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“Jaagte raho” Sacred secrecy In the dock |
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Education getting messed up
An uphill journey
News analysis by Prabhjot Singh
Lyngdoh vs
politicians
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“Jaagte raho” Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s call to the security agencies and police personnel to maintain utmost vigil round the clock is timely. Unforeseen dangerous developments are indeed taking place in the neighbourhood. Numerous attacks on army and police posts not only in border states but almost all over the country are a grim reminder that the proxy war has now been extended to the length and breadth of India, with a view to spreading the security forces so thin that they cannot do effective policing The challenge can be met only by strengthening the intelligence network. That, unfortunately, has been a weak area and the attempts to remedy the situation have been half-hearted. It is just not possible to have a policeman at every doorstep. All that can be done is to anticipate which door is going to be the scene of mischief. While the exhortation to be alive to the external challenge is in order, there is need for tackling the internal situation also. Surely, the rape of a Swiss diplomat which took place right in the national capital was not the handiwork of any foreign agency. There is need for setting our own house in order. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani referred to the failure while inaugurating the all-India conference of state police chiefs and Inspectors-General of Police, at which the Prime Minister later spoke but the harsh fact remains that there have been no arrests in the case so far, just as Veerappan has been elusive. The police has a lot of wake-up and distress calls to heed. At the same time, it is necessary to give them a conducive atmosphere in which they can function effectively and fearlessly. The tendency of the political bosses to treat them as their handmaidens has demoralised the force. The Amarinder Singh-A.A. Siddiqui episode that took place right when the police chief was attending the conference was illustrative of the rot. A force can do its job professionally only if it is kept free from blatant interference and local politics. |
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Sacred secrecy The all-party consensus on making the system of voting in the Rajya Sabha elections transparent is yet another step taken by members to introduce open ballot. Parliament has already passed a Bill replacing secret ballot with open ballot in the monsoon session. Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley had convened the all-party meeting with a view to seeking the members’ views on the rules and guidelines to be framed for voting in the Rajya Sabha elections under the new law. On the face of it, the law abolishing the system of secret ballot is a retrograde step as it is bound to erode the federal and democratic character of the Constitution. It may be recalled that when the Bill was tabled in Parliament, it evoked widespread condemnation in the country for its brazen attempt to suppress democratic dissent and stifle a member’s fundamental right to vote according to his own conscience. One cannot overlook the role of money power in elections. Nor can one lose sight of the menace of cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections as happened in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The legislation on open ballot is an offshoot of the twin problems of money power and cross-voting. But more disturbing is the flip side of the reform. The new legislation has made members slaves in the hands of the party bosses. The founding fathers of the Constitution, in their wisdom, thought of a system that would duly recognise a member’s individual dignity and conscience, and not the one that would make him servile to his party. The entire exercise in the past few months suggests that since the legislators have become mere purchasable commodities, the political parties have arrived at a consensus to gag the members and, in the process, keep their flock together. Surely, this would neither strengthen the party system nor promote the cause of the world’s largest democracy. |
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In the dock The Himachal Pradesh University has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons, the latest being the indictment of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr S D Sharma, by the Chief Secretary of the state for various administrative and financial irregularities and blatant misuse of emergency powers. The appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff and hiring accommodation without requirement have been particularly criticised. It is high time that the beleaguered VC, who has become belligerent, steps down to avoid further embarrassment to the institution he still heads. If he is innocent, let him clear his name. Right now, the university in particular, and academia in general have been bowing their heads in shame because of the notoriety that the head of the university has acquired, particularly since another inquiry is being simultaneously conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India into various alleged financial irregularities. In any case, the university’s executive council has been routing all files relating to the day-to-day functioning of the university through the newly-appointed Pro-VC, Dr L R Verma, a former VC of Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry. It is indeed unfortunate that due to the activities of a number of vice-chancellors in various states, the image of the office of the vice-chancellor has been tarnished. The academicians who head the nation’s premier academic institutions are expected to set far higher standards of probity and efficiency for themselves for their subordinates to emulate. Any decline in leadership has a domino effect on the morale and standard of an institution. The appointment of vice-chancellors should be made keeping this in mind, and they must conduct themselves in a manner that behoves the high office they hold. There is truth in the opinion that politicisation is to blame for the declining academic standards, but the people have a right to expect the best from those who are meant to be, literally, their gurus.
