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| Saturday, March 17, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Exodus
from the NDA India
write cricket history |
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The
Fiji farce THE fluid political situation in Fiji is turning into a lowbrow farce. On Wednesday, Mr Laisenia Qarase was the caretaker Prime Minister of the Pacific nation. On Thursday, President Ratu Josepha Iloilo brought in his nephew Ratu Tevita Momoedonu as the new Prime Minister, only to replace him with Mr Qarase in less than 24 hours.
BUDGET 2001-2002 Ecological cost of
green revolution in Haryana
Why are investors
losing interest in Pak?
Tehelka tapes
reveal how Delhi works
Common
man shocked, disgusted
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THERE was an unseemly queue at the exit gate of the NDA, provoking many to fear that the edifice may come down brick by brick. Defence Minister George Fernandes resigned, loudly protesting his innocence. Ms Mamata Banerjee pulled out her Trinamool Congress from the alliance and openly eyed an alliance with the parent party to fight the coming Assembly election. The formidable Samata lady, Mrs Jaya Jaitley quit as party president and vacated her daytime residence at the Defence Minister’s residence. This is triple whammy (three setbacks) for Prime Minister Vajpayee who frankly does not deserve it but worked hard for it. The Defence Minister should have left as the television channels were beaming excerpts from the now sensational tehelka.com tapes. He or his aides must have known that the investigation was all about middlemen in defence deals and how and how much money changed hands. Any school boy would have guessed it.. Mr Fernandes decided to fight his way and he is a born fighter even if his causes are not always noble. He need not be directly involved in any deal-making and perhaps he is not. But a Minister takes constructive responsibility and responds with resignation. It is a question of political morality and not personal defence. And Mr Fernandes failed in this respect. The Tribune found him wanting at the height of the Kargil clashes and demanded his resignation for giving a clean chit to the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. That was loose talk compared to the present winking at colossal corruption in his ministry. How come those in power grow a thick coating of insensitivity to moral as against political propriety? Ms Banerjee’s melodramatic withdrawal has relevance only to West Bengal. She has realised that the BJP is a very weak force in the state and a tight alliance with the Congress will have two advantages. It will result in direct fights all over the state and in her calculation the anti-Left Front votes outnumber the pro-Left Front votes. She has to consolidate this vote bank and hence the compulsion to leave the NDA and hold hands with the Congress. It is more closely aligned to the reality on the ground. Her party’s nine members in the Lok Sabha as indeed the five from the PMK of Tamil Nadu who too have dissociated themselves from the alliance pose no threat to the stability of the present government. But the threat lies elsewhere. With a total support base of 292 the alliance setup depends solely on the outside support of 29 Telugu Desam MPs. Translated into a political term the NDA is led by the BJP but is propped up by the Andhra Pradesh party. Mr Chandrababu Naidu is a demanding partner and his numbers and the dented authority of the Prime Minister will elevate Mr Yerran Naidu as the effective deputy to Mr Vajpayee. |
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THE Kolkata cricket Test match between India and Australia will be counted among the best in the history of the game. Records apart, the quality of cricket on all the five days was superb. There was never a dull moment for the 30 hours the game lasted. Harbhajan Singh managed to turn what could have been a draw into a famous victory for India with the barest minimum of time to spare. The Kolkata crowd was extremely privileged for having been privy to the making of cricket history in which India's name would be written with letters of gold. The punters must have made a huge killing. Who could imagine that India would turn certain defeat into an amazing
victory. For the first three days in Kolkata Steve Waugh's all-conquering team was mentally preparing itself to celebrate what should have been a 17th-in-a-row Test victory for Australia. However, the under-rated V. V. S. Laxman in the company of Rahul Dravid changed the script. It helped India became only the second team to win a Test match after being made to follow-on. England performed the seemingly impossible feat twice. On all the three occasions, including the Kolkata Test, Australia was at the receiving end. However, it is bowlers who win matches. The batsmen merely lay the foundation. A small score means a weak foundation. For this reason alone the young off spinner from Punjab, Harbhajan Singh, deserves as much praise as Laxman for rewriting the history of Test cricket. He had reason to feel let down by the batsmen in the first innings. An impressive haul of seven wickets plus the first-ever hat trick by an Indian would have proved futile, going by India's first innings score. In Laxman he found a batsman who provided him the opportunity to bowl again. Laxman's was a knock which the great Don Bradman must have come down from heaven to watch. However, Harbhajan's fans are likely to rate his contribution a notch above that of the others. And why not? It took two experienced batsmen and just one relatively inexperienced bowler for India to attain cricketing glory. That inexperienced bowler was Harbhajan Singh. His match haul of 13 wickets proved lucky for India. Well done Bhajji, you have done Punjab and India proud. |
