 |
|
So far so good Outsourcing duplicity |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Centre's cussedness
Daughters’ law was already there
Army brats club
Congress’ bid to woo the poor People Pati, patni or
ticket
|
So far so good
WHAT is most noteworthy about the second round of talks between the Centre and the All-Party Hurriyat Conference on Saturday is that it took place in an amiable atmosphere. While Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani found time from his Bharat Uday Yatra for the talks, the Kashmiri leaders desisted from staying away from the talks as they had threatened to do so a couple of weeks ago. Both sides could have asked for a postponement of the talks in view of the general elections. That they did not is a measure of the trust they have reposed in each other. It is only natural that they decided to defer talks on substantive issues to June by when a new government would be in place in New Delhi. The second round of talks was, therefore, more in the nature of a review of the progress the reconciliation process has achieved. Mr Advani's promise to speed up the release of Kashmiris, who are in jail but are not involved in serious cases of crime, and to ensure "zero-level" human rights violations by the security forces in the State would have been music to the Hurriyat ears. They have reason to believe that these are not empty promises as the government has already released 69 detenus since the first round of talks on January 22. Directives issued to the security forces to keep civilians out during counter-insurgency operations and the swift action taken over the recent Bandipora incident prove the government's sincerity when it talks about "security with a human face". In fact, the quick action against those who were found wanting at Bandipora had a salutary effect on the Kashmiri people. Though there is no official word on whether the Hurriyat has given a promise to the Centre not to issue a call for boycott of the elections, indications are that it does not want to be a spoilsport this time. The low polling in some constituencies in the Valley in the 2002 Assembly elections was due to its boycott call. Of course, it is a different matter that a majority of the voters paid no heed to the call and braved bullets and bullying to take part in the polls which international observers vouchsafed as one of the freest and fairest the state has ever witnessed. Elections will shine better this time if the Hurriyat also chips in to make democracy triumph in the State. |
|
Outsourcing duplicity IN a world where one of every four high-tech jobs in the West is outsourced, India is the undisputed leader among offshore centres. This is no self-congratulatory swadeshi claim but the finding of a well-regarded research firm, Gartner Inc in the US. Despite the political backlash whipped up in the US, outsourcing has been a booming business in that country and has been catching on in Europe since 2003. So, it is only to be expected that in a world order shaped by developed, industrial nations to serve their economic and political interests, the West would, sooner rather than later, strike back at the developing countries for overcoming the odds. For all its avowed commitment to free trade when the laws of economics prevail, but against its interests, the rules are re-written and the protectionist bars raised higher to stonewall competition. Two recent developments serve as emphatic reminders of, on the one hand, the duplicity of the West and, on the other, the gung-ho spirit of Indian business to swim with the tide but also against it when so dictated by economic sense. To take the latter first, Bharti Tele-Ventures headed by Mr Sunil Mittal has just signed a 750-million-dollar deal for outsourcing its entire IT operations to the US multinational IBM. This at a time when the West is rallying all its political and economic might against outsourcing to India. In Mr Mittal's words this is a "first-of-a-kind initiative" that redefines "existing paradigms" in the industry. The other development, is the European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society Erkki Liikanen giving verbal support to outsourcing while actually demanding that India must grant developed nations market access to high-end products. This is a crude attempt to link BPO to free trade and thereby, possibly, establish grounds where outsourcing could be taken to the WTO at a future date. Curiously, while Mr Liikanen speaks for all Europe when he makes this point, he pleads that the EU is "helpless" when it comes to easing visa norms for Indian professionals because member countries had different procedures. Truly a case of the US and the EU adapting the Leninist dictum, "March separately, but strike together". |
|
Centre's cussedness IF the insensitivity of the Union Home Ministry towards the martyrs who laid down their lives in the Kamagatamaru incident and the Kuka movement was not unfortunate enough, the high-handedness shown by the police when members of the Desh Bhagat Yaadgari Committee went to submit a memorandum to the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, at the conclusion of the first phase of his "Bharat Uday Yatra" made it so. Their ire is understandable. The "gadri babas" are the most respected martyrs of the freedom struggle in Punjab, so much so that when the Congress held its annual session near Chandigarh a few decades ago, it was named Kamagatamaru Nagar. And yet, a written statement filed by the Home Ministry in the Punjab and Haryana High Court says that "merely because occupants of the Kamagatamaru left the country in 1914 and spent some amount and suffered some sort of assault does not establish that they participated in the freedom movement or there is any connection with the freedom struggle." Ironically, even the martyrs of the Kuka movement have been refused recognition as freedom fighters by the ministry, which says that it was only a religious movement. All this has been claimed while responding to a PIL seeking directions for their inclusion in the movements recognised as part of the freedom struggle for purposes of grant of the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme 1980. This is indeed a strange interpretation of history. It appears that the babus lording it over the ministry cannot distinguish between chalk and cheese. While they have granted this status to some who do not deserve it, they are quibbling in the case of those who are the right claimants. If they cannot respect the martyrs, they should not at least insult them. Thought for the day The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. —-William
