The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Drama over wealth tax
Needless political one-upmanship

There was something undignified in the way Punjab Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal leaders whipped up passions over the wealth tax and then engaged in an unseemly game of one-upmanship for taking credit for its promised non-application to agricultural land. With their delayed reaction, the leaders championing the cause of the peasantry exposed their ignorance of an old law. It was in 1992 that the then Finance Minister had brought agricultural land under the definition of "urban land" for purposes of wealth tax.

Since budgets in this country do not excite politicians and are usually passed in a hurry, it escaped the attention of the political class representing farmers' interests. The political battle also shows that laws may be passed or changed but need not always be implemented. Though ignorance of law is no excuse, the tax authorities at least must publicise any new law or changes in the existing laws. The new definition of "urban land" to cover agriculture land impacted a large class of farmers, but the far-reaching changes were made quietly without any discussion.

It was after a few Akali leaders from Jalandhar faced the heat of the tax authorities for their failure to pay wealth tax that the matter caught the attention of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Ideally, Badal should have asked his party MPs to raise the issue in Parliament with support from the BJP and other like-minded parties. Instead, he kicked up a political storm and called a special session of the Vidhan Sabha as if this in itself would bring about a change in the Central law. Over-reacting, Badal wrote to the Prime Minister that "there could be a conflagration of social disorder, anarchy and economic crisis" if the tax was levied. Meanwhile, Congress leaders too woke up to the Badal plan to emerge as a saviour of the farmers ahead of elections. They rushed to Delhi, did their own calculations and walked away with the "credit".

Rail lines to nowhere
Public good not without viability

With 97 out of the 109 projects to lay new railway lines currently under way not being financially viable, it may well be said that nearly the entire expansion in the monopoly transport sector is an investment in loss. That, when the Railways’ annual losses have crossed Rs 24,000 crore! A Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) report has blamed inordinate delays in project execution or commissioning of non-viable routes. Delays and consequent cost overruns are not something that can be condoned. Often clearances for projects are required from various departments, which fail to respond. The government has to ensure all agencies function in coordination, and not as islands of self-promotion. These are public losses, irrespective of which department goes into the red.

The problem of projects being ordered without expectation of sufficient business is political. Socio-economic consideration for backward areas is cited as the reason for such routes. Supporting development is indeed a mandate of the Railways, but it would be hard to explain that when new projects repeatedly go to states represented by the incumbent Railway Minister. That the position is exploited in parochial interest is obvious from the fact that it has often remained with alliance partners of the government. The portfolio comes handy in palming out favours. Also, the huge gap in the number of projects announced and actually commissioned is an indicator of the populist agendas of the minister or government.

The PAC has recommended a national policy be evolved on how to assess projects before commissioning. The ‘public good’ factor is important, but there have to be tangible parameters to measure the benefit accruing to the targeted area. Functioning on mere recommendations from political representatives takes economics out of the process. Ground rules may be evolved to ask a state to contribute to a project if it is insistent on a particularly unviable route. Just as with the reform in power sector, there can be no free services from the Railways; any loss-making proposition has to be compensated by the government concerned — state or Centre.

Thought for the Day

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. — Buddha

ARTICLE

The Third Front idea
A lot of mess to be cleared
by Kuldip Nayar

Mid-term polls seem inevitable. Most provincial leaders are lessening in influence. They want to cash in on their depleting assets before too long and may want to extract the maximum before they lose the advantage they enjoy at present. Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is rapidly losing ground. So is Mamata Bannerjee in West Bengal. Much would depend on how the leaders can hold on to their own before the polls take place.

The outcome is anybody’s guess. One thing that is sure as of now is that no single party will get a majority in the Lok Sabha, comprising 543 members. And which parties will join hands is difficult to say at this juncture. It all depends on whether the parties carry the credentials of being anti-communal and how far they are convincing. It is apparent that the BJP, known for its Hindutva thesis, may be on the one side and the rest on the other.

There is, however, a possibility that a third group may emerge. The Congress and the BJP are the two groups and their alternative will be the combination of the others. Outside support of the Congress or the BJP is necessary to make the majority, which will be 273. Debunking the idea of a Third Front government after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP asked Mulayam Singh Yadav why his party had not withdrawn support to the UPA even though he had many complaints against the Congress. But he has his compulsions. Nevertheless, his son and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has very much kept a Third Front idea alive after a meeting with his Tamil Nadu counterpart J. Jayalalithaa.

