The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Do we deserve this police?
by Prabhjot Singh

A society gets the police it deserves. Many may not agree with this (amended) old adage, arguing that archaic laws, coupled with inefficiency, have made the police immune to changing policing requirements. Vertical and horizontal growth notwithstanding, the police has been unable to shrug off the general impression of it being not credible and impolite because of its poor track record of detection of crime and its failure to win the confidence of the masses.

Created by the British to enforce the Colonial diktat and extend its regime in an “inexpensive manner,” the police throughout the country is continued to be governed by the same archaic laws as drafted by our foreign rulers more than 139 years ago. Neither the Police Act, passed in 1861, nor the Punjab Police Rules, that govern the functioning of the department in general and policemen in particular, could be replaced with more efficient legislations.

A rule of thumb for the British administrators was that if in the jurisdiction of a police station, there were more than 75 cases registered, the sanctioned staff strength would be a Sub-Inspector, an Assistant Sub- Inspector, one Head Constable and 12 Constables. For additional 25 cases, the additional sanction would be one Assistant Sub- Inspector and two Constables.

The British model worked well as it basically interlinked policing with intelligence gathering by involving village chowkidar, sarpanch, nambardaar and police informers. The system of maintaining as many as 25 police registers at a police station made the system “fool proof”. With the passage of time, this system collapsed. The present-day police has been working on the remnants of the British model and is as such caught in a piquant situation. It is neither following the old system in toto nor adopting a new modern policing system as is available in the West.

Over the past two decades, the police administration in the country has witnessed tremendous growth — mainly in the areas of manpower, creation of more posts at the top, providing of policemen with sophisticated weapons besides equipping them walkie talkie sets, upgrading their communication network and making them more mobile by making available sleek and fast motor vehicles to them.

Training and crime detection, however, have not been given the attention due to them. As a result, nowhere in the country is the conviction rate above 30 per cent. Pendency of cases has been growing. New kinds of crime, including supari killings, economic crime, mafia operations, smuggling of contraband, including drugs, has been on the rise. Also posing a major threat to democracies like India is the socio-economic-politico menace of terrorism.

Let us take the case of Punjab Police. Its budget has doubled from Rs 450 crore to Rs 900 crore a year. Its size has grown more than four times during the past 20 years. Now 93 per cent of its budget towards payment of salaries to nearly 75,000 strong force. To cut down the flab, the state police decided to man security of all national banks by replacing Indo-Tibetan Border Police and sending a major chunk of its newly created big force of Special Police Officers to Food Corporation of India for guarding its godowns. These savings, though small, illustrate the financial crunch the state police force is facing in its attempt to modernise.

The Punjab Police has perhaps one of the biggest fleet of motor vehicles in the country. It has nearly 4,500 vehicles, a majority for use in security duty.

Cyber crime is a new area where, in the absence of resources, the police is trying hard to upgrade. In the absence of professionals, certain other categories of specialised and professional crime, including white-collar crime, has a low or negligible detection rate.

The situation is no different in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir. It is, however, slightly better in the Union Territory of Chandigarh where most of the police stations are in new modern buildings and the 114 sq km territory is well covered with a fleet of Gypsies and motor cycles and the police stations are well connected by an efficient communication and IT network.

A major criticism of the police force throughout the region has been that it is top-heavy. For example, in Punjab against seven officers of the rank of Deputy Inspector-General or above in 1980, the number today was 52. In Haryana, this number has grown from 10 to 30. The same is true of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh.

The growth of constabulary and other NGOs (Non-Gazetted Officers), too, has been substantial.

In spite of this growth in the manpower and equipment, the image of the police continues to get a battering. The reasons are not difficult to find. The work ethos, training, posting and functioning of the police department has not changed.

The worst battering police has got in recent years has been in VIP security. Hundreds of policemen, carrying lathis, line up the route that the VIP is travelling. Each Minister visiting his constituency wants the police staff of his area to remain present at each and every of his public functions in the area. The duty becomes harder and more difficult especially during the visit of the CM or other VVIPs. Another area that has been completely ignored is vehicular traffic. In 1992, the then government headed by Mr Beant Singh decided to disband the traffic cell of Punjab police. In contrast, in Chandigarh, power has been delegated to the police to compound traffic offences Chandigarh.

