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Comrade’s fusillade Arms and the money Letter from DGP |
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Dealing with tainted MPs
Hrishida, goodbye
China’s ‘Look West’ This news is not
for you Delhi Durbar
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Comrade’s fusillade CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has initiated a debate on the functioning of the Election Commission with his proposal for an amendment to the Constitution in this regard. The circumstances in which the party has taken the plunge are too well known to merit mention. Unlike Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mr Narendra Modi who, too, questioned the bona fides of the EC when elections were held in their states but did not persist with their complaints once the results were out, the CPM continues to be bitter about its experience during this year’s elections in West Bengal. In brief, the party wants to curtail the powers of the commission so that it is not able to enforce its diktats on the state governments. To put it mildly, this is unacceptable as an independent body like the EC is necessary for holding free and fair elections. The CPM wants a group consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India to choose members of the EC. Whatever be the method of the selection, the commission should have unfettered power for holding free and fair elections. It can be debated whether such staggered polls as Kerala and Haryana were subjected to the last time they went to polls are necessary or not. Also, whether all government decisions should be held in abeyance from the date an election is announced to the date the results are declared or not. But in no way should Central and state governments be allowed to browbeat the commission on one pretext or another. In all matters concerning the holding of elections, the EC’s should be the last word as has been underlined by several decisions of the Supreme Court. Even in West Bengal where the CPM believes the EC played a partisan role, the Left Front won a decisive victory in what even its worst critics concede was the fairest election ever held in the state. Seen against this backdrop, any step that strengthens the EC to withstand political pressures is welcome. In this context, Mr Karat’s proposal that there should be a bar on the EC members accepting government jobs and party tickets to contest elections after retirement has a lot to commend itself. Such a restriction will only beef up the independence of the Election Commission, which is a must for the success of democracy in the country. |
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Arms and the money For every soldier and defence planner who has dreamed of a comprehensive defence procurement policy that would eliminate corruption and ensure the timely delivery of the right equipment at the right price, there have been leaks, scandals and delays galore. It is not clear yet if there is such a policy in place though the Defence Procurement Policy and Manual 2006 has been released by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. But his claim to a “moment of great personal satisfaction” with the introduction of these documents, which have evolved over the last couple of years, would suggest that a lot of work has indeed gone into ensuring faster and cleaner procurement. Prima facie, a shift of approach to a top-down mode, where the Defence Acquisition Council would lead critical decision making, augurs well. Many delays occur simply because of obvious hurdles as a piece of paper works its way up the bureaucracy. There is also a welcome focus on fast-track procedures to meet urgent requirements. More transparency and free and open competition on everything from the tendering process to field trials of weapons systems are positive steps. There are other provisions enabling better participation from the private industry and a more rational approach to the “buy” or “buy and make” type of decisions, along with a continued “offset” policy applying to 30 per cent of the value of a deal. A comprehensive policy was sorely needed, as corruption and delays have compromised modernisation of the arsenal and operational preparedness and readiness of the forces. The country is on the threshold of the 11th Defence Plan covering 2007-2012, when an estimated Rs 1,00,000 crore will be spent on acquisitions alone. The annual defence budget, including spending on the revenue account, will itself cross the Rs 1,00,000-crore mark in a year or two. It stands at Rs 89,000 crore this year. Hopefully, the policy initiatives will also mark the beginning of long-term defence planning and funding, extending up to a 15-year period. |
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Letter from DGP It is gratifying to know that the DGP of Punjab knows that his men register false cases against innocent people and allow criminals to go scot-free under the influence of politicians. The whole world knew this fact but since policemen went about this shady practice without check, one thought that the top brass was just not plugged in. Now that the DGP has written a “highly confidential” letter to his SSPs in this regard, at least the grouse that he has tightly shut his eyes to the grim realities is gone. But being in the know is only a small part of the job of the police head. He is also supposed to make sure that such illegalities do not happen. To ensure that, he will have to go way beyond merely putting his pen to the paper. Since Mr S.S.Virk is aware of what the policemen do and don’t do, he must also be in the know of an old phrase that actions speak louder than words. Had he sent a few guilty persons through the ringer, word would have travelled at lightning speed to everyone down the line that the antics of the policemen who wanted to be on the right side of the political bosses even if that was by breaking or bending the law would not be tolerated. His letter is an abiding proof in itself that the policemen have been indulging in shady activities of the worst kind. “Cases are registered under political influence or money power in order to intimidate people on the basis of their political alignments,” he candidly admits in the letter and goes on to add in good measure: “Cases against anti-social elements or guilty persons are not registered under some political or extraneous considerations and no effort is made to give justice to the aggrieved persons”. Rules have been twisted around police fingers far too often, but still, the offences that he has mentioned are very much punishable. The obvious corollary to the letter is to go after the guilty cops. At the same time, the higher-ups should lead by example. They must stop kow-towing to netas for plum postings and promotions.
