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India needs gas Killing of innocents Stabilising population |
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Elections in Bihar
Thank you, Mr Irani
Democratise civic bodies Tourists rush to get out
of Egypt Delhi Durbar
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India needs gas
Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has done well by reiterating the government’s resolve that India will continue its efforts to ensure that the Iranian gas pipeline project reaches the stage of fruition. The Left parties and the Opposition were getting worked up following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement during the course of his interview with The Washington Post that “…considering all the uncertainties of the situation there in Iran, I don’t know if any international consortium of bankers would probably underwrite this” project. The Prime Minister was not indicating any change in the government policy while talking about the pipeline plan. Under the prevailing circumstances there are likely to be serious problems so far as the financing of the project is concerned. But this does not mean that the project should be abandoned. There is nothing secret about the US opposition to the gas pipeline. This is quite obvious because the project will benefit Iran not only economically but also from various other angles. But the US factor should not prevent India from going ahead with the ambitious plan. The Iranian gas will be cheaper and available in abundance because of the country having the world’s second largest gas reserves. India must have an assured supply of natural gas to meet its growing energy requirements. Efforts are being made to take the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline to China too, which will make the project more economical. The Indo-US deal on nuclear energy for peaceful purposes has nothing to do with the gas pipeline project. India is looking for natural gas supplies not only from Iran but also from other sources like Central Asia, Qatar, Myanmar and Bangladesh. It has been lately concentrating more on the Iranian gas because, besides the other advantages, it can be available in the shortest possible time. India has to continue its search for dependable sources of industrial fuel supply, outside pulls and pressures for different lobbies notwithstanding.
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Killing of innocents
Security men in Jammu and Kashmir have an extremely difficult responsibility to discharge. They have to identify and neutralise blood-thirsty foes who come dressed as friends. There is a split-second divide between averting a terrorist attack and succumbing to it. This tricky situation sometimes leads to extremely unfortunate consequences of the kind that took place in Kupwara on Saturday. Four boys were killed when an ambush party of the Rashtriya Rifles mistook them as militants and opened fire. The anger of the populace is understandable. The teenaged boys were part of a marriage party and had nothing to do with terrorists. Even if they had disobeyed the rules regarding curfew timing prevalent in the area during the night, the Army men should have been far more circumspect before opening fire. When a weapon can take someone’s life, one has to be absolutely certain that the person in the gunsight is the real target. The Army has promptly expressed regret over this case of mistaken identity. But that may not be enough to assuage the feelings of those who have lost family members. More than that, it will alienate the local populace without whose help the war against terrorism cannot be fought, let alone won. The security authorities are expected to ensure that such incidents don’t occur again. It is not just the Indian Army which has slipped up so badly. In England also, a Brazilian has similarly succumbed to police firing. All such mistakes strengthen the hands of the militants. When they kill innocent people, they have no regrets, but any such mistake by soldiers is played up. The authorities will have to devise ways and means to ensure that such “collateral damage” is greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated. Meanwhile, the government must also fight on another front: to neutralise the inspired propaganda that the Army men are cold-blooded killers. They should remain friends of the people.
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Stabilising
population
The issue of growing population is rarely on the national agenda. Hardly any political party is serious about tackling the problem, particularly in states. Barring Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, the population issue has not been taken up seriously elsewhere. It is strange for the world’s second most populated country to be so casual about such a vital issue that directly affects development. It was, therefore, heartening to hear the Prime Minister spell out
candidly his government’s policy at a meeting of the reconstituted National Commission on Population in Delhi last Saturday. Harsh measures adopted to control population during the Emergency by the then government machinery are still fresh in memory. That they proved counter-productive is well known. Quite understandably, therefore, Dr Manmohan Singh spoke against any use of coercion to achieve the goal. He has even abandoned the word “control”, which has negative connotations and instead talked of population “stability:” Making another departure from the previous practice, the Manmohan Singh government has ruled out any incentives to stabilise the population. The new policy is to focus on three areas: empowerment of girls and women, promotion of healthcare and education and balanced regional development. This is how it should be. Instead of taking clinical or short-term measures, it is better to enhance the level of education, particularly among women. The states which have successfully managed the growth of population also have high scores on the human development index. Poverty and illiteracy are major causes of the population explosion. Studies and statistics show that educated women tend to make informed choices about their lives and the size of their families. A rise in the level of education gets translated in the rise in income. No doubt, an educated, healthy population can be an asset to development. Incidentally, China and India are not just the world’s top two in population; they are also the fastest growing.
