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Unwanted minister Polio eradication |
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Get rid of criminals
Congress, BJP in a bind
The state of innocence
Unfair trade threatens small peasants Democracy as
Ambedkar wanted it Delhi Durbar
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Unwanted minister MINISTER without portfolio K. Natwar Singh exemplifies the adage that it is possible to wake up a sleeping person but not one who pretends to be fast asleep. Hints that he should quit the government have been aplenty since his name figured in the Volcker committee report. But he has been ignoring them in the belief that such brazenness would eventually bail him out. It is now as clear as sunlight that the Congress did not want him to continue as a minister. It is the fear that he could cause embarrassment to the Congress that forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to accommodate him as a minister without portfolio. But Indian Ambassador to Croatia Aniel Matherani’s statement giving details of Mr Natwar Singh’s visit to Iraq in January 2001 and the hint that he could have obtained cash vouchers under the UN oil-for-food programme deprived him of even the fig leaf he had. It is possible that Mr Matherani might have realised that the investigations by the Enforcement Directorate would find out the truth about the minister and his own involvement in the oil-for-food scam and it was better to leave the sinking ship. But that does not mean that his statement can be ignored. After all, it has given enough material to the Opposition to revive the controversy after the government had got a reprieve with the appointment of the R.S. Pathak Authority to inquire into the oil-for-food scam. Instead of taking his cue from Mr Matherani’s revelations, Mr Natwar Singh has come up with the outrageous argument that his resignation would only amount to accepting guilt and it would drag the Congress deeper into the controversy. Even the Left, which had come to his rescue in the belief that there was anti-Americanism in supporting the beleaguered minister, no longer finds him worthy of its support. It is under these circumstances that even the reticent Prime Minister was forced to give enough hints that Mr Natwar Singh should put in his papers. That the Congress has reached the end of its tether is obvious from its decision to remove him from the Congress Working Committee. Now the question is, if his continuance in the CWC is “untenable”, can his presence in the Cabinet be tenable? It is time the Prime Minister is as forthright as the CWC is in dealing with the unwanted minister.
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Polio eradication THE reported case of a three-year-old boy in Mansa district contracting polio in spite of being administered the polio vaccine regularly points to the “endgame” challenges facing the WHO-led Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Since its launch in 1988, polio cases have fallen by more than 99 per cent. In India, after the disturbing spike in 2002 with 1600 cases, the number of cases had fallen to 134 last year. A GPEI report noted that only 30 cases have been reported till September this year, mostly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and that a zero transmission level could be reached in a few months. Additional cases have since been recorded. More than Rs 1000 crore has been spent and a billion plus doses administered under India’s pulse polio immunisation programme. The people concerned and the agencies involved can justifiably take pride in this creditable effort. But as UP and Bihar show, children are still slipping through the net. Full details of the Mansa boy’s case are not yet available, and it may well turn out that he had not been given the required number of doses. It may also be a case of vaccine-derived polio virus (VDPV) infection, a possibility which cannot be ruled out. VDPV and Vaccine Associated Paralytic Polio (VAPP) constitute a key endgame challenge. The Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) given in India is a weak, but live, polio virus. In developed countries, Inactivated Polio Virus (IPV) vaccine is given. VAPP is rare, estimated at one in 24 lakh doses of OPV. But that is still one too many. OPV is genetically unstable, and in an estimated 30 per cent of the cases, reversion of the virus occurs, which in rare cases leads to VAPP. VDPV in persons with primary immunodeficiency and polio outbreaks associated with VDPV in areas with poor OPV coverage, have been recorded. The vaccination strategy is thus an issue even after a certificate of zero-transmission, which is itself some distance away. Clearly, there is no room for a premature lowering of guard. |
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Get rid of criminals As many as 532 cases have been registered against policemen in Punjab in the last five years, indicating growing criminalisation of the force. Quite often policemen get away with their criminal activities and no case is registered by their sympathetic colleagues unless there is some public protest. It is then that senior officers intervene and an FIR is lodged. The latest example of such protest-driven action comes from Rayya in Amritsar district where a youth was tortured to death in police custody.. The youth’s relatives and fellow villagers blocked the busy GT Road for several hours before two of the accused policemen were arrested. Such custodial deaths are not uncommon in the state. No wonder, many still recall what Justice Anand Narain Mullah of the Allahabad high court had said about policemen being “goondas in uniform”. Policemen usually take the law into their own hands when they are sure that they can escape punishment. Although militancy was vanquished long ago, policemen have not yet shed that mindset shaped by an arbitrary use of unbridled power over hapless citizens. Those facing trial for excesses during the days of militancy are assured leniency and even mass amnesty is talked about. Politicisation of the police and political protection to those found guilty of acts of omission and commission have also spoiled the police work culture. The political leadership and the police top brass have done little to change the citizen’s perception of the police as being a tool in the hands of those in power for furthering their political goals and settling personal scores. To refurbish the police image, the least the Punjab DGP can do is to dismiss all 130 policemen booked on corruption charges by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, action against whom has been sought by the Chief Director of the Vigilance Bureau. |
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Party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.
