O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Oil burden
States must accept their share
THE states have asked the Centre to bear 50 per cent of the loss caused by the oil tax cuts. Ten of the 33 states and Union Territories have slashed sales tax on petrol and 15 have reduced the levy on diesel while Delhi has lowered the VAT on LPG. The total revenue erosion comes to Rs 8,000 crore. This is not much compared to the loss of Rs 22,660 crore, which the Centre alone has absorbed.

Death under wheels
Callous drivers deserve no leniency
THE Law Commission’s recommendation to the Centre to raise the maximum jail term for death caused by drunk or rash drivers from two to 10 years cannot but be welcomed. In its latest report, the commission, headed by Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, came down heavily on the abysmal lack of traffic discipline throughout the country and said that stringent punishment is the only way to discipline the drivers and ensure public safety.

Dubious decisions
Umpirical evidence in cricket
IN an age where everything is reviewed, reconsidered and revisited, and the proverbial second thought is often believed to be better, cricket, too, cannot escape the test of these processes. Fortunately, the realisation comes at a time when technology makes possible a lot more than could have been attempted earlier.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Editor’s Column
The daily bread
Failure to tackle food crisis can be unsettling
by H.K. Dua
GEORGE W. BUSH understands oil better than food. This was evident when he recently held India responsible for the food crisis the world is caught in. When he heard that his remarks had ruffled Indian feelings, he came out with a gobbledegook kind of an explanation, which accused only the 400 million people who make its middle class, not all the people of India for causing the global food crisis.

MIDDLE

Train of thoughts
by Saurabh Malik
SO, the “impossible” is coming true! We may soon have trains which take us from Chandigarh to Delhi in 50 minutes flat. Journey towards progress! Look at the endless possibilities it will eventually lead to. Travelling between Chandigarh-Delhi will become “local” in terms of travel time.

OPED

Policing in Haryana
Internal complaint mechanisms don’t exist
by Pushkar Raj and Shobha Sharma
THE rape and suicide of a young mother of two children recently in Rohtak is a grim reminder of the state of policing in one of the most advanced states of the country. Haryana has recently passed a new Police Act replacing the Police Act of 1861.

California weddings make history
by Ashley Surdin and William Booth
BEVERLY HILLS: She said, “I do,” and she said, “Absolutely.”
With those words, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, both dressed in ivory-colored suits, were pronounced “spouses for life” on the steps of the town courthouse as California became the second state to officially sanction same-sex marriage.

Inside Pakistan
After Karzai’s remarks
by Syed Nooruzzaman
AS expected, most newspapers in Pakistan have reacted angrily to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s threat to strike at the Taliban bases inside Pakistan if the extremists were not dealt with effectively by Islamabad.

EDITORIALS

Oil burden
States must accept their share

THE states have asked the Centre to bear 50 per cent of the loss caused by the oil tax cuts. Ten of the 33 states and Union Territories have slashed sales tax on petrol and 15 have reduced the levy on diesel while Delhi has lowered the VAT on LPG. The total revenue erosion comes to Rs 8,000 crore. This is not much compared to the loss of Rs 22,660 crore, which the Centre alone has absorbed. And the global oil price has not yet stabilised. Expectations are that it can touch $150 a barrel in the short run and $200 in about two years.

The estimate of the states’ loss put forward by the state finance ministers’ committee on VAT does not seem to have taken into account the states’ increasing income from the sale of petroleum products. The state taxes on oil are ad valorem. It means their earnings jump up in accordance with the rise in the oil prices. In 2002-03, the states got Rs 29,166 crore from the oil taxes. The figure climbed to Rs 55,677 crore in 2007-08. They have gained at the cost of the consumer. Even after the recent small cuts, the state levies on oil are still too high. In fact, they should be prepared for further tax cuts if the oil remains on the boil.

The states, no doubt, have limited sources of income, but these too are not properly tapped. Tax evasion is rampant due to poor governance and corruption. Ruling politicians indulge in competitive populism and give freebies to voters, bankrupting their treasuries and institutions. An extravagant political leadership fritters resources by creating unwanted posts to reward loyalists and new districts to promote officialdom. Punjab VIPs move around in oil-guzzling, expensive vehicles with large security contingents. The states’ real worry is how to provide for increased salaries and pensions after the pay commissions submit their reports. They can bear the additional burden provided they follow the pay commissions’ recommendations about downsizing the administration and scrapping departments and posts no longer required after reforms.

