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EC asserts Sugar turns bitter |
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Delayed honour
Empowered panchayats
An ageless wonder
Human Rights Diary A Governor’s anguish
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EC asserts THE Om Prakash Chautala government has only itself to blame for earning the wrath of the Election Commission of India. The commission was forced to transfer three senior officials of the government, including the Director-General of Police, Mr M.S. Malik, and the Director, Public Relations, Mr R.K. Khullar, when an inquiry team appointed by it found that they had violated the model code of conduct. The police chief should have known that the commission did not take chance when it came to ensuring a free and fair poll. During the last parliamentary elections, the EC had seen to it that Mr Malik was not controlling the Haryana Police when his wife Krishna Malik contested on the ruling party’s ticket from Sonepat. This time it took a dim view of his department recruiting police personnel after the code came into force. The DPR and his deputy had to be dealt with as the Public Relations Department had managed to publish a huge supplement in a New Delhi newspaper on January 1. It is amazing that they all overlooked the fact that the code had come into force the day election was announced on December 17. Since the commission is vested with the responsibility of holding a free and fair poll, it cannot turn a blind eye to the acts of omission and commission of the ruling party which can unduly influence the voters. Government officials are expected to remain neutral during elections and they should not become party to any decisions that are intended to sabotage the model code. Unfortunately, a section of the bureaucracy tends to identify itself too much with those in power that it does not even mind playing their dirty games. The transfer of the three should serve as a lesson to the entire officialdom within and without Haryana that its first and foremost duty is to hold a free and fair election. And once the model code of conduct is in force, there is no need for the officials to listen to the orders of those in power if they think it is in violation of the code. On their part, politicians should also not put pressures on the officials to take decisions that are bound to invite the wrath of the Election Commission and disciplinary action that will blacken their career records. |
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Sugar turns bitter Despite the government claim that there are enough stocks of sugar in the country, its price has been rising continuously. The announcement to increase the availability of sugar by 40.5 lakh tonnes for free sale during the January-March period also had little impact on the price of the white gold. Today it is selling at Rs 1900 per quintal against last year’s price of Rs 1300, showing an increase of 45 per cent. This is bound to have a cascading effect on the prices of food products with sugar as a primary ingredient. No government can afford such an alarming scenario, that too with the assembly elections in three states — Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand —approaching fast. Hence the decision to import sugar from countries like Brazil and Thailand to ensure that the commodity remains within the reach of all sections of society. Yet the government will have to explain why there is a big gap in the supply and demand of sugar today. Sugar production has declined from 140 lakh tonnes in 2003 to 120 lakh tonnes last year. The situation is likely to be worse with different state governments not giving proper attention to the woes of the sugarcane growers. The sugar mills in Punjab owe Rs 96 crore to the growers. The state government is keeping quiet over their demand to increase the minimum support price in view of the rise in the cost of production. It is, therefore, not surprising if three sugar mills belonging to Sugarfed are closed and the area under sugarcane in Punjab has come down considerably. The situation in the other states in equally bad, if not worse. Private mills in UP owe over Rs 47 crore to the growers. At least 100 of the 156 mills in Maharshtra, known for its sugar cooperatives, were finding it difficult to start their operations in August because of various problems. The pitiable condition of the sugar industry cannot be without reason. The situation will have to be reversed so that sugar remains affordable for all. The import of the commodity cannot provide a long-term solution, particularly when it is going to be costlier in the international market too. |
