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Fighting terrorism Constant tussle Making horse sense |
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Babu as competition panel chief
The blessed ones
Continuing neglect of the aged DELHI DURBAR
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Fighting terrorism PRIME Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s three-day Russia visit has ended with the two countries asking Pakistan to dismantle terrorist infrastructure and stop militant infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir. The joint Indo-Russian statement is clearly in line with the nine-point anti-terrorism plan signed on Wednesday by Mr Vajpayee and President Vladimir Putin, promising a qualitative change in the cooperation between the two countries on the fight against terrorism. Pakistan has been bluntly reminded of the promises it had made to the international community after the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. India and Russia have vowed not to sit quiet on this significant question. Some change was noticed in the US attitude after the September 11 terrorist strike, but that was not enough Washington needs to put pressure on Pakistan to abandon abetting militancy. Russia has been more understanding of the nature of the threat terrorism is posing to India. This could be partly because of Moscow’s experience in Chechenya. The US and other western countries, however, do not seem to be as serious about the terrorist menace in Chechenya and J and K as they have been on the Al-Qaeda front after the September 11 developments. India and Russia have rightly criticised the selective approach the US and other western countries have adopted on international terrorism. This double standards must be given up to make the global fight against terrorism more meaningful. Mr Putin’s support for India does not end there. He has seen merit in Mr Vajpayee’s peace initiative, followed by measures for increased people-to-people contacts between India and Pakistan. Russia, perhaps, understands that meaningful talks between the two neighbours can be possible only when there is an atmosphere conducive to it. The problem of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India can also be handled more effectively in a relaxed environment in the subcontinent. One hopes Pakistan understands the sentiments expressed by Russia. |
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Constant tussle EVER since the Election Commission started wielding the stick against the politicians, a never-ending cat and mouse chase has been going on with the politicians devising ingenious devices to get past the checks and balances put in place. The main endeavour of the poll panel is to curb misuse of official machinery through the model code of conduct. Unfortunately, most politicians are involved in a desperate search for loopholes. The latest one to be plugged by the Chief Election Commissioner is in Madhya Pradesh where Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had sought to waive arrears of power bills of small consumers amounting to nearly Rs 1,000 crore. This bounty was sought to be given through a clever stratagem. The order was issued nine days before the Commission announced the schedule for the Assembly election, although its implementation took place only after the announcement. But on the intervention of the High Court, the Election Commission has stayed the subsidy. This will be a major embarrassment for the ruling party. The verdict is not as tough as the one passed in the case of Chhattisgarh, but it shows that the model code of conduct cannot be violated by taking recourse to legalese. Many politicians want to buy votes against official funds and this tendency has to be checked with an iron hand. In distant Mizoram, the Election Commission is facing a challenge of a different kind. All major political parties and organisations under the umbrella of the Save Mizoram Committee (SMC) are up in arms against the EC decision to allow Reang refugees living in relief camps in North Tripura to vote. One is confident that the Chief Election Commissioner will not be influenced by the statewide violence by the SMC and the Mizo Students Union and take a decision which is fair to the Mizos as well as the Reang refugees, many of whom had been forced to flee to the hills of the neighbouring Tripura and Assam in 1997. |
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Making horse sense THE horse traders who have brought their colts, geldings and mares to the 20-day annual Sonepur cattle fair in Bihar have hit upon a seemingly brilliant strategy for duping potential buyers. They have divided their stock on caste lines. If politics can thrive on caste, why not horse trading? White horses with wide foreheads are Brahmins. Kshatriyas have broad chests. Whether such a categorisation of horse makes any sense or not is immaterial. If it is Bihar, it will work. It may provide the caste-driven society an unusual opportunity to settle scores for imagined or real slights by taking it out on the beasts belonging to the "other castes". The favoured ones after the emergence of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav have come into easy money. The cattle fair will