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Housing scam Stamp it out |
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Bridling Buta Governor invites the EC fiat on transfers THE Election Commission has been forced to ask the Bihar Government not to transfer, without its consent, district officials and others engaged in election work. The fiat comes as a welcome relief after the peremptory transfer of 17 IPS officers by Governor Buta Singh.
Reforms in
education
Tail on fire
Suicide terrorism
spreads How a writer coped
with trauma From
Pakistan
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Stamp it out Everyone
from harassed home owner to indigent farmer to reluctant corporate investor has been waiting for this one. The modernisation of land records and the elimination of stamp papers have been a sorely felt need. With Ms Sonia Gandhi’s letter to Dr Manmohan Singh in this regard, one can hope for speedy implementation of the UPA’s National Advisory Council recommendations. The result will be a cascading set of benefits for the economy and the people. According to one estimate, 80 to 90 percent of land titles in India are under dispute. While fast track courts will be required to sort them out, the new measures recommended by the NAC will help a great deal. These include rationalisation, computerisation, easy public access, and the merging of titles, rights and registration into a single agency. Buying and selling of homes, and rural and industrial land, will be a less stressful affair. Access to credit will be easier. Land is an extremely valuable and limited commodity and enormous resources that are currently locked up or wasted in litigation and red tape can be freed up to be put to productive use. With clear titles, more investment will flow in. Rent-seeking behaviour by vested interests would be reduced. Property prices in India are the highest in Asia relative to income, meaning that land resources are being allotted and used inefficiently. It has been estimated that resolving land problems can add a staggering 1.3 percent to the economy’s growth rate. Elimination of stamp papers will directly translate to less trouble for the citizen and more revenue for the government. Tens of thousands of crores currently shaved off by fake stamp papers can be routed directly to the treasury. Though some states like Karnataka have tried to eliminate stamp papers with some limited success, a national effort will be required with support from the Centre, as envisaged by the NAC. Ensuring property rights and the maintenance of land records is a key responsibility of the State. A growing India requires that it is fulfilled in proper measure. |
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Bridling Buta THE Election Commission has been forced to ask the Bihar Government not to transfer, without its consent, district officials and others engaged in election work. The fiat comes as a welcome relief after the peremptory transfer of 17 IPS officers by Governor Buta Singh. The latter’s action, bypassing the opinion of Chief Secretary G.S. Kang, has kicked off a major controversy. Mr Kang has proceeded on long leave in protest against the transfers. The commission has not commented on this issue, apparently because the model code of conduct will technically come into force only after the formal announcement of the elections, which are due in late October or November. However, Tuesday’s directive is significant because it virtually restrains the government — by extension, the Governor — from meddling with the postings and transfers of district officials. The order was indeed warranted because the transfer of IAS officers at this juncture will adversely affect the process of issuance of photo identity cards to the voters and other election-related matters. Equally significant is the commission’s directive to the government to ensure proper compliance of its orders on the execution of 23,000 non-bailable warrants against criminals. The government’s tardy progress in this regard is inexcusable because the High Court had initiated this process in January last. Bihar is a highly sensitive state and criminals, enjoying political patronage, do influence the elections. If they are not nabbed early, they might disturb the election process. As the Election Commission is responsible for holding free and fair elections, it has to take every possible step to achieve this objective. Unfortunately, Mr Buta Singh is buckling under political pressure and acting more as a hatchet man of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and his friends than as an impartial Governor. The IPS officers’ transfers will embolden criminal-turned politicians like Siwan MP Shahabuddin and Gopalganj MP Sadhu Yadav to criminalise the electoral process. Thus, the Election Commission will have to be extra vigilant. On his part, the Governor would do well to heed its directive in letter and spirit. |
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Scratch a lover, and find a foe.
