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Sunday,
May 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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ON RECORD |
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VIEWPOINT
Will ‘Dr Germ’ see freedom?
Where everything is at a loose end
BJP has much to explain in poll year
Kashmir carpets find new markets abroad
They don’t
venture out in the sun
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DEBATE ON UPSC REFORMS The parliamentary committee headed by Mr Pranab Mukherjee has suggested to the UPSC and the Central Government to reconsider allowing highly specialised professionals like doctors and engineers to compete for the civil services. Presumably, the question is whether the high cost the nation bears in preparing these professionals, should be “wasted” on the civil services, for which simple graduates should suffice. If true, this view is neither fair to the civil services nor to the professionals. As is well known, it was in China that the system of selecting candidates for government jobs by putting them through a written examination was started as early as in the Eighth century. Their curriculum was the study of the ideas of Confucius. It was believed that if they were well versed in them, they would make good mandarins. For Confucius taught that an enduring state was built on the merits of its rulers’ advisers and administrators, as their moral example inspired those beneath them. The British took this idea of holding a competitive examination for entry to the Indian Civil Service, which was initially open only to the British citizens. The candidates were required to show high proficiency in liberal education, which was the hallmark of a gentleman those days. The high academic excellence of the ICS officers was thus ensured as those who were selected came from “Oxbridge” or other leading universities. But more than academic excellence, the selectors looked for other qualities of head and heart in the candidates, and their moral fibre. An all-India competitive examination for IAS and other allied services similarly offered a challenge to the brightest boys and girls of our universities. On the face of it, the minimum qualification was only graduation. But it was clear from the very beginning that high academic excellence was the pre-requisite for entry. Candidates aspiring for the IAS and the Indian Foreign Service were required to write two higher standard (Masters level) papers in two different subjects, apart from writing other papers in common with other services, which included a comprehensive paper in general knowledge and writing an essay in English. There was no ban as such for engineering or medical graduates, but their subjects of study were not included in the choices open to the candidates initially. On reconsideration, however, in later years, first the engineering subjects and then medicine, including veterinary medicine, were also included, making the competition truly universal. It is considered unfair and legally untenable to deny them the opportunity. The harsh truth is that in our society where everything is in scarce supply the regulators, even the lower level inspectors, call the shots. Our society values teachers, doctors, engineers, industrialists, but it prizes power more. The portals of the civil services were thus thrown open to the professionals, and they generally secured top grades. In our batch (1964), for example, the topper, N.C. Saxena, was a double M.Sc in Physics and Mathematics from Allahabad University, and the next, Omesh Sehgal, was the IIT topper. Both had a distinguished career, Saxena as Director of Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and Secretary to Government of India (GoI) and to the Planning Commission, and Omesh as Chief Secretary, Delhi. For my higher papers, I had taken English Literature (in which I had taken a Masters’ degree from Allahabad University) and British Constitutional History (which I had not studied formally). I was placed 95th in the list (the last position for a “general” candidate). But I also ended my innings as Chief Secretary, and by all accounts had a “distinguished” career. I cite these examples only to make a point. The subjects you take for the examination don’t count in your career. I have been Director of Agriculture (generally held by “technocrats”), Controller of Road Transport, Chairman of State Electricity Board, among other things, and all I had “specialised” in was the poetry of Shelley and Wordsworth. Shelley’s Ode To The West Wind, though electrifying in many ways, was but a poor guide to managing a power utility, and Walter Bagehot’s illuminating interpretation of the British Constitution no reliable tool to fathom the political crosscurrents of Haryana, where Aya Rams and Gaya Rams abounded. I must add though that another of our batch mate, N.K. Singh, who had studied Economics, rose to be Finance Secretary in GoI. But Ajit Kumar has also been Finance Secretary, who like me had studied English Literature. Which is as well, for what the members of the higher civil services are required to do is manage, control and administer the systems and the men behind them. It mostly boils down to man management — motivating them to achieve the organisation goals. So, in my reckoning, those who have studied professional courses to qualify as doctors or engineers adapt themselves as readily to the requirements of the civil services as those with “liberal” education. They have the “scientific temper” in a greater measure, which is an advantage. Any debate on this issue is therefore pointless. The further argument that society makes a huge investment in them, which is rendered fruitless in the event of their joining the civil services, is fallacious. For I hold that one can never be too qualified for the civil services. May