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Wailing sentimentalists RBI plays safe Collision course |
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The cancer of affiliated colleges
The monsoon mood of Goa
Army should create a climate of trust Save the girl child Legal Notes
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Wailing sentimentalists BLEEDING hearts have been waxing eloquent on the “injustice” meted out to “poor” Sanjay Dutt, who has been sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment. What a pity that he has been punished so harshly for an act of indiscretion he committed as long as 14 years ago, they lament. Was not the 16 months of incarceration he suffered sufficient to meet the ends of justice in his case, they ask in righteous indignation. And they have been populating television channels ever since TADA Special Court judge Pramod Kode gave his last verdict in the Mumbai serial blasts case. If their wailings are anything to go by, the judge has committed a wrong in punishing him. At the root of their argument is the belief that Sanjay Dutt being a celebrity, he should be treated deferentially and not like the hoi polloi. They forget that the Constitution is based on the principle of the rule of law under which nobody, howsoever high he or she may be in social and economic status, is above the law. Those who shed tears over the punishment awarded to Sanjay Dutt do not care to remember that the judge had punished as many as 100 of the accused, 12 of them with death penalty. Come to think of it, how many of them had been given bail when they could prove “good conduct”? In the case of Sanjay Dutt, he was lucky to get bail, act in some blockbuster movies and become a bigger celebrity. In the case of some others, who were even acquitted, they had to remain behind bars for years when their families suffered all kinds of indignities and even penury. In comparison, the actor got a kid glove treatment from the judiciary. It is unfortunate that celebrities think they can get away with anything because of their status. They kick up a ruckus when income tax notices are served on them forgetting that millions of taxpayers dutifully file their returns on time. Celebrities need to be role models for society. They lose their respect when they declare themselves as “humble farmers” and misuse their clout for acquiring land. The celebrity status does not bestow on them immunity from the law. They are first and foremost citizens. Abroad, no bleeding hearts wail when Tony Blair’s teenaged son Euan is arrested for being “drunk and incapable”, former US vice-president Al-Gore’s adult son is arrested for “possessing marijuana”, President Bush’s daughter Jenna is “cited” for alcohol possession and celebrity stars Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are detained for acts of misdemeanour. |
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RBI plays safe The
RBI on Tuesday raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points to 7 per cent. This means for every 100 rupees that banks lend, they must keep Rs 7 with the central bank and they do not earn much interest on this amount. This is the fourth such increase in the CRR since December, 2006. Earlier, the banks used to cover up this loss by raising lending rates. But since the lending rates have already peaked and the banks have enough cash, they will take the hit, although without a smile. But they may discontinue giving discounts on short-term loans. Those expecting consumer and housing loans to be cheaper will naturally be disappointed. The latest CRR hike will drain as much as Rs 16,000 crore from the system, which is not much for the banking system to absorb. The banks have Rs 1 lakh crore extra cash with them. Excess money supply pushes up prices as more money chases fewer goods. The excess money supply is due to relentless foreign investment. Surplus dollars have led to a stronger rupee. The RBI mops up dollars and releases more rupees in the system. The RBI is highly sensitive to inflation and wants to keep it below 5 per cent. But prices can still go up due to factors outside its control: shortage of food items and a hike in global oil prices. While the Finance Minister talks of a double-digit growth, the RBI has stuck to 8.5 per cent GDP growth for the current year. The real challenge the government faces is how to handle excessive credit inflows. The government is yet to decide where to deploy foreign exchange in its kitty. Part of the money can be channelled into building infrastructure, especially in providing better roads, power and market access to rural India. If interest rates are lowered, the recent downtrend in the real estate and auto sector can be reversed. Besides, cheaper capital can boost growth prospects of small and medium enterprises.The RBI has chosen to play safe. |
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Collision course Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy seems determined to put his government on a collision course with the very people who gave him an overwhelming mandate three years ago. Many of his actions since then have smacked of arrogance, which comes easy to some people in power. He may yet manage to stave off calls for his ouster after the Mudigonda firing in Khamman district, where the toll has now gone up to seven. But it is clear that his government is fast losing public respect, and the Congress establishment’s defence is looking increasingly weak. Talking about “a healing touch” under the circumstances seems a bit like farce. Whether it is the land scandal where YSR was caught in a dubious position on large land holdings, or the attacks against media baron Ramoji Rao’s finance companies, or the way in which he assailed political opponents with language suited to the streets rather than the halls of the Legislative Assembly, Mr Reddy has shown himself incapable of providing either enlightened leadership or people-friendly governance. The role of his police itself cannot escape scrutiny. Whether or not they were actually under instructions not to use force, as some reports suggest, the state’s police have often been accused of high-handedness and being quick on the trigger. One would have thought that AK-47s were for use against armed terrorists, not protesting villagers. While some parts of the country are in the early digital age, large parts of rural India still depend on land and natural resources for their very survival. It is a pity that land management and land reforms have only remained academic discussions and precious little is being done to translate promises into action. Unless political parties commit themselves to ushering in genuine change, such conflicts will continue and their consequences get increasingly more serious. For now, adequate compensation must go out to those affected, without further delay, and the Congress high command should seriously rethink its indulgence of the Reddy government. The Prime Minister must have come to know more about the public mood after his visit to Andhra Pradesh earlier this week. |
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The man who dies ... rich dies disgraced.