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It may be so, there is no arguing against facts and experiments. — Isaac Newton
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Elections in Bihar
The dissolution of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and the impending elections have raised a host of constitutional and legal issues. In particular, the question arises as to whether the Election Commission is constitutionally empowered to hold elections in the state. The State Assembly was dissolved, apparently, to prevent horse-trading of the elected MLAs from the Lok Janshakti Party to the Janata Dal (United). But the Anti-Defection Act comes into force only after the MLAs are sworn in, not before summoning the State Assembly. In Goa and Jharkhand, for instance, the two Governors summoned the respective Assemblies and the Pro-tem Speakers administered the oath of office to successful candidates. Only then, they became MLAs. This implies that the Anti-Defection Act does not apply to successful candidates before they are sworn in (as in Bihar). Not even one out of the 243 successful candidates in the Bihar elections was sworn in since the House was not summoned by the Governor as mandated by the Constitution, for the purpose of swearing in and bringing the House in existence. The earlier Assembly stood automatically dissolved at the end of five years. While the new Assembly was not summoned, all the 243 elected candidates were waiting for being sworn in as MLAs. Their elections were also not cancelled and their seats not declared vacant in the official gazette by which alone fresh elections can be held, that too, after proper announcement in the official gazette. Bihar Governor Buta Singh had absolutely no jurisdiction or control over the 243 successful candidates who were declared elected by the Returning Officers under Section 66 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and published in the official gazette under Section 73 of this Act by the Election Commission. Moreover, the Governor has no power to cancel elections and declare the seats vacant. Unless the seats are declared vacant, the Election Commission cannot hold fresh elections. Similarly, the eligible voters of Bihar cannot be asked to cast their votes again as long as the results of the successful candidates are not cancelled and declared vacant in the official gazette. No vacant seat arises unless a successful candidate dies or his election is set aside by the Patna High Court after deciding duly the election petition relating to that constituency. Even if the Patna High Court declares, in an election petition, that the election is void and declares the seat as vacant, the Election Commission will have to send the orders to the Speaker and must publish in the official gazette that the seat must be declared vacant. It is only then that fresh elections can be held in that constituency. One would do well to remember that no provision or section of law is above the Constitution. Those holding constitutional posts, howsoever high, are creatures of the Constitution and are, therefore, bound by the same. The Supreme Court firmly established that no law would be valid and enforceable if it is repugnant to the Constitution. According to Section 73 of the RP Act, the Election Commission must publish results of elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies in the official gazette as declared by the Retuning Officers in the state. After the issuance of notifications in the official gazette, “Parliament or the Assembly shall be deemed to be constituted”. The word ‘deemed’ is always used for a purpose. It is an enabling provision — to enable the Governor to summon the House for purposes of administering the oath of office to the elected candidates so that they can become MLAs and to conduct the legislative business. In the S.R. Bommai case, the Supreme Court ruled that if the Governor fails to summon the House, it is an empty Assembly. It is only after MLAs take the oath of office that the Assembly comes into existence and, subsequently, the Governor gets the power to prorogue or dissolve it before the completion of five years on constitutionally justifiable circumstances. Before oath, the Governor has no jurisdiction over the successful candidates as so gazetted. He cannot cancel their elections and thereafter declare their seats as vacant requiring fresh election. Had the Governor summoned the House for the successful candidates and administered the oath, they would have become MLAs and only then the Governor’s action in recommending President’s rule and the Assembly dissolution would have become constitutionally and legally tenable. Summoning the House, facilitating early swearing in of the successful candidates by the Pro-tem Speaker, and bringing the House to constitutional existence is what the Governor is first mandated to do after their due notification in the official gazette. The Bihar Governor has failed to do this. The Governor’s next role is the formation of the new ministry which, in his view, enjoyed the majority. Under the Constitution, these are two separate actions of the Governor. The first part was done in Goa and Jharkhand, namely swearing in of the successful candidates, making them MLAs and thus bringing the two Houses into existence. In Bihar, however, the Governor did not follow this rule and thus committed a serious constitutional lapse. How can a Governor recommend dissolution of an empty Assembly? Can the Union Cabinet, without parliamentary approval, accept the Governor’s recommendation and send it for the Presidential assent? Can the President give his assent in such circumstances according to the Constitution? Section 73 of the RP Act does not say that “Parliament or Assembly stands duly constituted”. It simply says “deemed to be duly constituted”. One cannot say that the Punjab Kesari shall be deemed to be The Tribune, in law, unless there is a purpose. The purpose of ‘deemed’ is to enable the Governor to summon the House and administer oath to the successful candidates so that they become MLAs and the House is brought into existence and then alone they could transact the legislative business of the state. Article 324 empowers the Election Commission to be a custodian to hold free and fair elections, only after five years or when the House is dissolved earlier or when seats become vacant on account of death, resignation or High Court judgement declaring the seat vacant. Democracy demands accountability from everyone holding office, constitutional or otherwise. As the world’s largest democracy, the Indian Constitution should be emulated as a role model by all modern democracies. It is in this context that all the above constitutional and electoral-legal issues need to be examined and debated. Obviously, India cannot tolerate any measure which is not in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. The Supreme Court aptly issued notices to the Centre on the Bihar issue on July 25. The country now looks forward to it for its enlightened
decision. — The writer is a former Election Commissioner and Member, Law Commission of India.