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THE fluid political situation in Fiji is turning into a lowbrow farce. On Wednesday, Mr Laisenia Qarase was the caretaker Prime Minister of the Pacific nation. On Thursday, President Ratu Josepha Iloilo brought in his nephew Ratu Tevita Momoedonu as the new Prime Minister, only to replace him with Mr Qarase in less than 24 hours. Mr Momoedonu should consider himself lucky for lasting so “long”. On May 29, 2000, he was made Prime Minister for only five minutes to allow the then President, Sir Kamisese Mara, to constitutionally sack Mr Mahendra Pal Chaudhry, who was held hostage by coup leader George Speight. In his latest one-day avatar, he was used to dissolve Parliament and order fresh election under the 1997 Constitution. This kind of musical chair drama is not only going to cause legal complications but also brings many high institutions to disrepute. Key players have exposed themselves to ridicule. There is a sharp divergence of views on various constitutional issues between the President, the courts and the Great Council of Chiefs. But it would seem that they have more or less the same stand on easing Mr Chaudhry out. That is a sign of the anti-Indian feeling prevalent there. The deposed Prime Minister has every reason to be bitter. He has castigated Fiji’s police and the Army’s also, whom he accuses of becoming props for undemocratic forces instead of being the guardians of democracy. There is considerable merit in Mr Chaudhry’s claim that Indians have been made a scapegoat for the failures of Fijian leaders. The majority of the Fijian people remain poor in spite of the fact that their rights were fully protected by the Constitution. They dominate the public service and Fiji’s army. All resources like the sea, land, forest and minerals are in their hands and they also get special education support and soft loans. Mr Chaudhry has blamed indigenous institutions like the Great Council of Chiefs, the Native and Trust Board, the Fijian Affairs Board and the provincial councils for poor utilisation of the country’s resources. This is indeed the cause of Fijian backwardness and poverty. Now that Parliament has been dissolved, the next elections are likely to take place in August. On paper, these will be under the multiracial Constitution. In reality, it will be very difficult for Indians to contest on an equal footing. |
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BUDGET 2001-2002 AT long last the “sound of silence” emanating from city suburbs and rural countryside seem to have reached the corridors of power, albeit in a muted and distorted manner. In response Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has condescended to mention “agriculture and food economy” in his budgetary dispatches primarily meant for industry and trade. This is what he had to say: “Speeding up of the agricultural sector reforms and better management of the food economy is the broad strategy of the Budget. Agricultural sector continues to be constrained by the existence of a number of inhibiting controls and regulations. The government, therefore, proposes to review the operation of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and remove many of the restrictions that have been imposed on the free inter-state movement of foodgrains and agricultural produce and also on the storage and stocking of such commodities. The government would also review the list of commodities declared as essential under the said Act and bring their number down to the minimum required”. Going further, Mr Sinha stated that the government’s policy has to be transformed to deal with surpluses rather than only shortages. With this in view state governments would be given an enlarged role in procurement and distribution of foodgrains for the PDS in their respective states. “Instead of providing subsidised foodgrains financial assistance will be provided to the state governments to enable them to procure and distribute foodgrains to below poverty line families at subsidised rates,” he said. “FCI would continue to procure foodgrains for maintaining food security reserves, and for such state governments who will assign it this task on their behalf”. Considering the general and open ended “obiter dicta” on such a critical issue as food security, Dr Manmohan Singh’s “velvet glove” remarks on FM’s oracle are in order: “Mr Sinha talked about restructuring the food security system. But, I think that he has not thought of the consequences. Last year when this government tampered with the PDS by changing prices of commodities for people living below poverty line and above poverty line, I had warned that this will boomerang and that has exactly happened. Now they (government) want to dismantle the FCI. They have been talking about decentralisation of procurement and distribution without thinking about the consequences. My fears are that everywhere this government acts in a half-hearted manner without thinking about the consequences. And I hope they will not tamper with the system of national food security”. Erudite man that he is, Singh qualifies his remarks, “However, I think the national