E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Crime and politics
THE Delhi High Court’s directive to the Election Commission to inform voters about the criminal background of candidates seeking election to the country’s legislatures deserves close scrutiny. Several committees and commissions have in the past examined the issue and suggested legal methods for breaking the nexus between organised crime and politics.

Clearance sale of wheat 
IT is distress sale of wheat by the Union Food Ministry but India’s teeming poor will not benefit. That is because the government says it cannot identify them and even if it does and sells them wheat at a very low rate, it will have no control over the distribution. So in genuine feudal style, it has decided to deprive the states of any credit for poverty reduction and instead will get rid of the excessive stock through exports.

OPINION

Pakistan today seriously ill, but not terminally
by T.V. Rajeswar
PAKISTAN is not a banana republic, said an outraged Gen Pervez Musharraf recently. But Pakistan does appear very much in the dumps. The assessment of the performance of Pakistan’s military ruler, who calls himself the Chief Executive, is almost universally negative. “Pakistan’s useless dictator” and “Musharraf fails the test” were the titles of two articles that appeared in the well-known and widely read English weekly, the Economist of Oct 14.

The Chinese deluge
by Bharat Jhunjhunwala
CHEAP Chinese goods are flooding the Indian markets and Indian industry is finally waking up to the flip side of globalisation. It is demanding protection from these imports. The Chinese are known to heavily subsidise their exports. Protection is justified to the extent of these subsidies. But that is only part of the story. China has a more business-friendly governance. Simultaneously, it is necessary for the Indian government to put its house in order so that Indian businesses can compete in the global market. Indian business must demand good governance along with limited protection.

MIDDLE

The golden brick
by Khushwant Ahluwalia
THERE are many people who with their actions and over-zealousness to obey their bosses bring mirth to others’ life. When the job is pertaining to “Saab Bahadur” from the Punjab Police the enthusiasm never seems to run down.

On the spot

by Tavleen singh
Citizens’ fight for clean air
DELHI breathes the most polluted air in the world. Mumbai comes second. The Yamuna, already hopelessly polluted, receives 1,393 million litres of untreated sewage a day from Delhi alone. The sacred Ganga with its once miraculous water is today almost as much of a sewer as the Yamuna. Our forests are so depleted that we could one day soon lose the few tigers we have left.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Crime and politics

THE Delhi High Court’s directive to the Election Commission to inform voters about the criminal background of candidates seeking election to the country’s legislatures deserves close scrutiny. Several committees and commissions have in the past examined the issue and suggested legal methods for breaking the nexus between organised crime and politics. However, the malaise has been allowed to grow because of the lack of political will to act against the crime syndicates, which have now gained effective control of the levers of power in most states. There is hardly a political party, particularly in the BIMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh), which can state on oath that it has not knowingly given membership to anyone against whom criminal cases are pending in court. The situation in UP and Bihar is particularly worrisome because surveys have shown that most mafia dons now prefer to contest elections themselves instead of providing indirect support to the so-called clean candidates. The remedy which the Delhi High Court has suggested may not work at least in these two states because the rate of success of criminals as candidates is usually in direct proportion to the scale of terror they are able to spread among voters in their respective constituencies. By providing information about their criminal antecedents to the voters the Election Commission may actually find itself in the unintended position of actually helping their campaign. The directive at best reflects the limitations of the judiciary in the matter of playing a more purposeful role in rescuing parliamentary democracy from the clutches of criminals in political garbs. During assembly and Lok Sabha elections the electronic and print media give extensive coverage to the background of the candidates, involved in heinous crimes like rape, murder, dacoity and extortion, fielded by most political parties. The Election Commission would merely be supplementing the media’s effort by giving wider publicity to their criminal backgrounds.

