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Flip-flop
witness Punjab’s
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Media in
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Not just
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Innocence
indicted, CBI style UK
ruling to benefit Indian professionals Inside Pakistan
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Flip-flop witness THE sudden turnabout of Nand Lal, a key witness in the Nithari serial killings case, comes as a big blow to the ongoing trial of Moninder Singh Pandher for his involvement in the horrendous crime. It is feared that Pandher may now get away scot-free. Nand Lal is the father of 21-year-old Payal, whose disappearance led to the unearthing of 19 skulls and bones of children buried near Pandher’s house in Noida in December last. During cross-examination in the special court at Ghaziabad on Thursday, he withdrew his earlier statement that a saw, which was allegedly used in the crime, was recovered from a bathroom in Pandher’s house in his presence. He denied that the saw was used for “cutting” up the victims. He has also retracted his earlier statement that Pandher’s manager had paid bribe to a Deputy Superintendent of Police in his presence during the CBI probe. Nand Lal’s retraction is yet another instance of how hostile witnesses are playing foul with the criminal justice system. The ends of justice will be met only if he is punished for perjury which attracts a maximum punishment of seven years. However, hostile witnesses are very rarely punished. As a result, they continue to pull the wool over the eyes of the courts. Of course, the Supreme Court had convicted Zaheera Sheikh to one-year imprisonment and fine for her flip-flops in the Best Bakery case. This example should be followed in all other instances of perjury with the quantum of punishment depending upon the gravity of the offence committed. Unfortunately, there is no fear of the law among the people. The courts should act tough with hostile witnesses. Only then can a lesson be taught to persons like Nand Lal or Komal Singh Sengar and Manohar Singh Dondiyal, peons, who refused to identify in the court Shashi Ranjan Akela and Vimal Tomar, the prime accused in the murder of Ujjain College Professor H.S. Sabharwal. The Centre should also hasten an amendment to the Cr PC and introduce a comprehensive witness protection programme. In any case, circumstantial evidence is preferable to the accounts of eyewitnesses who are vulnerable to all kinds of pressure.
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Punjab’s urban chaos WHEN it comes to reforms, Punjab is among the worst performers. It could well be number one in populism. Reforms require hard decisions, but for the Parkash Singh Badal government votes matter more than reforming the state and civic administration. For almost all problems of the state, the Chief Minister blames the Centre and grumbles about lack of resources. The ruling political leadership misses no occasion to ask for Central aid for development works. But because of the ruling coalition’s populist stance, the state government fails to utilise central grants and funds, which, incidentally, come with conditions attached. Under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, 63 cities are entitled to get Central aid for their overall development. Amritsar and Ludhiana are among them. The proposed Rs 3,150-crore project for Amritsar and Rs 2,053-crore project for Ludhiana have reportedly been held up for want of certain reforms in the two cities. The Centre is to contribute 50 per cent of the project cost but it will release the grant only if user-charges for water supply and sewerage are levied, e-governance is introduced and a new municipal accounting system started. These are all citizen-friendly reforms and most states have introduced them to take advantage of the Central aid. In implementing civic, power and administrative reforms, the Punjab government, as usual, remains a laggard. The introduction of user-charges and property tax, no doubt, will cause some financial pain to urban citizens, but benefits they could get, in return, are numerous. Getting a regular supply of water and power is better than getting no or irregular supply, even if free or subsidised. The municipalities lack funds to clear the urban mess, regulate chaotic traffic and deliver the essential services effectively. The short-sighted ruling political leadership, it seems, would rather preside over the urban chaos than remove it and earn the citizens’ gratitude.
