 |
|
Clean campaign, please Gratuity for teachers |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hidden persuaders
An unhealthy exam system
The smoky horizon
EC appointments only by consensus Delhi Durbar
|
Clean campaign, please THE election season is here and a lot of heat and dust is bound to be in the air. Nothing wrong in that, except that the dust can quickly turn into mud if all concerned do not restrain themselves from adding the water of personal and unsubstantiated allegations in it and indulging in the dangerous pastime of muckraking. Many such instances in the past have left a bitter taste and spoiled the name of Indian democracy. The slanderous habit deserves to be given a quiet burial in the first general election of the 21st century. All contenders need to come to an agreement that they will confine themselves to raising issues without dabbling in the personal lives of their opponents. Allegations of a personal nature always incite a retort in kind and everyone joins the pastry war in no time. Let this unhealthy pursuit be absent from the 2004 elections. In fact, vital issues get relegated to the sidelines mainly because the blows aimed below the belt grab more attention. There are a billion issues crying for attention in this huge country of ours and it is a paradox that the politicians still find it necessary to stoop down to vilification campaigns. Everyone blames the others for the malaise and yet indulges in it merrily. The only way the politicians can be made to see reason is by making them realise that their antics are not appreciated by the public. Once they know that those who have the voting rights in their hands do not take kindly to malicious disparagement will they be forced to mend their ways. What a leader does in his personal capacity should be of concern only to him and his family. It becomes a public matter only if his or her personal conduct has an impact on public interest. This Lakshman Rekha deserves to be scrupulously respected by all parties in the coming elections. |
|
Gratuity for teachers THE Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday that primary school teachers are not entitled to avail themselves of the benefit of gratuity under the Payment of Gratuity Act is bound to be misunderstood by the vast teaching community in the country. The court has rightly praised the teachers who are “engaged in the very noble profession of educating our young generation” but has not found ways to ensure that they enjoy the benefit of a bit of social security. It is hard to understand the court’s observation that teachers are not skilled or unskilled employees who can be paid gratuity at the end of long years of service. Semantics cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the teachers getting the most reasonable benefit, which the Supreme Court is not really opposed to. If a factory or industrial worker is entitled to the benefit of gratuity, how can the same benefit be denied to private teachers? If it is technically true that teachers are not skilled or unskilled employees, it is equally true that there are trained and untrained teachers. The apex court should have appreciated this fundamental difference in the right spirit and extended the gratuity benefit to the petitioners, the Ahmedabad Private Primary Teachers’ Association, on a par with those enjoying gratuity under the Payment of Gratuity Act. Teachers should not suffer because of absence of proper state laws. The Supreme Court has left it to the discretion of the state legislatures to take cognisance of the situation of such teachers in various establishments where gratuity benefit is not available and think of separate legislation for them. This is a significant step and should work as a general policy guideline for the state governments. But doubts are bound to be raised on the sincerity and earnestness of the legislatures to follow up the matter with the attention it deserves. More important, the legislatures (or the state governments) are not known to take prompt decisions, especially when matters such as gratuity are left to their sole discretion. It would have been just and fair had the apex court issued an explicit directive to the state governments to implement the measure (wherever gratuity benefit is not extended to teachers) in the larger interest of the teaching community. |
|
|
Hidden persuaders THE Bharatiya Janata Party came up with an interesting definition of Hindutva during the two-day brainstorming session in Hyderabad. The definition may or may not help it win new friends or influence an entire community into believing that Hindutva indeed is another name for development. But since it has decided to make development the theme of its electoral campaign the party's spin doctors decided that by giving Hindutva a complete makeover they may succeed in making a political bitter pill taste sweet. The new meaning of Hindutva should be seen in the context of the influence cinema and the proliferation of television channels have had on the political vocabulary of the leaders. Recently, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee was provoked by Congress President Sonia Gandhi's reference to his political assertions as "Mungeri Lal Kay Sunhairey Sapney". The wise ones at the BJP conclave in Hyderabad evidently decided that the popularity of the "thanda matlab" ad would help the party sell the slogan of "Hindutva matlab vikas" with equal ease. With the election season round the corner, other political parties may be tempted to explore the potential of popular television commercials for launching their campaign. The punchline of the "lagey raho" lollipop ad can be reworked as an interesting political slogan. And so can the one that shows a donkey win a horse race! The market value of the short and ugly pug breed has shot up because of the popularity of the ad in which the "faithful dog" follows his little master everywhere. There is something in the hidden and not so hidden persuaders. |
