 |
| Wednesday,
July 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
|
Flagship
units as duds Unsafe
buildings McDonald’s in beef
soup |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disgraceful
developments in Tamil Nadu
The
Delhi-Agra dialogue
Women
try too hard to get to the top
Give
Cabinet Secretary a fixed tenure
Trauma
of seeing your ex-partner
Why
people seek to make money
|
Flagship units as duds EVERYONE
suspected that the UTI (Unit Trust of India) is ailing but the report card it presented on Monday shows it to be critically ill. Its pride stems from US 64 (Unit Scheme 1964) which has attracted at least two million small investors. Until three years ago, the Trust lavished 20 per cent dividend on a purchase price of about Rs 14. In real terms the return was a healthy 15 per cent or more. No doubt US 64 climbed to the top of the popularity chart and stayed there – that is, until 1998. Today though it is a scrap of paper. The UTI will no more redeem or repurchase it, asking the investors to try their luck at the debt market functioning in a few select cities. But that is an invitation to financial disaster. The Trust has candidly admitted that the NAV (net asset value) which is the notional worth of a unit based on the price of shares in which the funds have been invested, has perhaps slipped below Rs 10, the face value. Armed with this information, or forewarned, buyers will not offer more than Rs 7 or thereabouts for a unit. This will mean a clear erosion of 50 per cent of the purchase price. Only unit-holders desperate for ready cash will take this downhill road and they are not going to thank the Trust. It is ironic that the UTI first slashed dividend from an eye-popping 20 per cent and now has shut the door on liquidity. The unit has been stripped of both its chief attractions. The UTI is today in dire straits because it ignored sage advice. Three years ago the Deepak Parikh committee asked it to sharply reduce its dependence on equity — company shares – and deploy the funds in other assets. Not only did the UTI defy this but at one time heavily bought information technology and related company shares at a highly inflated price. When the stock market turned volatile the Trust was caught flat-footed unable to unload its holding before the share value shrunk alarmingly. Even today it has parked more than 75 per cent of its investible funds generated by US 64 in equity, now hoping that the share market will revive and bale it out. But the extreme negative sentiments in the stock market rule this out and the UTI just does not know what to do. There is also a widespread suspicion that the Trust bought heavily in shares only to help out the prominent bull operator, Ketan Parikh, when he was in deep trouble. One watchful economic reporter has dug out the price the UTI paid to shares of those companies which have turned out to be hoax ones; at least a Lucknow-based one is. It is this colossal mismanagement of public funds that has brought near ruin to millions of small investors. They are already hard-pressed. Bank interest rate is coming down, small savings are getting mean, provident fund is less helpful and now the US 64, the last resort, has betrayed them. This is the true horror story of the benching of US 64. |
|
Unsafe buildings ALMOST
every year with the onset of the monsoon, there is some hullabaloo about unsafe buildings, old and new, and then everybody keeps quiet. The reason is that during the rainy season a number of people lose their lives in incidents of building collapse and these cases get publicity. Thus one can say that the reports of four persons buried alive in Solan on Monday and three persons in Amritsar on Saturday when multi-storeyed buildings came crashing down will create only temporary scare in the region. But so many other cases can be cited where people have lost their lives or suffered injuries. Ringing the alarm bell will not be enough. What is immediately required is for the local administration to launch a drive to identify all the unsafe structures and not to allow anyone to live in them till they are made safe. There should be no hesitation in demolishing these buildings wherever necessary, and if the owners are not in a position to undertake reconstruction, a way should be found by the administration to arrange financial assistance. But what can one do when the administration shows total indifference? Can one expect the government to come to the rescue of the people when any number of its own buildings are totally unsafe? On June 14 in Ludhiana a portion of the court complex collapsed a little before the Chief Judicial Magistrate was about to arrive there. Luckily, there was no one around. The building had been declared unsafe a few years ago, yet it continued to house various government offices. This single incident is enough to illustrate our carelessness as a nation unconcerned about the safety aspect. People buy flats constructed by unscrupulous builders, rarely raising questions about the safety of the structure. Builders, registered and unregistered, violate the byelaws with impunity in collusion with the police and other government officials even in earthquake-prone areas. All talk of norms, it appears, is