The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Justice Dinakaran quits
But should he not be brought to book?

THE resignation of Justice P.D. Dinakaran as Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court marks the end of an inglorious chapter in Indian judicial history. The controversial judge was being probed on charges of corruption and misconduct by a three-member committee of jurists appointed by the Rajya Sabha of which one member, Mr P.P. Rao was replaced after Justice Dinakaran expressed lack of faith in his impartiality. The Supreme Court while allowing the change lifted the stay on the impeachment proceedings which it had granted in April when Justice Dinakaran had approached the court to drop Mr Rao. Significantly, however, the court observed that Justice Dinakaran was using “every possible tactic to delay” the inquiry. Now, when the inquiry committee was in the process of framing charges after the Supreme Court had refused to quash any of the charges against him, he decided it was time to pack up, evidently seeing no light at the end of the tunnel.

It is unfortunate indeed that Justice Dinakaran has tried to give a casteist colour to the charges against him. His resignation letter forwarded to the President says that his ‘sneaking suspicion’ was that his ‘misfortune’ was because of circumstances of his birth “in the socially oppressed and underprivileged sections of the society.” His holier than thou attitude by claiming that he was resigning “in order to maintain the dignity of the office” sounds hollow considering the disrepute that Justice Dinakaran has brought to the judiciary by his alleged misdeeds. The catalogue of charges against him included possession of wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income, illegal encroachment of public property and land belonging to Dalits, acquiring five Tamil Nadu Housing Board plots in favour of his wife and two daughters, conducting benami transactions, undervaluation of sale agreements, destruction of evidence, among others.

The Dinakaran saga has shown how loose is the accountability of judges and how vital it is to push through the judicial accountability bill to ensure that this last bastion of democracy is not subverted by a few black sheep in the profession. Indeed, Justice Dinakaran’s resignation must not bring to a halt all proceedings against him. If the judge is truly guilty of corruption and misconduct he must be brought to book.

CM vs ex-CM
Acrimony marks the scene in Punjab

Punjab’s politicians are not known for enlightened debates on issues that concern people. The latest spat between Capt Amarinder Singh of the Congress and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was quite a nasty one. They unabashedly threw mud at each other in a manner unbecoming of the positions they hold. Of all the leaders former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal alone sticks to issues — mounting debt, VIP culture, unemployment, drugs etc. When he quit the government last year the state’s economy, particularly the debt issue, was hotly discussed for months though it soon became more a blame game than a serious exercise to find out what went wrong and how to retrieve the situation.

The younger leaders are certainly better behaved. Even Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who once had a daily slanging match with Capt Amarinder Singh, has matured and exercises restraint. Despite their undeclared war for Badal’s political legacy, Sukhbir and Manpreet did not hit each other below the belt. The ladies in politics — former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Finance Minister Upinderjit Kaur Bhattal — speak only when necessary and within the limits of decorum. Mr Parkash Singh Badal has the image of a sober leader built over the years. He has harmed his own reputation. The Captain is usually sharp and intelligent but gets carried away when he fires shots at his rivals.

The kind of language the two seasoned leaders have used for each other over their role in Punjab’s recent political history must have come as an embarrassment even to them the morning after. Tamil Nadu Governor S.S. Barnala, a soft-spoken gentleman, too faced Badal’s wrath after he accused the latter of hurting Punjab’s interests. Compare the Punjab leaders’ petty behaviour with British politicians’ dignified conduct during the televised Murdoch questioning. A fact-based calmly delivered statement is more effective than hysterical or abusive allegations. History will judge which politician(s) played for and against Punjab during moments of crisis. Fights will not change the facts.

Thought for the Day

He who stops being better stops being good.

— Oliver Cromwell

ARTICLE

The rot is setting in
Time for parties to wake up
by Kuldip Nayar

Pakistan lost democracy by undemocratic methods. India is endangering it through democratic methods. Political equilibrium has got a jolt and all traditions and conventions have been thrown to the wind. The two main political parties — the Congress and the BJP, which are at daggers drawn — are so engrossed in running down each other to the extent that they are not even conscious of the harm they are doing to the polity. They have come to even politicise corruption. It looks as if they are determined to make India a banana republic, if not economically, certainly politically and socially.

Lack of consensus among political elements led to a military coup in Pakistan. The National Assembly and the Senate had lost relevance. Similarly, perpetual fighting between legislators of different persuasion in India both in Parliament and in the state legislatures has put a question mark on the system itself. We have established in the country a system where the will of people prevails through the elected representatives. There is little room for dictation of policy.

