The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE

Beasts in uniform
Make policemen accountable for every wrongdoing
by Navaz Kotwal

Illustration by Kuldip Dhiman

The Supreme Court judgement on police reforms is aptly described by many sections as a step in the right direction. But most of the aam janta know little about the court’s directives. Even if they did, they aren’t holding their breath. It’s hard to keep the faith and believe that one more court directive will make the police any better.

This writer has never missed the opportunity to tell the police that the court has laid down the strictest guidelines about making arrests, deaths in custody, and about how lock ups must be kept. But they are not interested to listen. Lock-ups are always overcrowded. There is no light. And no toilet, except in the corner of the cell. Often, a dozen people shoved into a 10x10 space.

Last time they stretched their arms out of the pitch dark and grasped at passing strangers asking for food. Were they produced before a Magistrate? When asked if they knew the grounds of their arrest, they had no clue. Were their families informed? They replied, “Deedee please kuch khana do na”. The SHO was told, but in vain.

In the famous D.K. Basu judgement, the Supreme Court laid down 11 guidelines for the police to follow when making an arrest. These were nothing new but duly laid down in constitutional and statutory provisions which had been forgotten in the wake of frequent violations. So the court said that these guidelines must be put up in every police station.

However, many police stations don’t have such a board. A police officer nonchalantly says, “he’d heard of them but didn’t think much about it”. Even if he managed to get a copy of the guidelines it would be in English. Was he then expected to translate these into the local language?

This writer’s first visit to a police station was typical. The place was shabby, thick with the sweet cloying stink of urine and beedis. Several policemen were sitting around; some had their feet up on the tables. Some sipped tea, others smoked just under a big sign that said ‘No smoking’. Most of them had several days beard on them and others had their shirts unbuttoned. Two policemen were in their undershirts. In the room beyond, a couple of cops were asleep, stretched out on the benches. Along the filthy walls people sat on benches or squatted on the floor waiting for something to happen. They said they had been called in for questioning. Others were waiting to register a complaint.
However, every officer was busy with something else. “We are overworked and underpaid”. Isn’t this what the cops say all the time? But this and several other visits to many other stations never gave one a sense of an overworked cop!

When someone wants to register a complaint, he is told to wait. One learns with experience that there are ways of ‘managing’ the situation. For Rs 25, the police tell you how honest they are. For Rs 250, you could get home delivery of a charge-sheet. The post of Station House Officer is auctioned to the highest bidder! Cops give up promotions but not the posting. No one can prove it, they say, but it’s an open secret that each police station and police action has its price and there are valuable earnings to be had out of a ‘goldmine’ posting.

The Supreme Court has time and again said that torture is forbidden under any circumstances. Our laws make it plain. Still, people are detained by the police illegally and tortured for days. Illegal detention is impermissible. Registering First Information Reports (FIR) is an obligation under the law. There are clear guidelines for investigation. But it takes two weeks to get an FIR registered. It takes a dozen letters and numerous phone calls to heads of police to begin the investigation. It takes a month to suspend the erring officer and get him arrested. So whilst courts continue to say that torture in custody flouts the citizens’ basic rights and is an affront to human dignity, torture remains an inherent part of everyday policing.

Try telling the police they can’t interrogate women in police stations. They grin slyly. Tell them they must lodge an FIR. They will threaten or abuse you. Tell them they can’t beat a suspect to pulp. They will say the people want it. Tell them they can’t hold anyone for more than 24 hours. They will say they never do and their diaries can prove it. Tell them they can’t handcuff prisoners. They will ask you to mind your own business. That’s just how it is. It’s the price citizens must pay if they want the police to function at all even if the court says different. Their bosses don’t and that is what counts.

The Nithari killings, the Jessica Lall and Priyadarshini Mattoo cases, the frequent riots, the constant failure of law and order all scream out for quick reform. People want change on the ground. Government affidavits of compliance in court have to stop the biased policing, the shoddy investigation, the corruption and beatings in police stations or they are just more paper.

