 |
|
|
From the Raj to Inspector Raj The angry young man is
no more angry |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
On
Record
HEALTH
Profile Diversities — Delhi Letter
|
From the Raj to Inspector Raj In a cricket crazy country like India, the unprecedented publicity blaze of a football player turned football coach, albeit negative though it may be, is neither surprising nor shocking. Why? Because it is not a case of a mere Rs 1.5 lakh give and take, but because the man caught is a Class-II (gazetted) civil servant serving the Government of India. Hence a regular civil servant, too junior to be taken note of by the hierarchy has got entangled into the murky game of corruption in civil service coupled with the high profile fighting in the field since last 36 years. Yes, indeed the football coach has been caught today. And no doubt it is a happy occasion for those who do not lack probity. But is this the end of a chapter? Why did this junior civil servant, and a famous football coach, allegedly do what he should not have done? How did he get this raw courage to extort Rs. 1.5 lakh in broad daylight in front of a famous Kolkata Club teeming with people all around? Who was the mentor of this civil servant-cum- football coach? Reportedly, the coach’s favourite off the ground pastime was to collect money, not for the institution but for individual(s)! It is also learnt that the coach started his stint as an Inspector during the heyday of football feats on the field. To the uninitiated, it would be important to note that in the government, the coach of the football field is one of the junior most gazetted functionaries whose principal duty is to carry out orders emanating from his superior Class I bosses. A Class II officer also is a uniformed officer which makes it obligatory to his being disciplined. However, if there had been so many complaints, as alleged by various media reports, in the past, against the government officer-cum-football coach, why and how was he allowed to operate for so long? Why was he not bridled? Why was he allowed to go for inspection and conduct raids on the business community? No doubt, these are uncomfortable questions which are likely to remain unanswered. Nonetheless, it would be important to remember that a wall has two sides. One side is the football coach’s misdemeanour. The other is the little big world of the Class I officer who is born to command. The danger is that the command more often than not turns into a demand which starts with the most innocuous. May be Dunhill or State Express 555 cigarette. Followed by a ‘Black Dog’ or ‘White Horse’ or all sorts of tiger, lion, monkey brand foreign liquor ending with the Scotch or the Blue label. Thus when the demand of the superior Class I officer slowly and steadily outstrips his legal and bona fide source of income and the consequential inability to pay in white money, starts the inevitable unholy nexus between the greedy superior and the greedier subordinate who now knows the weakness of the former rather too well. So, as the commander rolls on with his increasing demands for the goodies of life, the Inspector’s plight pushes him to the no entry zone with ease and élan. The Inspector, being the supplier of all sorts to the consumer boss enters the arena of producers and distributors too. The Inspector now is the virtual boss and the actual boss turns into a meek and weak spectator afflicted with physical immobility and mental instability as he can no longer control his de jure subordinate who has quietly got into the de facto alter ego of his own supine and delinquent boss. What can the boss do now? Nothing. He should just place orders for anything or everything under the sun to his Inspector. Havana cigars to foreign whisky, cash, gold or ornaments, to clearing the bills of his daughter’s marriage reception, to organise the family’s trip to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore along with cash in US dollars to be delivered on disembarkation. After all this, the Class I boss has no option but to give the football coach the best of Government postings where the public will be at his beck and call and the public fund will be at his finger tips. Understandably, the list of goodies becomes an endless moving procession in history. No wonder, some wise man coined the words “Inspector Raj”. The Raj belongs to the Inspector. And equally, the senior officer attends various seminars and workshops organised by various chambers of commerce to paste the Inspector Raj in no uncertain terms. The boss goes public with his complaints that the Inspectors are the roots of all evils which is ruining the trade and industry in the East of the Suez. He holds meetings in the capital with the mandarins of the country to reform the system. Yet he returns to town with renewed vigour to put the reforms in the backburner and plots to give his men the right slots because Dusshera, Diwali, Christmas and New Year are round the corner. It is party time once again. It is time for gifts, to be had from, and through, the hands of his favourite Inspectors and Superintendents. It is also time to send US $ 30000 to the boss’ daughter pursuing higher studies without scholarship in New York or London and organise Rs 12 lakh for his son’s irregular admission on the basis of an inter-Metro transfer certificate from School A to School B. Where then is the question, why should one even think of any reform in the system of Inspector Raj? The British Raj had to go because it was bad. The Inspector Raj should never go because it is mutually beneficial. A win-win scenario with the public being the sole loser. What then is the outcome? It is a smooth uninterrupted system. However, one fine morning tsunami hits the system as there were some people who habitually monitored the famous and not so famous in power. They got close to get a snap. They did some deep thinking and immaculate planning to nab the high and mighty. They followed a routine of insomnia to tape, trap and trip resulting in an explosion. The delinquent subordinate got caught but the superiors as usual escaped. The junior’s luck ran out because of overconfidence as he was no longer satisfied with the basic needs of life. Greed took the better of his judgement as the demands of his bosses over the years became insatiable. It became a classical case of convergence of greed of two souls; the superior and the subordinate. However, as the soldier fights and dies in the front, the General thrives behind the battlefront. Here too the consistent performance of the subordinate and the persistent command of demand of the superior ensures the extension and continuation of the Inspector Raj, globalisation and liberalisation notwithstanding. Did someone say, ‘There are no bad soldiers, only bad commanders’? —
