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A modified Lokpal
Social networking messages |
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The objectionable script
Menace of corruption in India
Different perceptions
More than a virtual storm
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A modified Lokpal
Though the select committee of the Rajya Sabha examining the controversial Lokpal Bill has made some concessions to the civil society representatives, their chief demand that the CBI should be put under the Lokpal’s control has not been accepted. The committee has suggested more autonomy for the CBI but this may not satisfy Anna Hazare, who has threatened another fast if his version of the Bill is not passed. After the Lok Sabha cleared it, the Bill got stuck in the Rajya Sabha and was referred to a committee. The report will be submitted on November 23. Several regional parties had objected to the tagging of the Lokayukta with the Lokpal. They felt the Centre was encroaching on state territory. Respecting their sentiments, the committee has delinked the two. Left to themselves, state governments by and large would not like to submit themselves to a strong Lokayukta. Barring exceptions like Justice N. Santosh Hegde of Karnataka, Lokayuktas have hardly distinguished themselves in curbing corruption in high places. Some have complained of lack of powers while others are happy with the perks of a post-retirement job. The committee’s third important recommendation is to bring the office of Prime Minister under the Lokpal’s ambit excluding issues related to national security and external affairs. Though Dr Manmohan Singh had accepted the idea, his ministerial colleagues opposed it as they felt the PMO could be subjected to motivated attacks. But it seems the committee, headed by Satyavrat Chaturvedi of the Congress, has tried to pacify the civil society leaders by accepting some of their demands. What stand political parties take on this issue in Parliament will be keenly watched. The committee has retained the populist, but retrograde demand for 50 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women in the nine-member Lokpal. The country needs an efficient Lokpal, which is possible only if appointments are made on merit rather than based on reservations. One hopes MPs are aware of public outrage at scandals and give the country a strong law to curb corruption. |
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Social networking messages
The Mumbai police acted with unbecoming haste to arrest the 21-year-old Mumbai girl who commented about Bal Thackeray on Facebook. The arrest of the girl as well as another person who had ‘liked’ the comment is all too indicative of the climate of intolerance that nurtures extreme reactions to even somewhat critical comments. The arrest of these girls has now drawn widespread condemnation from a variety of sources, including Justice Markandey Katju, Chairman of the Press Council of India. The expression of distress by the Telecom and IT Minister, Kapil Sibal, further reaffirms this position. Social media, by its very nature, spreads information at a phenomenal pace. What is said in the cyber world is a written statement that can often have serious consequences in a climate of hypersensitivity that is often seen in the nation. Was it not less than a month ago that an industrialist in Puducherry was arrested because of a tweet about P Chidambaram’s son? Who can forget the ‘cattle class’ tweet? Shashi Tharoor has barely managed to recover from the eclipse that the tweet contributed to. While obvious, it needs restatement that anyone who uses social media should do so responsibly. It is, therefore, logical to expect the same sense of responsibility from the law-enforcement and administrative authorities as well when they are confronted with a situation in which they perceive that social media has been misused. All too often they display knee-jerk reactions that backfire. The slapping of various sections of the IPC and also the IT Act on the two Mumbai girls was one such instance. Clearly, the comment did not warrant such an extreme action. The cyber world is here to stay. The multitude of instances all over the nation point towards the need for sensitising the police and administrative personnel about cyber realities. The right to free speech, whether online or offline, is our fundamental right, and it should not be throttled by anyone by any means. |
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The objectionable script
The chain of controversial issues raised by our school textbooks never seems to end. In a sensible education system, writing and editing of school textbooks would be assigned to subject experts and professionals who would make sure the facts printed in the books are well-researched. A few textbooks prepared by the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) seem to defy all logic. The uncalled for controversy over cartoons published in NCERT books for class XI six years ago, which kicked off a political storm in the country, had barely died down when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa demanded removal of “objectionable” references from the CBSE textbook about the Nadar community. She referred to the “incorrect” details in the textbook of class IX which were “very misleading” about the community that has produced great leaders like K. Kamaraj. The Nadars, she claimed, are the descendants of the rulers of the Cheran, Cholan and Pandyan Kingdoms and are not a lower caste, as mentioned in the CBSE book. She wrote a letter to the Prime Minister objecting to the facts incorporated in the book. DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, MDMK leader Vaiko and PMK leader S Ramadoss also objected to the references. But the facts mentioned in another textbook, “New Healthway — Health, Hygiene, Physiology, Safety, Sex Education, Games and Exercises”, prescribed in some CBSE schools, blame almost all social ills on the people who eat non-vegetarian food, in a way branding them as social criminals. Brought out for the students of class VI, it informs the impressionable minds that non-vegetarians “easily cheat, tell lies, they forget promises, they are dishonest and tell bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex crimes.” The book applauds the “vegetarian” Japanese for their longevity. If the source of information is so misleading, who can blame the students for their ignorance? It is time the CBSE devised a mechanism to control the content that goes into our textbooks. |
