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Death at 70 kmph Legalising
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J & K: ENOUGH OF BLOOD & TEARS The Ramzan initiative and beyond by A.N. Dar RAMZAN this year is a new month of peace in Kashmir. The Government of India has asked its security forces to stop combat operations. The world now watches whether the initiative will be crowned by an Id of peace or there only be a lull when the people will heave a sigh of relief and then return to the bad old ways. Changing priorities in engineering education
Hubby at work
Ah..., chillies are good for you
V.K. Khanna wins, govt loses by Anupam Gupta IT is not always that the Punjab and Haryana High Court finds the Supreme Court on its side. Many a verdict of the High Court has been set aside in appeal, some deservedly, others not quite so. Fortune as much as law and logic affects the course of litigation right upto the nation’s apex court. Fortune disguised as justice in a gamble called litigation.
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INDIA abounds in frightening opportunities for an abrupt end to life. Natural calamities, both warned and unwarned, starvation, food poisoning, water pollution, illicit liquor, house collapse, road accidents, train collision and, in select pockets, militancy...death lurks at odd places and at odd times. On Saturday morning a passenger train rammed into derailed wagons and took the lives of over 40 passengers. Many of the dead men and two women were doubly unblest. They were packed into unreserved compartments or what the railways inelegantly describe as general ones. If it is any consolation, five times more people died along the track a few kilometres away in a sickeningly similar fashion. At that time just two years ago, the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar ruled out the possibility of a repeat of the ghastly collisions. “It is a freak accident,” he pontificated. But with the railways freak ones tend to recur with stomach-churning frequency. More freak is the sight of two trains hurtling in opposite directions on the same track and this one snuffed out more than 200 lives. (Incidentally, in a show of fake anger the Railway Board suspended several senior officers but after the public furore died down, quietly withdrew the punitive order.) Why, in the wake of the Khanna smash in 1998, the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety found hairline fractures in the tracks which bend and buckle to derail wagons and compartments? He also found the Ambala divisional engineer guilty of not inspecting the track as often and as thoroughly as he should have. For some weeks then everyone talked knowledgeably or witlessly about fractures but as the latest death toll shows, nobody did anything. This time everybody is silent, not wanting to provoke popular ire. Even so, there are three versions. One is the irresistible fracture theory. A slightly different one involves the coupling, the contraption holding two wagons together; it snapped, detaching several wagons on the guard’s side and was found at a point about 250 metres away from the derailment site. This too is attributed to the jerk imparted by a fracture. Three, in the pre-dawn darkness the driver of the passenger train saw the horror of rice-laden wagons lying on his track and tried to stop the train but it was too late. None of this corroborates with what the villagers who started relief work say. There was a time lag of at least 10 minutes between the first ear-shattering noise (the derailment) and the second (the passenger train ploughing through the wagons). Ten minutes is a long time and the driver says he needed at least 700 metres to bring his train safely to a stop. If he had been alerted in time, he would have got 7.5 kilometre. A quick reconstruction of the 10 fatal minutes suggests strongly that the driver and the guard of the goods train wasted inordinate time wondering what happened and how to react. They had a walkie-talkie but did not use it to sound the alarm. More than the fracture it is this slow reflex that ultimately killed three dozen passengers or more. Chances are the running staff will continue to remain untrained to be extra careful to notice any danger signal and react promptly. In the absence of this key preparation all the safety steps built into the system will not prevent an accident. The railways do not tire of pointing out that India’s is the biggest network carrying millions of people every day. If working does not improve, it may well end up being the biggest killer too. The Railway Ministry is virtually headless. Minister Mamata Banerjee spends all her spare time in West Bengal getting ready to fight the Left Front. Even on the day of the accident, the worst since she took over, she preferred to address a rally in Midnapore rather than rush to the accident site. With this degree of indifference, the railways can only turn worse and not better. |