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Congress, BJP in a bind
In one of his more perceptive comments, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani had declared some time ago that he would be concerned if the Congress party were to disintegrate. In a similar vein, he had urged voters in the lead-up to an assembly election in Haryana that they should vote either for the BJP or the Congress and not favour the smaller regional parties. Behind the articulation of Mr Advani’s concerns is his belief in the primacy of the two-party system in India’s parliamentary system of government, particularly at the federal level. Scarcely could he have then imagined that he would preside over the erosion of his own party and face the prospect of leaving his post. The BJP’s plight has worsened since his famous Jinnah remarks leading to his taking on the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh for backseat driving before announcing his own plan to give up the party presidency. The icing on the cake came with Ms Uma Bharati’s revolt. In the Congress party, the saga of Mr Natwar Singh lies at the heart of the charge of the UN-appointed Volcker Committee that the Congress leader and his party were non-contractual beneficiaries in Iraq’s oil-for-food sweetheart deals. It is symptomatic of the erosion of the party structure and central authority that Mr Natwar Singh pursued his own agenda, instead of coming to the aid of the party by doing the decent thing and immediately resigning his Cabinet post. Whatever the provocations, the crises in the country’s two main parties reflect their fragility, despite their vastly different genesis and philosophies. Taking the Congress first, the grand old party of Indian independence was a national movement, which evolved into an umbrella party sheltering many diverse inclinations. With time, the Socialists and other smaller groups peeled off. And Indira Gandhi, for her own reasons, split the party twice, the first time to assert her leadership and in the second instance to lay claim to the Congress soul after her post-Emergency defeat. In any event, in post-1947 India, the Congress became a party that heavily traded on Jawaharlal Nehru’s charisma, but in those early decades, the Congress had grassroot organisations that nurtured the party and brought it votes. Indira Gandhi, on her part, had less patience for the foot soldiers of democracy and, in her desire for instant or speedy results, relied on wheeler- dealers. Later, her attempt to secure the gaddi for her younger son Sanjay led her during the Emergency to try to sabotage the parent party to laud her son as her heir. The first non-Congress governments after Indira’s defeat did not cover themselves in glory. The point of this historical diversion is to demonstrate how Indira Gandhi, for all her other accomplishments, weakened the fabric of the Congress and alienated many of the party’s loyal supporters and activists. And over the decades, but for brief interregnums, the country’s love for Jawaharlal Nehru degenerated into a subservient court culture in which the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty was accorded monarchical rights. In the party, after Indira came Rajiv and after Rajiv came Sonia — P.V. Narasimha Rao’s stint as Prime Minister was very much of a stopgap, in spite of his stellar role in launching the much-needed economic reforms. As the last general election demonstrated, the Congress is still trading on the Nehru-Gandhi legacy although it is in greatly reduced circumstances after six years of BJP rule at the Centre. The BJP, of course, was never part of the so-called Congress culture before it came to power in the states and at the federal level. It was outside the national consensus of a secular pluralist model that was the bedrock of the Indian National Congress. Its philosophical underpinning was provided by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: belief in a Hindu India, a harking back to an idealised, if not mythical, Hindu past and a propensity to rewrite history to suit its script of Hindutva, interpreted and re-interpreted over the decades to suit exigencies. Achieving power in the states did not present insurmountable problems for the BJP because it could always bend its ideology in order to rule. The crunch came with the BJP emerging as the single largest party in the general election on the strength of the Ram temple issue, ultimately to form a motley coalition it led under the rubric of the National Democratic Alliance. Admittedly, for the BJP partners, it was a marriage of convenience. Opposed as they were to the BJP ideology of Hindutva, they held their noses in order to share power and buttress their base in the regions. The RSS, virtually the power behind the throne, went along with the BJP’s compulsions even as it sought to use its pupil’s newfound authority in Delhi to spread its message and infiltrate key areas in the official machinery to proselytise unbelievers. The RSS’s backseat driving was a fact of life the BJP had to live with, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee resorting to his astuteness clothed in poetry and pregnant pauses. As Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee became adept at saying things to please the RSS in the first instance only to get his spokesmen to contradict his earlier stance for the benefit of his wider constituency. The RSS wanted its pound of flesh after the BJP’s defeat in the last general election because the latter was no longer bound by the constraints of governing at the Centre. But the BJP leaders, particularly Mr Advani, were less well endowed with poetic flights of fancy and more concerned with keeping alive the prospect of returning to power in Delhi. Hence the party’s need to appeal to a wider constituency. At the same time, Mr Advani was chafing at the RSS’s penchant for interfering in the party’s day-to-day decisions. His controversial remarks on Jinnah during his emotional visit to his birthplace, Karachi, were, in part, an attempt to widen his party’s reach with an eye on future elections. He miscalculated, declined to retract his remarks