 |
|
On Record Jessica Lall
case: Need to reform the system |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Birth rate in
Punjab alarming
Profile Reflections Diversities — Delhi Letter
|
On Record
IN the context of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special emphasis on administrative reforms, the Centre for Good Governance (CGG) in Hyderabad has been playing a notable role. The brain behind its success is Dr Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Director-General and Executive Director, CGG. A 1979 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, 51-year-old Dr Mohanty is a specialist in political economy and economics. He is a Post-Doctorate from Harvard University and Doctorate from Boston University, USA. He is a double MA from Delhi School of Economics and Boston University. Dr Mohanty has held important positions at the Government of India and in Andhra Pradesh. He was the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister during 2002-2004. He had a stint at the Asian Development Bank as Urban Development and Policy Specialist. He bagged many awards for his contribution to administrative reforms and e-governance. In an exclusive interview to The Sunday Tribune in Hyderabad, he gives us an insight into the current governance reform process. Excerpts: Q: Recently the Government of India has written to all states to establish their own centres of excellence following your CGG model. How does the CGG assist governments in reforms? A: Our vision is to harness the power of knowledge, technology and people to improve governance. The CGG undertakes action research aimed at helping government departments design and develop their governance reform strategy and action plans. Q: Why is CGG needed in the states? A: Ministers, Secretaries and other key stakeholders in governance require strategic support. As they always remain busy, there is need for providing continuous institutional support based on knowledge, technology and people-centric inputs which require in-depth research and attention. The CGG, which has access to both public sector knowledge and private sector expertise, can provide the appropriate support. Moreover, knowledge is becoming a key driver of economic growth. Information and communication technologies have opened up tremendous opportunities for restructuring public management systems. The CGG can combine these inputs and provide strategic assistance to policy makers. Q: What are the key factors that have enabled the CGG to emerge as a centre of excellence in governance reforms in the country? A: The CGG has undertaken more than 100 action research projects linked to issues of public management and governance. It has developed over 30 e-governance applications many of which are currently in use in different departments. The Government of India has adopted some of them. In addition, the CGG has undertaken numerous training and change management programmes on a host of issues relating to governance reforms for officers of Andhra Pradesh, Government of India, other states and international organisations. Highly qualified staff, effective linkages with centres of excellence in governance and public management, strong support by the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Finance Minister, close relationship with the Chief Secretary and key Secretaries and full functional autonomy are responsible for the CGG’s success. Q: What are the major projects undertaken by the CGG? A: Some of the key projects are background research for civil service reforms, research for model code for good governance, comprehensive public service law, study on restructuring the IAS training, modernisation of district administration, Country-wide Instant Alert Network, research for legal and judicial reforms and design of National Centre for Good Governance. The CGG has also partnered with international organisations like the UNDP, World Bank, ADB etc. Q: What are the key requirements for reforms at the local level? A: There is need to revamp the delivery mechanism at the cutting edge level and a clearer delineation of roles and functions between the district administration and the local bodies. Autonomy and accountability cannot be divorced from each other. Strong accountability mechanisms — both hierarchical and downward forms including social accountability mechanisms such as report cards, social audit, people’s budgeting, people’s estimates, participatory planning and appraisal etc. — must be put in place. Q: You have stressed the need for National Centre of Excellence to train political leaders, policy makers, planners and civil servants. Do you see a larger role for the CGG here? A: A National Centre of Excellence can be a resource and learning repository for the highest echelons of policy-making in the country on 20:80 principle. Shaping 20 key change agents who shape the remaining 80 as agents of change and transformation in a cascading mode can go a long way to address the biggest block to reform that is resistance to change. The CGG can itself act as the National Centre for Good Governance, being the first mover in the country and fully equipped with more than 100 professionals. It can also work in close partnership with State CGGs and national institutions to carry forward the governance reform agenda. The CGG can perhaps host a School of Government offering a Diploma in Public Service Management, a National Governance Resource Centre or an e-Development Centre specially focusing on e-tools for governance reforms with support from the Government of India. Q: What are your views on fixed tenure for Collectors and SPs? A: The idea is sound but it cannot be followed as a rigid rule. What is important is to measure performance by objective yardsticks and to insulate performing civil servants from subjective transfers. Only when adequate time is provided to an officer can he/she be able to understand the complicated governance structures and processes and make contributions. Ensuring the right person for the right job is also very important. The CGG is currently assisting the Government of India in the development of a public service law. Many countries have statutory framework for public service values, code of ethics, management, recruitment and career progression. Q: Why is good governance important? How do you characterise it? A: Good governance is acclaimed across the world as the single most important factor for socio-economic growth and poverty reduction. It is fundamental, not simply instrumental. Both results and processes matter. Good governance must be focused on outcomes, not just on inputs or outlays.
