O P I N I O N S

PERSPECTIVE

ON RECORD
Budget should focus on infrastructure: Munjal
by Gaurav Choudhury
THE new CII President, Sunil Kant Munjal, has been in the news ever since he assumed office. For one, his comments on the idea of extending the job reservation policy to the private sector had evoked strong responses from the political establishment.

Time for Sikhs to set their house in order
by Himmat Singh Gill
THE time has come for the youngest religious community in the world to make its pitch for a prestigious place in the sun, in the India of the 21st century. In addition to the new direction millions of Sikhs should be taking within India, it is time also to route-mark the path that they need to align onto overseas, where a large segment of their diaspora resides in adequate numbers and comparative prosperity.

OPED

PROFILE
Literacy of women to be Jaya’s priority as MP
by Harihar Swarup
JAYA Bachchan Bhaduri has finally made it to the Rajya Sabha. Amitabh Bachchan created waves when Rajiv Gandhi chose him to contest against one of the tallest leaders of Uttar Pradesh, H N Bahuguna, from the Allahabad constituency in the momentous 1984 elections.

COMMENTS UNKEMPT
Without a ‘university of the street’
by Chanchal Sarkar
BRITAIN’S once proud “university of the street”, founded 154 years ago, is about to close while ours are as yet to open. From our student days it is impossible to forget London’s borough libraries. They opened early, closed late and had lots of books and reading space for students and professionals.

DIVERSITIES — DELHI LETTER
Music on a hot summer day
by Humra Quraishi
COULD you ever imagine June to be so fun-filled? Well, one event after another to make your evenings nice and crisp (never mind a little sweat trickling down those sultry hours). Last weekend the French hosted the Music Day at the Lily Pool lawns of Hotel Ashok.

• Book release at British Council
• Farewell to diplomat
• Asian cinema festival
• Loveliest invite

REFLECTIONS

PERSPECTIVE

ON RECORD
Budget should focus on infrastructure: Munjal
by Gaurav Choudhury

Sunil Kant Munjal

THE new CII President, Sunil Kant Munjal, has been in the news ever since he assumed office. For one, his comments on the idea of extending the job reservation policy to the private sector had evoked strong responses from the political establishment. Managing Director and CEO of Hero Corporate Services Limited, Mr Munjal takes over the influential industry association at a rather critical time. There is a new government at the Centre with new coalition partners. The Tribune caught up with him a day after he had remarked that the proposed reservation policy was "mere patchwork". In an exclusive interview Mr Munjal, however, refused to go on record again on the issue.

Excerpts:

Q: You have identified the rural economy as the major engine for growth if India is to hit a sustained high-growth trajectory. What are your suggestions in this respect?

A: For India to move forward at this point of time, it is important to sharply focus on industry, but at the same time, look at other areas of the Indian economy and the Indian system. Rural economy is one area which needs a great deal of focus. And there are obvious reasons why it needs focus. In many ways it has been left behind. Besides, being an agrarian economy, a large section of India is still dependent on the rural economy. The real demand generation acctually begins from there. Every year, if there is a good monsoon, the demand for many consumer products across the country goes up. So, if we are able to make the rural economy more dynamic, we will be able to create larger market for goods and services. It is a large area, both geographically in terms of its spread and also in terms of the population it covers.

Q: As an apex industry association, what is the CII planning to do in this respect? Are you going to supplement the government's efforts, or are your programmes going to run parallel to those of the government?

A: I would like to think of it in two different ways. Clearly, there is going to be industry's initiative, which we would like to launch. And secondly, we would like to do work in partnership with the government. We are proposing to set up a Task Force on the rural economy.

Q: What is going to be the mandate of this Task Force?

A: What we are saying is these Task Forces (we are setting up six different Task Forces for different sectors) must not be only report making Task Forces. They should rely heavily on secondary data. Lot of research has been done, lot of ideas have been discussed earlier. They should try and gather all of that and focus much more on implementation of these ideas. There are going to be members of not only from within the CII, but also experts from various fields, eminent personalities and even the government where we can get the government involved. These are going to be timebound. In fact we are also going to make recommendations to the government because the government has also highlighted many areas of concern for themselves.

