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Newest war in West Asia Plea bargaining: An overdue reform
Profile Reflections Diversities — Delhi Letter
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On Record
Aruna
Roy is a recipient of the Magsaysay award — valued as the Asian Nobel Prize — for community leadership and international understanding. She was an IAS officer until 1974. She resigned from the IAS to join the Social Work and Research Centre in Tilonia, Rajasthan, which had been set up by her husband Sanjit Roy. She worked at the SWRC until 1983, then moved to Devdoondri in 1990 and set up the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana, a group which is a working example of a transparent organisation. Aruna Roy is a strong supporter of the movement for Right to Information (RTI) which succeeded in getting the Rajasthan RTI Bill passed. In an interview to The Sunday Tribune, she says the proposed amendment to the RTI Act would cripple it. An all-out effort would be made to preserve and protect the progressive parts of the law, she says. Excerpts: Q: Do you think that the proposed amendment to the RTI Act would virtually make the Act redundant? A:
It would cripple the Act. The feedback from across the country seems to make it clear that there is no need for amendments in any of the areas where information access is allowed including the Cabinet papers after the decision has been taken. The exclusion of notings from the purview of the RTI Act would also be contrary to the recommendation of the National Advisory Council, which has clearly and unanimously taken the position that file notings are an integral part of a file and of the decision-making process and should, therefore, be as much in the public domain as any other information covered by the RTI law. The exclusion of file notings has also been opposed by the Union Government’s own Administrative Reforms Commission. In its recent report submitted to the government, the ARC gives a lie to the statement by the Prime Minister’s Office that experts had expressed a view against the disclosure of file notings. Q: How important are the notings in a file? A:
It is in the notes that you find the rationale for government action or the lack of it. Why was a certain policy changed, why a certain contract given, why a sanction was withheld to prosecute a particular corrupt official, why allocation of resources is biased in favour of the rich and powerful, or why inefficiency and corruption is being rewarded and good officers are being victimised. Clearly this government, despite its public statements to the contrary, does not want to give up its privilege to continue functioning arbitrarily and secretively. Q: Can you illustrate how the file notings have resulted in citizens empowering themselves with the information and getting justice? A:
An important recent example is that of Parivartan accessing the notings of the Delhi Jal Board to prevent the privatisation of the water supply in Delhi. The file notings revealed the pressure exercised by World Bank officials on the Delhi Government to award a drinking water reform contract to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC). PWC in turn had suggested a completely unacceptable set of reform measures which would have sacrificed the interests of the people of Delhi for the multinational water companies. The substantive matter disclosed led to the issue being placed in the public domain where debate and discussion resulted in the matter being decided in the best interest of the country, by concerned and responsible citizens. Q: Have there been occasions when the bureaucracy denied file notings by resorting to the typical bureaucratic delay tactics? A:
The most obvious and dogged refusal has been the answer on the Department of Personnel and Training website to a FAQ where they stated that file notings were exempted from disclosure despite the Act ruling otherwise. Repeated rulings of the Central Information Commission to remove this illegal and unjustified order have also been ignored. This FAQ has been used in the Centre and the States to deny access to file notings by PIOs. People have used the complicated appellate process to access them. Q: Do you think that making the file notings public could dissuade the bureaucracy to take decisions as they could be victimised? A: The allegation that the RTI Act might prevent officials from expressing their frank opinion is true only for corrupt officials who need secrecy to hide their actions. As many honest, retired and serving officials know and have stated, the disclosure of file notings protects them while ensuring that decisions are taken in national interest. Their protection is that they act according to the laws of the land. They will be able to resist pressure to accept illegal pressures by their political bosses. Q: Should all the file notings be made public or there should be some restrictions? A:
There are, of course, some kinds of information that can be restricted. These have been covered by Section 8 of the RTI Act 2005. These can be debated, reduced or increased, keeping in mind the Supreme Court’s enumeration of the maximum scope of such restrictions. To make the process of decision making itself opaque...rather than particular categories of information amounts to making the process of governance itself secret which is not acceptable in a democracy. Q: How do you propose to stall the amendment to the RTI? A: Any amendment must be publicly debated. The campaign will use all the strategies it used in the struggle to get the law, to preserve and protect the progressive parts of the law. We will take recourse to all constitutional and democratic methods including protest to keep progressive parts of the Act as it is. Since it is a large pluralistic national campaign and movement, diverse methods and modes are bound to be used for this purpose.