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Home victory HOSTING Pakistan in India for a cricket series has always had a buzz to it, though it has been muted this time around. Matters were overshadowed by everything from the emergency in Pakistan to the recent euphoria of winning the T-20 cup, not to mention the even more recent ODI series defeat to champions Australia. But considering that India have not been able to peg the traditional rivals back in an ODI series at home for 24 long years, the sealing of a series win in the 4th ODI on Thursday is a sweet triumph for M.S. Dhoni and his men. The batting has clicked in this series, with Sachin, especially coming good. The champion player is clearly keen on notching up a series of good ODI scores in preparation for an exit from this version of the game. With this kind of form though, no one will want him to go. The missed hundreds, six of them in recent matches, will definitely rankle, but he will be happy that the team is winning. The series win would not have been possible without the bowlers, and fittingly, the ODI saw a couple of landmarks there as well, with Sourav picking up his 100th to make a satisfying double with this 10,000 plus runs, and Zaheer his 200th. With the team being retained for the final ODI, Rahul Dravid continues to stay out. But with another ton for Karnataka, he will be feeling well-primed for the Test series, with state team mate Anil Kumble leading. Also looking to prove a point will be veteran V.V.S. Laxman, and opener Dinesh Karthik. While Karthik did exceedingly well in the Tests in England, he did not get enough opportunities in the string of one-days played at home. Gautam Gambhir may feel hard done by as he has been left out, but his day will come sooner rather than later. All eyes are now on the big boys in the upcoming Tests.
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Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement. — Alfred Adler
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Media in India today
In
pre-Independence India, there were two kinds of newspapers and journals. One type were those which, if not overtly then covertly, supportive of the colonial power, and another that spoke for the nation’s needs, of the aspirations of the people, that pointed out injustice and oppression and for whom draconian laws were put in place to muzzle them. Secondly, those who started, or owned or published or edited these were themselves actively involved in the freedom movement in one way or the other. Though the number of copies and the number of publications were limited, partly because of administrative obstruction and partly because of technological limitations, the effect of what was printed and circulated was profound, even inspirational. The press in India in the early years of Independence showed its commitment to truth and to transparency. The initial years saw the emergence of a feature that had not been there before: ownership of some newspapers passed from founders and editor-publishers to commercial concerns. For some years, while the interest of some of the owners did shift more to the revenue earned by the papers, the editors were left free to determine what editorial policy should be. Other factors came into play here; chief among them was the advent of radically new technology, that made it possible to print millions of copies, and set pages on computers, making the production of papers not only fast but more economical The other factor was the burgeoning advertising industry and the enormous amounts it poured into advertising in newspapers and journals. In sections of the Press, it appears that now more importance is given to the marketing divisions of the newspapers’ offices, than to the editors But, overshadowing all that has been happening and is happening to the newspapers, is the most powerful medium of all — television. From a modest beginning to being the handmaiden of the Central Government of the day, television has, since it went into private hands, grown exponentially, especially news channels in English, Hindi and the regional languages. But one has to think whether the development of television, especially television news, in the country has been on the right direction. Private news channels are not merely news providers. They make no secret of the fact that they are entirely dependent on advertising revenue, and it appears that advertisers have poured enormous amounts into those channels they perceive as getting the larger numbers of viewers The basic feature of post-Independence media is the change in the nature of ownership. Owning a channel or a newspaper is now seen as a profit-making venture, as indeed it is in all countries where advertising sustains the profitability of a channel or paper. A feature that merits highlighting is the fact that, owing to the single minded obsession with perceived market requirements, those elements of the governance of our country that were at one time considered of vital importance — the proper functioning of the three arms of our democracy, the judiciary, the legislature and the executive — no longer warrant the attention they got in earlier years. They are noticed, by and large, only when there is something of sensational value of some event relating to them, not otherwise. This is not only unfortunate but also undesirable, as the power of the media, especially of television, is very great in influencing perceptions of viewers, and the images that then remain with people in general are not just negative, but incorrect Today the newspapers and the private channels cover the stock markets with an obsessive detail but not the details of the debates in Parliament on major policy issues like agriculture or commodity inflation. Thus debates have ceased to be reported and we