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Election funding Foggy days |
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Fatal neglect Security norms are a forgotten relic IMMEDIATELY after dug-up earth caved in at the site of an under-construction shopping mall in South Delhi on Saturday evening, claiming the lives of at least a dozen labourers, there was a chorus led by the police that the accident happened because of gross negligence on the part of the builders.
Budhadeb Mark II
Sting and counter-sting
Military justice system needs overhaul Effort to stamp out polio back
on track Delhi Durbar
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Election funding THE Union Cabinet has rightly asked the Election Commission to hold an all-party meeting and decide the modalities on the state funding of elections. The Manmohan Singh government had been thinking of the proposal for some time, but the two sting operations showing as many as 18 Members of Parliament accepting bribes in the cash-for-query scam and taking kickbacks for clearing projects under the MPs’ Local Area Development Scheme have added significance to it. Equally significant is Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi’s statement that the Centre is committed to granting state aid to reduce the politico-criminal nexus. The all-party meeting will provide an opportunity to various parties to give their considered opinion on the issue to the Election Commission. On its part, the Cabinet has accepted the Indrajit Gupta Committee Report (1998) as it was convinced that the panel’s recommendations could be implemented after evolving a consensus among all the parties. The Indrajit Gupta Committee made four major recommendations. One, it wanted the creation of a separate election fund to meet the expenses for conducting elections. The Centre may contribute Rs 600 crore (at the 1998 prices) annually @ Rs 10 an elector and a matching amount to be pooled by the state governments. Two, this fund could be utilised to provide certain facilities to candidates such as petrol or diesel for vehicles during campaigning, loudspeakers and a telephone with a specified number of free calls to candidates. Three, the funding should be given only to the parties recognised as national or state parties by the Election Commission. And four, no funding should be given to a party or candidate if the annual income-tax returns for the previous year have not been filed. There should be no problem for the Election Commission to implement these recommendations because they are justified legally and constitutionally. The Indrajit Gupta Committee has rightly recommended funding in kind and not in cash. This should remain so to prevent the misuse of funds even though the Union Cabinet has left the matter to be thrashed out at the all-party meeting. Now that the ball is in the Election Commission’s court, it should hasten this vital reform to streamline the democratic process.
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Foggy days AS foggy days set the stage for the same distressing winter drama of delays and cancellations as seen earlier in northern airports, particularly New Delhi, airlines are again trotting out the old excuse. There is continued loss to the nation in terms of time and money, and passengers have to put up with hardship and harassment. For years our airports did not have the technology; now the technology exists, but the pilots do not know how to use it. A lot of money has been spent on installing the Category III Instrument Landing System (ILS) at various airports, and New Delhi has even upgraded it to the latest version. This system enables a landing even when the visibility is a poor 50 metres. While landing under ILS, a pilot has to track two radio signals, a localiser for lateral guidance, and a “glide slope” for vertical guidance. Marker beacons provide information on the distance to the runway, based on which a pilot has to take decisions regarding the rate of descent and the speed of approach. At the end, he still has to be able to see the runway lights to make a landing. The so-called Decision Height (DH) is thus crucial – the point at which a pilot has to decide to whether to complete the landing or abort. Clearly, there is more than technology involved here. Training and refresher courses for upgradation are indeed expensive. It is always easier to take the attitude of just riding out the winter storm and hoping for the best. With the arrival of low-cost airlines and a consequent increase in the number of flights, this will no longer be an option, as irate passengers have demonstrated at various airports. Safety, and a reasonable assurance of a timely flight, is not a frill. The government cannot just stand by. The solution may well be to make such training mandatory for any airline wishing to continue operations during winter. Frills or no-frills, why give permission to the airlines which do not have pilots trained for all-weather conditions? The civil aviation authorities need to look closer at the proposals when sundry, inexperienced people come out with plans to start new airlines.
