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US caught in Iraq Jogi must know basics |
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Only a few are punished Criminal justice system is collapsing THE conviction rate in criminal cases is a measure of the success or failure of the justice delivery system. The observation by the Supreme Court that the rate is now a paltry 39.6 per cent is an indictment of the system. What's worse, the rate has been falling alarmingly.
No end
to Palestinian crisis
The
seating plan
IN FOCUS Goodbye,
V. J. Hospital!
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US caught in Iraq THE successive attacks by Iraqi resistance groups on Baghdad’s Al-Rashid hotel and the Red Cross complex are portentous. While US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was at the hotel falling in a high-security zone, had a narrow escape, the killings on Monday reflect a worsening situation. Mr Wolfowitz, one of the authors of the US “regime change” project in Iraq, may or may not have got the message to carry back home that the US made a mistake in opening the Iraqi front. Almost the whole world, including a section of American public opinion, was opposed to the use of the military to handle the crisis caused by Saddam Hussein’s illusive weapons of mass destruction. President George W. Bush ignored the sane advice and landed his country in a quagmire from which it cannot come out easily. In the process of throwing Saddam into the dustbin of history, the US has created a new and complicated situation in Iraq. Those fighting against the foreign presence there are unlikely to let the Americans live in peace. If the American leave Iraq at this juncture, it will lead to greater chaos. The US must have realised by now that it can win a war but cannot afford to keep the country under occupation. Iraq has cost it over 100 lives, including many US soldiers who committed suicide, after the formal end of the military operations there. This is besides over 80 billion dollars having been sunk in a project which threatens to take the US attention away from the war on international terrorism. President Bush is paying the cost in terms of his declining popularity at home, as is true in the case of his most outspoken supporter outside the US, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. The frustrated American public is right when it asks: what has the US gained after the regime change in Iraq? The circumstances have forced the US to accept that the Coalition Provisional Authority, which has been running the affairs in Iraq after the fall of the Saddam regime, is there only to play a temporary role. This has come through the latest UN Security Council resolution adopted “unanimously”. The new declaration is contrary to an ambiguous US assertion made earlier. The US has now acknowledged that the Governing Council of Iraq and the recently formed Cabinet are the sole institutions representing the Iraqi sovereignty. This, however, is unlikely to lessen the anger against the occupying forces so long as there is no properly elected government with law and order restored. And this does not seem to be in sight — much to the disappointment of the world and the United States itself. |
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Jogi must know basics THE Election Commission’s directive to the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police in Chhattisgarh not to use official vehicles while accompanying Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in his election tours is timely. Even though the model code of conduct of the commission has come into force, the officials have been accompanying Mr Jogi by government plane and cars on the pretext of official work. On the face of it, there is nothing wrong if the officials want to tour with the Chief Minister to discuss law and order and such other issues concerning the day-to-day affairs of the state. But using official conveyance is not only a violation of the model code of conduct but also a corrupt practice under the Representation of People Act for the simple reason that the Chief Minister himself is a candidate in the assembly elections. Clearly, Mr Jogi is trying to circumvent the code of conduct and misuse his office to derive undue advantage in the elections. The commission has rightly observed that if the officials felt the need to accompany the Chief Minister, they have to make their own travel arrangements. Misuse of official vehicles is not the only charge levelled against Mr Jogi. Very recently, the commission was forced to issue a directive to the Chief Secretary to stop the distribution of leather bags to school students in Bastar district with Mr Jogi’s photograph embossed on them. These bags were bought by the state welfare department from Delhi and Mumbai. Why this sudden concern of the government for students? Yet another charge against Mr Jogi is the free eye camps being organised by his wife, who is an ophthalmologist. She also reportedly supplies free spectacles to the patients in these camps. Mrs Jogi’s social service may be commendable. But since the state is in the election mode, she could better extend her humanitarian help to some other states. It is encouraging to note that the commission has requested Mrs Jogi to suspend her free eye camps and stop distributing free spectacles till the elections are over. The significance and purpose of elections will be defeated if the Chief Minister and the ruling party misuse the official machinery with impunity. It is precisely for ensuring a level playing field for all the candidates that the Election Commission has evolved a model code of conduct which is binding on all the political parties. Mr Jogi ought to know the basics. |
