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Eleven
years after Mere
suspension |
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Kurien’s farewell A star goes off the milky way Even the best of milk, no matter how well it is pasteurised and preserved, will go sour eventually. It is ironical that the Nation’s Milkman, as Dr Verghese was known, could not accept this reality for himself as he hung up his pail after 33 years.
A
sulking Pakistan
Matriculation
results
PCS
officers as DMs? Haryana
needs economic council Ajmer Singh Aulakh
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Eleven years after
It was 11 years ago that the then Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Beant Singh, was assassinated along with several others right in front of one of the most heavily guarded buildings of Chandigarh, the Civil Secretariat. That was thought to be the biggest slap on the face of the police. No one knew at that time that worse was to follow. The alleged killers were arrested after a long, nationwide manhunt and were lodged in the high-security Burail jail. The police was feeling so gloated over this “great success” that it seemed to have lowered its guard completely thereafter. In the prison, the killers were allowed to live like state guests, enjoying all material comforts that one could imagine. They were given so much of leeway that they conveniently dug a 94-foot tunnel and escaped merrily in January 2004. There could not have been a more stinging failure on the part of the police. Well, now that Paramjit Singh Bheora, one of the main accused, is back in police custody (Jagtar Singh Hawara was re-arrested in June last year), here is hoping that there will no more goof-ups by the police. The sum total of this cat-and-mouse game is that the Beant killers are yet to be punished — 11 years after the horrifying incident! If this is the fate of the terrorists who killed a Chief Minister, one can well imagine what happens in the case of an ordinary crime. For the sake of restoring the people’s faith in the capacity of the state to serve just desserts to at least the assassins, it is imperative that the case is wrapped up immediately. At the same time, it is mandatory to wipe out the remnants of the terrorist network which at one time bled Punjab white. Such elements are still active and have been making efforts to revive terrorism, as the revelations made by the re-arrested terrorists amply demonstrate. Their recent successes are a clear pointer to the foreign-supported mischief that is afoot. The country has already paid a heavy price for the complacency shown in the past. Any repeat of that mistake will allow forces of evil to gain ascendancy in Punjab once again. |
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Mere suspension
Monday’s reprimand and suspension of four Lok Sabha MPs for their improper conduct in the implementation of the MPs’ Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) is justified. Parliament is the custodian of the members’ powers and privileges and it has the right to take disciplinary action against errant members as a “self-correcting process”. Their suspension — until March 22 — is in tune with the recommendation of the V. Kishore Chandra Deo Committee. Significantly, the Lok Sabha went a step further in reprimanding the MPs for their gross misdemeanour. Unlike the expulsion of 11 MPs three months ago in the cash-for-queries scam, this time, the seven-member committee chose to give the “benefit of the doubt” to four MPs as none of them was actually shown accepting money on camera. In its report, the committee said members Alemao Churchill (Congress) and Paras Nath Yadav (Samajwadi Party) apparently negotiated for a commission in lieu of money from their MPLADS funds, but the deal didn’t materialise. Faggan Singh Kulaste (BJP) signed a letter asking the District Collector to release money for a project, but there was no clinching evidence against him. As regards Ramswaroop Koli (BJP), the committee raised questions of how his personal letterheads were used for writing recommendatory letters and found his denials “contrived and unnatural”. While the suspension seems reasonable, the committee’s recommendation for revising the MPLADS guidelines and not to give these funds to NGOs and private institutions may not help plug the loopholes and check its misuse. The scheme is essentially flawed. Why not scrap it altogether, divert the funds to the panchayati raj institutions and use public money judiciously? After the cash-for-queries scam, the MPLADS episode proves that the threat to Parliament’s image and credibility comes from MPs themselves, apparently because of the greed some of them fall prey to. There is no point in blaming the media for the sting operations. Referring to the committee’s suggestion for fixing norms for sting operations, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who moved the motion of MPs’ suspension in the House, rightly said that the Centre won’t “gag the freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution”. |
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Kurien’s farewell
