The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wrongly booked
Doctors are given a raw deal

THE Supreme Court has held that if a doctor in government service charges consultation fee from patients during spare hours in a private clinic, s/he cannot be booked for corruption nor accused of indulging in a trade, which is an offence under Section 168 of the Indian Penal Code. The case involved two Ludhiana doctors who were caught doing private practice in violation of the ban imposed by the Punjab government. Government doctors are paid non-practising allowance (NPA) so that they do not neglect their duty towards patients in government hospitals and lure them to private clinics. This is fair enough. Still, violations of the ban order are not uncommon in Punjab.

The Supreme Court says a doctor getting a remuneration for extending medical help is doing that by way of his professional duty and cannot be accused of receiving an illegal gratification. S/he may be proceeded against for violation of the service rules but not for corruption. The court order should shame the Punjab prosecution agencies for their casual approach to work. It is a pity that doctors are not shown the respect they deserve by society in general and the security agencies in particular. They are treated like ordinary criminals for small violations of the rules or the laws even before their guilt is established.

Morally, it is wrong on the part of government doctors to engage in private practice when they are paid NPA. Given the shortage of doctors, rush in hospitals and lack of easy access to health services in India, it may not be a bad idea to allow or even encourage private practice by doctors. Perhaps, they can be given a choice: NPA or private practice? If talent is to be lured to the medical profession, doctors’ incomes and working/living conditions have to be improved suitably.

Corruption in cricket
Tillekeratne must expose the black sheep fast

Cricket has sadly become synonymous with corruption in today’s world. What Hashan Tillekeratne says about Sri Lankan cricket – that matches have been fixed at the national level since 1992 – while being unsavoury, cannot be brushed aside as inconsequential. At the same time, Tillekeratne would be well advised to supply some proof about his allegations. Match-fixing, and its more current offshoot, spot-fixing, have severely dented the credibility of sub-continental cricket. Even the ‘West’ has its share of dubious players, but the western cricket associations and media do a much better job of circling their wagons around these players, while the media here feeds on any morsels, real or fictitious.

But there is no denying that betting is rampant. Even in local level cricket, there are punters who sit and make small bets throughout the day. More than any profit, it’s just a little game. But when the money proportions grow, this little game also expands into huge amounts. Indeed, money makes the cricketing world go around. And to entice young cricketers into indiscretion isn’t difficult. Many come from modest backgrounds, with very limited education. So for them, taking one small step is a thrill, like shoplifting, and once they do it a few times, they feel the surge of invincibility that youth and money bring.

Many players have fallen prey to this rut, with Sri Lankans allegedly also being approached by ‘suspicious characters’ in the recent past. Pakistan had to take action against Salman Butt, Mohd. Aamir and Mohd. Asif. But these are just a few names in an intertwined jungle of betting and fixing. Even the cricketing officialdom isn’t beyond ‘arranging’ a few things if it would make money, the most noteworthy being the case of Eden Gardens losing the big India-England World Cup match. So if the lawmakers can be guilty of such things, the lesser beings surely cannot be blamed totally for their human weaknesses, regrettable as it may be.

Thought for the Day

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

— Robert Frost

ARTICLE

Allies with conflicting interests
US still dependent on Pakistan in Afghanistan
by Anita Inder Singh

Reports that the US views Pakistan’s Inter-Intelligence Services (ISI) as terrorists will not sweeten relations between Washington and Islamabad. The main reason is that Pakistan’s Army has so far refused to hunt down the Afghan Taliban who enjoy safe havens in their country’s northwestern territory bordering Afghanistan.

That in turn raises the question whether Pakistan really wants a stable Afghanistan, and Washington doesn’t know the answer. For its part, as the US prepares to start withdrawing some of its troops from Afghanistan next July, it wants a centralised government in Kabul and a large and strong Afghan army which will have a monopoly of force within Afghanistan’s borders. Moreover, American military officials are irked by the close ties between the ISI and extremists, including the Jalaluddin Haqqani group, based in Pakistan and linked to Al-Qaeda, and who have carried out many deadly attacks on NATO forces.

On the Pakistani side, there is resentment at American drone attacks which have killed civilians and which many Pakistanis regard as infringing their country’s sovereignty. General Ashfaq Kayani has condemned drone attacks as “acts of violence”. Tension between the US and Pakistan runs high as popular protests — including one organised by cricketer Imran Khan’s Tehrik-e-Insaf — continue against recent American drone strikes in North Waziristan. Thirty-nine civilians were killed on March 17 —seven on April 22 — along with 18 suspected militants.