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THE Dutch have gone the way they had indicated they would on the issue of legalising euthanasia. Last week the Netherlands became the first country to accord legitimacy to the act of putting terminally ill patients to sleep on demand. That the Dutch Parliament approved by 104 votes to 40 a Bill on the subject does reflect popular support to the measure. The Dutch may have taken the lead by giving official sanction to euthanasia, but the debate is far from settled. It is a highly complex issue, capable of producing as many views as there are people debating it. In popular discourse euthanasia is often equated with the act of mercy killing. But there is a very thin, yet essential, dividing line. Putting an injured race horse to sleep is considered an act of mercy killing. A critically ill pet is often deliberately administered a lethal dose of medicine by its owners for reasons which need no explanation. That too is an act of mercy killing. Simply put, mercy killing involves taking moral responsibility for ending the agony of living of critically injured or ill animals. However, euthanasia is about putting a fellow human being to sleep on demand by a qualified medical practitioner. That is the reason why the Dutch legislation lays emphasis on guaranteeing immunity from prosecution to qualified doctors and surgeons for helping critically ill patients to commit what would amount to legal suicide. Considering that most medical practitioners would not like to violate the Hippocratic oath of saving human lives, the Dutch legislation is likely to put them in an ethical bind. In this respect, the ancient Indian practice of allowing people, after they had reached a certain age or under specified extraordinary circumstances, to take voluntary "samadhi" or opt for "vanaprasth" was ethically and morally more correct than the Dutch law. The Indian system did not force the community's "vaid" (physician) to come into the picture. What does the Dutch law have to say about doctors who refuse to carry out their patients' death wish? There are other points which show the limitations of the new law. For instance, who will certify the critical nature of the illness of patients demanding death? After all, miracles are known to have happened in cases in which the doctors had the daring, based on experience, to try a new line of treatment. In any case, the amazing advances in the field of "medical technology" offer more hope than ever before of giving virtually new life to patients who were once considered to be "gone cases". What should cause global concern is the fact that medical science itself would stop to grow if the Dutch law became universally acceptable. There is another aspect which too deserves close scrutiny. In situations in which the patients go into irreversible coma, or cannot convey their feelings, the decision about pulling the plug will have to be taken by the relatives. The possibility of ulterior motives influencing such decisions cannot be ruled out. The Dutch Justice Minister justified the introduction of the measure by stating that "a law whereby the considered wishes of a dying patient to put an end to his life are permitted has its place in a mature society". He does sound convincing. But the anti-euthanasia lobby slammed the legislation by pointing out that "what is currently a crime will be transformed into medical treatment". This line of argument too is equally convincing. The only point on which the government relented, and rightly, was a controversial provision which would have given children as young as 12 the right to opt for euthanasia without parental permission. Be that as it may, there is at least one medical practitioner in the Netherlands, a controversial cancer, surgeon Ackye Smook, who has publicly welcomed the new law. In fact, he may have forced the government to give the act of voluntary death legal approval. He is known to have performed euthanasia on as many as 95 critically ill cancer patients, even when it was illegal, "because they wanted to die with dignity rather than escape pain". He too sounds convincing. |
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J & K: ENOUGH OF BLOOD & TEARS RAMZAN this year is a new month of peace in Kashmir. The Government of India has asked its security forces to stop combat operations. The world now watches whether the initiative will be crowned by an Id of peace or there only be a lull when the people will heave a sigh of relief and then return to the bad old ways. The days in prelude after the ceasefire had been announced have been gory and blood-thirsty, in Banihal where five Sikh truck drivers were smitten, in Kashtiwar where another set was done to death and in picturesque Lolab where it was the turn of four jawans to die at the hands of the militant. This was gruesome but only as gruesome as could be expected from a set of marauders who took it into their heads to defeat a wise and timely gesture of peace. The only way it could be done was to create bloodshed. Yes, there was bloodshed but the gesture was not defeated. The mainstream parties have welcomed the move. What is more welcome has been the general reaction of relief in Kashmir. Even General Pervez Musharraf, mind you, the author of Kargil, has not dismissed it. According to what he is reported to have told Abdul Ghani Lone, he wants improvements. The Hurriyat