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Thank you, Mr Irani
CRI spoiled you for every other editor and job. He was my first boss and I actually wept on the phone when I told him I was leaving The Statesman. Though he is no longer here to confirm it, I suspect his iron facade cracked a wee bit. CRI was different, just the kind of inspiration an idealistic young investigative reporter was looking for. From chocolates in Geneva airport when we were on the trail of Marc Bonnant, India’s counsel in the Bofors case, to breakfasts in Tugluk road “at the court of the emperor Irani” as late Madhavrao Scindia put it, where we pumped people for dope, he was unrelenting. Yet, after the senior official or politician left and we compared notes, he would tell Jaffa, his Man Friday, to pack some dum aloo, because I had got to excited about the story too eat. CRI never let you down. The more people called to complain the happier he was. When I landed the NDMC deed of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, which recorded the transfer of the property from the Congress party
headquarters to the private RGF trust, he flew down from Calcutta and took me out to lunch. That was such a huge reward that you felt privileged to work for the Statesman. CRI taught me to be
aggressive, not that I needed much teaching being born nasty. His stories on the Emergency, his epic fight with “Indu’’ (Indira Gandhi), how he missed being a practising lawyer and his Holmesian query before an important appointment “the game is afoot darling’’ are simply unforgettable. When you worked for CRI you did not even know what pressure was. When important people called threatening law suits within 24 hours, CRI used to rub his hands with glee. The Mont Blancs pens he bristled with at every pocket were as much a part of him as his belief that if you left The Statesman you were, as he put it, “going into the wrong care my child’’. Despite that heresy, I was still invited for the occasional breakfast, where after discussing some story he would look at me sorrowfully and say come back. The terms were never specified. From
Roesti to Akuri and Bofors to Satish Sharma a lot of me has been shaped by CRI. It was a real privilege to have had a chance to know and work with
CRI. — The writer, a former Special Representative of The Statesman, is an anchor with SAB TV.
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Democratise civic bodies
The Haryana Municipal Corporation Act was put on the statute book in 1994. The first corporation under the Act came into being at Faridabad. Subsequently, the Chautala government upgraded the civic bodies of 10 more towns — Ambala city, Ambala cantt, Yamunanagar, Jagadhri, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Sonepat and Hisar — to corporations. But they have not yet come into existence. And perhaps rightly so, if one goes by the Faridabad corporation experiment and experience. Section 53 of the Municipal Corporation Act envisages that the election of the Mayor of the corporation shall be held within 30 days of the election. And in the event of the office of Mayor, or of the two Deputy Mayors, falling vacant, the election of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor shall be held within one month of the vacancy. But the ground realities in the Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, negate the statutory provisions of the Act. Elections to the general house of 35 councillors of the Faridabad Corporation were held on April 30, 2005. The previous term of the elected house came to an end on May 4. According to the statutory provisions of the Act, the councillors should have elected the Mayor and the two Deputy Mayors by May 30. But till this day the corporation has been without the Mayor and the Deputy Mayors. The corporators have not been able to meet and elect, or say “select”, the Mayor and two Deputy Mayors. The stalemate has jeopardised the functioning of the corporation to the detriment of the electorate. The cause of the stalemate is the internecine factional wrangles between the local MLAs and the local MP, each poaching a group of elected councillors and vying to install his or her own political progeny as the Mayor and the Deputy Mayors. During the last 10 years (following the 1995 and 2000 elections), the Faridabad corporation has had four Mayors, and all were “selected” and not elected by the powers that be. One expected that the bad precedents set by the previous governments would be reversed by the present Congress government, and the elected councillors given a free hand to elect the Mayor and the Deputy Mayors. But the political interference has equivocated and protracted the installation of the Mayor. The Divisional Commissioner, enjoined under the Act to call a meeting for the election of the Mayor within 30 days of the elections, has so far not performed his statutory obligations. Perhaps he is waiting for a nod, as do the councillors and the local MLAs and MP, for the installation of the “chosen ones”. The Haryana Municipal Corporation Act conceives two wings of governance, the deliberative wing and the administrative wing. In most of the corporations of the country, including Delhi and Mumbai, powers have been vested in the deliberative wing to pass the budget, and decide about the house and other taxes. But no such powers have been vested in the deliberative wing in the corporation Act. Most of the powers are still vested in the administrative wing, that is the state government through the Commissioner Corporation. The corporation Act literally makes the elected representatives subservient to the bureaucrats. Mayors and