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Saturday,
July 27, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Turmoil in
Jharkhand Work no,
salary yes! |
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Unacceptable
‘collateral damage’ THE virtual isolation of Israel at the UN Security Council on Thursday, where 35 countries condemned the bombing of a heavily populated area of Gaza City on Tuesday, has underlined the outrage felt in the world over the incident. A senior Hamas leader and 14 other Palestinians, including eight children, were killed in the attack. The missile was launched from a US-made F-16 fighter jet and the target was apparently the house of Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh, who Israel links to Hamas’ deadliest suicide bombings.
Higher
education in a mess
The
Prime Minister’s saris
‘Soft
backbones & hard hearts’ Need to
boost ‘spiritual tourism’
BBC accent slides
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Turmoil in Jharkhand JHARKHAND is in turmoil over the new domicile policy of the Babulal Marandi government. As many as 11 persons were killed in the violence between pro- and anti-domicile groups in the last three days. Shoot-at-sight orders were issued on Friday even as more areas in Ranchi, the state capital, have been brought under curfew. While the violence has spread to other parts of the state, schools, colleges and shops remained closed, throwing normal life out of gear. Preventive arrests have also been made. Bandhs were organised on July 18, 24 and 26. The divisive policy has created deep fissures in the nascent state. There is widespread resentment against the policy, especially among the educated youth. The massive public revulsion against the government shows the extent to which political leaders can go to foment parochialism and create divisions in the societal fabric for achieving narrow partisan ends. Under the policy, only those settled in Jharkhand before 1932, and have records to prove it, can be treated as domiciled citizens and claim 73 per cent reservation in state government jobs and for admission to technical institutions. Considered a pro-tribal measure, this policy will treat as many as 10 million out of the state’s 27 million people as “dikkus” or outsiders and consequently deprive them of their legitimate right to seek jobs in the government. On the face of it, the policy is flawed on three counts. One, Parliament abolished the domicile rule in the country as far back as 1959. Two, the Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that there can be only one domicile status for citizens in the whole country, i.e. Indian. And three, under Article 16 (2) of the Constitution, no state can discriminate citizens on matters pertaining to government jobs. Some states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have policies on state jobs or admissions, but they also have a fixed percentage of seats for outsiders. The skewed policy has virtually split the Jharkhand society vertically. Mr Marandi on Thursday said a ration card is enough for showing one’s proof of residence, but how will one get for the period before 1932 is the question. Moreover, as many tribals can’t prove domicile because village land is often owned collectively, the absence of land records makes it difficult to pinpoint ownership. The first fissures came to the fore during the recent recruitment of constables. Problems cropped up when aspirants failed to procure domicile certificates from local officials. Not surprisingly, the matter has now become a Jharkhand versus Bihar issue. Mr Marandi has considerably lost the support of tribals, as reflected in the defeat of the BJP candidate in the Dhumka Lok Sabha by-election on May 31 at the hands of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president, Mr Shibu Soren. Mr Marandi was holding the Dhumka seat before he took over as Chief Minister in November, 2000. He is believed to have spent crores on developmental works in this constituency, but failed in his crucial popularity test. Consequently, he was in search of a formula that would not only help him regain the tribals’ support but also divert people’s attention from his failures and protect his gaddi. More to the point, he was under the impression that it was the people of Bihar who were taking away the best jobs at the cost of Jharkhandis. The domicile policy is primarily aimed at addressing this issue. However, in the process, Mr Marandi has lost the goodwill of large sections of society who feel betrayed over his brazen indulgence in street-corner politics. There are serious differences of opinion even among his ministers over the policy. A Bodoland-type of movement against outsiders or “dikkus” will neither help the interests of Jharkhandis nor the unity and integrity of the country. The need of the hour is the socio-economic development of tribals as well as others without any discrimination, instead of pitting one against the other which the lopsided policy is exactly trying to do. |
