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Trust the doctor Well done at Nagpur |
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Saving Shimla
The quota mania
Funny feet!
State breakdown Money alone can’t build great institutions Chatterati
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Trust the doctor The pathbreaking Supreme Court judgement of 2004 that doctors cannot be held criminally liable for the death of a patient during treatment due to error of judgement or an accident, is having a salutary effect, much to the relief of doctors. In a judgement in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has now dismissed a multi-million-rupee claim of negligence filed against five doctors by the husband of a patient who died while undergoing treatment at Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai, and has held that an error of judgement during diagnosis does not amount to deficiency in service. While adjudicating on this case, the commission has also made a significant point that a doctor or a surgeon “does not undertake that he will positively cure a patient. Nor does he undertake to use the highest possible degree of skill, as there may be persons more learned and skilled than himself ….” Thanks to this reasonable stand, doctors will be able to treat even critical patients without a sword hanging over their head. The doctor-patient relationship is not just that of a consumer and a service provider. Since they deal with precious human lives, doctors have to take highly crucial decisions in a matter of seconds which can make the difference between life and death. If they were to be later confronted with the argument that a more eminent doctor would have taken an entirely different line, they would never be able to give off their best. The ultimate sufferers would be patients themselves. All that is expected of him is that he “undertakes to use a fair, reasonable and competent degree of skill”. The court support does not mean that even those who do something grossly negligent can get away. There are enough provisions in the IPC to fix responsibility for negligence. What has been established is that a doctor should not be intimidated with the spectre of criminal cases on flimsy grounds or a perceived grievance. Unless what he has done is palpably wrong, the doctor should not be treated as a criminal. This will, hopefully, restore the trust between the doctors and their wards. |
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Well done at Nagpur The elimination of the terrorists about to strike at the RSS headquarters at Nagpur has saved the country from a serious situation that could have developed if the militants had succeeded in implementing their plan. Those in charge of security and intelligence gathering and the uniformed men and officers who successfully immobilised the militants well in time deserve appreciation. It has been proved beyond doubt that correct and timely information is crucial in the battle against terrorism. But appreciation should not lead to complacency. The security agencies have to further gear themselves up to frustrate the designs of terrorists and their masters across the border. Experience shows that no part of the country is safe from the menace. For some time terrorists have been selecting targets like Gandhinagar’s Akshardham Temple, Varanasi’s Sankatmochan Temple, Delhi’s Jama Masjid and a scientists’ gathering at Bangalore that can lead to serious trouble, weakening the country from within. It is a different matter that people have shown maturity and refused to fall into the enemies’ traps. The nation has to maintain strict vigil at all the likely targets till the threat finally disappears. It has been pointed out time and again that terrorism cannot last long if Pakistan honestly cooperates in the fight against the monster. But the authorities in Islamabad say something and do something else. Pakistan has given a pledge not to allow any territory under its control to be used for spreading terrorism. Only last week it agreed with India to do whatever it can to eliminate the scourge from the region. But at the ground level there is little change in Pakistan’s policy. The Jihad Council, a confederation of the terrorist outfits, continues to function in Pakistan. Communication networks and training infrastructure remain intact. The latest proof is that the killed terrorists who had reached Nagpur to attack the RSS headquarters were Pakistan nationals. Islamabad should not forget that its inability or unwillingness to end support to jihadi groups is not going unnoticed in India. |
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Saving Shimla The announcement by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh that new construction would be totally banned in the state capital is to be welcomed. For those who have seen Shimla degenerate from the Queen of the Hills to a slum, this move, however, is a case of too little, too late. For decades, urban congestion acquired new meanings as the town expanded, literally exploded, haphazardly. Adding to the chaos was the government, and it is unfortunate that among the eyesores that dot Shimla today are government buildings. Shimla, the summer capital of British India, was a charming place, with beautiful houses, lovely government offices and hotels. It is ironic that the town has deteriorated to such an extent after it became the capital of the state. This is primarily because of the state government that required many offices as well as homes for its officials. Urban planning and environmental concerns were relegated to the background and expediency took over. While the plan to develop satellite and periphery towns near Shimla at places like Shoghi, Junga, Kufri and Fagu sounds good on paper, it needs to be remembered that the satellite towns in Delhi and Chandigarh have not served to take the pressure off the main city, but have simply become extensions to the city. In order to decrease the pressure on Shimla, it is necessary to implement the proposals of the Shimla Vision 2025 convention held by the Institute of Town Planners a few years ago, which had made comprehensive recommendations for improving the quality of life in the city. These suggestions have been gathering dust, as have other such
plans. What is needed is political courage and vision to shift government offices out of Shimla. This would not be easy, as the employees and the bureaucracy have powerful lobbies, and politicians too love their perks, but this is the most effective way for the government to show that it means business when it talks of saving Shimla. |
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All books are either dreams or swords,/ You can cut, or you can drug, with words.