councillors only dance to the political tunes. For instance, Section 34 of the Act empowers the state government to remove by notification any member of the corporation on imaginary and petty charges. In 1999 the then Bansi Lal government amended the Act and inserted a new Section 34-A, which gave powers to the Divisional Commissioner to suspend any elected councillor. The provisions under Section 34-A provide much scope to the ruling party in the state to punish the difficult, diffident and inconvenient elected representatives. By a natural corollary, it is implied that by virtue of Section 34-A, the Divisional Commissioner can even suspend the elected MLAs and MPs (who are the ex-officio members of the corporation), and prevent them from participating in the meetings of the corporation and discharging their statutory and public duties. It is like empowering the state Chief Secretary to suspend the MLAs and ministers. What a mockery the corporation Act makes of the 74th Constitution Amendment Act (Nagarpalika Bill). The Constitution Amendment Act stipulates that the term of office of Mayor and Deputy Mayors would be one year by rotation among the Scheduled Castes, the backward classes, women and general categories of elected representatives. However, the Haryana Government amended the corporation Act immediately after the first election to the Faridabad Corporation in 1994, and extended the term of the Mayors and the Deputy Mayors from one year to five years. That means that one of the categories, from among the aforementioned four categories, will occupy the mayoral office after 20 years. Such was not the intention of the founding father of the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992, who made provisions for every category to become Mayor and Deputy Mayors in a single term of five years. Obviously, the powers that be have followed the politics of contrivance and expediency to install their trusted henchmen as mayors. It is expected that the Bhupinder Hooda government will right the wrong, restore the dignity of the elected representatives and the sanctity of the democratic institutions, before any other civic body in the state is upgraded to Corporation. It is also expected that the Cabinet Sub Committee, appointed by Bhupinder Hooda, to go into the cases of those civic bodies which were abolished by the previous Government, will also revisit the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, and suggest amendments to make it more democratic, more representative and public-oriented.
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Tourists rush to get out
of Egypt
The Menatours travel agency was awash with customers on Sunday, but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than planning leisure outings or excursions to other parts of Egypt, the agency’s harried staff worked diligently all weekend to help tourists united in a single goal: to get out of the country as quickly as possible. No charter flights were available on Monday, manager Samia El Badan patiently told an anxious client. Then she joked grimly: ``You’ll have to stay with us till next week.’’ Beyond the immediate chaos and carnage, which claimed nearly 90 lives, the bombers who struck this popular resort town Saturday appeared to be aiming squarely at the lifeblood of the Egyptian economy, its mammoth tourist industry. Sharm el Sheik, on the edge of the Red Sea under a scorching desert sun, is one of the crown jewels of the country’s campaign to lure in vacationing foreigners and its own jet-setting rich. But the rush for the exits in the aftermath of Saturday’s attacks demonstrated how attractive a target tourism has become for terrorists bent on disrupting economic activity, discrediting governments, and disheartening residents and visitors alike. The attacks here echoed the deadly 2002 bombing of a nightclub on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed scores of holidaymakers, and a recent rash of violence at tourist spots throughout Egypt, all allegedly instigated by radical Islamic groups. Two such groups have made competing, and unverified, claims of responsibility for Saturday’s multiple explosions. Police have rounded up more than 70 people for questioning in connection with the attacks. Ashraf Ayoub, a political activist in Arish, a Bedouin area north of here, said 53 people were detained from his community alone. Egyptian authorities have long eyed Bedouins with suspicion after such incidents — unfairly so, according to human-rights activists. The effect of such attacks on a local economy can be drastic and almost instantaneous, and Egypt’s tourism minister predicted that the industry would likely suffer. In London, where discouraging tourism did not appear to be the prime aim of this month’s series of blasts on subway and bus lines, the travel industry forecast a 2 percent drop — or more than a half-billion dollars — in revenue from overseas guests this year because of the attacks. Egypt’s $6.6 billion-a-year tourism sector is much smaller than Britain’s. But even a slight downturn is felt, because the industry plays a much larger role in the country’s overall economy. By one estimate, tourism is Egypt’s biggest private employer. Last year, 8 million people came calling, a national best. Visitors from Europe, Israel and other Arab nations make up a significant portion of the tourists in luxurious Sharm el Sheik, but so do wealthy domestic travelers. On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo confirmed that one American was among the dead in Saturday’s bombings. The vast majority of victims were Egyptians, many of them employees in hotels and shops.
— LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi
Durbar Those with ministerial ambitions in the Congress who have been making frequent trips to 10 Janpath to catch the eye of party President Sonia Gandhi, will have to hold their horses for some more time. There is talk that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet reshuffle-cum-expansion will now have to wait for the monsoon session of Parliament to conclude. One reason is that the reshuffle is inexorably linked to the organisational revamp. Sources say that Sonia Gandhi is yet to fine-tune her team. Second, the RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav is sulking that the representation to his party in the Union Council of Ministers is not commensurate with his party’s strength of 25 MPs in the Lok Sabha. JD’s ‘nyay yatra’ Janata Dal (United) leaders Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav, who kickstarted the ‘nyay yatra’ on July 11 from Bagha in west Champaran in Bihar, will have a busy schedule during the second phase of the yatra (July 28 to 31). According to party workers, Nitish Kumar, MP from Nalanda is likely to attend the opening day of the monsoon session of Parliament before proceeding to Bihar. The yatra is aimed at educating the masses about the arbitrary dissolution of the Bihar assembly. The yatra will cover 38 districts in seven phases. New Joint Secretary (Pak) The Ministry of External Affairs is facing a problem of plenty as far as its Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran (PAI) Division is concerned. Since its inception, this sensitive, division of the MEA has been headed by a Joint Secretary. But on June 29, Director (Pak) Monica Mohta was promoted and given the rank of JS (Pak). There is no crisis of leadership in the division because she continues to report to her immediate boss Dilip Sinha, who is JS (PAI). The development is purely circumstantial and has nothing to do with increased diplomatic activity with Pakistan. It is a matter of time before Monica is asked to shift to another division or sent on posting abroad. Angry with media Law Minister H R Bhardwaj is annoyed with a news channel, which ran a story recently about late journalist Rajendra Jain’s deposition before the Jain Commission. Jain was murdered a few years ago and Congress leader Ramesh Dalal in a PIL before the Delhi High Court has sought a probe into it and alleged the involvement of tantrik Chandraswami. The story was based on the late scribe’s affidavit before the Jain Commission, which did not paint him in a favourable light vis-a-vis Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Bhardwaj’s annoyance was evident at a press conference recently where he accused the media of “putting him under tremendous pressure” for three days. He dismissed the story as based on “unfounded”
allegations. — Contributed by Satish Misra, Tripti Nath and Rajeev Sharma
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From the pages of
Prices of provisions continue rising and the prospect is becoming more and more gloomy. The coarsest kind of atta is 10 seers a rupee in Lahore and it need not be explained in so many words as to what that means. The coarser cereals are not cheaper. Heart-rending tales of distress come from the interior of the districts where dearer rates prevail and where the state of things borders on that of famine. Nine or 10 seers for the rupees will not perhaps appear as a very dear rate in the richer provinces, but here, amongst the agricultural and the labouring classes, there are not many who can afford two meals a day on that rate. The one bright streak in the all-pervading gloom is that many of the richer traders and sowers in our city have already, very much increased their expenses under the head of charity. The fact that the decent poor suffer much grater distress during a scarcity than the lower classes of the population is also being considered. The latter can go and beg when there is nothing to eat in the house, but the former would rather die the most terrible of deaths-death by hunger-than solicit alms.
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An angry man cannot think coherently. Incoherent thoughts lead to wrong decisions. Wrong decisions lead a man astray.
— The
Mahabharata The habit of being uniformly considerate towards others will bring increased happiness to you.
— Book of quotations on Happiness By obeying him, men obtains inner knowledge about the whole world and all the spheres of life.
— Guru Nanak The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess success. Like a flash of lightning, the Supreme reveals himself to the intuitive. Happiness is not a destination. It is method of life. By obeying Him, man does not fear death and achieves salvation.
— Guru Nanak God loves those who do good. — Book of quotations on Islam
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