That an alternative to both the Congress and the BJP is needed is generally accepted. But such a front cannot be on the old lines. When idealism lessens, many compromises will be made and even ethical considerations will be pushed to the background. This would mean leaders without qualities will begin to stalk the land. No doubt, India is going through such a phase today. It does not, however, mean that one set of undesirable people should be allowed to replace another set of undesirables. The beginning for a change can be small, but it cannot be dubious.

The Third Front in India, if and when formed, has a lot of work to do to clear the mess the Congress and the BJP have piled up over the years. The biggest crime the two parties have committed is to politicise the ills in society to stay in power. With musclemen and money bags, they have destroyed the values, brick by brick. However, the biggest problem that parties which constitute the Third Front suffer from is that each one of them has, at one time or the other, been part of the alliance which the Congress or the BJP had forged.

Against this background, it is understandable why both the Congress and the BJP have pooh-poohed at the idea of a Third Front when Mulayam Singh Yadav touched on the revival of the subject. At the same time, the statements emanating from top Congress and BJP leaders, mocking at the birth of a Third Front, indicate that the two main political parties are edgy as well as uncertain about their future with the general elections due anytime between now and early 2014.

However, there is one big question that remains: that of consensus building. When there are so many parties with conflicting ideologies, different working styles and personality clashes, the biggest problem would be who among the dozen-odd leaders will become Prime Minister? Mulayam Singh Yadav is already counting his eggs even before they are hatched. Then there are regional leaders like J. Jayalalithaa and Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam from Andhra Pradesh. Even the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati nursed such an ambition for some time. But my worry is how can parties with regional outlooks govern and upkeep the diverse Indian population?

In such a scenario, the only option available is to arrive at a consensus and choose a prime ministerial candidate who has the understanding of foreign relations and the economic growth of the country. There are thousands of young men and women who are working voluntarily at the grassroots in the fields of health, education, environment and human rights. They can all be strung together. They, in turn, will bring in their experiences and contacts to make the front more meaningful. Even the communists will be keen on roping in all such elements that are outside the orbit of the BJP and the Congress.

I recall Mallika Sarabhai contesting the last Lok Sabha election as an Independent candidate. She chose to contest against L.K. Advani and her reason was she wanted to send a message across the nation that people believing in democracy and secularism have to fight for the space which the political parties have come to occupy. Some human rights activists also followed the same path. They had constituted a people’s political forum, Lok Niti Manch, a platform where groups and individuals fighting for protecting the rights of people assembled, to contest elections.

The only condition to join the Manch was that they must believe in democracy, secularism and a welfare state. It is another matter that none of the contestants, including Mallika, had won. And it did not matter to them. But the initiative came for praise from like-minded people because a process to cleanse politics and to oust all such elements as are motivated by power and money had been set in motion. Today, their number may be small but once the message spreads, they will gradually gain in strength. Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan, who successfully ousted the Indira Gandhi government in 1977, constituted the Janata Party which won a majority in the Lok Sabha. I do hope that someday such efforts will bear fruit and take the shape of a political party like the Greens in Europe.

MIDDLE

‘Safe driving’
by Harbans Singh Virdi

Alarmed at the zigzag manner and break-neck speed at which most people drive in the city, I thought of learning proper driving from a skilled instructor. Therefore, a few months before I bought my first car more than 15 years ago, I visited a driving school whose graduates had the dubious reputation of reducing India’s population off and on. First, I was surprised to see that there was no car at its ram-shackle building from where the ‘school’ functioned. Only a tractor stood parked in one corner.

When I questioned the driving instructor about it, he was furious. “Like most educated people, you do not have common sense,” he said sarcastically. I nodded in agreement. “The tractor symbolises our strong, robust driving for which we are known. Do you notice any dent on it? He thundered. Car is parked on the other side. I kept mum since I did not want to jeopardise my training. “You will be given practical training, not what those stupid driving manuals contained”, the instructor told me in no-nonsense manner. I dared not to raise any objection.

Before embarking on my first driving sortie, I was given general instructions. While driving, never look at women, especially lovers on bikes; they cause accidents. Looking at married couples is safe, they sit about a yard from each other. Secondly, be kind to animals on roads; they are our livestock wealth, they should not be run over. Unfortunately, mankind is not cattle-kind. Remember, how cattle were hurt by the cattle-comment of Union Minister of State Shashi Throor.

