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Orderly admissions Cleansing politics |
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Investment curbs go Move to attract FDI THE Prime Minister on Wednesday scrapped Press Note 18, which guided Indian companies’ joint ventures with overseas partners. Inappropriately named, Press Note 18 is actually a government notification introduced on December 14, 1998.
Agony over seat-sharing
Graceful in grief
Primitive wisdom saved them Delhi Durbar
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Orderly admissions FOR far too long, admissions to medical and other courses have been taking place in a haphazard manner with the education boards, state governments and college managements merrily bending rules. In this free-for-all situation, students have been reduced to the status of helpless supplicants at the mercy of the agencies which were supposed to help them but actually acted as hindrances. Strict guidelines issued on Wednesday by a three-member Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal will, hopefully, make their life easier considering that these address most of their grievances. The students’ problems begin right at the hands of school education boards which are casual about declaring results in time. Any delay ruins their year and even their career. The apex court has now made it obligatory for the boards to declare 10 plus two results by June 10 every year and give marksheets by June 15. Violation of time schedule is to attract penal measures. Similar guidelines have been issued to the States for admission to medical and other courses. The most important of these relate to concluding the first round of counselling for government medical colleges by July 25 every year. It will be the responsibility of the Chief Secretaries concerned to inform the Directorate-General of Health Services (DGHS) about the vacancy position for the 15 per cent all-India quota seats by July 26. This central quota has been made sacrosanct and even mid-stream admissions have been declared a “complete no-no”. The court has clipped the wings of college managements by ordaining that they will be neither allowed to increase the management quota nor give admission in excess of total seats. They cannot carry forward the unfilled seats to next year either. While these guidelines are an effective antidote to the malpractices currently in vogue, the Supreme Court will have to keep a hawk’s eye on the admission front in the future also because the education business has become so lucrative that many unscrupulous persons are ever-ready to find or make new loopholes. Particular attention will have to be paid to the strict compliance of the guideline regarding the supremacy of merit in admission to post-graduate medical courses. The usual escape routes of board percentage and interview percentage marks will have to be sealed effectively. |
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Cleansing politics Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling debarring convicted MPs and MLAs from contesting elections is very timely in the light of the ensuing Assembly elections in Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand. Significantly, the five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti has held that if an MLA has been disqualified and sentenced in a criminal case, he cannot contest an election unless he has been finally acquitted of the criminal charge. This holds good even if his appeal against the order of conviction is pending in a higher court. The court has thus given a new interpretation to the immunity enjoyed by such members so far under Section 8 (4) of the Representation of People Act. Earlier, they were also able to file nominations, having convinced the Returning Officers that they have gone on appeal, but not any longer. As the process of filing of nomination papers has started in three poll-bound states, the ruling is expected to serve as a ready reckoner for the Returning Officers. The apex court’s prescription of the six-year disqualification of a member from contesting elections, after the completion of his jail term, reaffirms its determination to restore probity in public life. Allowing the petitions against the election of two MLAs, Nafe Singh (Indian National Lok Dal) of Bahadurgarh in Haryana and P. Jayarajan (CPM) of Koothuparamba in Kerala, the court has said that the law breakers cannot don the mantle of the law makers. This is bound to give a fillip to the ongoing movement against criminalisation of politics. But then, the onus of tackling the menace rests more on the political parties than on the courts. Little can be done if the former do not realise the criminals’ threat to the system of governance and society as a whole. The menace will have to be tackled at the entry point itself. Ideally, all the political parties should resolve not to field criminals. But will they? In any case, the apex court ruling is expected to act as a deterrent and step up pressure on the political parties to keep criminals at bay. |
