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No laughing matter
Insensitive and brutal |
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Smoke-free Sangrur
Upping the ante
Next patient, please
Modern equivalent of the Lost Tribes The next five years
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No laughing matter
THE Prime Minister has said the world is "laughing at us" because Parliament has become dysfunctional. The world may or may not be laughing at the way Indian parliamentarians conduct themselves, but the respect India once enjoyed as a fast-growing, emerging economic power must have taken a hit. Foreign investment has slowed. India Inc is looking for opportunities outside the country. If growth has slipped from 9 per cent to 5 per cent it is partly because of poor governance. The legislative back-up required to keep growth going has come to a near halt. Bills that could have speeded up land acquisitions, removed tax irritants and checked evasion and raised caps on foreign investment have been pending in Parliament for long. The BJP has reportedly set two conditions for letting Parliament work. First, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar should resign for his role in influencing the CBI report on Coalgate. Should not the Opposition wait for the Supreme Court's reaction? Secondly, the government should withdraw the joint parliamentary committee report on the 2G scandal. The BJP first agitated in Parliament to demand a JPC probe into the 2G scandal and is now making noises over the report. By fighting over the JPC outcome the parliamentarians have brought to question their own ability to inquire into issues independently and objectively. They have failed to look beyond party lines. The Congress, no doubt, has inexperienced ministers who invite trouble. The BJP has leaders whose sole agenda is to paralyse Parliament, driven partly by electoral considerations. They demand the Prime Minister's resignation but do not dare move a no-trust motion against the UPA government. MPs bicker over corruption rather than debate and fix it. Time was when parliamentarians were known for their knowledge and oratory. Now they have reduced themselves to an irresponsible bunch of noise-makers. What can be more improper than this that people's representatives are paid for doing no work? Which other profession in the country allows this? Day after day MPs do not let Parliament function, making the present Lok Sabha, perhaps, the least productive in India's history.
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Insensitive and brutal
THE Punjab Police is displaying sensitivity and taking the proactive route. No, it is not holding emergency sensitisation sessions following instances of brutality in which members of the force have been seen to have behaved in a manner that caused the Supreme Court to censure them in the infamous Tarn Taran case. It is taking measures to counter video clips depicting police brutality as well as purported instances of bribery, etc, which have been going viral on the Internet. Shooting the messenger is an old, even if patently wrong, way of dealing with bad news. Police brutality needs to be curbed at the root with proper training, and nothing less than a total change in the attitude of the policemen who deal with the public will do. To be fair, while the state police has gained a certain degree of notoriety because of recent incidents, forces in neighbouring states don’t fare any better. Out of the 214 rape cases reported in Haryana from January to March this year, one stands out particularly. A 15-year-old girl from a poor family was raped in a village of Hisar district. She subsequently went missing. Her family consumed a poisonous substance and everyone but her father has died. The insensitive attitude of the police is blamed by many for robbing the family of hope. In another case, two migrant Dalit women went to the police with a complaint, one that allegedly fell on deaf ears. They were beaten and raped later. For too long, the police has been a force that has taken recourse to repressive measures rather than investigative skills. Policemen work long hours, sometimes in conditions that border on the inhuman. They seldom get respect and are sometimes misused by their seniors. State governments have ignored most of the recommendations of various police reforms commissions, which have called for modern equipment and training, besides systemic changes in the functioning of the force. All this must be done. However, as an immediate measure, police personnel must be made sensitive to the needs of the citizens they serve.
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Smoke-free Sangrur
THAT Sangrur district of Punjab may soon get the status of being smoke-free is a welcome step. Passive smoking or inhalation of second-hand smoke (SHS) has been found to be the cause behind lung cancer, cardiac problems and many other diseases. Smoke-related disabilities have been a cause of scientific consensus that led to regulation on tobacco products and motivation behind smoke-free laws at work places and indoor public places, which the Sangrur administration is all geared up to implement. The steps taken under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) to isolate smokers from non-smokers in all public places are laudable. At present India does carry pictorial warnings on tobacco packs to deter people from smoking. But our country has failed to adequately warn people on the risks related to second-hand smoke so far. The World Heart Federation has been making a lot of noise for quite some time to stress the point that a number of countries have introduced warnings about the increased risk of heart disease or heart attack, but no country has yet implemented a label to warn people that second-hand smoke causes heart disease. India should pay heed to this problem because cardio-vascular diseases in low and middle income countries like India are well established. SHS smoke kills six lakh people annually, including 1.65 lakh children before they reach their fifth birthday. A study by the WHO in 192 countries -- the first of its kind to assess all deaths caused by SHS --- has found that tobacco kills nearly 5.7 million people globally every year, including 5.1 million who die from their own smoking. The rest perish, thanks to passive smoking. Only 7.4 per cent of the global population lives in the countries that boast of laws to prevent smoking in public places. Sangrur has taken the first step forward but Indians need to wake up to the threat of cardiovascular diseases with a devastating impact on the health, growth and development caused by
SHS.