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Newest war in West Asia
For nearly two years, Israel has been demanding full implementation of a UN Security Council resolution. Seldom before had Israel treated the Council so respectfully. When, immediately after proclaiming the State of Israel, its first prime minister David Ben Gurion set about taking the rest of Palestine by force, his advisers calculated that every operation against the Arabs should by completed within six days for it could become “sticky” for anyone disobeying the Security Council longer. The Lion of Judah — as Ben Gurion was to his admirers — taught his followers to see UN as a paper tiger — without using the phrase popularised by Mao Zedong in a different context a few years later. The Security Council condemned an Israeli raid on Gaza in 1955, and for nearly a quarter of a century resolutions followed in a steady stream reprimanding Israel in every possible linguistic way indicated by a thesaurus. According to a pro-Israel website (WorldNetDaily) during 1948-91 the Security Council passed 175 resolutions on the Arab-Israeli conflict — 97 of them against Israel, 75 neutral and only four against the “perceived interests” of the Arabs. In the General Assembly, the cumulative votes cast, during the same period, according to the same source, were 7,938 for Israel and 55,642 against. Some Zionist websites bluntly describe UN an “enemy of Israel”. Israel is the only state admitted to UN membership after it had undertaken to honour specific resolutions of the organisation — of November 1947, for the partition of Palestine and of December 1948, upholding the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes or be satisfied with compensation instead. Israel never intended to respect either the UN partition lines or the rights of the refugees. Subsequent UN resolutions directing Israel to live up to its undertakings were simply disregarded. Yet the Security Council, armed with awesome powers under the UN Charter’s Chapter VII for exacting obedience from any recalcitrant, never could try to discipline Israel. During its Lebanon war of 1982, Israel even informed the Security Council that resolution 509, ordering withdrawal of Israeli forces, had been rejected. After a series of resolutions had met with similar nose-thumbing, the Security Council managed to “censure” Israel for failing to obey UN resolutions. America permitted only up to that and for its own part abstained from voting on resolution 517. Richard Nixon had from 1972 started the American tradition of vetoing Security Council resolutions Israel did not want to see passed. Only on rare occasions could a resolution critical of Israel get through. In the last 34 years, America has vetoed 30 resolutions upbraiding Israel, the latest on July 13, 2006, which had sought an Israeli-Palestinian exchange of prisoners and an end to Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The Security Council could not even hope to do anything about the enormity of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon’s airport, seaports, roads, bridges, power plants, fuel tanks, communication towers, apartment blocks taking hundreds of peaceful lives, in response to Hezbollah’s killing of seven Israeli soldiers and capture of two. America barred the possibility of any kind of a cease-fire resolution. Israel and America had agreed earlier that Lebanon, just rebuilt after three decades of war and civil war, should be beaten again and this time into going along with a plan for destroying Hezbollah. An Israeli general talked of setting the Lebanese clock back by 20 years. Israel’s political leaders told a UN pulse-feeling mission, led by India’s Vijay Nambiar, that they had a wider aim than freeing the two captured soldiers. US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice saw the battering of Lebanon as the birth pangs of a new Middle-East in which, presumably, Syria and Iran will pay court to America and there will be no Palestine. America and Israel argue that this is all because Security Council’s A few Lebanese militias also disappeared but Hezbollah refused on the plea that Israel was still in occupation of Lebanese territory in Shaaba farms, a tiny patch Israel insists is a part of the Syrian Golan Heights it has Hezbollah is the only Arab force which could prevail over their Zionist enemy. With two ministers in the government, Hezbollah is now a part of Lebanon’s communally-balanced delicate power structure. As a militia, it is virtually Lebanon’s army in the south. But Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, miscalculated this time by raiding across the border and taking two Israeli prisoners in the hope of exchanging them for Lebanese and Palestinian in Israeli detention, as he had done once before. Israel was waiting for this kind of an incident to launch its carefully laid plan to even the score with Hezbollah and neutralise it in preparation for an expected American attack on Iran which can be expected to recoil a bit on Israel. Till this writing, Hezbollah has stood its ground for nearly two weeks before the world’s fourth mightiest armed force. And UN, collaterally incapacitated policeman of the world, is watching from the sidelines.