be, I have found it to be a humbling experience till the last. The task is made infinitely more complex and challenging due to the fact that these officers have to perform with politicians breathing down their neck. But the politicians represent the sovereign will of the people, and have a better perception of the problems at the grassroots. Ideally, therefore, there should be harmony between them rather than acrimony, and therein lies the challenge. In literature when the performance of the members of the ICS and of the IAS is evaluated, the latter come in for disparaging comments. It is not fully realised that the IAS officers serve in an altogether different political milieu. It takes the best in them to measure up to the task. We used to have long debates on brain drain. No longer. Now we resent if Germany reduces the intake of our professionals, or there is a job cut in the US due to recession or 9/11. With “remittances” being our major national resource, it is perhaps in greater national interest to produce professionals for foreign markets. How does it matter in that case if out of the thousands of professionals that we produce every year, some are absorbed by the civil services? They are welcome for they inject new blood in its frame. The writer is a former Chief Secretary of Haryana |
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Let’s learn from the French experience The Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has rightly suggested the need to keep engineers and doctors off the civil services. This should not be seen as an attempt by the committee to do injustice to our budding technocrats and doctors but to appreciate its concerns on their future with a view to tapping their full potential and giving a professional thrust to their respective roles and responsibilities in a developing country like ours. Historically, the higher civil service in India has been designed as a generalist one with the leadership role at all levels of administration reserved for the Indian Civil Service (ICS). This was the conception of the Northcote-Trevelyan Report on the “Organisation of the Permanent Civil Service” in Britain (1853). This report laid stress on the superior positions in the civil service being manned by “the most promising young men of the day by competitive (literary) examination on a level with the highest description of education in the country.” There has been no change in the generalist approach of the civil service after the ICS became the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), following the Independence. When the Union Government had decided to include engineering and medicine subjects in the Civil Services Examination, it was guided by the rationale that such a scheme would help inject scientific input in public policy-making. However, experience in the last two decades suggests that this approach has not only led to a dilution of the generalist concept of the IAS but also an abject neglect of the professional education of the candidates qualified in the examination. A BE or an MBBS entering the civil services means the loss of a brilliant engineer or a doctor. It also means the criminal wastage of precious resources and funds that the government had spent on his or her education over a period of time. Is it proper for an engineer or a doctor to enjoy the subsidies of professional education for some time and suddenly hang his boots, once he completes his course, in pursuit of a generalist career? Many leading countries like Japan and France permit only social science subjects to be taken by the intending candidates, the governing philosophy being that a candidate should make up his mind at an early age whether he/she would like to be a specialist or seek a generalist career. The argument that by opening the door of competition to professional subjects which are taught in medical and engineering institutions, the IAS is enabled to lay claim to full range of competence including in science and technology necessary for policy-making, is flawed and weak. Once an engineering student, for instance, gets into the IAS taking advantage of the subjects open to him, he foresakes, or must foresake, his claim of competence in engineering, and instead apply and promote the generalist mind (in the classical sense of the term) on problems and issues coming for his decision-making. In other words, he must not compete for the Central Engineering Services or Central Health Services. Renowned experts in public administration like Professor S.R. Maheshwari feel that it would be dangerous to view, even faintly, that the Central Engineering Service is a service of those who have failed in the IAS. Clearly, a much bigger danger lies in the present approach. Luring an engineer, particularly of the IIT variety, into the IAS, is to permanently lose an engineer, much more so, in a country like ours. One cannot overlook the fact that it costs a lot for the country to produce an engineer or a doctor. One reason why IAS attracts engineers or doctors is the kind of power and influence an officer enjoys. Far more important reason is the rapid decline in the career opportunities available for recruits in the Central Engineering Services or the Central Health Services. Thus, the wisest course of action from the point of optimum utilisation of engineering and medical talent of society is to brighten the already established engineering and health services of the country to make them equally or even more attractive in all respects. Admittedly, the career prospects in the specialist services will have to be substantially improved and emolument structure bettered so that these services are enabled to outshine the IAS simply because these add to the permanent assets of society. Moreover, the middle and senior level positions in the specialist departments of the state should