Death under wheels
Callous drivers deserve no leniency

THE Law Commission’s recommendation to the Centre to raise the maximum jail term for death caused by drunk or rash drivers from two to 10 years cannot but be welcomed. In its latest report, the commission, headed by Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, came down heavily on the abysmal lack of traffic discipline throughout the country and said that stringent punishment is the only way to discipline the drivers and ensure public safety. At present there is no fear of the law among the drivers and this largely explains why over 95,000 people are killed in road accidents in India every year, according to the World Road Statistics. A close look at the present system of granting driving licences would expose gaping holes. In most places, policemen and touts short-circuit the normal procedure and help individuals obtain the licence expeditiously. It is these loopholes that the government needs to plug if it is keen on enforcing traffic discipline.

There is a strong case for awarding negative points to a driver for every traffic violation. If he repeatedly violates the traffic rules, his licence should be cancelled. As it is a question of human safety, no leniency should be shown to the offenders, however high and powerful they may be. In view of the increasing road accidents, what the country needs is a combination of tough legislation and strict enforcement of penalties.

The commission has made wide ranging suggestions for ensuring smooth flow of traffic and minimising risks to public safety. These include positioning cameras on all major intersections and arterial roads in cities, doing away with speed-breakers and hoardings on highways, intensive patrolling to deter drunken driving and use of mobiles while driving, and mandatory speed governors in city buses. Heightened surveillance on roads through cameras is a pressing necessity. While the footage would make it difficult to tamper with evidence, the realisation of having been caught on the camera may deter drivers from running away after an accident. This may also encourage them to help the injured, if only to minimise their culpability.

Dubious decisions
Umpirical evidence in cricket

IN an age where everything is reviewed, reconsidered and revisited, and the proverbial second thought is often believed to be better, cricket, too, cannot escape the test of these processes. Fortunately, the realisation comes at a time when technology makes possible a lot more than could have been attempted earlier. When India and Sri Lanka meet for their three-Test series in July, for the first time, doubtful decisions of the umpires will be reviewed. For long there has been a demand that the umpire’s decision should not be beyond question; that the umpire is human and, therefore, prone to err; and, that a remedy should be found to obviate errors without actually putting umpires on the mat.

This is feasible now with the technology available. Hitherto, when an umpire’s decision was wrong, there was no remedy or review. Since the player or team cannot express dissent without attracting disciplinary action, often the player, who was wronged unwittingly, was left with no option but to sulk or give vent to his frustration in ways that marred the game. One manifestation of this was unbecoming behaviour on the field, which often invited a reprimand, if not more stringent action. If a batsman was given out when he was not, there was little he could do except to keep seething; a bowler denied a wicket he had taken was also left to his own devices to come to terms with the injustice.

However, the decisions, even when wrong, are accepted if the umpire’s credentials, fairness and impartiality are beyond question. Yet, when a single decision can make the difference between victory and defeat, it is essential to eliminate chances of human error, which have been occurring with disturbing frequency in recent cricket matches. Thanks to technology, which enables elimination and reversal of human errors by reviewing replay of the sequences captured on camera, a wrong decision can be undone in a matter of minutes. This will erase one less-than-glorious uncertainty that afflicts cricket.

Thought for the day

No real change in history has ever been achieved by discussions.

— Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

ARTICLE

Editor’s Column
The daily bread
Failure to tackle food crisis can be unsettling
by H.K. Dua

GEORGE W. BUSH understands oil better than food. This was evident when he recently held India responsible for the food crisis the world is caught in.

When he heard that his remarks had ruffled Indian feelings, he came out with a gobbledegook kind of an explanation, which accused only the 400 million people who make its middle class, not all the people of India for causing the global food crisis.

To quote the spokesman of the White House, “As you increase your standard of living, the food that you eat – it can venture more into meats that require more commodities to feed the livestock, which uses more of those commodities, whether it’s corn or wheat or other commodities, and it drives up the price. So that is just a function of how those food prices that we’ve seen spike in the world.”