Never the time and the place And the loved one all together! — Robert Browning |
Education getting messed up The sporadic sniping and crossfire at Punjabi University, Patiala, and unending disturbances at other campuses leave one saddened at the sorry state of affairs at our centres of higher
education. The almost daily spat between the Vice-Chancellor and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Patiala, the alleged fudging of his age by a Vice-Chancellor in another state some years back, the declining standards of many institutions and the quite unnecessary control of the universities by the bureaucracy at certain places are some of the areas of grave concern. They need to be handled expeditiously. A few of the politicians in whose constituency a particular university might be located are another category who often move in for the kill for their own gains whenever a seat of learning is in a troubled state, and only end up further complicating matters. Is this the education system we really want? An indepth study will quite clearly point to the direction in which a complete surgery is called for, as opposed to a cosmetic and temporary
solution, which eventually ends up pleasing none — neither the students, nor the teaching faculty, nor the non-teaching staff, much less the Chancellor under whose overall stewardship the complete educational machinery of the state is supposed to rest. The first question that needs an answer is: is the executive council of a university and/or the university calendar the overriding authority that can dictate terms to the Vice-Chancellor? If that be so, is there need to change this existing anomally in the interest of better running and better command and control of the institution? The answer is a clear yes, because a Vice-Chancellor whose day-to-day functioning is stymied by calendars and councils, with various factions within the university implementing their agendas, is sure to head for an administrative disaster. Over the years, sadly, many of the venerable acadamics in the country have started indulging more in campus politics than in teaching, which is their prime job and for which they are paid. Rules are made for uniformity and continuity, instilling a sense of discipline and providing a framework where inefficient administration is not permitted to mar the flow of learning. At the same time, the rule book cannot be thrown at the defaulters every weekend. The Vice-Chancellor has to ensure that the right mix of strictness and affability in staff-student relations is maintained. Universities are institutions run (or should) more on time-bound traditions, with a feeling of elan and pride. It is pointless for a Vice-Chancellor to win a particular battle but lose the war in the end. He would need to remember that an unhappy Army, even if led by a capable Chief, will end up suffering a defeat. Personal wars and egos, be they on either side, are the last things that should be seen at a university campus. The appointment of the Vice-Chancellor, and the horror of horrors a Pro-Vice-Chancellor, must undergo a drastic
change. There is no requirement or justification for having the latter, who in many cases is frequently found indulging in activities that nullify the efforts of his boss. There should not be two masters on one campus. If politicians have to oblige their supporting
groups, the posting of a Pro-Vice-Chancellor is hardly the answer. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh should immediately abolish by statute the post of Pro-Vice-Chancellor in all the universities in the state. At the same time, we have to also see whether the kind of Vice-Chancellors being appointed elsewhere in the country are capable enough and suited to the furtherence of knowledge and learning. We neither need drill seargeants nor professors ( though well-versed in their own disciplines) who are clueless about administration. A good Vice-Chancellor has to be a man of vision and apolitical person, a capable administrator and one who will place the interests of the university before those of his
own. The trouble arises when Chief Ministers wish to oblige their own well-wishers and party vote-banks. Worse follows when a Vice-Chancellor is in trouble and looks for political support, or is left to the wolves to fend for himself. The role of the Chancellor, and in some cases former Vice-Chancellors, also needs to be scanned. First the latter. Some former Vice-Chancellors who hang around townships and university campuses, in a state of disgruntlement , need to desist from doing so. We must sanitise our students from the ill influence of such people, who are often out to blow their own trumpet and do not have the interest of the university at heart. In any case, anyone facing charges of any kind has no business to set foot within the hallowed precincts of a university. The police and the law-enforcing agencies need to do more in this direction (wrapping up long drawn-out court cases). The police being allowed to enter universiy campuses should be the last resort. The Chancellor has a nominal role to play on this front. The Chief Minister of a state, who in essence recommends the name of the Vice-Chancellor and has the entire Education Department under his control, is the ideal person to exercise his executive powers to fully empower a Vice-Chancellor and, if necessary, to also remove him from the scene. Any short-circuiting by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor must also be sternly dealt with by the Chief Minister. The state administration and the University Grants Commission must also introspect on their own failings. A case in point is the recent hike in the fee structure in some universities. A hike should only be announced after taking all factors into consideration. For example, are all segments of society in the state capable of paying the enhanced fees? But once a decision is announced, there should be no rollback, as this shows that the first move was
faulty. The powers of the UGC vis-a-vis a state government also need to be better defined, for it is the latter that has to face the consequences of any unrest on a campus.