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Only a few are punished THE conviction rate in criminal cases is a measure of the success or failure of the justice delivery system. The observation by the Supreme Court that the rate is now a paltry 39.6 per cent is an indictment of the system. What's worse, the rate has been falling alarmingly. In simpler terms, a majority of the criminal cases registered by the police end in the acquittal of the accused. The reason why this happens is not far to seek. As the apex court has itself noted, trial in most sensational cases does not begin before the witnesses are won over. Various judicial commissions have gone into the question of the declining conviction rate but no attempt seems to have been made to address the problem. First and foremost is the apathy of the police, who do not have the necessary inclination, training and expertise to conduct investigations in a scientific manner. To cite one instance, the First Information Report is a very important document in a case but, more often than not, a constable, who does not have any knowledge of the complicated legal system, drafts it. A hastily drafted FIR, riddled with inadequacies, will make the task of the defence lawyer easier. The Anglo-Saxon legal system we still follow is heavily tilted in favour of the accused because of its basic premise that even if a thousand guilty persons escape punishment, not one innocent should be punished. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the prosecution to prepare foolproof cases that can stand judicial scrutiny. For the police, prosecution is as important as investigation. But few police departments have a proper wing to prosecute cases with the result that the defence is able to exploit the inbuilt weaknesses of the system to its advantage. Police officers pursuing court cases seldom get recognition for their labour. Equally true, those who neglect their work are also not taken to task. This accounts for a large number of acquittals. In their bid to show that they have solved criminal cases, the police resort to the practice of hauling up those whom they can lay their hands on, instead of the criminals concerned. In such circumstances, professional witnesses become the order of the day. Corruption too plays a major role in the low conviction rate. It is not uncommon for the police to prepare cases in such a way that the benefit of the doubt goes to the accused. The Best Bakery case in Gujarat in which almost all the witnesses were influenced by the accused, who enjoy the patronage of those in power, shows how justice can be subverted by exerting pressure on the witnesses. The apex court has articulated the need to provide adequate protection to witnesses so that they are able to depose without fear from any quarters. It goes without saying that the people will lose their faith in the justice delivery system if more cases end in acquittal and criminals roam on the streets. Such a situation should be averted at any cost. |
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I’m at my best in a messy, middle-of-the-road muddle. — Harold Wilson |
No end to Palestinian crisis TACTICALLY and in the short term, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is brilliant. He has at least till January 2005, when a new US President is installed or Mr George W. Bush begins his second term, to complete his infamous Wall. The so-called road map is a caricature of a peace plan and President Bush has no intention of spoiling his re-election prospects by taking on the American Jewish lobby. The much-vaunted two-state solution is dying on the vine each hour, each day as the Wall dispossesses Palestinians of land and hope. Strategically, Mr Sharon and his supporters are taking their country to a near-certain ruin and decades more of strife and uncertainty. Because they are narrowing their country's choices to ending the Jewish state because Arabs, together with the million Israeli Arabs who are second class citizens, will soon form a majority in a composite state or undertaking a wholesale ethnic cleansing operation that would end the experiment of Israeli democracy. Many experts believe that the two-state solution is already out of reach. There are brave Israelis and Palestinians who met recently in Geneva to produce the outline of a genuine two-state solution, building on the efforts of the last days of the Clinton administration. Their efforts have been condemned by Mr Sharon and, with the announcement of new illegal housing to be built on Jewish settlements on occupied land, the "peaceniks" seem condemned to failure at the altar of security for Israel. The non-American components of the Troika that claims to have fathered the road map - the European Union, Russia and the UN - seem powerless to stem the Israeli march to the abyss. Israel doubtless played a central part in the determination of the dominant neoconservatives in the Bush administration to invade Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a thorn in Israeli flesh, given his ambitions and energy resources. The United States had backed Iraq in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war but Iraq's foolish invasion of Kuwait placed Saddam beyond the pale. The second Gulf war, however, left Saddam in place in the hope that he would fall after his defeat. To the contrary, he soldiered on, despite draconian US-inspired UN sanctions, and the neocons' first war of choice focused on Baghdad for a regime change. The neocons and President Bush himself have an important constituency in the fundamental Christian right in the South, and it is their belief that Israel has the right to the whole land of Palestine. This base is buttressed by the powerful American Jewish lobbies that influence West Asian