Police stations continue to have inhuman living conditions. On an average, an urban police station has a strength of 60 to 100 men and officers while a rural police station has 25 to 40 personnel. According to a survey, the department met the housing requirement for only 14 per cent of its personnel in Punjab. It may be slightly better in Chandigarh but in the rest of the region, it was even worse than the situation in Punjab.

It was reported in a section of the Press recently that the Punjab Human Rights Commission in Chandigarh has received more than 4,300 complaints against the police. Police officials wonder whether the Punjab Human Rights Commission or the National Human Rights Commission ever entertains or gets any complaint of denial of human rights to police personnel who work round the clock with an image of being “corrupt, inefficient and arrogant”. According to the 1861 Police Act, a policeman is supposed to be on duty all 24 hours a day, and all 365 days a year!

A police official pointed out that between 1980 and 2,000, the security forces in Punjab lost nearly 1,800 of their men and officers while fighting militancy. Another 300 family members of the security personnel fell to the bullets of the militants. Militants kidnapped around 100 relatives and friends of security personnel.

Besides these killings and kidnapping, at one stage, there were more than 2,000 writ petitions pending against policemen in various courts of the state, including the Punjab and Haryana High Court. At present, there are nearly 25 to 30 policemen and officers in jails as undertrials in various cases. They argue that the police did a good job in containing militancy in the state. They also admit that “there were bad elements in the force who brought it a bad name”.

They also argue that as far as accountability was concerned, both politicians and bureaucrats used the force. But in decision-making, the police was nowhere. “An officer with 30 years of service has no say where even the Director-General of Police was placed below the Home Secretary.”

The police officials allege that they have been at the receiving end. The wrath has been directed against them without anybody ever bothering to look into the plight of and the “horrible” working conditions that an average policemen lives with. “See where a Constable in Punjab and Haryana is placed compared to a Bobbie of England or Scotland Yard,” they say admitting that there was a world of difference in the qualification, training and attitude of the two.

To revamp the system and redesign policing in the country, they argue that recommendations of the National Police Commissions should be implemented. For example, the Commission has recommended that all cities with a population of five lakh or more should have the Police Commissionerate system.

Punjab almost went for this system during the Chief Ministership of Mr Beant Singh as three major towns—Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana—were cleared for Police Commissionerates. The decision, however, was never implemented.

Sources point out that even the present SAD-BJP Government was inclined to introduce the Police Commissionerate system at Ludhiana on experiment basis. But again, rethinking on the issue led to annulment of the first view.

Policing in Punjab has other problems, too. Though the last National Police Commission, in its report, recommended that the determinants to be adopted by the state police organisations must include prevention of crime, investigation of crime, law and order, traffic management, service and reputation of integrity and courtesy. These determinates, the Commission says, have to be evolved in due course.

In fact, the Commission felt that a great harm has been caused to the image of the police department due to laying down of faulty determinates for evaluating police performance, which has led to a misplaced sense of accountability and questionable methods of crime control adopted by the police.

A Tribune survey
Police stations: dilapidated buildings, poor living conditions

THE tremendous growth witnessed by the police in the past two decades notwithstanding, more than 50 per cent of police stations in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh are working from either dilapidated or unsafe buildings. Basic civic amenities, including toilets and drinking water or waiting room for visitors, do not exist at most of these police stations. Many of the police stations have either no telephone connections or have been extended the “luxury” of one-way telephony i.e. they can only receive telephone calls but cannot make any. The reason: they have not been able to pay their previous telephone bills. At some of the places, they are no more allowed any credit facility to buy petrol or diesel for their ramshackle vehicles.

Here are the findings of the survey of police stations in the region conducted by The Tribune.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

The police set-up in Himachal Pradesh has failed to keep pace with the increasing workload and the changing security environment.

The law and order machinery has been under increased pressure due to the rising incidence of crime, spill over militancy from the bordering states and heavy protocol duties. The tourism boom, which provided fillip to transport and hotel industry, has added a new dimension to crime. With over 50 lakh tourists visiting the state annually traffic congestion has become a major problem. The mystery of missing foreigners and bizarre killings of three foreign tourists in the high mountain ranges of Kulu recently has thrown up a new challenge to the police.

There has been a major expansion at the top level but strength of constabulary has remained static. As against one Inspector-General and two Deputy Inspector-Generals, the state has now two Director-Generals, seven Additional Director-General, five Inspector-Generals and 10 Deputy Inspector-General. There are over 190 gazetted officers in the department.

