Changing Definitions of Patriotism

Today is the 26^th of January. The day India celebrates its Republic Day – anniversary of its Constitution coming into effect. Years ago, I would have got up early in the morning to watch the Republic Day parade on television. India’s military might and cultural diversity are on full display along the iconic red-sand lined boulevards of the Rajpath. The very idea of this day, and the parade is supposed to make every Indian’s heart swell with pride and patriotism. For me, that effect has diminished over the years. While in school, these occasions are special and looked forward to with excitement. But now, the patriotic songs on the radio all day long, the handmade flags dangling precariously from window sills and rooftops, and the excitement for the colorful tableaux representing different states and Government departments are all relics of childhood. Today I got up at 12:30 pm, and the first thing I did was to switch on the TV, but only to see if Sania Mirza managed to win the Mixed doubles title at the Australian Open, and excited for the ensuing men’s final match between Nadal and Wawrinka. Meanwhile, the radio in the next room was blasting the latest Bollywood hits like any other day, instead of the handful of staple patriotic songs from movies of bygone era, which usually come on the airwaves just twice every year. As I switched channels, I landed on Rang De Basanti, a modern day classic and the perfect movie to invoke the missing patriotic spark on a day like this. I had not seen this movie in a long time, and as I watched it, I found myself appreciating it for the exemplary film making and its technical and aesthetic aspects. I realized that the indescribable feeling of being welled up with patriotic emotions was missing, unlike the first couple of times I had seen it, years ago. I began to wonder, do I not take pride in being an Indian anymore? Do National holidays like the Republic Day and the Independence Day mean nothing anymore to me, especially if they fall on a Sunday, thus robbing me of a guaranteed day off from work?

Patriotism in India is expressed occasionally, including sporting  events, the afore mentioned national holidays, times of war, or a significant achievement on the global stage – like the beauty pageant victories of yore, or the more recent successful launch of the Mars Rover by our space agency ISRO. Though I use the term sporting events at the risk of being too liberal - its only cricket that counts as sport in our collective conscience. But we are so used to winning in cricket by now, that it is no longer associated with the pride of being an Indian, unless it is the world cup, or a match against Pakistan.The jingoistic version of patriotism, often restricted for our dealings with the old time neighboring foe/friend, is expressed time and again, be it on the cricket pitch via bat and ball, or on the high terrains of the Himalayas via guns and mortar, or in our movies (thankfully, on the decline). But in these times of social networking, when everyone is an opinion maker and a self appointed expert on everything, where complete anonymity springs up keyboard warriors in every home, this jingoism has found an unprecedented outlet for expression. These defenders of our country’s pride are forever ready with their fingers drawn, ready to bully and abuse anyone who dares question our country, or even their own political heroes, into submission. On the flip side, when any piece related to India comes up on any social media platform, there are similar detractors who are ready to label India as the country of rapists and hell for women at the drop of a hat, no matter if the article they are commenting on was about the Mangalyaan. One interesting expression of patriotism nowadays is seen when an India – born national of any country is lauded for an achievement of significance. Whether that person is an astronaut, musician, scientist or politician, we are ready to claim him/her as one of our own, and delight and take pride in their success, even if their families left India eons ago, and its inconsequential whether they acknowledge their “Indianness” or not. It’s a pity that we are apparently a nation so starved of heroes that we are ready to embrace others as our own, even though our own athletes, freedom fighters, aging and forgotten artists and other heroes (or even present, when it comes to ‘irrelevant’ disciplines like Kabaddi, or for that matter, any women’s team) are struggling to make ends meet.

Though it can be argued that just like any other emotion, the expression of patriotism will vary for every individual. While for some, it may trigger from witnessing a thumping victory of the Indian cricket team over an arch rival (or maybe even on the tennis court, or hockey field), for others it may come from witnessing the launch of a space mission or nuclear capable missile on TV. I was just trying to contemplate the changing definitions of patriotism for me with age, but digressed. While celebrating and revisiting iconic events in our glorious past, with a show of present strength and a promising future excited me as a child, now it only means a few hours of lost sleep. Later in the day, while still changing channels, I landed on NDTV, airing a feature on the Kargil War, and the perspectives and changes in those war ravaged towns in the present day, with comparisons to the actual days of the war. Watching footage of the first televised war of our country, journalists standing along with the army in line of fire, I rediscovered that spark to some extent, if only for the realization that celebrating these days is crucially important, if it ensures that we remember and appreciate our heroic armed forces once or twice a year at least.