But the Delhi High Court could not have gone beyond the limits imposed on it by the existing laws which uphold the right of every Indian, of sound mind and who has never been convicted of a criminal offence by a duly constituted court of law, to contest elections. That is the reason why Ms Phoolan Devi, among several others with similar backgrounds, is a respected member of the Lok Sabha and sandalwood smuggler and murderer Veerappan too has ambitions of serving the people by becoming their elected representative. The Delhi High Court’s intentions are worthy of high praise, but a more practical approach is needed for disqualifying criminals from entering the country’s legislatures. Directing the Election Commission to put up lists of candidates involved in criminal cases may not serve the purpose the judiciary has in mind. Instead, it should direct the trial courts to dispose of pending criminal cases against successful candidates within a period of three months. Of course, the higher judiciary would have to exercise utmost care in allowing the appeal of elected representatives against the trial courts’ judgement. Be that as it may, the larger issue of amending existing laws for preventing criminals from getting elected would have to be taken by the legislature itself. It will have to decide whether upholding the absolute right of citizens, facing trial [not convicted] in criminal cases, to contest elections should not be curtailed because of the lack of restraint by political parties in hobnobbing with criminals. It is true that if the right to contest is taken away from those against whom criminal cases are pending [and not decided] some candidates who may have been falsely implicated too may lose the right to seek election to the legislatures. Which of the two options is the lesser evil - the one which allows a disturbingly large number of known criminals to get elected or the proposed law under which even a few clean candidates, along with dangerous criminals, may be denied the right to contest until found innocent by the trial courts?

Clearance sale of wheat 

IT is distress sale of wheat by the Union Food Ministry but India’s teeming poor will not benefit. That is because the government says it cannot identify them and even if it does and sells them wheat at a very low rate, it will have no control over the distribution. So in genuine feudal style, it has decided to deprive the states of any credit for poverty reduction and instead will get rid of the excessive stock through exports. Since this country’s grain is overpriced, the government has also decided to slash the rate by resorting to a ridiculous strategem. The wise Union Cabinet has authorised export at the “logical” price and working overtime has realised that it is the same at which the below poverty line households buy their quota. It is explained this way. Wheat is sold in Punjab at Rs 650 a quintal; deduct from this the storage cost for two years. Presto, the economic cost slides to Rs 415 a quintal. Why storage cost for two years? Why deduct from the procurement cost? Logic warrants that if the government wants to forgo the storage expenses or what it terms the carrying cost by including bank charges on the huge loans the FCI takes, it should fix the sale price at Rs 650 which includes minimum support price and incidental expenses. This amount does not take into account any expenses on storage. To deduct the non-spent money from this is inexplicable. One reporter took out his calculator and did some quick addition, substraction, multiplication and division, and the result astounded him. At Rs 4150 a tonne, the dollar equivalent is a shade above $ 90. And at the real economic cost of Rs 9000 a tonne or so, the dollar cost is $ 200 a tonne. So export is being “subsidised” by more than 50 per cent. Only when shopkeepers go bust, they resort to this scale of clearance sale. Compared to this, the US hard red winter wheat sells at between $ 135 and $ 155 while the Australian white variety is available at $ 155 a tonne. India is looking for buyers in Iran, the Gulf area, Africa and South-East Asia but it is unlikely to find any since India grows only the soft variety which is good for making chapati. If even after this compression of prices, the foodgrains mountain continues to grow, it would be third time unlucky for the Food Ministry. Its two earlier schemes have failed to take off.

This was not the only knee-jerk reaction. The Cabinet also threw out Food Minister Shanta Kumar’s pet idea of Antodaya under which the poorest of the poor all over the country will receive 25 kg every month at half the below poverty line price or at Rs 2.15 a kg. Even so it will mean an additional sale of just six lakh tonnes or slightly more than 0.5 million tonnes. The country is sitting on more than 24 million tonnes of wheat and this is double the buffer stock norm. Home Minister Advani said a firm no, fearing that this may become a regular policy and would lead to a crisis in a year of lean harvest. Even if the totally deprived get benefit for just one year, it is good enough. This thought did not cross anybody’s mind. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, fresh from a meeting where he offered some more sops to the cash-rich information technology sector, reeled off frightening figures to shoot down the proposal. He pointed out that it will lift the food subsidy to the stratospheric Rs 14,000 crore as against the budget provision of Rs 8000 crore. Mr Shanta Kumar’s plea that his idea will cost only Rs 1200 crore fell on deaf ears. The search is on to find customers in foreign countries who can afford below poverty line prices. 

