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Beyond belief Ravages of rain |
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Maya’s mantra Upper castes no longer untouchable THE BSP’s list of candidates for the UP Assembly elections shows that it no longer wants to be known as the party of the Dalits and the OBCs. The list has 86 Brahmins, more than double (37) the number of nominees who fought the 2002 assembly polls on the BSP ticket. Other upper castes like the Thakurs and the Baniyas, too, find adequate representation.
Peace with Pakistan
Piloo talk
Long-term planning
vital for defence Western scholars take to
Bollywood studies Legal notes
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Beyond belief THERE have been unruly scenes in the Lok Sabha in the past also, but what happened on Tuesday pales them all into insignificance. There was jostling, pushing, pulling and shoving for nearly 15 minutes and Left MPs came close to manhandling Union Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu. Marshals had to be called to protect the minister. Had DMK MPs not formed a protective ring around Mr Baalu, he might very well have suffered injuries. Unbelievable that this display of physical prowess was, what made it a shameful first in the parliamentary history of India was the fact that the fight was between two allies of the government. Nothing could put the UPA to greater embarrassment. The Indian Maritime University Bill, 2007, to set up a maritime university in Tamil Nadu must have come up before the Cabinet for discussion and approval. Still, if it was to be “debated” in this manner on the floor of the House, the coordination committee of the UPA might as well call it a day. The Left takes pride in its parliamentary propriety and national, nay international, outlook. That record stands badly bruised because of this incident. It was taking a highly parochial stand in any case. Chennai also happens to be in India and its insistence on having the university only in Kolkata was too blinkered. Even if the Left saw nothing wrong in being so West Bengal-centric, was this the way to argue its case? It has given a formidable stick to the Opposition to beat it with, and Mr L.K. Advani has been quick to call the episode a “civil war” in the ruling coalition. The Left members as also External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee have expressed regret but even that does not lessen the gravity of the ugly spectacle. Worse, CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury has said menacingly: “If the consultation process is not undertaken, this type of situation cannot be ruled out in future too”. If indeed a similar drama is enacted again, the Lok Sabha will need to adjourn as a mark of respect to the dear, departed parliamentary norms.
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Ravages of rain THE untimely rains, accompanied by high-velocity winds and hailstorms, have caused extensive damage to crops in North India. The Punjab and Haryana governments have already ordered loss assessment. Relief, hopefully, would also reach the rain-hit with matching speed. The mango, litchi and papaya fruit crops in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have also suffered heavy losses though the official machinery is yet to take up relief work. With the death toll rising to 48 on Tuesday, the loss of human lives is also not small. Twenty-eight persons died as lightning struck parts of Uttar Pradesh while 18 others lost their lives in unexpected snow in Kashmir. It will take quite some time to realise the true impact of the freaky weather. The flattening of the wheat crop so close to the harvest season may lead to loss of production as well as deterioration in the quality of the grain. Apart from procurement hassles for farmers, this means there may not be much respite from high wheat flour prices for the common man in the coming months. Although Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is confident that the wheat targets for the current year will be achieved, he has also hinted at wheat imports to cope with shortages, if any. Since the wheat prices in the international markets are very high, the government will have to spend more on the commodity even if it enters into contracts well in time. This will make domestic farmers and the political parties representing them demand a higher minimum support price for wheat. Since the poor will have to be provided with wheat flour at affordable rates, the government’s food subsidy bill will shoot up. The public distribution system, meanwhile, needs a revamp so as to target the needy and plug the well-known leakages. To protect farmers from the ravages of weather and a corruption-ridden relief process in the future, the government should provide insurance cover, at least to those with small land-holdings. |
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Maya’s mantra THE BSP’s list of candidates for the UP Assembly elections shows that it no longer wants to be known as the party of the Dalits and the OBCs. The list has 86 Brahmins, more than double (37) the number of nominees who fought the 2002 assembly polls on the BSP ticket. Other upper castes like the Thakurs and the Baniyas, too, find adequate representation. Of course, the Dalits and the OBCs constitute the majority of the contestants trying their luck under Ms Mayawati’s leadership. But that is on the expected lines as these two classes form the core of the party’s support base. What is significant is that she is working on a new winning mantra -- a Dalit-upper caste equation -- not unthinkable today. Ms Mayawati has once again underlined the fact that her party would not be a gainer if it fights elections as an alliance partner of any party. That is why she has ignored the overtures of the Congress for an electoral arrangement with it. This, however, does not mean that any post-poll alliance is ruled out with the Congress. That will depend on the election results. An alliance including the BSP, the Congress and former Prime Minister V. P. Singh’s Jan Morcha can come about if this helps Ms Mayawati to form her government. Whether Ms Mayawati’s following has been affected by her involvement in the Taj Corridor case remains to be seen. She is also faced with a disproportionate assets case, but these problems hardly seem to worry her. Any attempt by the Congress, which heads the UPA government at the Centre, to tighten the screws on her, using these cases, will only help Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to re-emerge as the number one political player in UP. It is in the Congress party’s larger interest not to upset the BSP’s applecart. The Congress, in any case, cannot hope to do better than the SP or the BSP. The BJP, too, is unlikely to be replaced by the Congress from the number three slot. Ms Maywati obviously finds herself in an enviable position. |
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The power of the Press is very great, but not so great as the power of suppress.
