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Test of fire Lucknow violence |
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Chautala’s assets
Breaking from the past
Card chaos
India’s indifference on corruption Decline in teachers’ value system Chatterati
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Test of fire THE Justice U.C. Banerjee report on Godhra could not have been more forthright. It has concluded that the fire on Sabarmati Express at Godhra in which some karsevaks returning from Ayodhya were killed was an accident. The conclusion was the same when he submitted his interim report a few months ago. It disproves the theory that the arson was the result of a conspiracy hatched by the local Muslims. In the process, it has demolished Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s theory that the riots were a reaction to the Godhra outrage. Small wonder that the Sangh parivar is upset over the finding, which it believes was arrived at even before the inquiry had begun. This is tantamount to questioning the competence and impartiality of Justice Banerjee, which is totally unwarranted. Though four years have passed, the prosecution in Gujarat has not been able to provide any clinching evidence about the Godhra conspiracy. Independent probe bodies, which had gone into the burning of two compartments of Sabarmati Express, had also not found any evidence to suggest that a mob was behind the fire. It is a different matter that the Railways at that time did not think it necessary to inquire into the incident. The report is a body blow to Mr Modi, who is unlikely to feel the urge to quit, let alone make amends for his party’s campaign, which resulted in the killing of over 2,000 people. It is a pity that BJP leaders like Mr Arun Jaitley are keen to rubbish the report just because its finding does not substantiate their theory of the origin of Gujarat riots. Even if Godhra was a conspiracy, how does it justify the subsequent killing of Muslims? How could innocent people be made to suffer for the act of some mad caps? Pray, who are the beneficiaries of Godhra? Until then, the BJP was losing every by-election. But after Godhra and the worst-ever riots, Mr Modi was so confident of winning the election that he immediately got the Assembly dissolved to cash in on the violence. The results bear out that Mr Modi’s calculations were not wide of the mark. Thus, if at all there was a conspiracy, the needle of suspicion points to those who failed to practise what then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee described as “Raj Dharma”.
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Lucknow violence MERCIFULLY, Saturday’s bandh in Lucknow, held at the behest of the VHP and the BJP following the death of four persons in communal violence in the city on Friday, passed off peacefully. This shows that an alert administration could have prevented the loss of four innocent lives during the demonstrations held in protest against the visit of US President George W. Bush. Clearly, the authorities allowed the situation to go out of hand because the protests suited the Samajwadi Party-led government in Uttar Pradesh. Otherwise, it was not difficult to foresee that any laxity in the security arrangement could lead to arson and killings. There is no logic in the state government’s explanation that the police could not concentrate on dealing with the protests because of the presence of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in the city. It cannot hide its inefficiency. A shameless administration not only displayed its casual attitude in controlling an explosive situation, but also failed to prevent the communalisation of the protests. Anti-Bush demonstrations were held in other cities also, but nowhere was the situation allowed to acquire a communal colour. The state government has ordered an enquiry into the killings and promised to punish the guilty. But the social tension caused by the failure of the authorities to maintain law and order will take its own time to disappear. There is need to maintain strict vigil to ensure that such incidents do not recur in Lucknow, as also elsewhere. The Mulayam Singh government’s lacklustre attitude in handling a purely law and order situation and allowing it to gain communal overtones has exposed its dirty designs. The incident makes one believe the charge that it allowed the protesters to take the law into their own hands with a view to consolidating the SP’s following among the minority community. But such games cannot help protect the interests of the state’s ruling party.
