The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

Misused Article
Spell out the safeguards to remove fears

THE consensus reached at the Inter-State Council meeting at Srinagar on using Article 356 only with safeguards is welcome. Known as one of the emergency provisions of the Constitution, this Article is, perhaps, the most misused. While a strong section of the political class favours its retention and use, there is another, which wants its excision from the Constitution. In favouring its usage with safeguards, the Council has chosen the middle path. However, it has not elaborated the safeguards, though Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has clarified that the Article would be resorted to only as a last resort. This was precisely what the founding fathers of the Constitution had envisaged. In fact, replying to the debate on the Article in the Constituent Assembly, Dr B.R. Ambedkar said "such articles will never be called into operation and that they would remain a dead letter". Unfortunately, those who came to power did not live up to their expectations and used the Article indiscriminately and, sometimes, even to settle personal and political scores. The pity is that even those parties which criticised the misuse did not refrain from doing so when they got an opportunity.

What's worse, during the Emergency, the Indira Gandhi government made Article 356 more draconian by bringing forward an amendment in the Constitution. Under her dispensation, all that was required to dismiss a state government was that the President should be satisfied. His decision was made final and beyond question. Fortunately, the Morarji Desai government restored the Article to its pristine condition through another Constitutional amendment. That it was open to misuse was proved by the Janata government itself when it dismissed several Congress-led state governments. The Article remained a thorn in Centre-state relations. Finally, Indira Gandhi, who returned to power, appointed Justice R.S. Sarkaria to go into the entire gamut of Centre-state relations. The commission suggested several measures to prevent the misuse of the Article. But the government did not deem it necessary to give the recommendations any statutory form facilitating misuse of the provision by the Chandra Shekhar and Narasimha Rao governments.

A dramatic turn occurred when in the S.R. Bommai vs. Union of India case, the Supreme Court set out in clear terms the limitations of Article 356. The most significant of the conditions was that any Presidential order clamping the Article had to be ratified by both Houses of Parliament. This effectively stalled the misuse of the provision. It is not for want of will that the NDA government has not resorted to Article 356. It does not want a repeat of the situation when the Presidential notification dismissing the Rabri Devi government in Bihar failed to get ratification from the Rajya Sabha. Whether it would show such restraint now that it is on the verge of getting majority support in the Upper House is what worries chief ministers like Punjab's Amarinder Singh. If the Centre spells out the safeguards, it will go a long way in removing the apprehensions among such chief ministers.

Mulayam’s promises
He has to pass the Raja Bhaiya test

FRIDAY was significant not just because Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav returned as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh after over eight years. At the post swearing-in press conference he made a number of promises. However, what was ordered to be done before his formal return provided a glimpse of what he is going to preach and practice. The controversial MLA from Kunda, Mr Raghuraj Pratap Singh, or Raja Bhaiya, was shifted from Kanpur Jail to the air-conditioned comfort of a private ward at the Sanjay Gandhi PGI near Lucknow. The speed with which Mr Mulayam Singh ordered the revocation of the POTA charges against the notorious lawmaker gave some clue about the political company he likes to keep. As Chief Minister in 1995 his heart had bled for Phoolan Devi. She was set free after the withdrawal of the criminal cases by Mr Mulayam Singh. The Bandit Queen later got transformed into an internationally recognised Samajwadi face on becoming a Lok Sabha member.

Those who try to figure out the Samajwadi Chief Minister's politics and ideology usually end up disoriented and confused. His political priorities are as lopsided as that of Ms Mayawati. One is Dalit-centric and the other is centred on OBCS and Muslims. At the press conference he promised 14 hours of power supply to the farmers plus payment of Rs 580 crore as arrears to sugarcane growers. Where is the power for lighting up the lives of the farmers or the money for making life sweet for the cane-growers? He also promised to fight corruption and banish poverty. Jawaharlal Nehru made the same promises 56 years ago!

