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Monsoon assault Justice in the evening |
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Dissent is unwelcome
Jails in
a state of neglect
Life is
all Ha Ha Hee Hee
Cold war
chill in a Moscow bomb shelter 30 years
of the Left in Bengal: a mixed record Delhi
Durbar
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Monsoon assault As
the mighty monsoon rains sweep across the subcontinent, they are taking a heavy toll on human lives. The relentless battering is once again exposing the lack of preparedness on the part of the state authorities. The avoidable loss of life in states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and now Maharashtra should spur other states into action. While disaster management and preparedness have been discussed endlessly, it is astonishing that mistakes remain uncorrected and lessons unlearnt. The great Mumbai floods of 2005, when 944 mm of rain fell in just 24 hours, took over 400 lives — besides destroying property and interrupting air, road and rail transportation. Almost 1000 people died across Maharashtra. Two years on, the story is the same. While the 2005 rain was truly unprecedented, yesterday’s downpour in the city has led to drowning, electrocution, building-collapse deaths and rail and road traffic disruption. Diseases will not be far away. While a clogged drainage system is the main culprit, the lack of a concerted effort to tone up the system and do what it takes to clear the waterways, is depressing. While the political challenges of relocating people from illegal, overcrowded settlements to other areas is known, a beginning can at least be made in tackling infrastructural inadequacies. Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh certainly cannot afford to be complacent. A sustained downpour will quickly expose the weak drainage systems of our towns and cities. Even Chandigarh may not be able to take heavy rainfall, say in the region of 200 mm, which is always a possibility during the monsoons. The civic authorities should ensure that proper checks are carried out ahead of the monsoon hitting the region, and that preparations are in place to respond adequately if the need arises.
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Justice in the evening After
Gujarat, Tamil Nadu will become the second state in the country to have evening courts. Gujarat’s first evening court started in Ahmedabad last year and the number has risen to 62 now. The state government is happy with the experiment as the evening courts have so far disposed of over 70,000 cases. The number is quite impressive and a reason good enough for other hesitant states to take the plunge. Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, has opted for early morning courts, which wind up their work by 10 am. West Bengal’s attempt to introduce evening courts has met with opposition from the state bar council. Lawyers there say they have to prepare for cases in the evening and, therefore, cannot spare time for evening courts. Others point to problems of security and transportation and demand an extension in the working hours of regular courts to handle petty cases. The practical problems raised by lawyers are not insurmountable. If some lawyers are overworked, they should make space for their new colleagues. There is no dearth of lawyers in this country but the number of pending cases keeps rising and is currently estimated to be around 2.5 crore. Every effort has to be made to dispense justice in the shortest possible duration and at affordable cost. The concept of courts working in shifts is, no doubt, commendable as it makes the optimal use of the existing infrastructure and has got support from the Prime Minister as well as the Chief Justice of India. The lawyers, who have a vested interest, cannot be allowed to scuttle the move. At the same time, the government will have to upgrade the existing facilities and also appoint more judges at all levels. The judges can help by ordering fewer adjournments and writing shorter judgements, while the lawyers should be made to rely more on written arguments to save time and speed up the delivery of justice. They should all look at from the point of view of the people.
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Dissent is unwelcome Despite
being the world’s second largest oil exporter, Iran is faced with a severe economic crisis. Prices are skyrocketing and the number of the unemployed is rising fast. Poverty eradication appears to be no longer a priority for the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad government. At least 20 per cent children in Iran are homeless. Since these facts are coming to light through reports in the Western media, the regime in Teheran can dismiss them as a part of propaganda by anti-Iran international forces. But Iran could be having domestic problems its government is finding it difficult to handle. Moreover, when Mir Hossein Moussavi, a former Prime Minister close to the late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini, too, says what the Western media has revealed, no one can disbelieve the reports. In a recent speech quoted by most of the reformist newspapers in Iran, Mr Moussavi has said that the Ahmadinejad government has no right to survive because of its failure to concentrate on “uprooting poverty and meeting human needs”. Under the Iranian constitution, the government must fulfil “all the basic needs” of the people. The Iranian government, however, is not prepared to listen to anything that goes to expose its weaknesses. The media has been issued a list of do’s and don’ts, and those ignoring the official advice are made to suffer. There seems hardly any place for dissent in today’s Iran. Besides media professionals, those victimised for voicing dissenting views include university teachers, labour leaders and women rights’ activists. Mr Ahmadinejad is, perhaps, scared of the next year’s parliamentary elections and the presidential poll in 2009.