However, most of the 84 police stations and 103 police posts face shortage of staff.

There has been only a marginal increase in the constabulary as the emphasis has been on raising armed battalions to handle agitations, fairs and festivals besides guarding the porous borders to prevent militants from speaking into the state. At present there are four armed police battalions and recruitment for the fifth is underway.

The total strength of constabulary is about 13,000 with 1,000 posts lying vacant. The staff deployment, at police stations and posts continues to be as per outdated norms framed 60 years ago. The sanctioned strength was almost 30 per cent less than required. At present there were as many as 24 police posts, which were awaiting sanction.

The policemen posted at thanas and chowkies are overworked with no fixed duty hours and at times denied leave for months together. A majority of police stations lack adequate residential accommodation. Constructed long ago most of the police station buildings and barracks are in a state of neglect. This year the department asked for Rs 25 lakh but not a single paisa was allotted in the budget.

While all the 84 police stations have telephones, nine out of 103 police posts are without this essential facility. Besides, as many as 27 police stations have no four-wheelers, whereas 39 posts do not even have motorcycles. Most of the vehicles are in bad shape and need to be replaced.

At present as many as 76 police stations have their own building, while eight were housed in rented buildings. Seven buildings are being constructed at a cost of Rs 84 lakh. However, as many as 31 police chowkies are without government building.

Decades old case property, stacked in pigeonhole-like malkhanas and unhygienic, crowded barracks, in dilapidated old buildings, reflects the sorry state of affairs, at majority of the Police stations in Kangra, the largest district of Himachal.

Despite the job in the police station, being a 24-four hour one, hardly any attention is paid to the condition of the police stations, vehicles and barracks for the staff. Barring the three police stations of Baijnath, Lamba Gaon and Jwali, rest are housed in very old dilapidated buildings, on the verge of collapse.

While the Palampur police station continues to function from a building constructed in 1919, the condition of the Dehra police station is deplorable. During the monsoons, the cops face a tough task of saving themselves and the records.

The Jwali police station, until two years ago, to function without a lock up. A Jammu and Kashmir militant, arrested from the area was kept tied in a room, before being shifted to Dharamsala police station. There are a total of 12 police stations, 12 police posts and two check posts in the district.

“After the poor condition of the police stations was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister, 42 places were identified in Himachal and some money was given to undertake minor repairs,” says Mr KC Sadyal, DIG (northern range).

The Indora police station, with a jurisdiction over 450 km, and bordering the sensitive areas of Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Talwaa in Punjab. It has to do with an old jeep, which has outlived its life.

The condition of the Dehra, Palampur, Kangra, Jwalamukhi, Indora and Dharamsala police stations, is the worst in Kangra district. The personnel on duty live in dingy, old barracks with no windows or ventilators, and not even toilets at most of the places.

Another major problem in the thanas is the small malkhanas, overflowing with case property, at times as old as 40 years. Senior police officers, themselves admit that at times due to space limitation, the evidence value of a case property gets lost and the court takes adverse view of this fact.

PUNJAB

The condition of police stations in Amritsar is deplorable. Most of these have broken furniture. The Sadar police station, one of the oldest police stations of the city, has congress grass dominating its open space. There is no toilet or fans in the lock-ups of the police stations.

The citizen’s forum, headed by Mr Brij Bedi, husband of supercop Kiran Bedi, was adopted the Sadar police station for beautification when he saw cow-dung cakes on the boundary wall. The chairs have been locked with chords and chains. The citizen’s forum has donated new furniture.

Some of other police stations have been encroaching upon government land. The police chowkie at Chheharta, has encroached a big open space on the GT road which connecting Amritsar with Lahore. Similarly, police stations, including divisions B, C and D, have extended their buildings to the boundary wall which to pose traffic hazard. The CIA staff has encroached upon the historic quila, opposite Ram Bagh.

The deplorable condition of police stations in attributed to financial crunch. Though the police department constructed or renovated many buildings of police stations yet there is no proper furniture of seating arrangements for visitors. Telephones often get disconnected by the telecom department for failure to pay the bills in time.

In Jalandhar police stations have been functioning on temporary basis from markets, in shops and are devoid of any facility for visitors, detainees and even officials.

The 10-year old Police Division 7, like a few other police stations, is functioning from a couple of crumbling shops of the Improvement Trust on the main road. There is no parking space and any other basic facility for visitors.

