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Planning for 9%
growth To sting or not to
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For cricket or
money
India’s economic
paradox
History
recorded
Use media to curb
corruption in Army Delhi
Durbar
Making war and
peace, French style
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To sting or not to sting THE obiter dicta of the Supreme Court wondering whether the sting operations being conducted by the media, particularly television channels, were in pursuance of the public interest or were driven by private profit has not come a day too soon. Coincidentally, it came on a day when the police arrested a photographer and his two accomplices who laid a honey trap for a public figure and tried to blackmail him threatening that he would be exposed through a television channel. With an explosion of news channels in all languages, there is cut-throat competition among them for capturing the imagination of the viewers and thereby increase the rating points. To cash in on the channel boom, freelance videographers have sprung up all over the country providing salacious “bytes”. Small wonder that there has been a surfeit of sting operations in recent years. While criminal laws are applicable to operators like the one in Ludhiana, the question the Supreme Court has raised is more fundamental in nature. The freedom of the Press does not grant freedom to the practitioners of the profession to invade the privacy of individuals. With modern technological gadgets it has become easier for conmen and crooks to photograph private moments and record private conversations of publicmen. That is no journalism as underscored by the apex court when it restrained the media from publishing the telephonic conversation of a political leader of Uttar Pradesh believed to be with some film personalities. Laying honey traps or thrusting money into the hands of the victim or tempting with expensive gifts are all unethical. Yet, in cases where a police officer in Delhi would not release a dead body unless he was paid bribe or where orthopaedic surgeons in Uttar Pradesh would mutilate human body for a price, sting operations serve a public purpose. At the time the news portal Tehelka caused a sensation, it had public approval because it showed what almost everyone believed that there was corruption in defence deals. Sting operations are acceptable only if they are in the public interest. It is for the editors concerned to ensure that the best ethical practices are followed in the profession so that there is no need for the government to think of enacting special laws to deal with sting operations. |
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For cricket or money The
Delhi police finally got its chance to interrogate South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs in the match-fixing scandal that was brought to light in 2000. Fearing arrest, the batsman had skipped previous tours to India. The high-profile scandal permanently tainted South African captain Hansie Cronje, besides several top Indian players. Whether Gibbs’ revelations will throw new light on the betting and match-fixing network remains to be seen. Gibbs had made it clear that he could only repeat what he had already told the King Commission in South Africa, constituted after the scandal broke. Gibbs has been careful in his statements so far. He has confirmed that Cronje offered him money to under-perform in one-day internationals, and that he did not accept them. Though Derek Crookes has been implicated, no Indian player has been named. The Delhi police is saying that it needed him to elaborate on his King Commission statements and he has given it some leads. Joint Commissioner Ranjit Narayan has held out the possibility of legal action against Gibbs, though that appears unlikely. The police is maintaining that there was no “deal” with the South Africans over Gibbs’ cooperation and that it has not given any assurance that he will not be arrested. Gibbs’ name had come up repeatedly in tapped phone conversations amongst various bookies and go-betweens. If there are leads to be followed, money-trails to be traced, and villains arrested, the police should certainly go all out. Given the amount of money widely believed to change hands during cricket matches, the incentive for skulduggery always exists. The game will suffer if the shadow of match-fixing were to fall on any future matches. The police is right in saying that fines and match-bans apart, criminal prosecution for fraud is a must. Efficient police work is a must if charge-sheets are to be filed, and the culprits put in the dock. |
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O liberty! O liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name! — Mme Roland
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India’s economic paradox
