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Avoiding
confrontation
A taxing
Budget |
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Dandi
minus Gandhi Lesser men can only enact the march If the re-enactment of the Dandi march 75 years after the historic event is proving to be a damp squib, it is because the present leadership just does not have the sincerity, honesty and vision of the great Mahatma.
Governors in the
dock
Confessions of a
kleptomaniac
Media under threat
from business interests Chatterati
China’s
boom requires perspective
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Avoiding confrontation DR Manmohan Singh government’s decision not to seek a Presidential reference to the apex court on separation of powers under Article 143 of the Constitution is sound. Apparently, the Centre would not like to seek the opinion of the court on an order given by itself. Moreover, there were sharp divisions in Parliament on the issue. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, some members of the Congress and the Left parties expressed grave concern over the increasing interference of the judiciary in the affairs of the legislatures at an all-party meeting on Thursday. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party boycotted the meeting and refused to be a party to the Presidential reference, maintaining that the Supreme Court will have to step in whenever functionaries like the Governor do not exercise powers in a free and impartial manner. The Constitution has very clearly laid down the powers and functions of all the three pillars of democracy — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. There are specific provisions vesting authority in each wing and so long as they function within their constitutional limits, the fine balance between all the wings can be maintained. This, in fact, is the quintessence of parliamentary democracy. However, there are occasions when one or another functionary crosses the limits and steps into another’s domain. The dubious decisions of Goa and Jharkhand Governors are classic examples. The Supreme Court could not but intervene because it is duty-bound to protect the Constitution from the damage it may suffer at the hands of a functionary gone astray. While the Lok Sabha Speaker favoured seeking Presidential reference on the constitutional issues arising out of the mess in Jharkhand, Dr Manmohan Singh’s government has chosen not to pursue this option. Perhaps it was afraid it might lead to a confrontation between Parliament and the judiciary and also because it would have again looked being on the wrong side of the Jharkhand Governor’s strange conduct. Exercising restraint sometimes helps in tackling complicated situations. |
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A taxing Budget The
most notable feature of the Himachal Pradesh Budget, presented on Friday, is a fairly heavy dose of taxation, which naturally will hit the ordinary citizen. For the past 12 years the Himachal budgets had avoided fresh taxes and the successive governments took to borrowings to tone up state finances. No doubt, the state’s debt stands at a staggering Rs 17,000 crore. While the reduction in stamp duty, introduction of professional tax and charges on water and sanitation are understandable, the hike in the electricity duty will look unjustified on the ground that the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board is among the most mismanaged and its cost per employee is the highest in the country. Cheap power is an attraction for industry. The government has been forced to undertake financial restructuring following its signing of the MoU with the Centre and the conditions laid down by the 12th Finance Commission. To cap the borrowings and limit the fiscal deficit, the government is expected to enact the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. It is all set to implement VAT from April 1. The introduction of the Local Area Development Tax on the Haryana pattern, however, is incompatible with VAT. The Chief Minister, who holds the Finance portfolio, perhaps could not resist the temptation of extracting money from industries rushing to the state due to the Central tax concessions. In return, he must ensure the requisite infrastructure is put in place. The special road tax imposed on vehicle owners is unfair. Already, the entry tax is a nuisance for road users and a dampener on tourism, the mainstay of the state’s economy. The Chief Minister should have trimmed the state’s bloated workforce. Instead, he has tried to please the employees by merging DA with the basic pay as has been done by the Centre and some other states. The drag on the state exchequer caused by the loss-making public sector undertakings also remains untouched. There is no plan for privatisation or disinvestment. The Budget is the handiwork of a government pushed to undertake reforms. |
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Dandi minus Gandhi If
