|
|
Counting
castes Council
of elders |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Overcoming
odds
Dialogue
with Pakistan
Ahead of
times
Promoting
Decentralised Governance Freedom and the
University Intellectual Inside Pakistan
|
|
Council of elders
The
issue of the revival of the Punjab Legislative Council has come alive again in the wake of a similar move for Tamil Nadu, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Legislative Council of Punjab was abolished on January 1, 1970, and since then various attempts have been made to revive it. However, only a handful of states have them. They include Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Now Tamil Nadu is all set to join the group. Significantly, both Congress and Akali Dal Chief Ministers have, at some time or the other, asked for the revival of the Vidhan Parishad, and Mr Parkash Singh Badal said he would have it revived soon after he became Chief Minister. The Punjab State Legislature became bicameral for the first time in April 1952. With the merger of Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) in 1956, the strength of the Legislative Council increased by six seats to 46, which further went up to 51 a year later, a number which was to fall to 40 after the creation of Haryana in 1966. Many meaningful debates took place in both the Houses of the legislature, and the deliberations helped shape the agenda for development in Punjab during that period. These days, the falling level of discourse in state legislatures as well as the two Houses of Parliament, is a mater of concern. More often than not, the number of days during which business is conducted, is abysmally low, as is the attendance of the members. As a result, important legislation passes through without proper debate and deliberation. The state should tread carefully; and perhaps have a public debate on the matter, especially since the entire expenditure on the infrastructural arrangements for the Council would have to be borne by cash-strapped Punjab.
|
|
|
Overcoming odds
Each
year the results of nation’s most prestigious examination, the civil services, bring much cheer and joy to the successful candidates. But the news of this year’s topper Shah Faisal, a doctor from Jammu and Kashmir, has gladdened the hearts of all those who believe success is not a matter of chance but a product of hard work and determination. That he fought against many odds (even lost his father to militancy) makes his success story truly inspiring and is likely to motivate more youth from Kashmir to crack the All India Civil Services Examination. Equally encouraging is the achievement of Sandeep Kaur, a peon’s daughter, who cleared the examination securing 138th rank. It is often believed and rightly so that education in India and the doors it opens is exclusively reserved for the well-heeled. Yet, every now and then there are heartening examples of young men and women who beat the system to emerge triumphant. While Dr Faisal has become the first Kashmiri to top the UPSC examination, earlier Dr Shahid Iqbal Chaudhary became the first Gujjar from Jammu and Kashmir to make it to the IAS. And these are no flash-in-the-pan exceptions. There have been other instances too. Last year Varinder Kumar Sharma overcame his polio affliction to secure the fourth position in the UPSC examination. What was more commendable was that he took the examination in his mother tongue Punjabi and not in English, the language considered to be the gateway to success. Yet another girl student Kiran Kaushal, who used Hindi, had achieved a high rank. In a nation where women have been denied many opportunities, their success too is indicative of the positive changes in society. Girls have been doing exceedingly well and last year they bagged the top three positions in civil services examinations. No doubt, behind all these individual tales of success lie a great deal of resolve and grit. Yet, in a social system that is otherwise marked by inequities, their individual achievements reinforce one’s faith in India and the fairness of civil services examination system. A level-playing field for all those who come from disadvantaged classes may not be there as yet. But for those who dare follow their dream, sky can be the limit.
