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Strike: We must discipline the indisciplined lot
On Record |
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Making the
RTI Act effective
Reflections Profile
Diversities — Delhi Letter
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Strike: We must discipline the indisciplined lot
Workers strike work. Flights cancelled. Bank, bus and train services disrupted. Commerce and industry suffer. Passengers are stranded. Millions are affected. Billions are lost. All because a political party is not happy with the policies of the UPA government. Shall we still try to placate these politicians or be patriotic? Shall we take tough measures to ensure that it does not happen? Strikes strike at the progress of the people. Affect the economy. Harm the nation. Inconvenience the very people who pay for the wages of the employees. It is time we struck hard at the strikers. We must discipline the undisciplined. With a firm hand. Before they are able to destroy any further. And there is an excellent example to emulate. Tamil Nadu. The state had stood steadfast in dealing with the delinquents. Now it is for the national government to show some guts. Hopefully, the judiciary shall not be too generous. As a nation, we have all that a man may ask for. Fertile land. Flora and fauna. Cashew, coconut and coir. Forests. Men with minds. Mines with minerals. Rubber. Sea food and spices. Rivers irrigate our fields. The sea washes our shores. Sandalwood lends scent to the Indian air. And then, we have almost a billion pair of hands. Still the country is poor. There is poverty in the midst of plenty. Why? What ails India? The basic cause is the lack of work culture. Hard work is not our habit. We prefer ease to effort. The people prefer public sector to private enterprise primarily because it offers a lot of security without a corresponding level of responsibility. As a result, the Director does not give any direction. The labour does not labour. The Manager does not manage. The workman does not work. Should the taxpayers’ hard earned money be paid to such people? Why have we reached this impasse? The politicians have invariably tried to patronise and please the vote banks. The laws have been enacted to help the so-called poor workmen. These laws have been interpreted liberally and implemented solely to please the poor. Today, it is no wonder that the majority of our people want pay without performance. They are conscious of their rights. Not the duties. Many may not even be aware of the fact that there is a Chapter on ‘Duties’ in the Constitution of India. Then our system of governance does not reward the good. It does not punish the bad. We seldom pat the man who perseveres. We are not sweet to those who sweat. The archaic rule of seniority and time-bound promotions continues to sap the young man’s enthusiasm for excellence. There is no incentive to spur the individual’s ambition. Resultantly, the departments of the government and the public sector undertakings have mostly become and continue to be breeding centers for mediocrity. Thanks to policies for economic revival, the private sector is picking up. It is providing competition to the public sector. It is creating job opportunities. Today, there is work for the willing. But the public sector employees want parity in pay without an insistence upon performance. They want equality in remuneration but not in responsibility. Nobody can accept this. Thus, there are strikes. These lead to losses. The government wants to disinvest and reduce the liabilities. The political parties object. It is true that the Constitution grants freedom of speech. It guarantees the right to form unions and to protest. Yes! But the Constitution permits reasonable restrictions also. Today, the larger public interest demands that we have a good look at the whole scenario and take firm steps to ensure that a few are not able to hold the majority of people to ransom. The liberty should not be allowed to degenerate into a license. What should be done? First, there is a lot of unemployment in the country. The employment exchanges have long lists of the unemployed. These lists should be properly reviewed on the basis of qualifications and suitability for jobs. In the event of a strike, the lists with the employment exchanges can be immediately used to help the needy instead of the greedy. The temporary or daily wage workers who go on strike should be forthwith replaced by suitable hands. This would help the deserving and discourage many from going on strike. Secondly, the law should lay down an adjudicatory procedure. The employees should be able to put forth their demand. The Tribunal should call and question the management. If the demand is found to be reasonable, the employer should accept it. If the needful is not done, the employees may adopt the coercive method. Not otherwise. Thirdly, in the ‘Service’ sectors like Health and Transport etc., there should be strict parameters. The employees should not be able to hold the people to ransom at the whim of a political party. An unjustified strike must attract penal provisions. Summary termination should be permissible. Thirdly, it should be unprofitable for the employee to strike work. An unjustified absence, pen-down or work to rule as often adopted by the employees should lead to recovery of loss from the defaulter. No work should mean no wages. Equally, if a unit does well, the employees who have worked hard should have a share in the profits. The wages must vary with loss and profit. This should provide an incentive to work hard. And finally, we may enact Acts and promulgate laws till there is a shortage of parchment and pens in the world. Still, we may not have done enough to ensure a bright future for the people. Delight in doing duty, pride in performance and sense of self-respect have to be inculcated in every Indian. The leaders have not done it. We cannot even count on them. If the masses are well informed, they might become immune to exploitation. The love for basic values has to be built in the minds of men. At home. By parents. In schools. By teachers. Shall we? Only time will tell. But we must resolve to save society from the workmen who do not