Even the best of milk, no matter how well it is pasteurised and preserved, will go sour eventually. It is ironical that the Nation’s Milkman, as Dr Verghese was known, could not accept this reality for himself as he hung up his pail after 33 years. In recent years, it was certainly not ‘utterly, butterly’ smooth going for the man who led India’s ‘white revolution’ which made the country the world’s largest milk producer. Every revolution devours its children and this was no exception. With his exit as Chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Dr Kurien has bowed out of the top position of yet another body, which he had led to world-beating achievements. Earlier, he had to quit as Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the National Cooperative Dairy Federation. It is unfortunate that Dr Kurien was denied the milk of human kindness in the evening of his career. More hurtful must be the fact that he was being put out to pasture by his own protégé, Dr Amrita Patel who was appointed to the helm of NDDB after his exit in late 1998. Less than six months ago, Dr Kurien went public with his denunciation of Dr Patel, saying that he blundered in choosing her as his successor. Rightly or otherwise, she was accused of corporatising the cooperative movement, and allowing it to be weakened by multinationals and vested interests. Dr Kurien may be bitter at not being able to prevail, and unable to accept that all organisations have to adapt to the changing times. This may have been his undoing. That does not diminish his accomplishments, which are a global landmark. It was he who gave the spectacular boost to milk production in India. He worked for 40 years to create, build and sustain an extraordinary cooperative movement of over two million farmers. The force of the Operation Flood he unleashed enabled India to overtake the might of milk powers such as the US, European Union and Australia. This is no mean achievement, regardless of his politics and personal attributes that made for his unseemly exit, which is certainly not premature at 84. The Milkman had forgotten the corporate adage: Leave when you are asked, “Why you are leaving, not when you are leaving.” |
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Thy body is all vice, and thy mind all
virtue. — Samuel Johnson |
A sulking Pakistan
The Friday Times of Pakistan in an article by Ahmed Rauf in its issue of March 3 (the day President Bush was in Islamabad) disclosed that members of the 9/11 Commission of the U.S. Congress were bribed with tens of thousands of dollars by lobbyists of Pakistan in the US “ to convince “ them to make “some dramatic changes” in the final draft of the report to remove anti-Pakistan findings. According to the information given to the Pakistani Public Accounts Committee, sympathies of 75 US Congressmen were also won over as part of the strategy to protect Pakistani interests. The article names the official who participated in the lobbying of the 9/11 Commission members — Mr Sadiq — who has just returned to Islamabad. Some Pakistani critics are not convinced of the veracity of this account and are not sure that the amounts alleged to have been spent to lobby the 9/11 Commission members and Congressmen were not misappropriated by other middle men and the story is put out to defame the US legislators. The only logical conclusion is that the Pakistani administration is aware that their own acts of omission and commission relating to the 9/11 events are far worse than what the commission report has publicised. One is struck by the odd coincidence of the report being published on the day President Bush told General Musharraf in the presence of world-wide TV audience that Pakistan and India were two different countries, had different needs and different histories and, therefore, Islamabad could not aspire to have a nuclear deal on the lines of the one concluded between Washington and Delhi. The Pakistani retaliation appears to be to defame the US Congress, though in the process it comes out that the US is fully justified in dealing with Pakistan as a terrorist nation and not treating it on a par with India, though they may not say so publicly for tactical reasons. After a few days of lying low, Pakistan has started on its counter-offensive. Foreign Minister Kasuri has told The Financial Times that the Indo-US deal will kill the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This is an amazingly brazen statement from the country whose proliferation deal with China, going back to 1976, was the first major blow to the NPT by one of the five permanent members of the Security Council and a nuclear weapon state, and that deal compelled India to counter the security threats posed to it by the Pakistan-China nuclear proliferation axis. After Prime Minister Morarji Desai declared in the first disarmament session of the UN General Assembly that India would not conduct any more nuclear explosions and virtually wound up the weapon-oriented research in BARC, it is the discovery of Pakistani nuclear weapon efforts (announced by US President Carter in April 1979 along with the imposition of sanctions on Pakistan) that compelled India to restart its nuclear weapon research programme. While India’s programme was wholly for deterrence, China-Pakistan proliferation became a nuclear Walmart and extended to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Though in public, the US may accept the Pakistani account of Dr A.Q. Khan having acted on his own in his proliferation activities, the US policy makers are in reality not likely to have been taken in by such a cock and bull story. Recently the US disclosed at a high level that the issue of access to Dr. A.Q. Khan was taken up with General Musharraf during the recent visit of President Bush to Islamabad. When President Bush referred to India and Pakistan as two different countries with different histories he should have had in his mind not only that Pakistan is the biggest proliferator while India has never been guilty of proliferation but also that Pakistan initiated the 1947, 1965 and 1999 wars and the Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaderships enjoy the safe