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Sheer patronage President Sarkozy |
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Jumbo challenge
From Chirac to Sarkozy
Lage Raho Babubhai
The World Bank President’s real sins Disabled still languish in the margins
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Sheer patronage THE UPA government has not done a great service to the banking sector by appointing Congress leaders as directors of public sector banks. This has been done despite the protests by some bank chairmen, who had genuine reasons to raise their voice against such appointments. It is true that successive governments have appointed their favourites to such posts. Why it has become particularly objectionable now is that the situation of banks has considerably changed. Earlier, the concept of government was that it controlled every aspect of public life. In such a milieu,
nationalisation of banks and insurance companies had some social and political justification, though it was not a prudent economic decision. Now things have changed. Nationalised banks have to compete with private sector and multinational banks, which have greater freedom and flexibility in managing their affairs. In such a situation, politicians as bank directors are anathema. When the banks have to compete in the marketplace, they cannot afford to have politician-directors whose primary interest would be to carry forward their political aspirations. It would not matter to them if the borrowers fulfilled the criteria for loans or not so long as they were their voters. In other words, there is a mismatch between the objectives of the bank and that of the directors. In the past, it was possible for banks to write off loans disbursed on the recommendations of politicians in power without raising the eyebrows of most people. Today it will be scandalous for banks to do so, particularly when they face stiff competition from non-nationalised banks. All this suggests that the government should have been careful while nominating bank directors. Of course, it can be argued that banks need to have social workers on their boards as they are able to provide a social perspective to the banks’ functioning. But this should not be a ruse to treat the posts as sinecures for politicians who failed in elections or who could not be given party tickets. During the NDA regime, it became a scandal when the media found out that almost all the gas agencies were given to those belonging to the ruling party. When the government is no longer seen as performing the “mai-bap” role, it is prudent to have fixed qualifications for bank directors so that only the deserving ones are appointed.
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President Sarkozy THE French have ultimately preferred Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, a right-winger enjoying the reputation of a tough administrator, to guide France’s destiny for five years. The results of the hotly contested French presidential election — the final round of which was held on Sunday — clearly show that the voters wanted President Jacques Chirac’s successor to be clearly focused on their economic emancipation. Mr Sarkozy fitted the bill as he promised to bring down unemployment from 8.3 per cent to 5 per cent by 2012, reduce taxes, loosen the 35-hour work week by offering tax-breaks on overtime and free the public service from much of its flab. Mr Sarkozy also benefited from his otherwise formidable Socialist challenger Segolene Royal’s failure to project her image as a leader confident enough to lead the French when they were faced with a number of serious challenges at home and abroad. Sharp divisions in the Socialist camp also went in favour of Mr Sarkozy in an election recording the highest voter turnout — nearly 85 per — since 1981. Ms Royal was shown by opinion polls as the voters’ favourite. But, perhaps, she got uncomfortable hints by the time campaigning was about to end that she might not get her desire to be the first woman President of France fulfilled. That is why she had prepared herself for the defeat she ultimately suffered and accepted it much before the closing of the counting of the votes. She did put up a tough fight to be reckoned as the first woman candidate in French electoral history to reach the final round. For Mr Sarkozy, the real challenges lie ahead. The outbreak of riots in the poor suburbs of Paris and elsewhere after the declaration of the election results indicates that the new French President has to do a lot to change his socially divisive and anti-immigrant image. His name figured prominently in the 2005 riots that threatened to shake the socio-economic edifice of France. He caused uneasiness among various sections of French society by saying that anybody living in France would have to learn to respect the country’s Christian values. He may also have difficulties in leading France with his pro-US credentials — contrary to that of President Chirac — as the French are now used to their country taking an independent line on issues affecting the world. President Sarkozy may have to jettison some of his campaign rhetoric and accept the compulsions of power while in office. |
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Jumbo challenge THE sight of the new Airbus 380 landing at New Delhi would have thrilled aviation enthusiasts and casual watchers alike, but there is no doubt that the big metal bird, the largest passenger airliner yet, will stretch airports like nothing else before. The runway itself may not need elongation at the larger airports, as the craft can land and take off if the erstwhile supersizer, the Boeing 747, could do so. But just about everything else, from apron and taxiway space, to baggage handling to customs and immigration will be challenged, as the craft can unload 550 people (if not 800 plus in an all economy configuration) at one go. For Kingfisher Airlines, celebrating its second anniversary, it was a special occasion as it is the only Indian airline with a firm order, for five A380s, to be delivered by 2011. There are more than a dozen airlines around the world that see cost-effectiveness and customer retention by deploying the Superjumbo, and the ‘Kangaroo route’ of London-Singapore-Sydney is slated for the first paying passenger flight, under the Singapore Airlines banner. Delivery to Singapore Airlines has now been pushed to later this year, and repeated postponements in the delivery schedule have made some customers consider rival aircraft. But in spite of all the delays, whether it is to do with the 500 kilometres of complicated wiring or various sub-systems or weight considerations, there is no doubt that the craft is a wonderful engineering accomplishment. Since its first flight in April 2005, five test aircraft have logged nearly 3000 hours on nearly 2000 test flights, including one where some 400 Airbus employees flew a long haul route to evaluate its passenger comfort and facilities. The airline is confident that its sheer size will offer several advantages, and help decongest airports as fewer aircraft will be needed to transport more numbers of people. Indian airports should factor in the superjumbo as they proceed on their tardy modernisation programmes. |
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Slang is a language that rolls up its sleaves, spits on its hands and goes to work.