work. The writer is a former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court |
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On Record
The remarkable increase in the number of universities, colleges and students in the last five decades are indicators of the growth of higher education in the country, emphasises Prof Arun Nigavekar. There is, however, no room for complacency, he cautions. "We still have miles to go", he maintains. On completion of his three-year tenure as the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) on September 27, Prof Nigavekar, a noted physicist, swears by Information Communication and Technology (ICT). Knowledge he says is at the core of all development efforts in advancing economic and social well being in an emerging nation like ours. In conversation with The Sunday Tribune, Prof Nigavekar, who is all set to return to the Pune University as Professor Emeritus, insists that autonomy is a must for ensuring the success of any educational institution. Excerpts: Q: Are you satisfied with what the UGC has accomplished? A: I am happy. Beginning of the 21st century has been an exciting and interesting phase in higher education for two things. First, higher education has become a global entity because of the convergence of technology and we have reached what we call borderless education. Second, is the relationship between education, knowledge and the capacity of a nation to convert this knowledge into wealth. India like the Western countries needs to make higher education a tradable commodity. Countries like the UK have been able to do that. They have sound higher education and research and development (R&D). We have been able to reach out and allow access to higher education. Special development grants have been given, initiatives like the International Property Rights, Knowledge Based Enterprise Promotion and Implementation of the Right to Information have been some of the achievements. Q: What has the UGC done to alleviate the problems in higher education? A: We have come a long way...from 25 Universities in 1950 to 306 in 2005, from a student strength of one lakh to 94 lakh. It has been an eventful journey. The problems that we still face are access and equity, relevance of education, quality and excellence in education, governance and resources. We adopted a strategy to enhance access by blending conventional education with distance education. This helped us give a free flow to education. At the beginning of the Tenth Plan, we aspired to take the access ratio from seven to 10, today we already have an access ratio of almost nine. The second strategy was to use ICT. For the last five decades, social access has been our central agenda and this may continue for years, but what we need is access to information and equity in terms of access. Q: There was a furore over the proposed Model Act for universities. Has it been put away for good? A: The Model Act, unfortunately, received negative publicity. The UGC Act, drafted in 1956, has no relevance today. We wanted to reinvent the UGC as a supervisory body. During its Golden Jubilee celebrations, even the then Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said that we needed a Higher Education Commission, not just UGC. The UGC is more than just a body that gives grants. We have bigger challenges to meet. In the 21st century, we need to be empowered to present a framework that guides towards quality and relevance of education. Both the UGC and the universities need more open, flexible and overreaching Acts because higher education needs a supervisory framework, not a regulatory one. Q: Have the efforts to internationalise our higher education paid off? A: We had proposed to take Indian education abroad in the Tenth Plan and set up a Standing Committee for preparing a Report on the Promotion of Indian Higher Education Abroad (PIHEAD) to further advise on its implementation. In the last two years, 20 universities have taken part in the Initiative. They have told me that their foreign student enrolment has increased between one-and-a-half to two per cent. I think this initiative is very important because it will help the country’s economy and have a distinct academic advantage. It helps in creating bridges and improve teaching-learning and R&D. A country like ours cannot afford to isolate itself in an era that is fast moving towards borderless education. Q: There have been murmurs of protest within the UGC over the HRD Ministry’s attempts to curtail its autonomy. Any comment? A: Autonomy, whether for the UGC or other educational body, is vital. It is needed for efficiency and a supervisory approach. Unless you give total autonomy, expecting academic growth, governance, demands for higher achievements, resources is a crime. I see the recent directives to the UGC as an aberration. Q: Universities are unhappy with the funds and students wishing to pursue a career in academics feel let down by the ban on recruitment. A: In India, education has been the government’s responsibility. This will continue. But it is time for us to look at education as a private good as well. However, care has to be taken to ensure that there is no commercialisation of education. We have to ensure that education as a private good gives resources to the state system. This is where the proactive and all inclusive policy has to be adopted. n