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A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. — Nelson Mandela
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Upping the ante THE government has messed it up again with practised ease, instinctively doing the wrong thing. The Law Minister had no business, nor officials of the PMO and the Coal Ministry, to ask to see the CBI’s affidavit on coal bock allocations prepared at the instance of the Supreme Court. For the Law Minister to plead he merely made grammatical corrections only reduces absurdity to farce. What the episode proves is that this government, like its predecessors, continues to treat the CBI as a handmaiden and is determined to deny it real autonomy. In a previous episode, the BJP Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee called CAG officials to his residence for a discussion on a yet-to-be-submitted report. That wrong was at that time strongly defended by the BJP which now protests a similar indiscretion. The BJP-led Opposition has meanwhile irresponsibly stirred up more of a crisis in and over Parliament, and an unnecessary one at that, than the Chinese by their intrusion at Daulet Beg Oldie. There will be protests and anger at this statement but the facts tell their own story. The BJP, aided by the Left and sundry other parties, has over several sessions spread over the past three or more years resorted to stalling Parliament in a most reckless fashion as a means of conducting partisan business at the cost of the nation’s business, sometimes even in defiance of the agenda set by the all-party business advisory council. Important legislation and discussion has been repeatedly stalled and the development and governance agenda frustrated. Who gains? It may be argued that the Congress or the UPA has behaved badly and is guilty of covering up major scams and impeding due process. May be. Yet the ruling party has offered to discuss every issue raised and has rightly refused to be stampeded into arbitrary procedures dictated by an unreasonable Opposition. The demand that the Prime Minister, Law Minister Ashwini Kumar and JPC chairperson PC Chacko must resign as the first order of business has stalled progress. The Supreme Court is seized of the coal block allocation matter. Let it first pronounce. And in the case of the JPC, if opposition members feel the chairman has erred, let them file strong minutes of dissent. Let each and every issue be debated and if the government’s reply proves unsatisfactory, it is open to the Opposition to move a vote of no-confidence, which if adopted would automatically mean the resignation of the PM and the Law Minister. But the sad fact is that the BJP and several lesser parties both want the government to go, by seeking the PM’s head, and even more vehemently wish the government (hence Dr Manmohan Singh) to stay as they fear early general elections that must follow with no alternative in sight. This is about the most dishonest and self-serving political tamasha being cynically played out with much noise, grandstanding and ludicrous TV panel debates largely between the same political spoilers who have absolutely nothing to say other than to trade abuse and help channels win bogus TRP points for bear-garden entertainment. The implications of this stalemate seem not to have been considered. Parliament is being deliberately undermined and replaced by some kind of assumed “direct democracy” conducted by and for the unelected for their own merriment at the cost of an increasingly disgusted and hapless nation. What is being done is a reckless manoeuvre for electoral gains, despite the knowledge that the present incumbents of office can equally prevent the next Parliament from functioning. The larger truth is that it is not Indian territory that is being attacked so much as its political and democratic ethos and the parliamentary edifice on which these rest. Cynical MPs are belligerently calling on the jawans to die in Ladakh or elsewhere so that their shabby games may continue uncontested. This is a time to pause and take stock of how to restore bipartisanship on vital issues of national integrity that should remain above politics. Fortunately, patriotism is not dead and many will respond to an appeal from either side of the political divide. This is the challenge. The very idea of India is under attack. The Congress cannot claim any particular virtue. It is guilty of high incompetence, drift and double talk and has condoned criminality by stubbornly refusing to move with something as basic as reform of the police and criminal justice system for which sterling men like Justice JS Verma strove until their last. Look at Delhi where the state administration has virtually no police powers and the Centre through the Lieutenant-Governor seems to own no responsibility. The best people are stymied by systemic rot while the honest and upright are hounded and “fixed” by politico-bureaucratic-criminal cabals. The chit fund scam and the passing of the buck going on by those found with their hands in the till comes as no surprise. The aam admi has once again been looted, this time mostly by a Trinamool Congress leadership whose downhill slide is gathering momentum. In the midst of this turmoil comes the Chinese intrusion into the Depsang Plains by Daulet Beg Oldie. This marks India’s farthest military outpost and airfield in northeast Lakakh at the foot of the Karakoram Pass, a strategic landmark that marks the border between India and Xinjiang along the old Silk Road. India is