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The human factor Crisis in Goa |
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PC for FM
Defence needs more funds
Such is the law
News analysis Abortion right becomes hot topic at UN conference Gulf dream for Indians brightens
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The human factor Finance Ministers in India usually make hyperbolic statements about education, health and rural development, but when it comes to fund allocations the social sector suffers the most as it is nobody’s baby. The Budget for 2005-06 makes a departure from this trend and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is liberal in the grant of funds to this neglected area. Poverty, as the Finance Minister points out, is not only income poverty. Its other indicators are illiteracy, poor health, lack of skills and unemployment. By trying to empower the disadvantaged sections through education and health initiatives, the Budget makes an assault on poverty as well. The thrust on the social sector is appreciable. Education gets a massive Rs 18,337 crore from this Budget. A non-lapsable fund called “Prarambhic Shiksha Kosh” has been created to finance the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The mid-day meal scheme, which covers about one crore children, also gets a higher allocation. A National Rural Health Mission will start functioning from the next fiscal to strengthen the primary and community health care system. Under this scheme health volunteers will be trained and free medicines made available. All drinking water schemes have been merged with the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission and the outlay for this has been enhanced. With adequate funds in place for the education, health and water schemes, the government now has to ensure that the delivery system, notorious for its leakages, does not douse the hopes raised by the Budget. The well-entrenched sharks in the system swallow a large chunk of the money before it reaches the targeted beneficiaries. The Finance Minister is aware of the problem and is also trying to strengthen the monitoring system, but doubts persist in the minds of even the well-wishers of this government whether all these bold initiatives and fund allocations would produce the desired results. The UPA government will have to remove these not-so-misplaced misgivings. |
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Crisis in Goa The present crisis in Goa is mainly a result of the unconstitutional actions of the Assembly Speaker and the Governor. The House was adjourned sine die on Monday even before Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane could seek a vote of confidence. Such was the extent of his partisanship that just before he resigned from his post along with his deputy, Speaker Vishwas Satarkar disqualified Independent member Filipe Neri Rodrigues, now Deputy Chief Minister, for having extended his support to the Congress. After this disqualification and the resignation of BJP member Digambar Kamat, the Congress and the BJP enjoy the support of 17 MLAs each in the House. Francisco Sardinha (Congress) has been sworn in as Pro Tem Speaker. However, as he can vote only in case of a tie, the Congress’ strength in the House has technically come down to 16 as against the BJP’s 17 in the House. To survive the fresh vote of confidence (the date is yet to be fixed), the Congress is reportedly trying to get Mr Rodrigues’ disqualification overturned as also wait for the disqualification of Mr Matanhy Saldhana, the lone United Goa Democratic Party member, for supporting the BJP. What is happening in Goa today is a brazen abuse of the Constitution. What will be the future of parliamentary democracy if Speakers and Governors act in a blatantly partisan manner? No doubt, there are safeguards to check their actions. For instance, a Speaker’s (or a Governor’s) action can be challenged only through a writ petition in the High Court and the Supreme Court. But at a time when a government’s fate depends upon the support of just one or two members, the remedies available are inadequate, that too, much after the havoc wrecked on the system. Both Mr Satarkar and Governor S.C. Jamir are squarely responsible for the present mess. If Mr Satarkar acted arbitrarily on February 2 (when the Manohar Parrikar government sought the trust vote) and on Monday, Mr Jamir acted in undue haste by peremptorily dismissing the Parrikar government and installing the Rane government. Parliament was adjourned on Tuesday following uproar on Goa. But little can be done if those holding responsible posts do not follow established norms of constitutional law and propriety. At the moment, no solution seems to be in sight. |