Mr Mulayam Singh's immediate concern will be to turn the support of several small parties into active participation in the government. The Congress high command in Delhi has decided against joining the Mulayam Singh government without a duly approved common minimum programme. It expects the Samajwadi leader to adopt the Jammu and Kashmir model of collective governance. Mr Ajit Singh and Mr Kalyan Singh too have sought certain guarantees for joining the government. On Friday what came into existence was a one-man Samajwadi Party government that has been promised the support of the political "small change" outfits. The next two weeks should see the contours of the coalition government become clear. Later developments will show how strong and fickle is the support from other parties. With the BJP, always unsure of Mulayam Singh, and the Congress also ambivalent about him, the new government will always have to walk on a tight rope. Each party, Mulayam Singh's included, will be planning its moves keeping the next year's Lok Sabha election in mind.

Star turn
Uplinking norms made tougher

RUPERT Murdoch of the Star empire must be finding the Indian government a tough nut to crack. In this particular case, the firmness shown by the latter on the issue of uplinking facilities from Indian soil is quite in order. The all-powerful media baron was trying to circumvent the law of the land through a clever stratagem of forming a front company. The government treated this as a test case and decided to plug the various loopholes that he was trying to exploit. Additional safeguards have been introduced to eliminate the possibility of foreign channels enjoying a free run behind the smokescreen of shell companies. It is common knowledge that Star News’ applicant company, the Media Content and Communication Services (MCCS), was only a front for Star India, which held the editorial as well as financial reins in its hands. The MCCS, which had been floated with a meagre equity base of Rs 1 lakh, had 26 per cent stakes with Star while the remaining 74 per cent were with different Indian shareholders with varying equity. It had neither the management and editorial control as required by the uplinking rules nor the power to raise equity or finances. Clearly, the Murdoch group was trying to adhere to the letter but not the spirit of the guidelines.

Under the revised uplinking guidelines for news channels, all appointments of key personnel - executive and editorial - will be made by the applicant company without reference to the foreign company. The applicant company must have complete operational independence over its resources and assets and adequate financial strength for running a foreign channel. This fulfils the demand of the domestic broadcasters under the banner “Indian Media Group” who wanted the foreign direct investment rules rewritten so that a level-playing field could be offered to the financially weaker companies operating in India.

The main focus now is on ensuring that the foreign equity company operates through an applicant company which is in complete control of the operations and has a dominant Indian partner with 51 per cent equity, barring the Indian public financial institutions. This brings the guidelines on a par with those prevailing in the print media. While the Star News channel has been given time up to September 28 to revise its corporate structure, it has been clarified that if there is any other company, apart from Star, which did not meet the new guidelines, it too would have to comply with them. Given the reach and influence of news channels, such exceptional precautions are justified.

Thought for the day

A maggot must be born in the rotten cheese to like it.

— George Eliot

OPINION

Don’t be euphoric about economy
Obesity should not be mistaken for good health
by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

THE bomb blasts at Mumbai on August 25 resulted in a mere blip in the upward movement of the sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange. Corporate results have been excellent. The first-ever quarterly review of the economy tabled by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh in the Lok Sabha on August 7 was almost euphoric in its tone about how the economy was on a growth path despite the existence of “pressure points” due to rising subsidies. Business confidence is buoyant. In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had exulted: “Today the nation is at a turning point from where it can take a big leap forward.”

So how healthy is the current state of the country’s economy? A simple answer would be “certainly better than last year”. But a detailed examination of various indicators would reveal quite a few structural deficiencies that are preventing the Indian economy from expanding at a real rate of growth of 8 per cent per year — the target for the Tenth Plan period (April 2002 to March 2007). The single biggest failure on the economic front has been the government’s inability to create employment opportunities. As a matter of fact, the Plan target of creating 10 million new jobs each year appears chimerical in the current scenario where jobs are being lost (not created). Other constraints include inadequate infrastructural facilities and a depressing investment climate.