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Work no, salary yes! WHILE the ultimate fate of the controversial Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal remains in the domain of conjecture, there is one section of people which has no reasons to complain about the endless tug of war that goes on between the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana. This group comprises about 1,600 regular employees of this project. For the past 11 years, they have been drawing their salaries and allowances without having to do a spot of work. According to a rough estimate, these idle men have already cost the exchequer upwards of Rs 168 crore. The taxpayers’ money is being siphoned off the same way in which the precious water of the Sutlej is flowing unutilised out of the country. The CAG has raised objections repeatedly, but there has been no action. After all, what is Rs 168 crore when far bigger amounts are being squandered without any eyebrows being raised? This may be national wastage, but since it pales into significance in comparison with the depletion of national wealth, it has come to be accepted as the done thing. That is why the SYL wing of the Punjab Government keeps on sending the details of the expenditure incurred to the Centre, which dutifully makes a provision of about Rs 8 crore every year for it. The irony of it all is that there are many posts vacant in the irrigation department and several of these personnel could have been shifted there, but that is not how the administration works. So much about the staff members. The SYL wing also has expensive machinery which is gathering dust. Actually, most of the machines have become unserviceable by now. Same is the plight of the constructed portion of the canal. Cement blocks have either broken down or have been pilfered. The jinxed canal has a 121-km run in Punjab and 91 km in Haryana. Haryana completed its part, while the Punjab part remains incomplete. Together the two states have poured over Rs 700 crore on its construction. Today, it stands as a silent monument to the taxpayers’ money gone down the drain. The only time some water flows through it is during the floods, bringing a lot of misery to people of both states. But the most brazen is the expenditure that is made on the 1634 employees year after year. It remains to be seen how long this largesse continues to be showered on the caretakers of a project which remains abandoned. |
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Unacceptable ‘collateral damage’ THE virtual isolation of Israel at the UN Security Council on Thursday, where 35 countries condemned the bombing of a heavily populated area of Gaza City on Tuesday, has underlined the outrage felt in the world over the incident. A senior Hamas leader and 14 other Palestinians, including eight children, were killed in the attack. The missile was launched from a US-made F-16 fighter jet and the target was apparently the house of Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh, who Israel links to Hamas’ deadliest suicide bombings. Even as the Israeli government distanced itself from the attack and expressed regret at the killing of civilians, it has come in for world-wide condemnation. The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, said: “The government of Israel must halt such actions and it must conduct itself in a manner which does not allow for the killing of innocent civilians.” With suitable modifications, that reflect diplomatic tilts, are the earlier statements of the US White House Press Secretary, Mr Ari Fleischer — “heavy handed…does not contribute to peace” — and the UK’s Foreign Minister, Mr Jack Straw — “The action … is unacceptable and counterproductive.” Indian Ambassador to the UN, Mr V. K. Nambiar, said: “we strongly deplore such acts of unwarranted violence and indiscriminate killings.” Israel, meanwhile, is sticking to its position of retaliating militarily to acts of terrorism. Lately, there has been a 9/11 view of terrorism, one that does not recognise that this is an age-old phenomenon that erupts from time to time. As the world has realised, the state has to adopt a multi-faceted approach in tackling terrorism. All terrorism is condemnable and has to be addressed aggressively. However, taking only a coercive, militaristic view of terrorism is myopic, and often counterproductive. Lacking the political will to tackle such situations, many nations have adopted a “bomb them” approach which is suitably hedged with such euphemism as “precision strikes,” “smart bombs,” or “minimal collateral damage.” The United States Air Force broadly defines collateral damage as unintentional damage or incidental damage affecting facilities, equipment or personnel occurring as a result of military actions directed against targeted enemy forces or facilities. As the reactions of world leaders to the recent incident have shown, the civilian damage and casualties are unacceptable, even in undeclared wars, like “the war on terrorism”. A recent report by Global Exchange, an American organisation that had sent survey teams to Afghan villages to check on civilians casualties during the US air strikes in Afghanistan, says that hundreds of civilians were killed. The strategy of keeping your combatants out of harm’s way is fine per se, but at times the cost of such actions is too high to be acceptable. |