More laws and more directives will change little until accountability is fixed on every officer for the slightest wrongdoing. Currently, there is too much wrong and very little hope.

There are too many people trapped in a dysfunctional system and it’s for them we must keep trying. The apex court has given the police tremendous autonomy. Now, let’s ensure that there is equal accountability.

The writer is Programme Coordinator, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi

Profile
From diplomacy to art and culture
by Harihar Swarup

NEW plans are in offing for Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts. The organisation proposes to go global and expand its cultural activities in other countries. With this end in view, the IGNCA Trust elected one of India’s most seasoned diplomat, Chinmay Gharekhan, as its President.

He has taken his new job of promoting and consolidating India’s cultural heritage in right earnest. Within hours of taking over, he began apprising himself of the working of the organisation with a view to streamlining its functioning.

The IGNCA was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Department of Culture, and envisioned as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts. It has over 2.5 lakh manuscripts in microfilm in Sanskrit, Pali, Persian and Arabic. It has digitised over 1.5 crore pages of these manuscripts and many more outside its collection.

It houses the audio cassettes of R.C. Rangra, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s recordings, Lance Dane’s collections on sculptures and figures in various media, Raja Deen Dayal's original photographs, Elizabeth Sass Brunner’s paintings and so on.

Few in the Indian Foreign Service have acquired such wide experience as Gharekhan. He was India’s longest serving Permanent Representative at the United Nations. A popular figure in the corridors of the world body, he was appointed Under Secretary-General in 1993 and also functioned as Secretary-General’s Senior Political Adviser.

Later, he was made UN’s coordinator for Occupied Territories with headquarters in Gaza. He was also Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Security Council which afforded him the unique opportunity to observe and record the working of the Security Council from both delegation and secretariat sides.

Gharekhan is, perhaps, among very few IFS officers who acquired the unique experience of having served as India’s representative on the Security Council, including twice as President, as well as the Secretary-General’s personal representative on the council for four years. Earlier, in his eventful career, he served in Egypt, The Congo, Laos, Vietnam and erstwhile Yogoslavia. He has spent nearly quarter of a century dealing with the UN in various capacities.

Soft-spoken and amiable, Gharekhan was a confidant of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi during their respective tenures as prime minister. He was adviser to them on foreign affairs. A popular figure in South Block, he was easy to approach, always pleasant and forthcoming and, above all, readily coming to the help of scribes struggling to check facts of a news story or wanting to know the background of a complex international issue.

Gharekhan was close to two illustrious Secretary-Generals of the UN - Boutros Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan. Boutros Ghali held Gharekhan in high esteem. He lauded him for having rendered most useful service to all those concerned about the functioning of the international security system by giving an intimate, honest and highly professional account of the manner in which this extremely important organ of the UN conducts its business. Gharekhan’s book on the UN, The Horseshoe Table, published last year, has been a highly acclaimed work.

In the forward, Boutros Boutros Ghali says: “The book brings out, as no other book has, the compulsions which members of the Council feel, in the face of the pressure which public opinion exerts through the media, to do something in difficult situations. It helps to understand the chasm between the often unrealistic expectations and demands of the Council and the human and material resources which it is willing and able to make available to the Secretary General to achieve those objectives.

According to Boutras Ghali, “There is also the tension, of which the Secretary-General becomes the intended victim, which arises when members pursue their own national agenda, without worrying about wider consideration of morality or even legality. Ambassador Gharekhan’s book is an excellent, instructive contribution to the understanding of what is undoubtedly the most crucial organ in the security structure today”.

A paragraph from the chapter, “Iraq, WMD and oil-for-food”, is worth quoting: “Initially, Iraq was permitted to sell up to $2 billion worth of oil for six months. The limit was raised to $5.26 billion in December 1999 and was done away with altogether later. Over its lifetime, it generated funds to the extent of $64.2 billion. The United Nations was simply not equipped to handle such huge amounts or to supervise such a highly politically charged rationing system. Mistakes were inevitable”.

