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A Look Back Profile
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Wit of the week
Budget must address issues
of social justice with
growth
On Record Need to protect
the household sparrow in Punjab
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A Look Back
FEBRUARY should be the most important month in our national calendar more so in the Punjab calendar. Most people in Punjab are aware of what is known in history as Vada ghalughara or the great carnage perpetrated on February 5 by Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1762 CE to teach the Tat Khalsa a lesson for their audacity in looting his baggage and rescuing the women captives taken by him after his victory in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. Equally important but not so well recognised was the meticulously planned and organised uprising by the emigre Indians, mostly Punjabis, against the British rule by the Ghadar Party in February 1915. According to O’Dwyer, the then Governor of Punjab, “The Ghadar Movement was by far the most serious attempt to subvert the British rule in India”. After the annexation of Punjab, the British decided to adopt Punjab
as their sword arm for the colonial army by applying the doctrine of martial races to the Sikhs, Dogras and Punjabi Muslims. They kept the whole of Punjab as a non-regulated territory where discretion vested in the revenue officers called commissioners or deputy commissioners was much wider than what was available to the collectors or commissioners in the rest of India. Even a small ripple in public peace invited a sledge-hammer for its suppression. When Namdharis appeared to be going too far, they were ordered to be blown away from artillery gun-mouths by the civil officer in charge of the area in 1873. The history got repeated with General Dyer in 1919. The severity of punishments to the Ghadarites can be understood only if this special British dispensation reserved for the Punjabis is kept in mind. The British off and on permitted the population reservoir of India to be tapped for providing the much-needed labour force in their colonies. Indian populations of West Indies, Trinidad, Mauritius, Fiji, etc., bear a testimony to that policy. The Punjabis were somewhat reluctantly allowed to emigrate to Australia and Canada at the turn of the last century. By about 1908, about 5,000 Punjabis, mostly Sikhs, had entered the Western Pacific coast area of the US and Canada. They established the Khalsa Diwan Societies to establish gurdwaras on the American West Coast in 1907. The gurdwaras became the meeting places for all immigrants of the Indian origin. The uniqueness of these pioneers was that for the management of these gurdwaras they elected Hindus and Muslims. The contact of these immigrants, who were mostly manual workers with the free nations, made them acutely conscious of the slavery of their motherland. The Punjabi immigrants who were hardly literate so far as their education is concerned, were quite ahead of their times in working out their plan and strategy for the liberation of their homeland. They clearly decided to keep the movement free from any particular religion and caste. The Sikhs who constituted the bulk of the Indian population took the initiative to launch the Hindustani Workers’ Association of Pacific Coast under Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna. Many students and other Indians joined this body. Lala Hardyal from Punjab became its general secretary. Revolutionaries like Rash Behari Bose, Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, Professor Barkat Ullah and many others joined them. They brought out the first issue of their paper Ghadar in Urdu in November 1913. The paper was later published in Punjabi too. The Ghadarites were not enamoured of the Indian National Congress. They declared it to be a body loyal to the British founded by an Englishman, Hume, representing the well-to-do sections of the Indian population aiming for self-rule under the British whereas their aim was a complete freedom for their homeland. Unlike the eighties and nineties of the 20th century, when the pretexts of disturbed conditions in Punjab were used by many, to seek immigration abroad on the ground of seeking a political asylum, the Ghadarites urged their brothers and sisters to return to India to wage a war for the liberation of their motherland. According to the Government records, about 2,500 returned to India between October 1914 and February 1915. The sheer numbers from among the immigrant community who returned to India go to prove the popularity of the Ghadar appeal among the Indians. They fixed their D-Day to be February 20, 1915. Unfortunately for them, their movement had a large number of intelligence agents among them. By the time they could discover it, it was too late. Every move about the D-Day was known to the government intelligence. The leaders tried to advance the D-Day but that did not help much. One is amazed at the number of the army units of the British Indian Army that rose in revolt against the British. The Light Infantry stationed at Singapore mutinied on February 15 and for some time they occupied the fort there. The names of other army units that responded to the call for Ghadar were like 26 Punjabi, 7 Rajput, 130 Baluch, 