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Shakeup in UP World Cup shocks |
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Countering insurgency
Education gets more money
Playing for Bangladesh
Military cadets are soldiers too China passes law protecting private property Delhi Durbar
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Shakeup in UP AS Uttar Pradesh is in the election mode, the Election Commission is leaving no stone unturned to ensure totally free and fair elections in the state. Considering the fact that Uttar Pradesh is the largest state in the country with a 403-member Assembly, it is a big challenge for the commission to conduct peaceful and orderly elections. Not surprisingly, the commission has transferred the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Director-General of Police and the District Magistrates of Agra, Etah and Saharanpur. It has also hinted at more transfers in the coming days. It has also appointed 25 Special Observers and 320 Observers drawn from various states to supervise the elections. The large-scale transfer of key officials in the state administration manning law and order should not be viewed as a “pick-and-choose” policy, as alleged by the ruling Samajwadi Party, but is a reflection of the commission’s constitutional mandate to ensure free and fair elections under Article 324 (6) of the Constitution. According to an internal assessment by the commission and the feedback received by its observers, the top bureaucrats who have been transferred were handpicked by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. Moreover, the then Chief Secretary, N.C. Bajpai, and the then DGP, Bua Singh, had reportedly attended the Samajwadi Party function to celebrate the third anniversary of the Mulayam Singh government. Obviously, if top functionaries associate themselves with a party function, it reflects a lack of faith in the political neutrality of the civil servants and is bound to send wrong signals, particularly when elections are due. Consequently, the commission had no alternative but to order their transfers. Uttar Pradesh has some special problems like some people enjoying unauthorised security cover and intimidation of voters. The government has taken some action in executing non-bailable warrants against some criminals. But the commission is not leaving anything to chance. It has directed the observers to ensure that the candidates filed affidavits with particulars regarding their assets and criminal antecedents, prominent display of affidavits for public scrutiny and steps to check overcrowding and sanitise the polling stations. With proper planning, the commission can conduct orderly elections in Uttar Pradesh as it did in Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur.
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World Cup shocks IT wasn’t supposed to begin like this. While freak upsets and victories are part of every sporting tournament and add their own charm, Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer’s sudden death in his hotel room in Jamaica has staggered the cricketing fraternity. Hours after his team’s upset exit from the early rounds of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, after being beaten by minnows Ireland, the Kanpur-born Englishman had come to the end of a distinguished innings as both player and coach. While the cause of death is unclear at the time of writing, there is no doubt that he had one of the most high-pressure jobs in international cricket. While the high expectations, low tolerance for failure, and a million conflicting pulls and pushes are something that his counterpart in India Greg Chappell will be familiar with, Bob had the additional task of handling a volatile bunch of players. Everything from drug scandals, to rows on and off the field, to temperamental, even childish rebellion, were part of the deal. Controversy — and dramatic losses — were never far away. Cricket, by its very nature, is played over extended periods of time, often in foreign locations, and players have been known to succumb to the relentless mental demands. The challenge is compounded for foreign coaches, who have to spend almost all their time away from friends, family and a familiar environment. While Pakistan is also facing the pain of having been ejected so summarily from the World Cup, India is coping with the real danger of following suit after their defeat to Bangladesh. One’s heart goes out to the young Bangladeshis, whose enthusiasm and childlike delight as they brought the “mighty” Indians down, was in rude contrast to the lack of application from the other side. Of course, Bangladesh’s bowling, batting, and fielding were of a very high order. If the Indians do not lift their game, the tournament, which was being touted as the last hurrah of several greats, will instead go down as the tired swan song of several has-beens.