as a rule be manned by members of such specialist services alone. This is a well-established practice in an advanced country like France. In India too, as a matter of principle, the post of Secretary to Public Works Department in all states is manned by the seniormost civil engineer of the government and not by the IAS. The same rule can be enforced for departments like Health, Agriculture, Forests, Animal Husbandary, Planning and so on. Presently, professionals get top level policy-making positions in the government only by joining the IAS even though the cost is the sacrifice of the technical degree. But the fact is that engineers and doctors bring to the civil service a computer-like mental make-up. Their approach is managerial and thinking logical, even mechanical. Public administration is not all computer, notwithstanding the importance of e-governance in the day-to-day administration. For that matter, even e-governance is not all that computer. Professionals may also be deficient in qualities fostered by liberal education. One way of giving our technocrat administrators their legitimate due is by emulating the practice that obtains in France where civil servants comprise both the administrative generalists and the scientific generalists. The recruitment of the latter is made by the Ecole Polytechnique (EP), whose graduates man civilian positions in both government and private sector. This polytechnique has over 300 seats which are filled through a strict competitive examination. The selected candidates have to study for three years. The former are recruited by the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) which holds an annual competitive examination to recruit middle and senior level civil servants. It is noteworthy that the ENA permits only social science subjects to be taken by the intending candidates, the idea being that a candidate should decide at an early age whether he would like to become a generalist or a specialist. Thus, after passing the secondary school examination (baccalaureat), a student spends two to three years in intensive preparation for admission to the EP. In the case of the ENA, candidates up to the age of 25 and possessing a recognised university diploma involving a minimum of three years’ study may apply. In the absence of a similar polytechnique in India, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), as an answer to injecting scientific input in public policy-making, has included technical subjects in the list of optional subjects offered for the Civil Services examination. The Satish Chandra Committee, which reviewed the UPSC’s scheme of Civil Services examination, called the phenomenon of large number of doctors and engineers being attracted to the IAS as an “aberration”, but did not call for exclusion of these optionals. Clearly, there is a need to demarcate the role of the generalists and the specialists in the country as in France. The writer is Assistant Editor, The Tribune |
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ON RECORD Q. What are the priorities of your government? A. The first priority was to put the engine of the state back on the rails. The previous regime had battered the administrative machinery so much that it lost its momentum and initiative. Now it is back on track. Corruption was our main issue in the assembly elections. People have given us the mandate to fight corruption, to punish those who are guilty and to give a clean, transparent government. We have initiated action against those guilty of corruption and this will continue. But at the same time, I have made it clear that the government will not be vindictive and no innocent person needs to fear. Those found guilty will be dealt with under the law without fear or favour. Another of our priorities is employment generation and bring back transparency in appointments to government service. We want to boost industralisation with an environment-friendly approach. We want to reopen all sick industrial units. The package of tax concessions, announced earlier by the Centre, is a very welcome step which will give boost to industralisation in backward areas. So far, the Centre has not issued notification which I hope will be done early. Many entreprenuers, who are ready to set up industries in Himachal Pradesh, are waiting for the notification. Q. How do you propose to tackle the difficult financial position of the state? A. We have a huge loan burden. The situation is difficult but not impossible. The government has the necessary experience and capability to solve the problem.We will take steps to reduce expenditure. We are also seeking the advice of Dr Manmohan Singh. Q. What kind of assistance are you seeking? Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has very graciously given the same additional Central assistance as last year. We have also decided to remove the non-plan expenditure from the Plan since the Finance Commission takes care of the non-plan expenditure. If you do not remove the non-plan expenditure from the Plan, then the Finance Commission will not take note of it which will be a loss to the state. The plan allocation will not be diverted elsewhere. We will seek the Centre’s assistance, not necessarily financial, about the methodolgy to be adopted to overcome financial difficulties. Q. The Congress has been blaming the Centre for discriminating with Congress-ruled states, but the Vajpayee government has continued additional Central assistance. A. The general experience of most of the Congress-ruled states is that they have not got a fair deal. As for Himachal Pradesh, the Congress government has just come into existence. The Prime Minister has made the announcement for which we are thankful. He did not discriminate. This is how it should be in a healthy democracy. Q. Despite having a comfortable majority, you already have a