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Skirting the law Maha negotiations |
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Stopping honour killing
Enter, Honourable Member Arun
Gawli!
Scrap of evidence
News analysis How coffee houses came into being Delhi Durbar
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Skirting the law Adhering to the letter but not the spirit of a law is bad enough. That is what the Punjab Government did by cutting down the number of ministers and more than making it up by appointing as many as three Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and nine Parliamentary Secretaries in July. Defying the spirit and then changing the letter is even worse. In its eagerness to please the MLAs who matter, it even forgot that while an earlier amendment had exempted the post of Parliamentary Secretary from being considered an office of profit, this fig-leaf was not available in the case of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. Hence the indecent eagerness to clear an ordinance declaring Chief Parliamentary Secretary’s office as being an office of no profit, that too with retrospective effect. Even if the effort succeeds, it does not present the government in a flattering light because the move is still a too-clever-by-half ploy to circumvent the 15 per cent limit set on the Council of Ministers by the Constitutional Amendment which came into effect on June 9 this year.
This cocking a snook at good-intentioned reforms is not exclusive to Punjab. Most states make an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of the taxpayers. While the size of ministries has been curtailed, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of chairmen of corporations and boards, besides Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and Parliamentary Secretaries. They enjoy almost the same facilities as their ministerial counterparts and cost the exchequer as much. And yet, the pernicious practice continues to thrive because politicians are experts in detecting – and even inventing — loopholes and very bad at setting examples of probity and integrity. When the government itself defies the rules and regulations, it only encourages common men to bend the laws to their own convenience. Only if the Centre and the judiciary come down heavily on such practices can the situation be remedied. |
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Maha negotiations AT last, nearly a fortnight after the assembly election results, the coalition ministry for Maharashtra is in sight. The protracted ministry-making negotiation between the pre-poll allies - the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party – has hardly been an edifying spectacle. Such bargaining, given its subtext of government as commerce, does not inspire much confidence about this exercise in cohabitation. The equations between the NCP and the Congress and their respective interpretations of the formula for power-sharing are responsible for the entirely avoidable delay in a popular ministry being sworn in. That this should have taken precedence over the dictates of the mandate – which is to form a ministry at the earliest and get on with the job of administration shows scant regard for the voters. Maharashtra is a premier state and Mumbai is the country’s financial capital. With the prevalent emphasis on the economy and economic reforms, the importance of a stable and confidence-inspiring ministry in Maharashtra needs no overstatement. Yet, it is the economic importance of Maharahstra that drove both the Congress and the NCP to bargain at such length; not just over who gets the chief ministership, but also over the so-called lucrative portfolios. That the partners were preoccupied over the profits, political or otherwise, that derive from certain portfolios reveals that administration of the state for the citizen’s benefit is the least of the concerns in their calculations. A state that once enjoyed the reputation of being the best administered has fallen behind. The Congress-NCP coalition would be able to achieve little despite defeating the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance unless signals, of stability and concern for the people are sent out without further delay. The Congress as the bigger partner has the greater responsibility in this regard. Even as it learns the practice of coalition dharma, the Congress needs to convince itself and smaller parties that it would be realistic and generous in adhering to the terms of partnership. In this case, sections of Congressmen who favoured the chief ministership going to the NCP have lost out, and the view that the government in Mumbai—the commercial centre of the country—must be in the hands of the Congress Party has been upheld by the leadership. |