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PC for FM The Budget is like a bikini. What it bares is beguiling, but what it conceals is vital. Once this principle is grasped, then the bulls, especially of the stock-market variety, wouldn’t go on a rampage without pausing for reflection. Thus, we have a scenario where they go zooming on B-day, only to correct themselves, after reading the fine print, the next day. It is no different with this Budget, which is an excellent illustration of political event management. Soon after it is presented, everyone feels called upon to applaud or groan, as audiences are obliged to at the end of a play. Once the curtains have come down and the actors have bowed out, the critical faculties take over and excitement is replaced by anxiety. It is then discovered that what you gained on the roundabout would be lost on the swings, or vice-versa. The Budget may be heady business for many, but most people don’t have a head for it, except for reckoning the size of their wallet and how much is pinched by the Finance Minister. That being the case, a successful Finance Minister is one who can rip you off without your screaming; or, better still, make you believe that your deprivation is in your best interest. Mr P Chidambaram managed to do that last year by simply saying Main Hoon Naa, to reassure the market that they wouldn’t be left out because of the Left. It is a measure of how reassured the market is today that, this time, he didn’t have to fall back on such lines. Today, ‘PC’ is part of common parlance. No longer does the abbreviation stand for ‘politically correct’, ‘police constable’, ‘press club’ or even ‘personal computer’. It simply means P Chidambaram, at least when the going is good for the FM. Of course, it would not do to have a permanent chip on our shoulder because abbreviations are forever being invented and reinvented. |
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Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it. — Tom Lehrer |
Defence needs more funds
At the outset, the government must be congratulated for restoring to the defence budget the sanctity of its key function: that of sound expenditure control and management. In particular, credit must go to the Ministry of Defence for spending the amount budgeted and to the Ministry of Finance for not holding back funds allocated for defence through various stratagems. The expenditure for the current year is practically equal to the amount budgeted last year — Rs 77,000 crore. It may be recalled that throughout the five-year term of Dr Manmohan Singh as Finance Minister in the early 1990s, defence expenditure was balanced with the budgeted amount year after year, reversing the tradition of actual expenditure overshooting the budgeted amounts. In recent years we witnessed a reversal of that phenomenon with large sums out of budgeted funds remaining unspent. One hopes the coming years will formalise the current trend. Having said that, we need to take a closer look at defence spending. The budget at Rs. 83,000 crore for the next year represents an increase of 7.8 per cent over the current year. In turn, this translates into a reduction of defence expenditure as a proportion of the GDP in the current year from 2.5 per cent to an estimated 2.4 per cent for the next year. This would no doubt release more funds for development activities and that is to be welcomed. But on the face of it, this level is worrisome for the simple reason that it fails to address the crucial issue of defence modernisation adequately. For nearly two decades defence modernisation has been stagnating with weapons systems completing their design and/or useful operational life finishing without replacement. The case of the Indian Air Force combat force levels getting progressively depleted for a number of years is an obvious example. This, in fact, last year forced us (a country which trained hundreds of foreign pilots in our training establishments for five decades) last year to start sending our rookie pilots abroad for flying training for the first time since 1939! The reason is that we don’t even have enough fighter aircraft, leave alone a suitable Advanced Jet Trainer. An increase of a mere 2.66 per cent in our capital (read modernisation) budget for the next year can in no way cater for the backlog and the increasing obsolescence in defence, leave alone build a modern military machine for future defence capability, especially in the face of the massive military modernisation going on in China and its inevitable spin-off effect on Pakistan. A preliminary examination of the budget data indicates that the expenditure on the procurement of aircraft for the IAF and the Navy would actually come down by 25 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. And this is when three out of 37 authorised combat squadrons in the Air Force have already been number-plated with more to follow! Similarly, the Navy is running into shortages of warships and submarines. The only explanation beyond the shortage of funds is that decisions on acquisitions were not taken in time to enable actual procurement to take place now. Unfortunately, our system does not adopt a long-term perspective for defence modernisation. At a more fundamental level our priorities seem to be skewed badly. History tells us that technological advantage has always been crucial in winning wars; and we in India have historically not paid attention to the value of high-technology in military affairs. Hence the tendency towards manpower-intensive forces. The fact that our revenue expenditure in the coming years is expected to grow by almost 12 per cent (compared to the 2.66 per cent growth in capital expenditure) should make us sit up and think about what sort of military machine we need and can afford for the decades ahead. We have been hearing a great deal in the professional circles about the RMA (revolution in military affairs) and its critical importance in future wars. But in