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Sober,
statesmanlike A small
hope |
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Fatal
error What a way to go ! No one should usually be punished for making an honest mistake even if it causes a fatal accident. The Malaysian man who shot his wife dead because he mistook her for a monkey picking fruit from a tree behind their house should be given the benefit of the doubt. It was not a case of love having made him blind to what he was shooting at.
Reservations in
private sector
Always in a meeting
Raja Ramanna:
architect of N-plan Rejoinder
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Sober, statesmanlike Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh is known for his gentle manner of speaking. But even by his standards, his speech at the United Nations on Thursday noticeably had a touch of statesmanship and sobriety. He was perhaps more effective in making his point than he would have been had he struck a strident note. It would be wrong to attribute this tone only to the similarly soft demeanour adopted by Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf a day earlier. Of course, Dr Manmohan Singh did not want to say anything which could slow down the momentum that the peace initiative has gained of late. But the central theme of his speech was global terrorism — an issue which is of relevance to every nation of the world — rather than the weather-beaten Kashmir. The Prime Minister knows that the world community is sick and tired of the rhetoric over the K-question. Now that India is striving to occupy its rightful place on the world table, it is wary of being seen as a nation mired in the cesspool of regional politics. Since even Pakistan was ready to pipe down its Kashmir propaganda, it was but natural for India to take a broad view of the situation. As Dr Manmohan Singh pointed out, terrorism is the biggest threat that the world faces today. Instead of diminishing this challenge, the war on terrorism has only ended up making it more scattered. This has happened for the simple reason that the war against terrorism has been selective. In a world, terrorism against the sole superpower is sought to be crushed, whereas that which is directed at others is overlooked. This weakens the world’s fight against the monster. Without naming any country, Dr Manmohan Singh made it plain that there cannot be good terrorists and bad terrorists. They are all part of a devious network, which has to be smashed root and branch. His sage advice should spur the world to see the menace as being world-specific rather than country-specific. Only a global war where none plays a lone-ranger can succeed. The US has learnt its lessons in this regard. Now is the time to put those bitter theoretical lessons into practice. |
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A small
hope The
Punjab Government has lifted the ban on recruitment to fill some 5,000 vacant posts. That the decision comes shortly before the two byelections in the state is not just a coincidence. Unemployment is a major problem that affects a large section of the population. The official figure of the jobless at 35 lakh is not a small one. A fiscal crunch in the state is largely responsible for the ban on recruitment. The government spends all its revenue on salaries, pensions and interest payments. Instead of retrenching surplus staff, which is politically and administratively inconvenient, the Amarinder Singh government has taken the easier option of abolishing only vacant posts, wherever possible. The economic reforms aimed at expanding the private sector. For years the government had acted as a job provider. Now most departments are overstaffed. Hence, the frequent need for a ban on recruitment. The government will have to focus on core areas like education, health and infrastructure. Education is in neglect. The quality of education is declining. There are no takers for engineering courses offered by Punjab Technical University. Talented students are leaving the state for greener pastures abroad or elsewhere in the country. Desperate youth are being duped by unscrupulous travel agents. The Punjab Government remains a mute spectator. Future jobs will come from private entrepreneurial initiatives. If the government is serious in tackling unemployment, it will have to boost industry in a big way — not by raising protectionist barriers like imposing an entry tax, but by promoting competition and efficiency. Private investment needs to be encouraged by cutting the red tape and checking corruption. There is tremendous scope for food processing units. Tourism potential remains untapped. The services sector can be another engine of growth. But all this requires political will, long-term planning and world-class infrastructure. |
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Fatal error No