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Stopping honour killing Pakistan’s National Assembly has passed a law introducing death as the maximum punishment in extreme cases of so-called honour killings. Among most tribal communities killing of female relatives for perceived violation of the oppressive and gender-hostile customary laws is considered an act of honour. The practise violates the fundamental spirit of Islam as well as human rights, but is common among tribal societies in Pakistan and most West Asian countries. Kurdish and Jordanian women’s group have raised their voice against the barbaric custom of torturing and killing women in the name of protecting the honour of the community. Pakistan has followed the example of Turkey by seeking to place legal curbs on the obnoxious practice. There are striking similarities between the repressive social laws of the tribal communities in Pakistan and the khap panchayats of Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. The only difference is that the tribal panchayats usually recommend the death penalty for most violations of customs and traditions; the khaps generally stop short of recommending the death penalty. However, women have been raped and couples lynched as a result of the pronouncements of the khaps. The trauma of Sonia of Asanda and her husband Rampal is far from over. The Punjab and Haryana High Court and the National Human Rights Commission have luckily intervened. However, the diktat of the Jakholi khap panchayat in Kaithal district for the social boycott of members of a particular caste has given hope to the villagers of Asanda. They have threatened similar action if Sonia and Rampal dare to return to the village. The indifference of the district administration in restraining the malcontents from terrorising Sonia and her husband could result in a tragedy. The extreme action in most such cases has the indirect blessing of the khap concerned. When the Sonia issue hit the headlines there were indications that the Centre might enact a law for placing curbs on the extra-judicial powers of the khaps. The UPA government should not backtrack under pressure from some allies who allow unbridled power to the khaps in exchange for votes. |
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Society is like a crowd in carnival costumes with everyone fearful that others will see through his disguise. — Vernon Howard |
Enter, Honourable Member Arun
Gawli! NOT long ago he answered the court calls like: “Arun Gulab Gawli Hazir Ho….”. Uniformed Mumbai policemen used to escort him into the courtroom to deposit him in the dock to be cross-examined on charges of conspiring to murder and many other crimes of a similar kind. During the next few days Arun Gulab Gawli will be ushered into the august chamber of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha to be sworn in by the Speaker as an MLA to uphold the Constitution of the Sovereign Democratic Secular Socialist Republic of India. Not that the Speaker wouldn’t know about the contribution the new MLA had made to the welfare of Mumbai’s underworld over the years, but he will have no choice but to allow him to take the oath. After all he has been elected by the people of the Chinchopkli Assembly constituency in this month’s election. Mr Gawli won the seat by a comfortable margin of 12,774 votes and celebrated his victory with the remark: “I will make a difference”. He didn’t elaborate. From another part of the country—Madhepura in Bihar—came the news that Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav has been elected member of the Lok Sabha by a huge margin of more then two lakh votes. Pappu Yadav has been an MLA earlier also and twice he was elected to the House of People from the Purnea constituency. This time he chose to contest from the Madhepura parliamentary constituency on the RJD ticket given by none else than the Union Railway Minister, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav. Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav gave the ticket despite the fact that his friend’s current address is care of the high security Beur Jail in Patna. He is an accused in the connection with murder of a CPM MLA and the Supreme Court had to cancel his bail to ensure that the obliging state authorities do not let him enjoy the fruits of his friendship. Hon. Arun Gawli, MLA, and Hon. Pappu Yadav, MP, are not isolated examples of the new kind of netas that are emerging in several parts of the country and getting elected to Parliament and state legislatures. It is a frightful thought but considerable political landscape across the country has already been captured by the criminal mafia who are throwing their weight around to get things done their way. Earlier, the local thugs used to help the needy politicians with their money and muscle to get elected to Parliament or the State legislatures and they in turn provided them protection from law. Now the criminals themselves fight elections and often win. In the process, they are increasingly acquiring not only legitimacy in public eye, but in effect considerable immunity from punishment for the crimes they are inclined to commit. They are also acquiring the right to make laws for the country and lend their skills and experience to govern this nation of over 1.3 billion people who had never thought that in just five decades after Independence they would get Gawlis, Pappu Yadavs, D.P. Yadavs, Tasleemuddins and Raja Bhaiyas breathing down their necks. Almost all states—although with varying degrees of gravity—are afflicted with the phenomenon of criminals forcing their way into politics, and lately into Legislative Assemblies and Parliament—and into governments in the states as well as at the Centre. Political parties, dependant as they have become on the money and muscle of the leaders of crime, dare not deny tickets to them or their nominees and even seats in the ministries now. In many states a formidable nexus between the politicians and the criminals has come to control public policy and decision-making. Also, criminals are increasingly playing a role in the postings and transfers of key officials in many districts and states to ensure that the administration functions according to their needs and wishes. In some states bureaucrats have actually joined the nexus of the politicians and the criminals. Some have