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Bridal bravery CBI’s flip-flap |
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Judge thyself Need to strengthen the collegium THE Union Government’s proposal to bring the judiciary under the Lok Pal’s purview should be seen in the context of the increasing incidence of corruption among the judges. It has referred the proposal to a group of ministers.
Tackle poverty with growth
Large, economy size
Criminals in Bihar elections Chatterati
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Bridal bravery THE acts of defiance are few and far between, still they show that women are no longer willing to bear the yoke of repression which has been their constant companion all these centuries. The latest banner of rebellion has been raised by Sita, a poor illiterate girl of Patiala who made her wedding party go back after the members of her would-be in-laws’ family misbehaved with her sister and others. In the past few years, several girls have sent back “baraats” after the groom’s side demanded dowry, but this is a unique instance where the wedding party had to return empty-handed after some relatives of the groom tried to outrage the modesty of the sister of the bride. Interestingly, the bride’s family had even agreed to forgive and forget, but it is the bride who put her foot down. Her simple logic was: if they can misbehave with my sister and other members of the family before marriage, what better treatment can I expect from them later? The groom’s family also allegedly demanded Rs 50,000 as dowry. Her principled stand will, hopefully, teach a bitter lesson to other mischief-makers. What makes Sita’s refusal unique is that she comes from a very modest background and because of her courage of convicion, the money spent by her family on her wedding has gone down the drain. Not only that, she also has several younger sisters whose marriage may now get delayed. It is such considerations which force many girls to swallow a lot of humiliation. That is why her action is exceptionally laudable. Those engaged in social service should come to her rescue by helping her family find suitable grooms for her and her sisters. The role of the police in this episode has been dubious, as usual. Instead of helping the harried bride’s family, they took a rather legalistic view of the sordid drama and coerced the girl’s side to arrive at a compromise with the groom’s party. |
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CBI’s flip-flap THE decision of the Central Bureau of Investigation to
drop the case against former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor scam is as scandalous as it is disturbing. It is true that the filing of this case – as also the case of disproportionate assets – by the previous NDA government was politically sensitive. But the fact of something being “politically sensitive” – a euphemism for a case dictated by partisan political considerations – does not invalidate the charges against the person implicated. In this case, the CBI investigation was ordered by the Supreme Court and, therefore, it is all the more surprising that the agency should have so brazenly decided on the closure of the case. The development only reinforces the perception that the CBI is a willing political tool in the hands of the government of the day and that its pursuit or closure of cases is decided by political masters who are motivated by considerations of expediency and not public interest. The CBI playing such a role is not surprising as that has been the way it functioned during the long years of Congress rule at the Centre. The CBI being dictated to by party interests, and its consequent politicisation, was part of the general corruption and erosion of institutional integrity under successive Congress regimes. However, with the dynasty having been out of office since 1989 and the Congress itself in the Opposition from 1996, it would have been expected that such practices of earlier discredited regimes would be discarded. Unfortunately, far from that happening, the United Progressive Alliance seems to be treading the bad old ways of the Congress party. It is all too evident that the withdrawal of the case is influenced by the UPA’s need for wider political support at the Centre as well as in Uttar Pradesh. That is why the Congress is not guided by scruples. But, surely, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could have put his foot down on this blatant use of the CBI as a party hatchet |
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Judge thyself THE Union Government’s proposal to bring the judiciary under the Lok Pal’s purview should be seen in the context of the increasing incidence of corruption among the judges. It has referred the proposal to a group of ministers. Its intentions to stem the rot in the judiciary through the Lok Pal route may seem well intentioned, but it remains to be seen how the judiciary will view it. The latter feels that its independence, impartiality and fearlessness, considered essential in a democratic system of government, would be impaired if the executive interfered with its working. A case in point is its opposition to the suggestion to have a National Judicial Commission. Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj may have defended the proposal, but the question is whether the provision of impeachment of a sitting judge under the Constitution has really “failed”. One cannot overlook the fact that there are also elaborate provisions in the Judges Inquiry Act and the Judges Inquiry Rules enacted by Parliament. If a petition, signed by 100 Lok Sabha members or 50 Rajya Sabha members, for the impeachment of a sitting judge is admitted by the presiding officers of either House, he must set up a committee consisting of the Chief Justice or a senior judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court Chief Justice and a noted jurist to inquire into the charges. It shall be a “full-dress” judicial inquiry and Parliament may proceed further on the basis of its findings. The Supreme Court has ruled that such a move would not lapse with the Lok Sabha’s dissolution. The collegium mechanism within the judiciary to probe charges of misconduct against errant judges is well known. Perhaps, there is need for strengthening it to promote internal discipline among the judges. At the same time, the Lok Pal Bill should be pushed forward to stem the rot in the legislature and the executive. The fact that this proposal has been hanging fire since 1966 speaks volumes for the lack of commitment of successive governments to check corruption at the top. |
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The nation’s morals are like its teeth: the more decayed they are the more it hurts to touch them. — George Bernard Shaw |
Tackle poverty with growth IT is absolutely true that poverty has not declined as much as was targeted. But this point should be read along with the knowledge that growth has not been what it was meant to be. And the fact is that whereas growth rates have been targeted now at 8 per cent, the actual growth performance of the economy is around 6 per cent. So, it is not surprising that the poverty targets have not been met. Traditionally, we have never relied only on growth. Policy has always had it that growth will take care of the requirements of many groups. There will be marginalised groups that cannot benefit even from an economy that has taken off. Therefore, the policy since the late 1970s, 1980s towards, has always supplemented the growth thrust by some effort at targeting benefits to those who would be left out of the growth process. The main things that have been talked about in this context are the public distribution system, the employment programmes that the government runs in rural areas, the wage-employment programmes and self-employment programmes, and some policies that focus on small farmers and small-scale industries. One of the problems in this entire effort is that we need to have a very careful evaluation, independent evaluation of the effectiveness of these schemes. The debate in India in the last several years has tended to focus on that issue: are these schemes well conceived, though they are undoubtedly well-intentioned? Do they actually achieve what they are meant to achieve? I believe that the majority of the people would go along with this summarised approach to poverty and development. One, growth is absolutely essential. It is essential for two reasons which should be very clearly understood. First, the absolute impact that growth directly makes by generating incomes is going to swamp any impact of any individual scheme that anyone can remark. I think it does not take very much by way of arithmetic to work out that if the overall growth rate of the economy can be increased by, say, 2 percentage points, through an appropriate set of policies, and you make any reasonable assumption about what share of this would accrue to the bottom 30 per cent, it is inconceivable that you will think of another instrument that will deliver the same good. So, the real question is that it will directly have a huge impact. But the second reason why growth is very important is that it is what is going to determine the sustainability of the other targeted schemes. In the absence of growth, we will not be able to finance any of the good things that people want to do in order to strengthen the distributional outcome of a growth process in India. Second, there is complete agreement, and this I suspect is truly universal, that we should not be thinking of a growth process that does not very significantly accelerate the growth of agriculture. As long as 60 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture, what has happened in the last five or six years, is a very disturbing development. In the first five or six years, actually up to the middle of the 1990s, from 1980 to the middle of the 1990s, India’s agricultural growth rate was around 3.3 per cent or so. And at that time, virtually all calculations suggested that if we want to achieve 8 per cent GDP growth, we need to get 4 per cent agricultural growth. And that, by the way, has been achieved by other countries in Asia. So, it is not a huge number, because with 3.3 per cent growth already achieved, going to 4 per cent is just the next kind of step up the ladder. Unfortunately, after the mid-90s, there has been a very marked deceleration in agricultural growth. And the growth rate from the mid-90s till today is approximately 2.1 per cent or 2 per cent, something of that order. We need a completely new set of policies on Indian agriculture. I think the mid-term appraisal by the Planning Commission will address this issue. There are things we can do without going into details. The area we have neglected is both irrigation and water management. Water management in the rain-fed areas is essential. We can do a lot and should do a lot in this respect. The other area we have neglected is: what is required for the diversification of Indian agriculture? We are locked into what is essentially a foodgrain-oriented strategy and we cannot just expand that to achieve diversification--horticulture, livestock, poultry, etc. The