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Bane of instability Ends of justice |
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Please-all budget
Debt relief to farmers
Fear or respect?
Kosovo’s act disturbs international order Krishna’s return will give Cong a fresh start in Karnataka Chatterati
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Bane of instability THE CPM-led Left Front has not only retained power in Tripura but has also improved upon its 2003 tally to take 49 seats in the 60-member Assembly, comprehensively defeating all challengers. The CPM has dominated the show since 1978, barring one occasion in 1988, and the latest performance shows that even the Forward Bloc’s exit from the Left Front has not affected it negatively. Its leader Manick Sarkar himself carries a sound image and his supporters showed him off as the “poorest chief minister”, after his affidavit showed that he has no house or other movable or immovable assets, and only a few thousand rupees in his bank account. He will be going into his third term. In Meghalaya, the Congress has emerged as the single largest party, with an improvement in its performance. The party has always been plagued by open dissidence and defiance of the party high command, and it went into the elections without any alliance. Former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma tried his best to win the state for his Nationalist Congress Party. The only satisfaction he can have is that he could prove that the voters of Tura continue to remain his supporters whatever the label he chooses. Personally, he has reason to be proud of his sons’ victory. That the NCP could only hold on to its existing tally of 14 seats in the 60-member Assembly is not something to write home about particularly when Mr Sangma thought his popularity extended to all pockets and tribes in the state. In Nagaland, elections were imposed after the Nagaland People’s Front-led coalition government backed by the BJP was dismissed following a controversial no-confidence vote. The Congress had high hopes of establishing a clear majority, but they were in vain. The NPF is having the last laugh with the NPF-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland — which includes the BJP, the NCP and the JDU — being in a position again to stake its claim of forming a government. However, Nagaland will remain gripped by a measure of instability and political uncertainty given the fractious nature of the verdict.
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Ends of justice IT will be in the fitness of things if the Supreme Court finally decides to transfer the Professor H.S. Sabharwal murder case from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh to Nagpur in Maharashtra. The manner in which Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his party colleagues have been shielding the accused ABVP leaders shows that justice is not possible in the state. Most of the 54 witnesses examined, including policemen, have turned hostile. Worse, Mr Chauhan had sparked a controversy when he met an accused ABVP leader at a hospital in Indore. When the Chief Minister himself so brazenly demonstrated his closeness to the key accused, how could one expect a fair and impartial trial or investigation? The Supreme Court had stayed the trial on July 7, 2007, after Prof Sabharwal’s family sought re-investigation by the CBI. To save the culprits, the police deliberately ignored crucial evidence, they alleged. Unfortunately, owing to political interference, the judicial process is being increasingly subverted in more and more states. The Best Bakery case in Gujarat in which the trial court acquitted all 21 accused is a glaring example. All the guilty were convicted only after the Supreme Court shifted the case to the Mumbai High Court. Had the case not been transferred, the public confidence in the fairness of the trial would have been seriously undermined, resulting in miscarriage of justice. The Constitution mandates free and fair trial. Justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. Otherwise, the criminal justice system will suffer a setback, shaking the people’s confidence in the system and the rule of law. The transfer of cases to other states has become a new trend after the Best Bakery, Fodder scam, Jayalalithaa’s assets and Sabharwal murder case, but this is not a permanent solution. The lower judiciary and the prosecution must be insulated from political and other extraneous influences. How this can be done is a matter that should engage the attention of the legal and judicial fraternity.