Finally, it is time a balanced teacher-student relationship of yore was established. Any scheme of education should lead to eventual employment. This is the direction our universities should be moving to in the coming years. Our Vice-Chancellors and Chief Ministers should ensure that education becomes an instrument of social change. |
An uphill journey You haven’t taken us out for a holiday in centuries was an incessant refrain from my two offsprings, the repetition of which had greatly increased over the last six months. Caught in the quagmire of private practice, my heart bled for them but the daily grind seemed so inexorably like a whirlpool drawing me in day after day. “Their childhood once gone is gone forever, the nest will soon be empty”, thus spake my safely-in-service husband. I took the hint; and then the plunge “Alright, five days off”, I announced to my progeny’s squeals of sheer delight. We couldn’t possibly go too far so naturally the Queen of the hills was to be the destination for our “long vacs”. Motion sickness running in half the family, plus a scared-to-be-driving-in-the-hills husband compelled us to take the train journey. It turned out later that we were the only people in the whole wide world who were not informed about the existence of the wondrous rail-car. Numerous print articles on the Shimla-Kalka rail track appearing in local newspapers over the recent past notwithstanding, the information available to the uninitiated educated was abysmally sketchy. The only bits of worthwhile information about the rail journey were extractable from a railways porter (coolie), that too after having made a specific trip to the Kalka railway station! Many hiccoughs later, there we were finally safely ensconced in the chair car. Bang opposite us were perched two petite foreign nationals whose chatter greatly entranced my eight-year-old son who did not quite take his eyes off them for the entire journey. If they greatly entranced my by now grudgingly-trudging-on-the-wrong-side-of forty-something husband, I cannot possibly say — for he would not be so obvious about it, obviously! The journey uphill was exactly that, though of how time flew — all seven hours of it, there is no recall! A major hiccough was that we had forgotten to pack the food hamper (you must remember doctor parents are a wee bit finicky about feeding roadside ... er ... trainside/railside food to their children). However, everyone managed cheerfully with whatever our little son had managed to sneak into his rucksack before we left home-biscuits, chocolates, potato chips, et al. “Here we are”, chorused my children, “Get off quickly, one bag each, umbrellas, water canteens, no coolies, quick march!” “No taxi either-in hills, it is fashionable to walk”, chirped my other half. Well, the very first incline up to Cart Road took the wind out of our sails. “Lhookh fhor a chholie!” panted my less than-fit husband. Look for them? They came at us like swarms of flies. The need of the hour was only to haggle about the fare demanded. That settled, we trotted off single file behind the good man who decided, for reasons best known to him alone, to descend onto the extended walkway precariously —wedged a few feet below the main road. Which, to my mind, seemed almost eager to oblige and crumble at slightest pretext or opportunity, without notice! Phew, this was enough to send my vertiginous tendencies into high gear and soon yours truly was reeling with sheer fright and absolute nausea. We reached our lodgings in a daze with me clinging on to our teenaged daughter. “She on the other hand seemed to be having the time of her life. Three days passed, I think, in a jiffy. The memories that linger are those of a family of four trying to manage in one bucket of water each day, endless walks — which for some strange reason always seemed inclined uphill, nostalgia — at seeing familiar landmarks after nearly 35 years — as unchanged as ever, in a state of suspended animation, the same shops, the same Ridge, the same softy icecreams, the same trinkets at the Lakkar Bazaar, the same ... nay, very different school children. By the time we got acclimatised, it was time for us to return home. Homeward bound, in the now-seeming-to-crawltrain, it got to be lunchtime by the time we reached Barog station. Too tired to care anymore about hygiene and to question the quality of trainside food, I asked my equally exhausted husband to get the bhatura-chana from the vendor at the station. About to discard the newspaper section the food came wrapped in, my eye fell upon the newsprint. Heavens he praised — it was my husband’s name below a letter he had written to the editor. Of all the innumerable possibilities, numerous coincidences and statistical probabilities combined — to think of all the trains that pass by that route, day in and day out, of all the passengers that get down at that station to buy refreshments, of all the bits and pieces of newspapers on which they get served their share, at that particular point in time, it had to be my husband who was handed our share of the mid-day meal in that particular piece of the newspaper that carried his letter! That, that fragment of newsprint should so miraculously land in our hands seemed such sheer coincidence that inexplicably our weariness vanished and we reached home with a spring in our step. “We’ll go again during the Dasehra holidays”, said my children. “In hills, it is fashionable to walk”, he says! Never again, say my aching and used-to-the-plains bones! |