policy in the White House and on Capitol Hill. The Nine Eleven shock provided the perfect backdrop to expand President Bush's declared war on terror to Iraq. It was a chance to reorder West Asia to American and Israeli desires. Saddam Hussein had no links with Al-Qaeda or Nine Eleven, but facts were of no importance in conducting this crusade. Israel thus has a hammerlock on American policies. The Bush administration might tut-tut on occasion; the UN General Assembly might overwhelmingly condemn the Wall. Israel and Mr Sharon remain impervious, protected by the might of America in the UN and outside its corridors. Indeed, given the present configuration, there is little that can prevent Israel doing as it pleases while thumbing its nose at the world. What then are the likely consequences of a possible Palestinian exodus from their land while the world looks on? Surely, the purpose of slicing Palestinian homes from their land, walling up schools and orchards, creating new Bantustans and ever more checkpoints is to force these suffering people into exile? And as it happened at the time of Israel's creation in 1948, there are other methods of speeding up an exodus. It will prove to be a painfully slow, excruciating and tragic process. The levels of anti-Americanism, already high in the region and the world, will grow, together with the frustration of the young who will rebel and fight in any manner they can. Already, the resistance in Iraq is proving the tenaciousness of Arab nationalism against an occupying force. A tragedy such as the collective dispossession of Palestinians will set the streets of West Asia on fire. Yes, America has the military fire power to suppress such anger but force alone can never permanently subdue a people. Surely, the neocons have learned from their Iraq experience that America can win the war and create chaos but the pieces still do not fall in place to create a peaceful, democratic, pro-American West Asia. West Asia has become the testing ground for the neocons' thesis of ensuring world supremacy for a variety of reasons. There is Israel to be protected and groomed as the regional superpower. There is oil, the essential source of the West's economic and industrial might and there is Nine Eleven, a reminder of the pool of destructive forces seeking to humiliate and harm America. Iraq was chosen because it has the second highest oil reserves and because Saddam Hussein was foolish enough to offer the Bush administration an opportunity to invade his country. Is there any chance of rescuing the region, particularly the Palestinians and Israelis, from the tragedy that is staring them in the face? The main European dissenters, France and Germany, are still shell-shocked over the bruising battle they fought with the US over the run-up to the Iraq war. They are also fighting a second battle over America's desire to continue to retain control over Europe through NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The United Nations, as Secretary-General Kofi Annan has aptly said, is the sum total of its members and has little leeway, even after taking into account the new backbone he has developed. Sane Israelis themselves could help, but the peace camp in Israel is forlorn, hurt by the successive waves of suicide bombings. When Malaysia's retiring Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad berates Muslims for not emulating the Jewish example in thinking through their problems, rather than getting angry, he is condemned by the West as an anti-Semite. Yet a consciousness of Arab inadequacies is growing each day. The slow human and economic development of Muslims, Arabs in particular, is the subject of a second UN report compiled by Arabs. However, it seems hardly likely that the looming Palestinian tragedy will permit Palestinians and other Arabs to devote time to their own long-term
advancement. |
The seating plan REGIMENTAL reunions are always great fun. Memories of bygone years are revived; episodes and stories of war and unit life are told and retold and everyone once again has an attentive collection of captive listeners. It gives a new lease of life to the fading soldiers as even their own families had stopped listening to their lifelong soldiering exploits. However, regimental reunions are not just about old soldiers’ tales. Some of the stories form part of the regimental history and folklore and provide useful lessons for the serving personnel. Nevertheless, dealing with a collection of retired successful leaders is not easy and requires the entire repertoire of management skills. A spirited discussion at the Jat Regimental Centre Biannual Conference a few years back remains fresh in my memory. The suggestion under consideration was that the serving Lt-Generals along with their wives must be given the pride of the place at the regimental dinner followed by retired Lt-Gens and their spouses and then in the descending order of their rank to the last lowly one. While all this was going on, I was reminded of a dinner hosted by a Japanese diplomat during my assignment in Myanmar. On entering the dining room the guests were required to pick any flower from a large collection kept on a silver tray. That flower was to be matched with the similar flower on the dining table and that was the seating plan. a formal dinner was thus transformed into a most enjoyable one. But I quickly banished the thought of narrating this as its import could have been misunderstood. A polite query as to where we were to get 200 different flowers would have put me in a spot. I perceived that the regimental spirit at that time was at an all time high. Any suggestion, which did not include seniority, was record and gallantry awards etc was likely to be scoffed at. But before I could come out of my