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Plea bargaining: An overdue reform A young girl presents a doctor’s prescription for 100 tablets to a pharmacist in a
drug store in Canada. The pharmacist looks in wonder at the stoutly dressed, well built girl with dozed eyes. He knows that doctors do not generally prescribe more than 10 tablets. He calls up the doctor, who denies having prescribed so many tablets. The pharmacist calls the police. And the girl is charged for altering the prescription. In the court, on the advice of her counsel, she goes to the prosecutor to tell him the circumstances that forced her to become a drug addict. She pleads that she is educated, yet to marry and in search of a good job. She assures de-addiction. The prosecutor is convinced and presents her before the magistrate with a recommendation to accept her plea of admission of guilt and be exonerated from any sentence. The judge is also convinced of genuine repentance and accepts the plea bargain. According to the Law Commission of India, plea bargaining is certainly a viable alternative to deal with huge arrears of criminal cases. Its benefits include an end of uncertainty, saving of the cost of litigation, relieving the anxiety that a prolonged trial may involve and avoiding legal expenses. However, keeping in view the Supreme Court ruling, the commission restricted plea bargaining to offences other than socio-economic offences or offences against women and children. In the US, plea bargaining is available for all crimes and offences. In the UK and Australia, it is permitted only to the extent that the prosecutor and defence can agree that the defendant will plead guilty to some charges while the prosecution will drop other charges. The Malimath Committee report had endorsed the Law Commission’s advice to incorporate plea bargaining in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Plea bargaining seeks to provide relief to many of those who are accused of criminal offences, but are unable to secure ball. Most are languishing in jails as undertrials for years. It is also an alternative method to settle criminal trials and appeals. The accused can apply for plea bargaining voluntarily in the court in which his/her case is pending for trial. The complainant and the accused are given time to work out an amicable settlement of the case. This may include payment of compensation and other expenses incurred during the case. The court disposes of the case by sentencing the accused to one-fourth of the punishment prescribed or may even give benefit of Probation of Offender Act or Section 360 Cr P C in genuine cases. The statement or facts stated by an accused in an application for plea bargaining shall not be used for any purpose other than for plea bargaining and the
judgment.
***** The writer is Advocate, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh
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Profile
She is also a prominent figure on October 2, the
birthday of the Mahatma and on January 30, the anniversary of his
martyrdom, joining the signing of Ram Dhun. Ironically, two weeks
after the 77-year-old Deshpande was serviced the Election Commission
notice, she was conferred the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi National
Sadbhavana Award, instituted to commemorate the contribution made by
persons to promote peace, communal harmony and the fight against
violence. In the past the honour was bestowed on such eminent persons
as Mother Teresa, Shehnai Maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, Lata
Mangeshkar and the late Sunil Dutt. Indeed, Nirmala Deshpande has
dedicated her entire life to the promotion of the work and principles
of Mahatma Gandhi. Thus, the charge that she holds an office of profit
looks so ridiculous. It is well known that she has served the poor,
the deprived and the downtrodden, taking a vow not to get
married. Her tryst with destiny began in 1952 when she joined the
Bhoodan Movement and stayed at Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s Paunar Ashram
at Wardha near Nagpur. She undertook 40,000 kilometers of padyatras
along with Vinobaji to carry the message of Gram Swarajya from state
to state. During the historic march, Vinobaji and his followers
collected thousands of acres of land donated by those who believed in
Gandhiji’s ideals and distributed it among the poor and landless
people. In the eighties and nineties, she was the moving spirit
behind various peace marches in Punjab and Kashmir. Her peace mission
to Kashmir in 1994, initiative to organise the Indo-Pak meet in 1996
and the Sarva Dharm Samabhav Sammelan in various parts of the country
were landmarks in her career of selfless service to the people. For
almost a decade, she relentlessly worked for eschewing communal
violence and promoting peace between India and Pakistan. A few years
back, she visited without security the disturbed areas in Jammu and
Kashmir including such sensitive places as Dada, Bhadarwah and Kistwar.