Yet the increasing doubts about the viability of the system, although born out of disappointment, are not good for the country’s health. Dissent and criticism are an essential part of parliamentary democracy. But at some stage, there has to be a consensus to let the chariot of governance wheel further. Elections are nearly three years away. The situation cannot remain as it exists today because both the Manmohan Singh government and the system have been battered beyond repair.

It is no use reminding the two parties about the basics. They know what they are. Still they indulge in we-the-holy attitude and transcend the Lakshman rekha all the time. It is for the different political parties to see the rot setting in and wake up to corruption, which has gone so deep in the administration that honest bureaucrats or, for that matter, politicians can be counted on one’s fingers.

It is their tribe that helped B.S. Yeddyurappa as Karnataka Chief Minister to subvert the rules and procedures to begin illegal mining. His corruption was palpable long time ago. But the BJP, his party, kept quiet because he was sharing the booty with some in the high command. Even after his exposure, his reluctance to go was an affront to democracy. The support of the majority in the house is necessary. But of what use is it when the Chief Minister’s image is that of a corrupt person?

In his report, Justice Santosh Hegde, Karnataka’s Lokayukta (ombudsman), has left no room for Yeddyurappa to escape the responsibility of illegal mining of iron ore in the Bellary district of the state. Still the Chief Minister says that he is not guilty. No one can catch him with his hands in the till. Yet Hegde has laid bare the modus operandi of illegal mining going back to the time when the Congress government was in power.

Hegde told me at Bangalore last week that he concentrated on the Yeddyurappa regime because he was more concerned with the present than the past. However, he pointed out that illegal mining had kept increasing with every new Chief Minister and Yeddyurappa reached the maximum limit. Sadly, Hegde’s tenure is over. Otherwise, he might have gone up back to 2000 when rulers saw the remunerative side of illegal mining because of China’s interest. It offered many a time more price than what prevailed in the Indian market.

The practice of illegal mining was perfected by the two Reddy brothers—one of them a minister in Yeddyurappa’s Cabinet—who accumulated thousands of crores of rupees through illicit methods. Their interest in politics began when they found that most members of the state legislature were purchasable, nothing alarming in modern India. They have the credit of converting the minority BJP into a majority party. It won 109 seats in the election but has now 120 members.

The BJP was bound to act against Yeddyurappa. The party had no face to talk against corruption. The Congress defended its scams on the ground that the BJP had its skeletons like Yeddyurappa in its closet. The party was always caught on the wrong foot.

However, the 2G spectrum scam has hogged the spotlight now. The scam has come in handy to the BJP to ask for the resignation of the Prime Minister and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. Former Communications Minister A.Raja, the accused who played havoc with the licence procedures and pricing, has named the Prime Minister in the court of the Central Bureau of Investigation for having known everything.

True, an accused person says everything to save himself but Raja’s allegations against the Prime Minister and the former Finance Minister cannot be brushed aside easily. Raja has talked about his noting he forwarded in letters and files to the Prime Minister. Since the Supreme Court is monitoring the whole case, it is but fair that the outcome should be awaited before forming any judgEment.

What is intriguing in this developing case against Raja is the open support by the DMK, a Congress partner in the ruling coalition. One senior member of the DMK, T.R. Balu, was present at the hearing last week. The Congress cannot take any action against the DMK lest it should rock the government which has the support of the party’s 16 members in the Lok Sabha.

The comical aspect is that Yaddyurappa has said that since the PM does not resign, why should he? What he forgets is that he has been found corrupt by the state ombudsman while the PM has been only named by an accused person who has been sent to jail because of proven charge of corruption.

In parliamentary democracy, there are certain procedures which have to be followed. What Yeddyurappa or his party, the BJP, has been doing amounts to sabotaging the system. Arun Jaitley, the opposition leader, has rightly said that certain issues should be kept above politics and they should be viewed from the national point of view.

But then he is the same person who picks up trivial matters to attack the integrity of activists and human rights workers who have kept away from politics. But Jaitley sincerely believes that people listen to his glib talk attentively. The sooner he comes out of his make-believe world, the better it would be for him and his party. He should seriously ponder over the allegations by Home Minister Chidambaram that the BJP has increased its attacks on the Congress because cases against Hindu terrorists are reaching the final stage. The boot is on the other foot.

MIDDLE

Rules are not for me
by Shriniwas Joshi

ROUND the Longwood Hill in Shimla there is a circular road. The Municipal Corporation has declared it one-way for vehicles – enter from the left and exit from the right. There are signboards that indicate the one-way system. No policeman. The roads are serving the localities of elites. Most of these obey the rules but still there are people everywhere, and here too, who think that they are exception to the rule. They disobey the one-way directions resulting in the use of reverse gear of the cars.

