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War within Thinking “out of box” |
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Lyrical Lara
Limits of power — A Tribune debate
My Uthala
The man behind Bhoomi Germany moves to regulate
the kabab
Delhi Durbar
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War within Of the several ugly spectacles witnessed during Congress rule in Punjab, one of the most unseemly was the constant bickering among Capt Amarinder Singh, Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo. In fact, this infighting, borne out of over-blown egos, was one of the main factors behind the defeat of the party in the recent Assembly elections. One would have thought that this setback had taught them some valuable lessons, but nothing of that sort seems to have happened. They merrily continue to take potshots at each other, as if they are bent upon committing hara-kiri. The chance of ruling the state again has already been frittered away. The Congress still has a role to play as the Opposition, but even that will be lost if they waste all their ammunition in firing at one another. That will also amount to letting down the public who elected them. PPCC officiating president Dullo may not be wrong when he says that Mr Parkash Singh Badal is Chief Minister today only because of “mistakes of Congressmen”. It is another matter that he says so only to denigrate Capt Amarinder Singh. At least senior leaders should own collective responsibility for the reverses instead of passing the buck. If nothing else, they can start working together to rebuild the party’s image. Even if it is impossible for them to actually be on the same wavelength, they can at least pretend to be united in public. Only then can the party play the role assigned to it. In the process, it can also recoup itself in some way. But if it continues to pull in different directions, it will not only further weaken itself, but also give the Akalis a chance to ride roughshod over it. Since the state leaders have not shown that kind of maturity so far, it becomes the responsibility of the high command to chasten them, because the Punjab rot may not remain confined to the state alone. What has already happened in Punjab and Uttarakhand and several other places can replicate itself in scarce few other states where it happens to be still in power. |
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Thinking “out of box” The climate of hostility between India and Pakistan has definitely undergone a noticeable change as a result of the ongoing composite dialogue process. The confidence-building measures (CBMs) agreed to between the two sides have helped considerably in promoting people-to-people contacts, needed to create an atmosphere conducive to settling all the disputes between the two countries. Yet India and Pakistan have not been moving as fast as they could to promote greater understanding because of a major “vision deficit”, as Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon pointed out on Wednesday while addressing a gathering at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. It is mainly because of the vision problem that Pakistan has not been as forthcoming as India for promoting the cause of peace and progress as a cooperative endeavour. India has been talking of a long-term vision for developing a mutually beneficial relationship for achieving shared goals. However, there are sections in Pakistan which continue to doubt India’s intentions. They talk of “out of box” ideas, but refuse to free themselves from the clutches of the past. They have a feeling of insecurity, as referred to by Mr Menon, despite India declaring it time and again that it wants to see all its neighbours prosper like any other nation of the world. India’s “No First Use” nuclear doctrine should give a feeling of assurance to Pakistan, which itself is a nuclear weapon state. India and Pakistan have reached an agreement on some nuclear CBMs too. It is for the good of both countries if India is ready to hold further dialogue on nuclear doctrines and other military-related matters. But the cause of secure peace demands that India’s concerns, too, are addressed by Pakistan. Despite the promise of not allowing any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used for terrorism, not enough has been done by Islamabad so far. Terrorist masterminds like Jihad Council chief Syed Salahuddin roam about freely in Pakistan. The infrastructure of Kashmir-related terrorist outfits remains intact. They may not be allowed to collect donations openly for so-called jihad, but they keep getting funds from different sources, and the Government of Pakistan must be in the know of it. Pakistan will have to destroy the infrastructure the terrorist groups have built in its territory. The earlier the better. |
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Lyrical Lara Fans of the shorter version of the game will miss one of cricket’s most outstanding batsmen, as Brian Charles Lara prepares to quit one-dayers in the aftermath of a disappointing outing at the World Cup 2007. There are only two matches to go for the West Indies, and only a very unlikely sequence of results holds out the possibility of them sneaking into the semi-finals. And with that, the last of the great charismatic West Indians, after nearly 300 matches and 10,300-plus runs, will say goodbye. The famous bat-high, forward-crouching stance that made him look like a panther about to leap, and the explosion of timing and power that sent the best bowling sides on the run, will not be around for the mass entertainer version of the game. It is not surprising that top players quit the one-day game first, as its physical and mental demands are different, if not more arduous, and the elements of uncertainty greater. It does not necessarily allow the best talent to flower, though the best teams have shown that one-day cricket can be tamed and won consistently. But genius sometimes has its own logic… And so Brian Lara will go, and that elusive World Cup will forever remain out of reach. The West Indian game has many fans around the world, including India, and a triumphant Lara and team would have been a popular outcome in India. May be the full version of the game will give him the chance to quit at the top. As he showed with that stunning 400 not out in Antigua against England some time ago, with which he became the first batsman to reclaim the top Test batting record, the hunger for runs is still there. With the pressures of the one-day game out of the way, both Lara the Captain, who has had as chequered a time as Lara the Batsman, can aim for that final burst of glory. |