one should usually be punished for making an honest mistake even if it causes a fatal accident. The Malaysian man who shot his wife dead because he mistook her for a monkey picking fruit from a tree behind their house should be given the benefit of the doubt. It was not a case of love having made him blind to what he was shooting at. At the ripe old age of 70 it was more likely a case of poor eyesight that caused the fatal error. The tragic tale has all the elements of black humour. Pray what made his wife, 68, use a ladder to climb into the tree to pluck the fruits? Anyone could have made the same mistake. Black comedy usually draws inspiration from real life incidents. Some accidents can happen sometimes in Lucknow. For instance a man broke his hipbone while avoiding being knocked down by a cyclist. Had he been hit, he would most probably have sustained a few bruises. He was screaming with pain when he was taken to the nearest hospital that treats only women in various stages of conception. He nearly got reported for trying to imitate women in labour. Jaspal Bhatti would have used the story to add another feather to his funny cap. Black comedy is not a popular genre in India. In the 1964 comedy “What A Way To Go” Shirley Maclaine keeps everyone in splits by being perpetually in mourning. She must have enjoyed the experience of having stars like Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, and Gene Kelly play her husbands who die after becoming rich. Like the luckless Malaysian woman they end up dead under extraordinary conditions. What chances of survival would anyone give to man who becomes a cattle farmer and mistakes a bull for a cow? |
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There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot. — Steven Wright |
Reservations in private sector The UPA government’s decision to extend reservation to private sector, which is expected to expand, has given rise to a fierce debate in the country. The arguments for and against have made repeated references to the recent United States Supreme Court judgment regarding the feasibility and desirability of affirmative action programme in higher education. The judgment consists of two separate rulings passed on June 23, 2003, by the US Supreme Court one in the case of Grutter Vs Bollinger and the other in the Gratz Vs Bollinger. Both these cases were filed against the University of Michigan’s race-conscious admissions policy. The ruling in the former case upheld the university’s Law School admissions policy by a 5-4 decision and in the latter found the university’s undergraduate admissions policy unconstitutional by a 6-3 vote. These seemingly contradictory rulings actually drew their justifications from the same set of principles. Both the rulings upheld the constitutionality of race-conscious admissions policies designed to promote ideal of diversity in higher education. The reason why they differed was because in spite of the same goal — of promoting a diverse student body in the campus — the Law School admissions policy differed substantially from the undergraduate admissions policy on the mechanisms through which this goal was achieved. The court essentially put the two policies through a five-point test — a) whether the programme offered competitive review of all applications; b) whether the programme provided flexible, individualised consideration of applicants so that race was only one of the several factors being considered; c) whether the institution had considered workable race-neutral alternatives to its programme; d) did the programme unduly burden non-minority applicants; and e) was the programme limited in time. According to the court, competitive review essentially meant policies that, for example, are based on quotas are undesirable because they “insulate the individual from comparison with all other candidates for the available seats.” Flexibility and individual consideration, in turn, requires that a race-conscious policy has to consider at least some non-racial factors to ensure that “all factors that may contribute to student body diversity are meaningfully considered alongside race in admissions decisions.” A serious “good faith consideration of workable race-neutral alternatives” that will achieve the diversity the university wants is what the third point talks of. For the court, a fair and flexible admissions process that considers both non-racial and racial factors would ensure that non-minorities are competitive with minorities, and will, therefore, not impose an undue burden on them. And lastly, the court emphasised the need to have a logical end to a race-conscious policy that is a “deviation from the norm of equal treatment of all racial and ethnic groups.” The Law School passed muster on all the points. The undergraduate programme, on the other hand, did not fulfil these requirements as its admission policy was based on a point system, which allocated a fixed number of points for underrepresented minority group members thus giving them undue advantage on the basis of their race and not providing for individualised consideration. In this five-point scheme, therefore, the court while affirming the desirability of affirmative action programme made sure that the arguments for competitive selection and individual equality were also kept in mind. Accordingly, race cannot be the exclusive or predominant factor in the admissions decision. While the entire case for reservation in