In the US, I found that all cars obey the signal ‘Stop and Go’ whether there is traffic on the street or not. In Paris, we were in a chartered bus and returning to our place at 2 a.m. after completing rehearsal for Festival of India at Eiffel Tower. Naturally, at that wee hour there was no traffic on the road but the driver stopped at each red light and moved ahead only when it went green. When will we overcome the attitude ‘Rules are not for me’?

A few months back I was returning to Shimla from Chandigarh and, believe me, it took me seven and a half hours to reach Kumarhatti from where our car started moving slowly otherwise it was all pause and slide. It was not due to rush of coming-in and going-out vehicles. It was because the car-owners at any halt of the traffic started overtaking the vehicle standing in front through right or left cuts and created four or five rows of vehicles and when it happens in both up and down movements then no human on earth can control the jamboree.

Jumping the queue is our tendency. Have you observed ‘free for all’ sight at Delhi whenever a bus arrives at the bus stop? I daily see the plight of senior citizens and women in Shimla missing the bus because of the shove and drag of the able-bodied. The English need to be praised for queuing. George Mike writes, though jocularly, in ‘How to Be An Alien’, “An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.”

A rule is there to make the playing field level for all, men, women and children. But then there are people, as I have said, who force the wind to favour them even in the level field. “All men are equal and some are more equal than the others.” They echo, supposed to be Mark Twain’s words, “Life is short, break the rules and never regret anything that made you smile.” Mere humans make rules for mere humans and ‘I am above mere human’ thinks a rule-breaker — could be a politician or a bureaucrat or a celebrity. I read about a person who spent money to go to Singapore and spat on a road there, paid a fine of $50 and felt happy that he had broken a rule.

OPED — DOCUMENT

A faster progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by world leaders a decade ago requires better global partnership, expeditious delivery on commitments already made and an accelerated transition to a more environmentally sustainable future. Here is the essence of a UN report on the progress made so far

Hopeful signs on millennium goals
Sha Zukang

Children from the poorest households, those living in rural areas and girls are the most likely to be out of school. The net enrolment ratio of children in primary school has gone up by 7 percentage points only since 1999

MORE than 10 years have passed since world leaders established goals and targets to free humanity from extreme poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease. The Millennium Declaration and the MDG framework for accountability derived from it have inspired development efforts and helped set global and national priorities and focus subsequent actions. While more work lies ahead, the world has cause to celebrate, in part due to the continued economic growth of some developing countries and targeted interventions in critical areas. Increased funding from many sources has translated into the expansion of programmes to deliver services and resources to those most in need.

Poverty continues to decline in many countries and regions. Despite significant setbacks after the 2008-2009 economic downturn, exacerbated by the food and energy crisis, the world is still on track to reach the poverty-reduction target. By 2015, it is now expected that the global poverty rate will fall below 15 per cent, well under the 23 per cent target. This global trend, however, mainly reflects rapid growth in Eastern Asia, especially China.

Some of the poorest countries have made the greatest strides in education. Burundi, Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Togo and the United Republic of Tanzania have achieved or are nearing the goal of universal primary education. Considerable progress has also been made in Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique and Niger, where net enrolment ratios in primary school increased by more than 25 percentage points from 1999 to 2009. With an 18 percentage point gain between 1999 and 2009, sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the best record of improvement.

Fewer children dying

Targeted interventions have succeeded in reducing child mortality. The number of deaths of children under the age of five declined from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009. This means that nearly 12,000 fewer children are dying each day. Between 2000 and 2008, the combination of improved immunization coverage and the opportunity for second-dose immunization led to a 78 per cent drop in measles deaths worldwide. These averted deaths represent one quarter of the decline in mortality from all causes among children under five.

Increased funding and control efforts have cut deaths from malaria. Through the hard work of governments, international partners, community health workers and civil society, deaths from malaria have been reduced by 20 per cent worldwide-from nearly 985,000 in 2000 to 781,000 in 2009. This was accomplished through critical interventions, including the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, which, in sub-Saharan Africa alone, are sufficient to cover 76 per cent of the population at risk. The largest absolute drops in malaria deaths were in Africa, where 11 countries have reduced malaria cases and deaths by over 50 per cent.

Investments in preventing and treating HIV are yielding results. New HIV infections are declining steadily, led by sub-Saharan Africa. In 2009, an estimated 2.6 million people were newly infected with HIV-a drop of 21 per cent since 1997, when new infections peaked. Thanks to increased funding and the expansion of major programmes, the number of people receiving anti-retroviral therapy for HIV or AIDS increased 13-fold from 2004 to 2009. By end-2009, 5.25 million people were receiving such treatment in low- and middle-income countries-an increase of over 1.2 million people since December 2008. As a result, the number of AIDS-related deaths declined by 19 per cent over the same period.