— Andrew Carnegie |
The cancer of affiliated colleges It
was 1954. This writer was working on a glorified post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in the United States, trying in the process to shift to biology which he had never studied, even in school. He was then advised to audit an undergraduate course in genetics given by a professor in his late twenties, Joshua Lederberg. In retrospect, one can realise that that course played a significant role in my transformation from a chemist (with a background of physics and mathematics) to a biologist. I was surely among the first, if not the first, east of the Suez to have broken the above disciplinary barrier. Joshua Lederberg went on to become one of the youngest Nobel Prize winners and this writer, during his stay in Wisconsin, made a small contribution to the discovery of the well-known and widely used anti-cancer drug, 5-fluorouracil. This was possible as the University of Wisconsin had undergraduate classes taught by the best and the most famous whose research interests and contributions kept them updated in the field. It will be difficult to find any well-known academician in the world today who hasn’t had his or her undergraduate training in a university where the undergraduates are taught by the cream of the staff of the particular department, but in our country most of the undergraduates are denied this extremely valuable experience. For example, none of the 13 universities in Andhra Pradesh have undergraduate classes, nor does the University of Delhi or Jawaharlal Nehru University. On the other hand, we have over 17,600 affiliated degree-giving colleges, a vast majority (well over 90 per cent) of which produce mostly unemployable graduates who have never been exposed to excellence of international calibre in the field. Thus, according to Mr Kiran Karnik, Chairman of NASSCOM, over 70 per cent of engineering graduates in the country — largely a product of the affiliated college system - are unemployable. This is not to say that India has no good colleges. There are some (though very few) outstanding colleges where undergraduate teaching is excellent and is done by people who have made significant contribution to research; such colleges generally have postgraduate classes and research facilities comparable to a good university. In fact, there is no reason why they should not actually be a university. An example would be St. Alousius College in Mangalore which is, ironically, affliated to Mangalore University when it should be an independent university by itself. A vast majority of our affiliated colleges are de facto, if not de jure, commercial colleges set up primarily to make money for the promoters, exactly as it happens in industry where the management is expected to make money for the shareholders. Any real education imparted to those who are persuaded to join the portals of such institutions is incidental and minimal that would satisfy or hoodwink the customers who are often ignorant and uninformed. That is why India has had no Nobel Prize in science or even literature in the last 60 years. What must India do to get rid of the cancer of such affiliated colleges? Here are some steps: De-commercialise all education — from the primary classes to the university level — that leads to a degree. Do not set up any more affiliated colleges but, by all means, set up universities which satisfy the minimum criteria that would ensure both equity and excellence. Encourage non-commercial, government-supported private universities set up and organised to meet the stated criteria of excellence. Convert good affiliated colleges (may be 5 per cent of over 17,600 we have) that satisfy the criteria of excellence, as laid down by an appropriate authority, into universities — private or state-run - ensuring that they are not (de facto or de jure) commercial institutions set up to make profit for individuals. They must be provided an initial grant by the government (State or Central) to make up for the deficiencies, if any, especially in regard to research facilities. This would be cheaper than setting up a university de novo. Similarly, small affiliated colleges in a city that are good and not de facto or de jure commercial institutions could together form a university in which, for example, the faculty would be transferable from one constituent college to another; in fact, one constituent college could have one department and another college another department. The remaining affiliated colleges may be given three options: to upgrade within five years to a level that would entitle them to be converted into an autonomous university. They should be wound up within the subsequent two years if they do not rise to the status of a good university in the first five years. To convert them into trade-related institutions training people for a specified vocation or trade. To wind up within a reasonable time (not more than five years) with no new admissions from the following year. We need 3,000 good universities, each with no more than 10,000 students. One can imagine that we could augment the 350 and odd universities that we have substantially (to more than a thousand) by upgrading good affiliated colleges to the status of a university. Concurrently with the above-mentioned steps towards the eventual dissolution of the affiliated college system, we must bring undergraduate classes to all our universities, and limit the total number of students on one campus to, say, 10,000. There would be nothing wrong in the university having more than one campus as, for example, the University of California has, where each campus is academically and administratively