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Scrap Salwa Judum
Combating terrorism
Ah, the cucumbers
School education
Sarkozy steps forward on financial crisis
Beijing warning over peace prize choice
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Cross-LoC trade TRADING goods across borders is any day better than trading fire. To that extent, the decision of the Indian and Pakistan governments to commence cross-LoC trade on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkot roads on October 21 is an ideal confidence-building measure. The movement can melt the mutual suspicions and tensions and also improve the standard of living of the people of the area, who have few business opportunities at the moment. It is indeed a pity that some items have to go from one country to another through a circuitous route which at times involves sending them to a third country, when all this can be done directly in far less time and in a far less costly manner. While the Union Ministry of Commerce had approved a list of 23 items from Kashmir, Pakistan has sent a list of 26 items. Pakistan has approved only 11 of the 23 items. There is need to expand the lists. In fact, the best way to ease tension would be to soften the borders even further. Opening the Wagah-Attari road link and the Khokrapar-Munnabao rail link for trade will be a step in the right direction. Pakistan has also given up to some extent its reluctance on the Kargil-Skardu route. The demand for trade in the Jammu region through routes like the Pallanwala-Chhamb, Mirpur-Nowshera or Suchetgarh should also be considered. In fact, there is need to make borders irrelevant in future. Needless to say, all these developments are concomitant on Pakistan sticking to its reassurance that it will not allow misuse of its territory for anti-India activities. When such mischief goes on, the sentiment behind the trade becomes meaningless. At the same time, it is necessary to put in place a mechanism so that the newly opened routes do not become an excuse for smuggling of weapons and drugs. The experience at the Wagah border has not been very happy. The law-enforcement authorities will have to be exceptionally vigilant and spotlessly honest to keep potential mischief makers at bay.
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Scrap Salwa Judum THE Supreme Court has strongly disapproved of the Chhattisgarh government’s Salwa Judum or self-defence group to combat the increasing Naxalite menace. It has directed the government to follow the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in this regard. The NHRC’s report, presented to the court, is believed to have pointed out innumerable instances of human rights violations and high-handed behaviour by the Salwa Judum activists. Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, who headed the Bench hearing the case, said: “If private persons, so armed by the state government, kill other persons, then the state is also liable to be prosecuted as an abettor of murders.” Salwa Judum was initiated by the government in June 2005 as a people’s movement against Naxalism and terrorism. However, the remedy proved to be worse than the disease. It became a violent institution and its activists are charged with rape, loot and arson. In all fairness, Salwa Judum was introduced for ensuring effective coordination between the security forces and the local people in tackling Naxalism. However, it soon degenerated into a private militia that behaved in much the same manner as the Naxalites, killing villagers to settle old scores and perpetrating atrocities on those who opposed them. The government’s strategy of picking up local men, giving them arms training and inducting them as Special Police Officers (SPOs) to assist the security forces in the anti-Naxal operations also backfired. The SPOs used the opportunity to enforce their might in the villages and indulged in arson, loot and mayhem. The Planning Commission, the Administrative Reforms Commission, the National Commission for Women and several other organisations have pointed out the dangerous track record of the ill-conceived campaign. The Raman Singh government should understand that Salwa Judum is not the answer to the Naxalite violence. Besides improving governance, it must focus on socio-economic measures to help the downtrodden. Giving arms to civilians is illegal and it does not have the force of the law. The Chhattisgarh government would do well to follow the court’s advice to scrap Salwa
Judum.
