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Resorting to passions Modi rebuffed |
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Stocks
rise again
Left in the dock
Guns and
roses
Dispensing justice All in the name of
democracy Zimbabwe’s
political crisis grows
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Resorting to passions INCIDENTS of violence Jammu witnessed on Tuesday were totally avoidable. What’s worse, the Sangh Parivar and its affiliates, including the BJP, are organising similar protests all over the country. They seem to believe that they have got an issue they can milk in the next elections to the State Assembly and the Lok Sabha. Given their track record on Ayodhya, few doubt their ability to rouse passions for political ends. The problem arose when then J&K Governor General S.K. Sinha (Retd) asked for and obtained a huge chunk of forestland to accommodate the Amarnath pilgrims. As ex-officio chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board, he could have simply asked the government to provide facilities for the pilgrims, rather than specifically insist on land. His Principal Secretary worsened the situation when he said that the allotment was of a permanent nature which was, indeed, an absurd statement. Subsequently, new Governor N.N. Vohra has withdrawn the request and the state government has revoked the order of allotment. In doing so, the latter has taken upon itself the responsibility of providing the pilgrims all necessary facilities for their journey. If the arrangements are inadequate, the Governor can revert to the government. So the interests of the pilgrims will not suffer on any account. The ‘land allotment’ has been compared to the special facilities for Haj pilgrims at international airports. They are not comparable in the sense that the Haj pilgrims have not been given a title deed for the airport area earmarked for their use. In any case, the J&K government already spends a huge sum of money on deploying thousands of security personnel to give protection to the pilgrims round the clock for two months. Actually, Amarnath Yatra has never caused a communal row in Jammu and Kashmir. It would be a tragedy if the Sangh Parivar outfits whip up passions over the Amarnath issue. It is true that some fundamentalist elements in the Valley tried to communalise the issue by resorting to violence and spreading all kinds of rumours. The BJP would be playing into their hands if it takes up the issue like it did in the case of Ayodhya. Even after 16 years of the demolition of Babri Masjid, the wounds it inflicted on the nation are yet to heal. The BJP may hope to win, but the nation will lose if it follows the same track it had once treaded, of course, with disastrous results.
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Modi rebuffed The
Supreme Court has rightly restrained Mr Narendra Modi’s government in Gujarat from arresting renowned social scientist Ashis Nandy for an article that he had written for The Times of India (January 8). A vacation Bench consisting of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice G.S. Singhvi not only cancelled the summons issued by the Inspector of Police, Satellite Police Station, Ahmedabad, but also took the state government to task for harassing a reputed thinker like Nandy. In these columns on June 20, The Tribune had strongly criticised the manner in which Chief Minister Narendra Modi was becoming increasingly intolerant to criticism and suppressing academic freedom and dissent with an iron fist in the state. Clearly, the government had no case against Nandy and the action against him and the staff of The Times of India was a brazen attempt to gag academic freedom and muzzle the Press. The Supreme Court has seen through this. Significantly, Justice Kabir observed that he has read Nandy’s article and found nothing objectionable in it. “There is no ground for harassing a journalist. Let him live in peace. You (Gujarat government) are prosecuting this man for his article. There are worst things happening in this country. If a journalist cannot write, who else will? They look for a soft target to catch but not even a single politician or small municipal councillor is caught”, he said. Equally significant was Justice Singhvi’s observation as to how “people coming from the land of Mahatma Gandhi have become so intolerant that they can’t tolerate even an article?” The judges even questioned the complainant’s motives and credentials. Unfortunately, Mr Modi and his government have no respect for the citizens’ fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. He has taken oath to protect the Constitution, but does not care to adhere to it. The Supreme Court, as the protector of the citizens’ fundamental rights, has rightly stepped in and restored the rule of law. Mr Modi has done little to punish those involved in the 2002 massacre. When The Times of India carried reports linking the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner with organised crime, the government, being intolerant of criticism, slapped even sedition charges on its resident editor and reporter. Clearly, this is not the way in which the Modi regime should conduct itself in a democratic country.