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Fatal neglect IMMEDIATELY after dug-up earth caved in at the site of an under-construction shopping mall in South Delhi on Saturday evening, claiming the lives of at least a dozen labourers, there was a chorus led by the police that the accident happened because of gross negligence on the part of the builders. This was yet another example of waking up after the worst nightmare had come true. Pray why had no one noticed that there had been a blatant violation of safety norms and labour laws at the construction site? Inspection machinery of the state administration is as much to blame as the greedy builders who care two hoots for the safety of the workers. The Jasola village site where the tragedy occurred is not the only place where safety norms are thrown to the winds on a regular basis. Similar violations can be seen all over the Capital. In fact, this tempting of fate happens to be an all-India phenomenon. Public memory tends to be woefully short indeed. Even after a disaster strikes, there is a hue and cry only for a day or two. After that, everything goes back to “normal”. In this case, normal only means blatant disregard for even elementary precautions. Since most of the victims happen to be poor workers, their plight is not even fully highlighted. They do get some ex gratia but that is hardly any compensation for the loss of limb or life. All this happens day in and day out only because the culprits manage to escape punishment by hook or crook in a majority of the cases. Some of them get the reprieve with the help of their money power; others through their political and bureaucratic connections. Every such pardon encourages a hundred others to cut corners and reduce cost. Give a few of them exemplary punishment and that will become an effective deterrent for many potential lawbreakers.
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Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. — Samuel Butler
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Budhadeb Mark II THE West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Budhadeb Bhattacharya, seems to have emerged as an anti-Marxist leader and yet manages to remain in the CPM. The latest expression of his anti-Marxist ideas could be noticed at a seminar conducted by the CPM in Thiruvananthapuram recently. Mr Bhattacharya wondered: ``Why should one criticise us when we permit entrepreneurs to set up shopping malls? What is wrong in having super-speciality hospitals facilitating the rich in our country to get quality treatment instead of letting them bank on foreign hospitals?’’ And the enlightened Buddha asked his comrades in Kerala to adopt the ``Bengal model’’, particularly in such sectors as health, education, entertainment and information technology. Well, the CPM in West Bengal had taken the path of neo-liberalism even earlier than Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya became Chief Minister. And the CPM, as it is natural with the party, had considered its duty to defend these. I remember an incident that occurred some times ago. A set of CPM faithfuls, who were also active in the Tamil Nadu Science Forum, had organised a public reception and a meeting for Ms Medha Pathkar in Chennai. Medha was leading a yatra from Plachimada in Kerala to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and the focus was against the cola plants that an MNC had set up across the country and the adverse impact of that on the livelihood of the people and on the larger question of development. The organisers did not know that Medha was accompanied in that yatra by Mr Thomas Kochery of the Fishermen’s Forum. The West Bengal Government had signed an MoU with the Sahara group just a few weeks before and it involved transfer of the Jambudweep Islands in the marsh lands of the Sundarbans. In this land that was traditionally used by the fisherfolk — who would dry up the fish they caught there so that it could be sold across West Bengal throughout the year — the Sahara group was planning to float a garden resort. The group carried full-page advertisements in daily newspapers announcing the project and declaring that this would be only one of its kind in India. Mr Tom Kochery declared at the Chennai meeting that his organisation would not allow this rape of nature and the fishermen would defend their livelihood concerns even if that meant taking on the powerful state and its police. The MoU, to adopt Mr Bhattacharya’s logic, would facilitate the rich to holiday in India rather than sending them away to some foreign land! And when a resort of that kind came up, it will provide employment to people; as waiters in the restaurants, as room boys in the lodges and as cleaners, sweepers and in many other ways. Such holiday resorts will also open up opportunities for dance girls to entertain the rich who come on a holiday! The only problem was that for all these major gains a few thousand fishermen will have to agree to stop bothering about their livelihood concerns. And when this happens, the availability of fish will go down. But then, this is not an insurmountable problem. The Sahara group and such others would import fish from somewhere else and take care of the nutrition requirements of the rich and the mighty! The fishermen, meanwhile, could get themselves trained to become cleaners and sweepers in the holiday resorts. They cannot become waiters and receptionists and bell boys in these resorts because there are several hundred trained people from the umpteen hotel management colleges across the country. Coming to the Chennai meeting, Mr Thomas Kochery announced the agitation and it is still on in the Sundarbans. Meanwhile, the hapless organisers of the Chennai meeting were slapped with show cause notices by the CPM. Their crime was that they did not defend the West Bengal Government right then and snub