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Thursday,
July 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Triumph of courage Shimla musings Liberia on the edge, again |
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Death in custody
Chronicler of Orwell’s birthplace
Managing disaster will get top priority
From Pakistan
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Triumph of courage THE world mourns the Iranian twins who lived together for 29 years but died on the operation table in a hospital in Singapore on Tuesday. The chances of both of them surviving the operation were bleak. In the best possible scenario the doctors who operated on Ladan and Laleh visualised, only one of them could have survived. In the end, they died one after the other shocking millions of people the world over who were monitoring the progress of their operation. The nurse who spoke on the condition of anonymity was truthful when she said everyone in the hospital was crying. What she said was true about countless people who wished and prayed for the success of the operation. The two women symbolized the indomitable spirit that inspires mankind from time to time. They knew the risks involved in undergoing the operation, particularly when doctor after doctor warned them against the dangerous consequences. They also knew that even if the operation succeeded, only one of them had a fair chance of survival. Overcoming fear, they cheerfully agreed to be wheeled into the operation theatre for their tryst with destiny. In retrospect, it is not difficult to understand what impelled them to take the decision that ultimately did not go their way. Though joined at the head, they were separate individuals who ate, thought, slept and dreamt differently. Each had her own passions in life; while one was an introvert, the other an extrovert. In many other respects too, they were opposites with little in common except a shared vein that drained blood from their brain to their hearts. Yet, the irony was they could not face each other. They spent 29 years in this terrible condition needing constant care from others. What's worse, they had to sacrifice their individuality every moment they lived. They knew that so long as they remained conjoined, they could never pursue their individual ambitions. Nor could they ever enjoy the simple pleasures of life. It was a difficult choice to make. They knew it was a risk worth taking for a whole new world would have opened up to them. Only the brave could have taken that momentous decision. Together, the two brave women took the decision and opted for life, fully knowing what awaited them. They did not live but their memory and the legacy of courage would continue to strike a chord among millions of people. |
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Shimla musings IT is doubtful whether the Congress Vichar Manthan Shivir at Shimla has come out with any bold plan to ensure socio-economic transformation of the country. If anything, the convention has served as a platform for Congress President Sonia Gandhi to declare her party’s readiness to face a mid-term poll and take on the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Elections to the Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram assemblies are due in November and a defeat will hit its plans to wrest power at the Centre. The convention has tried to fine-tune the party’s electoral strategy vis-a-vis the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre. The party has been toying with the idea of entering into both pre- and post-poll alliances with like-minded parties — a departure from the Pachmarhi Declaration of 1998. The Congress has come to realise it cannot win parliamentary elections and displace the NDA government alone. The convention’s rhetoric on poverty, empowerment of depressed classes, weaker sections, minorities and so on should be viewed in the light of the realisation in the party circles that the Congress needs to capture an additional 10 per cent of the votes to form a government at the Centre on its own. As was done by the Congress Chief Ministers in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the message is now clear — announce more job reservations and win over more voters. Its call to extend the scope of reservations to the private sector is clearly aimed at widening the party’s constituency and vote bank. The issue, in question, is the serious consequences of such a step and whether the Congress will be able to get away with it with comfort. If the private sector is forced to make provisions for job quotas for the deprived, through a constitutional amendment, what will happen to the economic reforms process the party would like to pursue? Also, there are others in the political spectrum who can play the vote bank politics better than the Congress whose immediate needs are in conflict with its long-term aims. The salvation of the country’s disadvantaged and downtrodden sections lies in a realistic prescription for socio-economic growth and not in necessarily prolonging or extending short-term palliatives that become counter-productive in the long run. The Congress must examine why over the years it has lost the broader constituency it once had across the nation and why the people who believed in it rejected it later on. |