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It takes a great man to be a good listener. — Calvin Coolidge |
Menace of corruption in India
Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) Vinod Rai’s pained expression on the brazenness of the government’s decision obviously referred to the way decisions have been taken resulting in corrupt deals in the matter of telecom, coal allocations and allotments of land on political grounds. This has understandably touched the raw nerve among the politicians, though it has been welcomed by an average person. Corruption is not merely a moral question. It eats into the vitals of the economy and leads to the loss of faith in the principles of equality and honest administration. In its 2008 study, Transparency International reports that about 40 per cent of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or using a contact to get jobs done in public office. In 2011, India was ranked 95th out of 178 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. The World Bank’s aid programmes in India are beset by corruption, bad administration and under-payments. As an example, the report cites that only 40 per cent of grain handed out for the poor reaches its intended target. Despite its best intentions, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is beset with controversy about corrupt officials pocketing money on behalf of fake rural employees. A November 2010 report from the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity estimates that over a 60-year period, India lost $213 billion in illicit financial flows beginning in 1948; adjusted for inflation, this is estimated to be $ 462 billion in 2010, or about $8 billion per year. The report also estimated the size of India’s underground economy at an approximately $640 billion at the end of 2008 or roughly 50 per cent of the nation’s GDP. If corruption levels in India were reduced to levels in the developed economies such as the United States, India’s GDP growth rate could increase by an additional 4 to 5 per cent to 12 to 13 per cent each year. C. K. Prahalad, the management guru, estimates the lost opportunity cost caused by corruption in terms of investment, growth and jobs for India is over $ 50 billion a year. Though loud proclamations are made by the Central government to fight the menace of corruption, the disease has increased and the corruption index has reached the summit with the involvement of politicians and high government officials. This was to be expected when the Central government unembarrassingly adopted globalisation as the first mantra from the Prime Minister downwards, and equating the prosperity of the country by taking pride in pointing out that Indian billionaires were included in the Forbes Fortune while shamefully omitting to mention that even in Delhi, which is supposed to have the highest per capita income in the country, the ugly reality is that 70 per cent of its population is able to spend only Rs 50 per day. This is now accepted as the poverty level by the government itself. Such horrible inequality in the country is only possible by the ill-gotten wealth acquired as a result of corrupt policies of the political parties in power. Thus, we have the corruption scandals of India coal mining to the extent of Rs 186,000 crore, Rs 176,000 crore of 2G spectrum scam, etc. It is a truism that maximum corruption is indulged in by close friends and relatives like sons and son-in-law of politicians because of their closeness to the powers that be. But then instead of finding honest answers, Congress leader Digvijay Singh has unabashedly propounded a self-serving formula that political parties should not even refer to the acts of corruption purportedly done by relations of opposition political leaders on the patently fallacious plea that parents or parents-in-law cannot be held responsible for the corruption done by their relations. But this unashamed, unacceptable plea by politicians was rejected as far back as 1964 by the S.R. Das (Chief Justice of India) Enquiry Commission which held against the conduct of S. Pratap Singh Kairon, the then Chief Minister of Punjab. I appeared as a lawyer for the memorialists before the commission. The commission in its report trashed Kairon’s defence and observed, “The main charges related to the sons of Kairon in enriching themselves by misusing the state machinery — the complicity of Kairon being established by his remaining silent and not taking any steps to prevent it.” (According to Mr Digvijay Singh’s philosophy, Kairon would have been blameless). But the commission exploded this self-serving excuse put forth by Kairon that it would be unfair and unjust not to permit a person to do business simply because he happens to be the son or son-in-law of a person in authority. To this the Das Commission caustically ruled thus, “Kairon’s case was that the alleged misconduct and misdeeds of his sons had not been brought to his notice, else he would have warned them. “This was a patent absurdity. The commission is free to concede that a father cannot legally or morally prevent his sons from carrying on business, but the exploitation of the influence of the father, who happens to be the Chief Minister of the state, cannot be permitted to be made a business of. Such exploitation cannot possibly be a legitimate business and the father’s influence and powers cannot be permitted to be traded in. Even assuming that he personally had not lent a helping hand in relation to them, the least he could do was to give a stern warning, in private and if necessary publicly, to his sons, relatives, colleagues and subordinate officers against their alleged conduct even if such conduct had not been proved to be true. But, as his own affidavit shows, he made no inquiry, gave no warning to anybody and took no step whatever to prevent its recurrence but let things drift in the way they had been going, assuming he had no hand in it. “The allegations stared him in the face; he paid no heed to them. He cannot now plead ignorance of facts. In view of his inaction in the fact of the circumstances hereinbefore alluded to, he must be held to have connived at the doings of his sons and relatives, his colleagues and the government officers.” In the face of these findings, Kairon had to resign. Do political parties need any other precedent for action if they are genuine in eradicating corruption from public