Higher education in a mess IN India higher education has received much attention in terms of expansion. Over the years larger funds were made available to this sector, ignoring the more important area of elementary education. This has created an imbalance, a paradoxical situation. As education is a continual process, and its various stages influence and link one another, the consistent stress on tertiary and university education has led to chaotic conditions. We have brought about too much expansion in higher education; every sixth highly educated person in the world is an Indian. During the last decade universities and colleges have increased at a great speed. The number of universities has increased from 236 on March 31, 2000, to 262 today. The colleges in the country have also increased tremendously: 9,252 in 1995-96, 9,940 in 1997, 10,678 in 1998, 11,397 in 1999, and 11,831 in 2000, total increase in the decade being 2579. Four States witnessed stupendous increase: Andhra Pradesh 408, Uttar Pradesh 334, Karnataka 297 and Tamil Nadu 274. Then, there also exist several fake universities in India. The UGC every year brings to the public notice about 20 such institutions, and admits that there are many more. Of late the trend of foreign universities opening their centres with Indian partners has gained momentum. As the survey conducted by the Association of Indian Universities points out, of the 144 foreign institutes which advertised in national dailies, 46(31.2 per cent) were not recognised or accredited in their own countries; the highest number — 13 — being from the US. In addition to it, 23 of the 26(88.5 per cent) Indian partners were not affiliated to any Indian university or notified by the UGC, indicating that they entered the academic arena for purely “commercial” gains. Under Section 22 of the UGC Act. “A university cannot run a degree or postgraduate programme or award a degree unless it is notified by the UGC.” Some universities in the country, too, run a few programmes, which have not been recognised or allowed by the UGC. It has been reported that three prestigious universities in Delhi are currently giving as many as eight such graduate and postgraduate programmes. On its own, the UGC has started several innovative schemes to revamp higher education. To name a few of them: granting of stars and centres of excellence for universities. Since questions of restructuring and resources are most important, it came out with some significant documents/reports, such as “Towards New Education Management (1990)”, and “UGC Funding of University Institutions: Report of Justice Dr K. Punnayya Committee 1992-93.” As all revamping or consolidation can be brought about through teachers, numerous incentive and career advancement schemes for them have been introduced from time to time. However, all this has not produced the desired effect. Two things are quite obvious: all steps suggested for improvement are ignored or rejected except the one that pertains to scales, grades and teachers’ benefits, and the implementation of reforms is almost every time half-hearted. For example, except substantial hike in scales, nothing else has been accepted in regard to the 238-page R.P. Rastogi Report of the UGC in 1997. It seems that at the highest academic stage, we often bother only about our rights, not duties or responsibilities. How to stem the rot? The task is no doubt difficult, but it has to be undertaken. The unguided or misguided youth constitute a huge national wastage and immense danger to the country. As Theodore Roosevelt observes: “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.” The right handling of students and scholars depends largely on the academic faculty who draw powers and sustenance from the academic executives or academic administrators — Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and so on. Thus the appointment of these heads is most important. From where should Vice-Chancellors come and what should be their qualification? The question is crucial since much depends on him or her. Some hold that the top post should go to a renowned professor while others prefer a bureaucrat or a retired Judge or an Army General. The D.S. Kothari Commission (1964-66) strongly pleads for a noted educationist. “The Vice-Chancellor should be a distinguished educationist or eminent scholar, with high standing in his field and adequate administrative experience.” Long back the University Education Commission (1948-49) headed by Dr S. Radhakrishanan specially stressed strength of character or proven integrity as pre-requisites. It states: “Vice-Chancellor must have the strength of character to resist unflinchingly the many forms of pressure to relax standards of all sorts, which are being applied to universities today.” In view of the prevailing law and order situations in several campuses, some favour administrators, army officers or retired judges for the top position. Now colleges constitute the mother sector in higher education. It appears advisable to prefer persons who have long experience of managing colleges and directorates of higher education. Although much depends on particular individuals, one sincerely feels that professional approach to the issue is the best. The Vice-Chancellor should be a person from the teaching profession, who has proven integrity and sufficient administrative experience in educational and academic fields. It would be better if the UGC/ICAR fixes some tangible criterion and forms an open-ended list of (say) 400-500 candidates who qualify for the job. Those who aspire for the position may get them evaluated, and the list may be continuously updated. As the need arises persons may be chosen from the panel. However, the task becomes most