24 Jat Artillery and many others. The British succeeded in preventing mutinies in Ferozepur, Mian Mir Lahore and Agra etc., and rounded up all the leaders. Kartar Singh Sarabha, after escaping from Lahore, was arrested from Varanasi and Pingle from Meerut. The first batch of 291Ghadarites was tried in April 1915 of which 42 were sentenced to death and 114 were transported for life. Alas! very soon this brave romantic chapter in our freedom struggle came to an end. A unique feature of this movement led by the simple and poor Punjabi workers was that they succeeded in making it a truly national movement. A South Asian history account sums up the movement thus: “The Ghadar movement was remarkable for many reasons. Although Sikhs from Punjab made up the majority of its founding members, the movement was completely devoid of any trace of regional or religious chauvinism...” Subsequently, Gandhi’s sway over the Indian National Congress gave us the freedom. However, in the process, India got truncated. One wishes that if the spirit of the Ghadar movement could get grafted into the Indian National Congress, Indian subcontinent might have been a world power much before the rise of
China. The writer is a former chief secretary, Punjab |
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Profile Moily pleaded ignorance when his attention was drawn to his projection as a possible candidate for the high office. “It is news to me… I am too humble for that post” was his cryptic comment. Who knows? Moily may emerge as the “dark horse”, said the channel. He is a respected backward class leader and, unlike most present-day politicians, a prolific writer. Politically, Moily has been consistently loyal to the Nehru-Gandhi family, having stood steadfastly with Indira Gandhi in the 1978 Congress split. He continues to enjoy the confidence of 10, Janpath. In recent days, Moily was in the news for yet another reason. Heading the second Administrative Reforms Commission, he has produced a path-breaking report, recommending sweeping changes in political, judicial, administrative and electoral spheres. The objective of the whole exercise is to check rampant corruption in practically all levels of administration as well as in the weird world of politics. The recommendation to abolish schemes, under which MPs and MLAs are allowed huge funds in the name of constituency development, touched off commotion among the legislators. The chapter on coalition ethics is, perhaps, the most important part of the ARC. It suggested that in case of a coalition government breaking down, fresh elections should be held, meaning that members of political parties in a coalition, who change their alignment mid-term, should go for re-election. Yet another landmark report of Moily was on the OBC quota including the creamy layer. Submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in October 2006, the report became quite controversial. Whenever one talks of Veerappa Moily, the unsavory episode of “Moily tapes” instantly comes to mind. It was a dark chapter in his eventful political career. As far back as 1984, C. Byre Gowda, an independent legislator, accused Moily, then in the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, of seeking to induce him to defect to Congress-I. Gowda taped an alleged incident in which he claimed that Moily offered him bribe. He was eventually exonerated by the Justice N.D. Venkatesh Commission that went into the charge. There are some little know facets of Moily’s personality. He has written an epic poem and the first volume, running into 12,500 lines, has already hit the stands. He hints at parallels in today’s society as he retells the Ramayana, a story that fascinated India through the centuries. A writer and poet of Karnataka has described him as “a politician by profession but poet by heart”. He has also penned a novel — Sagara Deepa — depicting the pitiable condition of fishermen of coastal Karnataka. Sixty seven-year-old Moily began his political career fighting for the rights of exploited tenants and farmers. Hapless tenants, long harassed by landlords, flocked Moily’s office who had just begun practicing law in 1969, seeking legal assistance. He took their cases in right earnest invoking the provisions of the new land reforms legislation. Soon grateful tenants called him ‘Friend of tenants’. He also formed ‘Kisan Sabha’ which strove for safeguarding the rights of the poor and exploited farmers. Subsequently, this forum served as a launching pad for Moily in politics. Come Assembly election in Mysore in March 1972, he won by a whopping 68 per cent of votes, creating a record. Since then, there was no looking back for him. Moily was included in the Devraj Urs Ministry. He was made Minister of Finance and Planning in the R. Gundu Rao Cabinet. In the 1983 Assembly elections, the Congress was defeated but Moily won; he was elected Leader of the Opposition. Moily made his way to the top, having been elevated to Chief Minister’s post following S. Bangarappa’s resignation in 1992. He was the first CM to introduce 33 per cent reservation for women. He believed strongly that women’s increasing representation in politics was necessary for development and value-based politics. The TV channel survey on the coming presidential election notwithstanding, Moily is the man to be
watched.