large team of ministers? A. The state has been having about 25 ministers in the past. The number will not exceed this time. There will be another expansion of the cabinet in one or two stages. Q. How far have you been able to tackle the problem of corruption which was the main poll issue of the Congress in the elections? A. We do not lack the political will to deal with corruption. Q. There have been demands to implement one-man, one-post norm in the state Congress? A. There is nothing new in the principle. It is for the Central leadership to decide in what time to implement the norm. It makes no difference to me. Q. There has been some speculation about your health? A. Some of my friends seem to be very concerned about my health. I wonder how they picked it up. I work for 16 to 18 hours a day and have been constantly touring the state, visiting areas at heights of 14,000 feet. I think canards are being spread by somebody. Q. Are you getting cooperation from the other group in the state Congress? A. There are no groups. I am carrying everybody along. I am getting full cooperation from my ministers. Q. What are the party’s chances in the election to the three seats in tribal areas? Have you also begun preparing for the Lok Sabha elections next year? A. We are confident about winning all three assembly seats. The focus is also on the Lok Sabha elections. |
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VIEWPOINT The distribution of long and sharp-edged trishuls by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to those who are pro-Hindutva to save their religion from “anti-national” forces that are “converting” Hindus suggests that either it has not been able to understand the roots of conversion into Buddhism, Christianity and Islam or the real agenda is far from what it proclaims — love for Hindus. The image of Hinduism, as created by the VHP, is in sharp contrast with the ethos of true Hinduism. The VHP and other such Hindu organisations are only associated with acts that do not depict Hindu ethos, such as the demolition of the Babri Masjid, violence against Muslims and Christians and killing of priests and rape of nuns. And because of its assertion in the media that it represents Hindus, the distinction between the Hindutva, which is a political ideology, and Hinduism, which is a religion, is blurred. The Sangh Parivar kind of Hinduism is irrelevant to dalits, tribals, the poor, the downtrodden and those deprived of social justice and equality. Christians on the other hand are reaching the marginalised in the remotest parts of the country to provide what they actually need — education, health service and a community where they can lead a dignified life. “Amidst allegations of induced conversions, there are also scores of examples where people were actually attracted to Christianity because the missionaries came to their rescue when they had been discarded by society”, noted a newspaper report . Another report said: “Although Christians account for less than 3 per cent of our population, they are directly involved in 20 per cent of our primary education; over 25 per cent of the existing care of orphans and widows; some 30 per cent of all work with the handicapped, AIDS patients and lepers.” Unlike the communal organisations, when Christians are persecuted, they do not resort to violence. When Graham Staines, who served leprosy patients in Orissa, was burnt alive with his two sons, there were violent protests by Christians and no bloodbath. Rather, the wife of Graham Staines, Gladys, said that she had forgiven the perpetrators and she decided to continue the service to leprosy patients. The VHP acknowledged in its governing council and board of trustees' meeting in Pune last year that the good social service done by missionaries in the tribal areas encouraged tribals to embrace Christianity. “We had neglected our brethren in the tribal areas for very long”, said the VHP joint general secretary, Shyam Gupta. The VHP had therefore decided to concentrate on the tribal areas in a big way, starting schools in one lakh villages, where the Government is unable to provide formal education. But, in the wake of upcoming Assembly elections in various states, it has reverted back to its original hooliganism, carrying trishuls and lathis and delivering derogatory and abusive speeches, not only violating sections 153, 153(A), 295(A) and 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) but also demonising Hinduism. Although the prevalence of caste system is one of the responsible factors for religious conversions, the Hindu organisations do not take the task to eradicate it on priority. On the other hand, Buddhists are embracing dalits with open arms, assuring them of the dignity they deserve as fellow human beings. Balachandran Chullikkad, a young poet from Kerala, on being asked why he embraced Buddhism, replied, “suddenly I found that religion and caste have become very important in the social and political life of Kerala. Wherever I go, people begin to identify me with my caste and religion. I found to my horror that the first consideration in Kerala’s social and political context was caste and creed”. One wonders why the Sangh Parivar does not focus on depicting Hindu ethos and fulfilling the needs of those who are converting rather than trying to save Hinduism from outside forces. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar suggested that three important factors are required for the upliftment of an individual — “sympathy, equality and liberty”. None of the three factors finds a significant place in the Parivar’s agenda. Does the Parivar really want to curb conversion or merely want to thrive on communal controversies to help the BJP maintain its identity as the ‘saviour’ of the Hindus, the majority community, which is a huge vote bank? |
Will ‘Dr Germ’ see freedom?
