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Rule of whims Deadly
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Joshi
shining Astrology gets legal nod Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, if he has time these days, must have distributed ladoos to celebrate the verdict that has given legal sanctity to astrology as a subject of study at the university level.
Imperatives of internal
security
Committee capers
Abolish foodgrain
procurement system Delhi
Durbar
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Rule of whims ONE disturbing feature of the elections now underway is the clamour for Central forces to man them. The Shiromani Akali Dal is not the only political party to ask for paramilitary forces in Punjab as it readies itself for polls on May 10. From Haryana to Punjab to Jammu and Kashmir to West Bengal, parties in the Opposition distrust the administration so much that they would like the entire election machinery to come from the Centre. With 65 crore people on the voters' list, which is much more than the entire population of the expanded European Union, it is an uphill task for the Election Commission to meet such demands. Even after staggering the polls, the EC finds itself unequal to the task. Had it been a phenomenon confined to elections, it could have been overlooked. But the fact of the matter is that the government as an institution has lost much of its credibility. In the past it did not matter whether the government was run by this party or that party. One could always visualise how the government would react to a given situation. But that is no longer the case. Take the case of Raja Bhaiyya, whom Ms Mayawati got arrested for his involvement in several heinous cases. But the moment Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav came to power, the same person became the "saviour" of the state. This happens because the bureaucrats and the police officers are ready to dance to the whimsical tunes of their political masters. As a result, it is easy to predict how the administration in, say, Bihar will react to an event. Small wonder that the Supreme Court was forced to transfer cases concerning Chief Minister Jayalalithaa from Chennai to Bangalore. At the root of the problem is the fact that the concept of the rule of law has been getting a drubbing at the hands of those in power. This has been exemplified in the case of Gujarat where the political beliefs of the rulers mattered more than the need to provide justice when hundreds of people were killed in one of the worst riots the country ever witnessed. Even 20 years after thousands of Sikhs were killed in the national Capital, the mobsters continue to roam freely while most of the victims are yet to reconcile themselves to the loss of their dear ones. As a result, an impartial administration has become a chimera for the people. |
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Deadly tracks It is hard to keep track of the number of accidents that have taken place at unmanned railway level crossings throughout the country. Six have occurred in and around Ludhiana in five months of this year alone. The frequency of accidents, it seems, has bred complacency in the Railways and a stoic acceptance of the situation by people in general. The outrage expressed at every major mishap, including those involving the death of schoolchildren, lasts only a few days. The Railways gets away with deaths The gruesome death of four schoolchildren — there are 14 children injured — in a van-train crash in Ludhiana on Wednesday should force a rethink in the Railways about the need for keeping its tracks effectively guarded and safe for road traffic. This is, no doubt, a formidable task, given the large rail network and the Railways may very well cite lack of funds as an excuse for inaction. Public safety definitely deserves a greater priority in fund allocations than, say, the politically motivated creation of railway divisions. State governments too can supplement the railway efforts by stopping unauthorised routes across the tracks, ensuring compliance of traffic rules and curbing the menace of untrained drivers on roads. It is surprising that a densely populated city like Ludhiana can have an unmanned level crossing. The small Maruti van was reportedly carrying 18 students and the driver perhaps could not see the incoming train. Overloading in school vehicles is rather widespread and the authorities as well as parents do not take into account the risk for their wards. One can only hope the innocent bloodshed on the tracks would prompt some positive action at some level so that life becomes less dangerous along the rail tracks in the country. |
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Joshi shining Dr
Murli Manohar Joshi, if he has
time these days, must have distributed ladoos to celebrate the verdict
that has given legal sanctity to astrology as a subject of study at
the university level. The believer in him must have seen the Supreme
Court's clearance as a divine sign of the stars continuing to shine
for him until May 13 when the EVMs will unravel the fate of
contestants for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. If all goes well with his
astral configuration, a second round of sweets will be in order.
