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Oil on the boil On the fast track |
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Animal form
Reservation in colleges
Teachers’ Day in our times
Universities under siege Spare the rod, but don’t spoil the child Chatterati
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Oil on the boil WITH the global crude oil price touching $70 a barrel, the domestic oil price hike has become “inevitable” and will be effected after Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar returns from his foreign tour on September 7. While the price hitting $100 a barrel is no longer a remote possibility, the crucial issue is how to cope with the emerging situation. Some plead for market-driven oil prices. Others see an opportunity to privatise “loss-making” oil companies. Most agree the burden should be shared by the government, the oil companies and the consumers. The oil companies’ bleeding apart, the government has so far managed the oil front reasonably well. Notably, the oil price rise has not hit car sales in the country; even big ones are in demand. Partly because prices are stable and incomes are rising in urban India, and partly because public transport is inadequate, inconvenient and unreliable. The middle class is ready to pay more for comfort and efficiency. Some argue the government, by suppressing the oil prices, is subsidising the car-owners at the cost of the poor. Unperturbed, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has hinted at making small cars cheaper by slashing the excise duty. The government should rather invest more in public transport. Many like to walk or cycle to office if traffic is disciplined, separate pavements are ensured and roads are good and wide enough. Investment in this area has multiple advantages. In this scenario the need to explore alternative sources of energy like solar, wind and nuclear becomes obvious. It is surprising in a country where returns from agriculture are low, why the use of biofuels like ethanol and methanol is not encouraged. Petrol and diesel mixed with these two are less polluting and much cheaper. Since the oil price rise is unlikely to see a reverse trend in the foreseeable future due to the rising demand from the US, China and India, the government needs to work out a long-term strategy to ensure the country’s energy security.
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On the fast track THE Supreme Court has rightly directed the High Courts to take prompt measures to speed up all cases, civil and criminal, within a specific timeframe. It wants the cases graded as sprint, middle-distance and long-distance with a view to banishing the marathons that have burdened the country’s courts with a huge backlog of cases. The slew of directives by a three-judge Bench consisting of Justice Y.K. Sabhrawal, Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari and Justice Tarun Chatterjee needs to be followed by the courts in letter and spirit. Significantly, the apex court has segregated cases in different tracks on the basis of their nature, quantum of evidence and possible time the courts would take to clear them. For instance, civil suits will be in Track-I covering maintenance, divorce, rent and eviction. These cases should be cleared in nine months. Track-II, covering suits for money, has a one-year limit and Track-III and Track-IV, covering suits for partition, property disputes, etc, will have a two-year limit. Equally significant is the fact that though the issue before the Supreme Court pertained only to amendments in the Civil Procedure Code (CVC), it has directed the High Courts to speed up cases under the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr PC) too. It has classified criminal cases in five segments. Cases of murder, rape and dowry deaths in Track-I and other non-bailable offences in Track-II will have deadlines of nine months and one year respectively. Economic offences in Track-III and offences tried by special courts under special laws like POTA and TADA in Track-IV will have deadlines of one year and 15 months respectively. Unfortunately, whenever the Centre came forward with reforms to speed up cases, lawyers have been opposing them for one reason or the other. This happened in the case of both the CVC and the Cr PC. The Supreme Court has now restricted the number of adjournments during the trial, specially in civil cases, to three, and that too, only on reasonable grounds. Similarly, as frivolous litigation is slowing down the pace of justice, the court has rightly suggested that people should pay for wasting the courts’ precious time. Even the government will have to pay a heavy penalty if it fails to respond to the court’s notices.