Early this year when Taha was still heading, what was purported to be Saddam’s biological warfare programme, she candidly admitted producing germ weapons in 1980s and 1990s to defend “my country” and more as deterrent. She said in interviews to western media: “We haven’t done any harm to other people. It is our right to be capable enough to defend ourselves — all that we have done is just a deterrent. Nothing more than that”. She also asserted that Saddam’s regime was telling the truth when it said it no longer had any chemical biological weapons. Her version appears to be more credible. Dr. Germ is in the US custody. She is a daring, remarkable woman, whatever befalls. She has an adolescent daughter. She is known to be cultured, unassuming, having spent two decades doing research in microbiology. She speaks English with a British accent. Over the years, however, Dr.Taha has been portrayed in western media as “world’s deadliest, most powerful and most evil woman”. Allegations looking like fantasies — invented bugs that make eyes bleed, bacteria that peels skin off the body, viruses that cause fever and pox and lingering, agonising death — were made against her. None of them could be substantiated. On the contrary, her career graph shows she is not so awful as made out in the west. She belongs to a well-to-do family of Iraq. Since Saddam’s regime, unlike many Muslim countries in the Middle East, encouraged women’s education, Taha, having graduated from the Baghdad University, went to England in the late 1970s to study microbiology and spent five years studying plant diseases at the University of East Anglia. Though shy, she was a meticulous, hard working student. She did her home work well. This was the impression of the Head of the Biology Department, Prof. John Turner. Though quiet in nature, she was liked by fellow students and brought back gift-wrapped packets of Iraqi dates from trips home. She liked theatre, read poetry and never took part in political discussions. During the final year at the university, she took a flat in London and shared it with two girls. Taha returned to Baghdad in 1984 and joined the team of Iraq’s top microbiologist Abdul Nassir Hindwai. He was repeatedly urging the government to re-launch its long-defunct bioweapons programme. With Iraq-Iran war going badly for Saddam, his government desperately needed a deterrent and decided to go in for germ weapons. Taha, having done research in microbiology at the prestigious East Anglia University, was put in charge of bioweapons. According to reports, the US sent Taha the first bug as far back as 1986. At that time secular Iraq was an ally of America against Iran’s fundamentalist regime. It was also reported that the Reagan Administration approved mailing of dozens of samples of as deadly material as anthrax, gangrene-causing bacteria and other viruses. Five years later, when UN inspectors first arrived in Iraq following the first Gulf war, Taha told them only a tiny number of biological weapons had been produced and all had been destroyed. Inspectors, evidently, did not believe her and put her under intense pressure throwing her into trauma; bursting into tears and raging loudly, she walked out of the room. In a bold act in March 1995, Taha took a group of Western reporters to the al Hakim plant to show them it was just a chicken farm. The reporters were, however, remained skeptical and did not believe Iraq’s claim that all the biological weapons were destroyed in the summer of 1991. Dr.Germ’s full name is Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azzawi al-Tikriti. She is married to former Iraqi oil Minister, Amir Muhammed Rasheed, nine years ago. They met for the first time in the corridors of the UN in 1993 when Rasheed was the Oil Minister and fell in love. He subsequently divorced his first wife and married Taha. Rasheed, who had also held the top post in Saddam’s missile programme, had surrendered to US forces on April 28. Within weeks, Taha followed her husband after days of negotiations.