New-weave textile policy

TEXTILE is one of India's oldest and most reliable industries, which despite many speedbreakers and roadblocks on the way earns the country more than $ 11 billion per year. All this despite the fact that vibrancy and dynamism have been missing from the sector for quite some time. The new textile policy has sought to inject both vital ingredients in good measure through a slew of deregulation measures. The boldness of the steps is only matched by the optimism about the results that are envisaged. The government expects the industry to deliver exports worth as much as $ 50 billion by 2010. Considering that even the new-economy IT sector is also projected to fetch the country $ 50 billion (although by 2008), the target is more than ambitious. All that is sought to be brought about mainly by allowing the domestic large industry and foreign investors to enter the garment manufacturing sector, which accounts for nearly half of the textile exports. The hope is that the lifting of the 24 per cent cap on the foreign direct investment (FDI) will lead to a quantum jump in the quantity as well as the quality of production so that India can face the challenge from China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The first named is arguably the biggest threat considering that it has the potential and the track record to swamp any country with cheap garments once the WTO regime is fully operational. One would like to share the government's optimism on the efficacy of the measures to counter this challenge, but experience does not let one revel in that luxury. On the contrary, the measures may very well lead to some entirely unexpected and undesirable consequences.

Textile is a labour intensive and not a capital intensive industry. That is why Indian entrepreneurs managed to grab a large slice of the textile pie even in countries like England. Since margin of profit is low and the recovery period long, the expected FDI investment may not be forthcoming. Even if it does, the consequences may not be all that rosy. For one thing, once the industry is taken out of the small-scale industry reservation list, the small and medium entrepreneurs may be easily elbowed out by the moneybags. The government has promised to review even the SSI reservation in the knitwear sector. In each state, two or three complexes are sought to be set up where several promotional facilities will be provided to modernise all segments of the industry, including jute, silk, fibre, fabric, garments and handicrafts. These will function under the same rules as special economic zones (SEZs) except for a vital difference. While the textile houses will have the right to hire and fire as freely as in SEZs, there will be no export obligations. That may lead to considerable shrinkage of job opportunities. To that extent, the weapon against foreign dumping may end up being a double-edged sword. However, in the new policy, there is an unexceptional silver lining. It seeks to increase cotton productivity by at least 50 per cent, besides upgrading its quality to international standards through effective implementation of the cotton technology mission. That sounds like music to the cotton-growing states such as Punjab. 

Pakistan today seriously ill, but not terminally
by T.V. Rajeswar

PAKISTAN is not a banana republic, said an outraged Gen Pervez Musharraf recently. But Pakistan does appear very much in the dumps. The assessment of the performance of Pakistan’s military ruler, who calls himself the Chief Executive, is almost universally negative. “Pakistan’s useless dictator” and “Musharraf fails the test” were the titles of two articles that appeared in the well-known and widely read English weekly, the Economist of Oct 14.

General Musharraf spoke to the press on the anniversary of the coup and deplored the perspective of the world about Pakistan — that its economy had not stabilised or recovered from recession, that people’s welfare had not improved, that there was flight of capital and exodus of entrepreneurs from the country and that Pakistan was isolated internationally. In fact, the General neatly listed out all the negative aspects of the country though he was inclined to dismiss them as malicious propaganda spread by foreign enemies and internal vested interests.

After the Kargil war which General Musharraf choreographed resulted in a serious debacle, he and his trusted top brass were apparently waiting for an opportunity to take on the powers that be. Even if the thoughtless and badly executed attempt by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to supersede and neutralise General Musharraf had not been done, Musharraf and his lieutenants would have struck sooner or later. The so called hijacking incident of the PIA aircraft returning from Colombo was seized upon by Musharraf and his friends and the coup was neatly carried out. Pakistan once again went under the army boots for the fourth time since it became independent.

Military rulers had presided over Pakistan’s destiny for over 26 years since its independence. How long the current incumbent is going to continue is anybody’s guess even though he says that he would go as per Pakistan’s Supreme Court’s directive that he would demit office by the end of 2002. A court which approvingly gave three years to General Musharraf could possibly consider further extension if it felt in 2002 that Pakistan was not yet fit to revert to democracy. General Musharraf gave indications at the initial stage that he meant business in tackling tax defaulters, criminals and venal politicians who were in no short supply in the country. But there was no talk of exercising any control over the religious fundamentalists and the numerous religious schools, which are churning out young students into terrorists or jehadis in their parlance. Much less did the General give any indication of exercising any control over his own ISI which is directly in charge of sending the militants into Kashmir and the other parts of India.