Walter Mitty slumber the discussion was being concluded. I made a feeble attempt by stating that we could combine seniority and age but the Colonel of the Regiment, politely but firmly, shot down all suggestions and directed continuance of existing procedure. The regimental dinner was a great success. Everyone present agreed that the seating plan contributed largely towards making the evening a memorable one. The Centre Commandant had used a combination of seniority, age and personal knowledge of each of his guests and produced a seating plan which seemed to satisfy everyone — not a mean achievement while dealing with nearly 200 battle-scarred veterans and their equally distinguished wives. As for me, I shall always carry a feeling of some remorse that I did not make any worthwhile contribution in the discussion and my 200 flowers were not allowed to bloom. |
IN FOCUS
SCANDALOUS as it may appear, but that is how it is. To avoid derecognition by the Medical Council of India, Amritsar’s Government Medical College covers up its staff shortage by deploying doctors from elsewhere. It is short of as many as 62 teachers. During MCI inspections, new name plates are hung up outside rooms to make good the inadequacies in infrastructure. The two other medical colleges at Patiala and Faridkot do the same when their turn for inspection comes. A simultaneous MCI inspection, which is now likely, may expose the shady games played in the state’s three government medical colleges. Although some doctors call it a deliberate, planned attempt to run down reputed government medical institutions and erode patients’ faith in them to boost business of private hospitals, the medical scenario is pretty dismal, specially at Amritsar. The unholy kidney scam marked a new low in medical ethics in the holy city. In defence of the scamsters, some attribute motives to the vigilance raids and ask why only two members of the authorisation committee, including the then Principal of Medical College, were targeted. The kidney racket flourished elsewhere in the state too, but no arrests were made at any place other than Amritsar. After months, the present Medical College Principal, Prof P.S. Bedi, has revived the authorisation committee and, as a safeguard, plans to ensure police verification in each case. However, the MCI guidelines provide for neither any affidavit nor any police verification. Started as a medical school in 1864 at Lahore, shifted to Amritsar in 1920 and upgraded to Medical College in 1943, the region’s premier institution produced the first MBBS batch in 1949. The college expanded by adding V.J. Hospital, Ram Saran Dass Parkash Wati Kakkar Children Ward and Family Ward, T.B. Sanitorium and Ram Lal Eye and ENT Hospital — all at different locations. In 1969 Guru Nanak Dev Hospital’s foundation stone was laid. Patients came from all over the region. Partap Singh Kairon was a regular and room no. 1 in the family ward was reserved for him. Some of the best doctors of this region and many settled abroad are products of this institution. Politicians and bureaucrats ruling over Punjab from Chandigarh turn to the PGI for treatment or go abroad. They have financially starved Amritsar’s Medical College and stiffled its growth. Otherwise, it could have easily grown into a university. Faridkot’s medical university is Mr Parkash Singh Badal’s gift to his son’s electorate. The medical colleges in the state are run by remote control from Chandigarh. All powers are centralised. Cumbersome procedures delay the release of funds. The hospitals sometimes do not have funds to pay their power bills. Shockingly, the Principal and the Medical Superintendent have financial powers of only Rs 500 each. The heads of departments have no financial powers. An arts college principal can hire staff on contract, not the Principal of a medical college. Such distrust and central control spreads dissatisfaction. Private practice Inconvenience of going to scattered Medical College hospitals apart, the public faith in the system has got eroded in the recent years. This is clear from a sharp fall in patients’ turnout. Doctors are accused of doing private practice, even demanding bribes. Some are just arrogant and impolite. A few can even stoop to bribe mediapersons for a favourable report or for something against a colleague. Nurses, numbering 350, stressed by the dual role they play at home and hospital, are generally indifferent. Attendants can be rude and take advantage of systemic delays. There are honourable exceptions, no doubt. Despite competent and experienced doctors, patients are repelled by unsatisfactory after-care, insanitation, poor upkeep of buildings by the PWD and chaotic parking (mis)managed by the Red Cross Society. To top it, the imposition of user-charges without any upgradation of facilities and improvement in service has forced patients to turn to private hospitals, clinics and nursing homes, which have mushroomed all over Amritsar. Escorts and Fortis too have set up their branches here. “If my wife is expecting, I’ll take her to a private nursing home. But if there are complications, I will have to consult my colleagues in Medical College”, confessed a senior doctor. User-charges Principal Bedi blames the user-charges, introduced in 1998, for the declining number of patients. “In a medical college there should be no user charges”, he says. “Otherwise, how do you train students?” Little weightage is given to a student’s performance in MBBS during the entrance test-based admissions to the PG courses. This has resulted in students skipping practicals and becoming non-serious. In Maharashtra, 50 per cent weightage is given to a student’s performance in MBBS and 50 per cent to the entrance test, says the Principal. The way doctors are trained is faulty, says Dr Baljit Singh Dhillon, General Secretary, Punjab Medical and Dental Teachers Association. He asserts: “There has been no survey of the community’s need-based medical requirements. Rural orientation in medical training is missing. We focus on latest developments in the developed world and teach the use of sophisticated equipment. We don’t need super specialties. Diseases of common people like