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Nothing is wasted, nothing is in vain:/ The seas roll over but the rocks remain. — A. P. Herbert
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Jails in a state of neglect RECENT deaths of seven inmates within a week in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail bring to the fore the deplorable state of affairs in the country’s premier prison. While the deaths prove the patent callousness and insensitivity of the system, these also represent the collapse of the prison administration with no accountability on the part of officials. The steady deterioration of services in Tihar Jail is indeed shocking. Ironically, it is said to be Asia’s largest prison. Not long ago, it was regarded as a role model for the country’s jails. The authorities have so far failed to give a proper explanation for so many deaths. The Delhi High Court, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Lt-Governor Tejinder Khanna have all risen to the occasion. There is need for a comprehensive probe into the deaths and those found guilty should not be spared. Overcrowding is a very big problem. If the 6,250-capacity jail is forced to house 13,500 inmates, there is bound to be chaos. Clearly, this has led to a virtual breakdown of services. There is no proper drinking water supply, let alone good lighting and clean toilets. Even in these hot days, the authorities are not suitably increasing the open-air movement time of the prisoners. But, then, the problem is endemic and widespread. Almost all the country’s 1,215 jails are having a terrible space crunch. A prison is not a hell with no amenities, but an institution of reform. The state cannot deny the inmates of their basic right to life and a speedy trial. Expeditious trials are frustrated by a heavy court workload, the inability of the police to produce witnesses promptly and the indiscriminate adjournments sought by defence counsels. One way of checking overcrowding is to reduce the undertrial population. Today, 74 per cent of the prisoners are languishing in the jails without trial. After former Chief Justice of India Justice A.S. Anand’s intervention, all the high courts set up special undertrial courts inside the jails to dispose of petty criminal cases. Consequently, 48,000 undertrials were let off in 2000. Very recently, the Delhi High Court has ordered the release of 600 Tihar inmates held for petty offences. Yet, this won’t improve matters because, with the rising crime graph, there is also a huge influx of prisoners. According to the National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB), the number of undertrials in prisons at the end of 2003 was 2,17,659 many of whom were booked for petty offences. The NHRC indicates an overcrowding of 32.33 per cent in the jails. The NCRB report (2002) says that nearly 2,20,000 cases took over three years in courts and about 25,600 exhausted 10 years for trial to be completed. It is true that many don’t get bail during trial because of their poverty and their inability to get bonds executed in their favour. Interestingly, Bangalore’s Parappana Agrahara prison presents an altogether different picture. It has 4,700 inmates now, twice its capacity. But, then, small-time prisoners refuse to go on bail because of the healthy food served in the jail, courtesy a religious body. They get hot rice, two vegetables, sambar, buttermilk for lunch and dinner and a dessert once in a week and on national holidays. Naturally, who would like to leave the jail if one is pampered with delicious food? Again, juvenile offenders overstate their age to qualify as adults and stay put in the jail. There is a need to make bail more easily available if the prisoner in question is being tried for a lesser offence and if his release on bail won’t threaten social peace and order. In this context, the suggestion for a combination of liberal bail and a scheme of amnesty for those not charged with violence against individuals or the state merits attention. What happened to the Manmohan Singh government’s proposal to completely withdraw the cases against those who have already served 10 to 14 years of imprisonment but are yet to be charge-sheeted for murder? One problem is that the Centre cannot unilaterally decide on reforms through a review of the Code of Criminal Procedure without the states’ cooperation since the police and public order come under the State List. In this context, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s amendments to the Cr PC are yet to be implemented because opinion is divided on some of the recommendations made by the Malimath Committee report. Whatever the differences, pursuing such proposals to their logical conclusion brook no delay. To ease congestion in the jails, the government must follow a pro-active policy. The focus should be on “reductionist methods” which have helped countries like the US, the UK, Japan and Holland. Undertrials must be released on parole, probation and bail. Alternatives to incarceration like the introduction of heavy fines and confiscation of property presently in vogue in the UK, Japan and Holland can also be tried. Community service, work at a hospital, de-addiction centre, and a college or school would help an offender in getting reformed. The Delhi government should expedite its proposal to decongest Tihar Jail. Its plan to construct jails at Mandoli (near Nandnagri), Bapraula (near Dwarka) and Pappan Kalan should be speeded up. Open jails are good, but the inmates’ workplace should be as close as possible. There are now 24 open jails in the country. Bihar is planning a jail without walls. The idea is to inculcate the feeling of “a home away from home” among the prisoners, without forcing them to follow the strict regime of conventional jails. There is no dearth of reports on prison reforms. The All-India Commission for Jail Reforms, popularly known as the Mulla Committee Report (1980-83), the NHRC’s Model Bill (1996) and the Union Home Ministry’s Draft Bill (1998) have all suggested ways to reform jails. Following a Supreme Court directive in Ramamurthy vs State of Karnataka (1996), the Bureau of Police Research and Development, Government of India, drafted a model prison manual to bring about uniformity of prison laws throughout the country. The Centre accepted the manual and circulated it to all states in December 2003. But one does not know why the Centre and the states have failed to do the follow-up. As prisons are under the states’ control, little is possible if the chief ministers don’t demonstrate their political will to introduce reforms. It is time for a uniform national policy on prisons. Why not shift prisons from the State List to the Concurrent List as recommended by the Mulla Committee? Its other proposal for classifying jails into special security, maximum, medium and minimum security prisons also merits attention as this would serve as an effective check on jailbreaks and
riots.