provide them the opportunity to fight their caste wars through these mute creatures. Reports from Sonepur say that the Kshatriya horses are the most in demand because they symbolise power. Giving them a close run for their money are the Vaishyas. The logic is simple. Money begets power and power begets money. If you cannot afford a Kshatriya horse, go for a Vaishya. Knowledge is at a discount in these times of strange social churning. The traders who thought they would make a killing by putting the white coloured and wide forehead beasts on the highest pedestal are not amused. Sonepur is not an ordinary cattle fair. Tourists from all over the country come here because Indian melas are good entertainment. The caste-categorisation of horses should provide them plenty to write home about. It should also provide Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav some fodder for thought. Dividing horses on caste lines could be his rivals' idea of getting even with him. Animals have been used in the past for making a political or a social or a religious statement. Are the horse traders being used to dare Mr Yadav to react to the placing of the dark brown, inferior quality beasts in the lowest category of the caste system? When firmness is sufficient rashness is unnecessary. — Napoleon |
Babu as competition panel chief THE concern recently expressed by the Supreme Court at the manner of appointment of a bureaucrat as the Chairman of the Competition Commission, established under the Competition Act, 2002, is founded on the judicial experience of the workings of tribunalisation in India. There have been repeated attempts to establish tribunals in India. These have had diverse motivations. In the 1950s there used to be election tribunals to hear election matters. These were later done away with and their work was entrusted to the High Courts. The Customs, Excise and Gold Control Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT) has also had a long innings. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) was set up under a 1969 piece of legislation to regulate both the tendencies indicated in its name. For this purpose it exercised judicial power. The Competition Commission is now envisaged to replace it. During the Emergency (1975-77), the Constitution was amended to include Articles 323A and 323B so as to enable the establishment of tribunals which could have a status equivalent to the High Courts and exercise some of their powers. The Central Administrative Tribunal has been set up by legislation invoking Article 323A. The increasing litigation involving the armed forces has also led to proposals for the setting up of similar tribunals for these services as well. A network of consumer disputes redressal institutions, exercising judicial power, has also come into being at the district, state and national levels under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Another institution, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), has come into existence under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985. The purpose was to see whether companies could be monitored before they close down or go into liquidation and to attempt, if possible, to reconstruct them if necessary. There is also an Appellate Authority for Industrial And Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR). Both the BIFR and AAIFR exercise judicial power. Debt Recovery Tribunals have also been brought into being to enable financial institutions make a quicker recovery of moneys owed to them. Space does not permit mentioning a number of other specialised tribunals. The experience with these tribunals and institutions has been rather mixed. In many cases, appeals are provided for to the Supreme Court. In any event, it has been the understandable concern of the court to ensure that these bodies function according to high judicial standards of fairness in procedure and in substance. One way the Supreme Court has tried to ensure this is by insisting on certain norms on the appointment of those who would chair and comprise these bodies. A previous Chief Justice of India had a well-publicised dispute with the then Union Law Minister on the manner of consultation required in the appointment of the MRTPC Chairman. Before that, in 1990, the Union Government had once tried to stymie the very functioning of the Monopolies Commission by dragging its feet on the appointment of its Chairman and members. A lawyer had to file a petition to the Supreme Court and a contempt proceeding against, secretary in the Ministry of Industry had to be initiated before the chairman was appointed. In 1987, soon after the enactment of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, the Supreme Court put the Union Government on notice that unless the government’s absolute discretion in the matter of chairman, vice-chairmen and administrative members of the tribunals was restricted, the Act itself would be held unconstitutional and invalid. As the tribunals were taking the place of High Courts, the Supreme Court observed that “those who adjudicate upon these questions should have some modicum of legal training and judicial experience because we find that some of these questions are so difficult and complex that they baffle the minds of