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EC strikes Telecom tussle ends |
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Gifting nuclear knowhow
Jaswant Singh can smile
Winged visitors
FLASHBACK ‘03 DELHI DURBAR
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EC strikes THE
general attitude of people with influence in India is that rules are meant for fools. This earthy wisdom is corroborated by the conduct of the leaders who think that they can get away with whatever they want to do with no uncomfortable questions asked. Well, things are changing, and the Election Commission is proving to be an instrument of change. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Capt Amarinder Singh and Mr Ajit Jogi would have never expected to be censured by the poll panel when they used the state planes merrily for electioneering for their party during the recent Assembly polls. Since the reprimand comes at a time when the Congress’ cup of electoral woes is full, it must be particularly stinging, but they had asked for it. These leaders ought to have known that their plane rides fell foul of the model code of conduct and could be objected to. The Election Commission has sent them a chilling reminder that its instructions are not to be trifled with. This message will, hopefully, have a salutary effect during campaigns for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The tone and tenor of the order is exceptionally stern. It asks Mr Jogi whether he considered that the resources and the property of the State formed part of his own fiefdom which he could use according to his own whims and fancies. It similarly takes the Punjab Chief Minister to task for “very ambiguously combined official work and electioneering”. Its directions to the Congress party to reimburse either from its own funds or by recovering from Capt Amarinder Singh and Mr Jogi the total cost of propulsion, including taxes, interest and other connected expenditure incurred by the State government in undertaking the flights, are both a punishment and a warning. It is noteworthy that the Congress has escaped losing its recognition as a national party only because the violations arose for the first time and it gave repeated assurances that it would adhere to the model code of conduct in future. Having come so close to the ultimate punishment, it may indeed be on best behaviour in future, and, hopefully, so will be other parties. If they indeed do, the nation knows whom to thank. |
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Telecom tussle ends THE
Minister for Communications and IT, Mr Arun Shourie, handed over a nice Christmas gift to the warring telecom companies. The latter responded with magnanimity and decided to end all litigation by withdrawing the cases against government policy on WLL from the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the government package — a 2 per cent cut in the revenue-sharing licence fee, a plan to hike the FDI limit from the present 49 to 74 per cent and a Finance Ministry promise to help the cellular operators restructure their debt — will not lead to any drastic revenue loss. The private operators will share Rs 225 crore worth benefits, while gains of Rs 660 crore will accrue to the two government players, BSNL and MTNL. The companies are supposed to pass on part of the benefits to mobile phone users. The government’s hare-brained licensing policy had led to disputes between cellular and basic operators. The cellular operators were charged a hefty licence fee as compared to the basic operators, who offered limited mobility at much lower rates. Further, the country was divided into 22 regions, each with two licences to operate mobile networks. The licence raj led to higher costs and endless litigation on one count or the other. The fragmentation of the national market and disputes over ambiguous policies have resulted in over-regulation and limited competition. As a result, some global telecom giants have stayed away from India. A vital step towards dismantling the licence raj was taken earlier this year by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which recommended unified licensing guidelines for both basic and cellular mobile services in the country. The circle-wise segmentation of the national market, however, still remains. Now that the disputes are, by and large, settled, the telecom sector may witness a frantic pace of growth. Competition will hot up as more foreign investments will flow into this sector. The quality of mobile telephone services is bound to improve. Only the best of technology will survive. The phone user, happily, will be the ultimate gainer. |
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Gifting nuclear knowhow PAKISTAN has been found to be fully involved in the game of nuclear proliferation. It should not be allowed to go scot-free by saying that all this happened because some of its nuclear scientists were driven by “personal ambition or greed”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors investigating Iran’s nuclear facilities have reportedly discovered conclusive proof of Pakistan’s stamp on Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran, it appears, had been helped with centrifuge designs and related technology available with Pakistan at the initial stage of its nuclear project. The IAEA expose has been justified by a thorough probe by The New York Times, conducted for over two months, revealing a definite connection between Pakistan’s A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories and Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran has now admitted to have obtained foreign (read Pakistan) help for its controversial project, suspected by the world community to be meant for producing weapons of mass destruction. The technology, including the design, used by Iran was also available with Libya, which has declared to scrap its entire nuclear project following Anglo-American persuasion. The story that begins at Khan Laboratories takes one to not only Iran and Libya, but also to North Korea. The South Koreans have given detailed evidence to the Americans that Pakistan has acquired advanced missile technology from North Korea in exchange for the knowledge to produce nuclear weapons. General Musharraf has virtually accepted the clandestine involvement of his country in nuclear proliferation by saying that he could not be answerable to what happened in the past (which means something did happen) but “that (proliferation) is not happening now”. The position he has taken is meant to satisfy the United States, but the problem is too serious to be ignored by the world community. Thought for the day Only single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer. — G.E. Lessing
