EDITORIALS

Tenure for officers
Centre must ensure compliance by all states 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s concept of a fixed tenure for IAS, IPS and IFS officers got a shot in the arm following its notification by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, after consultations with the state governments. However, the progress in this regard has been rather slow, considering the fact that only Jammu and Kashmir gave its consent to the two-year fixed tenure for officers. Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka will follow suit. But what about all other states? The Centre plans to write to the chief ministers with a rider that in case it does not hear from them within a stipulated date, their silence will be deemed as consent and the DoPT will go ahead with its notification in other states. The inordinate delay in the implementation of this policy is unfortunate because the Prime Minister had suggested it at the National Conference of District Collectors in May 2005. Consequently, even though two years have passed, this has not been pursued to its logical conclusion.

No doubt, there are some practical problems in implementing this policy. The Prime Minister has time and again referred to some chief ministers’ non-cooperation for the simple reason that IAS and IPS officers primarily belong to the respective states. Obviously, most chief ministers do not want to lose their hold over them. An officer’s tenure is considered an important instrument in the hands of the political leadership to tame him. Unfortunately, for their part, most officers, instead of being politically neutral, kowtow to the politicians’ wishes in anticipation of plum posts.

Whatever the problems, the Centre needs to implement the tenure system expeditiously. Admittedly, because of coalition compulsions, it seems unable to enforce its decisions on the states. Even the Supreme Court’s guidelines on police reforms (one of which deals with the system of posting and transfer of IPS officers) are yet to be implemented in all the states. A fixed tenure, preferably for three (and not two) years, for the posts of District Collector and Superintendent of Police will not only usher in transparency, stability and accountability in the administrative apparatus but also insulate senior officers from political interference. 

Babudom to blame
UT officials taking it too easy

Chandigarh’s reputation as a well-administered city collapsed on Sunday as the sprawling roof of the city vegetable market crashed, killing two and injuring several persons. The City Beautiful, as it is called, has a population of just a million people to sustain with ample space and light to liven up their lives. But clearly the bloated bureaucracy that runs the slice of the Union Territory has bothered more about its own comfort than looking after the city. In several cities there are houses and buildings more than 100 years old, yet such is their quality that they have survived rains and storms. That the roof of the vegetable market where hundreds of people do buying and selling every day should come crashing down on their head speaks volumes of the competence and sense of duty of the officials. Six years ago, part of a block of the Sector 32 hospital under construction had caved in.

None from the city’s babudom noticed that the cement structure in the 30-year-old vegetable market has been leaking during rains and that its pillars had developed cracks. The last repairs were carried out in 2002. If this is bad enough, here is worse: the building had been declared unsafe and yet it was allowed to be used by the people. Traders’ complaints against the state of the structure could not pierce the concrete wall that the city’s bureaucracy has built around itself. People in the UT have their elected representatives too, but none attended to the traders’ woes. The concept of public accountability is apparently foreign to Chandigarh.

The very fact that the Army and the ITBP had to be called in shows the civilian authorities’ failure to undertake timely rescue operations. Perhaps, they are not aware of how to manage disasters. The easiest way out for them is to call in Army jawans. If only they knew their responsibility to the city. 

BCCI asked for it
Why can’t it stop thinking “phoren”?

Graham Ford’s refusal to coach the Indian team is a slap on the face of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and a telling comment on the way the game is managed here. The whole business of coach selection is now turning into a farce. The very fact that we again looked outside for a coach, despite having been a Test playing nation for several decades, indicates a chronic inability to understand what it takes to be world-beaters. That we have actually played more international cricket than South Africa just adds to the irony. While there is no doubt that New Zealander John Wright did a good job as coach, stalwarts like Sunil Gavaskar have long pushed for an Indian coach. Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar did not have foreign coaches to train them, nor had great players like C.K. Naidu, Mushtaq Ali and Vinoo Mankad. With Ford having turned down the offer, the BCCI, hopefully, will look for a coach from within the country.