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Delayed honour The exclusive list of Phalke Award winners comprises the crème de la crème of Indian cinema and the name of Mrinal Sen is a welcome addition to this pantheon. While one feels elated at the bestowing of this signal honour on the octogenarian film-maker, there is also the regret that it is a long-delayed recognition of his internationally recognised merit. B. R. Chopra got it in 1999 and Hrishikesh Mukherjee the next year. He has not criticised the delay in any way but his disappointment is palpable. He is reported to have commented on learning that he has won the national award: “It’s OK…. My wife tells me that the award was long overdue but still she was quite happy ….” Coming from a man of his erudition, that is a harsh comment indeed. For more than four decades, this founder of “New Cinema” has made films suffused with artistic sensibility and rare sensitivity. He has often been compared with his great contemporary, Satyajit Ray, despite the fact that he was part of the group of film-makers who took a stand in the early seventies against the Ray school of thought. While his austere style was quite similar to that of Ray, his expressionist exploration of emotions had an idiom entirely his own. His greatest works are in Bengali although he has also made films in Hindi, Oriya and Telugu. Through gems like “Bhuvan Shome”, he has bagged awards at almost all international film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Moscow, Montreal, Karlovy Vary and Chicago. Yet, the avant-garde director has never been an insider in the film world. By his own admission, “I’m a persona non grata in this ‘Indian cinema’ – the industry”. As a person, the greatest quality of this “private Marxist” is to speak out his mind. While makers of so-called art films claim that “we don’t care if people don’t see our work”, Sen candidly admits that “every time my film fails to get an audience, I collapse”. He has not made any after “Aamar Bhuban” in 2003 but has kept himself busy teaching cinema and selecting films. |
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I would die for my country but I could never let my country die for me. — Neil Kinnock |
Empowered panchayats
HAVE the panchayats fulfilled the promise of progress at the grassroots level? Or are these becoming a part of the petty party politics? Is the gap between promise and performance widening? The questions arise and demand an answer. In a recent issue of the Newsweek, Robert J. Samuelson has given a glimpse of the growth of democracy in the United States. He points out that “Voting was long a limited privilege…In 1790, most of the original 13 states required white male voters either to own property or to have paid local taxes…By the Civil War, most of these restrictions had disappeared. ‘If a man can think without property, he can vote without property,’ one state leader said in 1845. But there was a constant collision between demands to expand the electorate and more restrictive pressures: selfish fears by ruling elites that more voters would threaten their power…” In India such fears have never haunted us. We had started as a democratic republic. We have expanded the electorate. Today all adults irrespective of their educational qualifications and station in life are entitled to vote and elect their representatives at the state and national levels. In fact, we have gone a step further. We have truly attempted to take democracy to every nook and corner of our country in the form of panchayats. Initially, under Article 40 of the Constitution one of the Directive Principles was that “the State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such power and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.” The direction was followed. The panchayats were constituted. But the results were not satisfactory. It was felt that these institutions had not been able to “acquire the status and dignity of viable and responsive peoples’ bodies due to a variety of reasons, including the absence of regular elections, prolonged supersessions, inadequate representation of weaker sections like the Scheduled Castes and women, insufficient devolution of powers and lack of financial resources.” It was felt that there was a need to remedy the wrongs. To meet the situation, Parliament promulgated the “Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992.” By this enactment, Articles 243 to 243 O were added to the Constitution. Now these form Part IX of the Constitution. It was enforced with effect from April 24, 1993. What do these provisions provide? In a nutshell, there was a mandate to the state legislatures to provide for a three-tier system of panchayats at the village, intermediate (block of villages) and district levels. Detailed provisions regarding the constitution of panchayats, reservation for women and weaker sections of society, elections, tenure, powers to impose taxes and other cognate matters were made. The provisions embody the broad parameters within which the states had to enact the statutes. The avowed objective was to make panchayats self-reliant so that these could become effective centres of self-governance and to ensure that rural India participated in the process of progress. In pursuance to the constitutional mandate, the states have enacted the Acts. Detailed provisions have been made. The panchayats have been constituted at different levels. The elections have been periodically held. The people have elected their panches, up-sarpanches and sarpanches. The elected representatives have been in position during the last decade. The ministers and chief ministers have been regularly holding darbars and announcing grants. It appears that substantial amounts of money have been fairly regularly spent. But to what end? Has the lot of the people in the villages improved? What is the position at the ground level? Have we succeeded in achieving the declared objectives? The position does not appear to be at all satisfactory. Clean surroundings and potable water are the basic necessities for