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Pleasing the
employees Justice
— a casualty |
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Why the
Iraq war?
Sops for Indians
abroad
Poetic licence over
Angrezi
Should Punjab power
board be split? WSF
challenges insensitivity to moral decay
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Pleasing the employees Before Mr Jaswant Singh presented his election-oriented interim Budget in Parliament on Tuesday, he was under pressure, from within the party and outside, to make two concessions for the salaried class: to raise the income tax exemption limit to Rs 1 lakh from the present Rs 60,000 and merge the DA with the basic pay. He has ignored the first demand and yielded to the second, imposing a Rs 1,500 crore annual burden on the exchequer and creating difficulties for states and PSUs. Their employees will surely demand the same benefit and their finances are already under squeeze due to the implementation of the fifth Pay Commission report. The vote-on-account carried a pleasant surprise about the fiscal deficit declining to 4.8 per cent of the GDP and the revenue deficit to 3.6 per cent despite what the Finance Minister called “multiple challenges” like the Iraq war, global downturn and uncertain oil prices. It is not immediately clear whether this has been achieved by a cut in development spending or a reduction in government expenditure as the Finance Minister claimed. Revenue mop-up, no doubt, has escalated with the economy growing at upward of 7 per cent. New taxes were not expected in this interim Budget. Sops have been announced already. So the whole exercise lacks excitement for the public. The government plan to cut transaction costs by lowering duties such as a 50 per cent reduction in stamp duty is welcome, but the general public will benefit only if the states too follow suit. The increased spending on healthcare, water, power and tourism will boost economic activity and contribute to growth. The removal of the tax on BPO units of MNCs will boost the IT sector. The Finance Minister has directed government banks to make easier credit available to agriculture and the small industry. Given the banks’ existing NPAs, whether such targeted lending should be encouraged is debatable. But the moot question is: how much of the Finance Minister’s agenda is implementable this year? What Mr Jaswant Singh presented was more than a vote-on-account, but less than a regular Budget. He used the opportunity of presenting the interim Budget to project the NDA government’s achievements, something Opposition parties had expected and protested accordingly before the Budget speech started. |
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Justice — a casualty The acquittal of all the 11 persons accused of glorification of sati in the aftermath of the Roop Kanwar case in Deorala, Rajasthan, comes as a shock and underscores the prevalence of inhuman practices rooted in a medieval mindset. The acquittal, by the special court, was on the ground that the prosecution failed to prove the charges by showing a link between the Deorala episode and violation of the Sati Prevention Act, passed after Roop Kanwar's death. Among the accused were former minister and BJP vice-president Rajendra Singh Rathore and former BJP Yuva Morcha chief Pratapsinh Kachariawas. The outcome is a setback to the movement against sati, especially in Rajasthan where massive mobilisation and widespread protests — despite fierce resistance by 'traditionalists' — have raised awareness against the barbaric ritual. The special court's judgment is bound to raise apprehensions about the judicial end of the case against those implicated directly in the Deorala sati on September 4, 1987, that is pending in the Rajasthan High Court. Only after protests and agitations, including by various women's groups, did the authorities act to register a case against those involved in the crime. Among the 32 accused were three minors and Roop Kanwar's in-laws. Unfortunately, support for the practice itself was no less widespread with various community organisations unabashedly defending sati. In the event, the authorities failed to make a convincing case and witnesses turned hostile. It was, therefore, not surprising when the trial itself began only three years later and dragged on for seven years, resulting in the Session Court's acquittal of all the 32 accused in October 1996. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who had been ridiculed for refusing to defend sati, as Chief Minister seized upon public agitations to make his government appeal against the verdict. That was in 1997. The delay, understandably, has raised fears about the denial of justice in the tussle between unreason and enlightened values. The casualty is justice. |
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Why the Iraq war? All wars are avoidable, and the one fought in Iraq was definitely so. The US with the UK in tow, however, thought differently on the Iraqi question and went to war defying the world public opinion. The anti-war protests were ignored. US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair used intelligence reports — “sexed up” or otherwise — to prove that the Saddam regime had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), posing a threat to world peace, and as such going to war against it had become necessary. Ten months after the war its proponents find the tables turned on them. With the dreaded WMDs nowhere in sight, the world wants to know whether it was an intelligence failure or some other reason that led to it. Or had Mr Bush a personal score to settle with the Iraqi dictator? These questions may be answered when the inquiry commission Mr Bush has been compelled to set