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Animal form MAN is described as a social animal. Yet, the emphasis is less on the “social” and more on the “animal” when you tell a guy that he is making a monkey or ass of himself. And, not everyone who admonishes another with “Don’t be a pig” is schooled in the Orwellian metaphor of the disappearing distinction between man and animals. Nevertheless, it looks like George Orwell’s Animal Farm is coming about and in ways far different from what he had foreseen. Of course, it needs to be explained, for the benefit of those who were not blessed enough to be in London last weekend, that humans too were sighted in London Zoo. Three men and five women were put into an open pen as part of a humans-turned-animals project. Unlike the denizens of the jungle held captive in the zoo, the human species, selected from 30 volunteers, were allowed to go home at the end of the day. The experiment was to show that the world is indeed a zoo, and emphasise the place of man in our ecology by showing that he is the most adaptable of all the animals that stalk the earth. The stunt, dubbed as Homo Exhibitionist, was no doubt a good publicity ploy for the London Zoo, which had faced financial difficulties in the mid-1990s; there was an unusual rush of visitors, probably curious to see how their own kind look when exhibited in the ‘animal world’. At a time when it is fashionable and politically correct to care for animals as much as fellow human beings, there are no doubt many who would applaud the experiment. But few would have paused to ponder whether the creatures that have come to regard the zoo as their “berth right” approved of this territorial transgression.
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There is nothing lost by civility. — A proverb |
Reservation in colleges THE late Dr T.M.A. Pai would not have anticipated his name filling the pages of law reports for no fault of his. He was a visionary who freed technical education from the clutches of governments in the mid-1950s and turned Manipal, once a desolate village, into an excellent centre of education. The genius in Dr Pai recognised the basic impediment in the way of professional education, i.e., generating money to establish a college, to run and develop it and make the cost of education affordable to the middle class Indians. Dr Pai found answers to these through the judicious use of the “capitation fee”. He never compromised with the quality of education — many MRCP and FRCS doctors were in the faculty. As a result, Magalore and Manipal could boast of a wealth of specialists in all fields of healthcare. Sadly, with the passage of time, the occupation of running professional colleges degenerated into a mushrooming racket, and hence the inevitable court intervention. When in 1992 Mohini Jain complained to the Supreme Court against the exorbitant fee demanded, the issue was “finding the money”. Then, the capitation fee stood banned under a law made by Karnataka. The court ruled that the high fee demanded was in reality a capitation fee with a different tag. The court also held that as a concept the capitation fee was unconstitutional because the right to education was a fundamental right under the Constitution. In 1993, Unnikrishnan and others engaged in running professional colleges challenged the correctness of this ruling. The five-judge Bench did not approve of the Mohini Jain declaration about the right to education, but reaffirmed that the capitation fee was unconstitutional. Having done so the court had at once to deal with the question, “Where to find the money?” With the realisation of the ultimate truth that there is no substitute for money, the court devised a substitute for the condemned “capitation fee” through an elaborate scheme that made impressive reading. It envisaged, among others, reservation of at least 50 per cent of the seats in private colleges to be filled by the nominees of the government or the university as “free seats”, appointment of a committee to fix the fee structure for the other 50 per cent that could meet all the expenditure, including that of the free seats, plus leave some profit to the management, centralised common pool of applications to be invited only by the government/university, a common entrance test, and the like. The scheme appeared flawless until put into practice, but failed miserably because the question that was dealt with was not one of abstract constitutional law, but of practical economics. When it was implemented, problems galore started surfacing in quick succession, compelling the private colleges and even students to seek repeated interventions and clarifications from the Supreme Court — often resulting in ad hoc directions valid only for that particular case or for that year — all related to economics. Fundamental issues about the scope and ambit of Article 30 dealing with minorities and minority educational institutions cropped up. The court referred the matter to a larger