The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Unwanted flab
Advisers needlessly burden Punjab

In 2003 the Constitution of India was amended through the 91st amendment to limit the size of the Central and state ministries to 15 per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha or the assembly concerned. The aim was to discourage the practice of having jumbo legislatures. Some states, including Punjab, have found new ways to violate the spirit of the Constitution amendment. The political leadership in these states appoints loyalists or defeated legislators as chief parliamentary secretaries. Punjab already has an all-time high number of CPSs at 21 with hardly any work to do. Politicians are thrust upon loss-making boards and corporations. At the same time there is a shortage of teachers, doctors and other staff for other essential services at the ground level.

Lately, the appointment of the so-called advisers in the ranks of Cabinet minister, minister of state and chief parliamentary secretary has caused heart-burning among Akali and BJP ministers who feel piqued by the grant of status similar to theirs to just about anybody. There are eight advisers, including four for media management. Their work is not to spread awareness about government policies and programmes for which there is a separate department of public relations. They are supposed to spruce up the public image of their political masters with public money. Government advertisements are used to project personalities rather than policies. The CAG in Haryana has already objected to such practices. In no way do the advisers justify the public money being spent on them. Each on an average costs the exchequer Rs 21 lakh a year excluding the expenses on travel and staff attached to them.

Official claims notwithstanding, the Punjab government's finances are in a mess, which is reflected in delays in the payments of salaries, pensions and arrears as well as the mounting debt and sale of government properties. In these days of economic slowdown and fiscal stress, the political class and the bureaucracy in Punjab should cut profligacy, embrace financial discipline and carry out administrative reforms to downsize the top-heavy administration.

Towards transparency
RTI has a long way to go

Holding back information to govern was a colonial legacy. It emancipated a few who govern this democracy. They used power of information to their advantage. Under the Right to Information Act, 2005, this power was handed over to the people. The RTI Act empowered people to demand information from any public authority on matters of governance. This was done to make governance more accountable to people, and help people bring about changes they wished to see in governance. That would mean the RTI would help reduce corruption and never- ending delays in governance. In the eight years since it was implemented on October 12, 2005, the Act may not have shown any appreciable reduction in corruption and delays, but it has certainly helped expose a major lacuna in our system -- secrecy.

For officials groomed in the old system, transparency is a forbidden word. Adopting transparency amounts to disloyalty to a favoured few. From policy to the implementation level, systems are inherently prone to delays and passing- the-buck tactics to duck accountability. While it is frustrating for many who seek information under the RTI Act to meet the same old stone-walled silence of delay that is meant to fatigue and make an appellant give up in disgust, the Act has helped correct many wrongs by democratising information.

Resistance to change is natural, and eight years is not a long period for the old mindset to change. But attacks on RTI activists in various parts of the country are a worrying factor. Those who resist the RTI should know it is there to stay and continue to empower people as awareness grows. In an ideal situation, the public should not be harassed for demanding information on what is their right; information should be made available in public domain. Voluntary disclosure will lighten the burden on central public information officers, public authorities and information commissions. Till that happens, the RTI is helping people in minimising prospects of corruption by encouraging transparency in systems that were earlier used as fiefdoms by a few.

Thought for the Day

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. — Charles Darwin

ARTICLE

Icons and timing matter
Sachin stayed on for personal glory
by B.G. Verghese

So Sachin Tendulkar is finally to retire from all forms of cricket after he plays his 200th Test against the West Indies a few weeks from now. The media had nothing else to report for 48 hours; such was the excitement and emotion the news evoked. Sachin is certainly a much loved icon for millions, but the timing of his announced departure was perhaps not quite right apart from what might seem the excessive melancholy surrounding the announcement when it came.

The time for Sachin to go was at his peak some two years ago. But he stayed on for personal glory rather than for Team India, blocking younger entrants for longer than warranted by his declining form as even some selectors commented. He even accepted a misplaced Lok Sabha nomination but failed to attend Parliament during a critical period of national travail, preferring to remain playing cricket to win that elusive, exclusive century. Nor as a spokesman for sport or just cricket did he speak out during the match-fixing and the BCCI controversy.

The criticism may sound harsh but bears reflection. Ambedkar sounded a warning against "bhakti" or hero-worship outside faith in public life as this could be an opiate. Jawaharlal Nehru, the people's darling and undoubtedly a towering figure, stayed beyond his prime and his own better judgement. The nation paid for his faltering leadership. He had confessed to being "stale" and "tired" around 1958-1959 but national sycophancy fed his ego.