— Dorothy Parker |
Reforms in education
IF we want to revamp education in any state of India, the most urgent thing to do would be to decentralise the system of management. While policy making, funding, assessment of performance and several other related issues should be handled at the headquarters, everything else should be delegated to individual institutions like schools and colleges. While doing so, the extent of autonomy conceded to them should be clearly defined so that if there is any violation of rules or underperformance or mismanagement, the state government should be able to intervene. Nobody is thinking along these lines and the reason is not difficult to understand. Our political masters are interested in capturing and retaining power and not in doing a better job. That is why no such initiative is being taken. Nor is it very likely to be taken. Some of them who have the power to take decisions might make some supportive remarks about what is stated here, but they are not likely to do anything concrete. That, however, is not enough reason not to say what requires to be said. To be more specific, with the new cess on education, the Centre would have something like an additional Rs 7000 crore to distribute this year, how is this amount to be spent? Is anyone doing any serious thinking on the subject? The obvious thing that needs to be done is what a fruitful system of coordination between the Centre and the states is evolved. Hardly anyone is paying attention to this critical problem. Next comes the process of the delegation of powers from the state headquarters to the individual institutions and how their working is coordinated with the Department of Education. It has been suggested that the institutions should be made autonomous within the limits prescribed. Autonomy in any case does not mean that the institutions would not be answerable to anyone. While funding would come from the state government, both to the government-run and the privately-run institutions, details like the staffing pattern, the authority to spend, the power to regulate expansion and a dozen other things would all have to be defined afresh. Each institution, whether run by the government or by a private agency, should have a managing committee. Almost half of this committee should consist of parents since they have a vested interest in the successful running of the institution. One of the first things to happen would be that absenteeism of teachers, a running headache, would gradually disappear. According to most estimates, the level of absenteeism in Punjab at the school level is a little over 40 per cent whereas in Haryana it is marginally below that. Himachal Pradesh is a happy exception for reasons that cannot be discussed here. What about the remaining half of the managing committee? It should have all kinds of other interests represented on it. Some retired teachers/officials/ex-servicemen, a couple of reasonably educated and mature women, a few nominees of the panchayat or the municipality as the case might be and so on. The proportion will have to vary from place to place. In villages it would be one situation. In towns it would be another. It is said that Haryana was already moving in that direction to some extent but the system is now sought to be reversed. If so, the issue may be reconsidered. Some passing aberrations should not be allowed to discredit a system which has performed well wherever it has been introduced. The rules of business regarding meetings, the power to spend and so on would have to be laid down. Not only that, these committees should have certain emergency powers as well. For instance, if a teaching vacancy is not filled up within a fortnight after it has been brought to the notice of the government, the local committee should have the power to appoint someone on a temporary basis and so on. All such matters would have to be anticipated and provided for. Who should be the chairperson? Here again, there need not be a uniform prescription. In certain cases (for example, privately-managed institutions) the chairperson may be elected for a period of two years and even re-elected for another two years but perhaps no more. In government-run institutions, the person may be nominated by the Block Education Officer or someone equal to his rank to start with and gradually a transition made to an elected chairperson. One curse that is bedevilling our public life is that we want everything to be uniform. That can at best create mediocrity and no more? Everything said so far leads to the unavoidable inference that, gradually but within the next couple of years, the existing system of excessive centralisation at the headquarters will get diluted. One of the jobs which the Department of Education should clarify simultaneously is to define how a healthy system of education should perform at every level of functioning. In other words, certain criteria of healthy performance would have to be laid down. It is some such set of criteria alone which would eventually lead to good performance. Since the situation will vary from institution to institution, three-four broad-divisions of good performance and excellence would have to be made. Details can be worked out and do not have to be spelt out now. To an extent the functioning of institutions should be linked to good performance. To repeat once again, funding need not be uniform in each case. To start with, the existing practices may be continued. Within a year or so, the rules may be revised in terms of the social situation of each community centre and the requirement to help the institutions to perform better. Details regarding performance will have to be worked out. A separate body for doing so may be created for the purpose. Experience in different parts of the country can be drawn upon. What is lacking so far is both the vision and the political will to change the system of administration. An attempt should be made to keep politicians out to the extent possible. This is easier said than done. But once the first major step of decentralising authority to individual institutions is taken, the biggest hurdle would have been overcome. When we decide to decentralise and put a premium on the quality of work and entrepreneurship, the focus of things would start changing. There is so much talk about the 1991 reforms. A good deal of it is well deserved. What needs to be noted is that the biggest impact made since 1991 has been that private initiative has come into its own. It is the private entrepreneurs who have done wonders. Why is it not possible to do something of this kind even in the field of education? What has been suggested here is in respect of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. But there is nothing to prevent the other states from giving thought to this proposal and adopting it for use in their respective situations. More than anything else, this is to urge those who wield power to apply their mind to how the exercise of power can be made forward-looking and more productive. So for nothing has been said about the immensely useful and crucial role of the teachers in this attempt to revamp education. This is not because the teachers would be unwilling to work for the new experiment. They will be more than willing. But then we have to go into the issues of their appointment, pay scales and, above all, the ghastly system of transfers. These issues require to be discussed in more detail.
The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala.
