by

Dr.V.N.Sharma

vnsh44@gmail.com

Member, Secretariat, All India Forum for Right To Education

The so called ‘Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009’ will be in force w.e.f. 1st April 2010. It is a sell out Act, with an intention of keeping 90% of the children away from getting education by privatising, profit making and fulfilling the requirements of neo-liberal agenda of the Developed world and the World Bank. All attempts are being made to keep India healthy, wealthy and wise only for 10% of the population.

The All India Forum for Right to Education (AIF-RTE) organized a massive Rally to Parliament on 24th Feb 2010 against this Act and the Agenda, in order to give a clear message to the people that the neo-liberal assault on education from “KG to PG” is not acceptable. We are talking about Common School System (CSS) and Neighbourhood Schools (NS), replacing the present Act with a new Act based on CSS-NS. In view of this we are also calling for halting all forms of privatization and commercialization in education, including voucher schools and Public –Private Partnership (PPP).

In the meantime the Union Cabinet has approved the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill and if it is not stopped at this stage it will become a law in due course. Therefore, added action is required to expose the irrelevance of foreign universities and FDI in India and ask for withdrawing the offer of higher education at GATS.

The implementation of the Act is being publicized as a revolutionary step. Government claims that due to this Act all the children of this country will be educated. But there is no truth in this. The facts given below expose the fallacy of the claims by the Government.

Ø This Act has taken away the Fundamental Rights of balanced diet, healthy childhood and pre-primary education (Nursery, KG), of the children below six years of age which was guaranteed by the Constitution. What is this Act claiming to give in future if the foundation itself is so weak? We will expose, in the following paragraphs, the deceitful character of the Act which claims to give Right of Education for 8 years (Class 1-8). This Act has closed all the doors of higher education and career building opportunities after 8 years of schooling by not extending the Right for Secondary Education from Class 9 to 12.

Ø There is nothing in the Act to say that handicapped children will be educated in the regular schools. The provision for the namesake has been made only in the standards for those handicapped who can not move independently. The blind, deaf and mentally retarded children have been totally ignored. The intention of the Government is to keep such children indoors and to wash off their hands by handing over the responsibilities to NGOs.

Ø There is no mention in the Act that all the children will get free education (Ref Clause 3). In fact there is no mention that fees other than tuition fees will not be charged. Even such strange Rights of Free Education will not be available to those who are forced to study in private schools due to bad or unworthy conditions of the government schools (Ref Clause 8a). If the children in private schools will have to continue to pay the fees as before then is this Act not cutting an ugly joke on the children?

Ø To fulfill the conditions of the Act Government will surely appoint teachers but they will be temporary, untrained and ‘para teachers’ on contract appointment. There is no provision to bar appointment of ‘para teachers’ (e.g. contract teachers, guest teachers, shiksha mitra, shiksha upasak etc.). This leads to a conclusion that the teachings in government schools and low economy private schools will be left to invisible forces. The question arises whether education of children in this country can be carried out satisfactorily without creating a cadre of permanent, trained teachers with a respectable salary.

Ø The Act has not intentionally defined the qualification, salaries and other terms and conditions of the teachers. The Government can take whimsical decisions on these and related issues as per their own convenience. This will lead to creating chaos in Education. This year’s budget has clearly indicated that appointment of ‘para teachers and low paid teachers in private schools’ and their exploitation –financial and otherwise - will continue.

Ø The standards of student –teacher ratio and room sizes have been fixed in such a way that it is clear from the data circulated by NUEAP (National University of Educational Administration and Planning) that around 40 percent primary schools (with less than 60 enrolments) will continue to have two teachers and two rooms. What it means is that the existing practice of one teacher-one room with several classes will continue. The same conditions will be applicable to about 30 percent of the schools (with less than 90 or 120 enrolments). That is to say that in future also the practice of educating poor children of two or three classes in the same room will be continued in a shameful way.

Ø The Act permits the engagement of Government school teachers in non-academic activities like Panchayat to Parliamentary elections, census, relief works during disaster management etc. This means that the children in private schools will be taught everyday whereas the classes for poor children will get interrupted and disturbed due to the involvement of the government school teachers in non-teaching activities. This way the students of the Government school will continue to be unfavorably discriminated against and made to suffer.

