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Abuse of Constitution
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Now avoid Sidhuism and play with a straight bat. Welcome back. — Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s piece of advice to Navjot Sidhu after swearing him in as MP
Satyagraha is legitimate
dissent, not a crime On
Record Time to save Sukhna lake
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Abuse of Constitution After all, when it comes to the crunch there would always be the alibi that the CPM could not let down the ruling coalition and objectively benefit the ‘communal’ BJP. Even then, it is welcome that when self-proclaimed upholders of the rule of law and constitutional propriety are found wanting, the CPM will have stolen their clothes. It is also possible that the Congress’ manoeuvre might get through so that the CPM would have the cake and eat it too. Also, if Mulayam Singh wins the next election to the UP Assembly, which is not unlikely, the CPM will get a footing in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh. Incidentally, the CPM claim that the Communists had been the ‘worst victims’ of misuse of Article 356 is an allusion to the dismissal of the E.M.S. Namboodiripad-led Communist government in Kerala in 1959. It was the first Communist government in the country - the Communist party had not split into what were originally called Pro-Moscow and Pro-China factions. Kerala had just been formed by the integration of the former princely states of Travancore and Cochin with the adjoining Malayalam-speaking areas of Madras Presidency in 1957. In the state assembly elections in the same year, the Communists had won handsomely defeating the Congress and the Praja Socialist Party (PSP). Indira Gandhi, who was Congress president, got the Namboodiripad government enjoying majority in the legislature removed on the plea of breakdown of the Constitution. What was looked upon as the ‘rape of the Constitution’ was the first instance of abuse of Article 356 within five years of its coming into force. Nehru was visibly uneasy. The popular Malayalam play, You made me a Communist, of the Communists reflected public reaction to the outrage. The striking difference is that while in 1959 Nehru was queasy about the misuse of the Constitution, today, nearly five decades later, the Congress leaders talk of morality while planning a similar manoeuvre! Such has been the erosion of democratic values in our public life. Retrospectively, Nehru might have sought solace from the endorsement of the step by the PSP leader Asoka Mehta. Apart from the PSP and the Communists being congenital enemies, the PSP was heading a coalition government with the numerically larger Congress in the Part ‘B’ State of Travancore-Cochin, before its integration into Kerala. Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, who was technically senior to Asoka Mehta in the socialist movement, on the other hand, said dismissing an elected government violated both the letter and spirit of the Constitution. As it happened, after the failure of the coalition partners to win the 1957 Assembly election, the Congress had taken the short cut of enticing the veteran PSP leader, Pattom Thanu Pillai, into its fold. Asoka Mehta denounced it as ‘politics of piracy’. But it has become a part of our political life like the flair for dismissal of governments for their alleged ‘crimes of commission and omission.’ The Communists have been as vociferous in demanding the dismissal of the Narendra Modi Government of Gujarat as they have been in defending Mulayam Singh. Such doublethink is not democratic values. Within Kerala, meanwhile, the long-term offshoot of opportunism is the virtual extinction of the Socialist Party, and its many incarnations. On the other hand, the CPM, in spite of the split, has become a mass party to head a coalition alternatively with the Congress. Meanwhile, the Muslim League, with its new nomenclature of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has been a partner, by turns as it were, of the CPM and the Congress. It has been certified as ‘secular’ in Kerala, perhaps because like other parties it has been undergoing splits. More than its ‘secularism’, both the Congress and the CPM have been coveting it. They have not also hesitated to take recourse to gerrymandering by forming the predominantly Muslim district of Mallapuram as a pocket borough for the League factions. At the national level, defections have became so rampant that Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister got the so-called anti-defection law enacted in 1985 in the shape of Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. But hardly had the ink on the document been dry than he engineered ‘defection’ by Chandra Shekhar and his supporters from Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s Janata Dal. Since the law forbade defection by making it obligatory for a legislator crossing the floor to resign, it was called a split in which one-third of the MPs broke away from the parent party. Earlier, in 1979, Chaudhry Charan Singh pulled down the Morarji Desai government through a similar ‘split’. Chandra Shekhar’s was the second defector regime at the national level. Neither of them faced Parliament for a vote of confidence. With the advent of coalition politics at the national level, the malaise of defection that spread to the Centre from Haryana, the home of ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’ politics, has retraced its steps to the states. Also, it became a tool in the Centre’s hands to destablise state