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Stocks rise again After
many days of steep fall, the BSE Sensex recovered 702 points on Wednesday. This could be partly due to short covering and partly some long-term investment. Other Asian markets mostly ended in the red. Japan’s Nikkei fell for the 10th day straight session registering its longest decline in 43 years. The worst is not over yet. Political uncertainty caused by the UPA government’s attempt to see through the nuclear deal has not yet ended. Inflation is expected to stay in double digits for the coming some months. Higher interest rates have raised the cost of capital and will hit corporate profitability. The US attempts to clear the financial mess left behind by the sub-prime crisis have not yet shown results. Most importantly, the global crude oil prices are still on the rise. The over-all scenario continues to be dismal. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are largely responsible for the Sensex’s deep plunge as they book profit here to cover losses and meet the pressure of redemptions elsewhere. The FII cash outflow has depreciated the rupee, raising the cost of oil imports. There is also a pull factor at play. Better opportunities exist for investment outside India. Despite the meltdown, the Indian stock market is still more expensive than others like that of Russia, Brazil and South Korea. Trading in commodities is attracting oil profits and surplus funds from across the world. The year 2008 saw the country become a trillion-dollar economy and then lose the status as share prices fell. Analysts have scaled down the GDP growth forecast to 7-7.5 per cent. The Sensex can regain strength only, (a) if the process of FII capital outflow reverses, (b) other Asian, European and US markets start rising, (c) the crude oil prices fall back to reasonable levels or at least stablise, (d) inflation begins the reverse journey and (e) political stability returns. Until then, the market can remain volatile.
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Religion is by no means a proper subject of conversation in a mixed company. — Lord Chesterfield
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Left in the dock How
deep is the Left’s commitment to the national cause? A look at the case for prosecution may be worthwhile. For a start, it is necessary to remember that the communists have spawned insurgent groups like the Naxalites or the Maoists, which are avowedly anti-Indian in the sense that they do not accept the country’s present political dispensation. If they gain power — even if this is highly unlikely — they are expected to restructure the entire set-up, starting with rewriting the Constitution. Arguably, they cannot be blamed because their concept of national interest is different from that of the existing “bourgeois” system with its alleged pro-rich bias. In this respect, the Maoists can be said to be not much different from the votaries of Hindu rashtra, who also want to change the Constitution to turn India into a land by, for and of the Hindus. Even if these are fanciful scenarios, the fact remains these views were, and still are, held by one-time as well as some of the present hardline followers of mainstream parties like the CPM and the RSS-BJP duo. In the case of the comrades, one has to remember that although they are participants in the current parliamentary form of democracy, the formal commitment of the CPM — though not of the CPI — is to a people’s democracy which is followed in the few remaining communist countries. Questions such as these arise because of the Left’s resistance to the nuclear deal. While objectors like the BJP and a handful of strategic specialists argue from the nationalistic point of view by claiming that the deal will deny India a free hand in building up a nuclear arsenal by forbidding tests and because of the IAEA’s intrusive inspection of reactors, the Left’s complaint is wholly ideological. It believes that the pact will move India decisively into the American camp, making it an instrument of US strategic interests. Even if this point is conceded - after all, Washington is obviously not being driven by altruistic motives in promoting India to join the Big Five as a legitimate nuclear power - it is curious that the communists simply refuse to look at the positive side of the deal, which includes the termination of three-and-a-half decades of nuclear apartheid to which India has been subjected since Pokhran I. The Left is also blind to the threat posed by an increasingly belligerent China, with its frequent incursions into Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, the renewal of help to the rebels in the North-East and the build-up of military capabilities, including a submarine fleet as well as in space. At a time like this, a closer Indo-US relationship, which was considered in the wake of the Chinese invasion of 1962, is not something to be resolutely opposed. The dissonance between patriotism and the communist theory of proletarian internationalism is an old one. It dates back to Lenin’s journey in a “sealed train” through Germany to Russia on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution, which was seen by some as a traitorous act since Germany and Russia were then at war. As is obvious, the objective of promoting the revolution was greater for Lenin than the cause of Russia since the Bolshevik hero regarded the war as one between the bourgeoisie of the two countries with which the working class had nothing to do. It is only when the communists lead a revolutionary movement against the bourgeois rulers of a country or against invaders that their patriotism merges with proletarian solidarity. Otherwise, these two concepts are at odds, as seemingly in India today. To quote Mao Zedong, “can a communist, who is an internationalist, at the same time be a patriot? We hold that he not only can be but must be … Chinese communists, therefore, must combine patriotism with internationalism … our slogan is ‘fight to defend the motherland against the aggressors’. For us, defeatism