and earned the ire of the party’s mentor. In short, he had to leave the party presidency, but decided to take the RSS head-on before announcing his planned departure. Ms Bharati’s new revolt in opposing the BJP’s choice as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, after being rebuffed in her desire to return to the office, is part of the larger tension between a section of the party — perhaps the majority — wanting to give itself more room to breathe and achieve political power and the RSS’s reminder that but for its support and fielding of armies of workers to campaign and win elections, the BJP would be nowhere. The RSS would not have wanted to precipitate the crisis in the BJP quite in the manner of Ms Bharati but she is fighting the Sangh’s bigger battle and cannot be disowned. Both the BJP and the Congress are in a bind, the former by Ms Bharati’s success in deriding the authority and moral high ground of the party leadership and the latter by the inability of the Congress president in getting Mr Natwar Singh immediately to leave the Cabinet, instead of prolonging the party’s agony.
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The state of innocence
Grown up, I went to see my old school. It looked quite small to me now. Its playing field must be about one-tenth the size of a football ground. I was surprised, because I have memories of running on that ground in a big circle, and usually it took me a while to complete one round. And so many of us seemed to play at a time there. The boundary wall was at present slightly higher than my head. Often while playing, we lost our ball to that insurmountable wall. As the ball rarely came back, we used to cook up stories about a vicious old woman who lived on the other side. Looking around, I was attracted to a small pond. We took great care not to fall into it. Still, we played around it. We used to make small packets by filling sand and stone in a leaf, and then leaving it in the water. The leaf first sank. On reaching the bottom, it emptied itself and on becoming lighter, it rose to the surface again. I met the gatekeeper or the peon, to whom I began to recount my old memories. I realised how easy it seemed to befriend him. The peon of my schooldays looked very formidable and nobody could dare stand near the school gate and look out in his presence. I also noticed the presumed bad woman’s house, which looked quite ordinary. Its occupants must be ordinary people, being irritated sometimes, as is natural, by the presence of a school next door. It struck me that as a child, the school appeared far from my house, while actually it was only half a kilometre away. Yet all these years I had never visited it. I couldn’t say definitely why. The visit brought a fresh realisation as to how small the world of a child really is. But amazingly, it fills up his whole experience. Sometimes, we yearn to go back to those days and play that game once again. But there is a difficulty — We have not only stopped playing it but have also forgotten how to “enter” that game. It is perhaps a sign of our distance from that state of innocence that those things now look so tiny and trivial, the things in which once lay the infinity. |
Unfair trade threatens small peasants In most developing countries the overwhelming majority is small farmers. For example, the data on Indian agriculture and farmers
contained in the Tenth Plan document reveals the extent to which India’s farming community is dominated by small peasants. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data for 1992 shows that 72 per cent of rural households had less than one hectare of land. Small and marginal holdings constitute 78.2 per cent of all holdings, and operate about 32.4 per cent of total area. The average size of holdings decreased from 2.28 hectare in 1970-71 to 1.57 hectares in 1990-91. Small farmers have a very low resource base and their risk bearing capacity is very limited. If they face a situation of sudden price crash due to cheap imports, it can be very difficult to recover from these losses. If this is repeated for some time, their precarious but proud existence as small farmers may be threatened, as they are forced to sell their land to recover from debt, or feel that they can no longer bear the high risk of a possible crash in prices. Recently, the Human Development Report, year 2005 (HDR) has also drawn attention to some aspects of the threat posed by unfair trade to small peasants in developing countries. The HDR questions the globalisation hype by pointing out those who have suffered. This report says, “Participation in trade can exacerbate inequality as poor people absorb the adjustment costs of increase competition from imports, while people with assets and market power take advantage of opportunities provided by exports.” For example, increased exports of high value-added fruits and vegetables from countries like Kenya increased and Zambia have been concentrated in large capital-intensive farms with weak links to the rest of the economy. According to the HDR, “The biggest change to the industry has been the increased importance of farms owned or leased by major export companies.” What the HDR report does not say is that even if small landholders are integrated in the export trade, this can still lead to longer-term loss if the concentration on export crops is damaging for the soil, water and other aspects of the When the export demand is curtailed and the cash dries up, small farmers may not be able to go back to their staple food crops. The HDR says, “The problem at the heart of the Doha Round negotiations can be summarised in three words: rich country subsidies. Rich countries spend just over $ 1 billion a year as aid to developing country agriculture, and just under $ one billion a day supporting their own agricultural systems.” These heavy subsidies hurt rural communities in developing countries. “Subsidised exports undercut them in global and local markets, driving down the proceeds received by farmers and the wages received by agricultural labourers. Meanwhile, producers seeking access to industrial country markets have to scale some of the highest tariff peaks in world trade. Within the rich countries most benefits of farms subsidies go to those who deserve these the least, “The winners in the annual cycle of billion dollar subsidies are large-scale farmers, corporate agribusiness interests and landowners.” An example of extremely unequal income distribution generally given is that of Brazil. Research carried out for HDR revealed that subsidies distribution in rich countries is more unequal than income distribution in Brazil. In the European Union farmers and processors are paid four times the world market price for sugar, generating a four million tonnes surplus, which is marketed with the help of more than $1 billion in export subsidies (paid to a small group of