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From Chirac to Sarkozy
IN Mr Nicolas Sarkozy's victory, France has undergone a generational change after 12 years of Jacques Chirac presidency. The pertinent question is how far he will change the country's direction now that a Hungarian immigrant's son has achieved his life's ambition. During his long and intense election campaign facing the Socialist Segolene Royal, the leader of the right of centre ruling UMP has sketched his priorities. In the economic field, Mr Sarkozy is more receptive to American methods than many French politicians, but he will have to work hard to remove the pro-American tag he has acquired if he is to succeed. He is on more solid ground on the domestic front and has been very much a law and order man as interior minister. On immigration, he is fashionably hard-line, insisting that anyone desirous of living in France must be sympathetic to the country's Christian values. French voters rejected the new proposed referendum, together with the Dutch, to create a crisis for the European Union. Mr Sarkozy's proposal is to frame a "mini treaty" for facilitating work in the expanded 27-member Union and have it approved at the national parliamentary level, instead of going through a series of risky and time-consuming fresh referendums. And on larger issues of war and peace, Mr Sarkozy will be less abrasive towards American policies, particularly on Iraq, that President Chirac has been. Mr Sarkozy knows as well as any French politician that he is heir to the legacy of Charles de Gaulle and the Fifth Republic: a belief in French exceptionalism, a distrust of Anglo-Saxon methods, an innate belief in asserting national independence in promoting national interest and furthering the glory of French literature and culture. Equally, he should know that any hurried attempt at reforming French industry and social benefits could meet massive street protests and strikes, a legacy of the 1968 movement. Everyone realises that change is needed to adapt the prized French social model to the requirements of the 21st century, but the French are particularly sensitive to safeguarding their social benefits and oppose wholesale privatisation of state companies. Indeed, for a developed country, social inequalities are manageable, unlike in the United States, and any attempt at reaching dizzying figures of economic progress at the cost of egalitarianism will be resisted. Quite apart from Mr Sarkozy's own preferences, Europe and the world have changed markedly in recent years, necessitating him to adapt traditional policies to new circumstances. The traditional Franco-German engine that was running the European Union does not carry the same weight today because Germany is asserting its political weight after the trauma of the legacy of World War II. Besides, the great expansion of the EU has meant the acquisition of new former communist members whose political thrust is to seek protection from a real or imagined Russian threat by cultivating pro-American policies even at the risk of fellow EU members' ire. President Chirac, together with former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, had tried to steer Europe towards an autonomous course, particularly on Iraq, and the concept of a weighty European Union acting as an independent political player in a multipolar world. To the George W. Bush's administration, multipolarity is a dirty word and Washington viewed even the concept of an independent rapid deployment force outside of NATO with utmost suspicion. Given the Iraq fiasco, the Bush administration has mellowed in the presentation, if not the substance, of its policies, but there will be many occasions in the future when Europe must stand up for its policies and interests. A brewing crisis is over the approach the European Union should take to the obviously provocative American plan of basing new elements of its missile defence plan in Poland and the Czech Republic in the face of vehement Russian opposition. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, belonging to the centre-right Christian Democratic Party as she does, has taken an ambivalent stand. Traditionally, the French have led the field in opposing US policies that can harm Europe. Mr Sarkozy's first task will be to try to win over sections of French society he has alienated: the immigrant underclass of African and Arab origin in the suburbs and vast sections of the Left who are antithetic to his goals. Trade unions are a powerful force in French politics and have often brought presidents and prime ministers to heel. It will be difficult, for instance, to discard the 36-hour working week or prune health services, which have the reputation of being among the best in the world. Nor is it easy to raise the minimum wage, as promised by Ms Royal, with relatively high unemployment and the competitive nature of world economy. Ms Royal lost the election because, despite her attractive personality and being the first woman in the run-off stage of a French presidential election, she did not exude an air of confidence or competence in governance. Mr Sarkozy never lost the lead he had gained in Gallup polls since Christmas and Ms Royal failed to give her opponent a knockout blow in the eagerly watched television debate between the two contenders. Her staged assertiveness