One of the shops is being used as a barrack for detainees, another as office of the munshi, while a portion of the corridor serves the purpose of toilet, both for officials and those lodged in the barracks.

SHO Gurvinder Singh said that recently a shop was converted into a barrack by constructing a wall, since a news photographer and created problems for the officials by clicking a photograph of some children detained in the open shop.

The police station has been running without a permanent power connection and the source of power supply, according to the SHO was a “kundi connection” with the main supply line, passing through the corridor.

Pathetic is the plight of most of the police stations of Patiala. The survey revealed that out of a total of 16 police stations in the district, three — Samana, Ghagha and Ghanuar sub-divisions — have been declared unsafe by the PWD B&R. The structures, housing other police stations, are no better as these can come down like ninepins any moment.

Interestingly the Ghanuar police station has been declared unsafe for the last 25 years, where 50-odd cops take care of the needs of 52 villages, at the risk of their own safety.

The CIA staff police station is housed in a dilapidated building and the cops work in rooms where the plaster is fast peeling off and the monsoon season leaves the rooms filled with dirty water. The toilets stink and the building has yet to get a fresh coat of paint and the 40-odd cops have to do with the services of just one cook.

The Civil Lines police station has been functioning without four walls for the last five decades. The barrack meant to house nearly 50 police personal has just two fans. The waiting room of the police station, like all the other police stations of the district, lacks proper facilities.

The Sadar Police station, located on the outskirts of the city, caters to nearly 225 villages but has just six rooms for the 76 cops to work in. There are few items of stationary, some chairs and furniture. The condition is so bad that the police station does not even have a single almirah in which the cops can place their personal belongings. The police personal have to do with just four tables, with two of them placed in the munshi’s room. The station is equipped with just five wireless sets. Under the Sadar police station fall the chowkis of Balbhera, Bhunerheri, Dakala, Sanaur, Urban Estate and Bahadurgarh. Surprisingly none of the chowkis has the provision of a telephone set.

The Bahadurgarh police station, located on the busy Patiala-Chandigarh highway caters to Punjabi University, Escorts factory and 28 villages. It has no phone connection, but the Escorts factory administration has provided the police station with an extension from one of its own phone sets. The police station is woefully understaffed.

Division No 2 police post, which falls under the city Kotwali, presents its own set of problems. Come monsoons and the entire police post is virtually turned into a lake. So much so that during the 1993 floods, the post was under nearly six to seven feet of water.

Unsafe buildings, stinking toilets and bathrooms, dilapidated lock ups and inadequate accommodation sum up the plight of 12 police stations of Bathinda. No notice has been taken of the unsafe buildings.

At most of the places, either policemen have been contributing from their “own pockets” or seeking favour of some voluntary organisations or NGOs for their requirements.

The City police station building has been declared “unsafe” several years ago by the PWD. The buildings of Sadar, Raman, Maur Mandi and Talwandi police stations cannot be, by any standards, declared safe. The roofs of all these buildings leak.

Only Kotkapura has a new building while Rampura Phul, Bathinda Cantonment and Thermal Plant police stations are not run in Police Department buildings. Most of the police stations in the district do not have any room for visitors. Nathana police station is without a boundary wall and its vehicle is on “permanent rest” as it does not have tyres.

Like rest of the state, most of the police stations in Sangrur are housed in old, dilapidated buildings. The police stations at Sunam, Malerkotla and Sangrur, are in “unsafe” buildings.

Some police stations have either no telephone connection or their telephone has been disconnected due to non-payment of bills.

Besides, there to shortage of stationery in all the police stations and chowkies. Policemen also complain about the bad shape of vehicles provided to them and ceiling on the fuel. They say only three to five litres diesel is provided to them daily, which is insufficient. Police stations have no proper waiting rooms for the visitors except waiting shelters at different places.

Shortage of furniture is another common problem in the district. Storage of unclaimed, seized vehicles or there involved in accidents and other articles is another major eyesore.

Malkhanas (stores) have little space so these vehicles and other articles are stored in the open. Sadar and city police stations are housed in the same dilapidated building. Besides, big visible cracks in the building, peepul trees have grown on its rooftop. Barracks are being used as malkhana. There is no waiting room for the visitors.

In Sunam, the city police station and Sadar police station are located in different old buildings, which are in bad shape. The Sadar police station is facing shortage of stationery, diesel for vehicle and funds for payment of full amount of phone bill.

