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Compromise,
not divorce Profile |
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Revisiting Nandigram
and Singur On Record Dairying needs a new
focus
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Compromise, not divorce According to the Hindu Law, marriage has always been treated as a sacrament. Even the Manu theory corroborates this maxim that marriages are made in heaven but are only solemnised on earth. If we study the pure concept of Hindu Law, it is most difficult to get a divorce, which is permissible only on one or two valid grounds, such as, conversion to Islam, insolvency, schizophrenia and impotency. These grounds have been recognised as valid for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 also. Some additional grounds for seeking divorce such as cruelty, desertion, adultery have also been incorporated in this Act. My association with this branch of law as a law student, lawyer and a judicial officer has left an impeccable impression on my mind that the institution of marriage is a great institution which must survive. The growing trend of seeking divorce is not an encouraging sign. This disease has not spared any section. Even senior bureaucrats have matrimonial discords. The daughters of multi-millionaires, having young children, have approached the courts for divorce after many years of their marriage. As a judicial officer between 1982 and 2003, I tried to examine the basic reasons for matrimonial discords and petitions under the Hindu Marriage Act for restitution of conjugal rights (section 9), judicial separation (section 10), declaration for the nullity of marriage (sections 11 and 12), divorce (section 13), and divorce by mutual consent (section 13). I could not pinpoint a specific reason leading to these disputes because in every petition allegations were of different nature. In many cases, if a female spouse is unable to bear a child or deliver a male child, it became a ground of dispute in the family and ultimately when the matter could not be reconciled within the family, the spouse approached the court and prayed for divorce. Physical and mental cruelty is a common ground for seeking divorce, but these grounds are invariably exaggerated. A petty cause is so much exaggerated with false accusations that it is prima facie shown to the court as if the spouse has become a big victim of cruelty. Economic insecurity was also noticed as a leading ground for divorce. Sometimes financial security either for female or male spouse does become a ground for divorce. The role of mothers and mothers-in-law has also triggered matrimonial disputes. Instead of nipping the evil in the bud, the matters were fanned and abetted unnecessarily. In the case of serving couples, a peculiar problem was seen — one of the spouse’s suspected extra-marital relations. Consequently, false allegations were levelled by wife or husband against the other to damage the service career of one another. The desire to have a male child is still there despite lot of publicity that there is no difference between a son and a daughter. The ego to get a male child is still predominant. Recently, a couple has moved the Mumbai High Court challenging the Prenatal Act on the ground that it is unconstitutional. The lady has maintained that it is her womb and, therefore, she can have a baby of her own choice. Will society allow the sacred institution of marriage to further damage or will it adopt the corrective measures? The concept of pure sacrament has already been diluted in the Hindu Marriage Act by the introduction of section 13-D. Though a legal duty has been cast on the matrimonial courts to bring reconciliation between the parties at the outset of matrimonial proceedings, very few efforts are made in this direction. There is a clear mandate in the Code of Civil Procedure. The counselling centres have not yielded positive results. In the Lok Adalats, hundreds of matrimonial disputes are referred for reconciliation, but the success rate is discouraging. With great efforts, sometimes couples are made to live under one roof but after a few months their relations again become strained and they reach at the ground zero. In the police, matrimonial cells have been created to settle such disputes but ultimately FIRs under sections 406 and 498-A, IPC and sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act are registered. The incompatibility of minds amongst the spouses, financial insecurity, lack of love and affection between the partners and element of distrust were also witnessed as major causes disrupting the matrimonial alliances. For the betterment of society, every person from individuals to families, NGOs, police, advocates, parents, friends and, above all, the law courts should strive to save the institution of marriage. The law courts should not grant divorce as a matter of routine. The evidence led by the parties has to be scanned very carefully and courts should make a sincere endeavour at every stage of the proceedings to bring about union between the parties, irrespective of the law of the land. The Supreme Court recently ruled that if a marriage has been irretrievably broken and there are no chances