GUEST COLUMN
Be just to justice
J. L. Gupta
JUSTICE is the first promise that the Constitution makes to the people of this country. Have we kept it? If not, why? Just enter a jail. The undertrials are languishing for years. The condemned prisoners lie condemned in small cells. Leading an inhuman existence. Waiting for the decision. Their cases remain pending for years. The convicts sometimes complete the period of sentence before the appeals are even taken up for hearing.

Public funds for MPs: an assault on federalism
Subhash C. Kashyap
WITH a person convicted of corruption and disqualified for membership being appointed Chief Minister, corruption seems to have ceased to be an issue in public life. constitutionalism and rule of law stand endangered.

PROFILE

Harihar Swarup
Nice guys in power
TWO new Congress Chief Ministers, A.K.Antony and Tarun Gogoi, come from different backgrounds — one hails from Assam and the other from Kerala — but both have a clean image and an amiable temperament. They are soft spoken and have acquired long years of experience.

DELHI DURBAR

Advani to the fore again in power play
UNION Home Minister L. K. Advani’s camp is a happy lot these days. Their leader appears to have bounced back to centrestage, shrugging off any challenge from the coterie around Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

• No reprieve for Sinha
• Managing crisis
• Elusive Venkaiah
• Ministerial aspirants

DIVERSITIES — DELHI LETTER

Humra Quraishi
Citizens at mercy of local police
THE deadline for filing this column is staring me in the face, yet there are two other events lined up this evening which I would have liked to include, so I’m in a dilemma of sorts. In fact, suddenly there has been a spurt of activity here, as though with the VVIPs on vacation the rest of us could as well play our own little games (er.. whatever little games can be played in the midst of this dust, intense heat and grime, that are the very realities of life here in the Capital, from which the leaders have moved away from).

• Celebration time for some!

Discovering Nehru through his speeches
D. R. Sharma

WHEREAS books like The Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History manifest Nehru's sense of history, his occasional addresses and discourses reveal the choreography of his mind. When one looks at his speeches on art and culture, and especially the ones with reminiscences about his tall contemporaries in the freedom movement, one forgets for a while that Jawaharlal Nehru was a practicing politician.

Whatever else be the definition of a politician, he is essentially a self-glorifier with a veneer of humility and compassion. Instead of being deceptively polite, like a pedestrian vote-catcher, Nehru at times sounds indignant, but his naked, Jehovic anger entails the despair of a prophet, not the simulation of a con man.

What is fascinating about Nehru is his concern for sanity and openness of mind, enabling it to transcend narrow, communal grooves. Communal frenzy says Nehru, "is the greatest act of treason that any Indian can be guilty of."

What he tells the United Nations is pertinent to the present emotional tornado engulfing some of our states: "The best of objectives may not be reached if our eyes are blood shot and our minds clouded with passion." Intemperate sectarian disputes, in his view, blemish the landscape of India and tend to replace open spaces by treacherous enclosures.

With the vanishing of openness, tolerance and reason take a back seat — and the result can be disastrous. Hatred and self-righteousness outrage Nehru's sense of national cohesion and ethnic pluralism. He tells an audience in Bangalore that he does not like walls, and adds: "I don't mind a person living in the open like a vagabond or a gypsy. I am a bit of vagabond myself and I like vagabonds and gypsies". This nomadic urge brings out his longing to breathe in the open, brust low ceilings, and tarry unhustled under the canopy of the heavens.

Speaking at times like Hiren Mukerjee's "gentle colossus", or a Ulysses without guile, Nehru exhorts his listeners to think big and hitch their agony to a star. He wants them to shun easy comforts and set sail on the uncharted high seas. On one occasion he gently floats the idea of aiming high and constantly striving for excellence: "Pride should consist in doing your job in the best possible manner. If you are a scientist, think of becoming an Einstein, not merely a reader in your University."

The creative centre of Nehru's mind lies, perhaps more than elsewhere, in his speeches on education and research and culture. An education seeks to promote catholicity of mind, culture refines and mellows it. "Freedom from ignorance," reminds Nehru, "is as essential as freedom from hunger".

The essence of education lies in liberating man from the prison of prejudices and exposing him to the debate on secularism and fundamentalism. The moment we denominationalise a seat of learning, observes Nehru, we vitiate its normative spirit. This liberal view of education prefaces his comments in Aligarh: "I do not like this University big being called the Muslim University just as I do not like the Benaras University to be called the Hindu University."

Says Nehru is his convocation address at the University of Allahabad: "a university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for truth. But if the temple of learning itself becomes a home of narrow bigotry and petty objectives, how then will the nation prosper or a people grow in stature?"

Believing in the intrinsic value of different forms of intellectual endeavour, Nehru applauds even a subject like archaeology. As education offers "some measure of culture and tolerance", archaeology provides "a certain balance and perspective to our minds." Its study is vital to the growth of mind, since it makes us "a little more humble than we otherwise would be in this mechanical civilisation." When one examines the interned records of one's national past, one acquires "a certain depth of feeling and understanding".