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Countering insurgency WITH the replacing of over 11,000 Border Security Force (BSF) personnel on counter-terrorism duties in five Jammu and Kashmir locations, with battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), one of the key recommendations of the post-Kargil Group of Ministers (GoM) Report on National Security has started coming to fruition. The Kargil Review Committee had recommended an in-depth review of border management, and the GoM had entrusted the job to a task-force under Dr Madhav Godbole. The task force report strongly disapproved of detailing border guarding forces for counter-insurgency operations, and asked the ministry of home affairs to come up with a “well-considered plan” to “enlarge, upgrade, equip and train” the CRPF for this job. The slightly larger formations of the CRPF deployment and the fact that they have all been specifically trained for this job, augurs well. They are heading for Tral, Sopore, Pulwama, Chrar-e-Sharif and Doda, locations which have faced intense militancy. And while this process is being driven by its own logic, it can also be seen in the larger context of the de-militarisation debate taking place in the Valley. The Prime Minister has of course, for now, rejected the calls of the PDP and the Hurriyat for demilitarisation as premature. And it is indeed premature, though incidents of terror attacks have diminished of late. But there is no doubt that an eventual de-militarisation of the region, when conditions are right, is a consummation that all parties wish for. In the process toward and after such de-militarisation, an effective counter-insurgency presence that is not dependent on the Indian armed forces will definitely be required. The CRPF will be central to such a capability. The Centre should now look to implementing the concept in its entirety in all sensitive locations. Other recommendations of the GoM, like the “one border, one force” concept where only one force manages a given border, should also be opted for. While we work hard for a political resolution in conflict areas, the importance of strength in reserve will be crucial.
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The thing about sport, any sport, is that swearing is very much part of it. — Jimmy Greaves |
Education gets more money AS anticipated, the current budget has extended special support to education. The outlay on education has been increased by about one-third. At the same time, the importance of secondary education, which had been neglected all these years, is now proposed to be strengthened. Towards this end, a scheme to provide financial support (Rs 6000 per head per year) to students at the secondary level has been devised. Minor details do not have to be gone into except to underline the fact that secondary education
is now likely to be supported in a substantial manner. All this is on the expenditure side. On the revenue side also, there is a significant change. The special cess on education, which was levied in 2006 at the rate of 2 per cent, has been increased to 3 per cent. There is likely be some resistance to this proposal, but the intention to raise additional funding is unmistakable. There are two important things that need to be discussed at this stage. The first is that while support to secondary education, including vocational education, is important, it is equally significant to look at the current state of affairs. The biggest weakness, if it may be said, is the fact that neither more attention to secondary education nor additional funding will take care of an important gap — the quality of instruction imparted at that level. The teachers trained decades ago will not be able to deliver the goods satisfactorily. For one thing, the system of teacher training in India has been traditional for almost a whole century. Whatever was thought out in the beginning of the last century got incorporated into the teaching syllabus. Since then all kinds of new developments have been taking place, but by and large those have not been taken into account except marginally. There is more than that to be said in regard to the scope and quality of teacher education. Not only does it remain traditional in every sense of the word, currently it is a victim of overexpansion as also unabashed commercialisation. Since 1947 expansion has happened on a very large scale. The number of students at that level today is 80-90 times higher than was the case six decades ago. The number of teachers, too, had to go up accordingly. This also means an expansion in the number of teacher-training colleges. Coupled with the inability to keep up with the changing times, this overexpansion in the number of teachers led to a situation where the quality of training could not but come under serious strain. This almost describes the current situation. It was in recognition of these mounting problems that in the early nineties the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) was established. For several years before it was established, B.Ed training through correspondence had become widespread, indeed popular. A couple of universities specialised in this area and, between the two of them, added something like a quarter million of half-trained teachers to the teaching market. That a fairly high proportion of them failed to get jobs is a comment on how things have been happening. Teacher training is not only learning the theory of how to teach. It also demands practical experience of teaching in the classroom. This is where B.Ed through correspondence failed to deliver the goods. Students learned the theory but hardly acquired any practical experience. Therefore, their output was anything but satisfactory. The one signal achievement of the NCTE has been that within the first few years it was able to put a stop to the mass manufacturing of