 |
|
Services and sloth Neighbourly relations |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hockey’s shame
Reprocessing democracy
“U, Me but not Her”
Panchayats need new deal Rawalpindi’s passage to India Inside Pakistan Chasing peace in NWFP
|
Services and sloth WHILE the sarkari babus can be depended on to utilise the prime minister’s comments praising the high achievers among them as a seal of approval for better pay packets for all, the fact of the matter is that Dr Manmohan Singh’s praise is a left-handed criticism of their functioning. When he said while addressing officers on the occasion of the third Civil Services Day that they ought to match public’s expectations and rebuild public confidence in their functioning, implicit in the comment was the anguish that the confidence stood shattered. He being a mild-mannered man would never say that in so many words, but the harsh truth is that the government functioning today is a byword for sloth, inefficiency and red-tapism. But even he did admit that “the poor and the underprivileged complain that the government is biased against them. The business class complains that the government is excessively intrusive and slow to act. The middle class complains that the government is corrupt and unresponsive”. Can there be a more telling comment from the prime minister? The common man’s experience with bureaucracy is worse. Except for a few rare, glorious exceptions, the government officers have earned the reputation of being indifferent, insensitive and callous. Instead of being public servants, they have become masters of public. That is why their clamour for higher and higher pay does not strike a sympathetic chord in the hearts of the people. On the contrary, most people are of the view that they are a big drain on the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Since they are in a position to sit in judgement on how much they are worth, they have been getting substantial salary increases, not to mention the hidden perks. Even now, while the main grouse of being given a step-motherly treatment was that of the defence services, the civil servants, too, are likely to grab more. Various pay commissions have tried and failed to stem the rot. The Fifth Pay Commission had particularly linked the pay increases to reduction in the staff strength and more accountability. But while the former was implemented, the latter never did happen. While nobody will grudge them fatter pay packets, this should be conditional on result-oriented, time-bound performance and response to the people.
|
|
Neighbourly relations MORE than five years after the previous NDA government announced tax sops for the hill states, the Punjab government has reportedly decided to challenge the Central decision in the Supreme Court. The Vajpayee government had given a 100 per cent excise duty exemption and an income tax holiday to help the hill state attract manufacturing units. This drew a lot of pharmaceutical, FMCG and metal companies. The Central relief, however, has left the neighbouring states annoyed. Haryana has got an industrial and revenue boost due to its proximity to Delhi and does not protest as loudly as Punjab does. The recent decline in the GDP growth in Punjab is being attributed to the flight of industry to the neighbouring hill state. The state government claims industrial production fell in Punjab from 4.8 per cent in 2002 to 0.82 per cent in 2005 and the share of manufacturing in the state GDP fell from 16.22 per cent to 13.68 per cent in the same period. The Punjab leadership cannot entirely absolve itself of the blame for the slowdown. The state started an IT park in Mohali almost a decade ago. It is yet to materialise. The Chandigarh IT park began much later, but is throbbing with activity. It has attracted some big companies. The special economic zone at Amritsar, cleared years ago, is yet to take off. Power shortage, high land prices, red tape, a top-heavy administration and a visionless political leadership are also to blame for Punjab’s economic mess. It should not exacerbate its relations with Himachal Pradesh. Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal did spread goodwill by signing a power-sharing agreement in March last. The two leaders should settle all pending disputes across the table. Similarly, the water dispute with Haryana can be sorted out in a give-and-take spirit. The entire region can be developed as a special economic zone with adequate help from the
Centre.
