|
|
|
|
|
Double-edged advisory
Indo-African ties |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ground reality
Plight of Sri Lanka Tamils
The babu and the bureaucrat
PM’s push for strategic ties with africa?
|
Double-edged advisory
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has used his characteristic ingenuity to reject Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj’s recommendation for imposition of President’s rule in the State since it was legally untenable and yet hold out a warning to the Yeddyurappa government to mend its ways. His ministry’s ‘advisory’ to the Karnataka Government drawing “its attention to a number of issues reported by the Governor” like “repeated instances of corruption, resignations of Ministers following allegations of corruption, instances of illegal mining, the report of the Central empowered committee on illegal mining, complaints by the Lok Ayukta and reports of discrimination against and oppression of minorities” have cleverly put the government on the mat. This is indeed poetic justice because the Governor’s rash and poorly-thought-out recommendation had diverted the attention of people from the crass manner in which the government had won a vote of confidence via a dubious ruling by the Speaker which the Supreme Court struck down recently. The BJP indeed needs to do some soul-searching. The murky role it played in engineering a victory in the confidence vote detracts from the holier-than-thou attitude that it adopts. While it must improve governance and come down hard on corruption rather than paying only lip service to it, propriety demands that it replace the Speaker with a person whose conduct in the assembly is unimpeachable. In fact, after the apex court’s ruling striking down the disqualification of 16 legislators which led to the BJP government winning the trust vote, the Speaker ought to himself put in his papers. In the whole drama that has unfolded, the Governor has also not covered himself with glory. Both in the past and in the current instance, his role has been questionable. That he rushed to the Centre without due process of consultation with constitutional experts and sought the imposition of President’s rule and the placing of the assembly under suspended animation was indefensible considering that the Yeddyurappa government enjoyed a clear majority by his own admission. The Centre indeed needs to think hard whether it would be right to persist with a Governor whose record of maintaining equidistance between the ruling dispensation and the opposition is under a persistent cloud. |
|
Indo-African ties
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s fourth visit to the African continent has to be viewed at least from two angles: strategic and economic. As Dr Singh pointed out in his speech at the Africa-India Forum summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Tuesday, India-Africa partnership can work wonders in many respects at the global stage. There are areas in which there is complete convergence of views between the two sides. They have been pushing for UN reforms with Africa backing India’s case for a permanent membership of the Security Council. They have now chalked out a plan to exert renewed pressure on the world community during the coming UN General Assembly session for the expansion of the Security Council so that the world body truly reflects today’s global reality. India’s case will gather more strength when the 15 African nations represented at the current summit voice their support for New Delhi. Both Africa and India need each other for their speedy economic development. African nations are endowed with natural resources which can be harnessed with India’s help for the benefit of both sides. Keeping this in view, India has proposed to set up many institutions to accelerate the process of development in Africa, with clear focus on infrastructure development and agriculture-related industries. They have the advantage of understanding each other’s requirements and aspirations because of their historical ties and close people-to-people contacts. There is considerable scope for expanding trade relations between India and Africa. That is why Dr Manmohan Singh’s entourage includes a number of trade and industry captains. Closer ties with Africa can give a major boost to India’s export sector. India, fast emerging as a major global economic power, needs to concentrate more on the black continent, which has been calling for Indian investments particularly for infrastructure development. It is time the two sides realised the significance of their increased engagement in different areas. |
|
|
Ground reality
Some social schemes are like politicians’ speeches: good only on paper. In reality, they are as good as worthless. Unfortunately, that seems to be the status of even the anganwari scheme, the oldest food programme targeting children. As a survey of the anganwari centres in Haryana carried out by The Tribune shows, the conditions in most of them are abysmal. Children are nowhere to be seen, workers are absent and the food stocks are of questionable quality. When we carried out a similar survey in Punjab last year, the situation there was no better. All that the government did when the situation was highlighted was to order an inquiry. And the bureaucrats instead of checking the ground realities themselves, only asked the workers and helpers to give an explanation. The latter naturally denied anything was amiss and countered every “allegation”. The end result is that the rot has continued. The fact of the matter is that the system is rotten from top to bottom. If senior officials are guilty of not doing any structured monitoring, the ground staff itself has been found to be indulging in pilferage of food and medicine. There were even allegations that one has to pay a huge bribe to get an employment as an anganwari worker. No wonder, the well-meaning scheme is going to seed. It will be disastrous if corrective steps are not taken. Malnutrition is increasing among children below six years, with about 70 per cent children under five years suffering from anaemia and nearly 50 per cent affected by malnutrition. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has introduced a state-level monitoring committee that will include MPs and MLAs as members. A new set of guidelines issued last month also includes a central-level committee. One just hopes that these watchdogs will do their job diligently, because if they don’t, the future of the country’s poor children is going to be dark. |
