P A G E
Monday, August 30, 1999
spotlighttoday's calendar
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Monday, August 30, 1999 |
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Towards
stability plus
POLITICS
OF OPPORTUNISM |
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Election
Commission’s step-back syndrome
Ogling
at Pooja Batras & Deepti Bhatnagars
A
duel in the sky
Cultivable
waste land |
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Towards stability plus BASIC campaign norms are being torn up this year. With just a week to go for the first phase of polling, political parties must now be focusing on key issues and core themes; they have had enough time to test the electoral waters, identify unexciting questions and trim the discussion points to a few vote-winning certainties. This is not happening this year. But the major parties are still playing footsie with crucial issues which alone will ensure stability with performance. An average voter is mainly interested in living his life without being harassed ever so often by loud-mouthed and power-hungry politicians. This means that he should be spared annual or biennial elections with the intervening days filled with the ever-present threat of a collapse of the government. This is precisely what happened during the past few months when first AIADMK’s Jayalalitha and then Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav made a mockery of running or forming a coalition government. It is this sorry spectacle of regional satraps and their ego problems constantly rocking the Central Government that promoted the stability plank as a key demand of the voter. Frankly, he is very much interested in stability and not in the form of the government that guarantees it; it can be a multi-party coalition or a one-party dispensation. The BJP, by its own admission, is yet to evolve a coalition dharma, a code of conduct that all allies follow in a spirit of give and take. This calls for deep-rooted faith in and practice of democratic principles. This is too much to expect given the character of all political parties and the dominance of a few leaders. The one-party alternative generally suffers from infighting. It is a thorny problem,
not amenable to an easy solution but the polity has to
come up with one if only to sustain the faith of the
common man in the political system. The Congress is a
votary of one-party government; its long innings as the
power-wielder has conditioned its thinking. It also
realises that in its present emaciated form and rejected
in four states with only a token presence in another its
claim to secure a majority of Lok Sabha seats will remain
contested. Its mistake lies in making a highly desirable
ideal — stability through one-party rule — the
bottomline, thus giving its opponents a heavy club to
beat it with. The BJP’s argument too is contestible.
An all-in coalition with ideologically incompatible
parties is not a road map to stability. Nor does it allow
for effective functioning of the administration. It is
ironical that the BJP-led government has done more work
since its defeat in Parliament than when it enjoyed a
majority. As the controversy over the Ram mandir shows,
the saffron party also feels inhibited in articulating
its basic stand. Also, its passionate advocacy of the
coalition form is born purely out of necessity and not
out of conviction. The form of government is only of
secondary importance: primacy goes to performance. The
voter should concentrate on this, although he is not
getting any help from the political leaders. |
Helplessness or collusion? IT is a pity that a hydra-headed
monster in human form is being variously protected in
Orissa. The Wadhwa Commission report gives some material
which can help one in making the outlines of his perverse
profile. He is the main accused in the Staines triple
murder case. (Graham Staines, a Christian missionary and
an anti-leprosy crusader, was charred to death along with
his two sons at Manoharpur in Keonjhar district in
January this year). Justice Wadhwa's stress on
criminalism (quite distinct from communalism) in the
psyche of Dara Singh has been rather difficult to
understand. Last Thursday, Sheikh Rahman (32), a petty
trader, was murdered in a gruesome manner in broad
daylight in the Padiabeda weekly market in Mayurbhanj
district. A chowkidar, who is said to be Dara Singh's old
acquaintance, is "the sole witness". He is
reportedly ready to say in a court of law that he saw
Dara Singh, with 12 other armed men, descending on the
market and dismembering the body of the small-time
garment-seller. Justice Wadhwa has, in his report,
legalistically given Orissa a clean secular chit. But he
has observed that this killer had a horrible criminal
past. There were at least 12 cases pending against him in
various courts before the Staines' macabre murder. He was
a "fanatic". At one stage, the
"administration" planned to arrest him under
the National Security Act. He was not touched. He freely
stopped businessmen's vehicles on the highway, dragged
men out, took away their money and beat them up. He
preferred "religious days" for conducting his
"mission". The Staines murders were committed
on Saraswati Pooja Day and Sheikh Rahman was slain on
Raksha Bandhan Day. The man's real name is Rabindra Pal.
He enjoys political patronage and his closeness to a
minister stands well-documented. His area of activity
comprises just two districts — Mayurbhanj and
Keonjhar. The CBI is on his trail. A special state
intelligence cell is "watching his behaviour".