forbidding owing to politicisation of our temples of learning. We are what we are, but when political considerations override all merit, many people with tainted past and little integrity come to hold top posts in universities. The Kothari Education Commission had warned: “When the appointment of Vice-Chancellors becomes a matter of prestige and power politics, the battle may well be taken as lost.” Not that people of integrity or administrative acumen are not available, but they often suit no political party — each party has its own yes-men or yes-women to “adjust.” And the Head, whether that of Rama or Ravana, matters the most. At times, good people are not keen to get such assignments. The disease has become chronic the atmosphere polluted. In almost all the 262 universities, politicians of all parties have their strong cells among teachers and students. Teachers are often divided into four groups: pro, anti, neutrals, and fence sitters, with only one motive in mind — self-interest. Each political party puts up its own people and when governments change — and they change rather too frequently these days — these appointees are the first targets. Then? What then? Says Lincoln Steffens: “Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it.” And the great sufferers in it are students, the youngsters. They watch all this, and a day will come when they will rise in revolt: that would be the period of redemption. Before that crucial stage comes, we should devise damage control measures and revamp higher education. We should concentrate on consolidation and avoid expansion of higher education. Enough is enough. If still there is a need in some regions, distance-learning institutes should be asked to cater to that requirement. The idea of brining some to the private sector be also tried. Foreign Universities keen to open their centres in the country should be discouraged or be allowed to function on a selective bases when registered with and approved by the UGC. In any case, there should be a national movement against fake universities in India and abroad. The writer is former Adviser (Education),
H. P. Government. |
The Prime Minister’s saris IT is on December 1 every year that the BSF celebrates its raising day. In 1978 the then Prime Minister, Mr Morarji Desai, was invited to come to Jalandhar for presiding over the BSF raising day celebrations. Mr Ashwani Kumar was the Director General of the BSF at the time. He was demitting office in the same month (December, 1978). Mr V. Shanker, ICS (of the 1931 batch) was the Principal Secretary to Mr Desai. He informed the then Home Secretary of India just two days prior to the D.Day, December 1, 1978, about the dietary likings of the Prime Minister which included grapes of Chaman near Quetta (Pakistan), Kabuli Anars and the cashewnuts of Kandahar in the breakfast and the pack of dry fruits of Peshawar which he would take after the dinner along with a glass of milk. It was checked up in the markets of Jalandhar and Amritsar but these items were not available. Top BSF officers were perplexed. It was then that somebody gave a suggestion that a request be made to the Sector Commander of Pakistan Rangers, Brig (later Lt-Gen) Dildar Rana for arranging those articles. The Brigadier of Pakistan was too obliging and promised to arrange the required articles before the BSF raising day celebrations. He also told BSF officers that he comes from Ambala where, at the time of partition, Mr Ashwani Kumar was the Superintendent of Police. He had nostalgic memories of that period, and refused to accept any payment for the eatables supplied. The material was received in time by the BSF officers and the visit of Mr Desai passed off peacefully. He was impressed by the arrangements made for the visit. Thereafter, the top BSF officers held a meeting and decided to thank the Sector Commander of Pakistan Rangers. An enquiry was made about the place from where Mrs Rana came and when told that she came from Banaras, the BSF authorities bought seven Banarsi saris and handed them over to the Pakistani Brigadier for presenting them to his wife. The Chief Accounts Officer of the BSF at Jalandhar included the bill in the official papers. Sometime later, a team of officers from the Comptroller and Auditor General came for the audit and they made an audit objection as Mr Desai, who was a widower, was presented with seven saris. They smelled something fishy and felt that BSF officers were trying to fox them. But when the BSF officers concerned revealed the truth to the CAG staff the audit party was convinced and dropped the audit para and laughed. Uncontrollably! |
