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ON RECORD |
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How to govern Haryana
better
Profile Comments Unkempt Diversities — Delhi Letter
Indian adaptation of French play Impressive exhibition Goodbye, Promilla!
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ON RECORD by Shahira Naim
Sharat Pradhan, 50, is a newsmaker in the real sense. Known for his tireless campaign in exposing corruption, this time he is in the limelight for being the whistleblower leading to the CBI raids against the consensually most corrupt IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh, Akhand Pratap Singh. Now a freelance journalist associated with several international and national news agencies as well as the rediff., Sharat is not one to rest on his laurels. He speaks to The Sunday Tribune in Lucknow on his crusade against corruption. Excerpts: Q: Why did you think of taking the then Chief Secretary Akhand Pratap Singh to court? A: I have consistently written against corruption. Unless we have zero per cent tolerance for corruption, things will not change. For me, A.P. Singh happens to be the latest target. But he is certainly not the last. Q: Did you have to go to the court in any other case as well? A: No, in some cases like that of B.B. Jindal, just my writing made things work. An inquiry was instituted and the man was removed. But others were hard nuts to crack. The other challenging case I fought was of the then director of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute, Dr B.B. Sethi. For that case also, I had to approach the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Q: Tell us more about it. A: Well, this man was a reputed psychiatrist and head of the then newly set up SGPGI. He was involved in massive corruption. When I started exposing the deals, he charged me with blackmail and set up a defamation case against me for Rs 20 lakh in the mid-eighties. Interestingly, no one was ready to touch him as he had contacts in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The general impression amongst the high and the mighty was that he had treated Rahul and Priyanka and had direct access to the Prime Minister. To get impunity for his conduct he had probably created this myth. Once I was accompanying Rajiv Gandhi on one of his Amethi trips. I told him that there was this doctor heading the institution named after his late brother indulging in all sorts of malpractices and getting away with them by creating the impression that he was treating his children. He asked papers and I offered my clippings. But before he could act, elections were declared and V.P. Singh came in his place. I then met Bhure Lal who pursued the matter and finally there was a CBI raid. Incidentally, I was awarded the best story award for those stories by the Times of India. Q: How did this campaign against A.P. Singh begin? A: I didn’t start it. I simply pursued it to its logical conclusion. The initiative came from his peer group, the IAS Association that voted him as one of the three most corrupt IAS officers in 1997. There was no law then that I could have applied. But the moment he received an extension while a Government of India’s request to initiate a CBI inquiry was pending against him in the Chief Minister’s office, there was a specific law that had been violated and provided grounds for me to approach the court. The law is very clear. Extensions should normally not be granted. And if it is, the government should ensure that the officer’s service record is exemplary and his image is clean. This officer had a vigilance inquiry shelved and a request for CBI inquiry pending. I remember Justice Hegde’s remark in the court: "Why couldn’t the Uttar Pradesh government find another officer? Q: Taking such a mighty person to court is a daunting task indeed. Any fears? A: My family really faced a lot. My son was mortally scared of coming to harm. The other day when the camera teams arrived to get my bite on the whole episode, my wife got mortally scared and could relax only when she saw me with them. Q: What happened in the court? A: That’s another interesting story. I literally begged with Mr Shanti Bhushan to take up this case. His son Prashant was convinced of the merit of the case but wanted me to convince his father. The senior Bhushan said that as corruption was so rampant in Uttar Pradesh what was so special about this particular person? He probably also wanted to check my credentials. Finally when he was convinced he took it up as a personal matter, appeared in person and did not charge a single pie. In any case I was in no position to hire such a reputed lawyer. My plea was simple. I had questioned the extension and demanded a CBI inquiry into the allegations of corruption and disproportionate assets against Mr Singh. It was an indefensible case from the word go. I have reasons to believe that when things became really sticky, the PMO had indicated that the officer should resign to save both the Central government and the state government from further embarrassment. On the eve of the third hearing, while I was preparing to take the night train to New Delhi I hear that the Chief Secretary has suddenly put in his papers. I actually missed the train that night and had to take the morning flight. With Mr Singh’s resignation the case became infructuous and I was asked to take the demand for the CBI inquiry to the High Court and the petition was withdrawn. Q: The battle was only half won. Why did you not approach the High Court then? A: The Judge handling public interest litigation cases at the Allahabad High Court at that time was known to me and would not have heard my case so I was waiting. But before I could embark upon the next stage I was embroiled on a different front. Q: What was that? A: On the request of a sitting BJP MLA and former minister Rajendra Pratap Singh, an income-tax inquiry was instituted against me. And the income-tax officer in-charge was Bhartendu Pratap Singh, son-in-law of A.P. Singh! For months I was harassed. On a daily basis IT officials interrogated my bank. They asked me to furnish six-year-old records. All the newspapers and agencies for which I write were made to furnish my income-tax record. Fortunately, our payments are made by cheque. So it was not a big deal but it was a huge bother. Around this time, the local edition of a national paper for which I wrote a weekly column was put under the IT scanner and finally my column was dropped. The very next day their cases were similarly closed. Q: What did you do then? A: Suddenly it struck me that my entire energy was being spent in fighting a meaningless battle. That is when I decided to write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had by then made known his distaste for corruption. I followed it up at his office. In fact, I also briefed Rahul Gandhi on one of his trips to Amethi. He heard the whole matter and took the papers. Q: How does it feel now? A: My confidence in the system has been restored. If one is consistent in one’s effort and follows it up with perseverance nothing is insurmountable. As a journalist, I think I have fulfilled my role. We are not mere stenographers who will hear and write. We have to be activists to uphold the values of our profession.