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Liberia on the edge, again “NO more war, we want peace," shouted Liberians in the capital, Monrovia, even as US troops went in to access the situation in the beleaguered west African nation. Though the US has not committed its troops as yet, it is widely expected that it will contribute to the international peace keeping force that is required to maintain order there. The main US demand, that of the removal of President Charles Taylor, has almost been met-he announced on Sunday that he will quit his country soon. The US insists that he must go out of Liberia before its troops move into the country, although he wants it the other way. Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in 1857. They gave it a constitution based on the US model and for a long time it was seen as a US-supported democratic oasis in Africa. The 1980 assassination of President William R. Tolbert Jr. in a coup led by Master Sgt. Samuel K Doe led to the nation's downward slide. Mr Doe was challenged in 1988 by National Patriotic Front of Liberia led by Mr. Taylor, who had just escaped from a US prison. A three-year civil war ruined the nation before Mr Doe was assassinated and Mr Taylor became the new president. The rebels, who have encircled the capital and killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians in the last few months, have the support of Guinea and Ivory Coast. The UN has outlined what is perhaps the only rational way out of the current mess-a ceasefire enforced by an international peace-keeping force, including US troops. However, the bulk of the force is to come from African nations. It also has ordered an immediate resumption of UN humanitarian work in Liberia and return of UN aid workers. While details are being worked out, various rebel chiefs are ill-suited to lead a democratic nation. An interim government will have to be set up so that the basic infrastructure can be ensured, and, eventually, democracy restored in Liberia. While American dilly-dallying can be attributed to President George Bush's stated reluctance to committing US troops for peacekeeping operations, the moment for a decisive action is now lest Liberia slides into anarchy again. |
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Thought for the day Life is an incurable disease. —Abraham Cowley |
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Death in custody THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has confirmed the widespread belief that has been a matter of extreme shame and concern for the guardians of Indian civil society. It is shocking to note that in one year ending March 2002, as many as 1308 complaints of custodial deaths had been made to the NHRC. The custodians of law have quite clearly proved to be more adept at being purveyors of torture and death in sharp contrast to their expected role. Even if one makes an honest assessment of the police brutalities on the basis of the statistics complied by the NHRC for one year ending March 2002, it is abundantly clear that the men in khaki have become brutalised beyond every consideration of human behaviour and the truth is finally official now. Such blatant violation of civil rights proves two things: ferreting out the truth has become a tool of such third degree torture that the number of people succumbing to death has become almost routine. Secondly, in spite of all the trappings of a post-modern ethos, the country’s policing system is still governed by an extremely primitive and barbaric code. The Police Act, it may be recalled, was enacted almost 142 years ago. In the event, it is hardly surprising that those who are supposed to be “with you, for you, always” are essentially a rather morbidly inclined category. Several commissions and academically inclined studies have sought to explain the brutalisation of the police as a consequence of the inhuman ways in which the police itself is treated by its political and bureaucratic masters. It is unfortunate that most of the findings or recommendations of these expert groups or judicial forums, it seems, have been gathering dust in the official archives. This aspect of the repressed turning into oppressors needs to be corrected. But, in concrete terms, what should be done? As an initial step, the outmoded and inhuman conditions that prevail in police lock-ups and jails should be changed. That may require high monetary investment, but the larger gains that will accrue from this will for-outweigh all such considerations of expenditure and wherewithal. Secondly, the laws need to be changed without any delay. This can be done by the political class by evolving a national consensus. Third and foremost, police personnel need to understand that they are the guardians, and not violators, of human rights. Unless that consciousness seeps in, the worrisome trend will continue to cast an ominous shadow over ordinary police functioning. It is clear that since the police does not work in a vacuum, its profile will necessarily differ from state to state. Thus, it should be no surprise when the NHRC says that in states like Uttar Pradesh (the country’s most populous one) and Bihar, as also in Punjab and Haryana, the number of custodial deaths recorded is much higher than that in the rest of the country. The higher echelons of the politico-administrative structure should hang their heads in shame. But that would be only a symbolic acceptance of guilt. They should instead actively consider implementing the recommendations of the Justice Malimath Commission, which has already submitted its report to the government. The countdown must, however, begin now. The basic terms of reference for the commission were wide enough, including criminal justice reforms. The question of custodial deaths has often been debated and discussed at various levels. There have also been hundreds of judicial pronouncements criticising or exposing the barbaric police attitude towards human life. It is often seen that whenever an unnatural death occurs in judicial or police custody, as a measure of total safeguard the local administration would get away with it by just completing a routine formality of ordering a magisterial inquiry into the incident. What is, however, alarming is the steady dilution in the legal sanctity of the system. Police brutalities are a direct spin-off of this erosion, and the credibility gap between precept and practice is nowhere more glaring than in the sphere of law and order. It is instructive to have a quick glance at the statistical dimensions of the criminal overkill as tabulated by the NHRC. In the period April 2001 to April 2002, a total of 18,670 cases were pending consideration. Of a total number of 6776 complaints, 1308 related to custodial deaths alone. The “usual