|
|
|
Reason has to be strengthened by suffering, and suffering opens the eyes of understanding. — Mahatma Gandhi
|
Dialogue with Pakistan
While
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exhorts officials to think out of the box, when it comes to talking with Pakistan, he seems to follow the well-trodden path of his predecessors. Since Jawaharlal Nehru, every Prime Minister of India has tried talking to Pakistan, in the vain hope of peace with that country, but every such endeavour has backfired on account of the rigid stances of the Pakistani Army. The reason: while our approach is emotional, Pakistan’s agenda is unwavering, which is to force India to give concessions after concessions while Pakistan denies of all its adverse acts. We have had plenty of what is called Track II diplomacy besides the talks and dialogues at Track I level. I was part of one Track II level initiative, when I accompanied an all-party parliamentarian delegation that spent four days in Pakistan in 2003. My impression at that time was that while there was an attitudinal change amongst the people of the two countries, the Pakistani Army was not ready to come to terms. They wanted only their formulations to prevail. Approximately seven years down the road, I see no change in that attitude. Though there is an elected government in Pakistan, it will be naive to think that they are the decision-makers. This honour continues to remain with the Pakistani Army, who has the last word on decisions on security, nuclear and foreign policy affairs. This has not changed despite the recent constitutional amendment bestowing powers earlier held by the President on the elected prime minister. Let me place the issue in the correct perspective by recapitulating the events of the last dozen years or so. Prime Minister Vajpayee’s famous bus ride to Lahore came a cropper when Kargil erupted, thanks to the Pakistani Army. Two years later, as a follow up of two unilateral ceasefires in Jammu and Kashmir in 2001, Musharraf was invited to Agra for talks, which again was a fiasco. Six months down the line saw our Parliament being attacked, followed by the full-scale mobilisation of the militaries of the two countries and a year later a pullback after achieving zilch! Then it was the turn of Manmohan Singh, who in his first avatar as the Prime Minister, recommenced the India-Pakistan dialogue, which neither reduced infiltration of terrorists in Kashmir nor brought security elsewhere in the country. Instead, city after city was attacked by Pakistani terrorists, culminating in the Mumbai carnage of November 2008, which shook the whole country and indeed the world, except perhaps our placid leadership. The three political heads that rolled have already been reinstated after a sabbatical and it is business as usual! In his second avatar as Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh burnt his fingers in his parleys at Shram-el-Shaikh, but after lying low for some months on account of adverse reactions, he was back again with the same linear thinking, when he re-commenced official level talks in February 2010. Pakistan promptly trumpeted it as a victory and added yet another “problem”, that of river waters, to the litany of its grievances. This confirmed once again the propensity of the Indian leadership to continue bending and giving Pakistan another opening for India-bashing. The Prime Minister has once again accepted to resume talks both at the official and ministerial levels. Ostensibly, it is a prelude or is in effect the resumption of the formal composite dialogue. The reason stated is that the Pakistani Prime Minister has promised to take legal action against those responsible for the Mumbai massacre! Do we seriously believe such homilies from a nation that is perpetually in a denial mode? How many times have the Pakistani leadership made such promises and not delivered? Unless Pakistan walks the talk, we will again embark on a futile exercise. Unless we factor in the stances of the Pakistani Army, which is truly the centre of gravity and has the over-arching influence and control over all security issues, no talks with Pakistan are likely to succeed. The Pakistani Army wields power on account of only one shibboleth, which is that India is out to gobble up Pakistan and it is only the Pakistani Army that is preventing it. This is such an oft-repeated statement that most Pakistanis, if not all, believe it to be true. The day India and Pakistan succeed in bringing about a rapprochement and agreeing to live in peace as friendly neighbours, will be the start of the Pakistani Army losing its pre-eminent position in the power structure of Pakistan. Obviously, no one in the Pakistani Army would like to relinquish such a premier position, which abounds with power and pelf. That being so, where is the question of peace between India and Pakistan? Consequently, it is not peace dialogues and formal talks but the whittling down of the Pakistani Army’s predominant position as the sole policy formulating organisation that will bring eventual peace between the two countries. Policy makers in India need to turn the thinking of the Pakistani polity, instead of engaging in futile dialogues and discussions. Pakistan is anxious to re-start the broken peace dialogue, not for any altruistic reasons, but to soften its image of being the epicentre of terrorism. Its second aim is to keep the Kashmir pot simmering and bring it to a boil off and on, to keep India and especially the Indian Army committed in costly, time-consuming and futile counter- terrorist operations, with the twin aim of slowing down the economic growth of India and reducing the war waging capabilities of the Indian Army. A third important aim is to get military concessions from India, which it has not been able to get militarily, i.e. Siachin. Now, Pakistan is seeking to add the issue of sharing of river waters, although the real problem is internal mismanagement of this resource within Pakistan. There are also pressures from other countries, like the US and