James |
Daughters’ law was already there
EVER since the Jammu and Kashmir Permanent Residents (Disqualification) Bill was unanimously passed in the State Legislative Assembly with absolute majority and voice vote on March 5, there has been a raging controversy over the issue at local and national level in the political as well as in media circles. Parties and individuals have apparently taken an emotional and parochial view of the Bill. If at all there is something for criticism in the Bill that is the manner and the haste in which it was passed. The Bill was passed in less than 10 minutes. But this once again suggests that there was complete unanimity in the House. The national leaders and a section of the media keeping their eyes shut on the factual positions and the constitutional truths are slamming the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government for the legislation deliberately ignoring the fact that a law to this effect has been in place for decades together and nothing new has happened. The legal luminaries, constitutional experts and the political think-tanks like the Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, L.M. Singhvi and the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah are out to express their “anguish” by describing the Bill as an onslaught on the constitutional provisions and on fundamental rights of the women. The tragedy is that a common man’s opinion on the crucial issues is vastly influenced by the media. When the leaders of the ilk of Jaitley, Singhvi and Heptullah speak against the Bill it is enough for a large section of society to smell fish in the legislation and see it as an altogether fresh piece of law aimed at curtailing the rights of women. Little aspersion or doubt is cast on the intentions of leaders speaking against the legislation. The country is up for general elections with the Congress and the BJP face to face. The BJP while criticising the Bill has clear edge over the Congress at the national level. The Congress after having supported the Bill in the Assembly is under natural compulsion to oppose it in the Upper House as otherwise the BJP with its sheer propaganda on regional and communal lines might as well make a dent into the Congress vote bank. Therefore, notwithstanding the wider repercussions on Kashmir, the BJP and the Congress have almost come on the same platform to oppose the legislation. The fact of the matter, however, is that the law is in place since 1927. The historical documents suggest that in the early 1900s the educational position of the majority community in Jammu and Kashmir was not quite impressive. Most of the government jobs in the Maharaja’s administration naturally went either to the Kashmiri Pandits or to the Jammu Dogras. Seizing the fact that there was an acute scarcity of educated manpower in Jammu and Kashmir a large number of educated people from the neighbouring States, particularly the Punjab, migrated to this State, obtained top-notch jobs and plum posts in the administration of the Maharaja. This was later strongly objected to by the Kashmiri Pandits and Jammu Dogras. Therefore, the Maharaja came up with the Permanent Residents Law. It was made applicable to the State of Jammu and Kashmir by the Maharaja through a State notification 1-L 84 on April 20, 1927. Later another notification number 13-L dated June 27, 1932, to the same effect was issued. The law thus enforced offered some privileges to the permanent residents of the State particularly in matter of acquiring immovable property and obtaining government services. Jammu and Kashmir being a State with special status in the Union of India continued to enjoy this privilege even after the State’s shift to the popular and democratic regime. However, many attempts, in an organised manner, have been made to neutralise the special status of the State. There have been umpteen suggestions that Jammu and Kashmir rather than looking back should move forward. But that opens a Pandora’s box. Before actually moving forward as being suggested by the powers at the Centre from time to time, many issues hanging fire for more than five decades need to be settled. In the decades of 1950s and 1960s apprehensions were noticed which could have neutralised the special status of the State. One of the apprehensions was that the daughters of the State after their marriage to a person belonging to a place outside the State might settle back in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. That would have opened a floodgate for the outsiders to acquire property in Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore, through an executive order a law was applied that the Permanent Resident Certificate shall hold validity till marriage only. And this has been in practice for more than five decades. There has been no hue and cry. The argument of gender bias does not appear to be holding good on the issue. Daughters from the State marrying a person belonging to Jammu and Kashmir are entitled to obtain the Permanent Resident Status. Moreover, even though the daughters on marrying outside the State stand to lose their Permanent Resident Status but they have a constitutional right to inherit their ancestral property as per their personal law. What State government needs to do is to explain the mechanism as to how the property would be inherited and make the provision clear on what happens to a daughter of the State who marries a non-State subject and at some stage, God forbids, loses her husband. When the matter was petitioned before the State High Court, the Honourable Judges questioned the very purpose of the line “valid till marriage” inscribed on the State Subject Certificates. The State government was expecting a similar query from the Supreme Court for the simple reason that there was no legislation in place. What transpired between withdrawing the government’s special leave petition from the Supreme Court to bringing legislation is anybody’s guess. But the government did not apparently do anything new. Then why this hue and cry after 77 years?n The author is a journalist based at Jammu. |