Wit of the week

Pranab Mukherjee The days of Hitler are over. After the Second World War, no country captures land of another country in the present global context. That is why, there is a civilised mechanism of discussions and dialogue to sort out border disputes. We sit around the table and discuss such disputes to resolve them.

— External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee in Shillong

Dr Kasturirangan The earth is 4.5 billion years old, but the history of the first three billion years has been washed away due to geological activities. As these features are preserved on the moon, it is necessary to go there to find out about the earth’s past. It will also be possible to detect whether the polar regions of the moon have water.

— Dr Kasturirangan, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, while speaking on Chandrayan I in Kolkata

Some of the problems I faced in the Finance Ministry could have been avoided if we had had more competent and experienced officers. Given my own civil service background, it was fairly easy for me to get along with the officers, even if they were not chosen by me.

— Former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in his memoirs, Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer: My Years As Finance Minister

Lalu Prasad Yadav In Bihar, Yadavs attain wisdom at the age of 60. Now I am wise.

— Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on his 60th birthday

I may be depressed to be 32 years, but that’s just a mindset. I have been working non-stop for the last seven years and now have no choice but to work harder. My soaps are there to entertain the masses.

— Ekta Kapoor

I have ruined my hair by colouring, darkening and then straightening it back-to-back. As a result, I have ended up with some bad-looking fizzled hair ends.

— Bobby Deol M.F. Husain

At one point, there were 3,500 cases against me. Of them, 900 were from Goa and 1,200 from Maharashtra. I should have been in the Guinness Book of World Records.

— M.F. Husain

Tailpiece: Tulsi did overpower Smriti’s persona. Tulsi is larger than life. For a long time, people just knew me as Tulsi, not Smriti. But that’s the way it is. Though I have consciously tried to move beyond Tulsi, I cannot really deny her. Neither do I wish to. She is the one who has made me what I am today.

— Smriti Irani

OPED

Farmers don’t need doles, but education
by Satvinder K. Mann

Farmers’ suicides in many parts of the country, including Punjab, are cause for concern. The farmer does not get good returns for his produce. Indiscriminate borrowing to meet the increasing cost of farming and social pressures has resulted in the vicious cycle of debt and loss of self-respect, culminating in suicides.

Small farms, being the backbone of the Indian farming system, were primarily family enterprises. This set up was successful in not only sustaining food production but also creating surpluses in the last century. However, in due course, this has become unremunerative to the traditional farmer despite the Green revolution being celebrated as the 20th century trophy.

As the wheat-rice cropping system has increasingly become cost intensive, the farmer is simply unable to diversify. In the race to dump his produce in the market for an assured MSP for grain crops (rice and wheat), he would not grow vegetables and fruits for his own consumption. He invariably pushed himself for the next bumper crop of wheat or rice and landed in heavy debt.

The crux of the problem is the lack of adequate education in entrepreneurship that has made the rural population prone to exploitation as requisite professionalism adopted in urban management enterprises could not percolate to farm management till today. Food processing plants and export potentials are being dangled as proverbial carrots and touted as the panacea. However, meeting the tough global competition and fast track changes is a Herculean task.

The best way out of this mess is not economic doles but due emphasis on education. The rural people are not so conversant with the intricacies of the modern-day marketing backed by management research and science as their urban folks. Thus, the Centre and the states should develop adequate education infrastructure for entrepreneurship so that they can develop strategies to match their consumption with incomes.

We need to teach them to establish village brands and promote agri-tourism for farm-gate sales to market their produce innovatively and reaching the consumer directly. This will be the fast track help to the self-respecting rural population, bridge the rural urban divide, and keep food, vegetable and fruit prices in affordable range. Equip them to decide and not stress them to get lost. Percolation of knowledge will facilitate better decision-making abilities and reduce the stress-induced decisions in their households.

The earlier concept of “farmers markets”, where growers brought their produce to the town, was good. However, inconvenience of going to the town from remote villages deterred many. And some of those who managed to reach were barely able to recover the cost.