governments. Thus, Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi staged a veritable orgy of dismissal of governments enjoying majority support in the legislatures in the late 1980s and early 1990s. First, the N.T. Rama Rao government in Andhra Pradesh was removed by making a section of the party walk out. That it ultimately boomeranged on the perpetrators is a different matter. In Jammu and Kashmir, when Governor B.K. Nehru refused to do the dirty work, Jagmohan replaced him. He not only dismissed the Farooq Abdullah government but also dissolved the legislature. The fall out in the frontier state has been disastrous leading to ballot rigging and upsurge of terrorism. It put the secessionists on a pedestal. At the same time, to assuage outraged public life, as it were, Indira Gandhi set up the Sarkaria Commission on Centre-State relations. The commission made it obligatory for the Centre to secure the concurrence of state governments in the choice of their governors. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, the incumbent Governor, T.V. Rajeshwar was imposed because Mulayam Singh Yadav would not have had the retired Director of Intelligence Bureau in the Lucknow Raj Bhavan plotting his nemesis. Especially, in the light of Rajeshwar’s record during the 1975 Emergency when he was alleged to have tried to tamper with Jagjivan Ram’s medical treatment. It was Buta Singh and Bihar again which earned the government — indirectly even the President — a mouthful from the apex court. |
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Profile Brig T. Sailo, who headed the puppet government in tiny Mizoram in the 1970s, as a matter of fact, never led a political party in an election as Khanduri did in Uttarakhand. Khanduri is known in his party as a “paratrooper” even though he was never in that unit of the Army but that nomenclature has more political connotation than known in Army parlance. Having a distinguished military record, he was conferred the Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM), preceded by long stints in the Corps of Engineering and the Institute of Defence Management. After his retirement from the Army, Maj-Gen Khanduri joined active politics. Lucky, as he has been, the BJP’s central leadership picked him up as its candidate from the Garhwal constituency in the 1991 Lok Sabha election. He won the election by an impressive margin. Since then, there has been no looking back for him in politics. Khnaduri’s advantages are many. He is a soldier with a readymade constituency among the retired and serving Army men whose number is estimated to be about 20 lakh in the hill state and an appeal cutting across regional and caste divisions of Garhwal and Kumaon regions and Brahmin-Thakur votes. His clean image was an additional advantage. The 73-year-old new Chief Minister first joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government seven years back. He was first inducted in the NDA government as Union Minister of State (Independent charge) from 2002 to 2003. He was elevated to the Cabinet rank in 2003 and continued until the BJP-led government lost power in May 2004. Khanduri came to limelight as Union Ministry of State of Surface Transport and Highways having realised the ‘Golden Quadrilateral’ dream of the former Prime Minister and presided over the lucrative ministry without any taint. Officers who have worked with him say, he is a hard taskmaster and follows Army-like discipline and time schedule. Copybook functioning and integrity have been strong forte. Being a Garhwali Brahmin and ex-Army officer, the Chief Minister has certain advantages in the hill state which is sharply divided into two regions — Kumaon and Garhwal. Uttarakhand countryside has many retired soldiers, whose number is estimated to be about 13 lakh. If their family members are included, the figure may go up to 20 lakh. They draw hefty pensions and have family landholdings. It is not easy for a soldier to return to his village and adjust to the village social life after having served in the Army for 15-20 years. In Maj-Gen Khanduri, ex-servicemen in particular and people in general, see a man who speaks their language and could solve their problems. Also, ex-servicemen have exclusively settled in Uttarakhand, besides Punjab. As Chief Minister, Khanduri’s march upward in the hill state is steep and problem-ridden. Carved out of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand is saddled with corruption, almost in the parent state style. The mining and liquor mafia have dug their roots even deeper. The state is lorded over by an insensitive and rampaging bureaucracy. In these circumstances, Khanduri is seen as the right man to govern the hill state. Maj-Gen Khanduri’s debut in politics has been interesting. A stroke of luck enabled him to rise to prominence in the BJP and come to the national scene. The BJP selected him to contest the Pauri Lok Sabha constituency in 1991 but he declined as his cousin, Vijay Bahuguna, was all set to be fielded from this seat by the Congress. But at the eleventh hour, the Congress leadership denied a ticket to Vijay, son of the late Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister H.N. Bahuguna who was Khanduri`s maternal uncle. This opened the door for Khanduri to contest the parliamentary election; he won the Pauri seat by beating Congress stalwart Satpal Maharaj and shot into fame. In 1996, he lost the elections to Maharaj but became vice-president of BJP`s Uttar Pradesh unit. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Pauri in 1998 and again in 1999. |