Ø The Act does not prohibit enhancement in school fees by private schools. This allows them to enhance the fees in uncontrolled and arbitrary manner. The Act does not require the private schools to follow government guidelines or to allow participation of parents, social workers etc in managing the affairs of the school. In fact the HRD Minister Kapil Sibbal has already announced that after the Act is implemented the laws prevailing in different States with respect to monitoring the management and the fee structure of private schools will automatically become redundant. In such a situation the education will become dearer.

Ø The Act talks nowhere about measures required to check ever increasing inequality and discrimination in education. Just as a follow up the Government is encouraging further widening of the gap. In such a situation only poor children will be left out in the Government schools with more and more discrimination and miseries. As a result of the implementation of the Act every child will have a formal right to education but poor ones out of them will be destined to have an extremely low quality education and level of dissatisfaction to ultimately drop out from the school education. (Government, by this Act, has ensured a freedom for itself from all responsibilities of ensuring a minimum amount of learning to children by the time they reach 5^th or 8^th class).

Ø The Act providing free education to 25 percent poor children in private schools is being publicized as a big achievement (The tuition fees, for such children, will be paid by the Government). But it is cunningly silent on how the poor children will pay the fees other than the tuition fees which are charged by the private schools. The Act is also silent on the modalities, guidelines or criteria for selecting poor students under this provision. It means that it has been left out entirely to the whims and fancies of the private schools to devise ways and means of selection in arbitrary manner. Bigger question than that is whether quality education will be provided to the poor children admitted under this provision. No such possibility exists simply because a majority of private schools are themselves below standard. Added to this is a question about what will happen to those (~75 %) who will be left out. They will be forced to continue with low quality ‘namesake’ education only. In any case such children will be dumped on the street after 8^th class because there is no responsibility of the private schools under the Act for educating them any further.

Ø The Act provides for education up to class 8 without appropriate formal evaluation of the students. This means that children in Government and low economy private schools will be pushed upwards up to class 8 with half education or no education at all. Class 8 certificate earned in this manner, for sure, will not help them in admission to higher classes.

Ø The Act provides for mother tongue as medium of teaching only if it is ‘practicable’ for the government. For selected few, English has been left anyway as medium of teaching. Therefore, the education with double standards has been allowed to continue.

Ø There is neither the intention nor a will in this Act to control profit making and commercialization of education. Opposed to this the Government, under the guise of public-private–partnership (PPP), is inviting capitalists, NGOs, religious organizations and helping them by allotting government land, money, and other direct and indirect concessions to allow them higher profit making by charging arbitrary fees, employing low paid teachers and paying taxes under concessional rates.

Ø The Act is silent on the quality of teachers with the B.Ed and D.Ed. Degrees earned from an ever flourishing high-cost private colleges which are infamous for awarding degrees without conducting proper teaching/ training programmes.

Ø The privatization, commercialization of higher education and ever rising coaching business is continuously on the rise. HRD Minister Kapil Sibbal has already announced that syllabus for Science and Mathematics for Class 11-12 and the entrance test for different technical courses (Engineering, Medical, Management etc) will be the same for the whole country. It is clear that this will add class 9-10 students also to the increased coaching business for some, whereas the number of poor children will be diminishing in the higher classes in the same order. This Act legitimizes the multi-layered discriminatory system of education as a permanent arrangement and has no scope for common syllabus or common entrance examination.

Ø Government will have a moral right to introduce common syllabus or common entrance examination if and only if it replaces the present Act by an appropriate law to establish common school system in which every school - government or private-will be a neighborhood school (CSS-NS) and every child-rich or poor-will receive education under the same roof without discrimination. The world history is replete with evidences that the countries which educated their whole population followed common school system one way or the other. But this Act takes the country in reverse direction.

Ø A new Bill is being brought to Parliament for permitting foreign universities to enhance commercialization of education, profit making and exploitation of resources which will result in continued mismanagement of and misrule in higher education.

Ø One more danger. The Union Government has tabled a proposal to GATS (General Agreement on Trade and Services) under WTO (World Trade Organization) with the intention of converting higher and professional education as a saleable item. If this is not withdrawn immediately the foreign universities/ institutions will claim to have the same or higher level of facilities in comparison to the Indian Universities / Institutions in India. In addition the Government will be under compulsion to provide legal protection to the foreign universities.