‘Soft backbones & hard hearts’ MANY times we see certain scenes we may not want to. Yet we are compelled to see them again and again because they happen to be there and at times protrude to draw our attention. I am specifically referring to film posters outside the cinema halls. Some of them are obnoxious and shameless. I recall one such experience which was on one of my visits to Amritsar (my hometown). My husband Mr Brij Bedi, a social activist in the city, drove me around to show me what had deeply angered him. He had taken pictures by his own camera to record these as evidence of public shame! What I saw was repelling. One of the posters - was of a woman sitting on the floor in her under garments with legs spread out high in a V-shaped position. I was absolutely ashamed and obviously seethed with anger. From the drive we both were to go to a book release function which Mr Bedi had organised. In the audience were law students and members of the faculty along with many other senior and eminent citizens of the city. I could not resist asking what the law students were doing in the city on seeing such obscene posters? Did it not disturb them? Or are they taking these as issues beyond their control? Or is it that the might of the local administration was too big for them? Or is it that they did not know what to do? What is the point in being law students if we do not learn the practical application of the law now? Along with knowledge of law what has equally to be learnt is “Courage” and “Sensitivity”. What benefit is that education which does not instill the zeal for decency and justice? An American clergyman once asked Gandhiji what caused him most concern. “The hardness of heart of the educated,” Gandhiji replied. Soft backbones and hard hearts have been and presumably are becoming the feature of our world. The teacher who toughens the former and melts the latter contributes towards a worthier age. As a law teacher are my law students learning to raise issues of injustice? Are we as teachers able to instill in their hearts a passion and fearlessness for truth and justice? If not - - - - then both are wasting their time, the teacher and the taught, says Raj Mohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a mentor of many in this country today wrote in one of his articles in Himmat Weekly. In the case of indecent posters all that is simply required is what Mr Bedi did i.e. recorded evidence first and then raised a hue and cry to make them as issues of morality as well as of law. According to the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, indecent representation means the depiction in any manner of the figure of a woman, her form or body or any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent, or derogatory to, or denigrating woman, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals. Hence shoot these indecent photos as evidence and file a complaint with the local police. On receipt of the complaint the local police is fully empowered to register a complaint under section 3 of the Act which reads as follows: “No person shall publish, or cause to be published, or arrange or take part in the publication or exhibition of, any advertisement which contains indecent representation of women in any form”. The evidence of the photos is substantial to establish the case. The content of the poster, the company owner, the owner of the place where it is exhibited, the publisher, all become liable. Even though the offence is bailable, yet the persons concerned will become criminally liable for prosecution and face a court trial. According to the law (Section 6), the offence is punishable on first conviction, with two years and fine and up to five years with fine on second or subsequent conviction. The police has the powers to search and seize all these articles and produce them as evidence along with the pictures taken at the site. Perhaps it can happen that when we go to the area police it may not want to take cognizance of our complaint by saying that this is not their priority since terrorism is. (As Mr Bedi told me his experience) and the Municipal Corporation may say this is the job of the police, when it is as much theirs for licences come from them. All the same as students of law and as educated and concerned citizens we could go to the area magistrate and file a criminal complaint under Section 200 onwards of the Criminal Procedure Code (see Chapter 15). The area magistrate will examine the complainant and could directly summon the accused to join the process of the trial and proceed with the matter as a complaint case. In order to get prima facie satisfaction a preliminary enquiry can be entrusted to the police by the court. The magistrate herself/himself can even visit the site to see the situation personally. The learning of law is all for exactly that, with or without the fee. And what better way of expressing gratitude for a highly subsidised law education in India than to take up such issues as law students? It is sometimes said youth is a time wasted on the young - - - - -. How and when will our youth disprove it? |
Need to boost ‘spiritual tourism’ Excerpts of an interview: Q: You have been a minister for a short while now, what do you think is ailing the Indian tourism industry? There are various factors. We have really not given the importance to tourism that it deserves. Though a lot of work has been done, there are a lot of areas where there is deficiency. Air India has not proved up to the mark compared to other airlines. We have not marketed India strategically as regards our treasures — be it cultural, spiritual or in terms of sheer pleasure. We have not focussed on entertainment or leisure tourism. The area is very vast. I personally feel that we need to market ourselves very aggressively, create a niche because we have such a wealth of culture here. Q: You are talking of creating a niche. How will you achieve that? We have a tourism policy in place after a long time. We will work along with that since a lot of brainstorming has already been done. So the focus obviously will now be on the areas which have already been worked