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Wit of the week — Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s piece of advice to Navjot Sidhu after swearing him in as MP — Astronaut Sunita Williams on board the International Space Station
I never had a nickel to my name until I got out of the White House, and now I am a millionaire! — Bill Clinton, former US President and speaker who charges $150,000 a speech On the appointment of Ban Ki-Moon as the United Nations Secretary-General, newsrooms across the world went berserk to know whether to address him as Mr Ban, Mr Ki-moon, or as Mr Moon. Correct Answer: Mr Ban — Fiona Swee-Lin Price in Success with Asian Names (Nicholas Brealey Publishing) I want the TV documentary The City of Joy to be a homage to Kolkata’s rickshaw pullers and whose voices I hear with the jingle of the rickshaw bell that I carry with me in my pocket like one does a cell phone. The sound of the bell provides me the impetus to triumph over everything. — Writer Dominique Lapierre The joy you get while performing before a live audience is unparalleled. You get bricks or bouquets depending on your skills. The reaction you generate is like an electric current between you and the audience. I have been asked to write something about the Constitution for children. I would like to, but it won’t be a boring civics book. It will be about duties, rights and how to be a better citizen. But I haven’t got down to it yet. I am not really a writer like Vikram Seth is. — Jurist and author Leila Seth — Noted poet Gulzar Tailpiece: Shabana Azmi can be extremely funny and entertaining. While shooting we had discussed many things and she asked me which was my favourite poem. I said “If” by Kipling. At the end of the shoot, she presented me a perfume called “If” in a book called “If” inside which was the poem “If”. — Actor Boman Irani When I received my degree, India’s GDP was 3.5 per cent. Things are different today because the economy has been growing at 8 per cent in the past four years. We have set an average growth of 9 per cent over the next five years. You will get to see the transformation of India. In 20 years, the country will become a middle-income economy and poverty would have been reduced. — Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia Delhi can never have greenfield development because it is a city that has often been built and rebuilt. The development of Delhi has to be in line with developed cities of developed countries like Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore. We have to work in an inclusive manner that would take along the rich and the poor, the service users and providers, the jhuggi-jhopri walas and the posh colony walas to make Delhi a better place. — Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken |
Satyagraha is legitimate
dissent, not a crime But recently, a more dangerous perversion of the understanding of the theory of protest against the government's action is being put forth by seemingly new supporters of the West Bengal government by suggesting “the citizen who lives under a system that assures him not only voting right but extensive guarantees for the inviolability of his person and property, and who accepts the protection of the state in the enjoyment of these rights, owes to the state at least a high measure of respect and forbearance in those instances where he may not find himself in agreement with its politics.” And therefore Satyagraha or peaceful resistance as is being done at Singur is undemocratic, monstrous and will spell the end of any prospect of a peaceful change in the societal relations. This view is so undemocratic that it has been even lambasted in 1960 in Dr Lohia’s case wherein this argument was repelled, thus: “It is said that in a democratic set up there is no scope for agitational approach and that if a law is bad the only course is to get it modified by democratic process and that any instigation to break the law is in itself a disturbance of the public order. If this argument without obvious limitations be accepted, it would destroy the right to freedom of speech which is the very foundation of democratic way of life.” It is ironical that this outdated jurisprudence of calling Satyagraha as undemocratic should be put forth and more so, when the country is celebrating the centenary of Satyagraha as a humble tribute to Gandhiji. Carl Cohen, in Civil Disobedience 1971 (Columbia University Press) said “vigorous dissent must be protected and even encouraged; its substantive merit must be judged not merely by those in office but by the governing electorate in the long-term operation of their political process. Genuine democracy demands dissent, thrives on protest.” The view that Satyagraha or civil disobedience is outmoded in a parliamentary democratic state, is rejected by the most well known jurist John Rawls who in his Theory of Justice propounds it thus: “Since I assume that a state of near justice requires a democratic regime, theory concerns the role and the appropriateness of civil disobedience to legitimately established democratic authority. Those who use civil disobedience as to protest against unjust laws are not prepared to desist, should the courts eventually disagree with them however, pleased they might have been with the opposite decision. To engage in violent acts likely to injure and to hurt is incompatible with civil disobedience as a mode of address.” Rawls further says that “by engaging in civil disobedience one intends, then, to address the sense of justice of the majority and to serve fair notice that in one's sincere and considered opinion the conditions of free cooperation are being