Pakistan does not welcome American plans to build a powerful Afghan state, which would probably not be Pakistan’s client. Since Pakistan’s birth in 1947 Afghan-Pakistan ties have not always been amicable, although both are Muslim-majority states. It was only after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in1979 that Pakistan gained clout in Kabul — via its patronage of the extremist Taliban regime. America’s overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 ended that influence. But Pakistan gave safe havens to the Taliban who then fled Afghanistan. And it sustained and trained them so well that they have been able to frustrate the success of NATO’s Afghan campaign — and to stake its claim in the political future of Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, President Hamid Karzai has frequently accused Pakistan of exporting extremists to destabilise his country.

Nato hasn’t lost but it hasn’t won. Nor have the Taliban. This stalemate has inspired the talk of reconciliation between the Karzai government and the Taliban. Many in the West and Pakistan argue that reconciliation is the only way out of the mess in Afghanistan. That could give Pakistan a say in any settlement with the Taliban and in any “post-settlement” government in Kabul.

That is what Pakistan wants, with the intent of keeping Indian influence out of Afghanistan and acquiring “strategic depth” against India. But it is not paying the price demanded by the US. Rather, Washington thinks it is the US that is paying the price. Pakistan is the largest recipient of American aid: it has received $12 billion over the last decade. But Washington complains that it is not getting enough in return, in the form of a crackdown on the Afghan Taliban and their militant friends in Pakistan.

Tension between the CIA and the ISI has also grown over the revelations of American spying activities, which were highlighted by the case of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who was accused of killing two Pakistani men in January.

American officials have reportedly agreed to greater transparency with Pakistan on intelligence operations but have refused to stop drone strikes. Washington claims that the residents of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in northwest Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, appreciate the attacks. Senior Pakistani military officials in North Waziristan agree with the US that most of those killed are terrorists.

Then there is the India factor. Pakistan has claimed that it cannot tackle the Afghan Taliban on its turf until and unless the Kashmir dispute is resolved. The US doesn’t expect it to be; nor does it share Pakistan’s perception of India as an aggressive, destabilising power in South Asia.

Rather, the assassinations of top Pakistani officials opposing the blasphemy law — Salman Taseer in January and Shahbaz Bhatti in March — revealed the intolerance and insecurity innate in a political system in which politicians, the military and the clergy are aligned. That is not winning Pakistan many admirers in the West. So, there is little enthusiasm in Washington for Islamabad’s role as a player in negotiations on the future of Afghanistan.

The US and Pakistan then are likely to remain allies with conflicting aims and interests in South Asia. For all its grumbling about Pakistan’s refusal to challenge the Afghan Taliban, the US remains militarily dependent on Pakistan. Unfortunately there is no sign of that reliance enabling the US to gain the vantage it wants before entering into possible talks with the Afghan Taliban - let alone winning the battle in Afghanistan.

The writer is Visiting Professor, Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, New Delhi.

MIDDLE

Babus at work
by Shriniwas Joshi

I wonder, at times, what the Bhagwadgita would have read like if Lord Krishna had told it to the bureaucrats instead of Arjuna because the text of even a simple official memorandum gets twisted as it passes from the top-bureau to the mid-bureau and then the media juts in to blast the superficial.

The office of the Chief Secretary simply copied what was written in the past with the only amendment in the age of the late Prime Minister and sent it to all the Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries:

“The pledge for ‘quami ekta week’ will be administered, as ever, by the Chief Secretary in the compound of the Secretariat on the 19th of November at 11 am. All officials may be directed to attend it. If it rains, then the assemblage will be in the Conference Hall where a film on Indira Gandhi will also be shown on her 93rd birthday to pay tributes to the late Prime Minister.”

The office of the Secretaries modified it and sent it to the Directorates but permit me to disclose that the government is an infant that has an alimentary canal at one end that leaks at will and no sense of responsibility at the other. So each memorandum contained the expression ‘as per the orders’: “As per the orders of the Chief Secretary, the compound of the Secretariat will be pledged to ‘quami ekta week’ on the coming 19th November at 11 a.m. and if it rains on that day, then employees be asked to assemble at the Conference Hall to pay tributes to the 93 year old P.M.”

There was confusion at the directorate level whether acronym p.m. meant Plus Minus, Personal Message, Past Meridian or Prime Minister and the consensus was that the Prime Minister was not that old and the order has to do something with pledging in of the Secretariat compound, so it has to be Plus Minus.

The memorandum was modified and was sent to the District Offices: “As per the orders of the Secretary concerned, the compound of the Secretariat is going to be pledged in to a non-government organisation by the Chief Secretary at 93 Plus Minus on November the 19th. If it rains, the assembly will be held at the Conference Hall to pay tributes to the Prime Minister. All concerned to note.”