China, who for their own national interests, are keen that a dialogue restarts. Sadly, India has been unable to generate counter-strategies to put Pakistan on the defensive. For our strategic thinking is abysmally poor. Our undue reliance on ‘soft power’ propels us to opt for the soft options. And our political leadership has been unable to correctly gauge the true feelings of our citizens towards Pakistan. Soft power is, no doubt, important but it is not a substitute for hard power. Both have to be wielded in tandem, varying the mix in accordance with the prevailing situation. The perceptions of the national polity are also important. The common man in India, although wedded to non-violence, strongly believes that Pakistan cannot be trusted. Till now, Pakistan has taken no concrete action to change this perception, but continues to nurture and use the Jihadi card. Before we embark on a resumption of the composite dialogue, our leadership would do well to carry out a deeper analysis of what we would gain as no substantive changes in the policies and stances of Pakistan can be
discerned. The writer is a former Vice-Chief of the Indian Army
|
|||||
Ahead of times THE infamous PPSC recruitment episode is known to all having even a semblance of concern with the public service or those who are not “allergic” to the regional and/national newspapers. Aparticular fallout of the episode was the dispensing with of the services of appointees to the judicial offices during the relevant period. The essential premise of the ouster was that quite a large number of them had obtained entry for extraneous consideration and it not being possible to distinguish the “tainted” from the rest of the lot, all had to be compulsively packed off home. On further consideration of the matter and perhaps for mitigating the hardship caused by the en-bloc ouster decision to those having either no or at least no proved taint, it was decided to give the applicants of all batches another chance to prove their mettle. The chance was available to not only those selected but to all those who had appeared at the examinations. A three-member committee (of Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court) was appointed to oversee the conduct of the one-time opportunity examination. The committee was to be assisted by me. In the course of the process of scrutiny, a particular candidate could not resist asking me if there would be restoration of his seniority. The query, besides being audacious, was also premature inasmuch as the examination was yet to be held and the result could not, obviously, be envisioned. Initially, I told him that the query was presumptuous and addressed to quarters not competent to respond. The love of Urdu language overtook me in the meantime and I blurted out the following Urdu couplet to him: “Ghar sajane ka tassavur The narration had to be compulsively followed by a translation in vernacular as the bewildered eyes of the candidate addressed left no manner of doubt that he was blank in Urdu language. The translation satisfied him to realise the premature character of the
query.
|
|||||
Promoting Decentralised Governance
Inaugurating
a conference to celebrate the National Panchayati Raj Day on April 24, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh remarked that the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments “have made decentralisation of power possible up to the grass root level. This has empowered the common man and the poor, and has brought about changes in the power equation, particularly in rural India.” He visualised that even the ongoing Maoist menace can be tackled by empowering the rural poor and the marginalised sections through the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Ever since the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, the Central Finance Commissions (CFCs) have started recommending the transfer of financial resources to the PRIs and ULBs (Urban Local Bodies). In order to incentivise the states to move rapidly in the direction of transferring powers to local bodies, the CFCs have incorporated certain criteria to determine the inter-state allocation of grants-in-aid (over and above the general share of the states). For example, the 11th Finance Commission (2000-05) assigned 20 per cent weightage to the decentralisation index and 10 per to the revenue efforts made by the local bodies. The 12th Finance Commission (2005-10) increased the weightage of revenue efforts to 20 per cent but dropped the decentralisation index assuming that the necessary legislation regarding 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments has been enacted by all the states. The 13th Finance Commission has adopted the index of devolution, derived from the non-plan revenue grants transferred to PRIs and ULBs by the states (net of 12th Finance Commission grants) during 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08, to determine the inter-se share and assigned a weightage of 15 per cent. Another five per cent weightage is given to the actual utilisation of grants given to local bodies. For the first time, total grants have been divided into two categories – basic grants (Rs 56,335 crore) and performance grants (Rs 29,826 crore) – as an incentive to make states move faster towards decentralisation. The total amount of grants would be substantially higher than Rs 25,000 crore recommended by the 12th Finance Commission. Yet, there are riders on states to be eligible for getting performance grants. Punjab has been allocated a substantial increase in state-specific-needs grants from the 13th Finance Commission which has recommended Rs 27,945 crore as grants for states’ specific needs compared to Rs 7,100 crore recommended by the preceding Finance Commission. However, Punjab’s share would jump from just Rs 96 crore to Rs 1,480 crore as recommended by the 12th and 13th Finance Commission respectively. In other words, while the 13th Finance Commission has recommended a nearly four-time increase in state-specific need grants for the country as a whole, there would be more than 15-times increase in the case of Punjab. As the Finance Panel’s recommendation, Punjab will get grants worth Rs 250 crore for taking ‘measures to improve adverse sex ratio’, Rs 250 crore each for the development of ‘Kandi Areas’ and ‘Border Areas’, Rs. 200 crore each for upgrading ‘the irrigation infrastructures’ and ‘to address the problems in water logged areas’, Rs 200 crore for ‘upgrading training facilities for police personnel’ and Rs 100 crore for the ‘protection and maintenance of historical monuments and archeological sites.’ Punjab will get Rs 30 crore for ‘research capacity building and establishment costs’ for the support of Empowered Committee of the state finance ministers. The Punjab government has also just received a grant of Rs 800 crore as compensation for providing electricity to the agricultural sector at extra cost thereby ensuring the rice supply for the central pool in spite of the widespread drought in the country. On the performance front, Punjab has drawn a blank from the 13th Finance Commission. It is therefore crucial for the Punjab government to immediately initiate necessary measures to make the state eligible for performance grants to local bodies, which would start flowing from the fiscal year 2010-11.Strengthening of local bodies is otherwise in the interest of Punjab because handling of functions such as primary education, basic health, social security, safe drinking water and sewerage at the local level can yield better results and make the growth trajectory more inclusive. But past experience shows that Punjab fails to reap the full benefits from such central schemes. Even for such national flagship programmes as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission and the National Rural Health Mission, Punjab’s poor performance is widely known. Although the Punjab government has created a special cell to monitor the good use of central funds available through various schemes, little is known what has since happened to that cell. Until and unless each and every government department is held responsible for the shortcomings in the utilisation of central assistance, such aids would be of no avail to uplift the state’s economy. (The writer is a former professor of Economics and UGC Emeritus Fellow, Punjabi University, Patiala)
|
|
Freedom and the University Intellectual Wilhelm von
Humboldt, the Enlightenment scholar, is of the view that the university is ‘nothing other than the spiritual life of those human beings who are moved by external leisure or internal pressures toward learning and research.’ Recent years have seen a radical shift in some pockets of the academia towards activism within and outside the university. Complacency has been to a certain degree cured by a culture of independent thinking. However, much still needs to be desired The slip-up lies not so much in the establishment, but in the individual academic who does not labour enough to counter social ailments. Academics out of their own free choice do not opt for more far-reaching projects like ‘counter-insurgency research’ or research dealing with weapons of mass destruction. We hardly see the introduction of more radical ventures in departments of Political Science, English, History or Sociology. Chomsky enquires why projects concerning the confrontation of ‘poorly armed guerrillas’ with a powerful military force or ‘problems of mass politics or revolutionary development in the third-world countries’ are not taken up in our departments. The reason obviously lies in the ideological controls exercised by the universities. ‘Universities are probably the most free and open institutions in society’ and it is understandable that an ‘attack against them is launched largely because they are also the weakest, and the most easily attacked precisely because they are relatively free and open.’ In such a scenario, argues Chomsky, all reform has to come from the ‘general intellectual and moral commitments of very substantial segments of the faculty themselves.’ Principles of academic freedom and imagination of opening up new courses or options so as to build connections between the university and the larger community are the sine qua non of a dynamic educational system. It is a commitment to a ‘free marketplace of ideas.’ Real reform is possible not by putting any restrictions, but ‘by constructing alternative programmes inside the university which can succeed in gathering towards them the better, the more creative students, and better faculty members.’ Alternative programmes of study and action, of teaching and research are certainly ‘very compelling on intellectual and moral grounds’, and will have a greater impact on the students and the faculty that help to initiate such innovations. These courses have led to the intensifying of activism in the university. Added to this must be the essential practice of making students aware of the consequences of their study and research especially with respect to the lives of the people around them. Their work must be underpinned with a sense of responsibility. Anyone choosing a career of an engineer must study the history of the cold war and genocide. ‘It is predictable’ argues Chomsky, ‘that there will be free and compassionate and independent minds to challenge prevailing orthodoxies and search for ways to translate a perception of social injustice to some form of action.’ Challenging orthodoxies in science is considered creative while in the case of humanities it is often argued that such radicality might prove to be destructive. Thus academic freedom and the freedom of expression are at the base of creative development of knowledge. Chomsky’s argument was notable in his defence of Robert Faurisson, a professor of French Literature at University of Lyons, who denied the existence of the gas chambers used to exterminate the Jews. In no way was he supporting Faurisson’s thesis, but he did stand up in defence of his right to research and freedom of speech. For instance, let us take the case of a nation’s foreign policy, about the intricacies of the international order and informing the public about it. In this context the university has a vital duty to make these issues as subjects of daily debate and awareness. In an imperfect world of international affairs and sovereign states, the relevance of morality is as vital as it is to social life. For an intelligent appreciation of world affairs we need a valid theoretical understanding which has the possibility of developing in the university. The academic has the tools and the critical framework and training to reason and analyse without any fear. The academic thus could impregnate society with a creative and imaginative temperament that would show the way towards a more critically aware culture. A movement of the left, Chomsky maintains, ‘condemns itself to failure and irrelevance if it does not create an intellectual culture that becomes dominant by virtue of its excellence and that is meaningful to the masses of people who, in an advanced industrial society, can participate in creating and deepening it.’ Their intellectual skills and a commitment to reflection and honesty would then permit a political involvement, urging them to use their minds for opposing war or poverty or for seeking ‘possibilities for alternative forms of social organization, and a reasoned analysis of how social change can come about.’ But sadly, ‘the academic has fallen prey to the narrowness of his specialisation lacking the long range of historical perspective so important to the understanding of international affairs. He is involved with his daily concerns, a kind of journalistic attitude lacking the theoretical and historical perspective of a Gibbon or a Thucydides or a Tocqueville.’ Shifting critical material from one place to another occupies the contemporary academic whose activity is more that of a clerk than an intellectual. The university thus must develop in the field of humanities and social sciences an ‘educational process that would aid in raising the level of understanding of society as a whole.’ We live in a world where the academic culture can help us to tear away the illusions in our world and reach out more robustly towards respecting each others point of view.
|
|
Inside Pakistan
Most
incidents of terrorism today are invariably linked to Pakistan. That is why, according to newspaper reports, thinking people in Pakistan are worried that if the situation remains unchanged “Pakistanis” and “terrorists” will soon become synonymous. The country is unable to extricate itself from the morass of terrorism owing to its own negative policies. A few days before Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab was to be awarded death sentence for the September 26, 2008, Mumbai massacre came the news of Faisal Shahzad, a US national of Pakistani origin, arrested for an unsuccessful car-bomb attack at the Times Square, New York. While Kasab, described as a killing machine, has a poor village background, Shahzad is a well-educated young man belonging to a prosperous family. The two cases falsify the theory that terrorist outfits easily find recruits for their destructive projects because of widespread poverty and illiteracy in various parts of Pakistan, particularly the tribal areas. This is how The News, in an editorial on May 5, referred to this theory while commenting on the fate of Kasab: “Young Kasab, a school dropout, walked away from his job as a labourer into the hands of a militant organisation that offered him training and a gun. This was, for obvious reasons, more attractive to a boy then still in his teens than the prospect of a life in poverty that offered little hope for change. The lack of opportunity for young people, as a factor driving on militancy, needs to be addressed….” In another editorial on May 6 after Shahzad’s arrest the paper admitted, “Perhaps our thesis that it is essentially the poor who are exploited by the militants is somewhat flawed. Perhaps we need to do more to stop the slow poisoning of minds. A process of brainwashing has continued for years. It needs to be reversed. The strategy for this must be worked out. Psychologists, educators, media people, clerics and others with social influence need to be involved.” Dawn exposed the lack of seriousness on the part of the Pakistani authorities when it said: “It has been nearly 10 years since 9/11 and still the infrastructure of jihad in urban Pakistan, which is likely to be the first port of call for those travelling from foreign lands in search of jihad, has not been uprooted.” There is speculation that the PPP-led government in Islamabad may not complete its full term because of various factors working against it. While there are groups within the PPP working at cross-purposes, the government is heading for an open confrontation with the judiciary. The Pakistan Supreme Court, according to a Daily Times report, ruled on Thursday that the government was bound to implement the NRO verdict in letter and spirit and open the cases relating to President Asif Zardari’s Swiss bank accounts. But the government said that there was no need for correspondence with the Swiss authorities, as the graft cases “cannot be reopened”. The situation may take a turn for the worse for the Pakistan government with PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif being no longer interested in playing the role of a “friendly opposition”. After the latest constitution amendment, opening the door to him to become Prime Minister again, he has started speaking strongly against the various policies of the government. According to The Nation, Mr Sharif, addressing an organisational meeting of his party in Lahore on Wednesday, “threatened to lead a long march on the lines taken out during the judicial crisis in case the central government failed to solve the common man’s problems.” Perhaps, he is ready with a strategy to create a condition for mid-term elections when his party can emerge victorious. |
|||
|
|
| 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 | |