|
|
Jessica Lall case: Need to reform
the system THE
recent acquittal of Siddarth Vashisht alias Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lal murder case has highlighted the need for systemic criminal justice reform more forcefully than ever before. The controversies in this case point to serious infirmities in the criminal justice system and a callous disregard of the law by those entrusted to uphold it. From the prosecution to the police, judiciary and the prisons department, the criminal justice system is steadily weakening due to self-serving manipulation of rules and procedures by the powers that be. The failure of the system to punish criminals with connections and its alacrity in imposing stringent punishment on ordinary people indicates serious failings. For one, people are simply not afraid of lying under oath. Punishment for the crime of giving false evidence in court, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment under the Indian Penal Code, is just not handed out. The offence itself is rarely registered though the Code of Criminal Procedure specifically provides that if witnesses turn hostile, the court can order an inquiry in the interest of justice. The system’s failure to sufficiently address perjury has engendered a callous disregard for the sanctity of court proceedings in the country. Threats and inducements are regularly employed to encourage witnesses to lie on oath. Whenever the accused are high profile, witnesses turn hostile with frightening regularity — be it the Nitish Katara murder case or the BMW hit-and-run case. The Supreme Court’s award of one year sentence and a fine of Rs 50,000 on Zahira Sheikh for contempt of court in the Best Bakery case is a step in the right direction. She has been convicted for having retracted from her testimony in the court. Human rights defenders have been pleading for decades for a proper witness protection programme which would provide the necessary physical security to witnesses from powerful criminals, and in extraordinary cases, even provide them with new identities. We need a special legal process to ensure that those who render service by standing firm to their testimony against grave threats are not victimised. Poor conviction rate throughout the country and the systemic failure to convict criminals with political backing responsible for the murders in the Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat riots show that the prosecution system is in a shambles. Too often, public prosecutors have been accused of being influenced by the rich and powerful. As the public prosecutor’s role is crucial in the delivery of justice, it is time to revamp and create an all-India service of public prosecutors. They can be given specialised training and assigned state cadres as in the civil services. In many countries, the public prosecutor’s position is much sought after. It entails a rigorous screening process, and attracts the best and brightest from the legal fraternity. A full-fledged cadre may better assure the independence of prosecutors. It will also ensure that law officers, including advocate generals will come from within the service. Police reform is another facet of criminal justice reform that cries for attention. The Dharma Vira Report should be implemented to insulate the police from illegitimate political control. State and district police chiefs’ appointment must be merit based with a fixed tenure. There is no independent body to receive and investigate complaints against officers who indulge in misconduct. In many instances, investigating officers have purposefully carried out shoddy investigations and indulged in poor record keeping, precisely to make the case to fail. Custodial malpractices continue because the prison visiting system is virtually redundant. Official visitors, including judges and district magistrates, are required to visit prisons and listen to the grievances of prisoners and inspect their living conditions at regular intervals. These visits do not take place as often they should, much to the detriment of ordinary inmates. Most state governments have been lax in constituting the boards of non-official visitors for effective functioning of the prisons. The judiciary must accept blame for the present state of affairs. Over the years, the Supreme Court has issued a number of guidelines on policing and on the conduct of the prosecution. However, these are followed in breach than in practice. The onus squarely lies on the district judiciary to ensure that procedural requirements are meticulously observed and the police and the prosecution do not slack or transgress the boundaries of their power. Cases of custodial torture are as much a reflection of the police brutality as it is of the judiciary’s apathy. Magistrates are required to inquire from each person who appears before them whether they have been subject to ill-treatment or arbitrarily handcuffed, and if they have been provided access to a lawyer. However, in practice, legal requirements are not followed when the accused are well connected. Calls for enhanced judicial accountability have been consistently snuffed out on the grounds that it would impede the independence of the judiciary. As any other public agency, the judiciary too is accountable for the conduct of its members. Mere passing of strictures by the higher courts against judges who have clearly digressed from the path of duty is simply not enough. Judges must be held to account for miscarriage of justice in their courts, which impacts upon the lives of people. Judicial misconduct should not be taken lightly. A constitutionally mandated Judicial Integrity Commission is the need of the hour to improve the falling standards in the judiciary. This Commission should look into reports of judicial impropriety, including the widespread but highly questionable practice of wards of judges practicing law in the same court as their parents who may find it easier to argue for bail in front of their parents’ colleagues. The writer is associated with Access to Justice Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi
|
|
Birth rate in