system of food security does need modification. But it needs modification only after a great deal of thought. We should not do anything, which will create in the farmers’ mind a new uncertainty. Most states have no credible mechanism for procurement. The Food Corporation of India, with all its imperfections, has built up expertise. Now we cannot overnight say that this system can be demolished”. Dr Singh’s observations notwithstanding, the decision per se to drastically prune the FCI and give it only a strategic instead of a commanding role in managing India’s food security is laudable. But the question is “what kind of alternative system is being put together?” If one considers the follow up action of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, the nodal agency for formulating policies for food security and managing the PDS, the answer would be very disappointing. All that the Ministry has done was to release newspaper advertisements one week after the Budget, extolling Government of India’s initiatives to “protect the interests of farmers — the backbone of our country”. These include procurement and storage of massive quantities of foodgrains by the FCI (most of which is rotting or rodent infested), annually increasing the minimum support prices of different agricultural commodities and purchasing sub-standard paddy/wheat by relaxing specifications. To claim these as measures to protect the farmers and provide food security to a nation of 100 crore people is absurd, to say the least. This typical political myopia and stick-in-the-mud bureaucratic mindset could spell disaster in a country with the dubious distinction of having the highest number of underfed and malnourished people in the world! What is urgently required following the budget initiative is to put in place a comprehensive food policy with the twin objective of protecting the farmer and the rural/urban consumer in the low-income bracket. Such a policy blueprint was provided by the High Powered Committee on Agricultural Policies and Programmes (Bhanu Pratap Singh Committee) way back in 1990. The committee gave “a great deal of thought” and identified the core issues that would influence the food security system in the country. These were: * Personal involvement of the farmers, who are the producers, and the market makers who influence the consumers; * Protecting the farmer and the consumer against the vagaries of production and the market forces in order to enhance agricultural productivity and ensure fair prices; * Reduction in the cost of foodgrain procurement, storage, transportation and distribution; * Efficient delivery system under which those in genuine need of subsidies and support are properly targeted and given sufficient access to foodgrains; * Effective interventionary powers in the hands of the government in times of need to protect the interests of producers or consumers as the case may be, Having identified the core issues the committee recommended a package of policy initiatives covering trading, pricing, stock and storage and security aspects. These include: - * withdrawal of all controls, except quality controls, on movement, processing, marketing and export of farm products except in years of scarcity. * fixing “parity prices” for foodgrains, which fully compensate the farmers for rise in cost of inputs and their other necessities of life, with reference to an agreed base year, and also setting the limits between which the foodgrain trade will have to operate. This was to be done by fixing a floor and a ceiling price, respectively, to be called “support price” below which prices will not be allowed to fall and “intervention price”, beyond which prices would not be allowed to rise. * establishing a chain of rural and periurban godowns with warehousing and foodgrain banking facilities, one godown being located in a cluster of 10 to 12 villages or around small towns. The farmers may, at any time, sell their produce to the warehouses at the “support” price, in which case, the stock will go in government account. The farmers will have the option to deposit the same in their own accounts and take bank loans against their pledged stock. It should be made obligatory on all stockists, who wish to stock more than a specified quantity of foodgrains, to do so only in these warehouses. Farmers could also be helped and encouraged to set up cooperative shops in cities to sell their produce directly to consumers, so long as they do not transgress the “intervention” prices. * a security mechanism under which as and when price of foodgrains in the open market rises above the intervention price (already fixed) all stocks would stand transferred to the government account, which would acquire the whole or part of it, on payment of “parity” price plus storage charges. If the price falls below the “support” price, the farmers would have the right to sell their stocks to the government at the rate of the support price already fixed, plus the storage charges. The principle of “parity” aims at maintaining the purchasing power of agriculturists, in terms of those commodities, which they have to buy for their use. In other words, if in 1990-91, the farmers could purchase a certain mix of consumer goods and agricultural inputs with the proceeds of one quintal of wheat (or paddy, or any other farm produce) then the present price of their produce should be so fixed as to enable them to buy the same mix of consumer goods and agricultural inputs. This would mean that the “parity” price of foodgrains should be determined based on changes in the composite index of prices paid by farmers for consumer goods and agricultural inputs. The fundamental rationale of state procurement and “support price” is not to commercially underwrite or guarantee sale of farm products of any quality at any price, but to intervene in times of possible distress and hold the hands of the farmer. The “support” price, therefore, should be at a level less than the “parity price” say 85 per cent. Similarly, foodgrain prices should not be subject to runaway inflation due to imperfect market conditions. This is necessary to safeguard the consumers, both rural and urban. Hence the need for “intervention” price. This “intervention” price should be at a level reasonably higher, say 115 per cent of the “parity” price, as determined above. In case the market price of foodgrain falls below support price, it would be obligatory on the part of the state to purchase all stocks offered to it at this price. Similarly in the event of market price exceeding the intervention price, the State shall have the right to acquire all stocks wherever located and to whomsoever these may belong at ‘parity’ price leaving with the stockist, grains required for his private consumption and agricultural needs, if he is a farmer. Under this policy for food security, farmers will be assured of minimum support price and consumers of supplies at reasonable and relatively stable prices. Traders — private as well as cooperatives — will also know the limits within which they can operate. Small farmers will be saved from going in for distress sales, and the government will have the facility to quickly locate and acquire foodgrain stocks in times of need. Expenses would be minimal. This report and the policy recommendations came up before Parliament in December, 1991 in response to a member’s question as to the delay in taking decision on the report of the Bhanu Pratap Singh Committee on Agricultural Policies and Programmes. To this the then Union Agriculture Minister Mr. Balram Jakhar, had replied: “Mr Speaker, Sir, there is no delay I think. It is a question of a procedure and as such there is no absence of any policy also because if there had been no agricultural thrust or policy in that respect, we could not have marched to the level where we are today. It is not we who put up that committee but the previous government. It was for the specific purpose of reviewing the policy and programmes for promotion of agricultural development in the country and to examine the feasibility or desirability of declaring agriculture as an industry or, in the alternative, treating agriculture on a par with the industry for the purpose of granting suitable facilities and concessions”. The Minister went on to state that “this policy was formulated by the committee and submitted to government in September, 1990. There was a draft policy resolution presented to the Cabinet but that was not discussed and not adopted. Then it was referred to the various State Governments and the ministries for their recommendations and their viewpoints. As you see, I have been repeating on the floor of the House time and again that we are going to implement what the committee had also said about the creation of surplus, about the export orientation, about remunerative prices to the farmers, about treating agriculture as an industry or not. All these things have to be dealt with in a proper perspective. I want to get all these facts, discuss them and bring them as early as possible before this House after presenting it to the Cabinet”. This categorical assurance to Parliament given 10 long years ago coincided with the commencement of the process of liberalisation and economic reforms in India. In the midst of all the noise and cacophony on reforms emerging from the ruling class which continues unabated, all that has been achieved in Agriculture and Food is to cannibalise the Ministry and departments beyond recognition and to reduce food security to nothing more than “procurement and storage” and perpetration of a prohibitively costly (Rs 12,125 crores last year) FCI and PDS bureaucracy. In the event one should be thankful for small mercies flowing from the Finance Minister provided they get translated in to tangible policies and sustainable action without any further delay. The author, formerly of the IAS, was a member of the Bhanu Pratap Singh Committee. |
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Ecological cost of green revolution in Haryana THE cultivation of high yielding varieties of seeds and use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, weedicides and fungicides led to the green revolution in India in the middle of 1960s. Although this phenomenon resulted in significant economic gains owing to rapid increase in agricultural production and helped the country in attaining the much-needed self sufficiency in foodgrains, it had a damaging impact on the environment in the states like Haryana where the green revolution was a greater success due to a combination of factors like fertile land, irrigation facilities, consolidation of land holdings, progressive peasantry and dynamic political leadership. The ecological devastation caused by the green revolution in this state merits serious attention of the political leaders, administrators, agricultural scientists and the social scientist, particularly the economists working in the universities of Haryana. Even though the stress in the