|
|
There is no wealth but life. — John Ruskin |
Plight of Sri Lanka Tamils
THE tragic situation of the Sri Lankan Tamils continues to shock the nations on surface. But nothing concrete is being done by the UN or by India which has a special responsibility in the matter. Tragic happenings following the breakdown of the ceasefire in Sri Lanka were enquired into by the Permanent People’s Tribunal, which held its sittings from January 14, 2010, at Dublin, and published its report on January 17, 2010. I was one of the 10 members of this panel. The tribunal regretted that even after repeated pleas, and in spite of the appalling conditions experienced by Tamils, the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council failed to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the role of those responsible for the atrocities committed. At long last on June 22, 2010, the Secretary-General announced the appointment of a panel of experts to advise him on the implementation of the joint commitment included in the statement issued by the President of Sri Lanka and the Secretary-General wherein the Government of Sri Lanka agreed that it “will take measures to address those grievances”. The panel submitted its report to the Secretary-General on March 31 this year. Thus, in conclusion, the panel found credible allegations that comprise five core categories of potential serious violations committed by the Government of Sri Lanka: killing of civilians through widespread shelling; shelling of hospitals and humanitarian objects; denial of humanitarian assistance; human rights violations suffered by victims and survivors of the conflict, including both IDPs and suspected LTTE cadres; and human rights violations outside the conflict zone, including against the media and other critics of the government. All these credibly alleged violations demand a serious investigation and the prosecution of those responsible, including Sri Lanka Army commanders and senior government officials. The panel has concluded that the government’s notion of accountability is not in accordance with international standards. The government has established the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission as the cornerstone of its policy to address the past, from the ceasefire agreement in 2002 to the end of the conflict in May 2009, but it has failed to satisfy key international standards of independence and impartiality. During the course of its work, the panel observed that there are several other contemporary issues in Sri Lanka, which if left unaddressed, will deter efforts towards genuine accountability and may undermine prospects for durable peace in consequence. Most notably, these include the following: (i) Triumphalism on the part of the government, expressed through its discourse on having developed the means and will to defeat “terrorism”, thus ending Tamil aspirations for political autonomy and recognition, and its denial regarding the human cost of its military strategy. (ii) On-going exclusionary policies, which are particularly deleterious as political, social and economic exclusion based on ethnicity, perceived or real, have been at the heart of the conflict. (iii) The continuation of wartime measures, including not only the Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act but also the continued militarisation of the former conflict zone and the use of paramilitary proxies, all of which perpetuate a climate of fear, intimidation and violence. (iv) Restrictions on the media, which are contrary to democratic governance and limit basic citizens’ rights. (v) The role of the Tamil diaspora, which provided vital moral and material support to the LTTE over decades, and some of whom refuse to acknowledge the LTTE’s role in the humanitarian disaster in the Vanni, creating a further obstacle to accountability and sustainable peace. The panel regretted that an environment conducive to accountability, which would permit a candid appraisal of the broad patterns of the past, including the root causes of the long-running ethno-nationalist conflict, does not exist at present. It would require concrete steps towards building an open society in which human rights are respected, as well as a fundamental shift away from triumphalism and denial towards a genuine commitment to a political solution that recognises Sri Lanka’s ethnic diversity and the full and inclusive citizenship of all of its people, including Tamils, as the foundation for the country’s future. During the final stages of the war, the United Nations political organs and bodies failed to take actions that might have protected civilians. The panel has recommended that in the light of the allegations found credible by it, the Government of Sri Lanka, in compliance with its international obligations and with a view to initiating an effective domestic accountability process, should immediately commence genuine investigations into these and other alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by both sides involved in the armed conflict. The following immediate measures have been recommended to advance accountability: The Government of Sri Lanka should implement the following short-term measures, with a focus on acknowledging the right and survivors in the Vanni. Considering the response of the United Nations to the plight of civilians in Vanni during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka and its aftermath the Human Rights Council should be invited to reconsider its May 2009 Special Session Resolution (A/HRC/S-II/L.I/Rev.2) regarding Sri Lanka in light of this report. And the Secretary-General should conduct a comprehensive review of actions by the UN system during the war in Sri Lanka and the aftermath regarding the implementation of its humanitarian and protection mandates. It is regrettable that Sri Lanka is refusing to receive the UN delegation. This open defiance of international protocol cannot be accepted. India should, in the cause of humanitarian law, insist and also create world opinion to demand that Sri Lanka must abide and carry out the recommendation given in UN report. To keep silent is not an option to India which owes not only moral but also legal responsibility to see that the Sri Lankan Tamils are not denied their human rights and democratic political and dignified participation in Sri Lanka in all walks of society and the