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The quota mania
Mr Arjun Singh must be a disappointed man. His original plan has misfired. Yet, it was a simple enough strategy, apparently tailored for success. But he had ignored the possibility of a change of popular mood on the quota system. Initially, however, he had an easy run after unilaterally pushing through the 27 per cent reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in higher education institutions and visualising his own emergence as the new champion of the underprivileged. Given the numerical preponderance of the group to which he was catering, there was no alternative for the entire political class — from the Left to the Right — falling in line. And even as the Human Resource Development Minister donned the mantle of the saviour of the poor, his other objective — of hobbling the Prime Minister — was achieved. It was like bringing down two birds with one stone. Dr Manmohan Singh emerged from the episode looking weak, having been caught unawares by his senior minister’s pre-emptive “shock and awe” manoeuvres. While Mr Arjun Singh’s own party also seemed flummoxed, the Left, which had been hoping that the Congress would return to its Fabian socialist days, lost no time in backing the secular-socialist HRD Minister. But the best-laid plans of men and mice can go awry. The reason why Mr Arjun Singh’s missile seems to have missed the mark is that he is still living in the past. He hadn’t realised how dramatically India had changed since Mr V.P. Singh tried the same trick in 1990. In the Raja of Manda(l)’s time, India was in a state of political confusion and economic stagnation. The Congress had squandered its 415-strong majority in the Lok Sabha, paving the way for the rise of the OBC-dominated parties as well as the pro-Hindu ones, while the economy was trapped in the snail-paced Hindu rate of growth. These parties ditched the broad-based consensus devoid of overt sectarianism which had been the distinguishing feature of Indian politics till then, mainly because of the example set by the Congress’s highly successful rainbow coalition from the pre-Independence days. It was not a flawless example, for the Congress, too, occasionally pandered to divisive sentiments, especially the minorities, for the sake of votes. But it wasn’t a party which was identified solely with any particular caste or community, as were the various fragments of the original Janata Party. Although a former Congressman, Mr V.P. Singh seemed to have had little difficulty in acquiring the tunnel vision of the caste-dominated parties in the name of serving the downtrodden. Thus began one of the most distressing periods of recent Indian politics, with the BJP countering Mr V.P. Singh’s Mandal card with its politics of kamandal, which fuelled Hindu communal sentiments. It took a surprising revival of the Congress in 2004 to enable the country earn some respite from such divisive politics, although all the parties had been severely weakened in the process, whether it was the Congress or the BJP or the casteist outfits, which had become virtual single-state parties. But it is not only the dissipation of the earlier intensity of sectarian sentiments which has changed since the nineties. An even more startling development which lies at the root of Mr Arjun Singh’s current discomfiture is the rise of the middle class, which has grown to an estimated 300 million — the size of a large country. Not only that, a decade and a half of economic reforms have brought unprecedented prosperity to this section. Young men are earning in a month these days what their fathers earned in a year. For this class at least, it has never been better. Inevitably, along with the affluence, the upper and middle classes have acquired a new assertiveness in challenging the political dispensation, which wasn’t there earlier. While the professionals and the salaried class took no more than cursory interest in politics in the past, the businessmen focussed on manipulating the system through their proximity to politicians and bureaucrats, an unavoidable course of action in the then prevailing licence-permit-quota raj. Both the lack of interest in politics of one group and the closeness to the corridors of power of another ensured that they maintained a deafening silence on political matters. So, if quotas were introduced or mosques demolished, one heard very little from the professionals and businessmen. This is no longer the case. As Mr Arjun Singh has realised, he has to deal with a situation which was unheard of in Mr V.P. Singh’s time. Now, not only do doctors, students and academics openly decry the quota system and take to the streets, the corporate czars, too, no longer remain silent. Liberalisation has ensured that the liberals can speak their minds. The result is that the government has been on the retreat ever since Mr Arjun Singh burst his populist bomb. The government has been compelled to make the promise to increase the number of seats in the IITs, the IIMs and medical institutes and set up an aptly called oversight committee to look into all aspects of the quota regime. The decision was unavoidable because it was a case of oversight (dictionary meanings: “omission to notice”; “mistake due to inadvertence” in addition to “supervision”) on its part, which has forced it to clean up the mess afterwards. It is obvious that if Mr Arjun Singh hadn’t been in such a hurry to project himself as the hero of the toiling masses, all these post-facto measures would have been considered before the peremptory announcement of the decision to hike the OBC quotas. And with the Supreme Court now stepping in to examine the entire issue, including the basis on which the figure of 27 per cent for the OBCs has been fixed, the HRD Minister will have to put his halo back on the shelf for a while. But even as the harassed government