|
|
Hockey’s shame SO now we know. If it is possible for a player to be included in the national hockey team by paying bribes, it is little wonder that we can’t seem to win anything of late. It is natural that we failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 1928. Secretary-general of the Indian Hockey Federation K. Jothikumaran has resigned hours after a sting operation by a television news channel showed him accepting money, to get a player selected for the senior team. This official has been in the post for almost 15 years, and former players have now alleged that he has been responsible for imposing players on the team. It is no secret in hockey circles that hockey administration has deteriorated drastically over the last few years, and IHF President K.P.S. Gill must take his share of the blame. Mr Gill has accepted the secretary-general’s resignation, but what is clearly needed now is a thorough overhaul of the working of the IHF, starting from the top. Officials who are not performing should be thrown out, and those who genuinely care about the game should be inducted. The system needs to be changed as well, putting emphasis not on the bosses and the money men, but on the game and the players. That means a clear focus on finding and nurturing talent, establishing and maintaining high-quality training facilities, regularly conducting well-planned domestic tournaments, imaginative promotion of the game, and attention to players’ welfare. Only such a thorough overhaul can rescue Indian hockey from the doldrums. Current and former players, and followers of the national game, have been forced to suffer a string of shocks of one kind or another. If the decline is not to turn into demise, those in power need to act speedily.
|
|
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. — Mahatma Gandhi
|
Reprocessing democracy
The
Maoists winning the democratic right to lead Nepal is more than an electoral event. It is a development of enormous significance for not only the people of Nepal but also the rest of the world, particularly India and South Asia. The Maoists put democracy on trial and they, in turn, were tested by the democratic process. Both the Maoists and democracy have won resoundingly. This is as much a paradigm shift for democracy as for the Maoists. The outcome of the Constituent Assembly election proclaims loud and clear that multiparty democracy, as the world has known it, now faces new, and unlikely, competition. Parliamentary politics has thrown up a radical, competitive force of such awesome potential that the limits of democracy have been expanded to hitherto unforeseen dimensions. The unmistakable message is the promise held out by unexplored vistas of democracy for people who are fed up with the familiar political parties and their failure to deliver. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) deserves full credit for bringing about this cataclysmic shift that has upset settled theories and practices of democracy, and altered people’s perceptions. Amidst the abounding speculation – over what happened, how and why — in the aftermath of the Maoists’ stunning electoral triumph, there is an acute awareness of the immediate challenges facing Nepal. The challenges arise from some of the issues resolved by the elections with a finality that leaves no room for retreat to conditions of the past. First, the result is a total rejection of the monarchy and royalist elements of all hues. In not one of the 240 constituencies, where direct elections were held for the 601-member House, could the discredited king’s men so much as leave a mark. Second, there is no way the Maoists can go back to the gun. There is no need to, and this was never an option though they spoke of the possibility in the event of their losing the elections. From these two flow the challenges facing the Maoists at the helm of a new government which has to steer the Constituent Assembly towards a new constitution that lays the foundation for a truly federal, democratic, secular and inclusive republic. If the late 20th century witnessed the demise of many Communist (Marxist-Leninist) regimes, the first decade of the 21st century is witness to the world’s first elected Maoist government. The unfamiliar is always feared, even if there is no reason to. The very first challenge for the Maoists is to gain wider acceptability of their legitimate ascendancy through an election that was free and fair as underscored by over 1000 international observers. Incidents of voter intimidation and proxy voting were hardly such as to affect the extent of the Maoist victory. It is a detail of no consequence now. If the US continues to keep the Maoists on the terrorist list, it betrays Washington’s contempt for the people’s verdict. In the interest of Nepal, all Nepali parties owe it to their voters to ensure the acceptability of the Maoists. The Seven-Party Alliance, of which the Maoists are a part, had pledged before the elections to continue the coalition till the Constituent Assembly concludes its task. Now, the Maoists want