It may well be said that this year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded more on the basis of political expediency, much as Obama's award was five years ago. The Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is dedicated to a most deserving cause and has perhaps pursued its mandate with diligence. But was this work outstanding and would the body have been widely known but for its current mandate to destroy Syria's chemical weapons in the wake of a controversial American-led campaign in support of Syrian rebels and regime change in that country?

Many fancied Malala Yousafzai, the brave survivor of Taliban obscurantism and medieval, misogynist barbarism, who fought the War on Terror more successfully than remote-controlled drones. But she was overlooked. Some suggest this was because she is still only a child past 16 - too young and as yet uncorrupted by fame. If that was the reason, it is thoroughly fatuous. The example Malala set and the message of peace, forgiveness and values she has delivered to the world are outstanding.

Many liberals and democrats in Pakistan are understandably disappointed. But it was typical of the Taliban and jihadi elements to have denounced any move to honour Malala. This reveals a mindset of hatred and the subversion of the true tenets of Islam. This has bedevilled the ruling coterie which, in the absence of a positive national identity, has fallen prey to something called "Nazariya-e-Pakistan", incorporating an irredentist concept embracing defence of "the ideological frontiers of Pakistan", whatever that is supposed to mean.

It is this mindset that is at the root of Islamabad's syndrome of denial; for if history and cultural heritage are denied they will be reinvented as fiction or "imagined truth". This has been evident since 1947 and manifest in the most recent denials of efforts at cross-border infiltration across the LOC in J&K and the international border as at Samba. Though some of the briefings of the Indian Army on these incidents have been confusing and merit careful investigation, there is no doubt that cross-border firings have increased sharply over the past year, often in support of infiltration attempts before the onset of winter closes the passes. The post-2014 US-NATO Afghanistan withdrawal is also being seen by the jihadis as an opportunity for a decisive offensive in J&K.

The Pakistani line is that the firings and intrusions are exaggerated and must in any case be laid at the door of indigenous "freedom fighters" within "held-Kashmir", possibly assisted by non-State actors from across the border. This is nonsense. Even if local separatist elements are active, as indeed they are, they will be active well within the Valley or Jammu and are not going to risk sneaking through several lines of Indian defences to get to the LOC from where to make a frontal attack on the Indian Army only to get back to where they started! It is cross-border infiltrators that might and do attempt to get through the Indian defence lines. But they can only do so with the connivance or, more likely, the active support of the Pakistan Army whose defence lines they must penetrate to get to the LOC in the first place. These infiltrators, as the President, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, caustically remarked, "do not drop from heaven"!

The question then arises as to whether such operations are being planned and assisted by rouge elements of the Pakistan Army and the ISI with or without the knowledge of GHQ and the government. Gen Bikram Singh, the Army Chief, has no doubt about the active involvement of the Pakistan army. If so, is Nawaz Sharif involved or is there a parallel authority in command here? These questions will naturally follow and, denials notwithstanding, we may have to wait for conclusive answers.

Should then India persevere with the peace process on the premise of clear and unambiguous evidence of action by Pakistan in stopping cross-border infiltration as set out by Manmohan Singh in his talks with Nawaz Sharif in Washington? The answer is: yes. Let the two DGMOs meet and let the Rawalpindi case against the 26/11 accused show forward movement after the evidence led by the Pakistan judicial commission looking into the Kasab trial that has just returned from Mumbai. The trends will be clearer thereafter, a few weeks from now. By then there should also be a new Army Chief in Pakistan and other senior military appointees in place following Kayani's retirement. Time will tell what change that might bring - if any.

Until then, let muscular and unseemly verbal chauvinism on certain of our TV channels and papers be kept under control through Diwali - and beyond.

Meanwhile the preparedness shown for the landfall of super-cyclone Phailan in coastal Andhra and Odisha last week end has paid off. Well done!n

www.bgverghese.com

MIDDLE

From love to studies
by S. K. Sood

During those days my wife had left for a visit to Canada with the instruction that I must complete the construction of the house in her absence. I needed a room. Finding accommodation then was as hard as it is today. Besides, a young boy of 19 was also putting up with me. His mother had come to me and cringed, "Sir, I am a widow. Rajinder has compartment. It is his last chance. Please help. He is very obedient and studious."

After a lot of searching I met the in-charge of a sewing school. She agreed to give a room. She said, "Sir, I can solve your problem provided you act systematically. You leave for college at 9 am and do not come back before 3 pm. I shall call my girls to learn sewing at 10 am. They will leave at 1 pm. The school is closed on Sunday. There is no clash. There is one precaution. Some girls leave their notebooks in the room. Nobody should meddle with those."

Everything suited me. Even the rent was nominal.