Punjab alarming POPULATION explosion has exacerbated the unemployment problem in Punjab. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said recently that there are over 20 lakh unemployed youth in the state. In a recent study, Jivtesh Singh Maini, a senior IAS officer, has identified deterioration in the productivity of environment as the main reason why Punjab’s development process is showing signs of fatigue. His assertion has considerable force if one examines the sector-wise average annual compound growth rate of the state’s gross income since 1985-86. Punjab is increasingly finding itself caught in the mire of such social evils as drug abuse and crime. This is because unchecked population growth and the system’s failure to provide adequate gainful employment for the youth leaves them leisure time for which they have hardly any creative use. Life of leisure often leads young people to unethical living. The rising incidence of crime in Punjab may have something to do with the increasing levels of unemployment caused by unmitigated pressure of population. More recently, cinema and television are corrupting the lives of the youth instead of providing them healthy entertainment. Closely associated with crime and drug abuse is the evil of corruption. In Punjab, this is not a new phenomenon. It has only changed in extent and scope. Clearly, corruption has hit the services sector vertically and horizontally. Population explosion has adversely affected Punjab’s rural society. Since agriculture is the mainstay of the rural people, further increase in population is bound to eat into the resources of the rural sector and make the poor poorer. This has also brought about unexpected changes in the state’s demographic profile. The latest Census figures show two alarming trends. First, there is a fall in the already unfavourable sex ratio — from 882 in 1991 to 874 in 2001. This implies that the age of marriage for women won’t increase in the coming years and consequently, there will be no fall in the birth rate. Secondly, there is a sizeable unsymmetrical depopulation of certain rural areas. This is particularly true of Kapurthala, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr districts. The three districts have recorded a rural growth rate of less than 7 per cent as against the state average of 12.28 per cent. This has encouraged large-scale in-migration from the neighbouring weaker states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. A worrying problem in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh is child labour. None of the measures contemplated to combat this problem such as compulsory schooling and fixing child and adult wages in a manner that neutralises the advantage of cheap labour would succeed as they do not address the basic cause — the over-extended supply of labour. India urgently needs to evolve a population control policy to realise its dream of becoming a super power. The writer is Reader in Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala
|
Profile The post of Chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development Corporation held by her since August 2004 is considered an office of profit and the Election Commission has recommended to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam that she be disqualified. The President’s verdict is awaited even as the State Assembly passed a Bill exempting as many as 79 posts including the chairmanship of the UP Film Development Corporation from being regarded as offices of profit. From Bhopal’s Professors’ Colony, where she grew up, to Mumbai’s glamorous filmdom and to the Rajya Sabha has been a long journey for Jaya. Her father, the late Taroon Coomar Bhaduri, was a journalist. He worked for long years as Special Representative of The Statesman in Bhopal in the late fifties and sixties. His stories on the “dacoit” problem in the Chambal ravines made him nationally known. He was also an accomplished writer in Bengali. His Bangla novel Abishapt Chambal (cursed Chambal) made a mark in the literary world and was translated in many languages. Jaya inherited her literary flair and stage talent from her father. As a student in a Bhopal convent school, she was extraordinarily talented. Soon after completing her education, Taroon da, as her father was known, sent her to the Pune Film Institute where she made a mark. The credit for spotting talent in Jaya goes to film personality Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who was a friend of Taroon da. Within a short span of time she made a mark in the filmdom. Jaya is now all set to open a new chapter in her life. There was time when Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya were close friends of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Amitabh was seen many times carrying his golf kit to 7, Race Course Road, the Prime Minister’s official residence. Then something went wrong and relations between them estranged. The Bachchans snapped their life-long ties with the Congress. The film icon couple came close to Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh and, according to reports, the two Samajwadi Party leaders helped them come out of a financial crisis. Jaya was offered Rajya Sabha membership twice in the past but she declined. When the offer came for the third time, she said “Yes”, that too, after a great deal of persuasion. She had reportedly told her interviewers “this is the third time that the Rajya Sabha nomination has come to me. When I declined earlier, it was entirely my decision. Now that I have accepted it, it is my decision”. Her children have grown up and don’t need her attention. She was free to take a plunge into politics. Jaya is not the person to run away from challenges. She is a fighter, having come up hard way in life. She is also the person who can make sacrifices and suffer for others. Why did she take sanyas from her promising film career when she was rising like a meteor? Magazines reported that if Jaya continued to rise like this, she would eclipse Amitabh one day. Therefore, she decided to stay at home and be a housewife. Her vanvas from the filmdom continued for 19 long years. Meanwhile, Amitabh rose from strength to strength and grew taller than his size. Jaya, however, maintained all through that she took off from her film career to devote her time for upbringing of kids. She staged a comeback in 1997. She was given the role of a middle-aged mother who discovers that her son, after he was killed, was a Naxalite. The film, based on Mahashweta Devi’s Jnanpith Award-winning Bengali novel Ek Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma, was a hit. Speculation is rife about Jaya’s political career if she is disqualified from the Rajya Sabha. It is said that she may return to the Upper House in a month’s time. The biennial elections are due in April and she can be easily elected from Uttar Pradesh.
