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Lalu’s diatribe Wake-up call War and after |
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Gross National Happiness
Bus to Muzaffarabad
Costs of Durbar move When war hero felt unsafe in own house Delhi Durbar
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Lalu’s diatribe IT is unfortunate that a year after the Election Commission (EC) decided to countermand the polls in the Chapra Lok Sabha constituency, a controversy has flared up over the issue. A senior IAS officer, Mr L.V. Saptharishi, who was an election observer, has alleged that the two election commissioners were biased against Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and had made some casteist remarks. The then District Magistrate of Chapra has also stated that he too was opposed to the countermanding. Taking his cue from them, Mr Yadav, who contested from Chapra, has demanded the resignation of the two commissioners, one of whom, Mr B.B. Tandon, is tipped to take over as CEC when the present incumbent, Mr T.S. Krishna Murthy, retires later this month. It is apparent that Mr Saptharishi wanted to defame the EC and Mr Yadav played ball with him. Like a blackmailer, he threatens to come out with proof of the commissioner’s guilt at an appropriate time. But he has not been able to explain why he took a whole year to make the complaint. The alacrity with which Mr Yadav made his demand suggests there is more than meets the eye in the episode. It is not a mere co-incidence that the two officers, who have taken up cudgels against the EC, happen to work in a department headed by Mr Yadav’s nominee. The campaign seems to be orchestrated with an eye on the Assembly elections, which now seem to be unavoidable in Bihar. Mr Yadav, who feels he lost the last elections because the EC did not allow him to have his way, would like to have a pliable commission. In any case, Mr Lalu Yadav has never been able to reconcile himself to the independence of the EC. He had a running feud with every CEC beginning with Mr T.N. Seshan. Of course, he is not an exception. When in the wake of the Gujarat riots, the then CEC did not agree to Mr Narendra Modi’s plan to have an immediate election, the latter called him names. Since the EC’s brief is to hold free and fair elections, it cannot help taking decisions which may be unpalatable to politicians. Similarly, the NDA may not find the recent reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to its liking but this does not justify any criticism of the CAG. These are constitutional bodies, which should be kept above political controversies. |
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Wake-up call ALL this while, the IAS fraternity has been an insular club. Once you gained entry into the twice-born service, you had job security till the date of retirement. If you knew the art of securing a favourable annual confidential report (ACR) from your senior, you could get away with anything. This valued paper came to you courtesy your boss and since an old boys’ club was in operation, only those who annoyed the chief real bad got into trouble. The rest could rise in profession without even doing a spot of honest work. It is surprising that the system has continued for so long. The government has at last come up with a new appraisal system which should have the numerous passengers on the IAS gravy train worried because there is provision for fixing accountability, increasing efficiency and giving recognition to sincere officers. If what is promised is indeed delivered, pray what will happen to the time-servers who are there in strength? Here is hoping that the IAS community itself would recognise that it just has to reform itself if it is to continue to be relevant. The appraisal system can be only as good as the people who monitor it. The reporting officer and the reviewing officer will need to chalk out a comprehensive work plan to which an IAS officer will have to stick. That will entail drawing up a detailed list of key tasks to be accomplished. Specific deliverables for each task would have to be defined in qualitative, financial or quantitative terms. Not only the promotion but also the very continuation of the officers in the IAS should depend on whether they deliver the goods or not. Their integrity, competence, attitude and personal qualities should constantly be under a scanner. The government is also believed to be in the process of bringing out changes in service rules through which corrupt IAS and IPS officers can be weeded out quickly. There are chances that interested officials may try to scuttle the move. But the process of showing the corrupt the door must be an integral part of any administrative reform. Right now many such officers on deputation with the states get away by ingratiating themselves to the regional leaders. |
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War and after THE commemoration of the 60th year of the end of World War II is an occasion to look at the role of Indians in the fight against the Nazis. As many as 36,000 Indians died fighting the forces of fascism. As a part of the Allied forces, they fought valiantly for the liberation of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia as also at other fronts. There was no lack of enthusiasm among the Indian soldiers despite the fact that the British had refused to promise independence to India after the war. The Indians had the satisfaction of fighting for a laudable cause. The spirit behind the appreciable role played by the Indians continued to guide the country even during the post-war period but in a different manner. India is one of the few countries which have been in the forefront of helping the cause of peace through the agency of the United Nations. The Russians, of course, played a unique role in the victory of the Allies. They are rightly proud of being the “liberators of Europe” from fascism and Nazism. They have, however, been in a state of helplessness during the post-Cold War period. The Cold War that began with the end of World War II ended with Russia losing its status as a super power. This disturbed the world’s power balance, with the US influencing the course of history in accordance with its whims and fancies. The total disregard for world opinion and the wishes of the UN that led to the tragedy of Iraq could have been avoided if the Soviet Union had been intact. There is, however, another side to the Russian story. The end of World War II brought with it the Russian domination of Eastern Europe. The nations which suffered Russian highhandedness are unhappy at the holding of the commemoration ceremony in Moscow. Their grouse is understandable. For them the claim of Russia as the “liberator of Europe” has no meaning because they had been under Moscow’s occupation for several decades till glasnost and perestroika brought an end to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. |
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It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.