agriculture of this state has been on intensive cultivation, the farmers have brought under the plough uncultivated common lands grazing pastures and chunks of fallow land in villages to get the maximum advantages of the new technology. This escalated the process of deforestation in Haryana causing considerable damage to flora and fauna. Several species of wild plants have been virtually eliminated. Similarly, many species of birds and wild animals face extinction. Even the population of reptiles has declined. The damage to forests has also adversely affected the climate of the state. The ecological balance was disturbed by the increase in area under cereals and the decline in areas under pulses, oilseeds, fruits and fodder. Even among the cereals, the concentration has been on the cultivation of wheat and rice. The cultivation of cereals like bajra and barley has almost been totally abandoned even in those areas of southern Haryana where the rainfall is very low and the underground water is not fit for irrigation. Since the high-yielding varieties deplete the nutrients in the soil at a high rate, the productivity of the soil has been affected. Intensive cropping has further added to the loss of fertility of the soil. The problem has been further aggravated by the excessive use of chemical fertilisers by the farmers. The exotic varieties of wheat and rice lack resistance against diseases, pests, weeds, insects and fungi. Therefore, farmers have to administer heavy doses of pesticides, weedicides and fungicides. The injudicious use of these chemicals results in the destruction of micro-organisms which are essential for maintaining the productivity of the soil. Besides, pesticides reduce the moisture-retaining capacity of the soil and damage it. The extensive and injudicious use of chemicals has also added to the problem of pollution. The problem of water pollution has assumed grave proportions due to the large-scale application of chemicals which filter into the sub-soil water along with seepage. The large-scale administration of chemicals has also led to contamination of foodgrains, vegetables and fruits. This has not only undermined their nutritional value but also led to the presence of toxic elements in them. Extensive use of chemicals has resulted in the death of a large number of birds vital for pest-control due to the consumption of contaminated grains and polluted water. The emphasis on the cultivation of high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice even in those areas which do not have adequate rainfall or facilities of canal irrigation, has resulted in large-scale exploitation of the underground water. Since these need large quantity of water the farmers have begun to install deep-bore tubewells. As a result, the water-table has started falling at a rapid pace even in northern Haryana where the underground water was abundant. If this trend persists, even the fertile areas are likely to be degenerated into deserts. This is even likely to cause shortage of drinking water in southern Haryana. On the other hand, this cropping pattern has resulted in water logging of large chunks of land in the canal irrigated areas. This raises a question: What is the alternative to the use of the modern agricultural technology? It has to be conceded that it is neither desirable nor practicable to go back to the traditional agricultural pattern which existed before the green revolution. However, it is necessary to modify it in the light of the ecological damage caused by the indiscriminate use of modern technology in agriculture. The recommendations of Report of the Expert Committee on Diversification of Agriculture in Punjab submitted by Prof. S.S. Johal made in 1986 are relevant in Haryana as well because Punjab too had to pay a heavy ecological cost as a result of the more pronounced effect of the green revolution on that state. There is an urgent need for diversification of the existing cropping pattern of wheat-rice cultivation and adoption of a pattern, which could be helpful in replenishing the soil. Likewise, a programme of proper land and water resources management should be evolved keeping in view the long-term needs. The farmers should be educated about the judicious use of water, chemical fertilisers and other chemicals used for plant protection. The Water User Associations can be set up for this purpose. The extension machinery of Chaudhry Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University of Haryana, Hisar, and the Department f Agriculture of Government of Haryana will have to be streamlined for achieving this objective. The media, particularly electronic media, too, can play a significant role in this context. The NGOs could also be involved in this work. The Panchayati Raj Institutions as well can be associated in this task. Instead of relying only on chemical fertilisers for providing nutrients to the soil and plants, stress should be laid on the use of green and organic manures. Research must be promoted to evolve disease and pest-resistant varieties of seeds to cut down the use of pesticides. The state will have to be divided into macro and micro agricultural climatic zones so that appropriate strategy could be evolved for each of them. Dry farming technology will also have to be developed. Forest cropping need to be popularised to restore the ecological balance destroyed by deforestation. However, care has to be taken to promote the plantation of only such trees as suit the local conditions and do not adversely affect the soil and underground water. The writer is a former Dean Faculty of Social Sciences and Academic Affairs, Kurukshetra University. |