In Dhuri, city police station and Sadar police station are located in the same building, which is very old. The city police station has no telephone connection. Sadar police station has a small malkhana so it has converted the women’s hawalat into store for using it as malkhana.

In Malerkotla the Sadar police station’s building is old but seems to be in good condition. However, the city police station is housed in an “unsafe” building. The telephone of the city police station was disconnected due to non-payment of bills.

In Barnala, the Sadar police station is located in a rented building, which is in bad shape. Likewise, the building of the city police station is also an old one. These buildings require special attention for maintenance.

In Ferozepore district, most of the police stations have one-way telephone as they can only receive telephone calls. The facility for making calls has been withdrawn following non-payment of pending bills.

The situation is no different with regard to supply of petrol and diesel to police vehicles. Most of the filling stations have discontinued their supplies to the police department for non-clearance of arrears of previous supplies.

Police stations in Jalalabad and Fazilka are facing acute shortage of funds.

Police vehicles are also in bad shape and most of them need extensive repairs. In absence of good and reliable vehicles, policemen and officers often request complainants to take them to the spot for carrying out investigations..

Spurt in incidence of robberies and thefts, including those by kale kacchewale have added to the workload of overworked policemen. The problem of night patrolling, too, has aggravated due to paucity of funds.

HARYANA

None of the 10 police stations in Hisar have any facilities legally required to be provided to those detained in the lock up. They have to fend for themselves.

Inquiries reveal that there are neither durries nor blankets for the hawalatis as they are known in the police parlance. Even food is not provided to them.

Five police stations — Hisar Sadar, Barwala, Uklana, Adampur and Agroha — are housed in new buildings but the remaining five continue to function from old and dilapidated buildings. The buildings in which the Hisar City and Civil Lines police stations are housed were declared as condemned and unsafe long ago. Nevertheless, there are yet no plans to construct new buildings.

The police stations lack adequate furniture. Police officials admit on condition of anonymity that they had arranged most of the furniture from “private sources” through beggar. Hisar City and Civil Lines police station do not even have proper toilets. In the Hisar City police station, the makeshift toilet had been got constructed through beggar.

The police stations are without proper boundary walls and there are no parking facilities. As a result, seized vehicles continue to parked in the open, exposed to vagaries of nature.

In the older buildings even the barracks meant for jawans lack proper facilities. There are 18 police posts in the district. Only two of these are sanctioned posts housed in government buildings.

The police station buildings are ill-maintained. This is true of even the new buildings. Officials say there are no funds for the purpose.

Police stations in Ambala show the ravages of time. Police Post 3 in Ambala City was vacated during the last monsoon season, as it had become water-logged and the building was considered unsafe. It was shifted to a portion of the old Civil Hospital. Water-logging has also been a problem with two other police posts also.

The main Kotwali police station is located in an old building in Kotwali Bazaar where there are proper barracks. There is no separate waiting room for those waiting to meet the SHO. The scenario is no different other police stations.

Three police stations — Kotwali, Sadar and Baldev Nagar — besides either police posts are facing a shortage of staff.

Because of its nodal location being situated along the GT Road, VIPs frequently use the Ambala-Chandigarh road to keep a number of police personnel busy on VIP duty. At most of the police posts, there is no proper furniture for the police personnel as well as the people.

The Inspector-General of Police, Ambala range, Mr HS Ahlawat, maintains that major and minor repair of police station is a regular process.

“There is a government fund for modernisation of police force. This year, we have earmarked funds for setting up of Police Lines in Panchkula,” he says.

Some of the police stations and police posts need to be upgraded although, right now new constructions are slated to take place in Ambala, wherever repair work is needed on a priority basis, it will be undertaken,” says Mr Ahlawat.

With inputs from Rakesh Lohumi (Shimla), Pratibha Chauhan (Dharamsala), Varinder Walia (Amritsar), Varinder Singh (Jalandhar), Jangveer Singh (Patiala), Sushil Goyal (Sangrur), Gurpreet Singh (Feroze-pore), Chander Parkash (Bathinda), Raman Mohan (Hisar) and Suman Bhatnagar (Ambala).