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Investment curbs go THE Prime Minister on Wednesday scrapped Press Note 18, which guided Indian companies’ joint ventures with overseas partners. Inappropriately named, Press Note 18 is actually a government notification introduced on December 14, 1998. It required foreign companies to get a “no-objection certificate” from their Indian partner if they wished to start other ventures in the country. The aim was to protect the interests of local companies and to stop a dominant foreign partner from abandoning an existing joint venture. Starting January 12, foreign companies do not need such certificates from their partners in sick or defunct joint ventures. The need for scrapping Press Note 18 rose as it denied an equal treatment in business to foreign investors. Some Indian companies even misused Press Note 18 to extract money from their foreign partners for issuing a no-objection certificate. This restricted and delayed foreign investment and vitiated an investment-friendly environment. China’s TCL Electronics wanted to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary in India, but its local partner, now defunct Baron International, raised objections, which were later overruled by the FIPB. Press Note 18 prevented the UK’s British American Tobacco (BAT) from acquiring a majority stake in ITC. India no longer can afford such treatment to foreign companies. It badly needs FDI, much of which flows to a more flexible, favourable and open China. Press Note 18 protected the companies’, but not the country’s, interests. By replacing it with Press Note 1 the government has levelled the field to some extent, but has also taken care not to displease India Inc, which has welcomed Wednesday’s announcement. Under the new arrangement, overseas partners are not allowed to enter the same business as an existing joint venture without the consent of their partner. Press Note 18 stands scrapped for future ventures only. |
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Being an MP feeds your vanity and starves your self-respect. — Matthew Parris |
Agony over seat-sharing
AFTER breathing fire and brimstone a week ago against the Congress over the sharing of seats in the assembly elections in Bihar and Jharkhand, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav had cooled down rather quickly. Apparently, a meeting with the Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, had assuaged his hurt pride. There was expectation then that after an interlude of posturing and haggling the two sides would arrive at a compromise, even if an uneasy one. But Indian politics never proceeds according to logic. Hence the drama-cum-comic opera that is now on. At the time of writing both the Congress and Mr. Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are giving virtuoso performances in brinkmanship. To compound the Congress party’s problems, the two Communist parties — supporting the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) from “outside” — and a UPA partner, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Mr Sharad Pawar, have rallied round Mr Yadav. They have indeed tentatively decided on their respective shares of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly and practically told the once grand old party to either take the seats offered to it (34 as against the Congress demand of at least 70) or leave them. They have even fixed the Friday deadline for this purpose. No wonder, some have gone so far as to exclaim that the “gang of four” has lined up against the leading party in the ruling coalition at the Centre. In a tit-for-tat move, the Congress has played the “Paswan card”, to the delight of Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, Mr Laloo Yadav’s colleague in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, his erstwhile ally in the Lok Sabha poll and now his bitter enemy determined to “oust” the RJD chief from power in Patna. Over the past several weeks Mr Paswan, heading the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) — who has a power base among the Dalits and has somehow won the support of sections of strong-arm forward castes — had been offering the office of Chief Minister of Bihar to Mr Nitish Kumar, leader of the Janata Dal (United), provided the JD (U) would jettison the BJP. His argument was that if Mr Kumar would wash away the “stain” of his association with the “communal BJP”, the Congress could be persuaded to join their alliance and discard the RJD. That was, however, not to be. The BJP and the JD (U) announced the continuance of their alliance in which, remarkably, the BJP has accepted a second position. Under the circumstances, the Congress invitation to Mr Paswan to see Ms Sonia Gandhi was to him nothing short of “manna” dropping from heaven. He promptly offered the Congress “as many seats as it wanted” as well as the Chief Minister’s post. For good measure, he also assured the Congress that its partnership with him would ensure a “two-thirds majority” in the new assembly. His expectations may be exaggerated but the arrangement he is proposing is not at all irrational. For, the Bihar unit of the Congress has been sick and tired of the alliance with the “overbearing” and, at times, “insufferable” Mr Laloo Yadav. It has indeed been beseeching Ms Sonia Gandhi to end this arrangement. But she has understandably been refusing so far because of her wider national strategy of keeping the BJP at bay in New Delhi and not allowing Bihar to slip into the orbit of “communal forces”. Does this mean that the parting of the ways between the Congress and Mr Laloo Yadav has at last been reached? It may appear so but to take it for granted would be wrong. Events in relation to Bihar can easily take another twist and the two sides now growling at each other might yet reach a modus vivendi, regardless of the current theatrics and tantrums. Other considerations apart, the Congress has to consider the impact of total estrangement with Mr Laloo Yadav (as well as his Leftist allies) on the future of the UPA government in New Delhi. After all, the 24 Lok Sabha seats he commands are vital for its continuance, as are the 65 votes of the Left Front. With only a dozen votes at her command, the AIADMK leader in Tamil Nadu, Ms Jayalalithaa, was able to bring down the Vajpayee government in April 1998. While waiting for the final act in Bihar, two points need to be made about the present goings-on. First, the country has got to pay the wages of the “politics of the mart” that has become the hallmark of the world’s largest democracy. What we are witnessing here is not the pervasive commercialisation of politics, as a fitting accompaniment of criminalisation, which gave birth to the phenomenon of Aya Rams and Gaya Rams. At work at present is the second element in the situation — the unbridled, indeed, ugly scramble for seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies even among the best of allies. Haggling in ministerial bungalows in Lutyens’ Delhi is no different from that, say, over the purchase of a pashmina shawl at the Bund in Srinagar. Secondly — and more importantly — it must be said that the political fracas in Bihar was started by the Congress when it clandestinely entered into a deal with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) of the redoubtable Mr Shibu Soren over seat-sharing in the tribal state without even the courtesy of informing any other ally. No wonder, the enraged maverick leader of the RJD has hit back in kind. The Congress’s Machiavellian move was deliberate and aimed at avenging Mr Yadav’s “haughtiness” at the time of the Lok Sabha election eight months ago in offering the Congress only four seats out of 40, which it had to accept meekly because it was then in the wilderness. As the leading party in the ruling coalition at the Centre now, it wanted to assert its position and cut Mr Yadav to size. But he, a champion in the art of hectoring and no-holds-barred verbal warfare, with an ego of cosmic proportions, seems to have outflanked the Congress by winning the support of the Left and Mr. Sharad Pawar. To cap it all, the wily Mr Soren has put the Congress in a bind by insisting that any additional seats it wants to give to the RJD and the Communists in Jharkhand at this late stage must come from the Congress quota, not that of the JMM. In short, the Congress’s ploy in Jharkhand has turned out to be a classic case of tactical virtuosity turning out to be strategic stupidity. |
Graceful in grief ON December 26 last, we saw the spectacle of the dreadful
tsunami that descended on many Asian shores like a hungry wolf. A crisis often brings the best out of some. Thus, quite a few of the bereaved, after losing their wives and children to the waves, are known to have extended a helping hand to the marooned strangers rising above their blood. Now, how do some of us manage to stay graceful in our hour of grief? The question took me to the backyard of my own mind where a tragedy still lies etched. Some 42 years ago, I lost my newly born son. He had appeared in this world prematurely and was, thus, too weak to take the strain of the earthly existence. Slow and slowly, we saw his tiny limbs stiffen into death. He went as quickly as he had come. I come from a part of the country where wailing aloud has been a tradition, if not a specialised art going by the name of “Siapa” (mourning). Just mark a line from the celebrated epic of Shah Mohammed on the Sikh wars of 1840s: — “Shah Mohammada pain ge vain doonghe jadon hon Punjabana randian ne” (Heart rending wails will be heard all around when the Punjabi ladies lose their husbands in the war). Though I am myself not given to tears, the tragedy shattered me inside. For days I looked lost and withdrawn from the world. Then suddenly a question flashed in my mind. ‘What bravery was really involved in looking bereaved?’ This made me take charge of myself instantly. Perhaps the coming events were casting their shadow before. I was soon to be a soldier and in course of time, assumed the responsibility of a Battalion Commander. The unit personnel are always like children to their commanding officers and some thing or the other always keeps happening in this massive family of a thousand people. I, thus, saw many of my men dying in operations and accidents. All my energies were initially bent to save my fellows. But once they were gone I diverted my attentions to the things that could still be done. Rather than crying or sitting confused over their loss, I was thinking of the possibility of getting them posthumous decorations, the prompt settlement of the dues of their next of kin and keeping up the unit morale etc. All this, gave me a sense of dignity and comfort. Recently, a dear friend of mine (incidentally working in this very newspaper) lost his mother. She was a pious lady who used to give regular commentaries on the holy Granth in a local gurdwara. She last wished to be taken to the same shrine for her final obeisance. The dutiful son carried her there and she did not live much beyond that. My friend has a generally philosophic attitude towards life and in fact, himself a good writer. Still, however, he felt that life was never going to be the same again. I had no words to console him. So, I just narrated my own enlightening experience to him. Possibly, the light passed on to him and the same question raised its head in his mind — “What bravery is involved in appearing inconsolable?” I am sure, the stories of the tsunami braves would bring further comfort to him.