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Life is all Ha Ha Hee Hee Are
you a cash-rich but smile-impoverished citizen? If yes, watch out, for you may not count for much soon. That is, if the Gross Well-being Index (GWI) becomes a marker for national wealth in place of the GDP or GNP. If some leading world economists have their way, the happy poor may laugh all the way into this new benchmark for prosperity. This may call for policy changes: sops for sunny-tempered citizens and curbs on the crotchety ones. For starters, the government could ban grumpiness at all public places. That would leave all smile-challenged public servants with little choice but to wipe off scowls while handing out licences, pensions and what have you. They’d no longer have the licence to kill joy. Protracted sarkari lunch hours could turn into Happy Hours, literally. Tiffin time could double up as tickler time. And all office hours hitherto devoted to wagging tongues would have to be used in exercising smile-enabling jaws. Bureaucrats and technocrats too might need refresher courses: in wearing a smile, not attitude. And they’d have to share power with new rivals too. Who else but those brought on deputation from neighbourhood laughter clubs — the ‘laughocrats’. The public, too, would have to put its best face forward. Howsoever long the queues they have to brave out in government offices, pulling a long face would be a strict no-no. The road to being counted a developed nation would be paved with challans for the sour-faced. All vehicle owners given to bouts of road rage would be handed white slips. There would be a price to be paid for every trip that’d make the national GWI slip. The cityscape could boast of fresh markers too. ‘No smoking’ hoardings vying with new public interest messages: “No Moping” or “Moping is injurious to national health and wealth.” So what if the signboards of GPs are practically vanishing from the face of metropolises in this age of super specialty healthcare? Physicians of another kind would soon mushroom in street corners. Enter the HPs (happiness practitioners). Improving the happiness quotient of citizens would become the preserve of smile doctors. This could trigger a brain drain, with the MBBS (Most Brainy Buffoonery Specialists) population migrating---from TV laughter shows to plum postings in the National Happiness Mission. But who would have the last laugh? Ah, the mainstay of the Indian roads, the filth-rich beggars, of course. Fortune might not smile upon them, but these grin-and-bear-it street urchins could smile their way into the wellness index. To show or not to show their sunny side to surveyors, that would be the question. Beggars would become choosers, at
last.