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Chautala’s assets POLITICIANS and corruption seem inseparable, but cynical acceptance is not an option. The ordering of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the charges against former Haryana Chief Minister and Indian National Lok Dal president Om Prakash Chautala, following a request by the Haryana government, is thus to be welcomed. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was one of the signatories to a Congress memorandum submitted to the Governor when Mr Chautala was still in office. The memorandum detailed charges of corruption and irregularities, and the accumulation of assets, disproportionate to the known sources of income, by Mr Chautala and his family. It was several months after coming to power, however, under pressure from Congress party men, that the government moved to write to the Centre in December last. Politicians, for various reasons, do not want to be seen indulging in anything that may be described as a witch-hunt. Election campaign rhetoric frequently undergoes a quiet metamorphosis after the party gains power, and even bitter political rivals and enemies wait to feel the public pulse before drawing daggers. But corruption in administration and the betrayal of the public faith are serious offences, and those indulging in them must be made the target of more than just campaign assaults. The notification of the Union Ministry of Personnel should enable the CBI to conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation of the charges. It is also an opportunity for Mr Chautala to vindicate himself if he really is in the clean. This is not the first time that such an investigation is being conducted into the affairs of a senior politician, nor will it be the last. Outcomes, however, have been fairly dispiriting, with those in power always getting away. The public’s faith in our investigative agencies and the justice system is at an all-time low. No society can afford that. Every new opportunity to expose malpractices and bring those guilty to book must thus be prosecuted with diligence and honesty.
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Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Breaking from the past
Nations like individuals cannot afford to remain prisoners of the mantras that have outlived their utility. The world has been changing fast over the years. The ability of a nation to adjust its policy to the changes and make the best of the opportunities thrown up will determine its place in the world. For decades, India has remained stuck with the economic policies that were no longer of use and sluggish enough to move at the Hindu growth rate of 2 or 3 per cent. In the 1990s, Dr Manmohan Singh launched economic reforms and, despite odds and a late start, the nation is now growing at 8 per cent and is aiming at 10 per cent growth. The economic reforms had become necessary not only to catch up with China – which had discarded some of its dogmas – but also to fight poverty and unemployment and much else India has been burdened with. The latest nuclear deal the Manmohan Singh government has signed with the United States also marks a major departure from some of the shibboleths that were keeping India’s foreign policy caught in a groove. The nuclear deal is bound to be a subject of animated discussion and analysis in most capitals of the world. This is mainly because it has in a way stirred up the global scene and the “balance of power” which, despite the odium the term enjoys, characterises stability in the world order and certainly in Asia. Dr Manmohan Singh since July 18 last year, when he signed the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with President George W. Bush in Washington, has been stressing that the nuclear deal with the US is essentially aimed at ensuring fuel supplies for the nuclear power reactors to boost the economy of India of the 21st century. He may not be going to town about these, but he is not unaware of the widespread ramifications the deal is going to have for India’s foreign policy and what kind of place India has to have in the emerging world order. Besides ensuring fuel and technology supplies, it may throw up more options for India in dealing with other countries, particularly in Asia. Even if it is not stated specifically, the India-US nuclear deal amounts to the recognition of India by the United States as a nuclear weapon state. This is clearly implied in the clause in the deal which stipulates that eight out of the 22 Indian reactors will be kept on the military list not open to international safeguards. This means India’s capacity to make nuclear weapons has not been capped as demanded by many in the US Congress. Although full details will be available when the Prime Minister makes a statement in Parliament later this week, the deal provides for India going in for more nuclear reactors and it will be for India to decide which nuclear reactor has to be in the civilian list to produce only energy and which reactor on the military list to produce the stuff needed for nuclear weapons. As expected, the US negotiators made some direct or indirect efforts to limit the size of the nuclear deterrent at the existing level, but India made it very clear that it would neither disclose the size of its nuclear arsenal, nor its plans for developing more nuclear weapons. At a very early stage of the talks, the Indian negotiators made it clear that while India was keen to go ahead with the deal to acquire access to fuel and technology from abroad, it would in no way curtail the existing strategic nuclear deterrent and, if necessary, its future