bordering on aggressiveness only helped Mr Sarkozy appear cool and collected in warding off the barbs. In time, Mr Sarkozy will come to treasure the power of the presidency as much as his predecessors. He might be the eager beaver known to be pushy and ambitious but he will have to bow to the traditions and philosophy of the Fifth Republic and its Gaullist provenance. Mr Sarkozy might have prided himself on coming from outside the circle of the charmed ENA-educated elite but he can succeed only if he talks in the idiom of his neo-Gaullist predecessor. An American accent will get him nowhere. Change will come to France, as it must, but it will be in digestible doses and change must not compromise its central tenets. France has always believed that it has a unique mission and, despite the diminution in its ranking in the world, it has found ways to get its message of uniqueness and independence across. Mr Sarkozy can try to change this only at his peril. Given the exceptionally high voting figures, the nation is
watching.
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Lage Raho Babubhai
Hon’ble Shri Babubhai Kataraji, Jai Hind.
Being a diehard admirer of your market value-based policies and entrepreneurial skills, I feel devastated that your thriving travel agency business has been ruined by an insensitive and inconsiderate system. It only strengthens my belief that hard-working, high-flying politicians have far too many detractors in India. While most travel agents take money and ditch their clients, you were a paragon of virtue who did exactly what you promised even at a considerable risk. You not only despatched people abroad as agreed to, but also personally accompanied them. What professional integrity! Only a person of your exalted stature could display such moral character. The high quality of personalised services that your team provided on a turnkey basis was a first in India. The single-window facilities included everything from counselling potential customers in their hometowns to arranging passports and visas for them and providing a VVIP escort. And to cap it all, you gave them the additional luxury of going abroad on diplomatic passports! The credibility that you brought into this profession -- which is normally the preserve of slimy, cubbyhole operators -- was remarkable. What particularly moved me was your gesture of trying to take a woman and a boy abroad as your wife and son. Can there be a more glorious instance of warm, personal bonds existing between a leader and the public? The Human Resource Development Ministry should have honoured you for improving the lot of the suffering masses by lending them a helping hand in making a new beginning in the West. Instead, look what an ungrateful nation has done to you! Security agencies in India are notorious for riding roughshod over the common people, but this is one of those rare cases where they have dared to poke their nose into the affairs of a VVIP. This dangerous tendency is an ugly attempt to undermine the position of MPs that must be nipped at all costs. I am sure you can get some sort of breach-of-privileges motion passed against the security men who arrested you at the Delhi airport. That would teach them once and for all that while it is absolutely OK to kill ordinary citizens in fake encounters, they must never ever dare to cross the path of VVIPs. What makes me hopeful is the fact that you are not alone in your hour of trials and tribulations. Many MPs from several other parties are also in the same boat. All of you must forge a common front to put pressure on the government to amend the restrictive laws that stand in the way of wealth generation by MPs. I humbly suggest that the next time you start a similar side-business, you should not run it as a stand-alone operation. A cooperative, all-party MPs’ welfare consortium is the need of the hour. There is strength in unity. No policeman worth his uniform will ever dream of taking on such a monolith. Inspector Raj,
murdabad, murdabad! |
The World Bank President’s real sins
YOU are a non-executive member of a board of directors when a new executive chairman arrives. What you hadn’t realised until you were alerted by newspaper reports, was that one of the first things the new executive chairman had to do was to resolve a personal problem. For his female companion had been a member of staff for some years. The organisation’s rules forbid such a situation. So the new boss arranged for his friend to be transferred to another institution while keeping her on the payroll. At the same time, because the lady in question did not really want to move, he awarded her a substantial pay rise. In handling this matter, the newly appointed chairman followed some but not all of the established procedures. You may have guessed already to whom this refers, but I am going to withhold the names for a moment longer so that the right course of action can be considered without being influenced by the enormous press coverage the story has generated. Personally, I agree with the lawyer retained by the chairman who said that he didn’t see any hanging offences here, certainly no violations of law. My conclusion would be that if the anonymous chairman failed to observe all the rules, then the board should confine itself to reprimanding him. And as there has been press coverage, then a statement