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How to govern Haryana
better In quick time, the Haryana government, headed by Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a second-generation politician, has completed the first three formalities that have almost become a surrealistic ritual for any new governing dispensation. The Chief Minister has issued the maiden statement of intention to eliminate corruption and ensuring fair distribution of water, has received advise on government agenda from well meaning experts and executed the bureaucratic reshuffle involving many IAS officials. Having done this, the Chief Minister and his A team can now turn to the real business of governance, which is not mere statement of intention or putting forth a comprehensive wish list or preparing vision documents. Neither is it bureaucratic ‘turnover’ trying to fit square pegs in round holes and round pegs in square holes! In today’s context, governance means much more than merely running monolithic and moth-eaten government machinery. It is adhering to the fundamentals of the democratic fabric enshrined in the Constitution of India. Before deliberating on ‘democratic governance’, we need to appropriately define the concept of ‘governance’. Though there are many, the best-established definition is one that refers to the ‘governability’ of a polity or, in other words, the capacity of a political system to govern efficiently and to provide the necessary political conditions for economic and social development. The earlier notion was that governance concerned only the state and society was only an appendage or at best beneficiary. Starting from early nineties, this notion has undergone substantial change and society is gradually assuming centerstage in the scheme of governance. The issue now is whether governance should be ‘state-centric’ or ‘society-centered.’ Under this distinction, the state-centric approach is concerned with assessing the political and institutional capacity of the state to ‘steer’ society towards certain goals associated with the ‘public good’ and also with examining the relationship between the role of the state and the interests of other powerful actors. By contrast, the ‘society-centered’ approach is primarily concerned with the role of civil society in the governing process, and its relation with the state, through a variety of governance forms or institutional arrangements. ‘Governance’ refers to the decision-making and implementation processes in the administration of a country, state or organisation. At the country/state level governance is the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of multifarious affairs. It comprises the complex mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, mediate their differences and exercises their legal rights and obligations. Good governance is participatory, transparent and accountable. It is effective in making the best use of resources and personnel and is equitable. Basically it promotes justice and the rule of law. In a democracy as distinct from an autocracy, governance should be ‘society-centered’. It would include the government, which is its dominant part, but transcend it by taking in the private sector and civil society. All three are critical for sustaining human, economic and social development. The government creates a conducive political, legal and living environment. The private sector promotes enterprise and generates jobs and income. Civil society facilitates interaction by mobilising groups to participate in economic, social and political activities. Because each has weaknesses and strengths, democratic governance is brought about through constructive interaction among all three. For such a constructive interaction to take place, democratic governance must adhere to the basic tenets of separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary; rule of law and respect of human rights and participation of citizens, the people being the sovereign. For these tenets to be practiced instead of just remaining on paper, democratic governance should adhere to certain functional norms and principles such as majority rule while ensuring the participation of minorities and other disadvantaged groups in the political decision-making process; transparency and accountability at all governmental and societal levels; citizen’s participation in the process of social and public welfare, economic growth and development, equality of opportunities and equal treatment; a free market but also social economic system; a balanced relationship between all bodies of government and civil society; probity in public dealings on the part of the government; mandatory establishment of ombudsman institutions and their fearless functioning; civil supremacy over the armed forces and an efficient and non-discriminatory judicial system Most of these principles do exist in India’s democratic system, but when it comes to practical governance there have been major failures. This is mainly due to the autocratic and arbitrary style of functioning of our institutions and instruments of governance – legislative, executive and judicial. The resultant discontent has led to severe law and order problems as described by the new Chief Minister of Haryana. This coupled with a weak and meek civil society we have in the country makes democratic governance a virtual ‘utopia’. The challenge of governance in Haryana is not competitive populism or fulfillment of wish lists. It is in restoring basic values to these institutions and ensuring their sustenance through truly autonomous watchdog processes. Legislators should legislate and exercise oversight on government policies and spending instead of messing up day-to-day administration. The executive should concentrate on fair and equitable governance and efficient delivery of public services instead of hankering after power and perks. The judiciary should focus on speedy justice not for the high and mighty, but for the low and the weak. For this to succeed the state government should take a deliberate decision not to act as ‘Big Brother’ and breath down the neck of individuals and institutions. This itself could be an effective antidote to the cancer of corruption that is eating into the vitals of our society. “That government is the best which governs the least”. These famous words of Hugh Dalton must echo in the ears of the new Chief Minister and his team. By implication it would mean ‘that government is the worst which governs the most’. This is what is happening in most states with disastrous results that we see. Let not Haryana yet again fall into this