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Where everything is at a loose end The situation is hopeless. Yes, no other word to describe it. When even an institution like the India International Centre runs without the air-conditioning plant for nearly four days at a stretch. Last Sunday, I was there to attend a function in its main auditorium. I could see each one of the invitees, which included the ambassadors of the UAE, Morocco, Iran, Bangladesh and of several other countries, looking almost ill. The reason: the air-conditioning wasn’t working. After two days, when I was once again at the IIC, a peculiar smell greeted us. Without air-conditioning, it seemed a hopeless situation. Several in-house guests were vacating rooms and the entire facade of sophistication seemed to have come crumbling down to even upper middle class homes of the who’s who. Last evening, in the midst of a dust storm, as I took refuge in a well known person’s home, I was taken aback when the servant (of the house) asked the master whether he should wash utensils that night or give the usual gap of a day. Abstinence of a certain definite kind, trickling down to this watery level! This is today’s New Delhi. Where everything seems to be running at a loose end. A new prince Here comes this note from the Embassy of Morocco to announce the birth of Crown Prince — Moulay Al Hassan, son of His Majesty Mohammed VI, on May 8. As expected, the doors of the residence of the Moroccan Ambassador to India, Mohammed Louafa, were kept open to receive greetings. With most of the diplomats away on home leave, there is little activity on the diplomatic front. The ones staying put are those from the African and Middle Eastern countries. They say: “Your country is as hot as ours...hot here and hot there”. Obviously, going to Europe and America stands ruled out for the time being, in this climate of anti-American sentiments. Random check This brings me to write that at a function to mark Prophet Muhammad’s birthday celebrations last week, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ top boss, Mrs Najma Hepatullah, whilst commenting on the state of affairs in the context of the Muslims around the world, made a point that lately when she had travelled abroad, her bags were subjected to what she described as “random checking...perhaps, after seeing my Muslim name …” |
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BJP has much to explain in poll year
NJC Bill Srinagar calling Like the recent party reshuffle which kept senior Congress leaders guessing, Congress president Sonia Gandhi took AICC leaders by surprise again when she declared Srinagar as the venue of the party Chief Ministers’ meeting. Sonia declared the venue during her visit to Rajasthan but AICC leaders, who had not heard their chief, would not believe. One of the office-bearers initially questioned the logistics of holding the meeting in Srinagar till he was told to shut up. By bringing the Congress focus on Jammu and Kashmir again, Sonia Gandhi may have tried to kill many birds with one stone. It is a historical first for the Congress as the party has never held a meeting of this magnitude in Srinagar. The Mufti government has earned praise for its “healing touch policy” and the Congress would like to get its share of credit. Sonia Gandhi took some personal risk by campaigning in Sringar during the assembly elections. Vajpayee followed it up last month by becoming the first Prime Minister to address a public meeting in Srinagar over a decade. The Vajpayee government is scoring another first by holding the next Inter-State Council meeting in Srinagar. Sonia is matching it with party Chief Ministers’ meeting. Suddenly, Srinagar has become a hot favourite destination among national political parties and Delhi-based politicians. Home for Mayawati —
Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood, S. S. Negi, Satish Misra and Rajeev Sharma |
Kashmir carpets find new markets abroad Exquisite silk carpets hanging forlorn in shop windows in the Dalgate, Polo View or Nagin areas of Srinagar — all once tourist haunts — might suggest that Kashmir’s carpet industry is in the doldrums. A visit to the inner city areas around Nowhata, Saida Kadal or Lal Bazar, however, would correct that impression. There, one can routinely find men riding scooters through narrow lanes, the pillion piled high with freshly woven carpets. They are on their way to the wholesalers — whose offices and godowns show every sign of a briskly moving business. Indeed, Kashmir’s carpet industry could be an object lesson in an academic course on the factors that can make or break international trade. Carpet exporters have overcome the disturbed local conditions by expanding business abroad. Over the past 15 years, and particularly in the early ’90s, the weavers who labour months at a time over each carpet were paid significantly less than they used to be. The excuse, of course, was the