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Please-all budget HIMACHAL PRADESH Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, like his Congress predecessor, has avoided imposing fresh taxes in the budget for 2008-09 presented on Friday. Last year Mr Virbhadra Singh had done the same ahead of the assembly elections. Despite some populist measures, including a Rs 100-crore food subsidy, in the budget, the Congress was voted out of power. The BJP government has refrained from taking hard decisions required to strengthen infrastructure, boost development and create employment. Reports indicate the party expects an early general election and does not want to give the Opposition any ground to whip up sentiment against it. The only unpleasant, though unavoidable, decision of raising the bus fares was taken before the budget. The successive governments in the hilly state have been resorting to borrowings to meet government expenses and fund whatever limited development projects are undertaken. As a result, the state debt has shot up alarmingly. During Mr Virbhadra Singh’s last tenure as chief minister, the debt liability went up from Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 18, 233 crore. With additional borrowings of Rs 1,003 crore, the state has piled up a total debt of Rs 22,930 crore. Mr Dhumal has left a massive fiscal deficit, which amounts to a grim 5.4 per cent of the gross state domestic product. This is higher than the national-level 2.5 per cent of the GDP projected in the 2008-09 budget. While in opposition, Mr Dhumal had suggested the scrapping of 4 per cent VAT on essential commodities and a hike in the daily wages. He has avoided both in his budget. The announcement of 5 per cent interim relief may cheer the employees and pensioners and may yield the BJP some political dividend in the coming elections. However, the government has not prepared itself to bear the next pay commission burden. There was no need to raise the MLAs’ local area development fund. In fact, the fund should be scrapped and the money utilised for planned, need-based development.
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Blessed be he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. — Jonathan Swift
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Debt relief to farmers THE Budget 2008-09 was projected long before as a “kisan budget” that would announce relief measures adequate enough to mitigate the misery of our farmers who have been reeling under a debt-trap. The expectations were especially high in the case of Punjab’s farmers, whose problems of indebtedness and soaring suicide rates could somehow never capture the attention of the policy makers, unlike their counterparts in Andhra, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. The fact that this budget would be the last full-term budget of the UPA government since elections are round the corner only served to reaffirm the faith of one and all that it would be a “populist” budget and not spare any effort to please an important section of the vote bank — the farmers. And what better way to please the farmers than announce a debt waiver! Announcement there was: a pointed announcement that the government “.... is conscious of the dimensions of the problem and is sensitive to the difficulties of the farming community, especially the small and marginal farmers.” Accordingly, a complete waiver of all loans that were overdue on December 31, 2007, for marginal and small farmers (up to two hectares), and a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for all loans that were overdue on December 31, 2007, and remained unpaid till February 29, 2008, was announced as a relief scheme. Understandably, there was a rush of cheer at the announcement, but it did not take long for the cheer to die down. The announcement was later viewed as nothing short of a rude shock by intellectuals and the cultivating class alike. Keeping in view the crisis engulfing the agricultural economy since the last decade, the relief measure can only be termed as peanuts. The case of the “grain bowl” of India — Punjab — is taken up here to represent and project the reasons behind this feeling of shock and betrayal. Owing to Punjab’s agricultural development, the state has always been projected as a model of economic growth worth emulating. The state has been contributing as much as 75 per cent wheat and 34 per cent rice to the Central pool. The share of the agriculture sector (excluding livestock) in the Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) was 38.50 per cent in 1970-71, but it declined to 22.87 per cent in 2005-06. However, still nearly 39 per cent of the workforce of Punjab is engaged in agriculture. To make matters worse, the terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural activities remained unfavourable to agricultural throughout the decade of 1980s and 1990s, resulting into a loss of income of Rs 3,944 crore. Further, the real rise in the minimum support prices for the two major crops of Punjab, wheat and paddy, showed an average annual growth rate of 0.69 per cent and 0.33 per cent per annum, respectively, during 1980-81 to 2005-06 (at 1993-94 prices). All this, compared with