Q: If one looks at the figures of gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) in agriculture, the private sector has contributed very little (13.5 per cent in 2002-03). Why is that happening?

A: The private sector has not really been involved in this area actually. That is a reality. Until recently the private sector was not even allowed. Even now it is not allowed in many states. This is one of the areas we are trying to address. How to get larger involvement of all those who can make a difference to improvement, to create a more dynamic system, generate more employment in the system and more productivity. But, yes I agree, there is a lot to be done. If one looks at the simple things like production of vegetables and fruits, we are the second largest in the world. We are also the largest milk producer in the world. But the value addition we do beyond that is one of the lowest in the world. If we look at actual productivity, our yields are still very low. Our yields also need to go up through better farm practices, better management and irrigation systems.

Q: What are your expectations from the budget?

A: I expect the budget to be reform oriented, growth oriented, and to be forward looking. I also believe that budget this time, will look at areas such as infrastructure, will address agriculture and the rural economy and will look at manufacturing as an area for growth. Many of these are areas which we ourselves have been recommending.

Q: How different, do you think, this budget will be from the budgets presented by the earlier government?

A: I think in many ways this will move forward as the reform process has been for the previous 13 years. So to that extent it will be pretty much going down the same road. But clearly there will be much accent on some of the things which I have pointed out earlier and also on the social sector. In the social sector, we expect to see lot more than we have been seeing the previous one or two budgets. There is, however, concern among many, specially internationally, about the fiscal deficit in India both at the Central government level and the states level. The fiscal deficit, the level at which it is now, is at an unsustainable level. We have to find ways and means to manage this.

Q: The CII is setting up an office in Pakistan. You had said that the offices in overseas locations will have different roles to play. What is the role of the office in Pakistan apart from building business-to-business contacts?

A: In the relationship, the kind of that we have with Pakistan, there is work to be done at three different levels. One is at the political level, which of course will be done by the government. Second is at the trade and industry level, and the third is at the people-to-people level. All three are equally important. Some of us had the opportunity to go to Pakistan when the cricket matches were on and there was a wonderful atmosphere. Both countries will gain by being friendly neighbours. Our attempt would be, through the office that we are setting up there, to work at the trade and industry and the people-to-people level and also facilitate, wherever possible at the government-to-government level.

Q: The industry has been consistently supporting the introduction of VAT. Do you anticipate some thorny issues especially in terms of the disparities between consuming and producing states?

A: VAT is an issue which is important from two different points of view. One, clearly it will take away the cascading effects of taxation that we have today. Secondly, because of our existing taxation structure, we are not really reaping the scale of advantages of a large common market. Disparities between consuming and producing states has been a reason which has been concerning many states. But fortunately, the Central government has said it will support the switchover to VAT not just being the facilitator, but by also funding those who lose out during the transition.

Q: Subsidies are beginning to edge back to the pre-reform level (1.62 per cent). Your comments?

A: In a diverse society like ours, it is clear that there is a role that subsidies play. But the problem is very often that the subsidies do not reach the intended beneficiary. So if we can improve the delivery mechanism of subsidies, then it will have its true benefits. In addition, we will end up spending less on subsidies. Getting in the private sector for better targeting of subsidies would probably be a good idea. Income tax is an example. Refunds were outsourced to private parties and everybody got refunds that were three years old. Similarly with the issue of PAN card.

Time for Sikhs to set their house in order
by Himmat Singh Gill

THE time has come for the youngest religious community in the world to make its pitch for a prestigious place in the sun, in the India of the 21st century. In addition to the new direction millions of Sikhs should be taking within India, it is time also to route-mark the path that they need to align onto overseas, where a large segment of their diaspora resides in adequate numbers and comparative prosperity. A fragmented leadership for the better part of the last century, a confused strategic outlook, lack of vision in policy planning both at home and abroad, coupled with their propensity to mix religion with their politics, has left a brave and dedicated community gasping for breath in the national political arena, where there is no place for a poorly-led and politico-cum-religious issue based, fractured segment of society. That’s what we have become today, I am afraid, a lost-in-the-wilderness case, and that’s what worries me the most, as a common, concerned Sikh. A member of the community who is today the country’s Prime Minister. not because he is a Sikh but because of his other enduring qualities, is going to be able to help the Sikhs little, if they by themselves do not resolve to set their house in order at the earliest opportunity.