— Anonymous
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Gross National Happiness BHUTAN'S King Jigme Singye Wangchuck tossed the idea of Gross National Happiness in the late eighties. One of his most articulate ministers, Lyonpo Jigme Y. Thinley, elaborated it at an Asia-Pacific conference in 1998, and the world has not been the same since then. It seems that the world was waiting for a new mantra for salvation, and Bhutan provided it. At its simplest, it says that man needs more than mere economic development to be happy, and since human happiness is a universal desire although its meaning varies widely, the paradigm of Gross National Happiness, as opposed to GNP (gross national product), is the answer. Yet much to the chagrin of Western academics and theorists, GNH is an almost intuitive concept based on the precepts of Mahayana Buddhism and the unique Bhutanese culture as it has evolved. Jigmi Thinley defined it for me at his office in Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital, as an idea resting on four pillars: socio-economic development, a sustainable environment, good governance and a living culture. The veteran politician combines a razor-sharp mind with an almost disembodied intellectualism. His four pillars are a tall order, but the rest of the world is listening because in the West, consumerism of the capitalist model has not led to much happiness, and the Western models the developing world has followed have often brought it unhappiness. Western reactions to GNH have been striking. For some, it is an alternative paradigm to GNP and hence the rush to quantify it. Thus far, it has proved impervious to quantification, despite Jigmi Thinley’s elaboration. The truth is that happiness is a state of mind and the Bhutanese live in a unique environment of an abundance of nature’s bounty, a set of beliefs that lays great stress on moderation and self-restraint and a culture sedulously preserved as a vibrant living institution. Jigmi Thinley gave me one example. He said the Western European model of the welfare state was failing because it was simply untenable in the long term. Rather, the concept of the extended family as both a source of emotional and material comfort was the answer. He was not referring to the joint Hindu family system, but rather to an extended larger family network. The cynic’s answer to such a solution would be that reliance on a family network would abet and aid nepotism. Jigmi does not believe that GNH is an alternative paradigm to GNP. The Bhutan 2020 vision document defines GNH’s role as a single unifying concept to identify future directions of policy. The King’s answer is that there are many concepts of development other than the GDP (gross domestic product). The aim is to maximise happiness, rather than economic growth. The individual at the centre has material, spiritual and emotional needs. Consequently, development should not merely be defined as increased consumption of goods and services. For many, GNH begs the question because for the followers of hedonism, lack of restraint is a plus point in enjoying life, and the very essence of the Bhutanese, and Buddhist, path to happiness lies in tolerance, self-restraint and an interaction with society. At the very least, GNH is opposed to globalising capitalism. An academic has sought the help of the American theorist Ken Wilber to draw up integral models of GNH. To the promoters of GNH in Bhutan, it is Greek. The truth is that GNH is an almost intuitive idea to the Bhutanese and their King seeking to reconcile the need for development with preserving the essential ethos of Bhutanese spiritual and cultural life. In philosophical terms, the four pillars defined by Jigmi Thinley would come naturally to them, living in an environment blessed by nature’s bounty, pride in their culture and consciousness of the benefits of good governance. Ironically, Bhutan is facing the first test of GNH’s assumptions on home ground. Television and Internet were introduced to the country only in 1999, and the dependence on mobile telephones is as strong in Thimphu as anywhere else in the world. The young go to the discos in the Bhutanese capital, discarding the traditional dress for an evening of jiving. Will the pulls of the totems of modern Western life pull the young away from their culture? Already, Indian soap operas are a great hit with the female population in the urban centres. A second world conference on GNH is set to open in Canada. Learned papers will be read and discussed. Yet the essence of the concept can hardly be reduced to graphs and quantification. Jigmi Thinley, for one, told me that GNH was not a measuring rod in the league of GNP. It is easy to say that Bhutan’s path of development follows The Middle Path and its three elements are material, culture and spiritual. It is universally agreed that there is a strong connection in Bhutan between culture and nature, and environment plays a strong role. The unanswered question is how to convert the Bhutanese ambience into a universal theory. Elsewhere, Jigmi Thinley has suggested that in Bhutan inner spiritual development is as important as external material development. Enlightenment of the individual, not merely in the religious sense, is the blossoming of happiness. Such happiness is made more probable by consciously creating a harmonious