even trained judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court”. The court insisted that the chairman of a tribunal ought to be or should have been a judge of a High Court. It warned that as the tribunals were filling in for the High Courts “substituting the Chief Justice of a High Court by a chairman of the administrative tribunal who has merely held the post of a secretary to the government and who has no legal or judicial experience would not only fail to inspire confidence in the public mind but would also render the administrative tribunal a much less effective and efficacious mechanism than the High Court.” In the case of CEGAT the Supreme Court laid down in 1993 that “to instil the confidence of the litigating public in CEGAT, the government must make a sincere effort to appoint a sitting judge of a High Court a President of CEGAT in consultation ( with ) the Chief Justice of India and if a sitting judge is not available, the choice must fall on a retired judge as far as possible.” These positions were taken by the court not to diminish the input that the administrative or technical members bring to such tribunals, but because this experience could not be a substitute for judicial training. Such training can, of course, be acquired with time, which is why the court had observed that a vice-chairman of the administrative tribunal may, after two years’ service, be eligible for the post of chairman. However, the superior judiciary has remained somewhat wary of excessive power being exercised within the tribunal system. The Supreme Court’s view on the subject evolved further in 1997 when it came to look upon the tribunal system as not being substitutive of courts but supplemental to them. It was held that judicial review being part of the basic structure of the Constitution, neither Articles 323A and 323B nor the Administrative Tribunals Act could operate to exclude the writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Courts under Articles 32 and 226 respectively. This meant that the power of the tribunals to question the validity of statutes, while remaining intact, became subject to scrutiny by a Division Bench of a High Court. It is only after such scrutiny that appeals may go to the Supreme Court. The three important reasons for exploring the judicial potential of the institutions outside the court system have been: informality, speed of disposal and involvement to some extent of other professions with grassroots administrative experience or specialised knowledge or skills. These have not always been fulfilled. The qualifications for the Chairman of the Competition Commission laid down in the Act of 2002 are uncannily similar to those laid down in the corresponding provisions in the 1985 Act for the BIFR. The chairman and other members may be from among those who have been or are qualified to be a judge of a High Court or those who may have specialised knowledge and professional experience in certain specialised fields. The provisions on appointment are not weighed in favour of judicial experience and give a great latitude to the government. Of all the purportedly judicial bodies established so far outside the court structure, perhaps the most unsatisfactory has been the BIFR. It has been dominated by bureaucrats. Yet, instead of functioning in a more informal way than courts, it has often been more rigid than the courts themselves. Its methods have not been as transparent as they ought to be. Once a company comes within the definition of “sick industrial company” the matter is under the ambit of the BIFR. Thereafter no proceedings for the recovery of money can be initiated against the company without the permission of the BIFR. The sooner this star chamber is wound up, the better it would be for all concerned. It does not deserve to be emulated, much less replicated. n |
The blessed ones I was witness to and part of a strangely moving experience two or three years back. Veena Sahasrabudhe, among the leading lights of Hindustani vocalists today, was singing at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on a Sunday morning. After a scintillating recital of classical raagas sung as only she can, the highly cultivated audience of Chandigarh was regaled with two soulful canticles of Sant Kabir. When she concluded, believe me, there was not a dry eye in the whole pandal. There is something in Kabir’s lofty thought, a touch of questioning otherworldliness, maybe, that goes straight to the heart and moulds a person’s outlook. I went to the stage with folded hands to thank the great artiste and noticing my wet eyes, she said perhaps she had chosen the wrong pieces to end the concert. I mumbled something and she just smiled. It was not only Kabir but also Veena who had transported everyone and made our day. Something equally profound but more complicated happened the other day. Kalapini, the daughter of the legendary Pandit Kumar Gandharva, whose pulchritude matches her euphonious name, had come to Chandigarh for a performance and was putting up with Karuna, unarguably one of the choicest spirits of the city. Karuna’s mother-in-law, all of 92 but in her right mind and a lady of good sentiments, was happy to meet the young singer, and when told that she was the daughter of Kumar Gandharva, went into a reverie and started singing a Kabir bhajan which, years back, she had heard from the maestro himself and had locked up somewhere in her consciousness. Kalapini graciously sang the whole bhajan, without benefit of tabla or tanpoora, and sent the old lady into a trance. Karuna was moved beyond words. Whether it was Sant Kabir’s rich devotional thought, Kalapini’s sweet voice, the shades of her late father’s touching music or the spectacle of the senior lady lost under a spell of nostalgia, maybe thoughts of the other world, is difficult to say. Karuna’s eyes were uncontrollably rich with