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Tail on fire Tea
and coffee are hotshots in the Indian export scene. Though India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of tea in the world, it is coffee that excites the real passions. To drive a tea-hued India to coffee colour, the Coffee Board had a wing called Propaganda Wing! In the sophisticated media world led by subtle ad gurus, it was a kind of Goebbelisian word. But that showed directness and resolve, I suppose. And it was during one of the coffee-driven campaigns that it happened. The honourable minister had pontificated on the mantra-like aphorism of those years — “Export or Perish”, for half an hour — giving statistics, analysis and that final resort of all politicians, appeal to patriotism. “Its our patriotic duty...”, he thundered before settling down on the targets for coffee exports. The Brazil crops had been less than average and, thus, there was an opportunity. However, the domestic prices had to be kept in check, lest coffee did an “onion” on the government! Now, while this delicate balance was being debated, the liveried Tea and Coffee Board personnel trooped in with their cups, kettles and decanters. I, a tea addict, did not, even in the heavily coffee flavoured atmosphere, flinch and poured a cup of Darjeeling. Almost all the rest of babudom went with the flavour of the day. The minister’s coffee was poured and a plate of cashewnuts placed next to him. The quarterly, yearly and decadal figures of production and exports of Robusta and Arabica of all coffee majors in the world lay in a heap in front. The Secretary, known for his extreme meticulousness, wanted to remove all clutter, so that the minister could enjoy his filter coffee without being cramped for style. He commanded a peon with a sweep of his hand. The peon rushed. Nobody knows what exactly happened. Perhaps the Secretary followed the minister’s orders to push the exports with great energy. The hot cup of coffee landed in the lap of the minister. Pandemonium broke. Everyone, instinctively, took out his handkerchief and rushed to the minister’s rescue. However the damage was extensive and judging by the location where the coffee had landed, it must have hurt. “Fire in the loins”, “tail on fire” whatever cruel definition one gives, it was a mess. To the great credit of the minister, he just smiled, walked to his room, showered, changed into an additional set of clothes, which he always kept, and was back within minutes! Some sang
froid. He joined the discussion where he had left it, and persuaded us to accept targets, which everyone, in their hearts of hearts, thought were laughably impossible. The general view was that the acceptance was a result of commiseration with the minister, who had his tail on fire! But targets, once laid, were sacrosanct and everyone vowed to cut all red tape and give it a go. Rare in government. When the financial year closed and the preliminary figures were available, they struck us all like with a ten-ton hammer. The exports had exceeded the targets laid by the minister! I am sure it had every thing to do with the tail on fire! |
Suicide terrorism spreads It
required London’s 7/7 for the West to realise two things: the lethality of suicide bombers and the centrality of Pakistan in fomenting and preparing the generation next of global jehad, not necessarily in that order. The fact that there was a replay of terror attacks on the London tube and bus transport system again on July 21,though on a minor scale, should make the West sit up and act fast against the epicentre of Islamic terrorism: Pakistan. The Pakistan connection came to the fore with the British authorities’
discovery that three of the four identified suicide bombers of the July 7 London attacks had visited Pakistan in the recent past and some of them had even attended a terrorist training camp. India has been crying itself hoarse for years over the continued terrorism infrastructure in Pakistan and only a couple of weeks ago, Pakistani magazine “The Herald” had come out with an expose as to how new training camps had been set up in Pakistan. The West has chosen to ignore the Indian concerns so far. But it cannot afford to do so any longer unless it wants to kick the axe. The British Press has widely reported a suspected linkage between the perpetrators of the London blasts and the serial train bombings in Spain on March 11, 2004. The commission investigating the train bombings in Madrid recently concluded that since the late 1990s, foreign radical Islamists have been using Spain for jihadi activities in support of al-Qaeda’s terrorist operations, particularly al-Zarqawi’s anti-coalition attacks in Iraq. More significantly, Spain has also begun to confront Pakistani-born radicals operating there after these attacks. Spain and Britain are pooling their information on the London bombing investigation. The Spanish authorities arrested 10 Pakistanis in September last on suspicion of belonging to an Islamic radical support network. Soon afterwards, the Spanish police discovered a video showing details of a number of buildings in
Barcelona. In November, 2004, two more Pakistanis were arrested, and in April this year, 11 suspects were indicted on terrorism charges. The London bombings were the first act of suicide terrorism of western Europe. The British security agencies were taken completely unawares largely because the bombs were small enough to fit in backpacks and yet lethal enough to kill scores of people in the heart of London. What is more, the four bombings required no exit strategy. That is the most dangerous part of suicide terrorism. No target, howsoever high profile or well protected, is safe from a terrorist who is willing to die. It is this factor which makes suicide terrorism the most effective of all types of attack. There is only one form of terror attack which is arguably more lethal: weapons of mass destruction. Suicide operations are nothing new in the history of mankind. Such tactics have been employed in high-stake palace intrigues down the centuries. Today, suicide bombings have rapidly evolved into the most common method of terrorism in the world. Such acts are no longer confined to West Asian or Sri Lanka or India. Suicide terrorism has gained roots in such countries as Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Russia, particularly since the most spectacular example of suicide terrorism in history — the September 11, 2001 plane hijackings in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. In Russia, Chechen Muslim radicals have mounted at least 19 suicide operations, including the deadliest of such attacks in 2004 in which hundreds died in a siege at a school, a bombing at a Moscow train station and the downing of two airliners. The data compiled by the Rand Corporation, an American think tank, suggest that the pace of such attacks is quickening by the day. About three-quarters of all suicide bombings have occurred since the September 11 attacks. Al-Qaeda itself has carried out suicide plots on more than 20 occasions since 1996 against the United States and its allies, including the