suspects” were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and, most significantly, the highly sensitive State of Jammu and Kashmir. UP predictably reported the highest number of outrages, 9,571, of which roughly 1 per cent related to confirmed custody killings. Bihar, during the same period, reported 146 cases. The focus should ordinarily have been on Jammu and Kashmir, given its highly sensitive and strategic nature. But, unfortunately, that is not the case. Some time ago media reports had it that a Deputy Superintendent of Police was dismissed by the erstwhile Government of J&K following confirmation that the state administration had virtually slept over a case relating to the death of three innocent people in custody. According to state government sources, Abdul Rashid Khan (the officer concerned) has been “absconding” for more than three years, and has had the temerity to ignore even court summons. The coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir has taken the lead in disbanding the controversial Special Operations Group for its dismal performance on the human right front, with 53 complaints of custodial deaths being currently investigated. What do the laws say? Or is there an element of ambiguity that helps the culprits to get away with custodial deaths? A close look at Section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code in its totality would indicate that a magistrate has adequate powers, as also responsibility, to proceed against those accused and also inform the near and dear ones of those killed in custody. The crucial question that begs an answer relates to the inability of the system to create the right kind of atmosphere. In his excellent report, Justice Malimath emphasises the immediate need to tighten the existing apparatus, making it more transparent. His recommendations are wonderful, but till the time the political class realises their value, these would gather dust. It is time the police high-handedness was considered a crime and a custodial death a murder. Experience has shown that magistrates, duly empowered, have been discharging their legal responsibilities holding probes into the circumstances leading to custodial deaths, but people by and large have been looking at these functions as a routine matter, not giving a sense of confidence to the aggrieved citizens. Such probes have lost their relevance or sanctity. This is the general feeling among the citizens and social groups, which calls for immediate reforms to save innocent people from police
brutalities. |
Chronicler of Orwell’s birthplace I KNEW K.K. Tiwari as he was our stringer at Motihari, a small town in North Bihar. Whenever he visited Patna, he insisted that I should visit Motihari and be his guest. He would tempt me with apt descriptions of the fascinating places he would take me to. On my part, I was looking for an occasion to accept his invitation. It came in 1984 when lovers of fiction began thumbing once again the pages of George Orwell's classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. I was one of them. And when Tiwari promised to take me to the house in Motihari where George Orwell was born on June 25, 1903, I could not resist the temptation. Armed with a camera and a notebook, I reached Motihari one fine morning. It was not difficult to locate Tiwari, whom everyone in the town knew. We went straight to Orwell's house, which was in a state of disrepair. We could not enter the house as it was locked and the caretaker was nowhere in sight. Cows and dogs luxuriated on the premises reminding me of his most celebrated work, Animal Farm, which contains this gem: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Anywhere else, the house would have been converted into a museum to attract visitors. If the feature carried by a Kolkata daily on the house to synchronise with the birth centenary of Orwell is anything to go by, things have only worsened there. It will not be a surprise if the low-roofed structure crumbles one of these days. But what was more shocking was the claim it contained that it was a British researcher who discovered the house on his visit to Motihari a few years back. I wish the Kolkata reporter had gone through the voluminous clippings of Tiwari, who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the town, which he chronicled first for The Searchlight and then The Hindustan Times. In that case he would not have ascribed the discovery to the British researcher. Not to miss the opportunity to show me the glories of Motihari, Tiwari took me to another house, an impressive double-storied bungalow, situated in the midst of a mango grove. "Look, that is the room where Mahatma Gandhi slept and this is the verandah where he met the farmers of Motihari, in whose cause he visited the town in 1917 and courted arrest." Suddenly, the Gandhian in Tiwari rose as he recited the famous statement Gandhi made explaining why he could not leave the area as ordered and why he must listen to a "higher law of our being, the voice of conscience". Later he took me to the spot where Gandhi's words are etched in stone. It was time for me to leave, as I had to reach Raxaul that evening. He insisted that I accompany him to a historian in Motihari. The historian turned out to be a humble mali who looked after Birla's sprawling mango grove. At Tiwari's prodding, the gardener took out a massive register bound in red cloth which contained the biography of every mango tree - the day it was planted, the day the first manure was given, its height after every year and the year in which it produced the first crop. "You have to visit one more historic house", he said as he guided the driver through the lanes of Motihari. When we reached a large house with a huge portico, he said with a mischievous smile: "This is the house where K.K. Tiwari lives". He allowed me to depart only after I had a sumptuous late lunch. Two years ago when I revisited him, he was as hospitable and warm as he ever was. It was, therefore, shocking to learn from a journalist friend in Patna early this week that the chronicler of Motihari was no
more.