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Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.—
Francis Bacon |
Limits of power — A Tribune debate
Recently, in his own polite way, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rebuked the courts for excessive interference in governance. Effectively, he has told the courts to mind their own business. Chief Justice Balakrishnan’s nice reply was that a little bit of tension between the courts and the government was good for constitutional governance. There can be little doubt that the judges and our politicians are at loggerheads. The politicians say: “It is no business of the judges to take over the government.” The judges reply: “If the legislature and the government did their job, we would not have to do it for them”. This is not an idle power struggle. The politicians are hurt because judicial decisions cost politicians votes. In the Mulayam Singh’s assets case, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI inquiry during the electoral process in a motivated petition which should have been thrown out. During the Mandal agitation (1991-2), the Supreme Court passed orders to quell the controversy and bring peace. Justice Pasayat’s order on the reservation for OBCs has created tension instead of quiet. The Congress’s failure in the just concluded municipal corporation elections in Delhi is largely due to the Supreme Court’s orders on sealing. Delhi’s traders were annoyed with the Supreme Court’s sealing orders and took their wrath on the Congress. In another case, Mr. H.S. Balli, an MLA and former minister, who defied the Supreme Court and unsealed some properties was sent to jail by the court but became a public hero. Judicial decisions affect political outcomes as if they were political decisions. The courts make the political and governance process seem opportunistic, inefficient and below par. No one likes to be exposed in this way. This results in an ongoing tension between judges and politicians. But, apart from everyday skirmishes, the period 1992-2007 has created major battles between the judiciary and Parliament. This era reminds us of the tension between Nehru and the judiciary between 1951 and 1964, and Indira Gandhi and the Supreme Court between 1969 to 1975. In Nehru’s time, the quarrel was over property rights. Nehru won. The judges stepped back. During Indira Gandhi’s first tenure the dispute was over parliamentary sovereignty and fundamental rights. She lost. The latest dispute between Parliament and the Supreme Court is over quotas. In 1992, the Supreme Court’s decision in the Mandal case said that there should be no quotas in the case of promotional posts. In 1995, Parliament reversed this decision by changing the Constitution. In 1999, the court insisted that accelerated seniority of SC and ST candidates in civil service posts was against equality. In 2000-2001, Parliament reversed the Supreme Court’s opinion by amending the Constitution. In 2000, the Supreme Court pulled up the Kerala government for not implementing the creamy layer. In 2005, the apex court held that unaided institutions need not provide for reservation quotas. In 2005, Parliament reversed this decision by constitutional amendment. This year the Supreme Court stayed the reservation quotas for the OBCs in prime technical institutions with devastating results, inspiring protests in Delhi, UP and Bihar and bandhs in Tamil Nadu. In the states, during 2003-2005, the Hyderabad High Court refused to allow reservations for Muslims. In 2006 in Kerala, the High Court struck down certain provisions for quotas in educational institutions. During the ongoing elections in UP a judge of the Allahabad High Court made a wholly incorrect decision that Muslims were not a minority. The Division Bench stayed this immediately. It is clear that the areas of tension between the judiciary and the executive are three-fold. In the first place, politicians are directly embarrassed by court decisions because of the political impact. Thus, politician Jayalalithaa got a stay order on her prosecutions in 1995 but both won and lost cases against her. Ms Mayawati is embarrassed by the Taj trapezium decision. Mr Laloo Prasad may appear unfazed by the cases against him, but the public exposure by the judiciary may have cost him the rulership of Bihar. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao was affected by the Parliament bribery case even though he was exonerated. The greatest, though most disreputable, example was of Indira Gandhi declaring the Emergency (1975-77) because of the Allahabad High Court decision countermanding her election to the Lok Sabha and challenging her right to be Prime Minister. The smell of the Bofors decision continues to affect the Gandhi family. More recently, in Kerala, a minister who talked of corruption in the judging was asked by the court to apologise to the court as well as to the public! Politicians who are not pure of heart cannot quarrel with the judiciary deciding against them. But sometimes, the court seems to relish the process of exposing politicians. A personal edge attaches to the process. The second area of discontent is the over-reach of the courts. The Supreme Court has gone well ever the top. Public Interest litigation