Given his passion for promoting the forgotten sciences discovered by
rishis through intense tapasya and concentration, he should become a
guide and friend to his political rivals. After all, the objective is
to popularise the study of Vedic astrology, Vedic maths and the
technology that helped Lord Krishna power the Sudarshan Chakra by
spinning it on the tip of his right finger. How come Mr Reoti Raman
Singh of the Samajwadi Party and Mr Satya Prakash Malviya of the
Congress did not get their astral calculations right before entering
the electoral contest? If any one of them wins the same question would
have to be answered by Dr Joshi. Given the average Indian's weakness
(Dr Joshi would call it strength) for seeking astrological guidance,
thousands of jyotishis would have a lot of explaining to do after the
people's verdict becomes public. The ultimate proof of the
authenticity and reliability of astrology would be a hung verdict in
every constituency. Dr Joshi insists that Vedic astrology is a lost
science of seeing the unseen; of what lies ahead. Of course, he can
always argue that most astrologers are fake because they have received
no formal training. The sceptics will have to wait for the first batch
of university trained jyotish shastris to set up shop. Indian
elections will never be the same again. The stars shall guide every
contestant away from defeat. With astrologers armed with university
degrees straddling across the country, even exit pollsters may go out
of business. |
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Thought for the day Every man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies. — Jane Austen |
Imperatives of internal
security What constitutes a nation is not speaking the same tongue or belonging to the same ethnic group, but having accomplished great things in common in the past and the wish to accomplish them in future. — Ernest Rennan Internal
peace and security is a major problem among nations today. Much of the developing world is plagued by internal unrests and transnational influences — political competition, insurgency movements, caste, communal and ethnic conflicts, and religious fundamentalism. These not only stir up political upheavals within the nations concerned but also tend to cross national boundaries and lead to inter-state tensions. In the years to come, this will be a more serious national security challenge than territorial and border disputes among different countries. India has had a chequered history in dealing with secessionist or near-secessionist movements. We have had secessionist movements in almost the whole of the Northeast (Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam); in Telangana, Punjab and J&K. There have been near-secessionist movements in West Bengal (GNLF), Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and even in Tamil Nadu. Most of these movements have either been resolved fully, or have been controlled and brought to a manageable level. India has a population of over 1 billion spread over 3.1 billion sq kilometres. We have people speaking 16 major languages and 200 dialects. There are a dozen ethnic groups, seven major religious communities with several sects and sub-sects, and 68 socio-cultural sub-regions: all part of a developing, semi-literate society. There are rapidly rising social, political and economic aspirations of groups in our multi-ethnic, lingual, cultural and communal social structure. The ancient, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural diversity has got its positive and negative points. At one level, the diversity sharpens competition among different social groups. At another, the macro-level, it helps as a balancing factor, enables cooperative benefits, and discourages secessionism. Such a society is bound to have narrow interests, competitions and conflicts. Situated as we are between the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle, groups taking to violence find little difficulty in indulging in drug trade and making hawala money, and obtaining easily available small arms. Besides, some external elements are ever ready to exploit a vulnerable situation of this nature by giving political, moral and material support to such elements. Some other factors that accentuate this problem are: (1) Problems of national assimilation and integration, particularly of remote areas of northern and North-Eastern parts of India. (2) Difficult and porous borders with neighbouring countries, which enables secessionists to find safe sanctuaries, carry out illegal trans-border movements and smuggling of weapons and drugs. These days weapons like AK rifles, machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades, landmines, explosives like RDX, even shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles are easily available. (3) Exploitation of the ethnic and religious minority status by some unscrupulous people. (4) The nexus between crime, insurgency and politics. (5) Weak governance. Core issues in all secessionist and near-secessionist movements have their origin in socio-political or socio-economic grievances or aspirations. Primarily, these are competing demands for representation in politics, governance and economy. Insurgencies and terrorism are manifestations of these genuine, perceived, or mis-perceived grievances. It is also noticed that underdeveloped areas, with no infrastructural facilities and lack of accessibility, are more prone to insurgencies. As stated earlier, these problems usually have external dimensions also. The secessionist elements seek and often get open or clandestine training and material support from unfriendly sources, or make use of safe sanctuaries across the border. Our nation’s adversaries are ever ready to exploit such situations. In India, many of these competing grievances have been resolved politically well before they reached the stage of a secessionist movement. The methods adopted were reservations, having autonomous councils at district or regional levels in states, official recognition of a language, even carving out of separate states. Strong, well-trained and dedicated security forces are an essential requirement to deal with insurgencies and those who attempt to exploit it from outside. But an overwhelming military approach cannot eradicate the secessionist or insurgency problem. The approach has to be holistic, political, social, economic and military. In internal security situations, there has to be a human touch even during military operations. After all, they are your own people, and sooner or later you expect them to rejoin the national mainstream. This obviously does not hold good for those who come from outside.