In these times of insecurity, increased lawlessness, and complete disregard for human life, one might be forgiven for feeling that the entire concept of patriotism is on its way out. After all, if our populace was proud of its nation, how could a country once a symbol of non violence and morality, be suddenly symbolic of barbarism, inhumane treatment of its own women and intolerance. It’s like we take two steps ahead, to only come back ten.  But I strongly believe, change will come with generations. And the current generation, fortunately, has demonstrated the idea of patriotism which requires change on a daily basis. Patriotism which embodies becoming a better person every day, standing up for what is right, not settling for mediocrity and by not being content with silence and demanding answers. On the surface it may look like everything is spiraling downwards, but change is also happening at the other end, slowly and subtly, but surely. There might be a lot of noise and commotion, but the voice of reason does manage to make its presence felt often enough, and hopefully will eventually prevail. As Indians, I hope we will learn to be proud of and retain all that is good, and at the same time not be in denial of everything that is wrong and resolve to rectify it.

India, the world's doormat - Are we a nation of pushovers?? - In light of Indo-China relations.

How often have we heard the phrase "Bhaisaab thoda adjust kar lijiye"??? And more often than not, we do end up adjusting. Yielding to others, even at the risk of discomfort to the self, is an affliction ingrained in us Indians. Though this statement sounds to be against my own principle of steering clear of generalizations of any kind, and commit a great folly in painting our immensely diverse nation in a single color, I should make it clear that my intention is to analyze the impression we shed on the world as a nation. An upcoming economy, a nation swinging between extremes of all kinds; culture, diversity, poverty are known and well - characterized aspects of our country. But I can't help and think, that to a close observer of our foreign policy, especially in the recent years, wouldn't India appear as a giant doormat with the phrase "Welcome!! Walk All Over ME!!" written on it?

On countless issues relating to foreign affairs and world politics, our country has often portrayed itself as a spineless, toothless spectator content with watching from the sidelines and "playing it safe". Apart from making tall claims of being the next, big thing, a superpower in the making, begging for nuclear fuel and a UN Security Council permanent seat, and crying hoarse over Pak - sponsored terrorism and asking the Big Boss (Uncle Sam) to reprimand our naughty neighbor time and again, we really haven't done much to validate our claims of being any kind of influence on the world's political stage. The most glaring examples of weak responses from our government have been the US backed sanctions on Iran and China's constant threat to India' territorial integrity, especially Arunachal Pradesh.

China has, time and again, threatened and claimed parts of Indian territory as its own, be it Aksai Chin or Arunachal Pradesh (the so called "South Tibet"). From Government officials, including the Ambassador to India, declaring Arunachal Pradesh as part of China unabashedly in the media, to sneaky forays into Indian territory in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and J&K by the Chinese army, there have been constant jabs from the other side. What is alarming is that in the past few years ,their frequency has increased dramatically. While on paper the status quo of "Hindi- Chini bhai bhai" is maintained by both the countries in the garb of border dispute talks, joint military drills and booming trade ties, the Chinese side audaciously objects to Indian flag hoisting, infrastructure development, or even the visit of the Indian Prime Minister when it comes to Arunachal Pradesh. Simultaneously, underhanded techniques are being used to apply pressure on Indian Govt., like issuing stapled visas to J&K citizens (citing J&K as disputed territory) and also AP, denying visa to officials as well as locals from Arunachal (claiming them to be citizens of Chinese territories and thus not needing a visa), deeper and deeper forays into Indian territory by Chinese military in Sikkim, J&K, and AP - demolishing stone structures and intimidating locals. There have been many instances of cyber attacks from China on key Indian installations like the navy, electricity grids, websites of government departments and ministries etc. It is widely speculated that these could have been state-sponsored. The tightly state-controlled Chinese media regularly paints India in a negative color, often declaring it as a "wanna-be" which dreams of matching China's growth and status as a superpower, but is incapable of doing so. The standard Indian Government response to any such activity was "registering protest" or "taking a strong exception" in a press release. China doesn't have a cricket team, or the other standard response by our country could have been to suspend cricketing ties with them!