the spiralling prices of farm inputs has reduced the per hectare return on land to such a low level that farmers have been left with no option but to borrow heavily, both for productive and consumption needs. And farmers do not have sufficient repaying capacity to service their debts. The results are there for all to see: the Punjab peasant might not be born in debt, but he is certainly living and dying in debt. What is surprising is that whatever little attention the policy makers paid to the problem, it was directed only towards four states — Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. Punjab has been pointedly ignored throughout, although this state, too, was witnessing a spate of farmer suicides. A relief package of Rs 3,750 crore was announced for Vidarbha (Maharashtra), Andhra, Kerala and Karnataka after several years of the beginning of farmer suicides, but Punjab was still left out. Finally, a package of Rs 1044 crore was announced for Punjab, but nothing much was done at the implementation level. None of the measures were aimed at addressing the bigger and more serious problem of non-institutional loans. The Debt Waiver and Relief Scheme announced by the Finance Minister in his recent Budget speech has made precisely the same mistake again. The scheme is aimed at waiving off only the defaulted portion of the loans, and that too of the farmers having land up to two hectares. However, according to an NSSO report, 31 per cent of the farmers having more than two hectares of land are under debt in Punjab (the all-India figure is around 20 per cent). Even this class has borrowed loans more from the non-institutional sources than the institutional sources. Also, the main purpose of the loan was current and capital expenditure on farming, as per the report. This class will have to make do with a one-time settlement of overdue loans only. No class of farmers will have any relief for non-institutional loans, and the little compensation that they would get on institutional loans is only on the loans overdue. Does it not amount to saying that the farmers who have somehow paid off instalments of their institutional loans (even if it was by borrowing from private lenders for this purpose) will be “punished” for doing so? Moreover, as per statistics available, the relief measure would waive off only 3 per cent of the total farmers’ debt in Punjab. Agricultural labourers, who are as much under debt as farmers, have not been given even this small respite. Under such conditions, will suicides come to an end? Indebtedness of farmers is a problem that has its roots deep into the agrarian crisis. The real concern should be solving of this crisis rather than providing waivers. As mentioned earlier, farmers have been entrenched in a debt-trap because of rising input prices, falling productivity and dipping incomes due to low prices (MSP) offered for their produce. This has forced them to borrow heavily. The institutional sources of finance taken together have proved to be inadequate to meet the credit needs of farmers, especially in the post-reform era, as emphasis of financial institutions has shifted more to profitability than social concerns. And lengthy paper work intimidates the illiterate farmer as he finds himself incapable of dealing with this tedious procedure. Farmers, thus, have only the private lenders to fall back upon to fulfil their credit needs. But here, too, matter is far from simple as they have not only to pay exorbitant rates of interest, but also enter interlinked contracts: sell their crop through the lender (arhtiya), and also purchase inputs for him in return from loan. Either way, it is the farmers who stand to lose. The real need, therefore, is to make attempts to revive agriculture and increase productivity as well as the incomes of farmers so that they are in a position to return the loans. Borrowings are indispensable in farming operations, but the issue here is to make farmers capable of not only returning their loans on time, but also having enough income to sustain themselves. Thus, apart from providing temporary relief, there is a greater necessity to undertake long-term measures to save our farmers. A section of the farmers can be shifted to the non-agricultural secondary and tertiary sectors to improve income levels. The state government can take up the all-important issue of saving farmers from the clutches of the informal lender/arhtiya. Surely, something can be done to streamline loans from arhtiyas since it is not possible, in the near future at least, to do away with such lending. The Punjab government has started a scheme of allowing farmers to directly sell their produce in one “mandi” (Moga) without the interference of the arhtiya on an experimental basis. However, it seems to be just a case of wait and watch, because at least the farmers indebted to arhtiyas (and such farmers are in large number) will not be able to sell their produce directly. It is more important first to find means to break the interlinkage among output, credit and the input market to disempower the
arhtiya. The writer, Reader in Economics, Department of Correspondence Courses, Punjabi University, Patiala, has a book to her credit on farmers’ indebtedness.