growth. The language was plain: India will retain the right to determine the size of nuclear deterrent according to the threat perception at a particular time. In other words, India alone will decide how many nuclear warheads it should have and that it would brook no international constraints on this account. Once this was made clear to the Americans, the talks moved on to hard bargaining which went on till late in the night, for some of them until 2 a.m. The point at which the negotiators were held up was the US insistence on a perpetuity clause envisaging that international safeguards for civilian reactors should be permanent. Having ensured that the Fast Breeder Reactor programme and the reactors producing material needed for nuclear weapons would not be open for international inspection, India had no objection to the perpetuity clause, provided the US agreed that the fuel supplies would also be perpetual. It required President Bush’s intervention to ensure agreement on the sticky point. Apparently, legislative and other steps will now have to be devised by the US during the few weeks in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). That the IAEA has already been somewhat in the loop is evident from the fact that its Director-General has already described the Indo-US deal as a milestone. For the Prime Minister and his negotiating team clinching the deal must have come as a happy ending to the nuclear dialogue with the Bush Administration which began in Washington in July last year. That India succeeded in ensuring supplies of nuclear fuel for several decades for its present and future nuclear reactors without compromising its nuclear deterrent should also satisfy Indian scientists who became vocal during the last few days to protect the sanctity of the nuclear weapons and FBR programmes on which they had laboured over the years. They seem to be happy that the Prime Minister took their protests seriously and ensured that what the scientists had achieved over the years in the weapons and the FBR programme would remain out of the sight of the international inspectors. India would, in a nutshell, retain its unhindered control over its nuclear deterrent as well as its future development. It is not only fuel for the existing and future reactors India will get, the deal provides also for lifting the restrictions placed on the supply of dual technology items in 1974 at Pokhran. The technology denial regime had become a sore point with India. Now India can access sensitive technology that was being denied to its nuclear reactors, space, defence and many other programmes. Even before Mr Bush had landed in New Delhi, Dr Manmohan Singh had categorically assured the critics at home that he will not sign any deal that went against India’s national interest. Having lived up to his commitment, as expected, he can now boldly face Parliament where he is to make a statement this week. The Left, the Marxists and others are already shifting their attack from the deal to a general criticism of getting closer to the US capitalist power and Mr Bush’s policy on Iraq and Iran. The Samajwadis, who are by nature negative in approach, are not much of a factor in Parliament. The main opposition party, the BJP, would be looking into the fine print of the Prime Minister’s statement, but is unlikely to be seriously critical of the nuclear deal which perhaps could not be better. The problem is for Mr Bush who is to sell the deal to the US Congress as well as other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The NSG members are unlikely to challenge the Bush administration’s skill, but in the US Congress, which is left with just 80 days of its term, barricades can be put up by those who have come to be known as the non-proliferation ayatollahs. Senator Hillary Clinton with her presidential ambitions is unlikely to oblige President Bush. Then there is Mr John Kerry and many other democrats who will be hard to convince; some Republicans would also need to be persuaded. India has naturally gone by the presumption that Mr Bush has spent a lot of personal capital on the deal and as such will not spare any effort to get the Indo-US deal cruise through the Congress. Hopefully, Mr Bush will
succeed.
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Card chaos
A
childhood friend saw me operating an ATM card. His eyes virtually popped out on seeing the new currency notes coming out at a fast speed. "Aisa jaadu wala card hamein bhi dila do, hum bhi thori aish kar lein”, so said my friend. I laughed and told him: "Aisi aish bahut mehangi parti hai, jitna rupiyae jeb mein ho, utne hi kharch karne achhe rehte haen." He insisted. I arranged a credit card with ATM facility for him from a well-known bank. He was very happy. I taught him how to use the card and advised him on the safety measures. One fine day, I got a call from him: "Income-tax inspector sahib aaei hain, Yeh poochhte hai ke yeh card number aapka hi hai." I immediately reached his place and told the inspector that I had arranged the card for him. The officer was stern and said; "He has never filed an Income tax return. How can he afford to have such a high-end prime card?” I told him politely that it was just a free card and he was not using it. The inspector retorted: "He has spent Rs 50,000 in one month and you are saying he is not using it." I requested the inspector to give us sometime for answering his queries. The next day he came with a letter from the bank showing a bill of Rs 50,000. I read the letter in detail. The billing revealed a stay in a five-star hotel in Bombay, a stay in a five-star hotel in Delhi and some shopping from a designer shop at