renovating the old airstrip as part of a programme to improve its logistics and defensive position all along the Indo-China Line of Actual Control. The Chinese object to these so-called “fortifications” which are very modest in contrast with their own feverish activity over many years in building roads, railways, airways, garrison towns and what not up to the even beyond the international boundary into Nepal and Pakistan. The LAC is not properly delineated, let alone demarcated, and so accidental intrusions will take place. This is understandable and can be resolved through flag meetings and diplomatic negotiations. This is where the Chinese have deliberately been going slow, meanwhile probing forward to push their claims deeper and deeper into India, a game of cartographic aggression being played since 1954 and now evident in the Pacific Ocean. One can speculate on the timing of the latest Chinese actions. Maybe, it is part of the changeover to a new regime. Whatever that be, the Indian response cannot be hasty belligerence — as foolishly demanded over the so-called “Brahmaputra” diversion - but must be cool-headed and not stampeded by ignorant and noisy chauvinists. Side by side, the defence build-up must be pursued with vigour and not allowed to falter and flag as before. But when did Parliament last debate defence policy and the nation’s state of preparedness? The murderous assault on Sarabjit Singh, the Indian prisoner in Lahore Jail, must also be handled with maturity. Let the facts be established and recompense then sought from Islamabad. Pakistan is passing through a dangerous interregnum as it moves to elections and it is not clear who, other than a backroom Army, is in charge. The polls are just days away. This is not a time for jingoism nor disclosure to China, Pakistan and all and sundry of whatever may be India’s political and strategic
options.
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Next patient, please A sullen face early in the morning. No smile. Only a matter-of-fact tone, occasional downright arrogance and no consideration for a patient in need of some solace. This, I think, sums up one of my recent experiences of visiting a doctor. I returned to a leading eye clinic as an eye infection occurred immediately after my previous appointment which I had made for a general check-up. The ophthalmologist refused to examine me unless I paid the consultation fee again, a bone of contention underpinned by the constraints of a machine-like “system” and the clinic’s mercenary attitude, no doubt, that threw to the wind any human consideration. To add to that, the sense of haste and superiority further substantiated my view about the hegemony of the medical profession, which has now officially adopted a position of power or “the God Complex” in our country. Instead of serving patients with the requisite empathy and genuine concern, the doctor appears to be doing them a huge favour, an attitude completely against medical ethics. Fortunately, there are several exceptions to this rapidly increasing fraternity who redeem the medical profession through their deeply humane touch. Much of a patient’s distress is alleviated by the compassionate manner of the doctor, not the fulfilment of the essentials of an absolutely dehumanised system of registrations and appointments. Notwithstanding the payment for all the services upfront, the maintenance of a warm and empathetic relationship between the patient and his doctor, the inculcation of social courtesy and human fellow feeling, is the first and the foremost lessons that need to be imparted in any medical training. We are caught in this vicious cycle because the great experiment to dispense socialised medical care satisfactorily has failed. A person who wants care without having to wait hours at a hospital has no choice but to reach into his pocket and dole out as directed. But there is no excuse for insolence and indifferent behaviour which is widespread in our country. The law in the West states that a patient cannot be asked for his medical insurance and payment prior to treatment. This democratic practice ensures equal treatment regardless of the ability to pay whereas in India, we forget about those who cannot pay; they are doomed. But those who can, have to shell out money in advance. A relation undergoing treatment in an upmarket hospital every few days would receive a call that some more bills needed to be immediately cleared. Payment for an injection has to be made in advance and this after three weeks’ treatment incurring lakhs. The most shocking case was that of a friend who was advised to get a pacemaker costing roughly Rs 3 lakh. Surprisingly, for the last three years it has not come into operation precisely for the reason that it was not required in his case as was confirmed with eminent heart specialists in the US. Once you do end up in a hospital, you are subjected to a plethora of unrequired, expensive scans and blood tests which are an additional burden over and above the daily care charges. Questioning the necessity of these would be an affront to the doctor and so you accept it grudgingly for want of a better choice. Heaven forbid if you happen to browse about your condition on the Internet and ask a few pertinent questions from the doctor: the attitude is that of complete impatience and contempt. You should not want to argue with these prima donnas; their egos are fragile. So you just shut your mouth and pretend to be ignorant and resign yourself to treating them like celebrities for fear of alienating
them.