From Sonia loyalist to opponent
by Harihar Swarup

Politics is a weird game and the players do not know the course of their destiny. Jitendra Prasada himself never thought that he would one day challenge the might of Sonia Gandhi nor did he prepare himself for the battle ahead. Marginalised since the late Sitaram Kesri was thrown out of 24, Akbar Road, the AICC headquarters, by the coterie, he was feeling out of place. Even though he was the architect of Kesri’s thumping victory in the 1996 organisational elections, he was convinced that the octogenarian leader would not be able to keep the party intact. He was often heard saying the biggest contribution of Sonia Gandhi had been to keep the Congress united and he wanted to strengthen her hands.

What then made him a renegade? Evidently, the clique around 10, Janpath, manipulative as it is, wanted to politically annihilate him and dug up his roots in Uttar Pradesh, his home state. Almost, at the same time, the late Rajesh Pilot, also concerned at the sagging image of the party, echoed what Congressmen in general felt. Jitendra Prasada made common cause with the young leader and propped him to take on Sonia Gandhi. As an axis against her was building up, the cruel hands of destiny snatched away Pilot. Prasada was, unwittingly, pushed into a situation where there was no escape door.

As the election for the Congress President’s office drew nearer, Prasada spent several sleepless nights pondering over almost in Hamlet style — “to be or not to be” — but he was no Hamlet. Finally, he decided to take on Sonia, knowing fully well that he does not have a ghost of a chance against her. For him it was a question of “do or die”. Having earned a the wrath of the coterie, he was certain to be doomed; he choose to be a martyr.

The issue raised by him hit Congressmen across the board like a bullet. He talks of what is in their heart. Senior leaders feel the same way but are afraid to give vent to their views lest they too are dubbed as renegades. India has dramatically changed since the days of Indiraji and Rajivji, says Jiti Bhai and urges Congressmen to refashion the party in the spirit of the 21st century. This implies rekindling the spirit of openness, accountability and democracy if “we hope to win once again the affection of the people of India”. One wonders if any Congressman would disagree with the perception.

The bitter truth, he says, has to be accepted that the Congress has no mass leader now — one who can sway the masses. The result of the 1999 elections is a loud manifestation of this harsh reality. There is, therefore, dire need of evolving a collective leadership in the party. His plea to the party workers is to speak out their mind without inhibition, and without fear of reprisal.

But the reprisal has already begun and the first victim is “Jiti Bhai” himself. Most of the senior leaders, who were till yesterday echoing the same feeling, endorsing his views, have turned against him and are hitting hard at him for raising issues which everybody feels are correct. He says that the names of his supporters has been systematically removed from the voters’ list and the list from his home state is not made available to them. As a matter of fact he has not yet been given the voters list even though the process of filing nomination has already started. “How can I file nomination without the voters’ list”, he asks. The candidature of an aspirant for the party President’s post has to be seconded by eight members of the electoral college and one does not know who the voters are ?

Prasada was all packed up to leave for his home town, Shahjehanpur, after his defeat in the 1989 Lok Sabha poll. The Congress party sat in the opposition and there was no work for him in Delhi. Having decided not to stake his claim to form the Government, Rajiv Gandhi felt that the Congress should play the role of an effective Opposition inside and outside Parliament. He worked 15 to 16 hours a day to completely overhaul the party and create a new team of young and dedicated leaders. It was becoming increasingly difficult for his private secretary, V.George, to cope with the tempo of work. Someone with the experience of organisation was required to assist him and relieve the burden of George.

The name of Prasada, who was the AICC general secretary in 1985, figured in casual talk with senior leaders which included P.V. Narasimha Rao. The general opinion was that “Jiti Bhai” was the right man for the job. Rajiv took an on-the-spot decision and appointed him as his political secretary. For “Jiti Bhai” it was a God sent opportunity. He unpacked his luggage and worked with Rajiv with dedication.

Later, burdened both with the responsibility of managing the party affairs and running the Government, Mr Narasimha Rao too thought of Prasada and reappointed him as political secretary when he held the post of both Prime Minister and Congress President. In the four-years period “Jiti Bhai” acquired a political clout and became a centre of power himself.

Now 62, Prasada had been protege of the late H.N. Bahuguna, who brought him to Delhi in 1971. Before that he had a year’s stint as a member of the UP Legislative Council. Born and brought up in an aristocratic family Jiti Babu too is an aristocrat by habit and temperament. As a first-term MP in 1971, he was put in an one-room apartment of Delhi’s Lodhi hotel. Used to living in palatial houses in Nainital, Shehjehanpur and Lucknow, owned by his late lamented father Kunwar Jyoti Prasad, he felt very uncomfortable in the tiny one-room set and expressed his desire to Bahuguna to return to Lucknow. “What a horrible place Delhi is”, he told his mentor.