not been shy of seeking the local mafia’s help for getting convenient postings. The extent of the influence criminals wield on the nation’s politics is too widespread and the damage it has done to the working of Indian democratic too deep to gauge easily. Over 200 out of 403 MLAs of the U.P. Legislative Assembly have reportedly criminal cases pending against them with their political affiliation spreading across all parties in the State. A Bangalore NGO—the Public Affairs Centre—had a peep into the affidavits of all the affidavits of 541 MPs elected to the new Lok Sabha last May and found that four states—Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand—account for 50% of all MPs with criminal cases that attract several penalties involving five years’ or longer imprisonment. While there are more legislators with history of crime now in Parliament and the State Assemblies now than earlier, the nation is showing little urgency to tackle the problem. For many people it is a subject for drawing room discussion, to be forgotten next morning. Some NGOs are doing useful work in different pockets of the country, but their effort is dispersed and feeble to have any serious impact on the situation. The Supreme Court has made some effort off and on, but with little effect. The executive is finding itself powerless. Political parties are either not able to or are not willing to shut the door against criminals getting into politics. The Election Commission over a period of time has been making suggestions to amend the law to ban the entry of criminals into Parliament and State Legislatures, but the politicians have not heeded its advice. Even before the Lok Sabha the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr T.S. Krishnamurthy, called a meeting of political parties to seek their cooperation to ban people facing trial in serious criminal cases from the election process, but few political parties were willing to amend the law which keeps only those away who have been actually convicted and not those who are facing trial over some charges, even if these are serious. After the experience of the last Lok Sabha election Mr Krishnamurthy has written to the Prime Minister to stress that it would be in public interest to keep a person out of electoral arena “who is accused of serious criminal charges and where the court is prima facie satisfied about his involvement in the crime and consequently framed charges”. However, “as a precaution against motivated cases by the ruling party, it may be provided that only those cases which were filed prior to six months before an election alone would lend to disqualification as proposed.” The Election Commission has also proposed that “persons found guilty by a Commission of Inquiry should also stand disqualified from contesting elections”. The Election Commission’s suggestions are sound and can go some way in keeping more criminals out of the elections. But these proposals have to be accepted by political parties who may not agree to pass a law on the lines suggested by the Election Commission. The politicians still do not realise the seriousness of the danger criminals are posing to them and democracy. If they had, they would not have sought criminals’ help, nor given them party tickets.
If only they knew the elementary truth that supping with the Devil is risky! |
Scrap of evidence AT the dead of the night, I tiptoed surreptitiously into the courtyard, thinking that none in the house had seen me indulging in that unusual act. Very secretly and making doubly sure of not being “caught in the act”, I took out the matchbox from my pocket and lighted a stick as dexterously as not to make any noise. I set to fire the collected scrap-stock of mine and sneaked back into the room wading through the darkness around, on to the bed. Cautious enough not to make my better half wake up, I lay with the crackling sound still reaching my ears and a lightened up scene outside the windows as if Sun had risen at the dead of the night. As if the spectre wasn’t eerie enough, there was a bang! Oh my God! What a blunder have I committed? And what in my scrap pile could have caused the explosion? Why after all should I have invited the trouble myself! On the neighbours’ information, the Intelligence Bureau sleuths should be on the trail and reaching my house any moment. The TV channels would beam a “yet another scandal” and the late night editions of the leading dailies would flash stories like — “Another Scrap Site Located”. My links would be established with Al Qaida and Iraq. I might well be referred to during the Bush-Kerry debate with Bush telling — “Haven’t I bin tellin the entire wuerld, the Dub-liu-em-dees might have bin thaken out of Erauq, laang laang backh.” In the international scrap market, most likely, I could be branded as a Scrap Mogul by the morning. I cursed my unusual habit of remaining glued to things I acquired even after they fell into disuse much against the wishes of my wife who suggested umpteen times we had sold the stuff through our driver at the Jama Masjid chor-bazar. In collusion with my driver, only last night had I cleared in the same clandestine manner, the stuff collected for years in the junkyard called garage which was overflowing with useless axles, tie rods, jump rods, filters, fan belts, exhaust and hose pipes besides used coils, armature battery packs, tyres, etc. There remained a lighter consignment of film roll containers, empty gas lighters, dried up ballpoint refills, useless CDs and DVDs, replaced computer parts and lithium batteries which I had just then burnt.