all living beings. These are essential for proper human existence. Despite more than 50 years of Independence, we have not been able to fulfil this need of the people. The existence of the panchayats in their old and new avatars has not made any appreciable difference. Even today, the village women have to walk long distances for a bucket of water. The cattle and human beings have to share the dirty water in the stagnant pond for a bath. And God forbid, if one falls sick or gets injured, he has to be taken a few kilometres to a city for even first aid. Reasonably good schools and hospitals are still a dream in most of our villages. Life has not really changed for the common man in rural India. The producer of food still continues to live in poverty and remains under debt. The panchayats have not helped the people at large. It is true that every adult in the village has got the right to vote and elect the panches. But what has it really led to? Groupism at the village level. Party factions. Petty politics. Often disputes arise. There are election petitions. The long litigation sometimes leads to further tension. There is even crime, including murder. Resultantly, the cohesiveness of the village community has invariably been a casualty. The provision for reservations was made to help the weaker sections and women. Even this has proved counter-productive. When a woman gets the benefit of the provision and is elected against the reserved seat, the duties of the office are mostly discharged by her husband. So, the real purpose is defeated. Besides that, the husband earns the ire of the electors. Equally, the reservation for weaker sections is creating newer tensions. Even where none existed earlier. It is true that the objective of empowering the panchayats was laudable. It is true that the funds too are being made available. There are the grants from different quarters. The chief ministers and sometimes even ministers announce bounties. Apparently, to help the villages and villagers. Or to woo the voters. And in a case where the state funds cannot be appropriated, money is drawn from “other sources”. Ultimately, the taxpayer pays. Irrespective of that, in most cases the grants are like the ceremonial cake. Everyone wants a slice of it. From the MLA to the village panch. Ultimately, very little percolates to the people or is spent on development. In the process, the real purpose is seldom served. The conditions in rural India remain unchanged. The poor villager remains the forgotten child in this Socialist Democratic Republic. At the end of a decade, one hears complaints of corruption at the grassroots level. The gap between performance and promise is widening. This has been the bane of our country. We have to find ways to reduce it. Otherwise, too much democracy might destroy democracy
itself. |
An ageless wonder
Mughal-e-Azam is in the news once again! The movie which had never faded from the memory of the older generation has now found admirers among the younger generation as well following its colourisation. This movie has been discussed any number of times among my family members and relatives as my father often refers to this magnum opus of K. Asif to prove how "mad" I have been after movies since my childhood. Actually, my father has never been a lover of movies, nor was my mother (may her soul rest in peace!). Though always a great movie buff, I never bunked school to watch them. The only time I could see a movie was when our school management would organise a special show of some movie or when my eldest brother would agree to take me along while going to a movie. I was a student of first class when Mughal-e-Azam came to be screened in one of the theatres of my town. It really created a hysteria of sorts as everybody everywhere would be seen talking about it. Of course, I was dying to see the movie and who else could have fulfilled my desire if not my brother! One day big brother decided to watch Mughal-e-Azam with some of his friends. I virtually begged of him to take me along but he would not oblige me. I cried, cried and cried but my brother just would not budge . When he left the house for the movie, I was just hopping mad, knowing not how to express my anger. I started throwing away whichever article I could lay my hands on. I really don't remember how many glasses, cups and saucers became victims of my fury. Then I turned to our kitchen garden and uprooted as many plants as my tiny hands could. My parents' absence from the house certainly added to my boldness and freedom. Sometime later when my father came home and found the history of destruction having been written by me, he gave me a thrashing of epic proportions. About 14 years later, when I was a student of B.Sc. in a Kurukshetra college, I came to know that a cinema hall of Ambala city was screening Mughal-e-Azam. The pull of the movie was so strong even at that time that I, along with five other friends, travelled to Ambala to see it! This was the only time when we specially went to another town to see an old movie! Recently when I went to see the colourised version of the movie at a multiplex in the Saket area of New Delhi, I had to return disappointed as "house full" board was there to greet me. This board, we are often told, was a common sight in cinema halls when the movie was first released 44 years ago. Mughal-e-Azam is, indeed, an ageless
wonder!