|
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. — Francis Bacon |
An unhealthy exam system MOTHER bird and baby bird were in the nest. Father bird would bring in grain and deposit it on the floor of the nest from where mother bird would pick it up and feed the baby. Suddenly, the mother died. The father continued to bring in food, but the link had been broken. In spite of the abundance of food in the nest, the baby bird died of starvation. This is not an apocryphal story but a true observation by a bird-watcher. A country’s education system is like the mother bird. If it is decapacitated, future will be in jeopardy irrespective of the strengths and accumulations elsewhere. It is ironic that while the world over the economy is increasingly being driven by knowledge, the knowledge content of our own education system has been going down precipitously. Indian education has been distorted out of shape by the examination system. It has ceased to be enhancing and has become rejectionist instead. In the years immediately after Independence, the catchment area of science and engineering education was consciously expanded. We have, however, been unable to effectively exploit this valuable human resource capital. Unable to deal with students, whose number runs into lakhs, we have created mechanisms to reject them stage after stage so that finally we are left with numbers in thousands which we can handle. Throughout the world, science students are given a good grounding in the basic concepts, taught to do experiments and undergo practical training. We have sacrificed all these at the altar of multiple-choice questions. The aim of our elaborate expensive state-run education system has degenerated into “objectively” ranking the students, accommodate the top few thousands of them, and condemn the rest. No wonder then, instances of question paper leakage and falsification of mark-sheets are becoming more and more pervasive. Devaluation of science and engineering education in India has taken place at a time when the knowledge content of the economy the world over has been increasing. A knowledge(-based) economy has been defined as “an economy in which the production, distribution, and use of knowledge is the main driver of growth, wealth creation and employment across all countries”. Revolutionary technological advances such as powerful personal computers, high-speed tele-communication, Internet, and molecular manipulation of matter have given rise to “new industries that are driven not by machinery, skilled shop-floor workers or even capital — although these play a role — but rather by individuals engaged in research, design, and development”. Information and communication technologies (ICT) and biotechnology (BT) are of vital importance today. Yet knowledge-based economy goes beyond them. Older sectors are also organising work around new technologies so as to develop new managerial practices, cut costs, save energy, reduce waste, and tap new markets. One often comes across the term “high technology”. It is not a very useful concept because it cannot be paired with any other term. It is far more instructive to distinguish between rising and flat technologies. A rising technology is one which is currently in a rapid phase of development. A flat technology on the other hand, is one which has already been more or less standardised. Quite obviously, a rising technology of today is a flat technology of tomorrow. The US and to a lesser extent other economically advanced countries tend to drive their economy through rising technologies, parcelling out production based on flat technologies to lesser countries. These in turn keep the higher end of flat technologies to themselves and pass on the lower end to countries down the line. In the present era, ICTs have a dual role. They are themselves in the developmental phase. At the same time, they constitute a powerful tool necessary for making flat technologies globally competitive. Indeed, in the years to come ICT itself will reach a plateau; and economic success will attend those who are able to master their use as a tool. (American retail chain Wal-Mart is a striking example of success in this field). Much international praise has been showered on India’s IT prowess. Such praise is not disinterested and, therefore, should not be taken very seriously. Most of the IT work being done in India under Indian auspices is of low calibre, much below the intellectual level of workers engaged in it. Chances of India’s moving up the value ladder are small because it still ranks very low in network readiness. As a study underway at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi, by Dr Sujit Bhattacharya reveals, whatever cutting edge R&D work is being done in India in IT and related fields is under foreign auspices and is being patented in the name of the parent company in the US. In the year 2001, American companies obtained a total of 65 patents based on the work done by Indians in the Indian branches of these companies. (The number stood at 19 in 1997). All these patents are in the fields related to