(To be concluded) The writer is a former Chief of Army Staff. |
Committee capers Francis
Bacon wrote essays, Of Studies, Of Travel, Of Marriage and Single Life, Of Followers and Friends and a few more starting with preposition ‘Of’. Committee, probably, was not an important subject in those days, so he did not bother about it. Today, a committee is most wanted. It sits on royal throne. It can do all to do nothing in particular. So much so that Professor C. Northcote Parkinson has written at length on ‘Commatology’, the study of the life cycle of committee. Permit me to give a gist of that. He says the committee is not a structure, it is an organic growth. It is planted and it grows up, throws its branches in the form of sub-committees. Talking about its composition, Parkinson says that it should have five members. Ideally only three are needed but two are allowed for wastage. Hendrik von Loon agrees with him and says that a Committee with three members can do something, if one of them is absent and the other happens to be sick. But Parkinson finds it tough to keep the membership to even five. Those who are excluded criticise it and the demand of democracy calls for including those who are its critics. That is why Riesel says that a committee is a group of the unfit, appointed by the unwilling to do the necessary. The number, according to Parkinson, gradually rises and touches the coefficient of inefficiency that lies between 19 and 23. For historical reasons the committee meets at long table — not round table. And in such table, Parkinson says, the coefficient of inefficiency results in development of different conversations at either end. No agreement is remotely possible because members are not discussing the same subject. The original five members here decide that in future they will meet at lunch and settle everything there. And so the inner committee of the Committee is formed. But pressures play their part here too. The inner committee has also to be enlarged. So an inner committee of the inner committee is formed and the cycle goes on. Professor Parkinson’s theory finds support in the statement that committee is a group of people who singly can do nothing and who together decide that nothing can be done. Here in Shimla, the northern part of The Ridge has been sinking for donkey’s years. The Municipal Corporation has been monkeying around unsuccessfully to make it stable. The State Government thought of bringing a halt to this donkey-monkey story and constituted a ‘Committee for Sinking Ridge’. The nomenclature of the Committee mismatches with its objectives, which in official jargons reflect one and only one pious intention of putting a check on the sinking problem. I am not aware of its composition but hearsay is that the Committee has such well-rounded personalities that the portion of the Ridge would further sink by one mm. If, by any chance, all the members visit the area on joint inspection. May, at least, the inner-inner committee provide a long due
under ki baat hai solution to the problem and throw away Parkinson’s theory to sink!
Amen. |
Abolish foodgrain procurement system
The
present food security system is paradoxical. Out of a wide range of cereals grown in India, the public distribution system (PDS) has chosen rice and wheat — two superior cereals preferred by well-to-do consumers rather than the numerous local staples consumed by the poor for generations. While the system is ostensibly for the benefit of the poor, it has shown little concern to extend its reach to areas where food distress is widespread among the poor. While food subsidy benefits big farmers of the rice and wheat producing zones of Punjab, Haryana and western UP, one cannot be sure that the benefit of increased food subsidy is really going to the poor. Food subsidy accounted for more than Rs 27,000 crore during 2003-04. A major portion of the subsidy is spent on the storage of foodgrains. The FCI, the Central Warehousing Corporation, state warehousing corporations and cooperatives are involved in the storage operations with a total storage capacity of 45.8 million tonnes. Stocks of foodgrains held above this capacity are exposed to adverse weather conditions. A sum of Rs 688 is spent on the storage of one quintal of rice and Rs 311 on one quintal of wheat. This figure may go up or down depending on the volume of grains stored. A new policy could think of directly paying the farmers if prices crash below the minimum support price (MSP) rather than maintain a huge army of clerks and officers in the FCI to assure the farmers the MSP. The farmers themselves could stock surplus grains in warehouses across the country. The question “why will a farmer himself store the surplus grains when he has the option of selling it to the government procurement agencies?” remains unanswered. I propose the issuance of Grain Bonds to lure farmers to store the foodgrains themselves or sell these to the bond holders and substantially reduce the storage cost of the warehousing corporations. The holder of the bond will undertake to supply the grains whenever required by the government and he will store the grains at his house or any other place selected by him. The Central and state agencies will not procure and store foodgrains. However, their godowns and warehouses may be used by bond holders or farmers for storage on a rental basis. The government may issue Grain Bonds like the Kisan Vikas Patra, the Indira Vikas Patra, the National Saving Certificate etc. The Grains Bonds may be issued at 20 per cent annual rate of interest. The interest rate of bonds should cover the costs for maintenance of quality parameters, coverage of risk for fire and floods, storage losses due to insect/pests and diseases. Post offices may be the implementing agency. Additional cost, due to the higher interest rate to the government will be the differential interest payment made on the bonds. For example, a farmer invests in the Ksan Vikas Patra and gets interest @ 8% per annum. Now he invests the money in Grain Bonds and gets interest @ 20% per annum. The additional cost to the government is the incremental rate of 12%. I have kept the rate of interest at 20% to make the bonds more attractive and beneficial to the farming community. However, this decision may be taken when it is decided to float the Grain Bonds. The real rate