A serious issue like the stapled visas did not figure in the talks held when the Chinese premier arrived on an official visit in 2010 while celebrating 60 years of diplomatic ties. India was more keen to push trade ties and cooperation at the international level. on the other hand, the Chinese foreign ministry was not even slightly hesitant in strongly protesting Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh in 2009 for election campaigns, calling it an attempt by India to destabilize relations by creating unnecessary tension in the "disputed area". All the External Affairs ministry here could do was to express its "disappointment" over the Chinese objection, when the situation called for India to assert its claims and reprimand the other side in no uncertain terms. While many called for retaliation by India by issuing stapled visas to people from Tibet, Hong Kong etc., the government officials were merely "searching for a de-stapler", and for over two years, China continued to issue stapled visa to J&K residents. The issue came to a head in 2010 when it extended the policy to AP, and was finally resolved when the practice was stopped after talks. Why did it take more than two years for India to get this blatantly provocative issue addressed? Why did it take "talks" for India to get what was right? It was almost like begging for your rights! While a 'tit-for-tat' response might have been immature, and it might be argued that a restrained approach by India addressed the issue without escalating tensions. But how long can we play the nice guy, and get trampled on? While we bask in the glory of our supposedly calm approach, maps all over China would be showing AP, and huge chunks of J&K as part of China, and might as well Sikkim (which hey had earlier recognized as part of India, but still continue military interventions there). China has time and again shown that it can't be relied on, with memories of 1962 still fresh in the the hearts of Indians, and now with Sikkim as well as J&K. China has maintained a long standing policy of being neutral on J&K, and not to favour its buddy Pakistan, but that too went out of the window when the first stapled visa to a J&K resident was issued. While India on its part, seems to have betrayed the thousands of Tibetan refugees by recognizing Tibet as part of China, in an effort to improve relations, similar to its abandoning of friendship dating back to ancient civilizations with Iran when it came to US-backed sanctions at the UN.

That escalating tensions in an already unstable region is not in anyone's interest is beyond doubt. But how long can we watch from the sidelines as the big "brother" of ours continues to bully us?

The Indian Olympic Story

The first week of the 2012 London Olympics fortnight is over, and India has already equaled its best showing of 3 medals at the 2008 games. It was widely speculated that this would be the groundbreaking year for Indian sports, with predictions going up to as many as 10 medals. While that might look out of reach now, with medal hopes in archery, tennis and some shooting events dashed, India can still hope to look forward to adding to the tally of 3 with medal hopes still alive in boxing, wrestling, and shooting. A couple of heartbreaks in the boxing ring with unfair decision against Sumit Sangwan and Vikas krishan's win being reversed did mar the Indian party, so did the failure of some sure shot medal hopes in shooting. However, its been a fabulous outing already so far, with historic showing in badminton (Saina's bronze and Kashyap's quarterfinal showing), Irfan Thodi bettering the 20 Km walk national record by more than 2 minutes even as I write this piece and finishing 10th overall, a fantastic showing for Indian athletics.

It has been heartening to see athletes performing their best at the grandest stage a sportsman can hope for, as in the case of Kashyap, Thodi, the rowers, boxer Devender (who is looking good for a medal). Some of them might not be among the medals yet, but its a massive accomplishment if you are achieving your personal bests at the Olympics when faced with the best quality opposition from around the world. That is all one can really expect and hope to do. And especially if you are an Indian athlete, this achievement assumes epic proportions. The usual table toppers, USA, China, Australia have well established sporting infrastructure. Athletes are manufactured and trained in state-sponsored programs. All they do is train and achieve perfection. A Michael Phelps has more medals individually in 3 Olympics than India has to its name in its entire Olympic history. That is why even a qualification for the finals of an event, or finishing among the top 10 is a great achievement for an Indian sportsperson, and winning a medal is phenomenal. A Sania Mirza or Saina Nehwal, an Abhinav Bindra or Mary Kom, a Vijender or a Deepika Kumari do not receive the kind of state support a Chinese or American athlete does. They have to rely on their parents, who move from Haryana to Hyderabad, pour their lives' earnings in their training, take them for training on a scooter 25 km everyday, massage their sore limb and backs, sweat it out with them on the courts, fly them across the globe to participate in ITF tournaments and basically dedicate their lives for their wards' moment of glory.