the re-enactment of the Dandi march 75 years after the historic event is proving to be a damp squib, it is because the present leadership just does not have the sincerity, honesty and vision of the great Mahatma. In fact, the pygmies who have received or snatched the baton from this giant of a man have done everything to build a nation which is quite the anti-thesis of what he had in mind. His dream remains distant. What an irony that just as the poor imitation of the march was being flagged off, a sordid drama of political chicanery was being played out in the Jharkhand Assembly. One wonders how the Mahatma would have reacted to the events of the day. Why a particular day, such assaults on the roots of democracy are launched every day. Gandhiji broke the salt law and made the resentment of the common man into a formidable weapon against the British Government. But the present leaders are more interested in appropriating the event for the benefit of a particular person or party. That is why most of the Gandhians who took part in the 1930 satyagraha have stayed away from it, calling it a “tamasha”. Unlike their true leader, today’s netas not only have an axe to grind but also to hit others. Even otherwise, the pathetic condition of the coastal village of Dandi stands mute testimony to the seriousness that the present leadership attaches to the much remembered but little revered event which changed the course of Indian history. Of late, some sprucing up has been done in anticipation of the visit of various VIPs but the state of neglect just cannot be hidden. Liquor is brewed in abundance in the neighbourhood. If at all the leaders have any respect for the legacy of the Mahatma, they ought to remember him through deeds instead of speeches and
pseudo-yatras. |
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No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
— Edmund Burke |
Governors in the dock
The
Governors of Goa and Jharkhand are caught in the storms of controversy. In Goa, even the offices of Speaker and Deputy Speaker have suffered damage. Did the Speaker act fairly in expelling a member of the Assembly just before the voting on the motion of confidence and then casting his vote and announcing that the motion was carried? Why was the Governor in a tearing hurry to swear in a new Chief Minister then and there without assessing the extent of his support in the House? If the confidence vote was not properly taken, he could have sent a message to the House under Article 175(2) to go through the exercise once again. The Governor ought to have shown restraint and acted with circumspection. The subsequent resignations of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker on the day fixed for the trial of strength of the new Chief Minister, obviously to stall the proceedings of the House did no credit to either office. The imposition of President’s rule in the state underlines the need to ensure that constitutional offices are not occupied by nincompoops. Unlike in Goa, in Jharkhand, the Governor had the opportunity of writing on a clean slate — choosing a leader of the newly elected House as Chief Minister. When there is a hung Assembly, it is difficult to identify the leader who could form a stable government for the reasons mentioned by the Committee of Governors in 1971. “The relevant test is not the size of a party but its ability to command the support of the majority in the legislature ….. Governors often find themselves in the unenviable position of getting conflicting lists with names overlapping, and having to send for individual members to ascertain their loyalty or allegiance to a particular leader. This has been one of the most distressing features of our political life in some of the states.” The committee added: “Parading members before the Governor and later before the President at Delhi had done no good to the image of our parliamentary system”. Apart from parading, the NDA kept on shifting its flock from state to state as a cat does with kitten. Some of their supporters were obviously amenable to horse-trading. Independents tend to be go-getters. The Law Commission has recommended that they should be debarred from contesting. The Governor of Jharkhand cannot be faulted for summoning the independent MLAs as some names appeared in the rival lists. If some of the independent MLAs had indicated their support to Mr Shibu Soren, the Governor could have taken the same in writing to insulate himself against accusations of bias. That would have saved him also from the embarrassment of being summoned by the President. Considering that advancing the date for confidence vote from March 21 to 15 was not enough, the Supreme Court passed its unusual order after a preliminary hearing, advancing the date to March 11 with a request for video-recording of the proceedings and a direction to the Pro-tem Speaker to announce the result. The order and its non-implementation by the Pro-tem Speaker who sustained the objection that he had no power to take a confidence vote have given rise to serious constitutional issues as to the limits of the court’s power in matters which are exclusively within the domain of the Governor and the legislature. It is well recognised that every House of a legislature has the privilege to regulate its own proceedings without external interference. The stand taken by Mr Somnath Chatterjee is based on this established privilege. The interim order of the Supreme Court cannot be regarded as a well-considered judgement, though it has an irreversible impact on the privileges of the House. Could the Governor be made a respondent in a writ petition challenging his individual decision to appoint Mr Shibu Soren overlooking the constitutional immunity? According to Article 361, a Governor shall not be answerable to any court for any act done or purporting to be done by him in the exercise of his powers. Actions taken on the advice of the