of reconciliation between the parties, it is better to dissolve such a marriage and make a path for the warring spouses to resettle themselves. While granting divorce, as a judicial officer I always took into consideration the fate of the children of such a couple. What would be their fate and what was their fault? Sometimes the children did not know that they were standing in the law courts by the side of their parents who were fighting for divorce. I was always of the view that the children of such a couple could always be an effective shield to the dissolution of the marriage. I appeal to society to contribute its bit for the survival and maintenance of this unique institution of marriage, lest it may be too late and the young couples start looking towards living-in relationship. The writer is Acting Chairperson, Punjab State Human Rights Commission,
Chandigarh
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Profile Conferment of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award, considered Asia’s Nobel Prize, on Sainath is in recognition of his “passionate commitment as a journalist to restore rural poor to India’s consciousness, moving the nation to action”. “Sainath’s authoritative reporting”, said the citation, accompanying the Award, “led the Indian authorities to address certain discrete abuses and enhance the relief efforts”. Sainath has been reporting on issues relating to Dalits, caste, violence, water, food and hunger, employment, inequalities and media developments. The Award, he feels, will change a few things; it will increase a space in newspapers for rural issues and also encourage those, who are interested in writing on these tops, to go ahead. Sainath did his rural reporting by spending about a month in the villages of each of the district he choose. He selected the districts on the basis of the percentage of people below the official poverty line. The five states doing worst on the list were Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Finding two of the worst districts within each state was not a difficult exercise. Visiting these districts in the off-agriculture seasons, he tried to find out what the poor do in some 200-240 days during which there is no agriculture? How do they survive? What kind of jobs do they find? The revelations were shocking; huge sections of the people simply migrated, often taking their family with them. So he travelled and lived with the migrants, covering about 80,000 km in seven states across the country. In official development reports and economic projections, the true misery story of the 312 million who live below poverty line or the 26 million who suffer from tuberculosis, gets overlooked. In his reporting, Sainath has shown how the poorest of the poor manage, what sustains them and how the administration’s efforts to do something for them yield little result. For example, the road to a village was built to benefit a tribe where only one member of the tribe lived. A major dairy development project failed to yield an additional litre of milk. A woman had seen her village displaced thrice by development projects while Kishan Yadav, a villager, has to walk 40 km, pushing a bicycle carrying as much as 250 kg of coal, to earn Rs 10. What Sainath calls “agrarian crisis” has seen over a lakh women farmers lose their husbands. But survivors, like Kalavati Banadurkar, with seven daughters, still run their farm. She personally conducted the deliveries of five grandchildren at home. She also works on the land of other owners for Rs 30 a day. Several women in Karnataka’s Mandya district like Jayalakshmamma, whose husband committed suicide, still stands up to the unending pressure with incredible resilience. When she finishes her 12-hour of labour, she is entitled to less than a fourth of the rice given to a convict in prison. Kamlabai is also one of about one lakh women across the country who lost their husbands to farmers’ suicides since 1990s. She lives in the worst-hit zone - Vidarbha. A small farmer, she is not able to earn enough to support her family. So, she has to work as a labourer getting in return Rs 25 worth jowar. Andhra Pradesh, says Sainath, is in the midst of an agrarian emergency. The tragic suicides are, finally, an extreme symptom of a much deeper rural distress. It is the result of a decade-long onslaught on the lives of millions. The crisis now goes way beyond the families ravaged by the suicides. There is an urgent need to end the suicides but “doing so without addressing the larger distress is to try and mop the floor dry with the taps on”. Born in Chennai in 1957, Sainath completed MA in history before taking a plunge in the uncertain world of journalism. He joined the news agency — the UNI. He then switched over to The Blitz, a Bombay-based weekly, and functioned as Deputy Chief Editor for over a decade. In 1992, he won The Times of India fellowship for which he lived in 100 of India’s poorest districts and wrote a series of 84 articles on rural poverty. He joined The Hindu in 2004 as Rural Affairs Editor. Sainath says, “if my work has won recognition it just has, it is because there was a newspaper backing it unreservedly and giving me total freedom of movement and agenda”.
