 |
|
The roar of silence Honour killings |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
British humour
The tyranny of privileges
Look
Naneemaa, cow!
Where on earth do you get a kidney for free? Delhi Durbar
|
The roar of silence WITH the guns falling silent at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and the Actual Ground Position Line in the Siachen glaciers on the eve of Eid, there is hope for better days ahead. Those living in the border villages are heaving a sigh of relief. After the proxy war launched by Pakistan in 1989 these villagers had been undergoing a harrowing experience because of the intermittent exchange of fire between India and Pakistan. These people had been living in an area of darkness as they had to keep their lights off during the night for reasons of security. Men of the Pakistan Rangers resorted to unprovoked firing to provide cover to terrorists infiltrating into this side of the border. This would obviously lead to retaliatory firing by Indian troops. The major sufferers in the process were the border villages. The atmosphere of silence in the LoC area, one hopes, will bring down cross-border infiltration considerably, leading to a sharp decline in militant violence in the Valley and beyond. The two countries will also gain in terms of a reduced cost of maintaining vigil at the border. If the ceasefire remains intact, India and Pakistan will have created the kind of atmosphere needed for initiating a process of meaningful dialogue between the two neighbours. The cessation of firing in Siachen has its own significance. It amounts to Pakistan attaching sanctity to the advantageous presence of India in the glaciers. Both countries had been maintaining their positions at great cost in terms of money and human lives. Ideally, there should be no casualties now. This is not a small gain keeping in view the fact that each country is believed to have lost at least 2,500 men in uniform since 1984, besides a large number of fighters developing serious health problems in the world’s
highest and coldest battlefield. The gains may be greater if the strength of the forces gets reduced as a result of the ceasefire. |
|
Honour killings THE veneer of modernity that the present-day society flaunts seems to be counterfeit. Despite the advent of modernism, narrow-mindedness, reminiscent of tribal days, is all-pervasive. That is why incidents of honour killings seem to be still taking place with chilling regularity. The latest such horrendous crime took place near Hoshiarpur on Tuesday when a Jat boy was done to death for daring to marry a Rajput girl. The extent of caste hatred can be gauged from the fact that one arm of the victim was chopped off and sent to his aunt’s house in the same village. It will be a mistake to think that such primitive behaviour is confined to rural areas seeped in ignorance and illiteracy. Honour killings are prevalent in cities like Chandigarh and Mussoorie also. What is particularly worrisome is that even those belonging to the upper crust are not free from the virus. All that makes one reach a disheartening conclusion that the so-called cosmopolitan culture that is developing is rootless. Every such incident shatters the dream of a casteless society. It is for the social scientists to study whether bringing about equality through reservation has helped in removing caste identities or unwittingly strengthened them by enhancing awareness about this appendage. What is unmistakable is the role of politicians in dividing society along the caste, religion and region faultlines. Certain negative attributes stand out. Especially unfortunate is the glaring class distinction shown not only by those belonging to the so-called upper castes but even by those from various Dalit groupings. Equally regrettable is the patronage provided to the culprits by their clansmen and even village panchayats. The perpetrators may be killers for the rest of the world but are heroes for their own peers. Unless this misplaced admiration for the “protectors” of caste honour continues, it will be very difficult to make the hot-headed youth see reason. But the worst of all is police apathy in such matters. Their role in preventing the crimes as well as providing security to the survivors is scandalous. |
|
|
British humour MOST of our rulers do not have a sense of humour. An endearing quality of the English people is their ability to laugh at themselves and the institutions they respect. For years now the Buckingham Palace has been their richest source of humour. Not always harmless, going by the malicious stories that the tabloids keep digging up about the royals. Recently they circulated one about the personal life of Prince Charles. It left a bad taste in most British mouths. For a change, a tabloid reporter has done a story that has become the source of nation-wide amusement. Who wouldn't be amused by the fuddy-duddy lifestyle of their Queen? The story had elements of scandal, security breach and pure fun. It was scandalous because the reporter gave a colourful account of the quality of the wallpaper, the tupperware and plastic yogurt pot on Her Majesty's breakfast table. It was a security breach because the reporter, Ryan Parry, managed to get himself a job in the palace as a footman, by presenting bogus references. For two months he had a run of the place, — rather palace — collecting interesting and amusing tit-bits for the tabloid. He must have made the country's top intelligence agencies look thoroughly incompetent when he reported, with his tongue firmly in the cheek, the mayhem he could have caused had he continued with the job. The mainstream newspapers have raised their pen to salute the amazing exploits of Parry. And why not? It is not every reporter's privilege to get to gaze at the red and pink flock papers that adorn the walls of Prince Andrew's bedroom and much else. The British do love their privacy, but want to know about the private lives of others, particularly the royalty. |