MG Road, Delhi. I did not find any reason to suspect or question him as he had never crossed the municipal limit of the city, leave aside shopping from the MG Road designer shop. I rang up the bank and told them to inactivate the card. The reply was: "Your card stands inactivated anyway as you have already exceeded the limit." The next day we went to the bank to file our complaint. After a month I rang up the bank to enquire. This was the reply: "It is your duty to take care of the card. No body from outside except your own relative can use the card." Two days later two hefty looking young men came to see my friend. He immediately called me. They claimed that the card had been received by the son of my friend and that the courier company had a copy of his son's driving licence. I told my friend to call his son. He went in and came back carrying his three-year-old son. I could see the two hulks sweating. Before I could say anything they had disappeared. I could hear them saying "Aaj din hi theek nahi
hai"
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India’s indifference on corruption Barely noticed by the Indian media, if at all, the world launched a global war on corruption on December 14, 2005, when the United Nations Convention Against Corruption came into force with the 30th ratification of the instrument. The Convention was adopted by the General Assembly on October 31, 2003, and was open for signature until December 9, 2005. India waited to sign until the very last day and has yet formally to announce its ratification. Such tardiness on the part of India is surprising and the indifference to the Convention disquieting. Despite the hue and cry over various scams, has corruption become such a way of life as to be tolerated and confronted at leisure? Sadly rated as one of the more corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International, India needs to act with alacrity and comprehensively across the board to curb this evil that is eating into the vitals of the nation, undermining good governance and equity and fostering crime. Even when the Convention is ratified, it will be of little avail unless its provisions are incorporated into the country’s jurisprudence through appropriate amendments and regulations India’s record in incorporating international conventions into domestic law has not been particularly satisfactory partly because of poor inter-departmental liaison but even more so on account of public ignorance of the substance and significance of these instruments. The UN Convention notes the connection between corruption and other forms of crime, particularly economic crime like money laundering and expresses concern over its negative impact on democratic institutions, national economies and the rule of law. What is of greater interest is the affirmation that corruption is no longer a local matter but a trans-national phenomenon that calls for “international cooperation and technical assistance” for its effective prevention and control. Indians must surely be alive to the relevance of this aspect in the light, most recently, of the Quattrocchi caper. The Convention binds countries to render mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence, extraditing offenders and tracing, freezing and confiscating the proceeds of embezzlement of public funds and gains from certain forms of corporate corruption. Indeed, asset-recovery is explicitly defined as a fundamental principle. Certain features of the Convention merit special attention. The definition clause states that a public official shall mean any person holding legislative, executive, administrative or judicial authority, whether appointed or elected, temporary or permanent, whether paid or unpaid, irrespective of seniority. This removes the many layers of protection provided under Indian law and practice, through such debilitating impediments as the “single directive” that mandates prior sanction from higher political or administrative authority for prosecution. Such sanction is a rarity and certainly dilatory as the chain of corruption often has embarrassing forward and backward linkages. The Convention enjoins governments to guarantee anti-corruption agencies the independence to function effectively, “free from any undue influence” — unlike the CBI and Special CID cells in State police departments which have all too often been subject to political influence. Stress is laid on transparency and objectivity in the selection and promotion of investigatory and enforcement personnel and on the prescription of criteria concerning the candidature for the election to public office. Legal protection is also sought for whistleblowers who should not need to fear the consequences of violating official secrecy. Bribery of foreign public officials and public international organisations shall also be deemed to be an offence. The Convention also provides that state parties may consider corruption a relevant factor in legal proceedings “to annul or rescind a contract, withdraw a concession or other similar instrument or take any other remedial action”. Most important is the duty imposed on national authorities to cooperate with their counterparts even to the extent of securing a waiver of bank secrecy laws. State parties are mandated to assert their jurisdiction in regard to offences committed in ships or aircraft flying their flag. Finally, State parties are urged to conclude extradition treaties for fulfilment of the purposes of the Convention and, pending that, to consider this Convention as a legal basis for extradition. Detailed measures are spelt out to promote mutual legal assistance between State parties, including