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The shame of Patran Defunct panels |
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Spending powers
Casual approach to terrorism
Fools do not grow on trees
Don’t quit, Mr Speaker Not so secret – protests in China Delhi Durbar
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The shame of Patran THE mass grave of female foetuses discovered behind a private hospital at Patran near Patiala is only a tip of the iceberg. From the accounts in the Press, the couple who ran the establishment had a roaring practice. Every month a dozen or so cases were referred to the hospital by a diagnostic centre, not far away, where an ultrasound machine determined the sex of the foetus. The existence of the Pre-Natal Diagnostics Technique (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act in the statute book, which made checking the sex of an unborn child a cognizable offence, made no difference to the couple who raked in enormous profit killing girls in the wombs of their mothers. It was not a vigilant administration which busted the racket and brought the police to an abandoned well where the unborn daughters were thrown
into. It was at the end of a little haggling by one of the lady staff members of the hospital over her salary and the refusal of the couple to oblige her that she went to the authorities and spilled the beans. The point is, had not the quarrel occurred the couple would have continued their practice. There are many such hospitals all over the state and beyond where at a cost parents can ensure that their girl child is killed in the womb and the foetus thrown somewhere without inviting charges of murder. The PNDTA was enacted with hullabaloo when the male-female sex ratio in states like Punjab and Haryana caused alarm among social scientists, demographers and all those who value human life, whether male or female. For all the efficacy of the Act, there has so far been only one case of conviction while hospitals like the one at Patran are in clandestine business in several districts of the state. The Act is a powerful instrument in maintaining the natural ratio of men and women provided the authorities show the determination to use it against parents who kill their daughters before they are born, preferring the birth of a son, and the ultrasound-wallas and doctors who pay scant regard to the law or morality. Punjab needs deputy commissioners like that of Nawanshahr, who has made it a mission to fight the evil of female foeticide and redeem the fair name of the state. Why cannot Captain Amarinder Singh’s government ask all district authorities to crack down on ultrasound clinics that are being misused for the greed of the doctors who are running them?
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Defunct panels Supreme Court Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal has rightly lamented the lackadaisical attitude of the state governments towards the state human rights commissions. At a function in Lucknow the other day, he deplored the fact that only 14 states had constituted these commissions in the past 13 years and even among them, the post of chairman has been lying vacant in four states. Worse, some commissions are virtually defunct. Who is responsible for this sad state of affairs? Clearly, the state governments cannot be absolved of blame for their failure to constitute human rights commissions. Their callous and irresponsible attitude has increased the workload of the National Human Rights Commission considerably. One reason for the continuing malady is the state governments’ reluctance to empower the state human rights commissions with more teeth and financial autonomy. Justice Sabharwal raises a pertinent question: how can one expect a commission to deliver the goods if the government does not provide adequate staff and infrastructural support? As things stand today, a state commission does not have the right to employ even a clerk. If the commission authorities are forced to take rounds of the ministries concerned for arranging employees and infrastructure, when will they get time to work for human rights? There is a need to constitute the human rights commission in all the states as a matter of priority. In the states where they are already existing, they need to be revamped and strengthened. The state governments should play a pro-active role in this regard and must have faith in the respective commissions’ chairmen and members. As Justice Sabharwal said, if the state commissions are given more teeth, they can become effective partners in good governance. Human rights, according to him, is not just confined to checking custodial deaths. The non-availability of clean drinking water and air and the lack of access to proper health care facilities and minimum nutrition needs are also a violation of human rights. Extending the scope of human rights commissions further, Justice Sabharwal rightly recommended the setting up of human rights authorities in all districts and talukas so that the common man stood to gain from various welfare measures.
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Spending powers THE move to strengthen decision making and provide more financial authority to the service chiefs of the armed forces is in line with the progressive devolution of powers that many experts have called for. It has been quite a few years since the Group of Ministers, constituted following the Kargil Review Committee’s recommendations, submitted their reports in 2000. Many of their key recommendations are yet to be implemented in full, in letter and spirit. Among them is the need “to progressively decentralise decision-making and delegate powers to Service Headquarters, wherever feasible.” The GoM, in fact, had constituted two further committees to specifically look into the delegation of financial and administrative powers. At that time in 2000, spending up to a mere Rs. 20 crore was approved at the level of the Defence Minister and up to Rs. 50 crore at the level of the Finance Minister. Higher amounts needed the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). These powers had been fixed a decade prior to that. These amounts have since been raised. The Defence Minister has now devolved some authority to the chiefs. But it is still well short of what can be considered ideal. Much of the increase will only be taken up by inflation. In addition, as the GoM had stressed, the decision-making apparatus of Service Headquarters itself needs to be strengthened so that they can make full use of any delegation of authority. Ultimately, however, piece-meal measures will not suffice. The whole gamut of recommendations made on defence management under the GoM, by a task force headed by Arun Singh, need to be seriously considered. The government is clearly lukewarm on a Chief of Defence Staff. But other needs, like long-term strategic planning inured from year to year budgets that the forces are currently saddled with, are a priority. The tenth defence plan (2002-2007) period comes to an end next year. It is an opportunity for the government to break from the past and usher in long-term planning, and put in place a speedy and effective decision-making structure.