That the players themselves apparently wanted a foreign coach, with many seniors specifically opting for Ford, does not take away from this argument. If anything, it points to certain other problems in the team, particularly factionism, favouritism and regionalism. Reports of seniors influencing the selection of others and blocking entry of talented juniors are particularly disturbing. The coach’s role is limited, and it is the captain and the players who have to win matches out in the middle. They can do this only if the best are chosen to play, and priority is given to the game.

If we paid half the attention we seem to be paying to coach selection to player selection, ensuring that extraneous considerations are kept out in favour of deploying the best team, we will be winning more matches. Fascination for the “phoren” should not afflict cricket. While we can always be open to learning from all quarters, it is time we trusted our own wealth of talent. The way we run the game must change, however, and here is the opportunity to ensure that every measure put in place after the World Cup disaster was no eyewash, but a genuine shake-up.

Thought for the day

Good taste and humour ... are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore. 
— Malcolm Muggeridge

ARTICLE

Sri Lankan crisis
Sort out the mess before it affects India
by Maj-Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan’s uncharacteristic and unprecedentedly blunt message to Sri Lanka over seeking military supplies from China and Pakistan was aimed equally at them. After his meeting with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi last month on the security of the Tamil Nadu coastline and Indian fishermen, in an interaction with the media, he reminded Lanka that “we are a big power in the region. We don’t want the Sri Lankan government (SLG) to go to Pakistan or China. Whatever be their requirements, they should come to us”. He added that India would determine the needs and supply only defensive weapons.

Pakistan spokesperson Tasneem Aslam was quick to note India’s “hegemonistic tendencies” and failure to respect sovereign equality of the countries in the region. Compared to Sri Lanka’s subdued official response, there was an uproar in Colombo among the Sinhalese parties and retired service chiefs. Former Army Commander Gen Hamilton Wanasinghe said: “Pakistan and China have helped us in critical times. India should not tell us they created the LTTE.”

This is the first time an Indian official has publicly ticked off Sri Lanka over what is apparently a country’s sovereign right — to choose and purchase weapons from outside. In an interview with Business Standard last week, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said: “When we are prepared to help Sri Lanka, why is there talk of going to others for help ?”

In 1988, Nepal had dared to skirt an MOU with India on arms purchase by importing anti-aircraft guns from China clandestinely. This led to an economic blockade by India which triggered the movement for the restoration of democracy. While acknowledging India as “our closest friend,” the public reaction in Colombo amounted to telling India not to dictate terms. The message was clear: we will transact with countries that meet our requirement. It hinted that while Delhi periodically reiterates its commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, it does not entirely meet its obligation.

Ever since the fall of Elephant Pass to the LTTE in 2000, New Delhi has been ambivalent about military support to Colombo. The situation in May 2000 in the Jaffna peninsula came to such a pass that the Sri Lankan government pleaded for military assistance in the event its military garrison had to be evacuated. But India gave no assurance. Instead of providing tanks, guns and aircraft as sought, India agreed to provide economic aid and a line of credit for $100 m. The compulsions of coalition politics denied New Delhi any credible option in defusing the crisis.

Sri Lanka was forced to turn to Pakistan for the crucial multibarrel rocket launcher which saved Jaffna from being overwhelmed by the LTTE. Sri Lanka refers to Pakistan as a friend and saviour. It is the reflection of our diplomacy that after helping Sri Lanka in crushing a JVP insurrection in 1971, Colombo permitted the Pakistan Air Force to refuel its aircraft en route to East Pakistan prior to the showdown.

The India-Sri Lanka Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) has been in the pipeline for six years. Many Defence Secretaries and Chiefs of Defence Staff from Colombo have had countless discussions with their counterparts in South Block but the DCA was allowed to die a natural death. Lanka, though, has not stopped asking for tanks, guns and aircraft and India has not budged from its policy of providing only defensive weapons like radars, mine protection vehicles, body armour and offshore patrol vessels. The Indian High Commissioner in Colombo has repeatedly told the Sri Lankan government that only defensive weapons are on offer and Colombo should keep off China and Pakistan.