But where is he? All law-keepers call him a fugitive and
blame "the public" for giving him shelter. It
is impossible to imagine such a scenario. Do we remember
the endless anti-government demonstrations by the people
of the area after the Staines tragedy? It is obvious that
the criminal is being harboured and lionised by groups
with formidable clout. Delinquent officials should be
severely dealt with for allowing Dara Singh to go on with
his satanic mission. The Sheikh Rahman murder should
reopen the often criticised chapters of the Wadhwa
Commission report. Issues arising from the findings
should not be suppressed. We are told of one Dara Singh,
like one Osama bin Laden, but, actually, there may be a
whole criminal set-up behind him with inter-state
dimensions. No witchhunt is called for; only a white-wash
has to be juridically prevented. Politico-fanatical
collusion is peeping out of the administrative mask of
seeming helplessness. |
POLITICS OF OPPORTUNISM MR Atal Behari Vajpayee is being projected as a larger than life figure but certainly not twice as natural, as the poet would have said. Sheer opportunism has led the Bharatiya Janata Party to project him, for the purpose of the current elections, as the party mascot. In the slickly produced National Democratic Alliance manifesto his picture alone appears, more than half a dozen times. And it is sheer opportunism that has led the BJP to drop from the NDA manifesto its basic demands: construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, a common civil code and the scrapping of Article 370. It did so in 1998 too. However, the BJP cannot put a veil over its past that easily or convincingly. That is why the Prime Minister and the BJP spokesman, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, state that, as far as governance of the country is concerned, it is the NDA manifesto that counts, while at the same breath Mr Govindacharya and Mr Kalyan Singh state that the party has not dropped its initial agenda; all that it has done is shelve the issues for the sake of winning elections under the leadership of Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. That is why the mask has become the mascot. Has this pleased the Hindutva parivar? Obviously not. And at the grassroots level, the parivar being the main supporter of the BJP, it has to be offered sops. That is why the attempt of BJP to distance itself from the RSS and other constituents of the parivar. The latter too, in turn, have let it be known that they are free to act as they wish. There is no doubt that Mr Vajpayee is the most acceptable face of the BJP, but it must not be forgotten that he is very much part of the Hindutva parivar. He was a member of the RSS. He had even edited Panchajanya, the Hindi mouthpiece of the RSS. He is, one might say, at the crossroads of his life. The further he leads the Hindutva parivar from its basic goals, the more resentment he will cause within the parivar itself. But can he afford to alienate it altogether? Or so dominate it as to change its basic character? Hardly likely. But then power brings its own rhythm. And at the moment, especially after Kargil, Mr Vajpayee’s stock is on the rise. A host of parties, particularly regional, are prepared to do business with him. And then there is a sizeable section of the voters that makes it known that a vote for Mr Vajpayee is not necessarily a vote for the BJP—that it is a vote for liberalism, not fundamentalism of any kind. By the first week of October we shall have known what the leadership of Mr Vajpayee has meant for the NDA or the BJP. Even if one were to assume, for the sake of argument, that the voters return the BJP as the single largest party, with a greater strength than in the last Lok Sabha, and that together with its allies it is able to form the government, one can be certain that Mr Vajpayee’s problems will begin right then. The only coalition that has successfully functioned, and that too for 20 years, has been the Leftist coalition in West Bengal. The reason, primarily, is that the CPM is the dominant party and in a position to dictate terms within the state. Not outside it. Note, for instance, the refusal of the Forward Bloc and the RCP to back Mrs Sonia Gandhi when the question arose of the Congress forming the government at the Centre. Or the refusal of the CPI meekly to accept the mere three seats allotted to it by Mr Laloo Yadav. If the West Bengal experiment could have been replicated at the Centre, the BJP should have dictated the terms. Contrary was the case. It was the tail that wagged the dog. Even if the NDA is in a position to form the government after the election, Mr Vajpayee would be in no position either to wholly dominate his party in the formation of the government or not to give in to the pressures of the allies. There may be realignment of forces, especially if the Congress fares worse than it did in the 1998 poll. The chances are that whatever be the BJP projection of Mr Vajpayee now, his image will come down a notch or two, if not further, after the election results are out. Uneasy will sit the crown on him. Mr L.K. Advani was asked by a national magazine as to how he reconciled his party’s criticism of the personality cult around Indira Gandhi and Rajiv and now doing the same for Mr Vajpayee. He admitted that there was something to be said for this criticism but added that when the BJP criticised the personality cult in the Congress its main objection was to dynastic rule. It was a weak argument. Mr Advani was more to the point in suggesting that all political parties attempted to take advantage of the feudal streak in the Indian voters. Yes, that is a very relevant point. Indian voters, by habit, want to see their political leaders as icons. And if the leaders fail to live up to their image the voters pull them down. Further, as far as voting goes, they have the narrowest of considerations, such as caste. Instances are galore: Indira, Rajiv, Rama Rao, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Ms Jayalalitha and, of course, their relatives and favourites. Little wonder, these
