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Barred! Dumping ground Women power |
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A year of Dr Manmohan Singh-II
‘Dil Pasand Committee’
A writer’s solitude The law and sexual exploitation Delhi Durbar
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Barred! WHEN they are not able to ensure regular policing, politicians of clay start taking recourse to moral policing. Maharashtra has earned quite a bad name for such misplaced zeal. But most often this task was performed by Shiv Sena goons and other disparate groups. Of late, even the government has taken a leaf out of their book and has tried to present a “clean image” by closing down dancing bars. Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil sounds like a man possessed while trying to justify the crackdown. He has given a million reasons for cleaning the streets this way, not one of which sounds authentic. Even if the dancing bars are a den of corruption that he and some of his colleagues make them out to be, a blanket ban is just not the answer. Flesh trade is an illegal activity; dancing isn’t. It is the job of the police to stop the former. If the revolting trade continues to thrive, it is only because of the age-old practice of hafta. Just because he cannot make his men curb immoral activities does not mean he has the right to close down all dancing bars. Some of the policemen have occasionally indulged in custodial deaths and rapes. Should the entire police establishment be wound up for that reason? Actually, the campaign has more to do with politics than with morality. The fear of the ruling combine was that the Shiv Sena men would raise a hue and cry over the “cultural degradation” caused by the bar girls, several of whom happen to be from Bangladesh and Nepal. So, it tried to be holier than them. That has forced the Sena to turn even more reactionary and comment on what women should wear and what they should not. Perhaps the Maharashtra government would try to be one up on these trouble-makers as well by forcing women to burn their “revealing, provocative” dresses and, instead, wrap themselves in cloth from head to toe. Ironically, several prominent Congressmen like Sunil Dutt and Govinda have come out openly against the dancing bar ban. They may be influenced by voting considerations in their constituencies but it is very much necessary for all right-thinking persons to speak out against government high-handedness. Moral policing flies in the face of the cosmopolitan character of Mumbai and Maharashtra. |
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Dumping ground A BRITISH company has been fined by a court in the UK for illegally shipping waste plastic to India. But the court does not know where exactly the tainted plastic went. Neither does India, where the import of plastic scrap, along with heavy metal scrap and electronic waste, has increased by 62 per cent since 1997. Except when ammunition from war zones explodes in reprocessing units, the import of poisonous materials from 105 countries into the nation does not come into the spotlight. In April last, the Danish Government asked for the return of Kong Fredrik IX, a "toxic" ship headed for the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat. One of the biggest such facilities in the region, the yard has become infamous because thousands of workers are exposed to such toxic substances as asbestos with minimal, if any, protective gear. It is not a coincidence that all ship-breaking yards have been shifted out of the developed world, because of concerns about environmental hazards. Thankfully, there is cooperation among various governments, especially the European Union, due to which such potentially toxic wastes are identified, tracked and the recipient nations alerted. Had it not been for an active interest taken by the Supreme Court, which has set up a monitoring committee, the situation would have been worse. As early as January 2001, a high- powered committee set up by the apex court found "the hazardous waste situation in India fairly grim". By the end of 2003, the committee, headed by M.G.K. Menon, came out with many suggestions which were endorsed by the Supreme Court. Yet, political expediency has allowed the poisoning process to continue unabated. Even two decades after the Bhopal gas tragedy, toxic waste is still stored near the site of the tragedy. Tainted waste products contaminate environment; they become a part of the food chain. In Bhopal, the contamination level is 500 times higher than the maximum permissible limit set by the WHO. If we can't keep our own house in order, who will? |
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Women power THE long struggle of women in Kuwait has ended with the country's parliament passing a law for full political rights to them. They can not only cast their vote in accordance with their choice but also contest local bodies and parliamentary elections. The amendment to Kuwait's election law that has ended the discrimination had been facing stiff opposition from conservatives misinterpreting the tenets of Islamic sharia. These opponents of democratic rights for women had the support of tribal leaders, who feared a threat to their traditional and discriminatory social order. Surprisingly, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, had been in favour of women being given political rights as enjoyed by men. He issued a decree in 1999 to redress the grievances of women but refused to implement it because conservatives, including tribal leaders, got it rejected by parliament. However, this could not subdue the spirits of those fighting for the women's rights in Kuwait, where the march of democracy has been faster than in other Arab countries. The denial of what was the women's due could not be justified on any pretext. Women activists even quoted the example of the first Islamic government in Medina, known for its pluralistic character. With Kuwait having fallen in line, there are very few countries left in the traditionally conservative Arab world where women continue to be given unequal treatment in the political arena. The victory of women in Kuwait should inspire the activists in other countries in the region to intensify their campaign for full rights to the fair sex in the interest of justice and fair play. Women were denied the right to vote in the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia when they were held for the first time. This is injustice, to say the least. |
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Presents, I often say, endear Absents.