meant only for discussions in newspaper columns. In Rohru, in Himachal Pradesh, an unplanned and unauthorised concrete jungle is coming up fast despite the fact that it is covered by the Town and Country Planning Act. Those who indulge in illegal activity know how to get power and water connections. But when one asks people why they ignore the byelaws their answer is astonishing. In their view the laws in most cases are unrealistic and made to enable the officials concerned to harass the law-abiding. They have to run from pillar to post to get the necessary sanctions. Those who do not bother about the legal requirements but greese the palms of the officials have nothing to worry about. This is an unfortunate aspect of the functioning of the system. Steps must be taken at various levels to ensure that not only all unsafe structures are identified and repaired or demolished but also no such buildings are allowed to come up. Our indifference may lead to disastrous consequences. |
|
McDonald’s in beef soup McDonald's, the multi-national fast food chain, may indeed have been guilty of wilfully misleading vegetarian customers about the beef tallow in the oil used for making French fries. A number of their food chains were attacked in India by angry vegetarians about a month ago. The management was forced to accept the charge of having used beef laced oil for their French fries. It apologised for inadvertently hurting the sentiments of their vegetarian customers, but insisted that it was not guilty of concealing any fact. It said no one ever asked it about the contents of the controversial oil. However, the latest piece of evidence dug up by Mr Harish Bharti, the Seattle-based lawyer who filed the class action suit against the fast food giant, shows that MacDonald's was guilty of concealing facts with the objective of misleading the customers, who for religious or other reasons did not consume non-vegetarian products. Mr Bharti's legal action against the multinational food chain was responsible for the attack on MacDonald's outlets in India. The latest evidence which Mr Bharti has procured may literally put MacDonald's in piping hot pea soup with traces of ham in it. Ms Maneka Gandhi would know more than the average Indian what the clamour for MacDonald's head is all about. She was among the first to mention the fact that gelatin used for making many desserts, including ice creams, is made from boil-downed animal bones, cartilage and tendons. MacDonald's was found using gelatin for giving that "special effect" to its pea soup. That is not all. Mr Bharti has in his possession a copy of a letter purported to have been written by the management of the international fast food chain way back on May 5, 1993, in which it explicitly recommended French fries as an appropriate vegetarian choice to go with other vegetarian foods like green salads, whole grain cereals and English muffins. The letter was written in response to enquiries from customers about balanced vegetarian menu. On the basis of the latest evidence it appears that MacDonald's may have to pay a hefty amount, running into possibly billions of US dollars, as damages for deliberately concealing from customers the fact of the beef laced oil for making the French fries. Mr Bharti's assertion that "this [the May, 1993, letter] is the nail in their coffin" does not sound like an empty boast. MacDonald's would do well to temporarily close down its operations in India by way of abundant precaution. It should be allowed to reopen shop only after it takes appropriate and transparent steps for keeping its vegetarian fare strictly vegetarian. |
Disgraceful developments in Tamil Nadu THE unbelievable and atrocious acts in Tamil Nadu are as much a comment on the people of the state, who voted Ms Jayalalitha to power despite all her disgraceful past, as on the Chief Minister herself who is running amock. She had sworn vengeance all along and even during her election speeches, but after the recent events she had indeed overreached herself. Within 40 days after her being sworn in, she had gone about making the arrest of her erstwhile critics and political opponents in a planned and systematic manner. Within 24 hours of her becoming Chief Minister she got the former Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Mr P. Elamvazhuthi, arrested on a trumped up charge. Then followed a series of arrests such as those of former Minister Arcot Veeraswamy’s brother Devraj, former AIADMK MLA and long time loyalist but since disgraced Thamarakani, former Minister Ponmudi, et al. But of all the arrests, the one relating to her erstwhile foster son, Sudhakaran, stands out. It is alleged to be a blatantly false case, with a packet of heroin thrown in, to make the case ironclad. Sudhakaran belongs to the notorious Mannargudi mafia consisting of Ms Sashikala, Ms Jayalalitha’s shadow and companion, and Sudhakaran is Ms Sashikala’s nephew. During her heyday as Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalitha adopted Sudhakaran as her foster son and conducted a fabulous marriage, the cost of which was estimated at Rs 100 crore. This was one of the excesses which resulted in Ms Jayalalitha’s defeat in 1996 at the hustings. She reportedly