dengue and diarrhoea need attention”. The college can have only as many PG seats as the number of teachers. With teachers’ shortage, the number of PG seats too has declined sharply, leading to under-utilisation of the college capacity. With the girls outnumbering the boys (110 against 40 boys this session), Medical College faces hostel shortage. Four to five girls are crammed into a single room. A boys hostel is being renovated for girls. Since Dr Bedi lives outside the campus, the Principal’s residence is also being used to accommodate girls. Encroachments Medical College is an easy target for grabbers. The district administration has forcibly occupied the college auditorium. After the last Assembly elections, the voting machines were dumped in the auditorium on the DC’s orders and are still there. As a result, the students can’t hold any function there. The college land is openly encroached upon. A dozen religious structures have come up on the campus. No principal has dared to stop or remove them. One MLA has donated Rs 50,000 from his local area development fund for an illegally raised temple. The college and its hospitals have no provision for security guards. Any one can walk in unchecked, manhandle anyone in the hospital and get away with it. Stray animals too troop in. The government has only lately awakened to the need for treating hospital waste, hitherto dumped along with municipal garbage. According to Dr H.S. Gill, Medical Superintendent, lately transferred, a Ludhiana firm will daily lift waste, carry it to Ludhiana and treat it before disposal. Another example of state neglect: the Centre gave the psychiatry wing Rs 8 lakh for building a drug de-addiction centre. The state government was to provide staff. Despite the urgency of such a centre in this border district where drug addiction is rampant, the state government is yet to act. Also affecting the college and hospital functioning are factors like the rift between the teaching staff and the MS, who is from the PCMS, reservations in recruitment and promotions, no updating of facilities, absence of any provision to send teachers for training abroad and a ban on recruitment and promotions. |
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AMRITSAR'S V. J. Hospital, renamed as Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital in 1975 and part of the region’s medical heritage, faces extinction as PUDA plans to “commercially exploit” its land, measuring 82 kanals. The V.J. Hospital was started in 1891 to celebrate the jubilee year of Queen Victoria’s reign. Its foundation stone was laid by Lady Lyall, wife of Sir James B. Lyall, the then Lieut-Governor of Punjab. When Giani Zail Singh was the Chief Minister, the hospital’s name was changed to Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital. Encouraged by the increasing returns from its real estate business, the fund-strapped state government has decided to pull down the 112-year-old building, which, after years of neglect, is now considered “unsafe”, though doctors and patients continue to use it. The money thus generated is expected to help Government Medical College, Amritsar, relocate all its scattered wings at Guru Nanak Hospital, spread over 114 acres and make it a compact unit. Doctors are divided over the move to dismantle the historic hospital with more practical ones favouring a quite burial for the monument and shifting to a more user-friendly modern complex. PUDA has already sold off 66 kanals belonging to Ram Lal Eye & ENT Hospital, another old hospital, for Rs 15 crore, though it has paid only Rs 5 crore to the Medical College. How much money will be passed on to the Medical College authorities to build new hospital buildings is anybody’s guess. Delayed payments will delay the college and hospital projects, leading to cost overruns. Guru Nanak Dev Hospital was originally estimated to cost Rs 3 crore and the estimate was later revised to Rs 15 crore. It is still under construction. With a World Bank grant, the government is providing secondary-level health facilities. A beautiful building has been constructed for Jallianwala Bagh Civil Hospital at Amritsar, but there are hardly any patients visiting this high-profile modern monument. Senior medical professors point out that wherever there is a medical college, a civil hospital is not required. “Who will go to a civil hospital when top government hospitals are available with much better staff and facilities”, asked one professor. There are others who see a game-plan behind the World Bank aid. “Most of the equipment installed in the civil hospitals is manufactured in developed countries and the World Bank extends soft loans to import these instruments”, says another medical professor.
— NS |
Without God’s Name, life ceases to exist. — Guru Nanak He is not elated by good fortune or depressed by bad. His mind is established in God, and he is free from delusion. — Sri Krishna
(Bhagavad Gita) Penances with me are no mechanical acts. They are done in obedience to the inner voice. — Mahatma Gandhi He is not the same, nor is he another. — The Buddha O Son of Spirit! Ask not of Me that which We desire not for thee, then be content with what We have ordained for thy sake, for this is that profiteth thee, if therewith thou dost content thyself. — Baha’u’llah |
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