IT has often been said of this country that it is the world’s biggest paradox and a bundle of baffling contradictions. No matter what you say, with complete accuracy, about it, the exact opposite is also true. No wonder, the current economic picture of the land adds up to a crazy quilt pattern. On the one hand, it is matter to rejoice over that, having been steady at about 8 per cent for some time, the rate of growth rose in the first quarter of this year to 8.9 per cent. We have come a long way from the “Hindu rate of growth”. But, on the other hand, the gnawing question that arises is: what do we have to show for it? For, let there be no doubt that while the number of people below the poverty line has surely come down, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. The dehumanising poverty that persists — especially in the context of the falling agricultural production, declining food security and the virtual collapse of the so-called public distribution system — ought to make us hang our heads in shame. To applaud the soaring Sensex may be fine, but is anyone paying attention to the Gini Coefficient, which is a yardstick to measure economic and social disparities? Named after its inventor, Italian economist Corrado Gini, this index varies only from zero (an egalitarian society like Sweden’s) to 1 (unacceptable disparities prevailing in most nations). For India, this index has risen in recent years from 0.37 to 0.42. That this is somewhat lower than China’s rate of 0.45 is cold comfort, for the rate for Japan’s is 0.25. However, what the naked eye sees is often a better indicator of the state of affairs than the meticulously maintained — and sometimes cleverly doctored — statistics. In this connection there can be nothing more revealing than the eminently deserved award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Mr. Muhammud Yunus, the father of Bangladesh’s Grameen banks, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s sincere and eloquent congratulations to him. The painful question, therefore, is that if Grameen banks have improved the lot of millions of rural poor in Bangladesh for 30 years, why couldn’t they be replicated here, particularly in areas like Vidarbha and Andhra where farmers have been driven to suicides in their thousands? What an irony it is that more than 300 farmers in Vidarbha have committed suicides after the Prime Minister’s visit there and his announcement of a generous package to help the afflicted. Why? Obviously because the galloping cancer of corruption has riddled the entire Indian system from top to bottom, which ensures that whatever public funds are released are merrily siphoned off, not delivered to those for whom they are meant. Thousands of lives could have been saved, were there any decent system of micro credit in impoverished villages. Usurious moneylenders are thus having a field day. A notorious one of them in Vidarbha is a senior Congress MLA of Maharashtra with enormous clout. An FIR has at long last been recorded against him, only because of a prolonged media campaign. But woe betide any official actually acting against him. Farm loans across the country are demonstrably “minuscule”, compared with what are disingenuously called “non-performing assets” (NPAs) of major nationalised banks. The latest Reserve Bank estimate of these “bad debts” is $ 20 billion or Rs 90,000 crore. All these loans, without exception, have gone to fat cats of the private sector that refuse, with impunity, to repay them. Indeed, the problem is not NPAs, but NPCs — non-paying crooks. Ironically, there is a ban, in the name of “banking secrecy”, on the disclosure of their names. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, speaking at the centenary of a Bangalore-based bank, was gracious enough to declare that the poor borrowers were “not the defaulters”. Why can’t the rich and powerful be made to behave likewise? Meanwhile, an enterprising TV channel has disclosed what a cruel joke the payment of compensation to drought-affected peasants in UP and Maharashtra has become. The cheques given to the rural poor and displayed on the small screen were for sums like Rs 25 or Rs 34. In Akola district of Maharashtra, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s home state, at least one farmer got a cheque for the princely amount of Rs 2! Against this dismal backdrop, is it any surprise that the country is highly suspicious of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) even though the Prime Minister — with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath in tow — has said that these zones have come to stay. He is equally emphatic, of course, that the “concerns” about SEZs — voiced, among others, by the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, Ms. Sonia Gandhi — “must be addressed”. But how can this be done when there is total collusion between corrupt politicians in power, equally venal bureaucrats, comprehensively unscrupulous businessmen, corporate crooks, and ubiquitous fixers and power brokers in an indestructible conspiracy to loot the fruits of development? In theory, SEZs should attract investment, create jobs and improve the unspeakably appalling infrastructure. In practice, these are almost certain to become an instrument for a gargantuan land scam and real-estate racketeering. In addition, the industrialists currently operating elsewhere would rush to the nearest SEZ to make a huge saving on taxes. This is not the view only of diehard opponents of reforms but also of several ardent advocates of reforms, eminent economists, and even of industrial magnates in a position heavily to profit from the contentious zones. All this is depressing enough. But there is something even more dismaying that makes one dread the future. It is the deadening of the conscience of the privileged Indians. They dismiss any mention of the problems of the poor as a hobgoblin of those still imprisoned in old, anti-reform mindsets. The bitter truth is that there is now an almost complete disconnect between the 300 million, high-flying Indians, living in lavish luxury and intoxicated by their own verbosity over globalisation and the remaining 750 million of their countrymen, many of whom seldom get two square meals a day. When hard-pressed, the hyper-privileged disdainfully tell you that a 10 per cent rate of growth, now within reach, would solve the problem by its “trickle-down” effect. This, in John Kenneth Galbraith’s memorable words, only means, “Feed the horses best of oats, and the sparrows would eventually get their
share”.