Events leading to the present episode began with Mahinda Rajapakse assuming presidency in 2005. On his first visit to New Delhi in 2006, he gave Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a list of military requirements.

As there was no response from the PMO to the President’s wish list, Mr Rajapakse rang up Dr Singh and sent his brother, Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse, at least twice to Delhi where he met the usual lineup — the Defence Secretary, the Service Chiefs, the Defence Minister and Mr Narayanan. It appears he could not obtain a clear response to the President’s list. It was, as is usually the case, neither yes, nor no though Delhi had indicated through its High Commissioner in Colombo some difficulty in supplying offensive weapons. Yet President Rajapakse, during his second meeting earlier this year with Dr Singh, reminded him of the list he had given him.

Back in Delhi, in the wake of last month’s Tiger air attacks and amphibious assault on Delft Island, Mr Gothabaya Rajapakse met Mr Narayanan and reportedly told him that his country needed weapons “other than defensive” urgently — a request he and his President had made several times over — failing which they would be forced to approach China and Pakistan, an option they had exercised earlier. According to Sri Lankan sources, Defence Secretary Rajapakse explained the LTTE’s air threat as well as the latest amphibious attack on Delft Island and appealed for Indian intelligence inputs as well as a naval blockade for sea denial of the LTTE. This extraordinary request and an ultimatum to buy weapons from China and Pakistan rattled Mr Narayanan and led to his plain-speaking not from Delhi but Chennai.

Over time, the activation of the Delhi-Chennai-Colombo network has assumed a familiar pattern. Refugee arrivals from Lanka and casualties among Lanka Tamils in the East or Indian fishermen in Palk Straits raise the political temperature in Chennai. Mr Karunanidhi reacts by first calling Dr Singh and then travelling to Delhi to make the right noises with the top leadership, including Mr Narayanan. This is followed by Mr Narayanan going to Chennai and meeting Tamil Nadu leaders. When the situation warrants, the Foreign Secretary travels to Colombo, invariably making a reaffirmation of India’s commitment to Sri Lanka’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

While sticking to the pattern this time, Mr Narayanan deviated from the script by circumscribing Sri Lanka’s autonomy. Among other things, he said, “we will give whatever (weapons) we think is necessary”, and added: “We are not involved in Sri Lanka’s war but we are deploying assets for our own security.” There is considerable confusion still over coordinated patrolling between the Sri Lankan and Indian Navies. Defence Minister AK Antony said in Singapore last week: “India has made no commitment for coordinated patrolling at this stage” though Mr Narayanan has favoured establishing a unified command. All these problems, including the threat to India from Sea and Air Tigers, was discussed at a high-level security briefing last week chaired by the Defence Minister.

India’s advocacy of defensive weapons is designed to discourage a military solution which Sri Lanka is pursuing in the guise of fighting terrorism, since many Sinhalese contend there is no ethnic conflict any more. They believe it is imperative to weaken the LTTE militarily before engaging them in any talks. This is a myth being perpetuated by the Rajapakse regime.

As India has underwritten Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, it has the moral responsibility to sort out the mess in that country which endangers its own security. 

MIDDLE

Egging on ego
by Chetana Vaishnavi

The more you stroke it, the more it inflates. This is how some people have described ego. Recently while discussing the uncooperative ways of a senior colleague, my friend advised me, "Go and pamper his ego!"

"But his ego is like a large space-ship which can go to the moon and be back without any additional pamper!" This is what I observed with amusement. "That would be a good ego-trip!" He laughed.

What, after all, is this ego? Dictionary describes ego as an opinion of being very smart and important. An egomaniac is someone who thinks he is very important and tries to get advantages for himself without caring about how this affects other people. A banana might boast of being big, but it forgets that its skin is bigger. Of course, a little bit of ego is required in keeping everyday affair finely tuned. But an inflated ego can be pricked anytime and get shrunk. Egotism is not a boon. It makes one imagine what one is not. It often gets out the beast within oneself.

