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Airport
blackmail Jobless in
J&K Canada’s
Indian MPs |
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Lawyers
not above the law
The
black hole
Protecting
the shores Need to
build more ponds The
trouble with tough love
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Airport blackmail
Blackmail is writ large over the Airports Authority of India (AAI) employees’ threat to go on strike if airport modernisation at Delhi and Mumbai is conducted as a joint venture in partnership with the private sector. By indulging in such arm-twisting, they are only exposing the malaise that has brought the entire aviation sector to such a sorry pass in the country. The highly unionised employees have managed to convert the airports and the airlines into employment agencies whose sole aim appears to be to keep a huge workforce well-fed and paid. The only persons totally ignored in this scheme of things are the paying passengers, who are treated as no better than necessary evils. The need to revamp the airports cannot be overstressed, considering that the Indian airports are nothing less than a disgrace. Since the AAI was not in a position to upgrade them suitably, it was inevitable that private players had to be called in. That is the prerogative of the government. But since employees have tasted blood in the past, they seem hell-bent on hijacking the entire process. With the leftists backing the employees, there is a very real possibility of the government succumbing yet again. That will be bad news not only for the aviation sector but all sectors in need of upgradation because it will send a clear signal that the government can be hustled into reversing its decisions. That will leave the field open for the misplaced zealots who want things to rot at the present level while the rest of the world moves forward by leaps and bounds. The condition of airports has deteriorated so much over the years that the government will just have to stand up to the pressure tactics this time. Alternatives have to be found if the employees carry out the threats. It should be particularly harsh on those who try to damage government property. The public too should brace itself for testing times. The pampered employees must be made well aware once and for all that they cannot hold the public to ransom. What the air passenger wants is good value for his hard-earned money. Since the government employees are unwilling to provide it, the job may very well be handed over to others. There is no dearth of manpower or talent in the country. |
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Jobless in J&K
UNEMPLOYMENT is a matter of serious concern everywhere, more so in Jammu and Kashmir. According to a report, 3 lakh candidates have already bought application forms for 5,000 posts advertised by the Service Selection Board. The total number is likely to go up to 4 lakhs by the time the last date expires. The board has an uphill task in choosing so few from so many applicants. The story is a pointer to the acute of problem of unemployment facing the state. A decade of militancy has caused enormous damage to the economy of the state, which has been unable to keep with the rest of the country. Even tourism, which used to fetch livelihood to lakhs of people, has been badly hit. As a result, while the youths are unable to get job opportunities, even those who were in employment have been deprived of it. The situation is alarming, as the unemployed youths tend to be easy recruits for militants. Joblessness, coupled with a sense of adventure, take some of them to the lap of terrorism from which they are unable to get deliverance. There are terrorist outfits operating across the border, which find easy recruits from the Valley, who are ready to take risks because they have, otherwise, nothing worthwhile to do. Small wonder that even when there is a slowdown in infiltration from across the border, there is no real let up in incidents of terrorism. Economic stagnation and the resultant unemployment are what terrorism thrives on. This explains why terrorists are keen to scuttle any attempt to set up or revive industries, traditional and modern, and thereby regenerate the economy. The nation, as a whole, has to address this problem. The Army has, of late, been recruiting a large number of youths from the state but this can only be a drop in the ocean. There is need for recruitment of Kashmiri youths by public and private sector units all over the country. This will not only address the problem of unemployment, it will also help in fostering better national integration. Unfortunately, no such conscious effort has so far been made at the national level. Needless to say, trust begets trust and Kashmiris are no exception to this rule. |
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Canada’s Indian MPs
