E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Hello, help BSNL
THE labour and the pain which has gone into producing the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, which will be formally born tomorrow, should normally have been seen as signs of good health. However, because of the diffidence of the government in rejecting the unreasonable demands of the telecommunications employees and officers the BSNL will be the largest public sector company in India with an in-built potential to be an even bigger disaster. 

OPINION

The poll scene in Sri Lanka
by V. Gangadhar
IN electoral politics, timing is of great importance. Of course, in democracies like the US, the presidential polls were held at fixed intervals and political parties and their leaders had no say on its timing. But in parliamentary democracies, the governments in power could announce general elections at a time convenient to themselves, even if such a step involved dissolving Parliament earlier than scheduled.

ON THE SPOT

by Tavleen Singh

Why Khursheed lost his job
A QUESTION much asked these days in Delhi’s fetid, murky political circles — in which intrigue is the name of every game — is why Salman Khursheed lost his job as President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress party. Some attribute the dismissal of one of the party’s brightest young leaders to a palace coup led by obsolete but still powerful veterans like Arjun Singh and N.D. Tiwari. Others hint that Sonia Gandhi does not like to promote leaders who might one day be able to challenge her supremacy. 

Putin brews double visit

HOURS before his arrival in New Delhi on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin has added a huge dose of spice, of the hot Indian variety, to his three-day visit. He has pegged a Pakistani leg to it. His aides explain that he will merely ask Pakistani ruler General Musharraf to instruct his Taliban clients to stop exporting Islamic fundamentalism and fundamentalists to Chechnya or Tajikistan. which is Russia’s extended security zone. This is at best a feeble attempt at rationalising. The sequence of events attests to its other dimensions. During the Millennium UN debate, Mr Putin went to great lengths to befriend the General. Later his government played host to the ISI chief. He then despatched one of his top advisers, Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky to Islamabad with a request to rein in the Taliban (the stated objective) and to wangle an invitation (as it turned out to be the case). The Taliban angle is strictly for Indian consumption. For, a request like that could have been conveyed through its ambassador or, if the matter was grave enough, through Mr Yastrzhembsky. Heads of State do not go visiting to make simple pleas. Mr Putin is the first top Russian leader to visit Pakistan and hence the first to end the wholly one-sided relationship in the subcontinent. India has no reason to either regret or oppose the new pro-Pakistan shift. But many in this country will link it to India’s success in mending its fences with the USA. It seems Russia had developed a proprietorial claim to friendship with India and is uneasy at the induction of the surviving super power into it. How one country chooses its friends depends on convergence of interests and not on the wishes of others. This is true as much for India as Russia. Ironically, Mr Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin converted Russia into a subordinate ally of the USA to get loans to bail out the crumbling economy. That was so despite NATO admitting Poland as a member and thus extending its eastern border uncomfortably close to Russia. It will not be wrong to analyse that the former super power is reverting back to elements of the cold war and is now playing the “Pakistani card”.

All this is not to see an early sunset of the firm ties between India and Russia. The friendship is time-tested and covers the trade and defence sectors. Two-way trade has vastly decreased because the economy there is yet to regain the old Soviet-day vigour. But even today Indian military hardware continues to be largely of Russian origin. India is about to buy 300 T-90 tanks. about 40 Sukhoi war jets, three submarines and the aged aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov. The bill will top $ 3 billion in hard currency. something that country needs badly. It has also renewed the proposal for a three-way strategic alliance between itself, China and India and recently included Japan in it after Mr Putin’s successful trip to that country. The diplomatic closeness is nearly unprecedented and the foreign policy of both countries continue to retain strong shades of it. Such a foundation cannot be rocked overnight and there need be no fear on this score. What is obvious is that the four major players in the region — the USA, Russia, India and Pakistan — are ending the smug old arrangement and forging new equations. And Russia is the latest entrant in this game. But lacking the finesse of either the USA or India, its efforts seem hesitant if not sloppy.