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Making the RTI Act effective
October 12 will be celebrated as Dusshera, the festival symbolising the triumph of good over evil. On this day, citizens will also have access to a new and empowering piece of legislation – the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005. It was passed by Parliament in May 2005. If implemented effectively, it will usher in a new era of transparency and accountability in government. To make it effective and uniform across the country, the Act needs to be guided by a strong set of rules. The Centre has notified rules on fees and the processing of appeals, but is yet to finalise rules to govern implementation of the Act. These are currently being examined by the Union Law Ministry and will soon be uploaded on to their website. It is imperative that the rules are published for public comment before they are finalised. Meanwhile, under the Act, the state governments have independent rule making authority. Karnataka has already drafted rules. Others who are finalising them include Chandigarh UT, Mizoram, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. The Centre has not yet finalised rules. This is troubling because if the Centre and the states develop different sets of rules, it could become confusing for the public. Many states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh UT, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya have begun bedding down the infrastructure key to ensuring the operational success of the Act. Training programmes for officers have also begun. However, the Prime Minister has reportedly said that file notings of bureaucrats are exempt from disclosure under the Act. The RTI campaigners are planning to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court as it undermines the heart of a law meant to curb corruption and secrecy in the bureaucracy. The Centre has also notified fees for processing information requests — Rs 10 towards application fee and Rs 2 for each page of information. This will affect many people who cannot afford the fee. The idea of the Act is to encourage people to use it, not make it the privilege of the rich and powerful. In Karnataka, the draft rules set the application fee at a whopping Rs 100! Meanwhile, many states are yet to take even preliminary steps towards implementing basic provisions of the right to information. They have not taken forward the appointment of key personnel, are not systematising their records and have not prioritised official training or public awareness raising. Action in this regard brooks no delay. The bureaucracy needs to decide where it stands — will it be at the forefront of a new progressive India, guided by the mantra of RTI? Will our leaders stand as an example to the nation by accepting this new legislation so hard fought and preciously
won? The writer is associated with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi |
Reflections
This fortnight I was away on an academic engagement outside India. This also included a visit to my sister in London. As I sat over an evening meal with my sister Dr Reeta Peshawaria and my brother-in-law, Dr Keerti Menon, I just casually asked them as to how their day was at work? Both are leading clinical psychologists working with the same organisation now for the last five years in London. Reeta said, “Oh we had our meeting of the week. (It was a Monday) And I am to write the minutes of these. It was my turn to do so”. I probed further out of curiosity and asked her what the meeting was about? She said, “it was our usual weekly meeting in which we review the work of the week”. “Very good”, I said. “Could you tell me a bit more”? She immediately said, “now you don’t make me restart the day”. I said, “no I am just keen to know about your meetings, how they are held? How are they conducted? Just to know and perhaps pick up some ideas, and do you mind sharing”? Keerti, my brother-in-law, obliged and started to share some heart warming information about their meetings while Reeta kept pitching in whenever she wanted to emphasise something she felt good about. Since it made some very valuable sharing I decided to recall this. I found it of particular relevance to the way we work in our offices: the way we organise ourselves to be productive and efficient in public or private services. As it was told to me over our two consecutive dinners this is what I assimilated. Keerti narrated: “We all psychologists of the County meet once a week. The meeting has three segments. The first one is of 30 minutes. It’s the basic business meeting which is for exchange of information like posts vacant or filled, trainings, impending or completed or impending, procedures, any impact of these, trust policies which influenced the working, new government guidelines, any new developments etc. “The second segment is exchange of information about peer supervision. It’s about sharing of good practices and lessons learnt for each of us during the week. This is the most productive part of the meeting which makes us constantly learn as a team. The sharing is candid and mature. It is without an element of competition or scoring brownies. “The third segment is about a scientific presentation. One of us by turn makes a full presentation on a pre-decided subject for 10 minutes which is followed by discussion. We all go prepared. We all contribute and learn from each other. The meeting is not chaired by the chief but is done by rotation. Sometimes the junior most chairs it. The object is to