The same composite vision manifests itself in Nehru's approach to art and architecture. He wants artists to value spontaneity as well as formal training provided training did not suppress the individual creativeness.

In his zeal to blend tradition with modernity, Nehru asks architects to objectively assess existent modes, preserve their excellence, and explore new forms to embody the spirit of changing times. He exhorts them to have new ideas, to be hit "on the head", for only then will they creatively think and respond.

Calling Chandigarh the home of experimental architecture, Nehru remarks: "I do not like every building in Chandigarh. I like some of them very much. I like the general conception of the township very much but, above all, I like the creative approach, not being tied down to what has been done by our forefathers but thinking in new terms, of light and air and ground and water and human beings. Therefore, Chandigarh is of enormous importance."

Ironic though the comments may sound today, particularly in view of its peripheral slums and the ominous threat of fragmentation, it is worthwhile to remember that Nehru admires Le Corbusier for being a man of ideas. According to Nehru it is "better to be extravagant than be a person with no mind at all."

Perhaps more significant in spirit than his speeches on foreign policy and national planning — even education and culture — are the ones with poetic remembrances of his contemporaries. As a document of feelings Nehru's responses to Gandhi are well known is his impassioned belief that Gandhi was the exemplar of moral rectitude, "the salt of the earth which keeps life going."

He eulogises Rabindranath Tagore for being a "modern of moderns and for making the whole world his field of thought and action." But the most memorable are his comments on Sarojini Naidu who, says Nehru in an anniversary tribute, looked at life "as a poem and a song", and who knew "how to work and how to play".

With a touch of poetry he compares Lady Mountbatten to a fairy with "a healer's touch." Nehru's word-pictures, his empathy, and his intuitive apprehensive of men and moments impart what Dr Radhakrishnan aptly called "a feminine sensitiveness to atmosphere".

Since most of the speeches were delivered extempore, they carry the rhythm and edge of a sparkling conversation or a crucial colloquium. They establish his forte as an acute observer and an engaging communicator. Almost every utterance of Nehru brings out his commitment to ideas, which he enlivens with a touch of humour and gusto. His speeches evince multiple facets of a mellowed, cultured, and discriminating mind, shy of self-referencing and weary of bravado. They vividly project him as a tireless pursuer of dreams and possibilities, anxious to shorten the baffling distance between heaven and earth. While reading Nehru's speeches one feels one is hearing a man thinking, discovering, and sharing his joy and anguish with the audience. In other words, one can look at Nehru's speeches as the thoughtful pauses of a man of action, or as luminous sparks from a meditating soul.

Much of the imagery in Nehru's speeches is fashioned by the vivid contrast between darkness and light, as it is by sun, stars, horizons, open spaces, adventure, peril, and destiny. Combating cynicism and despondency, his metaphors generate a mood of hope and self-adequacy. If our lights work all right, assures, Nehru, we can face even the severest raging tempest and march forward viewing the present as "a pilgrimage in time to catch the future." Brutality is alien to Nehru's mind, as is rhetoric without integrity.

In our present political climate, governed by polemics and expediency, it is instructive to remember the tallest of our politicians, our poet-in-prose whom Sarojini Naidu aptly called "a man of destiny."

To acquire a sense of perspective was for him the highest from of creative endeavour. Gandhi must have quietly figured out Nehru's allegiance to the democracy of mind when he remarked in 1942 that Nehru would be his successor: "He says he does not understand my language. I know this, that when I am gone he will speak my language." Unfortunately, with that language of idealism most of our modern political messiahs don't seem to be much conversant.

By mixing ends and means, and mostly concerned merely with the means, their mental and moral apparatus is inadequate to handle the analysis of ideas and appreciate the value of a transcendent vision. Their furniture of mind comprises mysterious vaults of bullion, not a shelf for books.

The writer is an academician of repute.

Fluid Asian power balance
Rakshat Puri

TWO major developments have taken place in the past few days that are likely to eventually affect the power-configuration in Asia even though they may not seem immediately related. The first is a hint, reported from Washington, that for the first time in half a century the USA is moving away from its fixated tendency to treat India and Pakistan as equal, in what has been described usually as an “even-handed policy”. The second is a change in the Beijing’s attitude to the Kashmir issue, signalled by Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji during his visit to Pakistan. He is reported to have, for the first time in half a century, endorsed openly the Pakistan’s position on J & K. An indication about the change in Washington’s conventional tendency to equate India and Pakistan for political and strategic purposes came during Christina Rocca’s testimony before the US Senate Foreign Affairs sub-committee at her confirmation as Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia. Newspaper reports say Rocca described India in course of her testimony as a country that had acquired “global status”. She added that with this role also came “new responsibilities, economic, military and political. In these areas, the USA and India can, with effort and cooperation, be partners”.

