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Monday,
July 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Death of a corporate king UGC on the mat
Print nationalism X-rayed |
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Memories of Nepal
Of judicial accountability and independence
Estonians win wife-carrying title
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Death of a corporate king BUSINESSMEN are normally known for their success in making money. But this was not the only quality in Reliance group chairman Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, who died a little before midnight on Saturday at Mumbai’s Beach Candy Hospital after a 13-day battle for survival. He rewrote the rules of corporate games to establish a $12 billion empire in a period of just three decades. He wove an extraordinary rags-to-riches story. His envied business acumen and boldness made him a colossus who strode the corporate world till he breathed his last. A former petrol pump attendant in Aden, Dhirubhai emerged as the icon of the stock market in the early eighties mainly because of his visionary qualities. Single-handed he created the world-admired equity culture in India and came to be deified as the business czar of the country. At the end of 1999, Business Barons magazine declared him as the ”Indian businessman of the century” after conducting a world-wide poll. He made his billions when the licence-permit-quota raj was at its worst and created hurdles at every step in the growth of industries. He decided to raise capital from the public by offering shares of his companies at a time when business houses mainly depended on government-owned financial institutions for the purpose. In the process, his Reliance group acquired the largest network of shareholders in the world----over three million, which means one in three shareholders in India having a stake in the Ambani empire. It was not because of nothing that the stock market reacted nervously when the news spread that Dhirubhai had been admitted to hospital after suffering a second and serious cerebral stroke. The first attack he had in 1986 in the course of a dangerous battle with a newspaper group and the then Union Finance Minister, Mr V. P. Singh. A series of stories about Dhirubhai’s controversial business dealings put the Reliance group in dire straits. As a result, it suffered major reverses. It, however, recovered in a few years and began to grow with a renewed vigour. But the Reliance patriarch could not be the same again despite his claims to the contrary. His sons, Mukesh and Anil, were
assigned major responsibilities so that their father had enough time to relax. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise. Today when Dhirubhai is no more, India’s largest business empire is unlikely to lose much in terms of financial strength and stability. The Ambani “success machine” functioned in accordance with his belief: “Think big, think ahead.” As he would claim, he struggled all his life to give to the consumers the maximum value for their money. For him that meant “the cheapest price and the best quality”. But he could achieve all this by having access to what was happening in the corridors of power as well as in the minds of his customers. He once disclosed the secret of his success by stating: “One must have the ambition and one must understand the minds of men.” Adieu,
Dhirubhai! |
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UGC on the mat THE Comptroller and Auditor-General of India’s revelation that over 50 per cent of the colleges and universities in the country have not been recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) is a sad reflection on the state of higher education in the country. The fact that there has been a corresponding increase in the number of students in these unrecognised institutions makes the situation alarming. According to the CAG report, student enrolment for higher education has increased by about 30 lakh over the past seven years. Of the 12,067 colleges and universities, 6,898 are not recognised by the UGC. Another glaring drawback is that some of these colleges and universities have been running courses unrecognised by the UGC. The CAG report says that Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia are running at least eight degree programmes which are yet to be notified by the UGC. This is quite contrary to the well established principles and regulations of the apex body. Under the Act, a university can only award degrees that are notified by the UGC. If the degree programmes and the courses are not recognised by the UGC, one can well imagine the harm caused to students. The UGC is said to be an important link between the Centre and the states in higher education. However, it seems to be in no position to carry out its assigned tasks with responsibility and accountability. What else would explain its failure to root out unscrupulous practices prevailing in colleges and universities? Surprisingly, the UGC has no mechanism to compile and monitor information on the unrecognised colleges and the courses being taught by them. As it had failed to furnish details in this regard, the CAG maintained in its report that in the absence of the UGC’s control over these institutions, the system of award of degrees by universities can be compromised by “academic adventurism to the detriment of unsuspecting students”. Worse, the UGC has failed to even introduce appropriate examination reforms in universities as it could not develop an acceptable package. The CAG attributes the UGC’s failure in this regard to its lack of coordinated and purposeful approach necessary for accomplishing such a task. Charges of corruption, nepotism and politicisation in the recruitment of faculty members and research programmes have also affected its image and credibility. It is time the mandarins in the UGC made some introspection on the causes responsible for its steady downhill slide in public perception and took measures to improve its style of functioning in the larger interest of students. |