havens of Pakistani territory. In the latest US Quadrennial Defence Review there are paragraphs about the US armed forces having to deal with situations where a nuclear weapon state loses control over its weapons. Though it is not specifically mentioned, it is quite obvious that the reference is to Pakistan. However, the Pakistan President, General Musharraf, has argued that the arsenal is in safe hands and there is no need to worry about it. Now it has been established by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Pakistan-Iran proliferation started in 1987. According to General Musharraf, he took action against Dr Khan only in 2000, when he came to know about his proliferation activities, and the Pakistan government and Army had nothing to do with Dr Khan’s proliferation. But he has no explanation to offer about how Dr Khan continued his proliferation to Iran from 1987 to 2000 without the knowledge of the Pakistan government and Army and yet how he expects the world to accept that Pakistan arsenal is safe, when his confessed incompetence surpasses all belief. General Musharraf argues that the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation will upset the balance of power in the region. Presumably, he has not bothered to pay attention to the fact that the US is more concerned about the balance of power in Asia, which necessitates the build-up of the Indo-US partnership. In the US view, the China-Pakistan proliferation relationship is evidence of China’s “un-tethered” behaviour. Pakistan has threatened to make a deal with China analogous to the Indo-US deal. One wonders whether such a deal will command the support of the UK, France, Russia and the IAEA as the Indo-US agreement has. Secondly, China, which expects to have a major expansion in its nuclear reactor imports, will have to think hard about the cost of its continuing proliferation relations with Pakistan. President Bush, in his body language as well as in his curt dismissal of the Pakistani plea for a deal analogous to the Indo-US deal during his stay in Islamabad, made it plain that the US was not satisfied with Pakistani efforts against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It would appear after an interval of two weeks that the Pakistani leadership is likely to fall back on its long tried out strategy of playing the China card. It is difficult to say at this stage whether the Varanasi blasts are yet another aspect of its counter-offensive. However, it appears that Pakistan is not reconciled to the changes taking place in international strategic developments and in particular in South Asia. No doubt, the key to Pakistan coming to terms with the reality is in
Beijing.
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Matriculation results
Scores of candidates, keen to know the results of their annual matriculation examinations, made a beeline outside the offices of local newspapers till late in the night. “Yeh Hamein Tadpatay Hein”, said one of these students when informed that the copies of the results were still awaited. Thousands across the Kashmir valley having no access to the newspaper offices are left with the only alternative to wait for the next morning. Many others having access to the internet might be able to know their results by midnight, while those having appeared in the CBSE examinations, could be able to get the help of SMS. It was quite different when I matriculated over three decades ago in the absence of these information tools. Not as many local newspapers, no internet or the SMS. The only reliable luxury was the radio, while the result gazette would reach the schools concerned in a couple of days. Radio those days would broadcast the results of the successful candidates in any examinations from matriculation to the graduation. Mine was the last examination result broadcast by Radio Kashmir, Srinagar on March 5, 1975. Then I was equally curious. The only radio set in our house in the mohalla that ran on power had developed a fault due to a shortcircuit. It would take days or weeks to get it repaired in the nearest township of Bandipore, 4 km away. Shying away from the family members the only resort was the radio set running on battery cells in the house of Ama Kaka, whose son, Ghulam Nabi Buhroo, got it on his marriage only a few months earlier in autumn. He handed it over to me to facilitate my listening to the results beginning at 3 p.m. One of my classmates and myself ran away with the “precious item” through the boulders and round stones on the dried surface of the Erin nullah that divided the two hamlets. The results were delayed by 45 minutes due to the running commentary on an international hockey match. There was more curiosity while I watched the serene surroundings sitting on the left bank of the stream at this time of the year. The four little hamlets around bloomed with serenity amid warm sunshine, very few peasants moving within the sight around. The round stones in the embanked nullah were burdened with thin layers of brittle slime awaiting fresh flow of waters down to the Wular lake. Disappointed, our next destination after returning the radio, was the house of our tutor in the next hamlet, half a km away. By that time the announcement came and everybody around eagerly waited for our results. One by one the roll numbers of successful candidates were being read out with the name of schools concerned. “Hurray”, all the three candidates with our tutor were declared successful, and curiosity was no more. But it was the beginning of greater curiosities that continue to flow under our watchful
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PCS officers as DMs?