minor political gods and goddesses have not learnt to
come down to earth and cultivate the culture of
coalition. |
Inflation versus deflation MUCH has been made of the inflation touching a 17-year low of 1.83 per cent for the week ended July 3. Having won the Kargil war, this careful caretaker government seems to have downed the demon of inflation too. The spectre of rising prices no longer haunts the common man, or so it seems. What is inflation? It is the rate of the change in the wholesale prices, a comparison of the present prices with those prevailing in the corresponding period last year. A zero inflation situation signifies that prices over the year have not changed. And the rate of 1.83 per cent denotes that the prices rose as much over the last year. Remember, the inflation at this time of the last year was at its zenith. Zooming prices of essential commodities sent the wholesale price index (WPI) soaring. The skyrocketing prices of onions eventually made the then government in Delhi know its onions and get doomed at the hustings. The unprecedented price rise ranged from 30 per cent for tea and 48 per cent for edible oil to 378 per cent for potatoes, which together with onions disappeared from the market much to the chagrin of the common man as well as the elite. Inflation galloped from 7 per cent in June, 1998, to 9 per cent in November, 1998. Given this backdrop, one should justifiably expect a negative rate of inflation this year so that the prices which broke all bridles last year, fell to a reasonable level. The low inflation of 1.83 per cent simply suggests that the prices are rising but a shade slowly. Inflation does persist. Nor has this come about from any better management of the economy. Ours being a predominantly agro-based economy, the fall in the prices of certain agricultural commodities — wheat, gram, potato, onion, etc — can be attributed to a bumper crop and better yields. It is the fall in the prices of the agricultural commodities that held the WPI down. The picture presented by the WPI-based inflation rate is as incomplete as it is misleading. The WPI gives weightage of only 33 per cent to food prices. It is largely the fluctuations in the food prices which have lately determined the WPI. Due to their limited demand and prolonged recession in the national and international market, the WPI was hardly affected by the low and stable prices of manufactured goods. Secondly, it is the retail price-based Consumer Price Index (CPI) which matters to the consumer and, more often than not, is found to be at vast variance with the WPI. It is not correct to base the inflation rate on the WPI, nor is this the international practice. When the rise in the WPI was 1.83 per cent, the CPI rose by 7 per cent. The inference is inescapable that the traders who bought at a much lesser price were selling at a much higher price and raking in undue profits. Experts opine that inflation is regressive tax which hurts the poor most. It is only the 7 per cent organised workforce whose salary hike is indexed to the rising rate of inflation. But low inflation is not an unmixed blessing. The spectre of deflation has begun to loom large on the horizon. If technology upgradation has resulted in the creation of excess capacity in, say, the automobile sector, deregulation in the local and global market has caused a glut in the sugar and steel sectors. The widening chasm between the actual and potential output is expected to surpass the severity of the scenario which obtained in the 1930s. It has been reported that the aggregated availability of sugar this year will be around 215 lakh tonnes against the demand of 150 lakh tonnes. This is bound to bust the market price and have a snowballing effect on the sugarcane price. Unsold stocks of cement, textiles, steel and chemicals continue to pile up to the detriment of the health of industry. It is heartening to note that the first quarter of this fiscal witnessed unmistakable signs of economic upswing. Industrial production rose by 7.2 per cent against 3.7 per cent last year, tax collection swelled by 16.7 per cent, consumer durables grew at 19 per cent, exports improved from a negative growth rate last year to 6.09 per cent and loan disbursal in the housing finance market rose by 30 per cent. Foreign institutional investors are said to have invested Rs 3,000 crore in India. But what about the persistently high fiscal deficit? This would not allow the government to invest in infrastructure which is creaking to collapse. What has been elusive so
far is a sure sign of matching growth in demand, at par
with the growth in supply. Deflation can be more damaging