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Peace with Pakistan
Ever
since the peace process between India and Pakistan began in January 2004, two co-related issues have continuously exercised the minds of all those involved in this process. The first is the time frame that is available to the two sides in arriving at some negotiated settlement. The second is how to create space for each other so that bold and innovative initiatives can be taken without being accused of a sellout by those opposed to the process. On the issue of the time dimension, almost everyone in both India and Pakistan accepts that an issue of Jammu and Kashmir is extremely complicated and will take a long time to solve. Yet, there remains a degree of impatience in Pakistan with the pace of the peace process. This is routinely expressed through the demand for a firm time-frame for settling the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Interestingly, hardly anyone in Pakistan is willing to spell out what constitutes a realistic time-frame. One important reason for this is that it is practically impossible to give any kind of a firm time-frame especially since the two sides are nowhere near to reconciling their positions on Kashmir. The higher echelons of the Pakistani establishment at least seem to accept that quick-fix solutions to vexed issues like Kashmir are not possible. During his recent visit to New Delhi, Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri hinted as much when, at a dinner hosted in his honour by the South Asia Free Media Association, he spoke about the progress made in the back-channel diplomacy between the two countries. Mr Kasuri said that while so far no agreement has been reached, both sides have a better understanding of each other’s positions and are trying to reconcile them. He said that once the two sides reach an understanding then this will be put before the public and will be debated in the parliaments, the media and at public forums in both countries and only after this can the two sides really arrive at a stage where they can say that they have reached an agreement. Clearly, this will be a long-drawn-out process. Later that evening, in an off-the-record conversation, a senior Pakistani diplomat, when asked how long Pakistan thinks this entire process will take, said that it’s difficult to put a definite time-frame but five years seems a reasonable enough time in which an agreement can be reached between the two sides. In the meantime, according to this official, it is imperative that both sides continue to make progress on other outstanding issues. He said that deals on issues like Siachen, Sir Creek etc. will strengthen the hands of the peacemakers by giving them something tangible to show to their peoples in terms of achievements from the peace process. He then said something that shows the distance that the two sides have travelled in the peace process. He mentioned Kashmir and said that it is important that measures be taken that give relief to the Kashmiris and also give them hope in the peace process. For this it is important that progress be made on making travel between the two divided parts of the state easier, trade and commerce between the two parts be opened up, and most of all human rights situation in the state be improved. On the issue of human rights, the official was candid enough in saying that incidents like fake encounters targeting innocent civilians tend to put undue pressure on the Pakistani establishment by those opposed to the peace process, who accuse the Pakistan government of abandoning the Kashmiris and demand that the “jihad” in Kashmir be restarted. Frankly, this bit came as a complete surprise because one never imagined elements in the Pakistan establishment feeling concerned over reports of fake encounters in J&K. In other time and place, human rights violations would have served as grist for the Pakistan propaganda mills but now senior officials are fervently appealing that such acts should stop in the interest of the peace process. According to a report in the Pakistani daily, The News, a similar message was delivered by the Pakistani delegation to their Indian counterparts during Mr Kasuri’s visit. The news report says that the Pakistani delegation “impressed upon their interlocutors that though the public opinion on both sides was for the peace it was important that the comfort level of the people of Kashmir was improved.” The report quoted a source as saying that “We informed the other side that we understand that this process will take time but the movement of the people of Kashmir has