leaders have found it a positive move. Mr Yasin Malik has compared it to the initiative which was taken by Yitzhak Rabin in another blood-ravaged region, West Asia. It is worthwhile recollecting what Rabin had said minutes before signing the agreement with the Palestinians in the White House on September 13, 1993: “We, the soldiers who have returned from the battles stained with blood; we who have seen our relatives and friends killed before our eyes; we who have attended their funerals and cannot look in the eyes of their parents; we who have come from a land where parents bury their children; we have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice: enough of blood and tears. Enough.” How relevant to the situation in Kashmir! Rabin’s words were meaningful and heart-rending: “We have no desire for revenge. We harbour no hatred towards you. “We, like you, are people — people who want to build a home. To plant a tree. To love — live side by side with you. In dignity. In empathy. As human beings. As free men. We are today giving peace a chance — and saying to you and saying again to you: enough.” He said: “To everything there is a season and time to every purpose under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. Ladies and gentlemen, the time for peace has come.” In his reply Yasser Arafat was less poetic and uplifting but very practical and realistic: “We will need more courage and determination to continue the course of building coexistence and peace between us. This is possible.” In Kashmir this too is possible though the Palestine issue is far different from Kashmir. But when blood is unnecessarily spilled, be it West Asia, or Kashmir or Ireland or Indonesia, the misery of the people bears the same stamp of parents killed and sons and daughters missing for no purpose. The Indian Ramzan initiative tries to end it. It is now left to the militants and those who lead them to cry a halt to the human misery. This is what is needed. Sane counsel must now prevail. General Musharraf’s reported view for improvements must not be discarded and his mind must be probed. His first reaction has not been bad. If General Musharraf could find it useful, he must have come to realise the futility of the bloodletting that has been going on in Kashmir. The Ramzan initiative has been truly called the second best step after Mr Vajpayee’s journey to Lahore. Although the bus journey was started, it saw disaster on the heights of Kargil. This let-up must also not be used to replenish arms stocks and plan more bloodshed. Did General Musharraf also stem that earlier journey? Why is he comparatively more positive now? This cannot be glossed over. Are the moods changing? That is one of the questions that is being asked. Looking back at the Indian announcement it is strange that the government had decided not to allow an Indian cricket team to visit Pakistan. The indication clearly was at the time that an Indian team could not go to Pakistan when the Pakistanis were crossing the Line of Control and killing Indians across. In those conditions how could an Indian team travel to Pakistan for a cricket tournament? At the time the argument sounded quite reasonable. Could it be that this time also the government was thinking of and calculating the end of hostilities in Kashmir during Ramzan? It looks as if illogically two different governments made the two announcements. One cannot believe that one step could be followed by the other. By the time Ramzan arrived, the government thought differently. To this extent the government deserves to be commended. But now that all this has been done, it cannot be that the Indian cricket team will not go to Pakistan. Sooner or later it should go. The Ramzan initiative should be followed up. To get cheers or to be booed would not matter. Indian and Pakistani teams often do that. It is sport. The other question is: would the Indian cricket team go to Pakistan? Perhaps it ultimately turned out well. By giving up on a visit of the cricket team to Pakistan the relations perhaps reached a nadir. The Pakistanis were dismayed. So were many Indians. But since Indians were being killed by Pakistanis or by those inspired by Pakistan, they held their breath. But the Ramzan initiative has changed the situation. The only wish is that it does not end up in another Kargil. Now, whether the Ramzan ceasefire succeeds or not, an Indian team of cricketers must go to Pakistan. Sports is also the way to reach the hearts of the people. Watching the ceasefire, one must think of how else should India firm up its gesture. All the time it must remember that events can take an unhappy turn. The Lahore journey, even as it was taking place, was followed by Kargil. But that should not stop India’s peacekeeping. The aim has to be “insaniyat”. The question is: would this prevail? The orders issued by Lieut-Gen Hari Mohan Khanna, General Officer Commanding of Northern Command, specifying that “there will be no combat operation, including cordon and search, busting of hideouts and the raids on the militant hideouts” was welcome. One of the dreaded methods in Kashmir has been the searching of houses for militants hiding in private houses. Often they entered the houses obviously against the wishes of the house-owners. They had to enter private houses to look for arms and militants. The situation was so grave that they had to do it. Kashmiris should know that the people with unwelcome long boots and grim looks had nothing against the people of Kashmir. Yet, they went through this unwelcome task. Everyone knew that entering a Kashmiri’s house was an unwelcome act one could think of. Not only the killings should be ended but little harassments too. The only prayer is that the militants and those who do not want Kashmir to be a part of India will not use the gun even beyond