One cannot blame Bush’s spin-doctors for the laboured rationalisation advanced to get their President out of the faux pas he may have innocently committed.

Actually, the US President had forgotten that the Americans themselves are liberal in their eating habits for whom it is natural to daily waste platesful of food, which ultimately finds it way into bio-degradable trash cans.

Also, several surveys have suggested that a major health hazard the Americans are facing is obesity, with waistlines growing across the country.

I thought the Indian middle class was popular in the US and vice versa. Why blame it now for the global food crisis? As everyone knows, the world food crisis – like the oil crisis – is serious and massive in size for all people and the governments. It cannot be simply solved by indulging in blame game, or by taking it lightly.

There could be some connection between the oil crunch and the food crisis. International cartels may have become overactive in the current climate of shortages. Hoarders everywhere have also the tendency to go on an overdrive and keep away from the market what they think is just a commodity and not what the people have to live on. Profit is considered more sacred than the public good.

There are subdued noises about the role of cartels of oil producing countries that have lowered their production to create a climate of shortage of supplies against the rising demand, simply to make a quick killing. The multinationals trading in oil also must be raking in more profits. It is unbelievable that the cartels are inactive in international food trade. There can, after all, be no check on the cartels in the days of globalisation of trade, whatever the consequences.

Essentially, the food crisis is too huge in proportion to permit a facile explanation. Adam Smith was worried that the world population would grow at a rate that it won’t be able to find enough food and hence it will be “checked” on its own. By this he clearly meant that the population would thin out because of famine and starvation.

Two centuries later, Adam Smith’s economics may look elementary and dire predictions far-fetched. He did not visualise the tremendous advances science and technology would make not long after him and which would help in reducing the population growth by other ways and also by raising food production.

There is that elementary truth that the world is not producing enough food for everyone on the planet. And there are imbalances between the consumption patterns of the rich, who can afford to eat what they want and when they want, and of the poor, who have to subsist on what they can get and when they get. The rich everywhere are getting obese because of the high intake of calories; the poor all over the world are not getting enough daily nutrition.

Economists and experts seldom agree at their gatherings, but often succeed in making simple questions more complicated. Journalists, who by the very nature of their job, most often follow a hit-and-run approach, reducing assumptions into conclusions. Agricultural economists, experts and prominent editors of Asian and European newspapers met in Bangkok last week to discuss the nature of the world food crisis and what ought to be done to tackle it.

Some experts blamed Australia for giving a wheat shock to the world last year, setting off the crisis. Without endorsing George Bush’s remarks, others thought India should not have banned rice exports to meet domestic needs. A couple of participants thought that Thailand, a country surfeit with rice, should not have denied rice to the Philippines.

An Indian editor pointed out that George Bush had not cared to blame the use of bio-fuel for producing energy on both sides of the Atlantic. “How can you burn foodgrains to produce energy while there are hundreds of millions of people in Asia and Africa who, living below the poverty line, cannot afford to buy two square meals a day? Won’t you think it is a criminal waste of foodgrains meant for people to live on, and not to run cars in Europe and the US?”

Experts were divided on this. Not many of them felt a ban on the use of bio-fuel to run the internal combustion engine will serve the purpose. The planet had to be saved from the damage being done to its climate by the Green House Gases after all.

There was, however, agreement that for nearly 20 years agriculture had been neglected by most governments. The drive for a higher industrial growth rate had made agriculture less romantic for policy-makers. Agricultural land was being devoured by the cities. And the young did not want to work on the farms, away from the urban glitz.

None can deny that agriculture remained in most parts of the world under-invested; farmers were not being given their due and yet were expected to produce foodgrains for all. While industry had grown in India and China and in many parts of the world, agricultural growth had not kept pace with the population growth.

By and large, wheat prices have remained relatively more stable and if the monsoon is bountiful this season, India should be over the hump soon. Whether it can resume wheat exports will be known after it has replenished its own foodstocks.

At a time of shortages, most countries become protectionist. The politicians have to take steps to keep prices in control to avoid being thrown out. The experts, who do not have to face elections, would like no government to upset the trade commitments lest distortions should create panic in deficit states and general price rise all over.