|
|
Reflections THIS Women’s Day, I was in the company of outstanding set of panelists consisting of leading women professionals who were Chief Executives of Britannia, Microsoft, IBM, JP Morgan, ICICI Bank and others. Each one of them was a power-house of leadership. The audience too was no less. The venue of the conference was packed with the presence of young professional women, self-employed, qualified and enterprising. I came away from the event additionally enthused. It was evident that the Indian woman had arrived… Each of us panelists made our points without any one overstating or exceeding the given time. The audience was left enriched. Let me share what was put across:
Research clearly shows that we are ‘hardwired’ by the time we reach our twenties. Our attitudes and leadership qualities are already ‘hard wired’. Hence we are complete packages by the time we arrive at the corporate door step. This is because our personal and professional orientations are already rooted and shaped by the time we start to work. The professional degree is more for honing professional skills and tools which may or may not alter our basic attitudes if we are looking for a change. Simply put, people do not change very much once they enter the work place. The changes that do take place are mainly a matter of consolidation of strengths or a downward drift in behaviour that needs improvement. The lesson to be derived is — It is very important how we shape ourselves as girls. It will be easier if we groom the way we want to be, either way. Professional or home! Or both!
Today with women coming into positions of power equally need to remain sensitive to others needs. They must give to their own juniors and peers what they are looking for themselves. Such as back patting, mentoring, promotions, training, resources, support, understanding, appreciation, rewards, recognition, communication, sharing, transparency etc. All that they want they must equally become givers for those they supervise and lead. Independent of whether they get what they need from their own seniors, women are perceived to be givers and sharers. Hence we must continue to build on this positive perception and belief. Perhaps we are ‘hardwired’ on it when small. Hence we need not change what is our strength just because others do not endorse or support or do the way we do.
You want to see integrity, courage, discipline, hard work, fair play, welfare. Then you provide it first. Do not just wish you had it while you deny it to others. You be the change and lead the way.
Women today have a wide range of choices to make. Earlier there were none whatsoever. Exactly like the TV channels. From no TV— to one national channel with a black and white TV — to a wide variety of colour TVs, with hundreds of equally competing channels today. What a world of difference! Similarly, the world of women was only home and family. Their overall security was gold ornaments received at the time of marriage, and husband and sons. Her journey was from parents’ home to husband’s home. She was expected to serve and be unquestioning. She personally owned nothing. Everything belonged to the elders and the husband. Anything asked for, from her, she was expected to part with. There was not much conflict. For there was no choice. Today it is choices all the way, each one inherent with potential conflict... Professional demands and expectations. Home responsibilities. Children’s needs. Family relationships. Time constraints. Physical capabilities. Financial status. Social expectations. Job insecurities and many more. How do we handle these competing demands with inherent contradictions and conflicts? When do we learn to deal with conflict management? Who teaches us? What kind of solutions do we move towards? How much time do we take to learn? And do we? Another panelist said, each woman is a leader for she multitasks all the time. Women are not at the top yet as they were late starters. Work life balance is now a global issue. Women must learn to use and benefit from technology. Such as net meetings, video or tele-conferences etc.
Another panelist said, “do not try and do it all yourself. Don’t try to be perfect in all. Never hesitate to take help. Always give and share credit with all those who made it possible for you to succeed. Work or business is all about people. Be ready for change. Handle the challenge of change”. Accept that there are differences. Be yourself; be not a man.