Ramzan.Would that happen? This is the main question. |
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Changing priorities in engineering education THE field of computer science and technology has expanded manifold in the last 15 years all over the world and has, in the process, created opportunities for specialists. At the same time, it has come up with challenges for the future. It is very likely that the expansion in the field of computers and the associated opportunities and new challenges will continue for the coming two decades at least, if not more. At present, the demand for trained manpower exceeds by a big margin over the availability of such persons graduating from engineering institutions at the national level and elsewhere. India has kept up with the demand and has been producing an ever-increasing number of graduates in computer science and engineering. Further, trained persons from India have made a mark in the computer industry both within the country and in all the industrialised world outside. There are virtually unlimited opportunities for experts in foreign lands, and young computer scientists have gone abroad in large numbers and are doing well with good salaries and perks. Within India also, a number of software companies have come up in places like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. These companies get most of their projects from advanced countries like the USA and Japan. It is heartening to know that the demand for computer-trained professionals from India is increasing in countries like France, Germany, Japan and Finland. These countries will recruit about one lakh persons over the next two years. More experienced computer experts then leave the country for greener pastures outside. The ever-increasing demand world-wide for computer experts trained in India has its positive as well as negative aspects. On the positive side, young computer scientists have established themselves very well abroad and earned a name for themselves which has paved the way for more experts to be recruited by computer establishments of international repute. As an added dividend, the computer personnel working abroad have become a source of the much-needed foreign exchange. Software companies in the country have gainfully employed computer experts who have different levels of computer education such as B. Tech, M. Tech and MCA. These employment opportunities have given an impetus for further development in the field of computer science and technology. The demand for computer-trained persons being much in excess of supply, software concerns in the country have started hiring a substantial numbers of engineering graduates from branches other than computer science and engineering. Thus those who have been educated for key posts in mechanical engineering, electronics, instrumentation, electrical engineering, etc, have been lured away by software companies. Best persons with training in other branches of engineering have joined such companies because of the glamour of the computer field and the better pay packet offered along with the prospects of ending up in greener pastures abroad. This large-scale exodus of engineering graduates from their own field of expertise to the glittering field of computers is definitely going to have an adverse effect on the technology scenario in the future. If proper thought on this problem is not applied at this stage and remedial measures are not taken, the problem can aggravate and leave engineering fields other than computer science starved of properly qualified personnel. At the same time, a large number of highly trained and capable persons in the computer field may be left high and dry in the case of a slight slackening of demand. The wayout of this situation may not be easy, but the problem has to be faced squarely right now. Some of the measures that can alleviate the problem to some extent are given here. First of all, it is imperative that the best engineering graduates from branches other than computer science and engineering are offered job opportunities in their own fields at salaries and perks that are at par with those offered by software companies. Further, there have to be promotional avenues for those who opt to stay in their field of training and specialisation. Secondly, to take the pressure off other engineering disciplines, it is necessary to open up different channels of computer-trained persons. Those students who have obtained M.Sc. degrees in physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics and already have some exposure to computer can be trained to meet the requirements of software companies. It would be desirable to start a one-year post-M.Sc. computer course for graduates from the above mentioned fields. This would have the dual advantage of gainful employment for persons in these fields where employment opportunities are not what they used to be, and, at the same time, may take pressure off the engineering graduates from disciplines other than computer science and engineering. This corrective strategy should save the future prospects of engineering fields other than computer science and, at the same time, provide better opportunities to those who have obtained M.Sc. degrees in science subjects. The writer is Professor, Department of Physics, Punjabi University, Patiala. |