administration. The writer is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi. |
||||||
The babu and the bureaucrat
IAS officers generally take umbrage at being called babus! They prefer being referred to as bureaucrats. But who is a bureaucrat? And who is a babu? As commonly understood in India, a babu belongs to a lower echelon in the official hierarchy. A clerk in an office may be referred to as a babu, and a head-clerk as the bada babu giving the latter a touch of respectability. Historically, however, bureaucracy emerged as a dominant mode of human organisation in factories, offices and industrial establishments, more than 300 years ago in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. It proved to be an effective tool of management in business organisations, factories and industrial empires. Thus, the bureaucracy was born in the private sector and effortlessly travelled to the government sector where, too, it showed its efficiency, deliverd goods and services and conformed to rules. By doing so, it acquired power. One who held an office in the system came to be known as a bureaucrat. Thus, the branch manager of a bank or the Chief Medical Officer of a district is as much a bureaucrat as a Deputy Secretary in a ministry or the SHO of a police station. Max Weber, the political thinker and social scientist, who researched ‘bureaucracy’ extensively in private and government organisations, prophesied its triumph and declared its three important characteristics to be permanence, hierarchy and a division of labour. The element of permanence led C. Northcote Parkinson to propound, as far back as 1957, his famous law: “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” He deduced as a corollary that there was little or no relationship between the work and the staff for its execution. Therefore, the rise in work-force would be much the same whether the volume of work were to increase, diminish or even disappear. To prove his point, he showed that the men in the colonial office in London increased from 372 in 1935 to 450 in 1939, to 817 in 1943, 1139 in 1947, and 1661 in 1954, whereas the size of the British Empire shrunk rapidly. But, who is more important — the babu or the bureaucrat? ‘The law of inverse importance’ is relevant in this connection. According to it: “Exceptions apart, the real importance of a functionary in a bureaucratic organisation in regard to the nature of decision on a case, is inversely proportional to the rank that he occupies in that organisation.” Thus, a note put up by an assistant, in a majority of cases, would be approved by the competent authority who is mostly an officer-bureaucrat who would just initial the file ( a more practical-minded one may write ‘ not approved’, to be changed, at an ‘opportune’ time, to: ‘note approved’). If the assistant doesn’t put up the note, there is no way a decision can be taken. And, therein lies his power! A record-keeper clerk is even more important than the assistant, though lower in hierarchy. It is he who maintains the files, puts up the PUC (paper under consideration) and adds the precedent case files. He can make the fresh receipts (PUCs) disappear, make the whole files perform the vanishing trick or only such pages of them as are inconvenient. He can add precedent cases — favourable or unfavourable — depending on which party he wants to favour. After all, the decision makers find it safe to tread the path shown by precedents. So, officer-bureaucrats (in all bureaucracies),cheer up. There is nothing to crib about being called
babus! |
||||||
PM’s push for strATegic ties with africa?
" I am delighted to be here today in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and the Headquarters of the African Union. I bring to Africa fraternal greetings from the people of India.This is a historic gathering. It is the first time that the leaders of India and Africa are meeting on such a scale on African soil. I would specially like to greet those leaders who are participating in the Africa India Forum Summit process for the first time and were not with us in New Delhi in 2008. The past & the present
The India-Africa partnership is unique and owes its origins to history and our common struggle against colonialism, apartheid, poverty, disease, illiteracy and hunger. India will never forget Africa's role in inspiring our own struggle for national liberation. It was here that Mahatma Gandhi developed his political philosophy and developed the concepts of non-violence and peaceful resistance. At the first India-Africa Forum Summit in 2008 in New Delhi we decided to make a new beginning. We drew courage from our togetherness and inspiration from our conviction that a robust and contemporary India-Africa partnership is an idea whose time has come. Our officials and Ministers have worked hard for our second Summit in Ethiopia. Many events involving a wide cross-section of society, including trade and business, have been held. These events have contributed to making the second Africa-India Forum Summit a people's movement. I believe we have reason to be satisfied with what we have achieved since 2008. But our people expect much more and we have to work hard to deliver on these expectations. The current international economic and political situation is far from favourable, particularly for developing countries. Even as the global economy is recovering from the economic crisis, fresh political upheavals are taking place. The world faces new challenges in assuring food and energy security. Global institutions of governance are outmoded and under stress. We therefore need a new spirit of solidarity among developing countries. We must recognise that in this globalised age we all live interconnected lives in a small and fragile planet. We must work together to uplift the lives of our people in a manner that preserves the sustainability of our common air, land and water. There is a new economic growth story emerging from Africa. Africa possesses all the prerequisites to become a major growth pole of the world. There is good news in the struggle against HIV and AIDS, as well as in improving literacy, reducing infant mortality and building institutions of representative government. India will work with Africa to realise its vast potential. We believe that a new vision is required for Africa's development and participation in global affairs. We do not have all the answers but we have some experience in nation building which we are happy to share with our African brothers and sisters.