entrusted Sudhakaran with a huge amount of money, estimated at several crores, which he misappropriated. During Ms Jayalalitha’s wilderness from 1991-2001, Sudhakaran floated a political forum of his own. He masqueraded as “Junior MGR” and the political successor to the MGR legacy and undertook a series of padyatras in Tamil Nadu during the course of which he liberally distributed handsome amounts of money to the poor and the needy. After Ms Jayalalitha became Chief Minister, efforts were made by her to coax him through family members, including Sashikala, so the story goes, to return all the money which he had taken, but Sudhakaran stubbornly refused to do so. Hence the case with charges of attempted murder and possession of heroin etc. Sudhakaran’s father was also arrested to bring additional pressure to cough up the hidden money. Sudhakaran was arrested for the reasons mentioned but that makes no difference to Ms Jayalalitha. Before pursuing her systematic witch-hunt and vendetta politics she did not think that she was yet to get legal clearance for contesting elections within a period of six months and also judicial clearance on her conviction. She did not bother about the cases pending in the Supreme Court challenging the very act of Governor Fathima Beevi swearing her in as Chief Minister while she was disqualified for contesting elections. Ms Jayalalitha is supposed to be extremely religious. It would be more apt to say that she is superstitious and believes in tantric practices and occult rituals. The latest act of adding an extra “a” to her name is an example. The danger from a person of such a bent of mind is that she could be extremely ruthless and cruel, and would not mind indulging in big gambles in life. The arrest of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi illustrates this point clearly. There are clear Supreme Court guidelines which prescribe when a physical arrest is necessary. It is now revealed that the case against Mr Karunanidhi and his son Stalin, etc, was actually registered on the night of June 29, after getting a complaint from Municipal Commissioner Acharyulu — a man with dubious reputation, who was appointed to the post only nine days earlier — about the alleged corrupt practices involving about Rs 12 crore in constructing overbridges in Chennai city. After issuing the FIR a few minutes later, the city police, led by a newly appointed DIG of the Crime Branch, CID, along with his handpicked team, landed at Mr Karunanidhi’s residence at 1.15 a.m. The rest is TV history. Where was the need for the police to go to the former Chief Minister’s house at 1.15 a.m. to make his arrest? In the case of arrest of Ms Jayalalitha in 1997, investigations in the cases registered against her took some time during which she went to the courts for obtaining anticipatory bail. When she did not succeed, only then was she arrested and the police went to her Poes Garden house at 7.30 a.m., and she was allowed sufficient time to get ready and accompany the police. When leaders like Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav were arrested, they were given ample time to voluntarily surrender themselves. Today Bihar is certainly one up in political and social culture over Tamil Nadu. There is a related question which is extremely worrisome for the future of Indian politics. Should administrative and police officers as also judicial officers be so pliable and willing to sell their souls and go to any extent to please their masters? The present Police Commissioner of Chennai was appointed by Ms Jayalalitha within 24 hours of her becoming Chief Minister. He promptly went on an arresting spree. The
DG (Police) was replaced three days prior to Mr Karunanidhi’s arrest and he brought in select teams of policemen from various parts of the state to Chennai for the big event. The team which went to arrest Mr Karunanidhi was handpicked and when the DMK leader was produced before the Judicial Magistrate along with the FIR which listed charges of criminal conspiracy, corruption, etc, the magistrate straightway passed orders remanding him in judicial custody up to July 10. The direction to requisition medical help to attend to Mr Karunanidhi, after he complained of giddiness, was ignored by the policemen and he was sent to jail straightway despite his sit-down protest for a while. If this could happen in a highly educated and advanced state like Tamil Nadu, and that too to a former Chief Minister, what is not possible in India? How do you condemn the insurgency in the tribal North-East, as in effect, the social consequences of all the acts are the same? Having said all this, where do we go next? Ms Fathima Beevi has rightly been sacked. There are several rumours about her zealous readiness for swearing in Ms Jayalalitha. After seeing the outrageous acts of Ms Jayalalitha and if her past record is an indication, her government deserves to be dismissed irrespective of her party’s overwhelming victory and its majority in the assembly. The House should be kept in suspended animation and President’s rule imposed with an able administrator sent as Governor. During the period of one year of suspension it will be known where Ms Jayalalitha stands, whether