Canada has gone convincingly Conservative, ending a 12-year Liberal rule, but one factor that remains unchanged is the number of persons of Indian origin (PIOs) who have been elected to the Canadian House of Commons, regardless of their party affiliation. Canadian voters have returned eight PIOs to the House. In fact, all sitting members of Indian origin who contested the election have retained their seats. Mr Gurbax Malhi, Ms Ruby Dhalla, Mr Navdeep Bains and Mr Ujjal Dosanjh won on the Liberal ticket while Mr Deepak Obhrai, Mr Rahim Jafer and Ms Nina Grewal represent the Conservatives. The only newcomer is Mr Sukh Dhaliwal (Liberal). Mr Gurmant Grewal, Ms Nina Grewal’s husband, opted out this time. The number of representatives of Indian origin is once again eight in a House of 308. Canada’s next Prime Minister, Mr Stephen Harper, has led the Conservatives to a comfortable 124-seat victory against the Liberals’ tally of 103. There is no doubt that, over the years, PIOs have become an increasingly visible presence as also a distinctive factor in Canada’s parliamentary politics. They have also shown remarkable staying power: Mr Gurbax Malhi has been elected to parliament for a fifth consecutive term; a relative newcomer, Ms Ruby Dhalla, beat the Conservative Mr Sam Hundal for a second time. Her first victory in 2004 made her the youngest woman in parliament and the first woman of South Asian origin to enter the House, closely followed by Ms Nina Grewal, who was sworn in a few hours later. In spite of a comfortable majority, the new Canadian government faces a number of challenges. Most of the Conservative MPs have little or no previous experience in government that would be needed in key positions, including in the Cabinet. Of particular interest, in the changed political circumstances, will be how the new Prime Minister builds a relationship with the US, since President Bush is far from popular with most Canadians. Nearer home, the evolving scenario would be watched for how the presence of PIOs adds to India-Canada ties. |
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There is a superstition in avoiding superstition.
— Francis Bacon |
Lawyers not above the law
All democratic institutions in our country, be they constitutional, statutory or voluntary, are facing the same problem — quality of leadership. Those who had seen the leaders during the freedom struggle cannot reconcile to the mindset of most of today’s elected representatives in Parliament, state legislatures, local bodies, statutory councils and voluntary organisations like Bar Associations. In the absence of rigourous conditions of eligibility to contest, elections have, by and large, become free for all. Almost anyone can contest for any post. Therefore, Bar Councils and Bar Associations do not command the respect of the judiciary, litigants or the general public as before. The image of the legal profession has deteriorated. Fresh graduates get enrolled as advocates. They have a right to appear even in the Supreme Court. There is no apprenticeship. Parliament is too busy, with political issues, frequent walk-outs and adjournments, to find time either for electoral reforms in general or to amend the Advocates Act suitably. Advocacy is a service-oriented profession and not a business. “Service before self” should be the motto. The rules governing professional conduct and etiquette require that “an advocate shall, at all times, comport himself in a manner befitting his status as an officer of the court, a privileged member of the community and a gentleman, bearing in mind that what may be lawful and moral for a person who is not a member of the Bar, or for a member of the Bar in his non-professional capacity may still be improper for an advocate”. What is the ground reality? On January 2, some lawyers of Tis Hazari Bar Association, Delhi, marched towards the Mediation Cell shouting slogans against the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of the High Court, attacked the office, pulled down and smashed the name-plate of the Cell. Their protest against the transfer of cases to the new courts at Rohini continues. The litigants are suffering. Is it fair to make annadatas suffer? “Strike” as a weapon has lost its edge by frequent use. Yet they persist. The boycott of courts evokes severe criticism from the media and the public. Government doctors and teachers too have lost their image due to strikes. How many strikes have achieved their objective? Success, if at all, is marginal in a few cases. The suffering of innocent victims is disproportionately high and irreparable. Courts exist, not for the sake of lawyers and judges, but for justice-seekers. They are overburdened with long pending cases and new institutions. Corruption, which is widespread, and lack of good governance have led to an unmanageable volume of litigation. The credibility of the courts is not as before. The country is passing through challenging times. It is the duty of every citizen to stand by the rule of law. Industrial workers, who have a limited right to strike, are not invoking the law as frequently as members of the legal profession. In Ex-Capt. Harish Uppal’s case the Supreme Court declared: “It is unprofessional as well as unbecoming for a lawyer who has accepted a brief to refuse to attend court even in pursuance of a call for strike or boycott by the Bar Association or the Bar Council. It is settled that courts are under an obligation to hear and decide the cases brought before them and cannot adjourn matters merely