computers and communications. In contrast to these 65 patents, Indian organisations obtained 121 patents (up from 31 in 1997). These are in traditional areas such as chemicals and drugs. Ten years from now when analysts look back at the present period, they would notice that India played a minor role while ICTs were in the rapid phase of development. India’s destiny does not lie on the periphery of a rising technology but at the centre of flat technologies. Many technologies which had been closed for long are now being reopened for ecological and economic reasons. Old processes are being reworked to make them environment-friendly. Also innovations of technological, managerial and other kinds are being pressed in to make products globally acceptable and competitive. There is a major difference between India and its competing neighbour, China. China must necessarily, at least for the present, work at the low-skill end of the flat technologies while India is capable of becoming a hub for production requiring higher levels of skills, in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, automobiles and steel. Since India already has the culture of the production in these sectors, it can easily move up the value ladder. Of particular importance is the pharma sector where India can become a world leader in production of drugs that go off the patent. On this bedrock can rest R&D, leading to new useful molecules. Where would the human resource capital come from for these sectors? Sadly, our university system has so far shown no signs of rising to the occasion. In keeping with the demands of the time, our universities must be able to act, change and adapt at short notice. Universities must anticipate industry’s needs and fulfil them. New economic order has features the likes of which the world has not seen before. Competition today is global rather than national; and organisations networked rather than hierarchical. Competitive advantage comes from innovation and all-round cost-cutting. Work-force should have broad (rather than job-specific) skills, which should continually be upgraded. Universities in the region should take initiatives keeping in mind the long-term interests of their learners.
The writer is Director, National Institute of Science, Technology & Development Studies, New Delhi. |
The smoky horizon THERE is a tremendous amount of official brouhaha to commemorate the centenary of the Kalka-Simla rail. For generations of Simlaphiles like us the image of the engine spouting smoke in the mountain evokes voluminous nostalgia like the proverbial gene’s lamp transporting me to a lost world. I can go back decades and still be heady with the fresh pine fragrance, which should have been bottled for posterity since in today’s polluted setup it has disappeared. This train was a quintessential ingredient when the romance of the mountains was conjured in all fairness, it was to the Raj, that we can attribute the hill stations, as well as these marvellous rail tracks that we traverse even today. M.M. Kaye stays “This too happened at a railway station, the small station of Kalka, where the little toy train from Simla stops and passengers wishing to go further transfer to a broad gauge one.” Decades ago before the Honda City era, most school parties for boarding schools up in Simla would embark this train from Kalka. I am sure this railway station still evokes a strange melancholy for many of us. Every March, it meant an end to the winter break and the start of the school term, as tear stricken faces would assemble to board the train. The first timers would emit the loudest sobs, as they would cling to their parents whereas the seasoned ones would look forward to the revelry and pranks of boarding school. One episode from the repertoire of my memory is vivid as I recollect clinging to my mother’s saree as a nine year old on the railway station and pleading “please keep me with you”. Once most kids boarded the train, as it chugged up along the serpentine rail track, the view was exhilarating, heavily pine wooded forests and the balmy mountain air merging with the whiffs of fresh tuck would assuage the heart wrenching. Soon the little children would engage in their innocent chatter and home would be a world away. The first sight of Simla uphill from Solan was prophetic of the grande finale that lay ahead, the signs of a bustling town. Particularly at night, the town looked a beautiful fairyland alight with shimmering lights. The journey down the mountains in November, at the close of term was exciting as one headed home, from the moment the school party left Simla, there was revelry and celebrations as one sang thunderously — “Kalka lights are burning, home we are returning, back to mummy and daddy, back to sister and brother.” So the Kalka railway station was symbolic of the joyous moment of reconciliation as well as with the wrench of departure from the home and the family. These are just some strains of nostalgia, which the sight of the train pulled out from the closet of my memory, there may be zillions of such thought processes linked with the steam engine. If one scans the pages of history all the historic episodes linked with Simla, the concerned luminaries must have embarked this train with fanfare, travelled in style served by liveried waiters, unlike the fragments from my memory when one nibbled at mother’s freshly baked cake meant for eating during the term and not as the train journey commenced. In retrospect, it was a diversive therapy for the emergent pangs of leaving home.