loss of local trade. Yet, the middlemen who deal with the weavers, the wholesalers and the exporters all made fat profits — from burgeoning sales abroad. These are not just my impressions. Professor Dabla of Kashmir University’s Sociology Department told me that a study he had conducted had confirmed this. Apparently, the violent disturbances were actually a boon for carpet exporters. For, by the late ’80s, exports of the better renowned Iranian carpets had begun to pick up after a slump of about 15 years. The slump had been caused by labour costs. For the Iranian labour had demanded much enhanced wages, or even left the craft altogether, amid the wealth that the oil boom of the early ’70s brought to that country. By the ’80s, the war in Iran and other factors forced many to return to weaving at lower wages. So Kashmiri exporters, who must compete with Iranian and Pakistani exporters, had begun to feel the squeeze — just when the disturbed conditions allowed them to cut wages in the valley. Meanwhile, through the ’90s, Western markets saw a dramatic recovery from the days when economists had predicted an imminent depression. So the demand for luxurious silk carpets increased and was able to absorb exports from all these areas. That is the reason why Kashmiri carpet exporters have set up not only showrooms and offices in Delhi and farther afield through the past decade, but even workshops. In the bargain, they have built palatial homes in south Delhi, Jaipur, south Mumbai and Bangalore Cantonment. This is not the first time that outside factors have influenced Kashmir’s carpet trade. Parvez Dewan, one of Kashmir’s senior officials, has recorded a fascinating history of the industry. He says, the British took Kashmiri carpets to the US by exhibiting them at the Chicago World Fair of 1890. That opened a huge market for the product — one that still remains a favourite of exporters. Dewan also records that carpet manufacture got a tremendous fillip when Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India, paid £100 for a Kashmiri copy of what is perhaps the most famous carpet in the world, the sixteenth-century Persian carpet at the Ardabil mosque in Kashan. Dewan points out that foreign tastes moulded not only markets and the size of the trade but production techniques too. He says it was British traders who got Kashmiri artisans to use chemical dyes instead of the vegetable dyes they had hitherto used. Although British traders in the first half of the twentieth century and Kashmiri traders in the second half may have played a big part in expanding Kashmir’s carpet exports, the art goes back several centuries. It was first introduced by King Zainul Abedin (1420-70), who is still known locally as Bud Shah or great king. Having been introduced to the art of carpet making there, he invited some weavers from there during his reign, along with the tools of their trade, and had his people learn. The importance of external factors too became apparent quite early. For manufacture had died out for a while during the sixteenth century — Zainul Abedin’s successors being far less competent than him. Then, according to Dewan, Akhund Rahnuma, a Kashmiri whom the Mughal Emperor Jehangir appointed Governor of Kashmir (1614-18), revived it after learning the craft in Andijan (Turkestan) on his way back from
Haj.
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They don’t venture out in the sun BhubanesHwar:The scorching sun is keeping people indoors in Titlagarh, which has again become Orissa’s hottest town this summer with the mercury already creeping past 48 degrees Celsius. Roads in Titlagarh, in Bolangir district, about 350 km from here, wear a deserted look these days as denizens are staying home unless absolutely necessary. For the past few years, Titlagarh has been recording the highest summer temperatures and it appears on course to win the hottest town tag this year as well. On Friday, the maximum temperature touched 48.1 degrees Celsius, the highest in the state so far this season. Sarat Kumar Mishra, a primary school teacher in the town, says: “We are unable to come out between 9.30 a.m. and 4.30 p.m.” In 1996 and 1997, the highest temperature recorded in Titlagarh was 48.6 degrees Celsius. On June 27, 1998, the mercury touched 49.8 degrees, breaking all previous records. Titlagarh’s people have learnt not to venture out in the sun if they wish to avoid a sunstroke. “Past experiences have taught us all how to live in this condition,” says Simanchala Patnaik, a local journalist. Those who have to go out do so armed with a bottle of water and a wet towel, said Patnaik. Many also carry onions in their pockets because of a superstitious belief that it prevents sunstroke. “Shops are remaining closed throughout the day and open either early in the morning or in the evening,” he said. While schools are closed for summer holidays, government offices are working only in the cooler morning hours.