|
Thought for the day In the arts of peace Man is a bungler. —
George Bernard Shaw |
The tyranny of privileges THE right to freedom of speech and expression, which includes the freedom of the Press, is the foundation of a free and functional democracy. No agency of the state — the legislature or the government — can deny or abridge this basic and invaluable right of the citizen. The action against the Editor of The Hindu and five other journalists smacks of arbitrariness on the part of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and is a brazen abuse of the established norms of constitutional law and practice. The Assembly Secretary’s stand, in response to the Supreme Court’s notice, that the “actions and decisions of the House and the Speaker are well within their jurisdiction and cannot be questioned on any grounds whatsoever” is untenable and unsustainable under the law. True, Parliament and state legislatures do enjoy certain privileges under Articles 105 (3) and 194 (3) of the Constitution. But these are never final and absolute unless they are backed by reason, wisdom and jurisprudence. In The Hindu case, for instance, the mala fide intent on the part of the Assembly’s Privileges Committee and the Speaker was very much glaring in that Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was waiting for an opportunity to fix the journalists for their bold criticism of her government’s actions. Going by the latest count, as many as 18 cases of defamation have been filed against the newspaper so far and, what is more, the journalists were not given even a hearing by the House before the 15-day sentence was slapped on them. The Supreme Court had examined the question of arbitrary exercise of power by the legislatures. Its firm opinion was that mala fide could be attributed to the resolution of a House if, in a given case, the allegation made by the citizen is that he has been deprived of his liberty “not in accordance with the law, but for capracious or mala fide reasons.” Parliament or a state legislature has two jurisdictions — legislative and privilege. While the former has inbuilt safeguards in parliamentary procedure, the latter is discretionary and can, therefore, be arbitrary. In the exercise of the two jurisdictions, the Supreme Court has never allowed a House to abuse its power and commit a fraud on the Constitution. In the Presidential reference on Uttar Pradesh legislature’s case (1964), the Searchlight case (1959) and the Bihar Land Reforms Act (1950), the court observed that if the legislature exercises a power which, though may apparently be within its jurisdiction, amounts to a fraud on the Constitution, the same would have to be struck down as null and void. Unfortunately, the members of Parliament and state legislatures in India have an exaggerated notion of themselves and their status and abuse their power of privileges with impunity. Strictly speaking, Parliament (or a State Assembly) is not supreme like the British House of Commons. Unlike the British Constitution, the Indian Constitution is a written document and hence the fundamental law of the land. Parliament, or a State Assembly, being only a creature of the Constitution, should work within the limitations imposed on it by the Constitution. It is not always realised that the doctrine of limited government, the rule of law and dilution of executive privilege are applied to every democratic and written Constitution. Parliament and state legislatures are prohibited from enacting any law that is inconsistent with the fundamental rights enshrined in Part III of the Constitution. In the Golaknath case (1967), the Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) and the Minerva Mills case (1980), the Supreme Court had ruled that Parliament could not abridge any fundamental right and that despite its limited power of amending the Constitution, it could not change the basic structure of the Constitution. While Parliament and state legislatures have absolutely no power to legislate beyond the assigned subjects, their legislative power is subject to constitutional provisions. This basic difference in the constitutional position of India and Britain should be kept in view while making a case for codification of parliamentary privileges. Undoubtedly, codification is a must to check arbitrary exercise of the power of privileges and the subsequent abuse of the Constitution. The apprehensions among some sections that once the privileges are codified, they would come into conflict with the fundamental rights, struck down by the courts, and consequently lower the dignity of the legislature are far-fetched and misplaced. Like the legislature, the judiciary is also a creature of the Constitution and not an alien body. By virtue of Articles 13, 32, 136, 226, 299, 300 and 311, the court has the power of judicial review. Thus, the doctrine of unconstitutionality is part of the constitutional scheme in India. The fundamental rights, the doctrine of judicial review, and the limited amending power of Parliament are basic features of the Constitution. If Parliament tends to change the basic structure, the Supreme Court, as the protector and guarantor of the fundamental rights, will declare it ultra vires of the Constitution. Codification of parliamentary privileges is necessary to preserve and protect the freedom of the Press. In the absence of a well-defined and unambiguous code, an overzealous legislature can trample upon the freedom of the Press as in Tamil Nadu. Codification will make things certain and one can know to what extent the legislatures in India enjoy privileges. Right now there is much vagueness, flexibility and uncertainty regarding what actually constitutes a breach of privilege or