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Anatomy is destiny. — Sigmund Freud
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Casual approach to terrorism
SINCE some excellent ideas on how to combat the great and growing menace of terrorism — spelled out by noted experts, some of whom have spent a lifetime dealing with internal security, at a meeting in New Delhi over a week ago — have gone completely unreported, this article is an attempt to fill the gap. An attempt to consult some other distinguished specialists who hadn’t spoken at the meeting brought me an earful. “When so many members of both Houses of Parliament act with such appalling lack of discipline, when the nation’s apex legislature is not allowed even to function, how do you expect others down the line to do their duty with diligence? Consistently mishandled at the very top, the ship of the state is bound to flounder”, they said with striking unanimity. Not in such blunt words, but in essence, this was one of the several messages of the meeting at the India International Centre, too. Mr N. N. Vohra, formerly Defence Secretary, Home Secretary and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister; Mr Ajit Doval, a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau; Mr B. Raman, a former deputy chief of the external intelligence agency, RAW; and Mr Ajai Sahni, Director of a think-tank focused on internal security, were all agreed that the country’s political ambience was unfortunately not conducive to an effective fight against the tide of terrorism and other threats to internal security, of which jihadi terrorism was being sponsored and supported from across the border. Mr Doval pointed out that the decade-long Punjab insurgency was the result of the utterly irresponsible political competition between the Akali party and the Congress, and blatant rigging of elections in Jammu and Kashmir had contributed to the eruption of the ongoing insurgency in that sensitive state. He voiced concern over the Indian State’s indifference to a UP minister’s demand for a “Muslim Pradesh”, another’s offer of a huge award for killing a cartoonist in Denmark, and to the massive and illegal immigration from Bangladesh, a hotbed of anti-India activity. In a speech that was as candid as it was balanced, Mr Raman stressed that the Muslim community’s concerns and apprehensions would be better addressed if in predominantly Muslim mohallas there were a “greater presence” of Muslim policemen than at present. On the other hand, he added, gone were the days when this country could say proudly that no Indian Muslim had joined Al-Qaeda or other cross-border jihadi groups. In all the recent outrages such as the bomb blasts in Mumbai trains, half the perpetrators were Indian Muslims and the remaining 50 per cent Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals. Nor was this coincidental that Al-Qaeda had extended its jihad from the “crusaders” and the Jews also to the Hindus. The kind of vigilance, networking and efficient detection and demolition of jihadi modules that the situation cried out for, he regretted, was lacking. Elsewhere, he disclosed later that while the railway police at Mumbai did have sniffer dogs, it was using them only on long-distance trains, not at all on suburban trains. He has also pointed out many flaws in the quality and pace of the subsequent investigations. According to Mr Raman, despite being one of the worst victims of terrorism, India does little to learn from the experience of others. As far back as at the time of the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, the US and even Singapore had rushed their experts to the city to study what had happened. New Delhi had done nothing to study the terrorist attacks on railway trains in Madrid and London to this day. From Mr Vohra came the pertinent point that the federal government had hardly any role in fighting terrorism because law and order was a state subject! There was not even an all-embracing federal law to meet this grave threat, to say nothing of a proper federal institution for this purpose. On one occasion in the recent past during Mr Vajpayee’s time an attempt was made to persuade the National Development Council, consisting of all state chief ministers, to set up the requisite Central machinery. Most chief ministers were inclined to agree, but one opposed the idea so strongly as to put paid to it. What a contrast this makes to the US where, almost on the morrow of September 11, 2001, the White House set up the Federal Department of Home Security with immense powers, some of which have drawn legitimate criticism