|
|
The angry young man is
no more angry THE tremendous success of Zanjeer in 1973, a film about a police officer who worked outside the bounds of law, introduced the figure of the “angry young man” to the Indian screen. This hero, who was portrayed as a disaffected, cynical, violent, rebellious, urban worker who single-handedly fights the system, was a quintessential outsider. “It was the articulation of the anguish of the marginalised sector,” writes film historian Fareed Kazmi, “that largely explains the phenomenon of the angry young man.” It was a device through which Hindi films ensured viewer identification with the working poor, lower-middle class sensibilities. Author Asish Nandy, in his book, The Secret Politics of Our Desires, writes, “There is in the popular cinema stress on lower-middle-class sensibilities and the ability to shock haute bourgeoisie with directness, vigour and crudity.” By calling the slum an “unintended city” which forms the underbelly of a modern city, Nandy argues that the Indian cinema represents the tastes and longings of the slums which dominate the urban public sphere. It is from these slums that emerged the genre of the angry young man. Sorry Mr Nandy, the angry young man is angry no more. The new Bollywood no longer represents the rebellious spirit of earlier films and the narrative play that pitched the marginalised against the rich. It is the wealthy who are the heroes in the new era. Even the actor who best personified the angry young man on screen, Amitabh Bachchan, in recent films, is more comfortable portraying a multi-millionaire industrialist than being an icon of the anti-establishment. With the entry of satellite television, Indian filmmakers today operate in a different media landscape from their predecessors. A vast range of options, including Hollywood films, are available to middle class viewers at home. The rise of multiplexes in metropolitan cities, where the cost of tickets is 10 to 15 times higher than the cost of tickets in family-owned small town theatres, has led to an increasing focus on urban and niche audiences who “pay more, buy more” and whose tastes need to be reflected in the film content. “Time is past when people made films for the chavanni audience,” says film critic Sudhanva Deshpande. Some claim that it is the Yash Chopra banner which has been largely responsible for creating the new cinematic depiction of fantastically wealthy people, enjoying a lavish and westernised lifestyle based on foreign travel and enjoyment of consumer goods. Chopra and other filmmakers no longer feel the need to connect austerity and rebellion to the discourse of an Indian identity. The angry young man has been replaced by a superficial young man who is more interested in his clothes, sunglasses and coke than in usurping a corrupt system.
|
|
On
Record
Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has started the new year by announcing the date of the launch of the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. A key leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Dr Prasad has admirers across the political spectrum for his accessibility, forthrightness and earthy sense of humour. A Ph. D in Mathematics, Dr Prasad, 59, has given a new profile to the Rural Development Ministry by his hands-on approach and commitment to bring about a change at the grassroots. Excerpts: Q: How do you see the launch of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme? A: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a path-breaking law to secure the livelihood of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of employment in a financial year to a rural household. It provides a social safety net for the vulnerable groups and an opportunity to combine growth with equity. While ensuring that local employment is available to every rural household for at least 100 days in a financial year, it will create durable assets which will strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural poor. The launch of the NREGA by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 2 will mean the notification of NREG Act in 200 districts of the country where it will be implemented in the first phase. The rural households in these districts would have the right to register themselves with the Gram Panchayats as people interested in getting employment under the Act. The gram panchayat will register the household and issue it a job card after proper verification. The job card is the legal document that entitles an individual to ask for work under the Act and get it within 15 days. Q: What works will be taken up under the NREGA? A: Priority will be given to projects for water conservation, watershed management, drought and flood proofing, rural connectivity, wasteland development and Jatropha cultivation for bio-diesel production. If any state wants to include any specific programme under the Act, there is provision to approve it. Applicants for work under the Act would get the minimum wage prevalent in a particular state. In case of any discrepancy, if the Centre fixes the wage, it would not be less than Rs 60 per day. Q: What