’, that the mining lords of Bellary had `invested their ill-gotten wealth’ in this mutilation of democracy, and that by doing so they had the chief minister by the short and curlies. However, after a while, Yeddyurappa started chocking under the stranglehold of the Reddys. At one point last year he decided to `show them their place’. He announced a compulsory tax on trucks carrying iron ore mined by the Bellary lords and their minions. Yeddyurappa also transferred IAS and IPS officers of Reddys’ choice who had been posted in the districts coming under their `feudal influence’.

But the Reddys’ political DNA was made of different stuff. They cobbled together some 40-odd dissatisfied BJP legislators, hijacked them to a fancy resort in Hyderabad, even managed to get the weather-beaten BJP veterans in Delhi to concede to their demands and extracted their pound of flesh from Yeddyurappa. A chastened chief minister helplessly shed tears in public. The vice-like grip that the Reddys have on Yeddyurappa and consequently on the state has led to astonishingly unbelievable events. A whopping 3.5 million tonnes of illegal iron ore confiscated by the Lokayukta vanished into thin air quicker than one could say Houdini. (Estimated cost of the ore: an astounding 50,000,000 dollars. You figure it out in rupees!) Thousands of acres of fertile farm lands in Bellary district have been demarcated for an airport which - other than the several aircraft-owning mining lords - no one has any use for. The state government has signed an MoU with Bramhani Industries for a steel plant coming up in Bellary. It wi
ll take away thousands of acres of land from poor farmers. Incidentally Bramhani Industries is owned by the wife of Janardana Reddy.

Did someone say `Adarsh Housing scam, prime land, Rs 800 crores worth of property, no clearances, etc, etc?’ No competition folks. In Karnataka, we have seen the very borders of the state changed for the convenience of the mining barons. We have seen a corrupt minister’s councillor son caught red-handed by the Lokayukta and yet the chief minister gives his colleague a clean chit. We have seen democratically elected people’s representatives being bought as casually as you would buy a bar of soap. We have seen the ideals of democracy mangled beyond recognition.

To this mixture of blatant opportunism add a dose of the BJP’s ideals of Hindutva. The end result is saffronisation of education, demolition of churches, thrashing of women, attacks on Muslims, muzzling of the press, killings and arrests of farmers, sidelining off the already downtrodden dalits and much else. If there are still any naysayers from Maharashtra, I ask them one pertinent question: Can your petty Adarsh scam hold to ransom your entire state? Our mighty Reddys can! Easily, the winner is the humiliated, shattered, plundered state of Karnataka. Jai Karnataka

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Sex education

That thing you do

They say it’s not the number of years you live; it’s the life in those years which matters. Wilt Chamberlain, for one, seemed to know well how to pack it in! For this basketball hall-of-famer confessed, in his autobiography, “A View from Above”, to have had sex with approximately 20,000 women! A mathematical calculation indicates that if Wilt had sex with all those women in his lifetime, he must have slept with a different girl every alternate day for about fourteen years on the trot! What’s more, he never felt the need to visit a sex therapist for his heightened libido. Contrast that with the wrecked marriage of Tiger Woods, attributed to his alleged misdemeanours with about a dozen women, following which he checked into a sex rehab.

Sex works like a drug, some might suffer with it and some without. A Brit nymphomaniac (who claimed to have slept with over thousand men) once commented “it’s like dry skin; you know you shouldn’t scratch it, but once you do, it just feels so good.” But like all good things, excess is unwise.

Satyric appetites are known to be indulged by some to the point of addiction. With the Internet making all levels of sex education possible – easily accessible porn, subscription to adult magazines – and burgeoning strip joints, escort services, and massage parlours, in addition to good old prostitution, the three letter word is top recall in these times. For the rich and the famous, the pickings are even easier. Tiger Woods was only the latest in the list of celeb sexaholics that include Charlie Sheen, Jesse James, David Duchovny, Paris Hilton, Billy Bob Thornton et al. Interestingly, Billy Bob Thornton actually ended up sleeping with his sex therapist. So there.

Given the ubiquitous lethal mix of fame, money and sex (Tiger confessed: “I thought I was entitled”), one wonders if this intense drive to have sex indeed amounts to something similar to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), or is it a façade for cheating? On the comparison to OCD, Dr Satya Prakash, Psychiatrist and Director, Mindcare Clinic, says, “OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is a personality disorder whilst the so-called sexual ‘addictions’ or ‘compulsions’ are not. There isn't enough evidence to even refer to them as actual clinical entities. While obsessive-compulsive mechanisms may be relevant in some cases, certain states of depression or anxiety, or dissociative experiences can also be the cause. Overall, scientific studies indicate that out-of-control sexual behavior results from a variety of mechanisms.” One of such out-of-control case was experienced by Ayesha (name changed) who recalls, “Sid once hit his own head against the bed in anger, when I refused to have sex with him. But once he got more violent, I was too scared and didn’t feel like tormenting him further, so I had to give in. On another occasion, he slapped me, when I told him that making out in the car was not a good idea, but again he got his way and we were almost caught by the cops. His regular visits abroad (every month) and his urge to have sex or masturbate four to five times a day was not only driving me crazy, but his parents too. They were aware of the problem and he was taken for various therapy sessions to many psychiatrists. The irony is that he knows he’s wrong sometimes, but his urge is so strong that it completely clouds his decision making ability.”

In the case of public figures, sleeping with multiple partners turns into cause célèbre for sex addiction, but in ordinary lives, sans the limelight, carnal obsession is tough to explain, especially to one’s significant other. “I had a couple for a client once who were married for 10 long years; a love marriage on that. The wife then got to know that her husband made pornographic films and uploaded their own sex clips on the Internet. In another instance there was this man with a fetish for props like vegetables and other stuff for the act,” says Nisha Khanna, Relationship Expert, at UTV Bindass in Emotional Atyachaar 2. So, is there need for rehabs for sex addicts in India, like there are in the West? Dr Satya Prakash says, “No. It is not an absolute requirement. A good counselor can help unlearn these behaviours along with some support from a close member such as a spouse or friend.” Nisha Khanna also agrees, “We try and counsel our clients and refocus their energy they have, rather than the one thing they miss the most.”

That men and women have different outlook on sex is now a hackneyed truth. Women do enjoy sex (even Stephen Fry knows that!), but more often than not, one woman’s means to emotional consummation is another man’s physiological prescription. Fear of social ignominy, and moral delusions may cause many to give indulgence a pathological veneer, but to those who find their routine disrupted by unbridled impulses, help is not far, with understanding friends, resourceful parents and experienced counselors. You might want to take that first step.

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