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Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made by singing — “Oh, how beautiful!” and sitting in the shade. — Rudyard Kipling
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Combating terrorism
Serial
bomb blasts in Delhi have again highlighted the grim fact that the terrorists can now strike anywhere in the country at their sweet will and India has become a real soft state. There cannot be two opinions about the need for tough and stringent laws to combat terrorism. Political considerations and electoral gains should not stand in the way. To meet the challenge of terrorism stiff anti-terrorism laws have been enacted in all democracies as it is felt that law must keep pace with advances in technologies and individual rights must give way to common good. In the US, Patriot Act 2001 permits electronic eves-dropping, tracing internet communication, searching property without notifying suspects and allows federal officials to get nationwide search warrants. It enhances the discretion of law-enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants irrespective of terrorist-related acts. In Britain, terror suspects can be held up to 45 days without charge. The United Kingdom enacted the major piece of anti-terrorist legislation, Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1976. The Bill was subjected to only two-hour debate in the House of Commons and approved without a division. The Act of 1976 was re-enacted with amendments in the form of Prevention of Terrorism Act 1984, which gives extensive powers to the authorities to deal with the terrorists. The British police was not thus asked to deal with the menace of the terrorism by ordinary laws of the land but at the same time was not allowed to misuse the law. Report of Lord Shackleton reviewing the operations of the Act recommended its continuance. The United Nations has also mandated that all states must adopt necessary legal instruments to prevent terrorism and strengthen international cooperation in combating terrorism. Security forces have to be equipped with realistic stringent anti-terrorist laws that provide more period for police remand, more time for filing charge-sheets, make bail provisions stringent, allow interception of communication for getting leads and make confession before a police officer admissible. However, it has to be ensured that they do not misuse their authority. For this, monitoring by the courts, review authorities and civil oversight agencies are called for. POTA did provide some safeguards against abuse and misuse that had earlier characterised the operations of TADA. Already, stringent anti-terrorists laws have been passed by most of the European countries that have not suffered even a fraction of the casualties that have occurred in India. A PEW Internet survey just after 9/11 highlighted the “Devil choice” between public safety and state intrusion and the majority of the respondents stated that they would settle for less privacy in exchange of greater safety against terror. States like Maharashtra had earlier passed anti-terrorist legislation, namely Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA). Gujarat’s Control of Organised Crime Bill awaits Presidential nod. Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has also argued for stringent legislative deterrence to deal with the scourge of terrorism. However, instead of different states having their own anti-terrorist laws it is necessary to have a central act promulgated on the subject. If it is left to the states to enact their own laws some of them would do it according to their time-frame and some others may not do so at all. It would be prudent to have a central legislation, which would provide uniform legal framework to deal with the problem on a national level keeping in view the national interest. The Supreme Court in the case of Kartar Singh vs. State of Punjab examined the legislative competence of the central legislature with regard to the enactment of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. It was contended before the court that the central government is not competent to enact a law on the subject as public order comes in the state list. The apex court held that disruptive activities of serious nature which threaten the integrity and security of the country as a whole come within the ambit of entry I Union List viz., defence of India, and in any event under the residuary powers conferred by Parliament under Article 248 read with entry 97 of the Union List. The competence of the Central government to pass such a legislation was upheld. However, tough laws alone will not help unless there is a competent and efficient central agency to investigate the crime and bring the offenders to book. At present state police forces are finding it increasingly difficult to combat crimes like terrorism, money laundering etc. because they are complex in nature and transnational in character. Investigation of such cases requires specialisation and expertise of a high order which individual states with their limited resources are finding difficult to provide. It is also seen that the local law-enforcement agencies look at the crime from a narrow perspective and fail to understand all its dimensions. In USA the FBI is entrusted with the investigation and prosecution of offences that affect the security of the country. The list of federal crimes in USA includes offences like money laundering, interstate drug trafficking, terrorism, trafficking in human being etc. The Committee on Reform on Criminal Justice System, (Malimath Committee) urged in favour of passing a federal law and constituting a federal investigating agency with an all-India character to investigate crimes that affect national security and activities aimed at destabilising the country politically and economically. In India, CBI, which is already investigating some of these crimes with interstate linkages with the concurrence of the state governments should be given the task of investigation of terrorist crimes. However, for playing this role effectively the organisation has to be strengthened and provided adequate manpower and material resources. An amendment to the Constitution will facilitate the enactment of a central legislation to regulate the investigation of the federal crimes because police and public order are state subjects. This may not be easy because of the reservations of some state governments. But perhaps even without such an amendment it is possible to classify some offences as federal crimes and entrust their investigation to a central agency as has been done in the case of NDPS Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Nevertheless, the fact has also to be borne in mind that the central investigating agency for successful investigation will require full support and cooperation of state police forces. Hence, all-out efforts have to be made to obtain as far as practicable the cooperation of the state governments. It is very likely that most of the states reeling under terrorist threat and strikes will be willing to hand over terrorist crimes with inter-state linkages to competent and well-equipped federal
agencies.