September 11 bombings. Iraq is the most stunning case in point. About 400 suicide bombings have shaken Iraq since the US invasion in 2003, and suicide now plays a role in two out of every three insurgent bombings. In May, an estimated 90 suicide bombings were carried out in Iraq — nearly as many as the Israeli government has documented in the conflict with Palestinians since 1993. The Israelis’ track record in dealing with suicide terrorism is more sanguine than the rest of the world. That is largely because of the fact that the Israelis have been combating the menace with an iron hand, ignoring the outcries of human rights groups. Statistics show that Israeli officials have made significant progress against suicide attacks since the start of the intifada in September 2000. At the height of the uprising in 2002, 42 suicide bombings killed 228 people. Two years later, the number had dropped to 12 bombings and 55 deaths. As a matter of state policy, Israeli military destroys the family homes of suicide bombers. The Israelis resort to such counter tactics to offset the financial incentives given by enemy governments and certain non-governmental groups in Arab countries for suicide acts. There have been a lot of instances when families of Palestinian/Arab suicide bombers were sent $ 15,000 cheques. Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party openly indulged in this practice. The West must realise that gearing up to tackle suicide terrorism alone will not help as it would be like watering the leaves and ignoring the roots. |
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How a writer coped with trauma She
lost her boyfriend, her best friend and both her grandparents in the same year, any one of which would have been traumatic. But Jolene Siana was 16. She was already struggling with difficult life issues. She didn’t know her father, because he was never told she’d been born. And she says her mother was emotionally and physically abusive. So Siana dealt with her problems the best she could: She cut herself with razor blades, made art and wrote letters to the lead singer of her favorite industrial rock band, Skinny Puppy. The hundreds of letters and pieces of art she mailed to Nivek Ogre in the late ‘80s are compiled in “Go Ask Ogre: Letters From a Deathrock Cutter,” and they tell an oddly inspiring tale. Siana was a young woman who found salvation in the unlikeliest places, finding redemption in so-called devil music and a contorted attempt at self-preservation through self-injury. It is, to be sure, dark stuff, but that’s what makes it powerful. The thoughts and emotions are real and in the moment, not hindsight recollections or clinical self-help manuals. It also strives to be more authentic for a new generation of young women than, say, the 1971 cautionary tale about drugs “Go Ask Alice.” Today, Siana is 36 and living in Los Angeles. She works as a waitress at a Burbank restaurant. And she still writes, in the notebook she carries with her at all times and on the blog she’s been keeping the past few years. She stopped cutting herself years ago, but she still has scars on her wrists and legs. She doesn’t like to show them. “It’s a very personal thing, and those moments were very private,’’ said Siana, a soft-spoken redhead who’s come to terms with her past by years of therapy. “I just hope that I can bring awareness to it. Anything to do with mental illness or mental health, it freaks people out. People are really uncomfortable talking about it. I’m not, and maybe that can open (things up).” When Siana first began writing to Ogre, she was 17. She didn’t understand what cutting meant; bringing awareness to the issue was about the furthest thing from her mind. At the time, writing Ogre was her way of reaching out to someone she thought might understand. When she was introduced to Skinny Puppy through a music video on MTV’s “120 Minutes,” something connected. “It didn’t sound like anything else I’d ever heard, and I found him attractive.... His lyrics, a lot of them were about pain, and I could identify.” Siana already had a lot of pen pals, and one day, while listening to the band in her bedroom by herself, she read a quote on the back of one of its albums: “For those who make up their own minds.” Without receiving any response, Siana wrote Ogre again 12 days later, and again the day after that, and two days after that, and so on. He wrote her back only once — two months to the day after she wrote her first letter. Publisher Jodi Wille said. “This book shows how you can take difficult situations and learn to make healthy choices, which was expressing herself creatively and reaching out to other people and connecting to others. They turned out to be the choices that saved her
life.” — LA Times-Washington Post |
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From Pakistan ISLAMABAD:
The NWFP government on Tuesday claimed that the purpose of introducing the Hasba Bill was to enforce the existing laws for the good of the people through an office having links with them. “There is no shortage of laws in this country but what is lacking is their enforcement,” Advocate Khalid Anwar argued before a nine-member bench of the Supreme Court hearing a reference filed by President Pervez Musharraf under advisory jurisdiction of the court against the Bill. Headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the apex court bench decided to commence the proceedings half an hour before the scheduled time and to sit overtime on a regular basis to conclude the hearing within this week. The court clarified that the speaker of the NWFP assembly was not a party although it had issued notices to the four advocates-general and the secretary of the NWFP assembly.
