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All organs must follow the constitutional code No reservation in private
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On
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Motherhood vs career Profile Diversities — Delhi Letter
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All organs must follow the constitutional code The Indian Constitution, which was structured in two years, 11 months and 17 days, has completed 56 years. It has no superannuation. It is like a plant. It grows with the passage of time. If it overgrows, it must be pruned. If its growth is hampered, it must be manured. In essence, it must be given a measured tonic treatment. Constitutions are reared for immorality. The foundations of the Indian Constitution are solid. Its defences are impregnable from without. The architects of our Constitution had consummate skills. It is the Constitution which is supreme, not legislature, executive or even the judiciary. “We, the people of India” have prescribed the Constitutional Code. The Constitution demarcates the jurisdiction of each organ which must follow the discipline of the Constitution. The same is binding on all the organs. One must not forget that be you ever so high, the Constitution is above you. We do not have rule of men or women. We have the rule of law through the medium of the Constitution. The question that arises is how to enforce the Constitutional Code? Each organ of the state coparcenary is powerful having its own exclusive area of operation. The Constitution assigns limitations within which each organ will have to function. But then, who would adjudicate or decide as to whether each organ is adhering to the constitutional limits or not? The Constitution has assigned this role to the judiciary. The judiciary will have to play its role of a watchdog in accordance with the rules of the game. Anyone violating the rules must be checked. The umpire in a match does not belong to either side. The judiciary owes its allegiance to the Constitution. This does not mean that Parliament does not owe its commitment to the Constitution. The members of Parliament solemnly affirm true faith and allegiance to the Constitution. The Ministers take oath expressing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution. The judges, before assuming the office, affirm that they would perform their duties without fear or favour, affection or ill will and that they would uphold the Constitution and the laws. If all the three components are committed to the Constitution, there should be no problem at all. Following the discipline of the Constitution is not an easy task. The power game is always tempting. Therefore, there must be a watchdog without which rule of law cannot prevail. It cannot make its roots firm. In the absence of the judiciary, rule of law would become a casualty. Judicial review is the backbone of the Constitution. In fact, it is its basic structure. If judicial review is excluded, the Constitution, on its own, cannot guarantee its supremacy. It is good to think of self-constitutional discipline. However, in practical terms, it is not a possibility. Therefore, there is need for judicial review. Like it or not, there is no escape from judicial review if the supremacy of the Constitution has to be ensured. Judicial review is a potent and powerful tool. It should only be used and not abused or misused. Judicial review is not intended to create judicial oligarchy or aristocracy of the robes. The courts have to put the law-in-theory into law-in-action. In doing so, the courts cannot be oblivious of the ground realities and the practical needs of the government. The court has the constitutional mandate to play a balancing role within the parameters enshrined in the provisions of the Constitution. At the same time, the government cannot be allowed to play hide and seek with the Constitution and the people. It should also follow the mandate of the Constitution. If the courts find that the Constitution is being given a go-by, the same must be stopped firmly and effectively. This does not mean that the working of the government itself is to be made difficult or impossible. The judiciary is to remove the roadblocks so that the functioning of the government becomes smooth. The executive is not free to do anything at its whim. It must follow the Constitution and the laws and not try to bypass them, directly or indirectly. Whenever it does so, the judiciary must remind it of its transgression and limitations. Equally, the executive must ensure that in future, the same violations are not repeated. Good governance implies that extreme and hard attitudes are not built. If the judiciary, as an independent and neutral institution, does something, it should not be viewed as an attempt to jeopardise the system. Parliament expelled 11 MPs for their involvement in the cash-for-questions scam. The aggrieved members have a grievance that they have not been treated reasonably and fairly. They also claim certain constitutional rights. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee feels that nothing justifies corruption. He also feels that the issue is outside the purview of the judiciary. He asserts that Parliament has every right to expel members as a self-corrective measure. Therefore, he would not even accept or acknowledge a notice from the Supreme Court. The court should have first examined the question whether it had the right to issue the notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker. As the matter is exclusively in the domain of Parliament, the judiciary cannot interfere, he asserts. The Speaker is free to take the stand he deems fit and is tenable under the Constitution. He has powers to say that the matter in question pertains to the House. He has every right to affirm that it is the privilege of the House. What is, however, not understandable is why did he refuse to accept and respond to the notice of the Supreme Court? In his written response, he could have said that the action he had taken was within the constitutional boundaries. He could have assisted the court through his senior counsel to justify his stand. On its part, the court is duty-bound to consider the same and decide. Essentially, the final interpreter of the Constitution is the Supreme Court. If Parliament feels that the Supreme Court’s interpretation is not what it ought to be, it would open to Parliament to amend the Constitution within its parameters. In this manner, the constitutional equilibrium would be maintained. There must be healthy coordination and not confrontation among the three wings of the Constitution to achieve its avowed goals. n The
writer is Senior Advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh |
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No reservation in private
sector, please MR Karam Singh’s article, “Reservation must in private sector” (Perspective, January 15), raises a volley of questions mainly because reservations cannot help uplift the so-called Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes. Aren’t the reserved categories capable of getting jobs in the private sector purely on merit and distinction? Has the private sector ever denied jobs to them and, if so, why has the Prevention of Atrocities Act not been used against it? If the private sector has recruited some people belonging to the reserved categories, how were they selected — on the basis of merit or caste? It is claimed that reservations have become an eyesore for the “well-fixed” and “well-fed” people of the creamy layer. However, isn’t it true that most people belonging to SC, ST and OBCs themselves represent the creamy layer, especially in politics and higher bureaucracy? All those who have prospered in the socio-economic ladder by using the quota card either lack some inherent capabilities or they want to usurp the benefits meant for the real Dalits. The quota protagonists seem unable to prove how many families and individuals have stopped using the quota card after getting “well-fixed” and “well-fed”. In fact, quota has been used as a multi-level marketing concept — those who got the benefits first surged ahead in the socio-economic spheres and never let other lesser mortals of their own castes to catch up. The Dalit leaders’ children fool the people by playing the caste card. And the government employees’ wards eat away all the vacancies, leaving only Class IV jobs for first generation, literate Dalits. The argument that the tags of “inefficiency” and “lack of merit” have been tagged with the reserved categories is flawed. Had they been efficient and meritorious, they would not have angled for quota for jobs and promotions. The quota protagonists claim to be working for an egalitarian society. In reality, however, they are selfish to the core. They seek quotas in the name of the poor Dalits, but never let the benefits percolate to the poor. Instead they usurp all the benefits for themselves. The cost of recruiting an employee on the basis of caste instead of merit is very high. For, he/she has no academic merit because of the quota facility that he has been enjoying all throughout. With over 50 per cent seats being reserved for them, we can see the damage being inflicted on the system. If reservations are meant to remove some kind of backwardness in a person (or a family), such benefits should cease after a cut-off period but not continued in perpetuity. It is time to scrap reservations of all kinds. The failure of the nearly six-decade-old policy to uplift the socially disadvantaged people calls for a review of the quota policy to identify and target the real Dalits and save the benefits from being hijacked by some educated and well-established people.