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Jaswant Singh can smile STOCK markets are booming with the sensitive index having touched a 45-month high. India is supposed to be shining brighter than ever before. The so-called “feel good” factor is reportedly permeating right through the economy. The country’s foreign exchange reserves have crossed the $ 100 billion mark. Whereas India was a net borrower from the rest of the world until recently, we are currently extending loans to other countries. The flow of good news on the economic front has become a virtual torrent. Whereas gross domestic product grew by a niggardly 4.2 per cent in the previous financial year, this fiscal year that will close at the end of March 2004 is likely to witness a real GDP growth rate that would be somewhere between 6.5 per cent and 7 per cent. All sectors of the economy — agriculture, in particular — are expected to show fairly impressive rates of growth. In other words, Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh could not have hoped for a better economic environment as he prepares to present his second budget at the end of February, the budget for 2004-05. There are, however, a number of important considerations that could constrain the Finance Minister and curb his freedom. First and foremost, the general election is scheduled to take place in September-October 2004, perhaps earlier. This means that Mr Singh has to ensure that no unpopular decisions are taken in the budget, decisions which could in any way hurt the electoral prospects of the National Democratic Alliance coalition headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Simply put, the Finance Minister cannot propose any measure that could be perceived as being against the interests of, say, farmers, the middle classes, workers or, for that matter, just about any section of Indian society — even if such a measure is deemed economically sound and could improve the fiscal health of the economy. It is fashionable in certain circles to claim that economics and politics should be divorced from each other. But in all developing countries, not excluding India, politics and economics are so closely intertwined that it is next to impossible to separate the two. All economic policy decisions have a political impact even if the consequence of such decisions is not always clearly discernible in the short run. Thus, it would be unrealistic to expect Mr Singh to take tough economic decisions that could be politically unpopular — decisions such as pruning subsidies paid to wealthy farmers or hiking tariffs or taxes, especially increasing the incidence of income tax on the middle class taxpayers. The Finance Minister would certainly not have forgotten the experience of his predecessor Yashwant Sinha who was not merely flayed by his own party colleagues for presenting budgets that were against the interests of the middle class, but also had to repeatedly “roll back” many budget proposals on account of opposition from within the BJP and its allies in the NDA. Mr Singh would surely not have forgotten how, after he presented last year’s budget in which he had proposed a marginal increase in fertiliser prices, he had to reluctantly backtrack. This time round, there would be even more pressure on him not to suggest any proposal that could even mildly antagonise any section of the electorate. Over and above the political constraints that would operate on him, the Finance Minister would also have to carefully negotiate certain important economic constraints that are not exactly being highlighted by government spokespersons. Let us look at some of these economic constraints. Not only is this year’s expected figure of GDP growth lower than the 8 per cent target set for the Tenth Plan period (April 2002 to March 2007), the fact is that the country’s economy grew by more than 7 per cent for three consecutive years between 1994-95 and 1996-97. The short point is that despite the good economic performance this year, the NDA government has a lot of catching up to do before it can justifiably claim to the voters of the country that there has been a significant economic revival. 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 completely unrealistic in the current scenario where jobs are being lost (not created). According to Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma, between 1996-97 and 2001-02, as many as 8.8 lakh jobs were lost in the organised sector. By way of contrast, organised sector employment went up each year between 1989-90 and 1996-97 with the creation of nearly 19 lakh new jobs in this sector that covers all non-agricultural private establishments employing 10 or more individuals besides all public sector organisations. Significantly, total employment in the organised sector currently constitutes 8.9 per cent of the total workforce against 9.6 per cent a decade ago. While government spokespersons have been gloating over the revival of the economy, the Finance Minister knows better than anyone else that much (if not all the) credit for this revival should go to the rain gods. This means the expected pick-up in the growth rate of GDP is largely a consequence of this year’s favourable monsoon that followed a year of terrible drought, one 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 the low base, few would be surprised if farm output jumped up by between 6 per cent and 7 per cent. A far bigger problem would be to sustain the growth rate — particularly if the next monsoon is not all that great. Mr Singh must also be aware of the inadequate infrastructure facilities that have contributed to the slow pace of investments in greenfield projects. The rate of growth of exports is showing signs of slackening, largely on account of the rise in the value of the Indian currency in relation to the US dollar. The Finance Minister has also expressed concern about the high fiscal deficit and the rise in inflationary pressures. At present, the total fiscal deficit of the Union and state governments put together is in the region of 11 per cent of the GDP while the inflation rate has been above 5 per cent. These are all constraints that are unlikely to disappear in a hurry. The Finance Minister has to walk a tightrope. He will have to balance populist pressures with fiscal prudence, which is easier said than done. The extent to which he manages to strike a compromise between these two conflicting sets of objectives remains to be seen. |