quagmire! — The writer, a former IAS officer, was Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh |
Profile by Harihar Swarup He has spent a lifetime saving and working for tiger conservation. He was a former member of the Steering committee of Project Tiger. No wonder, Billy was honoured with this year’s prestigious J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Award, billed as the Nobel Prize for environmentalists. He became the second Indian after the legendary Salim Ali to receive this international recognition. This Award was established in 1974 by the late J. Paul Getty to honour those making outstanding contribution to international conservation. The tradition of recognising conservation excellence and innovation is followed by his son, Gordon P. Getty and his family. The Award, carrying a cash prize of $100,000, serves to heighten public awareness of the need for conservation of all the earth’s incredible diversity of resources. Duff Hart-Devis, a former feature writer of The Telegraph, London, has just finished penning his biography, “Honorary Tiger”. How Billy Arjan Singh became from a “shikari” to a conversationalist is a fascinating story. A scion of a princely house, he took to hunting at a young age and, by his own admission, he killed seven tigers. But circumstances and his own character led him to a different path altogether. He now deeply regrets his hunting days and candidly admits: “ I was part of the slaughter that maligned the evolutionary processes that created such magnificent creatures”. He subsequently gave up hunting and actively campaigned to end sport hunting. He was directly responsible for closing down 26 “shikar” companies. He was the first to advice the Union Government to ban shooting tigers in 1969. Born in Gorakhpur in 1917, he joined the British Army in 1940. He fought in the World war II. On return to India, he purchased a farm on the fringe of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. He has been living in “Tiger Haven” since 1959. The wildlife sanctuary is among the few remaining refugees for swamp deer. Billy spent long years studying the varied wildlife of the area, especially the tiger. His experiment of re-introducing in the wild captive-bred carnivores, especially the zoo-born tigress “Tara” has no parallel in Asia. He is convinced zoos end up jailing wild tigers. He was so upset over the killing of three elephants in Dudhwa two years back that he shot an angry letter to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was also the Chairman of Indian Board for Wildlife. “I write to you as one of the oldest wildlife conservationists in India. The reason for writing to you is the death by collision of three wild elephants with a metre-guage train. The entire succession of clashes with dwindling elephants population in the degraded forest remaining, is due to lack of political will, bureaucratic indifference, and lack of motivation of the subordinate staff, and unless you intervene personally, and effectively, there is no ultimate future for wildlife”, he wrote. Billy’s latest book, “Watching India’s Wildlife: The Anthology of a Lifetime”, will be released on April 28. It highlights the problems afflicting efforts to create a national park in a developing country and enforce conservation measures. His writings on the subject, and the topic closest to his heart, Tiger, point to the need for constant vigilance and effort to project this majestic animal being brought to the brink of extinction, as it was once before the tide began to turn with the Project Tiger in 1970s. Enthralling are his writings on his extraordinary experiments to rear big cats and teach them the ways of the wild so that they could return to their natural habitat. He also writes authoritatively on the phenomenon of the man-eater, and on the swamp deer, in whose conservation he played a major role. Billy was recently in Delhi to receive the Paul Gretty Award. He observed after he was bestowed with the honour that tiger protection could not be talked in isolation. “We have to look towards saving the trees and forest for keeping the tiger population intact. People have to understand that saving the tiger is like working towards saving human beings. Human beings can work towards being protected, but animals have no voice; they need somebody to talk and make a noise about them”. |
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Comments Unkempt by Chanchal Sarkar