should be issued saying merely the matter had been considered, and resolved, by the board. Instead, the organisation in question, the World Bank is in turmoil. Its executive chairman – or President to use the Bank’s nomenclature – is Paul Wolfowitz and he is fighting to retain his job. Wolfowitz, who was appointed by President Bush, was deputy defence secretary during the invasion of Iraq. He is a leading neo-conservative and he was the most influential supporter of the Iraq war. The Bank’s shareholders are governments around the world and they appoint the non-executive directors. They are agonising over the situation. They haven’t quickly dealt with it in the manner suggested above. This is because a second story involving Wolfowitz has been running parallel to the first. This concerns the new President’s policies. Wolfowitz arrived with a passion for fighting corruption. He argues that corruption saps economic life from the world’s poorest nations. And he has been prepared to withhold aid until countries tackle the problem. This runs smack into the Bank’s ethos. The Bank has always acted on the assumption that fighting poverty comes first even it knows that a particular leader will take a slice of any new funds to finance a lavish lifestyle. Wolfowitz, on the other hand, wanted to make “governance” a priority equal to, or even ahead of, poverty alleviation. Indeed, he could be right. It may be that cleaning up governance is at least as effective in relieving poverty as are loans for infrastructure projects, because the former also encourages wealth generation. Again, if a line could have been drawn at this point. It cannot have been for just this, or for just this plus his handling of his companion’s job that Wolfowitz was greeted with booing, catcalls and cries for his resignation when he met staff recently. This is an extreme reaction. These factors can’t be the whole reason for the staff association’s unprecedented announcement that it was “impossible for the institution to move forward with any sense of purpose under the present leadership.” These developments surely don’t explain why, at a meeting with about 30 vice presidents of the bank, one of Wolfowitz’s two senior deputies, Graeme Wheeler, a former senior Finance Ministry official from New Zealand, suddenly said Wolfowitz needed to step down for the good of the Bank. This last is an almost unimaginable scene in a major institution. The explosive issue is that Wolfowitz has begun to undermine the Bank’s identity. The change started with something very simple. He brought a small group of advisers with him from the Pentagon. His two top aides had worked with him there. These appointments suggested that perhaps Wolfowitz had come to the World Bank in order to carry out American foreign policy – by a different means, in parallel with the Bush administration. And, subsequently, evidence has accumulated that supports this suspicion Uzbekistan’s aid was suspended after it ousted American troops in 2005. Moreover, Wolfowitz’s passion for fighting corruption seemed to evaporate when it came to reviewing lending to Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, three countries that the United States considers strategically vital. No wonder the staff of the World Bank are in uproar. They are international civil servants. They want the World Bank to be the World Bank. But Wolfowitz is Bush’s man. That, finally, is the great difficulty. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Disabled still languish in the margins Twelve
years after the Persons with Disabilities Act (PWD) was passed, educational institutions in the country are still struggling to fill the three per cent seats reserved for disabled students. Delhi University, which blocks 1300 seats for special students, manages to fill just about 300. The story repeats itself in other institutes, where the disabled don’t enroll for obvious reasons. When they don’t enter schools, how can they enter colleges? About 70 per cent of the disabled children in India are estimated to be out of schools despite the government’s commitment to educate, with zero rejection, every child between 6 and 14 years. The situation is no brighter when it comes to other provisions of the act, which makes a disabled-friendly environment, education and three per cent job reservation for the disabled mandatory. With all its promises, the act remains weak. A primary reason is its nil focus on research, which, in turn, is rooted in disability studies, an academic discipline that’s yet to find feet in India despite its high population of the disabled (an estimated 100 million) in the world. In the developed world, however, disability studies has come up as a diverse field of enquiry. It has helped scholars redefine disability and the way it is perceived, besides inspiring a new body of knowledge to better the lot of the disabled. “In India the situation is quite the reverse. The component of disability studies is missing from school and college curricula. This has caused people to perceive disability as something which needs to be viewed with sympathy. We have spent years trying to get the government to recognize disability studies as a separate discipline. That’s our only chance at ensuring that disability issues get their due in political agenda,” reasons G.N. Karna, the first post doctorate in