independent. We have no Central Act today to regulate private universities. The UGC has some rules but they are not stringent enough to prevent the setting up of second, third or fourth-grade private universities. For example, the UGC (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations of 2003 rule out the setting up of commercial universities. This is hardly being followed, at least in spirit. It must be made clear that this writer is not against private or government-run commercial colleges or institutions that give training in a trade or in a specialised field, such as photography, management, or design. They can give their students a diploma or a certificate, but not a degree. The recognition of a trade institution by society or trade will depend on the quality of the product — its students. It is a pity that India doesn’t have enough of such institutions — in the private sector or the public sector. In the whole country, for example, there is just one National Institute of Design.Trade organisations could have a stake in such institutions. Finally, the admissions to universities or to trade institutions should be based on merit but with the provision and facilities for scholarships and a bank loan for meritorious students without
means.
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The monsoon mood of Goa
The
sea kissing Cavelossim Beach in Goa beckoned again. Go to Goa in the monsoons? I had second and third thoughts. What would I do in Goa, if I could not swim in the sea? This hesitation in accepting the invitation of the sea must have caused the fury that I saw in its rumbling sky-touching waves, the first time I met the sea in the monsoon. She was very rough and angry but I fell in love with the monsoon mood of Goa. I have to state with due apologies to my beloved hills, that I had not seen so much lush greenery in my favourite hill station or in Switzerland! The pitter-patter of the rain on a swishing, swirling sea made for an unusual symphony hitherto unheard. The charm of “The Old Anchor” resort constructed in the form of a ship with numerous quaint sculptures dotting its green lawns doubled in the rain. Goa in the monsoons literally spelt a life spent in water and the Water Bearer in me must have rejoiced because I felt myself drawn like a magnet to the swimming pool every time rain knocked at my window. Swimming in a torrent of rain was an experience I was fast becoming addicted to. This, of course, since I was sure the sea would fling me right back at its sands if I tried to even tread waves in its current mood. But the grey, foaming sea had a personality I had not imagined the ocean would have when I had seen it so peaceful, tranquil and humming during my last visit. A childhood dream recreated itself yet again into reality as my nephews suggested a “Cruise”. Not quite knowing what we would see in a cruise on Indian seas, one was pleasantly surprised to bang straight into a bunch of dancers (Goan folk dancers) as we entered the ship! The Prawn Pakoras were so delicious that even my four-year-old nephew broke his stubborn fast and ate them by the (eep!) handful! The dancers competed with the dancing of the waves as the ship rocked and rolled to unpredictable winds turning into rain yet again! They were followed by a special programme by the students and teachers of a school who had come all the way from Amritsar! The kids’ bhangra lashed the waves and clouds into a renewed enthusiasm as they let go and wave upon wave heaved and fell to the rhythm of the rain beating a drum on its chest! The cruise was a huge success and so was the monsoon mood of Goa. Back in Delhi — the hot, humid city of my Karma — I still miss wistfully the monsoon madness of Goa, its sea and its
dancers. |
Army should create a climate of trust In
a bizarre incident on June 26, two army men of the 57 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) were caught by outraged people when they had barged into a villager’s home and attempted to rape his 17-year-old girl in Gujjarpati Kunan, Bandipore, some 55 kms from Srinagar. After being beaten to pulp by the local people and paraded naked in the town, police somehow managed to secure the rogue army personnel from the people after violent clashes with the public that left more than 30 people injured. On June 27, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Bandipore said the two army men have been arrested and a case of attempted rape registered against them. He added that they will be produced in a court of law. A couple of days later, in a bid to dilute the case against its troopers, the 57 RR unit of the Army registered a counter-FIR in Bandipore police station against the protestors who had caught and manhandled the troopers. In its complaint, the Army unit maintained that its patrol party was passing through Kunan Gujjarpati, when two of its troopers were “abducted by some people who later attempted to murder them”. Following this complaint, police registered a case against the people who had caught the troopers. Even before the counter-FIR was lodged, Brigadier V.K. Garg of the 81 Mountain Brigade of the Army, on June 26 itself, had said that people “took army officials who were on routine patrol as hostages”. Even though the Army got the custody of the accused soldiers from the court on the plea that it will initiate court martial proceedings against them, the position taken by the Army at various levels of its chain of command and the counter-FIR that the accused soldiers were “abducted” while “on routine patrol” makes the outcome of the court martial proceedings not very hard to imagine. If the Army is confident about the “right conduct” of its people, it should have allowed a civilian trial. A prosecution by the police would have not only restored the trust of the masses in the system but also salvaged the Army’s reputation. In its enthusiasm to defend the two erring men, the Indian Army is doing more damage to its reputation by issuing wild statements, which are not only very difficult to substantiate in a court of law, but with big loopholes that even a sundry layman can pick out. Since when has the Indian Army become so timid that civilians can abduct its men from a patrol, and that too without a single bullet being fired? Those aware of the functioning of the Indian Army know that even in urban areas like Srinagar, Army patrols consists of not less than a section of heavily-armed troops. In case of militancy-infested areas like Bandipore, it is not out of place to have a patrol of at least a platoon’s strength. In such a scenario, how can one can justify a patrol of just two men, and that too in civvies and without arms? Even if one buys the far-fetched explanation that the two soldiers had ventured out for “intelligence gathering”, what were they doing in a civilian house with the women folk? The Army has a serious image problem in Jammu and Kashmir because of its own conduct. It has not only stone-walled the legal proceedings against its troops (by the impunity it gets through the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA) in the situations where disproportionate use of force caused grave human rights violations of civilian population during counter-insurgency operations, it has also flatly refused to cooperate with the civilian administration even in the situations where the individuals in the force were found responsible for serious misconduct and sufficient prima-facie evidence indicated their culpability. In the beginning of the year, fake encounter killings by the security forces created a huge public outcry that led to the investigation of the fake encounters by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the J&K Police. On April 12, 2007, the SIT filed the charge-sheet against 11 persons including five Army personnel and five police personnel in connection with the killing of a cleric, who was allegedly killed in a fake encounter after being dubbed as a foreign militant. While the policemen were arrested and are facing trial, the Army is resisting the attempt to bring to justice its own officers and personnel. There is an important question that needs an answer: what is important in a counter-insurgency operation – the morale of a few rogue troopers who give a bad name to the whole institution of the Army or the trust of the local people? If the Indian Army is the “peoples’ Army”, then the trust of the people is sacrosanct; and in case of it being an “occupation force”, any bad behavior has a readymade justification of its own. The security forces operating in the state have certainly developed a strong vested interest in the continuation of the militancy here. According to available figures, from the last week of March to May 15, 2007, more than 250 militants infiltrated from across the border in Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu sector and Gurez and Kupwara in the Kashmir valley. Very few of them were intercepted near the Line of Control (LoC), while almost all the encounters involving them took place in the hinterland some 30-40 kilometers inside of the LoC. How, despite such a heavy presence of troops in a multi-tier arrangement guarding the fenced LoC, were these infiltrating militants able to travel so deep inside? According to informed sources, the J&K police has raised this question and protested the growing infiltration in different fora, including the Unified Command meetings. |
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Save the girl child Ours
is a country caught in a strange social dichotomy. On the one hand, we worship the Mother Goddess in her many manifestations, including the girl child (a kanjak), and on the other we have gained notoriety as a nation known for mass genocide of the unborn girl child. The numerous instances of mass graves of female foetuses being discovered across the country tell a sorry state of affairs. The malaise of this genocide has taken hold not just the states of Punjab and Haryana (which now have the lowest child sex ratio), but states across the country. The recent instance of over 30 female foetuses being discovered in a well in Nayagarh in Orissa, as well as hundreds of foetuses being discovered in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, shows that the problem has spread far and wide. The fact that the Orissa incident, just like the recent incidents in Gurgaon, Ratlam, Buldhana (Maharashtra) or Pattran (Punjab) was taking place right under the nose of the district authorities and law enforcing agencies, is indicative of the widespread social sanction to this mass murder, which is slowly leading to a civilisational collapse. Though the bias against the girl child is not a new phenomenon and is deep rooted in the Indian ethos (like any other son-aspiring civilisation), what is causing the problem to spread further is the use of technology as instrument of murder. If it was female infanticide that was common in the past decades, use of sex selection and sex determination techniques like amniocentesis, ultrasound and scan tests are now contributing to a skewed sex ratio in the country. But in spite of the hue and cry being raised against this planned and mass murder of unborn girls across the country, the government agencies and medical fraternity have been unable to curb the practice. Though the