|
EC appointments only by consensus
WHEN I became the CEC, I felt that the Election Commission’s role is to promote democracy and not to bureaucratically throttle it. After all, in the political parties’ interaction with the voters, parties can lose some support in one election, and may soon regain it, and even enhance it in the next election. I felt, therefore, that the Commission should not mechanically apply such rigid rules. Accordingly, during 1998-2000, the Symbols Order was comprehensively rewritten with a view to promoting political action by recognised parties. I think all parties have welcomed it and found it a support in their democratic, vote-seeking endeavours. Occasionally, arguments have developed over the timing of elections as fixed by the Commission. In Britain the Prime Minister chooses his time, announces the dates, and voting is held a few weeks later. The Indian Constitution has indirectly given this power to the Election Commission and it has been subsequently upheld and confirmed by the Supreme Court. The principle is simple. If an assembly or Parliament completes its full tenure, the Commission is required to hold elections at an appropriate time, before the term ends to replace the old House with a new one. If, however, a House is prematurely dissolved, the Commission is required within six months of the date of dissolution, to hold elections and to place in position a new house, which must meet within that period. Therefore, in either eventuality, the Election Commission of India is to choose appropriate dates, taking into account many factors within the outer limitation of time. The monsoon is always to be avoided, all natural climatic adverse factors skirted, and of course, the Election Commission at least should not be held responsible ever, for disrupting students’ examination schedules since we all know that the country is not lacking in other institutions and individuals, who love blocking examinations. The Election Commission is duty bound to ensure a level-playing field for all parties and contestants in the election process. It is bound to strive by every means to maintain the probity and fairness of the election process. We face certain difficulties here. Our constitutional system provides for the British pattern, namely, that one party is in power in the state and therefore, controls the administrative and financial resources at the election time. On the other hand, it is also a contestant to retain that power for the future five years. This works in Britain. After hundreds of years of a democratic process, and an advanced economically developed society, they cannot visualiise a situation where a party in power seeks any advantages. Till recently, they did not even have an election commission, and left it to the local government to organise polling, which was perfectly fair and always acceptable. In our developing, poor, contentious society, this situation does not prevail. The Election Commission has always found that the Opposition has often accused the Chief Minister and his government of misuse of state power. Some complains are exaggerated for political reasons, but the Commission often finds substance in them too, and has to struggle to restore fairness and equality of opportunity. I found an amusing situation in my time. Major national parties had passionate grievances about states where they were in opposition, but total praise for the governments in states where they were in power. This is one institution where the appointments should be made by the Prime Minister after full and effective consultation with the Opposition. There is every danger, as has happened in Bangladesh, of Chief Election Commissioners/ Commi-ssioners being seen as party appointees and so aligned. Tragically, some were even forced out with the change of government. Such accusations have happened elsewhere and could crop up one day in our country. The damage will be immense and irreparable. I also want to remind everyone, that in the case of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, the selections for sometime past have been made, after consultation with the Opposition, as per directions of the Supreme Court. If that were so, how much more necessary it is to follow a similar neutral procedure for the Election Commission of India? India’s political parties have, by and large, shown wisdom and restraint in their dealings with the Election Commission. They do their best to cooperate with the Commission and invariably avoid confrontations. However, whatever difficulties that arise during an election period can be totally eliminated if, at the election time in the states, we have a more neutral situation of governance. My proposal for long has been that when state elections are announced, the elected Cabinets should resign and there should be a short period of Governor’s Rule to ensure a neutral administration. But this, of course, requires that Governors be appointed by an effective, neutral selection, emerging out of full consultations between the Prime Minister and the Opposition. A neutral administration under a Governor will remove most of the current ills of our election system. I know the parties are hesitant about accepting my suggestion, but they must realise that in the current situation of no monopoly and shared power across the country, no particular party will win or lose. But India will gain. The writer is a former Chief Election Commissioner of India |