—Charles Lamb
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A year of Dr Manmohan Singh-II ONE way to assess the successes and failures of the Manmohan Singh government at the end of its first year is to recall that, in April 1999, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had collapsed immediately after celebrating its first 12 months in power. To be sure, it had lost the Lok Sabha’s confidence only by a single vote. But the fact remains that it had fallen. For that reason alone, the performance of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance ruling coalition is manifestly better. In the cruel world of Indian politics sheer survival is something of an achievement. Comparisons with Mr Vajpayee’s skilful stewardship of the National Democratic Alliance coalition after its return to power in the wake of the Kargil war are not relevant at this stage. Two other considerations must be factored into the discussion. First, that the 17-party combination that Dr Manmohan Singh leads, with the indispensable support “from outside” of the Left Front, is far more difficult to manage than the NDA that Mr Vajpayee, with some help from his deputy-cum-rival, Mr L.K. Advani, had put together. Secondly, Mr Vajpayee was, by right, the BJP-led combination’s proclaimed prime ministerial candidate. In the case of the good Doctor the situation was entirely different. He became Prime Minister only because the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, both wisely and shrewdly, declined to head the government, despite being the architect of the electoral victory of the Congress-led secular forces. However, once she had so decided, the choice of Dr Manmohan Singh for the top governmental job was inevitable. No other Congress leader — irrespective of self-estimate of his or her worth — could claim to have anything like Dr Singh’s qualities and qualifications. This certainly has had some regrettable consequences. The most important of these is also ironical. While Mrs Sonia Gandhi defers to the Prime Minister — in public or private — impeccably, some Cabinet Ministers and even non-ministers privileged to be admitted to the inner periphery of the Congress President’s residence at 10 Janpath, with their inflated egos, fail to show the Prime Minister the deference due to his office. Even some civil servants seem to believe that the route to fulfilling their ambitions lies through 10 Janpath, not 7 Race Course Road. However, neither this nor the BJP’s rude and crude tirade against Dr Manmohan Singh, calling him “invisible Prime Minister” or a “weak Prime Minister” functioning under a “Super-Prime Minister”, has in any way detracted from the high respect he enjoys across the country. In fact, the admiration and approbation extended to him by the influential and growing middle class is higher today than it was on May 22 last year. It could not have been otherwise, given his powerful intellect, sterling integrity, undoubted competence, dignified behaviour and endearing moderation. The esteem in which foreign dignitaries he has met during the last 12 months — and their number is legion — hold him is no secret. Only his Indian critics, driven by prejudice and partisanship, would deny it. From the foregoing it is clear that whatever the Manmohan Singh government’s achievements in the field of foreign policy — and these are commendable notwithstanding the flip-flop over Nepal and Bangladesh — or in the crucial area of the economy, which is in good shape, it is in the daunting arena of domestic politics that its past difficulties (or deficiencies) lie. So do future challenges to it. Let us face it. This problem has often been aggravated in the past (and this is likely to be repeated in future) because of the fact that, in dealing with political problems, it is the party, in the person of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, not the government, headed by the Prime Minister that calls the shots. The lack of synergy between the Congress President’s advisers and the PMO inevitably takes its toll. The outrages that Governors of Goa and Jharkhand — both Congress loyalists — perpetrated in quick succession had little to do with the Union Government. In fact, as soon as the Prime Minister became aware of what had happened or was afoot, he took immediate corrective action. A lot of damage had, however, been done by then. The UPA’s first year in office has been bedevilled also by the most unseemly behaviour of the BJP. Obviously unhinged by loss of power and troubled further by divisions within its ranks as well as in the wider Sangh Parivar, the saffron party first disrupted and then boycotted Parliament. But the treasury benches could not convert this to their full advantage. And judging by the BJP’s furious reaction to the rejection of the Phukan Commission’s report on defence deals and the decision to hold an inquiry into the sale of the Centaur Hotels in Mumbai, the verbal uncivil war between the two sides might go on. The Left Front’s reluctance to attend the UPA’s celebrations on May 22 has a message of its own. The tensions between the two are bound to escalate as the Assembly elections in West Bengal and Kerala draw near. What is happening over the municipal poll in Kolkata is a shadow of the things to come. However, when all is said and done, the source of Dr Manmohan Singh’s main worries would be within the