The writer is Senior Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences; former Director General, National Human Rights Commission and former Director; National Police Academy
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Ah, the cucumbers Passing
through Sabzi Mandi these days, I see heaps of cucumbers and without spending a coin on them simply say, “Ah, the cucumbers”. I used to be ‘cucumber-tooth’ in my salad days and, in one sitting, would gobble up a kilo of those with peppered spicy-salt and lime-sprinkle. These sittings on gherkins (fresh and young cucumbers), once, became so regular that their effect on my back was that it got jammed as if its nuts and bolts had lost the grease. The slightest movement was smarting. I could see no reason for it except the unkind eye of dear God towards me. My wife called the nearest Vaidji to home. His first question was, “How many cucumbers do you eat daily?” Reducing the quantity of my daily intake by half, I told him: “A quarter to half a kilo.” He said: “That’s the catch. Cucumber is an excellent lotion for oily-skin. It helps in checking the drunkard’s hangover and normalising the blood pressure, but it produces lots of wind. The wind has accumulated in your back and till it is there you will not lead a normal life.” He gave me an ayurvedic formulation and advised dry fomentation of the back. I could partially recover after a fortnight and fully after a month but since then cucumber became alien to my salad plate. I show forced moderation to innocent looking cucumbers while putting salad in the platter when invited to eat out. Dr Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer, is rather harsh on cucumbers and his recipe to cucumber-eaters is, “A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and thrown out, as good for nothing.” In our neighbouring Myanmar, there lived a king Nyaung-u-Sawrahan (931-964). He was earlier a farmer growing cucumbers in his field. Theinkho, the king, lost a battle and was running away to save his life and entered into the field of Nyaung. He picked up a cucumber and started eating it. Nyaung saw it, he came screaming and beat the king to death with his spade. The queen afraid of a revolt by the people on hearing the death of the king took Nyaung with her and presented him to the people as king when conditions normalised. History recognises him as ‘Cucumber King’ who later converted his farm into a beautiful garden and brought peace for the then Burma. With this imposing CV of cucumbers, when I see them lying amass by roadside going at Rs 5 a kilo, I wish for a like of Baba Ramdev incarnation so that it also wears the crown that bottle-gourd (Lauki) has been wearing since the popularisation of Anulom
Vilom.
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School education The
Prime Minister has rightly emphasised the role of education in the economic and social development of the country and has assured higher financial allocations for the purpose. Yet, what is ailing the system is not as much lack of financial resources as lack of a built-in system of accountability in the delivery of education, particularly at the grassroots level. Unfortunately, it is the government schools that have proved to be non-performers despite the fact the governments in principle take the best pick from candidates who apply for posts in the government schools. Though favouritism and corruption in the selection process cannot be denied under the present system of governance, yet by and large the teachers appointed in the government schools are the best selections out of the lot seeking employment. Unfortunately, due to the absolute security of service in the public sector, the teachers do not perform, do not take their jobs seriously and adopt a casual approach. Since there is no effective check on them, many of these teachers engage themselves in other work to generate additional sources of income. Unfortunately, those who are supposed to supervise the system do not do so seriously because they are also chips of the same block. As a result, the government schools show dismal results in examinations conducted by the state boards of education. Often we hear of 100 per cent failures of students in many government schools. Even then the system does not respond in terms of accountability for such dismal failures. We seldom hear of action taken against these schools and teachers. On the other hand, the so-called public schools, which are run as businesses, employ the left-outs, who fail to secure government jobs. These teachers perform because here is strict accountability. The students from these schools secure all the top positions in entrance tests for admissions to worthwhile higher education courses, including the technical and professional courses. Since these schools charge heavily and the parents have to pay through their nose, education in these schools remains out of the reach of the low-income families. Thus due to the non-performance of government schools, all the worthwhile higher education and high end job opportunities are appropriated by the rich of the country. It is not, thus, lack of financial resources, but lack of accountability that allows the situation to perpetuate without any remedial measures. Wherever there is some pressure from parents or otherwise to show results, these schools and teachers take recourse to allowing and abetting mass