|
Delhi Durbar EVEN though Atal Bihari Vajpayee could not fulfil his wish of landing in Pakistan on January 3 sporting a Sherwani, he has ordered two of them from a dress designer couple from Karachi. His desire is to have the same kind of embroidery in the Sherwani that he had seen on the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto nearly three decades ago. When Vajpayee’s hosts asked what is the traditional gift that he would like from Pakistan, he expressed his fondness for Sherwanis. Designers Amir Adnan and his wife Huma met Vajpayee during his four-day stay in Islamabad and found him pleasant, soft, decent and most unlike a politician. He expressed his dislike for bold colours and preferred black, charcoal, beige and offwhite shades and showed his liking for delicate embroidery in the collar of the Sherwani. Vajpayee presented the designer couple with his book of poetry, a CD and an autographed photo. Adnan and Huma have designed clothes for well-known personalities, including Pervez Musharraf. The couple will be visiting Delhi to present the Sherwanis to Vajpayee. Feeling good The feel-good factor seems to be the buzz word everywhere. For industry it is a bonanza time with the government announcing a series of incentives. And it could not have come at a better time. With the mini-budget already announced, industrialists are a happy lot. The usual budget-blues are missing and there is a glitter in their eyes, for at least they know that the tax rate is not going to be tinkered with for the next couple of months. A top official of a car manufacturer, who was hogging all the limelight in the Auto Expo, quipped that there was a “feel good” everywhere, what with so many new models on display without
worrying about the last week of February. Soil of India One of the most sought-after souvenirs by NRIs attending the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was a handful of soil from India. A tourism agency was gifting away “mother earth” in test tubes with a message that “it is a handful of soil from your motherland that you will be proud to carry and spread in your garden abroad — Jai Bharati.” Cong dilemma Even as it is to yet to firm up alliances in several key states for the Lok Sabha poll, the path for the Congress is not easy even in states where it has firm allies. In Jammu and Kashmir, for instance, where the PDP is its ally, the Congress may not get a seat to contest in the Valley. It may have to be content with the two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh. The Panthers Party, a partner in the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, will be a strong claimant for at least one of the two Jammu seats and the Congress will have to do all the talking to reach an understanding with JKNPP chief Bhim Singh. Costliest car Arguably one of the costliest cars will zoom across Indian roads soon. Maybach, the latest offering from the Mercedes Benz stable, is priced between Rs 3 crore and Rs 5 crore and was unveiled during the Auto Expo. Incidentally, this is not a typical over-the-counter sale kind of a car. Powered with sophisticated gadgetry such as personal digital assistant (PDA) et al, the car will be sold strictly by invitation. Enquiries have already started coming in, ostensibly from the rich and the mighty. But the company is yet to decide whom to include in its invitation list. Contributed by T.R. Ramachandran, Gaurav Choudhury, R Suryamurthy and Prashant Sood
|
He who sees God in the temple of his own soul sees Him also in the temple of the universe. — Sri Ramakrishna Man human follows in God’s human steps. — Sri Aurobindo He who is Gurmukh, is imbued with the holy Name. — Guru Nanak God-knowledge is self awareness by which an enlightened person can differentiate between the true and false. This knowledge is very noble and virtuous, but it is only useful if we utilise it in life, leaving aside the wordly pleasures and merge with the Divine Truth. — Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Riches and power are but gifts of blind fate, whereas goodness is the result of one’s own merits. — Heloise |
| 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 | |