because lawyers are on strike.” According to H.M. Seervai, strikes amount to contempt of court. Every liberal profession consists of three classes of members: (i) Eminent persons with dignified conduct, recognised for ability and standing, who command universal respect. (ii) Persons who are active outside the court rooms with an eye on elections and some of them thrive on agitations. Their lack of concern for the judiciary and the litigant public makes them a separate class. (iii) The rest of the members constitute the majority who remain silent spectators to violent agitations before Independence and for some time thereafter, Bar members used to elect from among the most prominent members of the Bar as office-bearers of an association. Anyone who did not deserve the honour would not venture to contest. Now seasoned leaders are shunned by the persons who crave for limelight, project themselves as candidates, canvass vigorously, spend a lot of money, and mobilise or pressurise voters for winning elections. Honorary offices are meant for service, not for self-advancement. There are a few exceptions here and there, but the general pattern is a steady decline in the quality of leadership. Parliament should step in to regulate the right to contest for each and every elective office whether it is in an NGO, a local body, a state legislature or Parliament. It is assuring to note that the Supreme Court has taken the initiative to appoint the J.M. Lyngdoh Committee to lay down the norms and guidelines for the conduct of student union elections. As Dr Ambedkar observed in his concluding speech in the Constituent Assembly: “The first thing we must do is to hold fast to the constitutional methods of achieving our objectives… We must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha… These methods are nothing but the grammar of anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us.” The lawyers should endeavour to become model citizens. The need of the hour is the unity of purpose between the Bench and the Bar. Unless they work together and adopt all reasonable methods of resolving disputes such as mediation, conciliation, arbitration, lok adalats and other out-of-court settlements, it would be difficult for the institution to survive. It is time to give up the adversarial approach in the courts in favour of a collective search for settlement in every case by the Judge and the lawyers on either
side. The writer is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court.
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The black hole
AS I was edging towards the road from the street I live in, I saw it. A circular hole in the main road, which had appeared overnight. It had a diameter of about six feet and a depth of a fathom. A closer examination revealed that right in the centre of this depression was a concentric piece of iron. A sewer cave-in. The road had been carpeted freshly and the road-roller had apparently done the trick. A couple of buses and the overnight rain had lent it the respectability of a shallow well. As a concerned citizen I rang up the works department. The person, who received my call after the bell had rung for about a minute, almost laughed when I told him the problem. An accident could happen any moment. “ It’s the road department and not the works department”, said he, as he hung up. I had imagined that roads were the domains of the Plunder Without Danger Department, but anyway, I looked up the directory. There was no roads department. A little research, and I found that there had been a sub-division of work. A “new road” came under the jurisdiction of the works department, while repairs and maintenance was the field in which the roads department was to excel. Indeed there was a roads department but it was not listed! I got the number after some intensive research and visit to several factotums. I felt like a real Rhodes scholar. I rang up the factotum. Nothing happened for a couple of days. I then rang up the “higher ups”, sitting somewhere near Mount Olympus. That did the trick, and I found the next morning that the area had been fenced. Nothing further happened. I persisted. “No roads can be made in the monsoons, so no road can be made soon”, said the PS to the factotum. “But you are not making the Golden Quadrilateral, its just repairing a cave-in,” I said. He promised to examine the matter in the light of fresh facts supplied! Another fortnight passed and the fathom depth became a fathom and half, and I thought the main sewers would go kaput. I rang up again. “The matter has been reconsidered and it has been agreed to repair the road,” the man informed me. “What happened,” I enquired after a week, as the pit was now lusting to expand further. “Aren’t you familiar with the procedure? Quotations have to be invited and then the lowest bid, consistent with the technical and other parameters, has to be accepted. As it will be a minor work, it will have to be clubbed with similar works as per Para 420 clause (iv) of the Works Procedure.” My God. That means they will wait for half a dozen road pits to come up, as the import of “similar” mandated that. A fortnight passed. I was by now fed up of the “hole” thing. As