was a wonderful tool to help the poor and the disadvantaged and to explore public causes. But how far will the court go? Today, it is acting as the Ministry of Forests in the Godavarman case. No electricity line, school, project can be built in India without the Supreme Court’s permission and its dreaded self-appointed committee which is a law unto itself. Delhi’s CNG buses and three-wheelers are a gift, but was it the Supreme Court’s domain? The sealing issue shows the divide. Encroachments on the road are the court’s business. They violate the law. But mixed use planning is a policy matter and not the business of the court. The Supreme Court has become impatient in its decision, imperious in its style, and overzealous in its decisions. It must recognise that “policy” is for the government, and “law” for the court. These overlap but they cannot be mixed up. The third fault line between the courts and the government is a difference in the understanding of the Constitution and its ideals. For the government, equality means social and economic opportunity for all. The Supreme Court protects merit, meritocracy and an elite equality. This is a very serious clash of ideology. I am responsible in part for supporting the meritocracy interpretation and some of the constitutional amendments. Yet I recognise that there is a division between the court and the government on this major issue of social justice. If the Supreme Court is right, the opportunities of India’s economic success will go to the well-off meritorious. If the government is right, they must be shared with the competent but less meritorious. This will tear politics apart. It will, and has, sown the seeds of dissension in civil society. Of course, the real backward classes are the SCs (dalits) and the STs (tribals). The OBC factor is created by caste-based politics. I think that these controversies can be resolved. But neither side is showing patience or wisdom. The Chief Justice is right when he says that these things are a part of a healthy consultative tension. But the Supreme Court must be careful. A polarity between the courts and the politicians is healthy. In truth, it is a tension between the rule of law and democracy. Both complement each other. But the present conflict is not just a minor power struggle. There is a clash of ideology about social justice — albeit with politicians seeking votes and the judges enjoying public attention. In this clash, the judges must be respected. But the judges, too, cannot be anti-politician in their posture. The ultimate lakshman rekha is that they can never be anti-people in their pursuit for themselves and constitutional
governance.
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My Uthala
IN my faith (Hindu) all public gatherings about a deceased person are rounded off with a ritual called Uthala. I personally believe that in the case of persons like me who are terribly anxious to know as to what will happen in their family and friendly circles when they are no more, their pretatma, invisible body or persona posthumous, whatever you may call it, hovers round all places associated with the death. This invisible body can hear, see and smell but it is gracious enough not to touch or talk to any person. Now starts the flight of my imagination. I relate what my invisible body observes, expects, or fears. It notices the condolence cards being printed with a thick black border and posted to family friends and relatives or thrown into the letterboxes of people in the neighbourhood by the Corporation safai karamchari. Gosh, some superstitious, stupid and ungrateful people, who always touched my feet when we met, do not take this vital piece of information into their living rooms. They tuck it on the boxes of their electricity meters, ACs or room coolers. At the Uthala venue, the presiding pandit begins his sermon in a sonorous voice. Like all other persons who have listened to such sermons umpteen times, my invisible body also ignores it. But it is tormented at persons who do not switch off their mobiles even on such a solemn ceremony and on a buzz run out of the gathering, falling on people and often hurting them. People feel relieved when the shanti path is recited thinking that it heralds the end of the rituals. But no, the real ordeal is to start now. My invisible body notices some persons coming over to the mike to deliver speeches eulogising me. There comes Shri A: “Madan Gopal Kapahyji was a deeply religious and God-fearing person. He.........” My persona posthumous wants to shout: “Your Kapahyji was an agnostic, if not an outright atheist. Being an honest man he never feared God but he feared hypocrites like you”. Then comes Shri B. He looks very emotional. He says: “Kapahyji was a very sociable person. He always listened to woes of other persons, especially the old people........”. “An outright liar,” feels my soul. Your Kapahyji kept old hogs at a distance of many poles. Moreover, he spent most of his time writing letters to the editors for or against some political leaders”. My soul stops listening to these cheats but it keeps waiting for a condolence message from one of the above-mentioned
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The man behind Bhoomi