she will be able to contest the election at all or how her appeals in courts would be heard and disposed of. But the politics of the country being what it is, this course of action, namely the dismissal, which is justified and necessary, seems to be difficult because of the stand taken by the Congress party and the Leftists. It is a strange spectacle that inveterate opponents of Article 356 such as the DMK, the TDP, the Akali Dal, etc are now in favour of President’s rule in Tamil Nadu while the Congress, which had used that provision on many occasions during its rule, is not. For all that, Ms Jayalalitha is not even an ally of the Congress now, since she had openly announced that she was supporting the Third Front consisting of the Samajwadi Party of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Leftists. The Congress party’s opposition to the imposition of President’s rule in Bihar last year was on valid grounds since it was clearly meant to impose an alternative government consisting of the allies of the BJP who were members of NDA, while the RJD itself was with Congress. But in the present case neither the BJP nor any other constituent of the NDA can replace the government in Tamil Nadu unless elections are held after a year and that too, if the assembly is dissolved. The imposition of President’s rule and the suspension of the Tamil Nadu Assembly for a year, may bring about the much needed sobriety, normalcy and decency in the state’s politics and social life. The
writer, a former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim, is a keen
observer of political developments in Tamil Nadu. |
The Delhi-Agra dialogue WE generally hear on the television and radio as also read in newspapers, “New Delhi said... to which Islamabad reacted ...!” The other day after a fresh Indo-Pak summit was announced, I began wondering how cities really talked to each other! And I held my ear close to the “high road” between Delhi and Agra. Good Lord! The erstwhile seat of power and the present incumbent were deliberating issues of their having been commented upon by historians, travellers and eminent authors from all nooks and corners of the world for centuries! I indulged in eavesdropping and heard Delhi, say, “You know what Morris said in his ‘Destinations’ about me — Delhi is a soldiers’ town, a politicians’ town, a journalists’ town, a diplomats’ town. It is Asia’s Washington, though not so picturesque, and lives by ambition, rivalry and opportunism.” “But sterner stuff about me by Peter Mundy”, said Agra, “...Common Stews, of which there been in diverse places of Agra...each of them every evening is like a fire, where they resort, make their bargains, take and choose the whores sitting and lying on their cots at their balconies and doors.” Delhi hastened to add that while her own Khushwant Singh wrote a complete novel on her, but he likened Delhi to his mistress since both “had been long misused by rough people”, and that, “they have learnt to conceal their seductive charms” under a mask of ugliness. Delhi further told about John Foster Frase, who in 1899 had observed about it saying, “It is the most uncertain-minded of cities in the world... The modern Delhi is like the capricious girl grown up — charming, capricious, imperial. But also, like so many grown up and charming ladies, Delhi is a city with a past.” “Mark Twain”, said Agra, “had been kind to my Taj Mahal when he declared in 1897 — ‘But these are not your enthusiasms and emotions, they are the accumulated emotions and enthusiasms of a thousand fervid writers...’!” “But, dear Agra, a tourist, Sir Edwin Arnold, when he revisited the Taj in 1886, recorded that it was an illustration somewhat too striking and lavish of what is declared of the Moguls, that they designed like giants, and finished like jewellers”, Delhi had a mild dig at Agra. “Oh yes, Peter Mundy who saw Taj being built in the year 1632, commented in his own English that “...the buildings is begun and goes on with excessive labour and cost, prosecuted with extraordinary dilligence, gold and silver esteemed
common metal, and marble but as ordinary stones.” “But tell me Delhi, isn’t John Masters too unfair to you when he says, “Magnificent! It will certainly make the finest ruin of the lot.” “Disgusting. But for my Taj”, said Agra, I found a genuine admirer in H.G. Keene whose poetic heart spoke out thus — “...Aflame, like passion, like dominion cold, Bed of imperial consorts whom none part Forever (doomed with glory, heart to heart) Still whispering to the ages, “Love is bold.” Continued Agra, “and also the legendary Rudyard Kipling to whom ‘it seemed the embodiment of all things pure, all things holy, and all things unhappy. That was the mystery of the building’ when he wrote his “From Sea to Sea” in 1897.” “But Agra,” questioned Delhi, “tell me if it is true that people actually feel obliged to those foreigners who had earmarked finances for the upkeep of the Taj, more than the one who built it? I have heard that S.J. Perelman has recorded that “...Historians assert that Shah Jehan built the Taj to commemorate his wife Mumtaz Mahal, called the Ornament of the Palace, but if you believe the ceaseless patter of the guides, Lord Curzon, one time