the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) to remain in the coalition. The NC and the CPN (UML) should accept their reduced role for the larger responsibility – demanded by the mandate to the Maoists — of sustaining the SPA. This is essential to ensure a truly national government, enable reconciliation, carry forward the peace process and achieve unity of purpose for economic development. The Maoists have made the right moves, and appear willing to go the extra mile to appease the NC and the CPN (UML). A split in the SPA will send out wrong signals to the parties in the Terai, where the Maoists have to make peace with the forces clamouring for autonomy. Coming to terms with their opponents in the Terai is a challenge for the Maoists, who should overcome their hostility to the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum — which has bagged an impressive number of seats — and persuade them to join the coalition in Kathmandu. This is essential to reinforce their inclusive politics and keep the Madhesi parties from making common cause with the defeated old elite. The Terai accounts for nearly half the population of Nepal and is the country’s granary and economic engine. The Maoists have to bridge the gulf between Kathmandu and the Terai, and deal with the ferment in the plains in a manner that pre-empts mischief-makers from exploiting Madhesi grievances to subvert the mandate. The Maoists need India’s cooperation to discourage international busybodies from meddling in the Terai. Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a.k.a. Prachanda, has struck the correct note in reaffirming friendship and cooperation with India. The unwarranted unease in New Delhi over the “collapse” of the twin pillars – actually only monarchy has been rejected, multiparty democracy has gained new vitality now – will pass. Prachanda knows that official India has no choice but to accept the will of the Nepalese people. New Delhi could have avoided the “hysterical blunder” of taking sides against the Maoists in the run-up to the election. Having persuaded the Maoists to join the SPA government and then brokered a truce between the disparate groups in the Terai and the SPA, official India could have kept its foot out of its mouth until the results were known. That would have increased Maoist goodwill instead of making them wary of New Delhi. However, Prachanda, who has proved a supreme pragmatist, is unlikely to let these “lapses” on the part of New Delhi decide the course of Nepal’s relationship with India. The traditional India-Nepal relationship is bound to break out of the obsolete mould in which it has been trapped for too long. How the two countries re-envision this to their mutual advantage is as much a challenge to the Maoists as to the policy-makers in India. As the Maoists set out to make the most of the chance they have gained to govern Nepal, they are bound to shed some of their radicalism. Much like electoral politics made social democrats of the CPM in India, the Maoists in Nepal, too, will get de-radicalised. They have to educate their ranks and cadres to adapt to parliamentary politics, institutions of state – including the Nepalese Army – and civil society. In this process of political conversion, the Maoists need to be vigilant against diluting their radical policies for the upliftment of the poor, the landless and the marginal and excluded sections such as the janjatis – the constituencies that enabled their victory over the forces of feudalism and the entrenched but enfeebled mainstream parties. The Maoists have influenced the people of Nepal to vote them in. Now they need to win friends, partners and allies to get on with governance and deliver on their promise to provide peace, security, food, development and justice. The expectations of this experiment in reprocessing democracy are too high for the Maoists to
fail
|
“U, Me but not Her” Ajay Devgan’s much-publicised maiden venture “U, Me aur Hum” and its trailers of a love-struck couple romancing each other on board a ship was enough to interest a movie-buff like me. I waited for the movie’s release, gorging on the lavish trailers that flooded the television screen every now and then.
Finally, the movie arrived and opportunity presented itself with a friend offering to take us. The “date” was set and we were dot on time for the last show of the day to watch love take wings in the glitzy setting of a cruiser. No, this is not a movie review if I gave that impression. It’s about how the movie moves at snail’s pace to capture the first flush of romance as Devgan tries to woo his lady love. The interval brought with it the familiar round of popcorns and coffee and trouble for the lovey-dovey couple. The movie picked up after the break and finally did some justice to love. The handling was sensitive, the dialogues touching as the couple moved through troubled times, side-by-side and always together. However, for all the sensitivity shown by Devgan in his home production, he failed to “deliver” an important message to the public — that a baby girl is as welcome as a baby boy.