up submits its report. The US decision has forced Mr Blair too to institute a similar probe he had been avoiding so far, although the Hutton report has bailed him out on an allied issue. The pressure on Mr Bush, from a section in his own party — the Republicans — and the Democrats, to go in for an independent probe increased considerably after former chief weapons inspector David Kay revealed recently that “it turns out that we were all wrong, probably”. Keeping quiet now would have been politically unwise for Mr Bush . The unending controversy over the WMDs would affect his prospects in the November 2 Presidential elections. Hence the commission of inquiry, whose report will be available only after the conclusion of the polls. An effort has also been made to dilute the criticism of his war decision by expanding the scope of the probe beyond Iraq. However, by instituting an inquiry, Mr Bush has
uncharacteristically admitted an error of judgement. As the probe begins, he will have more embarrassing moments to face. The American anti-war lobby may not give him the benefit of the doubt. |
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Thought for the day Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
— Aristotle |
Sops for Indians abroad The
Government of India recently honoured several persons of Indian origin (PIOs) or what the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2003 calls as “overseas citizens” and also allowed dual citizenship to a limited number of them who are already citizens of some specified countries. Will there be two-way traffic and would it help India and vice versa? This is the legitimate question arising in the mind of the Indian citizens. The question also arises whether this would result in another class of citizens who claim superiority over others with much less responsibility to this country as they do not participate in the political processes resulting in the formation of the government. The criticism against the latest move is both by the Indian citizens and the PIOs. On the one hand, there is a criticism by the Indian citizens that the persons who leave Indian shores do so for the allurement of better and comfortable life and more money, and do not wish to go through the difficulties faced by some of the middle class or other citizens. On the other hand, many of the PIOs feel that they have not got enough. In particular, the denial of the political rights such as the right to vote during elections to the state legislatures or Parliament seems to be the subject of grievance. They have also complained that the dual citizenship has been extended only to the PIOs of 16 select countries. It is true that the chapter of the Constitution of India on the fundamental rights does not extend to the foreigners in all matters. It is also true that every PIO cannot become a dual citizen. The extension of all the civil and political rights to the PIOs who are foreigners would require amendment of the Constitution. These things can be done only in a phased manner. If the PIOs are given the right to participate in the elections, the work of the Election Commission of India is bound to increase manifold. The laws relating to postal ballot or proxy voting will also have to be changed in the Representation of the People Act, 1951, since most of the PIOs may not be personally present to cast their vote. The security and other costs to the nation will also have to be properly assessed. Nationality can be acquired in several circumstances. Notion of allegiance is quite important in nationality and citizenship. when a person makes a choice in favour of dual citizenship, he must consider this aspect so that as far as possible, there is no conflict of allegiances. In International law, diplomatic claim against a State can be preferred only by a State with which the concerned person is most closely connected irrespective of the fact that he is a dual national or citizen. The issue would be pertinent for many reasons. Would the dual citizen carry the passport of India or the country to which he originally belongs? What would be the effect of extradition laws on such individual? Presumably, nothing would change except that the dual citizen gets some more rights, but the law should be clear beyond doubt and his rights and duties should be clearly spelled out. Often, the PIOs and NRIs are clubbed together. The NRIs are persons who have not given up their Indian citizenship. This is not so in the case of the PIOs. Therefore, both categories of persons have different rights under the law. Some of the problems of the PIOs and NRIs are common though each of the categories enjoys different status from the other. The NRIs could be said to be domiciled abroad rather than in India. Many NRIs are waiting to become citizens abroad and their social problems as well as economic concerns are almost similar. Once PIOs also get Indian citizenship in addition to their existing citizenship abroad, it may be possible to club both categories under one legal umbrella except in the matter of voting rights. Even there, due to their physical absence, for all practical purposes they may not be registered as voters, nor have voter photo identity cards and as such may be unable to exercise their voting rights. As far as social issues are concerned, it is observed that many Indian parents marry off their daughters to PIOs, but are disappointed when they are later on deserted. This state of affairs had led to practical problems and a demand for the verifications of the antecedents of such grooms. Now that dual citizenship is being conferred on the PIOs, there should be bilateral treaties with the countries concerned for proper verification of the antecedents of both sides as well as compulsory registration of marriages in India and in countries whose citizens are being conferred dual citizenship. The laws of divorce should also be reconsidered by some of the states in the US. In no event should the Indian brides be allowed to be left in the lurch. In the many cases, the children born of broken marriages may be brought to India illegally and issues of abduction and custody arise. Similarly, many PIOs or NRIs may wish to adopt an Indian child for several reasons. An entire seminar was devoted by the Indian Society of International Law in December last year to such issues followed by yet another conference held to celebrate Second Pravasi Bharatiya Divas recently which discussed legal issue in the context of Private International Law (also called the Conflict of Laws) concerning the