Memory gets so flickery nowadays. What is the name of John F. Kennedy’s book “Let Us Praise Famous Men”? I was reminded again and again of it in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where I had time to watch things at leisure for about 17 days. The famous men (and women I am sure) are the doctors who are perennially overworked, whose outpatient departments are filled to overbrim but who keep a smiling face, answer stupid as well as serious questions and for surgeons, do five or six operations a day quietly and without fuss. They have their salaries nothing much more while their colleagues in private hospitals get many times more. At least for the doctors who looked after me, surgeons and physicians, I came back full of goodwill. Of course, howsoever willing they are, they cannot see you across the dark or straight down the operating table at a minute’s excuse. It is devilishly hard to get a room at the AIIMS and devilish sways have to be employed to squeeze in. Here it is not the medical people who have the final say, they are the administrators and they are usually not famous but devious men. But of that later. The other long line of famous men are those I met in the X-ray laboratory, the Echo Cardiogram room and in the various corridors with rooms whose signs I did not fully understand. These were not in mofussil and district hospitals from where one returns horrified, but in the premier teaching and referral hospital of India. With me one morning plying a wheel chair was the son of a police officer always accustomed to be the first in the line, to be given special attention with obsequiousness. He was getting spasms of irritation at the wait but I was fascinated to see my fellow patients. Many of them were, I am sure, from below the poverty line. They had no special clout but held their pieces of paper patiently, very very few of them making any complaint. For most of them their turn came very late; they got their attention not always with a smile and helping hand but at least routinely. Many others wander. With a form in their hands not knowing where to go, those asked directions are not always obliging. What shall we do with these magnificent edifices, with more and more centres for cancer, ophthalmic diseases and so on coming up? What shall we do with widespread buildings, air-conditioning machines humming away and many other machines for testing, equipment for observation, medicines to be taken every few hours, haemoglobin injections and so on? There’s the rub, the doctors are there, the technicians are there, but it just needs the human and administrative touch. One may have to wait weeks, even months for a room. Relatives and probably even patients are lying on the kerbside waiting for the next day hoping things will work out better. Some are sheltered in the dark, others are under bright lights, playing some kind of card game to see the long night out. The OPD corridors are full, with people jostling, others waiting. Three cheers for the doctors who patiently deal with people who have probably come hundreds of kilometres away. Once upon a time, there used to be quite a big chemist shop on the premises. But it grew unhelpful, impolite. There were too many accusations of corruption and the place had to be shut down. Now the nurses come four or five times a day and had many lists of medicines. In the subway connecting AIIMS with Safdarjung Hospital there has spread a colony of chemists and surgical shops. The whole place is cluttered, prices are high, there is frequent haggling over yesterday’s cash memos. On the whole, not an attractive setting. The British had batmen to attend to officers. They and the policemen still have them in droves saluting at every step, attending to every need. That is the blemish of our nursing system. The nurses cannot function without ‘attendants’ and would like at least one night and day. Probably this is inevitable and a whole profession of ‘attendants’ has grown up, not well trained but have learnt on the job. They are not like the barefoot doctors because they are not trained. But they should be. I had my taste of administrative slackness. My operation ended at 4 p.m. but I was in the recovery room till 7 p.m. until I threatened to walk out. Why? Because there was no orderly available. Anyway I learnt to accept these problems with patient because there were so many others with the same difficulties. The army, the nursing services, the field doctors, the cooks, the British trained them all. Abroad they have found the Filipino and Indian nurses best. But we have lost the best and our nurses are no longer the best in the rural hospitals. In the cavernous corridors of the AIIMS where there are guards and ‘sentries’ (Praharias). Why can’t we find simply more kindness and helpfulness? The attendants are dressed as they will, the nurses are not faultlessly turned out as they are today in Singapore and Hong Kong. There is no need for tunics and dresses always. Saris will do but the nurses could take more pride in their work and appearance. May be it is sour fault, we don’t give them often the respect and consideration they deserve. Let us soon start praising our famous men and women, doctors, nurses and attendants in our hospitals as we wait for them to give us gentle and courteous
service. |
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Diversities — Delhi Letter by Humra Quraishi Getting back after a fortnight means forging right ahead with what’s all been happening here at my end. There’s that just begun honeymoon with Pakistan. And with that much and varied contact, people to people, as they are popularly mouthing. With that rarely a week passes when one delegation from there lands here. Another from our end starts off. In fact, a large group of Panchayati office bearers, block presidents and district presidents and officials from the Institute of Social Sciences are just back after a trip to all over Pakistan. As ISS Professor Ash Narain Roy describes it, “truly amazing is the response we got…except for Baluchistan we went all over and people were very keen to learn the very basics of democracy from our group which consisted of elected representatives from our 18 states, from Arunachal Pradesh to Jammu and Kashmir. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm in people; wherever we went we were greeted with flowers and music.”