The need to tackle the food crisis has become rather urgent. Shortages and the consequent steep rise in prices have led to riots in some parts of the world. Agitations and unrests are growing in others. Unresolved, the food crisis can lead to political instability in many countries with its consequences.

In the long-run, the food crisis and the price rise can leave little money for such areas as education, healthcare, housing and job creation which have to be taken care of if we have to see a happier world in our times. Their neglect will sharpen the divides in societies and politics.

While huge investments in agriculture and the promised Second Green Revolution have become urgent, it will take time before agriculture can pick up. It has become important for all nations – the rich, the not-so-rich and the poor – to join hands and evolve a common strategy to deal with the food crisis. Merely indulging in a blame game will not do. It will be a failure on the part of world leaders if they do not get together to lift the present gloom arising out of the twin crises of oil and food.

The G-8 leaders meeting next month in Tokyo must discuss steps to deal with the two crises and this should be followed by a wider exercise so that the people all over the world get enough to eat and at prices they can afford.

MIDDLE

Train of thoughts
by Saurabh Malik

SO, the “impossible” is coming true! We may soon have trains which take us from Chandigarh to Delhi in 50 minutes flat. Journey towards progress!

Look at the endless possibilities it will eventually lead to. Travelling between Chandigarh-Delhi will become “local” in terms of travel time.

“Where do you work?” and pronto the reply will come “PB”.

“Oh, Punjab? Where — Mohali? Zirakpur? Dera Bassi?”

“No, Punjabi Bagh, Delhi! You see it almost takes the same time.”

This is not all. Affection will be the destination for so many younglings. And, maybe, Chandigarh will become a one-hug railway station, as high-speed trains will run between Amritsar and Delhi at 300 km per hour.

Alienated by circumstances, couples from both the stations will get off at Chandigarh; meet as long as the departure time permits; and go back.

And how can you forget Janpath fashion that will take a trip in the express? Already, you have femmes of the world going to Delhi on Shatabdi for picking up short skirts, shorter tops and weird earrings, that come even in form of paan-leaves and hurricane lanterns.

For so many years now, I have been travelling to Delhi from Chandigarh by car. But this time, I grabbed the opportunity of going by the train. The decision took me back in time; to the days when as kids we would look forward to munch paranthas with loads of aloo-ke-sabji. And, we would watch the world whiz by through the open windows. Needless to say, there was this constant fight among the siblings for the window seat.

Travelling, you see, was better than arriving. Journey itself was the destination.

But this time, it was all very different. The taste of tradition was missing. There were no paranthas, but cutlets; and charm of looking out of the window had disappeared, perhaps, because it was closed and all dark. I was not a part of the scene. Through the black screen, it was like looking at the world on a television set. May be, that’s why there was no fight for the window seat.

As we are travelling towards comfort, somewhere down the line we are leaving the appeal behind. And now with the 50-minute run, it will be better to arrive, than to travel.

OPED

Policing in Haryana
Internal complaint mechanisms don’t exist
by Pushkar Raj and Shobha Sharma

THE rape and suicide of a young mother of two children recently in Rohtak is a grim reminder of the state of policing in one of the most advanced states of the country. Haryana has recently passed a new Police Act replacing the Police Act of 1861. This new Act flies in the face of the Supreme Court directives that lay down effective accountability mechanisms for the erring police men in khaki. Several disturbing trends emerge from the incident.

The hapless woman was allegedly raped by two police men two months back. It was a heinous crime under the Police Act and regulations. The victim tried lodging an FIR with the local police station, tried to meet the Superintendent of Police, but no action was taken. She had to travel to Chandigarh to meet the Inspector-General of Police to get her FIR registered after one and half months. This was not the end of her ordeal. The policemen accused of raping her began to threaten her and made her life miserable to the extent that she decided to terminate her life.

It is really a disgrace for a police force that a woman who has undergone the agony of rape should have to travel to Chandigarh just to get an FIR registered. It is also a sad commentary on the state of the political leadership. The Chief Minister is reported to have said that this would have not happened if she had approached him with her complaint.