I told Rajinder everything, particularly the condition regarding notebooks. He became annoyed and said, " Sir you are doubting me unnecessarily. I have taken the oath of celibacy. In my ten generations there has never born a Romeo. I hate love and romance. Simply waste of time." I felt satisfied and I thought the arrangement would work well. One day, suddenly, I came back at 2 to collect a book.

I was shocked to see Rajinder in the room. He inserted a piece of paper in the notebook. I hid behind a pillar. In the evening I looked at that paper. God! It was a love letter to an unknown beloved. I decided to set his mind right. At night posing as a girl I wrote: "Darling I have read your letter. I also like you very much. This notebook is a safe place. You can place your love letters there and pick up my replies from there. Only yours, Kavita."

In one of the letters I as Kavita: "This Sood, stares at me. Tell me what kind of man is he?" I cannot describe what bad and obnoxious words he wrote about me -very foul and indecent when I cooked his meals and taught him free.

The next day before the girls came and he had gone to the washroom, I picked up the letter. In reply to this letter I as Kavita wrote, "Dearest Darling, these letters do not thrill. I want to meet you alone, where nobody is there. The movie 'Guide' is on. This Sunday buy two balcony tickets for the matinee show. I shall come and sit with you secretly and …"

I also wanted to see Guide. I knew my Romeo had bought two tickets. I quietly slipped in and sat on Rajinder's adjoining seat. He was stunned when he saw me there and said, "From where the hell have you come here? Get up and leave the hall before I push you out. This is my seat booked for someone very important." He was waiting for his Kavita. I said, "Be polite please. I am your teacher." He said, "To hell with the teacher!"

I could bear no more and told him I was Kavita. I gave him all the letters reading which he felt ashamed, took to studies and cleared the tests.

OPED Defence

Military needs a separate pay commission
Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (Retd)

Though there is no equation between the roles of the military and their civilian counterparts or commonality of service conditions, the armed forces are clubbed with civilian officials in the various pay commissions. In the bargain, defence personnel have suffered.

Troops on parade during Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. Till now, military personnel have reluctantly accepted their gradual downgrading and lowering of status, but if this state of affairs continues, the nation may find itself in dire straits without an outstanding military. — PTI

The government has made the announcement for the setting up of the Seventh Pay Commission that will look at and revise the emoluments of all central government employees and the pensions of retired personnel, including families of deceased personnel. Pay commissions are periodically constituted to look into issues such as pay and allowances, retirement benefits, service conditions, and promotion policies of central government employees. It is an administrative mechanism that the government had started in 1956 and since then, every decade has seen the birth of a commission that decides the wages of government employees for a block of ten years. The last pay commission, the Sixth, which is still current, is covering the period from 2006 to 2016.

The concept of constituting pay commissions after every ten years is in actuality archaic. Most countries have done away with such systems, but we seem to be either happy with the status quo or our bureaucrats who advise the political leadership on such matters lack imagination and are unable to think of a new and more acceptable system. So, at least for now we are stuck with yet another pay commission.

The announcement for setting up the Seventh Pay Commission is different in two respects to previous such announcements. First, the announcement has been made at least one year earlier than usual. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to understand the reason for this. The ruling party seems to think that it is likely to get more traction in their quest for votes as the next general elections are only months away and votes of government functionaries are important. Secondly, the government has also announced that there would be a separate pay commission for the defence forces. This is the more important of these two points, as it is a major departure from the government’s policy. I aim to focus on this aspect.

Pay Commissions are expected to settle a reasonable wage, affordable to the government and fair to employees. However, over the decades, the pay commissions have become commissions of the IAS, for the IAS. This has especially affected the military, as over the past nearly six decades the omissions, aberrations and self-serving reports of the bureaucrats have inflicted incalculable damage to the military. That is the reason for the demand of a separate dispensation for the military. There are other valid reasons too. There is nothing in common between the military and the other government services, including the IAS, IFS, IPS, other civil services and the subordinate civil services. It needs to be noted that while the civil services deal with the citizens of the nation on a daily basis, the military interacts with them only when requisitioned to come to the aid of the civil authority. This is usually for short periods.

A vexed question relates to the fixation of emoluments of all central and All India Services, as well as the military. The IAS inexplicably has always been treated as a special case. The bureaucrats belonging to this service try to explain this by emphasising their being part of the government, but such arguments are hollow. The real reason is that they occupy the powerful slots in the pay commissions, including that of ‘member secretary’ and also rely on that much abused word ‘precedent’. This is particularly galling to the armed forces, as they have been deliberately kept out of the government as well as the pay commissions. It needs to be appreciated that the military and the civil administrative services are two equal pillars of the government and need to be treated as such.