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Hubby at work “JUST don’t worry. I’ll manage perfectly, “my husband reassured me helpfully as I was about to leave for a weeklong stay with my father, who had been hospitalised for surgery. Since in the next few days I was to be busy in hospital, hubby dear thought it fit to unburden me of the responsibilities of managing home and hearth. As it is, he didn’t think managing the house was much of a job. “With so many appliances and gadgets at her disposal, housekeeping is so easy for the modern-day, urban woman,” he had so often told me, pooh-poohing all my claims and contentions that housekeeping is not as simple as it seems. Now, presented with a golden opportunity to disprove my claims, he exuded the supreme confidence of a master magician who considers juggling several things at a time as child’s play. His assurances notwithstanding, I was anxious about how he would manage his meals in my absence. “But what will you cook?”, I asked in a worried tone. “Oh! that won’t be a problem”, he informed me with a smug dimpled grin. I’ll stock myself with two-minute noodles”, he announced grandly, unfolding his resourceful plan. Knowing that preparing instant noodles didn’t require much culinary expertise, my concerns were suitably allayed and I departed with an easy mind. The next few days saw me fully absorbed in preparations for my dad’s surgery. Whilst I got busy procuring syringes ‘n’ needles, my husband went shopping for instant soups ‘n’ noodles. Whilst I braced myself for the impending operation, he equipped himself for “Operation Quick Meals”. While I grappled with surgical paraphernalia and clinical samples in hospital, my spouse juggled with pots ‘n’ pans and spoons ‘n’ ladles in the kitchen. While I attempted to make sense of reams of medical prescriptions, he browsed through the noodles packets for instructions. He must have fared well for himself, for, in the course of the initial telephonic exchanges I had with him, I was proudly informed that all was hunky-dory on the home turf. Thus, when I returned home, I half expected his previously smug grin to have now widened into a victorious smile. Instead, I found his countenance creased in a tragic expression. His crestfallen and guilty look as I headed towards the kitchen bespoke a domestic misadventure. And then came the disturbing disclosure. On the eve of my return, he had prepared a meal of quickie noodles in one of my non-stick pans. Though he had emptied its contents, he had left the pan on the gas......and forgotten all about it. For two hours, whilst he enjoyed a peaceful siesta, the pan had smouldered on the burner, its non-stick coating peeling off slowly, like the skin of a well-roasted brinjal. A gastronomic project well begun had gone up in smoke. As the pan stood disfigured and discarded in a corner of the kitchen, charred and scarred beyond recognition, it told a tale of its own. And, my husband’s studied silence thereupon on the subject of house management possessed an eloquence of its own. |
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Ah..., chillies are good for you CONSUMPTION of chilli peppers not only tingles the taste buds but also gives certain physiological benefits. Indian researchers have shown that chillies impart a protective effect on human erythrocytes. The active compound present in chilli, capsaicin, elicits the sensation of burning by binding to a group of nerve cells called nociceptors. Based on the selective action of capsaicin in sensitisation and desensitisation of sensory nerves, researches have focused on the use of capsaicin in the treatment of painful disorders. In addition to the effects on nerve cells, capsaicin has also been shown to inhibit cardiac muscle excitability, visceral smooth muscle activity and platelet aggregation on non-sensory nerve cells and other cells. To find out the effect of capsaicin on erythrocytes, Syed Ibrahim Rizvi from the University of Allahabad and Prem Prakash Srivastava from the National Academy of Sciences conducted experiments. They collected blood from normal healthy volunteers between ages 20 and 38 and incubated it with capsaicin for 30 and 60 minutes. Reporting the findings in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Rizvi and Srivastava said that capsaicin exerted a stabilising effect on erythrocytes by making them more resistant to lysis under hypotonic stress.