Council of Ministers can be challenged, making the state government a party. Which is the forum for proving the support claimed by a contender for the Chief Minister’s post — Raj Bhawan or the Assembly? The Sarkaria Commission recommended the floor test as the only appropriate method of ascertaining the strength of a Chief Minister. The Supreme Court has endorsed it in Bommai’s case which is a case, of testing the strength of an incumbent Chief Minister and not of the appointment of a new Chief Minister following a general election. The floor test is the best method for the trial of strength at any time when there is a doubt. There is no legal impediment. When it appears to the Governor that no single party or alliance commands a majority and the lists of supporters are overlapping, he could send a message to the new House under Article 174 to elect the Speaker and the leader of the House soon after swearing in of members by the Pro-tem Speaker. This would be the safest course to adopt. The behaviour of some of the Governors raises a doubt whether they act at the behest of or to please the Central Government. In Hargovind Pant vs Dr Raghukul Tilak, the Supreme Court clarified that the Governor is not an employee or servant of the Central Government even though he is appointed by the President and holds office during his pleasure. The court sounded a note of caution “that Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion, that purity of public offices of high status is a constitutional value in itself, that nothing should be done which may create an impression that a holder of a public office can look forward to a higher appointment after retirement if he pleases the government of the day and that no appointment should be made which may lend support to the criticism of favouritism or patronage and consequential weakening of credibility.” Governors should not only act in a non-partisan manner, but also appear to act without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. What about the criteria for the appointment of Governors? It is over 16 years since the Sarkaria Commission had recommended that a Governor should be an eminent person in some walk of life, a detached figure, not too intimately connected with the local politics of the state and should not have taken too great a part in politics generally and particularly in the recent past. It is gathering dust while the high constitutional office of Governor has been losing credibility. The fate of the Law Commission’s recommendations on electoral reforms (1999) and of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2002) is no better. Is there political will to implement sensible reforms to save democracy? —
The writer is a senior advocate, Supreme Court of India. |
Confessions of a kleptomaniac
Psychiatrists say that Kleptomania is a disease caused by emotional stress which affects 60 per cent of the human race at some time or the other in their lives. I don’t know about others, but I did, at one time, suffer from it and it manifested itself on three occasions with extremely embarrassing consequences. The first was on a drive back from Dehra Dun. We stopped for a cup of tea at a wayside shack. I glanced over the low wall behind the shack and looked straight into the eyes of a porcelain frog that stood at the base of a tree. It was in a very distressed condition and had been reduced to the position of a garden decoration. Those big, round eyes beseeched for rescue from this position of ignominy. I climbed over the wall but just as I reached out for the frog, a shrill, schoolmarm voice called out: “You could have asked for it, you know”. The speed of my retreat could have given Carl Lewis a run for his money. I am a die-hard Audrey Hepburn fan and on the stairs of the Regal cinema in Bombay there was an exquisite portrait of her. For years I coveted it before deciding to do something about it. I bought a ticket, sat through the movie for half an hour and then made my way down the stairs. There was no one in sight. I reached up and yanked the portrait off its hook. “Is anything the matter, sir?” a forbidding voice boomed up from the bottom of the stairs. “Its been hanging here so long — I was just checking to see if the backing was all right.” The Headmaster’s wife was very fond of me and I was the recipient of innumerable invitations to her home, a house that overflowed with all kinds of decoration pieces. But there was one artefact that fascinated me. It was an opaline hen. It was placed in a way, which showed up its translucency to produce a marvellous, naturally shaded effect of individual feathers. One evening, when I was leaving, I saw an opportunity. She was still in the living room with her other guests. I stopped at the mantle-piece and picked up the piece. Then I saw her in the doorway and put the hen back. She did not refer to the incident and I am not sure if she suspected my intention. But I carried the burden of guilt for many years. Years later I found an identical hen in a junk shop and bought it. But it was no use. No matter what I did with it, it just wouldn’t work. I realised then that beautiful objects, like beautiful people, are not beautiful in themselves. They are beautiful because of their relationship with others around them and the ambience they create. I don’t know if this realisation has anything to do with it but my affliction has never manifested itself again and I am, indeed, grateful for this.