A recent decision of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to allow the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) cadre entry into at least two posts of District Magistrate is causing deep fissures in the state’s civil services. The elite IAS lobby, in a bid to safeguard its ‘twice born’ social status, has quoted clauses and sub clauses of the rule book to brand the CM’s announcement as contrary to the law of the land. It all started on March 11, 2006. The occasion was the annual convention of the PCS Officers Association (PCSA). Speaking as the chief guest of the event, the CM announced that PCS officers would be hereafter posted as District Magistrates in the notified districts of the state. This was to fulfil a promise made by his Samajwadi Party’s manifesto to the PCS officers. What became a Holi gift for the PCS officers caused severe heart-burns to the IAS lobby. Rubbing salt into their raw wounds was the press statement of Governor T.V. Rajeswar welcoming the decision of the state government and urging the IAS lobby to appreciate the decision as “they all are colleagues working for the administration”. While normally the CM and the Governor rarely see eye to eye, on this issue Mr Rajeswar was quick to point out that in many other states, Orissa and West Bengal to be precise, DMs were appointed from amongst the PCS cadre and were doing quite a good job. Feeling the heat the Uttar Pradesh IAS Association’s executive committee met the very next working day and aired its misgivings. “If non-IAS cadre officers were to be appointed as District Magistrates, then why only officers from the PCS, let presidents of the ruling party be posted as DMs, said angry IAS officers. It was this statement, widely reported in the Press, which exposed their insecurity and angered the Chief Minister as well. When the IAS lobby went to meet him to remind him of his earlier promise that no decision would be taken in this regard without taking the IAS cadre into consideration, they were in for a surprise. Refusing to take back his decision, the CM asked them to voluntarily give up two posts of DM to the PCS cadre. Disappointed, the IAS lobby came out with what they are best at - quote the rule book to substantiate their superior status. They have argued that the Government of Uttar Pradesh is violating the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954. According to them, the order is retrograde and seeks to destabilise the governance structure. Quoting Rule 4 of the Cadre Rules under the All India Services Act 1951 vide Part XIV Article 312 of the Constitution of India they maintain that the post of Deputy Commissioner/Magistrate and Collector is a “Cadre Post” which cannot be filled by an officer of any other Service, including the Provincial Civil Service. They have concluded that the State Government does not have any ab initio right to announce the appointment of any officer of any service to a declared cadre post reserved for the officer of the Indian Administrative Service and any appointment can be done only with the concurrence of the central government. This once again puts the ball back into the Chief Minister’s court. In its support the IAS lobby also quotes the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the Resurgence India versus State of Punjab and others case: “On a plain reading of Rules 8 and 9 of the cadre rules, as interpreted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, we have absolutely no doubt in our mind that non-cadre officers, under no circumstances, can be permitted to hold the ‘cadre posts’ of IPS” for a period of more than three months without prior concurrence of the Central Government. Referring to the excuses, the court observed that ….’This is patently illegal, impermissible in law and totally in contravention of the very object of constitution of All India Services” To accommodate its burgeoning numbers, the top-heavy IAS machinery in the state has been steadily appropriating posts that were earlier not earmarked for them. They have not just stepped on the toes of the PCS cadre, but the IPS cadre as well. This excess of numbers has also been used to support their argument. The IAS lobby is asking the state government to make a realistic assessment of the availability of officers of the IAS cadre for posting to the post of DM. They point out that if there is a shortage of officers for posting to the post of DM, there should be a report or a finding to that extent. They argue that of the 537 IAS officers in the state, 192 were available for posting to the post of 70 districts in the state. If the super-time scale strength is included, the number increases to 