Bench in view of the 1992 ruling in St. Stephens College case by a five-judge Bench and eventually, after some unsuccessful attempts, in 2002 the 11-judge Bench, in the case of TMA Pai Foundation and others rendered five opinions. The majority opinion held, among others, that the right of running professional colleges is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19(1) (g) of the Constitution and the scheme propounded in Unnikrishnan’s case — dubbed as a “scheme of nationalisation of private colleges” — violated this right. This was on October 31, 2002. The court also disapproved the scheme that commanded one set of 50 per cent of the students financing the education of the other half. The Pai Foundation Case, falling well short of expectations, ushered in neither peace nor tranquillity — not even clarity. As narrated by Chief Justice Lahoti, different people could interpret that judgement in different ways to suit their own interests and several states enacted laws to implement that ruling as understood by them. Daunted by the mounting litigations, CJI Khare, a member of the Pai Foundation Bench, felt compelled to constitute a Bench of five judges–the mission being the discovery of what exactly did the 11-judge Bench in Pai Foundation decide! This novel effort under the title of “Islamic Academy of Education” resulted in two opinions, 4:1, delivered on August 14, 2003, which, according to CJI Lahoti, “ though illuminating and instructive, have nevertheless not summed up or pointedly answered the questions”. Some of the directions by the majority in the Islamic Academy case were, according to the private colleges, “re-incarnation of the dead Unnikrishnan scheme”. After all, the basic issue remained the same — “How to find the money?” Faced with a wave of fresh litigation, in July 2004, the Chief Justice of India directed re-examination of the following four aspects–within the scope of law declared in Pai Foundation: One, the extent of the state’s power to regulate admissions in un-aided institutions–power of the state to enforce its policy of reservation and/or appropriation to itself any quota of seats. Two, procedure of admissions. Three, correctness of guidelines issued by the court in the Islamic Academy case regarding the fee structure. Four, power of the committee appointed under the Islamic Academy case. The seven-Judge Bench delivered its verdict — mercifully a unanimous one — on August 12, 2005, Inamdar case. The major declarations, all of which are certified to be within the limits of the Pai Foundation ruling, are as follows: The states have no power to appropriate for themselves seats in the unaided private professional educational institutions; nor can they compel them to implement the state’s policy on reservation. A group of institutions imparting same or similar education may jointly hold the entrance test — or the state may itself or through an agency — enjoying utmost credibility and expertise, arrange for holding such a test. A single-window system for regulating admissions should be aimed at. Every institution is free to devise its own fee structure; but profiteering and capitation fee are prohibited. The committees headed by retired judges, as directed in the Islamic Academy case, are permissible as a regulatory measure aimed at protecting the interest of the student community as a whole. The committee has the power to regulate the fee structure and they would act in a quasi-judicial manner. The decisions of the committee shall be subject to a judicial review. Up to a maximum of 15 per cent of the seats could be reserved for NRIs, which is a euphemism for students with less marks and more money. The present effort is not intended to be a critique of the evolution of “Capitation fee jurisprudence”; the aim is to forewarn all concerned that by May 2006 there must be a working machinery in place to deal with lakhs of students seeking no bigger favour than an opportunity to study. The court in the Inamdar case has, with respect, correctly appreciated the economics involved and the declaration of law was in aid of it. When the court declared, “No free seats for the states and no reservation” — the economic burden on the colleges were reduced in accordance with law — it was not politics. The NRI seat is another instance of helping the colleges to make education affordable even without reverting to the capitation fee. The problem of keeping both the colleges and the ideology, which banned the capitation fee, alive is a complex one. As a first step, the governments should make laws in consultation with persons experienced in the field. The laws should address all aspects pointed out in the Inamdar case — including the issue of reservation. If the states want seats under their control, or if they want reservation policy to be implemented, they should pay for those seats. The laws may provide for these. The writer is Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, and a former Additional Solicitor-General of India.