upon. Along with that I think we should work on spiritual tourism. Q: Tourism has refused to be developed as an industry over the years due to which India has been losing out on precious foreign exchange. What in your thinking is needed to develop this area as a full-fledged industry? Tourism needs to be given industry status. It is not on the concurrent list. There are many states which have not said yes to tourism being on the concurrent list. But we are all working towards that end and once that is in place, tourism should improve. Tourism essentially is a state subject and you have to work with the states. It is the states which have not given the importance to tourism and the necessary infrastructure has not been created. Prime Minister Atalji has given so much importance to creating infrastructure, the national highways, the super highways, the corridors. Once all these things are in place, it will help. Plus we have to restore our monuments, we have to beautify them. I have travelled extensively and I know exactly what is needed. Work has already begun on this. Q: Is there a need for opening up the economy further to boost tourism? When we talk of economy, we have to have more competitive prices and have more interaction with tour operators. Hotels should not have dual
tariffs. Dialogue has started with hoteliers, tour operators and travel agents. Then there are transport problems. More importantly, the mindset has to change. You have to create more festivals. We have already revived the Festival of India. We have to spruce up our tourism offices abroad. We have to build an image of India in a certain way and how we market India is very important. The Festival of India was a major success earlier and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be now. We have to get the private sector into it. Q: About tourism in Punjab, the state you represent, what do you think has been lacking in policy to project the state as a tourism centre? Which areas need to be developed? Punjab, specially my constituency Gurdaspur, is the gateway to many tourist spots in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Although it is not in a healthy state and because of the unrest there we have missed out on tourism. Punjab itself has a lot of potential because of NRIs. It has also got quite a few historical sites. So, even if we get 5 per cent of the Punjabis living abroad coming back every year, that is good enough. Q: Do you think something is lacking in state policy that Punjab has not developed as a tourist spot? No state has developed as a tourist spot. It is just Rajasthan and Kerala which attract tourists because of the beaches and the areas of interest to foreign tourists. Even Punjab is dragging its feet on bringing tourism on the concurrent list. I have taken up the matter with the Secretary concerned. Q: Do you think comparatively Haryana has done better by projecting highway tourism and do you plan to start something like that in Punjab also? You know we have people going to Vaishnodevi, Jammu and Kashmir, people going to Himachal Pradesh and there is a lot of infrastructure, specially like state-owned guest houses and rest houses along the highways. We also have a lot of sites like the Bhakra Dam, Ranjit Sagar Dam. Patiala has a number of beautiful forts for people travelling there. Since tourism is a state subject, the Centre cannot do much. It is the state which has to come forward with a proposal for developing infrastructure. Of course, the Centre will facilitate any investment by the private sector but it is the state government which has to do the ground work. Q: What is your assessment of the BJP’s failure in the last Assembly elections in Punjab? One of the main things that went wrong was the media projection. Exit polls were something that shifted the undecided votes. In so many constituencies we lost by a small margin basically because of the wrong media projection. Plus we could not tell the people about our achievements. It was just a question of five to seven seats and we would have been back in the government. I also think that people in the cities were a little affected by the policies of our government. The whole thrust was on the farmers and therefore the vote in the cities went against us. We got a lot of votes in the rural sector but we lost in the cities. |
BBC accent slides THE BBC justifiably is looked on as a role model by both media professionals and viewers and listeners in many parts of the world. Most of all for professionalism of a high order. It has enjoyed high respect in India for its radio programmes from pre-World War II days and its more recent World Service on TV, although it has its critics for political bias, is still watched avidly by a faithful following, not least of all for its allround excellence. It sometimes goes a bit too far in projecting newscasters and anchors, mostly NRIs with oriental faces and names but British accents which are neither BBC nor Oxford to which it used to be addicted in its colonial days, when it was very much The Voice of the Empire. One wished it had injected the same standards of professionalism into a new crop of DD newscasters who are the pits and reputed to be trained by the BBC. But of that more anon when I have done sufficient research. In the last few years the BBC has fallen in line and Indianised its programmes commonly seen in India