E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Punjab’s “yes”, and “no”
PERHAPS Punjab is genuinely hardly-pressed for security men because of a spurt in crime, growing insurgency and the forthcoming municipal corporation elections and cannot afford to spare any. But the way it first informally agreed to spare a battalion for peacekeeping in Gujarat on the request of the new Security Adviser, Mr K.P.S. Gill, and then did a U-turn just three days later has left a bade taste. 

Kaifi Azmi
KAIFI Azmi was, perhaps, one of the last two surviving links with the Progressive Writers' Movement [taraqqee pasand tahreek]. Moinuddin Jazbee is the other name that any student of Urdu literature would immediately associate with the movement that saw a galaxy of outstanding writers and poets give Hindustani literature amazing depth and substance.

OPINION

The Vice-Chancellor and the university
Concept of autonomy under scrutiny
Prithipal Singh Kapur
SINCE the advent of higher education in our country, there has been hardly any time when the university administration remained out of the mind of either the government or those who operated within the university system. The universities in India were created by the acts passed by the central or state legislatures and were maintained by the government funds.

MIDDLE

Congratulations, you are a father now!
Zahur H. Zaidi
IF I think hard enough, I can actually remember what life was like before my wife and I decided to go into baby business. Yes I remember correctly. My wife and I were your typical 21st century young couple. For the first year of our marriage we rushed through life as if we were enacting the change of arms drill at the local police lines.

THIS ABOVE ALL

Cheating in exams
Khushwant Singh
READING about Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu’s illicitly acquired wealth running over Rs. 100 crore made me realise how profitable the examination business has become. It is amazing that an otherwise intelligent man who rose to become the Chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission should have been foolish enough to stash away cash in high denomination currency notes in safe deposit vaults in the names of his relations, buy expensive real estate in parts of the country and not expect law enforcers to catch up with him.

ON THE SPOT

Of pseudo-secularism
Tavleen Singh
THIS week I write the requiem of pseudo-secularism. That concept made famous by L.K. Advani when he traversed the land as a charioteer. Few political ideas in recent times have had as much success or been better timed but the recent parliamentary debate on Gujarat came as proof that pseudo-secularism is now definitely an idea whose appeal has gone.

EDITORIALS

Punjab’s “yes”, and “no”

PERHAPS Punjab is genuinely hardly-pressed for security men because of a spurt in crime, growing insurgency and the forthcoming municipal corporation elections and cannot afford to spare any. But the way it first informally agreed to spare a battalion for peacekeeping in Gujarat on the request of the new Security Adviser, Mr K.P.S. Gill, and then did a U-turn just three days later has left a bade taste. An ugly controversy has been generated which could have been easily avoided had various parties been discreet about the whole issue. The circumstances are such that political motives are bound to be attached. In fact, the buzz in knowledgeable circles is that politics is indeed the main reason behind this surprising U-turn. First of all, the Congress would not have been too pleased to see men from a state ruled by it doing the dirty work in a BJP-ruled state. This would have been particularly distasteful to it because the policemen would have been lending a helping hand to Mr Narendra Modi of all the persons. Punjab officials too are said to be not too keen to see policemen from the state burning their fingers in the Gujarat fire. Punjab commandos have been successful in Assam and Bihar no doubt, but there has been a lot of criticism also for their rough and ready methods. Gujarat can prove to be an even more treacherous quagmire given the communal divide there. There is one section which is of the view that Mr Gill overstepped his brief by speaking to the Punjab officials directly. He should have routed his request through the Union Home Ministry. On the other hand, Mr Gill has asserted that he had got the approval of the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, before taking up his request with the Centre.