is the progress of the Bharat Nirman Programme? A: Three of the six components of this programme fall under the Rural Development Ministry. We need Rs 48,000 crore over the next four years to connect all villages with a population of 1,000 with roads. In hilly areas, villages with population of 500 are to be connected with roads. The budgetary provisions for the next four years will give us Rs 20,000 crore while Rs 10,000 crore will come through external funding. The balance Rs 18,000 crore will come through NABARD. We have the budgetary provisions for constructing 60 lakh houses for the poor. Q: Why did the RJD lose the Bihar Assembly elections? A: There was division in the UPA. We lost by narrow margins in a number of seats. Besides the Lok Janshakti Party, others like Samajwadi Party also cut into our votes. The media favoured the NDA. The time gap after dissolution of the Assembly was used by Mr Nitish Kumar to tour the state extensively and build an atmosphere in favour of NDA. In some areas, our choice of candidates should have been better. The Election Commission terrorised officials. Collectors and SPs were transferred till the election day. The RJD’s defeat seemed to be a yardstick for judging the neutrality of the officials. At several places people faced problems in voting because their names were not in the voting lists. Q: Was lack of development in the state an issue? A: No, it was not an issue. The parties had put up candidates by working out caste calculations. Q: How will the defeat impact the RJD? A: It will not have any impact. Our support base has not shrunk. We did not get the supporting vote which was needed for victory. Q: Will the RJD stake claim for more berths in the Union Cabinet reshuffle? A: No decision has been taken yet. It will be decided by Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav at the appropriate time. Q: How do you see the performance of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar? A: The beginning has not been good. Notices for eviction of houses to the former Chief Minister and some of her Cabinet colleagues were sent within a few hours of the oath-taking ceremony. Such communication is normally sent after arrangements are made for alternative accommodation. There have been instances of a minister misbehaving with officials and MLAs trying to occupy houses forcibly. The RJD has said that it will comment on the government’s performance after three months, but the beginning has not been
good. |
HEALTH Paradoxically, people’s health has never been so good as it is today. The scourge of small pox has been eradicated. Polio is on its way out. Most common communicable diseases are far better controlled than before. People are living much longer. Life expectancy at birth has nearly doubled. However, people are more worried about their health today. They don’t consider fully fit. Over two-third people above 50 years in the UK take medicines. In India’s big cities, the number is even larger. Swallowing pills and getting repeated medical tests done has become a way of life. The cost of health services is rapidly increasing. About 100 years ago, the more we invested in health technology, the greater was the improvement in health. Now? We get poor returns for greater investment. Despite heavy financial investment, greater improvement in health is less likely. There is the problem of rising expectations on health. If the rich consume more medicines, pay more visits to hospitals and get more investigations for every minor ailment, the weaker sections too follow suit. They seek bigger share of doctors and investigative medical services even though there is very little evidence to suggest that overzealous investigations and medications have greatly benefited societal health. The longer life span and greater improvement in health are perhaps related to general public health measures like better housing, sanitation, improved nutrition, clean drinking water and vaccination of children against common infectious diseases. In his book Medical Nemesis (1974), Ivan Illich’s opening sentence “The medical establishment has become a major threat to health” sent shock waves across the medical world, which are still reverberating. In some ways, the impact was like Gandhiji’s comment in Hind Swaraj (1908) that modern science and technology was becoming a threat rather than a solution to our problems. Illich used the medical term Iatrogenic to refer to illnesses produced by doctors and hospitals. Citing data from journals, he said nearly 10 per cent people are worse off when they come out of hospitals, having picked more infections, complications of treatment received and side-effects of medicines. He described how doctors encourage people to seek more and more medical services for all kinds of minor ailments. His strongest criticism was at the cultural level — old age, pain and death have always been part of human existence and all civilisations have devised various cultural and spiritual ways to cope with this reality. Now by over-medicalising these problems, we are taking away from society these cultural coping mechanisms. Medical intervention can be life saving in an emergency. The doctors provide relief from suffering to countless people everyday. But the problem is that things are getting out of their control. The health sector is rapidly becoming an industry controlled by large commercial interests and multinational companies. Health is now treated as a commodity to be bought in the market. Specialists have replaced general practitioners. And single specialists are being replaced by large multi-specialty clinics and hospitals, now run by large business houses. These are supported by powerful industrial groups making medicines, machines for investigations, surgical instruments and so on. The main emphasis is on how to sell and make profit. Relieving suffering seems to be a by-product now; it is not the main concern of these techno-medicine industrial