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On
Record Systemic reforms
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Power eludes
Maoists in Nepal Profile Diversities
— Delhi Letter
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On Record rural areas: Ramadoss by Vibha Sharma
Union Minister
for Health and Family Welfare Dr Anbumani Ramadoss is the young face
of Indian politics who believes in reforms to streamline the system. A
member of the regional Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), he was elected to
the Rajya Sabha last year. He is now trying to revise the curricula of
medical colleges to make it more modern besides holding examinations
for medical practitioners after every five years for re-registration
as in many developed countries. The 38-year-old minister is an alumnus
of Madras Medical College. "A doctor can understand the problems
at both ends and serve patients better", he tells The Sunday
Tribune in an exclusive interview.Excerpts:
Q: Are you satisfied with the total allocation for your ministry
from Rs 8,420 crore to Rs 10,280 crore in the next year? A: Q:
How will the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) help the rural
areas? A: The NRHM will provide comprehensive preventive,
promotive and curative healthcare services to people, especially the
poor in rural areas and urban slums in 17 states. The budgetary
increase will finance training of health volunteers, provide more
medicines and strengthen the primary and community health centre
system. Q: How is the NRHM different from the earlier schemes? A:
It envisages people’s involvement at the grassroot level. What
is unique is enlisting the Accredited Social Health (ASHA) workers,
trained and paid by the Centre. An ASHA worker, at least a
matriculate, will be trained to tackle health problems in her village
like post-delivery check-ups, post-immunisation etc. She will be in
touch with the nearest private practitioner in the area, whom she can
approach for complicated cases. The NRHM’s aim is to bring down the
infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate. The ASHA worker
will link up with the nearest primary health centre and have funds for
exigencies like transportation of the patient etc. To deal with
emergencies, 1,700 block hospitals have been identified, to be
operational round the clock. Q: How is the response from the
states? A: Good. My Ministry has been working on the project for
seven to eight months now. Lot of coordination and hard work has gone
into it. Taking health to rural areas is a big challenge. Q: How
will the scheme reach the people? A: I plan to visit all states.
We plan to involve private practitioners, to be paid by the Centre
for their services. The process of grading the cost of services, like
delivery, sterilisation etc, for private practitioners is being worked
out. We plan to involve chartered accountants too. I want complete
accountability of how and where the money is being spent. Besides,
basic drugs for common ailments like cold and cough, fever, diarrhoea
etc will be provided to ANMs at the sub-centre level. Q: What
about shortage of doctors and health workers in rural areas? A: We
are short of male health workers by 40 per cent. We need trained
manpower in villages. In some countries it is compulsory for medical
students to work in rural areas for two to three years before they
graduate. Such a condition is necessary in India also. Students must
work in rural areas for at least a year before they graduate and again
after they apply for post-graduation. We plan to make the curricula of
medical education in the country more modern with minimal invasive
surgery its essential part. Q: What about internship in medical
colleges and hospitals? A: It is only when there is a shortage
that interns become a part of the system. In most institutions, work
is assigned according to the hierarchy and interns are relegated to
odd jobs like performing blood test. They need practical experience
and the best way is through hands-on experience by working in rural
areas. Indian doctors are the best but their practical knowledge is
not sufficient when they graduate from medical colleges. Q: What
about quackery? A: I want to eliminate quackery. Quacks operate
because most doctors are reluctant to work in rural areas. In India,
quacks treat 75 to 80 per cent of the population despite over six lakh
doctors of modern system and an equal number of Indian systems of
medicine. Quackery gets highlighted only when a patient dies. Most
quacks generally prescribe basic drugs and at times steroids like
doctors of modern medicine. Q: Why is there a lot of hype on
HIV/AIDS at the cost of equally deadly diseases like cancer and
malaria? A: The media is ignoring the good work being done. The
National TB programme is one of the best programmes covering 85 per
cent of the country. By April end, the coverage under DOTS will be 100
per cent. Our focus is on preventive health. As regards AIDS/HIV, the
National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) will be re-structured,
defining the basic functions of the state governments. We will survey
the HIV/AIDS scenario in six months. I want to know the exact
situation in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the North-east. I do not
want India to become another South Africa. Q: What are your other
priority areas? A: There are no enough trauma facilities in the
country. This is also a major flaw in the golden quadrilateral
project. I have requested the Transport Minister to build trauma
centres with the cess on petrol. A Rs 20-crore pilot project for
setting up trauma centres in all the states is on anvil. Stem cell