Capacity building
It is in this spirit that I wish to outline some initiatives for the consideration of our African partners. These will enhance our development partnership which are founded on the pillars of mutual equality and common benefit. We will offer 5 billion US dollars for the next three years under lines of credit to help Africa achieve its development goals. We will offer an additional 700 million US dollars to establish new institutions and training programmes in consultation with the African Union and its institutions. Under the lines of credit that we offered at the first Summit, we had specifically looked at promoting regional integration through infrastructure development. On the advice of the African Union, I am happy to announce that we would support the development of a new Ethio-Djibouti Railway line to the tune of 300 million US dollars. Following the success of the Pan-African E-Network Project we propose to take the next step and establish an India-Africa Virtual University. This we hope will help to meet some of the demand in Africa for higher studies in Indian institutions. We further propose that 10,000 new scholarships under this proposed University will be available for African students after its establishment. We would like to make education in India an enriching experience for each student who comes from Africa. We are substantially raising the number of scholarships and training slots for African students and experts, including under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme. Our total commitment for the next three years by way of scholarships to Africa students will stand at more than 22,000. At the first Summit in 2008, we had focused on capacity building in the human resource development sector. We believe it would be logical to consolidate this approach. I wish to propose the establishment of the following new institutions at the pan African level: An India-Africa Food Processing Cluster - This would contribute to value-addition and the creation of regional and export markets; An India-Africa Integrated Textiles Cluster - This will support the cotton industry and its processing and conversion into high value products; An India-Africa Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting - This will harness satellite technology for the agriculture and fisheries sectors as well as contribute towards disaster preparedness and management of natural resources;
Skill & technology transfer
We have received a request to support the establishment of an India-Africa University for Life and Earth Sciences. We would be happy to support this important venture; and finally, an India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development. One of the biggest gaps in our interaction is that of insufficient air connectivity. We should accord this high priority. To begin with, India would be happy to increase the access of African airlines to Indian cities in a significant manner over the next three years. Africa has strong regional organisations which play an important role in supporting development activities. We will therefore work with Regional Economic Communities to establish at the regional level, Soil, Water and Tissue Testing Laboratories, Regional Farm Science Centres, Seed Production-cum-Demonstration Centres, and Material Testing Laboratories for Highways. At the bilateral level, we propose to establish institutes for English language training, information technology, entrepreneurship development and vocational training. As part of our new initiatives in the social and economic sectors we will establish Rural Technology Parks, Food Testing Laboratories, Food Processing Business Incubation Centres and Centres on Geo-Informatics Applications and Rural Development. We should encourage trade and investment flows as well as transfer of technology. The private sectors should be fully involved in the efforts to integrate our economies. I propose that we establish an India-Africa Business Council which will bring together business leaders from both sides. India has consistently supported the development of African capacities in the maintenance of peace and security. As a token of our commitment to supporting Africa's endeavours for seeking African solutions I am happy to announce that India will contribute 2 million US dollars for the African Union Mission in Somalia. Today, the people of Africa and India stand at the threshold of a historic opportunity. Our nations span the diversity of the human condition. We account for the whole range of linguistic, religious and ethnic diversity in the world. Our success in making open, tolerant and rule based societies flourish in conditions of relative underdevelopment will have a profound effect on the future of the world. Tomorrow the people of Africa will celebrate Africa Day. I am delighted to be present in Africa on this very auspicious occasion, and extend my heartiest congratulations to this great Continent. In conclusion I wish to convey my deepest gratitude to the people and government of Ethiopia for hosting us in this beautiful city. I also thank the African Union Commission for the excellent arrangements made for the Summit.
PM’s Africa package n
5 billion US dollars in credit n
India to support a new Ethio-Djibouti Railway line n
Setting up an India-Africa Virtual University n
India to offer 10,000 new scholarships to African students n
India-Africa Food Processing and Textile clusters n
A Centre for weather forecasting n
India-Africa University for Life and Earth Sciences n
India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development n
More access to Indian cities for Africal Airlines n
Regional soil, water and tissue testing labs n
Seed production Centres n Material Testing Laboratories for Highways n
Institutes for English Language training n
Rural Technology Parks |
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