diasporas. Once the parties have fallen apart, a whole lot of problems concerning divorce, matrimonial property, custody of children, obligations regarding maintenance and issues of succession arise which need to be tackled. In the absence of any bilateral or multilateral obligation in these matters, the concerned persons have to rely on the recognition of decrees of the foreign courts by the Indian courts. There are, of course, provisions in the Code of Civil Procedure in India under which civil decrees could be recognised on a mutual basis on the basis of an agreement. The distinction between foreigners generally and the PIOs needs to be brought out more clearly by legislation which indicates their rights and duties more specifically once they get dual citizenship. India has recently become a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter Country Adoption. However, no efforts seems to have been made to bring any implementing legislation. India may be genuinely concerned with the welfare of the children; hence the move to accede to the Convention. The Supreme Court of India had already issued guidelines in L.K. Pandey’s case in 1984 in the matter of inter country adoptions. But, in the absence of a consensus in favour of a uniform law on adoption no effort seems to have been made by the Government of India to implement the Convention by legislation. It is not yet clear as to how India proposes to abide by its obligations under the Convention. Will the adoption be permitted only from orphanages or will it be extended to the families? In that case, what happens to the personal law? These are issues which would need to be squarely dealt with. Dual citizenship has to be a package where there is give and take. The PIOs and NRIs have said that they wish to make India another Davos where they can annually meet and discuss investment issues. In view of the liberal policy and overseas investment norms of the Government of India, this should be welcome. They also wish to see that all parts of India shine. India should do everything to make the PIOs and NRIs feel at home. No effort should be left unturned to forge social, economic and cultural bonds with them without unwittingly creating yet another
caste. The writer is a former Secretary in the Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of
India. |
Poetic licence over
Angrezi THE Himachal Government has decided to go English from the first class in all government schools. The teachers find it difficult to cope up with this added responsibility. The government claims that all primary school teachers have been given in-service training on “how to teach English to small kids.” But a few parrots find their old throats not suited to the new melodies and they continue as, “A se Aam, B se Billi / C se Chooha, D se Delli”. This reminds me of a couplet from Akabar Allahabadi, “Aaadat jo pari ho bachpan se, woh door bhalaa kab hoti hai; Rakkhi hai chunoti paakit mein, patloon ke niche dhoti
hai.” That was Akabar’s satiric way of saying that habits die hard. I give credit to the teachers that they, at least, remained phonetically correct and could deftly display “patloon in dhoti’s clothing”. But when their greenhorns come home, they start going by the illustrations portraying the meaning of the words of the alphabets and sound musical, “E se Haathi, F se Lomri / G se Bakri, H se Khopri (head)”. The teachers and the pupils, unknowingly, enjoy “poetic licence” over the language that had had its origin
saat samunder paar. Many of my age may still be remembering the couplets that we were taught in primary classes to grasp the meaning of words, “Look
dekho, aasmaan sky; pigeon kabootar, udan fly “or”
Chor thief, fat motaa; Maaro hit, staff sotaa,” These wild flowers in the meadow of education that I had received continue to bloom as yet. The Gaiety Theatre at Shimla had no electricity till 1896 and the plays were performed in the lights of kerosene lamps. That year when curtains dropped at the close of a burlesque, a whole row of kerosene oil headlights fell with a crash on to the stage and set fire to the scenery. The sand stored for the purpose at the wings was promptly used to extinguish the fire. Thereafter a plant was installed in the Gaiety to provide electricity to the theatre, the dance hall and the Town Hall. I am, however, on to a different electric experience that occurred during the kerosene oil lamp days. A couple of guards were engaged by the authorities concerned to see that the passages to the hall and the boxes were adequately lit. Once an English officer was out to check the arrangements for the evening show and found that two lamps had snuffed out. He immediately called for the explanation of the Indian supervisor. “Poetic licence” at his command, the supervisor gave explanation in chaste
Angrezi, “Lampings are bujhanging by the hawaa;
Nithallaa guards are lying
beparwaah”.
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Should Punjab power board be split?