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Teachers’ Day in our times
FOR most of the people of my fifty-plus generation Teachers’ Day brings nostalgic memories of our school days. Those were the days when the concept of public schools was unheard of in most parts of Punjab. We are the proud products of desi schools where benches were the luxury to be enjoyed by the two or three senior classes only. Rest of the students would be content to sit on long jute carpets which were called tappads. In retrospect, most of us find ourselves not lucky enough like our children to have studied from lovely lady teachers. All our teachers were males and many of them were too old and accustomed to simple and orthodox manners. Corporal punishment had an unwritten sanction and the rollcall was answered by saying “Jai Hind” or “Hazir Janab” as there were not any sirs in our vocabulary in those days. Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the then President of India, was a revered figure and it was his birthday which was and is celebrated as Teachers’ Day. The morning assembly was interspersed by speeches telling the importance of a good educator in life and we used to feel comfortable by the exceptionally “friendly” attitude of our teachers towards us that day. The school peon used to carry a register informing the teachers about a tea party to be hosted by the principal after the school hours. Carrying our phatti and basta, we used to watch this get-together from a distance. Many of the teachers whom we had never seen enjoying a lighter moment appeared to be in jovial and hassle-free mood. Their relaxation was in itself a great relief to us and we used to carry this big story to our homes. Another day which gave us a better feeling in the school was Children’s Day, birthday of Pandit Nehru, the Prime Minister of India during those years. Our relationship with teachers was a bag of mixed feelings. We used to respect them, love them and on occasions fear them also. They never floundered in imparting us composite education which many times transcended the written syllabus. Private tuitions were an anathema to them and they were simple people with no high ambitions. Their sole aim was to evolve us into wholesome human beings, who could blend with their surroundings, rather than become misfits. Decades later when my children are at the verge of passing out from their “public schools”, I find a sea change between my school days and theirs. Crass commercialisation has entered the education arena and today the spirit of Teachers’ Day has become hostage to style and sophistication. When I tell children about the dedication of those teachers and the simplicity of my school days, they tell me: “Oh papa, you are talking about different people and different times”.
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Universities under siege HAVING reasonably played a good and successful role the Indian university system as a whole is under siege. The pressure from the governments in the form of withdrawal of secure financial support under the new policy paradigm described as liberalisation, privatisation globalisation (LPG) has created a multi-dimensional crisis within the universities. The budgetary support is insufficient even to meet the salary budget of employees, leading to vacant posts of teacher from 1/4th to 1/3rd. This has undermined the capacity of the system to provide quality education and research (generation of knowledge) has almost been given a goodbye. Many universities are on the way to be transformed into postgraduate colleges. The culture of interaction among teachers and students is disappearing and class lectures are only one-way traffic. The fusion of wisdom of the mature generation and enthusiasm of the young generation is just not taking place. There is no experimentation with new ideas or social practice based on these ideas. In a way this has paralysed the centres of higher learning with intellectual activism disappearing from the scene. Consequently, the system is failing in its traditional role of guiding and monitoring higher education. This is also displayed in the collapse of the examination system where the universities have no faith in their own degrees. The trust in their own degrees was replaced by entrance tests which have also collapsed both at the national as well as regional level. This has also undermined the capacity of the universities to monitor imparting of education in the colleges affiliated to them and maintain minimum standards of education. The recent spurt in the opening up of self-financed private colleges in engineering, management, law, education, nursing, dental and medical sciences and opening up of such courses in aided colleges has created serious challenges for universities for monitoring and regulating such institutions. A hefty fee is charged from the students for the courses which is periodically revised sometimes arbitrarily (as in case of law and education courses in Punjab) and the availability of the management quota ranging from 15 per cent to 50 per cent seats, that too without any reservations, has generated a large quantity of funds with such colleges. These funds are used to get necessary approvals from bodies other than the universities even when they do not fulfil the necessary norms laid down for them. Having got necessary sanctions from the government agencies and national profession/competent authorities, these institutions resort to arm twisting of the university bodies and the faculty appointed for inspections for granting of affiliation. Even when universities are able to resist and insist on fulfilling the necessary conditions and norms, they try to create a semblance of norms by appointing faculty on a temporary basis as well as procuring equipment and building on rent. As soon as the affiliation is granted and admission is done in the lucrative courses, they violate the basic conditions by not appointing/relieving faculty (principals and teachers) who demand regular pay scales. They never follow norms for filling management quota seats and resort to open auctioning. Although it is in the knowledge of the powers that be, no action is taken. The consequences of this are three fold. One, the students get degrees but without proper training and degrees are based on mass copying, sometimes organised by the managements. Secondly, the