Winged visitors THE
mellow rays of the winter sun fall warm on my face as I start my walk down the jogging track beside Sukhna Lake in the late afternoon. At this time of the year, the track is converted into “Kachnar Gali”. The showy inflorescence of this orchid like flower of the Bauhinieae plant family spills onto the track and the grassy verges in a smattering of gorgeous purpley-mauve, their fragrance spilling into the crisp winter air. Across the waters of the lake, in the shadow of the brooding Shivaliks, wrapped in their misty robes, there are, suddenly, numerous winged visitors: Water fowl, Herons, Mallard ducks and even the occasional Crane. Having escaped colder climes they bob up and down, greedily taking in the sun. As always, I am grateful to live in this beautiful city. Away from the lake, in homes across the city there are innumerable NRI visitors who have winged themselves home for a well deserved Christmas break. As families reunite, the warmth of loved ones drives away winter chills. The sector 17 Piazza, and the lake is replete with young ones in their trademark Tommy Hilfigers and Swatches speaking Punjabi with a quaint twang. Proud grannies with bright faces and a spring in their stride, introduce their progeny to their friends. There are no wrinkles on all these greying faces; children and grandchildren are better than the best botox treatment. They fill up the empty spaces not just in the Dermis but in all those spaces of the heart that no cardiologist knows about. In the markets, the NRIs bring cheer and the almighty dollar. The visitors ooh and aah over wool carpets, handicrafts, gur, gachak and rewarian. As credit cards are swiped the ringing of the cash registers has at last count taken our forex reserves over the $ 100 billion mark. There are parties, crowds outside the Hindi movie theatres and Planet M, for Ghazals and Gurbani after all, after the September 11 WTO bombing, “....kya pata Kal Ho na Ho”! Ghagras and lehenga’s fly off shelves while “desi” jewellery is hot just as is gajar ka halwa, garam gulabjamun and mithai of all sorts, and Yoga. The signature query ‘Is that right’ floats around the City boulewards. And then just as suddenly as they arrived, the winged visitors on the lake take flight and return home. Our NRI visitors, also leave the warmth of family and homes, peopled with parents, grandparents, siblings and fond relatives and friends. Loneliness and longing again colours this city of greybeards and green hedges making one wonder about the NRI dream and its price. I watch all the grey faces plodding along for their constitutional by the lake, their hearts heavy with unshed tears. The accumulating forex reserves bring them no cheer. |
FLASHBACK ‘03
2003 will certainly go down in the histroy of Indian judiciary as an eventful and significant year with the Supreme Court writing some new chapters in the jurisprudence book by giving candid opinions on controversial issues like the common civil code, government employees’ right to strike and reminding the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat about its “rajdharma” for failing to provide justice and security to the riot victims. The consistant admonishing of the Modi government by the court for adopting a “callous” approach towards the plight of riot victims was seen by legal luminaries as a reflection of general anquish of society as the apex court perhaps for the first time in its history was so vocal in criticising an elected government. Emphasising the need for having a common civil code in the country, the Supreme Court expressed its regret that Parliament has yet to step in to frame such a code even when Article 44 of the Constitution has provided for the State to endeavour to secure a uniform civil law for all its citizens. On the issue of government employees’ right to strike, the apex court seemed to be anquished more about it being used as a “weapon” to bring the administration to a grinding halt rather than its judicious use. That is why it was at pains to explain that the employees, apart from having no legal right to strike, did not have the “equitable or moral right” to bring the administration to a grinding halt. The conduct of certain judges and judicial officers came under scanner. The Delhi High Court’s former judge Shameet Mukherjee’s resignation in the wake of the CBI regestering a case of corruption against him and allegations of “misconduct” against some judges of other high courts were seen as a “blot” on its face by legal experts, forcing the Chief Justice of India, Mr V.N. Khare, at the ‘Law Day’ function to call upon the judges to uphold “judcial integrity as the custodians of the public trust”. The CJI’s assertion that society was entitled to expect a judge to be a man of integrity, honesty and ethical firmness to resist any temptation was indicative of his concern at the finger of suspecion being pointed out towards judiciary. As custodian of the rule of law, the Supreme Court ordering the CBI probe into the Rs 175 crore Taj heritage corridor project,
conceived in violation of the environment laws by the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, not only resulted in the fall of her ministry but also culminated in the registration of an FIR against her and her Cabinet colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqi and some high