The controversy of unbundling of the PSEB into three/several corporations has been going on in the state for the last two years or so. There is a thinking in the influential circles that the PSEB be dismantled into three/several corporations each one dealing exclusively and separately for one of the three activities, namely power generation, transmission and distribution, at present handled by one organisation. Corporatisation is considered as a first step towards involvement of private investment and ultimately towards privatisation of the power sector in the state. The reference point for unbundling of the board has been the continuous financial crisis faced by the PSEB and its declining ability to supply power regularly and at stable voltage as a measure of quality of this essential service to different categories of consumers. With the submission of the draft report of the Disinvestment Commission to the Government of Punjab in June, 2002, this controversy became active and lively. The commission, recognising that the experiencing of Enron in Maharashtra and reforms in Orissa and Haryana have not shown the desired results, yet recommended that “the distribution business should be corporatised first to introduce privatisation as it requires well-defined jurisdiction about boundaries, assets and liabilities. The privatisation of the distribution process should be started in small blocks with concentrated and sustained efforts. After making it successful, it should be extended to other areas in a phased manner” (p. 234). This recommendation along with a couple of others such as downsizing of the workforce by one-third, withdrawal of the subsidy on the power supply to agriculture and other consumers plugging of power theft etc made different stakeholders active and they articulated their public positions both in writing as well as in speeches. As expected, the private investors supported the move, while different sections of the employees and the farmers opposed the move. This controversy became hot after the submission of the report of the expert group headed by Mr Gajendra Haldea on “power reforms in Punjab in March
2003". The expert group recommended four core elements of reforms, the first being “functional unbundling and corporatisation of the PSEB”. The other three were: (i) distribution reforms; (ii) open access to the power network for induction of competition; and (iii) regulatory predictability be recognised and pursued. The road map of reform recommended enactment of the necessary legislation along with simultaneous working out a framework for corporatised of successor companies by legal experts followed by obtaining of financial assistance from the World Bank/Asian Development Bank to the extent of Rs 4,000 crore for structural adjustment/ unbundling of the PSEB. It was estimated that Rs 2,000 crore would be required to meet the revenue gap of the companies, Rs 1,000 crore for the VRS of employees and Rs 1000 crore for improving electricity in the rural areas. The expert group started its work on November 28, 2002 and submitted its report on March 6, 2003 i.e. within three months and nine days and did not consider in depth the experience of working of such reforms in other parts of the world or even with India, including the neighbouring state of Haryana. The report smacks of one-directional thinking on economic reforms as suggested by the IMF-World Bank. This is obvious from the fact that a senior economist from the World Bank was associated with the team (and no economist from the state/region), but also from the terminology used while writing the report. At the same time, views of different stakeholders were completely ignored without being argued out. One of the alternative proposal mooted by the PSEB Engineers Association in this debate was reforms within the existing structure of the PSEB to improve its efficiency and financial viability. It was stressed that in the utilisation of the installed thermal capacity, a major source of power (53.60 per cent in 1999-2000), the PSEB is quite close to the best-performing state electricity boards of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra ad Tamil Nadu, and also has a well-developed transmission and distribution network. This strength can be utilised to bring the board out of red through a series of measures. These include rationalisation of subsidies to different sections of consumers, compensation to the board by the government for subsidies given under a policy of populism, adoption of rational tariff rates in commensurate with operational costs, especially fuel prices, reduction of power theft by resorting to electronic metering, reduction in transmission and distribution losses through replacement of defective and old lines, transformers etc. The political environment in the state and unavailability of the World Bank/Asian Development Bank loan (Rs 4,000 crore) did not allow the government to go ahead with the implementation of the Haldea Committee report. At this juncture the management of the PSEB, with the co-operation of various employees organisations (working with a smaller number of employees as there is no replacement for the retired staff) and an active role of the Punjab Electricity Regulatory Commission, has undertaken certain measures which have shown dramatic improvements in the working of the board and made it come out of red. There is an increase in the revenue receipts. The raise in the revenue in the nine months is Rs 878 crore and one could expect it to be more than Rs 1,170 crore in the full year. Of this increase in revenue, the share of the agriculture sector, after the restoration of the flat rate charges on tubewells, is just Rs 250 crore. The rest of the revenue raise has been collected from other categories of consumers such as domestic, industrial and commercial. The accountability and stability in the top management is very critical to put the PSEB back on the rails in a sustained manner. The Rajyadhaksha Committee (GOI, 1980) recommended the procedure adopted by the Public Enterprises Selection Board for filling the posts of Chairman and member of the state electricity boards and recommended that the tenure of chairman and members be at least for three years and preferably