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On
Record
Urbane,
polished, academic-oriented Left face in the Rajya Sabha, Nilotpal
Basu completed two terms in Parliament. A Mechanical engineer by
profession, he has been enchanted by the manner in which Karl Marx
brought in thermodynamics in the Communist philosophy for the
proletariat. In a freewheeling interview, the CPM leader issued a veiled threat to the UPA government about the growing influence of the third alternative in the political discourse. Excerpts: Q: How do you assess the Indo-US nuclear deal? A: It must not be seen in isolation but in the overall context of recent Indo-US relations. Washington is trying to co-opt India in its larger global strategic gameplan. And India, having signed this deal, has for perpetuity accepted to play a second fiddle to the US. We have now become partners in the CIA-sponsored global democracy fund. We have thus alienated many nations whose cause we used to espouse and dreamt of becoming the member of the UN Security Council. Earlier, the UPA government had signed the military cooperation agreement by which Washington aims to contain China. We are giving legitimacy to the unipolar global order that the Bush administration is trying to establish which is contrary to the National Common Minimum Programme. Q: The US could rope in New Delhi into the NPT and its nuclear programme under the watchful eyes of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A: We, the CPM and the Left parties, are for global nuclear disarmament. Nuclear weapons are self-destructive. By this deal, the Manmohan Singh government has made India to be part of not only NPT but many other nuclear discriminatory regimes like the CTBT. Q: The recent merger deal of Jet Airways and Sahara Airlines has raised many eyebrows. How do you see this development? A:
Unfortunately, we don’t have a regulatory regime to oversee this sector. The Jet-Sahara deal has major implications as one company would have more than 50 per cent of the market share. If not properly stipulated and regulated, it would lead to a largely disproportionate share of airport infrastructure. There are several other regulatory, technical and functional aspects which should be properly examined. The Jet-Sahara deal is a case of premature consolidation and disturbing phenomenon. Therefore, there is a strong need for a regulatory mechanism to deal with issues in the civil aviation sector. Q: Despite the Left’s protests, the Centre has taken decisions contrary to the National Common Minimum Programme. Will the UPA government last its full term? A:
The UPA is in power due to the Left parties’ outside support. Our opposition is not on the reforms per se but on the direction and the section to which it benefits. The Government’s stability depends on its compliance of the NCMP. If the government falls, it is squarely to be blamed for its failure to follow the NCMP. Q: Are you suggesting that it would fall sooner than expected? A:
Elastic can be expanded only up to a certain limit. Then it would break. The UPA has been stretching the NCMP at its own peril. Q: It is often said that the Left parties only bark and do not bite as otherwise it would help the BJP-led NDA to come to power. A:
It is a crude analogy. All secular parties believe that the BJP for its communal agenda should be kept out of power. It is not the Left’s responsibility alone but of all secular forces and parties. Just to keep the NDA out of power, the Left parties will not turn a blind eye to whatever the UPA does. Q: What about the third alternative? Can you unravel the political alliance firming up? A:
The concept of third alternative is different from the third front. It is an alternative set of ideas and policy frameworks. It is aimed at changing the existing political paradigm. It is heartening to see that the people have started accepting the alternative set of proposals put forward by the Left parties and several other political parties have also extended support to it. The anti-Bush rally clearly indicated the alternative foreign policy agenda which got the support of several parties and others. The support to the third alternative is growing by the day. Q: What are your plans now that your term in the Rajya Sabha is over? Any plans to pen your experience in the Upper House? A:
No…no. I won’t be writing memoirs now. I would certainly be writing on foreign policy and economic issues. I will be in the Capital as a member of the party’s Central Secretariat and working on the tasks assigned to me. Q: Now that you will be available to the party whole time, will you take charge of some states in the North? A:
There has to be a restructuring in the party’s organisational assignments. I am hopeful of being made in charge of some state. Now the concentration will be on the Assembly elections. I will campaign in West Bengal and parts of
Assam.