Hello, help BSNL

THE labour and the pain which has gone into producing the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, which will be formally born tomorrow, should normally have been seen as signs of good health. However, because of the diffidence of the government in rejecting the unreasonable demands of the telecommunications employees and officers the BSNL will be the largest public sector company in India with an in-built potential to be an even bigger disaster. A day's mass casual leave by members of the 5,000 strong Indian Telecom Service Association yesterday, followed by a protest march to the Prime Minister's residence, surely cannot be taken as signs of good beginning for the BSNL and the process of privatisation of the telecom sector. The package of concessions which the ever-obliging Union Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has negotiated for his officers and workers itself is a negation of the principles of privatisation. The telecom unions were successful in browbeating the government into protecting the pension and other benefits they receive as sarkari karamcharis, even after the setting up of the corporation, plus a Rs 1,000 per month pay hike for those who join duty from tomorrow. But the officers are still not happy. They want the privileges which accrued to them as Indian Telecom Service officers to continue even after they join the new corporation. Hence the mass casual leave plus the threat of legal action for the protection of their rights under Article 309 of the Constitution. Pray, who will man the customer-care counters and the mechanism for the speedy redress of consumer grievances when the corporation gets going from tomorrow? Not the officers, whose perks and pay stand protected in any case and who are now agitating for more. Certainly not the lower level technical and the field staff. They were never made to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.

A private entity's success [read profits] depends upon its ability to provide fault-free service to the consumers and that too at competitive rates. Privatisation frowns up firms with monopolistic tendencies and encourages the creation of a level-playing field for all. That is why the world's richest man, Bill Gate, was recently rapped very hard on the knuckles by a US court. His packaging of a certain software was harming the interests of both the customers and the competition. But the BSNL would be under no pressure to adopt the customer-friendly work ethics of the private sector. It need not. Job security is the main reason why customers are treated with contempt by employees of government-run enterprises. The BSNL staff has been promised this and much more. The new entity, being created with the ostensible objective of improving services and thereby profitability, will be exempt from paying taxes like any other "navratna" PSU. It has also been promised protection from disinvestment and the losses it would make through deficiency in service would become the liability of the government. This is what is called getting the best of both the worlds. And yet the telecom officers and workers are not happy. Not only that. They have set a dangerous precedent for the staff of other government entities. They too would demand the BSNL package when the notice to privatise or perish is served on them.

Fair or foul!

WHILE Indian sportsmen tied themselves up in knots in the Sydney Olympics, those from some other countries found themselves in a different kind of predicament. The most heart-rending was the tale of Rumanian gymnast Andreea Raducan, who was stripped of her overall gymnastics title after testing positive for a stimulant, pseudoephedrine. Her tragedy was that she only took an over-the-counter cold remedy tablet, administered to her by a team doctor. But anti-doping laws of the Millennium Olympics are so stringent that no mercy was shown to her. "We are not looking at the intent. It's the presence of a substance in the body of an athlete that constitutes doping. It is tough but that is what it is all about," says IOC media director Francois Carrard. What he says may be rational but it is cruel, because the decision may mean kaput for the career of glamorous Raducan, who is acknowledged as one of the brightest stars on the gymnastic horizon. The poor girl is barely 17. In a game where being 20 is considered over the hill, she may not be able to nurture the dream of taking part in the next Olympics. The present Olympics has declared a war on drugs. This is the first time in the Olympic history that during the opening ceremony, the athletes' oath included a pledge against the use of drugs at the Games. While there can be no quarrel whatsoever with the decision of the organisers to impose a zero tolerance level, there is bound to be a question mark over the capability of the currently available technology to distinguish between the cases of those taking drugs for enhancing their performance on a regular basis and those who might have taken these just once, that too innocently by way of freely available prescription drugs. Surely, Raducan should not be put in the same bracket as, say, Ben Johnson. Incidentally, the controversy also points to the risk faced by the common man who takes similar medicines without being aware of the health hazards that these pose.