psychological, social and economic development. Perhaps the underlying lesson of these attempts at explaining GNH is the difficulty of separating it from the Bhutanese milieu. Bhutan is seeking answers to its own salvation while the world is seeking a universal answer to an alternative to a development strategy for the world that has failed. It is true that happiness is not merely a state of mind but mostly lies within oneself. The problem for the West and those who adopt the Western model is that happiness often lies outside the conventional wisdom of an economic philosophy of wanting more and more to be happy. If the prevailing market capitalism thrives on persuading consumers to buy more to be happy, the concept of GNH won’t help. At the very least, Bhutan’s contribution has been to stir a new debate on what is happiness and on the limitations of the fashionable paradigms of seeking happiness by possessing more and more
goodies. |
Bus to Muzaffarabad A
distinct enthusiasm has been generated among the families divided by the LoC with the beginning of the bus service to Muzaffarabad. Every such family in Kashmir has a complete tale to reveal about the pangs of division and life over the past 57 years. Hope, relief, despair, pain and agony have been overshadowing the lives of these divided families living on the two sides. My family could not be an exception, though the passage of nearly six decades has brought varied changes. I grew up with the impression and listening to tales about my uncle having migrated and living on the other side of the LoC. He had migrated around the time of partition in his youthful days. I still have faint impressions about his first visit to “all of us” in north Kashmir, when I was too little yet to have joined a school and understand the pangs of separation. It became clear only when he alongwith his wife, also a Kashmiri, to whom he got married in early 1970s, visited again in 1979-80, when I was in college. It was a family reunion much to the enthusiasm of close and distant relatives, apart from many other family friends and acquaintances around. Old friends also talked about our two other relatives, belonging to the same age group as my uncle, who had also shifted to the other side and lived their life away from other family members. They settled there in PoK, got married and now have families settled there, except my uncle. Not only these relatives but many others from our neighbourhood were also among those who migrated from the valley. The human bondage kept the relatives and neighbours together away from their homeland, and that still continues. But, unfortunately most of them, including my uncle, passed away during the past one decade. Since my uncle, eldest of the four brothers, had no child, he wished to adopt one from amongst those of his younger brothers. Myself being the eldest among the children could be lured more because of his name and fame in the media. Having long association with the news section of Radio Pakistan, he retired as a News Editor from Radio Pakistan, after spending about four decades there. But, the family consensus did not allow any of us to go ahead with my uncle’s desire. “Our family has been divided due to his migration for all these years. We cannot afford to suffer the pain of another division”, was the consensus. There may not be much enthusiasm in our family to board the bus for joining the club of “divided families”, but there is indeed a keen desire to visit that place where my uncle lived most of his life till the
last. |
Costs of Durbar move
UNLIKE other states Jammu and Kashmir has two capitals — Jammu in winter and Srinagar in summer. Contrary to this, Chandigarh serves as the capital to two states. Even the Himachal Pradesh Government in October, 2002, had announced the move to have Dharamsala as its second capital for three months of winter, but it was not to move the entire secretariat on the pattern of Jammu and Kashmir. But the practice of the Jammu and Kashmir government serving from two capitals has been continuing since 1882. Every six months the “Durbar” (royal court or seat of the king) shifts between the two capital cities covering 296 km on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway — the only surface link of the Kashmir valley with the rest of the country. It is not the seat of the king but the offices of the Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues and other high offices of the Governor and the Chief Justice of the state High Court, which shift every spring from Jammu to Srinagar and every autumn from Srinagar to Jammu. Between November and April, these offices shift to Jammu which has a warmer climate. On the other hand when it is scorching heat in the Jammu region, the Civil Secretariat and other offices move to the pleasant weather conditions of the Kashmir valley. This practice was started in 1882 by then Maharaja Pratap Singh to meet the aspirations of the people living in far-flung areas of the state. There have been isolated moves by the successive governments to stop this practice, which is a drain on the exchequer, but the tradition continues. Heavy expenses are annually incurred on the “Durbar move” involving the shifting of over 4,000 employees — 2200 of them from the Civil Secretariat. Recent estimates have shown that the annual expenses on two Durbar moves a year