(PTI) Taking the risk out of business This Indian American duo in New York has made it its business to take the risk out of other people’s businesses. Karun Philip and Harpal Maini, alumni of India’s Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) in Pilani, are cofounders of Tranquil Money Inc, which is eliminating risk for businesses that want loans from banks. They are standing on an apparent gold mine as everyone from ticket-vendors to boutique owners want to securitise their future receivables, that is money they are contracted to receive in the future. According to some estimates, the securitisation industry is expected to expand at the rate of $200 billion a year and this is in new asset
classes." All receivables can be securitised. That is a $12 trillion industry in the U.S. alone,” says Philip, the chairman and CEO. Philip and Maini came to this country in the late 1980s. Both are doctorates— Philip in computer engineering and biomedical engineering from the University of Iowa and Maini in computer science from Syracuse University. “We try to get data on future receivables in such a way that a bank would finance the loan a company wants,” says Philip, as his college buddy Maini steps in to explain how their technology makes loaning and investment risks more transparent. As the earlier founder of Imagine Technologies Inc, a company that focused on using proprietary imaging and workflow technologies to enable and outsource remote back office operations for the healthcare and financial services industries, Philip has the expertise in the nitty-gritty of how to manage receivables.
(IANS) Power cuts at -30°C Five thousand miles from Moscow in sub-zero temperatures, hundreds of women and children in Russia’s far east blocked the main Pacific roads on Friday to protest at the impact of a regional energy crisis. With children dying as a result of power cuts and temperatures sinking below -300C (-22F), around 500 protesters blockaded the main routes linking the regional capital, Vladivostok, to other towns. Energy crises have become an annual fixture in the region, as a result of embezzlement, unpaid bills, fuel shortages, collapsing infrastructure, and misrule. But the crisis is worse this year, with some 60% of the power supply infrastructure said to be in ruins. The regional governor, Yevgeny Nazdratenko, has long been at odds with the Kremlin. His administration and local councils loyal to him have failed to lay in enough coal and fuel for the winter. Mor have they carried out repairs. But with the governor well entrenched, the crisis has become a major test of authority for President Vladimir Putin.
(Guardian) Where are the kids? Ambling downtown for an icecream, walking the dog in the park, window-shopping in the high street, you suddenly notice something about the children of Rome. There aren’t any. Famed for being venerable Rome may be, but it comes as a shock to realise that here ageing elegance describes people as well as buildings. Little faces flicker from passing cars and youngsters occasionally bound into a fast food restaurant but at times it can seem nobody under 13 exists. Go south, to Naples and Sicily, and it’s another story, but from Rome upwards couples are no longer having children. A country renowned for its love of large, close families now has the lowest birth rate in the developed world. At less than 1.2 children per woman, it has become unusual to reproduce. Discount the relatively higher rate among immigrants and the figure is even lower. Within 50 years, according to the government’s estimates, Italy’s 57m population will have fallen by a third. By the end of the century there may be just 10m Italians. Empty desks are beginning to appear in what used to be overcrowded schools. A play area near Castel Sant’Angelo has been sealed off, and it is not alone.