is a crime and to strive for victory in the war of resistance is an inescapable duty”. Mao was engaged at the time in fighting the Japanese side by side with the Kuomintang. Ho Chi Minh was also of the same view. “There should be a close association of patriotism and proletarian internationalism in both the national liberation movement and the socialist revolution”, he said. But what if the Left are not involved in a “liberation movement” and are, instead, a part of the bourgeois system? As is known, when the mainstream Indian communist parties decided in the mid-1960s to assume power after their electoral successes, they regarded their entry into the corridors of power as a tactical manoeuvre, which would enable them to spread their revolutionary message among the people. Besides, their theory told them that the expected failure of the bourgeois system to alleviate the misery of the people would convince the latter to take to the revolutionary path. Unfortunately, their expectations were belied. Neither did the present system fail to an extent to disillusion the people about it, nor was revolution seen as the only wayout. Instead, not only did the communist parties gradually become part and parcel of the bourgeois system, but also regarded the Maoists as misguided and urged them to join the process, as in Nepal. However, the question of proletarian solidarity with the remaining few international communist parties has remained although the latter can no longer be described as working class entities with China embracing market forces and Cuba doing away with the equality of wages. Before these changes in the world communist movement, the Indian communists had split in 1964 when the Left-wingers in the undivided communist party took an ambivalent stand on the Chinese invasion. Five years later, there was a rupture among the Left-wingers, who had by then constituted the CPM, when the Naxalites broke away and were hailed by Beijing as genuine revolutionaries. In the following years, the CPM prided itself on being equidistant from both the pro-Moscow CPI and the pro-Beijing Naxalites. But with China losing interest in the latter, the pendulum has swung back to more or less what it was in the mid-1960s, with the CPM once again emerging as the admirers of China, favouring investment by its companies in India and suspecting the anti-Chinese potential of the nuclear deal. Curiously, the formerly pro-Soviet CPI, too, has joined Big Brother in its ideological loyalty to Beijing since the Soviet Union has withered away. The difficulty with such devotion to a foreign power is that it can distort a party’s perspective where national interests are concerned. The danger is all the greater when the dogmatic parameters have little relevance to the present-day realities. As a result, in their blind anti-Americanism, the communists are still fighting the former Soviet Union’s (and China’s before the Nixon visit) cold wars against the US. Of late, the communists have been trying their best to counter the charges of being pro-Chinese. But their difficulty is that their past prevents them from being seen as ardent nationalists. Right from the time when the Left turned pro-British when the Soviet Union joined the US and Britain to fight Nazi Germany, to its rejection of Indian independence (“yeh azadi jhooti hai”), to E.M.S.Namboodiripad’s claim that China hadn’t committed aggression in 1962 because they had entered territory which they considered their own, the patriotism of the comrades has been under a cloud. As the nuclear deal imbroglio shows, the story hasn’t
ended.
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Guns and roses A brisk summer breeze wafted our Cheetah chopper over the 18,000-feet Khardung La, remnants of ice still clinging onto its shaded areas. Below us, a convoy of heavily-laden olive-green lorries crawled up the world’s highest motorable road traversing the Ladhakh range en route the Base Camp of the loftiest battlefield. Behind us, the snow-clad Zanskar mountains sparkled against the deep indigo of the southern sky, so typical of the trans-Himalayan sky-scape. Back in those days this area had witnessed fierce artillery battles and battery-to-battery duels. Hence, I had made numerous visits to the Gunners, all of which had been deliberately scheduled during the harsh winter months. Now as the Cheetah floated down over the pass, I couldn’t help but remark the lush green slopes – such a contrast from all my previous visits. Soon we were over the point where the south-flowing Nubra river makes a U-bend and turns north again. This marked our entry into the Siachen Sector between the Karakoram mountains and the Saltoro Ridge – the latter being the actual scene of confrontation. I was amazed to see the lower slopes swathed in masses of flowers and ablaze with colours – peach, pink and bright yellow. Such a contrast with the icy white and grey stone of the higher peaks! The entire vista was an impressionist water colour of breath-taking beauty. The Cheetah began its descent to the snout of the Siachen Glacier when suddenly the grey distance was pierced by rapid flashes of flame. Wisps of pale blue smoke curled skywards from the long barrels of the 130 mm guns, which had been so well camouflaged till they fired. Then the boom of the guns was heard above the roar of the chopper’s rotors. I could almost smell the cordite as the guns hurled their 80-lb shells of destruction well over the 20,000-feet Saltoro peaks and onto their hapless targets more than 20 kilometres away. The chopper made a short detour, then sank towards the helipad. I could now clearly see the blooms covering the hill-sides. They were roses — millions and millions of blooms! Pammi, the Gunner Commander of that area, met me near the grey-white-grey monument to the unmatched valour of the Siachen formation. I remarked about the roses draping the hills in colourful blooms. Pammi responded, “Sir, Siachen actually means the Valley of Roses!” I drove in thoughtful silence towards 130 mm-Battery, which was belching flames as it answered another call for
fire.
