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Prosecution of
ministers Frivolous
case |
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Prudes
and prejudice
Sops for Myanmar
The mystic,
entrancing trail...
Karzai wins mandate
for offensive on warlords and drugs trade Chatterati
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Prosecution of ministers THE Supreme Court ruling that the governors could independently exercise the right to accord sanction for the prosecution of a minister in the prevention of corruption cases without the “aid and advice” of the council of ministers is welcome. It assumes special significance because it reinforces the governor’s supreme authority in the day-to-day functioning of the state government in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. It also gives him the legitimacy to enforce the rule of law without any restriction. The five-member Bench has rightly pointed out that his power to sanction the prosecution of a minister under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code cannot be diluted or circumscribed by the thumb rule that he has to function on the “aid and advice” of his council of ministers. The judgement is bound to make a salutary impact on the conduct of the ministers. At a time when corruption has vitiated the system at various levels and affected the quality and efficiency of governance, the judgement is expected to impose the necessary checks and balances in the functioning of the ministers. Hereafter, those indulging in corruption, nepotism and maladministration cannot take the governor for granted on the ground that he/she is just a dummy and cannot touch them in the form of according sanction for their prosecution. However, while exercising this power, the governors need to act with utmost circumspection and purely on the individual merits of the case. If political and extraneous considerations come into play, the Supreme Court’s extraordinary ruling will be reduced to a mockery. This needs to be emphasised because of the general impression that governors, as agents of the Centre, owe their allegiance more to the ruling party at the Centre than to the Constitution which they are expected to uphold. The change of governors after a change of government at the Centre is not a happy augury. Governors need to be given the requisite independence of action and to rid themselves of the bane of “instructions” from the Centre. Their loyalty must be to the Constitution and no other entity and their commitment to the well-being of the people of their respective states. |
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Frivolous
case It
is a legal battle in which the petitioner himself has become the loser. The petitioner, Mr Sanjeev Bhandari, had challenged the auction of liquor vends in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the ground that the Punjab Excise Department had ignored his higher bid to favour a particular liquor baron. The court upheld his plea and ordered re-auction of the liquor vends. When the Punjab Government went in for appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court decision. Interestingly, the judgement came with the proviso that if the re-auction fetches the state government a lower amount, the previous auction would stand and the petitioner would make good the government loss. The re-auction on Friday caused the government a loss of Rs 17.7 crore. The petitioner, who chose to stay away from the proceedings for fresh bidding, will have to pay for the shortfall. This is a clear case of unwanted litigation and the litigant has been made to pay a heavy price for it. This will, hopefully, discourage frivolous litigation in future. The practice of going to the court over every perceived wrong will at least slow down. There have been reports in the media of a suspected foul play in the previous auction. The emergence of a liquor cartel is very much evident even in the latest auction. There was only a single bid for a majority of the vends and the amount offered was only marginally higher than the one fixed by the state government. A sort of monopoly situation has emerged in which the government seems helpless. If the bidders join hands for mutual advantage, the government is clearly a loser. This time the price shortfall may be met, but in future the cartel could hammer down the bids and defeat the very purpose of auction. |
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Prudes and prejudice The
latest initiative by the Human Resources Development Ministry to educate students between 14 and 18 years of age about sex and AIDS is welcome. For too long, prejudice and prudery have brushed the subject of sex education under the carpet as a result of which adolescents are confused and misinformed. When inquisitive minds do not find answers the legitimate way, they get them from other sources, mostly unreliable. As far as sex education is concerned, children have the right to be informed, in a proper, protected, trusted environment about the basics of sexual health and reproduction. The need for sex education is reinforced by the dangers of the AIDS pandemic, which can only be controlled by preventive measures that will come through education. It is estimated that as many as 50 per cent of the girls in rural India are married before 18. Not imparting sex education to them would have serious effects on their reproductive and sexual health. Sex education, once a taboo, has now been introduced in some schools in India and the results have been positive. The response of parents has been supportive, if not enthusiastic. Parents are, perhaps, relieved that teachers are doing what they are themselves unable or unwilling to do. Given societal constraints, there is no doubt that teaching about this topic is awkward for some and embarrassing for others. However, the National AIDS Control Organisation in collaboration with UNICEF has developed a sex education module that children can be taught with least embarrassment to them or to the teachers. They are encouraged to ask questions anonymously by writing them and the teachers answer all such queries. Other NGOs and school systems have developed different methodologies. These efforts need to be encouraged not only to prevent AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, but also for the wholesome development of young minds. |
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Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
— George Orwell |
Sops for Myanmar The
recent visit of Myanmar’s Head of State, Senior General Than Shwe to New Delhi has raised the question whether India has thrown