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75 YEARS
AGO UNDER the auspices of the Punjab Prantiya Hindi Sahitya Sammelan free Hindi evening classes have been started for the benefit of the ladies preparing for the Punjab University for Hindi Sahitya Sammelan Examinations. The classes are held daily in the premises of the Sammelan from 4 to 6 p.m. and are taken by Babu Purshotamdass Tandan, Prof. Mani Ram Gupta and Thakur Udayvir Sinha Sastri. The junior classes are taken by a lady graduate of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Allahabad. The Prantiya Sammelan is greatly obliged to these persons. |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN HOW do some serious journals and newspapers look at the falling graph of Pakistan’s economy? Mr Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister did precious little except enriching himself and his clan. He now lives in the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia after having bargained with the military establishment that rules the country after a bloodless coup. His predecessor, Ms Benazir Bhutto, is in self-exile, again scared of the law courts and the military rulers. She too sucked the country dry and lived and thrived on the hate-India campaign. The military rulers under the new Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, have done little to help the economy. The feudal-industrialist connections rule the roost. Over 60 per cent people are illiterate and struggling to make both ends meet. They are like slaves, mostly suffering in silence. And yet General Musharraf would like the rich West to bail him out by bolstering the economy. People in the Frontier area live almost in the primitive food-gathering stage. How do institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund view these developments? Or how do Western nations look at this? They once backed this nation to the hilt; even ruthless military dictators ruled it with guns. But now there is some change at least at the surface. It evokes less interest, politically, economically and militarily. Look how The Economist, a London weekly that considers itself a think-tank and policy guide to the western model of capitalism, sums up the position of Pakistan in the context of the world economy. The Economist recently carried an opinion poll of 135 key executives of the world’s biggest transnational corporations. This reveals a mindset, of course. But that determines their future investment plans. They are indeed a hardy stuff. Size matters. China and Brazil, two big emerging markets, occupy second and third positions in their preferential scale of direct foreign investments. India is among the top seven. But Pakistan, with a population of 150 million, is nowhere in sight. Interestingly, all but four emerging markets in the poll were smaller in size than Pakistan. Clearly, if size matters, it is not critical at all. The Economist argues that general economic performance and exchange rates are important confidence-building factors. This makes some sense to the capitalist class. Brazil’s GDP growth rate of 4.4 per cent last on the surge of 7.5 per cent in industrial production attracts these big managers. The East Asian “Tigers” — Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore — after facing a deep trouble, are back to business. They have posted their growth rates between 6 and 12 per cent. In contrast, Pakistan’s GDP is a poor 3.5 per cent. Large-scale industrial production has sunk below 2 per cent. During last one year the rupee suffered a fall of 13 per cent in its value. But these two factors may not be enough to push Pakistan below the preferential list. There is Turkey. Its size is less than Pakistan. Its inflation is at a whopping 80 per cent per annum. Industrial production is minus 4.2 per cent and, at the top of all these hopeless indicators, its trade balance is minus $ 27.4 billion. So, why is Pakistan at number 25 on the list of the top rich 1,000 investors. The top 25 countries listed by The Economist have pointed out one common significant factor. It is irrespective of their total economic performance, the exchange rate stability or the size of the economy. It is the foreign exchange reserve position. China has $ 164 billion. Turkey was 22nd on the list with reserves totalling $ 19 billion. India was seventh with its forex at $ 37 billion. It is another matter that much of it was borrowed or constituted deposits from non-resident Indians. Hong Kong, coming at number 25, had reserves at $ 106 billion. Pakistan, according to an editorial in the Friday Times, is plagued by a serious fiscal crisis. It has been defaulting for long time. But the situation has worsened ever since it tested nuclear weapons in May, 1998. Mr Nawaz Sharif froze the forex deposits and broke investors’ confidence. This included both Pakistani and foreign investors. Simultaneously, its debt has touched $ 38 billion. A worrisome situation, indeed. How to reverse this trend? Very simple. Pakistan creates an economic and political climate that attracts investments. Pakistanis could send their savings and foreign investors could put up projects. Thus the economy could pick up. But is there anyone listening in the ruling class? |