environment in these colleges is commercial rather than academic. The faculty is temporary and get salaries which are generally 1/3rd of the salaries in the aided colleges/universities. Therefore, the faculty is not only poor, many a time also ineligible. Three, poor students are being crowded out of professional courses. The universities are unable to enforce their norms in affiliations, admissions, funds collected, teaching days, faculty appointments and examinations, but are forced to award degrees to the students of these colleges and suffer in their reputation. To save the reputation of well-established universities and establish the reputation of newly set up universities is a very big challenges. The universities, if they fail in this task, would stand discredited in public eyes and would be unable to act as centres of higher learning on the one hand and help build a civil society by producing universal citizenship and constitutional state. Though there are variations, yet the universal downward slide is well known in our universities. This needs the attention of the state as well as the teachers. Teachers in the public-funded universities are well enlightened and organised and better understand the consequences of the downslide of the reputation of these institutions. With the sole exception of private-aided college teachers, the teachers have compromised and accepted the situation without playing the role expected from them. In fact, a small section of the teachers has contributed in this downslide. The university teachers must come forward to defend these institutions and protect the ideals of
scholarship, humanism, civility and produce humane civil society. The enlightened
self-interest of the university teachers demands that they should stand in favour of the university. They have no other option but to use their organised strength to demand from the governments to fulfil their constitutional and legal commitment to provide necessary finances for higher education. As members of various university bodies and inspection committees, teachers must resist pressures of commercial interests and protect norms of standards in affiliations, admissions, teaching and examinations in the self-financed institutions. For this, the university teachers have to engage their own colleagues in healthy discussions to do necessary intellectual churning to save higher education and the university as in institution. The writer is a Professor in the Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala
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Spare the rod, but don’t spoil the child ONE piece of conventional school wisdom which has been squarely rejected in the recent years is the adage, “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. It has been replaced with a “hands-off” policy. Perhaps this has helped in removing the fear of the school from the young minds, but the change is not exactly an unqualified success. Its intended effect has been marred by a marked rise in indiscipline. Actually, the pendulum has swung the other way, with teachers not having any adequate means at their command to control rowdy students. The headmaster of a reputed school confided in me that their hands have been tied while the students have been left free to do whatever they please. Reprimanding has no effect on them. Physical punishment is out. Imposing a fine only punishes the parents. That leaves the teachers only with the extreme measurement of rustication. In other words, there is no middle path. There are instances of repeated misbehaviour which are too serious to merit only an admonition and too trivial to justify expulsion. How does one cope with such a situation? The result is that unruliness is on the rise. Actually, some teachers are to blame for bringing things to such a pass. They did beat the students black and blue, even at the slightest pretext. But that does not mean that the whole community was like that. Now the wings of even well-meaning teachers stand clipped. The problem arises when you brand everything as “corporal punishment”. The term evokes images of merciless spanking or caning. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A whack on the back or the tweaking of ears does not stand in the same league by any stretch of the imagination. We happen to be blindly adopting the system followed in the West, without realising that the social mores in our country are a lot different. Social behaviour here is a lot different. Parental love makes many mothers and fathers interfere too much in the lives of their children and even brand normal disciplining as “cruelty”. I know of parents who have fought with the teachers for “talking loudly” to their children. Some of them have got false medical certificates made so that their children do not have to take part in school prayers or sports. Are they being helpful or spoiling the formative years of their boys? Students are likely to respect a teacher only if their parents do. But the well-heeled ones amongst us tend to treat them no better than low-paid employees. Some rich students of a well-known residential school were recently reprimanded for their extreme misbehaviour. When two of them did not mend their ways, their parents were called to school. Instead of scolding their children, the parents picked a fight with the teachers and dared them to take any action. This emboldened the students all the more and they became far more unbearable. The Headmaster was left with no option but to expel them. All hell broke loose. The parents put their formidable political clout at play to get the order reversed. When the pressure did not work, they went to court. Mercifully, the court dismissed the plea. Now there is nothing to do except repent. Teachers themselves were none too happy with the turn of events. But the aggression of the students left them with no alternative. Now could not the careers of the boys have been saved if the teachers were allowed to at least pull their ears, the way most parents do? A majority of them take pride in their parental feelings towards the students. Why treat them like villains?