Government spokespersons have been gloating about the so-called revival of the economy. But the government deserves no credit for the fact that growth rates have improved. If anybody should be given credit, it is Indra, the god of rainfall. The expected pick-up in the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) is almost entirely a consequence of this year’s favourable monsoon that has followed a year of terrible drought, a year that witnessed a fall in the index of agricultural production by as much as 12 per cent. Foodgrain output alone came down by a huge 14 per cent in 2002-03. Given this low base, few would be surprised if farm output jumped by between 6 per cent and 7 per cent this year.

A good harvest is bound to provide a fillip to the demand for a wide range of industrial products. However, the growth rate of the index of industrial production, having seesawed from 4.8 per cent to 6.6 per cent, 3.4 per cent and 6.1 per cent over the last four years, may not rise that much during the current year. Nevertheless, the services sector that currently accounts for half the nation’s GDP is expected to expand in excess of 7 per cent this fiscal, though not as fast as the 10.1 per cent rate of growth recorded during 1999-2000. To sum up, the overall rate of growth of GDP that had stood at 4.3 per cent in 2002-03 according to the Central Statistical Organisation, could rise to around 6-6.5 per cent this financial year.

The government has been crowing about the fact that for the first time in living memory, India has not only become a net creditor country (in other words, it borrows less than it lends to the rest of the world) but also has a surplus on the current account (the value of exports is higher than imports). Foreign exchange reserves are going to soon cross the $ 100 billion mark and the monster of inflation is under control — the rise in the wholesale price index has not gone above the 5 per cent mark. But there is the flip side to the coin. One important reason why inflation is low is because aggregate demand is sluggish. A relatively low rate of growth of imports despite high oil prices (once again, due to depressed demand) is also responsible for high forex reserves and the current account surplus. In short, there are two ways of looking at the same scenario. The time-worn question crops up: Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

There are other important reasons why one should be circumspect about the state of the economy. The currently prevailing nominal rates of interest may be the lowest in the last three decades, but investments are yet to take place. Between April and December last year, total sanctions and disbursements made by all financial institutions in the country had slumped by nearly 50 per cent. The total disbursements of development banks and financial institutions crashed from Rs 30,333 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 20,151 crore in 2002-03. The situation does not appear to have improved subsequently. Another area of concern is the government’s high deficits. At nearly 6 per cent of GDP last year, the Union Government’s fiscal deficit was one of the highest in the world. The total deficit of the Centre, the states and the public sector put together is around 11 per cent of GDP and the government’s interest payments continue to eat up nearly half of its tax receipts. Clearly this situation is difficult to sustain for long.

The government has itself acknowledged in its quarterly review that subsidies on kerosene, cooking gas, food and fertilisers shot up by a massive 62 per cent in the first quarter of this year (April to June). Everybody agrees that the infrastructure is hampering a faster rate of growth. A dismal performance by the sectors producing electricity, crude oil, coal and cement pulled down the rate of growth of the infrastructure to a meagre 2.6 per cent in July against a robust 10.2 per cent in July, 2002. It is all very fine for the Prime Minister to talk about how India — the third largest economy in Asia — is one of the fastest growing countries in the world and how there are no shortages of gas cylinders and telephone connections any more. However, until new employment opportunities are created, all such claims about the country’s economic performance would be perceived as little more than empty slogans.

Even if the performance of the economy has improved over the previous year, the country has a long way to go before it can hope to achieve an annual rate of growth of 8 per cent. As assembly elections approach and the government announces more and more populist schemes, it will not be able to effectively pump-prime the economy and spend huge amounts on public investments simply because deficits of both the Union Government as well as state governments are already at unsustainable levels. As Professor Suresh Tendulkar of the Delhi School of Economics aptly pointed out, what are being perceived by some as signs of health of the Indian economy could actually be indications of obesity.

The writer is Director, School of Convergence, International Management Institute, New Delhi, and a senior journalist.

MIDDLE

The wheel of life
by Darshan Singh Maini

THE business and traffic of life in a long journey has often been metaphorically linked to the artefact of the wheel. And there are so many ideas tied to this trope in our scriptures in poetry, in folklore etc, as to make it a figure of speech for all seasons. The sense of life’s relentless march, of initiation and end, of circularity or roundedness, of infinity and eternity — all these and many a similar thought then compel us to ponder the problem as it touches us in our day-to-day life. And in this wide swathe of concepts, there is enough room for the imagination of angst or metaphysical anguish to find its own consummation.

