The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Pension for the ‘dead’
Punjab is insensitive to corruption

IT is not uncommon for Punjab’s dead to become officially alive to claim old age pension. A recent district-wise survey by Punjab’s Social Security Department has found irregularities in pension disbursals through panchayats. In cities old age pension is given through banks and in villages through panchayats, which are highly politicised. Denying state benefits to those in the opposite camp is fairly common for panchayats as was recently reported in the Chief Minister’s own village. Information received under the RTI Act has revealed that benefits meant for senior citizens, widows, the handicapped and the destitute in Badal village have been passed on to the “dead” and the ineligible. The issue died down after a routine Congress demand for the Chief Minister’s resignation.

Thanks to poor governance, corruption has become a way of life in Punjab. Since the corrupt get away lightly, few are now rattled by scams. The Social Security Department is content with whatever pension data it has got. It has not asked whether any sarpanches and panches were punished for the misuse of state funds. A surprising bit of information in the reported findings of the Deputy Commissioners is that only 5 to 10 per cent pensions landed in wrong hands in the last six years. Though hard to believe, that is not bad in a country where only 15 paise of a rupee, it is widely believed, reach the intended beneficiary.

Countrywide, welfare schemes have two shortcomings: inaccurate targeting of beneficiaries and leakages in the actual delivery. Both problems, perhaps, would be solved or minimised once IT expert Nandan Nilekani rolls out unique identity numbers (UID) for citizens. In the meantime, the Punjab government has roped in banks to make social security payments through biometric cards. Technology can help up to a limit. There is no alternative to good governance and enforcement of the rule of law.

Cost-effective lighting
Give free CFLs and think of disposal too

Any initiative to bring energy efficiency in electrical appliances is laudable, and one of the simple ways to save power consumption is to switch from the ordinary incandescent light bulb to more efficient lighting sources. It is thus a positive development that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) through its Bachat Lamp Yojana will give free compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) to consumers and thus help them to conserve power usage. The bureau is also working with municipal organisations to bring in energy efficiency in the use of street lights. While it is too early to see if the projected decrease in consumption will meet its target of 30 per cent, the initiative is to be lauded since the major hesitation among users is the high initial cost of installing CFLs.

Worldwide, incandescent light bulbs are being phased out and CFL has emerged as one of the leading alternatives, although it has known issues like the need for an initial surge of power when the light is switched on, and more importantly, the need to dispose of the bulbs properly, since they contain mercury, which can poison the land. BEE should take adequate measures to ensure that the consumers are educated about the hazards involved in improperly disposing of CFLs. It should, in fact, take the lead by providing a mechanism through which users exchange non-functional bulbs with new ones at a discount, and thus ensure proper disposal of these CFLs. The fact that it intends to supply 192 lakh CFLs to power consumers shows the need for immediate action.

Light-emitting diode lighting (LED) products are also an alternative to CFLs. The famous Louvre Pyramid in Paris will be refitted to replace its current lighting with more energy-efficient and cost-effective LED lighting. Nearer home, BEE is demonstrating the technology for street lighting in both Ludhiana and Chandigarh. Alternatively, energy-efficient products like CFLs and LEDs do provide more than a ray of light as we look at the dismal picture painted by the lack of power in Punjab.

Thought for the Day

The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. — Herbert Agar

ARTICLE

Kashmir crisis as an opportunity
Seize it with a national dialogue
by B.G. Verghese

Kashmir, that is the Valley, and not even all of it, is in crisis. The very premise so suggestively and breathlessly articulated that the whole of Jammu and Kashmir, including Ladakh, is afire is roundly mistaken. The tragedy of “Kashmir” from the start has been that the part has been conflated with the whole. Kashmir is less than J&K. The latter, properly and completely defined (but seldom done so, especially by the Hurriyat, the jihadis and, certainly, Pakistan), must include PAK and the Gilgit-Baltistan Area, the outposts of post-war colonialism never granted self-determination. The caveat is not intended to beg the question or the current crisis in parts of the Valley, but in order to get the facts right.

A second faulty premise is that the current crisis revolves around the induction of the Army in a few towns and parts of Srinagar in aid of civil power through flag marches and a more extensive curfew that by and large shut down affected areas for the duration. Harsh; yes. But why did the state government call out the Army in this limited role? It is not Omar

Abdullah’s folly, as so readily made out. The local police, assisted by the CRPF, still remain in the forefront. Both have been fully stretched by weeks of studied stone-pelting and, now, ensuring security for the Amarnath Yatra.