Why is inflated ego compared to a balloon? Simple -- because the egotist keeps on putting airs! And if you want to measure the quantity of ego in an individual, just look at his puffed nostrils. You can see them puffing wider and wider!

Not being used to gender-related discrimination, the first time I heard about male ego, I wondered why there was a tag of gender attached to it, till I realised that ego was more a characteristic of the brawny sex. Take this for example. Recently someone asked her senior colleague about his trip to the US, more for the sake of polite conversation than out of real curiosity.

"Where actually in the US had you been, sir?" she inquired. He kept on telling everything else other than answering her. Still she persisted and asked him whether he had gone to see his son and where in the US he actually went.

"Yes, I had been to see my son," he answered finally without yet telling her what she had been inquiring, as ego prevented him from tolerating the audacity of a junior putting that question to him. She did not realise that he was just beating about the Bush, in whose country he had been! It reminds me of J.H. Rowling, the famous writer of Harry Potter books, who says, "The best of us must sometimes eat our words."

Whether you believe it or not, ego drives people insane. They cannot see beyond their puffed nose. To satisfy their ego, people can go to any extent. They become destructive, yet unrepentant. They thus not only harm others but themselves too. People who allow ego to take charge of their lives lose a lot many good things.

Most of the time ego is pampered to achieve very petty things, and in the process many big things are lost. Therefore, friends, let not ego guide our lives. It is nice to have a little bit of ego, but, like your blood pressure, keep a constant check on it. Do not egg on your ego!

OPED

Retail potential
Corporatisation of retail trade will benefit economy
by Janak Raj Gupta

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has made a slew of proposals to regulate the foray of the corporate sector into the retail trade. His move to generate a wider debate on this issue is timely. But his main thrust – to revert back to a license raj – is neither convincing nor practical.

Representatives from street vendors and small traders, who will have a major say in issuing a licence under his proposal, will never allow corporate entry into retail trade. Events in Ranchi and Indore stand testimony to the fact that well-entrenched former traders in the garb of retailers and vendors could go to any extent to thwart the entry of corporate houses.

As per the Global Retail Development Index, India has emerged as a number one market insofar as retail investment attractiveness is concerned. The country’s total retail market is very huge and is estimated at nearly $ 400 billion. It is also growing at a rate higher than that of the GDP.

Next to agriculture it is a major source of employment. Within the service sector, which has grown to more than 50 per cent of GDP, retail trade occupies the top slot. With more than one billion people, out of whom almost 50 per cent are upwardly mobile with growing disposable incomes, India has emerged as a hot market for retail trade.

The retail trade sector can play a major role in sustaining a high growth rate. But at the same time, it is the most fragmented and unorganised sector. Whereas in developed countries organised retail trade occupies a fair share, in India it hardly constitutes 3-5 per cent of the total retail trade.

A survey report of ASSOCHAM has estimated that currently, organised retailing is between $7.5 billion and $8.0 billion and it is likely to touch $23 billion by 2010. Consultancy firm Technopark has forecast that the retail market in India will grow to $427 billion by 2010 and $637 billion by 2015.

The consumption pattern of an average Indian, particularly in urban areas, has undergone a sea change. Presently, almost one-fourth of our population is young, within the coveted 20-34 years age group. Thus the size of the retail market is expanding at a very fast rate. A new high-flying class of employees, working in multinationals and outsourcing centres, with plenty of money to spend, has emerged.

Lack of time forces them to make purchases under a single roof – which is why shopping malls are doing roaring business in big cities. Of late, some big business houses, are entering into smaller towns, thus apparently threatening the survival of small general stores and karyana merchants.

However, this apprehension appears to be misplaced because the class of clientele visiting these mega stores is different. Traditional retailers, having low overhead costs and marketing expenses being zero, will remain at an advantageous position. These upcoming stores will inculcate a competitive spirit in them and thereby improve the efficiency of traditional shopkeepers.