Anyway, we then hit the road. “Look straight, the instructor shouted, as I juggled to distinguish the accelerator from the foot break and the clutch. Anyway, after initial hiccups, I was able to manoeuvre the vehicle slowly. Then came a light point.

“At light points, stop the vehicle on the right side if you have to turn left,’’ the instructor said. “But, sir, would it not be wrong? I stammered. “Not the least, the whole traffic behind you will have to wait as you pass safely”, he said. Thirdly, “still better, stop in the middle and don’t use indicators”.

“But, sir, the traffic manual says motorists should use indicators.

“Nonsense. See when you don’t use indicators, the traffic behind you stays back, confused. So, it keeps waiting – that gives you safe passage. Understand?” he added.

“Besides, do not look upon lights as a compulsory stoppage. Just ensure that no stray animal is in the way, that is all, after all people do have the responsibility of driving safely”, he pointed out.

Lastly, mid-driving is safe-driving. To illustrate the point the instructor narrated an anecdote. A “graduate” of mine went to the US right-hand drive is the norm. When an acquaintance teased him about the danger of driving in the left, he said, “I drove in the middle in India, I would drive in the middle in the US.” Then the instuctor proclaimed with pride, “Even after years, the US Traffic Police has not challaned him even once.” Then he giggled, without shame.

Incidentally, my first car bore a dozen dents on its body – a reminder of ‘safe’ driving.

Oped Governance

Wielding the baton with prudence
In view of the growing incidence of police violence, it is imperative to introduce a holistic approach to training that includes emotional intelligence and problem-based learning to ready personnel for real-life situations
Rohit Choudhary

Traditional training does not deal with specific problems the police is expected to handle and the ways to deal with them. Tribune file photos

Taking suo motu cognisance of police brutality against a woman in Tarn Taran in Punjab and lathicharge of women teachers in Bihar, the Supreme Court observed that such “animal behaviour” by the police cannot be allowed any longer and sought the current status of implementation of police reforms. It noted that unless we have an independent mechanism for recruitment and training, we cannot solve this issue.

The Gore Committee set up in 1971 by the government to look into the aspect of police training came to the unflattering conclusion that police training had been badly neglected over the years and training arrangements, by and large, were unsatisfactory, both in quantity and quality. It found that training institutions failed to take note of the changing situations and develop realistic training programmes.

The police departments today remain stuck with antiquated and uninspiring training methods, contents that have little applicability in the field and to future policing needs, and an organisational environment that has little support for training. As rightly observed by the Supreme Court, a paradigm shift in the basic approach to police training is the need of the hour, and the police departments will have to adopt some of the new strategies as the current practices in training suffer from some fundamental flaws in content and approach.

Police training is rigid evolving from the law, policies, procedures and rules that are followed in strict conformity by the police department. However, the studies and practical experience show that traditional police training curricula are designed to instruct recruits in what they will be doing just 10 per cent of the time while on duty, i.e. law-enforcement functions. The traditional police training does not deal with specific problems the police is expected to handle and the methods to deal with them. This is one of the major reasons why recruit training has so often been criticised as having no relevance to the job. As soon as a police officer reaches the police station, he has first of all to unlearn what he has been taught in training institutions.

The other neglected aspect in police training is that it is weighted towards technical aspects of police work and does not prepare the officers for the everyday interactional tasks that they perform. For effectiveness, the training needs should be identified through a top-down and bottom-up approach, with inputs from the staff at the police stations, so that there is a “connect” between the teaching and practical daily police work at the cutting edge.

Lecture mode won’t do

As per the report of the National Police Commission, 1977, 49 per cent duties performed by a constable call for exercise of higher degree of initiative, discretion, judgement, etc., and 37 per cent duties involve a combination of application of mind and exercise of judgement — together they constitute about 86 per cent of the duties. However, the present police training process still lays emphasis on the lecture mode for teaching suited for children, whereas adults learn new knowledge, understandings, skills, values, and attitudes most effectively when they are presented in the context of application to real-life situations.

The basic approach to police training should, therefore, highlight problem-based learning (PBL) on the part of trainees that engage the recruit in real-world ill-structured problems that interconnect the curriculum and cause the recruit to think. This can be extremly important for the police officers when they are relating to problem solving, conflict resolution, cultural, religious and social diversity at work. While the police recruits at present, even at the level of Assistant Sub-Inspectors and constables, are highly qualified, police training must be active, engaging, and relevant for the recruits and in-service personnel who attend professional development courses.