Viceroy of India, deserves the lion’s share of the credit.” “But, dear Delhi, the same person said about you also that, ‘The perspectives are overpowering — endless tree-lined boulevards sweeping up to gigantic official buildings, grandiose monuments that dominate mile-long vistas, everywhere a sense of organised planning that offers a sardonic contrast to the confusion of the politicians behind the facade’.” “Yeah, people spare none when it comes to criticism”, Delhi made a sweeping statement and said, “Do you know what our V.S. Naipal, in “An Area of Darkness”, said about me? “A city which retained its plan, unquickened and unhumanised, built for people who would be protected from its openness, from the whiteness of its light, to whom the trees were like the trees on an architect’s drawing, decorations, not intended to give shade: a city built like a monument.” “Quite in contrast to this,” argued Delhi, “our own Ved Mehta finds in me — ‘A city that offers a stimulant to the present and future, and is always interesting to all mankind’.” “Is it not in this spirit,” Delhi suggested, “that the visiting President of Pakistan should take things when he comes here? And also when he visits you, he should remember that —
Taj ik shamma hai ulfat ke sanam-khane ki (Taj is the ever burning flame in the mausoleum of love!)” |
Women try too hard to get to the top WOMEN are still a rarity in the world’s boardrooms, and research released may have found the reason why — they try too hard to get there. Glenice Wood of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University in Australia said the biggest difference between males and females in middle management was that women saw likeability and looks as crucial to promotion to top jobs. Male middle managers did not rate those qualities as highly, and, more crucially, nor did the top managers questioned in a survey of Australian companies. “I suspect that this might be affecting the way women behave at the workplace,’’ Wood said at the British Psychological Society’s European Congress on Monday. “Women rated factors such as popularity, deference to superiors and attractiveness more highly than either men or senior managers. Both of whom felt that these were less important prerequisites for promotion,’’ she added. Wood surveyed over 500 middle managers — 351 men and 156 women — as well as 15 senior executives, six of them female. The fact that just 3 to 5 per cent of senior management positions in Australia’s largest corporations and organisations were filled by women showed that their perception of what was needed to get ahead was not working. On other qualities, such as leadership, hard work, loyalty and qualifications, views varied little between the sexes. Wood said the research would add to people’s understanding of the imbalance between male and female representation at the most senior levels of management. But even if women were to change their tactics overnight based on the findings of the study, there was no guarantee that they would break the glass ceiling above them and storm the chairpersons’ offices, Wood said. Many of the senior managers questioned said it was often hard to define exactly what they were looking for in potential candidates for promotion. “Many of them felt that there was something else, not concrete, about people, some indescribable quality,’’ Wood told reporters. Some would say that it is the old boy’s network, she added.
Reuters
How to find mid-life happiness If you want a relationship to last, don’t meet your partner in a bar, get engaged and — for men — delay having sex when you’re young. Those were some of the findings of a study into mid-life happiness by Prof Charles Hill of Whittier College in the USA and colleagues. The survey asked 231 couples 25 years ago about what made them happy. They were quizzed again after two, 15 and 25 years. It found the secrets to happy middle-age were high self-esteem and a good relationship, but there were also some revealing findings on how to secure that relationship. “I would tell the men to delay having sex,’’ Hill told reporters at the British Psychological Society’s European Congress, where the survey was presented on Monday. He said his research showed men who held back before having sex while at college found a partner on the basis of emotional attachment and common interest, as opposed to treating a woman as “one more notch on the bedpost’’. Ironically it was those women who 25 years ago were relatively liberal about having sex before marriage who were able to find their long-term partners. Bars were one place not to meet your perfect long-term partner, the survey found. “If you are looking for a mate for life then you should look where your common interests are,’’ Hill said. “If alcohol is the only thing you have in common, then what do you talk about in the morning?’’ The best and longest-lasting relationships tended to be formed on the basis of common interests, intellectual compatibility and the two partners being of similar physical attractiveness. They often occurred when the two people involved were not looking for a relationship. “In the informal settings people can be themselves, rather than just putting on airs and graces,’’ Hill said.