violated. We are appealing to others to reconsider, to put themselves in our position, and to recognise that they cannot expect us to acquiesce indefinitely in the terms they impose on us.” He says that this mode of resistance is morally correct of maintaining a constitutional regime. Rawls has no hesitation in supporting civil disobedience, which by the very nature of it is peaceful and non-violent. He recognised that there is no way to avoid entirely the danger of divisive strife, any more than one can rule out the possibility of profound scientific controversy but still holds that even if civil disobedience seems to threaten civic concord, the responsibility falls not upon those who protest but upon those whose abuse of authority and power justifies such opposition. For to employ the coercive apparatus of the state to maintain manifestly unjust institutions is itself a form of illegitimate force that men in due course have a right to resist. Dissent by different non-violent non-corporation has a long respectable presence. Thoreau defied against the raising of taxes by the American government because even though it was constitutional law, it was unjust. He was only echoing Tolstoy who wrote “I cannot be silent” when indiscriminate execution of workers was taking place in Russia. In the circumstances when gross human rights are being violated, “it is a duty to dissent and a sin to be silent”. That is the essence of Satyagraha. The last word of Satyagraha must necessarily belong to the apostle of peace and originator of Satyagraha — Mahatma Gandhi: “On the political field, the struggle on behalf of the people mostly consists in opposing error in the shape of unjust laws. When you have failed to bring the error home to the law-giver by way of petitions and the like, the only remedy open to you, if you do not wish to submit to it, is to compel him to retrace his steps by suffering in your own person, i.e. by inviting the penalty for the breach of the law. Hence, Satyagraha largely appears to the politic as civil disobedience or civil resistance. It is civil in the sense that it is not criminal.”n The writer is a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court |
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On
Record There seem to be differences within the BJP, especially over the choice of B.C. Khanduri as the Uttarakhand Chief Minister. Is the BJP in a Catch 22 situation on the issue of water sharing? Former Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, who is credited by the party for the success in Punjab, dwells on the BJP's perspective on various issues in an interview to The Sunday Tribune. Excerpts: Q: While the BJP did exceedingly well in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s performance was not up to expectations, especially in rural areas. Is it a matter of concern for the combine? A: The divide is neither urban-rural nor Akali-BJP; it is between the three regions of Punjab. In Doaba and Majha, both SAD and BJP did well. An appeal by a religious sect proved detrimental for the alliance in Malwa. Since Akalis were contesting most Malwa seats it suffered more in terms of numbers. Q: What is the BJP’s real expectations in UP? A: There is a significant resurgence of the BJP in UP. The recently held elections to the local bodies indicated that. There is a considerable amount of anger against the Congress government at the Centre and against the Mulayam Singh-led Samajwadi Party government in UP. Revulsion has set in. In many sections of society, the BJP is going to be the natural beneficiary of this. Q: Why did you drop your demand for Deputy Chief Minister’s post in Punjab? A: Between the SAD-BJP alliance, this was never an issue. If any such suggestion comes from the SAD, we will welcome it. Q: What is the BJP’s stand on the water sharing issue? A: The Akali Dal has taken a stand, which is in Punjab’s interest. In all inter-state issues, state units of the same party may also pull in different direction because they support the respective stand of the states or they support the interest of their states. It can happen to the Congress, it can happen to the BJP. And, therefore, what the Akalis have done is natural to the Akali Dal’s politics and positioning. The BJP, at the national level, will only stand for resolution of all inter-state issues. It allowed its state units to take stand in support of its own state’s interest. Q: Of late, the BJP has been thrusting MPs as Chief Ministers. Uttarakhand is the recent example. Are MLAs not capable of ruling the state? A: It is not so. Some times we pick Chief Minister from among the elected MLAs and some times Central leaders go as Chief Ministers. But in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh when elections were held, in at least Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, they were projected as natural leaders. In Bihar, Sushil Modi was the natural leader (he is the Deputy Chief Minister) and in Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh emerged as a natural leader. Even when Narendra Modi went to Gujarat, he went from being the former general secretary of the party. So, it depends on the situation from state to state. B.S. Yediyurappa was a natural leader in Karnataka. (He is the Deputy Chief Minister there). Q: To address the local sentiments of the people in Uttarakhand, will Bhagat Singh Koshiyari be made the Deputy Chief Minister? A: That is the decision, which the Chief Minister in consultation with the state unit leaders has to take. Q: Will the BJP contest the coming elections in UP in alliance? A: There is no question of an alliance with either the Communists, Congress, SP or the BSP. But there are small groups in Uttar Pradesh, like the Apna Dal. The party is already in discussion with them. Q: The Janata Dal (U) is seeking more space in Uttar Pradesh from the BJP. Your