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History recorded A HANDY tape recorder is a convenient tool for a journalist while conducting an interview or listening to a speech or taking part in a Press conference. That is what I believed until I got a digital voice recorder. It was armed with this device, smaller than a mobile phone, that I accompanied the Prime Minister on his recent trip to South Africa. It would free me from the bother of taking copious notes of Dr Manmohan Singh’s speeches, I thought. Instead, I could concentrate on taking photographs of the functions, capturing interesting faces and situations. That is precisely what I did when I went to the Phoenix Settlement in the outskirts of Durban. I switched on the recorder just as the function began. A South African gentleman asked me whether the lady sitting next to the Prime Minister on the stage was his wife. “No, it is Mrs Ambika Soni, a minister in the Union Government”. I also pointed out Mrs Gursharan Kaur sitting a few feet away in the first row of the audience. Since there was no proper introduction of those on the dais, most people mistook Mrs Soni for Mrs Kaur. Even the South African President seemed to have been mistaken when he bowed to the minister while extending a hearty welcome to “Mrs Manmohan Singh”. All these little things engaged my attention as I remained snug in the belief that my voice recorder was on the job. From there we rushed to the Media Centre at the hotel to file our stories. Everybody had notes to depend upon while writing their reports but I had only my digital recorder. As I began to transcribe, I realised that listening to one hour’s recording would take exactly one hour. It put me at a disadvantage as I had to leave for another function immediately. How I wish I had taken notes, instead! Suddenly I remembered Dr Henry Kissinger’s memoirs where he mentions President Richard Nixon secretly tape-recording all the conversations at his Oval office. Over the years, a whole room in the White House was filled up with such tapes. When the Watergate scandal hit the nation, the FBI realised listening to one year’s recording required no less than one year. So on the next visit to the Fort at Johannesburg where the Prime Minister inaugurated a Gandhi section in the prison, which had already been converted into a museum, I decided to take notes, instead. Usually, copies of his speeches are given in advance to the External Affairs Ministry to make them available to the Press in time. But this time there was no such copy. And there was a possibility that he would deliver an extempore speech. A section of the media, particularly electronic, had already gone to the Nelson Mandela Foundation to cover the Prime Minister’s meeting with Mr Mandela. They had to be provided with a copy of his speech. An official had noticed my little recorder. “Can we borrow it for some time?” he asked. I was mightily pleased with the request as it came from the all-powerful Government of India. I gave him a little lesson on its operation and he took it away to keep it closest to the loudspeaker. Like a pre-digital era journalist, I took notes. Later at the Media Centre I found an MEA official awaiting his posting in Kathmandu listening to the recorder and preparing a text of the Prime Minister’s speech to supply it to the journalists. It might not have been useful for me but it proved its worth for the Prime Minister of India. Suddenly I was the proud owner of a “historic” recorder that lends itself to a middle in The
Tribune. |
Use media to curb corruption in Army IN the ethic of soldiering, cowardice on the battle field either at the personal and collective level is the greatest shame. And in peace time, moral and material corruption are equally abhorrent. The acid test of military leadership lies in inculcating the two cardinal and intrinsic values of izaat and imandari (honour and honesty) among the rank and file through ceaseless motivation and personal example. Like most civil servants of his time, my father had once taken a month’s summer vacation. His soft topped, 1938 Model T Ford had found the ascent over the Banihal leading to the Kashmir Valley, a bit too much. Once over the hump, he pulled the car off the road to allow the engine to cool down. Along came a few Indian Army trucks. Seeing the parked car, they pulled up. The civil servant was mighty impressed that the Army was so caring. That dream was shattered because the soldier-driver enquired if the car needed petrol and that he would provide it at half the market price. I did not want to believe the story even though an inner voice kept prompting that truth cannot be mortgaged to idealism. When I rejoined my Regiment, I mentioned the episode to the few fellow officers who like me were on the junior rungs of the
hierarchy ladder. They all wanted to know who the narrator was? When I said a civil servant, they promptly dismissed it because “civil servants are envious of the Army and will discredit us at any opportunity”. When I disclosed the identity of the civil servant, there was a stunned silence. How could a soldier be so brazenly corrupt? We resolved bring it to the notice of our commanding officer. But there was a severe protocol problem as in those days “junior officers were only seen and never heard!” Nevertheless we were heard and our indignation with corruption soon spread like an epidemic within the entire army officer corps. This was possible because the Indian Army in those days was a fraction of today’s, a mere six infantry divisions and one armoured division. The Indian Army which assumed its place in the service of independent India at the mid-night hour of 14-15 Aug, 1947 was a redoubtable, battle-scarred, tried and tested war machine. Many of its officers, JCOs and NCOs had had baptism by fire on battle fields in Somalia, Egypt, Europe, Iran, Burma, Malaya and Singapore during WW-II. Its units were forty to two hundred years old and many jawans were the fourth