Till now, military personnel have reluctantly accepted their gradual down grading and lowering of status because of obeying the orders of their hierarchy, but if this state of affairs continues, the nation may find itself in dire straits without an outstanding military, as exists today. The greed and self-serving attitude that the bureaucracy displayed in the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission and the biased committees formed to eliminate the large number of anomalies have not just accentuated the anger of the military, but any more such actions would amount to the proverbial breaking of the camels’ back. The government needs to take note of this and ensure that this state of affairs ends now. The government cannot and must not pay military personnel lower salaries, merely to keep the IAS in good humour.

Despite there being no equation between the roles of the military and their civilian counterparts, the armed forces were clubbed with civilian officials in the various pay commissions. The terms and conditions of service of defence personnel cannot be compared to any other category of government employees. Yet, each successive pay commission has made comparisons artificially. In the bargain, defence personnel have suffered. The dissatisfaction is clearly reflected in the huge shortage in the officer’s cadre, as both the status and the emoluments are not proving attractive to young aspirants. The same is the case with the large number of other ranks of the military, who are also unhappy with the equations and comparisons that have resulted in the downgrading of their status in the society. The government needs to understand that soldier’s having pledged even their lives to the country set great store to ‘izzat’, which if diluted affects morale adversely.

Calls for a separate pay commission for the military started when the repeated requests to the government for adequate representation of military personnel in the pay commissions were ignored. Despite these requests being made at the highest levels of the armed forces, no action was taken. From the third to the sixth pay commissions, there was not a single military person included in them, although 40 per cent of the government employees, whose pay was being revised, comprised the military.

After the major fiasco of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, where the greed and ego of the bureaucrats and their attempt to further downgrade the status of the military were palpably visible, there was uproar by the military, especially the veterans. The political leadership did intervene but the bureaucrats still got away with only cosmetic changes through committees, again comprising the same dramatis personae, who were responsible for the damage! After prolonged efforts of the military, more so by the veterans, the Prime Minster finally conceded the demand for a separate pay commission. This has now fructified by the recent announcement of the Prime Minister. However, till the composition of the proposed pay commission, as well as the related modalities are announced, it will be premature to accept or reject the offer of the Prime Minister. It is perhaps one of the reasons that the Chiefs of Staff Committee has conveyed their reluctance to accept the proposal at this stage.

There are pros and cons of having a separate pay commission for the armed forces, which need to be considered before a final decision is taken. A separate pay commission would obviously be a non-starter if one or more bureaucrats again call the shots and the representation of the military is in a token fashion or in those slots which are of lesser importance. A pay commission for the armed forces, which is only manned by military personnel, would again be incorrect.

Other important points are the need to have a common chair person for the two pay commissions; the need for a senior officer from the Finance Ministry as an adviser; the timings of the two pay commissions – civil and military — which must coincide; the harmonising of the recommendations for both the commissions; the need for continuing with the Military Service Pay (MSP); a reversion to the earlier status of the armed forces that has become askew by earlier acts of omission and commission; the grant of the nearly 30 years old issue of one rank--one pension, which has in the past been cleared and recommended by all sections of the political spectrum; and the removal of various sub-categories that have been imposed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) arbitrarily. Two examples of the latter, both relating to disability pension will clarify this aspect.

Broad-banding of percentages for disability and war injury for those disabled in war or warlike situations has been sub-categorised in three categories, despite orders by courts to the contrary. Another issue relates to military personnel, who become disabled on account of non-service reasons. They are discharged without any ‘invalid pension’ if their service is less than 10 years at the time of discharge. On the other hand, civilian employees cannot be discharged at all and can enjoy their full tenure with full pay and allowances till the age of superannuation and pension thereafter.

Before I conclude, let me again revisit the need for a separate pay commission for the military, notwithstanding the recommendations conveyed to the Defence Minister by the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee recently. The main reason is the stark differences in employment between the armed forces personnel and civil government employees, some of which have been enumerated earlier. The manner of selection of armed forces personnel; their initial and subsequent training; their unique job profiles; the sacrifices that they have to make; the slow career progression; steep promotion pyramid; the large number of steps in the rank structure; early retirement; long separation from families; and lack of skills for a second career; have no parallel in any of the civil services. This being the reality, there could not be a stronger case for a separate pay commission for the military. The caveat is that the points enumerated earlier and perhaps some more, while setting up the separate pay commission must be duly incorporated in the terms of reference of the commission.

Appointing of one or two pay commissions will work only if there is a major change of attitude of the government, especially of the bureaucracy. If the government is unable or unwilling to understand the legitimate demands of the military personnel in relation to their emoluments and more importantly their status, then even ten pay commissions will be of no avail.

The writer is a former Vice Chief of the Army Staff