than inflation, if it creates a downward trend in which
the expectation of falling prices reduces the demand and
pushes the prices lower still, cautioned The Economist,
London. |
A
duel in the sky MY mind goes back to a summer evening in my home town more than 50 years ago. I am on the roof of our house. A breeze stirs the fronds of the date-palm growing over there. The afternoon had been hot, but now it is quite nice and cool. All around the roofs seem alive. Many boys are flying kites. Many others, and some girls too, are watching the kites and their bouts in the sky. Two or three boys are waiting to grab the kites that may fall near them. Kites of all sizes and colours are there. Small kites with flimsy tails. Larger kites with paper tassels at the lower end. Still larger kites, plain or pasted over with floral or fancy cutouts of a deeper hue. Among them are a few full-sized kites. If one is ornate, another looks rather fearsome with long, thick “moustaches”. You may call them macho kites. A large white kite flutters up from a roof. It goes boldly ahead. The flier is a boy named Bhusri. Though in his teens, he is known for his flying and manoeuvring skill. He will let his kite go high even if another kite makes a hostile move against it. One or two older kite-fliers living around have the reputation of champions. Their kites win in most of the bouts with others. Many younger and some other kite-fliers fight shy of them. Not so Bhusri. He often flies in their face. Sometimes he challenges their kites. At least half the times he is the winner. The boys often talk of Bhusri. Some say that he coats the cord for his manjha, not with glass powder as others do, but with iron filings. Some others say that he adds one or two secret ingredients to the glass powder. Black is the common colour of the kite cord. But once Bhusri, it is said, flew his kite with a white string. The other boys thought that it was not treated with glass powder and had no sharpness. So everybody had a go at his kite, and everybody lost! Here comes a kite up in the air. But it does not fly very high. Neba, who holds it on a nearby roof, is a cowardly flier. He is always afraid of losing in a duel. But he is ever ready to grab others’ kites. If he spots over his roof a kite that will attack, he withdraws his own. If, before that, the other kite pounces on his, he does not put up a fight. He tries to pull down his and the attacking kite. But often in the process the other kite disengages itself or severs the string of Neba’s kite and soars in triumph. He snatches many a kite in sneaky way too. He ropes them down. The rope is a long string which has a mango stone tied at one end. He throws it at a low or unsuspecting kite and pulls it down. “A bout!” calls someone aloud. All eyes look up. Bhusri’s white kite is locked in a battle with a red kite. Both are advancing slowly or tactically. It seems to be a combat of warriors. Neba pulls back his kite. He is ready with his string and mango stone. But both the kites are out of his reach. The two kites go unhurriedly further. One tries to bow down the other. The battle is getting grim. “The white kite will win,” predicts an onlooker. “No, the red one will,” claims another. The suspense increases. Suddenly one of the cord snaps. It squirms like an overlong worm in the air. The red kite is loose. It topples from its high position. “Vo kata!” shout several voices. The white kite rises to dizzy height. Neba eyes both in despair. The red kite tumbles on as though falling down very high stairs. Long sticks are raised to catch it. A few boys throw up their strings and mango stones. But all in vain. Bhusri pulls his white kite, looking half its size, back slowly. All around the boys are watching and talking about it. The red kite staggers on
in the air. It is still very high. It even has dignity in
its fall. Perhaps it will go right up to the end of the
town. |
Election Commission’s step-back syndrome
INDIA’s young journalists, till yesterday a major force behind judicial activism, are angry with the nation’s Election Commission. The Election Commission, says my good friend Aunohita Mojumdar of The Statesman, “remains one of the few offices where even accredited journalists are denied access, something that is not the case even in the most sensitive departments of the government like the Home Ministry or the External Affairs Ministry. The Defence Ministry, which does have restrictions, enables access to the regular beat correspondents by issuing special identity cards, but not so the Commission.” While the EC maintains that journalists can enter only with prior appointment, the exception is little more than a fiction, she says. “Instructions have been sent down to all officers and officials of the Commission not to entertain the Press and there is sufficient feedback to the office of the Chief Election Commissioner to ensure that officials toe the line.” The Commission’s clampdown on information, protests Aunohita, has “subverted” both the right to information and the freedom of the Press. What the Press faces now, she adds (writing on August 16), is a “completely incommunicative” Commission. This is a far cry from the days of Mr T.N.Seshan, when, as the underdogs, the “election commissioners used the media to get their point of view across.” The Commission is setting an example, she concludes, and that