practice we seem to be pursuing our own version of “RMA with Indian characteristics” where RMA seems to stand for regular manpower additions! The weight of evidence in the public domain indicates that we have quietly added 200,000 men to our defence forces in the past few years, mostly in the Army in spite of the announced plan to reduce 50,000 troops six years ago. And we must be the only military in Asia that is expanding manpower rather than acquiring modern long-range precision firepower and its supporting systems. Compared to this, China reduced its army strength by 500,000 and is in the process of cutting down another 200,000 by next year. In a policy almost diametrically opposed to our own, China in its latest defence policy White Paper, issued at the end of last December, affirmed that while “streamlining” the Army, China is “strengthening the capabilities for winning both command of the sea and command of the air.” The normal argument put forward is that a low-intensity conflict is the main threat and that requires a manpower-intensive military. But we also want a high-technology defence establishment. There is an obvious contradiction here and the challenge is to arrive at an optimum balance. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to be doing such exercises blindly, adding to the manpower strength while undertaking patchwork on-off procurement of modern weapon systems. The failure to approve of the five-year Defence Plan even by the third year of the Plan period (in a pattern that has acquired its own unfortunate consistency!) is a clear proof of the ad-hocism in defence planning and hence in defence spending of huge sums, and the risks that this implies for the country’s defence. For example, the cost of manpower (which constitutes the bigger chunk of the defence budget) has been mounting at an average rate closer now to 11 per cent per year as the budget shows. In addition, the expenditure on defence pensions consumes funds equal to almost 16 per cent of the budget (compared to a mere 3 per cent two decades ago) as a consequence of the extended colour service. Somewhere quality and quantity have to be balanced if we are to maintain credible and affordable defence. In effect, we already have two armies: one for internal security duties with over 200,000 troops and the other for external defence. But in both areas our technological upgradation has been suffering acutely while we keep building a top-heavy manpower-intensive military good for 20th century warfare. n The writer is Director, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, New Delhi. |
Such is the law
Mr Bumble, in Oliver Twist, was dismayed when he came to know that the law held him responsible for his wife’s action and cried: “If the law supposes that...law is an ass — an idiot”. I had been a subject of one of the tiny Shimla Hills States for 12 years before the formation of Himachal Pradesh. As a child, I used to hear stories of law taking its own course in my State. Once a goat of Jhugia went into the kitchen garden of Rambhaj and ate away whatever bhaji had Bhaj grown there. Rambhaj made a complaint to the Daaroga Saheb-cum-Magistrate Huzoor. The court called both of them to the police station-cum-judicial complex that looked more like a shanty and slapped a fine of Rs 5/- on Jhugia for being the owner of a vagabond goat and Rs 7/- on Rambhaj for improper fortifications of his kitchen garden. “Such law is ass”, Rambhaj cried hoarse, but there was no Charles Dickens to immortalise his words. Shimla, in those days, had no college and people used to go to Lahore for higher studies. A zamindaar’s son in my neighbourhood could manage to go to Lahore and came back with Bachelor of Arts degree. I remember that I had also gone to see him on his return and was impressed by his Rajputi moustaches and thought that every graduate had to cover the upper lip with such luxuriant growth and was happy imagining my would-be appearance on the day I return from Lahore if my father could afford to send me there. I, however, preferred to follow Curzon after donning the robes. Rana Saheb of my State appointed the only graduate Babuji (reverently so called) of his princedom as Lord Justice of the State. A Dafaadaar assisted him. This man — Dafaadaar — was so thin and lean that he looked “hunger personified” and Lord Justice was full-buttocked and broad in the beam. Once the court had to go for a spot inspection. Those were the days when Shank’s pony was the only ride. On their way fell a khad, a rivulet. The water was knee deep and the court decided to piggyback the Dafaadaar. Imagine the scene. A cadaverous person with a satchel carrying court papers and his shoes hanging on one shoulder, pyjama rolled up to thigh level, and portly Court riding on his back and he trying to ferry it across the rivulet. The ride reached midstream and Swash! Slosh! Splash! — both the honourable Court and the Dafaadaar were in the rill. The court was furious, Dafaadaar apologetic. Charged with the Contempt of the court poor fellow was fined Rs 10/-, his two-month salary. Dafaadaar pleading guilty made an unheard mercy appeal saying, “Such is my kismet. If a roti has to drop from my hand it always falls with ghee-side facing down.” People do not know the Dafaadaar but know Murphy who came much later to give his informal law, “If anything can go wrong, it will.”