of late. But then there is a critical difference between the Indian and American situations. After the traumatic destruction of the twin-towers all the Democratic Senators had trooped to the Pentagon and assured the Defense Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, that they would offer full support to whatever steps the Bush administration considered necessary to take. Sadly, there is no such consensus in this country even on a matter of supreme national interest. Sordid political discord has distorted the national view of something so threatening as terrorism. If Mr Narendra Modi and his Hindutva cohorts play dirty politics of one kind, such secularists as Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and others of his ilk act equally deplorably on the other extreme. Strangely, the grand old man of the ruling alliance in Tamil Nadu, Mr M. Karunanidhi, is finding it expedient to placate known extremists held in prison on very serious charges. With the political set-up in so shockingly alarming and dangerous state, nothing better can be expected from the bureaucracy that is no less self-serving. On top of it, there is the evidently ineradicable and galloping scourge of corruption. It is virtually omnipresent and omnipotent. And it will defeat even the best-laid plans to save the country from the free play of forces of terrorism, lawlessness, disruption and downright destruction. It is impossible not to mention the case of a Collector, Customs, who had collaborated fully with the gangsters of Dawood Ibrahim in landing one and a half tons of RDX at Maharashtra coast just before the 1993 serial bomb blasts. Caught and questioned, he wept, fell on his knees and begged forgiveness on the specious ground that he had “honestly believed” that the Mafia Don’s men were brining in the “usual” contraband of gold! It speaks volumes for India’s casualness towards terrorism that the man was never put on trial. By invoking the doctrine of “Presidential pleasure”, he was just removed from service. Why? No one
seems able to explain.
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Fools do not grow on trees
FOOLS abound in abundance. They are found everywhere, in all walks of life. Several occurrences reported in papers everyday are live examples of this. Through a number of news reports it was brought home to the public that no eatables may be accepted and consumed while travelling in the company of strangers. Still, people tend to fall prey to such attractions. Recently, a man while travelling from Chandigarh to Delhi by bus was drugged and dumped after taking tea and biscuits from a co-passenger. He was also robbed of all his valuables. Reports continue to pour in about the money being stolen from the cars and scooter dickeys. In one case, Rs 1 lakh stolen was from the scooter dickey. Lakhs of rupees were stolen from locked cars left alone for a short duration. People simply refuse to take a lesson. Then some unscrupulous vagabonds offer to double the ornaments of unsuspecting housewives only to cheat them in broad daylight. Who else but their greed was responsible and they forgot about the warning. In another case, during a rush in the market, a person appeared to tell another man that his money had fallen on the road. While he went to retrieve the amount, he found his purse missing on return. Man is one’s own worst enemy and does not stop short of digging his own grave. History is full of examples of sheer tomfoolery. Shahnshah Akbar called his Wazir-e-Ala Birbal and ordered him to prepare and produce by next morning a list of foolish persons living in his kingdom. Just then, the Chobdar (orderly) entered the Darbar Hall and announced the arrival of a horse trader from Arabia. The trader was produced before Akbar. He offered to sell his best horses to the King and demanded an advance of one lakh gold mohurs, which were promptly paid. The next morning as ordered, Birbal gave him the list of fools. Akbar was shocked to find his name on the top of the list of fools. The King was beside himself with rage and asked Birbal to explain his conduct. Birbal brought to the notice of the King the incident of having paid a huge amount to the horse trader without taking delivery of the horses. Akbar was taken aback on hearing this but enquired of Birbal what if the trader returned to deliver the horses. To this, Birbal replied that in that eventuality he would delete the King’s name from the list and add that of the trader, but the stigma of foolishness would remain all the same. The above instances prove that fools do not grow on trees but they are born here and
there.