copying. Examples are not few where such degrading acts on the part of teachers have come to the light. Since children of the rural poor and resource-deficient sections of the urban population study mostly in government schools, after passing somehow or dropping out of these schools, they see no future because neither they have the necessary knowledge and skills demanded in the market nor they have cultivated values and motivation that are necessary to qualify for gainful employment or higher professional and technical education. They just languish and take to intoxicants and get addicted. Colleges are also not free from the malaise of copying. The unfair means committees of the universities have to deal with thousands of copying cases of examinees annually, coming from affiliated colleges. Here too the cases are not few where the so-called teachers aid and abet copying by their students. Such students learn their preliminary lessons in copying from their schools and carry the habit to the college. Another malaise that now pervades through the nerves and veins of school education is the system of private tuitions. There are very few teachers in schools and colleges who do not resort to private tuitions to students. All this creates segmentation in the community. The rich appropriate all the opportunities of higher education and gainful employment for their wards, while the poor as well as income-deficient families do not get into the development stream. Thus, quite visibly in society, engineers’ wards become engineers, doctors’ wards doctors and administrators’ wards administrators. For politicians’ families politics has become a hereditary profession. The poor are left to fend for themselves as labourers, menials, class IV or III employees. Teaching is not a run-of-the-mill job. It is a commitment that demands impeccable character and elements of honesty and sacrifice to serve as a role model for the students. It is not a job of the last resort. It is an elevated position of a nation builder. Unless the teachers of the nation and the educational institutions imbibe this spirit, the country will keep slipping on the Corruption Perception Index. We have already slipped from 72nd to 85th position in the world in the last one year, according to Transparency International India. The teachers of the country have to evolve themselves to serve as a role model to the level that their statements and witnesses may require no attestation. Yet, the importance of the process starting from above also cannot be denied. Although the foundation is always very crucial for the strength of the structure, yet where the roof leaks, the floor cannot be kept clean. Thus, money alone is not the answer to the problem of delivery of healthy and purposeful education, especially at the grassroots level. It is the accountability of the teachers and the educational institutions, preferably self-imposed that matters the most.
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Sarkozy steps forward on financial crisis French
President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Europe on Thursday that it cannot escape shock waves from the U.S. financial crisis and that to protect its future, it must take the initiative in rewriting worldwide banking rules to end the “folly” of an under-regulated system he said is now “finished.” Sarkozy, who also holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, said he would propose swift action by the 27-nation bloc at its next meeting to tighten controls over European banks. But beyond Europe, he said, the leaders of all the world’s major industrial powers should gather at a special summit before the end of the year and start to construct from scratch a new financial and monetary framework to replace the U.S.-dominated system set up at Bretton Woods, N.H., in 1944. “We can no longer manage the economy of the 21st century with the instruments of the economy of the 20th century,” he declared. The U.S.-inspired lack of regulation in recent years, he added, “was a folly whose price is being paid today.” Sarkozy’s speech was described by aides as an attempt to reassure the French and other Europeans in the face of the sudden financial instability that threatens to aggravate an already bleak economic picture. In a recent survey by France’s IFOP polling agency, 83 percent of those queried said they believed the U.S. crisis will hurt French people by tightening credit and reducing growth even below the 1 percent forecast for 2008. The hour-long address, to a receptive audience of political supporters in this Mediterranean seaport, also seemed designed to project Sarkozy as an innovator taking the initiative with fellow world leaders rather than submitting to a crisis that he said originated on Wall Street and unfurled across the Atlantic because of inadequate government regulation. Throughout his career, Sarkozy has sought to portray himself as a bold leader ready to take initiatives where others hesitate – a trait his detractors have sometimes denounced as impetuosity or overreaching. “My dear countrymen, amid these difficulties we must lead the march of the world and not follow it,” he said. In decrying the lack of government regulation, Sarkozy joined a broad spectrum of European leaders and commentators who have interpreted the financial crisis as a death knell for the current financial markets and banking systems. Their