Mr Thomas Kochery. They were charged with having indulged in anti-party activities. It is another matter that many of them apologised. This, perhaps, happened because they are all in the party even now and they have made it a point to resist the temptation to give another reception to Ms Medha Patkar or anyone like her. The point is the CPM does not differ, in any way, with the Budha line. The party stands for the same development logic that the neo-liberal policies seek to implement. Shopping malls, super-speciality hospitals and so on. For, a large section of the party’s middle-level leaders and most of the levy-paying members belong to the urban middle classes and they all love to go to a multiplex and shop in a super market. And the party government cannot ignore the ``needs’’ of this section. Now, why is this anti-Marxist? This is anti-Marxist because such development as destroys nature and does not address to the livelihood concerns of a majority of the people is essentially the pattern that capitalism took. And Karl Marx, in his various texts, described this as severely exploitative and inhuman. Marx went on to present that these contradictions and the human tragedy that arise out of these are caused by the greed for profit that is central to the capitalist logic. Marx then went on to write the Communist Manifesto in which he talked about the need to change this rule and put in place a new society that he called communism. And communism is about a society without greed and where human concerns and not greed would determine the life of the people. It is not another way to capitalism. In Mr Bhattacharya’s formula of development, where multiplexes, shopping malls and super-speciality clinics symbolise progress, there is no place for the ordinary farmer (whose land is taken away for building the shopping malls). Similarly, when super-speciality clinics come up everywhere, the medical professionals will make more money and hence will spend all their time and energy there rather than in government hospitals. We all know that all the specialists in the super-speciality clinics are doctors in government hospitals and employed as consultants in private clinics. And their heart is always where money is. Their expertise is hardly available for the poor man. It is for all these reasons that one should have problems with multiplexes, shopping malls and super-speciality hospitals. More so, when these are accepted as the sole denominators of progress and determinants of
growth.
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Sting and counter-sting THESE sting journalists have done incalculable harm to the country. They have not only lowered the prestige of the parliamentarians, they have also managed to sabotage liberalisation and privatisation being practised by MPs in their own way. All MPs shown to be taking money for asking questions happen to be backbenchers. That only proves the journalists’ anti-backward community bias. Such a serious crime should not go unpunished. All the journalists deserve to be shot under some POTA-like provisions. If that is not practical, at least 100 criminal cases must be registered against each one of them all over the country so that they spend the rest of their life running from one court to another and never dare to cross the path of a politician again. Private TV channels showing such antinational programmes deserve to be shut down and the entry of video cameras into the country banned till such time that the MPs have been equipped with instruments which can detect a hidden camera from a mile away. What a pity that the trapped MPs have been expelled from Parliament. What has been done cannot be undone, unless the expelled ones spend their hard-earned black money liberally on hiring the best legal brains. Be that as it may, it is a matter of great national shame that our MPs should be selling themselves for a few thousands of rupees. A thorough inquiry should be held into this decline in values. They should have been charging at least a few lakhs. The inquiry should also look into the root cause of why they were forced to indulge in such private practice at all. The main culprit is their extremely low pay and perks. Their salary should be increased to Rs 1 crore per month with retrospective effect, so that the temptation to start any side business is not there. Just as unauthorised buildings are later legalised simply by changing land use regulations, the cash-for-queries system must be given legal sanction. Prevailing market rates should be published in the official gazette and should not be allowed to fall below a certain floor level. Bulk bookings of questions should be discouraged. There should be no undercutting either. What is needed is a fair, non-monopolistic and equitable distribution of questions over a wide spectrum without any discrimination against any MP on the basis of caste, colour, religion, region or party label. Promotional schemes like throwing in one free question with every three paid questions can be allowed, but only in exceptional circumstances – such as approaching elections. The State should fund the elections so that the candidates’ personal resources are used only for purchasing liquor, musclemen, voters, etc. The entire budget deficit can be wiped out if the question-answer business is run on professional lines. When coming to Parliament, MPs should be allowed to wear sponsors’ logos on their clothes and headgear. Doordarshan should charge a fee from sponsors for focusing the cameras on their brand ambassadors when they ask a particular question. Advertisements can be inserted during the breaks along with the message “this part of the proceedings was sponsored by ….” And by the way, MPLADS (Member of Parliament Looting and Dacoity Scheme) deserves to be scrapped forthwith. The sum of Rs 2 crore should be deposited directly into their personal
accounts.