a citizen I had done all I could. The hole had now become Mark Twain — that’s two fathoms. I adopted a different route to reach the main road. Incidentally I realised how Black Holes eat time. It was two weeks later that a friend visited me and told of some feverish activity on the road. Is that “the road”, I wondered? The next morning I checked. It was the same spot. A small army of men was there with all their implements. I enquired of one important looking fellow there, the reason for this frenetic activity. It came about that the car of a VIP had almost a pit stop in the Mark Twain yesterday morning, and he ordered the Chief Engineer, on pain of instant transfer to a much less congenial place, that the pit be levelled up within two days. And that’s how the Black Hole disappeared, gentle
reader. |
Protecting the shores
In the nearly six decades that India has been an independent country, the focus of its security concerns has centred on safeguarding the sanctity of its land frontiers from external threats as well as from terrorist movements, aided and abetted from outside. Starting in 1948 when Pakistan Army regulars disguised as “razakars” infiltrated into the Kashmir valley, India has had to fight for its territorial integrity in 1962, against China and in 1964, 1965, 1971 and 1999 with Pakistan. In between, there have been several insurgencies — in the North East, in Punjab and in Jammu and Kashmir — and some continue till today. Several thousand square kilometres of our territory is under Chinese possession and occupied Kashmir, part of parcel of Jammu and Kashmir, is under Pakistan. It is not surprising, therefore, that when Indians think of security, their concern is for the country’s land borders. But things are now beginning to change. India is no longer a weak, developing country which is struggling to look after its interests. Its political and economic strengths, present and potential, are such that countries and combinations as diverse as the USA, Russia, the EU, ASEAN and Japan, have found it necessary, and to their advantage, to interact with us at the strategic level. Even China has made visible efforts to develop harmonious relations. India’s military strength is now a credible deterrent, not only to Pakistan but also to any other country which may seek to challenge us militarily. India is also a nuclear weapons state. New threats are beginning to take shape. India’s overseas trade has now become the driver of economic growth. Measuring at less than 20 per cent against the country’s GDP in 1995, it now stands at 28 per cent and will touch 40 per cent by 2010 and nearly 60 per cent by 2020. Almost all of it moves across the seas. With this level of interdependence, the safety of sea-borne commerce has assumed critical importance. Add to this India’s import of oil which is assessed to increase from about 100 million tonnes annually today to 300 million tonnes in 2020. Concurrently, the offshore area under exploration and exploitation for oil will double, from 48,000 square kilometres to 100,000 square kilometres. The safe movement of this oil, safety of the areas under exploitation and of the ports in which the tankers must discharge their cargoes, has, thus, become a major security concern. What lends it greater seriousness is that non-state actors can become major elements in disrupting these lifelines of economic growth. Therefore, India’s security concerns are now moving seaward and this trend will continue as the country progresses towards a major economic power. Those who would like to see the country diminished or hurt seriously will, increasingly, recognise the sea as the medium where our vital interests can be targeted. The “knowledge” sector, represented by our scientists and technicians and the “economic” sector, in which transportation of goods across the seas is a crucial element, are the areas which have so far remained untouched but are now likely to come under increasing attention by those inimical to our interests. The safety of sea-borne commerce from threats such as piracy and terrorism is not easy. Crimes are transnational with ships owned in one country, registered in another, crewed by men from several countries and pirated or hijacked almost anywhere, mainly, in narrow waters. Hijacked vessels are used for transportation of drugs and arms and contribute to terrorism. The North Indian Ocean region is full of such areas e.g. the Strait of Hormuz leading out of the Gulf, the Bab el Mandeb south of Yemen, and the Malacca and Sunda Straits heading eastwards. These restricted waters have already seen terrorist attacks on US warships, oil tankers and offshore oil platforms. Nearly half of all piracy and vessel hijackings worldwide take place in the Malacca Straits and surrounding areas. By 2020, India’s overseas trade will exceed $ 1 trillion, more than $ 600 billion needing to transit the waters of South East Asia. Safe movement of this trade must, therefore, be a vital security concern. Having adequate maritime forces to safeguard the country’s interests is, of course, important but even more critical is the need to share information with several countries and to cooperate with them at sea through joint