contempt of the House. If the legislative power to punish for contempt is carefully defined in respect of such matters as grounds constituting contempt, procedure and persons against whom such power may be exercised, it will be an effective safeguard against any misuse of power. It will also strengthen the rule of law and put the Press-legislature relations on an even keel. It is true that given the present attitude of the legislators, an early codification of their privileges seems a remote possibility. But there is no substitute to codification if the sacred freedom of the Press is to be safeguarded from the tyranny of parliamentary privileges. Pending formal codification, over the years, the Press Council, the Indian Law Institute and the Editors’ Guild have been offering suggestions to remove uncertainty from the area of privileges and provide guidance to newspapers in the matter of what they should report and how they should comment on legislative proceedings. These include, among other things, preparation of an official digest under suitable headings of the various privilege cases that have come up in the legislatures during the last five decades; an informal code of privileges to be prepared by a committee which may be appointed by Parliament and state legislatures; and issuance of “declaratory resolutions” by various legislatures defining their privileges. One cannot dismiss these suggestions at their face value. But the problem is that the legislatures may not give them the attention they deserve when it comes to dealing with the Press. More important, these suggestions, if implemented, will have no legal sanction and thus will not be subject to fundamental rights. Clearly, the question is not one of court versus the legislature. It is primarily a question of legislature versus the people. It is the individuals who are punished for contempt of the House and the courts come into the picture only to protect those whose freedom is in jeopardy. If a State Assembly enjoys absolute power in matters of its privileges without any judicial review, there is little to stop it from arbitrary and whimsical exercise of its power as the latest episode in Tamil Nadu proves. |
Look Naneemaa, cow! COP falls prey to stray bull was the caption of a newsitems appearing in Chandigarh Tribune sometime back. The policeman riding a scooter had hit a stray bull and ultimately died. This reminded me of the visit of our two tiny granddaughters, Mehak and Muskaan, to Chandigarh last winter. Both are born and brought up in Sweden. While on their way to a market in Chandigarh both looked surprised and exclaimed loudly “Look Naneemaa, there is a cow and it is doing soo soo!” They had neither seen a cow or a buffalo roaming about on roads earlier nor witnessed such a show. Their levels of purity and innocence would not accept our defence. Subsequently, they started asking inconvenient questions on not finding a dustbin to put their used paper napkins or when a driver would ignore the commands of cops, or on wrong parking of vehicles etc. We then explained that the city is like our river Ganga and just as its “Gangajal” remains pure despite pollution so does Chandigarh. This probably convinced them since no more questions were put to us all through their stay. The sparkle of two faded memories, connected with the family of buffaloes and cows, are still etched in my mind and I would like to share it. About 50 years back there was no indoor badminton hall in Patiala and the game had to be played in open. We, a group of four players, located a vacant grassy ground adjoining the cinema hall and pressurised the owner, a shrewd businessman, to allow us to use the piece of ground for the game. He very reluctantly agreed but was always on the lookout for some excuse to stop it. Ultimately, he came out with a novel idea. During those days buffaloes and cows would be taken outside the city by a cowherd for grazing and bring them back in the evening by taking short routes. The gentleman got our playing ground watered and secretly asked the cowherd to take the group of cattle through the watered ground. We were surprised to find next day foot marks of cows and buffaloes all over the ground which had made it uneven and unfit for play. We vehemently protested but the owner smilingly told us that had he known this earlier, he would have definitely arranged for sports shoes for the invading herd of cattle! That was our last outdoor badminton. A new popular ministry had been formed in Punjab and a number of legislators with rural back ground inducted into the Cabinet. A few of the newly inducted ministers not only carried their rural experience but also brought their milch cattle — buffaloes — to the city beautiful as they could never dream of missing desi ghee of absolute purity which was not available then in Chandigarh. Since there was a ban on keeping buffaloes in bungalows, the architects and town planners had to be persuaded to compromise to the rural realities and permit the buffaloes to be kept in ministers’ bungalows. Special sheds of prescribed designs were constructed for housing these special guests. The combined aroma of rose petals and cow dung had a special fragrance. One day a very important meeting had been fixed but my minister was out and busy with his electorates. All my efforts to bring him to the secretariat a little earlier for briefing on his items did not materialise. He suddenly appeared at the eleventh hour, snatched the agenda papers and smilingly said “Mukerjee, majh bol pai”. I was puzzled and wondered what directions he had left for me as I was not adequately educated on this subject. I suddenly realised the import of what he had said and immediately rang up the Director of Animal Husbandry to arrange artificial insemination since the buffalo had given the nod!
|
Where on earth do you get a kidney for free?