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Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth. — Philip Larkin
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Dealing with tainted MPs
Dedicated leaders who framed the Constitution gave us a sovereign, democratic republic enabling every citizen of the country to uphold the noble ideas that inspired our national struggle for freedom. The 11 members of Parliament caught in the cash-for-questions scam, as also seven other members found misusing the funds given to them under the MP Local Area Development Scheme, have betrayed the trust of those whom they represent in the august House. The government had, on December 23, 1993, introduced and passed with rare unanimity, the M P Local Area Development Scheme granting to every member of Parliament an annual sum of Rs 1 crore for initiating projects of his or her choice in their respective local areas. This grant was increased by Parliament to Rs 2 crore for the financial year 1998-99, though the demand for further increase of the grant to Rs 5 crore in 2001 was mercifully rejected. It is distressing that our MPs do not bother to even ponder whether the scheme runs counter to the constitutional provisions in Part V, Chapter II, which do not permit Parliament to execute such development schemes. Article 53 of the Constitution provides that the executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution. In our parliamentary system of government, the President acts with the aid and advice of his Council of Ministers (Articles 74, 77). The members of Parliament may be public servants under the penal laws of the country but are not officers subordinate to the President. The discharge of any of the executive functions of the President by members of Parliament is, therefore, plainly ultra vires the Constitution and clearly illegal. That, in fact, has been the consistent view of several eminent persons, including Justice Krishna Iyer, former Judge of the Supreme Court. They have characterised this scheme as unconstitutional and a source of patronage and corruption. One can go a step further and denounce such schemes as striking at the very root of fair and free elections in a healthy democratic set-up as mandated by the Constitution. It would only be in the fitness of things if the MP Local Area Development Scheme is scrapped immediately by Parliament itself, which, incidentally, was the initial reaction of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. Such a course would be better than leaving it to the apex court to declare the scheme as unconstitutional in the matter pending before it. With regard to the cash for questions scam, Article 84 of the Constitution mandates that a person shall not be qualified to be chosen to fill a seat in Parliament unless he or she is a citizen of India and makes and subscribes before some person authorised in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath of affirmation according to the form set out in the Third Schedule swearing that he or she will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as per law established and that he or she will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India. The question then arises as to whether the century-old Indian Penal Code, which places bribe-givers and bribe-takers on the same footing, disqualifies the members of Parliament caught in the cash-for-questions scam under Article 103 of the Constitution. It is true that in the 1993 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case, the apex court, by a majority of three to two, ruled in its decision reported in AIR 1993 SC 2120 that bribe-giving members of Parliament could be prosecuted for the offence but not the bribe-taking members. But, then, this case did not raise the question of disqualification of tainted members; rather, it related to the prosecution of members of Parliament for taking and giving bribes for voting in a particular way during the no-confidence motion against the government, during the monsoon session of Parliament on July 21, 1993. That apart, it would be worth considering whether such a finding of the apex court is consistent with the universal principle of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution. Given that no court, including the apex court, can overlook or disregard the Constitution, the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Jharkhand bribery case is per incuriam and has no binding force. Under the Constitution, it is open to the President to refer the question of the disqualification of the tainted members of Parliament to the Election Commission for its opinion. Indeed, Article 103 of the Constitution does not indicate who can move the President for making such reference, which can presumably be made at the instance of anyone in public interest. The opinion of the Election Commission has expressly been made binding on the President by virtue of Article 103 (2) of the Constitution, thus excluding “the aid and advice” of his Council of Ministers. Parliament, in exercise of its plenary power, has expelled the concerned tainted members. It is for Parliament to decide whether such expulsion of members is adequate punishment for lowering the dignity of the House, just as it is for Parliament to take penal action for corruption in accordance with the law against all, including those involved in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery case. Judicial interference in such an exercise of power by Parliament on matters falling exclusively within its sphere would surely be unwarranted and unjustified.n The writer is a senior advocate, Supreme Court of India.