cost over Rs 15 crore and the cost continues to rise with the rise in transportation charges. The general opinion in Kashmir has been in favour of dissociating with the practice and keeping the capital in Srinagar only. But the authorities find it difficult to discontinue the practice since it involves “fulfilling the aspirations” of the two distinct regions of Jammu and Kashmir. “If the state capital is to be kept at one place, it will be Srinagar only”, said a professor of political science. “But that would not be acceptable to the people of Jammu, who have every reason then to demand a separate state”, he said. Then there is the Ladakh region, which remains part of the Kashmir division, where people may also demand for shifting of the Durbar there for a couple of months. “With facilities like the Internet and mobile telephones at present, the practice could be done away with”, said a retired move employee. The age-old practice has both positive and negative aspects. Apart from financial implications, there is the wastage of time at both ends in closing and reopening the office records, observes a former minister. There is a manifold increase in the expenditures on the Durbar move, he explains. The government pays its employees an allowance when they are to move. It has also to pay the house rent to those who are deprived of government accommodation. The expenses on accommodation and security of the employees coming to Srinagar from the Jammu region are also a matter of concern. This practice was not there prior to the eruption of militancy. Expenditure is also incurred on the construction of new buildings to cater to the needs of the employees. More money is spent on the renovation and furnishing of government houses for ministers and senior officers each time they move.Office work suffers for about four months every year in packing and reopening the office records in the two state capitals. Soon after the formal issuance of the government order for durbar move in April at Jammu, attention gets diverted to the shifting work. The files of only “urgent matters” are taken up. An attempt was made by the Farooq Abdullah government in November, 1987, to minimise the expenses by introducing a “truncated Durbar move” to Jammu. This was resented by people in the Jammu region, where an agitation was launched forcing the government to rescind the orders for a truncated durbar move. Both decisions were taken on the intervention of the Central Government. The decision for a truncated Durbar move was taken following the visit of the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi to Kashmir in winter. |
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When war hero felt unsafe in own house LT. Gen J.S. Aurora, the great hero who transformed the map of the subcontinent on December 16, 1971, is no more. When I reflect on the life-long achievements of our dear friends -General Aurora and his charming wife, Bhagwant Kaur — they seem countless. But some of the most striking memories are of October 31, 1984. Prior to that day of terror in 1984, the Punjab Group had been making persistent efforts to resolve the Punjab crisis. On that fatal day when all havoc took place, General Aurora, Kuldip Nayar, Patwant Singh, Amb. Gurbachan Singh and a few other members of the group were running from pillar to post to wake up government machinery. They contacted President Giani Zail Singh for his support. When General Aurora, Patwant Singh and my husband, I.K. Gujral, were at last able to contact Home Minister Narasimha Rao, he took time to tell them that the situation was out of control and they had then decided to call in the Army that would take charge by the afternoon. While they were still sitting at Patwant Singh’s residence, the goons were on the rampage. Every Sikh from a passing vehicle was pulled out. The burning process of Sikh homes had already started. My husband, who was himself driving his car, advised General Aurora to wait at Patwant’s house till he could send an Army escort to pick him up. As soon as my husband came home, we went to enquire about his wife’s fate. She had shifted to a friend’s house. When we reached New Friends Colony, the Hindu friend’s home, we discovered another Sikh family taking shelter there. It was in a pathetic condition. Their 40 trucks had been set on fire, leaving them pauperised. Listening to their tale, my husband explained the circumstances under which he had left the General at Patwant’s house and entreated Mrs. Aurora to spend the night with us at our residence. Soon as the General arrived, he would come back and pick her up too. Until then atrocities and arson were taking place in the congested area of our neighbourhood. By now the hurricane had spread to Maharani Bagh too. After visiting a few houses, my husband decided that I should stay at home, make arrangements for the General’s stay and we returned home. My husband left again to help the needy people and I stayed on to get food prepared and attend to telephone calls. As soon as the General arrived, my husband and our elder son, Naresh, went to fetch Bhagwant Kaur. The General commented with deep emotion, “The nation treats me as a war hero, but I face the day when I am not safe in my own house.” Day-time high-handedness stopped with Army control, but the tortured Sikh community needed help and support for years to follow. Procuring justice for them was not a quick job. General Aurora initiated the Sikh Forum and persuaded the influential leaders from all walks of life, especially from the Sikh community, to join him. Many of the journalists and earlier friends of the Punjab Group lent him the required support unhesitatingly. Thanks to his tireless efforts, many ruined families were rehabilitated again. |