into disarray the long-standing international efforts to bring national reconciliation and restore democracy in that country. The visit of the UN Secretary-General’s Representative to Myanmar, Mr Razali Ismail, to New Delhi during the same time reflects growing international concern on India’s role with regard to its neighbour. New Delhi has cited security and economic reasons for engagement with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of Myanmar. India and Myanmar signed three memorandums of understanding on cooperation in the field of non-traditional security issues, on the Tamanthi hydro-electric project and a cultural exchange programme for 2004-2006. India also offered sops in the form of a line of credit of $7 million for two telecom projects and announced a grant of $3 million for the implementation of IT-related projects. In July 2004, India provided a special credit of $56.358 million for the upgradation of the Yangoon-Mandalay trunk-line and allied facilities. India’s sops to Myanmar have as much to do with security concerns in the Northeast as to address China’s influence on the junta. Time and again, Burmese generals have proved to be more adept at political power games between its two biggest neighbours, India and China. That the junta allowed only India and China to open consulates in Mandalay is not surprising. The SPDC too realises that it has become a little too dependent on China. Since 1998, Beijing has developed full-fledged relations with Yangoon and has utilised the latter’s rich natural resources and strategic location to its advantage. The visit of Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi to Myanmar in 2004 and signing of an agreement on bilateral cooperation spanning over 20 sectors has made Yangoon further dependent. Chinese goods and products have flooded Burma. The SPDC has been looking for leverage, and India has become Yangoon’s largest export market ($325 million) after Thailand, accounting for nearly 25 per cent of its total exports. New Delhi has failed to read the junta’s own compulsions. As part of the agreement on cooperation on non-conventional security issues, Myanmar has reportedly agreed to launch joint military operations with India in November itself. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Kaplang) has already written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and threatened to resume war. If Naga civilians in Myanmar are harassed and forced to cross over to India, as expressed by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, the NSCN (I-M), in order to maintain its hold on the Nagas, is unlikely to remain a silent spectator. The NSCN had earlier expressed concern against the military operations in Bhutan. Can New Delhi afford to derail the Naga peace process by launching a joint military operation? If not, it is impossible to make any distinction among different armed groups in the Northeast. Unlike in Bhutan, insurgents from the Northeast (India) to Burma do not live openly. Yangoon itself has little control over its no-man’s land. It has signed ceasefire agreements with 17 ethnic armed groups on Burma-Thai and Burma-China borders but none with the ethnic groups living on Indo-Myanmar borders, i.e. the Chins in Chin state and Rakhaines in Arakan. It is not only in New Delhi’s interest but also in Yangoon’s interest to launch joint military operations. If the SPDC manages to coax the Chins and the Rakhanines to forge ceasefire agreements following joint military operations with India, it can continue to keep Aung San Suu Kyi under detention while holding the ceasefire trophies high. The sops being offered by New Delhi make international sanctions ineffective and contribute further to the political stalemate in Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi has been in custody since May 30, 2003, and there is no sign that the National Convention reconvened in May 2004 will produce any meaningful change without her release and participation. The ASEAN countries, with the exception of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, have been seeking to break the stalemate. Unlike New Delhi, many ASEAN countries openly expressed concern about the future of the roadmap to democracy after the sacking of former Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt. If Yangoon’s generals do not take interest in national reconciliation and the roadmap to democracy, the relations between ASEAN and India on the question of Myanmar may appear deja vu. For one full decade before the end of Cambodia’s civil war, relations between India and ASEAN had been frozen due to New Delhi’s recognition of the Vietnam-backed Heng Samrin regime, installed after Vietnam’s invasion and occupation of the country in 1978. It took extraordinary efforts by both sides to begin fence-mending and rebuilding mutual trust and understanding. If and when mainstream ASEAN members manage to get their act together, India’s position on the question of SPDC could easily be jeopardised and become untenable. The junta is likely to be more of a liability than an asset. Given the economic and security needs of India for engagement with the SPDC, the question is whether there is further scope to raise the issue of democratic reforms in Myanmar. Since the United Progressive Alliance came to power, New Delhi has changed its policy towards Palestine. During NDA rule, the Palestine cause was nearly forgotten. The recent visit of India’s Deputy Foreign Minister E. Ahamed to Ramalla and condemnation of Israeli military violence is a critical change. This is despite the fact that Israel’s military assistance, especially for tackling insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, is crucial for India. Jammu and Kashmir, which has direct implications on bilateral relations with Pakistan and international community, is likely to be on higher priority than the Northeast. But Indo-Israeli relations must withstand what Mr E. Ahamed stated, “India’s unwavering support for the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent homeland”. There is no reason why the release of Aung San Suu Kyi could not have been a part of India’s wish “to assist the government and people of Myanmar on their path to further political and economic progress”. As India genuflects to the SPDC, the junta’s cooperation will be based on its needs and not the sops which sustain the regime
itself. The writer is Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights, New Delhi. |
The mystic, entrancing trail... This