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Cold war chill in a Moscow bomb shelter MOSCOW – Deep underground in a Cold War-era nuclear bomb shelter, guide Alexei Alexandrov did his best to set a spooky mood, starting with his 1960s Soviet army uniform. “Please don’t split away from the group,” he somberly warned visitors to the labyrinth of tunnels shaped into cavernous rooms and lengthy hallways, “or you may get lost in the dark and end up shot by a guard by mistake.” At the budding Moscow tourist attraction called the Confrontation Cold War Museum, historical remembrance and a touch of make-believe mix in an ambiguous but thought-provoking cocktail. With Washington and Moscow recently trading harsh rhetoric and some analysts warning of a possible slide back toward Cold War attitudes, the shelter serves as a reminder of what that period was like – and of the fact that similar facilities still function in both countries despite the disappearance of old fears. The still-unfinished museum doesn’t exactly preach. But it aims to send a message. A sign in the entryway declares: “It’s important which questions a person asks himself after visiting the complex, which fears worry him, and what he’s pondering.” Also known as the Tagansky Underground Command Center, the 75,000-square-foot facility was built 200 feet below ground level as a communications complex meant to survive a U.S. nuclear attack on Moscow. Work on it began in 1952, when Josef Stalin was still the Soviet dictator, and it went into service four years later. The site was in operation through the 1970s, with a staff of 2,500, of whom 1,500 could be on duty at any one time. In the event of a nuclear war, it would have been sealed, with enough stored food for three months, and systems to purify the air. A planned 1980s renovation was abandoned as tensions between the Soviet Union and the West eased, and the site was declassified in 1995. Now the whole thing has been bought by a private company, which is converting it to a museum and entertainment complex that mixes advocacy of world peace with displays of Russian patriotism, and what sometimes seems like a touch of nostalgia for Soviet power. The addition of more displays to enhance the atmosphere is still planned. But the mostly empty rooms and hallways, with some half-century-old communications equipment and a variety of Soviet-era posters, themselves evoke a chill. During the tour, Alexandrov painted a picture of a virulently anti-communist 1950s America that had demonstrated, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, that it was “ready to use nuclear weapons against civilian populations.” “They didn’t want to talk to us at the time. Instead, they were quite willing to ‘destroy the hydra of communism in its lair,’” he told the group of university students and young businesspeople. “It was life under gun sights. The threat was so imminent that our leadership could only have three or four minutes to make a decision.” Visitors were encouraged to wear olive-green Soviet army ponchos for the tour, and Alexandrov demonstrated the use of a gas mask and a 1960s Geiger counter still in working condition. White respiratory face masks were handed out as part of the atmospherics, and some wore them while posing for souvenir snapshots. Each visitor was given a bright red USSR Defense Ministry pass with their name and a mug shot of someone wearing a gas mask. The tour also included a Cold War-era military rations meal consisting of buckwheat porridge with canned stewed beef and a shot of vodka. Andrei Kvyk, 21, a student at the Moscow Construction Institute, said being in the shelter gave him “the creeps.” “They say that this is all a thing of the past and that the Cold War is over,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s the case. I am sure facilities like this still exist in Moscow and across the country and are on combat duty every second. I am sure the Cold War was never over. They are lying to us.” The complex was constructed with techniques similar to that used to drill subway tunnels, and walking through it feels like a journey through huge pipes. The largest rooms, built in 30-foot-diameter tunnels, have arched ceilings. The old floors have been ripped out, and in many places one walks on a mix of soil and debris. In a few spots, water drips ominously. The complex has tunnels linking it to the Moscow subway, which is even older, and in certain areas the roar of trains can be clearly heard. “The task of our complex, which is called Confrontation, is to preserve this facility as a reminder and a warning that situations like this should be prevented forever,” Arkharova said. “The idea we want to present is that we want to have an open and frank dialogue with other countries, to prevent the world from entering another situation where we’re forced to build facilities like this.” Nina Borodina, 21, a university student, said that “these haunting shafts” made her think of how her grandmother “lived all her life feeling the danger of being bombed any second.” She said she was convinced that, whatever complaints the two sides may voice about each other, Putin “is leading the country along the way of real cooperation with the United States and other Western countries, and they will never be our enemies again.” By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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30 years of the Left in Bengal:
a mixed record In
the early seventies, when the then world bank president Robert McNamara had flown down to Calcutta for exploring how best the world bank’s funds could be utilised for West Bengal’s industrialisation and other development activities, the present state chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was then the DYF’s general secretary, had organised massive protest rallies and black flag demonstrations. The plane in which McNamara and other world bank officials were traveling could not land at the airport and they flew back to the capital. As a result, about Rs 300 crore earmarked for the state went to Maharashtra. The same Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has now been frequently according the red carpet welcome to world bank officials, various other international monetary organisations, corporate bosses and the world’s big business barons to West Bengal for investments. But the erudite chief minister does not have any pretensions. He candidly admits to the mistakes of the past. He is now accepting and welcoming those ideas and proposals which he had opposed tooth