Addressing the young Jiti Babu as “Sahabzade” (son), Bahuguna asked him to forget UP and said that once he got used to Delhi’s style of living, he would never like to go back. Bahuguna was right; Prasada was reelected to the Lok Sabha in the 1980, 1984 and 1999 elections. He lost both the 1989 and 1991 elections but managed a Rajya Sabha seat from UP. He is said to be instrumental in Sitaram Kesri’s victory in the election to the Congress President’s post in 1996 and a grateful Kesri appointed him the Vice-President of the AICC.

Bridging the gap with Sangh parivar

THE services of former BJP president and senior leader Kushabhau Thakre might be requisitioned by the party to act as a bridge with the Sangh parivar. The BJP leadership has felt the imperative need for liaisoning closely with the front organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. This has assumed importance as the members of the Sangh parivar have decided to bring to the forefront the three major issues which the BJP has relegated to the background. The RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal have not been found wanting in virtually putting the BJP in the dock for giving up abrogation of Article 370 according special status to Jammu and Kashmir, building the Ram mandir in Ayodhya and having a uniform civil code. The national agenda of governance being pursued by the BJP and its NDA partners had to necessarily give up these controversial issues in the crucial numbers game for occupying the seat of power on the Raisina Hill in New Delhi.

It is apparent the BJP wants to find some way of soothing the ruffled feathers of the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal so that they do not put a spoke in the wheel of the BJP-led NDA. And BJP stalwarts are of the opinion that the soft spoken Thakre can be entrusted with the task of undertaking this delicate balancing act with the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal so that the NDA does not find itself in the midst of a devastating storm threatening the continuance of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government at the Centre.

Sword of Damocles

The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee headed by Capt Amarinder Singh has been desperately trying to put its house in order. The supporters of Capt Amarinder Singh have spared no effort in trying to convince the Congress high command that only continuity in the PPCC leadership can propel the Congress to success in the 2002 Assembly elections in Punjab. Capt Amarinder Singh’s critics, who are increasing by the day, argue that his continuance as the PPCC chief will compound matters for the faction ridden Congress which was pulling in different directions. Capt Amarinder Singh is moving heaven and earth to see that he does not come crashing down from the high pedestal of being the PPCC president. Going by the present line of thinking in the Congress high command especially in the wake of the Sunam assembly byelection debacle recently, Capt Amarinder Singh’s continuance as the PPCC chief hangs by a rather thin thread.

Kesri’s Congress relations

Veteran Congress leader Sitaram Kesri remained unsung at the time of his death. Even the Bihar Congress leaders virtually ignored the event and there were few visitors at the Patna airport when “Chacha’s” body landed there. It was typical for the Congressmen to ignore a disgraced leader. Kesri was the only party president to have been sacked by the Congress Working Committee.

Old timers, however, remember the days when Kesri was a much loved person in the Congress. They recall the time when Kesri was a budding politician and used to frequent Delhi to seek an audience with the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The unsuccessful missions never detered him as he made the most out of the meeting that never took place. He would promptly return to Patna and issue press statements on his “meeting” with the Prime Minister and the assurances that Nehru had given for his constituency. Kesri’s game was up one day when at a function Nehru checked him for the press statements he had been giving without even meeting him. Kesri is supposed to have told the Prime Minister that there was nothing negative in the statements and it only helped him gain further ground in his constituency in Bihar. Nehru, it seems, was impressed by his candid admission and thereafter made it a point to meet Kesri whenever he was in Delhi.

The rest is history. Kesri’s relations with the Nehru-Gandhi family continued without any hindrance, until the time the party presidentship and over-ambition got the better of him.

Food and Politics

Food and politics don’t mix if the Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, is to be believed. The Minister had a get-together before Divali at his residence and true to the occasion he had laid out excellent ethnic fare. It ranged from chat, puri subzi to the vegetarian version of kebabs. For the assembled scribes, however, the occasion was not one to eat but to gorge on Uttar Pradesh politics, from where Dr Joshi comes. The event had become important for it was on that day that the Chief Minister of the State had been replaced. There were some who wanted to know if the BJP after beginning with a backward caste leader, Kalyan Singh, and progressing to trader community leader Ram Prakash Gupta and now a Thakur leader Rajnath Singh would also opt for a Brahmin leader in the future. Dr Joshi promptly retorted: “Kyon apne muh ka zaika karab karthe ho. (Why do you spoil your taste). Kuch acha khao (Have something better)”.