The opening of organised trade may also have a salutary impact on the prevailing malpractices from which the Indian retail market is suffering. A study reveals that prices prevailing in the neighbourhood karyana shops are 10-15 per cent higher than those prevailing in the main market. Prices charged in the mega stores, though lower than the neighbourhood karyana shops, are still higher by nearly five per cent.

These mega marts in retail trade are the need of the hour. Being labour intensive and having a low gestation period, they provide remunerative employment to the unskilled and semi-skilled youth. Having both forward and backward linkages the organised retail trade will have a multiplier effect on the Indian economy.

If these retail outlets are encouraged to sell fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers, frozen products, dairy and related items, this will improve the prospects of crop diversification and contract/corporate farming because these stores would buy vegetables and other perishable commodities from the farmers directly.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, while addressing the 79th Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, has also asked the big business houses entering the retail sector to build supply chains directly reaching the farmers and ensuring that they get remunerative prices.

The greatest advantage of these corporate mega stores would be the enhancement of tax revenue to both the Centre and the States. Value-added component being higher in such stores than in traditional karyana shops, the revenue from VAT would improve substantially. All transactions being transparent, there would only be remote chances of tax evasion. This enhanced tax revenue can then be used for other pressing needs of the Government. Of course, agricultural products will have to be exempted from such taxes.

Presently India allows 51 per cent FDI in single brand retail sector only. Now the Government is advancing various arguments to open this sector to attract FDI. However, here we must adopt a cautious approach. To save the indigenous retailers, FDI should be allowed only in branded products, which cater to the needs of the neo-rich, managers and technocrats, employed in the big companies. Under no circumstances, in the garb of attracting foreign investments, should they be given tax sops and subsidies and allowed to disturb our environment.

The writer is a UGC Emeritus Fellow, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala

Shaming offenders, Russian style
by Erika Niedowski

MAMONOVO, Russia – The wooden board outside the local government building in this town of 7,000 near the Baltic Sea – a place small enough that word travels fast and no one’s business is exactly private – might just as well advertise a community festival or a schedule for trash collection.

In fact, it is a pillar of shame. Posted on the yellow and green board recently were the names of 50 residents who had not paid their utility bills, some for years; nine residents with other debts; and a local fish cannery that allegedly dumped untreated wastewater into the environment.

Using a technique revived from Soviet times, schools, factories and other workplaces post the names and photographs of people caught out late or intoxicated, or engaging in other behavior considered disgraceful, some Russian regions rely on shame to deter dereliction.

“It has a good effect because the town is small and everybody knows each other,” says Oleg Shlyk, the mayor of Mamonovo, whose office overlooks the shame board. “And when you have your name on the board, no matter what your post or rank, there will be a psychological impact on you.”

Public shaming is reminiscent of the Middle Ages, when criminals were put on display in village squares in stocks, their heads, arms and sometimes feet locked between two boards.

The methods are more sophisticated now, but the idea, that the prospect of being shamed before one’s peers is a deterrent to shameful acts, is the same. Unless the violator is shameless.

Bagrationovsk, a nearby small city in the Kaliningrad region, publishes in the local newspaper the names of people who haven’t paid for their communal services. And in the regional capital, a group of young political activists has begun surreptitiously snapping pictures of polluters and – if they refuse to pay a fine – posting them online.

A few camera-toting members of the mobile unit of the local chapter of Molodaya Gvardiya, the youth wing of the ruling United Russia party, recently caught two men illegally washing an Audi and a Mercedes near one of Kaliningrad’s many lakes.

“Let him feel ashamed,” Igor Shlykov, head of Kaliningrad’s Molodaya Gvardiya, said of anyone breaking environmental laws. “It will be difficult for him to look into people’s eyes.”