comments. A: The Janata Dal (U) is part of the NDA and therefore our leaders are talking to its leaders. In fact, the Apna Dal is holding talks with the BJP jointly with the JD(U). Q: Will Hindutva be the main poll plank in UP? A: The focus of the party will be to install a nationalist government in UP. A government, which can provide governance, which can liberate the state from the mafia, from corruption and from the menace of casteism which has set
in. |
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Time to save Sukhna lake Chandigarh’s Sukhna lake is a victim of two serious problems — excess of silt and water shortage. Both are man-made and curable. This lake is fed with silted rain water. It is designed as a silt trap; silt that enters it once cannot go out on its own. Since its construction in 1958, the lake’s depth has been reducing due to silt deposition. The balance left is just enough for its day-to-day recreational functions. Any further reduction will defeat the very purpose of this lake. This can be done by two methods: The first is to deepen the lake up to a level lower than its designed one as a pre-emptive measure and allow it to silt up in a couple of years. As silt will continue to enter the lake, this process will be repeated time and again, making the lake a white elephant economically. The Chandigarh UT Administration has prepared a scheme for deepening the entire lake in five years at a cost of over Rs 50 crore without emptying it. The lake can be emptied free of any charge. The construction time and the cost of deepening can be reduced by about 90 per cent in an empty lake. Surprisingly, the UT authorities are ignoring this logical point. The excavated silt shall require land equal in size of at least two lakes for dumping it. Its cost shall be over Rs 1,000 crore. There is no provision for such a land in the City Beautiful’s Master Plan. Even if it were, such land would become a breeding ground for slums. The scheme, not supported by silt experts, is impractical and misconceived. Despite repeated appeals, the authorities are not seeing reason. The second method is to prevent silt entry by constructing an innovative silt excluder at its mouth. It won’t consume any land, is foolproof, costs less than Rs one crore and can be made ready in 60 days before the next rainy season. Its model was displayed at Chandigarh’s Institution of Engineers in August 2004. The Institution endorsed it after a debate which was inaugurated by the UT Administrator. Sadly, no effort has ever been made to protect this rare lake. While its silt problem is cause for worry, its water supply has reduced drastically due to some forestation and soil conservation schemes in its catchment area. The available water for the lake has been reduced from 7,370 acre feet in 1958-78 to less than 1,870 acre feet in 2000-06. It may become zero in due course as no water has been reserved for this lake in its water budget. The Punjab and Haryana High Court should take suo motu action by getting the said silt excluder constructed and stopping all water consuming schemes in the lake’s catchments area before the next monsoon. This is the only way to save whatever is left of the lake and its
water. The writer is a former Engineer-in-Chief (Irrigation) of Haryana and Consultant to World Bank |
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One should welcome the Communist Party of India (Marxist) opposition to the move to dismiss the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh on the plea that the Supreme Court disqualification of 13 Bahujana Samaj Party (BSP) defectors had rendered the formation of the government about four years ago ‘illegal’, even if it were more a gesture than a genuinely principled objection to the misuse of Article 356 of the Constitution.
A mustachioed Major General will now rule the newly craved out state of Uttaranchal, recently renamed Uttarakhand. For the first time in the history of independent India, a retired Army officer, Maj-Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, was sworn in as Chief Minister of a state.
Now avoid Sidhuism and play with a straight bat. Welcome back.
The space is just like home! We eat thrice a day. I have had some saag-paneer and some halwa because I had requested it. I would like some more samosas while I am up here. The experiments we are conducting here now will help people stay in space longer.
— Film and theatre artiste Rakesh Bedi
Poetry is all around us. It caresses you, you can feel it...It’s like a soft breeze on a summer day. I don’t think inspiration can be defined or reduced to a few sentences. Creativity is the ability to feel, to keep one’s antenna up, to keep one’s feet on the soil. 
THe issue arising out of the people's movement at West Bengal's Singur against land acquisition for Tata Motors is becoming curious. It was thought that the real issue was the human right aspect of displacing the project affected families without their consent and also without providing an alternative rehabilitation plan. Even the World Bank has had to yield under international pressure to require as a condition precedent to giving loanee comply with international covenants. 
The
BJP is on a high after registering impressive win in Punjab and Uttarakhand
Assembly elections. The big question now is whether it will fare well in the
Uttar Pradesh elections.