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Vishal Arora
The Indian Administrative Service and other All-India and Central Services have been created under Art. 312 of the Constitution and enjoy a special protection in the matter of removal or dismissal under Art 311. Members of these elite services are recruited through the Union Public Service Commission by open competition. These services are highly coveted and sought after not only because of high emoluments and perquisites but because their members occupy the highest civil positions in the Central and State governments, guide policy formulation and are privy to decision making at the highest level, and therefore, command great power and prestige in society. Naturally, the recruitment policy and rules have been a subject matter of intense debate and have undergone many changes since inception. Major changes have been in the areas of quote reservation, age of entry, weightage to interview, and the examination.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has weathered many a challenge in four decades of public life. Starting as a Member of Parliament in 1962, he has twice been a minister at the Centre besides being Chief Minister of the state for 12 years. In an interview to The Tribune, the 68-year-old leader says that the Nehru-Gandhi family is a binding force without which the Congress could have disintegrated. Hailing from a royal family, Mr Singh has always been part of the Congress. Mr Singh has been meeting experts in New Delhi to formulate plans to pull the state out of its debt burden. Excerpts:
British-educated Iraqi microbiologist, Dr. Rahab Rashid Taha, derisively called by the western media as Dr. Germ, is now in the US custody. But the Americans are yet to get even a shred of evidence to prove that the toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. The US has, after all, virtually destroyed Iraq on the pretext of Saddam Hussein possessing large stockpile of biological and chemical weapons, and cited those arms as a key justification for war. American search teams have so far not found any such weapons.
Nothing seems to be falling in place for the BJP in the election year with one controversy or the other dogging the party. Whether it was the petrol pump scam or the recent telecom tariff hike issue or the implementation of the Conditional Access System (CAS) for cable operators, the BJP is finding itself at the receiving end, having much to explain in an year when five states are to go to polls. To add to its woes, the party’s Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan units have also so far failed to take advantage of the anti-incumbency factor against the Congress governments there, thanks to groupism and infighting. The clarion call of party president M. Venkaiah Naidu for united fight seems to have fallen on deaf ears at least in these two states where the BJP’s stakes are high. If this were not enough, the arrest of Perumal Swamy, the First Personal Secretary of Union Minister of State for Finance Gingee Ramachandran, has given another issue to the Opposition to point fingers at the BJP-led Government. The Opposition, naturally, is not bothered even if the accused is the minister’s PA and not the minister, belonging to the MDMK. Though Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has done some damage control by securing the resignation of Ramachandran from his council of ministers, it will not dampen the munition of the Opposition. The Congress is surely not going to let go this opportunity of raising the corruption issue on the basis of which it shot to majority in Himachal Pradesh recently. As they say, Dame Luck comes on foot, misfortune has wings.
Exposure of “corruption” in the judiciary with the arrest of former Delhi High Court judge Shamit Mukherjee and allegations of questionable conduct against some judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Karnataka High Court forced the NDA government to rush through the National Judicial Commission (NJC) Bill in Parliament on the last day of the Budget session. Reports had appeared in the media about “political interference” in the appointment of some of these judges. The NJC will, for instance, have the Chief Justice of India, two seniormost judges of the Supreme Court, the Law Minister and a nominee of the President appointed in consultation with the Prime Minister as its members. Apart from appointing the Supreme Court and High Court judges, the NJC will be responsible for the transfer of High Court judges. But it will have no power to remove a judge as the Bill provides for retaining the impeachment procedure for this purpose. As Law Minister Arun Jaitely said if Parliament’s power of impeachment is taken away, the judiciary would lose its independence. Several jurists have apprehended that the NJC, as envisaged by the government, would hardly help in restoring the image of the judiciary. They argue that the political interference continued even after the power of appointing judges was given to the apex court collegium. The only solution could be giving financial independence to the judiciary.
Her penchant for leading high society upwardly mobile life is well known. First, her looks underwent a dramatic change. Now it turns out that she has one of the best addresses in town. No, we are not talking of a cine actress or a model. This is about Mayawati, the firebrand leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh who sat on the most powerful chair in the most populous state of the country for the third time last year. A deal for a 2,300-sq yardsprawling bungalow number 11 at Sardar Patel Marg in Diplomatic Enclave, was struck by the BSP leader on April 3 at a whopping price with Yunus Dehlvi, the owner-publisher of popular Urdu film magazine ‘Shama’. A bank draft of Rs 5 crore issued from the Bank of India branch at Parliament Street was given as the white money payment and the rest, as normally done, remains unaccounted. The previous owner vacated the premises on April 11. So Maya memsahib is now ready to move in.