|
|
Diversities — Delhi Letter WHY does everything takes place only in New Delhi — right from a recent sufi take-off with Abida Perveen in the centrestage to the so-called festival of the North-East? Big and heavy concentration of programmes with more or less the same set of people in the audience. You should see the programmes lined up for any of the much publicised “days” of the year. Till about four years back, there were barely a couple of talks or discussions for International Women’s Day. But this time we went overboard. Art galleries of the Capital also jumped in to portray the woman of today. But here again the participating artists were the same set names. Of the well known and established. Even in the discussions and meets, it’s the same story. The well known are there to repeat what they had spoken over and over again. To the same bunch of listeners. Why can’t we shift focus to other parts of the country, especially those places which seem cut off — the North East and Kashmir? Whilst on the North East, this week the Department of Culture hosted a major meet ‘Octave’, with the Sahitya Akademi organising a related symposium on the literature of those particular states. I really can’t comment how an occasional programme help people connect. It has to be a continuous effort to bridge gaps. Even conferences and
meets on Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence are held primarily in New Delhi and not in the turmoil-stricken areas of the country. When I had attended one such meet, I did tell the organisers that the youth of the Kashmir Valley (or for that matter of the North-East) ought to be told that there are non-violent methods of releasing anger and frustration and not through the gun. The angry young man of today probably does not even know of the concept of non-violence and the strength this concept holds out. He is not even aware of it. I remember whilst travelling in the Valley, I had met a person who told me that he took to violence after most members of his family were gunned down in the so-called encounters. I had suggested that instead of indulging in counter or reactionary violence, he take on the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence which had actually worked in every sense of the term. With a sad, hopeless look on his face, he had uttered words to the effect. “Now it’s too late to follow Gandhian philosophy. We were never told about it. We didn’t know of it”, he said Yes, people sitting in New Delhi are to be blamed for not really reaching out with the options for today’s angry and for those bypassed and unheard of. When I had interviewed Noam Chomsky, I had asked him that whom would he describe to be a terrorist. He said, “a person whose grievances are not granted an opportunity for expression. Here let us also say that though there is no justification for someone to become a terrorist, that is how it happens.” To the query whether the affected or angry can express their anger in some other way than violence, he quipped spontaneously, “Yes, there is what Mahatma Gandhi had advocated — the non-violent path. There is no better way than it.” It is time we took some of these programmes and talks and discussions to other parts of the country. Let there be some variety in every sense of the term. Even the venues need not be air-conditioned set-ups. It is time to move on from big cities to those areas where the real India lives and somehow survives.
Too many seminars As I have just mentioned, this week had been especially heavy with meets and more meets. I attended two international seminars and another three which only had Indian speakers (so not international in technical terms) and by the weekend I felt I could hear no longer. One of the international seminars was on labour and the other on India and East Asia. What I really liked was Amiya Dev’s talk on “Rabindranath Tagore’s vision of the East”. In the midst of discussions of what has been happening in today’s world, it did come as very refreshing change to hear about Tagore’s views about East Asia. As Amiya Sen said, it was almost a hundred years ago that Tagore had told us to look east. He said, “True, Tagore did not pose as a prophet in China nor earlier in Japan. The question would not arise in Indonesia or Thailand. All he would be doing there was to build a cultural bridge with what had come from India going through a metamorphosis and what had developed indigenously. However, there is no denying that he felt strongly about Asia, that he had a vision for the East. But his East was not the West’s other friend. It was West’s sister, the elder one. Obviously, his vision had a special point in the context of colonialism and of the West browbeating of Asia on many a count. In the Crisis in civilisation, he recorded his final disillusion with the West and pinned every hope on the East.” Amiya Dev dwelt with beautifully on the bygones which ought to resurface today.
Dilip Hiro in Delhi Another writer personality is in the Capital — Dilip Hiro. Though
settled in the UK, he is here in New Delhi for the launch of Babur Nama (Penguin) and also for the launch of his latest Iran Today (Penguin, 2006). He has been giving talks on not just the Mughal emperor Babur but also on what is happening in today’s world. Next week he speaks on the topic “Is Iran the next target of the American hawks?”
|
There are some who only wish to indulge their senses. All the time they seek pleasure. They are immoderate in food, drink, sleep, work and play. Do they not know that all these can come to an end any moment? Like the drunk, they can’t differentiate between the eternal and the temporary. — The Buddha That is, do not indulge in idle talk, but speak rightly when occassion requires it. And pursue the right course in thy going about and lower they voice. — Islam If a man has faith in God. then even if he has committed the most heinous sins-such as killing a cow, a brahim, or a woman—he will certainly be saved through his faith. — Ramakrishna
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
NOTWITHSTANDING the Uttar Pradesh government’s belated attempt to prevent disqualification of Jaya Bachchan from the membership of the Rajya Sabha, there is remote possibility of this talented icon of the film world getting out of the constitutional imbroglio she has landed. The constitutional position, backed by precedents is very clear, “a member who holds office of profit under the Union government or a state government” is liable to be disqualified as member of either house of Parliament. One feels sad for Jaya as, evidently, she was unaware of this provision and none of those who pitch forked her to the weird world of politics and to the Upper House advised her correctly.