Views expressed in this regard by Princess Anne, President of the British Olympic Association, are worthy of note. She says that a lot of work needs to be done before the measurements can be considered trustworthy and consistent. She has also referred to scientific research, which has proved that quantities of the drug Nandrolone considered illegal by the IOC can be produced naturally in the body. It will be cruel to ban a player who tests positive due to such shortcomings of the testing methods. A more humanitarian approach can mitigate some misery. Consideration has to be shown to circumstantial evidence too. While the presence of even trace amounts of performance-enhancing drugs in games involving power and stamina should set the alarm bells ringing, those taking part in disciplines like women's gymnastics which are all about balance, concentration and grace are hardly in need of such drugs.

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
Ivory towers despite reservation
by Suresh Kumar

THE universities in India are the highest seats of learning. They are the torchbearers of education. There are about 230 universities in the country. In addition, there are a few deemed universities. These institutions are to discharge some of very important functions which may prove to be milestones in bringing about social change.

Speaking in one of the Senate meetings of Bombay University, Dr B.R. Ambedkar had stated that in times to come the universities were to play a vital role in the emancipation of the deprived and backwards. He had assigned a special role to these institutions for bringing about a social change and thus changing the nature of society. He believed that these institutions would be free from caste, creed and religious biases. In these institutions people would be free to have any kind of ideology, which is not against the Constitution of India. They could have any kind of political affiliation.

The universities were supposed to play a very significant role in bringing about social change and help in the social, political and economic upliftment of the downtrodden and backwards. These were supposed to work for the overall development of society and initiate measures for social upliftment of those who were at the lowest level of the ladder. The education in general and higher education in particular bring change in the outlook and attitude of the people. The educated people are in a better position to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of others.

The question today is being raised whether these seats of higher learning have been successful in their roles or not. If yes, then how much success have these attained? I agree that the success of such institutions cannot be measured in terms of quantity. Through this paper, I would like to put forth my views regarding the universities for bringing about social change. These universities are living in ivory towers which are beyond the reach of common man in general and Scheduled Castes in particular. The SCs are not in a position to come to universities, get the education, go back and serve the masses.

No doubt the universities have made provisions of reservation, so far as admissions to various postgraduate courses are concerned as per the directions of the government and the Constitution of India. These universities do provide 15 per cent and 7½ per cent reservation for SC/STs, respectively. The academic administrators implement the reservation policy in admissions religiously. They achieve the targets in medical, engineering and professional colleges. This proves the point that SCs/STs are free to have admission in the seats of higher learnings. The UGC has gone a step further by stipulating guidelines time and again regarding the implementation of the reservation policy. It has circulated the guidelines prescribed to all universities and colleges of the country from the session 2000-2001. As per these guidelines “Those SCs/STs who have marks above the level up to which general category students are admitted, should not be counted towards reserved quota at all and should be included in general merit list of admission, excluding those admitted on merit along with general candidates, as stated above, other Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe candidates should be admitted in order of merit, going down the inter se-merit list up to the point necessary to secure adequate number of candidates of Scheduled Castes as well as Scheduled Tribes to fulfil the reservation percentage completely”. The UGC also stresses upon the interchangeability of seats between SCs/STs. It is clear from the above guidelines that the UGC is serious in achieving the targets of 15 and 7½ per cent in admissions. The UGC wants to implement the reservation policy religiously.

In order to implement the reservation policy the UGC has created SCs/STs cells in all the universities. The main function of these cells is to collect information about the implementation of reservation policy and monitor the progress of implementation of the reservation policy in the universities and colleges. But I am pained to point out that these cells are not working very effectively in the universities. These have become ornamental and no useful purpose is being served by the creation of these cells. The progress reports are asked every year regarding the admissions to SCs/STs and the statistics are collected. But these statistics are not disseminated to the public. The public is not in a position to know about the real progress of the reservation policy.

There is no linkages between the fixed and fulfilled targets. If these have not been achieved, there is no punitive action which can be taken against the defaulters. One is convinced that if reservation policy has not been implemented nobody is going to be punished. So the people who are at the helm of affairs feel proud in not implementing the policy of reservation, despite the existence of the act and statutes. I am yet to hear a case where the person has been punished because he could not implement the reservation policy. This is the kind of environment prevailing in the institutions of higher learning.