research is equally important. As for cancer, 7 to 8 lakh new
patients are added to the figure every year. I admit the government
machinery is not working efficiently to deal with the situation. There
is no cancer screening system though the treatment is costly. We plan
to launch a cancer control programme in every district. The ministry
plans to identify and fund NGOs to screen patients and refer them to
regional cancer centres. Punjab will be one of the nodal points for
cancer control and research in the country. We also need to buck up
the national vector-borne disease programme and eradicate Kala azar by
2015. Besides, we need better programmes for management of senior
citizen-specific diseases. Indians are predisposed to cardio-vascular
problems. Diabetes is increasing rapidly and about 8 per cent of the
population is suffering from one mental disorder or another, of which
1.5 to 2 per cent needs hospitalisation. Though two crore people
should be hospitalised, there is woeful lack of facilities. These
areas need urgent attention. |
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Systemic reforms needed to As
India celebrates this year as Year of Excellence in Judiciary, one needs to explore ways to rejuvenate the administration of justice at various levels. During a recent visit to Bhopal, the Chief Justice of India, Justice R.C. Lahoti said that one of the main reasons for the judiciary’s failure to deliver quick justice is the lack of manpower to clear the huge backlog of over 30 million cases. He also advocated changes in the legal system to expedite justice. Clearly, the increasing number of cases proves that the people’s faith in the judiciary is also increasing. But the number of judges is too small to handle the workload. One of the suggestions is for fixing a timeframe within which the case should be heard and decided. But what is required is both increasing the strength of the judges and the timeframe. At the same time, there is need for revamping the whole procedural law and bringing new laws which would reduce delays. We still follow a legal system introduced by the British to suit their needs. Our lawmakers have designed the system in such a way that cases go on and on to give maximum chance to the accused to prove that they are innocent. One cannot blame them because the very system presented an opportunity to the law to be misguided. The law enforcing authority (read Police) may be given more powers but with necessary safeguards so that petty cases are solved at the ground level itself, thus reducing the burden on the judiciary. Another solution is for revamping the procedural law, giving jurisdiction and authority to the police to deal with such offences which need not go to the courts. Creating a new and parallel system, the same as the existing one, but only one with jurisdiction and authority to decide cases of petty nature can also be an answer. This will lead to the dilution of cases right at the inception stage. This will serve two purposes: easing the burden on judiciary; and settlement of these types of cases within a short time. The aspect of appeal and re-appeal should be looked into. If a party to the dispute is not satisfied from the decision of the district court, it appeals to the High Court and, if still unsatisfied, goes to the Supreme Court. Though it is the discretion of the concerned court to allow the party to appeal, in most cases, the appeal is allowed. Consequently, loose implementation of the process of appeal leads to the loss of valuable time, though the higher court only hears the same facts again including the examination of the same witnesses. Why, then, follow the same practice of wasting time and resources again and again? Clearly, provisions for appeal need to be tightened: the petitioner should have a substantial ground for seeking an order of appeal. A careful study of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code would suggest that though these laws have numerous offences listed under various heads, some of the offences can be clubbed together. It would be appropriate to suggest that the minute distinction between various sections should be removed and offences of similar nature should find place in one section. This will go a long way in reducing the filing of a single case under various sections and thus help reduce the time and resources. Keeping in view the increasing workload on the judges, it must be made explicitly clear how many cases a judge needs to hear everyday. Similarly, the region falling under the jurisdiction of a single judge should not be too large. Otherwise, it won’t be of any help because the judges will be forced to decide a large number of cases. Dividing regions into small numbers and appointing judge for every region would help reduce the burden on a single judge. The end result would be that each case could be decided within a reasonable timeframe. Unfortunately, the Union Law Ministry has not done enough work on judicial reforms. The kind of importance this Ministry holds, one would have expected it to be treated at par with any other governmental department like Finance, Home or Defence. But this has not been the case. There is reasonable justification for increasing the budget for the Law Department. More resources should be allocated to the various branches of the Law Ministry keeping development and reforms in sharp focus. Many state governments have put a moratorium on inducting new judges. This should be revoked, and regular induction of judges should take place on the basis of examinations. Also the time period of promotion of a Sessions Judge to the High Court should be reduced. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while delivering the convocation address at Jodhpur Law University recently, suggested the creation of Indian Judicial Service (IJS). He promised to write to the government on this issue. The creation of IJS, on the pattern of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), will help expedite pending cases as young judges will be more active, enterprising and render speedy service. The recruitment norms and procedures for the IJS could be on the lines of the Civil Services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. Institutes like the National Judicial Academy (NJA) in Bhopal should be given due attention. Every region in the country should have an institute based on the NJA model. The NJA’s basic aim is to train judges, improve their skill, and make them acquainted with legal fields like cyber law, arbitration law, environmental law etc. These areas, having developed in recent times, need to be given the attention they deserve. National law schools in various parts of the country have been playing their part, by giving well-informed, well-moulded legal graduates. Encouragingly, there are more than 12 law schools all over the country. As this year is being celebrated as Year of Excellence in Judiciary, we have to strive for the all round improvement in the
judiciary. The writer is a Fourth year student at the National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh |
Power eludes Maoists in Nepal Chief ideologue and No. 2 in the Maoist hierarchy Babu Ram Bhattarai (BRB) comes from Gorkha, the legendary fortress in Central Nepal from where the ruling Shah dynasty conquered and united the Himalayan kingdom. He learnt the ropes at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, from where he wrote his thesis, “Development in Nepal”, replete with Left polemic and revolutionary rhetoric. On April 11, 2003, he made this offer to King Gyanendra: “Our basic agenda is to form a Republican state. If the King abdicates voluntarily, we will offer him some position. It will be good if he agrees to play the role of Norodom Sihanouk”. King Norodom Sihanouk, we all know, abdicated the throne on October 6, 2004. Much water has since flown down the Bagmati in Kathmandu valley. Nearly two months after the Royal coup, parties to the conflict are holding their ground. India and the international community show no sign of revoking the sanctions on military supplies and economic assistance. The King is equally adamant about not rolling back. The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) and Maoists are merely sparring with each other while the Maoist bandh is beginning to squeeze the country, tottering on the verge of a failed state. The King has made some cosmetic moves in releasing political leaders. But that is unlikely to satisfy the international community. Meanwhile, it is instructive to study the recent thoughts of BRB, nom de plume Jit Bahadur, Commander of the newly formed Central Command, in interaction with his cadres sometime in October 2004. The dialogue recorded on four audio-cassettes and translated from Nepali to English, was captured by the RNA in their biggest military operation in Baglung from October 7 to 14 last year. BRB was lucky to escape capture. Like the LTTE, Maoists are crazy
about filming and recording their activities. The two previous prize catches by the RNA were films of a high-power training conference in 2001 and the famous attack on Beni. The sense that one gets from the pre-Royal coup interaction is that all is not well with the revolution because the ultimate goal of capturing power in Kathmandu has eluded the Maoists. BRB maintains and correctly, that the High Command is united under the leadership of its supremo Prachanda, though there are differences between those who favour a negotiated settlement and others preferring to launch the so-called strategic offensive. This last phase of the violent struggle was to have started according to the Eighth Maoist Plenum held in August 2004, sometime in February 2005 before it got pre-empted by the King’s divine offensive. Even if obvious, BRB reaffirms the inalienable bonding between the party leadership, the People’s Army and the People’s Front. He admits “as of now, we have lost at least 10,000 comrades but our party has achieved new heights”. This is the first time a figure has been put on Maoist casualties by the Maoists themselves. Dominating the discussion are two themes: military power and India. The obsession with military power is evident from repeated references to “reaching Kathmandu” and the inescapable reality that “wars cannot be won without ammunition and weapons”. It is well known that Maoists are short of weapons and ammunition. Only 40 per cent of their fighting company