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Modern equivalent of the Lost Tribes EVERY general election in Pakistan is an exercise in self-flagellation. It provides an occasion for adult voters and their elected representatives, like contrite sinners, to scourge themselves in an attempt to atone for sins past. The sins of the voters are those of commission, committed in February 2008 and in occasional by-elections thereafter, when they voted in members of their choice to the national and provincial assemblies. The sins of those elected representatives were primarily ones of omission, for all those actions they could have taken in the national interest, and chose not to, during the five barren years they remained in office. In a few days, Pakistan will have decided who it wants to be governed by for the next five years. Perhaps these elections will once again confirm the cynical adage that every country gets the sort of government it deserves. Perhaps this time, the voters may yet confound political pundits and bring in a government of leavened competence that can rise above the expectations of its voters. History awaits their verdict.
The younger generation of voters seems eager to risk its future in Imran Khan's (albeit untested) prowess as a political all-rounder.
Meanwhile, an interim national government has deflected the unwanted and gratuitous burden of instituting a case against former president Pervez Musharraf for treason. It has declared that its constitutional responsibility is to ensure free and fair elections, not to ensure that a former chief of army staff and president is given a fair trial. In a sense, having brought the whole issue into the public domain, now the judiciary finds itself on trial. Will it be able to resist what Shakespeare's Fool Feste in Twelfth Night described as "the whirligig of time" that brings in its own revenges? Had Shakespeare been a Pakistani playwright, he would have found it difficult when writing about our present political situation to separate tragedy from comedy. Could his equivalent of Titus Andronicus have been 'The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedy of Pervez Musharraf'? Or his comedy based on our legislature titled A Pleasant Conceited Comedie called Love's Labour's Lost? Or would he have settled for a generic catch-all title: A Comedy of Errors? Our previous elections have never been without overtones of drama and undertones of comedy. This present election campaign can be said to have surpassed them all. A fortnight ago, everyone assumed that the contest would be a free-for-all between political opponents, in which individual candidates without the right paperwork were disqualified, seat adjustments negotiated, turncoats who brought a dowry of loyalists accommodated, and a residue of disgruntled aspirants left clamouring to ventilate their grievances on television talk shows. No one thought for a moment that the elections would be overshadowed by a trial that will be unique in many ways, for it would be the first occasion that a former head of state and military chief was to be tried for alleged crimes that range from constitutional illegitimacy to mutinous treason. Would Pervez Musharraf be made to stand alone in the dock? There are some witnesses still alive who can recall the names of those who helped him come to power and then sustained him while he governed our country for eight years, the equivalent of two US presidential terms. Political coups are not a Pakistani phenomenon. History is replete with examples of coups in other countries. Some failed, like Lin Biao's against chairman Mao Zedong in September 1971. Others succeeded, like the one within the British Conservative Party that toppled Mrs Margaret Thatcher in November 1990 or Boris Yeltsin's against Mikhail Gorbachev less than a year later in August 1991. A few inverted failure into success, most memorably Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, who attempted a coup in May 1979, failed, attempted another a month later, and then settled in as the elected president of Ghana for 12 years or more. Constitutional lawyers defending Musharraf will undoubtedly have a field day in court, presenting tortuous arguments and legal precedents in his defence. And when they charge on the offensive, they may seek to pinion those who once supported Musharraf. These lawyers should be advised to save their client's time and our taxpayers' money. In their submissions, they should simply quote Sir John Hartington's epigram: "Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? / For if it prosper, none dare call it treason." Over the past 66 years, we have oscillated between various permutations of real, sham and synthetic democracy. We have experienced every shade and hue of authoritarianism. The past 60 or so days have confirmed that we have not yet reached a level of dependable, reliable, consistent self-governance. We are the modern equivalent of the Lost Tribes whose Moses died soon after they fled Egypt. We have yet to find another to lead us to the Promised Land. Meanwhile, as a stop-gap, we console ourselves by following lesser Aarons. Older voters are wary of worn-out leaders whose flaws have been cruelly exposed. The younger generation of voters seems eager to risk its future in Imran Khan's (albeit untested) prowess as a political all-rounder. Election-watchers believe that the horse race will be between the PML-N's two-horse brougham and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's single-horse barouche. And the PPP horse-cart? It stands mired in the muck of its past performance, overloaded with fattened opportunists, and sadly driverless. Loyalists mourn its deterioration. Others, to paraphrase Kahlil Gibran, pity the party whose Bhuttos are either in the grave or yet in the cradle.
—By arrangement with Dawn, Islamabad.