UPA, not without. The most visible and unprepossessing symbol of these is the redoubtable Mr Lalu Yadav the target of the BJP’s somewhat hypocritical but emotive campaign against “tainted ministers”. In a civilized political order he would have resigned on his own. But, alas, the “compulsions of coalition politics” rendered the Indian polity uncivilzed long ago. No wonder that Mr Yadav has compounded his earlier wrongdoing by his vile attempt — helped by a dubious civil servant on the verge of retirement — to throw mud on the fine constitutional authority, the Election Commission. The situation is worsened by the way Mr Yadav and his archrival, Mr Ramvilas Paswan, are abusing each other in public, making a mockery of the doctrine of collective Cabinet responsibility. The tussle between the two has made it impossible to form a ministry in Bihar. It has not been possible even to appoint advisers to the Governor. One can sympathise with the Prime Minister who has reportedly said that he has “no mandate to dissolve his own government”. But he must know, like the rest of the country, that Mr Yadav is now a very heavy millstone round the UPA’s neck. Even two of the smaller Left parties have started demanding that he must
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‘Dil Pasand Committee’
THOSE in the government service are well aware of the role which a departmental promotion committee, popularly known as “Dil Pasand Committee”, plays in their career. Before a government servant holding a gazetted rank is considered for promotion to the next higher post, the departmental rules require the constitution of a DPC which would decide the suitability of the official concerned in consultation with the Public Service Commission and as such a member of the commission is invariably associated with this process. During the Raj days such committees may have performed their sacred functions fairly, impartially, uninfluenced and in a just manner strictly on the basis of unblemished record of an officer, but with the advent of Independence one hears tales of nepotism and favouritism on the part of its members due to which most of the government servants have lost faith in them. Long back while the writer was in government service, he was nominated a member of a DPC constitued to recommend the names of the officers from Class II to Class I. However, sensing that the committee had been formed to favour a particular person and that merit was likely to be ignored in the process, he thankfully declined the offer. Since the annual confidential reports are required to be taken into consideration by a DPC for the promotion or confirmation of a government servant, every effort is made by the latter to earn the goodwill of the boss to earn an outstanding report. While working in the police department for a long time I knew a colleague who would boast that he had earned outstanding reports not on the basis of performance of his official duties, but by doing odd jobs for his seniors. He would say that such reports were even purchased. He got speedy promotions and became a Superindent of Police by superceding a number of seniors, although in his professional work he was quite zero. When in mood he would openly say that what to speak of meeting the daily requirements of his boss, his wife and their children, he also used to see that the kitchen of the boss was running smoothly and that there were adequate ration items. No honest public servant, by any stretch of imagination, can afford to meet the daily needs of his superior or his children within the meagre means of his monthly salary. He has per force to resort to illegal
methods. The writer is Addl. Advocate General of Himachal Pradesh |
A writer’s solitude
GOING by the photographs I had seen of Ruskin Bond, I was sure the writer would be one of those ‘difficult-to-draw-into-a-conversation’ types. But then, as they say, looks can be deceptive. And last week, in New Delhi’s heat and dust, he and I sat and chatted for almost 45 minutes. He was spontaneous, straight forward, and absolutely down to earth. He turned 71 on May 19. Excerpts from the interview
— Have you ever experienced loneliness? You haven’t married and have no constant companion. I stay with an ‘adopted’ family, so that way the apartment is full of people. The apartment has four rooms and we are twelve people living in it. The family consists of a set of parents and their two sons who are both married and have children. Also, this profession - writing - is such that you can only pursue it in solitude. You have to be alone so that you can write. In the evenings I do go down to some friend’s home for a chat and a drink. I have two or three such close friends. A lot of your readers, including me, have this little complaint about your writings - there’s very little focus on sex or say sexual romance. Why ? (Smiles and then nods) You’re saying this, but once, during the Emergency, I was hauled up in court on charges of obscenity. Yes I was, for my novella titled ‘The Sensualist’. I had to appear in court, though I was later acquitted. And I must tell you that there was nothing explicit in the book — maybe some sexual references in a romantic context Why do you think there’s this sexual fury and madness today, in the form of so many rapes taking place? Sex in a context - that is, sex in romantic love - is one thing, but sexual anarchy is