Army brats club AS my sons grow older, moving home or schools is anathema to them. “Please mom !”, they plead, heart in their woebegone eyes, “.. can’t think of life without my friends,……” teachers, grandparents and a huge clan of buas and uncles who spoil them silly. I can almost see my husband, mentally, postponing a much debated career move. We were different of course. We moved with the luggage, from Pune to Bhuj and Hyderabad to Darjeeling and every place that my father was transferred to. Hostels were never an option. Not when you knew that career choices would eventually take you away from the family. Hence the answer to the question, ‘Where have you done your schooling?” is usually in double digit, plural. Transfers always came at inopportune times. They also coincided, sadly, with significant milestones in life. Events like school sports days, annual days, school captain elections, freshers’ reception and seniors farewell, convocations et al, so very significant in a child’s life, just passed us by. After the final exams, when it was time to stand tall and claim laurels for academics and sports, it was also time to help mom pack and label the luggage. Just when one was due to win the school captain’s election unanimously, it was time to move on. Welcome to the Army Brats Club, ABC, stringing together kids, all across the length and breadth of the country, in sacrifices as poignant as those made by their soldier dads. It’s never easy either moving on or moving in. Children have a strange way of bonding in groups. These groups form early on and breaking in is extremely difficult. It affects children in two ways: they either become complete extroverts or withdraw into lonely introverts, who shun friends and attachments finding solace in books or hobbies, which thankfully, can travel with them. Most kids learn to be tough, carrying on with the business of life, albeit with a lump in their throats. Slowly places and people cease to matter. As long as there is mom and dad, brother or sister and the warmth of well loved books and furniture, it becomes possible to call any place “Home”. Life is tough but not all melancholy either. There are advantages: new places, fine cantonments, new cuisines and cultures, new languages to learn, excellent sports facilities, and the possibility of a new start every three years. Along the way, Army brats also pick up some sterling qualities. Coping with change and striving to keep up the grades, teaches adaptability, and concentration. Confidence and creativity comes with the varied perspectives of travel, and exposure to different cultures across the country. They develop without exception a desire to excel and a strong sense of self-esteem which is built as kids try and establish their identity, in each new school, starting out as the underdogs trying to make a dent in the status quo. You have to believe in yourself, or
perish. |
Congress’ bid to woo the poor
THE Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections focusses on economic resurgence and makes a determined bid to woo its erstwhile vote bank of minorities especially the Muslims, Dalits and backward classes. Devoid of a catchy slogan, the party is trying to bring round the alienated poor and the
underprivileged by laying emphasis on agriculture and employment. It is trying to unshackle itself of being on a weak wicket compared to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Inhibited in going to the people being out of power for well over eight years, the party has thrown up populist measures by pledging doubling of farm credit over the next three years, lower interest rates on farm loans and increasing public investment in agriculture. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has promised coming with a National Employment Guarantee Act if her party comes to power ensuring at least 100 days of work for every rural household. Notwithstanding the party’s hoary history and the earlier charisma of the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is inexorably being weighed down by not being able to name its Prime Ministerial candidate. “This will be decided by the people after the elections,” is the standard one-liner by Mrs Gandhi as compared to the NDA riding strongly on the shoulders of the Mr Vajpayee and their “India Shining” campaign which has pushed the Congress on the backfoot. The unease in the Congress camp on the foreign origin issue is all too discernible. Even though the Left parties have made it clear that picking Mrs Gandhi as the leader is an internal affair of the Congress, regional satraps like Samajwadi party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, Telugu Desam’s Nara Chandrababu Naidu and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa, who have no doubt played a key role in the leadership stakes, have opposed her candidature as the prime ministerial candidate. This matter is bound to hit the spotlight with electioneering gaining momentum. Union Defence Minister and NDA convenor George Fernandes has affirmed he will press for a constitutional amendment debarring people of foreign origin from holding high public offices. The Congress has maintained that the economic policies of the ruling NDA will not be rolled back. However, review of certain policies will be undertaken as it is opposed to disinvestment for bridging the fiscal deficit. The party has also said it will erase the fiscal deficit in the next five years without going into the specifics. The party promised to unveil a road map in this regard within 30 days if it regains power on the Raisina hill. Interestingly, the Congress after lambasting Mr Vajpayee for having failed to create one crore jobs annually has made a similar pledge in its manifesto. Then, it is rooting for an economic growth rate of 8-10 per cent besides envisaging a global role for the public sector in strategic spheres like infrastructure. Further, the