to be facilitated, their present comfort level has to be raised and there has to be a stop to the human right violation in the Valley.” Significantly, and perhaps for the first time, the source being quoted in the report gave a fairly balanced account of the feedback that the Pakistani side had got on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the report, “the delegation also heard mixed reports of the situation in Kashmir with some maintaining that the situation in the larger towns were getting comparatively better than that in the outflung areas.” The same report also revealed that there is a sense in Pakistan that “the peace process between the two countries has become more or less irreversible…the future of the composite dialogue will be slow, steady and at a deliberate pace”. More significantly, the Pakistani side has realised that “the process is not event driven. Each visit and meeting is like laying another brick on the foundation.” With the two sides having accepted that the peace process cannot be hurried, both sides are feeling the need for space to be created by the other side which will make the time dimension more palatable. On the Indian side, verifiable and demonstrable action by Pakistan on terrorist networks will be critical if India is to take any bold initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir. Things like opening up of trade and commerce, cultural relations, travel will also help create the necessary space for India to make reciprocal gestures to Pakistan. Similarly, India will need to take some political steps in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere that can be used by the Pakistani side to show something tangible to its own people. While there is certainly a case for creating space for the other side, something that is also part of the confidence-building between the two sides, it is the time dimension that causes a sense of disquiet. Do the two sides really have the luxury of time to settle their disputes? The answer to this question is still not clear, especially from Pakistan. In the case of India, the peace process has withstood to vicissitudes of domestic politics and the UPA government has carried forward from where the NDA government left, albeit with some hiccups and fine-tuning. But will the Pakistani establishment stay the course in the event of a regime change in that country? Is the peace process only the result of a metamorphosis in General Musharraf or has this the rank and file of the Pakistan army and rest of the Pakistani military-bureaucratic and political establishment also metamorphosed? If it’s the former, then the peace process will not survive beyond General Musharraf. But if it’s the latter, then the peace process is truly irreversible. The problem is that we will not know this until after General Musharraf is no longer in
power.
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Piloo talk
Piloo Mody passed away nearly 25 years ago but we fondly remember him. He would never have liked us to say something solemn or flattering about him. In his lifetime, he was a great leveller. He believed that the truly great were never so only because they held high office. In a city of obsequious “Namastes” he strutted with his thumb pointing upwards - hardly ever bringing his hands together except when describing how some great institution of democracy (like the press) was being “throttled” by the government of the day! Lord Hailsham, former Lord Chancellor of England was once asked to comment on an outspoken judge of his time, Lord Denning. Hailsham said that until a Judge becomes a national institution (like Lord Denning) he should not answer back! Piloo always answered back — and no one took offence: since he was in his own lifetime regarded as a national institution. He said what many others liked to say but were afraid to: He was the living exponent of that burning desire in every human being - to cut the Great down to size! And he had that rare ability not given to many politicians - to see the world from the Wolf’s point of view! He believed that if ever there could be a good government he was the man to provide it - “Look at my initials”, he would say, with childish simplicity “P.M”. The nearest he came to the High Office, however, was when he once wrote a note in Parliament to Mrs. Indira Gandhi: his political opponent. It began “Dear I.G.” and ended with the initials “P.M.”. Mrs Gandhi responded in good humour in the same vein “Dear P.M.” she wrote, and signed “I.G.”! Those were indeed gracious days: people in politics were able to laugh at and with one
another.