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Wit of the week — Nobel Laureate John Forbes Nash Jr — Cornell economist Kaushik Basu People are tired of hovering over Delhi and Mumbai airports, but that cannot stop the growth of aviation. There are only about 15- minute delays during the peak hour due to pressure on air traffic controllers, but you cannot have painless growth. — Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel We do raise awareness on how to conserve the natural world. However, you also have to show your film not only to large audiences, but also to the right people — and influence them as India’s Mike Pandey did about hunting wild sharks in his film, Shores of Silence. — Naturalist and Bristol Wildscreen Festival Manager Sarah Mitchell I’m just cutting down on my singing. Honestly, the kind of songs that are doing rounds in Bollywood today are just not my cup of tea. While a music album is in the pipeline, I want to do things in a different way. I will also be exploring ghazals, something I got to do with Umrao Jaan. — Melody queen Alka Yagnik — Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy — Veteran actor Dev Anand
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Budget must address issues
of social justice with growth AS Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is all set to present the General Budget in Parliament on February 28, it would be interesting to see what new initiatives will he take to give a boost to the economy. Indian economy can be rightly called a high performing economy. Significantly, it has recorded growth rates of 8.4 per cent in 2005-06, followed by 9.2 per cent in 2006-07. The sustained high rate of growth in the first half of the first decade of the twenty-first century has allowed India to join the club of high growth performing economies of East Asia and China. Our policy makers have been encouraged to pursue more vigorously the ongoing reform programme on the belief that high growth is the result of liberal economic policy. The accelerated growth experience under the liberal economic policy regime has ushered in changes in the economy’s production structure. The engine of economic growth is now the service rather than the industrial sector. This sector generates income more than 53 per cent of the GDP and employs only 22 per cent of the work force. The other sectors — industrial and agriculture — contribute only 24 and 23 per cent of the GDP respectively. The agriculture sector still employs more than 60 per cent of the work force. This shows the structural imbalance resulting from the liberal economic policy contrary to the experience of the fast growing East Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Malaysia where more than 40 per cent of the income is being generated from the industrial sector. This structural imbalance has far reaching consequences. First is the high rate of inflation. Inflation has soared at the rate of 6.73 per cent the week ended February 2. Now it has marginally fallen to 6.63 per cent the week ended Feb 10. Inflation is anti-economic growth, resulting from supply side constraints. The shortage of food and industrial goods has allowed inflation to rise in the face of measures taken to control it by the RBI since September 2004. The monetary policy has become ineffective; this enjoins a special responsibility on the Finance Minister to address this anomaly in the Budget. Inflation has hit the poor and fixed income section of society very hard. Tight monetary policy generally raises interest rates, hits activities with low profitability and reduces the capacity building process further. Therefore, budgetary allocation in such economic activities remains the only alternative. South Asia’s International Food Policy Research, in a recent survey, revealed that the agribusiness firms engaged in food grains purchase, process and marketing have neither benefited the producers nor the consumers. It further revealed that the cooperative sector has benefited both. The agribusinesses firms are engaged in food trade as well and indulge in hoarding when it is expected that the prices of such commodities will rise further. In this context, one should not lose sight of the RBI’s recent instructions to the banks to ensure that such agribusiness firms do not misuse loans and hoard stocks of food for speculative purposes. The Nineties have shown a marked decline of work force absorption capacities of the primary and secondary sectors. The challenge ahead for the sustainability of a higher growth rate lies in terms of creating more opportunities for employment to the continuous increasing work force. The increase in employment also has a positive impact on the aggregate demand and thus has a capacity to further accelerate growth rate via an increase in the demand for consumption goods. Notwithstanding the recent high growth rate, decline in the employment elasticity has not allowed the gains of growth to percolate down to the countryside. This has created