Mr Gill apparently feels comfortable working with men from the Punjab Police with whom he has developed close rapport during his stint here. Now that he has been denied his request, he will have to depend on CRPF personnel now. How far the induction improves the situation in Gujarat is uncertain. Mr Gill has gone there with a formidable reputation built up during his tenure in Punjab. The no-nonsense officer may discover that it is a different ball game altogether in Gujarat. He was given an almost free hand by the Beant Singh government, whose confidence he enjoyed. In Gujarat, conditions are quite the opposite. If the Gujarat government does not strengthen his hands he cannot function satisfactorily. The Punjab Police was by and large fiercely loyal to him. This time, the induction of outside forces and an officer planted by the Centre have left the Gujarat police force fuming. Mr Gill will have to watch his back while tackling the scourge of communal violence in Gujarat which continues to smoulder till today.

Probing Punwire

THE Supreme Court’s order to hold a CBI inquiry to ferret out the truth behind the collapse of Mohali-based Punwire, which caused a Rs 400 crore loss to various public and private institutions, apart from costing the 1,000-strong employees their jobs, is appreciable. Set up in 1975, Punwire grew up fast, got firm defence orders, tapped the capital market and was rated highly. However, ill-planned diversifications by an over-ambitious management raised costs but not profits. Mismanagement combined with top-level corruption right under the nose of the government ( the Industry Secretary, Punjab, was the Chairman of the company) led to the fall from grace and final closure. This was bad enough. Worse was when the state government failed to catch the top culprits. About 25 FIRs have been registered, a few inquiry committees set up and the case lingered in courts, but the top wanted men are yet to be arrested. That the government allowed the firm to sink even when it had Rs 140 crore orders in hand is nothing but scandalous and is a clear proof of bad governance. The company supplied to the defence forces equipment like radio trunk system and radio local system, which were unique in the sense that the enemy could not jam their signals, and proved very useful in the Kargil war. The loss would have been less painful had the company lost out in competition and suffered losses. But a profit-making government unit was ruined by the greed of a few. That speaks eloquently about the need to privatise state undertakings.

The CBI hopefully will delve deep into the mess, pinpoint the villains and bring them to justice without delay. It will be interesting to find out why so many government institutions rushed to park their funds in Punwire. Did they act at someone’s behest? Why no accusing finger has been pointed out at the IAS officer who presided over the mess and allowed the leeches to bleed the unit to death. There may be more than what meets the eye. Why did the PSIDC, for instance, not choose to dilute or dispose of its part of the shares when the company stock was rated highly? There are some obvious lessons. One, IAS officers cannot, and should not, associate themselves with companies whose functioning they cannot monitor. Though Punwire was run by a technocrat, government representatives on its board either displayed indifference to the murky goings-on or were part of it. Two, the inquiry committees only confuse and cause delays without yielding tangible results. The case, given the magnitude of the crime, should have been immediately handed over to the CBI. Three, private shareholders and employees should keep an alert eye on their companies and inform the media about any wrong-doings coming to their notice. Punwire is another skeleton falling from the Badal administration’s cupboard and yielding political gain to Capt Amarinder Singh’s promise of good governance.

Kaifi Azmi

KAIFI Azmi was, perhaps, one of the last two surviving links with the Progressive Writers' Movement [taraqqee pasand tahreek]. Moinuddin Jazbee is the other name that any student of Urdu literature would immediately associate with the movement that saw a galaxy of outstanding writers and poets give Hindustani literature amazing depth and substance. Jazbee now lives in retirement in Aligrah. Rabindranath Tagore gave his blessings to the new genre of creative writing. So did Kazi Nazrul Islam. Premchand was among the founding members of the "tahreek" that also enjoyed the patronage and blessings of Josh Malihabadi and Raghupati Sahai "Firaq". The "tahreek" itself was a by-product of the freedom movement spearheaded by the Indian National Congress in the 40s. Ismat Chughtai, Sadat Hasan Manto, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Sahir Ludhianavi, Ali Sardar Jafri, Maqdoom Moihuddin, Jazbee, Krishan Chander, Razia Sajjad Zaheer, Banney Bhai, Niaz Haider and Kaifi were among the new set of romantics who believed that producing powerful literature against British imperial rule would help the cause of liberating India from centuries of subjugation. To produce a complete list of the poets and writers who contributed to the growth of the unique literary movement from memory is like trying to count the stars. The prince charming of the unique movement, that also saw the birth of Indian People's Theatre, was without doubt Israr-ul-Haq Majaz. He died young during the All India Urdu Conference in Lucknow in December, 1955.