Rocca also referred to the sanctions that she hinted were hindering fruitful engagement. “My perspective is that the sanctions have outlived their usefulness. We need to find a new framework and a new way in which to accomplish our nuclear concerns and to get rid of the sanctions that are really an obstacle fully engaging both nations.” She added: “The US welcomes the continuation of the (nuclear) testing moratorium and we shall continue to work to get both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint.” Also — in the words of the newspaper report — Rocca said India was poised on an immense growth chart, following a decade of free market reform and the US could participate in that process. She referred to the transformation in recent years, beginning with the last years of President Bill Clinton’s term, of US-India relations and said “the time has come to complete that transformation”. While welcoming India to the club of “global powers”, Rocca did not undervalue either Pakistan’s standing in US eyes or its place in South Asia. In the Bush administration’s South Asian re-grading, Pakistan has been described as an “important regional power and an important Islamic power” — Rocca indicated that cooperation against drugs trafficking would continue.

In those areas where US-Pakistani cooperation is not “optimal” such as in Afghanistan, Rocca said the US “would work harder to show Pakistan the shared threat we face from the regime in Kabul. We have a lot of differences which we will need to bridge” to arrest “Pakistan’s decline into chaos and anarchy”.

Interestingly, Christina Rocca did not refer to the Kashmir issue during the entire hearing. But the Kashmir issue appears to have been the “quiet core” by which Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji cemented further China’s relationship with his Pakistani hosts. At a news conference jointly addressed by him and Pervez Musharraf, Zhu stated firmly that China “appreciates the position taken by Pakistan in calling for a peaceful settlement of the problem”. He did not refer to either the Lahore Declaration or the Shimla Agreement. Like Beijing’s opportunistically varying claims on the India-Tibet and India-Turkistan boundary, China’s position on Kashmir too had been kept ambiguous.

In a note to the Indian Government on May 31 1962, in the context of Sino-Pakistani negotiations for ceding of J & K territory to China, Beijing asked rhetorically at one place, “When did the Chinese Government accept without reservation the position that Kashmir is under Indian sovereignty?” In reply to this note the Indian Government reminded the regime in Beijing that earlier “on March 16, 1956 Premier Chou En-lai told the Indian Ambassador in Peking [now Beijing] that “the people of Kashmir have already expressed their will.” “Again, on July 16 1961, at the talks between Premier Chou En-lai and the Secretary-General of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Premier Chou En-lai stated that “Pakistan had formally proposed border talks” but emphasised that the Chinese Government “have not discussed with them anything so far.” In the same discussions, Premier Chou En-lai went on to ask the Secretary-General, “Can you cite any document to show that we have ever said that Kashmir is not a part of India?” Now this position has been reversed. The Chinese note under reply asks, “Can you cite any document to show that we have ever said that Kashmir is a part of India?”

The military regime in Islamabad, while upset at the change in the US approach as detailed by Christina Rocca, was jubilant over the unambiguous Chinese support on Kashmir. Musharraf, who claimed in The Guardian that Pakistan was a democracy “even though I am not an elected man”, cautioned the international community against writing off Pakistan’s special relationship with America — “we have had a strategic relationship for 53 years. There is a strategic balance in the (South Asian.) region. Now, if the strategic balance gets disturbed it certainly disturbs Pakistan. I only hope that this does not happen.”

Voice of America Radio quoted Musharraf as saying also that “Pakistan expects China to assist Islamabad in maintaining minimum deterrence level, the balancing role of which is so essential for regional and world peace”. Speaking at the Pakistan Institute of Strategic Studies, he appealed to China to play an “active role” in South Asia to maintain a regional strategic balance because the “region is a victim of hegemony” — Indian of course! Musharraf’s call to China to play an active balancing role in South Asia is reminiscent of similar and repeated prompting to Beijing by Madeliene Albright when she was US Secretary of State. Meanwhile, Zhu Rongji has called for “South Asian cooperation for establishment of a new international political and economic order”. Connect this with Musharraf’s remarks about “disturbed balance” in South Asia.

The question that Indian leaders and others need to ask and answer is: Is it a mere coincidence that the US is moving away from equating India and Pakistan and welcoming India to “global status” should come about the same time as China’s deciding openly to support Pakistan on Kashmir? Is it not likely that Beijing — that has acted traditionally to belittle India and has opposed its progress to a China-balancing factor — is preparing its cards and counters for the emerging power-configuration in Asia? The two coinciding developments may not seem to relate immediately. But there is an interesting indication of future directions, in a study conducted recently for the US Air Force by the Rand Corporation.