groom the next line of leadership through reasonable amount of delegation. The minutes of the meeting too are recorded by rotation by one of us. “Some meetings are mandatory to attend and some are not, Keerti explained. We have a laid down criterion to attend or not to attend. The point is that all meetings we attend have to be relevant to our work. There are no formalities. The criterion is: to ensure we make the best use of our time. The discussions in the meetings are frank and focussed. Each adverse incident is recorded and analysed to ensure that due lessons are learnt. All of us in the meeting have all the information on the computer before us. Hence no one has any reason not to be up-to-date. “The meetings are paperless, instant information, face to face, peer tutoring, seniors learning from peers, good practices more important than sheer knowledge, backed up by constructive feedback. There is an element of consensus building for procedures while creative work remains unique. “Specialist is respected and honoured. All results are measurable, through pre-declared processes of evaluation. The plans are followed and assessed not by the practitioners but the by the end users, like the patient evaluating the doctors’ treatment and the student or the trainees evaluating the teachers mentoring. In case of a conflict we have to resolve it mutually. We are all trained in conflict resolution”. I now asked him to compare it with his days of meetings back home, as he had been a Director of a National Institute in India before they (both) decided to take up work overseas. This is how he reflected most authentically. “There is too much of an external and extraneous interference in all that we do: Many times our work is substandard: We do not insist on measurable outcomes. All present in the meetings are not at the equal level of training. Hence some with less skill and qualification for the sake of marking their presence divert issues and eat into the meetings with agendas of their own. Mistakes at times are ignored or hushed up. We are also more on headhunting than on a corrective approach with opportunities to learn…” How true! I thought. But was it limited to my own country? I wondered. No! Having been exposed to some international working, its pretty much true outside India! The fact is that all organisations develop their own work cultures and work ethic which include the way meetings are conducted. These undoubtedly end up reflecting, in large measure, the working culture of organisations. I started to compare this with my own department, the Police. And I found it a world apart. Less said the better! There are many lessons to be learnt only if we wish to. It considerably depends, I believe, on the intensity of our concerns for the
future. |
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Profile
Paheli, as a matter of fact, is adoption of a folk tale from Rajasthan called Duvidha (dilemma), penned by legendary Rajasthani writer Vijyadan Detha. The contemporary script was written by Palekar’s wife, Sandhya Gokhale, who is associate director for the film. For her the challenge was to script a story that retained the folklore, add a contemporary feel and, at the same time, bring out the feminist view. She has been a success. "As screen play writer and associate director, Sandhya has to take on much more than what these two responsibilities called for", says Palekar. "She has been one of the major players of the film". Palekar personally approached Shah Rukh Khan to play the lead. The actor was so impressed by the script that he reportedly said, "I have fallen in love with the story" and wanted that shooting should begin without any loss of time. India’s film industry, which produces over 5,000 films every year, only next to Hollywood, has a dynamic film industry. It has recently began experimenting with new stories and scripts, giving up its three-and-a-half-hour formula of "a rich girl meeting a poor boy". Palekar says, he never makes a film with the objective of getting awards. However, "when one comes in for praise, one feels happy". Paheli was chosen for Oscar because it was a truly an Indian film and it was a great honour to Palekar personally. It is a moot question whether it would finally be able to bag the Oscar or not. However, Palekar’s first reaction at the nomination of Paheli for Oscar was: "I feel very happy`85I did not expect it". Nomination of Paheli has indeed surprised many and stirred the film industry. It had not set the box office on fire in India but it made a mark in the West. Palekar says, "the film will definitely change the views of the people abroad about India. It is inherently Indian, linked to the soil of India". Palekar is no ordinary director. He is eight-time national film award winner. A post-graduate of Fine Arts from Mumbai’s Sir J.J. School of Art, he started his career as a partner before he went on to become a successful and highly acclaimed actor. That was in 1974 and since then, he has won three Filmfare Best Actor awards and six national awards. He turned director in 1981 and now has five major films to his credit which have been lauded at the festivals all over the world. His last film, Daayra, was awarded the Grand Prix, Festival du Valenciennes, France. It was also featured in the Time magazine’s top 10 films of 1996. Yet another film of Palekar, Kairee, had been widely applauded. It was based on a short story by renowned Marathi writer G.A. Kulkarni. It is the tale of a 10-year-old girl uprooted from her happy, normal life and thrown into a hostile new world where she gets sympathy and understanding from an elderly woman, Taanimausi. She is the lone protector of the little girl’s innocence and interest.