I was still pondering over what exactly could have caused the explosion. “It could be the lithium batteries now sleep darling!” wife whispered in my ears as if she ‘heard’ my thoughts and turned side. But more intriguing was the expression on the driver’s face during the day, when I asked him to find out the nearest well. He might not have then known of my plans to dispose of the cast-offs, fearing a raid on my scrap pile. |
News analysis While the culprits in the Swiss diplomat’s case are yet to be arrested despite the high-powered investigation teams set up by the authorities, the jawans of the President’s Guards who were reportedly responsible for the rape of the college girl were promptly arrested. Even in the two recent cases, the suspects have been arrested and the police has been able to explain away the time lapse in the blind girl’s case. But there is no denying that the two incidents have rattled the average citizen. The incidents are more galling for the Delhi government, which is desperately trying to make the city world class by allowing shops, restaurants and pubs to remain open till late at night. The idea, of course, was to provide some kind of a night life in the city, which was woefully lacking in this respect. But with assaults on women continuing with alarming rapidity, the response of the public has been understandably a lukewarm one. While concerned by these incidents, the police and the law enforcement agencies are not overly alarmed as they claim that there has been little or no increase in such incidents and they pander statistics to prove this. What, however, has increased, and this they find encouraging, is the fact that the victims are now more aware and are coming out to report these incidents. Thanks to voluntary organisations espousing the cause of women and institutions like the National Commission for Women and the National Human Rights Commission, the incidents of rapes and sexual crimes against women are now being increasingly reported. There have been several cases in the recent past where these institutions have taken cognisance of the incidents and have intervened on behalf of the victims and virtually forced the law enforcement agencies to act. But these cases have been few and basically the ones which had caught the attention of the media. The majority of such cases, however, go unreported because of the obvious societal stigma associated with them. Senior police officers admit that the lower ranks have yet to be properly sensitised to such issues. It will take a lot of effort and time for the attitudinal change to percolate down to the lower ranks. It is precisely for this reason that the Delhi Police has now started a two week-course in human rights and gender sensitisation for the subordinate ranks. The attitude of the police in sexual crime cases was clearly exemplified in a recent case in the National Capital Region of Delhi. A young executive of an export house was raped by an influential client, an affluent businessman. Overcoming the emotional trauma, the young victim lodged a complaint with the police. A case was registered and investigations were started. However, the victim got yet another shock of her life when the investigating officer, a Sub Inspector, approached her and offered her a large amount of money on behalf of the suspect to withdraw the case. What was really outrageous in this case was the fact that the Investigating Officer (IO) was herself a woman. The law enforcement agencies say that stretched as they are in the ever expanding metropolis, they can only do so much to provide security. At the same time, they claim that in the majority of the incidents the victims and the perpetrators are known to each other. What is required is the active cooperation of the public and mass awareness campaigns to bring about the required attitudinal change. Genuine voluntary organisations can play a vital role. |
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How coffee houses came into being FEW enjoy their first cup of coffee. The second isn’t much better. Yet by the tenth, you’re hooked. You don’t know why — there are so many less troublesome, more varied flavours out there (tea, to name but one) but every morning, you come back to coffee. And again mid-morning. And again at lunchtime. According to Markman Ellis’ exhaustive new study, it was just the same in the 17th-century London. When the first coffee house opened in 1652, initial reactions were horrified by this “Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor”. But within just 10 years, there were no less than 82 coffee houses in the City of London alone — think Starbucks without the pushchairs. Until then, the English had been happy with possets and caudles and punches: wines or ales mixed with spices and herbs and creams. In the drinks business, the world was being turned upside down, not so much because coffee is instantly moreish but because, as Ellis sums up: “They failed to recognise that coffee is a habit-forming drug that changed its customers’ taste to suit itself.” While in Britain and New England the coffee house and the tavern remained separate institutions, in France, the cafe served both alcohol and coffee. Sadly, Ellis rarely allows himself to editorialise and here he avoids the inevitable hint that this British dichotomy may well have laid the seeds