marketing requirements of that kind of agriculture are quite different from foodgrain-based agriculture. Next is health and education. This is an area, frankly, where our performance is very poor. Sometimes we are described as the new emerging market, one of the four bricks, etc. The fact is that if you take the group of countries that we felt pleased to be grouped with, there are many good reasons why we are grouped with them. There are two dimensions here and we just do not stand out properly, that is, health and education, particularly the education of girls and education in some parts of the country. Now it is the government policy to focus a great deal of attention on this. Once again, the issue is not just money. It would be very easy to throw money down the existing schemes. The basic idea is that rather than run these as centralised systems responsible to the state governments, or the Central Government, they need to be run a systems that are responsive to local governments. Another big area is unemployment, and people worry about it a lot and rightly so. The modernisation of the economy, the search for competitiveness is going to force us to get away from a mindset where jobs are simply created in order to keep people employed. That is not actually going to be sustainable. In fact, it is not sustainable. That is why some of these industries are going down. On the other hand, the scope for creating productive jobs is huge with the elimination of the Multi-Fibre Agreement. You could well see in labour-intensive manufacturing the same kind of extraordinary growth that we have seen in software and business process outsourcing. The name of the game will be to create a policy environment in which India’s labour-intensive industries can both modernise and expand. It is a question of both modernising and expanding, choosing the most labour-intensive route in the most labour-intensive industry is a wrong way to go. The fact is that we need to switch more attention to labour-intensive industries. But within these industries we need to increase productivity and bring in modern technology. This may appear to be a contradiction, but it is not. The fact is that if we make that switch, even if in the labour-intensive end, we become less labour-intensive and the economy as a whole will absorb more labour. I think that is a huge opportunity which globalisation throws up. It is very important to recognise that the problem of employment is not a problem of producing jobs. The fact is that there are far more people who are poor than are unemployed. Most of the poor have jobs. The trouble, however, is that they are not jobs that lift them out of poverty. What we, therefore, need to do is to produce better-quality jobs. We do need to have employment programmes because they provide a bottom level of social security. We do not have social security. You have to have an employment programme which supports someone; it puts a social safety net of a minimum kind. But the real employment growth that we can get is not going to come from employment programmes. It is going to come from a set of policies that will make the economy grow at 7 to 8 per cent with a 4 per cent growth of agriculture and a major shift in emphasis towards labour-intensive sectors. How to do that is something which I hope the mid-term appraisal will cast some light on. The writer is Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. The article has been excerpted from the R.K. Hegde Memorial Lecture delivered by him in New Delhi on January 12. |
Large, economy size THE National Center for Health Statistics in the US has issued a report that says that an average American enjoys more fast food, more television and less walking around the neighbourhood today. The result is that an average Uncle Sam weighs 199 pounds in 2000 as compared to 166.3 pounds in 1962. Aunty Sam has also jumped from 140.2 to 164.3 pounds during the period. The amplified American lady reminds me of the piece of advice that the essayist Sydney Smith had given to a young Scot who was to marry an Irish widow twice his age and twice his size,” Going to marry her! Impossible! You mean a part of her; he could not marry her all himself…There is enough of her to furnish wives for a whole parish…You might perhaps take your morning’s walk round her, always provided there were frequent resting-places and you were in rude health.” Have you heard of that opera diva Jessye Norman who had a big voice and body to match? She was once trapped in a swing door on the way to a concert. She was advised to turn sideways and released herself. She replied in ringing tone, “ Honey, I ain’t got no sideways.” The American obese have given headaches to both the navigation and the aviation firms. By their sheer weight they are breaking the chairs of the biggest and the most luxurious ship Queen Mary-2 that had its maiden voyage in January, 2004. The increased maintenance cost is making the company managers float in their boots. The aero companies are also in a fix as they can claim extra money for heavy baggage but to charge excess from their clients who appear to have been poured into their clothes is “no-no” so far. Here in India Hon’ble Laluji has its own way of dealing with fatties. He has asked the members of the Railway Board to reduce their paunches and for that has advised them to come to his room using the staircase and not the lift. Once, in the morning, when he was going to his office he saw a Member also trying to use the same elevator. He got the elevator stopped and ordered the thick-girthed to use the flight of
steps.