Indeed, from the scriptural “potter’s wheel” which connects man with his Creator or shaper to “the wheel of fortune” which’s the stock metaphor for the daily ups and downs of life, we may go on to “the Persian wheel” in relation to history and the game or round of power politics — the full buckets of water dipping down empty and returning full to the brim again and yet again — and to the Shakespearian “wheel of fire”, where the human tragedy is absolute, inviolate, almost too sacred for words. So we go “wheeling” all over the whoops of joy and abandon (as in a giant amusement park wheel) from the utter ravishment of our senses in the fields of flesh or flowers to the wailing that’s never too far away. The wheel of joy, the wheel of luck, the wheel of destiny, all, all abide.

That is why perhaps the wheel has generally been considered the most valuable invention of man, for all human progress rests upon one kind of wheel or another. And the wheel as artifact, and as metaphor, go the same round, so to speak. And one can think of endless variations on the theme in the manner of a musical maestro’s cunning of the hand, and the “wheels” of sound in fabulous gyrations.

The idea of “gyration” reminds me of W.B. Yeats’s celebrated poem, “The Second Coming”, and the metaphor of the gyrating falcon in the blue skies above and of the controlling hand. But the subsuming metaphor goes to complete its own “cycle” when the breakaway bird of freedom — the severance of life from its source, the alienation of man from his Maker — brings up a terrifying vision. It’s a vision of violence when “the falcon cannot hear the falconer”, and “things fall apart”. That, says the poet, is a signal of rank “anarchy”, of “the blood-dimmed tide” in which “the ceremony of innocence is drowned”. In the next epiphanic stanzas, Yeats goes on to paint the rise in our troubled times of the insensate hatred of man for man, of the forces of fascism and terror now on the upswing.

Which “cycle” of argument brings us to the idea of anarchy, corruption and skullduggery in our politics today. Ministries come and go, political parties rise and fall, charismatic leaders touch the heights and the depths, but the ground reality remains virtually unchanged. The wheel of power moves and moves, and the wheel of life puts us into one spin after another, and we stay on to ponder the eternal problem. We come “crying hither” and we go crying. We come empty-handed, and the Alexanders of the world and their kind too — all, all move within the Great Wheel.

Has the argument “come full circle”? Yes and no! For each discourse in reality is open-ended, and we may go on to construct new wheels within wheels. And the end of it, the thoughts of “homecoming” and “the Wheel of Karma”, and nirvana!

IN FOCUS

State of universities — 7
Charges more from students, spends more on infrastructure
Buildings come up as merit slips away at G.N.D. University
by Nirmal Sandhu

Security at Guru Nanak Dev University is tight, uncomfortably for some

GURU Nanak Dev University is a picture of academic peace if seen in the context of the campus turmoil around. Student protests over the fee hike have forced the closure of Punjabi University. Students opened fire during a clash at Panjab University. The politicisation of Himachal Pradesh University is notorious. Scandalous admissions and appointments at Kurukshetra University have shocked academic circles. The leadership at GNDU has lessons to offer in how to manage fiery intellectuals as well as rebellious students with tact and firmness.

It is rare to see a VC and a Pro-VC on cordial terms. Both work in harmony at GNDU despite past differences. Committees, consisting of VC loyalists, trouble-makers and teacher union representatives, discuss contentious issues, leading to delays sometimes, but decisions once taken are often not challenged later. Few take their grievances to court.

A Vigilance probe into certain appointments has led the university to evolve a score card for teachers’ selections. The score card is opposed by some for treating newspaper articles as part of published work and for giving more weightage to NCC and NSS than merit and research, but it has the advantage of reducing, if not eliminating, chances of manipulation in appointments.