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Motherhood vs career My interest was roused by a recent article “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle” in The Economist. Its subject was UK’s Women and Work Commission which, among other things, found that the significant pay gap between men and women in full-time jobs was attributable to “wrong choices made (by women) early in their careers…sliding into dead end part-time jobs after they have children, with serious consequences for their future earnings”. The fact that boys study different subjects in school that lead to more lucrative careers was also one of the findings. Predictably, “motherhood” was described as the fundamental biological reason for further widening the existing gap between men and women. It all sounds too familiar but how stereotypes exacerbate the problem is what I would like to highlight. Thirty years ago, I shared a car pool with another woman officer. She was much brighter than most of us, poised, well read, everything that an officer is expected to be. But she spent most of her time in telephone calls to her mother-in-law delving into a puerile potpourri of domestic trivia, unworthy of her intelligence. That she revelled in this pursuit day after day never ceased to surprise me. One day, I asked her why she needed to indulge in this purposeless conversation ad nauseum. She told me that her husband’s career was for the couple the first priority and one of the ways of keeping him happy, was to keep his mother in good humour. Predictably, the husband did rise and shine in his career while hers soon stagnated. The strange part was that she did not seem to care. Another incident that I recall is when my daughter finished her Class 10 examinations. Since her birth, I had enjoyed unfettered authority to decide everything about her upbringing. Decisions regarding which school she went to, how much importance should be given to her studies vis-à-vis other pursuits, how she spent her playtime and with whom, were entirely my prerogative. Completely out of character, the male members in the family suddenly insisted that whatever else she may do, she must study mathematics at least up to Class 12. I was surprised at their insistence, but having appreciated that it was for the girl’s own good and that a suggestion was being made for the first time by the men folk, I attempted to persuade the Mother Superior of the Convent of Jesus and Mary here, to accommodate my request. I was dismissed with a nunnish ‘No’. The school, she told me, did not offer a combination of humanities and mathematics and I would have to change the child’s school if I was that keen on such a combination. With some apprehension I admitted my daughter into the Delhi Public School at R.K. Puram. She was placed in section ‘L’, where A, B and C sections housed the whiz kids pursuing physics, chemistry and biology. ‘L’ was at the rock bottom in the pecking order — intended for children unfit to pursue science (losers) and foolishly pursuing a hybrid combination of humanities and mathematics — neither fish nor fowl. In the school’s Brahminical system, my daughter was among the dregs. Well-intentioned as the decision to change the school had been, the pursuit of mathematics cost her dearly in terms of self-esteem. During my career as an IAS officer, I have served on several boards to interview candidates for technical and administrative assignments. I can say with honesty that women candidates invariably fare better than men. They acquit themselves with confidence and vivacity, are more articulate, communicative and quick to understand the general milieu. They meet efforts at sarcasm, with a steady smile. Bullying (a phenomenon which is not as infrequent as people may imagine) is met with composure. Usually when the scores are totted up, women come out on top. Yet almost at all interview boards the members (including women) express grave concern about short-listing a woman for the position, knowing fully well that she would either leave to get married or take long leave to bear children. The job is destined to take a back seat, sooner or later. It is only when the second candidate also happens to be a woman that interview boards give up trying to fix things in favour of the would-be male breadwinner they naturally feel inclined to select. And this bias operates at the time of promotion too and even pervades the private sector. My niece, a 27-year-old MBA holding a well-paid marketing job, was being badgered by her parents to “settle down”. As the only child of adoring parents she was torn between pursuing a promising and well-paid career and keeping her parents happy. Here was a successful career woman well aware of her market worth, being put on a guilt trip by her parents who were terrified by what the biradari would say about their only child turning into an old maid. One night the parents received a telephone call. It was the Chairman and Managing Director of their daughter’s Company giving them the good news that she had been given a promotion, making her the youngest recruit to reach the number four position in the Company. Having said this, the CMD pleaded with the parents not to insist on their daughter’s marriage for at least two more years. She was slated to be the Vice President of the Company before she was 30, he told them. However, he made it abundantly clear that marriage at this stage would mean a dead-end for her career. It wasn’t a threat — simply a business proposition. Needless to say the parents continue to hunt for “a suitable boy”. Knowing all this, why do we continue to discuss why few women reach the top, how difficult it is to break the glass ceiling and why they choose to hibernate in dead-end jobs? Competition at work has no place or patience for accommodating domestic problems. Illnesses, learning problems, the trauma of adolescence, bias and unfairness from teachers or other children are seen as normal experiences of childhood. In the early years it is only the mother that can offer the solace and guidance that a child desperately needs. To do justice to this role, she requires rearranging her time at short notice, which has to be carved out of an already hectic work schedule. Every loan taken from the clock inevitably puts her behind her male colleagues in terms of visibility, output and achievement. That many of these young men are given “paternity leave”, while older female relatives actually handle the newborn, adds insult to injury. Perhaps we need a Commission on Equal Opportunity to Work to recommend how women can be enabled to deal with the syndrome called “motherhood” without losing out career-wise. Women need to be given a sustained opportunity to excel and reach the top, through a systems change not only with symbolic assistance in changing nappies and doing the grocery
shopping.