In one scene where a doctor emerges from the operation theatre carrying his just-delivered baby, he says he is sure the baby is a boy. “I am confident that my wife has given birth to a boy because she knows how much I wanted a baby boy,” he remarks. While it passed off as just another scene for the audience, it raised my hackles especially since the girl child is a subject I feel deeply about. It was shocking for the sheer brazenness of portraying the desire for a boy when the entire government machinery, non-government organisations, people’s groups et al are waging war to save the girl child and fight the mindset that puts a boy ahead of the girl. It seems their efforts have made little dent in the psyche of the people and the issue of a falling sex ratio is still treated casually. The desire for a boy remains intact in a society where girls are in short supply. It is all the more appalling that such a message comes from a couple who themselves have a daughter. For me, the movie was forgotten the moment I walked out of the theatre into the cool night air, feeling the light drizzle on my face. My thoughts went out to my daughter, asleep at home, and I wondered to myself if I was missing out on something by not having a son? And, I answered my own question.
I realised that the world is still full of incorrigible mindsets which don’t understand love that comes as a package deal with a baby, irrespective of whether it is a boy or a girl. For them, it’s about carrying the family name forward with the boy. For the unbiased, a family is entirely about U, Me aur
Hum!
|
Panchayats need new deal We are celebrating the 15th anniversary of the new avatar of panchayats. Under Article 243(G) of the Constitution, Panchayats must become “institutions of self-government.” What is the balance sheet of the Panchayati Raj Institutions after 15 years? The deficits outnumber the achievements. Many factors are responsible for this dismal picture. When Rajiv Gandhi introduced the 64th Constitutional Amendment on 15 May 1989 to give constitutional status to the panchayats, it was seen as a historic step. The Gandhians and all those who subscribed to the view that ‘power to people in rural India’ was a necessary condition for a prosperous and democratic India, rejoiced over the decision. Of course, they did not agree with all aspects of the bill. But few disputed the fact that Rajiv Gandhi had set in motion a silent social revolution that would transform India. And yet, ironically, when the radical bill was later passed by Parliament as the 73rd Constitution Amendment, political leaders, specially MPs and MLAs representing all political hues and colour, began to undermine it. The classic example was the demand that MPs and MLAs be given local area development funds. A far greater irony was that the very party which pioneered the idea of making every village a “little republic” took no pro-active step to empower the Panchayats. If we do a stocktaking of the last 25 years, it is the non-Congress states which took the panchayats forward, be it West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala under the Marxists or Karnataka during Janata Party rule (Ramakrishna Hegde and Nazir Sab) or Andhra Pradesh during N.T. Rama Rao’s regime or Orissa under Biju Patnaik. Sadly, even in a State like Kerala, which is otherwise known for its all-round development, the Congress led government delayed elections to the Panchayats and Municipalities till the second half of 1995. The same was the story in almost all the Congress-ruled states. The only exception was Madhya Pradesh under Digvijay Singh. Take the situation today. In Jammu and Kashmir the Congress party is heading the coalition. The panchayat elections have been due since October 2006. Neither the central nor the state leaders are bothered about it. In Jharkhand the Congress-supported coalition is in power. But Jharkhand is one state which has not held panchayat elections so far. The case is of course pending in Supreme Court. A lot is talked about empowering women in local government. But again it was a non-Congress Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, who gave 50 per cent reservation for women in the Panchayats. The governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal that have followed suit, happen to belong to non-Congress parties. By creating a separate Ministry for Panchayati Raj, the UPA government has taken the correct and much needed step. But those committed to decentralisation and grassroots democracy will agree that it was only a half hearted measure. The new ministry should have been the Ministry of Local Government bringing the urban and rural under one umbrella. Now with a powerful Ministry of Rural Development and two ministries looking after Urban Affairs, what is left for the Ministry of Panchayati Raj to do? The contradiction is evident from the fact that with 70 percent of the population living in the villages and 29 subjects transferred to the panchayats, and enormous challenges to be faced in implementing the Constitutional provisions, what was the budget allocated to the