The study says that better relations between India and the US make sense because they share common interests such as in reducing instability in Central Asia and in preventing “Islamic” terrorism; but it also adds that “the ultimate common interest . . . is probably the desire

to hedge against the future emergence of a more powerful and assertive China”. This is where the two developments may connect — and they may also explain why the US welcome to India’s “global status” should coincide with China’s categorical endorsement of Pakistan’s position on

Kashmir. Some significant and mostly unimagined changes in Asian power placement seem on the way in the first decade itself of the 21st century. Is the Indian leadership prepared for them? (Asia Features)

Be just to justice
J. L. Gupta

JUSTICE is the first promise that the Constitution makes to the people of this country. Have we kept it? If not, why?

Just enter a jail. The undertrials are languishing for years. The condemned prisoners lie condemned in small cells. Leading an inhuman existence. Waiting for the decision. Their cases remain pending for years. The convicts sometimes complete the period of sentence before the appeals are even taken up for hearing. The civil disputes move at a snail’s pace. The cases just do not finish. The delays are back breaking.

Then go to the court complex. In any city, in any state. Walk into the courtroom of a civil judge or a magistrate. You will mostly see a dark and dingy room. No electricity. Badly furnished. The judge has a small table. He shares it with his Reader or steno. The room is crowded. There are lawyers, litigants, witnesses and others. Including the self-appointed watchdogs of judicial impartiality. The judge has a towel in one hand and the file in the other. He is feeling suffocated. Yet, he continues without complaining. From morning to evening. Day after day. Dealing daily with an average of fifty or more cases.

Should the judge not get a proper room? Should there not be adequate light? Should there not be a fan to circulate the air? Should he not have a proper steno to take down the dictation? Would it not improve the efficiency if the old typewriter was replaced by a word processor? I have no doubt about the answer. But please see the reality. It is there for everyone to see. A majority of our judicial officers are serving in wholly unsatisfactory conditions. They are not getting even basic facilities that are so essential for the discharge of daily duties.

It is acknowledged that lawyers are officers of the court. They are an essential part of the justice delivery system. They are needed for decisions on disputes. Yet, hardly any facilities are provided for them. They sit in improvised temporary structures. Under hot tin roofs in summer. Face cold winds in winter. It is said that they earn. Yes! Not all. Not the beginners. And those who earn pay the taxes. But what does the society give them in return? They have to pay for everything even in a government hospital. Why are they treated so differently from all those who get their pay packets from the state? Or the landlords who pay no taxes and yet get subsidies?

And the poor litigant has no place in the whole system. He does not get even a decent cover over his head in courts. He moves from pillar to post till the case is decided.

Why? What are the causes? These are many. To name a few: the intricate laws of procedure. The large number of cases that are filed in courts every year. The inadequate number of officers. The vacancies remaining vacant for years. Lack of basic facilities. Poor infrastructure. What to talk of books, even ordinary items of stationery are not available in some places. The work conditions for the officers, especially at the level of subordinate courts, are pathetic. Society is not doing justice to the justice delivery system.

The Budget is an annual exercise. We have a new budget every year. And every time, the Finance Minister presents the proposals, he does no justice to the department of justice. The first promise in the Constitution gets almost the last place in the budget. The common excuse is paucity of funds. Lack of resources. We are a poor country.

Is it really so? Are we really a poor country? Or is it that the majority of the people are poor either for their own fault or for the sins of others?

We have a large area. Almost ten times the size of Japan. All the natural resources. The rivers and mountains. The mines and minerals. And above all, a billion pairs of hands. If these are the riches of a country, Japan is far behind us. Yet, a sizeable number of our people go to sleep without food. Despite the thousands of tonnes lying in godowns. They do not have a roof over the head. Or clothes to cover their nudity. No medical facilities. No schools. We face the curse of poverty. We are nowhere near Japan. We have not been able to keep our promise of social and economic justice. The few in power are flourishing at the cost of millions who are condemned to starve.

Why? Is it because we do not work? Because we have not developed a work culture?

Yes! It may be so. A visit to various parts of the country shows that despite all the resources — the mines and minerals, the people continue to be poor. Despite the availability of all the irrigation facilities, they do not sow a second crop. Ironically, we have learnt to live with poverty. It appears to have become a popular way of life. A way to get something without doing anything.

And the pity is, we sometimes give to those who do not work. We give concessions. Jobs. Even subsidies. And all else. Resultantly, there is no incentive to work hard. To produce more wealth and less children.

These may be the causes for the chaos that we face. Irrespective of that, we spend money on everything. On colleges, schools and hospitals. On buildings and equipment. On army. On bombs and bombers. On guns and gunners. We provide money for everything under the sun. Even for wholly unproductive foreign trips. Why not for courts? If the number of posts in every organisation can increase, why not in courts?

It is true that education is important. Literacy is essential for the country’s progress. It is a national imperative. It is also correct that the national borders have to be guarded against the foreign enemies. Without doubt. At all costs. At all times. But is internal peace not equally important? Can we ensure national or even international peace without individual’s freedom? Is not a citizen’s liberty required to be protected and preserved with the same zeal as the integrity of the nation? How can the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under the Constitution become a reality in the absence of an effective and efficient dispute redressal system? Do we not need to do something in his behalf too?