The media could latch on to a copy of the memorandum meant strictly for official use and blasted: “The government is wriggling out of its precarious debt position by leasing the compound of the Secretariat to a foreign agency thus jeopardising the security of the state. It is likely to be pawned or sold at a price encoded as ‘93 plus minus’ on the 19th November and the Prime Minister is a party to it. A few NGOs have decided to protest against the move and to form a human-chain to prevent the entrance of the Prime Minister into the Secretariat compound. They have also placed orders for raincoats, in case it downpours that day.”

The hapless Chief Secretary had to steal lines “maine aisa to nahin kaha tha” from that popular ‘rafta-rafta dekho aankh meri ladi hai’ song.

OPED — WOMEN

Though women have stormed every conceivable male bastion and earned a place for themselves in public life, men continue to look at women through a blinkered perspective and insist on laying down rules on how women should behave and act

No more moral policing please!
Rajesh Gill

THE Constitution of India bestows equal rights to all its citizens, men and women, rich and poor, irrespective of race, religion, caste etc. But how these rights get translated in real life situations is a different story.

Let us take the case of gender differences. Recognising that men and women are biologically different, any discrimination on the basis of gender is prohibited by law. As a result, women are outnumbering men in educational institutions both as students and teachers. The gender proportion in erstwhile male professional courses has also tilted in the favour of girls over the last few years. From the typically feminine jobs, women even at the lower rung have moved into jobs conventionally held by men such as bus conductors and drivers. At least in metros; they can be seen driving autos and taxis; they are working at petrol stations and they have been recruited as officers in the defence forces. This has created a strange situation in traditional societies, not used to having women in public spaces in such large numbers.

While it has been found alright to have women as teachers, doctors, clerks, air hostesses, receptionists, etc. their presence in formal organisations in a sizeable number is something with which our society is not very familiar. The situation gets more atypical when women in such public spaces assert themselves, excel as professionals and question the ‘taken for granted’ attitudes of society around, again including men and women. Although globally speaking women’s movement has moved from ‘women and development’ to ‘women in development’, this shift in paradigm is relevant only for the academic discourse.

Ground reality

At the grassroots level, whatever freedom women have acquired is perceived as a bonus bestowed upon them by a generous society, mainly men at the helm of affairs. While women occupy almost all kinds of public places and offices today and make a larger chunk of the student community even at the level of higher education, they continue to be marginalised by men, who usually choose to be women’s spokespersons. In a recent training programme conducted for university and college teachers, a male teacher introduced a female colleague as a wonderful cook while the female teacher frowned at him. While she denied having ever told him that she liked cooking, the man said “the very fact that she is a woman implies that she has to be a good cook.”

No code for men

It is very common for men to be giving out public judgments about the dress code adequate for a woman and the way she should behave. A woman who is outspoken and has the grit to call a spade a spade is usually despised by men and is often ridiculed. Imagine the plight of a working woman who has to give out her best and work constantly under a scanner. I have often found women professionals doing a wonderful job at office spending long hours at work, not letting their household responsibilities interfere with their professional work. Do they get appreciation for that?

The spontaneous response from male colleagues is “poor chap who married her, and poor children to have got such a mother.” Men continuously engage themselves in the process of moral policing, keeping a watch on women around, with a self-acquired right to comment upon them, ridicule them and correct them. It is strange that men keep themselves free from all such hassles. I have never seen a man objecting to another man urinating along the road in full public view where women, young and old, are moving. Nobody has ever made up an issue about the stalking by men threatening young girls. Ask any college or university girl student and she would relate her harrowing experiences of men’s exhibitionist actions terrorising them which they cannot share with anyone except the peer group. I am yet to find these issues making headlines in the media or public discourses of male academia which otherwise shows great concerns about a code of conduct for women. In the recent past, several cases involving male schoolteachers molesting their young female students have been reported. It is a pity that even a small child is perceived by a male teacher as primarily a woman. Where is the problem then?

Male gaze

Is it at the level of the girl who wants to come out in the world, given her fundamental rights to equality, life, personal liberty and privacy or at the level of the male gaze that always gets fixed at her physical contours? This kind of moral policing by men definitely invades into a woman’s fundamental right to privacy and personal liberty, seriously inhibiting her in her professional and academic pursuits. As a woman, while travelling in a bus where every now and then men, young and old, keep on pressing against her, touching her body, making her feel very helpless and small; while she keeps thinking that this is normal and she is not the only woman to face this. Shockingly still, for all this harassment it is again a woman who is blamed. She is therefore directed to dress up “properly”. Could anybody explain why girls as young as two years and girls in salwar kameez continue to be molested and raped? Recently, farmers have been found to be selling their wives to repay their loans in Bundelkhand spanning the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In Kashmir, a number of young girls lost their lives for not obeying the dress code prescribed by a militant outfit. Recently, a Saudi civil court is getting ready to hear the first ever case brought against the religious police, known as the Muttawa. The woman in question wanted compensation after she and her daughter were allegedly wrongfully arrested in a car park of a shopping centre for "not wearing decent clothing.”