B.Ed-trained teachers. It would be too much, however, to assume that its success was total or unqualified. That did not happen. Various devious ways of outwitting the system were devised. In certain states, these questionable steps received political support as well. Commercialisation, though stopped in its tracks, did not disappear altogether. It continued to flourish and the present sad state of affairs in the NCTE is partly a reflection of what has been happening. It is a matter of great regret that the Ministry of HRD, whose job it is to ensure high professional standards in teacher training, also colluded with some of the political forces at work. To say anything more on this subject at this stage would sidetrack the main issue. The main issue, if it may be said, is that while increasing state funding is welcome, many other things also need to be taken care of. For instance, the proposed measures do not take care of the system of student support at the secondary level beyond a point. They certainly take care of some part of the problem, but its complexity calls for a much more comprehensive effort. The quality of teaching is a many-sided problem, if one may add, and unless each one of them is attended to, things are not likely to improve. In a sense, what is likely to happen would be somewhat like this. About half the students, indeed more than that, who drop out by the time the secondary stage is reached, will find it easier to continue at the school level. Some of those who dropped out for financial reasons with now be enabled to stay on. To that extent, it is a positive gain. But unless those who stay on also receive the kind of education which, in terms of quality, is better than what it used to be, the gain would be marginal and not real or substantial. In more concrete terms, some part of the funding now available should be utilised for re-training the teachers. The 1986 Policy of Education provided for a mechanism in each district; these were called DIETs. It is time to revive that scheme and make it perform better and become more effective. Once that is done, the situation will start improving. Our neglect of secondary education all these years has been unpardonable. Now that an attempt is being made to remedy the situation, it should be well grounded in facts and appropriately funded as well as staffed. If these two things are done, the results will become evident within the next few years. One more thing needs to be said at this stage. Despite considerable public criticism, the Ministry of HRD did not establish a proper system of mutual consultation between the Centre and the states. The amount of the education cess raised earlier was distributed in an ad hoc manner. Will this continue to happen? No one can be sure about the next round of developments. If the past performance is a pointer, one cannot be all that optimistic. This much is clear, however, that without the Ministry of HRD having a separate bureau for interaction with the state governments, the
policy of drift will continue to prevail. If the quantum of the education cess is raised as proposed, it
will be even more imperative to undertake this minor but crucial administrative reform. Nothing will get accomplished at the secondary level unless the states also reorganise their working. So far, almost each one of them has barely managed to cope with the problem of expansion of numbers. If quality is to be ensured these crucial changes in terms of the clarity of policy-making and administrative reorganisation will have to be made right-away without any further loss of
time.
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Playing for Bangladesh
Good-neighbourly
relations after all are made of petty sacrifices. In one fell stroke, Indian cricket boys have done for camaraderie in South-East Asia what the Foreign Office mandarins could not do in decades. Ties with Bangladesh are expected to improve dramatically after Rahul Dravid XI’s grand defeat in the World Cup at Port of Spain. It is no secret that India is seen as a big brother and a bully in its neighbourhood. By surrendering to Bangladesh good and proper, we have effectively demolished that domineering image. We have also proved once and for all that we are not only equal but also more vulnerable than the Dhaka minnows. The feel-good atmosphere this cave-in has generated in Bangladesh should be cashed in on by immediately appointing Rahul Dravid as our Ambassador or Brand Ambassador there. A groundswell of goodwill awaits him, which will be a welcome change from the violent reaction among the Indians. Other players can also be gainfully employed. Drying up of endorsement contracts need not worry them at all. Millions of school children want them to be employed as teachers because they never beat anybody. Their role in mending ties with Bangladesh is one of a piece with similar behaviour with Pakistan in the past. Whenever India used to win, Pakistani soldiers would step up firing at the border. So, we perfected the art of losing even when victory was staring us in the eye. After losing to Bangladesh and winning it over in the process we must encourage Nepal and Bhutan also to play cricket with us. In fact, we can also promote the cause of world peace by resolving to lose whenever we play. If we lose to Bermuda, Kenya, Canada, Scotland Ireland and Holland etc. also in future World Cups, we can certainly claim the Nobel Peace Prize some day. Amen! Meanwhile, my wife is also happy at the turn of events. She was sick and tired of my habit of keeping awake at night to catch cricket action live. She is grateful to the men-in-blue for helping me kick the habit. She is contacting other cricket widows like her to send thank-you notes to the lions at home-turned-sacrificial lambs abroad, who in Rahul Dravid’s words failed to read the Port of Spain turf right. Be prepared to be deluged,
boys!