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Media under threat from business interests While journalists across vast political and cultural spectrums desire such freedom and independence, it is not surprising to find that an independent media is under threat in two of the largest democracies in the world. While moderating a series of interactive workshops for journalists all over Punjab under the auspices of the United States Embassy, we discovered that Indian journalists, like their counterparts in the US, are concerned about their independence. Independence is at the heart of journalism’s unique and essential role in society. It speaks to the “watchdog” responsibility of journalists holding the powerful accountable. Independence sets standards for professionalism and it frames media’s guidelines for ethical behaviour. In the US the threat comes from specific media industries which are becoming more and more concentrated and the dominant players in each media industry increasingly are subsidiaries of huge global media conglomerates. The emergence of such highly concentrated and private ownership of media is a fundamental threat to its independence and, in turn, the democracy it helps to sustain. The problems of having a few wealthy private owners dominate media in a society are well understood; journalism, which is central to the viability of self-government, will be controlled by those who benefit by the preservation of the status quo. In talking to journalists in the US, we hear their frustration at being asked to cover “fluff” stories, given less time for investigative reporting and marketing interests influencing contents of news. When talking to Indian journalists, the similarity of their concerns to their U.S. counterparts is striking. We heard them express concern about the over-commercialisation of the media, the weakening of the editor’s autonomy, and the blurring of lines between news and entertainment. It is here that one can see why an over-commercialised media system is so important to the depoliticising of the citizenry, for it is singularly brilliant at generating the precise sort of bogus political culture that permits business domination to proceed, in collusion with a compliant and corrupt State, without effective popular resistance. In India this leads to the exclusion of news about the poor, rural and marginalised. Instead, the journalists are pressured to cover stories that cater to the prurient interests of the public. The critique has gone beyond complaints about shoddy journalism to broad expressions of concern about corporate-directed culture and their associations with pliable politicians. The consequences are considerable when journalists, who work in a profession that encourages people to freely express themselves, find themselves often unable to express themselves. They are pigeon-holed to serve specific business interests in which the cherished principles of journalism — independence, accountability and freedom — are forsaken at the cost of huge profits. We have to be vigilant, both in India and the US, of the “Enronisation” of the media system and to find ways to keep the fourth estate free from corporate raiders. |
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Chatterati by Devi Cherian Our top designers excelled themselves at the India Trade Promotion event and made it clear that romancing the bare back was in. The king of India's fashion fraternity Rohit Bal showed "reflection of purity" in his angelic white collection. There were long kurtas, slit jackets, lots of bare backs and legs peeping. Rajesh Pratap Singh had his models in colourful duppattas and neat cuts characterised his designs as usual. Rina Dhaka, through her saris and innovative blouses, showed the uniqueness of the traditional Indian attire. Anshu Arora Sen displayed asymmetric hemlines and flower motifs through salwars and short blouses. The post-show cocktails was an occasion for the sarkari babus, who rushed to pay their respects to the chief guest, Kamal Nath. He preferred to term fashion designers as "fashion technologists”. Suneet Verma’s collection was, surprisingly, wearable. Sharp cuts, blue, green designs were contemporary. The model who created a stir was Miss Afghanistan, Vida. The audience included Robert Vadera, Sir Naipaul accompanied by his daughter who works as a publicist for a Pakistani designer. Trust the city's pubs to come up with novel ideas. Youngsters in the Capital got together to “peek-a-boo” of Sidharth Tytler, who is Jagdish Tytler's son.