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Hrishida, goodbye
When Hrishikesh Mukherjee died at 84 in Mumbai last week it was a legend (in his lifetime) that had passed away. His contribution to Indian cinema is immense, even enormous, and his films were an amalgam of the two streams which have sadly been compartmentalised as commercial and art cinema. His “Anand” was clearly a pathbreaker and “Khubsoorat” and “Golmaal” not far behind. I just loved the title of one of his latter-day films “Jhoot Bole, Kaua Kate”, because of its old world charm and philosophy. In today’s world “Jhoot na bole…” would be more like it, but that, as they say, is quite another story. Not being very conversant with Indian cinema (I dislike the term Bollywood) I was unfortunate not to have seen many of his films as was also the case with G.Aravindan. But I knew Hrishida as a person and what a fine, soft-spoken man he was. Until about a year ago we always had long telephonic conversations till he was too sick to even speak on the phone. We were on the Censor Board together, guess that was in 1978 when he was chairman. He was also chairman of the National Film Development Corporation for which he took no remuneration, a token one rupee or something to that effect, he had once told me. He is believed to have been a wealthy man and so was not dependent on films for money but his true wealth was his talent. But unlike some of today’s upstarts he always found time for friends. Whether at the IFFI or any seminar he was always accessible. That’s a sign of true greatness. Being a Bengali it is not at all surprising that he was philosophical. “Menezes, I have come back to the Communist philosophy,” he once told me quite sincerely though it was much before the Soviet version crumbled. But Hrishida was not afraid to speak his mind. He may have been soft, but may be that gave the content even more mileage. He was succeeded as the Censor Board chairman by Bikram Singh, another giant who passed away over a decade ago. They no longer make them like that any more. Integrity, principles are qualities that have gone out of the window long ago. But to live to be 84 and not be lonely is almost impossible. That’s precisely what happened to Hrishida whose pet dogs and loyal servants were among his few companions. The world moves along. Everyone is busy doing his or her own thing. Not for nothing did T.S. Eliot say: “This is the way the world will end, not with a bang but a whimper.” Goodbye,
Hrishida. |
China’s ‘Look West’ KASHGAR, China – Not too long ago, Kashgar was a sleepy town with mud houses, largely unchanged since Marco Polo trekked through in the 13th century. Marco Polo is said to have found Kashgar an oasis when he arrived here in 1275 on his journey through the Silk Road. But now this frontier town, like other outposts in China’s far west, is booming with oil, cotton, coal and trade. Trains, new highways and an international airport are bringing thousands of people from neighboring Pakistan who want to take in the tourist sites and buy inexpensive Chinese goods. A few months ago, oil from Kazakhstan arrived by way of a new 600-mile pipeline financed by energy-hungry China. Trade with neighbors Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is breaking records. China’s soaring economy is often pictured in gleaming skyscrapers in coastal cities. But like America’s Westward Ho of the 1800s, Beijing’s Go West campaign of the last decade is transforming vast swaths of Central Asia by opening up China’s western hinterlands, populated by millions of minority peoples. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese have flocked here, hoping to cash in with new construction jobs and business ventures. Beijing, analysts say, is pushing west with two clear motives: to spread economic development and to keep in check Tibetans and, here in Xinjiang region, the Uighurs, Muslims of Turkic descent. Some 9 million Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs) live in Xinjiang, and over the years separatist groups have clashed violently with Chinese forces, demanding independence and religious freedom. For now, Beijing seems to have strengthened its economic and political grip in the region. While China has been a caldron of unrest, with 87,000 sometimes-violent protests nationwide last year, there has been no large-scale rioting in Xinjiang in two years, according to experts who track such activity. Human rights groups have accused the Chinese of taking advantage of America’s war on terrorism, following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to increase repression of Uighurs. Beijing has repeatedly denied the claim, even as it has cracked down on Uighur activists and successfully lobbied the United States to label as terrorists a group of militant Uighurs in Xinjiang. Although Beijing has used guns and force in the past to restrain Uighurs, in its arsenal of late have been people such as Wong So Nok, a merchant trader from Shenzhen in southeast China. When Wong arrived in 1998, there were more donkey carts than taxis in the city’s mostly dirt roads. Kashgar and other areas of Xinjiang were still smoldering from rioting, bus bombings and assassinations in which scores of people were killed and injured. The streets