A
MALAYALAM film that virtually brought me to tears has this storyline: A young football player looking for a job finds to his utter horror a good marriage proposal for his doting sister falling through because his physically challenged father is unable to raise enough money. But to everyone's surprise, he arranges money for the marriage, though he is unable to attend the ceremony because he has an "unavoidable appointment". Little does the sister know that even as she was wearing the bridal attire, her brother was undergoing an operation for the removal of one of his kidneys -- he had raised money for the marriage by selling his kidney. In terms of sacrifice, the story was several notches ahead of O. Henry's famous Gift of the Magi. I was reminded of this film when Mr Baldev Singh Bhatia, accompanied by his athletic son, met me on Wednesday afternoon to complain about the wrong portrayal of his case in the Amritsar-datelined report, "Fraud in kidney donation detected" The Tribune carried the same day. "I am the hero of that story" said the visitor self-mockingly. His disheveled beard, harried look and halting voice suggested that he was not well and he could be the kidney patient. My hunch was not wrong. As he settled down in my office and began narrating his pathetic story in flawless English, I for once realised that he was like King Lear "more sinned against than sinning". Nature has not been kind to him as he had to undergo two bypass surgeries. Fortunately, he could afford the costly operations. What devastated him and his closely-knit family was the revelation that his kidneys had stopped functioning and he had to depend on dialysis every alternate day. "I have to carry life-saving medicines always", he said touching the left pocket of his kurta. Doctors told him that his dependency on artificial dialysis would end if he could find a suitable kidney donor. Since his blood group was O+ and his son's and wife's blood groups were different, he decided to advertise. A classified advertisement in a Hindi daily elicited a good response. Among the prospective donors, he chose one Rajinderpal Singh from "Amritsar" whose blood and other details matched his own. Then the complications began. Under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994, both the patient and the donor have to jointly seek the approval of the authorisation committee, which is constituted by the state government, and which in this case was headed by Dr P.S. Bedi, Principal, Government Medical College, Amritsar. The committee sent the case file to the police for verification. After taking his own sweet time, the SSP, Amritsar, wrote to the committee virtually telling it that he had better things to do. With no approval emanating from the committee, the patient and his wife, who is qualified in law, approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court to expedite the matter. After all, he has been oscillating between death and life with failed kidneys and a weakened heart. When commanded by the court, the same police, which had otherwise refused to verify the case, conducted an investigation into the matter and found that the donor's real identity was suppressed and the details he supplied were all fake. Perhaps, he did not want the world to know that he wanted to part with one of his kidneys! Social stigma is, after all, not something that can simply be wished away. "How am I to know that he had faked his identity?" asked the patient more in grief than in anger. "If we had anything to hide, would we have pestered the authorisation committee to have the case verified or filed an affidavit in the court?" he continued in the same vein. That brings us to the crux of the matter. Under the Act, a donor, who is not a relative, can donate by reason of "affection or attachment" towards the recipient. But he cannot receive any compensation in kind or in cash for his "loss". I made a long-distance call to the Authorisation Committee chairman to know whether he has ever heard about somebody donating his kidney purely for "affection or attachment". His answer was an emphatic "No". Forget friends and acquaintances, even family members refuse to part with the organ except in a few cases. But the moment the donor and the recipient mention in their application that money is paid/received, the authorisation committee is bound to reject the application. Small wonder that nobody approaches the authorisation committee these days. Ever since Dr Bedi became chairman of the committee about seven months ago, this was the first application that came up before him. The law forces the people to tell a lie when nobody on this earth gives his/her kidney purely for affection or attachment. Even in the case of relatives, only a very heartless person will not reward whoever gives him a kidney and saves his life. If suppose a person donates his kidney out of "affection or attachment", how can the recipient just say "Thank you" and ask him to fend for himself? That is precisely what the law expects the recipient to do. There are people who need kidneys and there are people who are willing to donate them, obviously, for a price. Why should the state come in the way? Why can't the state encourage them to tell the truth so that if, for some reason, the recipient cheats the donor, the latter can insist on getting the agreed sum? I mention this because a Muslim youth once approached me with his harrowing tale that he was cheated of his kidney by a senior police officer, who is now an MP and whose brother is the leading light of the Ram temple movement. The policeman needed the kidney for a close relation. In this case, the Muslim kidney adjusted itself to the Hindu body! With the 1994 Transplantation of Human Organs Act prohibiting genuine transactions, kidney transplantation has become a thing of the past at least in Punjab with hundreds of patients who could have been saved having died or are dying for want of kidneys. And for all the trouble that Mr Baldev Singh Bhatia took to have a kidney, a contemporary says he will be dealt with under sections 420, 467 and 471 of the IPC. Think of it, the football player in the film who donated his kidney going to jail for selling his kidney! |