totally different. Our society is too repressed and so people are breaking free and going on a rampage.. Sexually explicit films are shown on television and this affects viewers as well. Why did you decide to settle down in India, when you had the option of moving to the United Kingdom? My mother did send me to England, but I returned. I wanted to be back and live here in India, although my two siblings are settled in Canada. I chose Dehradun and later moved to Mussoorie, because earlier my mother and step-father (my mother had re-married, a Punjabi businessman) lived there. Later, I didn’t want to live in a town which was too far from New Delhi, because of my writing and meetings with my publishers. You have always worked as a freelance writer. How difficult does it get on the financial side? Financially, the going has been tough. All through I have lived in rented accommodation. It is only last year that I managed to buy this apartment in Mussoorie. I wrote and wrote, for just about any publication in the country, be it a sports publication or ‘Yojana’ . In fact, I must tell you this funny incident - that time Yojana was being edited by Khushwant Singh and though I’d sent a romantic and sexually explicit story, he published it in Yojana! How do you manage with writing long hand in this age of computers and laptops? Earlier I used the typewriter but lately I had a back problem so I stopped typing. And now I use long hand. That’s the way I give my manuscript to my publishers. It’s a fairly neat hand! You are a white skinned person with a Christian name. Have you ever felt insecure on account of your minority status ? No, not now, maybe when younger. In fact, during the Independence phase I remember being hit by a stone in Dehradun. But nothing now. You had just mentioned that your mother had married a second time - a Punjabi businessman. Do you have any half sisters or brothers and how did your step father treat you? Yes, I have a half sister - Premila Singh - who lives in Ludhiana. She is about ten years younger to me. She even visits me at Mussoorie. Regarding my step father he was okay. I was free to do what I wanted, he didn’t interfere . |
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The law and sexual exploitation THE appearance of a pornographic CD featuring an old businessman of Shimla with a girl of 20 years has once again underlined shortcomings inherent in the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. The Act defines the offence of prostitution as the act of “exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purpose”. For taking cognizance of an act under this law, the police have to look for (a) a complaint from the aggrieved party, (b) sexual exploitation or abuses of a person, and (c) transaction of money for sexual favour. Establishing these ingredients in the case of a large scale sex racket in which girls are exploited is not difficult as the girls are forced to sell their body against their will. This Act works as a deterrent. When one runs a brothel or allows one’s premises to be used as a brothel, this Act provides for prosecution. When one procures, induces or takes a person for the sake of prostitution or lives on the earning of prostitution, this Act provides for punishment. But the real menace in our society is not the existence of a large scale prostitution racket which the Act aims to prevent. It is rather the availability of girls on an individual level or in a group of a few, on their own, in the flesh trade, working under economic compulsion. And girls working as sex workers in middle level cities of India far outnumber the sex workers acting as a part of a huge sex racket at red-light areas in the metros. Moreover, while the law enforcing agency can identify, target and demolish such big sex rackets, it is very difficult to identify and take on individual sex workers because there are several legal and practical difficulties involved. Many of the high and mighty are generally involved in this ugly world of sexual exploitation. If police intervene on their own they will have no scope but to retreat. The involved parties may also drag the police to the court on the charge of defamation and unnecessary harassment. If the premises where undercover prostitution is carried out is raided, the owner of the premises may sue the police on a false pretext. Moreover, there is no material evidence to prove culpability of the parties except their physical presence at the spot. Though police sometimes send a decoy customer to the prostitute and employ case money to trap the culprit, as they work as material evidence in the court, such tactics are effective only in the case of large scale sex rackets. In the individual or small scale sex trade, getting the culprit under a trap in such cases is not easy as the girl circulates secretly within a closed-knit clique, avoiding the risk of being exposed and caught. The result is that the police avoid interfering into such cases, and sexual exploitation of the young and poor girls continues unabated in a welfare state. Article 23 of the Constitution prohibiting traffic in human beings gets violated. And society assumes that the police force on this count is corrupt and ineffective. Here, there is no advocacy for moral policing to interfere into the private life of adult citizens. With increasing openness in our society, more and more people are entering into sexual relationships with one another without the sanction of tradition or religion. And it is not seen as an evil. Ram Manohar Lohia, one of the luminaries of the JP Movement, was unequivocal in stating that he did not consider relationship between man and women without the sanction of marriage to be a sin. While recognising this liberty of the citizen, care has to be taken that this does not degenerate into a license to exploit and abuse young girls. |