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Don’t quit, Mr Speaker THE long suffering Speaker of the Lok Sabha or, for that matter, the Chairman, must not resign even though it seems they have reason enough to do so personally. And that reason, in the case of the Speaker, lies in former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s unfortunate letter, so uncharacteristic of him. If the letter is genuine as it appears to be, it can only be explained by the personal compulsion of a leader who appears to have yielded to the strident voices in the NDA, in a moment of weakness. But then, the Speaker or the Chairman in our system are not mere individuals occupying glittering throne-like Chairs in the Houses of Parliament. They personify the institution of Parliament. With them, institutional reasons must prevail over the personal on a priority basis. Atalji’s letter hurts not only Mr. Speaker but all those who admire Atalji and regard him as a liberal democrat and parliamentarian par excellence. Atalji is right when he says that confidence has to be commanded and not demanded, but then it is an underserved slur on the Speaker on whom Atalji has been unreasonably harsh. The respect for the Speaker may not be demanded, but then it cannot also be remanded to the anger and the fury or the custody of any particular group in Parliament. In failing to give implicit respect to the institution of Speaker, the House did not cover itself with glory. Nor did the BJP, which was believed to be a party with a difference. The nation witnessed it all on the television and it routinely shares the anguish of the two presiding officers of our bicameral Parliament. One wishes Atalji had introspected more impartially as a witness and an umpire. He should have guided the NDA courageously, candidly and persuasively as he alone could and still can. His letter to the Speaker was a tragic departure from the standards of objectivity the country has come to expect of him as a statesman of exceptional stature. It was the unkindest cut of all for Mr Speaker, coming as it did from Atalji who allowed himself to lend his support to the parliamentary pandemonium and pressure which appeared to be a partisan aberration. All that the Speaker was trying to do was to canalise the ire of the Opposition into informed debate. If Atalji were to be in the Speaker’s Chair, he would have done the same as did Mr Speaker. Surely Atalji knows it only too well that neither the Opposition nor the Government is entitled to set itself up as an arbiter over a presiding officer’s functions and to dictate to him. The whole nation was watching the scene which was far from edifying. We saw the disrobing of Democracy by errant Members. We expected the Bhishma Pitamah of our parliamentary Mahabharat to step forward and halt it all and give the House a clear sense of balance and direction. Had he done so, the country’s love and respect for him would have been greatly reinforced. No doubt Natwar Singh is entitled to his day in Parliament. The people can also understand NDA’s new found love of momentary convenience for Natwar Singh. There is little doubt that Parliament is entitled to take umbrage on the leakage. Natwar Singh is entitled to his day in Parliament. But surely it has to be a battle of facts and logic, and wit and wisdom. What the whole nation saw was the angry flood of party-political anger and invective spelling a cacophony of conflicting voices with far too many members of Parliament on their feet at the same time, and far too members in the pits or the wells of the Houses, when it was the duty of one and all to give aid, support and comfort to the Chair in the thick of the unruly conduct of the deliberations of the Houses. The House had elected the Speaker unanimously and should now ask the Speaker unanimously to stay in office lest his resignation should raise an unprecedented and disastrous debate against our parliamentary system, a system which is ultimately meant to be the grand inquest of the nation with dignity and good sense. The Parliamentary system of India cannot afford to fall from its democratic grace at this critical juncture. Atalji owes it to Parliamentary Democracy in India and to his own distinguished parliamentary career, which has been a saga of a glorious innings, to take a new initiative to create a climate of mutual respect, reciprocity and reconciliation. Equally, the Speaker owes it to the system to desist from departing from the office in dismay, by means of a resignation, which would signify a tragic collapse of parliamentary culture and institutional ethos, and our sense of pride in the system. It lies within Atalji’s power and responsibility to begin a process of mending the fences and restoring the confidence of the Indian Parliamentary system in itself, though often impaired by unprincipled and strident allegiance to convenient and bullish populism by the political parties, a bullish and imprudent populism into which Indian democracy cannot over invest. That bullish populism must correct itself quickly if parliamentary democracy is to be of the people and for the people. The writer, a former High Commissioner to the U.K (1991-98), is at present a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague
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Not so secret – protests in China
BEIJING – The Chinese government, which has battled a surge of social unrest in recent years, reported recently that there were 39,000 cases of “public order disruptions” in the first half of 2006. The Ministry of Public Security said that the figure represented a 2.5 percent decrease in the number of protests over the same period in 2005, though it offered no explanation of how it had come up with the figures. China is in the midst of dramatic social and economic transformations that have created a two-tier society separated by a widening gap in incomes. Social discontent has been on the rise, fueled by income disparities, land disputes, pollution problems and an inadequate legal system that is widely seen as failing to address the people’s needs. Beijing is normally reluctant to reveal negative information, especially about public disturbances that could tarnish China’s international reputation and undermine one-party control. But in recent years, the central government has grown increasingly concerned about the impact of unrest on economic development and social stability. President Hu Jintao has made a “harmonious society” the cornerstone of his administration, hoping to strike a balance in a country battered by lopsided growth and a rising