No one knew anything about e-governance when we started work on Bhoomi in 2000”, says Karnataka civil servant Rajeev Chawla, who has bagged the first Prime Minister’s award for Excellence in Public Administration for the year 2005-06. The Bhoomi project, which digitised all twenty million land records of ownership of 6.7 million farmers in the State and ensured they were available online for banks, courts and administrative offices, won Chawla the prestigious award. However, the project was only the start of the digital inter-face. Today Karnataka offers a number of e-governance initiatives to its people, all of which have come about under the stewardship of the IIT Kanpur alumni who asserts that he is merely taking the concept of Bhoomi further. This correspondent caught up with Chawla one day after he had received the award. It was also the day when the papers announced he had been transferred out of the e-Governance department, as Secretary, Food and Supplies. The civil servant, who had a continuous stream of people presenting bouquets to him, said he was not expecting his transfer. “This is my specialized area of work. I wanted to work further in this field only.” The IAS officer said his long tenure in e-governance – nine years - is probably responsible for Bhoomi and subsequent e-initiatives. “The original land record system was created over a period of 150 years. You cannot demolish a system overnight”. He went on to say that the idea of computerising land records which came up in 1998 was ahead of its time. “No one knew how the data base would be computerised, how it would be updated and how mutations would be done”. What happened next was sheer labour. The ten thousand village accountants of the State as well as another 2,000 revenue officials were trained and worked systematically to digitise 20 million manual records. “Each record had 45 fields ensuring a total of 70 million fields in all. The success of the scheme is partly due to the painstaking way in which the records were meticulously digitised. We completed the project in 2002. Since then other State governments have also initiated similar exercises but none of them have been able to implement the process properly. Only Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have implemented the scheme partially”, he adds. “We were able to create a State Data Centre (SDC) where all twenty million records are available”, says Chawla. “The system has reduced the discretion of public officials by introducing provisions for recording a mutation request online. Farmers can now access the database and are also empowered to follow up”. Explaining how Bhoomi worked, Chawla says a printed copy of the required mutation can be obtained online by providing the name of the owner or plot number at computerised land record kiosks in 177 taluk offices, for a fee of Rs.15. “Farmers can see the transaction being performed from a second computer screen which faces them. Further the status of a mutation application can be checked on Touch Screen Kiosks”. Farmers can approach senior officials in cased a revenue inspector does not complete the mutation within 45 days. Operators of the computerised system are made accountable for their decisions and actions by using a bio-login system that authenticates every login through a thumbprint. A log is maintained of all transactions in a session ensuring complete security. Not content with sitting on its laurels the State e-governance department has further extended the Bhoomi project to make a number of other facilities, like ration card, certificates for the physically-handicapped and old age pensions available through kiosks established both at the village level as well as at the sub-division. This scheme – Nemmadi – introduced last year has already taken off. Other e-governance initiatives include Bangalore One, a scheme for Bangalore which facilitates paying of all kinds of bills as well as services like passport submission. The scheme is being used by eight lakh people in the city and is being taken to five other cities shortly. The scheme for the Treasury department – Khajane – involves computerisation of 225 treasuries across the State. The Commercial Taxes Department and the Motor Vehicles departments are also being computerized. One crore families across the State are being given computerised ration cards with recipients only being able to withdraw rations after identification through finger matching. The latest e-governance initiative whose pilot project has taken off is e-procurement under which all government procurement will take place through electronic bids with payments also being done electronically. “We are involved in change-management as initiatives like e-procurement may not be liked by many”, says Chawla. When asked about his next assignment, he says a lot can be done in the Food and Supplies department also. “You can track every single bag of rice as it moves”, he says while asserting the “prestigious posting” does not hold any attraction for him. “I joined the IAS to work on technology as the services also need specialists. Thankfully they gave me a field of my calling to work in”, he says signing off, standing besides a desk full of bouquets. |
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Germany moves to regulate
the kabab HAMBURG, Germany – It’s tough to look masculine in a hairnet and booties, even if you’re carrying a very sharp knife toward a slab of meat swinging on a warehouse hook. But the kabab boys, pepper spice dusting their hands, don’t seem to mind, preferring to think of themselves as culinary ambassadors. To understand the metaphor one must appreciate the sauce-drenched, onion-scented, shaved-meat beauty in a pita known as the doner, or spinning, kabab. Fat and messy, it is the Turkish immigrant’s gift to Germany, a bit of meal-time chaos in a nation that doesn’t like its peas to roll too close to the mashed potatoes. Integration is often not a success story here, but the kabab has found a home, slipping in amid the sausage and beer like a distant, exotic uncle. It’s munched on the run and can fill the brawniest of laborers. When the bars close, and the soul is still restless, the kabab beckons, a late-night snack for the subway ride home. It sheds lettuce, bleeds tomatoes and has challenged dry cleaners from Hamburg to Hesse. Now that maddeningly persistent German virtue known as order is being imposed on the untidy kabab. The Vocational School for Gastronomy and Nutrition here is offering a six-month course that in July will award the first kabab diplomas, officially known as Meat Processing Doner Kabab Production Specialization. If there is poetry in bureaucracy, the Germans have yet to stumble upon