and nail in the early days as a Marxist leader in the opposition. The Bengal left front government has created history by being in power for 30 years at a stretch since 1977, for which both Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee can take credit. Coalition politics in West Bengal was first tested in 1967 and 1969 when all the non-Congress parties clubbed together and formed united front governments in two successive terms. But in both the occasions, the government did not last long. However, after the 1977 Assembly elections, a stable coalition government of nine different parties was formed with Jyoti Basu as CM. Basu’s past experiences during the two, short-termed, united front governments, as deputy chief minister, taught him how to maintain good relations with other parties that are politically and ideologically different to them. Basu ran the government successfully till he vacated the chief minister’s chair to his young comrade, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in November 1999. During his long tenure, Basu was the first to bring private sector and foreign investment into the state, despite stiff resistance from the hardcore CPI (M) leadership and the party’s trade union front, the CITU. At that time, Bhattacharjee also did not welcome whole-heartedly the new proposals. But Basu himself taught him the hard realities of life in the backdrop of the rapidly changing world communist movement and the country’s political situation. Over the years, the CPI(M)-led left front has achieved successes in many fields, particularly in land reforms, the panchayats, rural development, agriculture, irrigation, power, and in primary and engineering education. Several new colleges and engineering institutions have been set up in Bengal with private sector investment. New housing complexes, modern shopping centers, multi-plexes and other modern amenities centers have been built. New roads and bridges, fly-ovesr and sub-ways, have been constructed in the township and urban localities with private investment. The metropolis and the districts towns have been given a new look with modern lighting and illumination systems. But the prevalent unemployment particularly among the educated people remains unsolved. Another minus point is that the wealth generated in the rural areas during the three decades has not been equally distributed among the people, leading to discontent. But the most serious charge often made against the CPI (M) leadership and the chief minister is that they have usurped the police and the state administration and utilised them for their vested interests, which was standing in the way of delivering proper welfare projects for the people. The most recent blunder which Bhattacharjee made was to take a hurried decision in forcibly acquiring farmers’ land at Singur for Tata Motors. Afterwards, his mishandling of the Nandigram issue put him in the dock. The party also fell into deep trouble. The Singur and Nandigram issues helped the Trinamool Congress and Congress come closer, though, due to their respective political compulsion, these parties so far have not been able to form an alliance against the CPI (M). Over all, the CPI(M)-led government can justly celebrate its 30th anniversary, and be confident of their success in the coming elections since the opposition votes are bound to get divided.
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Delhi Durbar With the Sivaji mania having gripped every sphere of life, how can the hurly-burly world of politics remain aloof or detached? The mind-boggling success of the Rajnikant starrer stirred the political environment of Tamil Nadu with demands emanating from certain quarters that Rajnikant should enter politics. The cine superstar has steered clear of responding, to the call given by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, to join the Third Front or the National United Progressive Alliance of regional groups. But the call has added a new dimension to the political situation in the southern state. Even Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi has been confronted with the question of Rajnikant entering politics. It is a million-dollar-question whether the reel life hero will take the time-tested route of becoming the real life political hero of Tamil Nadu. Wrong pitch When NDA leaders decided to support Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as an independent candidate, they also resolved to use the services of the articulate BJP leader Sushma Swaraj by appointing her spokesperson of the NDA presidential campaign. The BJP asked its media cell to invite scribes for the grand announcement of the decision to back Shekhawat. The SMS for a press briefing at the BJP headquarters went out quickly but soon the NDA leaders realised that the media may put a serious question mark on the projected independence of Shekhawat. So another SMS went to the press corps that the briefing has been rescheduled at NDA convenor George Fernandes’ residence. Sushma apologised, and indicated that a shamiana would be pitched on the lawns of the former Defence minister’s lawns to facilitate the coverage of Shekhawat’s campagn. When mediapersons found no shamiana had been erected the next day and asked one of the BJP media cell personnel about it, he smiled, saying that “Mittal was not around.” He was referring to Sudhanshu Mittal, the late Pramod Mahajan’s right hand man, who runs a successful tent house. Dynamic damsel French Ambassador Dominique Girard has announced a one-year scholarship in France for the topper in the DELF (French language elementary diploma) and the DALF (French language advance diploma) courses at the Alliance Francaise. Making the announcement at the first ever convocation of the Alliance Francaise held at the French Embassy recently, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Alliance Francaise in India, the ambassador expressed confidence that it would inspire more Indians to learn French. The centre in Delhi has reported a two-fold increase in enrolments with 1300 students this year. Addressing the students in both French and English after awarding the DELF/DALF examination diplomas, the young-at-heart Ambassador said in a lighter vein that the Alliance has now completed a half-century but given the fact that “nowadays, one is still young at fifty, our beautiful lady has plenty of dynamism in reserve for the future.” Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan, Satish Misra, and Tripti Nath
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