In the circumstances, the Army was summoned in aid of civil power, a perfectly constitutional and well-known practice. Those who lament this development would have been among the first to berate any tardiness in so doing, as was the case in Delhi in 1984, Ayodhya and Bombay in 1992 and Ahmedabad in 2002 and so on down the line. Misgovernance has been cited. However, the first duty of any governance is humane maintenance of law and order.

Critics and punditry would have it that the Valley’s youth, a lost generation of 14 to 25 years who have seen nothing but suffering and indignity for the past two decades, are angry. One must acknowledge their legitimate pain, resentment and anxieties over human rights abuses, unemployment, highhandedness, and lack of opportunities, services and amenities to which they aspire. There are lumpen elements too. But what is all the stone-pelting about, especially when these same youth have so many other democratic avenues for self-expression even if, as argued, they reject the entire current political leadership: the government, the opposition, the Hurriyat, and also parental authority.

There is by now fairly well-documented evidence of intercepts that separatists and cross-border mentors are instigating, funding, recruiting and organising young stone-pelters through agent provocateurs. Stones are provisioned, targets selected and there is a call for more “martyrs” – a dangerous word sometimes overworked to include victims of jihadi assassination like Mirwaiz Maulana Farooq, Adbul Ghani Lone and Fazle Haq Qureshi (who survives, severally injured), all men who dared to talk of dialogue and peace as an alternative to senseless violence and cross-border agendas.

There may indeed be some genuinely local stone-pelters; but no more virtuous for being home grown. A boy in Baramulla was killed by a mob when his vehicle was stopped en route to hospital. Peaceful citizens have suffered when going about or being prevented from attending to their lawful occasions. Civic and economic life has been routinely disrupted. When? Most often after Friday congregational prayers. In the absence of any better explanation, it must be assumed that mosques are being used as political platforms, giving murderous agitation a righteous jihadi halo from touch-me-not sanctuaries.

What thereafter is the cycle of events? Riotous processionists attempt to take control of the streets, perhaps marching towards sensitive targets and provoking police action. It is true that the police and the CRPF should be better trained and equipped to use non-lethal force, an all-India requirement; but this cannot be the sole cause for the mayhem that often follows.

Lamentably, much has been said by responsible leaders to justify “anger” and stone-pelting. Have these same leaders sought to pacify or channelise this “anger” in more constructive ways? It is further exaggeratedly argued that the problem is “political” and that offers of dialogue have come to naught. The Prime Minister has held out the olive branch more than once and quiet dialogue has been initiated. The failure has been not boldly to dialogue and decide on a consensual package of reforms emanating from the Prime Minister’s’s Task Force reports, such as they are, and build on them. Unfortunately, the Centre has been waiting for too long for the right climate and has handed a veto to spoilers such as even the “moderate” Hurriyat. Umar Farooq’s latest rubiyat is that by dialogue Delhi means peace and development while the Hurriyat seeks “a political solution”. Yet he has time and again refused to come to the table, always insisting on first “consulting” Pakistan!

There has also been a gross and repeated failure of communication. Both the Prime Minister and Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister should have gone on the air over AIR and Doordarshan to speak directly to the people. They never do. They allow their words to be filtered by the media or other intermediaries, resulting in angled views and interpretations, masking what they say.

The dialogue with Pakistan has resumed. This is good, but must not be axiomatically linked to the internal dialogue. The two are independent though interdependent, the former being far more important – a factor that Delhi has consistently failed to recognise.

A beginning could be made with Omar Abdullah’s call for all-party talks held in Srinagar. There is already a hint that the Army will be withdrawn soon, after Martyrs Day. Hence the Army’s role can at best only be incidental to the real agenda. This round table must be followed by a larger national dialogue on an internal solution embracing “autonomy”, regional issues, reconciliation, the Pandits, development, et al , even as talks with Pakistan proceed. The present crisis represents an opportunity. Seize it.

MIDDLE

Call for Clouseau
by Rajnish Wattas

The recent art theft at the Musée d’Art Modern, Paris, where burglars decamped with priceless works of Picasso, including the “Pigeon with the Peas” and others worth $ 100 million, is like a real-life sequel to the famous “Pink Panther” Hollywood series. The sensational heist has not only engaged attention of art lovers the world over; but also evoked memories of the legendry Inspector Clouseau — portrayed by the comic-genius of Peter Sellers — a bumbling, but instinctively brilliant detective who always cracked a case.