comments sometimes have betrayed an “I told you so” sentiment, after years during which U.S. officials suggested that many of Europe’s economic problems stemmed from an excess of regulation and government intervention. French banks, in particular, have less to worry about than their U.S. counterparts, French officials have said, in part because regulatory powers are stronger in Europe than in the United States and the banks are less exposed to bad loans. The appropriate degree of state intervention in banking and financial dealings also has been a frequent subject of disagreement within the European Union. Those advocating more controls clearly have gained the upper hand for the time being. “Self-regulation to solve all problems, it’s finished,” Sarkozy said. “Laissez-faire, it’s finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it’s finished. ... Self-regulation is sometimes insufficient. The market is sometimes wrong. Competition is sometimes ineffective or disloyal. It is necessary then for the state to intervene.” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, usually a stalwart ally of President Bush, also has derided the lack of regulation that, in her view, allowed the financial crisis to erupt in the United States and seep toward Europe. She and her deputies have repeatedly reminded the German public in recent days that the United States and Britain rejected her proposals last year for regulating international hedge funds and bond rating agencies. “It was said for a long time, `Let the markets take care of themselves,’ “ Merkel said during a visit to Austria on Saturday. Now, she added, “even America and Britain are saying, `Yes, we need more transparency, we need better standards.’ “ Germany’s finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, said Thursday that the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist system had run its course and that “new rules of the road” are needed, including greater global regulation of capital markets. “The long-term effects of the crisis are impossible to gauge,” he told the lower house of the German Parliament, adding, “One thing seems probable to me: The United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system.” Sarkozy said that he had discussed the crisis with Merkel and that the two major European leaders share a similar view of what went wrong and what must be done to restore stability. The goal, he said, must be to establish a reasonable balance between government regulation and freedom to take initiatives. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Beijing warning over peace prize choice The
Chinese government has intervened in the choice of recipient for the Nobel Peace Prize, warning the Nobel committee not to give the award to the jailed dissident Hu Jia. Mr Hu and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, live under house arrest in Beijing with their infant daughter and have been included in the early list of favourites for this year’s accolade, which is due to be announced in two weeks. He is China’s most renowned human rights defender and has spoken out on Aids, Tibetan autonomy and free speech. In April, Mr Hu was jailed for three-and-a-half years for “incitement to subvert state power” by writing articles about freedom and talking to foreign journalists. The possibility of the award going to a Chinese activist has been on the cards since 2001, when Professor Geir Lundestad, the influential secretary of the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, said: “Sooner or later the Chinese question must be tackled.” The timing of the row is significant as it comes shortly after the Olympic Games, which the Chinese authorities used as an international “coming out” party. But activists say the Olympics did nothing to improve the human rights situation in China, and Beijing fell short on many of its promises to improve freedoms for its citizens. A total of 197 people and organisations are up for the Nobel Peace Prize but the list is kept secret. The winner of this year’s prize, worth nearly £850,000, will be announced in the Norwegian capital on October 10. It has a particular importance this year as it is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, China insists the award should go to the “right person”. Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said that awarding the peace prize to someone like Hu Jia would not be welcomed by Beijing. “I don’t know where this news comes from, but we think that the Nobel Peace Prize, if it is awarded to somebody who really protects world peace, should be given to the right person,” he said. “So we hope that related parties make the correct choice on this issue and do not do anything that hurts the feelings of the Chinese people.” Two prominent Norwegians have already backed the idea of the award being given to a Chinese dissident, with one specifying Mr Hu for the prize. Stein Tonnesson, the head of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, said his top choice would be Mr Hu as “he has become the most well-known Chinese dissident”. He added that, following the Olympics, China should be able to deal with someone like Mr Hu winning the Nobel Peace Prize without getting upset and breaking off relations with the Norwegian government, which appoints the Nobel Prize Committee. By arrangement with
The Independent
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