The Taliban in the neighbouring Afghanistan are largely the creation of Pakistan. Mulla Omar, Afghanistan’s religious head and supreme ruler, ensures that Islamic law governed every aspect of life. Afghanistan has been identified as the breeding ground for global terrorism and it also produces two thirds of all the drugs which reach the West in the form of heroin and various other mutations. Both Iran and Russia, not to speak of other neighbours like Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan and even Khazakstan, are all extremely worried over Taliban infiltration of armed militants in their countries. The Shanghai initiative which was set in motion at the instance of President Jiang Zemin of China, was taken up further at a high level meeting at Kirgizstan last year. There is now in position an anti-terrorist bureau in all the Central Asian countries and India is also an active member of this setup. A Russian General now heads the Anti-terrorist Centre of the Commonwealth of Independence States, as it is officially designated. The Russians have been periodically warning Pakistan against any attempt to send armed militants into Chechnya or any of the CIS States. Russia has also threatened to bomb Afghanistan if it tried to destabilise any of the CIS states. The sanctuary extended to the global terrorist Osama bin Laden has been seriously viewed by the USA. All these developments should be deemed to be an indirect indictment of Pakistan and its close alliance with the Taliban.

Pakistan is in deep economic distress. The IMF is not convinced about Pakistan’s basic economy and consequently it has not made any commitment on loan funds since April, 2000. It is said that the IMF is waiting to see if General Musharraf would at the very minimum implement his promise to impose a 15 per cent sales-tax. This has not been done so far because of the risk of serious internal unrest at the instance of shopkeepers and middle class businessmen. In fact it has been calculated that just about 1 per cent of Pakistan’s population of 15 crores pay any tax at all. Only a few days back General Musharraf ruefully admitted, while addressing the Pakistan-American Physicians Public Affairs Committee, that Pakistan was seriously ill but certainly not terminally ill.

Western analysts have perspectively put their finger on the problem of Pakistan as its army. The Pakistani army establishment had played a dangerous game since the days of the late military dictator, Zia, who was the author of unleashing the proxy war in Kashmir in 1989. Since then the army, and the ISI in particular, had assumed even a greater role by developing close links with Islamic militants and liaison with the Taliban in Afghanistan. During the five-hour stay in Pakistan, after the five-day stay in India, President Clinton cautioned the Pakistani ruler to be careful in dealing with the militants but the General gave no indication of his being worried over his warning. At the UN Millennium celebrations in September General Musharraf was active in making contacts and acquaintances with international heads of states but President Clinton pointedly declined to meet him.

General Musharraf has been repeatedly calling for resumption of talks with India on Kashmir. India’s consistent response is that unless cross-border terrorism is stopped there is no point in resuming talks with Pakistan. Even the half-hearted attempts of some of the militant outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen to commence talks with Indian authorities on ending the current phase of militancy in Kashmir could not take off because of Pakistan’s interference and insistence that the Hizbul should get a commitment from India that Pakistan would be invited for talks sooner or later. Meanwhile, terrorism continues unabated in Kashmir and some of the foreign dominated militant units like Lashkar-e-Toiba are increasingly resorting to suicide attacks.

There are reports from Pakistan or unrest among the ruling circles, particularly between the civilian elements and the armed forces. Both Information Minister Javed Jabbar and Agriculture Minister Jamote had resigned recently since they reportedly failed to come up to the expectations of the army generals. During the past one year several ministers had been forced to resign or dismissed from the national and provincial Cabinets for the same reason. The civil servants who used to constitute the backbone of the administration have been totally sidelined and they are said to be merely tolerated for keeping up appearances in the international scene. The real power rests with a coterie of five or six generals, including the heads of military intelligence agencies. On matters of vital interest, General Musharraf and his kitchen, Cabinet of generals are said to consult the 10 Corps Commanders in the country who are in charge of troops. The civil servants are nowhere in the picture except for implementation of the decisions taken by the army generals.

In the aftermath of the Lahore trip of Prime Minister Vajpayee in 1998 a few mediators, including some well-known senior journalists of India and some of the retired civil servants of Pakistan, took the initiative for Track-II diplomacy. It was claimed that following the Lahore Declaration Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was seriously considering a peaceful solution for setting the Kashmir issue. Various options were considered such as the Line of Control becoming the international border with marginal adjustments. Unfortunately, the Kargil duplicity which burst upon India towards the end of December that year put an abrupt end to the Track-II diplomacy. There are reports of some attempts being made to revive it and even if true, it will take a very long time to bear fruit because of the bitter Kargil experience and the unreliability of Pakistan’s Chief Executive General Musharraf.