groups. Doctors are pressurised to use particular brands of medicines or surgical instruments or use of investigation technology. Evidently, even research papers in noted medical journals are influenced by powerful pharmaceutical companies to promote their products. These companies have worked out two new approaches. One, broadening the definition of disease. The reasoning is that if more problems of daily living are seen as signs of diseases, then more and more people will use medical products. Hence, intense propaganda is done to present every discomfort as a symptom, every symptom as a sign of disease, every disease as a serious and dangerous condition threatening life. And two, it is much more profitable to treat the healthy than to treat the sick because the number of healthy people in society is much larger than the sick people. This is a big breakthrough in the sales strategy of drug firms. In the name of promotion of health, everyone is encouraged to get medical examinations and laboratory tests done and take medicines to avoid some future illness. Millions of people are swallowing a large number of pills everyday with the hope that they would perhaps never get ill (or perhaps never die!). True, a small number, especially those with serious symptoms, will benefit but everybody taking pills will only fill the coffers of big pharma companies. Rarely doctors take patients into confidence and discuss with them the cost- benefit analysis of the drugs they are asked to take or tests they are asked to undergo. Defining disease is not easy. It is a very slippery proposition. For malaria, tuberculosis, cancer or a fractured leg, there may be a broad agreement but what about a headache, backache, leg pain or gas in abdomen? Should all of them be called diseases? What about baldness or wrinkles of the facial skin or dark shadows below the eyes? Are they diseases? Amazingly, people spend millions of rupees today seeking relief for these symptoms! Doctors encourage people to think more and more in terms of diseases and medical solutions of daily problems of living. Hundred years ago, menopause was an important event in a woman’s life. But now it is presented as a disease. Every woman after 45 years is encouraged to consider herself as not being well and advised to take hormones and other medicines! A powerful change in modern medicine is that risk factors to future health like obesity or raised cholesterols or higher than average readings of blood pressure are all being presented as diseases. It is sad to see patients clutching files containing all the latest laboratory tests and having boxes full of medicine of all sorts for conditions which are as yet not diseases but only indications for some possible illness in the future. Admittedly, a small number may be benefited but for a large majority it is not of much use because so many other variables like your genetic constitution, levels of mental stress, previous health status etc. are also relevant. On the other hand, constant worry and anxiety about further ill health may damage your health much more than the benefit you will get from medicines. In a recent editorial in the British Medical Journal, it was reported that if 10,000 patients are treated with a Statin (anti-cholesterol medicine) for five years, 9,755 would receive no benefit. It is a great dilemma for the poor common man. What should he do when he is not sure about the reliability of the medical advice he is getting? Health is now too important a subject to be left only to doctors and drug firms. Each one of us must take charge of our own health and take important decisions ourselves. The following general points seem important for guidance: lOpenly discuss with your doctor, the pros and cons of any line of treatment or investigations advised. How much urgent or necessary it is? What will be the benefit, the risks and the total cost — immediate and long-term? lIt is better to stick your family doctor for routine medical problems rather than consult too many specialists. A family doctor knows about your previous illnesses, your family history, your lifestyle and can advise you better. lAging, illness, pain and death are all part of human existence. Medical professionals do not have a complete solution to these problems. All doctors also die. Apart from medical approaches, all civilisations have evolved different social, cultural or spiritual ways to cope with the problems of living. As the well-known ‘Serenity prayer’ says, “God, give me serenity to accept things I cannot change; give me courage to change the things I can and give me wisdom to know the difference!”—
|
|
Profile Undoubtedly, the favourite number one was Murli Manohar Joshi and the second in that order was Bal Apte of the RSS. Rajnath Singh was third in the race. The consensus emerged in favour of Rajnath because the Advani camp would never have agreed to Joshi’s candidature. Rajnath feels that for last few months the BJP has been in the news for wrong reasons. His priority would be to restore “ideological commitment” among partymen, inculcate discipline in the cadres and improve their public behaviour. Rajnath has told party workers: “The BJP will not compromise on corruption, misconduct and indiscipline”. His other priority would be to revive the party in Uttar Pradesh where a decade back it was number one but now relegated to third or fourth position. Rajnath will have to walk on a tight rope as he has to appease seniors like Venkaiah Naidu and Kalyan Singh. His advantage is that he is neither identified with Atal Bihari Vajpayee nor is considered Advani’s man. From a college lecturer in Uttar Pradesh to the top man in the BJP has been a long journey for Rajnath Singh. He has seen the rough and tumble of life and gained wide experience in his over three-decade-long political career. Born in an obscure village of Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh, luck and dedication have always been on Rajnath’s side. He began his political career with the BJP’s youth wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. His activities were confined mostly to Gorakhpur. He is an alumni of the Gorakhpur University from which he obtained his M. Sc degree in Physics. His first break came in 1974 when he was appointed BJP’s Secretary for Mirzapur district. Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement, imposition of Emergency and his imprisonment gave a new turn to his career. Come 1977, he was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Since then, there has been no looking back for him. Rajnath was also a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council from 1988 to 1994. He served as Education Minister in the Kalyan Singh Government for a year till the BJP government’s dismissal following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. He shot into limelight when as Education Minister he enacted the Anti-Copying Act evoking protests from the Opposition parties. Rajnath’s stature had gone up by that time and the BJP Central leadership decided to bring him to the Rajya Sabha in 1994. In between his six-year tenure in the Upper House, he began shuttling between state and Central politics. In 1997, he was made UP BJP president. After a two-year stint, he was recalled and sworn in as the Union Surface Transport Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Meanwhile, BJP’s politics in Uttar Pradesh became murkier. Aging Ram Prakash Gupta’s tenure as Chief Minister was marked by infighting in the state unit. The governance touched a new low. The party leadership again decided to rail-road Rajnath to Lucknow to replace Gupta. Rajnath’s two-year-rule — from 2000 to 2002 — established his credentials as an able administrator. The Assembly elections, however, saw the end of Rajnath’s rule as the BJP suffered an ignominious defeat. However, it was not the end of his career. He was again brought to New Delhi and inducted in the Vajpayee Government as Union Agriculture Minister replacing Ajit Singh. Rajnath Singh is a powerful rural politician, know for his organisational skills and clean image but he has yet to acquire a national profile. It is a moot question whether he would be able to manage a party with a young generation of leaders competing for
primacy. |
|
Diversities — Delhi Letter Earlier, in one of my columns, I had mentioned that civil servants actually begin to talk freely and react more spontaneously once they sit retired. An additional frill to that, they even come forth in large numbers. At a very recent function, Mr K.C. Sivaramakrishnan, former Secretary to the Government of India, Urban Development, acknowledged this, adding that he had invited both serving and former bureaucrats and guess who turned up in large numbers. The “ex” ones! Looking around that conference hall it was writ large that most of those retired had turned up in large numbers. And looking beyond during the lunch session that had followed it was more than writ large the why to that. They were desperate to talk what they did or undid during their tenures at those various highs. A pity they sit curled up and mich too far away whilst still serving and at a time when they should actually speak out. This brings to write about the recent demolitions in the capital and how the so-called nexus must have played a role at some crucial stage of the very construction of unauthorised buildings. Since at this particular meet the chief guest was none other than Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, there were several of those “ex”-civil servants who had earlier been associated with the ministry, directly or indirectly. As they got talking, they acknowledged that without the police and Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) support, these authorised structures could never have come up. But then, the nexus seems so strong that none can break it or break into it. The Minister, of course, came up with various inputs which, he said, he had planned to implement to lessen corruption and to ease the great load on the urban sector. He said, “Census of 2001 shows that already 30 per cent population of the country is living in our urban areas and in another 25 years it will be 50 per cent of our population in urban areas. In the six metros, the population went up by 1.8 per cent but the vehicular numbers went up almost six times so there has to be some advance planning. For this, the Minister said, they were coming up with the National Urban Transport Policy together with City Development Plans. He added that he is very serious about reducing the stamp duty to 5 per cent as also simplify the property tax laws in the entire country. Let’s see when all this gets going, gets actually implemented.
Focus on Russia Russian focus in India has suddenly picked up. Last week was
Rashmi Doraiswamy’s book on one of the Central Asian Republics and this week comes up a wide ranging exhibition at the India International Centre titled, “Russian Portrait of India”. The focus is on portraits of Indian people made by the well known Russian artist Ilya Komov.n
|
The desire to know more than mundane matters is rare indeed.
The body is perishable like an unbaked clay pot, and the mind restless; yet, man causes several delays in worldly actions. Death looks at him and laughs all the while.
Though a man may strive, knowledge will not be perfect while fear and worries cloud his mind. While perplexity robs his mind of peace, his knowledge will not forth the perfume of happiness.
Those who fragment religion substitute the human for the divine; their opinions and allegiances assume greater importance to them than the unique reality of God.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The new BJP President, Rajnath Singh has gained wide experience at his age. He is just 54. Known as a soft spoken and low profile gentleman-politician, he lacks the stature to lead the second biggest political party after the Congress.