Tannimausi
and the little girl weave an
imaginary world for themselves — a world that is deplete of the
unpleasantness and vulgarity of an adult world. She gives the girl the will to
live and realise her dreams in a male-dominated society. As the girl comes to
terms with the changing environment, she faces harsh truth about life, which
moulds her thoughts and help her realise a better tomorrow. The lyrical nature
of the movie, marked by subtle tinges of humour gels well into a sensitive and
well-narrated story. |
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Diversities
— Delhi Letter
I had first heard about this concept, the right to know or the right to information, as a rather distinct concept at Tilonia in Rajasthan. I had been travelling in Rajasthan and whilst halting at Tilonia, I had heard Bunker and Aruna Roy talk about it in a rather passionate manner. Work at the grassroots had already begun and I had met several activists and students who had begun crusading for this right at the village level. It was absolutely amazing to hear village heads talk about their right to know what is jotted in official files, records or in khaatas or in the registers of the official documents pertaining to, says, the loans they have taken and so on. Finally, after a good six or seven years, Parliament has enacted the Right to Informaion Act. The just retired Union Panchayati Raj Secretary, Wajahat Habibullah, has been appointed as the Government of India’s Information Commissioner under the Right to Information Act. Habibullah, who was also the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, retired last month as the Union Panchayati Raj Secretary. He is better known for his work in the Kashmir Valley where he had served on several sensitive posts. He helped resolve the Hazratbal shrine crisis when it was taken over by militants. He was also the Director of Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. Anyway, it is too early to comment on the work that this new setup will yield. Let us wait and watch.
From sufi healing to pranayam Whenever I am back from a less happening place (read small town or smaller city), I take days or weeks to recover. For though evenings here, in the Capital, are laced with a this or that, there is something or a lot amiss. For the last few days, I was away to Srinagar. I got back a couple of days ago. But then, it seems I have got back to a place where even human beings have been rendered mechanical. There is such a maddening rush here that if you don’t rush along, you would be trampled upon and the life suffocated out of you. Amidst evenings which are laced with special programmes, right from the sufi healing (fikr) to be conducted at the India International Centre lawns by Dr Moazziz Ali Beg in collaboration with the Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, to another evening laced with pranayam and healing. That vacuum continues to hang loose in this big city. Together with dengue spreading mosquitoes and much more. Together with the alarming rise in facts and figures of those struck by diabetes. The stress is such that even the young are unable to cope with. It’s time we have to rethink and re-plan so that we are away from the clutches of doctors and the bills they inflict on you.
Reaching out to cancer patients October 8 was observed as World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. It came as a pleasant news that “Cansupport” (those who are affected by cancer, directly or indirectly have formed this group to reach out) caught hold of this day to hold a programme, Zindagi. The president of Cansupport, Harmala Gupta, had herself battled with cancer. And soon after her recovery, she decided to reach out to those affected by it. It’s a very organised setup, which is manned by volunteers who not only visit patients’ homes but also help the caretakers too. Besides holding these events, Zindagi was set around Iqbal’s poem which is itself titled Zindagi. Harmala informs that Khushwant Singh translated this particular poem into English for them. Journalist Saeed Naqvi read out couplets from this poem and other poems too. The well known classical singer Zila Khan sang them. What life has to offer or take away with the unexpected turns, whilst writing these lines, this region was struck by a powerful earthquake ...such is life!
Getting back to basics Some months back, in this column, I had written about the traditional concept of dastangoi. It is the art of story telling in a totally different style altogether. Well, the dastangoi evening was so popular that another one is coming up. Set to motion by two theatre persons, Mahmood Farooqui and Himanshu Tyagi, they would be bringing to life tales of the bygones. |
As we are now living in an eternity, the time to be happy is today. — Book of quotations on Happiness
Love, an abundant love, is the expression of our Christian religion. —Mother Teresa |
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No Indian movie has ever won an Oscar. Four years back Lagaan was
among the five nominees in the foreign films category but lost out to No
man’s land. Amidst great expectation, India selected yet another Hindi
film Paheli (puzzle), a folklore on women empowerment, to represent the
country at 2006 Academy Awards. Vinod Pande, Chairperson of Film Federation of
India, says "the film was chosen for its soul that represented true
traditions of its origin". Paheli, directed by Amol Palekar, will
now vie for top honours at the Best Foreign Film category. It is the story of
a Rajasthan girl whose husband goes away on business for five years soon after
their marriage. A ghost, who encounters the marriage party on its way back
from the wedding, falls in love with the bridge and ultimately enters her home
after the taking on the husband’s form. He, however, confesses his true
identity to the girl who accepts him. Later, the husband returns and the girl
is caught between a ghost who loves her dearly and the man she is actually
wedded to.