In Saudi Arabia, women must follow a strict dress code and be completely covered, from head to toe, when they are in public. Bubbling with freedom, equality and liberty and boasting as the largest democracy of the world, India deceits its Constitution when it treats its men and women differently to the disadvantage of the latter. Women in this country for ages have carried the burden of preserving the so-called rich Indian culture. Let us now at least do away with the hypocrisy and the double standards, for assessing men and women when both of them are today recognised as equals by the Constitution. If there is a need to mind the dress code and body language in public spaces, it exists for both genders.

When men’s bodies and sexuality is publicly celebrated while woman’s sexuality is controlled in Talibanic ways, it is the woman who is being treated as polluting. While women are assuming responsible positions in society, we must learn to build trust in their ability to hold themselves respectably in public life. Instead of the ‘blaming of victim’ approach, let us work towards improving our own mindset, learning to look at women as human beings. Men may find it difficult but I am sure constant practice and training at home and outside can go a long way. Let the moral policing, if any, be gender neutral.

Dr Gill is Professor and Chairperson, Department of Women’s Studies & Development and Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Gender questions
Harbhajan Singh Deol

THE women’s issue is a socially vibrant question because the plight of women is as frustrating as it ever was in human history. Throughout different periods of chequered history woman remained engrossed in tackling only secondary issues and the main issue of power politics was kept out of her purview and she therefore, entrenched herself in psychic timidity resulting in growth of profound sense of ennui in her personality.

Women were hamstrung by their servile and secondary position in the family. Power politics became anathema to her while individual exceptions were always there. The human values in all historical periods of civilization remained male dominated.

In slave society that emerged in early Greece, Plato in his Republic talked about emancipation of women and the equality of sexes. Religion in its various manifestations approached the gender question in a casual pedestrian way. During feudal age women remained incarcerated in the kitchen. In capitalist imperialist age she was presented as a decorative commodity yet she saw a streak of freedom in society immediately after industrial revolution in Europe.

Still she remained ostracised in the world of power politics. The rising democracies in the capitalist systems opened a window to her to visualise the political world but she was denied the right to franchise in the male dominated democracies. She, therefore always remained marginalised from the process concerning decision making.

Marxist revolutionary interpretations of social dynamics took women’s cause along with the cause of proletariat but she remained on the periphery of politics of power.In our country the position of women was no better. A peculiar claustrophobia confined her within the premises of the household and she was falsely eulogised and shrewdly pampered as the queen of kitchen.

The modern age brought in the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity. Women’s first organised revolt to achieve political power burst forth, when they captured Paris during Paris commune uprising and the enlightening ideas of liberation slowly started appearing all over the world. Women openly challenged male chauvinism and the call for sharing political power with the male partners did not remain within the boundary of a single state. It became an international movement for the liberation of women, steadily moving for achieving political power within the systems. Still men in the field of power politics could not digest such a trend. In the US, when a women organisation raised a motto on its banner: “we will foment a rebellion”— pat came the reaction from a male organisation: “we will fight the despotism of petticoat.”

In this backdrop of history we realise, that the feminine collectivity is continuously facing the same old crisis. Despite rapid growth and advancement of democratic ideology the existing institutions of political power are so apathetic and lethargic that they are still not able to define the independent entity of woman. Rather she is always tagged with men as a secondary and subordinate phenomenon in spite of certain exceptions. Women must not struggle in isolation; they must create broad fronts and even join hands with men who can understand the reality of women’s anguish and agony.

They should save their movement from getting elitist and they must organise joint action with other socially neglected cultural and linguistic minorities, immigrants, worker and peasants groups. Indian women need to chalk out a strategy. Socially, they need to confront all the worn out rituals and customs regarding marriage, sexual behaviour and gender hegemony in the traditional family. Politically women are to be assertive in the voting behaviour and act as women first and anything else afterwards.

Individual cases should not be left on their own rather their cooperation with the movement is of utmost importance. Women should work in close collaboration with men in social organisations. In their party meetings, academic groups, and social circles, they need to express solidarity with those who work for democratic equality . Women should not isolate themselves. When Rosa Luxemburg, a Polish revolutionary was asked to lead a woman section of Social Democratic Party, she objected to this sectarian attitude: “Why should not I lead the entire social democratic movement in its totality rather than leading only women’s section” She retorted. Such a spirit will restore courage, confidence and dignity among women.

The writer is a former head of National Integration Chair, Punjabi University, Patiala