disability studies in India and chairperson, Society for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies, New Delhi, which encourages research in the sector. Following the society’s campaigns, the ministry of human resource development recently recognized disability studies as an academic discipline under the comprehensive action plan on disability. It directed the UGC to support colleges and universities to set up departments and centres on disability studies and institute Rajiv Gandhi chairs in the field. No university has, however, come forward yet, but the step is being hailed as a breakthrough in the history of disability rights movement in India. The UGC must set the ball rolling by developing a model curriculum, say experts. Even the 94-member working group constituted on the empowerment of the disabled for the 11th five year plan has recommended six model schools of disability studies in India. “We have also asked for a separate ministry for disability, a national commission for the disabled and three per cent reservation in union and state legislatures. Our focus on disability studies is huge. It is driven by the need for research that can inspire policies and plans. The idea is to avoid a situation like the one where the PWD Act was passed in the Parliament. MPs became so emotional, they passed the act without any discussion,” says Karna, who headed the working group. And so this act stands today – detached from reality. It is neither inspired by research nor enriched by discussion, says J.S. Saini, a disability expert with the National Technical Teachers’ Training Institute at Chandigarh. “We have no research to guide us. The problem starts from schools, which lack the capacity to attract disabled students. They have no trained instructors, no modified work stations. Besides, India has only 2500 special schools for an estimated 55 lakh special children. Only 30 per cent of them go to school. We also need authentic data on the numbers of disabled,” says Saini. The first census of the disabled in 2001 placed the numbers at 219 lakh. In 2002, the National Sample Survey Organization conducted a survey and placed the figure at 207 lakh. Although the overall data matched, the two surveys reported huge differences in the individual categories of the disabled – something which the experts view with skepticism. Underreporting and lack of research in disability, they say, has hampered policy planning in the sector. |
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Delhi Durbar Most parties spend days deliberating and finalising their manifestos but the Bahujan Samaj Party apparently does not believe too much in the regimen. The BSP, which is a leading contender for power in Uttar Pradesh, has not released its election manifesto for the assembly polls. Party leaders say they believe in "action" and not mere words. They maintain that the people know the BSP by the work done when Ms Mayawati was the Chief Minister and there was no need for a manifesto to highlight its promises on various issues if it came to power. Unlike the Congress and the BJP which have a structured party system with a string of leaders to carry their party's message, the BSP has one leader to take it through the hustings. And the committment and loyalty of Behnji's workers can be a lesson to bigger parties. Fight for quota The move by the DMK-led Tamil Nadu Government and Lalu Prasad Yadav's party RJD to join the UPA Government in its legal battle in the OBC quota case in the Supreme Court is a result of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's direct initiative. Insiders say that the PM had contacted noted lawyer and former Attorney General K Parasaran to lend legal help to the Government. But Parasaran had reservations about appearing when the Government's top law officers were on the case. With the intervention of TN Chief Minister M Karunanidhi a way out was found with the DMK government filing an impleadment petition and engaging Parasaran to argue on its behalf. The noted lawyer had no objection to the formula. Water birth The South Delhi hospital that recently set a record by organising a water birth for a 36 year old British woman, was fortunate to have the right manpower and equipment. While the Delhi based British couple flew in a birthing pool from the U.K. and had their old trusted midwife Annie Lester by their side, the hospital fared well with the enthusiasm of its gynaecologist Urvashi Sehgal and the experience of its child birth educator Divya Deswal. The Chandigarh educated engineer turned birth educator has observed water births in Minnestota in the United States and was only too happy to oversee a delivery in Delhi using the water birthing technique.
Contributed by Prashant Sood, S S Negi, S Satyanarayanan and Tripti Nath |
Every man should follow his own religion. A Christian should follow Christianity, and a Mohammedan Mohammedanism. For the Hindu, the ancient path; the path of the Aryan rishis, is the best. Unless all the discoveries that you make have the welfare of the poor as the end in view, all your workshops will be really no better than Satan's workshops. Ignorant of their ignorance, yet wise In their own esteem, these deluded men Proud of their vain learning go round and round Like the blind led by the blind.
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