(Guardian) |
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V.K. Khanna wins, govt loses IT is not always that the Punjab and Haryana High Court finds the Supreme Court on its side. Many a verdict of the High Court has been set aside in appeal, some deservedly, others not quite so. Fortune as much as law and logic affects the course of litigation right upto the nation’s apex court. Fortune disguised as justice in a gamble called litigation. This time, however, and after a long time the High Court has reason to be happy. And proud of itself. The wise old men in Delhi have not only agreed but delivered a resounding affirmation of the High Court’s opinion in a case that had rocked Punjab and plunged a newly installed popular government into a thundering crisis of credibility four years ago. State of Punjab vs V.K. Khanna. ‘‘The petitioner most respectfully submits,’’ pleaded the State before the Supreme Court, in the very first of its 61 grounds of appeal, ‘‘that the Hon’ble High Court in rendering the impugned judgement and order of December 21, 1998.... clearly erred by traversing beyond its jurisdiction and in effect, usurping the powers and functions of the disciplinary authority’’ set up by the Badal government to conduct an enquiry against Mr Khanna for doing what he did in February, 1997: hand over to the CBI, on the eve of his exit as Chief Secretary in the outgoing Rajinder Kaur Bhattal regime, cases involving two leading IAS officers of the State, Mr Bikramjit Singh and Mr I.S. Bindra. ‘‘On a perusal of the matter and the records in its entirety,’’ ruled the Supreme Court last Thursday, November 30, ‘‘we cannot but lend concurrence to the findings and observations of the High Court. The judgement under appeal cannot be faulted in any way whatsoever.....’’ It is true, said the Supreme Court, that the justifiability of the charges (levelled against a government servant) cannot ordinarily be delved into by any court at the stage of initiation of disciplinary proceedings. It is equally well settled, however, it held, that where there is an “element of malice or mala fide motive” in the issuance of the chargesheet, or the concerned authority is “so biased that the inquiry would be a mere farcical show”, then and in that event law courts are justified in “interfering at the earliest stage so as to avoid the harassment and humiliation of a public official.” Strong words these but, then, hard cases make strong law, if one may be permitted to adapt the catchphrase. “It used to be said that hard cases make bad law,” Glanville Williams, the great English jurist, wrote in 1957, “a proposition that our less pedantic age regards as doubtful. What is certain is that cases in which the moral indignation of the judge is aroused, frequently make bad law.” Frequently but not always. The moral indignation of the High Court is evident throughout its 34-page judgement, quashing the chargesheet slapped on Mr Khanna in retaliation for the sneaky registration of CBI cases. “A tooth for a tooth”, said the High Court, “is an old attitude. (I)n the present case it appears that the respondents are looking for gold in the petitioner’s teeth.” Two years later and 150 miles away, the Supreme Court keeps its emotions under control. But judges no less unsparingly. Purity and probity being the key words in public service, it declares, in the event a civil servant is alleged to have assets disproportionate to his income — l’affaire Bikramjit Singh — or in the event of “parting of huge property in support of which adequate data was not available” — grant of official largesse to the Punjab Cricket Association for the stadium at Mohali — Mr Khanna’s conduct in “floating” the two CBI investigations cannot possibly form the basis of a chargesheet. The “hot haste” with which the outgoing Chief Secretary acted, literally at the eleventh hour and in clear expectation of a change of government at the hustings, was amongst the central issues debated at the bar of the Supreme Court. “(W)hy this hot haste?”, the court cites Solicitor General Harish Salve as asking, “with some amount of emphasis”. “(O)bviously it was done hastily,” answers the court, in a subtle, almost imperceptible shift from the High Court’s position in this regard, ‘but the hastiness of the decision does not alter the situation significantly.” What is really significant, it points out, is that “if hot haste is to be attributed to Mr V.K. Khanna, the same can also be ascribed to Shri (R.S.) Mann, who succeeded Mr Khanna as Chief Secretary after the new government took over.” And proceeded, alongwith other bureaucrats at the helm, to withdraw the cases from the CBI as quickly as they had been assigned to it. Tooth for a tooth, haste for haste. Predecessor vs successor, successor vs predecessor. An age-old game replayed yet again. What, in the ultimate analysis, turned the tide both in the Supreme Court above and the High Court below was the court’s moral (not legal) perception of right and wrong. If initiation of proceedings through the CBI, asks the Supreme Court, can be termed a mala fide act, as contended by the State government, what would it be if the proceedings are so promptly withdrawn — “an action for (the sake of) administrative expediency” or “an action to lay a cover