In other words, the only recourse the state police and the state government extend to those who are humiliated, harassed, tortured, or raped by the Haryana Police is to approach the Chief Minister for relief. It seems there is no institution in the state save the office and persona of the Chief Minister!

What does it tell us about the Haryana police? Just that its internal complaint mechanisms do not exist and a victim of gross police atrocity and human rights violation does not have any effective method of seeking redress. This, despite a historic judgement of the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh and Others vs. Government of India case that stipulated that states should legislate new police laws which, among other things, ensure effective police accountability for its wrong doings.

The judgement directed that there must be independent Police Complaints Authorities at the state and district levels to look into public complaints against police officers in cases of serious misconduct, including custodial death, grievous hurt or rape in police custody.

The state level authority is to be chaired by a retired judge of the High Court or Supreme Court to be chosen by the state government out of a panel of names proposed by the Chief Justice. It must also have three to five other members (depending on the volume of complaints) selected by the state government out of a panel of names prepared by the State Human Rights Commission, the Lok Ayukta and the State Public Service Commission.

Members of the authority may include members of civil society, retired civil servants or police officers or officers from any other department.

The district level authority is to be chaired by a retired district judge to be chosen by the state government out of a panel of names proposed by the Chief Justice of the High Court or a High Court Judge nominated by him or her. It must also have three to five members selected according to the same process as the members of the state level Police Complaints Authority.

In response to this what has the new Police Act delivered to the people of Haryana? The new Police Act sets up only a state-level single-member complaint authority headed by a retired judge or retired civil servant without any effective powers. For all practical purposes, it is a body for namesake as its recommendations are non-binding. So people remain where they are at the mercy of some good policemen if they ever come across them or the politicians who have arrogated all the power to themselves.

So envisage being poor, powerless, illiterate and the victim of rape or other atrocity by the Haryana police: there are no grievance redressal mechanisms within the police which will take note of your complaint with any seriousness or take any kind of disciplinary action against its officers. Nor does there seem to be any worthwhile, effective and independent oversight body such as a Police Complaints Authority, even though the new Police Act sets up one on paper. There is no need for a State Human Rights Commission as the Chief Minister himself stresses: “We have no human rights violations.”

This is an ironic statement from a Chief Minister who has signed the new Haryana Police Act Statement of Objects and Reasons which explicitly says, “…a need has been felt to redefine the role, duties and responsibilities of the police to make it efficient, professional, effective, responsive, accountable and people friendly so as to meet the emerging challenges of policing, good governance and human rights.

The present functioning of police is governed by the Police Act of 1861 and the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 and this set up of police is not up to the expectations of the people. Hence there is a need to replace the old Act to cater to the prevailing needs and expectations of the society.” It is time the Chief Minister acted with integrity to ensure that the objects upon which the legislation was created are translated into reality on ground.

The writers are associated with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi

California weddings make history
by Ashley Surdin and William Booth

BEVERLY HILLS: She said, “I do,” and she said, “Absolutely.”

With those words, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, both dressed in ivory-colored suits, were pronounced “spouses for life” on the steps of the town courthouse as California became the second state to officially sanction same-sex marriage.

As the women were wed by a female rabbi, under a Jewish wedding canopy and surrounded by a mob of cameras, a protester shouted, “You’re going to burn in hell.”

During the winter of 2004, almost 4,000 couples got hitched in San Francisco before the California Supreme Court declared the licenses invalid, citing a state law that described marriage as between a man and a woman. Then last month, the same high court ruled 4-3 that the law prohibiting same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

The ceremonies in Beverly Hills and San Francisco were among the first in what is expected to be a crush of government-sanctioned unions this summer, in simple civil ceremonies in city halls, at lavish galas at resort hotels or in synagogues and churches that are supportive of same-sex marriage.

“I think as far as civil rights are concerned, it’s a major step forward,” said the Rev. Neil G. Thomas, senior pastor at Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles, which was founded in 1968 to minister to the gay community when other churches refused. “The magic words – now by the power invested in me by the state of California – can apply equally to my straight and gay couples.”

Unlike Massachusetts, which allows same-sex marriage but only for its residents, California will issue licenses to residents and visitors alike.