Let us have a look at the implementation of the reservation policy in the recruitment of teachers. Most of the universities are having teachers from “higher castes” only. The number of SC/ST teachers in the universities is negligible. They are not in any way able to influence the decisions making process of university authorities. In the absence of any organised union they do not have any political clout. The insignificant number of teachers belonging to SCs/STs are generally ignored by the Vice-Chancellors and other administrators of the universities. If they try to put pressure they are threatened with punitive action. Casteism is thus having a large shadow. The UGC guidelines are not implemented religiously.

Let us take the case of Himachal Pradesh University. It has only one professor belonging to SCs/STs out of about more than 50. Less than one dozen lecturers out of about 200 lecturers belong to SCs/STs. And there is no SCs/STs Reader. This is more or less true of all the universities of the country. The UGC guidelines should be implemented strictly in the same spirit in which these have been formulated.

The writer is from Institute of Management Studies, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla

The poll scene in Sri Lanka
by V. Gangadhar

IN electoral politics, timing is of great importance. Of course, in democracies like the US, the presidential polls were held at fixed intervals and political parties and their leaders had no say on its timing. But in parliamentary democracies, the governments in power could announce general elections at a time convenient to themselves, even if such a step involved dissolving Parliament earlier than scheduled.

To be successful in electoral politics, the government in power and its leader had to sense the mood of the people. Were they ready to vote again? Would they vote again for the party in power and give it one more chance? The Sri Lankan President, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, had called for parliamentary elections in the island on October 10. It was an unusual decision because the popularity of her government was low. The Opposition had mounted a severe attack on the proposed amendments in the Constitution. The war against the LTTE appeared never-ending with the government forces suffering several reverses. Has the Sri Lankan President taken a gamble which would affect her political future?

According to political observers in Sri Lanka, the President, acting on her political instinct, should have called the polls last December within weeks of her convincing victory in the presidential polls. Her People’s Alliance (PA) party would have won a comfortable majority in Parliament, making it easier for her to push through much-needed political and constitutional reforms. The Opposition was fragmented and demoralised in those days, a state of mind which would have Kumaratunga’s task easier.

But the 10-month period following her victory in the presidential polls had been full of political upheavals and uncertainty. Drained by the war against the LTTE, the island’s economy was a shamble. The move to introduce a new Constitution had been opposed fiercely by the Opposition and some of the powerful religious groups. Hit by inflation, the people may vote for a change. The popularity of the PA government was at an all-time low. Yet, the President did not hesitate to call for the elections, belying the feeling she would call for a referendum to extend the life of Parliament which came to power in 1994.

Ms Kumaratunga went by the book and dissolved Parliament close to the end of its six-year term. The forthcoming elections had attracted 29 political parties and 99 independent groups. A record number of 5048 candidates are in the fray for the 225 parliamentary seats. The 1994 parliamentary polls were contested by only 1449 candidates. The major players in the polls are the ruling PA, the United National Party (UNP), the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna and the newly-formed Sinhala hardliners party, Sinhala Urumaya. The PA had not brought out any special poll manifesto. Some six years back, its main poll plank was to bring peace to the island. Today, it is almost the same.

It is on this issue that the Opposition parties will focus. They will be accusing the government of total failure on the peace front. Despite suffering huge losses in men and resources, peace was as elusive as before. The recent military debacles in Jaffna and the plummeting morale among the armed forces would be cited as instances of the government incompetency. The President, however, had often hit back, alleging that the UNP had railroaded her sincere efforts for peace through negotiations.

The new Constitution issue is also a ticklish one. The President clearly emphasised that the new Constitution was aimed more at protecting the interests of the minorities. She knows that any future permanent peace in the island depended on the attitudes of the minorities, both Tamils and Muslims. In the past, their aspirations had been shattered by successive Sri Lankan governments and winning them over would be an asset to any political party.