Things are changing, billions of rupees were evidently invested in training for these Olympics by the government, sponsors are taking interest, infrastructure is improving thanks to events like the Delhi Commonwealth games. But these efforts have just polished the sheen for these athletes, and have just started. The foundations were laid by the dedication and unflinching commitment of these athletes who are now doing us proud. And possibly what makes it all worth it, is the fact that on a day when India clinched a ODI cricket series against arch-rivals Sri Lanka 4-1, the news channels and Indian population were reveling in Saina Olympic glory, and half hour specials were being watched on India's day at the Olympics, with not even a passing mention of the cricket series win, pother than the blinking blob at the bottom of the screen. Slowly, but surely we might be getting there, and as Krishna Poonia takes the field in the women's discus throw finals right now, India's sporting tradition may have also taken a flying start like her discus.   

Got a problem? Form a Committee!

The nation has been rocked recently with the news of three BJP MLAs in Karnataka caught watching pornographic clips and photographs on a mobile phone, whilst exercising their "duties" in one of the so called temples of our democracy - the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Not even the fiercest advocates of free expression or free will would argue for this shameful act - do it in your house, in your bedroom, fine! But the legislative assembly! C'mon!! Even a teenager with raging hormones would know not to indulge in such liberties in a public place, leave alone THE state legislative assembly!!!! And we thought watching images of politicians dozing off in the Parliament with open mouths, throwing shoes and mikes on each other, scuffling and slapping, was proof enough that we are being governed by a bunch of immature kids, who have no sense of responsibility to the country whatsoever. But what the heck, we are the ones who put em' there, aren't we?

So anyway, the ironic twist in this incident is that it involves MLAs from a right-wing party, associates of which have taken up the "honorable" task of moral policing in our country, by going after couples cosying up in parks, vandalizing shops and terrorizing couples on Valentine's Day, attempting to chastise women for dressing up "inappropriately" or going to discos and pubs. Yes, its the very state where women were beaten up for going to a disco or bar (not really sure what was it), by members (oh sorry, I believe the word is hooligans!) of the "Sri Ram Sena" - a right wing group which has taken upon itself the burden of preserving Indian culture, tradition and values in this particular state of Karnataka. And what's more, the main miscreant in this "porngate" once gave a statement implying that women who don't dress appropriately invite rape. I wonder if he was checking that theory out? His laughable justification for this act, according to an article in The Hindu was that the video clippings had women dancing and they were raped by four men. He said, "Palemar told me such things happen abroad in rave parties. Since the House was discussing the Malpe rave party, I watched it...... Just watching it is not a crime." Tell me if this doesn't make you laugh out loud, you know, once you overcome the burning indignation at the stupidity of that statement. To top it all, he "rules out" resigning over the issue. The party has condemned it, isolated itself from the incident and says it was a personal act by the MLAs and not representative of the party. Though it is true, but for a party that demands the resignation of a different Congress leader every other week, its shameful that it refuses to suspend these three offenders from their posts, leave alone the party!

But the thing about all this that really got me worked up was the response of the speaker, which was to "form a committee" to investigate the issue and file a report by March 13. I mean .... What is there to investigate? What will the in-house "committee" do? Sit around, joke about the whole thing, have tea and snacks and go home? What else is there to do except suspend the three offenders, which the speaker can do, and make sure that they do not see the insides of the House ever again? The solution to every crisis in India, it seems, is to form a committee. Whether its riots, or a multi-billion scam, or something as trivial as this one - just form a Committee - or loosely translated as - buy time to subtly push everything under the rug. How many of these committees have ever actually led to an outcome? I bet if they were asked to answer this question, they'll probably set up another committee to probe this issue!