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Managing disaster will get top priority Railwaymen know him as tenacious and hard working. And it is, therefore, no surprise that he has been entrusted with key assignments, including that of Chief Administrative Officer, Construction, South Central Railway; Principal Chief Engineer, North Eastern Railway; and Chief
Administrative Officer, Construction, Eastern Railway. Before assuming charge as Chairman of the Railway Board, Mr Singh was General Manager, Northern Railway. He has also held the coveted post of Secretary, Railway Board. He was honoured with the
Territorial Army Decoration Award by the Prime Minister in 1995 for his work as the Commanding Officer of a regiment of the Railway
Territorial Army in Muzaffarpur. Prior to this, he received the Railway Minister’s award for the construction of a high speed railway line project in Iraq in the early eighties. A fitness enthusiast and a dog lover, he rises before the sun for a 6 km brisk walk and an occasional game of badminton with his wife. He likes to spend time with his Pune-based daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons. He is very fond of reading and is fascinated by books on space subjects, Mr Singh said in his first interview on assuming charge as Chairman of the Railway Board. Excerpts of the interview: Q: As Chairman of the Railway Board, what are your priorities and vision for the Railways? I’ve spelt out my priorities in a message to all my colleagues. It goes without saying that safety will get priority. Linked with safety, I will have to take care of asset failure and railway staff, which is a very important resource. We will fill vacant posts in the Group D category related to safety. This has to be done on a war footing. The second area concerning the staff is training and refresher courses for
assistant station masters, guards and drivers. Arrears on this front will not be allowed to pile up. We need to improve training
facilities and we have already earmarked Rs 40 crore for this in this financial year. We are giving a thrust to continuous track circuiting and have sanctioned work
worth Rs 425 crore during 2003-04. This will take care of accidents arising out of rail fractures and rail weld failures. We will promote anti-collision devices. Since the Special Railway Safety
The replacement of overaged signals and telecom gears will be completed within three years. We are making special coaches to minimise accidents. About 30 trains are running with such coaches. Disaster management is another area which needs attention. Plugging revenue leakages is also a priority. We are intensifying our vigilance checks. I would also like to give priority to aggressive marketing to survive well in the market and compete with other modes of transport. We are giving lots of incentives to freight merchants. Another key priority
area is customer satisfaction. We have to run the train safely and punctually. The first phase of the Coach Operation Information System (COIS) will be commissioned within two years. Q: The casualties in train accidents are on the rise. What are you doing to restore the confidence of the 13.6 million passengers who use the Railways everyday? It is unfortunate that a few accidents have taken place in succession. I’m fully confident that safety measures taken by the Railways will soon yield results. Our dedicated team will soon restore the confidence of the public. Q: Do you think the Railways is justified in continuing to levy the 2 per cent safety cess on passenger tickets considering that rail travel is
becoming increasingly risky? You will appreciate that we have to be financially viable for investing in technology upgradation and safety enhancement. Market borrowing is very costly. While it is our moral duty to provide safe, secure and punctual travel, accidents do occur at times. The perception of rail travel becoming risky is because accidents have taken place in quick succession in the last two months. But if you see the figures, you will find that the number of accidents in 2002-03 were 350 compared to 419 in the previous year. Casualties have also been on the decline if you look at an average of five years. The number of casualties due to train accidents has been 400 every year. Of these, 50 per cent pertain to the unmanned level crossings on which there is not much control of the Railways. In
comparison, casualties on the roads everyday are more than 200. But this is no consolation. We have to aim at zero casualty. Q: What efforts are
being made to strengthen the seven new zones? They are getting stabilised in any case. The transfer of staff from one zone to another is the only job left. Eight per cent work on transfers is already done. The rest
will be completed within three months. Q: Are you prepared to restart the Samjhauta Express? We are the agency. The day the Ministry of External Affairs gives us orders, we will start it. Q: You have superceded the seniormost member in the Railway Board.