From the aforesaid facts it is clear that the Right To Education Act 2009, being implemented w.e.f. 1^st April 2010, is nothing but cheating and deception of Indian public. Under the guise of this the Government is making fool of the Indian public by expanding commerce, trade and profit making in Education. This, in turn, will lead to deprivation of education to the children of common people and accelerate number of suicides by them. Further still, the Indian youths will be compelled to move further towards increased unemployment, inequality, violence and extremism. Do we desire to make this type of India?

In view of this All India Forum for Right To Education oppose both the so-called Right To Education Act and the Foreign Universities Bill and ask people to raise their voice against trade and commerce in Education and work for the right of equal opportunity in education to all the children of this country. The call given by AIF-RTE is to agitate and fight to make the Government to repeal the present Act and fulfil its constitutional responsibilities by formulating a new law for equitable quality free and compulsory education for all under CSS-NS system.

The Article is also available in

http://www.countercurrents.org/vnsharma240310.htm

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh, In my considered opinion Cars are the biggest consumer of energy sources and cause of CIimate Change. If you pause and think over the issue you will find, as I have found, that Cars are the most unwanted item on the planet and is used recklessly without any consideration of Energy uses, Ecology, Environment, Climate Change and Global rise in Temperature. They take much more and return the least. Imagine the benefits accrued by utilising the saved resources better somewhere else in some other economic activity in raising the living standard of the people to a decent level with no harm to rich. Though economists and money makers find this, for various reasons, a great product it is really working fully against the interest of ‘Life’ on the planet. Just ask yourself whether everybody really needs a car and are they not being run most of the time for non-essential purposes. If the country adopts better discipline by keeping the residence and work places, education and day to day marketing areas in the same vicinity so many cars will not be needed and huge consumption of energy sources and jams on the roads will be reduced. With the present rate of car production it will become impossible to drive cars on the roads. In fact a simple calculation shows that 15-20 years later the roads in the Indian cities will be used only for parking. Cities after cities are already facing reduced efficiency due to such congestion. Then what benefit the car is meant for if it cannot make movement of humans smooth and relatively fast in reaching their destination. For the same reasons the car making industries also should not be encouraged in the name of tackling recession which is a phenomenon born out of high profit motive, corruption and consumerism. Cars in so many numbers serve little purpose. So they can be easily replaced by Mass Transport system. No congestion on the roads, no meaningless burning of fuels. I hope you will agree with me on this. In view of the facts stated above I request you to please propose to the World leaders in Copenhagen to reduce the number of Cars and production of Cars in next 20 years to 10 percent of the present level of Cars on the road and car under production. With regards,

--
Dr.V.N.Sharma
http://tinyurl.com/drvnsharma

Recently we had a lot of discussion on Rule 49-O of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. I obtained the information from Election Commission of India under RTI Act
2005.  The reply and clarification are as follows.

1. This Rule has not been amended . It is as it was in 1961.

2. ECI issued a press Note on 5th Dec 2008 stating that Elections will not be cancelled even if " I vote Nobody" is more than the winner's votes. Read the Press Note in the following link
http://eci.nic.in/press/current/pn051208.pdf

3. ECI has proposed to the Govt to provide for "None of the Above " provision in the ballot paper. A petition is pending in the Supreme Court but no details have been given.

I hope and believe that this clarifies the issue and discussion may
continue as to what to do now.

Dr.V.N.Sharma

Section 49-O of Election Rules was tried by some of us and members of Samta Sangathan in 1979 elections (Nitish Kumar and Shivanand Tiwari etc.were members of SS then) when I had freshly arrived in Ranchi from IIT Kanpur. On the advice of legal luminaries and Late Kishan Patnaik, ex-MP that the votes will get cancelled if such "No votes" are there in majority this work was taken up. As was the practice I did not read that myself as the people were to be relied upon for their words. Also Internets and e-mails were not there for getting confirmation. As activists we were happy with the outcome-some refusal to Vote in this manner- but this had no impact on the election Results. I narrated this to say that it is no Hoax as some people are making it to be. Just search Section 49-O. You get 100 sites.

Somebody reminded me of this story recently and I tried to check the facts from different websites।Pl. read Page 93 and page 172 (3,5 and 6) in the following link. it is Official.

http://www.eci.gov.in/ElectoralLaws/HandBooks/Handbook_for_Presiding_Officers.pdf

Page Nos. 187 & 299 in the website http://www.eci.gov.in/ElectoralLaws/HandBooks/Handbook_for_Candidates.pdf
also discusses the same issue.