The writer is a former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim.

The Chinese deluge
by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

CHEAP Chinese goods are flooding the Indian markets and Indian industry is finally waking up to the flip side of globalisation. It is demanding protection from these imports. The Chinese are known to heavily subsidise their exports. Protection is justified to the extent of these subsidies. But that is only part of the story. China has a more business-friendly governance. Simultaneously, it is necessary for the Indian government to put its house in order so that Indian businesses can compete in the global market. Indian business must demand good governance along with limited protection.

It is well known that the Chinese government is providing huge subsidies to its export-oriented PSUs. The real challenge, however, comes from the private sector. Why is it that the private Chinese businesses are beating our industries hollow?

In a global market the price of raw materials and finished products is equal both in India and China. If Chinese goods are yet cheap then the reason has to be the lower conversion costs there. The overload of government costs is what appears to make Indian businesses uncompetitive.

The level of taxes in the Chinese economy is much lower than ours. According to the World Development Report the tax revenue of the Chinese government in 1998 was only 5.7% of GDP against 8.6% in India. These taxes add to our cost of production.

China’s record on corruption appears to be much better than ours. It is not an unusual event for a senior Chinese Communist Party official to be executed for corruption. It is difficult to imagine such a punishment in India.

The Chinese government is becoming trimmer while ours continues to get larger. The share of government consumption in China’s GDP fell from 12% in 1990 to 8% in 1999. Ours remained constant at 11% in the same period.

Our labour laws continue to be archaic and designed to support labour bureaucracy and aristocracy. Businessmen having dealings with China inform that there are virtually no restrictions on hire and fire and on closing down loss making units.

Our rate of savings has declined from 22% in 1990 to 20% in 1999. The decline has been mostly due to government dissavings. In this same period Chinese savings rate has increased from 38% to 42%. More savings means more investment and production.

Indian products are rendered uncompetitive because of Indian bad governance. It will not be sufficient to stop the inflow of cheap Chinese products. Along with protection our business should be asking for better domestic governance. Instead of getting scared of Chinese imports we must aim to produce yet cheaper. And, we can if the bureaucratic overload in conversion costs is reduced.

The second dimension of Chinese goods is that they are being heavily subsidised by their government because China is, in all probability, not able to export as much as it is claiming. The glowing statistics of 8%-plus growth rates, huge foreign investment inflows and export surpluses appear to be fudged. Actually China is in deep trouble because of weak exports.

Consider the figures for India first. We received $ 10 billion as remittances from expatriates and $ 6 billion foreign investment. The RBI had these $ 16 billion in its kitty. We used this money to pay for our imports. In 1998 our exports were $ 47 billion while our imports were $ 59 billion. There was a deficit of $ 12 billion. Of the $ 16 billion received we used $ 12 billion to meet our trade deficit. Of the remaining $ 4 billion we used $ 2 billion to increase our forex reserves and $ 2 billion would have gone into sundry entries such as IMF repayments. The inflow and outflow of foreign exchange is more or less balanced and transparent.

Now consider the parallel figures for China. She received $ 5 billion as remittances from expatriates and $ 42 billion foreign investment. But it did not use this money for financing imports. In 1998 Chinese exports were $ 207 billion while imports were $ 165 billion. There was a further surplus of $ 42 billion. The Bank of China received a total amount of $ 89 billion.

Of these China used $ 5 billion to increase her forex reserves. There is no explanation forthcoming as to what happened to the remaining $ 84 billion. They simply vanished into thin air. Clearly some of the figures are fudged because the Chinese hardly have the habit of smoking away their dollars.

It is more likely that Chinese exports are around $ 125 billion and not $ 207 billion as claimed. The correct position of China’s external accounts may be somewhat as follows. Receipts are $ 5 billion from remittances, $ 42 billion from foreign investment and $ 125 billion from exports, total $ 172 billion. Expenditures are $ 5 billion towards accretion of reserves and $ 165 billion for imports.

According to a report in Newsweek, Chinese officials use statistics “not as objective indicators of economic results but as targets to be achieved or as numerical proof that things are going well”. Economists assumed that after Prime Minister Zhu Rongji set a goal of 8 per cent growth in 1998, that poorer areas inflated their economic performance to meet this goal. Since statistics gatherers work for officials, who misreport figures, the funny numbers are hard to detect.” It is quite likely that the officials of the finance ministry in China are grossly misreporting the figures for exports. It is because China is not able to export that she has to subsidise her exports heavily. Where was the need to provide such subsidies if the Bank of China’s forex coffers were already overflowing with foreign capital inflows.