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Delhi Durbar THE current joke doing the rounds in New Delhi’s overactive political circles is that the BJP might have a Tony Blair but it has one too many Gordon Browns, clearly alluding to the ongoing tug-of-war among the party’s second rung leaders. Consequently, there is a constant guessing game on in the party as to
who, among the younger leaders, is in and who’s out. Although former minister Arun Jaitley is generally considered a front-runner for the party President’s job, the buzz in the party is that he is no longer in favour. This assumption, apparently, is based on the list of leaders
accompanying BJP President L.K.Advani on his coming trip to China. The chosen ones include RSS favourites Sushma Swaraj and low-key General Secretary Sanjay Joshi along with Surinder Arora, head of the foreign affairs cell, and Sudheendra Kulkarni, known for his proximity to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Now that Arun Jaitley has been excluded from this trip, speculation has begun about the team which is most likely to accompany Mr. Advani on his trip to Pakistan next month.
No decision on Prof Emeritus The Academic Council of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is yet to decide on the appointment of Vice-Chancellor G.K.Chadha as Professor Emeritus. In fact, when the council met some time ago, Professor Chadha is believed to have made it amply clear that he would not be associated with a discussion on any proposal to appoint him
Professor Emeritus. The decision has to be taken by the university’s Executive Council which may take quite a few months. Professor. Chadha told the Academic Council at its last meeting that he would not be involved even in processing the proposal if his name was on the list.
NCP conclave on unity The Sharad Pawar-led NCP is doing, what no other UPA ally has done so far: it is inviting leaders of the UPA and the supporting parties to its convention at Surat on June 10 to “strengthen unity”. The invitees include Sonia Gandhi, Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan, Dayanidhi Maran, Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan. P.A. Sangma, who parted ways with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP ahead of the last Lok Sabha elections, is also expected to be present as he is likely to return to the NCP fold shortly.
From BPO to KPO For the uninitiated, KPO stands for knowledge process outsourcing and experts see India as the next KPO hotspot. While BPO (business process outsourcing) is largely limited to IT, KPO covers pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, law, intellectual property research, and aerospace and automotive industries. The CII expects KPO to grow at 46 per cent to reach $17 billion by 2010. And India, with available manpower in the specialised knowledge verticals, is geared to emerge as a major global KPO hub.
**** By S. Satyanarayanan, Prashant Sood, and Gaurav Choudhury |
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From the pages of Tirade against a Maharajah THE publication of a letter by Major Evans Bell, addressed to Mr Durand, C.S.I., the son of the late Sir Henry Durand, and bearing on the question how the Maharajah Holkar behaved towards the British Government in the dark days of the mutiny, is most opportune. The opponents of the Maharajah, and their organs have resolved to spread all sorts of calumnies against a price whose demands upon the gratitude of the British Government are at least as great as those of Scindia and the Begum of Bhopal. The pioneer of all other Anglo-Indian papers, the most consummate hater of native interests and the most unscrupulous opponent of native welfare, has been flooding the land with a number of diatribes on the unfortunate Maharajah...” But is it a wrong to seek redress for grievances or to pray for justice before the paramount power? The rancour with which the “Pioneer” and a few other papers have pursued the subject can be explained only on the supposition that they are put up to their present attitude by others who pull the wires from behind the screen. |
As you smell the fragrance of a flower while handling it or the smell of sandalwood while rubbing it against a stone, so you obtain spiritual awakening by constantly thinking of God. If you become desireless you can realise Him right now. — Sarada Devi May heaven, the sky and the earth be filled with peace. — Rig Veda The world can be good and pure only if our lives are good and pure. It is an effect, and we are the means. Therefore, let us purify ourselves. Let us make ourselves perfect. — Swami Vivekananda O Lord till You grant us Your vision And break the bonds of superstition, One watch of day will drag like half a year. — Guru Nanak God is not external to anyone, but is present with all things, though they are ignorant that He is so. — Plotinus  |
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