India is based on claims of social justice, the opposition to it argues on solely grounds of efficiency. The debate on the subject presumes inherent dichotomy between the two objectives. Even VP Singh, the messiah of the backwards who claims to have ushered “in the first real revolution in independent India”, doesn’t favour reservation at the cost of global competitiveness”. He, however, advises “to follow the America pattern and see how they protect the minorities.” The benefits of affirmative action “are not theoretical but real, as major American businesses have made clear that the skills needed in today’s increasingly global marketplace can only be developed through exposure to widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, and viewpoints.” In fact, these rulings support affirmative action on the grounds of social utility as it creates a diverse environment, which is conducive for broader societal and institutional goals like breaking down racial and ethnic stereotypes, increasing the pool from which the work force can be drawn, and developing a diverse, integrated work force. So basically unlike the earlier arguments that justified affirmative action on grounds of justice, as a compensation or corrective for past and continuing discrimination the court saw grounds of diversity as a valid reason for affirmative action policies. Indeed, in a separate line of cases, the court has also upheld the use of race-conscious and gender-conscious affirmative action programmes in private employment. In United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (1979), for example, the Supreme Court upheld the use of race-conscious affirmative action policies that correct a conspicuous racial imbalance in traditionally segregated job categories, but do not “unnecessarily trammel” the interests of non-minorities and do not pose a bar to their advancement. The court has passed similar judgments in favour of gender-conscious affirmative action. The relevant point here is that the argument for affirmative action based recruitment programmes have benefited the industry. And these arguments were based not just on arguments for remedying past racism/sexism but on grounds of diversity contributing to more competitive and efficient industry. The foundations of the fears — inefficiency, incompetence and uncompetitiveness — of the Indian industry regarding affirmative action programmes in general, therefore, seem to be misplaced. However, the Supreme Court rulings in the two University of Michigan cases might point to the reason why reservations if equated with quota might be considered problematic by the industry. One, quotas create a segregated group of seats which are always open to the charge of being uncompetitive. Two, quotas, as has been the case in the Indian case, might result in the “creamy layer” taking over seats meant for the truly disadvantaged sections, as they do not give individualised attention to each applicant’s case. And three, fixing a quota at times means providing for a token presence of certain groups’ members without ensuring that they have the proper skills and meaningful numbers to make a difference. What exactly is the lesson of American experiment? Most important is that the arguments for affirmative action-based recruitment programmes came from the industry itself and not from the government. For the industry found it to be in their interest. The US Supreme Court rulings on the Michigan University case, quoted above, base their argument on the experience of the American private sector. It says. Nevertheless, these two rulings provide a meaningful set of guidelines by which the private industry can ensure diversity and incorporation of individuals from different sections of the society without forsaking the goals that they feel would be compromised by policies promoting reservations — competition and
efficiency.
— The writer is a Research Fellow at University of Michigan |
Always in a meeting Call
any bureaucrat on any given day, during office hours and chances are that the PA will tell you that the public servant is in a meeting. On one occasion, a friend recounts calling at hourly intervals to be given this stock reply every time. The business of government is evidently run through meetings and if the average babu is not attending one locally, he is off to Delhi. More business liaisons are forged in the Shatabadis connecting Delhi with State capitals than in offices. Political leaders, babus, all under one Shatabadi roof, break bread with businessmen, literatti and chateratti/causeratti, in the serene comfort of the Executive Class. Warmed croissants and paneer cutlets are downed over business plans and orange juice. Meanwhile, the all-important PA naturally informs the public that the ‘Sahib Bahadur’ has gone for yet another, yes you guessed it: ‘important meeting’! All this while, decisions affecting peoples’ lives and livelihood remain in animated suspension. All-India heads of departments meetings are occasions for batch reunions and networking that can help plan great LTCs. Several days and many meetings are spent preparing for these meetings. It would be safe to say that if such a meeting were cancelled it would probably be more productive in terms of savings effected from the cancellation, than any item on the agenda. Savings would include expenses incurred on air fare and TA/DA claims, electricity, rentals for Vigyan Bhavan, mineral water, working lunches and the stationery: slip-pad + pen combo given away at these dos. The latest set of meetings involved free travel, free board, lodging and local sightseeing, where the bureaucrats for a change, were placed higher in precedence to even the all powerful Ministers,