Victims of casting couch Talking about the fashion fraternity the latest is the tales of the casting couch. Till date we have heard of women being victims of the casting couch in the world of glamour. Well, now male models reveal that the casting couch exists very much for them too. Sexual exploitation is a part and parcel of male models. It is not difficult to find hulks in tight jeans and tee-shirts at night clubs for a meeting with fashion professionals. They are well aware of what’s expected — doling out sexual favours for a gay designer, a model co-ordinator or a make-up artist. Well, hetro-sexual, metro-sexual or homo-sexual, all are here in this world. The explanation to all this is the same. If female models have given into indecent proposals. what is wrong with this? Now, what ever that means — your guess as good as mine.
Sexiest man — PC Chidambaram? The chatterati talked of nothing else this week except the sexiest man according to writer Shoba De, that is, our Finance Minister Chidambaram. He had to literally juggle to please reformists and critics. He has once again proved to be a true ladies’ man. This was the first time P.C's wife Nalani a lawyer, son and daughter-in-law heard his speech. While the speech was going on, Rajya Sabha M.P. Anil Ambani was busy taking notes. The young MP sat in the last row with Rahul Gandhi: Last year, in the end PC had said “Main Hoon Na” This year he preferred to quote Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.
The premiere of the movie “White Noise” had the page 3 real busy. Koel Puri, the actress, was the best thing that happened in the movie. The daughter of Aroon Puri of the India Today group sure is a talented actress. Renuka Chowdhry's daughter was a part of the team too. Obviously, the hall was packed full and then the party after that was rocking. Cake-cutting, celebrities by the dozens, loud music blaring and with champagne flowing.
Managing games they play Tennis player Mahesh Bhupati. Mahesh is now a days on cloud nine. Yes of course. Because Sania Mirza is scaling heights of popularity. He has been passing on tips on how to play from time to time. Mahesh is also busy trying to encourage sports with youngsters. He now runs a sports company that manages stars like Sania, Saif Ali Khan, Zaheer Khan etc. Now on sports, the Pakistani team was really pampered in Dharamsala. With the presidency of the Himachal Cricket Board in a controversy now the president Anurag Thakur left no stone unturned to create an impression. Hard work, but sadly no V.I.P thought it was important enough to go to the lovely hill stadium. Well, lots of ladoos, fresh air and truck loads of spectators. |
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China’s boom requires perspective Not
so long ago, the big news about China was overpopulation. Times change. Now the news is overproduction. Everywhere one goes here, one sees cranes and construction. Some of the construction is for monuments related to the 2008 Olympics, but much more is related to the manufacturing that’s already changing the world. The Chinese seem to have had enough of political and cultural revolutions; it’s time for an industrial revolution. Just outside of Beijing is one such revolutionary operation, the Beijing Oriental Ye Yang Textile Co. Opened three years ago, it employs 1,200 workers, producing 2 million garments annually, mostly cashmere. While the work is clearly painstaking, this is no sweatshop. The factory is light and airy; the big Stoll knitting machines, imported from Germany at $600,000 each, are spaced widely and safely apart. Even more abundant are Flying Tiger brand machines, imported, interestingly enough, from Taiwan. What jumps out most to an amateur observer is the enormous amount of technology going into the Chinese rag trade. White-clad technicians hover over the computerized production process, peering at fabric through big Panasonic microscopes, making sure it meets international quality standards. Of course, no American could live on the wages being paid here, but the world is full of cheap labor. What distinguishes China is quality and reliability, as well as price. The United States has actively subsidized garment production in Latin America and Africa, and yet those countries are losing world market share to the Chinese. Meanwhile, consumers around the world have noted the apparel-price deflation over the last decade, as the Chinese, working closely with big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco, have launched a seemingly permanent revolution of low prices. Where Chinese businesspeople lag is in dealing directly with the consumer, through branded goods. China has yet to build a world-class brand to compete with Apple or Burberry — and that’s where the real money is, in marketing, not manufacturing. Of course, the Chinese are trying to catch up. In December, Hong Kong-based Lenovo reached an agreement to buy IBM’s computer division, gaining control of a legendary brand. So China's next Long March, to the capitalist paradise of recognizable brands and fat margins, has