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Military justice system needs overhaul THE cases of moral turpitude and corruption are at their highest levels in the armed forces. There have been more than 6000 cases of court-martial since 2000 and more than 10,000 complaints on being superseded in various ranks. It is a matter for serious rethinking on the part of decision making authorities. Remedial measures are needed before it is too late. In a recent meeting, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) accorded approval for the much-awaited formation of an Armed Forces Tribunal. The complaints with regards to being superseded in promotions and various courts martial offences are increasing day by day and much time is wasted in handling the complaints; this is at the cost of professional training and pursuance of war doctrine matters which are the primary tasks of the defence forces. The news of getting approval of an Armed Forces Tribunal has been received with great enthusiasm by the personnel as they feel that justice is not granted at the appropriate levels as the decision makers are the justice providers. The proposed tribunal, when established under an Act of Parliament, will adjudicate on disputes of all the three services personnel and the appeals on court-martial verdicts. The establishment of a tribunal was almost a foregone conclusion, because the Supreme Court had criticized the Indian military justice system in the case of Lt. Col. P. P. Singh vs. Union of India in 1982. The apex court had pointed out a blatant deficiency in the military law in the absence of a remedy of appeal against the order of the court-martial. It had strongly recommended that there should be a separate tribunal for the armed forces to meet the justice needs of the personnel. In another case, regarding the superseding of two Air Marshals in December 2004, the Government, on behalf of the Indian Air Force, approached the Supreme Court against the order of the Delhi High Court that had given the decision of restoration of promotion to the Air Marshal. The apex court upheld the judgment of the Delhi High Court and passed strictures and also criticised the IAF saying that the promotion policy of the Indian Air Force is biased and arbitrary. It was a great embarrassment for the IAF as well as to the Government. There are a large number of cases pending in the civil courts against court martial orders and superseding in ranks, and other offences. In the last 20 years there have been formidable changes in the human rights standards and the military justice systems the world over. The United Kingdom, after the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Findlay (1997), has made a number of reforms in the military justice system bringing it on par with the civilian criminal justice system. The American military justice system offers the accused extraordinary access to the appeals process. The existing system of military justice has been passed on by the colonial British Raj, which is not an Indian system of law perpetuated in the yester years. It is a system arising out of and regulated by the mere power of Military Command rather than law of natural justice. The system and its mechanism remain out of step with social justice due to the lingering colonial hangover. Despite more than 58 years of independence, military leadership in India is reluctant to release itself from the psychological subjugation of the old British way of life. The military administration and justice delivery system is an executive agency belonging to and under the control of the military commander. A commander exercises almost unrestrained and unlimited discretion in determining (a) who should be tried, (b) the prima facie sufficiency of proof, (c) the sufficiency of the charge, (d) the composition of the court, (e) all questions of law arising during the proceedings of the court, (f) the correctness of the proceedings and their sufficiency in law and in fact. Under such a theory, all these questions are controlled not by law but by the power of Military Command. Courts-martial are not courts, but are, in fact, simply instrumentalities of the executive power. Human rights recognise the inherent dignity and fundamental freedoms of all members of the human family. They are the foundation of all basic freedoms, justice and peace in the world. The Constitution also makes a declaration that justice shall be secured for every citizen, be he/she a member of the armed forces or otherwise. Hence, instead of making reforms in a piecemeal manner, the government should review the military justice system in totality. It must ensure (a) formulation of a comprehensive common code of justice/discipline for all the three services; (b) separation of the roles of the judge, advocate, and general branch from the command and control of the services; (c) creation of an independent prosecuting agency; (d) abolition of summary court martial provision; and (e) and an independent appellate court consisting of a civilian judge as the President and two experienced and competent members (who need not be general officers) from the armed forces, for reviewing the proceedings of the courts martial and redressing grievances of the superseded personnel. Cases referred to the tribunal must be settled within three months; otherwise these will also meet the same fate as that of civil courts and the whole exercise will be defeated. It should be borne in mid that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. The author is a former Member, Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, UT Chandigarh.