Print nationalism X-rayed This article is part of the debate that began with the publication of the Frankly Speaking column on July 5 on clearing the decks for the FDI entry into the print media. IF Indian investors do not buy shares of Indian newspaper publishing companies, then why will foreign investors put their money there? Obviously, because they will expect something more in return. There is a possibility that this “something” may be political influence. Therefore, there is need to be careful about opening the print media to FDI. I can say from personal experience what ownership matters. I had once submitted an article critical of multinational corporations for publication to the Asian Wall Street Journal. This paper is owned by the US-based Dow Jones group. I had argued that the World Bank strategy of encouraging developing countries to invest in education would only help brain drain to industrialised countries. I had said that it would be better for the World Bank to invest in roads and other infrastructure, propel economic growth, create demand for education and let good private schools emerge through the market mechanism. That would enable the developing countries to stand up to multinationals. The Editor of the newspaper told me that “he liked the World Bank approach” and, therefore, would not publish the article. Similarly, an MNC-owned Philippines newspaper published an article I sent on the global slowdown. But it rejected the one I wrote against foreign investment. If multinational corporations get substantial influence in the media, then it may become difficult for the people to know about the truth. Countries like Iraq and North Korea have shown how the control of information can disable the minds of the people. The same happens with FDI as well. There is no bar on FIIs in media. Some newspapers like Sandesh in Gujarat have already come out with a public issue. Foreign businessmen do not invest in these companies through the stock exchanges but are inclined to invest through the FDI route. This implies that they are looking for something more than mere financial investment and returns. This “something” could well be moulding public opinion in developing countries. The main argument in favour of FDI in the print media is that it will help enable the smaller papers to get funds for expansion and help break the monopoly of the few big media houses. Certainly that would be a noble objective. But allowing FDI is not the only way this can be achieved. We had a Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act which has since been diluted. A law along similar lines could be made to the limit monopoly in the print media. The Department of Law in the United States of America has had filed a case against Microsoft seeking to split it into two or more separate entities. There is no reason why the Government of India could not make a similar law to split the big newspapers in the country. Another strategy would have been for the government to promote a Small Newspapers Finance Corporation. The government has formed separate corporations to provide finance to women, Scheduled Castes and small industries and the like. A similar corporation could be set up for small newspapers. The government should have implemented a policy of cross-subsidisation. Let a tax of 25 paise per copy be imposed on the paper purchased by every newspaper which has more than one-half of the market share. That money can be used to provide subsidies to those who have a smaller market share. Alternatively, a steep progressive service tax on advertisements could be imposed upon big newspapers. Such a policy would have strengthened small newspapers. Many small papers which publish my writings are running in loss. Their owners are often fired by a social purpose. They run a printing press and subsidise the newspapers from the profits. Such small newspapers will not be able to attract FDI. There is nothing in the present policy for them except death. Mr Pratap Pawar, president of the Indian Newspaper Society, has responded to the government move by saying that this would “sound the death knell for small and medium newspapers besides affecting the country’s large newspapers.” The present policy may intensify the competition between the “very big” and “not so big” newspapers. That would be akin to a contest between two zamindars. There is little in the policy that would enable small papers to stand up to the big. It is not clear how FDI will break the monopoly of Indian newspapers either. If Rupert Murdoch gains influence, say, in The Indian Express and beats The Times of India, will it amount to the breaking of monopoly of The Times? Perhaps, not. It would rather amount to falling from the frying pan into fire. A global monopoly is not the answer to a national