This group of firebrand writers and poets also became the moving spirit of the Communist Party of India. Their romance with the left movement saw them spend time in jail. After India became free these writers realised the need for regular work to keep the home fires burning. Ask Shabana Azmi and she will tell you how her father and mother, Shaukat Azmi, better known as Moti Apa, had to spread newspapers in a small room of the party office as bed before the Hindi film industry came to their help. In fact, most of the progressive writers moved to Bombay because the Hindi film industry needed the skills of these talented Urdu writers for it to strike roots in post-Partition India. After Sahir the poet from Azamgarh was, perhaps, the most successful lyric writer. Of course, the students of literature would remember him for his contribution to Urdu poetry. But a vast body of his fans and admirers was made up of lovers of Hindi film songs. He started his career as a song writer with Shahid Latif's "Buzdil" and went on to gain a permanent place in Bollywood's hall of fame with "Kaagaz Ke Phool" and “Haqeeqat". His commitment to the country's secular values saw him pen a memorable poem captioned "Ram ka Doosra Banwas" on the demolition of Babri Masjid that resulted in a wave of hate crimes throughout the country. He must have been in deep pain in his last moments not because of the attack of asthma, but because of the madness that shows no signs of abating in Gujarat.

OPINION

The Vice-Chancellor and the university
Concept of autonomy under scrutiny
Prithipal Singh Kapur

SINCE the advent of higher education in our country, there has been hardly any time when the university administration remained out of the mind of either the government or those who operated within the university system. The universities in India were created by the acts passed by the central or state legislatures and were maintained by the government funds. The colonial masters who brought this system into being ensured government control over the universities. Hence the Governors of the states (then provinces) were made the Chancellors of the universities.

In the post-Independence era despite the establishment of the UGC and the appointment of various commissions with a view to improving the state of Indian universities, it has come to be recognised that in the name of autonomy, the universities cannot afford to ignore their reciprocate obligations to the government nor can they disregard their accountability to the public, particularly in a democratic setup.

Various studies have been made with regard to the measure of autonomy that a university should enjoy. But it has to be conceded that no final word can be said on this issue and the concept of autonomy will constantly remain under scrutiny and review in the context of fast changes taking place in our society. A recent study undertaken by Dr Bhim Singh Dahiya (former Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University) appearing under the title “The university Autonomy in India: The idea and Reality” (Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 2001) warrants special attention particularly with regard to the role and conduct of the Vice-Chancellor of a university. Dr Bhim Singh has aptly pointed out that reports of our commissions/committees have mostly been reproductions of the reports in the UK and says that “we must not be uncritically committed to following our old masters”. He profusely quotes the “Report of the Committee on Governance of Universities/Colleges” headed by P.B. Gajendragadkar, the Chief Justice of India, and the model framed by the UGC on the issue of the appointment of Vice-Chancellors and the importance of the office of the Vice-Chancellor. It will be worthwhile to reproduce an excerpt from the report of the “Model Act” committee as to the importance of the position of the Vice-Chancellor:

“The Vice-Chancellor is by far the most important functionary in a university, not only on the administrative side but also for seeking the right atmosphere for the teachers and the students to do their work effectively and in the right spirit”.

Despite all this, our political executives in the Centre as well as the states have conveniently turned a deaf ear to these reports and have found people from “all kinds of cadres (retired, DGPs, army generals, IAS officers and the judges) eligible” for the position of Vice-Chancellors”. This means that anyone and everyone is eligible to be the “Chief academic and executive officer” of a university remaining oblivious of the fact that it is the office of “the Vice-Chancellor on which alone depends the entire environment of the university”. The conditions in our universities have come to such a pass, only because of the utter disregard of the qualifications of character and learning with regard to the appointment of Vice-Chancellors.