begun. So is the economic picture here sunny? Some see stormy weather ahead. A leading American hedge-fund manager, Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital Management in San Francisco, sees China’s enormous expansion as “a bubble,” created in part by interest rates so low that they have actually turned negative. That is, because of anomalies in the relationship between the Chinese yuan and the U.S. dollar, lenders are, in effect, paying borrowers to take their money. Needless to say, such money is not always well spent. And of course, such flukish financial circumstances won’t last long. Thiel doesn’t dispute China’s potential, based on the quantity and quality of its work force, but he is keeping his own money away from China — until after he can survey the damage caused by the bursting of the bubble, which he regards as inevitable. Thiel adds, “If you think China has a great future over the next 20 years, it won’t hurt you to wait a year or two to see what happens after interest rates rise 500 basis points” — that is, five full percentage points. Financial ups and downs are part of any capitalist system. But other concerns are unique to China. For example, this is officially a communist country. For every entrepreneur making a bid for world market share, there’s also, seemingly, a state-owned enterprise making a plea for yet another bailout. Such government-run companies are inefficient and uncompetitive, but they and their employees are woven into the politics of this country. And speaking of politics, what about freedom of the press? Of religion? These are questions that most Chinese prefer not to discuss. And for as long as they keep outproducing the world, they might not have to. Imports soar Imports of Chinese clothing surged 47 percent in January, the first month after the expiration of a global system of quotas on the textile and apparel trade, according to U.S. government figures released on Friday, adds Paul Blustein. U.S. textile industry representatives said the data provide clear evidence China is starting to swamp worldwide markets for apparel, now that it is no longer constrained by the quotas that limited the amount individual countries could ship to rich markets such as the United States. The industry and its main union demanded that the Bush administration take prompt action to curtail Chinese shipments. “The numbers released by the government confirm our predictions and fears with respect to China’s ability to export massive amounts of goods to the United States in the textile and apparel sector, and to begin to monopolize the U.S. market,” said Augustine Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, which includes many U.S. textile makers. Retailers and other importers of clothing argued that the figures should be interpreted in a diametrically opposite way. They pointed out that imports from many other countries, such as Jordan and El Salvador, also soared in January. “China did increase its trade, but the numbers demonstrate that hysteria about that trade is totally unwarranted,” said Laura Jones, executive director of the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, in a prepared statement. An official at the Commerce Department, which issued the figures, said the administration was “concerned about the impact of (the Chinese import) increase on our trade and our industry.” That statement, issued by James Leonard, a deputy assistant commerce secretary who chairs an interagency committee on textile agreements, indicated that the administration is likely to try using the numbers to limit Chinese shipments in some manner. European Trade
Commissioner Peter Mandelson also indicated concern Friday about evidence of rising Chinese apparel shipments, and said, “I will take appropriate action at the appropriate time.” The U.S. data were eagerly awaited by all sides in the debate as the most authoritative early snapshot of how the world textile and apparel industry is starting to shake out under its new, more free-market-oriented regime. On Dec. 31, the quota system that had governed the industry for decades was scrapped in accord with an international trade agreement, and many experts forecast that China’s low-cost and enormously efficient apparel makers would steamroll the competition from other countries.
— LA Times-Washington Post |
Truthfulness is the abode of austerity, self-restraint and all other virtues. Indeed, truthfulness is the source of all noble qualities as the ocean is that of fish. — Lord Mahavir It has been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say, do not resist evil: but whosoever smites you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. — Jesus Christ Purity of speech and hospitality is Islam. — Prophet Muhammad When a man gives up completely all the desires of the mind, and himself delights in his Atman alone, then he is said to be a man of steady wisdom. — Sri Krishna The only true duty is to be unattached and to work as free beings, to give up all work unto God. — Swami Vivekananda  |
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