monopoly. The so-called safeguards built into the current policy are unreal. The fact that key editorial posts will be held by resident Indians is of little relevance. It was a resident Indian who had beheaded Bhagat Singh. The 26 per cent ceiling on FDI is likely to be slowly increased to allow majority holding to foreign players as we have seen it happens in insurance and other sectors. The electronic media is cited as an example of no harm occurring from FDI. Who knows? As far as the anomaly concerning the print and electronic media is concerned, it could also be dealt with by forcing FDI to withdraw from the electronic media as well. At the same time, it will not do for the swadeshi lobby to merely criticise the government policy. The problem lies within. The nationally-owned English Press is more pro-FDI than perhaps even the foreign Press would be. The owners of the English Press are all resident Indians. Their objective is to make money. They publish pro-FDI material because their readership asks for it. The challenge before the swadeshi lobby is to explain to the English-speaking elite of the country that they have more to gain from taking a nationalist line. Gandhi had the ability to explain to a few Indian businessmen that instead of hitching their fortunes to the English economy, they should chart their own independent course. The swadeshi intellectuals have failed to get this point across to the elite of the country. The elite considers them to be protectionist, backward and revivalist. This intellectual failure cannot be managed through government restrictions. The die has been cast. The government has decided to allow the likes of Rupert Murdoch to invest and, maybe, take over the Indian media. But the ultimate test will lie whether the Indian intellectual can continue to tell the truth to the people. The fact is that 10 years of economic reforms have got little relief to the common man. Employment generation has come to a standstill. Small-scale industries, which were providing most of the jobs, are under pressure. The growth rate is down. The government is sinking into debt. Yet the elite continues to hanker after globalisation because the MNCs can provide benefits to the elite of the country. The country will still be saved if the intellectuals, journalists included, can rise up and speak of the national interests rather than running after their fat pay packets that may come from FDI in the print media. The writer is a Delhi-based thinker and commentator. |
Memories of Nepal THE king of Nepal in Gauhati; the Kamakhya temple in the same place, and the report that travellers to Nepal are now a rare species; all these strike a chord. The king first, as always. “When I was at the Medical College (in Calcutta), the Maharaja of Nepal called me in for consultation regarding his youngest wife”. (An Active Life by Frederick Barnardo). Alas, the good doctor was summoned too late. He had to tell the king that she was dying of TB. A few months later, another call, this time to Kathmandu. By train to Raxaul and thence by carriage and pair (of horses) to the capital. He noticed that on each of the marble steps leading to the palace “were two sewing machines, each with its protective canopy, used as ornaments”. The king’s daughter-in-law had a breast abscess which the doctor was able to cure. A third summon followed, this from the king’s private secretary. To his surprise he was met at the border by a emissary, “who courteously rewarded me for my trouble and informed me that I must never set foot in Nepal again”. This was at the command of the king. The reason: the doctor was the harbinger of bad news concerning his wife who had since died of TB. That was in the twenties. Last week that king’s descendant on the throne visited a tantric temple in Guwahati amidst controversy on account of the animal sacrifice which would be made on the occasion. The first and only time I heard of this temple was because of a happening related by an aunt of my wife. Her husband was about to move from Delhi to Gauhati to take over the top job of the Northeast Frontier Railway. One day, while still in Delhi, a parcel arrived. Wrapped in a bit of red cloth was some prasad sent by the priest of the temple with a letter of welcome. It expressed the hope that the incoming manager would, like his predecessors, be a patron of the temple. Being an ardent Brahmo Samaji he told his wife to toss it out. She did not; but he did so later in the train en route to Gauhati. On their arrival there the temple administrator called on him, only to be told that he would not worship at the temple. Whenever he had to escort a VIP there, he would sit pointedly in his car. One day his wife noticed a personable young girl hanging around the kitchen. Thinking she would be a suitable companion to play with her daughter of about the same age she encouraged the girl. At some stage the girl admired the clothes of the daughter of the house; soon thereafter she asked for a cast off frock. Something aroused the suspicions of the mother. She and her husband decided to give her a new piece of cloth instead. No, she wanted an old dress. Sorry. The girl looked most despondent and went away never to return. Some days later on a walk along the road leading down from their hillside bungalow, what should they see lying on the wayside. The length of cloth that they had given the girl. It had been torn to shreds. Lastly, tourists to Nepal from India who now need a passport of voter ID. When I trekked up the Kali Gandaki gorge from Pokhara, and also along the Arun Valley in Eastern Nepal — reckoned by some the deepest gorge in the world — there were absolutely no barriers though I was once asked just before hitting Jomosom to sign a register. (I was trying to make Kagbeni, possibly Muktinath, but I ran out of both money and time in spite of staying nights in lodges for Rs 2 a charpoy with no facilities for ablutions or sanitation.) It is a spectacular country of the most glaring contrasts — and it needs the money brought in by tourists. |