The second most important ailment that has caught our universities these days is “the scope for misuse and abuse of the authority by the Vice-Chancellors”. He is Chairman of all the university bodies such as syndicate (called executive council and Board of Management in many cases) academic council, senate (court) and the Finance Committee and in addition to this he also chairs all the selection committees for teachers and officers of the universities. Besides, he also appoints Deans, Directors and Chairpersons or heads of departments and other functionaries of university administration. Numerous other powers have been listed in the university statutes, ordinances and regulations that are most conveniently entrusted to the Vice-Chancellor by the university bodies.

The emergency powers vested in the Vice-Chancellor by virtue of his position are most dangerous and, interestingly, they are mostly misused by the incumbents. It is under these powers that faculties and departments are merged, created and abolished on extra-academic considerations.

Perhaps these powers are mostly used by the Vice-Chancellors in order to discipline the teachers/officers in his capacity as custodian for “maintenance of discipline” on the campus. Such powers tend to make the chief executive of the university an autocrat unknown in a democratic set-up and also go to make the academic community timid to the extent of being maimed and conditioned to follow the dictum “the boss can never be wrong”.

In the process, the university bodies become irrelevant because their meetings are not regularly called as per conventions and the decisions taken under “emergency powers” remain unapproved for such a long time that their approval becomes inevitable.

In case of the university that is in the eye of storm these days, only 14 meetings of the apex body were held during the full tenure of the Vice-Chancellor and each time the agenda presented in meetings was approval of the actions taken by the Vice-Chancellor.

An additional factor that has contributed to the degeneration in the university administration is nomination of persons other than academics on the university bodies and the anxiety of the Vice-Chancellor to keep such people is good humour. This leads to complete politicisation of administration with factional overtones.

Many a time, the existence of the Pro-Vice-Chancellors in the university hierarchy is dubbed as facilitating emergence of a parallel centre of power. Dr B.S. Dahiya in his above referred book has concurred with this view. The UGC and the AIU also do not favour the existence of the post of a Pro-Vice-Chancellor. While, the above averments may be accepted to be nearer truth in the practical sense; but the non-existence of any system of checks and balances as also any provision of sharing of authority by a chief executive vested with such vast and absolute powers in the entire system is also fraught with dangers. Such a situation can in no way be described to be conducive for the emergence of healthy administrative conventions or traditions. Moreover, one has also to appreciate that the posts of Pro-Vice-Chancellor in Punjab have been created in a bad spirit with ill-defined provisions in the statute and the Vice-Chancellors use their clout with the political masters to make the Pro-Vice-Chancellor’s position redundant and unenviable.

The writer is former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

MIDDLE

Congratulations, you are a father now!
Zahur H. Zaidi

IF I think hard enough, I can actually remember what life was like before my wife and I decided to go into baby business. Yes I remember correctly. My wife and I were your typical 21st century young couple. For the first year of our marriage we rushed through life as if we were enacting the change of arms drill at the local police lines.

My wife was your stereotypical, young, North Indian housewife. She woke up much before me, read the newspapers first thing in the morning, tastefully decorated and redecorated our living room, read fiction and filmi magazines and did occasional cooking. She loved to shop and kept a close watch on all the “Sales and Crafts Melas” in town.

And on the seventh day she rested. She did it all. Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms could have made a prime time serial about her.

I worked 14 hours a day although I was in a cushy government job. I liked to imagine that I was a very busy man although most of my time while in office was spent gossiping. I even seriously considered joining the software industry although I still wonder what the whole lot of them do and still survive. I enjoyed watching TV and loved to party. And like all good people in the government I loved cribbing about my job and talk ill about colleagues.

My wife and I ate out a lot during those early fast track days of the first year of our marriage life. We enjoyed candle light dinners and whisper sweet nothings. We discussed a lot about latest fashions and new eating joints in town. We loved to travel. We also had our little fights over nothing in particular. We enjoyed eating icecream and deep-fried junk food. We were in good physical shape. And then all of that changed. We had a baby.