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Dispensing justice In
our eagerness to blame the mess, which the Indian justice administration system is currently faced with, on the judiciary, we frequently neglect to attribute the blame to where it rightly belongs – the lawyers. The media of late has been reporting unhesitatingly incidents where lawyers have gone on the rampage, even on court premises. Images of ruffians wearing black coats and bands smashing furniture and clashing with the police have unfortunately become all too common on television. It is not uncommon to find a mob of these "officers of the court" manhandling people accused of crimes in an apparent exhibition of moral outrage against their alleged heinous deeds. Each such report and each such unrestrained exhibition of hooliganism is acting as the proverbial additional nail in the coffin of the Indian judicial system. Chief Justice SS Sodhi's recent book "The Other Side of Justice" documents events which seem straight out of a Bollywood masala movie. The idea that lawyers affiliated to the Bar of one of the oldest high courts in the country could actually stampede and behave no better than common criminals, and with as much impunity, is shocking and ought to send alarm bells ringing everywhere. The can of worms that the retired Chief Justice has opened is a clear signal that there is something terribly wrong with the way that we are training law students or calling them to the Bar. In order to be called to the Bar in most "advanced" countries, a mere law degree is not considered sufficient. The entry barriers to the legal profession have been deliberately set sufficiently high as to preclude the entrance of any person unfit to participate in what is still regarded in those countries as a noble profession. Legal education imparted in most law colleges in India is in itself shameful. "Professors" of law who have not published a single academic paper after having managed to get employed, or whose predated knowledge of the law is woefully inadequate, teach students only theoretical aspects of law. There is no forum or institute, nor any course or specialised training which a student has to undergo in order to make the transition from a law graduate to a lawyer. The issuance of a law licence by the Bar Council too is a mere formality. There is no requirement for a law graduate to acquire any advocacy skills, to learn court etiquette or manners, or even have any knowledge of the law. If a person has been awarded an LL.B. degree by a university, he has the right to appear even before the Supreme Court of India the same day he gets his law licence. Incredible as that may seem, it is nothing in comparison to the fact that Bar Councils like the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana have also implemented a "tatkal" scheme for obtaining a law licence. If you pay an extra three thousand rupees on top of the six or seven thousand rupees normally charged, you are guaranteed your law licence within 24 hours. A scheme enacted some years ago by the Bar Council required fresh law graduates to work with established lawyers for a year before being awarded the licence – and was predictably met with a huge outcry from the Bar as well as from the student community and was abandoned soon afterwards. It is hardly surprising, therefore, to see ill-trained law students, bred on a diet of ridiculous courtroom scenes in trashy movies and professing motivation by reports of the so-called "public interest litigation" appearing in newspapers, making a mockery of the law. The legal system in India is not a creation of a year or a dozen years ago. Despite all the criticism we may level against the English, we have, as a matter of fact, inherited a legal system with roots which go back hundreds of years. For a lawyer to ignore the historical legacy of the English system and its (usually) high traditions, especially those governing the conduct of lawyers, is to reduce the system to a pitiable condition. For the most part, we lawyers are to blame for the common man's creeping disillusionment with the legal system. Unfortunately, a bad lawyer makes for an even worse judge and in turn is responsible for a further corruption of the legal ethos. Chief Justice Sodhi's book is an unusually honest and candid admission by an insider of the ills that plague the legal system. The situations he recounts are being re-enacted across the country on a daily basis and the actors he names can be found in
one form or another, professing leadership of bar associations and councils everywhere. It is high time that a concerted effort is made to restore the dignity of this system, the honesty of character and the idealism of law students. The writer is an advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court
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All in the name of democracy During
the past couple of months Punjab has been in an election mode. We had one assembly bypoll from Amritsar, followed by panchayat, samiti and zila parishad elections and then on June 30 elections were held for 95 municipal councils/nagar councils, including eight nagar panchayats. For the first time, electronic voting machines were used in these polls. This means after the assembly elections in February, 2007, we have now brand new democratic institutions at the grassroots level. This should portend well for a democratic Punjab and a democratic India. Tragically, it does not. Take the Amritsar assembly byelection. No one had any doubt that the Akalis would not win this seat. Yet the Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, went overboard in campaigning and his party had to pay a fine Rs 20 lakh or so imposed by the Election Commission of India for misusing government resources like helicopter and cars. Does this bring glory to a leader of the status of Mr Badal? This election was mired in violence. A fairer election might have brought fewer votes to the ruling party, but enhanced its prestige as a democratic party. There is no gainsaying that it would have enriched the traditions of democratic polity. After all, elections do not mean a certain percentage voting, but electing representatives freely and fairly in an unspoiled atmosphere. We all know what happened during the zila parishad and block samiti elections. Newspapers were full of reports that