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Fear or respect? YOU are lonely at the top,” the chairs below yelled at me. They were all strewn in shambles. One had a broken arm, one had a broken leg, one required caning and one had worn out its polish. “What do you know, you old limbs?” I shot back, “Can’t you see the golden seat beckoning me?” I tried to rush through the staircase. It made a rickety sound, “Climb slowly!” It pleaded. “Hasty climbs have sudden falls!” It tried to warn me. But I was too obsessed by the aura of the chair waiting to be occupied, so I stomped the staircase rudely which retorted faintly, “All pride goeth before a fall!” But nothing could stop me now from reaching the chair of my dreams! I grabbed the chair greedily and put my weight on it. “Don’t try putting your weight around”, creaked the chair. “No, not you too!” I implored. All my life I strove hard to reach this chair. Its rude remarks shook me and I began sweating profusely. Soon I found myself awake and thanked God I was only dreaming! Yes, I was to occupy the topmost chair today. The strange dream made me realise what the chair could do to me. It could transform me into a tyrant or a totally respectable soul. What did I want—fear or respect? I mentally weighed them each. My position would fill each of my subordinates with fear. “Yes, Ma’m! Yes, Ma’m!” they would agree even when they meant “No, Ma’m!” A thrill of excitement ran down my spine. I could get everything done with my authoritative position. Well, everything that is feared is respected. If I instill fear, I automatically get respected. “But, no!” my conscience interrupted, “You can’t have both. You are either feared or respected. A person fears you because of the powers of your chair. The moment you leave your chair, you only get booed, a boo which has long been suppressed. “And doesn’t that hold true for respect too” I thought aloud this time. “No” my conscience defended itself, “You are respected because of what you are as a person and not because of your chair. When the time comes for you to leave the chair, which obviously you will one day—you will carry away with you all the respect you’ve earned during your tenure—the reward for your benevolence and understanding of your subordinates”. I got completely sold out to my conscience. I thanked God for the warning dream and promised my conscience to abide by it. I got up from my bed feeling all anew. I shall do my utmost for the upliftment of all working under me, I decided. I had another milestone to
cross.
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Kosovo’s act disturbs international order Kosovo’s
break-away from Serbia and its unilateral declaration of independence with US and partial EU backing, does not augur well for the ordering of international relations. It is no wonder that at least 18 countries, including Serbia, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Romania, Russia and China (the last two with veto powers to preclude UN Security Council approval) have denounced the move. India too has expressed its unhappiness. Kosovo’s independence has been fostered and asserted under NATO/US patronage. This is in the face of solemn guarantees given to the contrary to the UN in 2000, when a short lived Republic of Kosovo was dissolved and the region placed under a UN Interim Administration as an autonomous part of Serbia. Slobodan Milosovic, the Serbian leader, was persuaded by Russia to withdraw its troops from Kosovo on the basis of this assurance from which the US and NATO have reneged. In the interim period the Kosovo Liberation Army was enabled to run riot, resulting in ethnic cleansing of Serbian Orthodox Christians by Kosovar-Albanian Muslims to prepare the ground for the unilateral declaration of independence by an allegedly secular Kosovar Republic. Kosovo, though always a Muslim majority area, represents the heartland of the Serbian Orthodox Church with which Russia has traditionally had strong cultural ties. What Kosovo’s act implies is a radical break from the established world order based on the integrity and inviolability of state frontiers, that was the basis of the Final Helsinki Declaration between the Western Alliance and the Soviet Union in December 1975. The Helsinki declaration spelt out an agreed framework for guiding international relations. This was breached with NATO’s unilateral bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, an action, like the invasion of Iraq, which was undertaken bypassing the UN. This was done on the flimsiest of grounds that, either then or ex-post facto, failed to stand up to scrutiny. This leaves the world with two principles of realpolitik, namely, might is right and victor’s justice. Kosovo is a small mountainous territory the size of Haryana but with a population of no more than 2.2 million, of which over 90 per cent is ethnically Albanian Muslim. Does this now mean that the minority Serbians and Romanis in Kosovo are in turn entitled to break free? Where does history begin and where does the process end? Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence follows the mischievous logic of an inevitable or even desirable clash of civilizations in a globalising world – where multiculturalism exists, not merely in ancient civilisations as in Asia, but also in Africa and, now, increasingly in Europe and North America. Britain and France have yet to come to terms with the turban and head scarf while various ethnic communities like the Basques in Spain and France and minorities in Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and so many other countries around the world, are attempting and being encouraged to, assert their independence. During the phase of Western decolonisation, the UN held fast to the doctrine that self-determination was a principle that may be asserted against colonial powers but must not be used as a tool to dismember sovereign states. This notion has by and large been upheld, but Kosovo marks a glaring exception. There is also some danger of the new UDI by force majeure finding justification in terms of the new principle of humanitarian intervention by the international community through the UN, should national governments fail to protect their own populations from “genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”. This emerging doctrine of the “right to protect” or R2P has a veneer of justification but also carries with it the grave danger of misuse by interested parties to stir trouble within rival or target nations in order to set up an arguable pretext for “humanitarian intervention”. Kosovo offers an example. The hypocrisy and humbug underlying some of these holier-than-thou declarations is manifest in the fact that at the very moment of Kosovo’s UDI coincided with the US and NATO’s endorsement of Turkey’s invasion of Northern Iraq ostensibly to curb Kurdish PKK guerillas. The Kurds number 30 million and are distributed over Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Azerbaijan. But the great powers that punished Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds – with their assistance and blessings at the time – have otherwise, as now, upheld the crushing of Kurdish nationalism. In the so-called British Indian Ocean Territories, Diego Garcia remains a US strategic base after its entire population of some 5000 souls was deported en masse decades back, and is even today denied the right to return home despite the highest court in the UK ruling that they should be permitted to do so. This is genocide and a crime against humanity as is the “collateral damage” that continues to be done in the name of all that is good and virtuous in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. NATO, midwife to Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence, seems determined to start a new cold war by insisting on spreading eastwards and setting up new missile defence rings against legitimate Russian protests that it is being militarily targeted. There is something very wrong and dangerous afoot and it is going to take more than the US presidential election to set things right.
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Krishna’s return will give Cong a fresh start in Karnataka Maharashtra
Governor S.M. Krishna’s return to Karnataka politics may be just what the doctor ordered for the state But like most medicines, the medicine is bitter for many and the cure may well have its side-effects. Krishna, like Bangalore, has managed to position himself like a brand. So a return to state politics for the suave politician is likely to be projected as the return of the prodigal son, who is a towering personality among his peers, and so automatically gets respect and ends dissension in the party. The fact that Krishna belongs to the most influential Vokkaliga community and is a virtual icon in Bangalore where he did much for the IT sector and the city during his stint as Chief Minister, are issues which favour not only his return but a hope of a Congress resurgence in the State. But then today is 2008. It is nearly four years since Krishna was banished from the State by his bete-noire and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. It is Gowda who has been ruling the state since then, first by proxy by supporting a Congress government and then through his son H.D. Kumaraswamy. Krishna will have to fight for the Vokkaliga votes with Gowda, which may not be easy given the way the Janata Dal (Secular) has entrenched itself in the Vokkaliga heartlands. Krishna, who does not have a reputation of a good campaigner, had forsaken his home seat in Maddur in the last election in favour of a seat in Bangalore due to growing resentment against him amongst the farming community thanks to the Cauvery dispute. In 2004, Krishna led the Congress into election as the supreme leader of the party and lost the election for it. This time around, he will lead a top heavy party which has nearly a dozen Chief Ministerial aspirants and most importantly, a Pradesh Congress Chief who will not like his entry into the state. What is more, Pradesh Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is a noted dalit leader and the Congress dare not slight him in any manner. In fact, it was fierce resistance from Kharge which had thwarted Krishna’s entry into state politics till now. With 50 reserved seats, which are traditionally the party’s favourite hunting ground, the Congress wants to retain him as the PPC chief to ensure the Bahaujan Samaj Party (BSP) does not benefit at its cost in the state. The party has the example of Himachal Pradesh, where a slight swing in the dalit vote spelt doom for it in the recent