255. Political repercussions of these developments cannot be underestimated. The decision of the Chief Minister to cut the IAS lobby to size in an election year is not without its own benefits. The decision is being seen in a favourable light by the state’s non-IAS bureaucracy - something that has the potential of accruing political benefits. The PCS officers, who claim to have a direct rapport with the people, claim themselves to be much better suited for these administrative posts. They view the IAS lobby as highly pampered. While in most states it takes seven to eight years for an IAS officer to become a DM, here in UP s/he gets posted as the head of a district in just four years of service! However, it is not only the PCS officers who are at the receiving end of the step-motherly treatment of the IAS lobby. The UP IPS Association has frequently charged their IAS counterparts with not allowing them to grow. The IAS lobby has turned down their demand for the post of Home Secretary. The IAS cadre has even kept the IPS out of every politically significant post. They have denied them a post in the Chief Minister’s secretariat, the DG prisons or even fun assignments like foreign deputations or posts as chairmen and managing directors of corporations, even the ones that demand policing duties like excise, transport etc. |
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Haryana needs economic council
The power shortage in Haryana calls for more attention of the state government for improving transmission and distribution efficiency in addition to Rs 2104.93 crore allocation for the power sector, including renewable energy, out of the total budgetary allocations of Rs 15,778.77 crore during 2006-07. The encouragement to consumers of electricity in terms of discounting the billed amount for payment within one month is a step in the right direction for user-pay principle to improve the power scenario in the state. The number of measures in compliance of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2005, spelt out by the Haryana Finance Minister in his Budget speech as composite strategy of revenue augmentation, expenditure curtailment and debt management are necessary to bring operational efficiency, transparency in fiscal operations. To achieve a balanced growth with equity and social justice, the allocation of resources in different sectors of the state economy with a Plan outlay of Rs 3,300 crore deserves proper monitoring and evaluation by unbiased academicians. There is a strong case for constituting state economic council on the national pattern for using the best brains available in Haryana for operational efficiency of the state economy. The setting up of centres of excellence by international educational institutes of repute in Rajiv Gandhi Education City at Kundli is welcome but it should not be at the cost of already established universities which deserve equal treatment in terms of allocation of resources to prove their worth and potential. We need to strengthen the existing educational facilities in the state at all levels of education. The commitment of the state government to health care appears to be genuine supplemented by an innovative scheme “Vikalp” with public-private partnership which requires motivated manpower, commitment, mutual trust and confidence building among the stakeholders and, above all, a strong political will. The seriousness of the Finance Minister in reducing the gap between the market and real rate of land registration is a step in the right direction for removing built-in corruption. To become second to none in terms of key performance indicators, including per capita income, quality of life, role model and good governance, the state government should tap the potential of spiritual tourism in Haryana. Out of 3.92 million foreign tourists visiting India, only 90,000 visit Haryana. Why? There is a case for strengthening domestic tourism as well in Haryana and is required to be declared an HRD activity for creating work culture through leisure culture, holiday culture and tourism culture for increasing labour productivity. There is a strong case for implementing the LTC scheme for the employees in both public and private sectors at the Central and state level organisations. The employees can be allowed to travel by Railways, road transport as per their entitlement, of course, and no cash needs to be paid for this and employees can be issued an official letter as a travel document for the same. |
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Ajmer Singh Aulakh