and the sub-continent. Most of them have maintained adequate (BBC) standards, the main reason being that it has commissioned experienced producers, anchors, scripters and presenters. Even when young they were professionally well equipped. Some had come from other channels, including NDTV and even Doordarshan in its better days. Indianisation of subjects and personnel was carried out smoothly and without teething troubles because they selected India’s best. I would like to mention in this connection Karan Thapar, who came with experience of both print media and TV in India and abroad. His Hard Talk has critics of his style but there is no denying his dedication and professionalism. Siddharta Basu has made a smash hit of Mastermind India. Prannoy Roy, who is in a class by himself has made Question Time India into a top programme which is eagerly awaited and sorely missed when it takes a sabbatical. Manvi Sinha, after a lively stint with NDTV, is now an excellent anchor for India Business Report. Then the Alva brothers have put in hard work, research and first-rate anchoring into all the programmes they have done for the BBC, my particular favourite being Wheels, where a lively young team of men and women put cars and two-wheelers through their paces with a good deal of expertise, wit and cleverly chosen music. I think the visible and audible decline in standards started with the BBC taking programmes from suppliers who are already doing too many programmes on many channels and hand over assignments to their chosen colleagues. I would like to repeat that I have never questioned Tavleen Singh’s talent and professionalism but I still feel her forte is one-to-one interview and not panel discussions. With a paucity of both subjects and panelists who are recklessly repeated on other channels as well, the weekly programme varies from excellent to dull, which is a pity. But I think the BBC has really touched the pits with its new programme Business Bizarre, made in the style of Films Division and Doordarshan documentaries. I have watched two programmes in the series, on Haldirams and Mumbai’s dhabawallahs. The dhabawallahs have been done several times on TV with much more imagination and liveliness. The scripting in both programmes was loose, there was no anchor worth the name —a good anchor is an imperative in such programmes, the interviews were badly conducted and recorded and the thicker Indian accents should have had sub-titles. Even the smart executives eating their dabba lunches spoke badly, were poorly recorded and hardly comprehensible. The same applied to the speakers in the Haldiram programme, which became dull and meandering as well. I repeat, this programme is far below the standards we expect from the BBC, which has become a little free and easy about commissioning programmes for its World Service. Because it is not only the BBC but Indian talent which is on show. And there is plenty of it around. TAIL-PIECE: I owe an apology to readers and viewers for giving the wrong timing for Hard Talk Pakistan in my column last week. It comes at 9 p.m. on Fridays and not 10 p.m., which is when Tavleen Singh takes over. Hard Talk India continues at 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. |
There are four kinds of actions: actions which are dark with dark results; actions which are bright, with bright outcome; actions which are both dark and bright, produce both dark and bright results; actions which are neither dark nor bright. — Majjhimanikaya, 57,
(Kukkuravatika Sutta)
*** Not in the sky, not in the midst of the sea, nor in the caves in the mountains, nor anywhere else on earth, is there a spot where a man may be freed from the consequences of an evil deed. — The Dhammapada
*** Success comes from timely speeches; celebrity from good dress, and honour in assemblies from learning. These three come through possession of ability. Good wife, good son, good learning, much wealth, friend, faithful servants and maid-servants, good physique, decent dress and good king — these ten always lead to human happiness. One should do his work by regulating the time, not otherwise. Excessive walking, fasts, over-indulgence and over-exercise soon bring about men’s old age. Going to other’s house one should not look to their wives. One should forsake those places where people are addicted to vicious habits, immoral, fickle, tyrranical and severe. Unless requested one should not express, even when known correctly, the cases of the two parties to a suit. Thus one can be free from enemies. One should not take up somebody’s case and pick up quarrel with others. Great misery comes of dependence on others. There is no greater happiness than that from self rule. The man who is not in a strange land, who is a householder and who is independent always enjoys happiness. — The Shukraniti |
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FROM a highly successful reel life to Shastri Bhavan and the corridors of power in the national Capital has been a long journey for the superstar-turned-politician Vinod Khanna, who is now the Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture. The only BJP minister from Punjab, he is trying hard to bring tourism on the concurrent list and wants it to be given industry status. He firmly believes that “spritual tourism”, which has caught the imagination of the world, can be promoted and exploited.