exercises, joint patrols, formulation of standard operating procedures, compatible legal mechanisms etc. Only then can the menace posed by maritime terrorism be countered. India has been making some major strides in this direction. Apart from holding joint exercises with many navies and coast guards, its ships have participated in joint patrolling of sensitive waters along with those of the USA, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand and may, in due course, add others to this list, including Myanmar and Malaysia. The Indian Navy also hosts a gathering of ships every other year in the Bay of Bengal and the most recent one has just begun at Port Blair. Such meetings generate trust and confidence in one another, a sine qua non of cooperation at sea. In the next half century, India’s security concerns will focus on its interests at sea much more than on its land frontiers. The realities of energy security and competition will see increasing Chinese presence in the North Indian Ocean region with implications on our own interests. Focussed attention on the growth of maritime power is, therefore, important. The Navy’s tasks are no longer structured to times of war alone; its responsibilities in peace are, if anything, even more important. And cooperation with maritime forces of countries sharing our concerns must rate high
priority. The writer retired as the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command. |
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Need to build more ponds
Creating a pond in our garden was a fantastic way to impress the neighbours. Usually disapproving of our city ways, 70-year-old Albert’s eyes lit up when he caught his first glimpse of a broad-bodied chaser. He’d never seen one of these fat, lilac dragonflies with their 7cm wingspans, despite living in the area all his life. We were equally excited by the rapid colonisation of the pond: within a few months we had common newts, toads and another dragonfly species - an emerald and gold southern hawker - although admittedly we stole tadpoles from a school pond to kick-start the frog population. According to Pond Conservation, the information and advice group, garden ponds are incredibly rich in wildlife - 75 per cent of our frogs live in urban areas. This summer, Pond Conservation launches its Million Pond Project, a nationwide drive to create new ponds, both in gardens and rural areas. It has already begun a pilot project to map every pond in the country. Dr Steve Head, the director of Pond Conservation, is based at Oxford Brookes University. He says pond restoration is urgent, as we have lost more than two-thirds of our ponds in the past hundred years. Three thousand years ago, during the Iron Age, the situation was quite different: almost a quarter of the British countryside was a marshy quagmire of ponds and wetlands. Much of the country has been drained, but we still have a few “pingos” left. These are ponds that formed during the last Ice Age when chunks of glaciers melted. However, of the 400,000 or so ponds in this country, only 2 per cent weren’t artificially created. More worrying is that at least half of our ponds are in a degraded condition. The main problems are climate change (including acid rain and hot, dry summers) and pollution, including run-off from roads and fields. High levels of phosphates and nitrogen from fertiliser lead to dense algal blooms in ponds, which burn up the oxygen and suffocate aquatic life. Traditional uses for ponds have also disappeared now that animals have fresh water piped to them instead of using muddy ponds in the corners of fields, and we no longer need ponds for mills or factories. The prognosis is bleak, as existing ponds naturally become silted up and eventually disappear. To try to halt pond decline, the Million Pond Project is hoping to create ponds in the countryside. But, as Dr Head says: “We’re happy to encourage people to put ponds in their gardens, too.” Although most ponds are not “natural”, they can house a rich diversity of wildlife. A newly created pond may look barren, but it can be home to creatures that are unable to compete with other species, particularly fish. A three- or four-year-old pond may have as much wildlife as a 50-year-old one. Ponds can contain as many as 200 types of invertebrates, and they’re havens for rarer animals, like voles and great crested newts. They can attract creatures that aren’t normally associated with ponds: grass snakes, hedgehogs, foxes and badgers all like to drink at ponds, as do garden birds, and at dusk you may see pipistrelle bats hunting over them. Pond Conservation’s advice is that you simply leave your pond and see what appears. Charles Darwin was one of the first to notice how quickly animals and plants colonise bodies of
water. — The Independent |
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The trouble with tough love