tears. |
Continuing neglect of the aged
EVERY senior citizen of the world would say amen to Josh Malihabadi’s prayer. The same sentiments were expressed by Keshav, a respected Hindi poet of the Bhakti period. He resented being addressed as “baba” by the village belles. Last year the Second World Assembly on Ageing was held in Madrid, Spain, not to discuss the contribution of the inevitable process of ageing to world literature. The purpose was more down to earth. For five days the assembly discussed and debated the parameters for building a society for all ages. The fact that the second assembly was held after a gap of 20 years was itself a telling comment on the low priority given to the issue. Turning families into individuals was the new market mantra for optimising profits. Just about everyone joined the modern version of the gold rush. The fast pace of economic transformation proved the validity of Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest in a completely new context. Those who were fit enough to chase mammon flew the coop. The aged and the ageing got left out of the race. The West is paying a heavy price for excluding the elders from the family portrait. All that it has done is to put into place an adequate, not satisfactory, mechanism that provides social security, shelter and health care to its aged population. India has not done even that. It has allowed the younger generation to bang the door on the senior population so that it can seek economic salvation at a much faster clip. Urban India has no time to spare for the aged and the ageing. Older persons, frail and dependent on others for their basic needs discover that their bank accounts have been cleared by those whom they trusted. In the hospitals they are slapped and abused by the nursing staff. Abandoned elder men and women living alone or together, are battered to death by domestic servants. However, it would be a fallacy to harp only on the plight of the senior citizens in India. The younger generation across the globe seems to have lost interest in the welfare of the older people. Growing awareness about the sad neglect of the aged and the ageing has for the first time resulted in the issue being put on the United Nations agenda for building a society for all ages. A report released by Secretary General Kofi Anan and discussed at the Madrid meet said that the abuse of both elder men and women, in developing as well as developed societies, was alarmingly high. In Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, surveys have found that the proportion of older persons reported as abused or neglected ranged from 3 to 10 per cent. In the United States, between 1986 and 1996, the National Center on Elder Abuse recorded a disturbingly high increase of 150 per cent in reported incidents of abuse. In developing countries, where a high percentage of the world’s older persons live — most of them poor — there have yet not been studies or systematic collection of statistics for finding the scale of abuse of the elders. But the horrifying tales of crimes in which they are the victims provide enough evidence of the neglect of the senior citizens and the collusion of the system in robbing them of their dignity. In India a sample survey of 1,000 older persons showed that 4 per cent had been physically abused. A smaller sample of 50 persons aged over 70 years and over, living in urban areas, found 20 per cent complain of neglect. Abuse takes many forms. It can be physical, emotional or psychological. According to one estimate about 80 million people in India fall in the category of the aged. A sharp drop in the rate of mortality means that the population of senior citizens will now grow at a much faster pace than, say, 20 years ago. No one can force unwilling children to travel back in time when elders enjoyed a place of respect and authority in the joint family structure. They provided guidance to the young and emotional stability to the clan. So, should the ageing and the aged be allowed to lead a life of neglect that is only marginally better than that of street dogs and stray cattle? Or should the State take upon itself the responsibility of providing them not just social security and human dignity, but also the tools to make them remain, or become, productive members of the community. The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing provides a workable blueprint for making the elderly population a productive arm of the community. It has restated the importance of adult literacy, a programme abandoned by India because of official indifference. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in the level of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, has been placed at the top in the action plan. Under the plan member nations will be required to implement policies that promote access to training and retraining for older workers and encourage them to continue using their acquired knowledge and skills after retirement; ensure that the benefits of the new technologies are made available to all, particularly women. The stated objective of the action plan is to ensure full utilisation of the potential and expertise of persons of all ages. It recognises the benefits of increased experience that comes with age for the general good of the community. For turning age into an asset the Indian leadership should encourage non-government initiatives to make use of the expertise and experience of professionals who are made to retire at an arbitrarily fixed age. The government should ensure the introduction of what can be called the “half and half” concept for utilising the skills of retired officers, civil servants, teachers and nursing staff. Under this concept half the strength of an NGO should be made up of retired professionals for it to qualify for financial assistance through donations or government agencies. |
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DELHI
DURBAR GIVEN its experience in Gujarat, the Congress is taking a lot of care in choosing the leaders being sent for election work in the five states going to the polls. In the Gujarat Assembly elections last year, the party heavily banked on ministers and MLAs from Punjab for electioneering and several Punjab ministers were sent days in advance to lend a helping hand to the Congress campaign in the western state. However, to the party’s chagrin a controversy erupted soon after the polls about the Punjab ministers’ stay and the alleged activities of a few. The Modi government in Gujarat later went public with the controversy, which had also caused bickering in the top echelons of the Punjab Congress. Few leaders from Punjab have so far been involved by the Congress central leadership in the electioneering for the December Assembly poll and most of the work is likely to be entrusted to the state Chief Minister. Mulayam Singh grooms kin Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, keeping his eyes focused on the Raisina hill throne after the next Lok Sabha elections, is grooming his son Akhilesh Yadav for Lucknow. This is evident from a secret directive from Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh to the party’s leaders that the heir apparent to “netaji” (read Mulayam Singh Yadav) should be projected. Following the directive, big hoardings and posters are mushrooming at all vantage places and corners portraying Akhilesh with his father. In troubled waters The BJP finds itself in troubled waters in Delhi and Rajasthan on ticket distribution for the December 1 Assembly elections. There is intense heartburn and anger in the BJP units of Delhi and Rajasthan that certain favourites and the kith and kin of senior leaders have been accommodated without giving due thought to grassroots workers. In Delhi certain district office-bearers of the BJP have resigned en block and the anger in Rajasthan is no less. At least in Delhi, these leaders have made it clear that even if they do not put up their own candidates they will definitely work against the official nominees. That is causing sleepness nights to the BJP’s chief ministerial aspirant Madan Lal Khurana and company. Rajasthan’s BJP chief Vasundhara Raje is also caught in a bind that the party cannot accommodate all the 7,000 applications in a 200-member assembly. Hindu College alumni Hindu College held its distinguished alumni award ceremony recently where chief guest Justice Y.K. Sabharwal underlined the need for giving back to society. Minister of State for External Affairs Vinod Khanna was duly impressed with the rich history of the college. He observed that several leaders of the country’s freedom struggle had spoken at the college, thus giving an impetus to the nationalist education movement. He recalled that the students of the college had presented Rs 800 to Mahatma Gandhi way back in 1929. The alumni of the college were virtually spread across diverse social and professional walks of life. The recipients of the young achievers award included Justice B P Singh, Narendra Kumar of Delhi Public School Society, sportsperson Manjit Dua, who had won seven international awards, industrialist S.P. Punj and former Cabinet Secretary S. Rajagopal. Contributed by Satish Misra, Prashant Sood and R.
Suryamurthy. |
There was not death, nor immortality then There was not the beacon of night or day That one breathed, windless, by its own power Other than that there was not anything beyond. — Rigveda Of himself, no one can be high or low. Or there is no high or low degree before the Almighty. — Guru Nanak God is Truth and Truth is God. I came to that conclusion after a continuous and relentless search after Truth. I then found that the nearest approach to Truth was through love. — Mahatma Gandhi O Son of the Supreme! To the eternal I call thee, yet thou dost seek that which eprisheth. What hath made thee turn away from Our desire and seek thine own? — Baha’u’llah |
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