Of judicial accountability and independence “(T)HE escalating misconduct of judges has often gone unpunished,” wrote Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer in 1992, “because the law of judicial accountability is still in its infancy. Barring the extreme measure of impeachment the law is silent, so much so, world-wide one might well say that, with marginal exceptions, accountability of the judiciary to the country is the vanishing point of jurisprudence.” Striking the biggest blow for judicial accountability since independence, and retrieving jurisprudence from the bowels of oblivion, the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Arun B. Saharya, withdrew work last week — on the reopening of the High Court after the summer vacation — from three High Court Judges found to have been involved in the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) scam. A painful decision, taken after almost two months of enquiry and deliberation, the withdrawal of work marks the Chief Justice’s satisfaction that the Judges in question — Justice Amarbir Singh Gill, Justice M.L. Singhal and Justice Mehtab Singh Gill — have so conducted themselves as to forfeit the confidence of the community and render their further discharge of judicial functions an embarrassment to the High Court as an institution. It is important for the public to know both what the action of withdrawal of work is: a “vote” of no-confidence by the Chief Justice in the Judges concerned; and what it is not: the removal of the Judges, which is the prerogative of Parliament. More than five decades after the commencement of the Constitution, and a full nine years after Parliament’s ignominious failure to impeach Justice V. Ramaswami, it is too late, simply too late, to contend that judicial accountability stops at the door of Parliament and that a Chief Justice is both helpless and powerless to act against his robed brethren even if the situation cries out for action. Whatever be their motives in doing so, those who would hold out this counsel of despair — that nothing at all can be done, short of impeachment, to call errant judges to account — misconceive totally the concept of independence of the judiciary. “The independence of each power consists in this,” stated James Wilson in his 1791 Lectures, “that its proceedings... should be free from the remotest influence, direct or indirect, of either of the other two powers. But further than this, the independency of each power ought not to extend.” Appointed by George Washington in 1789 as one of the first six Judges of the American Supreme Court, Wilson was also one of the leading Framers of the American Constitution drawn up at Philadelphia two years earlier and has been described by none other that Prof Bernard Schwartz as “perhaps the foremost jurist among the Framers”. The independence of the judiciary, then, to render Wilson slightly more intelligible, means its independence from the executive and the legislature (the other two organs of the State), not its independence from itself. Rebuffing the Punjab Government’s attempt to sweep the matter of involvement of Judges under the carpet, Chief Justice Saharya acted in the best traditions of judicial independence — the independence of the judiciary from the executive — in proceeding with his enquiry into the conduct of some of his brethren, upset but wholly undeterred by the Vigilance Bureau’s wilful non-cooperation and determined to nail its lie that no Judges were involved in the PPSC scam. A lie so huge, and so transparent, that it is, in retrospect, unbelievable that the Bureau acted as it actually did, feeding the public (and the Chief Justice) with outright disinformation and hoping to get away with it. Not the Chief Justice’s search for the truth but the Bureau’s and the government’s cover-up of it, at the instance of the Judges and in order to oblige them — for Judges, too, are an important “centre of power” in contemporary society — is what has damaged, both conceptually and practically, the ideal of independence of the judiciary in the PPSC case. The full dimensions of that cover-up — dubbed “misdirection of investigation” by the Chief Justice, whose condensed thoughtfulness in the choice of words carries a message of its own — remain yet to be explored, but there can be no doubt that, as and when the complete story of the PPSC case is written, it will constitute one of its central chapters. As for the Chief Justice’s power to hold an enquiry, suffice it to say that it flows directly from the 1995 ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of the former Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Justice A.M. Bhattacharjee, the leading case on the point. “Bearing all the above in mind,” ruled the Supreme Court, “we are of the considered view that where the complaint