life? The writer is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi. |
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Different perceptions
An essential part of human nature is that we tend to dwell only upon our pleasant memories, memories that show us up in a glorified light. In all my writings about encounters with former students and colleagues I have been guilty of this. As a result, I have harboured an exaggerated perception of my worth as a former Headmaster. Then, recently, three things happened, which provided another dimension to this perception. He was part of the SMT in my school in Patiala and a lady staff member complained that he was harassing her with his attentions. There had been rumours about a relationship between the two and when I confronted him with the complaint, he hinted as much. I told him that the past was the past and he must now leave her alone. He didn’t and I had to let him go. I met him now after many years. He told me that I had ruined his family life and, till he was able to find another job a year later, had imposed great financial hardship on him. I was a cruel, heartless, unreasonable man. I could not quarrel with this perception. Perhaps, there could have been a better way of handling the situation. Perhaps, I could have worked out a mutually acceptable compromise. The second person was someone who I had been extremely close to. He was a good, efficient man and a year and a half before I was due to retire, I was able to persuade my board to unofficially consider him as my successor. While he waited, he turned down two offers of headship that came his way. Unfortunately, when the time came, the board felt that it was imperative for me to continue. He was in town recently but did not come to see me. I was told that his perception of me was that I had led him up the garden path with a false promise, a promise that I had no intention of keeping. I was a cheat and a fraud. He was justified in this perception: I should have insisted that the board let me go to make place for him. The third was a boy who had been caught drunk on the campus and expelled. I met him recently and he was at great pains to tell me how I had ruined his career. He had not been able to find admission in a good school and had to struggle to complete his studies. I was a tyrant and should never have been Headmaster. It was true: I had been tyrannical. Perhaps, there was a gentler more effective way of dealing with the situation. These three perceptions have brought an element of sobriety to my perception of myself. All I can say is that flawed as my decisions may have been, with my limited gumption, I had done what I considered to be the best under the circumstances. I could not have done anything different, anything
better. |
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More than a virtual storm
It’s war. Not quite world war, but almost. In the US, a respected General resigned in disgrace after his tryst with a biographer was exposed; in the UK, a Lord retaliated with the threat of barrage of lawsuit against people who had sullied his name; in the Middle East even as two of the most intransigent enemies fired missiles at each other, another group joined the fray with a different set of weapons; and back home, the long arm of the law in Mumbai nabbed two girls, one of them had posted something many felt, another had liked that comment. All these are recent instances of cyber world colliding with the real one, and the negative consequences triggered by this collision. Let’s look at these instances one by one. Daft drafts By now, the story of how the head of one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world could not hide his affair with his biographer is familiar enough. We all know that an anonymous email triggered the events that led to the resignation of the then CIA Director David Petraeus, who is 60 years old and is one of the most decorated generals in the US. Petraeus had met a graduate student Paula Broadwell at Harvard University in 2006. He met her again two years later when she was studying his leadership. She continued her work, as he moved up the rank ladder and in 2010 became the commander of operations in Afghanistan. She met him a number of times, and their extra-marital affair (both are married and have children) apparently started in November 2011. The 40-year-old Broadwell’s biography, ‘All In: The Education of General David Petraeus’ was published in January. At some point, Broadwell had set up an e-mail account through which the two communicated, not by mailing each other, but by saving these messages in the ‘drafts’ folder, in an apparent attempt to keep their communication under wraps. It did not work as planned and the mails saved in this account became the evidence of the affair. In May, she sent letters to a Florida socialite Jill Kelley, which Kelley complained were threatening. At Kelley’s request, the FBI started an investigation, which led to the whole affair being exposed, and eventually to the resignation of General Petraeus. Gen. John Allen, the US commander who replaced Petraeus in Afghanistan, is also under a cloud because of his “inappropriate communications” with Kelley. Apparently the two exchanged hundreds of emails. Widely tipped as the next commander of US European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe, General Allen is now cooling his heels pending an internal investigation from the Pentagon. What we have to remember is that it was an electronic trail that did these people in. Twitter troubles