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Military cadets are soldiers too AS widely reported, a gentleman cadet died on 9 March 2007 at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, in an accident during grenade-lobbing training. Every accident is unfortunate and one’s sympathies go to the parents and other family members of the deceased. While it is not possible to bring the youth back to life, it is normally expected that the next of kin of the deceased should get compensation since the accident occurred while on duty and during the legitimate activity of training. Unfortunately, under the existing rules, that will not happen. An individual who joins the Army as a Soldier is considered a serviceman from the day he is enrolled as a recruit. He comes under the Army Act and is entitled to all the benefits due to a trained soldier. Any injury or death occurring during the recruit training is attributable to military service and he or his family gets entitled to the stipulated compensation. Additionally, the period of recruit training gets added while calculating the individual’s overall qualifying service for pension. Unfortunately, the officer cadets undergoing pre-commission training in various academies are not governed by similar provisions. They do not come under the Army/Navy/Air Force Act (which is enacted by the Parliament). Instead, they are governed by the local orders of the Commandant of the respective training academies. For all purposes they are considered civilians and are not entitled to any of the benefits due to a soldier. Why this disparity? After Independence, when the Joint Services Wing was raised at Clement Town near Dehradun (later renamed as the National Defence academy and moved to Kharakvasla), the intake was of matriculates and the minimum age at entry was 15 years. However, the minimum entry age for a soldier is 17 years. This was perhaps the reason why the cadets were not considered as servicemen during their training. However, since then, the minimum education level for the cadets has been raised to ‘ten plus two’ and their minimum entry age has been accordingly increased. Therefore, there should be no reason for the officer cadets to be governed by rules that are different from those applicable to soldiers, particularly when the hazards and risks involved in training are similar, if not actually more stringent. The above disparity was brought to the notice of the Fourth Pay Commission. For some reason they did not agree to treat cadets as servicemen during training. The Pay Commission, however, did agree to payment of a monthly stipend of rupees 1500 to cadets, that too only during the last year of training. The point was again projected to the Fifth Pay Commission. They merely enhanced the monthly stipend to rupees 8,000 but changed nothing else. One possible reason for the reluctance on the part of the successive pay commissions (and the Finance Ministry) could be that if the cadets are treated as servicemen, their training period would count towards the qualifying service for pension, á la soldiers. Since the training period of officer cadets is much longer relative to the soldiers, officers would thus derive a comparatively higher benefit. If this is so, a solution can be found by taking into account only a part – and not the whole – of the total training period of cadets. This practice is already in vogue in some form. Under prevailing rules soldiers who get selected for commission as officers, have 2/3rd of their service in below-officer ranks added to their service as officers while calculating the total qualifying period of pension. A similar formula can be worked out for officer cadets. It is also relevant to mention that in other countries military cadets are considered soldiers. For example, during the entire four years of training at the West Point academy in the US, cadets are given salary and are governed by their service Act. What is more, even in India trainees of other Central government services such as the IAS, the IPS etc are treated at par with their serving colleagues. There seems no logical ground for the Indian Defence Services being singled out for discrimination. There is no gainsaying that the above anomaly needs to be removed. During training cadets are grilled into the highest standards of discipline and military ethics that they would need as leaders of men in the years ahead. It is only right that they themselves be subjected to similar standards and be treated as servicemen during their training period. Paying them a stipend is akin to treating them as college students. The writer is a former Deputy Chief of Army Staff
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China passes law protecting private property
BEIJING – China’s legislature last week passed a controversial law designed to protect private property rights, in what was described as a significant milestone on the path toward a market economy. The legislation stopped short of disavowing the principle that all land belongs to the state, a fundamental part of the Communist system put in place after Mao Tse-tung’s rise to power in 1949. But legal scholars said it broke ground by establishing new protections for private home and business owners and for farmers with long-term leases on their fields. These goals had long been sought by the entrepreneurs who now account for more than half of China’s production; the swiftly climbing number of urban families who have bought their own apartments; and the millions of farmers whose croplands are increasingly coveted by real estate developers. “This law speeds up our market economy development,” said Chen Shu, a member of the National People’s Congress and secretary general of the Guangzhou Lawyer’s Association, who participated in drafting the legislation over the last several years. Jiang Ping, a scholar who advised officials drawing up the law, said it is significant because it helps codify a property law system that has been evolving through regulation in recent years