trek was not going to be a usual one. Unlike all others that I had undertaken in the past, this one had a purpose. And the purpose, for once, had nothing to do with pleasure which normally inspires peoples’ travels through the world. I was travelling neither to seek out peace nor delight. Mine was a trail of something enigmatic about nature. And then, I also wanted to know what keeping faith was like. The miracle awaited our arrival in the hills of Kullu valley which is home to more mystical happenings than the human mind can ever fathom. And the one that we had set out to witness was the “jewel in the crown of all mysticism Kullu had ever boasted of.” Bijli Mahadev it was called; its magic well concealed in humble words. It is in the mystical manifestation of these words on one auspicious night every “Saawan” that the world of wonderment lays. We were told to have patience, so I packed it in plenty. After alighting from a rickety Kullu-bound Himachal Roadways bus on a pleasant August evening, we headed for the house of a friend who was our link to the unnatural. Our trek began the following day and we took off from Ramshila Bridge along the National Highway, wearing hope on our sleeves. “Let this be the day of revelations at Bijli Mahadev,” we prayed recurrently. Not all could share the secrets of the temple which houses a snow Shiva lingam. We, however, were sure of our date with the divine because we had set out with a heart to believe, not challenge. The seven-hour trek ended almost effortlessly as if a higher power had a vested interest in our purpose. We offered prayers at the temple and waited to be sermonised by the head priest whose family has been serving the temple for ages. His narration came like a startling tale which was to be enacted before us that very night. “Tonight the lightening will strike the Shiv lingam and disintegrate it. It will travel through the temple windows, touching no one and nothing except the Lingam. Pieces will scatter all over the hill, even down in the village. You will see the rest for yourself.” The magic unfolded in front of us that night, staying on for the next day which saw a blindfolded man amassing pieces from all over. He then collected butter from the village households to restore the lingam to its glory. It took all the purity in the world to establish Lord Shiva back in his seat. The lingam ruptured several times before gaining its original form. It’s said the restorer can’t put it together unless the butter he uses is pure. He must strive till purity prevails. Inside the temple too, God accepts no money. The coins I offered virtually vanished into thin air. And as nature revealed its secrets to me, I knew it wished to rid the temple of profanity so that Lord Shiva could go back to guard Parvati. When I fixed my ears to the ground, at the base of the Shiv lingam, I could feel the pulse of a gurgling river. It was the Parvati flowing from Manikaran towards Bhuntar, several feet below the hillock where Bijli Mahadev stood. My faith had been
kept! |
Karzai wins mandate for offensive on warlords and drugs trade The result has been obvious for a couple of weeks and was widely predicted long before polling day on 9 October. It could not be confirmed, however, when a fraud inquiry team reported that the minor electoral corruption and technical errors it found were not serious enough to sour the victory. Mr Karzai, who has been heavily backed by the United States since he was appointed President in 2001, won decisively with 55 per cent of the vote and wide geographic and ethnic support. Tony Blair was quick to congratulate Mr Karzai, calling the elections “a tremendous achievement for the Afghan people”. However, Mr Karzai’s nearest rival, the former education minister Yunus Qanooni, refused to concede defeat. Mr Qanooni, 39 points behind Mr Karzai in the poll, has, however, won little popular support for his refusal to accept the result. Mr Karzai was in the United Arab Emirates yesterday, where his spokesman said he was “very glad to finally have the result we wanted”. He added: “We are starting a new life, a new Afghanistan and we hope everyone with co-operate with its reconstruction.” Afghans voted in huge numbers despite the threat of terrorist attack, overwhelmingly because they believed that the election was a chance to end the warfare and lawlessness that has plagued them for more than two decades. Their expectations of what Mr Karzai must achieve are now sky-high. He has promised action to tackle the burgeoning opium trade, which Western diplomats fear could turn Afghanistan into a narco-state, deal with Taliban remnants, who he has offered to bring into the mainstream of politics, and cut down the power of warlords, which he has highlighted as Afghanistan’s most serious problem. Both Afghans and Mr Karzai’s Western supporters will be watching carefully to see who is appointed in the President’s new cabinet, which is not expected to be announced for several weeks. Of particular interest will be whether tainted strongmen and figures who are reputed to be deeply involved in the drugs trade are appointed. Some leading members of his cabinet have dreadful human rights records dating back to the civil war in the 1990s and it has been an open secret in Kabul that some are key players in the drugs trade. Afghans on the street and analysts were divided on whether Mr Karzai would take decisive action against strongmen whose private armies have not yet been disarmed. The President has acquired a reputation for timidity and preferring compromise to confrontation with warlords. But before the election he signalled a new willingness to get tough by dropping the defence minister and pushing a powerful warlord out of his bastion in the western city of Herat. Mr Karzai’s victory has, however, been overshadowed by Kabul’s first hostage crisis. The Taliban splinter group that has threatened to kill three UN hostages it claims to be holding. Jaish-al Muslimeen claims to be holding Annetta Flanigan, from Armagh in Northern Ireland, Angelito Nayan, a Filipino diplomat, and Shqipe Habibi from Kosovo. It says that it will execute them unless the UN pulls out of Afghanistan. The government has previously negotiated the release of several foreign nationals who were kidnapped by Taliban fugitives, in return for a ransom. The three latest hostages were, however, snatched from a busy Kabul street last Thursday, sparking fears that Afghan militants were copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq. Neither the United Nations nor the Afghan government would comment on the hostage situation.