The facilities teachers and students have are not generally available in other universities. There is the Internet facility in every department. Most results are available on the Net. Students can see their answersheets as well as of any other examinee for a payment. That lends transparency and faith in the exam system. The coffee house on the campus has a fitness centre too. Girls have an Internet facility, a bank counter, an STD booth, a shop for daily needs and yoga training in their hostel complex. They have to be back in hostel by 8 pm. Students can have dance parties on the campus but only up to 9 pm, that too with two teachers around, one of them a lady. There is hardly any harassment of girls, but two cases of sexual harassment by a male teacher of his two colleagues in the Physical Education Department are pending in the state high court.

The security network is tight, uncomfortably for some. Outsiders in boys or girls hostels are not allowed. Anyone entering the campus after 5 pm has to leave his vehicle RC or identity card at the entrance gate and collect it on return. The security, peace and greenery on the campus attracts VIPs from an unclean and crowded Amritsar. They come for a morning/evening walk.

Strikes are rare. When MBA students threatened a strike due to delay in the declaration of results, the VC, a clever administrator, told them: “if you go on strike, it will be in papers. This will spoil the university image. Fewer companies will then come in for campus recruitment”. The message was well taken. There was no strike. A few town planning boys facing lecture shortage broke into the department office and tampered with records. They all were fined Rs 15,000 each.

Elections pollute the academic environment elsewhere, not here. There is a Punjab Government ban on student elections. Student wings of political parties exist, but just in name. They demand elections, but don’t insist and can’t strike for lack of a mass base. Teachers have elections and the union leaders are involved in decision-making.

All departments have the Internet facility. Teachers get a Rs 5,000 grant for attending a seminar or workshop within the country and Rs 25,000 for presenting papers at international conferences. Teachers now sort out their disputes peacefully. In the past some used to drink at public places and indulge in violent brawls, rubbishing their own and the university’s reputation.

The campus peace has yielded dividends. Top companies, including the UK’s Global Internet Services, Quark, Tata Consultancy Services and Satyam, have recruited 56 students from the campus. Facilities exist for enhancing communication skills and developing personality. Quite a few students have made it to the IAS and allied services. More GNDU students, it is claimed, clear the UGC’s national eligibility test (NET) than others. This is largely because the syllabi are in tune with the Civil Services exam and NET requirements. Students with Punjabi optional have joined the civil services, says Dr R.S. Bajwa, head of the School of Punjabi Studies. Many students of food technology have got lucrative jobs abroad, according to the department head.

In academics, teachers proudly say, the university has a five-star NAAC rating. In sports it has won the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy for 16 years since 1978. The VC received the trophy from The President on Friday. The UGC has awarded GNDU a Rs 30-crore project to promote excellence in sports. In the cultural field the university has bagged the national Champions Trophy.

Decline in research

A sharp rise in fees has put higher education beyond the reach of students from the middle class and lower strata. Rural and poor students come for entrance tests, but when they are told on selection to deposit Rs 20,000 or more, depending on the course chosen, many fail to arrange the amount and return home disappointed. There are no concessions for non-SC/ST candidates. Traditional postgraduate subjects like history, sociology, political science, Hindi, Punjabi and M Sc Statistics are not much in demand because of their high cost and limited job potential. “In Punjabi the saturation point of employment seems to have been reached”, says Prof S.S. Khehra. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr S.P. Singh, says the overall intake of students is higher this time, but students opt for professional and job-oriented courses. Besides, more MA classes have been started in affiliated colleges.

The lowering of merit in admissions will have serious long-term consequences. Those with good marks may not have money to study subjects of their choice. Those with money may not have the desired competence. Given the already less-than satisfactory level of present academic and research standards, the future of arts subjects can be well imagined. During an interaction with this writer, many teachers described current research as substandard. The practice of appointing ad doc or part-time teachers on meagre salary will further hit research work.

“The pious fraud of doing doctoral research in our universities has not only been successful but has also been recognised for what it is”, says Prof B.L. Chakoo of the English Department.