sugar processors). Subsidised EU sugar exports lower world prices by about one-third, inflicting heavy losses on sugar exporters among developing countries as well as on sugar crop farmers based in developing countries. The subsidised exports from rich countries are driving down prices for exports from developing countries, and devastating the prospects for small farmers. In countries such as Haiti, Mexico and Jamaica, heavily subsidised imports of cheap food are destroying local markets. Some of the world’s poorest farmers are competing against its richest producers. Since the Doha Round started, the US has passed legislation to increase farm support by about $7 billion a year is also to strengthen the link between subsidies and production. Concerns of poor countries and poor people have been ignored to an alarming extent at the WTO. The WTO ministerial meeting planned for December 2005 in Hong Kong provides an opportunity to correct some of the most glaring distortions in world trade so that pro-poor trade can be promoted. Deep cuts in rich country government support for agriculture and a prohibition on export subsidies should get priority there. — Grassroots Features |
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Democracy as Ambedkar wanted it Abraham Lincoln says; “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.” Various philosophers, political scientists and writers have given numerous definitions of democracy. A relentless champion of human rights and staunch believer in democracy, Dr B.R. Ambedkar says, “Democracy is not a form of government, but a form of social organisation.” Dr Ambedkar believed that in democracy revolutionary changes in the economic and social life of the people are brought about without bloodshed. The conditions for that are as follows: (1) there should not be glaring inequalities in society i.e. privilege for one class; (2) the existence of an opposition; (3) equality in law and administration: (4) observance of constitutional morality: (5) no tyranny of the majority: (6) moral order of society: (7) public conscience.” Addressing the Constituent Assembly, he suggested certain devices essential to maintain democracy: “(i) Constitutional methods (ii) not to lay liberties at the feet of a great man (iii) make political democracy a social democracy.” Dr Ambedkar firmly believed that political democracy cannot succeed without social and economic democracy. In his talk given on the Voice of America he argued that “democracy could not be equated either with republic or parliamentary form of government. The roots of democracy lay not in the form of government, parliamentary or otherwise. A democracy is a mode of associated living. The roots of democracy are to be searched in social relationship, in terms of the associated life between the people who form the society.” For him political democracy is not an end in itself, but the most powerful means to achieve social and economic ideals in society. State socialism within the framework of parliamentary democracy can defeat dictatorship. Fundamental rights without economic security are of no use to the have-nots. Social and economic democracy are the tissue and the fibre of a political democracy. In a multi-denominational society like India, common denominator is secularism which is one of the pillars on which the superstructure of our democracy rests. It is a unifying force of our associated life. He says, “The conception of a secular state is derived from the liberal democratic tradition of the West. No institution which is maintained wholly out of state funds shall be used for the purpose of religious instruction irrespective of the question whether the religious instruction is given by the state or by any other body.” Participating in a debate in Parliament he emphasised “it (secular state) does not mean that we shall not take into consideration the religious sentiments of the people. All that a secular state means that this Parliament shall not be competent to impose any particular religion upon the rest of the people. That is the only limitation that the Constitution recognises.” In democracy, minority does not become the victim of the tyranny of the majority. He suggested certain safeguards for the protection of the minority. “The state should guarantee to its citizens the liberty of conscience and the free exercise of his religion, including the right to profess, to preach and to convert within limits compatible with public order and morality.” (The writer is a former minister of Haryana) |
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Delhi Durbar To deflect the Opposition attack on Sonia Gandhi in connection with the Volcker report, are Congress strategists looking for a fall guy? The BJP has reasons to believe that it is so. Interestingly, the CPM and the CPI, which had come in support of Natwar Singh, are of the opinion that the anti-Sonia campaign will not last. CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan has stressed that in view of the interview of the recalled Ambassador Aneil Mathrani, it will be better for Natwar Singh to step down. This will take the wind out of the sails of the BJP’s campaign. The CPI (M) backed the Prime Minister’s stand on the ground that there is no material change in the situation after Mathrani’s interview despite his claims that his off-the-record comments had been distorted. There are few takers for Mathrani’s volte face.