US elections in India

The Presidential elections in the United States have already begun in the Capital. Yes, US citizens in India have cast their absentee ballots for the US presidential and congressional elections in November, 2000. The US Ambassador to India Richard F. Celeste and some of the staff of the US embassy here were amongst the early voters last week. The US Government has appointed the courier company DHL Worldwide Express to deliver the ballots in Washington.

US citizens can either mail or drop off their absentee ballots to designated offices of the courier company at no cost. According to the country head of DHL, S. Raghunandhan, this is the third consecutive presidential election being handled by his company. The courier company delivers the ballots to its office in New York, from where they enter the US postal system.

(Contributed by TRR, T.V. Lakshminarayan and P.N. Andley)

Kaun Banega Clonepati?
By Amita Malik

SO we were all taken for a ride. Conned, in a way. Because we were told at every Zee press conference that their show “Sawal Dus Crore Ka” was going to be “different, original”. No videshi stuff, like the uppatriotic channel which has bought the exclusive rights in India of the well-known programme “Who Wants to be a Millionaire? which originated in Britain and has now spread to something like 27 countries under recognised copyright procedures. (In India, it is exclusive to NTVI). It would not even need stars, we were told. Such would be the intrinsic appeal of the programme, that anchors like Big B would be unnecessary. Poor Big B, we thought. This will finish him.

As I tuned in eagerly, together with what must have been lakhs of viewers to what a young child hopefully said would be a “super-duper” programme, my jaws fell, if not physically certainly figuratively, Open. The set looked vaguely familiar, with the same blue lighting but very confused with all sorts of undefined arches under which the contestants seemed to disappear and a badly lit audience. Instead of 10 contestants there were 21, which made kit a bit tedious. But they had the same preliminary round as in “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. The same computers the same seating arrangements. And they were each introduced in exactly the same way as in “KBC”, waving their hands then ascending towards the Big B to be escorted in exactly the same way.

And sure enough there was a father in the audience to get tense and give his ashirvad to his daughter. But even if she hadn’t got far, she would have received a gold coin worth Rs 10,000 as consolation prize, as did some who fell earlier by the wayside. Talk of easy money? Or perhaps we should say easy gold. The eliminating rounds were involved and confusing, just to make things long and dull, and the whole show lacked the compact, straightforward progress of “KBC”. Even simple questions were made complicated.

Instead of three life-lines, we had three trumps, what someone in their enthusiasm called three triumphs, although they were not trumphal. And, instead of lock kiya jaye, it was freeze kiya jaye. Straight to the deep freeze, alas, which is the way that the show seems to be heading. The producer, Gajendra Singh, who believes in doing things by twos and not halves, had two stars. But since I consider Anupam Kher a fine actor and a warm human being, I pitied him for getting involved in this sorry mess. And he had been humble enough to ask Bachchan for his blessings before the show. The quiz show in which I saw him the week before was with little children. In “SDCK” he was dealing with people who were certainly far less telegenic than children who have a natural charm. And perhaps a little more natural intelligence. Manisha Koirala, who made her entry in pristine white lace and kept Kher amateurish company, only added to the confusion by cutting in and making socialite style remarks. She was totally redundant, because Anupam Kher had started nicely and modestly but as soon as she barged in, she added to the mess. The way she spoke and simpered, she should be on some morning show like “Subha Savera”, where she would probably fit in better.

At the end of it all, I wondered what Zee was aiming at, because judging by the first two shows they had contributed nothing original except the gold coins and a vulgar top prize which is more likely to attract the people’s greed than their intelligence. And they are probably heading for the law courts with such blatant plagiarism. Besides, viewers are not that dumb. Immediately after the first show I took a poll from amongst neighbours, friends and colleagues from the media. Some had not bothered to watch “SDCK” and had tuned in as usual to “KBC”. Others said they had watched for five minutes and got so bored they had either switched off or moved back to “KBC”. Zee seems to have lost a great deal of goodwill in the process. Because in this sorry rat race, it has emerged only as the mouse that roared, but got caught in the trap.