Chinese PSUs were ordered to export ‘at any price’. The result was that they were selling much below their cost of production. The government banks were extending loans to the PSUs to cover these losses knowing full well that there was little chance of those loans getting repaid. In effect, the government was providing huge export subsidies. But they did not appear as “subsidy” in the government account because the money was given out in the form of loans. It is indeed possible that China may similarly provide subsidies to private exporters.

It seems that China is making the same mistake that Latin American and East Asian countries did and one that we are engaged in too. Only China is making the mistake on a bigger scale. All these countries used foreign capital inflows to finance current imports. It is like a loss-making company issuing new equity to pay heavy perks to its executives; and fudging the balance sheet to lure investors into buying its shares. But this model can work only as long as foreign investors can be fooled with bloated statistics of a grand export performance.

The “cheapness” of the Chinese goods will evaporate as soon as this truth is forced into the open. But China will still beat us with her good governance unless our government sets itself in order. Indian businessmen, therefore, should put pressure on the government for reducing the level of taxes, containing government consumption and corruption, removing labour market rigidities and increasing government savings. It will not do to seek protection from cheap Chinese imports while leaving these problems unattended.

The golden brick
by Khushwant Ahluwalia

THERE are many people who with their actions and over-zealousness to obey their bosses bring mirth to others’ life. When the job is pertaining to “Saab Bahadur” from the Punjab Police the enthusiasm never seems to run down.

He saluted and said please take care of my postings once Sahib Bahadur becomes the Director General of Police. And truly so, the rumour in the evening was that the ADGP concerned was going to become the DGP of Punjab and the SSP had sent a Golden Brick as Nazrana for a plum posting. Till today the episode of the Golden Brick is narrated with great zeal and laughter in our drawing room whenever the police officer concerned visits us. 

Citizens’ fight for clean air
by Tavleen singh

DELHI breathes the most polluted air in the world. Mumbai comes second. The Yamuna, already hopelessly polluted, receives 1,393 million litres of untreated sewage a day from Delhi alone. The sacred Ganga with its once miraculous water is today almost as much of a sewer as the Yamuna. Our forests are so depleted that we could one day soon lose the few tigers we have left. Our zoos are in such abysmal shape that animals routinely die of mysterious diseases and poachers killed a tigress for its skin right inside Hyderabad zoo. News from the environmental front is generally grim in India so the smallest, little good news can seem like a beacon of hope and this week I bring you a small bit of good news.

Thanks to the initiative of a group of public-spirited citizens in Mumbai, and thanks to some judicial intervention, it is possible that the citizens of our largest metropolis will one day breathe clean air. Not in the near future, you understand, because 660 tonnes of pollutants get released into Mumbai’s atmosphere every day of which 69 per cent come from vehicular pollution, but at some distant point in the future. And, that is reason enough for hope in an otherwise gloomy scenario.

The story of the fight for clean air in Mumbai was told to me, last week, by a lawyer called Aspi Chinoy, who renders his services free of charge to one of the groups fighting a fight that is as much yours and mine as theirs. The fight began eight years ago, said Mr Chinoy, when a group calling itself the Smoke Affected Residents Forum petitioned the High Court to demand that it intervene to force the government to do something about air pollution in Mumbai. Similar judicial intervention from the Supreme Court made a difference in Delhi but more about that later.

In Mumbai, despite the eight-year-old petition by the Smoke Affected Residents Forum little happened by way of judicial activism till the group Mr Chinoy represents intervened with a new petition in the High Court in October last year.

By December they managed to get an order from the court which ruled that a Rs 1,000 fine be imposed for a first vehicular pollution offence, that a second offence result in 15 days’ suspension and a third result in the vehicle being deregistered. The order galvanised the Transport Commissioner into action and 16,000 vehicles — mostly taxis — were fined in the first couple of months. But, then came a strike by the city’s taxi drivers union and politicians, more concerned with votes than clear air.