as the country moves away from socialism. “Only when people’s lawful property is well protected will they have the enthusiasm to create more wealth and will China maintain its economic development,” Jiang, former president of the University of Political Science and Law, told the official New China News Agency. The new law seeks to balance protection for private and state-owned property – a significant change in China, where people still learn Communist theory in school. The law has been under discussion in one form or another since 2002. Opposition from conservative former officials, Communist Party members and influential academics led President Hu Jintao’s government to pull back an earlier draft of the bill during last year’s legislative session. But opponents failed to stop its passage this time. The conservatives hailed the new protections the law offers for farmers, particularly the right to sue to protect fields against expropriation. But they expressed fear the law will also be used by dishonest businessmen and officials to solidify the state enterprise takeovers that have blossomed over the last two decades, often in crooked deals. Underlying their concern was a more general fear: that the government was eroding the long-standing socialist principle that state ownership takes priority over private ownership. “In the property law, state assets and private assets are put on the same level, which I think is totally wrong and even irrational,” said Gong Hantian, a Beijing University law professor who has advised the government on legal matters. “The reason China has such a fast-growing economy is that we have a very strong public sector ... Privatisation for a socialist country like China is not a gospel, but a disaster.” Gong wrote an open letter opposing the law and posted it on the Internet. The letter, which he said was endorsed by 3,000 intellectuals and former officials, revived the debate that had flared last year. But after countless meetings and adjustments, Hu’s government decided the debate had gone on long enough and the law should be passed without further delay. To muffle critics, Communist party censors had barred China’s media from covering the disagreements. Gong’s petition was ordered off the Internet, for instance, and the Beijing-based magazine Cai Jin was forbidden to distribute last week’s issue because it contained discussion of the controversy. The resulting irony was that the Communist party, having silenced its most faithfully Communist members at home, forced them to turn to foreign journalists to air their views, which then bounced back on foreign-based Web sites. In keeping with the government’s desire to walk softly on the issue, Premier Wen Jiabao, in a lengthy government report outlining his 2007 program, did not mention the property law. He also did not refer to it in a two-hour news conference Friday during which he gave an exhaustive account of his efforts to improve the lives of Chinese people as the country undergoes economic transformation. By arrangement with
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Delhi Durbar LOK Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who is constantly exhorting members to conduct themselves properly and become role models for the younger generation, would have been a very sad man if he had overheard a conversation between two schoolchildren who had come to witness the proceedings in the lower house last week. Even before the young visitors could settle down, they were bundled out since the House was adjourned when slogan shouting opposition members rushed into the well and did not allow any business to be transacted. Instead of being disappointed with their representatives, the students were actually quite impressed with their performance. “I think we should also use the same tactics next time we don’t want to attend the Maths class,” remarked one student to his friend, who nodded vigorously in agreement. Left squirming Ever since the formation of the UPA government nearly three years ago, the Left parties have been calling the shots in their relations with the Congress. But their equations underwent a sea-change within the space of a few days. Furious over the establishment of a Maritime University at Chennai instead of Kolkata, Left Front members told the Congress ministers in no uncertain terms: “We have become MPs on our own strength but don’t forget you have become ministers because of us.” The Congress got an opportunity to settle scores with the Marxists a few days later when the CPM was pushed on the backfoot over the Nandigram killings. While Congress members in the government were constrained from hitting out at their supporting partner, the party’s state unit was told not to hold back. In fact, a senior Congress minister was particularly pleased that their party’s West Bengal unit had taken the lead in organising last week’s day-long bandh against the Left Front state government. Strategic no When External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee leaves for Japan on March 21 on a bilateral visit, Tokyo is expected to conveyed its unhappiness over a popular diplomatic fad worldwide which has also affected New Delhi, which is “strategic partnerships”. The Japanese are said to be extremely selective about entering into “strategic partnerships” and has this special relationship with only three countries – US, Australia and India. Tokyo is apparently irked with India’s decision to have a strategic cooperation relationship with China. Japanese policy makers find it hard to believe that the two Asian rivals can have strategic ties. Food for thought for movers and shakers of Indian foreign policy! Last word Heard in Parliament on a day when protesting opposition members forced an adjournment: “When one man speaks and everybody else listens, it is called a shokh sabha and when everybody speaks and one man listens it is called Lok Sabha.” Contributed by Satish Mishra, Rajeev Sharma and Anita Katyal
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