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Primitive wisdom saved them Fortunately, it has turned out that they escaped almost unscathed. The Jarawas, Sentinelese, Shompens, Onges and Great Andamanese suffered far less casualties than their modern counterparts. So what wrought this near-miracle? Nothing except that they laid store by their conventional wisdom reading the signals of nature far better than the technology-driven geeks smug about their superiority. The pulling back of the sea before the disaster, the restlessness of the animals and the strange quietness of the atmosphere all alerted them about the impending danger. They heeded the signals and escaped in the nick of time. Folklore has it that such systems have protected the tribes from nature’s ravages ever since they settled in these islands between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. Animal instincts not only saved the tribals but also the animals themselves. It is noteworthy that while tsunami killed nearly 1,50,000 persons, very few animals perished. This is true not only of India, but also of Thailand and Sri Lanka. The few that died mostly comprised dogs who stayed put only because they were faithful towards their human masters. Agency reports tell us that elephants trumpeted like never before on December 26 and kept running for the hill at the Khao Lak tourist resort in Thailand. The elephants that were not working broke their hefty chains. Some of the huge beasts even used their trunks to pluck the foreigners from the ground and deposited them on their backs to charge up the hill through the jungle. Scientists tell us that elephants have a infrasound communication system, which helps them pick up low-frequency noise, usually below 20 Hertz, which is below the human threshold of hearing, from dozens of kilometres away. What matters is that we have to learn to respect it and put it to good use. Unfortunately, all such traditional wisdom has been pooh-poohed into oblivion. The interest generated in it after the calamity has come too late and it is unlikely that it will sustain. This is not the first time that such fascinating animal behaviour has been noticed. It is a well-documented fact that birds take flight, dogs howl and herd animals stampede to safety whenever there are seismic waves, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. This was noticed during the earthquake in Latur in September, 1993, the Orissa supercyclone in October, 1999, and the earthquake in Kutch and Bhuj on Republic Day in 2001. It is commonplace to find wizened old men in rural areas who can predict the weather better than our met men merely by gauging the direction of the wind. They also have the uncanny knack of telling the time of the night by looking at the stars. In its obsession with technology, the West has turned a blind eye to such subtle signals that nature at times emits. Only China has been conducting scientific research into the phenomenon. Somehow this traditional wisdom has come to be associated with quackery. The preconceived notions that one has about inexact sciences like astrology are blatantly applied to everything home-grown. The Western world has this inherent suspicion about the unfamiliar and rejects everything alien to its own culture. Little thought is given to the fact that in Asian civilisations, astronomers were able to predict the movement of the moon, the sun and the stars accurately even before the West had discovered the telescope. The West has to find a frightfully expensive answer to the simplest question. It spent millions of dollars on solving the problem of pens not working during space flights, only to learn from the Russians to use pencils instead. That is why the joke goes that if the West were to invent a safetypin today, it would have a remote control and an onboard computer. They can afford to have such technological gizmos; we need to make do with simpler contraptions. All that is needed is the replacement of our scepticism with some respect for the accumulated wisdom. Reject what is unscientific but don’t abandon all the legacy. It is time we taught ourselves to benefit from biological warning signals like the cries of birds and change in the behavioural patterns of marine animals. Their acoustic sense is apparently more advanced than those of human beings. Fiftyeight kinds of domestic and wild animals have shown unusual behaviour before earthquakes. Can we spare a small fraction of government funds to study this “inexact” phenomenon? Perhaps the results will be no more uncertain than what our learned experts achieve while predicting the monsoon and the earthquakes - and yes, also the election results - with the help of sleek computers. Some years ago, certain African tribesmen were shown to have the uncanny ability of looking at the pugmarks of elephants and tell exactly how many hours earlier the herd had passed that way. This was dismissed as nothing more than a clever trick by incredulous westerners