Effective strategies against tuberculosis are saving millions of lives. Between 1995 and 2009, a total of 41 million tuberculosis patients were successfully treated and up to six million lives were saved due to effective international protocols for the treatment of tuberculosis. Worldwide, deaths attributed to the disease have fallen by more than one-third since 1990.

Every region has made progress in improving access to clean drinking water An estimated 1.1 billion people in urban areas and 723 million people in rural areas gained access to an improved drinking water source over the period 1990-2008. Eastern Asia registered the largest gains in drinking water coverage- from 69 per cent in 1990 to 86 per cent in 2008. Sub-Saharan Africa nearly doubled the number of people using an improved drinking water source-from 252 million in 1990 to 492 million in 2008.

Despite real progress, we are failing to reach the most vulnerable. Although many countries have demonstrated that progress is possible, efforts need to be intensified. They must also target the hardest to reach: the poorest of the poor and those disadvantaged because of their sex, age, ethnicity or disability. Disparities in progress between urban and rural areas remain daunting.

The poorest children have made the slowest progress in terms of improved nutrition. In 2009, nearly a quarter of children in the developing world were underweight, with the poorest children most affected. In Southern Asia, a shortage of quality food and poor feeding practices, combined with inadequate sanitation, has contributed to making underweight prevalence among children the highest in the world.

In that region, between 1995 and 2009, no meaningful improvement was seen among children in the poorest households, while underweight prevalence among children from the richest 20 per cent of households decreased by almost one-third. Children living in rural areas of developing regions are twice as likely to be underweight as are their urban counterparts.

Opportunities for full and productive employment remain particularly slim for women. Wide gaps remain in women's access to paid work in at least half of all regions. Following significant job losses in 2008-2009, the growth in employment during the economic recovery in 2010, especially in the developing world, was lower for women than for men. Women employed in manufacturing industries were especially hard hit.

Being poor, female or living in a conflict zone increases the probability that a child will be out of school. The net enrolment ratio of children in primary school has gone up by 7 percentage points only since 1999, reaching 89 per cent in 2009. More recently, progress has actually slowed, dimming prospects for reaching the MDG target of universal primary education by 2015. Children from the poorest households, those living in rural areas and girls are the most likely to be out of school. Worldwide, among children of primary school age not enrolled in school, 42 per cent- 28 million-live in poor countries affected by conflict.

Advances in sanitation often bypass the poor and those living in rural areas. Over 2.6 billion people still lack access to flush toilets or other forms of improved sanitation. And where progress has occurred, it has largely bypassed the poor. An analysis of trends over the period 1995-2008 for three countries in Southern Asia shows that improvements in sanitation disproportionately benefited the better off, while sanitation coverage for the poorest 40 per cent of households hardly increased. Although gaps in sanitation coverage between urban and rural areas are narrowing, rural populations remain at a distinct disadvantage in a number of regions.

Poor need attention

Improving the lives of a growing number of urban poor remains a monumental challenge. Progress in ameliorating slum conditions has not been sufficient to offset the growth of informal settlements throughout the developing world. In developing regions, the number of urban residents living in slum conditions is now estimated at 828 million, compared to 657 million in 1990 and 767 million in 2000.

Continued progress requires an active commitment to peace, equity, equality and sustainability. At the 2010 high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the MDGs and called for intensified collective action and the expansion of successful approaches. They acknowledged the challenges posed by multiple crises, increasing inequalities and persistent violent conflicts. They called for action to ensure equal access by women and girls to education, basic services, health care, economic opportunities and decision-making at all levels, recognizing that achievement of the MDGs depends largely on women's empowerment.

World leaders also stressed that accelerated action on the goals requires economic growth that is sustainable, inclusive and equitable-growth that enables everyone to benefit from progress and share in economic opportunities.

The writer is the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations

+MDGs: promises and progress
The Millennium Declaration, adopted by all 189 United Nations member states in 2000, promised a better world with less poverty, hunger and disease; The declaration established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and time-bound targets by which progress can be measured.
With the 2015 deadline looming, how much progress has been made? And is the pace of progress sufficient to achieve the goals? Here is in brief what needs to be done:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Reduce extreme poverty by half

Productive and decent employment

Reduce hunger by half

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Universal primary schooling

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Equal girl's enrolment

Women's share of paid employment

Women's equal representation

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Reduce mortality of under five-year-olds by two-thirds

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Reduce maternal mortality by three quarters

Access to reproductive health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

Halt and reverse spread of tuberculosis

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Reverse loss of forests

Halve proportion of population without improved drinking water

Halve proportion of population without sanitation

Improve the lives of slum-dwellers

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

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