Ministry? In the first year it was Rs. 8 crore and today it is Rs. 100 crore plus Rs 4670 crore for the Backward Regions Grant Fund. At the same time, Rs. 81,000 crore are going to States under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes through the line ministries and departments. Panchayats are the implementing agencies on paper only. Neither the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad nor the State Institutes for Rural Development are under the Panchayati Raj ministry. The list of such deficits is long. Notwithstanding these weaknesses and constraints, the Ministry has done exceptionally well to keep the banner of Panchayati Raj aloft. All because of the dedication and vision of the Minister for Panchayati Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar. Today, not only the neighbouring countries but also Brazil, South Africa as also the Commonwealth countries look to India for inspiration. The seven round tables the ministry organised in 2004, the activity mapping it initiated, the charter of demands prepared by the panchayat representatives for presenting to the Prime Minister and President of the Congress party on April 24, the documents the Union Minister signed with 22 Chief ministers, are special steps only a visionary leader could achieve. All this has come after a long slumber of 11 years. The BJP-led government hardly did anything positive about panchayats during its six-year-rule. Panchayats are a state subject. The intensity of the negative forces varies from State to State. Many state governments are riding rough shod over the local government institutions. Today panchayats need a new deal which will open a new chapter for the 800 million people living in our villages. This new deal should make panchayats institutions of local government as envisaged by the Constitution. It must ensure ways and means to make Panchayats and Municipalities the third tier of government in the country. It must ensure autonomy to implement policies and programmes to eradicate poverty. Then we can say goodbye to the Collector Raj and bring in District Governments. Let us hope that the Charter painstakingly prepared by the panchayat members from all over the country will prove to be the threshold for this new deal. Whether the Congress has the requisite political will remains to be seen. The writer is Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi |
|
Rawalpindi’s passage to India RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – The concession stand at the multiplex is out of popcorn. With 10 minutes to go before the previews start, Saman Mushtaq hungrily eyes glass display cases stuffed with candy bars and packages of nachos. One small CineFries and a large drink: 115 rupees, or $1.80, more than half the price of the ticket. But it’s worth it, after her two-hour drive from Peshawar to Rawalpindi for the only Sunday matinee playing within at least 100 miles. It’s 12:30 p.m., and dozens of people are lined up outside the Cinepax movie theater, waiting in the unforgiving heat for their first glimpse of one of Pakistan’s few multiplex cinemas. About 100 yards away, four towering columns mark the spot where a former prime minister was hanged years ago, casting a long shadow over the theater grounds. Inside, a slice of America with Bollywood flavouring beckons. Ice-cold air conditioning blasts across the spotless, polished marble floors of the five-screen multiplex. The plush purple stadium seats are slowly filling up, while an Indian raga plays loudly on the sound system. Mushtaq, 24, a telecom worker who lives with her parents in Peshawar, can barely keep still. In a few minutes, she will see her first Indian-made movie: “Race,” a slick thriller-cum-pop opera about two pretty girls, two rich brothers and a triple double-cross at a high-flying racetrack in South Africa. “The moment we entered the theater,” Mushtaq says, gesturing toward two friends at the concession stand, “we thought we’d never seen anything like this. There has been nothing like this in Pakistan - that’s why we had to come.” Indian movies were banned in Pakistan in 1965, after the two countries fought a war. Crippled by poor production and, more recently, undercut by a burgeoning market of pirated DVDs, Pakistan’s film industry appeared to be on the verge of extinction. Box office sales dwindled, and more than 600 movie theaters closed. But since a government decision in February to lift the ban on the screening of Indian movies, the ailing industry stands poised for a rebound. The brainchild of three Pakistani businessmen and an American film industry veteran, the Rawalpindi multiplex is the capital district’s first new cinema in years. It is one of about 120 that Cinepax plans to open over the next several years, including four in the cultural capital of Lahore and six in the commercial hub of Karachi. While scores of Urdu- and Pashto-language theaters have closed in the last several years, Cinepax is counting on the revival of Indian films in Pakistani theaters to help lift sales, Mumtaz explains. “Our culture is the same as India’s, so these