— Dawn Street play
for voters ISLAMABAD: A civil society organisation organised a special play regarding voter mobilisation to remove disappointment amongst common people here Tuesday. According to coordinator of Pattan Lok Natak William Pervaiz, seven leading theatre groups and 60 artists are taking part in the
campaign, which would be carried out during the local government election 2005. These theatre groups would perform street plays in Lahore, Chakwal, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Attock, Peshawar, Mardan, D. I. Khan, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Jhang, Khanewal, Multan, Muzzaffagrah, D.G. Khan, Jalalpur, Hyderabad, Badin, Ghotki, Thatha and Khairpur districts. After each performance, audience would be invited to express their views on election matters. Pattan Lok Natak is performing 200 street theatres throughout the country regarding voter mobilisation. The theatre aims to remove disappointment amongst common people regarding any possible positive change through election process.
— The Nation Foreigners leave LAHORE:
Hundreds of foreign students in Islamic seminaries were on Sunday preparing to go home after President Pervez Musharraf ordered them to leave Pakistan. “The decision appalled me, but I guess I don’t have any choice,” said Mohammed Tahir, a 24-year-old Frenchman of Pakistani descent studying at Lahore’s leading madarsa, the sprawling Jamia Ashrafia. “I’ll not go against the law, but I would have liked to complete my education,” said Tahir, a father of three from Paris studying Islamic law, interpretation of the Qur’aan and logic in the seminary. “I’ve got one and a half years left in my studies, but I plan to complete it at some seminary in France.” The school’s principal, Abdul Rehman Ashrafi, said the madarsa would abide by the order and expel the 25 to 30 foreigners among its more than 1,800 students, saying many of them could continue their studies at home.
— The News
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From the pages of MARKET FOR LANCASHIRE GOODS
There can be no doubt whatever that the manufacturers of Lancashire look at the East merely from the standpoint of their own selfish interests. They regard it simply as a market for their goods. We are often assured that Manchester feels a deep interest in India, and we know very well why she does so. She would, however, have us believe that her interest in India is not for selfish purpose. Those who are acquainted with the real state of things must decline to accept this view of the case. Say what the manufacturers of Lancashire may, the impartial public will not be convinced that in dealing with matters connected with the East they are actuated by philanthropic motives. When the cotton lords demanded the remission of Indian import duties, did they seek to promote the welfare of the unrepresented and dumb millions of this country? |
If you could understand the roar of tiger, you would not feel scared. If you could understand the meaning of the scriptures, you would not feel confused. —
Book of quotations on Hinduism The serious and earnest person has already started on the path of salvation. The thoughtless person is sailing through life without a care to his actions. He is as if dead already. —
The Buddha The strong may rule through their wealth. The strong may rule through their power. The strong may rule through brute force. But the strength of the weak lies in their righteousness and that rule is accepted by all. —
Book of quotations on Hinduism If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. —
Book of quotations of Success Beware of a general who has a hidden agenda. He will not fight for your cause, your cause is merely the means for him to achieve his own objective. He can abandon your cause as easily as he adopted it. —
The Mahabharata Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. —
Book of quotations on Happiness O humanity be reverent toward your Lord who created you from one soul and created its mate from it, and from these two disseminated many men and women. Be revenant toward God by whom you ask of each other, by whom you ask of each other, and be reverent toward relationship; for God is watching over you. —
Book of quotations on Islam
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