Here I go with the details. On March 19, President of Sanskriti Foundation O.P. Jain hosted a cultural do for David Miles, who is manning Global Foundation in Australia. Then our leading Mohiniattam dancer Bharati Shivaji
and daughter Vijayalakshmi have come up with a new choreographic work inspired by ‘Swan Lake’, the celebrated ballet of Tchaikovsky. Though it opens here on April 4, already the verdict is favourable. How the classical dance traditions of the East and West have common movements and flow and perhaps a similar story line. The National Gallery of Modern Art hosted a fortnight-long exhibition of the works of Professor Andrzej Strumillo.
Indian adaptation
of French play
Then the Alliance Francaise together with the University of Delhi came up with an adaptation — an Indian adaptation of the French playwright Moliere’s ‘Les Fourberiesde Scapin’. Titled ‘Bicchhoo’, it’s the similarity of things happening here and there that hits. “The play is a hilarious comedy with secret marriages, star crossed lovers, scheming fathers and a sly servant, the scorpion!” This coming fortnight, the India International Centre is the venue for ‘Portugal — Call of the Sea’ (April 13 to 20). Needless to mention, there would be exhibitions and lectures on Portuguese travels and arts. A film by Goutam Ghose, ‘A journey in the world of His Holiness The Dalai Lama’ is another attraction. The Writer-in-residence programme has begun in New Delhi by the India International Centre in collaboration with the British Council. Mallika Booker, writer, will read out on April 5 her poetic verse, ‘Scarlet Veils and A Sister’s Tale: An Engaging Night of Velvet Voiced Poetry’.
Impressive exhibition
Last fortnight works of over 70 leading artists of the country were exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature. CPM leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet inaugurated this impressive show. An exhibition with a sense of spirit as the proceeds from the sales are to be used for fund raising. Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s exhibition also opened at this very gallery. Credit goes to him for not sitting depressed with illness, rather spending these years writing poetic verse and painting.
Goodbye,
Promilla!
Promilla Gurbux Singh passed away last week. Married to Khushwant Singh’s younger brother Brigadier Gurbux Singh, it’s her beautiful face that caught attention each time I met or saw her. There seemed so much of beauty on her face that faces of the other beautiful women could take a back seat. Last month, when I had met her last at the inauguration of the dharamshala on the premises of Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, set up by Sir Sobha Singh Trust, I continued looking at her. Slight disruption as a baby squirrel fell from a tree above and she laughed like a school girl. This brings me to write that though she was in her late seventies or early eighties, along with her three daughters, she ran the popular nursery school — The Learning Tree — at Sujan Singh Park
here. |
Imagination is the preview of life’s coming attractions. — Larry Eisenberg We should understand it rightly, submit to his will and live in accordance with it. When we understand the working of His will, there will be no ‘I, ‘Mine’ and assertion of the self. — Guru Nanak The wise man blows impurities off himself as a silversmith cleans silver. One by one. Little by little. From moment to moment. Untiringly. Unerringly. — The Buddha  |
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Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and National Park is located in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. It is close to the Nepal border. The easiest way to reach the Tiger Reserve from Delhi is a five-hour journey by train to Shahjehanpur and then drive to this wonderful place. Here lives an 87-year-old man who has become a legend in his lifetime. Feisty Billy Arjan Singh is a conservationist recognised by most tiger lovers. He has aptly named his abode as “Tiger Haven”.