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Chatterati Actress-turneD TV hostess Simi Garewal, with a radiant smile and easy manner philosophy, is as pristine as her chosen palette. She was in the Capital for a fashion do of gorgeous mothers, accompanied by their pretty daughters, making an unbeatable style statement. The mothers were in white wear, showing off necklaces by jewellery designer Kanchan Mehra and the daughters in black wore the dangling earrings. Theatre person Lushin Dubey and Bubbles Sabarwal were there with their stunning daughters. Delhi always gets bored with the same stuff — so a new concept. Talking of fashion, our first designer ever to be invited to the New York fashion week is getting a royal send-off. Designer Ashish Soni will land on the global fashion with handloom cottons and silks sourced from all over India. Raising a toast to Soni were his peers — right from Robert Vadra, Prafful Patel, Vijay Mallaya to Dr Naresh Trehan, who saw a preview of the creations that he will be taking with him. With the wedding season around the corner, a visit to the ongoing bride and groom show indicates that money is certainly not a criterion where weddings are concerned.
With Sonia’s blessings No one can beat this wedding card. J.M. Haroon, M.P. from Tamil Nadu, has printed cards for his daughter’s wedding. His loyalties are so clear. The envelope has Sonia Gandhi waving and Rahul smiling. Inside is a huge picture of Sonia and kids again. And the text of the invite begins with the “auspicious blessings of Sonia Gandhi” and then the invitation. The rear of the card has photos of the Gandhi family. Haroon’s political agenda is clear too. The only UPA MP left out of the wedding is Jagdish Tytler. Otherwise all are cordially invited.
End of a session Advani hosted a dinner on the last evening of the Parliament session for all NDA members. Vajpayee was of course, the hero here. Now as politics is a mix of glamour and desi, no doubt the heroine was Hema Malani. Vajpayee, as was predictable, warned his folk of a mid-term poll. Whispers of Advani resigning in September and the suspense of who will take over — Sushma, Raj Nath Singh or Murli Manohar Joshi? Well, this group was quite pleased with their performance in Parliament as opposition. On some of the debates on important issues the Houses were virtually empty. But professional politicians, who do politics only for the politics sake and manage to be in Parliament term after term, were at their best in speaking against the government and everything in general. In between all this, Ghulam Nabi Azad tried to initiate team spirit in the M.P.s by having a sports meet. Wonder, if it worked!
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From the pages of Prevailing despondency
A sort of gloomy despondency seems to have settled on our countrymen of late. They appear to have lost heart to such an extent that a sad sigh is generally the only response to an appeal to take part in any kind of progressive movement. There is nothing like the old hopeful energy visible in the rank and file of political workers. The average class of social reformers are almost in a state of despair. The mass of members of religious organisations, orthodox as well as others, are anything but sanguine of success. And those who have been accustomed to take an interest in the question of industrial revival and cognate subjects shake their heads as dolefully as others. The vast bulk of our people have enough to do to make the two ends meet, and have no time or energy to devote to any mater that does not immediately concern them. Only our educated classes, constituting a very small section of the population, have had no time or inclination to think of matters of national interest or welfare. And now, sad to note, the majority of these natural guides of the people are evidently sinking into the same slough of despond in which the masses have been floundering for ages.
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The Supreme knowledge is as much for householders as for monks. —The Upanishads Work is the best way to achieve happiness. But not all work can do so. Only when we work with dedication, care and willingness, we get the pure joy of satisfaction. The effort and sincerity we put in is proportionate to our happiness in its completion. —The Mahabharata Happiness is neither within us, nor without us, it is the union of ourselves with God. — Book of quotations on Happiness
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