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Profile The Jung family and their shooting skills have become legends in the erstwhile princely state of Sirmour (Nahan), located in the picturesque Shivalik foothills of Himachal Pradesh. Samresh’s grandfather, Sher Jung had earned his reputation as a shikari and, later, as a conservationist, almost similar to the famed Jim Corbett of Kumaon hills. He had shot a tiger when he was barely 14. It is believed he could aim straight at a coin tossed in the air from a distance and shoot it down. So much so that Sher Jung attracted Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s attention and soon became a part of the revolutionary group that was planning overthrow of the British Raj. A reward of Rs 30,000 was announced to anyone who captured Sher Jung “Dead or Alive” after the revolutionary group looted weapons from a train. He was finally apprehended and sentenced to solitary confinement at the Multan Jail. A young woman, who was his lawyer’s daughter at Lahore, married him after his prison term was over. Nirmala Jung later became Vice-Principal of New Delhi’s Indraprastha College. She also took to social work and did lot of work for the rehabilitation of juvenile children. Sher Jung was also known to have assisted the Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh war. Samresh’s father, Shailesh Jung held the rank of Colonel in the Army and he too was an ace shooter. Samresh started shooting as a boy and he enjoyed it. His father has been quoted as saying “Samresh is hard working, sincere, dedicated to shooting and does not bother about monetary gains”. Samresh too said several times that the money given to honour prize-winning sportsmen and women should go instead for training youngsters. His real guru was his maternal uncle, Shambhu Raja, who first taught him how to handle a pistol and aim at an object. He has been quoted as saying, “Samresh has interest in shooting from his childhood days. He used to pass most of his times with guns. As the family has military background, no one restricted him. Both his father and mother encouraged him. As a result he became a perfect shooter”. Samresh joined the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) soon after completing his education. He continued to take part in the shooting competitions, national and international. His colleagues say he never misses a target. He was conferred the Arjuna Award, the country’s highest sport honour. A wave of joy swept across Samresh’s native village as the news from Melbourne trickled in. At his New Delhi house, the scene was more boisterous. The phone would never stop ringing. Congratulatory messages poured in for Samresh and his wife who had also won a medal at the Commonwealth Games. Even though Samresh was adjudged the “Best Athlete of the Commonwealth Games”, the honour fell short of his dream target of winning seven gold medals in a single edition. He ended with five golds, a silver and a bronze in the shooting competitions. The 35-year-old marksman, however, became the recipient of highest number of gold medals in the history of the Commonwealth Games. Samresh’s dream of winning seven gold medals was dashed as he finished third in the men’s 25-meter center fire pistol at the Commonwealth Games shooting. A malfunctioning pistol dashed his hopes of getting into Commonwealth Games Hall of Fame. A dazed Samresh remarked: “I did not know which was creating problem. I opened the barrel and cleaned the area, poured oil inside and tried to resume shooting. The problem continued and then we changed the ammunition from a different batch. Still, it was misfiring and I lost a lot of ground and could not recover from then on”. Soon after shooting glory Commonwealth Games, Samresh left for China to compete in the ISSF Shooting World up at Guangzhou. He ended there on a disappointing note, finishing 34th in 50 free Pistol even. Ups and downs in sport events are inevitable but Samresh is still going strong and it is not end of the road for
him. by Harihar Swarup
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Diversities — Delhi Letter Many important events are lined up this week. The Forty-Fifth Golden Jubilee Session of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO) will be held from April 3 to 8. Union Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj will inaugurate it in the presence of representatives from over 40 AALCO member states. Earlier, Amos Wako, Attorney-General and Legal Advisor to the President of Kenya presented the focus on the seminar. Questions are bound to arise as to how these deliberations would reach the common man. I don’t want to sound cynical, but the reality is that we have so many laws and look what is happening on the ground. During the meet on how should the media go about reporting conflicts last week, at least one speaker, Siddharth Varadarajan, journalist, stressed on two crucial aspects — the reporter has to go beyond