of return to the bond holder will be less than 20% as he has to purchase or retain a quintal of foodgrains. If he invests Rs 600 to purchase or retain a quintal of foodgrains, his total investment would be Rs 1,600 and total returns Rs 200. Thus the real rate of return will be 12.5% only. A farmer purchases a Grain Bond for Rs 1,000 for one year, then he commits himself to supply one quintal of foodgrains (paddy, wheat etc) during the next one year from the date of purchase. If he fails to supply the foodgrains, his entire bond money would be forfeited. The government may or may not procure the foodgrains from the bond holders but is assured of the supply of one quintal. The government does not bear the storage cost. It may randomly procure foodgrains for the PDS as the buffer stock is maintained at the farmers’ or people’s level. An amount of Rs 120 is the expenditure on the storage of one quintal of foodgrains as compared to Rs 688 for storage of one quintal of rice at present and Rs 311 for wheat. If entire grain stock is kept in the form of bonds, the food subsidy bill may not cross even Rs 10,000 crore as compared to the present Rs 27,800 crore. The objective is maintenance of the producers’ surplus at their place of production only and not in the storage godowns of the government agencies. Our buffer stock requirement is only 16 million tonnes of foodgrains. Any quantity above 16 million tonnes may be procured through bonds only. But the current norm of buffer stocking is also disputed. According to a study by Prof. Kirit Parikh of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development and Research, Mumbai, a buffer stock level of around 10 million tonnes comprising 6 mt of rice and 4 mt of wheat should be considered adequate to meet the national food security requirements. This recommendation has been endorsed by the Expenditure Reforms Commission and is under consideration of the Fifth Technical Group, which is formulating the buffer stocking policy for the Tenth Plan. If the foodgrains required for the PDS and the Buffer Stock are taken together, these come to around 22 mt (12 mt for the PDS and 10 mt for buffer stocking). The Food Ministry accepts that its major problem during the last few years has been that it is saddled with large volumes of stocks, particularly of wheat, much above the Buffer Stock norms. This is due to a considerably higher procurement by the governments agencies. |
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Delhi Durbar With the Lok Sabha elections in the national Capital scheduled for Monday (May 10), the scene is indeed hotting up. Delhi Assembly Speaker Ajay Maken, who is the Congress candidate pitted against Union minister Jagmohan from the New Delhi constituency, has started a signature campaign on white boards strategically put up in various markets. The effort is to attract youth as Maken projects himself as their leader. R.K. Anand, the Congress candidate from the prestigious South Delhi constituency, is making a concerted and conscious effort to woo the Sikh community. He has visited all gurdwaras in the constituency and addressed more than 20 meetings in a bid to create a dent among the community who have voted for the BJP after the 1984 November riots. Acutely aware of Anand’s gambit, the BJP is furiously working on retaining the Sikh vote bank.
Tech-savvy politicians The youthful and tech-savvy politicians are using personal computers, laptops and sleek mobile phones to get their act together. No doubt the BJP took the lead in sending out SMS and telephone messages in Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee’s voice, the Congress is claiming to that its web sites are hugely popular with about 50,000 hits everyday. The effort is to feel the pulse of the voter and work out facts and figures accurately. Delhi BJP Vice-President Vijay Jolly speaks of an impending email blitzkrieg with about a million email users being bombarded with their party material. He also
envisions global position systems for the candidates. Any number of Congress leaders are using these gizmos. For Sandeep Dikshit of the Congress contesting from East Delhi, the laptop is proving to be extremely handy in convincing the voters with solid facts.
Factionalism in AP Congress Even before the counting of the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh gets under way on May 11 after the fifth and final phase of polling on May 10, jockeying has started in the Congress as to who should be the Chief Minister. Needless to say, factionalism has erupted primarily on account of the exit polls suggesting that a huge anti-incumbency against the ruling Telugu Desam party and Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu will ensure its downfall. The infighting in the Andhra Pradesh Congress can spell trouble for the party as was evidenced in 1989-94 when the party had three Chief Ministers.
Diplomats keen on status quo As embassies and high commissions are tracking the gigantic democratic process in the country, diplomats are keeping their counsel to themselves on the next government at the Centre. However, they do not have any reservations about a BJP-led
conglomeration being at the helm of affairs. This was not the case in 1998 and 1999. However, six years down the line, many diplomats acknowledge in the cocktail circuit they do not have any apprehensions now either about a BJP-led coalition government or one with the Congress in the vanguard. However, an underlying sense that one gets is that these diplomats favour the BJP-led NDA retaining power essentially for reasons of continuity and stability, especially in the international arena. Contributed by Gaurav Choudhury, R. Suryamurthy and S. Satyanarayanan. |
The body, the mind and the speech become pure by cherishing the name of God. — Guru Nanak It does not matter whether you are a man or a woman; your caste, name and position are not taken into account. You might belong to any Ashrama of life. Devotion is the only thing that is essential to worship Me. — Sri Rama It is only because of ignorance that the Self appears to be finite. When ignorance is destroyed, the Self, which does not admit of any multiplicity whatsoever, truly reveals itself by itself, like the Sun when the cloud is removed. — Sri Adi Sankaracharya |
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