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Human Rights Diary Pride does not lessen if tragedy is shared by Kuldip Nayar Nature is said to be bountiful. How can it harm the helpless, make children orphan and women widows? There are thousands of them. To what future do they look up to? The quantum of sympathy flows in torrent first, reduces to a trickle and then comes to a stop. They have a life to live. The tragedy is always hard to erase because the injury inflicted is unexpected and deep. What people have suffered is more than a wound. They have to build everything new, even their own being. Something has died within them — confidence, conviction and courage. Still they have to go on and rely on the same environment, the same nature and the same sea which they call by the name of “maa”. Natural disasters are hard to explain. But I have not been able to understand India’s reaction. People’s response is tremendous and the government’s action has been prompt. But there is no logic behind the refusal to assistance from outside. We did not beg, nor did we make a request. It was something spontaneous. It was a human gesture that people care for one another. It was ennobling. Strange, money from NRIs was welcome but not from the country where they lived. If the world is a global village, every inmate, however distant, is part of that village. Pride does not lessen if the tragedy is shared. India, more so its government, suffers from a silly notion about nationalism. Rabindranath Tagore once said: “It (nationalism) is the particular thing which for years has been at the bottom of India’s troubles.” New Delhi rejects assistance from a country but not its countrymen. Private donations are welcome but not what comes through official channels. Then why permit NGOs to get funds from foreign governments or the government-aided organisations abroad? More than 95 per cent of NGOs depend on outside funds. The government knows about it because the money is transmitted through it. That NGOs are doing a useful job is not in dispute. The point at issue is that if the money received by them — it runs into millions of dollars — is not tainted, why should the assistance by the countries from where the NGOs get their funds be looked down on? The assistance we are receiving through the Red Cross is what foreign countries have been contributing. Half of America’s donation of $350 million has been channelled through the Red Cross. Our is a hypocritical stand. What are we going to do when Soviet President Vladimir Putin is saying that he will help India? How odd do we look when the entire relief and rehabilitation is going to be done by the UN? Some explanation has appeared in the Press to argue that India has shown its independence and that it has proved it can manage its own affairs. Some have gone to say that it now deserves to be a member of the Security Council. This way of thinking is humiliating. Foreign nations which have offered assistance have done it on human grounds. It is good that we can manage on our own. It is heartening that we are in a position to assist even our neighbouring countries in distress. But that is not the point. The point is that we question the emotions of people abroad. If we have told them to mind their own business, it is callous. It seems that New Delhi tends to find a political answer to its problems. The assistance from abroad could not escape that line of thinking. What has puzzled me is Pakistan’s response. Like India, it got lost on the way to find an appropriate reaction. Why didn’t it offer at least medicines and clothes at the time when President Musharraf and his Prime Minister sent messages of sympathy? Probably, Islamabad’s perception was that the assistance would be rejected. Even at the risk of getting no, Pakistan should have announced what it proposed to send. The very announcement would have touched a respondent chord in India. People still talk about the applause India’s cricket team got at Lahore. Pakistan’s gesture to help India at the hour of calamity would have created an indelible impression. A visiting former judge from Pakistan told me in Delhi that they did not want to be snubbed. First, there would not have been any snub. Even if there had been one, the public in India would have pounced upon the government for not responding to Pakistan’s gesture. And what about the people and the Press in Pakistan? Had there been a campaign to collect money for victims in India, it would have generated so much goodwill that people-to-people contact would have looked tame. At least the JKLF, a constituent of the Hurriyat, felt the pain and sent Rs 1 lakh for the suffering Indian brethren. The sum is not important, but the gesture is. The Hurriyat should have itself taken the initiative. The organisation has so politicised in its thinking that even its normal reaction has got blunted. Having seen so much of sufferings in Kashmir, it should have known what suffering is all about. It is unfortunate that it missed a great opportunity to rise above politics.