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Criminals in Bihar elections
EVEN as elections to the Bihar Assembly are fast approaching, the Patna High Court’s attempt to check the criminals’ menace in the elections is commendable. Criminalisation of politics has assumed alarming proportions. The menace should be tackled at the entry point itself and through a vigorous and sustained effort. The court’s initiative to keep the criminals at bay should be viewed against this background. Director-General of Police Narayan Mishra’s submission in his compliance report to the High Court that there are over 20,000 criminals absconding in the state at present is mind-boggling! They are involved in serious criminal cases. Though non-bailable warrants together with property attachment orders have been issued against them, they are able to roam freely in the state due to political patronage. A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Nagendra Rai and Justice S.N. Hussain has directed that a police officer and an executive magistrate be deputed in each Returning Officer’s office so that absconders can be arrested when they turn up to file their nomination papers. What has prompted the court to take on them this time is that some of them had successfully fought the elections to the local bodies last year. Many politicians figure prominently in the list of absconders. Notable among them are Secondary Education Minister Ram Prakash Mahto in the Rabri Devi Ministry and former Congress MLA Mubarak Hussain. Significantly, the arrest of Bihar’s Samajwadi Party President Dadan Pehalwan Yadav the other day, who is wanted in a murder case in Buxar district, is a shot in the arm for the police. He was nabbed when he was about to address a public meeting. However, the police officials are facing an arduous task. On the High Court’s directive, the government has prepared a detailed list of the absconders, copies of which have been made available to the Chief Electoral Officer, Returning Officers, District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police. The modus operandi to nab the absconders is not free from drawbacks. For instance, wanted persons, who have committed crimes outside their home districts, do not figure in the list and can avoid getting arrested. Also, neither the SPs nor the District Magistrates have an effective mechanism to know whether someone is facing criminal charges in some other district. This is a reasonable problem. But one cannot rule out the propensity on the part of some officials to sabotage the mission and keep the political leadership in good humour. A case in point is their initial reservation to prepare the list on the ground that it would take a long time for them to complete the assignment. The High Court’s refusal to buy their theory and order strict compliance of its directive by January 7 worked wonders. The criminals have been extending their sphere of influence in the state after every election. Known as “Bahubali” in local parlance, they spread panic and terror in the minds of the voters who are forced to follow their diktat on their voting choice and preference. In the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections, over half a dozen of them contested and a few won. For instance, Mohd. Shahabuddin, from the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal, charged with the murder of a Maoist activist and lodged in Siwan jail, won from Siwan for the third time from the jail. The Lok Janshakti Party’s Surajbhan Singh won the Bettiah seat. The victory of Rajesh Rajan alias Pappu Yadav on the RJD ticket from Madhepura is well known. Jailed in connection with the murder of Ajit Sarkar, a CPI (Marxist) leader, his antics in the Beur jail bear testimony to his high political connections. But for the consistent monitoring of his case by the Supreme Court, he would have roamed freely today. In the ensuing Assembly elections, the Bahubali gang is trying to spread its tentacles far and wide. Over 50 dreaded criminals are reportedly hobnobbing with various political parties for tickets. Of course, they care two hoots about party nomination as they are confident of winning at the hustings as independents with their money and muscle power. They do, however, feel that they would gain respectability and political legitimacy if they are nominated by parties. Leading the lot are Brahmeshwar Singh, chief of the Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper caste landlords and Ranjit Don who was behind the leakage of the question papers of the Common Admission Test. Brahmeshwar Singh, Ranjit Don and three others — Rajan Tiwari (LJP), Rama Singh and Nitin Roy (both BJP)— are all behind bars at present. Aruna Devi, wife of notorious gangster