News analysis by Prabhjot Singh Three rounds of transfers of 17 district police chiefs, 72 Superintendents and 66 Deputy Superintendents ordered in the Police Department even while Dr Siddiqui was out of the state, were to drive home the message that the elected representatives, not bureaucrats, run the show. It created an unprecedented situation where Dr Siddiqui came to know of the reshuffle in his force after orders had been issued. Though there had been an undercurrent of resentment among ministers and MLAs against bureaucrats for defying orders, the public indictment of the DGP over his order of posting 22 Deputy Superintendents has sparked a controversy, which may damage the fabric of governance. The instant fallout of the controversy is a public debate over an important issue: how to run the administration and provide transparent governance? Was public snubbing of an officer, hand-picked for the job, an indirect way of saying, “ we do not need you any more”? Though sources close to the Chief Minister deny any move to bring in a new DGP, the manner in which large-scale transfers have been ordered while Dr Siddiqui was attending a national conference of police chiefs in the Union Capital, has sent a wrong message down the line, belittling the office of Director-General of Police. Some weeks back, the Chief Minister was quoted as saying that he had given a free hand to both Chief Secretary Jai Singh Gill and DGP AA Siddiqui in making administrative changes in the civil and police administration. In March last year when the present Congress government assumed office in the state, it initiated work on amending the archaic Police Act of 1861. A team headed by Dr A.A. Siddiqui went about the task meticulously and in July this year came out with a draft of the new Punjab Police Act, 2003, suggesting establishment of a state security commission with the intention of preventing politicisation of the police force. Its recommended composition is that the Home Minister of the state shall be its chairman while two members of the legislature - one from the ruling party and the other from the Opposition, preferably the Leader of the Opposition, as its members. Four other members to be named by the Chief Minister from among retired Judges of the high court, government servants, social scientists and academicians of public standing and eminence would complete the seven-member commission whose Secretary will be the DGP. The proposed Act suggests that the administration of the police force throughout the state shall vest in the State Government and shall be exercised through its commission so constituted. Besides fixing of tenure of the Director-General, it also holds that no order “shall deprive the Director-General of his overall charge of any branch of the force so that the unity of the command is not disrupted or damaged”. It is not only the proposed Act but also the suggestions made by the National Police Commission and other bodies which advocate strongly for keeping the police free from “political pressures so that it can discharge its duties and functions freely, fairly and fearlessly.” But political interference at a level that the elected Government ignores the police chief for posting Deputy Superintendents may neither be in the interest nor its people. If politicians get a free hand in getting men of their choice posted in their areas, then who will police them? What kind of respect can a DGP command from his subordinates when he cannot punish or reward them with a good posting? The proposed Act also suggests a police commissionerate system in metropolitan towns of the state. But even before the draft has been placed before the Council of Ministers or taken to the Legislative Assembly for approval, it seems to have met its demise in the corridors of the Secretariat.
In January 1987, the then Foreign Secretary, Mr A.P. Venkateswaran, quit hours after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi indicated at a Press conference that a new Foreign Secretary was being appointed. At that point of time, Mr Venkateswaran had another 18 months to go before his retirement. Mr Rajiv Gandhi’s snub came at the fag end of his 110-minute conference in reply to a question by a Pakistani journalist about his impending visit to Pakistan as Chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAAARC).”