Justice is a natural sentiment with man. Its virtue is universally accepted and acknowledged. It is indisputably the first principle of good governance. No people can be free and happy if they are not just. Justice is an absolute necessity in a civil society. It holds civilised beings together. Even civilised nations. Man does not live by bread alone. He is always hungry for justice. Thus, the need to do justice to the justice department. It is a necessity. Not a mere option.

It is true that an extra hospital will not remove the disease. Another school shall not obliterate illiteracy. Similarly, an additional judge in a city court will not be able to clear all the arrears. It is also correct that certain inbuilt faults exist in the system. An incompetent counsel can prolong the proceedings. Equally, a competent lawyer can delay the decision even more. All this apart, we cannot find excuses and ignore the issue.

We must recognise the need to streamline the system. To change the archaic laws. To fulfil the basic and essential needs. To provide more courts and judges. Also the essential staff. Proper conditions for discharging the onerous duty of deciding disputes. So that we may fulfil the promise that our Constitution makers made to the people of India: to do justice between man and man.

The writer is Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Public funds for MPs: an assault on federalism
Subhash C. Kashyap

WITH a person convicted of corruption and disqualified for membership being appointed Chief Minister, corruption seems to have ceased to be an issue in public life. constitutionalism and rule of law stand endangered.

Once again the Controller and Auditor General (C&AG) has commented adversely on the utilisation of funds under the Members of parliament Local Area Development Scheme (M.P. LADS). Simultaneously, it is reported that there are pressing demands from MPs to substantially increase the amounts available under the Scheme. And, in this matter, Members of all parties are unanimous except that some would be satisfied with 4 or 5 crore while others want 7 crore per year to be at the disposal of each one of them.

LADS was announced in Parliament as a Narasimha Rao gift on 23 December, 1993. On 23 December, 1998, Vajpayee doubled the amount to Rs 2 crore. In a democracy, after all, every Prime Minister needs the support of Members for the survival of his government.

According to the Guidelines, the Scheme has to be implemented by State level authorities. The amount of rupee two crores per year placed at the disposal of each MP is meant to be spent at his instance to meet some locally-felt needs like buildings for schools, libraries, hostels, hospitals, health centres and community halls, providing ambulances for hospitals, drinking water, village drainage and creches, and building bridges, culverts, link roads, water tanks, public toilets, footpaths, tubewells, etc.

It would be seen that legislative and executive powers in regard to all these items belong to the States and are outside the basic jurisdiction of Union authorities. The executive power of the Union extends to matter with respect to which parliament has power to make laws. It cannot extend to any matter in respect of which State Legislature has legislative power. Members of the Union Parliament should have no role in the exclusive domain reserved for the States by the Constitution. Further, if one looks at Articles 243 G and 243 W and the 11th and 12th Schedule of the Constitution, it would be clear that almost all the items mentioned in the Guidelines figure in the domain of Panchayats and Nagar Palikas. And, as such, MPs (and MLAs and MLCs) should not meddle in those matters. As it is, sometimes an MP has more funds at his disposal for attending to Municipal or Panchayat needs than those bodies themselves. Federalism and decentralisation of power to the grassroots through the 73rd and 74th Amendments thus become a facade.

Under the foundational principles of parliamentary polity and the Constitution, while the Government is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, Members are not to exercise any executive powers. LADS vests almost exclusive discretionary powers in individual Members to select projects for implementation in their constituencies and sanction expenditure thereon from the public exchequer. This clearly makes MPs wield executive powers and tends to blur all distinction between executive and legislative authorities.

A Member of Lok Sabha has at his or her disposal a sum of Rs 10 crore during the 5-year term and a Member of Rajya Sabha has Rs 12 crore during the 6-year term to win favours, build their vote banks and ensure electoral support by suitably obliging the influential sections of the electorate. At the time of the following elections, the sitting MPs thus come to have an illegitimate advantage over their rivals at the hustings. There is no level playing field and no equity of opportunity to new candidates or, in a collective sense, to parties in the opposition.

While some MPs are known to have maintained reasonable transparency in utilisation of funds and made real good use of LADS to nurse their constituencies, on principle the scheme remains badly flawed. It militates against the basic features of our parliamentary polity. It is clearly violative of States' rights and of principles of federalism. It vitiates the norms of free and fair elections. It is a clear fraud on the Constitution and on parliamentary polity. It is nothing short of vandalism with public funds for private benefit.

With nearly 800 members of the two Houses of Parliament, the annual outlay on the Scheme comes close to 1,600 crore. Now that the State Legislatures also have similar schemes for their members, the total budget for all the LAD Schemes is said to have grown to nearly three thousand crore a year or 15 thousand crore during one 5-year term.