Can we for once, focus on the issue????

A lot of furore was generated last week over a scientific study published in the respected medical journal The Lancet, which claimed to have uncovered a new "superbug" - multi-drug resistant strain of bacteria, which reportedly originated in India, and is spreading worldwide from Indian shores due to medical tourism. The study was by a British research group, and involved a few scientists of Indian origin too. The furore it created in India was over a couple of issues;

• One, the gene encoding for the particular enzyme responsible for conferring this deadly resistance to bacteria was named NDM-1 or New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamse.

• Two, the paper concluded with remarks which the growing industry of medical tourism, i.e. people from other countries coming to India for affordable, world-class healthcare, responsible for this superbug spreading across the globe, effectively serving as a travel advisory and dissuading people from receiving such services in India.

While the first issue according to me is pretty trivial and not worth a debate, the second one is quite serious, as it directly aims at our economy as well as national reputation. Many have argued that it is NOT the job of a medical journal to act as a travel advisory. They could have just presented the facts of the study and let people draw their own conclusions. The Lancet has come under the scanner as much as the research group for this publication. Though I do not feel qualified to comment on the issue without having read the actual paper, from what I have heard on T.V. and read on the Web, it does seem that the findings of the study, their method of sampling, and data obtained are not enough to taint the surgical procedures done in India as potential risk factors, not yet anyway. To quote Wikipedia "NDM-1 was first identified in December 2009 in a patient hospitalised in New Delhi with a Klebsiella pneumoniae infection. It has since been detected in bacteria in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States" ................................................ "The NDM-1 enzyme was named after New Delhi, the capital city of India, as it was first described by Yong et al. in December 2009 in a Swedish national who fell ill with an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection that he acquired in India. The infection was unsuccessfully treated in a New Delhi hospital and after the patient's repatriation to Sweden, a carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain bearing the novel gene was identified. The authors concluded that the new resistance mechanism "clearly arose in India, but there are few data arising from India to suggest how widespread it is." In March 2010 a study in a hospital in Mumbai found that the majority of carbapenem-resistant bacteria isolated from patients carried the bla_NDM-1 gene. In May 2010 a case of infection with E. coli expressing NDM-1 was reported in Coventry in the United Kingdom. The patient was a man of Indian origin who had visited India 18 months previously, where he had undergone dialysis." .................................... "A study by a multi-national team was published in the August 2010 issue of the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. This examined the emergence and spread of bacteria carrying the bla_NDM-1 gene. This reported on 37 cases in the United Kingdom, 44 isolates with NDM-1 in Chennai, 26 in Haryana and 73 in various other sites in Pakistan and India"

Ok, that is a LOT of quoting! But the question that arises from this study is that is the data sufficient to malign the entire hospital industry in the country? When Barkha Dutt asked one of the main authors in a program that how can they confirm that the nodal subject of the study, the Swedish national, didn't pick up the infection from somewhere outside India, or in Sweden, his response was Sweden is a much cleaner country, with better disease control policies. Does he mean to say that no one ever gets a bacterial infection in Sweden? Quite an absurd reasoning from a scientist.

But anyway, the point that I realized from that program was, how serious the problem of antibiotic abuse in India is. And as usual, instead of addressing the key issue, we collectively as a nation chose to focus on the purported strike against our false sense of national pride. The few sane voices on that show all stressed on one thing only, that naming of the gene after the national capital and other issues are secondary. The main thing is to recognize this as an opportunity to set out own house in order, and be glad that this controversy has at least opened up a debate on antibiotic abuse and emerging drug resistance. No one can deny the fact that these are major healthcare issues all over the world, and especially in our country. We have developed a dangerous culture of self-medication , reliance on over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and taking the word of the local chemist instead of bothering to consult a doctor. Pill-popping has become alarmingly popular in society and there is a serious lack of awareness about its ill-effects. Its a pill right? It can only do good, no harm in popping one!!! Well guess what, it's more likely to do more harm than good.