What should happen if 3-2 is negative. I concluded from here combined with what we were told in 1979. But the interpretation remains implicit.

After all the search and review I have come to a conclusion that Rule 49-O has not been amended in 1969 as it is being spread. It is, as it was in 1961.

Different people are making different interpretation. The link below has a Para- Implications of this Rule-where it concludes that cancellation of election result is not there in the Rule.

http://theseekar.blogspot.com/2008/12/rule-49-o-right-to-reject-every.html

The link below says otherwise

http://www.cplash.com/post/I-VOTE-NOBODY--is-VALID----Section-49-O----395.html

My own conclusion, though surprising, is that cancellation of election even if 'I vote Nobody' is higher than Votes polled is not explicit. Since it has not been tried seriously the Rule has not been tested in appropriate forums-courts etc. It means that so far "I Vote Nobody" is not deducted from the total polled votes। Nothing has happened anyway.

That, Election Commission has already written to the GOI (PM) in 2004 to amend the Rule to make it a Negative or Neutral voting so that voting in Secrecy is preserved because 'I Vote Nobody' is some kind of a Vote.

The link below
http://www.eci.gov.in/ElectoralLaws/HandBooks/Handbook_for_Presiding_Officers.pdf

gives a method where "I vote Nobody" can be hypothetically in majority. How in that case result can be declared for a winning candidate? It is big question

PUCL has filed a case in Supreme Court but not to this effect। Anyway no Ruling so far.

Point To debate:

In my view we should do something to press for Cancellation of the election where "I Vote Nobody" are in majority.
+
Right to Recall of elected reps if they are not working to the satisfaction of their electors.

Dear All,
Agast Anand started the discussion "Plight of Bihar & Biharis".

To view this discussion, go to:
http://bihar-network.ning.com/forum/topics/plight-of-bihar-biharis

My response is given below:

प्रिये अगस्त आनंद,
आप का बिहार और बिहारियों पर लिखा गया यह विश्लेषण और समीक्षा हाला की लघु रूप में है फिर भी समझने के लिए तथा अगली कारर्वाई के लिए काफी है. इसमें एक बात जो छुट गयी है वो है गैर बिहारियों को पार्लियामेन्ट में लोक सभा तथा राज्य सभा दोनों के माध्यम से भेजने का. आज़ादी के तुरत बाद से यह सिलसिला चल रहा है. मुजफ्फरपुर से आचर्य कृपलानी तथा अशोक मेहता को राष्ट्रीय नेता होने की वजह से भेजा गया था. लेकिन बाद में जॉर्ज फेर्नान्देस और शरद यादव कों. ये कब के बिहारी हुए. मुंबई और मध्य प्रदेश में हजारों के नेता नहीं बन पाए, बिहार से चुनाओ जीतते हैं. रांची से रविन्द्र वर्मा थे जो चुनाओ के बाद दिखे नहीं. बहुतों को तो उनके बारे में पता नहीं है वे केरलियन थे. राज्य सभा के लिए तो सीधा डील होता है और बदनाम वकील आनंद जैसों को भी हम भेजते रही. अभी झारखंड से नाथवानी जी को भी पैसा ले दे कर भेज दिया गया. एस एस अहलुवालिया कब के बिहारी हैं. पर अपने लालों के पास पैसे की कमी रही उन्हें किसी ने भाव नहीं दिया. बाहरी लोग आप के इस गुण पर फ़िदा होकर आप का शोषण नहीं करे तो क्या करें.इस बात को भी ध्यान में रखना है की हम जिन बिहारियों की नेतागिरी पर आह्लादित होते रहते हैं वे कैसे हैं कितने छोटे लोग हैं. ये अपने कुकर्मो कों छिपाने के लिए ब्लैक मेल होते हैं और ऐसे बाहरी लोगों कों टिकेट देते हैं. ये हमारा आप का प्रतिनिधित्व नहीं करते ये सिर्फ अपने स्वार्थ के लिए जीते मरते हैं. अपने परिवार के बाहर कुछ अच्छा नहीं दीखता है.
अब प्रश्न है की हम क्या करें. उत्तर है इन नेताओं कों कंट्रोल करे और कुछ नए नेता पैदा करे जो बिहार के १९७४ के आन्दोलन से उपजे नेताओं जिन्हें हम अच्छी तरह देख और समझ रहे है से अलग हो. जो मुंबई की मार से और कोसी की बाढ़ से उपजे हों.
मैं एक बात कहना चाहूँगा की इ-संबाद की अपनी सीमाएं हैं और हमें कहीं एक निश्चित समय और स्थान पर इकठा होकर बातचीत और चर्चाओं के जरिये ही आगे बढ़ने का, कुछ नए कदम उठाने का प्रयास करना है . चूँकि जनता का सहयोग अति आवश्यक है अतः इस तरह की बातचीत और बैठकों का मेसेज लोगो तक पहुचना जरुरी है. दुर्भाग्य है की इस प्रस्ताव पर कोई कोमेंट नहीं होता. इसके लिए हजारों की बात मैं नहीं कह रहा अगर १०,२०, ३० .....जो भी आ जाये उन्ही का स्वागत होना चाहिए. क्या कोई पटना में बैठा व्यक्ति यह सुन रहा है और क्या वह इसे मुदा मानते हुए एक दो-तिन दिन की बैठक का दिसम्बर के अंत या जनवरी के मकर संक्रांति के आसपास आयोजन कर सकता है. जो भी इसमें शामिल होंगे वे अपने खर्चे पर होंगे यह स्पष्ट है. आगे की रणनीति वहीँ पर तय की जाय.