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Effort to stamp out polio back
on track THE 17-year effort to eradicate polio from the world appears to be back on track after nearly unraveling in the past three years. A new strategy of using a vaccine targeting the dominant strain of the virus appears to have eliminated polio from Egypt, one of six countries where it was freely circulating. That approach is on the verge of doing the same in India. Twenty-five years ago, India had 200,000 cases of paralytic polio a year. A decade ago, it was still seeing 75,000 cases annually. Through November this year, it recorded 52. Such dramatic successes, many the result of a more potent formulation of polio vaccine, have once again made eradication of the paralyzing viral disease a realistic goal. Only one human disease—smallpox—has ever been wiped out, and that was almost three decades ago. The end of 2005 had been the latest deadline for polio eradication. The initiative, started in 1988, had a polio-free world by 2000 as its goal. No new deadline has been set, and success may depend, in part, on raising $200 million for more vaccination campaigns. Nevertheless, the organizers and those funding the eradication initiative are feeling more confident. “I don’t think there’s any question that it’s going to succeed. The question is how long,’’ said William T. Sergeant, an official of Rotary International. The new “monovalent” vaccine appears to have been close to a magic bullet in boosting immunity to polio in a half-dozen areas of extremely high population density. Between January 2003 and July 2005, 18 polio-free countries were re-infected with virus that originated in northern Nigeria. There are three types of polio virus - 1, 2 and 3 - that differ slightly. No type 2 virus has been detected since September 1999; it appears to be eradicated. Type 3 is disappearing fast; it occurs only in Nigeria, Niger, northern India and Afghanistan. A dose of oral vaccine—two drops—contains about 1 million type 1 viruses, and about 100,000 type 2 and type 3 viruses. In the human intestine, these viruses compete with one another in producing ``protective immunity’’ against the virus. After one dose of oral vaccine, only about 25 percent of babies were protected against type 1 polio virus. That rises to more than 90 percent - but only after multiple doses. In two Indian states where polio is endemic- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar - nearly 750,000 babies are born each month. That results in a pool of unvaccinated “susceptibles” that constantly numbers in the millions. Studies showed, however, that giving a vaccine containing only type 1 virus to infants produced immunity in 80 percent after a single dose. Armed with that understanding, WHO found vaccine makers willing to make a monovalent type 1 vaccine, and in November 2004 it ordered 50 million doses. Since the vaccine went into use in Egypt this spring, polio has disappeared there. UNICEF has ordered 600 million doses and plans to use it throughout much of Africa. Next year, India may be free of polio. One former hotbed - Bombay - already is. Since April, no polio virus has been detected in that city’s sewage. That is indirect evidence the virus is no longer carried by any of its 12.7 million residents—undoubtedly for the first time in history.
— LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar THE Bahujan Samaj Party was known for its hatred towards the upper caste. But that was once upon a time. Then its slogan used to be “Tilak, Taraju aur Talwar, maro jute inko char (hit Brahmins, Banias and Rajputs four times with shoes)”. It seems that much water has flown down the Gomti in Lucknow as the BSP’s latest slogan to woo the upper caste is “Hathi nahin Ganesh hain, Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh hain”. The meaning is that the party symbol, the Elephant, is not a mere elephant but represents the Hindu trinity. Not only this, BSP leaders Kanshi Ram and Mayawati used to tell their followers that “Jinki jitni sankhya bhari, unki utni hissedari” meaning that party tickets during elections would be given on the basis of numbers. But now, after the coming of the Brahmins to the BSP fold, even that slogan has been changed. It reads now: “Jinki jitni tayyari, unki utni hissedari” meaning that tickets would be given based on the preparations a candidate makes towards ensuring victory. Amar Singh sings a new tune Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh told a Congress leader that he wanted national parties like the Congress and the BJP to perform better in UP. Taken aback by the wily Thakur’s comment, the Congress leader was trying to understand the reason behind the SP leader’s large heartedness. That is when a scribe commented to the effect that the BSP had grown ever since the two parties started declining. The reasons as to why the SP flourished in UP politics are not difficult to identify. It was largely because of the BJP, as Muslims had deserted the Congress after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodyha. Now that the Brahmins have started shifting towards the BSP, Amar Singh is becoming magnanimous about the national parties.
Judicial council bill The strong opposition from Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal and his predecessor Justice R C Lahoti to the National Judicial Council (NJC) Bill, which is aimed at enacting a law to put in place a body for inquiring into the allegations of corruption in the higher echelons of the judiciary, has forced the UPA Government on the back foot. Since Justice Lahoti, before demitting office on October 31, had suggested various changes in the draft, rejecting certain crucial clauses, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj is now planning to seek a fresh opinion from Justice Sabharwal. He is ready to involve the Law Commission in conducting an in-depth study.
Sharad’s plain speak In the serious debate on the motion for expulsion of BJP member Chhattrapal Singh Lodha from Rajya Sabha, it was JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav who provided lighter moments. The JD(U) leader, whose party is in the NDA, counted both the pluses and minuses of TV journalism. In a lighter vein, he said that TV journalists preferred to take bytes from English-speaking leaders. “What is my fault, if I was not taught English in school. My brain power is no less,” he said, evoking smiles all around. He praised Arun Jaitley for the strength of his legal arguments on the motion of expulsion but said that politics was based on “lok raj” and the House should adopt the motion. In the end, the BJP too went along the motion. (Contributed by Satish Misra, Rajeev Sharma, S S Negi and Prashant Sood)
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From the pages of Labour, efficiency & wages
In connection with the question of the labour movement in India and the frequent strikes that have been occurring it is interesting to enquire whether the labour demand for higher wages and reduced hours is, after all, so uneconomical and unreasonable as the employers generally declare it to be. Any one who has some experience of the slow and wasteful methods of the working class at present can easily find out that their output is poor and in the long run low wages and long hours are not conducive to economy. In India, the labourers, though illiterate, are justly credited with natural intelligence and hereditary skill, and if only they are given a sufficiency of food and proper living conditions, they will prove themselves much more efficient than at present. It is, therefore, to the interest of the employers themselves that they should encourage higher wages and greater efficiency rather than the present wasteful system of labour employment.
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Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India. — Mahatma Gandhi Objects of pleasure may be short-lived but they can certainly dissipate Man’s strength. — The Upanishads Look at the grinding stones: in the duel of wheels, nothing stays intact. — Kabir Those who are earnest should not be led astray by the vain fluttering of the thoughtless. They should delight in earnestness. Their knowledge is the knowledge of the select few. It is not easily available to everyone. — The Buddha Knowing that God is the unique source of all creation the Creator with any created thing. —Islam Bhakti is the one essential thing. To be sure that God exists in all beings. — Ramakrishna Control your thoughts. Guide and channel their direction. If you think about doing good to all gradually you will develop a great inclination towards it. If you think about selfish motives you will develop a great desire for it. — Bhagvad Gita The Truth is this. Our lives are shaped by our deeds. Our who realises this, has reached the summit of self-realisation. All his delusions now disappear. He becomes the self-realised one. He serves as an example to those who wish to know the Truth. — Sanatana Dharma
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