and former Samata Party leader Sunil Pandey, is another likely contestant. Meanwhile, the five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has ruled that sitting MPs and MLAs, convicted of criminal charges and sentenced for two years imprisonment, cannot contest elections unless they are finally acquitted of the charges. It has come as a shot in the arm for the High Court. Hereafter such members cannot claim immunity on the ground that they have gone on appeal against conviction in a higher court. The apex court has also said that a criminal’s six-year disqualification from contesting an election will start after his completion of the jail term. It would be interesting to know how many convicted criminals would be affected by the apex court ruling in the three poll-bound states of Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand. To enforce the ruling in letter and spirit and help Returning Officers as a ready reckoner, the state governments should promptly bring out a list of convicted criminals. Considering the scope and magnitude of the problem especially in Bihar, the Patna High Court has an uphill task on hand. However, it should not slow down its efforts to check criminalisation of politics. Bihar is in a mess today. There is no governance worth the name. Gangsters, mafia dons, hoodlums, kidnappers and extortionists are ruling the roost with political patronage. One can stem the rot only by breaking the nexus between the criminals and the politicians. The High Court has made a good beginning, but it has a long way to go. |
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Playing for goodwill by Devi Cherian IT was really Lagaan revisited. For once this was a real sport played by our members of Parliament. A cricket team comprising Indian M.Ps took on their British counterparts. Must say the M.Ps appeared at ease on a different wicket. It was a sunny day when we had the Indian team including the non-playing captain Gulam Nabi Azad and Navjot Sidhu as the captain. Kirti Azad and Chetan Chauhan along with young Jyoti Raj Scindia ensured our victory. A sullen Vijay Mallaya who had especially flown in for the match did not get a chance to play. Sidhu was a bit hesitant to play for some odd reason. Arun Jaitley was all enthusiastic about the match whereas Rajeev Shukla, instead of catching the ball kicked it. Now in the spectators’ gallery, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sachin Pilot with wife Sara Jai Panda, Santosh Mohan Dev, Kapil Sibal, and Dinesh Trivedi from Mamta Banerjee’s party were present. They waited patiently for their chance. Kuldeep Bishnoi and the younger lot made good fielders. After a heavy lunch, both teams were feeling a bit sluggish. But India managed to win the match by seven wickets. Actually it was not winning or losing that mattered. It was the spirit. The tour was organised to promote goodwill and help raise funds to support young cricketers. The British team had a very interesting set of M.Ps including policemen, researchers, and documentary film makers. Well, at the end of the game, there were 22 smiling faces along with the families of the khiladis. That’s what matters in the end.
Wedding season is still on Margaret Alva’s son Nivedith is the latest to get married. Nivedith has made his mark in TV shows such as Indian Idol and MTV Roadies. It was a church wedding. In this cold month the Alvas lawns were decorated with flowers and heaters were arranged for the reception. Margaret was so very busy being the gracious hostess. Looking after the guests and escorting them to meet the couple. who have been friends since the DPS days. Of course, the guests were from the Congress mainly. Vice-President Shekhawat stayed on for a long time. Digvijay Singh, Chief Minister Deshmukh arrived with wife and son Amit, Ajit Singh from Chattorgarh came in a wheelchair Sachin and Sara Pilot and Jyoti Raj Scindia were among the younger lot. As the SPG surrounded the gardens the V.V.I.Ps walked in. Sonia Gandhi and then the Prime Minister with his wife. L.K. Advani came and left nearly unnoticed. Nagma the latest star to join the political world, was busy making friends. A good South Indian spread with Rasam to warm you up was a treat in this freezing cold. |
The attainment of freedom, whether for a man, a nation or the world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of non-violence by each. — Mahatma Gandhi The good worker uses his tools in the best way to do work. Only then can a carpenter make a lovely piece of furniture or a well-maker dig a deep well where others may quench their thirst. The wise man uses his mind to fashion his way to knowledge and guide others. — The Buddha  |
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