too a bad one. I beg respectfully to disagree. The example set by the EC is an example that all constitutional functionaries ought to emulate. Especially those of them who are called upon to adjudicate, or act as an umpire, between contending parties and claims. Or to blow the whistle when political players play foul. Self-effacement, not publicity, is the price of detachment. “A popular judge,” said Francis Bacon, “is a deformed thing.” And so is a popular Election Commissioner, with due apologies to Mr T.N. Seshan whose deformation is now complete and visible to all. The EC has to be prepared for criticism, Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill told The Indian Express yesterday, August 29. That happens in a democracy. He was defending the Commission’s refusal to allow Defence Minister George Fernandes to take a Press party along with him to Ladakh, on the Karakoram side. But, he said, and rather bluntly, “we have to develop a rhino hide.” Not many judges and lawyers today might agree. “I do not know whether it is the view of the court that a judge must be thick-skinned or just thick-headed,” Justice Jackson said in an American case, Craig vs Harney in 1947, “but nothing in my experience or observation confirms the idea that he is insensitive to publicity.” My own ideal runs closer to what Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice of England from 1756 to 1788 and one of the greatest English judges and lawmakers of all times, said more than two centuries ago. “I will not do that,” he said in Rex vs. Wilkes (1770), “which my conscience tells me is wrong, upon occasion, to gain the huzzas of thousands or the daily praise of all the papers which come from the Press. I will not avoid doing what is right, though it should draw on me the whole artillery of libels.” The artillery of political and Press libels that the EC’s “Kargil order” of August 19 has attracted is a tribute to its constitutional statesmanship and courage. And it is symptomatic of our petty and partisan times that the import of the order has been lost, totally lost, on most of our commentators, both political and legal. Not only does the order not ban a discussion on Kargil, as has generally been misrepresented, it explicitly acknowledges Kargil to be “perhaps the major issue in political debate” in the current elections. Precisely for that reason — that it is the major issue in the current elections — its constitutional power of “superintendence, direction and control of elections” under Article 324 obligates the Election Commission to oversee and regulate the use of the state machinery and media for Kargil-related propaganda so as to ensure that the issue is debated, as they say, on a level-playing field. The armed forces of the Union are without question a part of the state machinery. Having fought and won the war (and fought and won it so valiantly), the armed forces cannot now be used, however indirectly, to fight and win the elections as well. That task — the political battle — must be left to the political forces alone. The EC’s directive to the defence forces to “step back out of the limelight and allow the political system of India to argue it out before their masters — the people,” is as profoundly correct as it is meaningful. To object to this directive as a transgression of the EC’s jurisdiction under Article 324 is to object to the principle of civil supremacy (or civil dominance), the foundation on which the whole edifice of the Constitution including Article 324 stands. And even as the EC, at the risk of being misunderstood, has directed the armed forces of the Union to step back out of the limelight so as to ensure a level-playing field for all participants in the elections, it has itself stepped back and become a “completely incommunicative” Commission to the same end and so as to be able to discharge its constitutionally allotted role fairly and impartially. An Election Commission
that rips off its constitutional mask and mingles freely
with the Press, to the satisfaction of every young and
enterprising journalist, can hardly call upon the armed
forces of the Union not to do the same. In the facade
lies the essence of justice. |
Ogling at Pooja Batras & Deepti Bhatnagars
I DON’T know whether it is the off-season in Mumbai for some filmstars and some of those extras to have descended here. To be precise brought here, if rumours are to be believed, by a certain minister’s kin who is making a livelihood from the new profession called star parading. Spotted campaigning for BJP’s Chandni Chowk constituency candidate Vijay Goel, the sight of those so-called stars down Chandni Chowk’s streets seems upsetting. As though even at this stage and age, distractions are being dangled before a naive electorate. Helpless people ogling at Pooja Batras, Deepti Bhatnagars but nowhere near asking the politician the nexuses in operation, nowhere near picking up the courage to shoo away these stars, nowhere near asking the ABCD of those unfulfilled promises. And, on the other hand, the Congress party has managed to get Dilip Kumar as their star campaigner. And though the ageing star denies that he has been especially invited, he has been spotted in several Congress rallies alright. In fact the talk going around is that he and his wife Saira Banu are contemplating shifting from Mumbai. And what better option than New Delhi