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Tehelka tapes reveal how Delhi works WHAT a mess, what an unbelievable mess, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government is making of its damage control exercise. If evidence were required that Dilli is truly
door ast (distant) from India’s voters then you have it in the government’s ludicrous attempts to brazen things out. If our political leaders had even minimum understanding of how the ordinary Indian feels they would have realised that this was a time for humility and resignations, not for attempts to prove that the Tehelka tapes were doctored or for saying that there is no real evidence of corruption until inquiry commissions establish it. The average Indian does not need proof of governmental corruption. He sees it in his daily life every day. He knows that even for the services that the government is supposed to provide him — electricity meters, telephone and gas connections, ration cards — there is a price. In our cities the poorest of our citizens pay bribes even for the right to eke out an existence on the pavements. Beggars pay the police for the right to beg, slum dwellers pay slumlords for the right to build their shacks, pavement sellers pay for the right to set up their pathetic little stalls. And, as you go higher up the economic ladder the price gets higher so shopkeepers and small entrepreneurs find themselves paying bribes at every step. They deal with a vast array of government inspectors all of whom require bribes even if you are not breaking the law. We have, as you and I know only too well dear readers, designed ourselves a system that does not function without rishwatkhori. This is why it is not just incredible, but plain stupid, that those caught out by the Tehelka tapes should now be trying to tell us that they have done nothing wrong. Of all of them it is George Fernandes who has come out looking really bad. Think of it. His party President has been caught on video-tape having a genteel conversation in his official residence with a group of pretend, but clearly sleazy, arms dealers. The price for the audience with her is Rs 2 lakh that they hand over after getting an assurance that she will intercede on their behalf if their goods are not considered for purchase by the Defence Ministry. And, we are expected to believe that she did nothing wrong because she was only collecting for the party. Having failed to get a comment from her personally, despite repeated telephone calls, I quote a comment reported in the Asian Age. “Why should I resign? What is the reason for me to resign? I would like to know what wrong I have done...I do not know whether the money was actually delivered or not. The party’s accounts are clear”. Jaya Jaitly is someone I have known for many years and I would like to clarify at this point that she is a much better person than your average politician. I can also almost guarantee that she did not take the money for her personal needs but, alas, she cannot deny that she committed a serious impropriety by (a) collecting for the Samata Party in the Defence Minister’s residence, and (b) collecting from a bunch of arms dealers. When donations are made to political parties everyone knows there is a quid pro quo so when you take money from arms dealers it should be obvious that there would be a price to pay. This is not the only problem the Defence Minister faces as a result of the tapes. The biggest loudmouth that Tehelka caught on tape was his party treasurer, R.K. Jain. We now hear that he has not been party treasurer for a while but the fact is that he once was and that he unhesitatingly, and in considerable detail, reveals how defence deals can be swung. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s various spokesmen have behaved so stupidly that it is hard to believe any more that they are serious political leaders. The worst performance was, without question, that of Bangaru Laxman who even as he resigned continued to insist that he had done nothing wrong and was only resigning as matter of propriety. It was a political conspiracy, he added, to defame him because he was the BJP’s first Dalit President. Ha, ha, ha. Does he think the people of India are complete idiots? Then, to make matters even worse for the party we have another senior leader, Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra, going on national television to announce that the Tehelka revelations were only a conspiracy to spoil the BJP’s clean image. “BJP ki imandar chhavi ko kharab karney key liye ek shadyantra hai”. The journalists he was addressing laughed in his face. What else is there to do? The Tehelka tapes constitute the best piece of investigative journalism the Indian press has seen in years. In another country the journalists, who risked their personal safety to get the story, would have been seriously considered for the Pulitzer Prize. In our own fair land, though, the main attempt so far has been to malign them. Were they paid? Who paid them? Why did they time their story to come out now? And, from Arul Jaitley, one of the Vajpayee Government’s more credible ministers, we see an attempt to slander the credibility of one of the journalists involved in the sting. He did another story, the Minister said on television, in which he got his facts wrong. Fine, but there is little doubt that he got them right this time. The importance of the Tehelka tapes lies not just in the expose of the murky, sleazy world of defence deals but in their clear revelation of how Delhi works. Bribery and corruption starts, as we all know, at the level