here have since quieted. Today, the 50-year-old Wong sits behind a stately desk, overseeing the construction of an entrepot and international trading center similar to China’s giant wholesale market in Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang Province, where more than 3,000 foreign traders flock daily. Some of those traders in Yiwu travel from Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Wong’s $50 million International Trade City in Kashgar will shorten their trip. “We’re creating a bridge to Central Asia,’’ he says. Beijing has poured $15 billion for roads, dams and power transmission lines. State-owned energy companies have kicked in billions more, helping to pay for the 600-mile pipeline from Kazakhstan’s Caspian coast. Xinjiang may be the linchpin of Beijing’s push westward. The region is the size of Alaska, occupying one-sixth of China’s land mass. Its climate and terrain is as varied as California’s, with deserts and towering mountain ranges. Xinjiang is rich in coal and cotton, fruits and wine. Although government figures on migration aren’t available, at least 180,000 Chinese from one distant province alone, Zhejiang, are estimated to have settled and started businesses in Xinjiang, many in the last decade. The Han Chinese account for more than 90 percent of China’s population and about 40 percent of Xinjiang’s almost 20 million residents, according to the latest figures from Beijing. Western scholars believe there are many more Han Chinese in Xinjiang than official government statistics show. Their influx has made over Urumqi. Apart from Arabic signs in Uighur enclaves, Urumqi resembles most Chinese cities, with an abundance of pale apartment buildings, a People’s Square in the center of town and KFCs sprinkled throughout. Residents say Beijing’s ongoing campaign has chilled Uighurs’ hopes for an independent state. Many Uighurs declined to be interviewed, fearful of reprisals from police. Others said that it was better to tow the line and secure economic gains, rather than spend time on political activities that would be quickly quashed. In Kashgar, narrow alleys that meander through earthen houses are redolent of lamb and naan bread, sold by bearded skull-capped old men. Young craftsmen with their fathers sit in stalls fashioning bronze pots and Turkish long-neck lutes. Some Uighur merchants are prospering from a rise in Chinese tourists and expanding trade with Central Asia. But many Uighurs, especially those older, cannot communicate in Mandarin; they speak a Turkish language and read Arabic. That makes it tough to get jobs at Chinese companies. Officially, the registered unemployment in Xinjiang, like many provinces of China, has been a steady 4 percent for years. But the streets tell a different picture. In Kashgar’s People’s Park, Uighurs young and old sit forlornly on benches under trees in the middle of a hot afternoon. Chinese merchants nearby sell drinks and snacks. A lone Uighur peddles plum juice for 5 cents a bowl. Across the street, an 85-foot-high stone statue of Mao, said to be the tallest in all of China, reminds everyone who is in charge. By arrangement with
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This news is
not for you The
New York Times carried, on August 28, a detailed story titled “Details
Emerge in British Terror Case” for its readers—except those who live in
Britain, the focus of the item. One of the top newspapers in the world took
this unusual step to conform to the British law. If you clicked the headline on the paper’s website, you went to a page that said: “On advice of legal counsel, this article is unavailable to readers of nytimes.com in Britain. This arises from the requirement in British law that prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial.” What the readers in the UK missed was the the item bylined Don Van Natta Jr., Elaine Sciolino and Stephen Grey, which was also the work of The New York Times reporters William J. Broad (New York), Carlotta Gall (Pakistan), David Johnston and Mark Mazzetti (Washington). The 3000-word story gives an account of how the suspects were targeted on the basis of a tip-off following the London bombings and the state of preparation they were in. It suggests that the arrest of a suspect in Pakistan pre-empted the British police investigation, and gives details that show that the British Home Secretary John Reid overreacted by raising Britain’s terror alert level to “critical” and banning all liquids from carry-on bags, as did the deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police in London, Paul Stephenson, who remarked that the attack would have been “mass murder on an unimaginable scale.” What has made news in this case is not the story, but the denial of access to the item to the British readers for the fear of breaching the British law regarding the contempt of court. A technology that identifies IP numbers of computers accessing a website was used to re-direct the UK users to the page that had the message, but not the news. The story was also not carried in print in the UK. The immediate reaction on the Web was that the story was posted on thousands of websites and anyone who wanted to read it could do so. This underlines the challenges that the media face, the