Here is a case of what could have been done, but was left undone. Dr J.S. Grewal as VC conceived two projects: one on writing a history of Punjabi literature and another on writing the socio-cultural history of Punjab, but after his term as VC ended, the projects were shelved. Dr S.S. Bal as VC tried to revive them, but was advised by a well-wisher: “Why do you bother, all credit would go to Grewal”. Now the Delhi Punjabi Akademi and Punjabi University have taken up the two projects, abandoned midway by GNDU professors.

Efforts are afoot to make improvements. The Pro.VC, Prof Satinder Singh, plans to raise the syllabi of IT courses to global standards. A “gyan yatra” is undertaken by a university team to study syllabi of top institutions. He says GNDU can offer to other universities courses like modern Indian history, Punjabi culture, Sikh religion and folk heritage. He also plans to remove shortcomings in the system of examination, evaluation and re-evaluation.

Red-tape and babudom

Red-tape and babudom have crippled the university’s growth. A Rs 20-lakh project for the computer department lapsed due to the administrative slowdown. Teachers bring in projects, but money to buy equipment is not released in time. This has discouraged teachers from trying for research projects, which not only enhance the university’s image but also yield funds and employment. Despite the fact that the university pays up to Rs 2,000 a month to a teacher getting a project, not more than 40 teachers out of a total of about 500 are working on projects.

Teachers union president Narpinder Singh and general secretary Kuldip Singh criticised the “discriminatory” functioning of the university administration. Giving an example of “clerki raj”, they said ad hoc service was counted for promotion to seven-eight teachers, not in case of others. They demanded an end to the misuse of the official car by the Registrar’s wife. The Secretary to the VC has a car at his disposal, but not the Dean Academic Affairs and senior professors.

There are allegations that could not be independently verified and are officially denied, but they present an overall picture of the university functioning. Prof Gurnam Singh has been given a string of posts, his detractors allege, because of his “nuisance value”. He is Director Research, Director, School of Social Sciences and Coordinator, B. Ed counselling, a post he quit recently. A teacher disqualified by two universities has been appointed a Reader in the Punjabi Department. Otherwise, vacancies are filled by part-time appointments.

Senior professors have still not accepted the fact of a junior pole-vaulting to the top post due to his connections. They say the VC is surrounded by “yes men”. Others say he hobnobs with politicians and courts media persons. “Why should the university host a dinner for the Hind-Pak friendship people? asks one. The VC hopes to get a Rs 1-crore aid from Kuldip Nayar, MP, for setting up a centre for central Asian studies.

Teachers and employees are intrigued by the number of buildings that have come up on the campus in recent years. The university’s regional centre at Jalandhar, which a former IAS VC tried to close down, will have a new campus. A Ferozepore builder alone has got four-five construction projects. Those in the know allege “construction is stressed as it brings heavy returns” and demand a detailed inquiry. The teachers general house on Wednesday resolved that the university should use the services of in-house architects instead of hiring outsiders.

Concerned at the general decline, many now miss talented teachers like J.S.Grewal (history), Yashdeep Bains (English), R.S.Sandhu (biology), S.S. Sandhu (chemistry), R.K.Megh (Hindi) and Dewan Singh (Punjabi), who put the university on strong foundations with B.S.Samundari as VC. The subsequent VCs did not go on talent-hunting and instead turned away some bright ones. The university has rejected prominent writers like Surjit Pattar, Waryam Sandhu and Dr Jagtar, who later got the Sahitiya Akademi Award. Dr Santokh Singh, better known as Shahryar, has been a Deputy Librarian since 1970. The first non-teaching staff member to do a Ph.D, a known poet and dramatist, he has been denied the post of lecturer. Contrast this with Punjabi University conferring the post of Professor on Kirpal Kazhak, a story writer without the desired academic credentials.

“Ask yesterday’s gold medalists what they are doing today”, suggested Shahryar, showing no signs of bitterness over the denial of “masteri” to him. Alleging a “saajish” to suppress talent and keep the university free from poets, he regretted the falling standards, concluding with the remark: “kikran nu angoor thore lagane aa”.