government has enacted legislation in the form of Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act (PCPNDT Act), this has failed to yield desired results. Sex determination tests are being carried out with impunity in unregistered nursing homes and hospitals, and many a times those performing the tests have been caught and charged under the said Act. But till date only one case has met its logical conclusion through a court of law, where a Faridabad-based doctor was convicted of this heinous crime. Success stories in this context have been few, like in Nawanshahr (Punjab), where it was the single minded commitment of the then deputy commissioner, Krishan Kumar, who ensured that all pregnancies in the district were tracked till the baby was delivered. This led to a rapid improvement in the child sex ratio in the district. The need of the hour is not only to sensitise medical professionals against conducting these tests, but also to ensure that the Indian Medical Association takes strict action against its defaulting members. Such unscrupulous medical practitioners should be debarred from practicing medicine. The state health authorities could also set up “intelligence cells” to keep track of unregistered ultrasound clinics, and medical institutions indulging in MTPs. Doctors aiding foeticide and those getting it done should be tried for murder. |
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Legal Notes Supreme
Court guidelines for the police laid down in the landmark D.K. Basu case ten years ago, regarding custodial interrogation and the need to protect the human rights of the accused, seems to have been followed more in the breach, if the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) data is any indicator. Though the NHRC is yet to collect the latest figures, the nation wide data compiled by it up to 2005 presents an alarming picture, with a total of 72,775 complaints lodged with the panel during the year on violation of the apex court norms. The most disturbing part of it is that the custodial deaths are not confined only to the detentions in police custody, but also to those lodged in jail. A total of 1,357 cases of deaths of inmates have been recorded by the NHRC. Uttar Pradesh with 219 deaths of prisoners topped the list, followed by Bihar and Maharashtra with 150 and 138 deaths in their jails. Deaths in judicial custody is also alarmingly high in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala and Karnataka, with figures over 50 annually. As far as the fake encounters were concerned, UP again held the dubious distinction of 66 killings out of 122, the all India figure. Apart from encounters, 136 deaths across the country had taken place during detention by the police due to torture. But the pattern of deaths in police custody was by and large identical in almost all the states with Maharashtra topping the list with the 23 deaths, Gujarat 15 and UP 11. The data was placed before the apex court as part of a PIL on the issue.
Sanction for prosecution A public servant dismissed from service on charges of corruption but later reinstated by the court, either due to lack of evidence or found innocent, cannot get the protection of mandatory sanction for prosecution under the IPC provisions or the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). This has been laid down by the Supreme Court in its recent ruling in a case of the Chandigarh-based Army Colonel B.S. Goraya, who was dismissed from service on corruption charges, but later reinstated after his dismissal was set aside by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. On being restored in service, he had challenged his prosecution in the trial court in the absence of sanction from the competent authority. But the apex court dismissed his petition, holding that the defence of mandatory sanction would not be available to him for the period he was under termination. The relevant period for consideration of the sanction is the status of a public servant at the time of chargesheeting him. If he was under dismissal at that time, no sanction was required as he ceased to be a public servant. His reinstatement later would not change the legal position in his favour as the crucial factor is withdrawal of the pleasure by the appointing authority against him by placing him under dismissal.
Crime in the cricket field An innocuous altercation on the selection of a cricket team for club matches in Mumbai in 1993 took an ugly turn for one of the players in charge of the draw of lots, as he had to pay for it with his life. His fault was that he refused to oblige two friends who used to play from the same club, by turning down their request not to put them in opposite teams as they would not like to compete with each other. Sunil Gore, who was drawing the lots, knew little that his sticking to the rules would cost him dearly. The two friends Vijay and Tory could not tolerate his decision and hatched a conspiracy with their other friends and after the lots were drawn, they came back to the field in the evening and allegedly attacked Gore with a knife and killed him on the spot. The apex court however had no option but to dismiss the Maharashtra government's appeal for their conviction as the investigation in the case was found to be shoddy. The police had neither collected the evidence properly, nor got the knife examined by forensic experts soon after its recovery. The recording of the statements of the witnesses by the police were also found to have been done in a half-hearted manner. Eventually the apex court had no option but to let the accused go scot-free. |
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