consecutive generation of those who had first enlisted in the Service. Altogether, there were atleast 38 Indians still in uniform who had won the Victoria Cross, the highest gallantry award. An Army of this stature would not allow its Izzat lowered by the waywardness of new entrants to its ranks who lacked the virtue and tradition of imandari. They were stung by whispers of the Banihal kind of episodes. They were quick to realise that in the fledgling Indian Army there were only two entities who handled large inventories of materials for the logistic needs of the Army. Through a stringent system of checks and balances in these entities they were able to almost eliminate corruption. Then came the decades of the 1960s and 80s when the Army in particular expanded by five times its 1947 size. The era of the Cold War, of localised wars in the Middle East, Korea, SE Asia and insurgencies on the Indian soil all combined to usher in high technology weaponry and matching concepts of warfare. In the process of absorption and adaptation to change, unfortunately the emphasis on the twin intrinsic values of Izzat and Imandari showed down. The fresh and large crop of officers, some of them pitch forked straight from serving police constables to lieutenants, did not receive adequate grooming. Their training period was reduced by half. Under the exigencies of the time, the process and methodologies of rapid expansion of the armed forces were fully justified. But such change comes at a price. And that is what we had and are witnessing through the like of the Keeler brothers of the IAF divulging information for money in the 1980s, the Tehalka exposures involving Army Officers in the 1990s and in 2005, the siphoning of secrets from the Naval war-room. And now the mother of all corruption, a General Officer misappropriates not a few cases but truckloads of liquor. But we can take courage that the Armed Forces have taken up the challenge. The Keeler brother were awarded life imprisonment, the Major General exposed by the Tehalka tapes was cashiered and the Naval officers of the war-room leaks, too, swiftly dismissed from service. Now the General Officer misappropriating truckloads of liquor has been cashiered and sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment. The Indian Army’s heritage of valour on the battle field and dedication to the nation are the envy of the Armed Forces of the world. The Indian Army will never let this image tarnish. It does not and will not spare the corrupt in its ranks. The print and visual media can help through objective and matter of fact exposure (minus barbs and sarcasm) of such crimes. Because such reports impact positively on the idealistic psyche of the Armed Forces and impel them to mount prompt and just retribution on the guilty. In an editorial on 23 September 2006, The Tribune said that “Army vehicles openly tour civilian areas, unloading bottles of CSD liquor to willing patrons. The door-to-door service in some areas would make a proud multinational turn olive green with envy.” Issuing denials will not make the malaise disappear. Rather, how I wish that the three Service Chiefs would make this Tribune editorial a “must read” in their respective Service and with that renew the drive to imbibe the values of Izzat and Imandari among the rank and file, with greater vigour. Nothing succeeds better in isolating the corrupt and finally rooting them out, than their constant exposure. |
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Delhi Durbar Scribes
covering the Delhi government have often complained about the late-coming habit of Chief Minister Shiela Dixit at functions. Sometimes they wonder if she has lost interest in the CM’s office and whether she is keen to stand for the post for the third consecutive time. The other day she was invited to the valedictory function of the India Handicrafts and Gift fair organised by India Expo Mart in adjoining Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Although she was supposed to come at 3 PM there was no sign of her even after an hour and a half. Union minister of state for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, who arrived on the dot, had to wait for her while moving around the fair. When Dixit finally arrived, she and Ramesh went straight to the stall of Robert Vadhra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Scribes came to know about this special visit when they were stopped by the elite Special Protection Group personnel who had taken charge of the security. No one was aware about Vadhra’s stall till then as it bore the name of some other person. Vadhra was himself there at the stall to greet both Dixit and Ramesh and posed for photographs. Marathon of life Last year the entire world was there or so it seemed. And, like last year, many more wanted to take part in the Delhi marathon, a sporting show of bonhomie and camaraderie. But they could not get the green light from the event organisers who told them that the participants had already been selected on a first come first