for certain acts and omissions?” Moral indignation apart and disengaged from allegations of mala fides, the decision in Mr Khanna’s case can (in my view) be safely rested upon a legal premise that is best stated in the following succinct observation of the High Court: “In our view (said the High Court at page 26 of its judgement), obedience to the directions given by a superior and more particularly the head of the government cannot amount to misconduct so as to justify the issue of a chargesheet and the initiation of an enquiry.” The statutory underpinning of this statement of law is provided by the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, framed under the All-India Services Act of 1951 and governing IAS officers. No member of the Service, reads Rule 3, shall, in the performance of official duties, or in the exercise of powers conferred on him, act otherwise than in his own best judgement except when he is acting under the direction of his official superior. The decision to refer the two cases to the CBI, protested Mr Khanna in his reply of April 27, 1998, to the chargesheet, was taken under the written orders of the incumbent Chief Minister. “I had not initiated action on my own. However, since politicians and Chief Ministers are beyond any service rules and no action can be taken against the former Chief Minister, the State Government had proceeded to harass me....” That, I daresay, touches the heart of the problem both in its narrowly legal and larger political dimensions. But for a bare recital of the fact, however (at page 2) that Mr Khanna had acted after obtaining the approval of the former Chief Minister, the reproduction (at pages 19 and 25) of Mrs Bhattal’s notes of February 6, 1997 on the file directing a CBI enquiry and a bland, rambling reference at page 40 (which speaks, on the one hand, of the Chief Secretary’s responsibility to the CM and, on the other, of the CM agreeing with the Chief Secretary), the Supreme Court does not address this issue at all in its 54-page judgement. It does address, however, and rather correctly, another issue touched upon by the High Court — the appointment of Mr Mann as Chief Secretary in 1997, superseding as many as 10 officers senior to him including Mr Khanna. And of Mr Bikramjit Singh as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister — a post from which he was later shifted — despite the pendency of a vigilance enquiry against him. “(W)e...do not wish to make any comment thereon,” says the Apex Bench, “since the people’s representatives would be the best persons to judge the efficiency or otherwise of the officers”. It is for the concerned authority, it adds, and not the law courts to decide as to with whom the State Administration ought to be better run, though perhaps it would have been better if “proper weightage” had been given to all relevant facts at the time the two officers were appointed. There is a tinge of regret here, and signs of a mild struggle between the spontaneous subjectivity of judicial impressions and the cold objectivity of the law. |
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Pride dehumanises and brutalises man. Pride destroys the merit of selfless service. Pride and egoism drag us down and down. Pride is a fire which reduces to ashes anyone dwelling in a castle or a cottage. —Baba Hardev Singh, Gems of Truth *** The folly of coveting a woman who is another man's wife by right is not known in the case of persons who are well versed in the laws of virtue and the principles of rights of possession. *** Of all those who standing outside virtue, revel in sexual indulgence no one is a greater fool than one who with lustful longing, loiters near the neighbour's door. *** Persons who devise evil and misbehave even with the wife of a non-suspecting friend will certainly be counted among the dead even while they are alive. *** Considering it a mere trifle if a person invades a neighbour's home he will only get for himself for ever, permanent and unending disgrace. *** Hatred, sin, fear and disgrace, these four will never leave a person who tries to entice his neighbour's wife. *** One who does not desire a woman who is another man's wife, and thus maintains his virtuous conduct, is considered to be a true householder. *** Strength of will in a person who does not look on another's wife is not merely a noble man's virtue, it is the noble path of right conduct. —The Tirukkural, chapter XV, 141-143, 145-148. *** Lust seems to provide the soil in which other passions flourish. Lust is like a demon that eats up all the good deeds of the world. Lust is a viper hiding in a flower garden; it poisons those who come in search only of beauty. Lust is a vine that climbs a tree and spreads over the branches until the tree is strangled. Lust insinuates its tentacles into human emotions and sucks away the good sense of the mind
ultil the mind withers. Lust is a bait cast by the evil demon that foolish people snap at and are dragged down by into the depths of the evil world. If a dry bone is smeared with blood a dog will gnaw at it until he is tired and frustrated. Lust to a man is precisely like this bone to a dog; he will cover it until he is exhausted. —Mahaparinirvana Sutra |
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