Affectionately called Didi by her supporters and followers, Ms
Deshpande was born in Nagpur in 1929. Her father, P.Y. Deshpande, was
very active during the Independence movement. He later became a member
of Parliament. He brought up Nirmalaji in an atmosphere which was at
that time considered an unusually open and intellectually free
environment. When she was given opportunity for higher education, she
did her Master’s degree in Political Science. She also studied at
Ferguson College in Pune and later served as a lecturer in Morris
College, Nagpur. Nirmalaji was not fully contended in the closed
environs of the academic world and wanted to serve the people. She
decided to join Vinobaji’s Bhoodan movement and went to the Paunar
Ashram. After Vinobaji’s death, she continued his work. Nirmalaji
is often asked a question: Why most politicians have no interest in
Gandhian values today and are busy pocketing public money? Her reply
has been typical of her style: “Young people have no ears to listen
to good, positive things of life. Lot of positive work is being done.
Wonderful work is being done by young Gandhians. Be it a criminal,
terrorist or gangster, everybody is a human being. If you approach
them as human beings, they will respond. One has to take risks. This
is a Gandhian principle. I have been to Kashmir and Pakistan so many
times and I always moved without security”. The Gandhi Ashram
Reconstruction Trust, led by Nirmalaji, is a unique experiment in
reviving Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and reconstructing Gandhian
institutions to preserve his ideals. “We want to create new Gandhis
who can think and work for social good independently. Our goal is the
discovery and promotion of the processes by which people can learn to
develop discriminative wisdom and see and act upon the truth they
discover for themselves”, she says. The Trust has initiated its
first project at the 20-acre campus of Harijan Sevak Sangh at Kingsway
Camp in Delhi with this purpose.
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Reflections Addressing
a conference of state chief secretaries, the Prime Minister said, “…You will have to empower your police forces to be able to discharge their functions at higher levels of efficiency. You have to show the necessary leadership in this regard…” After the Mumbai blasts, the public is waiting to see a comprehensive package which the elected representatives will provide to ‘compel’ the police leadership to deliver by preventing or pre-empting similar carnages. Regrettably, what stands highlighted so far is, as one national daily said in its headline; ‘Tu-tu, mein-mein over, but terrorism remains a concern...”! This is reflective of a general perception. Let’s see how we can translate effectively our Prime Minister’s advice into reality. Here are some ideas I reflected upon and shared since the Mumbai blasts. I recall when I entered the police service, I experienced several avoidable practices:
All the above issues still exist. Tragically several more have been added: Criminals in political power; human rights of the accused and not of the victim given priority; innumerable newer laws such as drug trafficking, crimes against women, children rights, cyber crimes, environment laws, terrorism laws, white collar crimes, all without provision of or planning for the required infrastructures. To highlight a few of these resource constraints: Number of courts, prosecutors, investigating officers, forensic labs, training infrastructure, weaponry, prisons etc; mobility and technology of criminals outpaces that of normal policing; better and expensive defense available for the accused; fewer convictions; unrelenting political and bureaucratic controls; a deep-rooted patronage culture dominating law enforcement professionals’ work environment; and absence of any form of succession planning in policing. The elected representatives, the civil administration, which includes police leadership, shall have to address all these issues holistically, in a time bound manner. This is what the general public is waiting to see on the ground for long. Some action points….