the police/state version as also do a follow-up. These aspects ought to be followed not only reporting conflict situations but even encounter killings or arrests. I am reminded of what Iftikhar Gilani, The Kashmir Times’ New Delhi Bureau Chief, had told me during an interview. He said that when he was arrested (he was later imprisoned for seven months in the Tihar jail from June 9, 2002 to Jan 13, 2003, under the Official Secrets Act), the next day newspapers reported that some lakhs of rupees were unearthed from his home and so on though the reality was that he had just about enough money to buy groceries for that month. Obviously, the reporter went by the police (or say, planted) version and didn’t go about unearthing the truth. Truth did finally emerge, but it took seven long months and much trauma for Gilani. What seems missing here, at least in the Indian context, is an independent watchdog group to counter the police version or at least check its findings. At yet another meet, the well respected human rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves had come up with this suggestion. He cited the example of how the UK police were cornered when they killed a Brazilian, suspecting him to be one of the bombers in last year’s blasts in London. A watchdog group of London who took on the police, pinpointing the missing links till they acknowledged they had indeed killed an innocent. We definitely need such a body in India to counter our security agencies and to restore some semblance of faith in the crumbling system — a system which can’t even arrest murderers or nail the guilty. Till, of course, there is an uprising of sorts by a section of the city people. Can people living in our villages and small towns take on the police or the administration? They can’t. So they sit trapped at their mercy and go by whatever is thrown at them. Frustration is mounting which probably explains why there is little faith in the system. The authorities have to take some counter measures before it is too late.
Simplicity, his hallmark I wouldn’t claim to have known Manohar Shyam Joshi, the well known writer and journalist who had scripted some popular serials and soap operas. But I did meet him twice. Both times we chatted informally. It was indeed a pleasure talking to him. He spoke in that leisurely way as though New Delhi’s pace and lifestyle didn’t affect him. Last I met him was in February. J.P. Das hosts a dinner every year and somehow the date of this dinner, coincidentally, matches with the day the Sahitya Akademi awards are given. The net result is that a number of writers including those writing in regional languages, Hindi and Urdu are spotted. Joshiji was free and frank. He told us since the car was being used by his son, he asked one of his friends to drop him back at his home in Saket. No, he had no hesitation in saying that he didn’t have a car to himself. This again showed his modesty and the strength to live without any of those gaudy frills. It is important to mention here that even today we have some of those writers who live like writers ought to live —
sans hyped modern notions.
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It is indeed a fool who is enchanted by the glitter of diamonds, pearl and rubies. Forever, he seeks to guard them, even in the middle of the night. Forever, he seeks to guard them, even in the middle of the night. Forever he is scared lest someone make off with them. All happiness that he had is contaminated by this fear. — The Buddha And swallow not up your property among yourselves by false means, nor seek to gain access thereby to the judges, so that you may swallow up a part of the property of men wrongfully while you know. — Islam O Mother, I am the machine and Thou art the operator; I am the chariot and Thou art the driver. I move as Thou movest me; I do as Thou makest me do. — Ramakrishna The one, who considers everything as an act of God, shall realise God. Those who perform selfless service obtain the nectar of self-knowledge as a result of their sacrifice and attain the Supreme Being. —
Bhagavadgita All that we see is transient.
— Guru Nanak There are few people who by the grace of the Almighty escape the push and pull of Kama or lust. — Kabir |
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It is believed that certain talents are hereditary which travel from generation to generation. A father passes on his aptitude in a particular sphere to his son and it is passed on to his son. It moves on from one age group to another. Once a myth but now it has been scientifically established that grandsons inherit the true mantle of their grand parents. This is literally true of the Jung family to which belongs India’s ace shooter, Samresh Jung. He has made a mark as pistol marksman in the just concluded 18th Commonwealth Games at Melbourne. He was adjudged the Best Athlete, the first Indian to win this honour. His wife, Anuja, too is a rifle-shooting champion.