of petty officials and goes all the way up to the top. So we start with a gold chain worth Rs 10,000, a bottle of Blue Label, Rs 20,000 higher up, Rs 52,000 a bit higher than that and end with the Presidents of two of our major political parties openly accepting a lakh or two for party funds. If our political leaders would like us to believe that this is an honest, upright way to collect party funds then they must be quite mad. If the Prime Minister wants his government to survive the very minimum he needs to do is to order a full enquiry that should take no longer than four months. He would also be doing himself a favour by asking his Principal Secretary, hugely unpopular in Delhi even among his own Ministers, to also resign. Mr Brajesh Mishra’s name gets mentioned far too often by those caught with their hands in the till for his credibility to remain unquestioned. The Prime Minister’s own credibility, despite his own clean image, is also seriously at risk. |
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Common man shocked, disgusted AS the Indian Government scampers to defend itself from Opposition attacks on the arms bribery scandal, the common man in the Indian Capital, reflecting perhaps the views of the masses in the country, says he is tired of the shameful behaviour of its government leaders. Across Delhi people are saying they are “shell-shocked” and “disgusted” by the sight of top bureaucrats, army officers and politicians taking bribes in the video footage released by Web site Tehelka.com. “Revelations made by Tehelka are shocking to any Indian, who wants his government to be honest. This has not only damaged the government’s claims about its honesty but it has also lost its credibility to rule the country,” Diwan Singh, a retired government official, said. “It is high time the government resigns on moral grounds,” he added. On Tuesday, Tehelka revealed a four-and-a-half-hour videotape shot by hidden cameras in a sting operation. Two reporters of the Web site, posing as dealers for a fictitious arms manufacturing company called West End, paid wads of cash to various public figures and military officials to push through a deal to sell non-existent equipment to the Indian Army. The tapes pointed fingers at officials in the Defence Ministry, right up to Defence Minister George Fernandes, who resigned on Thursday night, and top officials at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). “In the entire government, it was only the Prime Minister who had a very good and clean image. But now it is totally shattered and his mask has been removed with revelations pointing towards his own officials,” said Sachin Garg, an arts student at Delhi University. “Who cares for the common man when these corrupt politicians just think about filling their coffers?” said Usha Kaushal, a housewife. “The people will agitate against such rulers, who are exposed,” she said. The “expose” is also casting aspersions on other deals passed in recent weeks by the government. “Now one can suspect that the Balco deal was also not transparent,” said Anil Bhaskar, referring to the recent sale of the government-run Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) to privately owned Sterlite Industries that caused a ruckus with accusations that a public asset was being sold at an undervalued price. “The government handed over a profit-making public sector undertaking to a private agency, which has nothing to do with social accountability,” said Bhaskar. There were words of praise for Tehelka too. “This is a very encouraging type of journalism. The revelation conveys a lesson that future rulers should not take people for granted,” said Sandeep Rawat, a student. But some feared the lesson, like others in India, would soon be forgotten. “Corruption has become a way of life in India. The Tehelka expose may soon be forgotten like earlier exposures,” said Panne Khan, a driver. |
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Truth cannot be limited to a single person, however great he or she may be. To insist that God has only one son or that he has a final prophet is itself a form of idolatry. **** Dogmatic beliefs use the spectre of idolatry to condemn those who think differently. But idolatry and dogmatism are actually the same thing, the limitation of truth to a particular form, person, judgement or idea. **** The use of images is part of an artistic approach and rendering of our relationship to the Divine. For this sculpture uses statues, painting uses coloured surfaces, music uses sound and poetry uses verbal images... Why is a poetic form of art allowed as religious but not a plastic form like painting and sculpture? **** The Word of God cannot be captured on a piece of paper. Even the words of a great person cannot be reduced to a single book. **** Images are the great archetypes of life, the embodiment in form of the great truths of the Eternal and the Infinite in which our ordinary mental constructs must be broken down. Those who make the charge of idolatry against such use of images only demonstrate their ignorance of symbolic language and mythology. **** We must recognise all the various ways human beings have used to approach the Divine, the Infinite, and Eternal, and allow for their free exploration..... If we treat ourselves like children or animals to be herded in a particular way we only stifle our deeper consciousness. —
David Frawley, Hinduism: The Eternal Tradition |
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