and for that imminent shift a political base would only be too helpful. Continuing on the political track, Congress’s South Delhi candidate, Dr Manmohan Singh, is emerging as its safest bet. Not to be overlooked is the fact that besides many others even the 85-plus Khushwant Singh is canvassing for him. In fact, at his support rallies many of the who’s who are to be spotted and their plain logic is that Manmohan Singh is their last hope. Hope really should not be lost because where on one hand dirt has become synonymous with politicians and politics the biggest trump card in favour of Manmohan Singh is his clean image. Though let me add here, that a certain top bureaucrat who’d earlier worked for him did not give him a satisfactory chit, even citing his resignation from the PMO as a result of the failure to implement policies, on the part of the then PM P.V. Narasimha Rao and the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. But then, those could be personal grouses for the particular bureaucrat never got things in the open and quietly resigned. Before moving ahead let me also add that the only person to have added a tinge of colour to the election fray is the independent candidate from South Delhi, Janis Darbari. I had met her on earlier occasions and each time different aspects of her personality thrust out. Leggy and attractive, she didn’t forget mention a book on Indira Gandhi which she had co-authored with her twin, the honorary ambassadorship of Macedonia which she had taken on her shoulders, and of course her NRI father’s connections. In spite of these attributes her winning in this political race seems a remote possibility but, never mind, the spotlight would definitely be on her... or on her legs, unless, of course, like a true politicians, she doesn’t flaunt her skirts and dresses and instead wraps the good old sari around! Moving along the political track, I just got a call from one of the leading social activist of the city, who is on a signature campaign against I&B Minister Pramod Mahajan’s very recently-uttered comparison of Sonia Gandhi with Monica Lewinsky. It’s a different aspect that I didn’t allow my signature to be a part of the ongoing political battles, but it sure is a pity that Mahajan is stooping to such low levels. After all till date nobody has been able to question Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s personal character and it evidently must be above the rest otherwise hawks would have found some flaw, somewhere by now. But, the very fact that she has managed to remain above their accusations, on this front, only goes to prove that her character cannot be maligned. In fact Mahajan’s critics go on to say that the poor man ought to be pardoned for this nauseating comparison for he is so much into the Bollywood mood that he simply cannot think beyond the typical masala accusations. Some other events Politics has this knack of swallowing up other events and this sure is happening here, this week. Anyway, let me quickly fit in some of the recent apolitical events. The Iraqi Embassy here arranged for the screening of a documentary — Metal of Dishonour (Depleted Uranium) — at the IIC. Based on the book, published by the International Action Centre (New York City) it shows the use of DU in Iraq, Kuwait and in Saudi Arabia and its consequences on the human beings and all that is around. Some horrifying shots of how hundreds of people are being hit by new forms of cancers and analysts directly linking it to the use of DU in the Gulf War. An offbeat photo exhibition by the veteran Avinash Pasricha is ongoing at the India International Centre. This comprise of the monochrome photographs of maestros of the art world, that he has captured over three decades. And this brings me to
write about the recent meet of dancers of the classical
forms. Their agenda? More space for dance reviews and
critiques. But then, not all seemed to agree to this. Not
only were some stalwarts conspicuous by their absence
(these include Pt Birju Maharaj, Singhjit and Charulata
Singh, Raja-Radha Reddy, Yamini Krishnamurthy and Shovana
Narayan) but Yamini Krishnamurthy went so far as to say
this to me “Why not ask for more professional
critiques, instead of this appeal for more
space!...” |
August
30, 1924 AT the last meeting of the Punjab Legislative Council, Rai Sahib Ganga Ram asked a question relating to a deficiency in the supply of cattle for agricultural purposes in the Punjab and the enormous wastage caused by cattle slaughter. No satisfactory reply was given to the question beyond the stereotyped official formula. But Rai Sahib made a very important statement that the agriculturists were prevented from cultivating lands now left fallow for want of a sufficient number of cattle. If this is true, it is a very serious matter which requires the immediate attention of the Government. The Minister, replying to the question, did not seem to believe this possibility and said that there must be other causes to account for the cultivable lands being left fallow. But the position
requires detailed examination and the Government will do
well to appoint a small committee to enquire from
agriculturists themselves how far the inadequate number
of cattle or the very high price at which they can be
purchased is hampering agricultural development. |
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