— By arrangement with The Independent, London |
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Chatterati Guess
who is going in for a makeover? Lalu and his party. Just before the coming Bihar assembly elections, Lalu’s party is trying to rid itself of the Bihari Bhaiya image. Lalu wants a bilingual website where constituents forward their grievances. Two M.P.s are going to be on duty in Delhi to help the needy from Bihar online instead of constituents coming to Delhi. The makeover also includes highlighting a recent study which says that the RJD with 82 per cent graduates leads parliament as far as members education goes. All RJD members even at the grassroots levels have been told to trumpet this. Wow! well a large number with criminal cases on them which, of course, will be down played. Lalu, Paswan and other senior leaders will brief M.P.s before each parliament session and will be asked to do their homework to ask right questions. Amazing as Lalu’s well-crafted “dehati” image actually does undergo a drastic change when he is travelling abroad. Laluji has gelled hair, a great fitted suit and also converses in accented English. So we do change as, when and where needed. This change has been given top priority keeping in mind the coming elections in Bihar. Polo and glamour Polo is the game for the royals, no doubt. Expensive thorough bred horses. High tea sponsored by five-star hotels. Chiffons, pearls of royal glamorous women to the wannabe’s with expensive designer labels, similar makeup and hair. It is impossible to make out one from the other. They all look like clones. But the signature style of polo matches, of course, is sunglasses. So on a warm Sunday the glitterati and who’s who rising hooves and flashing mallets make a colourful picture. And what a turnout. Home Minister Shiv Raj Patil, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Rahul Gandhi playing the perfect “Mamu” to nephew Rehaan and Robert Vadra with daughter Maira. Yes! But somehow Bollywood glamour has the power to overshadow all. A very pregnant Karishma was there cheering her husband’s new polo team. Well, a game played by the fearless and adventurous. But surely not a common man’s game or idea of spending a Sunday afternoon. PM’s iftar party Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s iftar party was a no barriers and the ruling elite were not cordoned off. After a long time, a Prime Minister had an iftar party at 7 Race Course.
Vajpayee and Narasimha Rao had hosted their iftar parties at Hyderabad House. A relaxed Dr Singh was on his feet the whole evening being a charming host while Sonia was polite and smiling. Diplomats, literati socialists, journalists and politicians freely exchanged views with her. Mr Yechury, Harkishen Singh Surjeet and even Samajwadi M.P. Shahid Siddqui were at home here. Mrs Gandhi promised to help an Urdu paper called ‘Quami Awaz’ after the request was made by a group of Muslims from Aligarh. Dr Abdullah and son Omar were dressed identical in cream Pathan suits and shawls. A welcome break this iftar was from the earlier ones where there was a clear barriers of VVIPs being put in a separate room. This could be a reflection of Manmohan himself. He shot to fame for starting the process of freeing the Indian economy in his earlier avatar as Finance Minister. |
Lord Brahma, the topmost demigod in the universe, admits that he cannot conceive how great Krishna is. And it is the verdict of all Vedic literature that devotional service to this Supreme Personality of Godhead is the only thing worthwhile. In order to achieve such a state of perfection, one must be favoured by a great soul, a pure devotee of God. — Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Atman is different from the body, senses, mind, intelligence and life. It is pure, self-effulgent, blissful, devoid of emotions and is formless. — Lord Sri Rama Humility is of five kinds: humility in faith, in knowledge, in conduct, in penance and in decorum or etiquette. — Lord Mahavir Go, there where you may obtain the Lord’s Name. Do good deeds and earn merit by the grace of the Guru. Imbued with the name, sing ever the praise of God. — Guru Nanak All, everything that I understand, I understand only because of love. — Leo Tolstoy |
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