i.e. as Election Observers. The results of the general elections were evidence that the observers played a vital role in ensuring that the elections were conducted both freely and fairly. But significantly, several airlines bottom-line should have received a healthy boost with EC’s “watchdogs” criss-crossing across the country to take observer meetings. There is a Westminster joke that in meetings politicians take hours while bureaucrats take minutes. Hence back to home base, after the meetings, there are the “minutes” to record and circulate because, “He who keeps the minutes calls the shots”. Post meetings there are implementation and status reports to monitor, but only until the next ‘review’ meeting. It helps that bureaucrats work for an employer without a balance sheet. No other organisation has an inflating debit side without any corresponding addition to topline or bottomline: partly the reason why most States have yawning budgetary deficits. Theodore Zeldin (1994) said that an opportunity is wasted every time a meeting has taken place and nothing has happened. But bureaucracy can make even business “best practices” come a cropper. That’s why, it is still believed that an opportunity is created everytime a meeting takes
place! |
Raja Ramanna: architect of N-plan
Raja
Ramanna, an architect of India’s nuclear weapons programme, wore many hats during his lifetime. Nuclear scientist, music aficionado, minister, member of Parliament, tech entrepreneur were the many labels that sat lightly on his broad shoulders. India’s nuclear programme, which seemed orphaned following the death of Dr Homi Jehangir Babha, found in Dr Raja Ramanna the perfect successor. A low-profile nuclear scientist from Karnataka, Ramanna put Indian nuclear capability in high orbit in dusty Pokharan, Rajasthan in May 1974 and earned a place for himself among the elite bomb makers of the world. Unlike his contemporaries, Dr Ramanna entertained no illusions about the Indian nuclear weapons project. In an interview in 1999, Dr Ramanna sought to dispel the myth that the 1974 nuclear test was a peaceful experiment. “The Pokhran test (of 1974) was a bomb, I can tell you now... An explosion is an explosion, a gun is a gun, whether you shoot at someone or shoot at the ground... I just want to make clear that the test was not all that peaceful.” Not surprisingly, dictators and intelligence agencies of the world courted him. As Dr Ramanna recollected decades later how Saddam Hussein tried to lure him for Iraq’s nuclear programme. “You have done enough for your country. Don’t go back. I will pay you whatever you want,” Dr Ramanna recollected shortly after US forces overthrew the dictator two years ago. Saddam’s parting words “I expect you to honour this offer” kept the scientist on tenterhooks till he took the flight back home. Born in Tumkur, Karnataka on January 28, 1925, Ramanna was educated at Madras Christian College and London University. In his long distinguished career Dr Ramanna held a number of prestigious posts. He was President, Indian National Science Academy, Director-General, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Department of Atomic Energy, scientific adviser to the Defence Minister and member-Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Director-General, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. He capped his illustrious career in the government as Minister of State for Defence in the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government. “Ramanna was responsible for initiating several programmes of the Indian nuclear department from R&D to reactor building,” colleague and fellow nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar told a news agency from Vienna. Another colleague, former Chairman of Atomic Energy, Dr P K Iyengar said Dr Ramanna recognised the importance of fundamental science and its influence on society. “Ramanna was an excellent organiser and brought out the best talents of the people working for him,” Iyengar remembered. During his long stint as the head of Babha Atomic Research Centre between 1972 and 1978 and again from 1981 to 1983, Dr Ramanna is credited with mentoring its human resources programme. It turned out to be a veritable cradle of talent whose alumini were part of Pokharan II in 1999 when India officially announced itself as a nuclear weapons power. In later years, Dr Ramanna used his formidable clout to help nurture scientific talent in different areas. He founded the National Centre for Advanced Studies in Bangalore. While his contemporaries elsewhere in the world like the infamous Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan traded their knowledge in the global arms bazaar, Dr Ramanna sought refuge in music. An accomplished piano player, Dr Ramanna who held a Diploma of Licentiate from the Royal School of Music in London often enthralled guests with snatches of classical music on his piano. He even wrote knowledgeably on music, including a critical dissertation “The Structure of Music in Raga and Western Systems”. The Information Technology revolution did not leave Dr Ramanna untouched though he was well into his seventies when the entrepreneurial bug bit him. The company he founded with his son Shyam, Crest Communications, is a major player in the Business Process Outsourcing space with major Hollywood studios outsourcing animation projects from the company. Only on Monday, just a day before he was admitted to hospital, Dr Ramanna bid goodbye to the company at its Annual General Meeting. He handed over the baton to his son. Dr Ramanna also presided over the company’s change of name to Crest Animation Studios to reflect its main line of business. A recipient of Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, he was the Director Emeritus of the Bangalore-based National Institute of Advanced Studies till the end. |
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Rejoinder In
his article (The Tribune, Sept
7) Udit Raj claims that in 1999 there were 481 judges in the high court and that only 15 were from the Scheduled Castes. By this he means the SCs should be recruited on the basis of percentage of their caste in the Indian population. Out of 21 judges in the Supreme Court, he says there was no SC judge, where again he means to say that there must be some SC judges if we are to prove that India is not meting out any caste-based discrimination. His views about reservations in the private sector show his political ambitions have overpowered him to such an extent that he wishes to kill budding Indian entrepreneurial spirits. How foreign direct investment would be affected by caste-based reservations, we all need to ponder. Similarly, his remarks that reservations were there in the Aryan times is objectionable as, first of all, the theory of Aryan invasion is debatable, if not entirely wrong. The Varnas were based on occupation and not attributed by birth. It may have been that due to the continuation of some particular occupations in generations, castes were established and the same can be confirmed from even undergraduate students of sociology. The evolution of castes from the Varn system was gradual. If Dalits are non-existent in media and export-import business, it is not that the entry of Dalits in these areas is banned or this is due to any discrimination. All these areas are skill based and skills are not acquired on the basis of caste, but by hard labour. Nobody, nowhere would mind the recruitment of well-trained and competent people in any organisation, be it government or private. The government provides training to Dalits. Seats in every college and course are reserved for them, even if that is by compromising merit. Still, these so-called Dalit leaders stake claims for caste-based reservations to compromise merit again and again. When talking of flourishing private businesses in India, Mr Raj notes the contribution of the IITs and the IIMs. Even in these institutes, seats are reserved for the Dalits. Why have the Dalits trained and educated in these institutes not helped other Dalits by setting up industries etc? Can he give a few examples where those belonging to the SCs had stopped enjoying fruits of caste-based reservations after getting ahead in socio-economic spheres to create space for other deprived Dalits? In fact, the caste-based reservation system works like the multi-level-marketing concept, where those who enter the chain earlier continue to enjoy the benefit for ages. Sons and daughters of ministers, MLAs, MPs, etc continue to enjoy their “Dalit status” which shows that either they lack some inherent capabilities or they deliberately want to take away benefits meant for the downtrodden. The cost of recruiting an employee on the basis of caste is not small. S/he would be a part of the system for nearly 35 years and would continue to spoil the system by inefficiency and affect all those who come in contact with her/him. The demoralising effect on those who would be affected cannot be described in words. In the end, I would like to suggest that the wards of government employees should not be given any reservation benefits. All reservations should be extended only once. No reservation should be extended to those who fall under the one-by-six category of the Income Tax Department. |
There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much. — Mother Teresa Thou must be emptied of that Wherewith thou art full, That thou mayest be Filled with that whereof, Thou art empty. — Saint Augustine To live in the world or to leave it depends upon the will of God. Therefore, work leaving everything to Him. What else can you do? — Sri Ramakrishna Remain ever alert in or outside your home and falter never on seeing others’ wealth or beauty. — Guru Nanak |
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