The governor of the Ulyanovsk region, more than 500 miles east of Moscow, placed a virtual shame board on the government Web site last month, listing three employees who “committed breaches in the discharge of their duties.”

Two of them, the site said, mishandled documents, and the third, the regional minister of construction, failed to get a project done on time.

The tactic also has been used in the private sector. About a year and a half ago, a nightclub in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, posted pictures on its Web site of violators of the club’s rules. The club’s staff wasn’t immune: Among the 14 people listed were two waiters who shortchanged customers and a bartender who under-filled drinks, according to the newspaper Novye Izvestiya.

In Mamonovo, officials situated the shame board in the most logical spot, just off the central square, where a bust of the town’s namesake, Commander Nikolai Vasilyevich Mamonov, stands.

Shlyk said names are not posted in haste. The city’s administrative council identifies violations – garbage strewn about, buildings in shabby condition – from inspections. Sometimes, officials get tips telling them where to look. People tell on their neighbors.

The city always contacts the offenders first, Shlyk said, and gives them a chance to pay a fine or otherwise make amends. If they refuse or don’t pay in 30 days, their names and sometimes pictures can be added to the board.

A recent posting showed someone with the surname Miziryak owing 22,519 rubles, about $873, in unpaid utility bills; and a woman named Gurkina with a debt of about $1,500.

The only photographs showed the untreated waste allegedly dumped by the Mamonovsky Fish Cannery, which Shlyk said is building a waste-treatment facility and whose name will soon be removed from the board.

Olga Azarenko, sitting on a park bench just behind the board, said that on one hand, she understands why some of the city’s residents might not be able to pay. Jobs can be hard to come by, and salaries are low.

On the other hand, she has little sympathy; life is hard for everyone.

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Delhi Durbar
Anyone but Shivraj Patil

Chances of Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil reaching Rashtrapati Bhavan appear to be dim. Some of the UPA allies have strong reservations about him and the Left is totally opposed to his candidature. Patil apparently does not measure up on secularism, though the Home Minister is leaving no stone unturned to prove his credentials on this count.

On their return from their foreign trips, both CPM leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri are expected to tell the Congress leadership, without mincing words, that anyone but Patil would be acceptable to them. A senior leader from UPA said that the Congress itself had botched up Patil’s chances as they had floated his name without consulting allies and the Left.

French mission

The French Embassy in India is convinced of the need for a proper workplace information campaign on HIV/AIDS. It is collaborating with UNAIDS and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to organise the second part of its ‘Response to HIV/AIDS at the workplace’ information campaign here this month end.

The Embassy has noted that the majority of the 45,000 persons working in 300 French companies in India are Indians. It feels that if these companies adopt the information policy on HIV/AIDS, it will have a significant impact on prevention.

Different strokes

With the rupee strengthening, exporters are looking to the Commerce Ministry, who they hope will impress upon the Finance Ministry to do something to save them from the adverse impact. Some of the exporters are also angry that while Finance Minister P. Chidambaram keeps talking about inflation and the remedial measures taken by the government to check it, he does not even react to media queries on the rupee issue.

In this context, one of the exporters said in dismay: “We wonder whether he is the same Chidambaram, who as Commerce Minister during Narasimha Rao’s regime, used to virtually pester the then Finance minister Manmohan Singh. He used to fire off letters almost every day, on various issues relating to exporters, including a hardening rupee”.

Bargain house

A seat in the Rajya Sabha is a bargaining chip for political parties and allies. The upper House has also been made to accommodate those leaders who cannot win the mandate of the people. CPI national secretary D. Raja is now a Rajya Sabha member. The communist party, during its alliance talks with DMK, had sacrificed one Lok Sabha seat and a few assembly seats, to enable the party’s senior leader to enter Rajya Sabha. Observers said accommodating Raja in the House is also an attempt to provide an avenue to other CPI leaders like Sudhakar Reddy, to step into the shoes of CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan, in the near future.

Contributed by Satish Misra, Tripti Nath, S. Satyanarayanan,R. Suryamurthy