The Members insist that the implementing district authorities or anyone else should have no discretion by referring to the Guidelines etc. and money should be released forthwith on their command. If the Guidelines come in the way, these should be modified. It has not been possible to develop any monitoring mechanism. There is near total absence of accountability. The State Legislatures cannot sit on judgement over the acts of Union MPs. Parliament will not hold its members to account and, in fact, it cannot, because the LADS is implemented by the States and concerns State subjects.

Over and above the legal and constitutional objections, if the public perception and the reports of C & AG are any indicators, LADS has led to misuse and corruption. The scheme has the potential of a greater public scandal than the many we have known so far.

In the process, the people suffer. Tax-payers' hard-earned money is affected. As it is, there has been a tremendous erosion in the public esteem for our legislators. There can be nothing more tragic than the representatives losing the respect of the people. It is time that they see the writing on the wall and not take the people for granted for too long.

Also, what has become a categorical imperative is an awakened and activist citizenry conscious of its democratic obligations to closely oversee what is done by the politicians in the name of public good and development. One is reminded of the words uttered in front of the Statue of Liberty during the French Revolution: "O Liberty! what crimes are not committed in thy name".

The author is a former Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha.

Nice guys in power
Harihar Swarup

TWO new Congress Chief Ministers, A.K.Antony and Tarun Gogoi, come from different backgrounds — one hails from Assam and the other from Kerala — but both have a clean image and an amiable temperament. They are soft spoken and have acquired long years of experience.

While Gogoi’s election as the leader of the Assam Congress Legislature Party has been a smooth affair, Antony’s ascendancy to the Chief Minister’s post was marked by controversy. Gogoi, in fact, had declared even as the Congress was heading for a majority that he would be leading the government but Antony’s bete noire, Karunakaran created hurdles and extracted his pound of flesh; pressurised the Congress high command to make his son President of the state unit.

Both Antony and Gogoi had been ministers in Narasimha Rao Government at the Centre and known for their integrity. Incorruptible as Antony is, he barely took seven minutes to render his resignation as the Civil Supplies Minister when his name was sought to be dragged in the sugar muddle. Gogoi’s record too as the Minister for Food and Food Processing was unblemished. Except one term at the Centre, Antony was mostly in Kerala politics while Gogoi was a member of the Lok Sabha for five terms and got re-elected in 1999 mid-term poll. Unlike Antony, he did not contest the assembly elections and assumed office in Assam as a non-member. Gogoi will have to get himself elected to the Assembly within six months and quit his Lok Sabha seat. He headed the Assam unit of the Congress at the time of the assembly elections and under his leadership the party romped home with an impressive majority.

Antony, who occupies the Chief Minister’s office for the second time, is known to have the cleanest image in the Congress party; of a leader, who is incorruptible, never hankers after power. Many in the treacherous world of politics call him impractical; others describe him as a “simpleton” and some even ridicule him as “gutless”. There are his admirers too, who see him as a Lal Bahadur Shastri of the south; austere, honest, simple, soft spoken and accommodative.

There were suggestions during Narasimha Rao’s tenure that Antony should be made the Working President of the Congress because the Prime Minister could not spare enough time to look after organisational matters. The counsel of well-wishers was not taken seriously and the party continued to be neglected with disastrous effects later. At one stage Antony’s name was considered for replacing the aging Sitaram Kesri as the AICC treasurer but it was thought that the Kerala leader was not the man to handle party funds.

Antony does not hesitate to express his views without any inhibition. He was known to be against the expulsion of Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar from the Congress because, he believed, the action was too drastic and would harm the party with elections barely months away. Also he was against the expulsion of Arjun Singh in late 1995 because he honestly felt there was some weight in the issues raised by the then HRD Minister. At the same time, he made it clear that he would not desert Narasimha Rao.

Many unknown facets of now well-known Antony outside Kerala are scantly noticed. Even in Delhi (where he lived as a Union minister), his austere way of living was unknown to the people. His wife, Elizabeth, worked as a clerk in a bank in distant Thiruvananthapuram and he lived alone in his spacious Asoka Road ministerial bungalow. He did not have a functional kitchen and got his lunch from Delhi’s Kerala House. His meagre breakfast was cooked by inmates of his servant quarters and for dinner he depended on friends. While houses of his colleagues were flooded with electronic gadgets, his sole possession was only a transistor.

Antony belongs to a poor Roman Catholic family of Kerala and had to struggle at every step to make his way in life. Hardships made him an idealist. He became a vegetarian during his student days as he learnt somewhere that the production cost of 10 kg of rice or any other serial was equivalent to a kg of meat. The real reason was that he wanted to economise on his expenditure. The habit still continues. Though belonging to a religious family, Antony became an agnostic quite early in age and shunned religious rituals. He carried on a relentless struggle against church-run educational institutions as a student leader and later as the President of the Kerala unit of the Youth Congress. So much so that he was described as a heretic.