While I was watching that debate on NDTV, I realized how clueless my mother was about the whole thing. I ended up explaining the entire thing to her in detail, and realized that this is the core problem. Lack of awareness among the general population in India. We don't think twice about reusing old, left-over pills for similar symptoms, buying the same meds from the last prescription, not bothering to complete the prescribed dose as soon as the symptoms seem to subside, buying OTC based on recommendations from "well-wishers", and so on. People have to be made aware of what such abuse of antibiotics can do to you. Awareness camps in schools and colleges, pamphlets at healthcare centers, TV commercials in public interest, whatever it takes!!

Antibiotics, are chemicals which prevent microbial growth or kill them by targeting one or the other metabolic pathways in bacterial cells. Now, micro-organisms evolve at a much faster rate, and adapt to their environments quite easily. They do this by accumulating beneficial mutations in their genes over generations. And generation time in bacteria is of the order of a few hours. So when confronted with a drug which threatens their populations, a few resilient specimen survive by evolving alternate mechanisms to the ones which the drug targets, or by devloping means to flush the drug out of their cells. When these surviving bacteria reproduce and establish populations which inherit these defense mechanisms, the bacterial popualtion is said to have developed resistance to that particular drug.

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to the health security and scientists and labs all over the world are fighting against time to develop methods to counter drug resistance, and/or develop newer drugs. However, Developing a new drug requires at least 15 years of time and more than a Billion dollar investment, with no guarantee of success. Hence the number of new drugs launched in the past 2 decades is negligible. And it often takes less than 10 years for resistant bacterial strains to emerge after a new drug is launched. So it should be evident how grave a problem drug resistance is.

When we indiscriminately use antibiotics against infections without medical supervision, or discontinue or prolong a drug dose at our own whim, what we unintentionally do is to equip the bacteria to get used to the drug, and evolve mechanisms which enable them to work around it and survive. This is how antibiotic resistance spreads through their abuse. And in fact a major problem is MDR, or multi-drug resistance in bacterial strains, which implies that the bacteria is able to fight the assault from a range of antibiotics and not just one. This makes healthcare very difficult, as no one drug is able to cure an infection. This has been a major reason why we still have no fool-proof weapon against diseases like tuberculosis. And in this context the threat from NDM-1 is even more worrying, as NDM-1-carrying bacteria are resistant even to carbapenems, a group of antibiotics often reserved as a last resort for emergency treatment for multi-drug resistant bugs.

So it is no wonder that our healthcare system should come under the scanner. People are just not aware of the dangers of pill-popping. And is it really their fault? Whose job is it to make them aware? Who is responsible? The obvious answer which pops up is the usual scape-goat - our Government. Well yes, of course the Government has a major stake in this responsibility. But I feel the real culprits in this scenario are our esteemed doctors. This I say from my own experience, which has been restricted to the government healthcare centers like CGHS dispensaries, AIIMS and Safdurjung Hospitals. Doctors I have encountered, are just not bothered to explain to the patient what is his/her condition, what is the cause, what is the course of treatment and more importantly its basis, and the need to follow the proper dosage. They are more than content to perform a quick diagnosis, and write a prescription and inform the dose to be taken. Questions are not welcome!! Being from the science field, when I do ask questions pertaining to the illness or the medicine, the docs are just taken aback!! They don't expect you to question them, and most don't take to it kindly. It is just assumed that the patient, or common man, is not going to understand the medical details and need not be bothered. Some don't even tell you what the disease is! People too are more often than not just content to receive their prescription and walk away. This mutual understanding between the lazy doctor and the blissfully ignorant patient has proved to be a fertile ground for drug abuse. But then again, the number of patients these doctors in Govt. hospitals are forced to cater to per day is so huge that one can't really blame them for not having the patience to counsel each patient.

One can only hope that this study, which just now I read in the newspaper, has received the backing of WHO, may be a blessing in disguise, and more debates like the one on NDTV the other day, may be a small step in creating awareness about this major threat to our society's health. If it saves lives, I don't mind the bug being named after New Delhi. And just to make it clear, its the gene/enzyme responsible for conferring the resistance in bacteria that has been named NDM-1, not a bacteria per se, as most of the Indian media seems to think. :-P