officials. A similar probe into charges against Haryana Chief Minister
Om Prakash Chautala in the primary school teachers’ appointment scam had also put him in the docks. The much hyped privatisation of profit-earning public sector oil companies — HPCL and BPCL — by the Centre to net over Rs 10,000 crore from offloading of their equity to meet its disinvestment target of 13,200 crore during the current financial year, was also halted by the apex court, which held the entire process as illegal as it was being carried out without the approval of Parliament. There was a sharp division in the Union Cabinet over privatisation of the “strategic oil sector” as three senior ministers — George Fernandes, Murli Manohr Joshi and Ram Naik — had openly opposed it. The human rights activists may continue to make a hue and cry over the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), but the Supreme Court has upheld its Constitutional validity by accepting the Centre’s stand that there was necessity of a strong law to fight anti-national activities. The court at the same time laid down clear interpretations of all the controversial sections of POTA, which will form the guiding force for the courts below to apply the law correctly to prevent its misuse by the party in power to supress its political opponents. The Supreme Court was equally concerned over the burgeoning population, which is negating the fruits of development. By upholding the Haryana Government’s Act preventing a person with more than two children from contesting the panchayat and local bodies polls, the court asserted that it was a “small
beginning” in the direction of checking a “torrential increase” in the country’s population. The exoneration of Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister J. Jayalalithaa, loaded with severe strictures against her for “moral
misconduct” in the TANSI land scam case and acquittal of former Prime
Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao by a Delhi Special Court in the Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case, the last one of the three registered by the CBI against him, were some other important judicial prouncements by the courts this year. The death sentence to former Delhi Youth Congress president Sushil Sharma for the brutal killing of his wife Naina Sahani and then trying to burn her body in a “tandoor (oven)” of a restaurant run by him on contract, in June 1995, was one of the notable verdicts by the court, which after a prolonged trial of eight years found him guilty of a crime that fell in the “rarest of the rare” category, warranting the capital punishment. |
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DELHI DURBAR WHEN Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met his estranged party colleague — former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh — in Lucknow on the eve of his birthday and photographers were allowed to take pictures of this meeting, many thought it to be a spontaneous development but a little bird tells us that much planning went behind the move. Not only did the RSS play a key role but Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani succeeded in convincing the Prime Minister that if the BJP were to win the next Lok Sabha elections, then Kalyan Singh had to be brought back to the party fold. A doctorate
for Laloo Pakistan impressed RJD leader Laloo Prasad Yadav so much that he has penned his nostalgic memories and Patna University has decided to confer a honorary doctorate on him. One wonders whether he would pen his one-liners also as that would at least be a popular best -seller, if not worth the Booker Prize. Embarrassing
omission Sometimes how the omission of a particular word can give an altogether different meaning, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) bosses came to know much to their embarrassment. The other day the NHRC had sent a press release to various newspaper organisations titled “Legislation on Terrorism Not at Human Rights Expense”. The first para of that release was contrary to what the title had suggested. Well, apparently due to the omission of the word “not”. It read: the “Chairperson of the NHRC, Dr Justice A.S. Anand, has called for the need to enact legislation to combat terrorism but warned that this legislation should be (sic) at the cost of human rights”. BJP launches
Mission 2004 The BJP has embarked on its ‘Mission 2004’ and it does not want to leave anything to chance. The saffron party finds the Rashtriya Janata Dal vote bank of OBCs, Dalit and Muslim as its hurdle to ride to power. Having got its caste arthimetic right in three states which went to the polls recently, the BJP is now wooing Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan to garner seats in Bihar, while ignoring the aspirations of its own party candidates in the state. And the wily politician that Paswan is, the Dalit leader is demanding his pound of flesh to enable the BJP return power in Delhi. However, one wonders, whether Paswan can match Laloo in his wits. Competition
Commission Act The Centre has agreed to rewrite the Competition Commission Act by deleting the controversial provisions after the government came under attack from the Supreme Court for encroaching upon the spheres of judiciary by appointing a non-judicial member as its head. Attorney General Soli J. Sorabjee has given a categoric assurance to a Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Mr V.N. Khare, that all controversial provisions in the Act would be deleted. The government had appointed former Commerce Secretary Deepak Chatterjee as Chairman of the Competition Commission, a quasi-judical body, created to replace the Monoplies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission. Contributed by R. Suryamurthy, S. Satyanarayanan and S.S. Negi |
Christianity is the good man’s text; his life, the illustration. — J.P. Thompson The wise act without attachment, desiring the welfare of the world. — Lord Sri Krishna The Lord’s Essence is obtained in the congregation of the holy. — Guru Nanak Knowledge leads to unity, ignorance to diversity. — Sri Ramakrishna |
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