|
Delhi Durbar TAMIL
NADU Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was on tenterhooks for more than 24 hours about the Supreme Court verdict in the Tansi case. The rejoicing in Tamil Nadu on her exoneration was as anticipated. An adverse ruling by the apex court could have cost her dearly in political terms. The Amma is not entirely out of the woods as there are still a few other cases against her. The Supreme Court Registry was duly informed on Saturday (November 22) that the division bench will pronounce its verdict in the Tansi case on Monday (November 24). A bird tells us Jayalalithaa sought the good offices and blessings of a highly respected religious head of what was in store for her. After reportedly assessing the situation in Delhi on Sunday (November 23), the religious head is believed to have got back to Jayalalithaa that she need not feel restless about the Supreme Court’s ruling. That provided the necessary balm to Jayalalithaa and the AIADMK on Sunday (November 23) evening placed a huge order for sweets to be distributed once the Supreme Court absolved her of violating any law in the Tansi case. Immediately thereafter, her Tamil Nadu government wasted no time in slapping some more defamation cases against newspapers and magazines while sticking to a brief four-word comment: “It’s all God’s will.” Another record for Kalam Ever since he occupied Rashtrapati Bhavan, setting records of sorts has become the first nature for President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. On Monday (November 24) the First Citizen received the credentials of no fewer than nine envoys in one go. They included UK High Commissioner Michael Arthur and the Ambassadors of the Netherland, the Philippines, Cuba, Bulgaria and Nicaragua. Rarely a day passes in the erstwhile Viceregal Lodge without school children being ushered in to meet the President. He has also taken a vow that he will go abroad only after travelling all over the country first. Being computer savvy, he communicates with a wide spectrum of people from various walks of life. Simplicity personified with no hang-ups, Dr Kalam has taken time out to teach English and general etiquette to the staff in Rashtrapati Bhavan, especially when the Heads of State or Government come calling. SAD to contest 4 Delhi seats The Shiromani Akali Dal has fielded four candidates in Delhi for the December 1 elections. From all accounts it is a token representation without any great hopes of winning a single seat. A SAD leader contended that initially they were not keen on fielding candidates in the national Capital but had gone ahead at the insistence of the BJP. It was contended that if the SAD had steered clear of the Delhi elections, a wrong signal would have gained ground that cracks are developing in their relationship with the BJP. It is, therefore, not surprising that Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, while campaigning, are asking Delhi-ites to vote for the BJP. In any case, Mr Badal has other worries on his hand and has vowed to take the fight to the camp of Capt Amarinder Singh. The trend in Rajasthan Punjab Congress leaders appointed as observers and to campaign for the party in Rajasthan are bemused with the media in the desert area. Confined as they are to a particular area, these leaders are at a loss to guage the overall emerging trend in Rajasthan as the local media is just focusing on their areas and apparently giving the thumbs-up sign to the BJP’s chief ministerial aspirant Vasundhara Raje. Congress leaders keep calling all over the place, including Delhi, for a proper assessment of the ground realities. Of course, at the end of it all these busy-bodies are quick to add that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is on a firm wicket and the Congress should retain power in Rajasthan. Contributed by T.R. Ramachandran, Satish Misra and Rajeev Sharma.
|
Man is born with four debts: By worship he discharges the debts of Gods; By study he discharges the debts of Rishis; By giving birth he discharges the debts of his parents; and By practising hospitality he discharges the debts of humanity. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya The secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and to do good — that is the whole of religion. — Swami Vivekananda Real impurity lies in the consuming fire of desires which engulfs the whole world. It is spread all around — in oceans, on earth and at all places. — Guru Nanak Hear one side and you will be in the dark; hear both sides, and all will be clear. — Haliburton |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