served basis. The same old story! Many could not get their bib number – a must for taking part in the show. However, it was an experience of a lifetime for those who could finally make it. The participants ran for different reasons: some for the prize money, some for charity and others just for a lark. There were celebrities and commoners alike each contributing their mite to the great show. Everyone strove to put their best foot forward. Some just walked the distance provoking a traffic cop to say: “Are your running or walking? If you can’t run take a gaadi and relax at home. Why make us block the traffic for you lazybones?” Others came, ran, and quite a few conquered, to boot. Those who could not make it resolved to do so next year, for life itself is a marathon. No small wonder Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh clearly does not agree with those who feel that the hill state has limitations due to its small size. He was in the capital for a function recently where he said that Himachal Pradesh had scored over bigger states in several physical infrastructure indices in a recent survey by a weekly magazine. The Chief Minister cited the example of Switzerland, whose area is smaller than Himachal Pradesh, to emphasise that it was not the size of the place that earns it fame but the level of its progress and
prosperity. Contributed by Manoj Kumar, Pramod K Chaudhari and Prashant Sood
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Making war and peace, French style
PARIS – French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie – one of the world’s few female defense chiefs – relishes describing her first encounter with the Saudi Arabian military. “For the troops, it was extraordinary to see a woman there,” Alliot-Marie, 60, said in an interview, recalling the 2003 trip. “Some smiled. And others—if they could have stoned me, they would have done so.” Back home in France, some of her encounters have been no less strained. After years of stealing kisses in phone booths, Alliot-Marie said, she was forced to publicise her secret romance with French lawmaker Patrick Ollier seven years ago when a French magazine photographer shimmied up a tree outside her apartment building and snapped pictures of the couple through a window. During France’s bitter trans-Atlantic rift with the United States over the Iraq war, the defence minister was one of the first officials President Jacques Chirac dispatched to the United States to try to patch up relations. Alliot-Marie returned to Washington on Wednesday, not only as Chirac’s defence minister but as a potential candidate to succeed him as president next year. Her visit comes a month after her chief rival in the ruling party, Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy, made his own four-day, campaign-style swing through the United States proclaiming his ardent support for the Franco-American alliance. At a Ramzan dinner at Paris’ Grand Mosque last week, Alliot-Marie dined on roasted lamb. Afterward, young Muslim leaders grilled her on her views of the U.S. approach to the problems of the Middle East. “It’s easy to make war, especially with the means the Americans have,” the defense minister replied from the head of the table. “But it’s always harder to make peace.” A few days later, in an interview in her massive office at the Defense Ministry, Alliot-Marie said: “I think we should always distinguish between administrations and peoples. There are very strong ties between the French and the American people.” The ties remain intact regardless of the administration in office, she said. To highlight those ties, Alliot-Marie will attend a commemoration of the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia, where French soldiers joined George Washington’s ragtag American army to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War in 1781. Alliot-Marie’s agenda for her meetings with American officials, including Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, will center on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan. On the political battlefront at home, the French press has focused on the possibility of two female candidates running for president in 2007 if their parties nominate them: Alliot-Marie from Chirac’s Union for a Popular Movement party, or UMP, and Segolene Royal from the Socialist Party. “I think it would shake the French up a bit,” said Alliot-Marie, who said she will not decide whether to seek her party’s nomination until later this year. “But after all, it already shook them up a lot to have a female defense minister, and with time they found out it was not so bad.” While Royal tends to play up her feminine side—she offered few complaints when newspapers ran unauthorized photographs of her in a flattering blue swimsuit during her summer vacation – Alliot-Marie insists on being called Le
Ministre, using the masculine French form, rather than La Ministre, the feminine form. To help prove she was up to the job of defense minister, she has parachuted with troops and visited soldiers in Afghanistan and Lebanon. She exudes a forceful personality, wears her hair cropped short and favors trousers and tailored jackets. “The first time I arrived in this office, all the major generals were here,” Alliot-Marie said. “They all gave me the military salute, and I saw in their eyes that they wondered what was falling upon them. It was visibly a shock to men.” By arrangement with LA-Times–Washington Post |
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