Maj-Gen Himmat Singh Gill (retd) is a member of the National Academy of Letters, New Delhi, and often writes on Sikh affairs

OPED

PROFILE
Literacy of women to be Jaya’s priority as MP
by Harihar Swarup

JAYA Bachchan Bhaduri has finally made it to the Rajya Sabha. Amitabh Bachchan created waves when Rajiv Gandhi chose him to contest against one of the tallest leaders of Uttar Pradesh, H N Bahuguna, from the Allahabad constituency in the momentous 1984 elections. Lo and behold, Bahuguna lost. Amitabh, a close friend of Rajiv, made his debut in the Lok Sabha and came under vicious attack from the then beleaguered Opposition.

So close were Amitabh and Jaya to Rajiv and Sonia that the film stars were seen many times carrying his golf kit to 7, Race Course Road, the Prime Minister's official residence. The vicious attack by a small but belligerent opposition hurt Amitabh deeply. He made an emotional speech, in his so known resonant voice, and decided to quit Parliament. Jaya is not the person to run away if attacked unjustifiably; unlike her husband, she is a fighter. She, after all, is daughter of a journalist and came up hard way in life.

Jaya is also the person, who can make sacrifices; suffer for others. Why did she take "sanyas" from her promising film career when she was rising like a meteor? Few might be remembering now the news appearing day after day in film magazines that if Jaya had continued to rise like this, she might have eclipsed. Amibabh. She, therefore, decided to stay at home, be a housewife and her "vanvas" from the filmdom continued for 19 long years.

In the, meanwhile, Abitabh rose from strength to strength and grew taller than his size. Jaya, however, maintained all through that she took off from her film career to devote her time for upbringing of kids. She staged a comeback as late as 1997. She was given the role of a middle-aged mother who discovers that her son, after he was killed, was a Naxalite . The film, based on Mahashweta Devi's Jhanpith Award-winning Bangla novel, "Ek Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma", was a hit.

"The children have grown up now. They are mature, intelligent adults who don't need any attention from me", she said in a recent interview. So far as her film career is concerned, she says she could never give up acting. This was not for the first time that Jaya was offered a Rajya Sabha seat. On two earlier occasions, she was told to come to the Upper House but she declined . When the offer came for the third time, she said "yes" but after a great deal of persuasion. " This is the third time that the Rajya Sabha nomination has come about. When I declined earlier, it was entirely my decision. Now that I have accepted, it has been my decision again", she says. Even though the Election Commission had withheld the declaration of results, there was hardly any doubt about her election.

As an M.P, Jaya has already set up her priority. She wants to support right people, right issues and right causes. One of them is the campaign for literacy of women. Her other priority is to improve the lot mentally and physically handicapped children and provide them best facilities to grow. Even during her film career, she had actively associated herself with several social causes besides heading the Children's Film Society for several years. She had also worked for that upliftment of her alma mater, the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and was recently appointed Chairperson of the U.P. Film Development Corporation. The last appointment created problem for her as two Congress members filed an objection before the state returning officer contending that she was holding an office of profit. The Samajwadi Party, however, refuted the objection, asserting that the office did not fall in that category.

Jaya's father, the late Taroon Coomar Bhaduri, was a Special Representative of The Statesman in Bhopal in the late fifties and sixties and his stories on the "dacoit" problem in the Chambal ravines made him nationally known. He was also an accomplished writer in Bangla and a stage artist. His Bangla novel "Abishapt Chambal" (Cursed Chambal) made a mark in the literary world and translated into many languages. Jaya inherited her literary flair and stage talent from her father. As a student in a Bhopal school, she was extraordinarily talented and, soon after completing her education, Taroonda, as her father was known, sent her to the Pune Institute of Films where she made a mark.

The credit for spotting talent in Jaya goes to film personality Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who was a friend of Taroonda. Within a short span of time she made a mark in the filmdom and became a known figure. Jaya is now all set to open a new chapter in her life.