relates to the Judge of the High Court, the Chief Justice of that High Court, after verification, and, if necessary, after confidential enquiry from his independent source, should satisfy himself about the truth of the imputation made...against the Judge and consult the Chief Justice of India, where deemed necessary, by placing all the information with him.” That is precisely what Chief Justice Saharya did when, faced with intentional obstruction by the Vigilance Bureau, he turned in early June to the Governor of Punjab, seeking to requisition the services of Mr A.P. Bhatnagar, the then ADGP (Intelligence), and “attaching” him to himself. The fact that the Chief Justice addressed the Head of State — and not the head of government, the Chief Minister — for the purpose, and that he “attached” Mr Bhatnagar to himself (so as to ensure his operational independence in the conduct of the enquiry), should give the reader a fuller idea of his concern for judicial independence and of his adherence to the proprieties enjoined by the principle of separation of powers. That is all very well, the reader might ask, but does the Chief Justice have power to withdraw work from a sitting Judge so long as he is not impeached and removed by Parliament? Does not such withdrawal, a lawyer might add, have the effect “of interdicting the legal incidence of constitutional warrant of the appointment of a Judge”, to use the awesomely turgid expression thrown up by a three-member committee of Supreme Court judges initially nominated by the Chief Justice of India in 1990 to look into the Justice V. Ramaswami affair? It is possible to answer this question in a more scholastic, pedantic way but I will limit myself to quoting what one of our leading constitutional lawyers, a former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Mr P.P. Rao — a gentleman-lawyer, if there ever was one — has to say on the subject. “As president of the Supreme Court Bar Association,” writes Mr Rao in S. Sahay’s “Gone at last? The story of V. Ramaswami’s impeachment”, published in 1993, “I approached three Chief Justices (of India) in succession, requesting them to advise Justice V. Ramaswami not to attend to judicial work during the period of inquiry and, if he did not heed to the advice, not to allot any judicial work to him.” It appears, he says, that “all of them advised Justice V. Ramaswami not to attend to judicial work, drawing his attention to the observations of the Constitution Bench (in the Sub-Committee on Judicial Accountability case, 1991) that ordinarily the judge concerned will abide by the advice of the Chief Justice of India, but none of them took the next logical step of withdrawing judicial work from the judge.” Chief Justice M.H. Kania, he continues, “sought legal opinion from a few members of the Bar, some of whose views were known to differ on the issue, and immobilised himself by the conflicting opinions. Ultimately, he passed an order giving option to individual lawyers who did not wish to appear before Justice Ramaswami to have their cases posted before any other Bench.” “Not only the Bar,” adds Mr Rao, “favoured non-assignment of judicial work to the judge, it was said that some Judges refused to sit on the Bench with Justice Ramaswami.” I seek no favour from Chief Justice Saharya nor ever will. But having been a sceptic of the judicial system all my life, I would be failing in my duty if I did not doff my cap and salute him for his courage in taking the “next logical step” that three successive Chief Justices of India failed to take ten years ago. |
Estonians win wife-carrying title
ESTONIANS ran off with the world wife-carrying title for the fifth year in a row despite new rules on the weight of the spouse. Using the trademark “Estonia carry”, in which the woman squeezes her thighs on the sides of the man’s face while hanging upside down along his back, Meelis Tammre (24) and Anna Zilberberg (21) were fastest round the 254-metre course. Thirty-six couples from eight countries took part in the event, in which a man has to carry his wife or a partner over a rough track that includes two timber hurdles and a chest-high water pool. “I have come second three times. Finally I have won,” said an exhausted Tammre, who won with a time of one minute four seconds. “But the competition is getting tougher.” Up to 6,000 people watched as the couples braved bad weather to toil round the course in a rough forest clearing near the central Finnish village of Sonkajarvi, only a few hours’ drive from the Arctic Circle. Women contestants wore crash helmets due to the inherent perils of the favoured “Estonia carry” upside-down position, which allows the man to run and use his arms freely. A new minimum weight requirement for the women of 49 kg (108 pounds) was introduced this year. Competitors had to add weights if necessary to make up the difference. Wife-carrying is rooted in local history. It is linked to the legend of a local chieftain, Ronkkainen the Robber, whose gang stole wives from rivals in neighbouring villages. The idea was revived in contest form 10 years ago and is held every year. The popularity of the bizarre sport has led to the creation of North American, Danish, Finnish and Estonian wife-carrying championships. Top prize is the female champion’s weight in beer — in this case Anna’s 49 kg. Competitors this year included couples from Britain, Estonia, Finland, the USA, the Netherlands and Norway.