Reuters
Say sweet-nothings in left ear Lovers take heed. If you are going to whisper sweet-nothings to your sweetheart, make sure it is through the left ear. So says Teow-Chong Sim of Sam Houston State University in the United States, who found in a study that emotional words got through to people better when spoken through the left ear, not the right. “The findings are consistent with the role of the brain’s right hemisphere in the processing of emotional stimuli,’’ Teow-Chong said in a statement at the British Psychological Society’s European Congress on Monday. The left ear is controlled by the right side of the brain. The research involved speaking sets of emotional and non-emotional words to 62 people through each ear. When asked to recall the list of words they had heard, there was a 64 per cent recall rate when emotional words were heard in the left ear compared with 58 per cent in the right. Scientists have also found a left-ear advantage for stimuli including musical chords and melodies.
Reuters |
Give Cabinet Secretary a fixed tenure ONE might say that giving extension in service to the Cabinet Secretary is no big deal. Several reasons may have prompted it. There may be problems in choosing an appropriate successor. There may have been reservations against the next officer who otherwise filled the bill. There may be a long-term angle-the new incumbent eclipsing a future favourite and so on. Furthermore, it saves one from the throes of decision-making, from the painful consequence of changing existing equations, from disturbing the equilibrium. After all, a known devil is better than an unknown devil. Extensions are not unheard of. Surendra Singh and TSR Subramaniam were given extensions. However, this happened when the retirement age was 58 years and there was no specific rule against extensions unlike the present embargo enacted on the advice of the Fifth Pay Commission after raising the retirement age to 60. But even after the rule was changed, N.K. Singh was allowed to continue for some months as Secretary in the PMO by a fiat of the Prime Minister. One does not know whether a formal order of extension in service was issued in NK’s case. Most probably it was treated as re-employment. But that is not germane to the issue and let that rest. In the daily swirl of national news the decision to amend the rule in respect of the Cabinet Secretary does not make even a ripple. Most people may not give a damn. To many it may appear necessary or even desirable. It does sound logical that the numero uno in the country’s bureaucracy should remain in his post for a reasonable length of time. Indeed, it is ridiculous that the Cabinet Secretary should quit after only nine months in his office. A reasonable supposition should be to allow a tenure of at least two years, if not three. In 1977 when Morarji Desai became Prime Minister, he prescribed a tenure of three years for the Cabinet Secretary. Morarji was a man of principles. The rule was scrapped by Indira Gandhi, when she became Prime Minister again. An opportunity had presented itself before Atal Behari Vajpayee to right the wrong. When the absurdity of the present situation had been realised, he should have asked the Cabinet to allow a tenure of two or three years as considered appropriate to the incumbent of this high office. Instead what has been done is that an extension of up to two years can be given to the Cabinet Secretary. Which is not the same thing. Let us understand the implications. The Commissioner of Police of London has a tenure of three years under the rules. Which means the government cannot transfer him before that time. It adds to his stature. More importantly, it makes him immune to pressure. It is in this context that the Supreme Court desired that the Director, CBI, should have a tenure appointment of at least two years. It would make him act fearlessly, impartially, judiciously. The Cabinet Secretary is the Secretary to the Union Council of Ministers. He records its decisions, and ensures their implementation. More than that, he brings to bear upon his job a lifetime of experience of working in various wings of the central and state governments, and knows of procedural rectitude and practical application. His principal job is to tender dispassionate advice to the Council of Ministers on the proposed decisions pitfalls, precedents and possibilities. It is a job many times more important than the Director, CBI, and has to have a fixed tenure. So that the loyalty is not to the government of the day, but to the country and its Constitution. The government will have a hand in his selection, but having once been selected, he is no longer beholden to it. The arrangement as devised is hardly complementary to the Cabinet Secretary. No doubt, by this decision the government has given a clear message regarding the pre-eminence of this post — contrary to speculation, no other post like the Foreign Secretary has been clubbed for a similar treatment. Yet the decision lacks grace. In practical terms, it means a tenure of more than two years, for the person to qualify for an extension till 62 years, he or she must already be holding the post of Cabinet Secretary. Besides, it would be unthinkable not to allow full extension to any incumbent. However, there is possibility of a piquant situation arising in future. Seen in this light, it would appear that the government has gained nothing by not going