Now 65, Gogoi was elected to the fifth Lok Sabha for the first time in 1971 and since then there was no looking back for him. He was, in fact, a member of the Assam Assembly only for a brief period — from 1996 to 1998 — when the Lok Sabha was dissolved and mid-term poll was held . He was elected with an impressive margin. Gogoi has been the Pradesh Congress President since 1996 and during these years, he revived the Congress party in the state and the reward came in the just-concluded Assembly elections.

Gogoi has long years of experience in the organisation. As far back as 1976, he was a joint Secretary of the AICC and elevated to the post of General Secretary in 1985. He was one of the young leaders, whom the late Rajiv Gandhi had picked up to be in his team of the leaders of the 21st century. Gogoi had also a stint as the PCC President from 1986 to 1990. After years of turmoil and bloodshed, Assam is now in the hands of a safe leader. Gogoi has daunting tasks ahead. The law and order problem has touched the lowest ebb and the state is in a financial mess.

Advani to the fore again in power play

UNION Home Minister L. K. Advani’s camp is a happy lot these days. Their leader appears to have bounced back to centrestage, shrugging off any challenge from the coterie around Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Despite the two leaders maintaining that everything was hunky dory between them, political observers saw a victory for the Advani camp when the Prime Minister drove down to his house to have lunch (some called it to smoke the peace pipe). Since then tongues have not stopped wagging.

Insiders in the Advani camp are quick to point out that the decision to call off the ceasefire against militants in Kashmir was done at the behest of their leader and not the Prime Minister. Their arguments came the same evening when Advani presented the Group of Ministers’ report on defence reforms.

The recent gubernatorial assignments have also gone to the Home Minister’s men, they point out. It is against this backdrop that there is talk of Advani being made the Deputy Prime Minister.

Sources close to Vajpayee, however, say that any differences between the two leaders are a fabrication of the media. In fact both Advani and Vajpayee have been working in tandem for quite some time now.

In this regard they point out that despite all the pressures, it was the same Group of Ministers headed by Advani which announced that the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary, Brajesh Mishra, would continue to hold dual charge as National Security Adviser.

They agree that Advani has come in the limelight of late and this could be part of a well thoughtout strategy. The elections in Uttar Pradesh are to take place next year and Advani’s emergence in the forefront would rejuvenate the party cadres and that of the other Sangh organisations.

No reprieve for Sinha

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha seems to have no reprieve from the criticism unleashed against him by a section of the Sangh Parivar. First it was the turn of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh leader Dattopant Thengadi to attack the policies initiated by Sinha. The VHP and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch followed suit. Barely had the Prime Minister managed to douse the fire on that front that another section from the Sangh Parivar has turned its ire on the Finance Minister.

In a dramatic outburst on television, the Editor of the RSS mouthpiece, Panchjanya, accused Sinha and unnamed BJP Ministers of doing things without consulting the labour unions. The Panchjanya Editor, Tarun Vijay, charged the Finance Minister and other BJP Ministers of behaving like “know all”.

Moreover, what pained Vijay all the more was that people like Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie were backing the economic policies of the Government. “The predicament before us is we see a person like Arun Shourie there, well meaning, honest and a man of integrity, believable and trustworthy, and he is advocating disinvestment. What do we do?”.

Tarun Vijay later clarified that he had not meant any offence to Sinha as the Finance Minister was his personal friend. He said he had only suggested that the Government should have consulted the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh over the proposed labour reforms.

Managing crisis

For a change the crisis management group headed by Cabinet Secretary T R Prasad has activated itself taking heed of the timely warning that nature’s fury might strike in either Maharashtra or Gujarat. The group got in touch with the authorities concerned in Mumbai and Ahmedabad well in advance imploring them to take precautionary measures and offering central assistance in terms of men and material to meet any eventuality.

The experience thus far has been to take the prediction of meteorologists lightly and get into the act of providing succour to the affected only when valuable human lives have been lost coupled with extensive damage to property.

After years and years of antipathy in being resigned to the havoc caused by natural calamities, the refreshing thing is that there is now an awakening to lessen damage to life and property to the extent possible by taking preventive action.

Elusive Venkaiah

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who in his days of BJP spokesmanship was perceived as affable, accessible and media friendly, has become extremely difficult to reach out to. Ever since he became the political head of the Rural Development Ministry, Naidu is on tour or busy with meetings. This is the stock reply of his office to mediapersons seeking an appointment with him.

A scribe commented on his constant non-availability saying that “it is not Venkaiah’s fault as it is unbridled power which brings about this kind of transformation.” Will Naidu kindly sit up and take note.