Soon you will be talking to a new Foreign Secretary,” Mr Gandhi had quipped at the conference. The present case also started at a Press conference. At a Press conference organised after signing an MoU with Quark on November 3, the Punjab Chief Minister gave vent to his fury, saying: “I would ask the Chief Secretary to find some other place for him (Mr Siddiqui) in Delhi if he cannot function in tandem with the democratically elected government”. These remarks were in reference to the transfer of 22 DSPs ordered by the DGP some days earlier. —
P.S. |
Lyngdoh vs politicians Chief Election Commissioner James Michael Lyngdoh’s acerbic observations in Raipur about the civil
administration being biased and worse in Chhattisgarh compared to Gujarat has set tongues wagging whether Chief Minister Ajit Jogi can pull the chestnuts out of the fire in the same resounding manner as Narendra Modi. Jogi often finds himself enmeshed in controversy — be it the schoolbags issue embossed with his pix or the chargesheet about the alleged forged documents issue. From all outward appearances, Jogi is putting up a brave front that the tribal people and other backward communities are with the Congress in Chhattisgarh. However, with the Assembly elections in the fledgling state barely a month away, the main BJP opposition is grasping every straw to see the back of the Jogi regime in Raipur.
Nambiar on global panel
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced earlier this week a 16-member panel on global security threats and reform of the international system. Former Prime Minister of Thailand Anand Panyarachun will head the high-powered body. A former Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Satish Nambiar, is on the panel along with nominees from the US, Ghana, Australia, the UK, Russia, Japan, China and Pakistan, among others. General Nambiar has a number of firsts to his credit. He was asked by the Sri Lankan government to provide answers about high-security zones in the troubled Jaffna peninsula in neighbouring Sri Lanka. He was also the first force commander of the UN forces in former Yugoslavia along with being designated as the UN Under Secretary General.
Punjab CM’s Delhi visits
Capt Amarinder Singh’s visits to the Capital are getting increasingly mysterious. In the past fortnight he has perhaps flown in and out of Delhi more times than his counterparts in the election-going states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. So much so, that AICC leaders looking after Punjab are often not aware of the touch-and-go visits of the Chief Minister. His aides in the Capital, who would earlier part with some information about his fleeting sojourns, now express ignorance. Last week Capt Amarinder Singh denied receiving any “directive” from the party’s central leadership on taking certain steps to improve his administration. However, the high command maintains that certain specific suggestions having been made to the Chief Minister to gear up the administration and overcome dissidence in the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.
Guru dakshina
Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi’s younger daughter, Nivedita, is looking forward to giving her Pune-based guru, B K S Iyengar, a literary surprise on his 85th birthday in December. She holds yoga classes every week (Monday to Thursday) in South Delhi. After learning yoga at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Insitute in Pune for close to eight years, Nivedita has gone back to the institute every year to serve there for a month. Nivedita says she suffered for 12 years till the age of 27 due to her spinal injury and only got relief from yoga. Contributed by T.R.
Ramachandran, Prashant Sood and Tripti Nath. |
He laid the earth for his creatures, with all its fruits and blossom-bearing palm, chaff-covered grain and scented herbs. Which of your Lord's blessings would you deny? You sometimes see the earth dry and barren: but no sooner do We send down rain upon it than it begins to stir and swell, putting forth every kind of radiant bloom. That is because Allah is Truth: He gives life to the dead and has power over all things. — The Koran All sins are eliminated with the Supreme nectar of God’s love. — Guru Nanak When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. — Sri Krishna
(The Bhagavad Gita) The purer I try to become, the nearer I feel to be to God. How much more should I be, when my faith is not a mere apology as it is today but has become as immovable as the Himalayas and as white and bright as the snows in their peaks? — Mahatma Gandhi Wicked men obey from fear; good
men from love. — Aristotle |
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An unsavoury controversy between politicians and bureaucrats over supremacy in the civil and police administration has come into the open after Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh snubbed the Director-General of Police, Dr A.A. Siddiqui, the other day.