Of course we did not plan that and we thought we were a smart couple and had planned everything in life. Now we know first hand why we are the largest democracy in the world. After an appropriately long paternity leave, the era of super mom and super dad began. Our little baby changed everything. We avoid travelling now and when it is absolutely inevitable we do it very reluctantly and then his bag is much bigger than both of ours put together.

The little fellow has changed our well-ordered lives. My wife and I left the fast track and got on the mommy and daddy track. Over the last few months we have changed diapers more often then the number of contestants grilled by Amitabh Bachchan on Kaun Banega Crorepati. And, of course, we have forgotten the pleasures of an undisturbed good night sleep.

My wife and I stopped reading fiction. The last book that she read was “The Lion King” and just last night I finished an epic novel called “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree”. We have stopped eating out and when we need to take a break we rush back home so that we do not miss the next episode of “Tom and Jerry”. I try and leave office as soon as I can and have stopped thinking about career changes.

No doubt the little fellow has changed our lives completely. But we have no regrets. In a few years he will head off to school and then to college to burn all my life’s savings.

Then I will have plenty of time left to climb all the career mountains once the days of the rattle, dinosaurs and stuffed toys have come to an end. Besides I don’t want to go back to the fast track. I am having too much fun. “Winnie the Pooh” is one hell of a book and nobody, not even the legendary Jagjit Singh, can sing a lullaby like I can.

THIS ABOVE ALL

Cheating in exams
Khushwant Singh

READING about Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu’s illicitly acquired wealth running over Rs. 100 crore made me realise how profitable the examination business has become. It is amazing that an otherwise intelligent man who rose to become the Chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission should have been foolish enough to stash away cash in high denomination currency notes in safe deposit vaults in the names of his relations, buy expensive real estate in parts of the country and not expect law enforcers to catch up with him. Among his many acquisitions is one in my little summer home Kasauli. It was a dilapidated Masonic Lodge known as the “bhoot bangla.” No one had lived in it for over 50 years. He had it renovated at an enormous cost. Probably he intended to live in it part of the summer after retirement. I would have liked to exchange views with him on the examination racket. However, “bhoot bangla” has been attached and poor Ravinderpal is to spend part of the summer in prison cell.

Cheating at examinations is as old as examinations. It used to be on a very limited scale. Boys carried notes in their pockets to examination rooms and were occasionally caught consulting them. I recall one being caught red-handed. He was detained in the same class for another year. However, a couple of years later he got his B.A. degree, went to Cambridge University, got his tripos and a highly lucrative job in a British company. In my class at school there was a boy who simply could not get a single mark in his mathematics papers, arithmetic, algebra, or geometry. Mathematics was a compulsory subject. To everyone’s surprise he passed the matriculation examination with flying colours. His father was Registrar of Delhi University.

In Lahore I knew two girls who were average in their studies. One got a first class first in her M.A. Her father was Registrar of Panjab University. Two years later the second girl also topped the M.A. examination. Her father had by then taken over as Registrar. One also heard of cases where examinees sent their tutors to take examinations on their behalf. There were other ways of cheating like having answers read out over loudspeakers on vans positioned outside examination rooms.

I was also once an examiner. Having very little legal practice I accepted the post of an examiner in some law subjects and for M.A. English. I received the princely sum of Rs 5 for every answer paper I marked. What I had to go through was quite an experience of human morality. Names of examiners were meant to be kept secret as well as the roll numbers of examinees. Unscrupulous people had little difficulty finding out the names of examiners and their roll numbers. Once I was approached by a sessions judge before whom I had to appear in a case with the request that I add a few marks to his son’s papers. I was stunned at the man’s audacity. I did not report him to the university authorities but politely refused to accede to his request.

I passed on my brief to another lawyer. Another time one of my own relatives asked me to add a few marks to his answer paper as all the examiners had agreed to do. I refused. Nevertheless he got his M.A. degree and bore a life-long grudge against me as one who did not know how to treat one’s relations: rishetey daaree nahin nibaahee.

Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu has taken the examination racket to unprecedented heights. Candidates for government jobs paid his minions lakhs of rupees to get hold of examination papers in advance. The bribes given turned out to be blue-chip investments which assured them of jobs for their lifetimes. What can one expect of men and women who bribed their way into the civil service?

Nature’s majesty

Nature has many ways of reminding humans that it remains divinity’s creator, preserver and destroyer and mankind counts for very little. Let me explain. I arrived in my summer villa in Kasauli on a very hot afternoon with the temperature close to 40. I changed into a T. shirt, and shorts and had the table fan got of the attic. I sat under the shade of the massive toon tree which grows outside the verandah. In my absence a family of langoors had taken over my garden. There are over a dozen, including two enormous monkeys, the head of the troop and his deputy, four or five females, including one suckling a one-month old infant and about six youngsters who frolic about the lawn and wrestle with one another. They look upon my garden as their private estate. They strip young leaves planted by me and quench their thirst drinking water from the two bird baths. Whenever I am there, their big boss seats himself on a railing to keep a watch on my movements and occasionally bares its teeth to show me what he can do if I don’t behave myself. He takes no notice of my gestures to throw stones at him because he knows I can’t reach him. I have found a more effective way of putting him out of countenance. I hide behind the trunk of the toon and take a surreptitious look at him. He senses I am up to some mischief and warns his family to take shelter. They leap from one tree to another down the hill side. I resume my seat. Five minutes later they are back to resume their depredations and frolics rather than quarrel with one another. I find it more peaceful to watch their antics. They are such beautiful animals.

Peace is restored. There are other phenomenon of nature worth watching. Blue fly-catchers, Simla tits, bulbuls, mynahs, wood-peckers, parakeets, tree pies, minivets and hill-crows are always in abundance; I can hear barbets at a distance; butterflies for some mysterious reason appear around 11 a.m. and are gone after a couple of hours. As the sun goes down and shades of dusk spread over the hillside there is the blackbird to sing its even song and tell me to retire indoors.

So it was for the first two days. Blue skies, hot sun, pine-scented air and peace and quiet that passeth understanding. The third day the mood of nature changed. Early morning clouds spread across the sky. The wind picked up. It blew lower clouds south to north, upper clouds north to south. Somewhere in between they clashed like armies at full charge against each other, Flashes of lightning were followed by thunder. The first few fat drops of rain were followed by a steady downpour. It rarely rains in April. I thought it would be a passing shower. But nature is unpredictable. For the next 24 hours right through the night lightning flashed and the clouds growled. Heavy rain was followed by a hailstorm. My lawn was strewn with white hailstones. A flash of lightning struck an ancient pine tree and tore it apart as if it was a matchstick. It would have caught fire if rain and hail had not dowsed it. It was the same across most of Himachal Pradesh. Trees were torn from their roots and fell on telephone and electric wires. Kasauli and its neighbouring towns were plunged into darkness and cut off from the world. I sat in my room dimly-lit by candle light in my shawl, and brooded over my helplessness in the face of awesome majesty of nature. The next morning was again bright and clear. The langoors were back on the lawn and all was well with the world.

***

Everyone asks me if I’m lonely. I reply: “Alone, but not lonely.” Being alone is an integral part of everyone’s life. I have a harm stocked of books, mostly virgins untouched by anyone, to be ravished by me. I don’t have to wait to get to paradise full of hoories and vintage wines. I have both in my little cottage in Kasauli.

ON THE SPOT

Of pseudo-secularism
Tavleen Singh

As for the idea of pseudo-secularism that brought the BJP to power and persuaded secular parties to throw their lot with it, we have seen in Gujarat exactly what it means. It means that a political party that openly rejects secularism will openly target Muslims and openly deny them justice or protection under the rule of law. After Gujarat it is clear that the pseudo-secularism of our secular parties is infinitely less dangerous than the open communalism of Mr Advani’s Hindutva.