the whole hog. It cannot be the government’s intention to keep the incumbent on tenterhooks and expect him to ‘earn’ his extension in driblets of, say, six months at a time I suppose, a notification giving full two years’ extension to Mr T.R. Prasad would be issued on July 31 when his present term expires. Similarly, a full extension would have to be routinely allowed to his successors, not that it is enshrined in the rules. A curtailment may cause the CAT or the courts to come into action. The only merit of the present decision is that it allows a certain degree of flexibility to the government in making a selection. If a tenure of say three years with a rider of 62 years had been fixed, the choice had to be made from officers about to complete 59 years of age. If they had already crossed it, they would not complete the tenure without transgressing the age limit. It could be construed as a straightjacket. It can be said that by not bringing in the concept of tenure the problem has been obviated. But a salutary principle has been sacrificed. An opportunity to allay misgivings in the mind of the mandarins (“babus” as the Press contemptuously call them) has been lost. For the measure has not only put paid to the legitimate aspirations of the officers who were in the range of promotion, and who cannot voice their frustration for their lips are sealed, it has been widely criticised by several former Cabinet Secretaries who understand the nuances of the game. Besides, the decision has been seen to be dictated by the Andhra Chief Minister with his decisive outside support of the Union Government and not related to the merit of the officer, which may not be in question. Democracy, admittedly, is a government by compromise. But statesmanship consists in finding out a respectable way out of a cul-de-sac. A veneer of respectability can still be placed by giving a three year tenure to the Cabinet Secretary. This would be a principled amendment to the rules. The writer is a former Chief Secretary of Haryana. |
||
|
Trauma of seeing your ex-partner SO she’s gone forever, finally, thank God, and she’s taken that inane Dido CD with her. There will be no more scenes at restaurants where you don’t even speak until all of the penne’s gone; no more bumpy cab rides home; no more pettiness. But then there won’t be the good things: the way she runs her fingers through your hair, the sex, the debates. It’ll hurt, sure, then get easier. Not capital ``E’’ easy, but the day will come when you’re able to have entire conversations without one of you turning and running away down the street. But then one morning you’ll decide not to comb your hair or shave. You’ll put on a mismatching tracksuit and make your way to meet a friend for breakfast. And as you’re trying to finish the bacon, she’ll walk in, looking exotic and untouchable. It will take one or two moments to remember exactly why you broke up with her - the arguments! You might smile at her. She might smile back. Everything will seem okay. Then the door will open a little wider and someone else will step into the frame. He might take off his sunglasses, rest his hand lightly on her arm and scan the restaurant for a table. It’s at that point you know you’re finally seeing the most annoying person ever - the boyfriend that has come after you. Reactions may differ at this point, but on average there’s just a slow, hot jealousy that spreads to your fingertips. The feeling is not the immediate, shockingly green jealousy of watching your significant other French kiss your best friend on a dance floor. It’s duller and it aches and it has no rational reason for existence. And it’s not limited to men; it could happen the other way round. People must move on, they have to, you know this. But when the abstract suddenly takes on a human form it’s accompanied by a bitter, unpredictable hurt. And why does it have to be that he’s better in some way? Or why does it always seem that way? After the restaurant sighting, information about what he’s like will slowly seep through. You’ll deny being interested, but will still subtly press friends for details. You’ll find ways of defending yourself when your confidants tell you of the new boyfriend’s accomplishments. “He probably just got there because his parents are rich,” you’ll say if he went to Oxford. “It’s probably just because Gunter Grass didn’t publish anything that year,” you’ll say if he won the Nobel Prize for literature. The round of inquiry will usually end when your confidant shakes his or her head and tells you, “The sad thing is that you two would probably get along famously together.” At which point you’ll respond through a grimace, “Probably.” But you know that if the two of you were to sit down face to face, instead of being able to talk about his latest album, or his football contract with Real Madrid, the kind of question that will sit perched on your tongue will be: “Does she do that same earlobe thing with you as she used to do with me? ” The only thing that makes this sorry state of affairs worse is if the person who comes after you is someone you know. Not only because it hints at Shakespearean levels of betrayal, but also because it proves that we all become that Next One at some point. The world is populated with ex-boyfriends and girlfriends, and we’re part of that population, too. We are the man coming through the door as much as we’re the man sitting at the table. With that in mind, there is an eventual time and place where you and the Next One will finally meet. That time appears when your ex-girlfriend moves past your successor, on to the next. Suddenly it’s Christmas in the trenches and you two old enemies can reach across and trade cigarettes in a strained act of goodwill. You may even become allies, or at least someday sit at a bar laughing and fearing the Next, Next One. |