a sharp wedge between the rural and urban India. The economic reform programme has increased the dose of market economy beyond the tolerant levels of some sections, especially of rural economy. One important fallout of this is its impact on the agricultural sector that led to the farmers’ suicides. Unfortunately, farmers have resorted to this avoidable step across the board and even from highly agricultural developed states. For quite some time, social sector indicators have been trailing behind economic indicators in the country. The human development index is the lowest in the world. Health and education are the other areas which demand the policy makers’ attention if Indian economy has to sustain the current momentum of economic growth. Sustainability of economic growth is highly dependent on the growth momentum of the industrial and agriculture sectors which require considerable increase in investment. The path of stepping up the GDP growth is easier to achieve compared with the social goal-oriented, more inclusive growth and equitable development. Furthermore, the structure of the Indian economy is such that it is highly rural-oriented and a large section of the population is still very poor, lacking essential capabilities to participate in the modern process of economic growth. There is growing evidence of marginalisation of the rural population and increasing unemployment in the rural areas. Normally, the market-oriented policies have an exclusionary impact which needs to be prevented through an articulate response of the policymakers. Consequently, the Union Budget for 2007-08 should not only rectify the anomalies but also reflect genuine and meaningful changes in the economic policy to address the issues of social justice with
growth. The writer is reader in Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala |
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On Record President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), Preeti Malhotra, spoke to The Sunday Tribune on the whole gamut of issues pertaining to company secretaries and the emerging challenges. Excerpts: Q: How is the globalisation of business impacting the role of our company secretaries? A: The corporate environment is witnessing cross-border mergers, amalgamations and takeovers. New taxes such as Service Tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) are emerging. Globalisation of business is creating new challenges and knowledge callings among professions. There are also other cross-border corporate governance issues arising out of such mergers and takeovers giving rise to cross-cultural issues. The WTO and other kinds of multilateralism are making corporate management and corporate governance tough. So, to enable our members to add value to companies, the ICSI is undertaking a review of syllabus. The new syllabus will educate and train company secretaries to enrich corporate affairs through their performance, education and skills in a globalised environment. Q: Chartered accountants seem to be in greater demand than company secretaries. A: It is not true. In fact, both these professions supplement and compliment each other. As far as employment opportunities were concerned, companies with a paid up share capital of Rs 2 crore or more are compulsorily required to appoint a whole time company secretary. All companies seeking listing on stock exchange are required to appoint a whole time company secretary. Moreover, membership of the institute is recognised for appointment to superior posts and services under the Central Government. Membership is an essential qualification for recruitment from Grade I to Grade IV in the accounts branch of the Indian Company Law Service. Q: What are the opportunities for company secretaries abroad? A: Many company secretaries are already working in various countries like the US, Canada, UK, Singapore, etc. India is entering into bilateral comprehensive economic cooperation agreements with countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Mauritius etc. These agreements recognise company secretary for free movement of professionals across borders. The ICSI has entered into an MoU with the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK. Q: Is the ratio between practicing and non-practising company secretaries healthy? A: The number of company secretaries in public practice has been ascending very fast in recent times because of the expanding opportunities they are getting in statutory and non-statutory professional work. We have taken steps to ensure that there is smoother and faster growth in their number and in the quality of their services. Q: Enrolment of students from rural areas in the company secretaries course is not impressive. Why? A: We are working on an online educational model through the Internet. As a prelude to this, the institute has already started providing the study material in CD form with most convenient search engines. The e-learning model will enable students to have access to learning and faculty support at any time according to their convenience. In the synchronous form of e-learning, students and faculty will interact with each other live in a virtual classroom. Q: Why are more women not taking up the profession? A: Gender neutrality for highest positions and in every aspect of work will make a nation progress faster. The percentage of female students pursuing the company secretary course has grown steadily from a meager figure in the beginning to over 40 per cent in recent times. Persons of any gender who have the dedication, meticulousness, energy and the verve to excel and an eye for learning fast can achieve great success in this profession. Why should ladies be an