As per the news being circulated the Mumbai Terror Attack problem is over with a few dozens dead and over 350 injured. We must congratulate our NSG, Marine Commandos, Army personnel who all had to operate in the danger zone around the Action areas for over 65 hours with a few of them losing their lives in action. We salute all of them who took part in the operation and flushed out the terrorists dead or alive. We also salute those of the finest IPS Officers of ATS and Police men who lost their lives in the starting phase of the battle between the law and order keeping forces and the Terrorists.

What are the lessons of the event?

That, the country was one, is one and will remain one against all such external or internal attacks, disturbances and disorders being created by vested interest groups outside the country and also inside it.

That, Maratha warriors like Bal Thakrey and his Shiv Sainiks and Raj Thakrey and his MNS Sainiks were seen nowhere in action of saving their very own Marathi Manush Mumbai. A shameful act on part of these Maratha warriors. Mumbaikars and the Marathis must have now more faith in the United India with brotherhood between the people of different linguistic, cultural and religious background and not in so called sainiks and their leaders.

That , major part of Police administration in Mumbai, except for ATS, seemed to be paralysed and fainted. This was the same force which flashed their bravery in killing Raj, a Bihari boy from a short distance a month ago.

That, neither CM Deshmukh nor his loud mouth Home Minister RR Patil who was shouting at the top of his voice about a month ago that guns will be met with guns (against the same Bihari boy Raj ) was not visible this time with his boys and the guns when the terrorist guns were spitting fire. There were many other brave Marathas like Praful Patel who matched his frequency with Raj Thakrey and challenged just a month ago whoever challenged the Marathas and their ego which in his opinion was not the rights or property of Northies, Hindi speaking population and last but not the least Biharis and Jharkhandis. All this Maratha talk was a shameful act then and now. Otherwise they should have been in the forefront of the Save Mumbai campaign from Terrorists. Is it possible that the Terrorists fixed the exact dates for action after making sure that Mumbai in particular had become weak due to the recent MNS action against the Biharis and Northies in Mumbai and Maharashtra? This may be a major probable cause.

This also has a lesson for us and our rulers in Delhi as to why we have a non-political PM and a weak Home Minister who seemed to be totally unaware of his job, that is, the situation prevailing in the country. They are certainly not pro-active. They are reactive. Therefore, we, over 100 crore people are not safe in these hands. It is not to say that BJP or their NDA will do anything better.

What we, the citizens of this country need to do is to reject all such defective people whose total perspective is to look at the Unity and existence of this country through the eyes of BSE and NSE indices, or divide the populace for votes on linguistic , caste and communal lines and are not interested in a sensible governance and development of a United and strong India.

Labels: Lessons of Mumbai Terror Attack

The msg "NRI group asks US to put MNS on terror watch list posted in Bihar-Network Group" can be read in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bihar-Network/message/342

My Response: 

In my considered opinion this action of requesting the US Govt to declare Raj Thakrey a Terrorist by the NRIs/ NRBs is completely wrong and a misplaced priority. The issue has to be settled by us and within our framework. It is only to be deplored. I am also afraid that in the Indian Legal Framework it can be an Anti- National Act.