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Long-term planning vital for defence IN the Finance Minister’s budget speech, defence expenditure (2007-08) figured as ‘Item 28’ under ‘Other Proposals’. It read: “I propose to increase the allocation to defence to Rs 96,000 crore. This will include Rs 41,922 crore for capital expenditure. Needless to say, any additional requirements for the security of the nation will be provided”. The issue of defence and national security is encapsulated in 33 words. It is true that the commitment to provide more money is not made to any other government department. But this is a convenient commitment as it never has to be fulfilled. On the other hand, the Finance Minister takes back capital allocation that is deemed unusable before the end of the financial year. This helps him to balance the fiscal deficit or provide funds to other sectors. Sometimes Finance Ministers are generous in their tribute to our brave soldiers deployed from Siachen to Srinagar and Kupwara to Kohima for their valour and sacrifice. Legislators thump their desks but in the history of budget presentations no serious discussion on the defence budget has ever taken place at any time. No visible cognizance is taken by Parliament of reports by Defence Consultative Committees and the Comptroller and Auditor General either. Barring 2004-05, both the annual increase and percentage of GDP have remained more or less constant for some time now. The budget ensures the services’ modernisation but not their growth programmes. The Defence Budget is characterized by positive and negative features. The accent remains on modernisation of the armed forces, increasing the capital account and reducing the gap between capital and revenue expenditures. There is a perceptible shift in the share of capital allocation from the manpower-heavy army to the equipment-intensive Air Force and Navy. This is how it should be, extending the long arm of the military to fulfil its role in the extended neighbourhood. The challenge for defence planning is daunting as the armed forces, especially the Army, have to prepare for two parallel wars: high intensity conflict and low intensity counter terrorism. This is further complicated by the absence of jointness among the three armed services for conventional war-fighting, and between the Army and the paramilitary forces which fight low intensity conflict in J&K and the north east. Defence planning and budgeting fails to create any jointness in capabilities. It relies on annual plans since long term perspective plans – which in any case, are not integrated and enjoy no sanctity or fiscal guidance – remain ad hoc. A long-recurring problem is the paradox of shortage of funds versus inability to utilise allocations in time for a variety of reasons, including the Tehelka syndrome. The share of the services for modernisation (capital account) has registered a shift away from the Army. This year, the largest chunk for modernisation has gone to the Air Force followed by the Army and Navy. Overall, in the last decade, the Army’s share of the defence budget has dropped by nearly 10 per cent and correspondingly the Navy and Air Force have increased by 4 and 6 per cent. In the US, the Army has traditionally been the lowest recipient of the capital outlay of the defence budget. The planning process is marred by several lacunae. There is no White Paper on defence or any security strategy guidance. Instead, there is an implicit assumption of objectives. A periodic defence review with add-on strategy is essential to update threats and challenges. Further, each service makes individual plans which the Integrated Defence Staff joins together. The long-term perspective plans as they are and the Five Year Plan that flows from it enjoy no sanctity. There is therefore neither a long-term nor a Five Year Plan to realistically adhere to. It is the Annual Plan on which the Defence Budget is propositioned. What makes matters worse is that there is no formal budgeting practice like the PPBS (Programmes Plans and Budgeting Systems) or any Indian model to evaluate capabilities. Another lacuna is in non-utilisation of capital funds. This has really not been addressed so far despite a very elaborate defence acquisition system. The procedures are very rigid and the staff lack expertise in procurement. This is exacerbated due to the fear of being hauled up later by investigating agencies pressed into service on account of political vendetta. The qualitative requirements framed by the services are also very ambitious and highly variable. This creates unending problems of reconciling a wish list with the cash list. The new offset clause stipulates that one third of the value of equipment procured on purchases over Rs 300 crore will be sourced from within India. In the case of the proposed order for126 multi-role combat aircraft, the asking rate is 50 per cent. How the MoD is going to manage this with foreign companies is anybody’s guess. India has the most inefficient manning system and unless radical steps are taken to innovatively create a new man-machine mix, much of the defence budget will continue to be consumed by salaries and pensions. A number of reforms are required to modernise the defence planning and budgeting system, especially as defence allocation is not going to increase, despite several statements of intent. The mantra to adopt will have to be more with less. |
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Western scholars take to
Bollywood studies Satish
Kolluri, Professor of media studies at Pace University, New York, teaches a class about the connections between Bollywood and Hong Kong cinema. His classes are over-enrolled and most of the students are Americans.