exception? |
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Need
to protect
the household sparrow in
Punjab The Indian sparrow was introduced in America, where it was declared a pest, and killed mercilessly at random. In China that was ruled by the harsh dictator Mao tse Tung, a thoughtless and cruel campaign was started to kill all sparrows in China, as without any research on the subject Mao thought the sparrows destroyed grain. Mao set the Red Guards on these helpless creatures and exterminated them. After their extinction in China environmentalists found to their dismay that there was a great proliferation of insects and worms, which the sparrows fed upon, apart from grain. In Punjab and other parts of the country, we have had mean dictators who have committed human right violations with abandon. But I have not heard of anyone who has ordered like Mao, the elimination of sparrows. During my Assembly election campaign in Dhanaula which I hope to represent in the Punjab Assembly, I captured some sparrows on my camera. I would be happy if the Bombay Natural History Society, keen ornithologists, the forest department and wildlife wardens could inform me why the house-hold sparrow has become an endangered species? The Indian Prime Minister who overseas wild species on the endangered list hasn’t done anything to ban the veterinary killer drug diclofenac sodium which kills our vultures. Being a keen economist, his only interest is the soaring figures of the Indian economy. With no benefits accruing to the rural sector or preservation of India’s precious wild
life.
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The mind is one-pointed. Those who lack discrimination, with little control over their thoughts and far from pure, reach not the pure of immortality. — The Katha Upanishads God himself is Both Doer and Deed. — Guru Nanak God himself is the Creator and the Cause. — Guru Nanak |
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CONGRESS leader M. Veerappa Moily was in for a pleasant surprise when a TV channel projected him as a possible choice for the presidential elections due in four months. In a nation-wide survey conducted by a TVchannel, Moily, a backward class leader, was rated as a frontrunner in the race for the next occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan. 
GAME theory comes in naturally, but the government might not want to say what it is doing. In the US, they have the yellow alert, the orange alert, and the red alert. But the more of an alert you declare, the more of a cost you add. Extra policemen have to be paid, and they are not exportable manufactured goods; they simply guard you. And if you declare red alert all the time, people will start to dismiss it. In fact, nothing has ever happened when you raise the alerts.
What has essentially changed today is the attitude. Today thanks to a whole lot of very deep thinkers — I am thinking of Amartya Sen, George Akerlof, Joseph Stiglitz — we have economics spanning a lot of disciplines, but not with an imperialistic attitude. Very often, it is the attitude of learning — from anthropology, from politics… We are writing in a much more enlightened way. Not saying that these are ‘soft sciences’ and ‘we have the core of theory’.
I am very conscious that from the time The God of Small Things was published 10 years ago, we are in a different world, a different place now, which needs to be written differently, and I really want to do a novel. I want to say things where I am not always walking a fine line. In fiction, I will not have to consider what to say or what not.
Religion is a part of the human psyche, but religious intolerance is not. It seeps into the human mind in childhood. This is the stage during which it has to be eliminated. Education is the key. We should not preach to children. Give them knowledge, information, the ability to think for themselves. But do not
preach.
THE role of company secretaries has been found essential for good corporate governance and effective management. Globalisation of business, with cross border mergers, amalgamations and takeovers, WTO and other kinds of multilaterism are making corporate management and governance tougher.
THE household sparrow is another common bird like
the vulture that is on the brink of extinction here in Punjab.