transfer of criminal proceedings to the country where the offence was committed. A Conference of State Parties to the UN Convention has been established and the UN Secretary-General is required to convene it not later than December 9, 2006, to review and strengthen mechanisms for its implementation. This gives India time to get its act together and incorporate critical provisions of the Convention into domestic law. We have so often heard pleas of helplessness from the government in investigating corruption and apprehending suspects, whether Indian or foreign, for lack of foreign jurisdiction or international assistance. The UN Convention Against Corruption plugs this loophole and vests the government with a powerful instrumentality to bring offenders to heel. Transparency International-India published an “India Corruption Study, 2005” that looked into “petty corruption” affecting the ordinary citizen in respect of 11 official departments affecting everyday life such as the police, lower judiciary, municipal services, electricity, ration cards, individual income tax, schools and water supply. The study estimated that the common man paid out over Rs 21,000 crore in 2004-05 to avail of these basic services in the 20 states surveyed. This represents but the tip of the iceberg and is indicative of the crushing burden the honest citizen bears. A JNU economist. Prof Arun Kumar, estimates that some Rs 12 lakh crore of black income is currently being generated in India annually on which the nation notionally loses about Rs 4.5 lakh crore in tax revenue. This is a staggering figure and, as always, the final incidence of such national theft falls on the poorest. Black money breeds crime, corrodes the system and undermines democracy, economic growth and social stability. Moreover, Professor Kumar states, though capital short, India is exporting around Rs 1.5 crore of capital per annum through hawala and other illicit channels. The parallel economy sustains a parallel government! This is a clear and present danger. Corruption has not merely to be exposed. It must be eradicated.
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Decline in teachers’ value system Editorials and letters have given expression to the moral outrage and agony felt by the people over the rape of schoolgirls by their teachers. Such events are the culmination of academic and moral decay that has set in, in schools run by the government over the years. What has surfaced in some schools in Haryana is only the tip of the ice-berg. A look at the statistics reveals that Haryana has made rapid strides in the quantitative growth of schools, both government and private, since its inception as a separate state in 1966. The number of government schools from primary to senior secondary increased from 5,448 in 1966-67 to 12,840 in 2003-04, an increase of over two times. The number of non-government schools from primary to secondary level increased from a meagre 293 in 1966-67 to 5,987 in 2003-04, a whopping increase of over twenty times. This phenomenal growth concerns only the schools recognized either by the School Board of education Haryana or CBSE. The phenomenon has broadly two reasons behind it: growing disillusionment with the falling academic standards in the government schools and the growth of career consciousness in society as an outcome of fierce competition with the onset of liberalisation and globalisation. Parents are now keen to give better quality of education to their children as far as possible. Teachers in government schools are better qualified and better paid while their counterparts in most of the private schools are ill qualified and ill paid. Still the private schools have greater attraction, as their delivery is better. A state has been reached when students of weaker sections – SCs, BCs and economically marginalised upper castes – patronise the government schools. About 88 per cent of students in Government Middle School, Medical Campus, Rohtak belong to SCs and BCs. The corresponding figure for the Government Senior Secondary School, Karsindhu in Jind district is over 51. Rest are upper caste students who are too poor to afford private school education. Examples can be multiplied. Thus, the government schools in Haryana have become a dumping ground for students coming from weaker sections. With cramped living conditions, largely illiterate parents, lack of academic milieu and such other handicaps, such students are susceptible and unable to successfully resist unethical advances made by the unscrupulous teachers. Interview conducted by this author with several government school teachers in different parts of the state threw up a litany of grouses: lack of rational criteria in recruitment, posting and transfer of teachers, poor infrastructure in schools, burden of non-teaching work, poor training of teachers, mass-copying in examination – the list is endless. However, the interviews conducted with the school heads reveals a different picture. They do concede the substance in the complaints of the teaching community at large but the root of the problem lies elsewhere. A steep decline in the value system of the teaching community resulting in lack of commitment to the profession, indiscipline and insubordination in a sizeable section of teachers with political links, role of money and political pull in recruitment-all this has played havoc with the school system. The rot is too deep set to be handled by one single agency of the government. A multi pronged attack launched by at least four organs of the state — the administration, the Education Board, the schoolteachers and village panchayats — is the need of the hour.