for five years. Contrary to this there were 13 chairmen of the PSEB between April 1, 1990 and March 31, 2003, making this tenure highly unstable. Only one Chairman completed a full term of three years and two of them had a tenure of six months each. The same is true of other members of the board. Moreover, the appointments are not made on the basis of merit but on political considerations. The political appointees conveniently pay back their masters to promote their sectional interests and sacrifice the efficiency of the board. Many a time honest and efficient officers and employees are sidelined considering them inconvenient. One senior bureaucrat in the PSEB remarked aptly to a researcher that “The PSEB has many talented engineers who are known for their honesty and efficiency. They know very well how to operate the board in an efficient manner but they simply retire and no attempt was made to utilise their services. Any of them suitable to the government could have been chosen for appointment to the key post of Chairman so as to improve the PSEB’s fate.” Thus the ad hoc and inefficient arrangements at the top wrecked the working of this organisation (PSEB), so critical for the economy of the state. This argument is amply supported by efficient working of the present Chairman as well as such persons appointed at top positions of the Punjab Public Service Commission and the PRTC. All of these organisations have shown remarkable improvement in their working and these economic utilities are out of the red. This explains the critical role of leadership at the top which have been waiting for many years in the PSEB contributing massively to inefficiency and corruption accompanied by a policy of populism of distribution of patronages by the government of the day at the cost of working of these utilities. The writer is a Professor in the Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala |
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WSF challenges insensitivity to moral decay THE World Social Forum meeting in Mumbai had a vast participation from the downtrodden in India. It was the Dalit and Adivasi organisations of India who were most visible on the streets of Nesco Ground, the venue. They put up breathtaking cultural shows. The public meetings and seminars were also able to demystify globalisation by throwing light on issues such as private control over natural resources (petroleum, water), problems of export-oriented agriculture and so on. The metropolitan media took little notice of the event except for publishing pictures of foreigners and playing up the steamy story of the alleged rape of one South African delegate by a fellow delegate. The party heading the Central Government feels the progress is tangible enough for it to abandon the slogan of “swadeshi” and turn the benefits being enjoyed by middle-class Indians after the “opening up” into a potent electoral plank. One does not have the figures but any of the cities (it is a paradox that the metropolitan media is least sensitive to poverty) of India will show that it is far from being a rich country. In Mumbai clusters of shanties with living conditions worse than slums have spilled over on many a street. It is surprising that some analysts draw a line between urban and rural India and say only the latter is impoverished. Urban India is desperately poor. WSF delegates were mobbed by begging children at railway stations, traffic signals and at Azad Maidan. Even participants from Brazil found the conditions much worse than their country. The foreigners who had visited India before said the gap between the rich and the poor in India had increased since their last visits 10 or 12 years ago. This is what liberalisation apparently has done to our country. One need not go to the debate about the rate of pauperisation over the last decade. It is just a question of sensitivity. The poor were always there in India. The upwardly mobile Indians are now oblivious to their presence. As if the scantily clad children and baby-clinging women begging at every possible place in Mumbai do not exist. This sensitivity is at the core of the WSF and mainstay of many of the groups that took part in the meeting. The slogan in the WSF was of making an alternative world possible. The slogan, powerful though it was, somehow appeared devoid of political content. Arundhati Roy, the gifted writer, took the slogan to the extreme and asked the participants to boycott all American products. While Indians are used to Roy and others like her shooting their mouths, the foreigners were amused by Roy’s histrionics. A South Korean young man, a delegate from Altogether, a socialist outfit, said Roy was a “big star” in India who spoke more like a propagandist than a committed activist. A large number of socialist organisations had also come from Europe and Australia and they were instrumental in giving a political content to the programme in a traditional sense. There were others like the People’s Health Movement from the USA or the Narmada Bachao Andolan of India whose activities are devoid of politics. Dalit organisations participating in the event highlighted caste oppression and made a mark by their sheer number. The celebration of wealth at the World Economic Forum meet in Switzerland or at the Auto Expo in Delhi makes people greedy and insensitive. The moral decadence provides a fertile pasture to rightwing forces to grow. For instance, the glitter of consumer products is expected to overshadow the deeds of the cold-blooded killer of Gujarat. In a contemporary context, it is this very phenomenon of promotion of insensitivity as a legitimate state ideology which is being challenged by the
WSF. |
Living creatures are nourished by food, and food is nourished by rain; rain itself is the water of life, which comes from selfless worship and service. — Shri Krishna
(Bhagavadgita) We have to take the whole universe as the expression of the one Self. Then only our love flows to all beings and creatures in the world equally. — Swami Ramdas You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving. — Saint Francis
De Sales Ask of the Guru the way He knows the path which leads to the Lord. — Guru Nanak |
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