A coalition of organisations, church leaders and elected officials who oppose same-sex marriage, including conservative advocacy groups such as James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, have placed an initiative outlawing same-sex marriage on the November ballot.

“Rather than being a trail-blazing episode, I think it will be a brief anomaly,” said Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council in Washington, one of the organisations supporting a November measure that seeks to ban same-sex marriage.

This past weekend, the Family Research Council ran ads in California newspapers declaring, “Beginning Monday judges are removing the word husband from California marriage certificates. The next step will be to remove the term father from birth certificates. Enjoy this Father’s Day. ... It might be your last.”

A ballot measure banning same-sex marriage was passed by California voters in a landslide in 2000, but it was a state statute. The ballot measure this November would amend the state constitution.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has said he will not support the amendment. Current polling suggests the voters could go either way.

If California voters decide to ban same-sex marriage, legal scholars say it is unclear whether that would have a retroactive effect on the marriages that take place from now until November.

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Inside Pakistan
After Karzai’s remarks
by Syed Nooruzzaman

AS expected, most newspapers in Pakistan have reacted angrily to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s threat to strike at the Taliban bases inside Pakistan if the extremists were not dealt with effectively by Islamabad. However, the expression of displeasure is measured perhaps because of the realisation that Mr Karzai has spoken on behalf of the US-led international forces engaged in taming the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Even a conservative paper like The Nation, which described the Afghan President’s views as “outlandish”, said that “Mr Karzai's remarks have come at a time when Islamabad is busy negotiating a peace deal with the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan that is aimed at containing cross-border attacks by militants.”

The paper did not go beyond saying that “statements negating the norms of international diplomacy would not help the ongoing War On Terror. It would rather further complicate the global effort to obliterate terrorism.”

An editorial in Dawn had it that “Things are not going to improve by mutual mudslinging ... True, Pakistan has had a history of close cooperation with the Taliban. But that is a thing of the past … If its strategy has not proved to be effective, it must be given a chance to work out a new carrot and stick approach that might work this time since an elected government is in office and carries more credibility with the people living in the border regions.

“But for Pakistan’s policy to have a minimum chance of success, it is important that Afghanistan and the United States should work in tandem with Islamabad. Unfortunately, this is not happening.”

According to Daily Times, “Attacks on music shops, cell-phone shops and girls’ schools continue in the settled areas despite an agreement of truce with the NWFP government. Making clear who the Taliban were after, they even tried unsuccessfully to kidnap the son of Mr Amir Muqam, a prominent member of the PML(Q) in the NWFP. So unsure is the provincial government of the capacity of the federal government to defend the country against the Taliban that when the federal government tried to wriggle out of the peace deals, the NWFP government refused to go along.”

Talk of cooperation

After talking of hot pursuit of the Taliban in Pakistan President Karzai is now trying to cool the frayed tempers in Islamabad. He told a group of Pakistani journalists in Kabul on Monday that “the two governments should join hands to wipe out the elements working against peace and stability and against the innocent people on either side of the border” as a report in Dawn said.

Mr Karzai stressed the point that “When Baitullah Mehsud and Mulla Fazlullah make statements about going into Afghanistan to kill innocent people, what do you expect us to do?”

“They must pay for their crimes even if they don’t come to Afghanistan, and if they burn schools I will treat them as enemies. It is a very, very serious matter.”

PPP losing sheen

People are gradually getting disenchanted with the style of functioning of the PPP. This has been brought to light by the long march of lawyers that concluded in Islamabad on Saturday. The PPP did not join it though the number of people who participated in the march, besides lawyers, was estimated to be between 200,000 and 500,000.

According to The News (June 15), “What those who had predicted that the long march would fizzle out, and the political parties – chiefly the PPP – which distanced themselves from it, had not realised that the campaign for judicial restoration has metamorphosed since its earliest days. Today, it has come to represent a struggle by people against oppression, against injustice, against a lack of democracy and against wrong of every kind.”

The way the party leading the ruling coalition is conducting itself will have its “impact on the PPP – the party that terms itself as a party of the masses, yet removed itself from their midst as these masses converged on Islamabad. Within the party the voices critical of the manner in which Asif Ali Zardari has handled matters are rising. Some believe a split may not be far off…”, as The News commented.