scrambles to explain its position to the judiciary and puts together an estimated Rs 8,000 crore to increase the number of institutions with new faculty members, libraries, laboratories, etc, an interesting feature of the Mandal scene is going largely unnoticed. It is the remarkable restraint being shown by the two Uttar Pradesh stalwarts and deadly rivals, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ms Mayawati, over the issue. Since the Congress’s sudden courting of the OBCs has been partly ascribed to the need for it to make its presence felt in UP, which is scheduled to go to the polls next year, one would have presumed that the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party would have geared up to extract the most from this latest largesse for the backwards. Even if the BSP’s lack of enthusiasm is sought to be explained by the traditional tense relations between the Dalits and the OBCs, the same cannot be said of the Samajwadi Party, with its vote bank consisting almost solely of the latter group. But the explanation apparently lies in the interest both these parties are evincing in winning over the upper castes, which explains why the BSP has long dropped its slogan: tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro jootey char, which roughly translates into beating with shoes the Brahmins, the Banias and the Thakurs. Nothing can be more ironical than the fact that when the Congress is thoughtlessly abandoning its broad spectrum rainbow coalition, which once famously comprised the upper castes, Dalits and Muslims, among others, the ostensibly casteist parties are waking up to the value of socially inclusive politics. This is a development which deserves at least two
cheers.
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Funny feet!
It
is a cold world without human touch. I discovered this momentous truth
in the eagerness of my feet to meet, touch and tightly embrace each
other after strenuous activity of the day, and evening. My feet are frustrated. I throw myself on bed like the proverbial log of wood. Then my fatigued feet, poor ill-used cousins of hands, get an opportunity to have the most wonderful love affair with each other. Like eager and ardent lovers, they embrace each other, rustle and tussle, entwine like a lata does on the stem of a plant, or ivy on oak. When exhausted, they don’t give up. They begin anew. They refresh themselves by pulling toes inside. Alternate it with toes outside. Heels go up and down. Down and up. You may say feet are funny things. Yes. So are lovers. Take the moon-struck girl. She ignores that the boy whispering sweet-nothings in her pearl studded ears is equally loony. He says that he will pluck stars from the sky for her. Though he cannot pluck a litchi from a tree in Pinjore Garden! But feet fatigued or frustrated are useful appendages. They provide you the maximum mileage in the journey of life. No other part of your body self-travels that much in a life-span. Certainly, not hands. Though they win hands down in any marathon of mischief-making. Feet are not as glamorous as hands are. The latter are pampered. Lotions, creams, pink polish, perfumes are lavished upon them. Feet are massaged, at best, and left to fend for themselves. Indeed, they are treated like ugly cousins of handsome hands. Toes are close kins of fingers. Only neglected like ugly girl friends or Plain Janes. Feet are communicators par excellence. They speak an earthy language. Any husband with mental and emotional antennae up can read the signal. They literally kick when angry. The feet are experts in physical conversation. They “talk” as eloquently as hands, eyes or lips. In bed, apparent accidental touching of toes signals that the “war” is over, and truce
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State breakdown The public at large has been very critical of the lumpen brigade of the BJP in Gujarat threatening theatre owners and cinema-goers who dare to show any inclination to see Aamir Khan’s latest film. And all this because the actor has shown concern for the oustees of Narmada Dam project. But the response of the main political parties, both Congress and BJP, is very disturbing. One is amazed that any political party can be so shame-faced as to say that what is being done by one of its wings in Gujarat is of no concern to it. What kind of political party does it pretend to be, if the various units in the State are free to act in any manner, without the Central leadership owning up to the responsibility? That the BJP should behave in such a manner is understandable because of its past record, but that the Congress should take the same stand shows how principled politics has gone out of window in our country. I should have thought that all the political parties would have joined the NGOs in Gujarat in taking a firm stand against this action of the BJP youth brigade. People are very much concerned with the Narmada project and any person who even out of compassion supports the oustees’ case (even though he has not said anything about the viability of the project) is taking a risk. Frankly, many of us do not buy the empty slogan of `Right to Development’ by Narendra Modi and his minions. We fully endorse the anguished cry of the oustees. Bureaucratic decisions are made without prior consultation with the affected parties and disadvantaged sections. The refrain is that a price has to be paid for development. There is no answer as to why the sacrifice must always be made by the disadvantaged and the tribals, and the benefits go only to the politically and monetarily powerful. There is also the larger issue of the fundamental right to free speech involved here. It is well settled that expression by means of motion pictures is an exercise of the right of freedom of speech. The BJP cannot force its view on others who have a different view. Of course, it is open to anyone to