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The next five years JUDGING by the number of Western media and analytical queries I have received over the past two weeks, there seems to be a growing interest in Western capitals in the potential implications of the elections on Pakistan's foreign policy orientation. The interest is perhaps triggered by Pakistan's self-acclaimed and much-touted 'strategic shift' that has continued to receive attention in Western capitals (and in New Delhi and Kabul for that matter). At best, the shift is only partially understood and there is no sense of whether it is likely to have any longevity. Therefore, the very basic question: what should we (external watchers) expect from the next five years? One can answer this with some confidence since, perhaps driven by Pakistan's acute internal challenges, the establishment and the three major political parties (the PPP, PML-N and PTI) seem to have converged on the key markers — not necessarily in terms of the pace with which things should move but at least on the broad directionality of the key foreign relationships. The continuing civilian-military disconnect on a number of foreign policy questions notwithstanding, the convergence began to emerge during the last PPP government. At its core, it entails a subtle recalibration of the country's regional outlook coupled with a status quo approach on relations with China and the US. The next five years are likely to see a consolidation of this.
The best case implies improved ties with the region without losing out on Western engagement.
Conceptually, as far as I can decipher, there are six major pillars of this outlook. First, positive movement with India: The inevitable vocal and perhaps violent challenge from the right-wing notwithstanding, the leaderships of the three major parties seem to be fairly sanguine on the options. We'll have to find the right political jargon and face-savers to pursue this fully but the bottom line is set: the way forward is trade. Jaw-jaw will continue on Kashmir in parallel but it won't hold the rest hostage. The establishment has found this difficult to swallow but it is also aware of the internal compulsions. The pace of movement will remain up for discussion but the directionality will not. Second, hedging on Afghanistan: The Afghan policy can take one of two very different directions depending on what transpires in Kabul post-2014. The current desire is to see Pakistan reduce its reliance on hardcore Islamist Pakhtuns and open up with the northern factions. Behind-the-scenes efforts to reach out to the north have been ongoing for some time. The desire for greater attention to the economic aspects of the relationship is also part of this thinking. Quite to the contrary, a return to civil war in Afghanistan will inevitably trigger the good old proxy game with Pakistan falling on the side of the hardcore elements and the traditional supporters of the northern factions reviving their erstwhile ties. Pakistan will find itself squarely on the wrong side of global opinion if this outcome transpires. Third, rebalancing of the Sunni-Shia divide — read, the Saudi-Iran equation: For years, Pakistan has been firmly in the Saudi camp with all its attendant economic benefits and ideological repercussions. This has begun to undergo some correction for two reasons. First, the ideological repercussions seem to have caught up with us fair and square. Among other fallouts, the 'Arabisation' of the Pakistani religious right's mindset and its ability to intimidate its opponents has quite obviously exacerbated the Sunni-Shia divide in Pakistan. The state, with the history of tilt towards the Sunni crescent, is increasingly finding it hard to pledge neutrality. It is quickly losing control of the situation. Second is energy where the Pakistani decision-making enclave seems to be taking the Iranian option far more seriously than one thought it would given the Western opposition. President Zardari's last visit to Iran had both goals in mind. Admittedly, a PML-N government with its closer links to the Saudi royals may be less sympathetic to this recalibration but again, it could tamper with the pace, not directionality. The latter seems to be coming out of a deeper realisation that the traditional policy has run its course. Fourth, consistency on China: There is zero dissent on this all-weather friendship despite the clear Chinese signalling that it will not get into the business of bailing Pakistan out with free handouts on a regular basis. The attachment to China, however, is almost reflexive. The future policy will continue seeking Chinese investment and increasingly also use Beijing as a buffer against the geo-political squeeze Islamabad feels it is under. The Chinese presence in Gwadar ought to be seen in this light. Fifth, more of the same with the US: For all the seesawing and finger-pointing we have seen from both sides over the years, the bottom line is that neither can afford to alienate the other completely. Pakistan worries Washington and this will not allow it to walk away. Islamabad realises it has been treading on thin ice and cannot afford isolation. There will continue to be a lot of lip service to decreasing dependence on the US (especially from the likes of PTI). It won't happen though — neither the establishment nor the political parties wish to forgo the assistance that flows from Washington. So there will be angst; there will be mudslinging; but the relationship will continue. Sixth, more outreach to the traditionally neglected. Efforts to reach out to Moscow over the past two years are examples of efforts at diversification of foreign policy options. None of these are likely to be consequential in the foreseeable future. Net positive or negative? It depends. The best case implies improved ties with the region without losing out on Western engagement. A more realpolitik analysis on the other hand suggests a major problem: continued outreach to Iran may well be non-negotiable in Riyadh and Washington. How Pakistan manages to deal with this challenge will determine the fate of the reorientation.
— By arrangement with Dawn, Islamabad.
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