|
Why people seek to make money ‘MONEY can’t buy me love’, sang the Beatles, and they may have been right. Researchers say those who look for happiness in the almighty dollar may end up short-changed. “There’s no one reason people acquire money, but where people get into trouble is when they try to get it to do things it can’t do, such as character-building and self-esteem — building,” explained study co-author Dr Edwin A. Locke. “Money can’t buy your own values or love, of course. And if you try to get it to do things it can’t do, you’re going to be disappointed.” Locke and his colleagues at the University of Maryland in College Park explored the prime factors that drive the desire for money among college students and business professionals. The researchers report in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology on three related studies they conducted involving more than 500 university business students and 145 entrepreneurs. All were surveyed about their aspirations for wealth and their general sense of well-being. From this, the researchers were able to isolate 10 major reasons why people seek to make money, including: security, the ability to support a family, and to increase purchasing power, pride, leisure time and freedom. Respondents also wanted to be able to behave more impulsively and charitably, to “show off,” and to overcome self-doubt. The researchers described these motivations as being a function of one of three things: a negative desire to socially compete and acquire power over others; a positive desire to meet life needs and achieve a measure of success; or a more-or-less neutral desire to have the freedom to do as one pleases — whether that be to shop until you drop or give it all away to a charity. It was those who sought money based on negative motives who seemed to have a lesser sense of well-being, according to the researchers. They conclude that while “money itself is not harmful,” problems arise when wealth is used to fill voids such as self-doubt. “I don’t think anyone who has half a brain can think that money alone — divorced from other things — can bring happiness,” Locke told Reuters. “A lot of other things — your character, your family life, whether you’re making money doing something you love — are absolutely critical to your sense of happiness”.
Reuters |
||
A Dharamsala set on fire
Simla: Report has reached here that this morning at 10.45 the Deputy Commissioner of Rawalpindi received information that a Dharamsala in village Moghal, five and a half miles south-east of Sihala railway station, had been burnt. He proceeded at once with a first class magistrate in two armoured cars, taking a Sub-Inspector of Police and 15 constables in motorlorries. They crossed the river Ling which was in floods and reached Moghal at 12-10 and found the Dharamsala still burning, a hundred yards way from village abadi (habitation.). The magistrate, a Sub-Inspector and four constables have been left on the spot and are making investigation. Rawalpindi and the villages in the district are reported to be quiet. |
He alone is saved in whose mind He abides; One by good fortune made by good deeds attains Him. Such a one is not affected by maladies and fear; He contemplates the Name Ambrosial from his heart.
* * * He who abides by the holy teachings and utters the Name Divine, is never shaken or has any doubt in his mind. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib
* * * Grief puts an end to patience. Grief extinguishes knowledge. Grief destroys humanly virtues. Then why should one grieve over the inevitable? Every living being undergoes a crisis. Like fire, problems get ignited and extinguished automatically after some time. Hence one must have patience in adverse circumstances.
* * * The sane person is he who knows how to safeguard himself against any future calamity.
* * * Those who are wise never ruminate over some mishappening or loss. — From Dr Manjula Sahadeva, Maharishi Valmiki ke
Upadesh
* * * Do you see me? Who am I? I am the dawning of the Light of God. I am love, lover and beloved, Shining everywhere: I alone exist. As Adam, I am the object Of the worship of the angels, The place of manifestation of God. My position is absence of all position. I have hidden myself in the veil To enjoy the spectacle. Ana ‘l Haqq is my home, I am the brilliance in the sun Of the light of spiritual illumination. Tell me, brother, whom should I seek? Whom could I find? Hidden in the recesses of my own Self, I alone exist. — Swami
Ramatirtha
* * * Even tall men are defeated by this small tongue.
* * * He who accepts the lotus-like pure life as his aim, cannot be trapped in any of the whirlpools of life.
* * * Be as lovely and sweet as the deities.
* * * Enthusiasm by itself may land one in straits but when it is accompanied by mental balance and alertness, even otherwise difficult tasks are accomplished. —
B. K. Jagdish Chander, Human Values, Moral Values and Spiritual Values |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