take a different view but to indulge in action causing danger to physical safety is not permitted. As a matter of fact, the Government of Gujarat would make itself seriously in danger of being taken over if it persists in its silence and does not take active steps to ensure safety to the theatre owners if they decide to open their theatres to this picture. There is nothing to suggest that the picture has any objectionable scenes. It has complied with law and has got its sanction from the concerned authorities. In the words of the Supreme Court, if groups like Gujarat are permitted to threaten force, it would be tantamount to negation of the rule of law and a surrender to blackmail and intimidation. The Supreme Court has categorically held that in such circumstances it is the duty of the State to protect the freedom of expression since it is a liberty guaranteed by the State. The State cannot plead its inability to handle the hostile audience problem. It is its obligatory duty to prevent violence and protect the freedom of expression. If the State of Gujarat pleads its inability to control it, it obviously means a failure of the Constitutional machinery, as the State has a duty under Article 355 to ensure that the Government is carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. Now, if the actions of the lumpen BJP youth continues and the threat, violence and intimidation against the theatre owners and the safety of the cinema goers cannot be assured by the Government of Gujarat by giving due protection, a situation must be deemed to have arisen in which the Government of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. In such a situation, there would be no other option for the President of India but to dismiss the Government of Gujarat and to assume to himself all the functions of the Government of the State under Article 356 of the Constitution. To allow the current situation to continue in Gujarat poses a great danger to democracy and may be the first unrecognized step towards an era of intolerance and encouragement to neo fascist tendency of certain political parties. Let us not forget that these activities of the Gujarat youth pose a danger to the Indian Constitution and State. As a matter of fact, the law is so clear that courts have even held that power under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure cannot be used to curtail the rights of citizens, merely because the applicant apprehends breach of peace or inconvenience or nuisance. Thus, no party can be interdicted for doing an act in exercise of his Constitutional rights on the ground that goons of BJP youth will break-up the cinema halls and interfere with the exercise of the right of individuals to see the film. The matter is too urgent and must compel all political parties to sit down and stop the vulgar dance of death and goondaism going on in Gujarat, in the name of poor starved peasants being deprived of water. One wishes the BJP youth read the report of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India, who has opined that the water available at the current dam height is being used only up to 10 to 25 per cent, because of the failure of the Modi government to construct the connecting links which could carry water to the starved areas of the State. No country can prosper if open expression of speech is suppressed. As the Supreme Court has said, “…one of the basic values of a free society to which we are wedded under our Constitution, is that there must be freedom not only for the thought that we cherish, but also for the thought that we hate…” —
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Money alone can’t build great institutions
I was surprised to read the statement of our Oxbridge-educated Prime Minister that the medicos need not worry about reservations, as the government was setting aside Rs. 8,000 crores for creating additional capacity in professional institutions to safeguard the interest of non-reserved categories. Such a statement must have set past luminaries of great universities turning in their graves. If it was just a question of money, our big industrial houses could easily add half a dozen new institutions every few years. Moreover, aren’t we Indians maestros in renaming places and creating institutions of higher learning? We raised more than a dozen REC’s to the level of IIT’s and re-designated them as NIT’s with the stroke of Aladdin’s pen a few years ago. Did it make an iota of change in their quality of education? None! The promise of an AIIMS in every state capital has been flying for years and has yet to find a tree to take roost. Punjab’s decades-old effort to set-up Baba Farid University of Medical Sciences has yet to fructify. It was gracious enough to admit its failure and place its buildings at the disposal of Union Government for one of the new AIIMS’s. The beautiful campus of the National Institute for Renewable Sources of Energy on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala Road has yet to find a single scientist. I wish real life was as simple as input-output ratios and statistical projections so dear to economists. Courtesy Prof Mahalanobis, we have become past masters in statistical projections since independence. We have come to believe that if we load money into the bowl of a Philips Kitchen Machine, a ready-cooked five-course lunch from Haldirams is sure to arrive; lessons from repeated failures in the delivery of dream-castles for half a century notwithstanding. The world today is absolutely clear that institutions are built by leadership and people, not brick and mortar. Institutions of higher learning are the most difficult of the lot. Producing students year after year who deliver greatness in their adult lives is obviously a far greater challenge than churning out a solitary Isaac Newton or a Jack Welch. It is for this very reason that the Oxbridges, MITs and Harvards