are the movies people want to see,” he says. “Religious-wise, we are Muslims. Culture-wise, we are Hindus.” The company’s marketing strategy is primarily word of mouth. There are no splashy billboards, movie listings or newspaper ads. Too dangerous, says Mumtaz, as he watches a security guard wave a metal detector wand over one of his customers. In Theater No. 1, Mushtaq and her friends settle into their seats as scratchy footage of a green-and-white Pakistani flag flutters across the screen to the tune of the national anthem. Thirty seconds later, the crowd claps and cheers as the screen goes electric white and a slick, new, baby blue Mercedes sports car streaks by. A hunky actor breaks into song as dozens of scantily clad women in cowboy boots and ten-gallon hats dance around him. A passage to India has begun. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
|
Inside Pakistan Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari must be heaving a sigh of relief with the Supreme Court striking down the law that a graduation degree was a must for contesting a parliamentary election. He is now eligible to fight for a National Assembly seat in the coming byelections. Even otherwise, the judgement has been welcomed by most sections of society, as the law was discriminatory in nature. As The News pointed out in an editorial, “by enacting this condition the Musharraf regime had blocked out the majority of Pakistanis from exercising one of their fundamental rights – i.e. to contest a seat and be elected to either the provincial or federal parliament. In fact, according to the Supreme Court, the condition was found in violation of Article 17 (Freedom of Association) and Article 25 (Fundamental Rights) of the Constitution.” That there was “no such bar in India” was also mentioned in the course of hearing on the case. The law was unfair and had no logic to exist as only 1.4 per cent of the 160 million people of Pakistan hold a graduation degree. As rightly commented, particularly in the case of Pakistan, “access to higher learning is largely a matter of opportunity rather of merit” with money playing a major role. The controversial graduation condition was introduced through a presidential order on the eve of elections in 2002 and later it was incorporated in the Legal Framework Order.” The Nation quoted senior jurist Hamid Khan as saying that “no parliamentary action is needed to scrap the condition of graduation for the reason that it was never a part of the Constitution, rather it came through an amendment to the People’s Representation Act by a presidential order.” The unending food crisis may take a turn for the worse owing to an estimated poor wheat yield in Pakistan. According to Business Recorder (April 18), “the wheat output is likely to fall to 20-22 million tonnes as against the target of 24 million tonnes, necessitating imports of nearly 3 million tonnes this season.” Last year Pakistan had to import 1.7 million tonnes of wheat because of an acute shortage of this essential commodity. The Yousuf Raza Geelani government is worried as imports, too, may not help it much with the food prices rising alarmingly all over the world. Pakistan has been listed among the 36 countries that face a serious food availability problem, and if the crisis deepens “people may raid storage facilities for food”. According to Daily Times (April 20), the common man’s “frustration reaches its peak when he hears our politicians explaining that the ‘only’ cause for the crisis is the outgoing PML-Q government.” The paper wants the Pakistan government to “allow India’s TV news networks to broadcast in Pakistan” so that the people “can get a better comparative picture of what is happening to us and why.” Those worried about the unending terrorist violence in the North-West Frontier Province are having sleepless nights following reports that the US army is fine-tuning a fresh strategy to attack the tribal areas in Pakistan to flush out the terrorists hiding there. The primary reason for their increased concern is that the wider US attacks may complicate the situation at a time when efforts are on to handle the crisis through talks and military means. In an article in The Frontier Post (April 20) Zaheerul Hassan says that a “proper economic and social development programme” should be launched to improve “the living standard of the poor tribal people”. He points out that the scrapping of the Federal Crime Rules was appreciated by the tribal people as it was a step in the right direction. An article in The News (April 20) by Khalid Aziz, head of the Regional Institute of Policy Research, has it that many conservative Pakhtuns believe that the fighting in Swat, Kohat and Waziristan is a war of liberation against US occupation of Afghanistan; they fight the Pakistani state because of its alliance with the US….” Khalid, too, advocates socio-economic uplift of the people to wean them away from the forces sympathising with militants. In his opinion, “Peace can be won, but only by cooperation and through a holistic approach”. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