Elected representatives could then see whether India is shining or dark? Is it tough or
soft? |
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Diversities — Delhi Letter As reports are coming in of Israel’s bombing and pounding of Lebanon, I have been thinking of three men from Lebanon. One is the former Lebanese envoy to India, Jean Daniels. Then, there is the well known Lebanese academic and diplomat Clovis Maksoud whom I had met and interviewed here in New Delhi during the winter of 2005. It was during the years that Jean Daniels was posted here that one got to know the finer details about Lebanese people and cuisine. He had A hardcore bachelor, he gulped down all those bachelor jokes, if not adding a couple more. One aspect which struck me only whilst interacting with him and with Clovis Maksoud or with the Palestinians and with the Iraqis is their strong sense of nationalism. Daniels and Maksoud are both Christians but for them religious slotting didn’t hold sway; it was just that immense love for the country of their roots. Probably, vote bank politics along communal lines and divides doesn’t hold supreme in their country to come in way. There was something so immensely modest and civilised about In the interview, Clovis Maksoud had outlined what had been happening in the region and also the happenings on the US-Arab front. Maksoud had earlier served as Arab League Ambassador to India (1961-66) and later as Ambassador to the UN as also to the US. Later, he shifted to academics. Speaking about the Arab governments and their so-called dependence on America, he was critical. He said: “There is a broad strategic dependence of the Arab States on the US, based on the false assumption that the US is the only power that can make Israel respond to the Palestinian issue. This dependence on the US is flawed because Israel has flouted all international norms. Israel is the only country that has never declared its boundaries since 1967. It has not acknowledged that it is an occupying power and it has given itself the license to expand its settlements. This has meant violating UN resolutions at the Fourth Geneva Convention that do not allow any occupying power to alter the boundaries of the country it occupies. At the same time, the US has chosen to make Israel its principal ally and this has given Israel the license to defy the UN conventions with impunity.” Asked why was he not living in Lebanon, his home country, with great nostalgia, he said he visits that country twice every year. Hopefully, he and Daniels have survived the Israeli unleash on their country. No amount of writing on Lebanon can be termed complete without Kahlil Gibran. I have got to read Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet daily to try and combat with the realities which affect us. No, he is not there to give a sermon or two, rather he makes you introspect. Subtly nudging you to let go, asking you to keep moving away even from those you are emotionally inter webbed; to take care of the other’s individuality, the particularity of each. Above all, not to pass severe strictures or get judgmental. To have come up with such insight when he lived for only 48 years. Born in 1883 in Lebanon’s mountain town of Bsharreh, he had migrated from Lebanon to Boston in 1894 with his mother and half brother and two sisters. Though he lived most of the years in New York, he couldn’t really ever forget his Lebanese roots. So much so he had willed royalties from all his book for the people of his hometown, Bsharreh. I don’t know how much of it remains with the constant bombing from Israel. Gibran wrote on any given reality or situation that a human being could be in. Of love, Kahlil Gibran has written in his book, The Prophet — “When love beckons you, follow him /Though his ways are hard and
steep/ And when his wings enfold you yield to him/ Though the sword hidden among the pinions may wound you /And when he speaks to you believe in him / Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.”
Mid-week saw the release of the book, Riding The Himalayas. Written by Keki N. Daruwalla, with photographs by Ashok Dilwali, it is published by Niyogi Books. I should say, it was one of the best attended book releases. Rains nor blockades seemed to stand in way as Delhi’s who’s who was seen at the Habitat Centre for this book launch. I must also add that Soli J. Sorabjee makes the perfect chief guest. The former Attorney General spoke for just a couple of minutes. And within that short span, he dwelt on the book, the author and more along the spontaneous
strain.
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Because of mammon, faith is lost Within that lies the quicksilver world of the mind. The quest of truth involves self-sufferings, sometimes even unto death.
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