It is the ultimate parental nightmare: Your affectionate child is transformed, seemingly overnight, into an out-of-control, drug-addicted, hostile teenager. Many parents blame themselves. “Where did we go wrong?’’ they ask. I know. My descent into drug addiction started in high school and now, as an adult, I have a much better understanding of my parents’ anguish and of what I was going through. And, after devoting several years to researching treatment programs, I’m also aware of the traps that many parents fall into when they finally seek help for their kids. Many anguished parents put their faith in strict residential rehab programs. At first glance, these programs, which are commonly based on a philosophy of “tough love,’’ seem to offer a safe respite from the streets — promising reform through confrontational therapy in an isolated environment where kids cannot escape the need to change their behavior. At the same time, during the ‘90s, it became increasingly common for courts to sentence young delinquents to military-style boot camps as an alternative to incarceration. But lack of government oversight and regulation makes it impossible for parents to thoroughly investigate services provided by such “behavior modification centers,’’ “wilderness programs’’ and “emotional growth boarding schools.’’ Moreover, the very notion of making kids who are already suffering go through more suffering is psychologically backwards. And there is little data to support these institutions’ claims of success. Parents and teen-agers involved with both state-run and private institutions have told me of beatings, sleep deprivation, use of stress positions, emotional abuse and public humiliation, such as making them dress as prostitutes or in drag and addressing them in coarse language. I’ve heard about the most extreme examples, of course, but the lack of regulation and oversight means that such abuses are always a risk. The more important question — whether tough love is the right approach itself — is almost never broached. Advocates of these programs call the excesses tragic but isolated cases; they offer anecdotes of miraculous transformations to balance the horror stories; and they argue that tough love only seems brutal —saying that surgery seems violent, too, without an understanding of its vital purpose. What advocates don’t take from their medical analogy, however, is the principle of “first, do no harm’’ and the associated requirement of scientific proof of safety and efficacy. Research conducted by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Justice tells a very different story from the testimonials—one that has been obscured by myths about why addicts take drugs and why troubled teen-agers act out. As a former addict, who began using cocaine and heroin in late adolescence, I have never understood the logic of tough love. I took drugs compulsively because I hated myself, because I felt as if no one — not even my family — would love me if they really knew me. According to psychiatrists, teen-agers need to gain responsibility, begin to test romantic relationships and learn to think critically. But in tough programs, teen-agers’ choices of activities are overwhelmingly made for them: They are not allowed to date (in many, even eye contact with the opposite sex is punished), and they are punished if they dissent from a program’s therapeutic prescriptions. All this despite evidence that a totally controlled environment delays
maturation. — LA Times-Washington Post |
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From the pages of June 10, 1924
WHITEWASHING OF O’DWYER
If Mr Justice McCardie’s whitewashing of Dwyer and of the whole body of wrong-doers under Martial Law was as bold a piece of judicial special pleading and absurdity as any Judge ever made himself responsible for, his whitewashing of the administration of Sir Michael O’Dwyer was scarcely less so. In both cases the argument was much the same. Nobody had questioned the honesty of the officials concerned. This would have been a bad enough plea, even if the officials had been literally and technically on their defence before the Lordship, especially in a criminal case. It was an entirely rotten plea, considering that the chief of these officials figured in the case, not as defendant but as plaintiff. Here the sole question was whether the defendant was justified, as a matter of fair criticism upon known facts, in making the remarks he had made. The honesty of the officials had nothing whatever to do with the matter. What the then Secretary of State said in his despatch on the report of the Hunter Committee in regard to General Dyer is substantially true of all of them. |
“And if anyone is ungrateful, well, God is free from all needs”. God is not in need of praise and service from humanity; humanity is in need of praising and serving God. — Islam Through selfless work, the love of God grows in the heart. Then, through his grace, one realises him in course of time. — Ramakrishna True suffering does not know itself and never calculates. — Mahatma Gandhi Birth and death occur by Divine Ordinance, and all beings come and go by Divine will. — Guru Nanak Belief comes to the mind from itself. — Guru Nanak Even if the nights are dark, white remains white; As also when the day is bright, black remains black. — Guru Nanak In anguish, everyone prays to him, in joy does none. To one who prays in happiness, how can sorrow ever strike?
— Kabir |
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