Consequently, farmers should be trained in marketing and entrepreneurship. We must popularise the concept of agri-tourism in the villages and create village brands. Combining rural tourism with agri-tourism for the 24x7 urban dwellers during the weekends will be a successful venture.

Village level cooperative efforts and promotional campaigns for their village brands will help make them popular. The village panchayat land should be put to proper use by developing sales outlets on them. Combined with recreational parks, development of heritage houses etc. will ensure the flow of weekend tourists from adjoining urbane areas.

Agri-tourism refers to visiting an agricultural farm or agricultural operations for purposes of enjoyment, education and active involvement. As urban work culture has shaped in to 5-day week in these regions and weekend pleasure activities have increased progressively, agri-tourism can be promoted. This will help the urban consumer, desperately looking for outlet for rewinding on the weekends and can combine it with fruit and vegetable shopping. Such direct sales from the farm will benefit both consumers and farmers.

This effort has succeeded in the US and is now taking shape in developed countries through “U-pick farms and orchards”. Here, customers themselves harvest the vegetables and fruits. The grower in return gets higher price than what the middleman would pay. There are micro level provisions like making arrangements to rent a fruit tree, where the consumers select their trees in the beginning of the fruit season, pay in advance and pick the harvest.

There are more than 12,000 villages in Punjab most of which are connected by link roads. As distances are not more than 60-80 kilometres connecting a city, town or village, weekend agri-tourism in the urban periphery would help fulfil the need for fresh fruits and vegetables and make farming remunerative to small farmers by reducing the overhead and middleman costs.

There are already some well known village brands like Gurdaspur /Amritsar Basmati, Abohar Kinnow, Ponna Ganna (a soft variety of sugarcane for fresh chewing) etc., but hardly there are efforts to establish markets around them. As for Basmati rice, it is popular worldwide, but in northern India the original true flavours have been left behind.

Agri-tourism will help popularise village brands which can cross national barriers, prevent dislocation of the less educated rural population and check their exploitation by middlemen. It will improve their living standards and rural infrastructure as the concept takes roots. Gradually, an alternative system of marketing will develop and small farmers will come together in a co-operative spirit. It will keep prices low as overheads will be reduced on the growers.

The writer is Professor and Head, Department of Plant Pathology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana

On Record
Left will review UPA record, says Bardhan
by R. Suryamurthy

A.B. Bardhan

Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan, CPI general secretary, gradually climbed the political hierarchy. He has been in this post for almost a decade now. In a free wheeling interview to The Sunday Tribune, he pressed for a non-Congress candidate for the post of Vice-President.

Maintaining that Mrs Pratibha Patil is only a forerunner to women’s empowerment, he spoke of the Left’s support to the UPA government coming up for review whilecriticising the Manmohan Singh government’s economic policies.

Excerpts:

Q: After the nomination of the UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil for the presidential election, do you think that the nominee for the Vice-President should be a non-Congress candidate?

A: We think that the President and the Vice-President should not be from the same party. Since the presidential candidate is from the Congress, we have told them that the Vice-President candidate should be from the non-Congress allies.

Q: Should he be from the second biggest partner in the coalition or supporting party?

A: We did not insist that he should be from the Left, but one who is acceptable to all — the UPA, the Left and the BSP.

Q: The Left had come out with a set of criteria for the presidential candidate. Would the same criteria apply or with some changes?

A: The Vice-President has certain functions to perform like the Rajya Sabha Chairman. Therefore, certain specific criteria need to be considered so that he is able to perform his duty. But the basic criteria set for the President should also apply.

Q: Do you see a Left candidate in the race for Vice-President?

A: No one right now. It is a question of arriving at some consensus. But one can think of it only after the presidential election.

Q: Is Pratibha Patil’s selection a symbolic empowerment of women? What message does this convey?

A: Those who regard this as symbolic are not looking at it from a proper perspective. I made it very clear when we were discussing this issue that this is not a substitute for legislation for 33 per cent reservation for women. This is only a forerunner and if women’s empowerment has to take place we will have to go towards that step. I do hope that we will go towards that step.