of our habit of binge-drinking. The British seem happy to remain perfectly sobre in the coffee house or club, but resort to manic drunkenness whenever there’s alcohol around. Ironically, the egalitarianism only returned with the arrival of women: it was Joe Lyons who created a place where “unchaperoned young women could meet together while maintaining respectability”. This, in a female and tea-based way, was the first return to the heyday of the coffee house, open to all. But coffee would not regain its predominance in British society without three Italians. Luigi Bezzera invented the espresso in 1906 and Archille Gaggia made the crucial adjustments to his invention to remove the bitterness (he introduced the use of pistons to force the water through the grounds). And on Frith Street in 1953, Pino Riservato opened the first British coffee bar to use one of Gaggia’s machines. — The Independent |
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Delhi Durbar FROM October 26, the US Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection began enforcing requirements that travellers applying for admission under the Visa Waiver Programme must be in possession of a machine-read passport. But what happens to a Visa Waiver Programme national who presents himself or herself for admission to the US without a macine-readable passport or non-immigrant visa? The US Embassy has clarified that such a traveller would be permitted one-time exemption to go to the US. The traveller will be issued a letter explaining the US entry requirements and his or her passport will be annotated that a one-time exemption has been granted. If a traveller fails to obtain a machine-readable passport or a non-immigration visa for subsequent visits they may be refused entry under the VWP. Each VWP applicant must present an individual machine-readable passport. Package for
J and K? Will Dr Manmohan Singh announce an economic package for J and K during his coming visit? While the Congress leaders have already started making demands for a package, PDP leaders have made no such pleas. PDP leaders believe that instead of any grandiose announcements, the state would benefit more from focussed schemes aimed at generating employment and boosting industry. Pointing to the announcements by Prime Ministers in the past, the PDP leaders say the packages were mostly combination of existing schemes with multi-crore Qazigund rail project also forming a part. The Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, did not refer to any package during his recent meeting with the Prime Minister but instead discussed “options for economic revival. State Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma of the Congress was, however, categoric in seeking a package when he called on the Prime Minister. POK’s human smuggler A former puppet Prime Minister of POK is among the 50 Pakistani political leaders who have been named in a scandal of human smuggling to Britain. Sultan Mehmood Chaudhury, who was unceremoniously removed and imprisoned as Prime Minister of POK in the early nineties by the Pakistan Army, frequently visited England on the pretext of propagating the Pakistani line on Kashmir. The twist in the bizarre tale has come with a foreign government informing Pakistan’s Interior Ministry that Sultan Mehmood was carrying on human smuggling along with 49 other Pakistani politicians in the name of propagating the so-called “freedom struggle” of the Kashmiris. Change of guard in BJP The decision of Venkaiah Naidu to quit as BJP President has generated a debate among party workers. While some were happy that he made way for Advani, who is any day a much better leader, to lead the party, others felt that three successive Presidents from the South had been a bit too much for a pre-dominantly North India party. However, a Naidu sympathiser remarked: “You may decide who could be the party President, but in the near future too it would be South Indians who would decide who would be the country’s Prime Minister”. The remark pointed to the crucial role the parties from South India have played in the formation of Congress-led government at the Centre. Rajiv Sharma, Prashant Sood and S. Satyanarayanan |
The Paramatman is the sky which is stationary. Its reflections are not permanent. Just as the sky alone exists, so also the Paramatman, which is the supreme Brahman, is the only reality. All the visible living things are only its reflections. — Lord Sri Rama He whose lusts have been destroyed, who is free from pride, who has overcome all the ways of passion, is subdued, perfectly happy, and of a firm mind. Such a one will wander rightly in the world. — The Buddha Effort is superior to destiny (or fate) because it is effort that determines destiny. An effort well made leads to success and lack of effort spoils every thing. Therefore, effort is superior to destiny. — Swami Dayanand Saraswati |
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THE recent rapes of a 15-year-old blind girl and a 13-year-old domestic help have once again ignited a heated debate involving the safety of women in the nation’s
Capital. This, when the Delhi police and other law enforcement agencies were trying hard to overcome the ignominy of being unable to prevent similar incidents involving a Swiss diplomat and a young college girl during the past one year.