We are a one team and have great regard for one another. The appointment of the
Railway Board Chairman is through two streams - from members in the board and from the General Manager, open line. A person aspiring from the board should have two years of residual service from the day he becomes a member of the board and one year of residual service from the day he becomes Chairman, Railway Board. AGM, open line, should have completed one year as GM and have more than two years of residual service from the day the vacancy of the CRB arises. This resolution was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in 1987. My selection is not a departure from the eligibility criterion and is according to the rules that have existed since 1987. Q: The Railways has planned some new measures to train staff engaged in cleanliness. Can you elaborate on this? We are not retrenching sanitary workers. Recognising the increase in volume of sanitation work and the high aspirations of passengers for cleanliness, we have decided to give them modern implements. Contractual agencies supplying modern cleaning
equipment are training our staff. This is mainly for cleaning at the railway stations. We are introducing on board cleanliness at stations where the train halts for more than 20 minutes. |
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From Pakistan PESHAWAR: The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Sardar Irshad, has convicted a Sub-Editor of The Frontier Post, Munawar Mohsin, in a blasphemy case and sentenced him to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000. The judge held Munawar responsible for the publication of a blasphemous letter in the newspaper on January 29, 2001, which had resulted in violent demonstrations across the country, especially in the NWFP. The two other defendants, the then News Editor of the paper, Aftab Ahmad, and the officer in charge of computers, Wajeehul Hassan, were acquitted by the court as prosecution could not prove its case against them. The court declared the Editor of the newspaper, Mahmood Shah Afridi, a proclaimed offender and issued his perpetual arrest warrants. The presiding officer observed that prima facie a case existed against the absconding accused.
Troops for Iraq: Pakistan to wait
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not send troops to Iraq until the security environment there improves or the Iraqi people choose to welcome foreign troops, well-placed defence sources told The Dawn on Tuesday. Pakistan has been considering US and British requests for troops for peacekeeping operations in Iraq, but recent consultations at the highest level here have led to the conclusion that it is not a favourable time to do so, the sources claimed. “Given the uprising against the US-led coalition forces in Iraq and the internal anarchy there, sending our troops at this time would be like jumping into fire,” remarked an important official involved in the consultation process.
— The Dawn
Musharraf blamed for attack
ISLAMABAD: Reacting to a mob attack on Pakistan’s Embassy in Kabul, opposition parties on Tuesday slammed the incident as a failure of the government’s Afghan policy and called for effective steps to prevent recurrence of such assaults. PPP, PML-N, MMA, PTI and other parties blasted the government’s casual approach to foreign policy issues, and called for a proactive strategy towards better relations with neighbouring countries. “The attack on the embassy in Kabul is a manifestation of the failure of Pakistan’s foreign policy under General Musharraf,” PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.
Balochistan Home Minister resigns
QUETTA: The Balochistan Home and Tribal Affairs Minister, Sardar Sanaullah Khan Zahri, tendered his resignation to Chief Minister Jam Mir Muhammad Yousaf in the wake of security lapse that caused the tragic incident of firing on a Friday congregation which killed 50 people. Zahri announced his resignation at a meeting of Sunni, Shia and different other political leaders and Hazara tribal notables on Sunday at Governor’s House in the wake of persistent demands for the resignation of those responsible for the security lapse and poor performance of the police in the city. Sources close to the Home Minister said that he tendered his resignation to the Chief Minister after the meeting, but both Governor-General (retd) Abdul Qadir and Chief Minister Jam Mir Muhammad Yousaf asked him to continue as Home Minister. The sources said Zahri complained against police officials at the meeting and said that he had no say in the security arrangements.
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Engage in trade of truth so that your merchandise may be accepted in his court. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib If you do not see evil you cannot appreciate good. — Bulgarian proverb Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. — Bible: Isaiah Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but Until seventy times seven. —Bible: St Matthew |
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Mr
R.K. Singh, the newly appointed Chairman of the Railway Board, faces the tough challenge of restoring the confidence of the travelling public in the 150-year-old Indian Railways. Conscious of the fact that he has inherited a weak system, Mr Singh has identified areas which need immediate attention. In his first week in the Rail Bhavan, Mr Singh has faced the discomfort of answering a host of questions about safe train operations following two accidents in Andhra Pradesh.