assembly elections. Due to this Krishna is likely to be entrusted with the responsibility of the party’s Campaign Committee only for the time being. Kharge loyalists however are not taking any chances, knowing Krishna’s clout at the centre, and are demanding the party nominate Kharge as its Chief Ministerial candidate if it is to get the dalit votes in the State. But then, even as Krishna is the only known Vokkaliga face who can challenge Gowda, besides actor – politician Ambareesh, the Congress cannot afford to project Kharge as its candidate for the CM’s post before the election. The dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities would not take kindly to the projection of a dalit face. Due to this it is forced to play out a unique experiment – Krishna as Campaign Committee In-charge and Kharge as Pradesh Congress chief, besides giving responsible positions to Siddaramaiah and other leaders to target all the vote banks in the State. Also, with Sonia Gandhi’s blessings, Krishna can ably use all the leaders in the State unit, who will be also fighting for their survival due to a large influx of “migrants” or leaders from other political outfits, to restrict the JD (S) tally in the coming elections. The restriction of the JD (S) tally to fewer than 20 seats will be the strategy of the Congress, if it is to have a go at power in the State and also ensure any role for Krishna in the State after the polls, knowing Gowda’s animosity towards him. Kharge and N Dharam Singh are the party’s fall back guys for a coalition in case Gowda controls the strings post election. Finally the “doctor’s” prescription has the ability to turn the fortunes of the Congress party which is presently in the dumps, with political leaders squabbling with each other and intense competition for the Chief Minister’s chair. The entry of Krishna will give a fresh start to the party in the State as well in Bangalore city which accounts for 24 seats besides stymieing the hopes of alternative central candidates like Margaret Alva, Oscar Fernandes and Veerappa Moily, all of whom may now have to take the back seat to see whether the Krishna magic works in Karnataka once again.
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Chatterati WHAT did Rabri do after becoming CM? Repay an elderly woman who gave shelter to her husband during the Emergency. They say that Rabri called her to the CM’s bungalow, took her to her bedroom and massaged her feet with mustard oil, like a typical daughter-in-law. Her gesture overwhelmed the lady so, she left after giving her Rs 11 as her blessings. If only Rabri could teach Lalu the art of winning friends and influencing people. This is in a book on the former Chief Minister, titled Rabri Devi: Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Masterstroke. It has been penned with some interesting anectdotes, apart from her journey from housewife to top office. It’s a fun book with a lot of insights into a typically Indian political household. Each to his own Talking about the Lalus, anyone now visiting 1, Anne Marg today, the CM’s residence, is astonished by the change. Gone are the cows, horses, Labradors. So are the retinue of servants, who once milked cows for fresh milk or fished in the pond to get fresh Rohu or Katla for lunch. Instead, it has become a formal place ever since Nitish Kumar moved in. The lawns are manicured, the visitors’ rooms are clean, and well-dressed sentries usher you in. But theirs was a favoured destination – when every dignitary trooped in to visit Lalu Yadav and Family’s “animal kingdom” and go ga-ga over their hospitality. Rabri Devi would take considerable pride showing off her variety of homemade pickles, and everybody would get a taste of the mouth-watering stuff. All that is passé now. Today, visitors have to follow the tedious protocol of exchanging pleasantries, sipping tea made by the kitchen staff and talking shop about Bihar’s ‘imminent’ development. Worse, the place where Lalu once held his evening durbars has been turned into the Disaster Management Department office. Many miss the Lalu ambience while some marvel at Nitish’s immaculate sense of working. As they say, each to his own. A tour of Hyderabad today is like this. You arrive at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, drive around the Rajiv Gandhi statue at Somajiguda, pass by Rajiv Nagar in Yousufguda and on the way stop at the biggest residential colony in Asia – the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Board Colony. If you want further sight-seeing, the next stop could be the country’s latest Test cricket venue, Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium. Some welcome recreation is only two hours away in the Rajiv Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary on the banks of the Krishna. Next is the hi-tech city’s Rajiv Gandhi Nano Technology Park on the way out. In the past four years of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress rule, it has been a miracle that the state has not been baptised “Rajiv Pradesh”. The CM of Andhra Pradesh has been an admirer of Rajiv Gandhi. He says that it was Rajiv’s inspiring talk to him during a plane ride, which changed his life as a politician. And as head of his state he can name what he wants, as he wants.
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