Q: The Women’s Reservation Bill has been hanging fire for lack of consensus. What happened to the Prime Minister’s assurance in this regard?

A: Attempts for a consensus have been going on for the last 10 years. We always held why you are so keen about consensus. But to bring about a very important social and political reform like this one might also warrant amending the Constitution. Even for the amendment, there is need for consensus. Consensus does not mean unanimity. But there is an overwhelming majority in favour of the Bill.

Q: You said that after the presidential election, there is a need to review the Left parties’ support to the UPA government. Do you still stand by your statement?

A: Yes. After the presidential and vice-presidential polls, we should sit down and review the performance. We have made certain commitments to the people and, in this case, the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). It is our duty to review whether we have been able to implement it. If the UPA has failed, it would be cause for concern. I want to make it clear that the support extended was jointly by all the four Left parties and, therefore, the review will be taken up jointly.

Q: What does “rethinking” signify?

A: It could be any of these —continue to support or not continue, modify the support or make it conditional. Let us leave it to the review meeting. I would not like to pre-judge.

Q: Are you happy with the government’s track record?

A: The Left parties are not happy. The people too are not very happy with the government’s performance in the economic sphere. That’s why the question of review is coming up.

Q: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has stated that the government needs to take strong measures to push reforms. Any comments?

A: The trouble with our Finance Minister is that when he talks of strong measures, these are aimed against the people, very weak or soft against the corporate houses and the affluent. We will oppose such strong measures.

Q: Has the UPA-Left Coordination Committee lost its relevance?

A: We will debate this question when we review the government’s performance.

Armed forces deserve a better deal
by Brig H.S. Sandhu (retd)

The armed forces are paying a heavy price for their sacrifices. According to the Defence Minister’s statement in Parliament, during 2006, 250 personnel died in counter-insurgency operations while many more were wounded, disabled and affected with mental disorders.

A shortage of 14,165 officers is adversely affecting all the three services, more acutely the Army. Owing to only one-third of the authorised strength, each officer is forced to look after 3-4 portfolios. Even in peace stations, officers work till late hours including Sundays. This has affected their performance, health and morale.

Defence services have been disadvantaged on various counts. First, there is the case of rank pay which was not included while formulating the new pay scales for officers by the Fifth Pay Commission (1986). One Major A. K. Dhanapalan (retd) has won the case in the Supreme Court and has been paid his dues. Instead of disbursing arrears to all officers, the Centre has asked everyone to go to court for redressal. This is unjust.

Secondly, because of officers’ early retirement age, the Supreme Court has decided a case in favour of an officer for reducing the purchase period by two years from the existing 15 years for restoring full pension. But the Centre has not issued any orders. Thirdly, while doctors of central health services and Railways get pension on non-practicing allowance, defence doctors don’t get it. The Rs 250 monthly stipend, being paid to IMA cadets during training, was stopped after Independence. Cadets dying or disabled during training are not paid any compensation while many states and agencies announce it to victims of riots and firing.

Low emoluments, lowering of status, slow promotions lead to frustration. The early retirement of officers, jawans in particular, leads to problems of resettlement in civil milieu. There is glamour in the services today.

The Sixth Pay Commission should do justice. The armed forces want a five-fold increase in pay. This will be just double the existing emoluments. But as usual, the government will not accept higher pay scales vis-a-vis civil services. Hence, the Service HQs should recommend increased risk and disturbance allowance to offset the hazards of the service life. Extra allowance (like the earlier officiating pay) for additional duties in units and formations will compensate for the long working hours. The IAF has proposed “retention bonus” for pilots and engineers who want to leave the service for better emoluments in the private sector.

Increased tax-free pension along with one-rank, one-pension and tax-free saving schemes like the earlier “retiring government employees’ deposit scheme” should be introduced to augment the dwindled pensions. Housing and education facilities also need to be increased on a war-footing to keep the fighters off family worries. There is a need to make the career in the uniform attractive.