The clueless progress of the case has once again compelled the French to call for the services of Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the Surete.

Clouseau, now in retirement, lives a quiet life in the Alps, practising his violin and karate with his loyal valet Cato. He was last seen sliding down the snow slopes with skiis on his head, chased by Cato with a nunchaku.

Here is how, perhaps, then Clouseau would go about the solving the case.

Alighting from the car at the scene of the crime, Inspector Clouseau’s trenchcoat gets stuck in the car door — entwined so intractably, that it has to be finally peeled off; revealing underneath his new, but shocking disguise as a transvestite.

In frock and pink ribbons, accompanied by Ponto, his deputy, and Nicole, the secretary of his previous boss Dreyfus (recovering in a mental health care facility), Clouseau carefully examines the window from where the thieves broke in.

“From where do you think the thieves broke in, Ponto?” asks Clouseau.

“The window, sir”

“You fool, any fool will think that, and the thieves were not fools, so don’t think like a fool ...!”

“But that’s where they came from, sir!”

“Don’t mess with me... Ponto,” thunders back Clousseau, while his gaze is diverted, slowly following the wind-blown, billowing skirt of Nicole.

“Monsieur Clouseau, are you looking for some hidden clues?” Nicole flashing her eyebrows asks back demurely.

‘Yes, yes my dear, a good detective always follows his instincts .... no matter where they lead to ...”

“Nicole, smell the frames and tell me what do they remind you of, roses, tulips, or a Burgundy wine ...there might be some secret clues there!”

Clouseau goes weak in the knees, dashes to the door for some fresh air. A man in black suit and dark glasses is waiting there, and hands him an object with the fuse lit up.

“Ah! thank you Monsieur.”

Then looking at the object closely, Clouseau realises it’s a live bomb. “Ahhh ...... it’s a bimb, a bimb ....!” The window gets blown up, Clouseau too is thrown out, landing miraculously on a barge sailing on the river Seine.

On the barge is a sailor with a pigeon on his shoulder, sipping some pea soup.

“Monsieur Captain, is this the pigeon with the peas yours?”

“Yes,”

“Then in the name of laws and statuettes of France, I arrest you and your pigeon on the charge of stealing art works!” He then gives a kick on the sailor’s butt, whereby he falls into a hatch — beneath which are hidden the stolen paintings!

Clouseau is decorated by President Nicholas Sarkozy with Carla Bruni by his side. Just when the President is about to pin the medal, a pigeon dropping falls on Jacques Clouseau, now Chief Inspector.

The rest is history.

THE Tribune interview

by Raj Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief
‘Jagan is no threat to my government’
— K. Rosaiah, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister

K. Rosaiah

Fate propelled Konijeti Rosaiah to the post of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh just when he seemed on the verge of retirement. The 77-year-old Congress leader was the longest serving state finance minister in the country — holding a record for presenting budgets — till the untimely death of Y. Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash which pushed him to the top post.

Rosaiah emerged as the compromise candidate with the Congress High Command moving quickly to thwart the challenge posed by Rajasekhara Reddy’s ambitious son, Jagan Mohan. Since he took charge in September last year, Rosaiah has lurched from one crisis to the next. His state faced a major drought which he controlled fairly well.

But the agitation to form a separate Telangana state snowballed and seemed to spin out of control till the Centre decided to appoint the Srikrishna Committee to go into the whole issue. While that somewhat cooled the political temperature, Jagan Mohan raised it again recently by announcing that he would proceed on a yatra across the state in defiance of the Congress High Command’s wishes.

Tribune TV

Watch a video recording of the interview

With Jagan Mohan bent on precipitating issues, political uncertainty has gripped Andhra Pradesh again. Rosaiah though remains confident of overcoming the challenge posed by the young Reddy. His experience is helping him handle the situation without being overly ruffled. He spoke at length on how he views the crisis to Editor-in-Chief Raj Chengappa and Special Correspondent Suresh Dharur at his Hyderabad office recently. Excerpts:

You have now been ten months in power and the term has been full of crises – the drought, the Telangana agitation and Jagan Reddy’s yatra that seems to be in defiance of the party’s wishes. What’s your stand on his yatra?

Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, MP, son of Mr Rajasekhara Reddy, the late Chief Minister, started an oddar yatra (odaar means to console). Certain individuals committed suicide when they heard about the death of Rajasekhara Reddy. Nobody would have any objections if he wanted to go and meet, console and help them. But in the name of going to console them, he wanted to hold big rallies. As the Chief Minister of the state, I was trying to provide necessary protection for the yatra. Beyond that I was not interested in giving directions. According to his statement circulated to the media, when he broached the subject with Mrs Sonia Gandhi, she appeared to be reluctant. But he decided to hold them. Some members from our legislative assembly wanted my clarification on this. I said why did you go and join him? Let us all honour the desire of the Congress High Command.

So is he in open defiance of your government?

I am not saying he is defying at all. I don’t figure in these matters. But when the High Command gives him advice, it would have been good for him and for his future to go by the advice of the Congress High Command. But somehow my feeling is that he is not properly guided. He is giving the impression that his word is more important than that of the High Command or anybody else for that matter.

What would you recommend the High Command should do in this situation?

It is not a matter to be recommended by me actually. It is a great organisation, 125 years old, and they have had to deal with a number of such cases or of more severe nature than this on a number of occasions. They will advise him properly.

As the Chief Minister what action did the party want you to take?

They did not ask my opinion at all. I do not give unwanted and unsolicited advice. And there are certain things which we have to discuss within the party administration.

Hasn’t this created uncertainty in the government?

As a matter of fact there is no uncertainty at all. The Congress party is strong in the state and there is no problem for the government. Let’s not forget that he is also a member of the Congress party so there is no threat to the Congress government.

Jagan has been highlighting promises which he claims his father had made to the people and have not been implemented. Does this not bother you?

No, not at all. These promises were made by YSR as a Congress leader and the then state Chief Minister and not as his father. The Congress party had made these promises to the electorate. When the situation becomes congenial, we will implement them.

The trouble over Telangana doesn’t seem to go away. What’s your view?

My stand right from the beginning and until now has not changed. I am only saying that the division of the state or keeping the state united is not in our hands; it is in the hands of the Government of India. The Srikrishna Committee has been appointed and is now seized of the matter. Let them study and submit their report to the Government of India. At one stage, it became a very serious issue. Fortunately, it has calmed down and now every political party in the region is busy with the by-elections that are ahead.

Hasn’t the prolonged agitation impacted industrial growth and investment in the state?

There was a situation when people were a bit hesitant to come here and make investments. Slowly things are returning to normal. Investments have started flowing into the state once again. Actually, the state of Andhra Pradesh has witnessed more serious agitations for separation in 1969 and this agitation is nothing before the one in 1969. Right from 1956, that is, from the formation of Andhra Pradesh, there had been some who had proposed the formation of a separate state.

Are you not worried that the situation could descend into a civil war like situation?

No. My government is strong enough to tackle the situation and to take strict action against those who try to disturb the peace.

You continue to hold the Finance portfolio. Is there enough money for implementing the populist schemes your government has announced? The state finances don’t seem to be managed properly.

Actually, as a Finance Minister I have always been experiencing stress. And I am sure no finance minister in this country or any part of the world can be a popular finance minister. There is always a lot of stress. Still, we have to make adjustments for carrying developmental and welfare activities. My government is committed to the welfare of the people of the state. And the state will get the number one position in the field of development. However, there might be some delay. It does not matter. We will continue these programmes. In the meantime, we have to concentrate on capital investment, infrastructure, generation of power, foodgrains, etc. I hope with all these developments, the state will become the number one.

The Opposition accuses your government of corruption in the implementation of irrigation projects.

Not now, but since the beginning. While there are allegations, there is no truth in them at all. My government officials — Secretary of the department concerned — took an Opposition delegation to 42 project sites and gave them opportunities for a debate. But the Opposition could not prove even a single act of corruption. So the allegations are totally false and misleading.

Do you think that you would stay for two-three more years as the Chief Minister?

We do not know about this. No one knows about the future. As long as I am here, I have to deliver the goods. The High Command of the Congress Party instructed me to take over the reins of the state, so I did it. And I will work as a true soldier of the party.

The Congress party may want to change the leadership if the turmoil continues?

I do not think that there is any threat to me and my government at all. During my 59 years’ political career, I have seen so many crises in the state and the country. I do not feel that there is any threat to me from anybody.

Till now you were always a good number two. Have you been able to outgrow the former Chief Minister’s shadow?

There are no numbers like that. I have to provide good governance to the people of the state. The government’s image must be clean. The people of the state should feel that we are here for their welfare. That impression has to be created by us.