party stressed that an agricultural growth rate of 4-4.5 per cent is unacceptable. It assured in its 32-page manifesto to study the feasibility of an Agricultural Stabilisation Fund to provide direct income to farmers, generate rural employment and evolve a long term policy for export of agricultural products. In the social sector, the Congress has underlined it will raise public spending on education to at least 6 per cent of GDP and 2-3 per cent of GDP on health. The Congress manifesto of 2004 is neither daringly different nor bold in its approach compared to that of 1999. “Congress ka hath, garib ke saath” has hardly created any ripples. The criticism against the party is that it continues to live in the past particularly when the youth have no recollection of the Nehru era. It has failed to grasp the realities of the 21st Century. The highlight of the Congress manifesto five years back dwelt on providing political stability, preserving and promoting secularism, enhancing social justice and empowering the weaker sections, making
governments responsible, investing 6 per cent of GDP in education, not to allow Kargil-type episodes to recur, now to allow the Admiral Bhagwat kind of episode which needlessly humiliated and devastated the morale of the armed forces, work for a responsive administration in Jammu and Kashmir and respect Article 370 in letter and spirit and setting up administrative and police and legislative committees for reforms. In 1999, the Congress insisted on going it alone in forming the government. This time it has struck pre-poll alliances with like-minded parties in the states. This is again due to strong compulsions because of the erosion in its support base. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the party is in a shambles. In UP, which contributes the maximum number of 80 seats to the Lok Sabha, the Congress is constrained to go it alone because of its own
vacillation and lack of political will and foresight. The Congress manifesto has given a go by to dwelling on foreign affairs separately this time though it has alluded to pursuing peaceful relations with Pakistan. The proposal of the Congress to rope in India Inc for reservation of jobs has been characterised as yet another political gambit to garner vote banks. It has contended that with the government and the private sector strengthening education and training facilities coupled with subsidising even the prestigious IIMs, there is no justification for the reservation policy. This is the overbearing view of captains of industry. On the other hand, economic experts aver that reservation is confined only to the government and the vast agriculture and industry sectors remain out of the reservation policy. If economic discrimination is the justification for reservation in the public sector, then why can’t it be extended to the private sector? These experts emphasise that India must enact an Equal Employment Opportunity Act as in the US to provide legal safeguards against discrimination. |
|
People Pati, patni or ticket HOW Giridhar Gamang must be envying Laloo Prasad Yadav. The Bihar RJD supremo conveniently pulled his wife out of the kitchen when he was in trouble and made her Chief Minister. She has been dutifully standing in for him ever since. Things have been exactly the opposite for the former Orissa Chief Minister. He used his wife for a similar reason and she thought she was the real leader. Having become the MP from the Koraput Lok Sabha constituency, she refused to go back to the barracks, as it were, when hubby dear wanted the seat back. It was only the intervention of Sonia Gandhi which made her shift to the Gunpur assembly seat instead. And she is unhappy. To think that theirs was a love marriage! In fact, they had eloped and came over to Delhi where Indira Gandhi provided them shelter. That was the beginning. Now things have come to such a stage that even their children fall under different camps. Neither down, nor out That says a lot about his popularity in his area. “Guruji” does have tremendous vote garnering capabilities. And that is what a desperate Congress needs at the moment. Who is bothered whether he made money on the sly or not? Incidentally, a CBI chargesheet against him for accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income between June, 1991, and March, 1993, was filed only last month. The investigating agency had sought permission to do so in January, 2003, but had to wait for the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. What happens if he wins again? Well, the answer is clear. Poor Jogi It is another matter that he is still a force to reckon with in his home state. Many Congress MPs have requested him to join their campaign. Even bitter critics like former Chief Minister Shyama Charan Shukla and state PCC president Moti Lal Vora have held meetings with him. |
Just as fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfish desire. — Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita He too is a manifestation of the Most High, whom you do not know. — Kahlil Gibran The One God pervades everywhere and He alone dwells in every soul. — Guru Nanak Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt. — Sewell We easily forget our faults when they are known only to ourselves. — Rochefoucauld Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate. — Shakespeare |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
When Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren was accused of having taken money to vote in favour of the P.V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress government in the Lok Sabha on July 28, 1993, most observers had thought that it was the end of his political career. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He continues to be relevant 11 years down the line, with the Congress having to sign an electoral pact with him. They will be jointly challenging the BJP on all the 14 seats in the tribal State.
The Congress does not seem to get its calculations right. It drafted former Chhattisgarh Chief Ajit Jogi for campaigning in the North-East region but the stigma caused by the cash-for-MLAs scam was so strong that he got a very negative response there.