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Chatterati THE third edition of the Madhav Rao Scindia Golf Tournament was as expected. It had the right mix of professionals, amateurs, and page 3 types. The young Jyoti Rao Scindia, I must say, has stepped into his father’s shoes quite comfortably. This youngster is of course undoubtedly the most articulate, intelligent and young member of the Parliament. In fact, he may be the only youngster who might win in the next term too. The turnout at the course was amazing — right from Farookh Abdullah, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Robert Vadra, Ranjan Bhattacharya and the young Vikram Aditya of Kashmir. G Milkha Singh and his legendry father “flying Sikh” Milkha Singh were felicitated on this day. The Golf Tournament is one of the efforts to generate revenue for the Madhav Rao Scindia foundation which works endlessly to infuse hope and promote excellence among the under-privileged in various walks of life. As we are all aware Madhav Rao was a great promoter of sports and so to push forward his father’s dream Jyoti Rao Scindia and people close to the Scindias have taken up these ventures. Mrs. Madhav Rao Scindia and her daughter-in-law Priya are of course always there, strong pillars to give strength to the young Scindia as he walks in the same path as his father did. Rajnath goes for change Under the new leadership of Rajnath Singh, new surprises are coming every day for the BJP. If, in Bihar, BJP appointed an RSS man as chief, it is clear that Pramodh Mahajan has an upper hand in the party today. The Jaitley camp may be sulking and Venkhiah Naidu is not so vocal anymore, but Rajnath Singh sure needs to be more media savvy. The media does not flock around him as it did around Vajpayee and Advani. Rajnath Singh of course knows his drawback and has appointed a media advisor on a personal level. Jaitley has been given Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir with other functionaries of the party which obviously Mr. Jaitley is not happy about. There is no doubt that Jaitley is responsible for crafting the BJP electoral team in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. May be that is what they wanted him to do in Punjab too. Though in Punjab, Amarinder is making progress towards retaining the state by flooding the state with new, public-friendly bonanzas. Rajnath Singh has obviously chosen his team with great acumen, by putting Shanta Kumar in charge of Bihar, with the Venkhiah team hardly getting any prestigious work. Rajnath Singh has made his intentions very clear — a new president and new people with new formulas. Bollywood’s failed romance Bollywood and its romance with politics seems to be over for the time being. None of the film stars deserves to be there or should be there. Never has one heard of a single contribution made by these heroes whether it was Dilip Kumar, glamorous Hema Malini or Jayaprada. Well, the Vaijayanthimalas and Jayabhaduris may be good for eye-viewing but they sure are a waste of an important seat in our Parliament. Dharmendra has not visited his constituency after having contested from Rajasthan. Hema Malini maybe Lalu’s dream of smooth roads in Bihar but in the capital and especially in our political world she is a waste of space. For dining and wining, maybe they are a good idea for our glamour-struck politicians, but nominating them and having them elected to a platform where decision making of a nation takes place is a shame. Whether it is a Shatrughan Sinha or a Vinod Khanna or our sexy pants Govinda they have proved to be all in the same boat as their other counterparts in Parliament. Vinod Khanna, when first elected in Gurdaspur, had promised to make his constituency into Disneyland and Paris but alas, somewhere down the line he seems to have forgotten the spellings of both these wonderful places. |
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From the pages of Gandhi Tunics: Paris fashion Gandhi tunics have made their bow to the world in the Paris salons where winter styles are being shown. Blouses of India print, handblocked on wood from Kashmir, are another of the offerings. India prints fit right in with the winter colour scheme of rich brown, red, blue and green favoured in a score of Paris dress-making establishments. The fickle fashion-makers suddenly have switched over from tucked in blouses, familiarly called “tuck-ins”, to “tuck-outs” or tunics, which are worn outside the skirts. The Gandhi tunics reach 12 to 18 inches below the waistline and follow the lines of an ordinary blouse.
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All the sins of the body fly away if one chants the name of God and sings his glories. — Ramakrishna Be even tempered and peaceful, unswayed by transient effects of life all around you. Be thus wherever you are, whether at work or at home in social gatherings. Your influence will help others to control themselves too. — Bhagavadgita There are many who feel that people are different because their values differ from each other. It is not the values but their natures that are responsible for difference in behaviour. Their natures make them look on the world differently. — Sanatana Dharma
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