till an enterprising European decided that it was too accurate to be just a wild guess. He befriended the tribesmen, lived with them for long and above all showed respect for their ability. Only then did he learn the elementary technique. When the elephants passed through the thick jungle, a particular grass was crushed to the ground. It would take a certain number of hours for it to stand vertical again. The tribesmen could divine the time that had elapsed since the passage of the elephants merely by looking at the angle at which the grass was bent now. Thousands of such simple techniques abound which need to be compiled and utilised. If we don’t, these will be either lost forever or will be pilfered by some patent-hungry scientist (remember the turmeric controversy?). |
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Ticket for Ranbir Mahindra? BCCI President Ranbir Mahindra, who is the elder son of former
Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal, is expected to get the Congress ticket for the coming Haryana Assembly elections. His father’s Haryana Vikas Party recently merged with the Congress. The credit for that rightly went to his younger brother, Surinder Singh. Now the Congress will have two scions of the Bansi Lal family campaign for it in Haryana. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who lost to Ranbir Mahindra in the recent BCCI elections, is said to be miffed with the Congress over being ignored for seat adjustments in Haryana and Jharkhand.
Pre-Budget blues The Budget process has really begun and it can be seen from the hectic activity taking place within the government. Finance Minister P Chidambaram is holding pre-Budget consultations with various interest groups to gather inputs for the Budget. Mr Chidambaram has actually restarted this process, which was stalled during his predecessor’s stint in North Block. This had left many industry groups wondering what the Budget would hold in store for them. An industrialist quipped: “During the last couple of years, I was literally suffering from pre-Budget blues. Meeting the Finance Minister before the Budget gave one an idea about what can be expected. Thankfully, the process is back”.
Keeping a low
profile Very few politicians don the Gandhi cap these days. But he is one who always moves around in a spotless white dhoti-kurta and the Gandhi cap. Incidentally, he has dominated the country’s political scene for over three decades, having held positions of Governor of Haryana, Central minister and President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. Having won the reserved Lok Sabha seat from UP in the last general election, he was again made a Cabinet minister and given a portfolio which is extremely important for the rural sector of the country. However, his being at such an important post in the Udyog Bhavan has actually been a shortcoming for the media. Despite being at the helm of the affairs for the last seven months, he has been unavailable to the media. Requests for an appointment have got a stock reply that he is either in the constituency or has not yet granted time. However, the grapewine is that the minister is not shy of media but he has just been advised to maintain a low profile by his astrologer friends.
The Left’s
gain The tussle between the RJD and the Congress over seat sharing in the Bihar assembly elections is giving the Left parties the pleasure of a different kind as it gives them an opportunity to not only rein in the largest party of the UPA coalition, but also provides them with an axe to grind. While in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav had given the Left parties, particularly the CPI, a short listening, now they hope that they would be able to grab a larger number of Assembly seats from him. A weak Congress may or may not be in the larger national interest, but it is definetly in our “political interest”, a CPI leader observed. Contributed by Girja Shankar Kaura, Gaurav Chaudhury and Satish Misra |
Watch the prince lead forth his sister, the bride, to the swayamvara. In loud and lofty accents, he announces to her the names, race, lineage and deeds of each suitor. This information helps her to make her choice. — The Mahabharata A joyful heart is... a heart burning with love. It is the gift of the Spirit, a share in the joy of Jesus living the soul. — Mother Teresa  |
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WHEN the tsunami wave struck coastal India and decimated it
in a matter of minutes, apprehension was that the reclusive aborigines of the Andaman and Nicobar islands were perhaps the worst sufferers considering that their islands were far closer to the Sumatra epicentre than the mainland. It was feared that this link to a bygone civilisation might have been totally wiped out, making Boxer’s Day the blackest morning in the anthropological history of the world. These men and women had been leading an almost primitive life away from the prying eyes of the outside world.