it, but the point is to regulate a loose market of vendors and producers. And that, surprisingly, may improve integration in a country where more than 2 million Turks live in what many consider a parallel world. The aim is to enhance the image of the kabab industry and give its workers, most of whom are first-and second-generation Turkish immigrants with limited educations, training toward better opportunities. “In Germany if you are not integrated in the labor market, you are not integrated,” said Metin Harmanci of Entrepreneurs Without Borders, an organization that advises immigrant businesses and seeks equality in the workplace. “It’s difficult for immigrants to enter the labor market. It was easier in the past when Germany needed guest workers, but now that kind of work is gone and there are fewer chances.” Skeptics in the German media view the plan as noble but Sisyphean. The Website for Deutsche Welle radio put it like this: “While encouraging young people to get a start in life with a vocational qualification is a worthy cause, one would have to search high and low to find a pursuit that is less appreciated and undervalued by the customer in the fast-food sector than the high-quality preparation and presentation of a kabab.” It begins in a meat factory with sawed bones and a dangling carcass. Mostly veal, the meat is cleaved and flattened, trimmed of fat. It is seasoned with white pepper, chili powder, yogurt, onion and secret spices. Thin strips are stacked on a spit about 3 feet high. The meat is pressed together, furiously wrapped in plastic, frozen and loaded on trucks for delivery. Each morning, sometimes before dawn, fresh spits, spinning and sizzling, appear in kabab shop windows across Germany. “I want to finish this training and hold a certificate in my hands,” said Mehmet Atug, 25, a Kurd from Eastern Turkey. “The first five years I was in Germany I longed for my native Turkey. But after so many years of living here, I guess I can imagine dying here. The best opportunities for me are in Germany and Europe.” In 2006, kabab sales tumbled by as much as 30 percent when a contaminated meat scare swept Germany. Celik, Kenan and Entrepreneurs Without Borders sought to protect the kabab’s stature and fate by pushing quality control that included training workers to cut, prepare and package meat. The project was funded by the city’s labor office and the intention is to eventually set standards for warehouses, production plants and even for tiny kabab shops run by non-hairnet-wearing guys who may not always clean the lettuce bin. Will this be appreciated? Again, Deutsche Welle thinks not. It believes that the kabab maker’s “labor of love” will be met with drunken Germans heading home in predawn twilight who will “snatch ... the doners from the hands that created them; spilling half on the pavement outside, wolfing most of it without the contents even touching the sides of their mouths and then puking the rest into the shopping basket of a nearby bicycle.” By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Delhi Durbar The race for the new finance secretary has intensified. The grapevine has it that Petroluem Secretary M.S. Srinivasan could replace A.K. Jha. The 1971 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer is being seen as a front-runner for the job as he has successfully negotiated the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. One also learns that after Srinivasan moves to North Block, Naresh Dayal, the 1972 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, currently Secretary, Health, might move to the crucial Petroleum ministry. Left grumbling With the Congress putting up a poor show in Delhi, following its rout in Punjab, the Left parties are angry. More so because the saffron party has captured power. Despite the comrades making a calibrated attempt to distance themselves from the decisions of the Manmohan Singh government and attacking it on issues affecting the “aam admi,” the Congress-led coalition has been unsuccessful in stalling the rise of the lotus. A senior Left leader observed: “We have to formulate our strategy for the next general elections. If the Manmohan Singh government continues this way, it would be difficult for us to explain things to our supporters.” Is the withdrawal of support an option? The leader said: “We don’t want to make the UPA coalition a martyr.”
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is remembered in India for various reasons, including his style and his way with children, besides for the vital role he played in attaining Independence and being the first Prime Minister of the country. But this year, Cambridge University in England is also remembering Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, coinciding with the centenary year of the university. As part of the various events, the Vice Chancellor of the university is expected to pay a visit to India sometime next year and go round various cities to promote Indo-UK education ties.
All in the air Politicians are not new to launching books. They are somewhat reticent in praising the book on the specious plea that they have not read the book. That was, however, not the case with Union minister for Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar at a recent book launch. After all, the author, Upendra Tankha, is a journalist and happens to be a classmate of Aiyar at Doon School. Aiyar said he managed to read the book during his trips by air. He not only enjoyed the work of fiction but recommended it highly to others. Aiyar also read out passages from the book. Tankha observed that the characters in the book were drawn from real life people but the situations are imaginary. Contributed by R.
Suryamurthy,Girja Shankar Kaura and S. Satyanarayanan |
An education which does not teach us to discriminate between good and bad, to assimilate the one and eshew the other, is a misnomer. —Mahatma Gandhi |
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