sense of inequality. “This society is anything but just and harmonious,” said Robin Munro, research director at China Labor Bulletin, based in Hong Kong. “The government would rather not publicize these numbers,” he said. “But they are so alarmed by the protests they felt compelled to issue them as a wake-up call, especially to local government officials, telling them you must do something about this issue and not focus simply on economic goals.” When Beijing did begin to announce protest figures in recent years, the statistics were surprisingly high. Last year, the reported 87,000 cases of public disturbances were up 6.6 percent from the previous year and 50 percent from 2003, when the figure stood at 58,000. Illegal land grabs are a major source of tension. In December, paramilitary police opened fire on villagers in southern China’s Guangdong province protesting what they said was insufficient compensation for land appropriated for a new power plant. The government said three villagers were killed. Labor unrest also appears to be increasing among laid-off state workers in the cities and rural migrants working for private companies. In July, more than 1,000 factory workers making toys for McDonald’s and other international companies rioted in southern China over low pay and poor living conditions, according to labor rights groups. The dire state of China’s environment also has been a rallying point across the nation for residents tired of drinking toxic water, breathing contaminated air and eating poisoned crops. Last year, villagers in one coastal region were so angered by contamination from nearby chemical plants that they said were killing their harvest and sickening their children that they rioted and clashed with police, overturning and smashing cars. Thousands of petitioners make their way to the Chinese capital each year, hoping to air their unresolved grievances before higher authorities. Last month, a rights group said a farmer set himself on fire on Tiananmen Square, the political heart of the nation and a magnet for protesters hoping to draw attention to their causes. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar WOMEN from the Kashmir Valley are peeved that they have been excluded from the peace process and overlooked even during the Prime Minister’s roundtable conferences. At a convention in the Capital recently, representatives of these women, some who are victims of the violence in Kashmir, articulated their thoughts on the conflict and the possible ways of bringing peace and calm to Jammu and Kashmir. While some were skeptical of being recognised for their ability to be harbingers of peace, others were more optimistic. Not to be cowed down by disregard from the government, a representative from Ladakh, Sarla Chawang, urged women to assert their rights. Net savvy MPs Parliamentarians are set to become net savvy with the ‘Committee on Provision of Computers to Members of Lok Sabha’ deciding to provide them broadband internet facility. They have been given two options: (i) A maximum of 100 GB data download @ 512 kbps speed against 10,000 surrendered call units per annum with 0.50 paise per MB on every additional MB consumed; or (ii) Unlimited data download @ 256 kbps speed against 10,000 surrendered call units per annum. Maybe technology will finally sway the way parliamentarians perform.
Congress-Akali turf war As the elections to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha are approaching fast, the turf war between the ruling Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal has intensified. The Amarinder Singh government is making all-out efforts to get the Supreme Court to lift the stay of the trial in corruption cases against former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and other Akali leaders. On the other hand, SAD MP Rattan Singh Ajnala has also knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court by re-opening a decade-old case pertaining to the adverse findings by Punjab Lok Pal against at least half-a-dozen state Congress leaders, including PCC President Shamsher Singh Dullo, on allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Uttarkhand With Uttaranchal due for Assembly elections early next year, the state Congress is pressing the Centre to change the name of the state to “Uttarkhand” in the hope of touching a popular chord. State PCC chief Harish Rawat has written to the Prime Minister to take the decision to change the name of the state in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament so that the state celebrates its foundation day on November 9 with the changed name. The Congress, which has been plagued by some internal problems in the state, hopes that change of name would earn it a lot of goodwill.
Quota casualty Delhi University, which was among the first to voice its concern over the implementation of quotas, has withdrawn its proposal to house the new aquatic complex for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The sudden change of heart, which has sent the Organising Committee scouring for a new venue, is being attributed to the government’s insistence on implementing reservation for OBCs from the next academic session. The fund-starved university, which gets barely enough to meet its expenditure claims, housing a new aquatic complex is a project it can ill afford, both in terms of space and money. Contributed by Smriti Kak Ramachandran, R.
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From the pages of J.P. Wind, not Indira wave THE country’s political complex has undergone a dramatic change with the waning of the Indira wave. Now it is the JP wind that is prevailing. Whether it is a passing phenomenon or would grow into a whirlwind will be known in the months to come. Things at the moment are in a fluid state. In JP the country has at last found a countervailing force vis-à-vis the well-entrenched Congress establishment. True, people of all shades and opinion have jumped on the JP bandwagon, and this is both the strength as well as the weakness of the movement. The socialists are in it. So are pseudo-socialists, half-socialists, and quarter-socialists. The C.P.M., as usual, is sitting on the fence and if it has not joined JP’s “total revolution,” it is not because of its lack of sympathy, but its fear of the movement stealing whatever thunder is left in the party.
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Never covet what others have. It is a deadly sin which grows away from all happiness. Learn to be happy with what you have. — The Buddha
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