Ajmer Singh Aulakh, recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademy Award for the year 2005, belongs to a small farmer family from a tiny village named Kumbarhwal in Sangrur district. Educated in Mansa and Patiala, Aulakh did M.A. (Punjabi) in 1965 and got lectureship in Nehru Memorial Government College, Mansa, from where he retired in August 2000. Preparing students for youth festivals, Aulakh experimented in writing short plays which received approval and applause. One such tentative and exploratory stage endeavour, a playlet named ‘Idra Kadibra’ marked the beginning of his career as a playwright. It presented all legendary lovers Ranjha, Farhad, Majnu, Mirza and Inder Bania in search of their love which is bread and butter, meaning that all impassioned pursuits symbolise man’s search for roti. The same script was later on published under the title “Arbad Narbad Dhundhukara”. He formed his own theatre group Lok Kala Manch, Mansa, in 1978 and has never evoked back since then. He, his wife Manjit Aulakh, his three daughters Supandeep, Sohajdeep, Ajmeet — and sons-in-law all act in his plays. In fact, the stage-struck sons-in-law are finds from the stage activity which, for the Aulakhs, is a family activity. Like Gursharan Singh, who received the honour from the Sangeet Natak Akademy earlier, Aulakh has been staging plays in villages to highlight the penury of the rural have-nots. For the last more than a quarter of a century, Aulakh has been crafting, rehearsing and staging plays regularly. Besides original dramas, dramatisation of some fictional works goes to his credit. An example to quote is “Bhajjian Bahan”, a beautiful dramatic adaptation of a prominent Punjabi short story “Bhajjian Bahin” penned by Sahitya Akademy award winner and story writer Waryam Sandhu. This piece of literature, interpreted by critics to be an allegorical account of the Centre-State relations in terms of the troubled Punjab of the last two decades, received wide acclaim when enacted on various stages in Punjab and Chandigarh. Basically and broadly branded as a sympathiser of the cause of small farmers, Aulakh has also dramatised legendary subject matter. “Kehar Singh Di Maut” is a full-length play philosophically and symbolically treating the horrendous killing of legendary character Kehar Singh at the hands of a greedy mother-in-law and brothers-in-law. The dramatic venture reflects the sensitivity of the writer to tragic bloodshed experienced by Punjab in recent past. Over a period of 30 years, Aulakh has written 32 plays. He has directed all these and performed more than 1,500 shows of the same. His 24 short plays are available in six collections, besides seven full plays published separately. Aulakh holds a Marxist view and is a progressive playwright not because of affiliation with a political party but because of his sympathy for the underprivileged. The dramatist is a poet at heart and all his plays have poetic content. Some of the short plays are fully poetic. Perhaps that is why, the people of his area, honouring him in 2002 used the poetic epithet of Rohi da Kesu (Rose in Wilderness). He was conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademy Award on March 20. The writer is a retired Professor of Dramatics |
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April 28, 1934 Triumph of Malviya
The Punjab Provincial Sanatan Dharma Conference has proved to be productive of considerable good. It has put the seal of its authority on the wise mandate of the Pratinidhi Sabha recognising the right of the untouchables to draw water from public wells, to have Devadarshan and to have unrestricted admission to public schools. That is bound to give a fillip to the anti-untouchability movement in the Punjab. From the voting on the main resolution pertaining to temple entry it is amply clear that orthodoxy is in this matter on its last legs. In that huge gathering of representatives of Sanatan Dharma, orthodoxy could secure the support of note more than four persons. The proceedings of the Conference mark not only the triumph of the President, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya’s personality, but also the triumph of reason. |
The bird of the ‘Mind’ flies all over to taste mundane pleasures as long as the falcon of ‘knowledge’ does not take over. — Kabir A speech may be long, full of exquisite words, sonorous to the ear but if the sentences make no sense, it is ridiculed by all. One word of sense which makes a man reflect, is better than all such speeches. — The Buddha The laws of nature are changeless, unchangeable and there are no miracles in the sense of infringement of interruption of Nature’s law. — Mahatma Gandhi Men transmigrated as God ordains.
— Guru Nanak |
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