In Mumbai the main problem is from taxis and of them the real menace comes from 12,000 (of a total of 55,000) which have swapped their four-cylinder petrol engines for three-cylinder diesel engines. This makes them more profitable for the taxi drivers who own them but disastrous in air pollution terms since they belch out black smoke every time they move too fast. Despite the High Court ordering them off the road they have managed to continue plying because the Transport Commissioner — leaned on in all likelihood by politicians — has slowed down his anti-pollution drive. So, it meant going back to the High Court to intervene once more and it has but the fight is likely to be a long, hard one as it has been in Delhi.

Unlike in Mumbai where it was citizens groups who petitioned the High Court in Delhi the judicial activism has come from the Supreme Court itself. In December, 1996, when environmental groups such as the CSE (Centre for Science and Environment) began pointing out that the number of deaths from air pollution had gone up in Delhi from 7,500 in 1993 to 10,500 in 1995 the Supreme Court decided it was time for action. Justice Kuldip Singh took suo motu notice of the reports in the media and came up with an action plan for the Delhi government. The Supreme Court also ordered the Government of India to set up the Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) which reports every three months to the Supreme Court on what is being done — and not being done — to reduce air pollution in the city.

Anil Aggarwal of the CSE is a member of the EPCA and believes that the most useful contribution of the Supreme Court has been its virtually ordering the executive to provide good governance. Delhi remains the most polluted city in the world, according to Aggarwal, but the achievement of the past few years has been that things have not got worse. “Nevertheless, if we went by the example of Mexico city which was closed down for three days when air pollution levels went too high we could say that Delhi should be closed for six months a year and definitely in the months of November and December”.

Judicial activism has managed, though, to force the government to permit only unleaded fuel to be used by vehicles in the city. Commercial vehicles that are more than 15 years old (thereby more polluting) have also been ordered off Delhi’s roads and by March next year buses that are more than eight years old will be forced to switch to CNG (compressed natural gas) as fuel. In preparation for this 45 CNG outlets have already come up in Delhi, twice that many are needed for the plan to operate properly. But, there could be glitches along the way in the form of vested interests who make a living out of diesel theft. According to some estimates diesel theft amounts to around Rs 50,000 a year per Delhi Transport Corporation bus whereas CNG cannot be stolen.

It is vested interests of various kinds mixed with bad governance that have made Indian cities among the most polluted in the world. The problem is no longer confined to just Delhi and Mumbai, smaller towns are already on their way to serious trouble. A drive through Lucknow or Aligarh on a winter evening usually means driving through the sort of dense have that the citizens of Delhi have long been familiar with.

The irony is that the vested interests — automobile manufacturers, trade unions, corrupt politicians and officials — are also forced to breathe the same, filthy air.

Their children and grandchildren are as likely to suffer from serious respiratory diseases as anyone else’s but for some reason they seem not to either understand or care.

So, if we want clean air in our cities we have no choice but to rely on the public-spiritedness of citizens and the sort of judicial activism that has made a difference — however minimal — in Mumbai and Delhi. We need many more citizens groups to join the fight and many more courts to take the lead from the High Court in Mumbai and the Supreme Court.

Spiritual Nuggets

Though my body be crippled with disease

Though the relentless stars bring endless misfortunes on me,

Though bloody tyrants fill my soul with terror,

Though all these miseries be at once heaped on my head,

Even then, my Lord I shall praise Thee;

And I shall not grow weary of exalting Thy Holy Name.

***

What is the use of rich food and fine clothes,

When the Truth does not dwell within us?

What is the use of fresh fruit, of sugar, of butter, of flour and meat in abundance, of splendid raiment and of soft beds,

And a life of sensual delight?

What use to a king his armies, his wise ministers and his brave commanders,

If in his heart he has not the Divine Name.

Nanak, all these things are as dust.

—Guru Nanak Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, page 142

***

My only refuge is

My God, the Timeless Being,

Who is All-Steel,

All Death,

All-power

May He protect Me for ever.

—Guru Gobind Singh

***

Of the twenty-four hours a day

Use six for earning and spending,

six for contemplation of God,

six of sleep and six for service to others.

—From the discourses of Sathya Sai Baba

***

Let him offer to the guest who has come a seat, water and food, hospitably according to his power, in accordance with rule.

Grass (for seat), room, water, and fourthly, a kind word — these are never wanting in the houses of the good.

The guest sent in the evening by the (setting) sun must not be sent away by the householder; whether arrived at a convenient or inconvenient time, he must not remain in the house unentertained.

— Manu Smriti, III, 99, 101, 105