of 130 cadres carry weapons. To reach Kathmandu, Maoists are required to be financially and physically sound. According to one estimate, Nepalese diaspora and the internal revolutionary tax regime have together contributed cash and jewellery worth $150 million, some of it looted from banks in the initial stages of the insurgency. The Maoists pay the highest attention to physical fitness. The speed of attack and dispersal carrying their casualties are given the highest priority. This comes out clearly from the training film. The heavy losses taken by Maoists during the Bardia attack by the RNA earlier this month was a violation of this tenet. But a more serious mistake was the decision to operate in the Terai where the RNA enjoys the advantage of mobility and visibility. BRB is reassuring comrades that though Kathmandu is far, “we will reach it step by step”. This is not something that can be achieved in one or two months. It requires a powerful Army, a military wing that is properly enmeshed with the political wing, he says. The obsession to seize Kathmandu is deep-rooted. Pushkar Gautam, a medium-level Maoist, who is now overground, told this writer last year that capturing Kathmandu even for a day was vital for the morale of the movement and to justify the sacrifices made by the people. The road to Kathmandu, warns BRB, is difficult. We will need to improve our attack techniques at new heights, stock grain, interdict RNA supply lines, neutralise enemy air attacks and prepare for attacks on a very large scale. Some of these weaknesses became pronounced after the RNA relocated its garrisons and posts with new weapons and obstacles provided by the Indian Army three years ago. No longer are Maoists able to dislodge the RNA from their defences. The last successful Maoist attack was in March 2004 at Beni and that too, against the police and not the RNA. By far the biggest problem of this war for the Maoists is the lack of defence against air assault which is responsible for 70 per cent of their casualties. The RNA have perfected a technique called Tora Bora which is free-fall delivery of mortar bombs from helicopters. India has been advising the RNA not to use light helicopters given by it as gunships. The Maoists have no anti-aircraft weapons. They are also unable to organise and mobilise large-scale attacks as they were able to throughout 2002 against the RNA. While new methods are being devised to counter enemy air superiority, BRB was counselling comrades on recourse to tunnel and mine warfare and espionage, the latter to destabilise the RNA and the Palace. There are reports that Maoists have made villages dig trenches in some border areas so as to fight “expansionist India”, BRB’s obsession no. 2. He realises that the capture of power in Kathmandu is related to resisting India, organising Nepalese living in India and eventually overcoming the Indian Army. BRB believes that the Indian Army might be sent to support the RNA. America’s colonial policy is also seen as a threat to the goals of the revolution which will not be consummated unless and until Kathmandu is captured. He admits that the people were not happy with the ideology framed by them. It had to be reviewed. These remarks were made presumably in the aftermath of grave brutality and indiscipline by Maoists in Dailekh and
Baglung where all the villages revolted against their cadres and punished them. Nepal’s human rights groups have catalogued in gruesome detail, some of these excesses. BRB has spelt out his party’s ideas on the political process. Under no circumstances would Maoists allow the holding of elections or joining the
government for what he calls “the drama of peace talks”. He is probably on the side of that section in his party that wishes to undertake the strategic
offensive and not join any peace talks. He has also reiterated his party’s determination to fight the King and CPN UML, the two other class enemies after India and the US. His admission that in this day and age, no one is 100 per cent Communist, must be comforting for the illiterate but revolutionary cadres. The illusions of a Maoist military victory are comparable with the miscalculation of the Royal game plan of defeating the Maoists. The ground situation in Nepal is still in a strategic stalemate. Only a political process will open a door. King Gyanendra is hardly likely to do a Sihanouk anytime
soon. |
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Profile by Harihar Swarup
Humiliated at the raw deal he got from the Sena Chief and his one-time mentor, Sanjay also quit his membership of the Rajya Sabha. He said, “I had faced enough humiliation in Shiv Sena…I had lost patience to face any more. Once the party’s mouthpiece Saamna went to the extent of calling me a dog”. Sanjay has penchant for kicking up controversies. Some one likened him to the late Socialist leader Raj Narain who would train his guns at his own dispensation and drive the leadership to the point of desperation. Sanjay too has a penchant for taking on the high and the mighty irrespective of the consequences. He sent shock waves in the BJP-Shiv Sena circles when he alleged that the Reliance Infocomm shares were allotted at Re 1 each to businessmen with links to former Union Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan. So much so that Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had to declare in the Rajya Sabaha that “the government is examining whether any law has been violated in the selling of shares…” Mahajan forcefully denies Sanjay’s charges. Sanjay says the Shiv Sena felt that his strong stance was damaging the alliance with the BJP and he was asked to take back his question in the Rajya Sabha regarding Reliance. “When I refused, I was asked to resign. I have put in my papers”. The Reliance controversy is not the first one to be kicked up by Nirupam. He raised a storm in the Rajya Sabha four years back by alleging involvement of the Prime Minister’s Office in the UTI scam. An emotionally upset, Atal Bihari Vajpayee offered his resignation, sending shock waves in political circles. However, Nirupam said, “I have not questioned the credibility of the Prime Minister. I believe he is an honest person. I have respect for him but how about the people in the PMO close to him?”