Ministerial aspirants

The imminent Cabinet expansion before the monsoon session of Parliament has spurred several MPs to stake their claim for a berth. The demand is most vociferous from the BJP camp which feels that the Prime Minister should give serious thought to his party rather than make the expansion an exercise to placate allies. Names of Karia Munda, who failed to make it to the Chief Minister’s post in Jharkhand and Shatrugan Sinha are doing the rounds in this regard. The name of Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who in his earlier term as first time MP shot into limelight by opposing early elections, also figures in the list of aspirants.

(Contributed by TRR, Satish Misra and T.V. Lakshminarayan)

Citizens at mercy of local police
Humra Quraishi

THE deadline for filing this column is staring me in the face, yet there are two other events lined up this evening which I would have liked to include, so I’m in a dilemma of sorts. In fact, suddenly there has been a spurt of activity here, as though with the VVIPs on vacation the rest of us could as well play our own little games (er.. whatever little games can be played in the midst of this dust, intense heat and grime, that are the very realities of life here in the Capital, from which the leaders have moved away from).

The power situation is so pathetic that the joke going around is that the BPs of citizens is fluctuating in keeping with the fluctuations going on. And the last straw is the news of the power tariffs going up. But to be honest nothing really shocks a person here any more.

And if and when those in the establishment sense that there could be a resentment of sorts they come up with three patent options — either bring about distractions or setup a commission or enquiry or else hold a national or international seminar ( international, yes, if counterparts have to be invited, in the hope that there would be reciprocal inviting and that too during our worst months, weatherwise, that is ).

Before moving ahead let me also write about the latest from the Ministry of Home Affairs — revival of the Foreigners Order 1971 under the Foreigners Act, 1946, whereby every time you ( your family / head of the family /family home ) are visited by a foreigner the local police has to be informed. Else you could be imprisoned for five years. Although there are clauses to the effect that if the foreigner spends a night then this reportage to the local thana is a must, but who would decide whether “night” means till midnight or predawn. Needless to add this would lead to several complications with the citizen left at the mercy of the local police station and hundreds of innocents could be rounded up or left at the mercy of the deciding officer. More grounds for harassment of the ordinary citizen(s).

Celebration time for some!

IN keeping with the theory that nothing really shocks the citizen here any longer, so life goes on, amidst all the downs. It was celebration time at the Traxl home as Shovana Narayan bagged the Sangeet Natak Akademi award. But tell me how many Indian husbands would host ‘dos’ in the event of their wife bagging an award. Well Austrian envoy Herbert Traxl did and did it in style and amidst much happiness and warmth. He has been so enthused that an evening before when I met the couple at another get-together, Herbert Traxl did a impromptu little jig ! But at the dinner hosted by him though most of Delhi’s classical dancers were present there ( I suppose their absence could have been taken amiss …..you know what I mean) there was no dancing.

Paper tycoon turned Sanskriti man OP Jain sounded rather upset at the way photographs are being taken at private parties “a hundred types of misunderstandings could erupt.. No photographers should be invited to private parties”. Jain does have a point but the trouble is that most people would do anything to be snapped, so much so that those who shy away from the camera are exceptions. SAHMAT’s Rajan Prasad is definitely one of the exceptions, to the extent that when he spots a photographer he goes into hiding.

Another husband who seemed to make a mark that evening was dancer Swapna Sundari’s bureaucrat husband Anshu Prakash. He turned out to be less of that fearful bureaucratic types. Maybe the IAS men are changing or perhaps I am moving backwards but it did come as a pleasant surprise to see him hold wife SS by the waist in one of the most loving fashions ( maybe he picked up those romantic poses from one of those French films he must have viewed at Cannes). After all he is just back from Cannes Film Festival — as part of the bandwagon accompanying the Union I& B Minister Sushma Swaraj.

I think in last week’s column I had mentioned that there is much criticism of the I& B Minister’s jaunt, but things have come to such a stand that if nothing really shocks the common man so nothing really affects the minister log ! In the worst of scenarios they manage to bring about distractions by uttering a dialogue or two that invariably rounds up any controversy.

But that evening definitely belonged to the Traxl couple. Shovana had told me “Herbert had not once asked me to leave dance for he knew that without dance I would never be the same person …”

And though just some months back she had a problem in one of her eyes but that’s perhaps why it’s not coming in the way of her dance, work or even hosting these very frequent get togethers. And then, it was celebration time at one of the more popular ITDC run South Indian restaurants, Kaamakshi, at Hotel Samrat. Hosts for that evening — the ITDC chief Mrs Asha Murthy and the Kuchipudi dancers Radha and Raja Reddy had invited mandolin players Srinivas and brother Rajesh and it turned out to be a pleasant evening except for the fact that there were too many guests and it seemed that some of them hadn’t tasted South Indian fare for long. What made the evening going was the music and though there have been rumours about Srinivas’ divorce but he showed no signs of any strain. Another aspect that stood out was the huge round idli. And our Indianised rice cake tasted good and it was installation artist Naresh Kapuria ‘s brainwave put to test by the chefs.