Numerous law-enforcement agencies are moving to the PBL training model. Academies in Washington, Kentucky, and California are changing their instructional style to reflect current learning and teaching needs. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has used PBL in their training academy for years and are the leaders in self-directed training.

Factoring in empathy

Emotional intelligence includes the way police officers manage their emotions and the way they manage their contacts and relationships with others. Emotional intelligence has an enormous role in policing, particularly in developing new officers and solving the most common issues that create problems for the department and the individual such as police misconduct and brutality. These problems develop when police officers are unable to empathise with others or control their impulses and emotions.

Therefore, in order to prevent incidents of police brutality more inputs on personality development, communication skills, human values, sense of belongingness to society, self-awareness, problem solving, describing and analysing police misconduct, training on ethical standards and police myths and cynicism may be more useful. Once the recruit has a solid foundation in these areas he or she will be prepared to better understand his or her professional value system and the environment during the formative period in the academy.

With the advent of the Internet, increased flow of manpower, trade and crime, even the training needs are becoming globalised. Exchange of ideas, information and expertise can play an important role in the training of police officers. In the Netherlands, the Police Knowledge Network (PKN), which is a form of digital databank, occupies a special position among the centres of expertise. The databank serves as a repository of the knowledge of the Police Training and Knowledge Centre, the police forces and the external partners, and can be consulted online by police officers. The data consists not only of documented knowledge taken from textbooks and training modules, but also practical information that can be used in situations the police officers confront on a daily basis.

A similar network of the police academies in India would strengthen and supplement their training resources, further their integration with the international networks can help them to access from international standards and wide knowledge database in policing.

Organisational support

Organisational support to training remains one of the most important issues. If the police department itself remains hostile or indifferent to training, any amount of good training will not show significant positive effect. Since 1997, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) has been a fervent practitioner of learning organisation concepts. Recruiting only the best talent, a majority of SPF recruits are degree or diploma-holders, ensuring intellectual propensity for learning. Subsequently, the mental models of officers are then shaped through training.

In the Indian Police departments, the training remains a neglected wing and very often the people sent for training are those who are considered spare, near-retirement and many a time they are working in a unit not related to the training theme. And on return from training, the skills acquired by the police officers in the training programmes are seldom put to use as their job responsibility is rarely decided on the basis of training programmes attended.

Not only the training academies at the state level, but also training schools in every district should function as susidiary knowledge centres and should be given their due importance and earmarked funds. Regular, short and focused capsule training courses of two to three days in the district police lines with the help of faculty from outside could be of immense benefit to the police officers in polishing their soft skills for the interface activities with the public.

Future training needs

Training programmes for the police, which remain outmoded, should be reviewed and continuously improved to maintain their relevance and efficacy. While taking care of the current needs it is essential that the training also looks at the prepardness of police officers in terms of what demands future would place on them. For a future police training and planning, the following external factors have to be taken into account:

nIncrease of the police product in volume, gravity and complexity, aggravated by the expanding international dimension requiring new resources, connections and information exchange

nDevelopment of new technologies providing criminals new means to commit crime and effective communication systems

nEconomic and political situation with social and political unrest, economic crunch, massive population, unemployment, juvenile crime and further migration waves to exploding mega cities

nChallenge to tackle terrorism, underworld and spreading Naxalite movement, which is affecting one-third districts in the country

Developing the necessary skills for maintaining quality standards that the public has begun to expect would be critically dependent on the skills developed in the policemen at the cutting edge. Unlike other professions where the entrants to the service are selected on the basis of their professional competency and the necessary skills are predominantly pre-acquired, the policemen get to learn the basics of their profession only through in-service training. Therefore, their skills, attitude and competencies depend to a large extent on the training they receive in the police academies. The training programmes should be used to herald a new strategic thrust and a commitment to the police department’s mission, vision and values.

Broad base training

Move to the problem-based learning method

Determine the training needs through a top-down and bottom-up approach

Developing emotional intelligence of police officers should be a critical part of every teaching in the police department

Strategic partnerships between training institutes, police knowledge networks and individuals for online exchange of ideas and expertise

Regular short capsule training courses in every district on soft skills

Supportive environment within the department for training

— The writer is an IG in the Punjab Police.