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— Sanjay Dutt to TADA court Judge P.D. Kode after he was sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment — Judge Kode to Sanjay Dutt — Legendary Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman who passed away — Film director Aparna Sen If you have to improve, you have to go the Australian way. You can’t play like the Australians as the physical conditions differ, but they have a thorough professional system. — Raj Singh Dungarpur, BCCI chief Happiness is a state of mind and is something that cannot be borrowed; it comes from what you do and enjoying what you do. For me, my work is everything. It’s my canvas that God has given, and I enjoy it. — Sudha Murthy, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, Bangalore — Lata Mangeshkar
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Revisiting Nandigram and Singur The
events at Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal and the aftermath have jolted the civil society. For an on-the-spot assessment of the problem, a delegation consisting of Justice M. Ramakrishna, former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, this writer, and others, under the aegis of The Justice on Trial, an Ahmedabad-based NGO, visited the affected areas and interacted with social activists. The issue in question is the proposed acquisition of about 40,000 acres of highly fertile land for the Slim Group, an Indonesia firm, for building a chemical hub. Nandigram has a good concentration of both Muslims (60 per cent) and Hindus. Their only occupation is cultivation and fishing. But they are diehard revolutionaries. They may have very small land holdings, even less than a bigha, but are the proud owners and cannot think of parting with their land. It is a backward area — no connecting roads, no power and very few schools. They use a pond for bathing, washing clothes and utensils. Following the notification of the proposed land acquisition to the village panchayat by the Haldia Development Authority, the people rose in revolt. They dug the roads and blocked the roads. On Jan 7, the CPM activists attacked Nandigram from Khajuri, adjoining township, with bombs and bullets. Three persons died in firing from the CPM cadre. The villagers started night vigil to nab the invaders. On March 14, the Home Secretary asked the officials to reoccupy Nandigram villages. The battle was set between the villagers and the police, fully complimented by the CPM activists who wore police uniform for camouflage. People including women and children gathered near the temple at 3 a.m. on that day. The strength swelled to thousands by the dawn. Police started the operation at 10 a.m. They fired tear gas shells, plastic bullets and then lethal bullets. It reoccupied villages of Sonachura, Bhangabera, Adhikaripara, Tekhali. Within an hour, the injured rushed to the ill-prepared Nandigram hospital. By the evening, 60 people with bullet injuries, mostly in upper parts, reported at the hospital. This implied that firing was aimed at killing, and not dispersing, the protestors. The government put the toll at 14. Surprisingly, no cop was injured.
The government’s victory over the villagers was celebrated in Nandigram and the rest of East Midnapore district. Brand new hammer and sickle marked red flags were hoisted at many places. It appeared like a war. Strangely, no judicial inquiry has been ordered. No compensation was announced for the next of the kin killed in the police firing. Some families were penniless to cremate their dead. Women including minors were assaulted, tortured and raped. No member of the National Women’s Commission or the State Women’s Commission visited the site.
The Kolkata High Court, in response to a PIL, expressed its anguish over the police action “which cannot be justified except in the case of armed insurgency or warlike situation”. In its report, the CBI claimed that those arrested were supplied illegal weapons and a huge cache of ammunition by an “organised political party” (a reference to the CPM) to create terror and attack “political activists of the opposite political party at the point of gun and muscle power." The stockpile included .315 rifles, country made firearms, shotguns, automatic pistols and revolvers and cartridges. A police spokesman confirmed that the police did not use .315 cartridges. But the CBI team found 238 pieces of empty cartridge case of 8 mm/.315 from the men arrested. Evidence suggests that the state CPM leadership wanted to “occupy and liberate” Nandigram shortly before the cadres swung into action with the police. In its status report to the High Court, the government admitted the CPM activists’ involvement in the violence. Returning the government’s highest literary awards bestowed on them, Left historian couple Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar said that Nandigram was more shocking than the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. “Jallianwala Bagh was the outcome of one single man’s action but here the entire CPM machinery and the government were involved in the killings”, they said. The residents of 38 villages, mostly poor and marginal peasants, fought an uneven fight for four months. It was a genuine people’s resistance movement against globalisation in an aggressive form. The Special Economic Zone Act was planned during the BJP-led NDA government and implemented in 2005 by the Congress-led UPA government. Parliament passed it without debate. The farmers’ mini-revolt on January 3 in Nandigram and making it a “liberated zone” resulted in the review of the Act and halt to fresh sanction of SEZs. Of late, there has been a qualitative change in the government’s attitude towards Nandigram. It is making genuine efforts to assuage the hurt feelings of the people. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has assured that the government won’t acquire any land in Nandigram. The Land Acquisition Act was enacted in 1894. Acquisition under this Act is known as compulsory acquisition for the public purpose. The definition of public purpose has been expanded time and again. The provision in the Act that only 25 per cent of the area acquired will be used for the installation of machinery and other equipment and the remaining 75 per cent for developing the infrastructure, needs to be amended as the country of agrarian economy cannot afford this luxury. Some course corrections have become imperative. The Act must ensure that the fertile area is explicitly barred from acquisition. Fertile or not, the consent in writing should be taken before a judicial magistrate. The land of the marginal farmers should never be acquired. There should be no forcible land acquisition. Make the exercise transparent and a statutory requirement. Alternative land must be provided to the farmers uprooted. The Act’s provisions should be invoked only when the state is acquiring land for a project in a state sector. Private corporates may buy land directly from the farmers without involving the government. Compensation should be based on the prevailing market prices with a suitable escalation
clause. The writer is a former Director-General of Police, Punjab
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On Record
The
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee’s decision to implement the anti-ostentation code for Sikh weddings in the Capital drew mixed reactions from community members, some favouring it and others terming it as autocratic. To get a more positive reaction at the community level, DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna also decided to approach the Akal Takht for its approval. In an interview to The Sunday Tribune, Sarna spells out reasons for implementing the code and how the decision was “not an unwarranted interference in people’s lives”. Q: What was the rationale behind the code for weddings? A:
The code was based on two factors. One, the huge money being spent on weddings is a criminal waste. And two, the alarming sex ratio has a direct link with two main social evils — dowry harassment and female foeticide. There is no need for extravaganza. Why should a wedding card cost Rs 500 or a tent hired for Rs 15 lakh? Nowadays, one-fourth of the expenditure on weddings is on sweets, cards and food. There are six functions before the main one. During a recent wedding, everything was put up in blue — the tent, tables, chairs, napkins and even cutlery. The reason: According to the girl’s father, the baraat would be served Blue Label, hence the blue décor. I found it quite ridiculous. Q: Will you stop the “big fat Punjabi weddings” — the glitter, food and extravaganza? A:
Punjabi weddings were not always like what they are now. Let the boy’s family spend the money they want and have the extravaganza at their cost. Why should the girl’s family be forced to bear the mindless expenditure? We want the wedding before noon and no non-vegetarian food or liquor is served to the baraat. The girl’s parents will serve the baraat a vegetarian meal and organise one function ahead of the main ceremony in the gurdwara. Q: Won’t it interfere with people’s right to hold their private functions? A:
Attempts to improve society is not interference. Q: Are you trying to do moral policing? A:
No, the government has laid down certain rules to be enforced. If an individual’s wish encourages social evils, it cannot be implemented. Q: How will you enforce the code? A:
We have received tremendous support from the media, print and electronic. We will spread the message from our 12 gurdwaras in Delhi. Announcements will be made to the sangat. The Singh Sabhas will work at their levels and a 11-member committee for each area will spread the message door to door. Families will be sent letters and notice boards outside gurdwaras will display the rules. Q: If the code is flouted? A:
If someone goes against the community, the community will boycott his function. Q: What is the response from Punjab? A:
Except Badal, all leaders have called up and hailed the decision. They include Jasbir Singh Rode, Ravi Inder Singh, Rajinder Pal Singh, Manjit Singh Calcutta and several jathebandis. They have invited us to begin similar programmes in their cities. Chandigarh-based Sikh Samaj Sudhar Society has approached us. Q: Will you expand the scope of your drive? A:
Yes, but only after we receive full success here. Q: Any SGPC reaction? A:
As for vision, the SGPC is behind us by five to six years. We gave recognition to the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 1999, they followed us in 2006. Now that we have devised this code for Sikh weddings, we expect they will first take 3-4 years in understanding it and then try to implement it. Q: But what happened to the earlier committee? A:
Yes, a committee was constituted in 1985 by Delhi’s top Sikh personalities. It worked well for 10 years but after senior committee members grew old and no big organistion came forth to support their cause, things went slow. About 70 per cent of Sikh marriages take place before 12 noon. The remaining 30 per cent are the “new rich” category that wants to show off how much money they have made and lavish weddings is the best way to do that. It is this 30 per cent we are trying to target. We have no objection if people want to hold simple weddings at their homes. We are only suggesting gurdwaras as an option for those people who do not have sufficient place to host a baraat at their
residence.