Yet, many members of the President’s party were nervous about some of the provisions in the new Constitution which could be interpreted as appeasing the minorities. At least, hardliners among the Buddhist monks felt so and they came out in the open against the proposed new Constitution. Like the Hindutva brigade in India, the Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka played a significant role in the island’s politics and had the power to sway large sections of the Sinhala population. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, in fact, declared that the new Constitution would not be changed without consulting the Buddhist Mahasanga, even on minor details.

The PA candidates would not like to use the provisions for a new Constitution as their poll plank. They fear this could get their fingers burnt. They would rather approach the voters on local issues and also form local alliances for success in the polls. They have a job at hand explaining some of the harsh economic policies of the government. The UNP will also focus on the issue of economic hardships faced by the people. The UNP poll manifesto while coming down harshly on the economic policies of the government, also promised a hefty wage hike of Rs 2000 to all government employees. Like all poll gimmicks, it did not clarify where the funds would be coming for such a move.

The ethnic war in the island and the future role of the LTTE are the two most major issues in the October 10 polls. The Chandrika government had pulled no stops in trying to negotiate with the LTTE and arrive at a suitable settlement. Unfortunately, the LTTE is now in the hands of men like Prabhakaran who had no value for human lives. Spurning the reasonable proposals from the government, the LTTE leaders had opted for a bloody, mindless war. Of course, the Tamil forces did achieve a small amount of success in and around Jaffna, but the success was not as spectacular as it was made out to be in some sections of the media.

How did the UNP propose to tackle the LTTE? Poll promises are one, but definite policy programmes are another. The UNP poll manifesto announced the party would hold talks with the LTTE and other political groups as well as members of clergy and other social groups. All these had been taken care of, without much success by the Chandrika government. The UNP further stated that it would “reduce war activity with proper plans and goals” though it was not clear what this statement meant. Time and again the LTTE had spurned the olive branch offered by the government. What new hopes shall the UNP offer?

The LTTE of course, is keenly interested in the island’s political happenings and will evince much attention on the forthcoming elections. In fact, the President had invited the LTTE to participate in the polls. But the LTTE is trying to play only an indirect role in the elections. In the Tamil district of Batticaloa, the LTTE reportedly exerted its influence in the choice of some of the Tamil candidates. The army of course, carried out operations in the Tamil-dominated areas to reduce the impact of the LTTE. So far, the terrorist units had not announced any move to boycott the polls, but such a move cannot be ruled out.

In fact, a record number of 14 political parties and their affiliated independent groups are contesting the polls at Jaffna. It remained to be seen if they will be allowed to campaign without harassment. The military offensive in the Tamil areas last week was indecisive. Besides bloodshed, it did not achieve anything. We can only hope that such a scenario did not extend to other parts of the island.

We can also expect the presence of international observers in the island during the poll. Already, the Sri Lankan government had been criticised for its media ban on war coverage. Of course, this ban should not affect the poll reporting and elicit adverse comments from the observers. It is the duty of the Sri Lankan government to ensure a peaceful and fair poll, but much depends on the attitude adopted by the LTTE.

Why Khursheed lost his job
Tavleen Singh

A QUESTION much asked these days in Delhi’s fetid, murky political circles — in which intrigue is the name of every game — is why Salman Khursheed lost his job as President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress party. Some attribute the dismissal of one of the party’s brightest young leaders to a palace coup led by obsolete but still powerful veterans like Arjun Singh and N.D. Tiwari. Others hint that Sonia Gandhi does not like to promote leaders who might one day be able to challenge her supremacy. The leader of our largest state automatically has this power and if he is young, Muslim and bright and succeeds in raising the party’s vote share from 8 per cent to 18 per cent in a single election then he can be perceived as a definite threat. Still others say he had to go because party elections are due shortly and he would not have been able to get elected UPCC President despite Sonia Gandhi’s backing. But, there is more to the story than is immediately obvious.

Salman is among a small handful of people who constitute the newer breed of Indian politician. He is educated, modern, young and liberal and so has less time for the sort of old equations of caste and creed that we associate with older political leaders. If we counted all the members of this new breed in all our political parties we would still only come up with as many as you could count on the fingers of two hands mainly because the older leaders promote only those who think in their own archaic fashion.