Kolluri is not alone. Classes on Bollywood are being offered at major Universities in the US, UK, France, Australia, Germany, Belgium and Canada. Western academy has discovered Bollywood with a vengeance. While names of masters like Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal had been well known internationally for decades, it is more recently that Bollywood has become recognised as part of the global cinematic mélange. It is true that most Bollywood scholars are members of young, diasporic South Asians who are interested in their own popular culture. “It is time the Western world sees Bollywood as a counterpart to the Hollywood dominance,” says Jyotika Virdi, professor of media at University of Windsor and author of Cinematic Imagination: Indian popular films as social history. “I study Bollywood because so many people are watching these films,” Virdi adds, “not just in India but in the Gulf States, North America, East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and Australia.” Kolluri and Virdi were among many academics from India, US, Canada, and UK who recently gathered at a conference on Bollywood at the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. The conference titled, “The Social and Material Life of Indian Cinema”, explored a deeper understanding of the aesthetic, economic and technological forces that have shaped the history and practice of cinema in India. In particular, the conference focused on the impact of globalisation on the aesthetic and cultural value of cinema in a country which produces the largest number of films in the world. Lets take a quick inventory of the many scholarly books on Bollywood that have hit the bookstores in the past few years alone, all published by well-respected Indian and Western publishing houses: Bollywood Cinema: Temples of desire by Vijay Mishra; Bollywood: Sociology goes the movies by Rajinder Kumar Dudhrah; Bollywood: A guidebook to popular Hindi cinema by Tejaswini Ganti; Bollyworld: Popular Indian cinema through transnational lens by Raminder Kaur and Ajay Sinha; Beyond Bollywood by Jigna Desai to name a few. In addition, Routledge has launched a new academic journal titled South Asian Popular Culture to cater to the growing interest in the study of Indian popular culture. This journal has published numerous research papers on Bollywood on topics ranging from choreography of songs, style and clothes of actors, to studies of Hindi film audiences in various parts of the world. “This array of books and publications is not light-weight,” says Anne Ciecko, Professor of Communication at University of Massachusetts and author of Contemporary Asian Cinema, “There is some serious intellectual work going on about Indian films. For the first time, [Western] students and scholars are taking these films seriously.” As Amitabh Bachchan receives an honorary doctorate from Delhi University, scholars and doctorates around the world get busy studying him and the Indian film industry with renewed zest.
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Legal notes The recent observation by a Supreme Court judge that all corrupt public servants should be hanged from the lamp-posts has generated a heated debate in legal circles as to whether judges should make such “off the cuff” remarks when they are hearing a case and defining important questions of law. Many senior advocates do not approve of the practice of judges making comments not directly related to a case and cite examples of judges of earlier days, when they hardly used to make such observations. They say that judges like V.R. Krishna Iyer, M.N. Venkatachaliah and S.P. Bharucha were very strong judicially, yet preferred to speak only through their verdicts. Former Additional Solicitor General K.T.S. Tulsi says eradication of corruption is a serious issue and such observations would not really serve a purpose. Will it not amount to taking the country’s judicial system to the primitive age, he asks, pointing out that the country is governed by a constitution that lays down adherence to the rule of law. Several other senior advocates also hold the same view and stated that such comments did not augur well for the judiciary itself as “judicial activism” also has certain limitations. In fact, Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, before taking over, had told media persons that judges should refrain from making unnecessary observations as they should speak only through their judgements. Duty is paramount
for police The Supreme Court has found no merit in the plea of two Punjab police constables for reinstatement in service as it was of the view that their act of dereliction of duty, way back in 1984, was a serious offence. But due to the passage of such a long time in the case reaching a conclusion, the Court directed the state government to pay any benefits arising from compulsory retirement. During the peak militancy days, three constables, Harjit Singh, Parminder Singh and one of their colleagues had left their duty of guarding an undertrial prisoner in a hospital on May 19, 1984, without informing their superiors. The disciplinary authority of the police had recommended their sacking, which they challenged in the trial court. But during the long proceedings, Parminder Singh died, while Harjit Singh and his other colleague fought the case right up to the apex court to get back their jobs. The Court though agreed with the disciplinary authority that by not performing their ‘very important’ assignment of guarding an undertrial prisoner in hospital, they had committed a serious blunder. But it took into consideration the lapse of nearly 23 years in the court proceedings for granting them some relief. |
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