Reuters Cheaper drug for prostate cancer Wockhardt Ltd has launched its breakthrough 30-day release injectible form of prostate cancer drug, Leuprolide. Leuprolide is a drug of choice worldwide for prostate cancer, a malignant growth affecting males which is most curable when detected early. The 30-day release form, christened as Progtase Depot, a 7.5 mg Leuprolide formulation (active bulk drug ingredient), is designed to remain in the body for a month as a reservoir to release the active drug in a steady continuous manner maintaining its requisite level in blood within the effective therapeutic window. The drug helps to arrest the spread of cancerous cells and relieves patients of many associated symptoms. “Progtase Depot injection is a major milestone as it opens for us a novel technology for injectable dosage forms,” said company Chairman Habil Khorakiwala. Currently, the imported injectible is priced at Rs 16,800 while the new Wockhardt formulation will cost Rs 6,000 only. There are about 30,000 reported cases of prostate cancer in the country and 16,000 new cases are detected every year.
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Innovation in addresses Shimla: An interesting innovation which will lead to economy as well as convenience for the public using telegraph has been introduced in connection with inland and foreign telegrams which can now take the form of a post box number or a telephone number. Thus telegrams addressed to a post box number are delivered at the post box and those addressed to a telephone number are delivered at the address shown in the telephone directory. In stations where there is more than one telephone system it would be necessary to give the name of the telephone system immediately before the number. The sender of a telegram may also give as his address, his post box number or telephone number. This arrangement should prove of some convenience to people whose addresses are lengthy. |
When the flux of thought stops, there is meditation. If you remain motionless in the contemplation of your real nature, you are in samadhi. For in truth your original nature is the eternal spirit. In samadhi, your soul pulls back from things that surround you; it could not even be moved by the Eight Winds which are profit, loss, calumny, praise, flattery, mockery, sadness and joy. If you can concentrate in this manner, no matter how ordinary you are, you will enter Buddhahood. — Huai-hai
*** To meditate means to realise the fundamental emptiness of one's own nature. It is a deliverance that leads simply to seeing things the way they really are, in their most naked reality. Meditation can lead anyone to awakening. Daniel Odier, Nirvana Tao
*** When your mind is silent, From within the Beloved speaks and guides, Your whole being then responds And you realise the Beloved... How sweet the link That binds you to Him! Now you enter the Realm Where love and joy Are eternally at play. And you are lost. The Beloved is yourself. You are the Beloved. — Anon
*** With open hands the Lord gives and gives and gives. Simple, constant giving is the true nature of love. You have so much love, you can give it to others at any time. When you truly give with love, there is true abundance. The greater the feeling you have for the universe, the more love you feel in your own heart. — Swami Chidvilasananda, Gems from the magic of the Heart
*** There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man. — Euripides, Medea
*** The only gift is a portion of thyself. — Ralph W. Emerson, Essays: second series.
*** That man, surely will have no one to console him in time of trouble who having plenty to eat, does not give a morsel to the indigent person that reduced to straits and oppressed with hunger, comes to him for help, but hardens the heart and eats in the very sight of the poor man. — Rigveda |
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