COMMENTS UNKEMPT
Without a ‘university of the street’
by Chanchal Sarkar

The library movement has spluttered

BRITAIN’S once proud “university of the street”, founded 154 years ago, is about to close while ours are as yet to open. From our student days it is impossible to forget London’s borough libraries. They opened early, closed late and had lots of books and reading space for students and professionals. On a visit long after my student days I discovered that, the borough library near where I was staying, had books in Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi and other Indian languages for new migrants.

Want of funds is the reason given for the possible closure of the libraries, which were always within a walking distance. According to critics, they stock too few new books, are no longer open at times that suit the public and are burdened with too many expensive administrators. The British are aware that they will, in about 15 years, lose the leadership they once had so they have called a high-level meeting.

For us the “library movement” spluttered during the nationalist days and has now become feeble. Only newspaper reading rooms still remain and are popular. So many things that were part of our national movement have dried up instead of flowering and getting better.

Some years ago in Trivandrum I was talking with distinguished economist K.N. Raj in the Economic Institute which he had set up. He told me that one of the two persons who had pushed the “village library movement” in Kerala was still alive and I should go and meet him. It was a good while ago but I remember going across town to meet the pioneering old gentleman. I remember his telling me that the literally carried books under his arms as he visited village after village persuading people to open libraries. I would imagine that in Kerala, which is, after all, one large village, such libraries still flourish.

As a fruit of the effort of such forward-looking people there are today many more libraries in southern small towns and villages than in the North. Here the library situation even in prosperous states like Haryana is, as a librarian friend of mine described it, “dismal”. That is why progress in even well-to-do states means consumer goods television and, I suppose, migration to the Middle East or the West.

In the old days public-spirited people did band together in the wards (the equivalent of the boroughs of London) of Kolkata and set up libraries. Near our Dharamtala home in Kolkata, for instance, was the Taltola Public Library. Serviced by volunteers it had a large number of books and the accession list was respectable. Most of these have now withered. One reason, of course, is space. Another is the high price of books; English ones certainly but Indian ones too are expensive. Most of all, perhaps, is the destructive influence of television, which has hacked into the reading habit and also commandeered what is called “entertainment”. Indian cities are overwhelmed by slums or slum-like housing but an amazingly large number of people have an access to television.

Maybe the London borough libraries would have survived if they could all have provided scores of computers — and prohibited their use for computer games.

What my librarian friend was particularly unhappy about is that in the village libraries, wherever there are any, there were no special ways to attract women and so there were very few women readers.

Like the Bengalis, the Maharashtrians, Gujaratis, Tamils and Telugu young people were lucky. There were lots of books published in their languages. Bengali young people were also fortunate to be introduced to popular foreign writers in translation like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, Erich Maria Remarque’s. All Quiet on the Western Front, Dhangopal Mukerjee’s Gayneck, the adventures of Robin Hood and Madid Marian and so on. There were lots of children’s books on adventure and detection and high-level children magazines in Bengali. It must have been the same in other languages but we never knew. And then schools. English-medium schools like the one I went to, St. Xavier’s, had large libraries. Through the kindness of a friendly librarian I could borrow as many books at a time as I could carry home in the tram and today I bless myself for the school library. One of my teachers, a Jesuit priest, had a whole almirah of books given to him by students with which he operated a small lending library from his room.

The Kolkata municipality didn’t have libraries like famous London’s boroughs that I am aware of more private libraries like the London library.

Ten or twelve years ago the Government of India started a Ram Mohan Roy Foundation to distribute books to libraries throughout India but I wonder in what state the Foundation is now.

The National Book Trust has had a roller-coaster ride, sometimes doing well, sometimes lodding. Although it makes the best-seller lists, still its achievements are considerable. India is a prolific producer of books in English but the print order is till more than 2000. Firms like Penguins of India have set a new direction. I remember as a schoolboy when the first Penguin came out in Britain at six pence a copy in covers whose colour told us whether it was ordinary fiction on thrillers, or biography or travel and so on. They had been beaten to the post in non-fiction by the very high-quality eight-anna series published by Visva Bharati from Santiniketan but like so many things in India, they are now a memory while the Penguins, Pelicans, Ptarmigans and others climb from success to success.