1. Pl. remember that the US has not settled the issues anywhere. It only acted like a Monkey and the Two fighting cats story and returned from everywhere with a bloody face. Just look where it is today. 
2. My humble suggestion is to raise the economic, social and cultural level of Bihar to a level which surpasses every other Unit/ State in India. For this we have to put our heads together, think in a positive way how to create wealth and Job opportunities in the State.
3. Pl. remember that Biharis are mostly employment oriented not entrepreneurship type. The elites in the Bihar Groups must work on an honest strategy to set up (a) small  industries,(b) soil testing labs in each district, (c) Food processing industries, (d) set up or Transfer  Head or Branch offices in Patna and elsewhere, (e) Institutions for Professional and Vocational courses.  
4. Academic sessions in Existing Educational Systems (Univesities) must be corrected to make it July -May. This will be an indicator of our sensitivity towards a disciplined behaviour. Pl. note that once the sessions got derailed in 1966-67 nothing could be done to correct the sessions.
5. Fix a five year Plan to achieve these objectives  and you will see a reverse journey of Marathis from Maharashtra to Bihar seeking Jobs.  
6. I also suggest that some resourceful person must work out how to stop Money flow from States to Mumbai.

---Dr.V.N.Sharma

by

Larry Greenemeier in Sciam.com

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is well known for pushing the boundaries of science and technology in search of ways to give the U.S. military an edge—robotic pack animals, self-navigating vehicles and plant-based jet fuel, to name a few. Less well known is the agency's Cold War-era investigation into how paranormal phenomena likeextrasensory perception might be used by the U.S. to get a leg up on the former Soviet Union and, perhaps more importantly, by the USSR against the United States.

Working with Washington, D.C., think tank RAND Corporation, DARPA determined that paranormal research by the Soviets focused on physical science, engineering and quantifiable results, whereas their U.S. counterparts tended to be psychologists looking instead to explore the human mind. The bottom line, according to a 1973 DARPA-commissioned study entitled "Paranormal Phenomena": "the U.S. has failed to significantly advance our understanding of paranormal phenomena."

As Halloween approaches, the report serves as a reminder of our fascination with paranormal forces (for more on this, visit Sciam.com's "Science of the Occult" in-depth report). The authors were worried that the Soviets might win the race to use the supernatural to its advantage much as they had threatened to win the space race decades earlier when they launchedSputnik. "If paranormal phenomena exist," RAND analysts P. T. Van Dyke and Mario L. Juncosa concluded, "the thrust of Soviet research appears more likely to lead to explanation, control and application than [does] U.S. research."

The authors acknowledge that the study was limited, because it was based on but a sampling of works available at the time. Among them: a decade of abstracts from the parapsychology section of Psychological Abstracts, a print version of the PsycINFO abstract database of psychological literature. They knew even less about Soviet efforts, they admitted, noting that their conclusions on that front were based on a "somewhat impressionistic" sample  and "some not always reliable and frequently imprecise reports of Western visitors to the Soviet Union."

Soviet research on telepathy dates from the early 1920s when a program was established at the Institute for Brain Research at Leningrad State University. The Soviets appear to have been fascinated with telepathy, which they called "biological communication," as a ship-to-shore way of communicating with submarines without using electronic equipment. They also considered training their cosmonauts to develop and use precognitive abilities  to "foresee and to avoid accidents in space."

It seems the Soviets also were quite taken with the possibility of psychokinesis (using mental imagery to move objects) as a way of "disrupting the electrical systems associated with an ICBM's [intercontinental ballistic missile] guidance program."

The Soviets were more inclined than American scientists to believe that paranormal phenomena might be the result of "bioenergetics," or the energy given off by the metabolic processes of living things. This theory stated that people exuded "bioplasma," (a theoretical energy field) that, under certain conditions, was capable of emitting charged coherent radiation beyond the body surface in the form of electrons and possibly protons. 

Although the Soviets did not reach a consensus on the existence of bioplasma, RAND concluded, "the very pursuit of this theory indicates that Soviet parapsychologists were attempting to explain alleged paranormal phenomena with a greater degree of specificity than their Western counterparts."

(Images courtesy of iStockphoto; Copyright: Duncan Walker and RAND Corp.)

Note: The Article is very interesting as it provides some information on how the THINK TANK of the two countries, scared of each other, were working during cold war days.