. Nirupam fiercely took the BJP-led NDA government to task on the Tehelka tapes expose too. Incidentally, Nirupam is a journalist. He edited the Hindi edition of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Dophar Ka Saamana (facing the mid-day heat). Though he speaks fluent Marathi, he belongs to Rohtas district of Bihar. He began his career as a journalist in Patna contributing to many Hindi newspapers. Later, he shifted to Delhi and has a two-year long stint with the RSS journal Panchjanya, published from the organisation's headquarters at Jhandewalan. Young Nirupam soon got a chance to work as Sub-Editor in the Mumbai edition of the Hindi newspaper Jansatta. During his four-year stay there, he made steady headway in the profession. He had many times interaction with Thackery who was, apparently, impressed by the dash of the young journalist. He invited Nirupam to takeover the editorship of the Hindi edition of Saamana and improve its contents. Soon he earned the confidence and goodwill of Bala Sahib. He decided to send him to the Rajya Sabha in a by-election in 1996. Nirupam was re-elected in April 2000 for a full term of six years, which has now been cut short by a
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Diversities — Delhi Letter Two
men stood out here last week. One is Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Yasin Malik. He came here on a peace mission. Armed with 15 lakh signatures of the people of the Valley, together with massive video footage and hundreds of photographs, which he had been collecting and working on in the last two years. Focusing on the Kashmiri people’s great desire to achieve peace through a non-violent process, Malik couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate venue and phase. Exhibited on March 17 and 18 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deen Dayal Upadhya Marg, at a time when the nation was celebrating the 75th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March. At the inauguration, there were many to hear Malik’s speech in which he had repeatedly stressed on a peaceful solution to the ongoing turmoil and turbulence in his home state of Jammu and Kashmir and that the offshoots of democracy has to reach the people in actual sense and essence. Adding that after he and his colleagues had laid arms and took to a non-violent settlement. “Even in these years, that is after declaring non-violence, 600 colleagues of mine had been killed and I have seen all the bodies. I have been arrested a hundred times and interrogated. Several times attempts have been made on my life. Tell me what am I supposed to do? We want peace not through killings and counter-killings, but through talks where the Kashmiris are invited to participate. Are we animals that each time India and Pakistan hold talks on Kashmir, we Kashmiris are bypassed. India and Pakistan could be the sellers but we are the buyers and we Kashmiris have a right to be a party to any peaceful settlement…” Those who spoke very forcefully along similar strong strain were Arundhati Roy, Nirmala Deshpande, Kuldip Nayar, Kamal Mitra Chenoy and Praful Bidwai. The entire focus was a democratic and peaceful solution. Two in the audience bagged much focus that noon — Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed and Prof S.A.R. Geelani, New Delhi academic who was shot in rather mysterious circumstances near his lawyer Nandita Haksar’s home. Tarun Tejpal too was in the limelight not because of Tehelka but in the backdrop of his debut novel, “The Alchemy Of Desire” (Harper Collins). Heading the guest brigade was Sir V.S. Naipaul who is quoted to have said (in the invite) “at last a new and brilliantly original novel from India…” But what seems actually spearheading is the fact that Tejpal could write a full-fledged novel when in the midst of severe turmoil and tension. Remember those days when he was in the midst of severe tension what with Tehelka having exposed the corrupt in the then political establishment and the bureaucracy. To write a novel amidst such tension is itself remarkable. Tejpal has two constant positives by his side — his conviction and his spouse Geetu. I do know the couple on a social level but not well enough to pass sweeping judgements. It’s a fact that their seems a genuinely happy marriage, without they flaunting it or making a merry cry about. She has been with him as a constant companion in that turbulent phase. Perhaps with that emotional anchorage Tejpal could carry on writing and crusading for many fronts. Another outreach programme The Institute of Social Sciences has a long experience of working in Jammu and Kashmir in the field of local governance. Its publications include “Panchayati Raj in J&K” (1990); “Restoration of Panchayati Raj in J&K” (1999); “Fair elections under the shadow of fear: J&K Assembly elections 2002”; and “J&K panchayat conventions” (2003). The ISS also prepared “State Development Report for J&K” sponsored by the Planning Commission. To carry on its outreach work and programmes, it moved ahead. Last weekend, Union Panchayati Raj Secretary Wajahat Habibullah inaugurated another ISS project for the Valley. Sponsored by the British High Commission and supervised by a senior academic of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, it would focus on “strengthening good governance at grassroots level through a balanced mix of distance learning and conventional
training.” |
Avarice is the vice of declining years. — Bancroft He on whom God bestows the gift of His praise, is the king of kings. — Guru Nanak The happiest moments we ever know are when we entirely forget ourselves. — Swami Vivekananda Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. — George Eliot Forgive thyself little, and others much. — Leighton |
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