We are immensely careless. Books donated to the National Library in Kolkata from famous collections of ten lie unsorted on the floor. Gyms are given greater priority in clubs to libraries. And anyway there are very few libraries to which the public could go to as in Britain's “university of the street”. There are good specialist libraries like that of the Indian Council of Medical Research to which a doctor friend of mine once took me. But there are very few to which the ordinary citizen can go and none for the non-elite.

DIVERSITIES — DELHI LETTER
Music on a hot summer day
by Humra Quraishi

COULD you ever imagine June to be so fun-filled? Well, one event after another to make your evenings nice and crisp (never mind a little sweat trickling down those sultry hours). Last weekend the French hosted the Music Day at the Lily Pool lawns of Hotel Ashok. Don’t overlook the fact that since 1985 the European year of music / “fete de la musique” has spread outside France to over 80 countries. And if your curiosity took charge to charge ahead with this query — why should a music day be slotted for June 21, the hottest day of the year?

Here goes an explanation of sorts: because it’s the longest day of the year and so has to be fun-filled. Here in New Delhi the traditional music day was held on June 19 (don’t ask the why of it — whether it’s the second longest day or some such rationale!) with music players invited from France and Italy together with our very own — Francesca Cassio, Marc Liebeskind, Romuald Tual, Shibani Kashyap.

Book release at British Council

Writer Hari Kunzru’s “Transmission” (Penguin) was released with much enthusiasm and celebration at the British Council on Wednesday evening.

It was one of the best book releases one saw in recent times. Not just in terms of the number of the who’s who turning up (which included Hari’s

Kashmiri clan from Noida and near-about) but every known face of New Delhi was right there. And after readings from the book which Nandita Das did together with the author, there followed a conversation between him and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. And thereafter music and cocktails took over.

I must add here that events hosted by the British Council generally go off very well. Probably because there’s that extra touch of warmth — the British Council’s Director for South Asia Edward Marsden and spouse Megan are popular on the social circuit and also not to be sidetracked is the inner-courtyard appeal. Let me explain: The British Council’s building in the congested Connaught Place’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg is so designed that it has a sprawling courtyard and it gives a feeling of a cosy and warm setting.

Moving ahead, literary get-togethers is an ongoing monthly feature at Ajit Cour’s Academy of Fine Arts and Literature. This week-end several poets will read out their verse — Nirupama Dutt, A.J. Thomas, Farhat Ehsas, Leela Dhar Mandloi and Professor Inde.

Farewell to diplomat

Moving still ahead, correct me if I’m wrong but the diplomat to be getting the longest chain of farewell dos is the outgoing High Commissioner of New Zealand, Caroline Jenny McDonald. The farewell dinners for her and spouse Simon Mark started last month and would carry on right till the day of departure — with the French Ambassador Dominique Girard hosting one on July 9.

Asian cinema festival

Yes, July will hold out the sixth festival of Asian Cinema. To be held in Delhi from July 16 to 25, the highlight will be films from the Arab world (to be precise, from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia). Together with that , films from the rest of Asia and from our very own Bollywood.

The detailed invite has that photograph of Guru Dutt staring out. I’m his ardent fan and it’s great to know that there would be a special tribute paid to him, through screening of his films.

Loveliest invite

I have received a special invite for the wedding of Mahatma Gandhi’s great grand-daughter, Supriya Gandhi (daughter of Usha and Rajmohan Gandhi). The special aspect is that it’s such a lovely and simply designed card. As I hold it in my hand, the stark simplicity stands out so beautifully and with that blessings for Supriya and her would be companion, Travis.

REFLECTIONS

Come to me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you the rest.

— Jesus Christ

That alone happens which pleases God, nothing is in the hands of man who is completely helpless.

— Guru Nanak

God’s grace shall descend on those who do His will and wait upon Him, not on those who simply mutter ‘Rama Rama’.

— Mahatma Gandhi

The greatest name man ever gave to God is truth. Truth is the fruit of realisation; therefore seek it within the soul.

— Swami Vivekananda

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.

— Amien