of the world nurture their heritage with great care, down to the last ritual. We are perhaps the only society in the world which plays ducks and drakes with its institutions. In our penchant for fairness and mistrust in impartiality of seniors, we have settled down to a seniority-dictated non-accountable management system, where time-based promotion is virtually guaranteed. Delivery of objectives takes back seat and is of no relevance. The ever widening gap between open-market salaries and UGC dictated emoluments of senior faculty compounds the systemic weakness. Institutions are unable to find senior faculty. Around 30 per cent of faculty positions at professor-level in institutions of the likes of IIT’s are vacant and re-employment of faculty up to the age of 67 has become routine. Faulty criteria for recruitment of faculty completes the circle of mediocrity. It is time we realised that mediocrity has no place in today’s cut-throat global competition. Having lost valuable decades in petty quibbling, it is time we stopped wasting energies on trifling parochial issues and got on with the main task of nurturing talent for which world-class education is the only solution. |
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Chatterati Running a coalition government, which is a permanent headache, has taught the Prime Minister how to put together many things. On the second anniversary dinner of the UPA Government hosted by the Prime Minister at 7 Race Course, the menu prepared was a gourmet’s delight, keeping in mind every one’s sensitive taste buds. Starting from the cuisine of the North, Punjabi Kali Dal and Chicken, Awadhi food was there in full splendor, followed by the ‘Chatpata’ South Indian dishes. Two massive pandals had been put up to protect the VVIPs from rains. The long list of complaints carried by the Left party members for the dinner, however, was enough to dampen the spirit of the evening meal, almost matching the mood swings of the Sensex. The Congress, as it is, does not know what has hit them, with the quotas controversy stirred by Arjun Singh, and is set to be the biggest loser in the exercise. Their discomfiture is all too evident considering how Rajiv Gandhi opposed quota politics.
The ban gangs The Christian groups protested against the screening of the “Da Vinci Code”, as the BJP cadres in Gujarat went up in arms against “Fanaa”, an Aamir starrer. It is now banned in several states. Hindi films are banned in Manipur since rebels who have managed to paralyse the administration time and again, are rabidly against the screening of Hindi films. Some time back, the Kannada film industry did not allow non-Kannada films to be shown in Karnataka for two weeks. Two years ago, the Kerala film producers banned the screening of Priyadarshan’s films. Earlier Mahesh Bhatt’s debut film “Manzilen Aur Bhi Hain” was banned for 14 months by the censor. “Water” by Deepa Mehta was not allowed to be shot in Benaras or Allahabad and hence the entire film had to be shot abroad. As a nation we love to protest and take any issue to the street. Give us the slightest excuse and we will paint the town red. Of course it is more fun, it there is stone throwing at buses and public property is damaged. In this sickening scenario of politicised reactions and counter-reactions the public wants to see each such movie more out of curiosity than anything else. Good or bad, publicity does pay, right?
I Am Supreme, IAS And finally, after almost every second IAS Secretary getting a post retirement job in commissions or tribunals created by themselves, the UPA has given their Captain, the Cabinet Secretary, another extension of one year following his two year tenure, which had come very near his retirement. Come to think of it, why retire an IAS officer at all, when they manage/manipulate things in any case to hang on beyond the 60-year barrier? And obviously, the powers that be cannot find more trustworthy, committed and reliable officers; so they have to keep on giving extensions to the existing ones. There are some bureaucrats in fact who are made for all seasons and before their retirement only the places they would like to be put into are openly discussed in the media. Could these be deliberate leaks or just media speculations? Other services like IPS are not so fortunate. Long live ‘I am Supreme’ (IAS)!
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From the pages of The revised version of the Anglo-American resolution undoubtedly represents some improvement upon the earlier draft. We are glad that the sponsors of the resolution have realised the unfairness of the MaeNaughton demilitarisation proposals and the demilitarisation proposals of Sir Owen Dixon. The new resolution wisely drops the provision about the possibility or armed forces being provided by member-States of the United Nations or being raised locally. But while we welcome the somewhat belated recognition of the unfairness of Sir Owen Dixon’s demilitarisation proposals. The proposed Delhi conference was cancelled because, among other things, Pakistan refused to link the withdrawal of Indian forces with the disbandment and the disarmament of the “Azad Kashmir” forces. The Commission fully realised that the withdrawal of the Indian army depended upon the future of these forces and that the two questions could not be separated, as Pakistan had been trying to do.
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...after attaining knowledge, he will not have to come back to this
Earth or go any other plane of existence. One may long to know the supreme truth but cannot do so without following the path of impartiality and humility. One who does not have these remains ignorant. He may read much, attend many lectures and speak weighty words but he still would not know the truth. This world is led astray by delusion.
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