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News analysis Muslim voters desert RJD by Satish Misra The electoral result of Bihar, throwing up a hung assembly, is undoubtedly an anti-RJD
mandate. The 15 years of the RJD “misrule” gave enough reasons to the electorate to go against the RJD. Though the RJD is still the largest party after the elections, it is not because of RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav’s hold on the Muslims, Yadavs and certain oppressed and suppressed sections of Bihar society, but lack of a political alternative which could stop the communal forces from coming to power. The RJD lost about 40 assembly seats compared to its tally in 2000 which means a loss of about 36 per cent. Seven ministers of the Rabri Devi Cabinet lost at the hustings. One of the main reasons of the RJD’s loss has been the shift of Muslim voters away from Laloo Prasad to the LJP and to the Congress to some extent. All efforts to arrest the drift of the Muslim electorate, including the appeals of various leaders of the community and circulation of Godhra CDs, helped the RJD marginally as the minority electorate declined to accept Laloo Prasad Yadav as the sole protector of their interest and security. Specific cases of grabbing of waqf land and denial of share in the award of contracts by the state government and the return of a Congress-led coalition government in New Delhi helped the minorities to look away from the RJD and to move towards the LJP. The story of anti-incumbency does not end here as this affected all parties. Out of the 193 MLAs who were renominated by their respective parties, only 95 returned to the 13th state assembly. What hit the RJD most is the nurtured belief of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav that political power can only be captured and sustained through caste arithmetic. The RJD, which emerged out of the womb of the Janata Dal in the wake of the fight between Kamandal and Mandal in the 90s, came to believe that development was a non-issue. In the name of social justice, the RJD ignored the principles of governance and in the process gave rise to the consolidation of a nexus between crime and politics. Criminals, who used to be a tool of politicians, became politicians themselves. As a result, law and order in the state started deteriorating till it became an issue in the assembly elections. The spate of kidnappings highlighted during the election campaign, further focussed on the administrative skills of the Rabri Devi regime. The kidnapping industry in the state, which came in sharp focus through the abduction of DPS schoolboy Kislay, touched every family as every mother felt insecure. Unemployment, a low rate of literacy, lack of power resulting in a generator set-driven economy, closure of industries, receding standards of education, the rising crime graph, bad roads and the absence of potable water were some other issues which contributed to disaffection among the electorate. The RJD’s fortunes also suffered because of the Election Commission’s continuous vigil which resulted in one of the most “fair and orderly” elections in the recent history of the state. The political parties, the RJD in Bihar, used to manage poll booths through the district authorities by posting favourite District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police. But this time the EC decided to send a Central observer for each assembly seat and revenue official for every district for maintaining a vigil on the election expenses of political parties and candidates. This along with the deployment of the central paramilitary forces prevented to a large extent the practice of booth capturing and booth management. Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, in his media interaction after the election results, alleged that the EC was biased against the RJD. He went to the extent of dubbing the EC deputed officials “BJP agents”. The RJD chief was accepting in a way that the EC succeeded in throwing a spanner in his time-tested strategy of poll management. Though it is true that above factors influenced the outcome of the election, the most crucial role was played by Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav’s arrogance. The RJD supremo came to firmly believe that he could dictate his terms to every political entity. He did not want the Congress to regain its political ground as the ascendancy of the Congress, in his calculations, would only weaken the casteist forces like the RJD. Following his strategy, he began making public statements that the RJD would not give more than 25 assembly seats to the Congress. The Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) retaliated by announcing their seat arrangement in Jharkhand. This had its fallout in Bihar where the Congress decided to contest 80 seats, though the Congress ended up winning only ten. While Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav was not willing to accommodate the interests of a national party, his bete noir Ram Vilas Paswan grabbed the opportunity and entered into an electoral understanding with the grand old party. Even the JD (U) would have been able to gain much more than in these elections if it had not gone into the electoral fray with the BJP. The BJP support base is eroding fast in the state. Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav’s political pruning will obviously reverberate in the corridors of New Delhi. This is bound to lead to a fresh realignment of political forces. |
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Abortion right becomes hot topic at UN conference Ten years after the landmark U.N. women’s conference in Beijing, thousands of delegates convened at the United Nations on Monday to review the world’s progress toward equality for women. But the meeting was plunged into controversy when the United States insisted that delegates declare that women have no right to abortion. This week’s session, attended by 80 government ministers and thousands of other delegates from nearly 100 countries, aims to reinvigorate efforts to improve women’s lives according to goals outlined in a 150-page document at the 1995 Beijing conference. The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women had hoped to avoid controversy and keep the session’s focus on areas such as preventing HIV/AIDS, improving girls’ education and halting sexual trafficking. But negotiators from Washington said it was equally important for delegates to put in writing that the session did not create any new human rights, such as the right to abortion. “We’d like to join with other nations in reaffirming women’s rights and empowerment,’’ said Mark Lagon, deputy assistant secretary of State for international organization affairs. “The United States is looking for concrete recognition that those documents from 10 years ago do not create new human rights with the weight of a treaty or a right to an abortion. The United States believes that there is international consensus on that.’’ But Monday evening, only Egypt and Qatar supported the U.S. position. Most other delegations agreed that the Beijing plan of action did not imply a right to abortion, and said they were wary of opening the document to reinterpretation. The U.S. representatives stood firm, signaling that a debate over the issue could dominate the week’s discussions. At the 1995 Beijing conference, negotiators agreed to treat abortion as a public health issue, and the platform said it should be safe where it was legal, and that women should not be punished for having one. But it left legal decisions up to each country. “This is a policy document. It’s not a human-rights convention,’’ Kyung-wha Kang, the session’s chairwoman, said of the Beijing Platform and this week’s proposed declaration to affirm it. “It should not be seen as creating any new human rights.’’ Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women’s Health Coalition, said the U.S. delegation’s position took the focus off U.S. accomplishments in progress for women. “The U.S. is looked to by others as a leader in the promotion and protection of women’s rights,’’ she said. “But while other countries are moving forward, this is a regressive, backward step.’’ The United States has proposed two resolutions that have drawn opposition. One aims to halt human trafficking and calls for a worldwide ban on prostitution. The other proposes reforming inheritance laws that favor sons, extending credit to women, and allowing women to own their own property. Some countries believe those proposals would undermine their traditions and laws. At the opening ceremony Monday, U.N. officials and country leaders said women had been closing the gap in inequality in the past 10 years, with women living longer, more girls being educated and women earning more money. But serious challenges remain, including women’s disproportionate representation in the ranks of the poor and among those infected with HIV/AIDS. |
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Gulf dream for Indians brightens Despite the Iraq hostage crisis last year in which three Indian truckers were kidnapped by a militant group, the Great Gulf Dream continues to power millions of Indians who migrate to Middle East countries in search of a better life. The Gulf is not only the favourite destination of Indian workers going abroad but has also become the hub of Indian entrepreneurs. “As the Gulf countries have diversified into industrial and commercial activity, Indians have turned entrepreneurs, investing in retail stores, gold and textile trade, hotels and restaurants, IT companies and joint ventures,” says journalist Shubha Singh in her new book “Overseas Indians — The Global Family”. Singh, a senior journalist, has chronicled and analysed in her book “various processes which Indian communities went through in different regions of the world as they settled in new lands and adjusted to their new circumstances.” Singh’s brother, Ajay Singh, a former journalist and politician, is India’s new high commissioner to Fiji. “Indians have also become involved in business and industrial ventures in the UAE and other investment friendly economies in the region,” says Singh. “The Free Zones promoted by the Gulf governments have provided an attractive environment for investments with no taxes, no restriction on foreign investment, and top class infrastructure,” she says, in a bid to explain the lure of the Gulf for investors. Documenting the rise and rise of over 3.5 million Indians working in Gulf countries, Singh celebrates this new spirit of robust entrepreneurship displayed by the world’s largest Indian diaspora in a single region. Remittances from the region have continued to grow and formed the cornerstone of Kerala’s economy during 1999-2004. In 2002-03, remittances were to the tune of $14.8 billion. Singh quotes a study by the Centre for Developing Studies on “Kerala’s Gulf Connection: Emigration, remittances and their economic impact (1972-2000)” which shows that remittances formed 22 per cent of the state’s income in the late 1990s. By the end of the 1990s, they were higher than the state expenditure, and also higher than the value addition in the manufacturing and industrial sector. Total remittances from the Gulf region form 40 per cent of the inward remittances to India. “Remittances have risen in the past few years as the expatriates have shifted from then informal channels of sending money home to the regular money transfers through banks and other money changing organisations,” the author explains. This contribution was recognised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in Mumbai in January this year. He lauded the Kerala NRIs for their remittances. The author also records improving work conditions for Indian workers in the Gulf in the last decade. “The adverse publicity from instances of ill treatment and exploitation has led to local authorities strengthening the grievance settlement procedures,” writes Singh, who is also author of “Fiji: A Precarious Coalition.” This explains why the Gulf region is now the main destination of Indians going abroad. Over three million Indians live in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries — the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. The GCC is India’s second largest trading partner after America and the second largest importer of Indian goods and provides a major part of India’s oil and gas imports. A study conducted by the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Development Studies has only confirmed the durability of the Gulf dream for Indians. —
IANS |
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men. — Jesus Christ The secret of happiness is renunciation. — Andrew Carnegie Despondency is not religion, whatever else it may be. By being pleasant always and smiling, it takes you nearer to God, nearer than any prayer. — Swami Vivekananda His most peculiar quality is that there is none other like Him; never there was, nor will ever there be another. — Guru Nanak Never do anything concerning the rectitude of which you have a doubt. — Pliny  |
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The just-concluded assembly elections in Bihar mark the beginning of the end of the caste-dominated politics of the state, which began in the early 90s. A new phase appears to be in the offing when Bihar will have to be comprehended and interpreted not only from caste arithmetic but also from other socio-economic parameters.