spoke in detail about the misuse of government machinery; all sorts of government officers were involved and dirty tactics were used with impunity. Even journalists reporting the elections were not spared. There were graphic accounts and pictures to demonstrate how the ruling coalition conducted itself. Worse was the use of money and muscle power to entice voters and here the Congress, badly split otherwise and spitting venom, made every effort in that direction. The same happened during the panchayat polls and in the election of sarpanches later. Newspapers also reported corrupt practices. Liquor, both from vends and illegally brewed, opium, poppy husk and other inducements followed. What glory is that for Punjab? In Punjab for the past two decades, democracy for one reason or the other has been getting the worst beating. We had long spells of Governor’s rule, perhaps more than any other state except Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland. We were witness to the killing of candidates and abductions and not only violence but rigged elections too. The Akalis at one time were forced to boycott the polls as fear ruled the minds and hearts of all Punjabis. With much trouble and after losing hundreds of young lives, tearing apart the social fabric and sullying economic life, we are back to some kind of “democratic” governance. Yet, how democratic we really are! Panchayat polls have always favoured the ruling party or parties. Our village folks normally assume that by siding with the ruling party, they could get official patronage. Swim with the tide is the catchphrase for most. Exceptions are always there. The questions that trouble the mind are what necessitated the ruling alliance to throw all norms to the wind and indulge in corrupt practices and violence when it could have managed it otherwise. Perhaps, there was lack of confidence or perhaps, if the politicians do not indulge in these practices, they feel something amiss. Tragically, these are not confined to the Akalis or the BJP. The Congress has done worse and if a chance comes it can replicate its old dirty tricks. All these are bad omens for the largest democracy of the world. And for Punjab, the land of gurus and pirs, this is a double jeopardy. Mr Badal now boasts, “Despite the vast magnitude of the electoral exercise, the people of Punjab and the administrative machinery joined hands to ensure the smooth conduct of the polls. This had thoroughly belied the propaganda of the Congress leaders that the total rout of their party was the result of any foul play. The polling remained totally peaceful, free and fair and this was a ‘victory for grassroots democracy in the urban and semi-urban segment’.” Breathtaking indeed! And listen to what Punjab Congress President Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has to say, “The Congress party has captured about half of the Municipal Councils in Majha and Doaba and its performance is on a par with the SAD deducting the seats obtained by its ally, BJP. In Doaba and Majha the Congress has won only seven out of 57 Vidhan Sabha seats but MC election results have reversed the trend.” Bhattal also maintained that her party men “braved an onslaught by Akalis and fought to save the democracy. She said that the police was working as a private army of the ruling alliance.” We have indeed added a new chapter in subterfuge. And, meanwhile, hail democracy – Punjab style!
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Zimbabwe’s political crisis grows Prospects
for ending the political crisis in Zimbabwe deteriorated Tuesday when President Robert Mugabe and the country's main opposition party rejected calls by African leaders to form a power-sharing government following the recent disputed elections. The dilemma of what to do with Zimbabwe and its defiant 84-year-old president veered from backroom diplomacy to public recriminations during the African Union summit in the Red Sea Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik. Leaders from nations in the 53-member union passed a resolution pressing the opposition and Mugabe to compromise, but amid cameras in crowded hallways, passions rose among the president's entourage. The president's spokesman, George Charamba, told reporters that Zimbabwe would not accept a unity government similar to one put in place in Kenya this year after its questionable elections. He spurned the notion that Mugabe would step aside over threats of broader U.N. sanctions following a campaign of violence and intimidation that led opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai to boycott last Friday's election. "Kenya is Kenya. Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe. We have our own history of evolving dialogue and resolving political impasses the Zimbabwean way," said Charamba. "The Zimbabwean way, not the Kenyan way. Not at all." He added: "The way out is a way defined by the Zimbabwe people, free from outside interference, and that is exactly what will resolve the matter." When asked about Western criticism of the election, much of it coming from the United States and Britain, the spokesman said: "They can go hang a thousand times, they have no basis, they have no claim on Zimbabwe politics at all." Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appeared also to dismiss the idea of a power-sharing solution. A statement by the group released in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, asserted: "There are no talks or discussions taking place between the two parties and most importantly, there is no agreement in the offing." The MDC's deputy leader, Tendai Biti, who was jailed during the campaign and later released, said that the violence-tainted runoff election "totally and completely exterminated any prospects of a negotiated settlement." The resolution by the African Union came hours after the comments by Charamba and Biti. It calls for talks on the "creation of a government of national unity." The group said it was "deeply concerned" and urged that the crisis be mediated by the Southern African Development Community, which found the election campaign that brought Mugabe to his sixth term was undemocratic and "did not represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe." By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington
Post
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