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Delhi Durbar DID UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi provide a rare insight into her personna when she hosted a high tea for a battery of scribes on Tuesday? The venue was the office of the Manmohan Singh government’s National Advisory Council. Much as she wanted to go round each of the tables, the impatient reporters just crowded round her firing questions from all sides. To their surprise, she was willing to field the volley of questions with a smile and side stepped sensitive questions with alacrity. The scribes spent nearly 150 minutes with Gandhi who had shown a propensity in the past to steer clear of the press. She listened to everyone attentively, overruling her aides, and spoke in measured tones. About the young brigade anxiously waiting in the wings, she replied “you will see I will include many of them in the party.” Like Rahul Gandhi ? “They (the young brigade) are all like Rahul to me,” the quick thinking Gandhi observed catching the scribes somewhat on the backfoot. Bills and amendments In coalition politics, legislative business of the government often takes interesting turns. The Right to Information Bill and the contentious Patents (Amendment) Bill were passed with amendment after initial opposition from the Left. Some experts opine that the Pension Fund Regulatory Authority Bill will eventually get the support of the Left parties after introducing the amendments suggested by them. In fact, some experts privately point out that the government may have deliberately left some lacunae in the Bill to be amended later as per the wishes of the Left parties! The Ramadoss-Venugopal row Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss wants to see the back of the head of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences P Venugopal, who is on extension. It is speculated that Ramadoss has someone in mind to replace the eminent cardiac surgeon. The suicide by two medical students recently has given Ramadoss another occasion to mull over Venugopal’s extended tenure in AIIMS. The other day, Ramadoss visited the AIIMS and met the faculty minus Venugopal to disuss their working conditions and problems. In discussing their grievances, Venugopal appeared to be the prime target of the doctors. Ramadoss immediately announced the setting up of a committee under the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to look into the AIIMS working atmosphere. Double digit growth Almost every speaker has a roadmap for achieving double-digit inclusive growth — the theme of this year’s annual session of the CII. During the valedictory session Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that it would be good if the manufacturing sector can grow in double digits. It would be a major achievement if eight per cent growth could be achieved in the 11th Plan (2007-12).
***** Contributed by Prashant Sood, Gaurav Choudhury and S Satyanarayanan. |
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From the pages of State and society
There seems to exist a general consensus of opinion that infant marriage and enforced widowhood are evils which ought to be uprooted from our society. It appears to us that many reformers take an exaggerated view of the extent to which these evils prevail amongst the Hindus. The last census disclosed the fact that there were 21 millions of widows in India, and this was caught hold of by a few of our over-zealous countrymen, especially by those not well acquainted with the actual condition of our society, to indulge in dreamy and sentimental lamentations. They forget that most of these widows were adult females and women advanced in life who would as soon think of remarrying as of committing some heinous offence. We beg to repeat what we have said over and over in these columns that we positively deprecate every form and manner of State interference in our social matters. The remedy will prove far worse than the disease. |
A preceptor learns as much from the student as the student from the preceptor. — The Upanishads When a king aspires to monarchy, he should keep away from games of pleasure like dice. The challenge of dice can corrupt the sanest mind, rob the wisest of his throne and the richest of his wealth. — The Mahabharata You will not find me in stupas, nor in temples, nor in the synagogues, nor in cathedrals, not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables. When you really look for me, you will me in the tiniest house of time. — Kabir It is the intensity of love we put into our gestures that makes them into something beautiful for God. — Mother Teresa “Why not?” is a slogan for an interesting life. — Mason Cooley What shall we offer Him in return, so that we are blessed by His grace? — Guru Nanak Let us not envy others’ knowledge but strive to learn from them. — The Upanishads  |
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