It threatens them when younger leaders reach positions in which they can change the rules of the political game. This is what poor Salman tried to do in U.P. Instead of playing the faction politics that has been the Congress party’s leitmotif now for too many years he spent the two years of his presidency travelling through every district of the state looking for young, new leaders. He also tried to focus on issues rather than caste equations and above all he tried to rebuild the Congress in a state in which it had lost all support. These were moves that were unpopular with leaders who spend their entire time being courtiers in Delhi. Not just with veterans of the Arjan Singh, N.D. Tewari variety but even with younger leaders cast in the same archaic mould.

Let me give you a historical analogy to explain better. The Congress party, as we know, has been less political party and more dynasty almost since Independence. From a Congress viewpoint this was not a bad thing because the earlier leaders of the dynasty had the ability to win votes in their own name without needing to depend on the party at all. Then like all other dynasties decline set in and lesser leaders emerged with considerably reduced abilities to win votes in the family name and the empire began to scatter much as happened when the Moghul dynasty’s hold on India got reduced to the boundaries of Delhi. As happened then so has it happened now: satraps (Arjun Singh, N.D. Tiwari, et al) began to consolidate their own little fiefdoms. In the case of a political party this kind of consolidation depends on controlling territory by putting your own pawns in charge at the foot soldier level and promotting your own, little faction. And, Salman made the mistake of not playing the factional game. So, if he visited the territory of a satrap he would often, to the chagrin of the satrap, associate with factions that constituted the other side.

Complaints against him began to swell and grow and, inevitably, found their way into the inner sanctums of the party’s shrine of shrines: 10 Janpath. Madame, as she is called by both loyalist and dissident, was inundated with complaints against the man she had chosen to run Uttar Pradesh. He was a failure, they said, because he had been unable to get the party’s workers to work with him, he had been unsuccessful even with Muslims so what was the point of him, he was a bad general and so on and so forth. My own inquiries reveal that Sonia Gandhi tried to keep Salman in place for more than a year and finally agreed to remove him only when he himself admitted to her that the party was too divided a house in U.P. for him to be able to lead it into battle. So, he was ousted and replaced by a man so unknown and of such little consequence that people find it hard to remember his name.

There are lessons in this story not just for the Congress but for other political parties as well. That lesson is that it is important to promote younger leaders even if they are unpopular with the veterans. With the exception of Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party and Kanshi Ram’s Bahujan Samaj Party there is not a single national political party in which veterans of one kind or another do not have more power than they deserve. The average age of these gentlemen is 70 and it is hard to find a single one among them who has articulated a new idea in at least 20 years. Most of them are too old and tired to face the rough and tumble of active politics so they sit in their fancy bungalows in Delhi intriguing and by their intrigues destroying the political parties they control. The Congress technically has a young (albeit foreign) leader in Sonia Gandhi but she seems incapable of resisting the power of the old men who surround her. In the case of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the two Marxist parties you need to search really hard to find young people in top party positions.

The irony is that the Indian electorate is getting younger and younger and has little empathy with old men who belong to another time and who practice the kind of politics that has brought India nothing but communal strife and caste tensions.

Nowhere do you see this more clearly than in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where voting patterns depend almost entirely on caste equations. Salman Khursheed says of U.P. that this is mainly because the most important issues are to do with law and order and the justice system. It is, he says, quite simply a matter of Kachehri-kotwali (courts, police station) and when it comes to either of these two places whether you win or lose depends on caste. He tried to lift it beyond caste and creed to an issue and it is not just a tragedy for the Congress that he failed but as much a tragedy for U.P. Instead of going forwards as it may have done had he succeeded it is almost certain now to continue to wallow in the kind of politics that destroyed it in the first place. When elections come — and they could happen as soon as next March— the two parties most likely to do best are the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. They are parties that base their politics totally on the ability to seek votes in the name of caste and creed. So, it’s back to old politics and, for the moment, the end of anything new.