Haryana DGP creates waves In police circles, Haryana DGP Nirmal Singh seems to be creating waves with his disciplining ways for his force. The law and order machinery had enjoyed a field day during the regime of Om Prakash Chautala. Nirmal Singh has taken it upon himself to visit police stations incognito to catch corrupt officials. A farmer had met the Haryana DGP and informed him that the Ambala Cantt. SHO had demanded a bribe to register a case about a land deal. Nirmal Singh caught the SHO with a bribe of Rs 20,000 which he accepted from none other than the DGP disguised as a farmer. Has this put the SHO and other cops in Haryana on their guard? Well, one will have to wait and see if Nirmal Singh’s tactics of fighting corruption at the grassroots level send a firm and resolute signal down the line.
Private schools help the poor If Prof James Tooley’s global study “Private Schools for the Poor” is anything to go by, this mushrooming industry of unaided, unrecognised schools is actually helping the cause of education of the poor. Private schools with little or no infrastructure, observes Prof Tooley of the University of Newcastle, are playing an important and unsung role in reaching the poor and satisfying their educational needs. Tooley’s study has already found patrons. Lok Sabha MP Navin Jindal claims to receive numerous requests from such schools for helping them seek affiliation to education boards. He has proposed that government-run schools that have earned the reputation of being second rate should be closed down.
Naidu scared of Uma? Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu appears to be scared of Uma
Bharati. She has singled him out for special treatment. The BJP leader steered clear of the decision-making process which denied
Bharati the Chief Ministership of Madhya Pradesh. Interestingly, he chose not to be present at the BJP’s parliamentary party meeting in the Capital which chose Shivraj Singh Chauhan as the new Madhya Pradesh chief minister. He zipped off to far away Chennai. Contributed by Satish Misra, Prashant Sood, Smriti Kak Ramachandran and S. Satyanarayanan |
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From the pages of Letter from Malaviya Sir, - It will be remembered that in his second article on the Memorandum of Reforms which nineteen of us elected members of the Imperial Legislative Council submitted to H.E. the Viceroy, Lord Sydenham had the temerity to urge that the agitation for those reforms should be met with repression. The studied and open condemnation of Home Rule by Sir Michael O’ Dwyer and Lord Pentland and by Lord Willingdon’s Government in the circular published two days ago, would show that Lord Sydenham’s evil suggestion has been accepted by some of the members of the bureaucracy and that what looks like concerted action is being taken to nip in the bud the agitation for reforms advocated in the Memorandum. For though the immediate objective of these attacks may appear to some to be ‘Home Rule’ and the ‘Home Rule League’, a perusal of the speeches of Sir Michael O’ Dwyer and Lord Pentland leaves little room for doubt that what they wish to put down is the agitation for constitutional reforms which have been adumbrated in the ‘Memorandum’ and formulated with greater definition in the scheme - unanimously put forward by the Congress and the Muslim Leagu.
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The people who are weak, controlled, idle and self indulgent are devastated by the slightest twist of destiny.— The Buddha “ I take God, Unique, God the Ultimate. God does not reproduce and is not reproduced. And there is nothing at all equivalent to God.” — Islam Thinking about sensual objects creates in us a great desire to possess them. Any thwarting of these desires kindles the fire of anger in us.— Sanatana Dharma I came alone in this world, I have walked alone in the valley of the shadow of death, and I shall quit alone when the time comes. — Mahatma Gandhi Islam, an essential part of inner and outer life, a way of regularly cleaning the mind of worldly preoccupations and revivifying remembrance of greater reality. — Islam
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