audience, thanks to the Internet more than anything else, is now international, and various law of the land prove inadequate when they try to block the free flow of information. Developments in information technology and the World Wide Web have truly made the world into one giant wired village. Restrictive laws, even well intentioned ones, prove to be ineffective and the same technology that is used to block access can be used to provide it. Net users regularly circumvent efforts at content filtering by intolerant regimes like Russia and China. However, in this case, it is not a totalitarian regime but one of the greatest newspapers in the world that censored itself. In 1897, Adolph Ochs, who made The New York Times what it is today, gave the paper the slogan: “All the News that’s Fit to Print.” As a reader of the paper for 20-odd years, this writer feels let down that this time The New York Times had news that is fit to print, yet it did not print it for a section of its readers. |
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Delhi Durbar MPs from Punjab and Haryana have been successful in persuading the Centre to hike the MSP of paddy by Rs 40 per quintal. But while most Members of Parliament limited their demand to a hike in MSP, Haryana MP Deepinder Singh Hooda, who met Prime Minister after the MSP hike was announced, gave several suggestions to revamp the MSP regime. Deepinder urged the Prime Minister to explore the option of delinking food security and relief-linked procurement from support price operations. He suggested a variable (MSP) covering the cost of cultivation and a variable procurement price (PP) which would depend on market conditions in different seasons and regions of the country. Deepinder’s suggestions evoked some praise from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.
Saints on song Saints and yoga gurus have felt it necessary to comment on the Vande Mataram controversy. Yoga exponent Swami Ramdev said that love of the nation should not be seen from any religious or communal colour. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar along with some other saints said in a statement that “religious intolerance” has to stop somewhere. The reaction of saints is music to the BJP’s ears.
Not so saada The Rajasthani delicacies laid out for lunch for journalists and other guests at the Vice President’s house on Saturday were surely memorable. But equally unforgettable was the heady feeling that at least half-a-dozen journalists experienced after consuming paan filled with tobacco. Before taking leave of Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, some journalists picked up tobacco ‘paan’ mistaking it to be ‘saada paan’ (plain paan). It did not take them too long to realise that they were in for a head spin. But there was no way they could spit out the paan in the distinguished company of their host. After the lunch, the Vice-President’s staff had to immediately take the scribes to the resident doctor.
Glamour canvas Refuting charges that their party gives tickets to women candidates to contest students’ union elections only because of their “glamour quotient”, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad insists that they believe in women’s empowerment. Activists of the party, which is currently in the news for the alleged murder of a Professor in Ujjain, claim that political parties should take inspiration from the ABVP and reach a consensus on the proposal to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament.
Modi’s gas Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s claims that the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation had discovered the largest ever reserves of natural gas in the Krishna-Godavari Basin of Andhra Pradesh have come crashing down. He had announced that the estimated reserves were around 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf). Now, the Director General of Hydrocarbons has found that these reserves are much lower, estimated at even less than 4 tcf. Was it a mere ploy on Modi’s part to gain cheap publicity or was he misled by the bureaucracy in the state? ——
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From the pages of Rising crime wave
Delhi is not the most congested or the most disorderly city in India but it is fast becoming the country’s Chicago. Violence, highway robbery, holdups and cheating are among crimes which make the national capital an increasingly unsafe place to live in. The latest in a long series of recent incidents is the kidnapping and murder of the children of a naval officer, Captain M.M. Chopra. Whether the police could have prevented the murder through immediate action is difficult to establish, but the ugly fact remains that a further blot has been put on the far from creditable record of the Delhi administration. The police force is by no means too large for a sprawling metropolis. To make matters worse, it is a force known for its incompetence, corruption and vulnerability to political pressures. Robberies remain unchecked, murders untraced and women are daily molested on the roadside. |
It is the intensity of love we put into our gestures that makes them into something beautiful for God.— Mother Teresa
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