Soldier punished The Army punished another soldier for rape in the valley. The action is commendable but its record of human rights violations is not. Only recently did it take action against an official for rape. True, the accused was punished. But the reputation of the Army has got further smeared. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has still no jurisdiction over the armed forces. At least, the commission should be allowed to send a team to look into the allegations against the Army. Why the armed forces should continue to be beyond the authority of the NHRC is not understandable. It brings no credit to the government. A committee under India’s former Chief Justice Ahmedi made certain recommendations two years ago to extend the commission’s authority at least over the paramilitary forces. The government has not even looked at the recommendations. Such are the things which should stir up the government’s sensitivity, not foreign assistance for relief and rehabilitation. |
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Governor’s anguish by Sudarshan Agarwal The unprecedented natural calamity has wreaked death and destruction across the coastal areas of southern states and the A & N Islands. The Prime Minister, in his appeal, has appropriately stated that “It is at times like these that the best in us comes out and the human spirit transcends all adversity.” The catastrophe is of unimaginable dimension — having taken thousands of lives but its cruelty is the hardest on the tens of thousands of children it has orphaned. The tidal wave devastated their families, leaving them without hope, happiness and a future. Now is the time for the compassionate and sensitive civil society to act as parents of these hapless children and give them a ray of hope that their silent eyes seek. When Mother Teresa said, “Give till it hurts”, she in her own simple way captured the essence of giving — the element of sacrifice. Let us not allow these children to be abandoned. We must give back to them aspiration and ambition much as we give our own children and grandchildren. I wish to share my deep anguish at the lack of sensitivity, compassion and concern of persons who have earned crores from the toil of the common man, towards the victims of this calamity — where are the top cricketers of the country in this hour of need? Sports and film celebrities earn crores of rupees out of sports events and by endorsing products from paints to colas. Those of them who have contributed for relief work can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The best that most of them may do is to go out on the streets of Mumbai collecting small amounts from the common man or, at best, participate in charity shows to raise a few lakhs. What is disturbing is that we have persons in the country and some of Indian origin settled overseas who would spend anything up to Rs 250 crore on the weddings of their children and yet keep shockingly quiet after this unprecedented calamity. If they do act, it may literally be donating peanuts in such a gigantic rehabilitation effort. It is unfortunate that even though we now boast of some Fortune 500 companies, with several others in the big league, they are yet to demonstrate the sensitivity, concern and compassion expected of responsible corporate citizens. Considering the size of their wealth and assets,
the contribution announced by some of the industrial houses can only be termed token contribution. I appeal to all those in the big league in industry, sports, film world, judges, lawyers, doctors, other professionals and every citizen of this great country to contribute generously to rebuild shattered lives. I would wish them to ‘look within and pose themselves the question: “Have I done enough in mitigating human suffering in this worst calamity of our times?” They say, “One has not done enough so long as one is capable of doing more”. Let us remember that the measure of generosity is not what you give when the spotlight is on you, but what you do when the spotlight moves on. Much is expected of those whom God has given much. Let us not be found wanting in this hour of need. —
The writer is the Governor of Uttaranchal |
See the assembled kings. Lion-chested monarchs, nobly born princes, chiefs of pure and stainless name. Give each a seat that befits his status. A seat wrongly given can sow the seeds of great war. — The Mahabharata Good works are links forming a chain of love around the world. — Mother Teresa No charter of freedom will be worth looking at which does not ensure the same measure of freedom for the minorities as for the majority. — Mahatma Gandhi The spirit of political and international liberty is universal and , it may even be said, instinctive. — Mahatma Gandhi The good man should not tire of his good deeds. Till their fruit ripens, he may have to suffer bad times. But once the good deeds ripen, his life is suffused with happiness. — The Buddha God I remember and remember time and again for bliss, by quelling all my inner strife and pain. Him I’ll remember, since He feeds the universe. And His name the creatures numberless rehearse. The top and crown of purest names is such a name. — Guru Nanak  |
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TSUNAMI was the worst violation of human rights which nature committed in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. Thousands of people died and tens of thousands were deprived of their day-to-day living with a grim tomorrow and even a grimmer day after.