Now, let’s go to another troubled land. The UK is in a bit of a tizzy. Nightline, the prestigious BBC programme, on November 2 aired a report about alleged sexual abuse in a children’s home in Wales in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the victims said during the programme, that he had been abused by a senior Conservative Party figure. Although the BBC had not identified him, some people on Twitter concluded that the person being referred to was the 70-year-old Lord Alistair McAlpine and this was re-tweeted about one lakh times. As it turns out, the former treasurer of the Conservative Party, Lord McAlpine, was wrongly accused and the BBC has been forced to not only apologise to him, but to also to pay £185,000 plus costs to him. Many heads too rolled at the old august institution, including that of the recently-appointed Director-General George Entwistle. Now, the Lord and his solicitors are threatening to identify the people who tweeted about him, and sue them. A number of individuals have posted tweets apologising for their comments. The British comedian Alan Davies, who has more than 4,44,000 followers on Twitter, posted: “I’ve just written to Lord McAlpine to apologise for retweeting his name in relation to false allegations following a BBC investigation.” Lord McAlpine’s lawyers and experts are reported to have found 1,000 “original” tweets and a further 9,000 retweets and have threatened to make each one of them to pay a nominal amount, which will be given to charity. Many of these people have apologised, and the every hyperactive twitter sphere has been somewhat muted since. Cyber attacks When Israel attacked Gaza with rockets, some kind of retaliation was expected and it came in the form of missiles. What it may not have anticipated was a cyber attack on its networks and websites by a group called Anonymous. The hacker collective that calls itself Anonymous attacked a large number of Israeli websites, with varied degree of success. It says its #OpIsrael is in retaliation for the air raids by Israeli military. In a message, the hackers said: “Anonymous does not support violence by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) or by Palestinian Resistance/Hamas. Our concern is for the children of Israel and Palestinian Territories and the rights of the people in Gaza to maintain open lines of communication with the outside world.” Hackers who attack for political reasons, not for any monetary gains, are called hacktivists and they have been able to attack various nations and businesses from time to time. They have repeatedly shown expertise in attacking targets that give them a good amount of publicity while also embarrassing governments and institutions. In recent days the attacks have intensified and Anonymous recently issued a statement that said: “November 2012 will be a month to remember for the Israeli defence forces and internet security forces. Israeli Gov. this is/will turn into a cyber war.” Facebook fracas Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray changed Bombay into Mumbai and his writ ran large over India’s commercial capital. It was hardly surprising that Mumbaikars turned out in large numbers for the cremation of their leader, even as the world media tuned in to this massive funeral cortege and provided live coverage. The city virtually came to a standstill, as the peaceful procession wound its way to the cremation ground. Among the lakhs of people affected by the event was a girl. Only, she had her own take on the issue and she said in the now widely-quoted Facebook post: “With all respect, every day, thousands of people die, but still the world moves on. Just due to one politician who died a natural death, everyone just goes bonkers. They should know, we are resilient by force, not by choice. When was the last time, did anyone show some respect or even a two-minute silence for Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Azad, Sukhdev or any of the people because of whom we are free-living Indians? Respect is earned, given, and definitely not forced. Today, Mumbai shuts down due to fear, not due to respect.” The 21-year old Shaheen Dhada who wrote the post and her 20-year old friend Renu Srinivasan who ‘liked’ it could not have imagined that they would be arrested for their online activities. However, the girls were arrested, under Section 295(a) of the Indian Penal Code (for hurting religious sentiments) and Section 66(a) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, (punishment for sending offensive messages). They were sent to judicial custody from which they were bailed out. The act provoked widespread condemnation, including a letter by the Chairman of the Press Council of India, Justice Markandey Katju, to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan demanding action against the police officers who arrested the girls (see box). Even the Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said he was “deeply saddened” by the arrests. Practical lessons Anyone who uses computers must, however, be cautious. Many think of cyber space as ethereal and esoteric. It is, in many ways. The cyber world, is also an extension of the real world. While the internet gives its users a false sense of anonymity, you must remember that all that you have done can be traced back to you. It, however, has the power to explode with you have posted to hundreds of thousands of people. It also maintains files that you may ardently wish had vanished, Petraeus realised, at the cost of his career. It has the power explode your comment and make it available to millions of people, as the people who tweeted about Lord McAlpine have discovered. It can dislocate normal life in any civilised nation, as Israelis are seeing. It can disrupt a perfectly anonymous life, as Dhada has unfortunately found out. As individuals learn the limits of freedom they have on the Net, and come to terms with its uglier side, they also realise the need to act responsible. The society at large too, must break the mindset of the otherworldliness of the cyber world and realise that it is totally integrated into our lives now.
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