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Dairying needs a
new focus Punjab
is an agrarian state with 70 per cent of its population engaged in agriculture. Thus, dairying has been a natural ally to agriculture. With scientific development, agriculture got mechanised and dairying became a commercial activity. The world renowned breeds of milch animals like Nili Ravi, Murrah, Sahiwal and Red Sindhi had their natural habitat in Punjab. Increasing requirement of milk with the rising population and technological advances to process the milk in plants and safely transport it to distant places entail a heavy burden on milch animals to produce more. Scientific developments made by some dairy advanced countries in raising the productivity of their cows have led to the introduction of cross breeding in cows here also. Concentrated efforts for the genetic upgradation of cows has, no doubt, raised the production and productivity of milk in Punjab. Today, cows are only 20 per cent of the total milch animals in Punjab. The rest are buffaloes whose growth (breed able variety) has been steady. At present, there are about 50 lakh milch animals in Punjab, which yield about 240 lakh litres milk daily. There are about 60 milk plants with a collective daily processing capacity of about 55 lakh litres, but operating only at about 55 per cent of their capacity. No stakeholder in dairying is happy. The milk producer doesn’t get good returns for his labour and investment. He gets lesser price of milk produced by him than what a water packaging company gets for water. The milk processor finds it difficult to pay more to the producer owing to the poor margins available to him, perhaps, due to the non-diversified product portfolio. The result: the consumer is the worst sufferer. Vendors (dhojis), whose milk is more often than not adulterated, meet a major portion of the domestic demand of milk. As a result, the consumer does not get the value for his money. Sadly, the whole chain engaged in dairying is suffering though it has a vast untapped potential. Now agriculture has reached a plateau where diminishing marginal returns have set in. Diversification of agriculture has become a necessity. Dairying has an edge over all other possible alternatives. It is a cash crop with daily income and very short gestation period. If the last 3-4 decades belonged to agriculture, it is the turn of dairying now. Our fundamentals are very strong - hard working and enterprising people, huge population of breed able milch animals with a high genetic potential, adequate infrastructure, modern processing and marketing facility and government support. There is a need to review the overall consumption needs and examine their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The inadequacies and problems of each segment will have to be addressed by formulating short and long-term strategies. Dairying in Punjab needs a new focus. We will achieve the desired results if right strategies are formulated and implemented. n The writer is a former Managing Director, Milkfed and Milk Commissioner, Punjab
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Sir, I honestly thought I would get the benefit of probation. I made a mistake 14 years ago. Please give me some time to surrender. I have to wind up a few things. You are like a family to us. I am very tired, Sir. I just need your blessings… 
Don’t get upset, for you have many years to go. I have got a duty to perform. You must act till you are 100 like Gregory Peck in McKenna’s Gold. I have sentenced you to only six years. Two have already passed and the remaining will also pass quickly. You can appeal too. This is only a trial court…
Personal demons tormented and inspired me throughout my life. The demons are innumerable, appear at the most inconvenient times and create panic and terror. But I have learnt that if I can master the negative forces and harness them to my chariot, then they can work to my advantage.
Bergman made some profound films. Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal are all-time classics. I can see Seventh Seal over and over again. It continues to fascinate me. It has all the ingredients of a great film — brilliant visuals, high drama and humanism.
Tailpiece: I don’t sing much these days as I can afford to be choosy. I first listen to a song and if I like it, then only I sing it. I guess the composers too would be thinking that ‘Yeh gaana Lata ke liye nahi hai’ for most songs they are churning out today. n