have the spectacle of newspapers and new channels spending considerable space and their time either telling us about the latest developments in the social lives of those who are in the entertainment industry or some favourite sports persons or giving unsolicited astrological advice or covering extramarital affairs of even ordinary people sometimes and bizarre stories from remote corners like snake gods drinking milk in a particular home. Press freedom is not without responsibility; the media must desist from distorted or concocted reporting, highlighting only those aspects of an issue that suits it and making omissions that ought to have been made public. Editorial policy of a newspaper should not be directed by the prejudices of media moguls and media barons. While profit is indeed a motive in the media world, that in itself should not be the sole criterion when it comes to news and views on the issues before the nation. More than ever before, today there is an imperative to strengthen our national fabric and the ideals we cherish like democracy, secularism, pluralism, etc. Unfortunately, of late, we find a tendency among a section of the media to project partisan points of view in the name of dissemination of views, rather than news, which is factual and objective. The glory of the media is in its presentation of information based on truth. Sadly, this basic duty is at times forgotten by sections of the press. Except for some honourable exceptions, today the newspapers’ or the TV Channels’ political leaning and political predilections are well-known and those obviously affect dispassionate presentation of news and also views. While we can applaud the media for its independence in most matters, it is necessary for all those involved, from newspapers to television channels to the internet news providers to institute a process of continuous introspection to ensure that theirs are the most transparent, and truthful purveyors of information. I say this because we have come to expect this of our media and we would like to continue to be as proud of it as we have been in the past. In this very challenging task the Press Council has a key role to play. It may not need to have draconian powers — indeed, it should not — but it needs to have the respect of all newspapers and news channels and it is for all of them to sit together to determine how best this can be done. As we have seen time after time, where law has not been effective, consent has been. It is time that this matter is given serious thought by all those who profess to abide by the truth above everything else. This article is based on the address by the Lok Sabha Speaker at the discussion on “Media as people’s voice — pre and post-Independence”, on the occasion of National Press Day, organised by the Press Council of India in Delhi on November 16.
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Not just another story
Journalism, for me, is a passion, one that I live and re-live with every story. But some stories are certainly closer to the heart than the rest. And, Baba Khan’s was one of them. He died in April, 2000, but his memory lives on. Any moving story is enough to send my mind racing down memory lane to where I found him first — lying on the grass face down, with an overgrown tangled white beard and hair. Khan was a dismal picture that January of 2000 at Pinjore’s Yadavindra Gardens. This was my introduction to the “flute-man” of the Mughal Gardens. He was in agony, ill and completely broke. Having given up hope to live, he replied only half-heartedly as I spoke to him in a build-up for a story. He believed he was condemned to die in penury. And, then our story happened. The affection from his “fans” in India and abroad poured out as financial aid. Even an NGO volunteered to look after him. A day later, he was diagnosed with tumour of the mouth and treatment began. Two months later he was a changed man but he grumbled when he spoke to me. “Why have you not come to see me?” he said on the telephone, our only means of communication. After weeks of treatment and a surgery, he was to be discharged from hospital and wanted me there. As usual, I couldn’t go on account of other stories I was following. He went home but kept in touch, repeatedly calling me and sending “meet-me” messages through the locals. On April 2 that year I decided to go and see him. It was Sunday and I had little work on hand. I reached there, photographer in tow, to be greeted by a healthier, happier and cleaner Baba Khan. Only he felt very lonely and said he thought of me often. We chatted for a while and as I got up to leave his one-room mandir to go back to my engagements for the day he pressed some dry fruit in my hand. I started to refuse but Baba Khan was adamant. “I just want to say thank you,” he said simply. I could not refuse. I left hoping I would be back soon with more time on hand. Once in office, the day just flew. The dry fruit in my pocket forgotten, I got up next morning to a new day. A phone call, however, altered everything. Baba Khan had died in his sleep that same night, quietly. Everyone told me he had waited to see me for a long while and that I had touched his life. But he had touched mine. I remembered the dry fruit in my pocket and the love with which he gave it to me. He was a free man now and had chosen the path to God. The dry fruit felt tasteless that day as I picked at it. Today when I think back, I know I did my best and that, to me, is journalism’s real mission. But sometimes you meet people who tell you how
much.
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Innocence indicted, CBI style Before hanging up, he told me that a rejoinder would soon be on my table. Alas, the rejoinder never came. The officer, who was quite polite, could not have known that I had a brush with the CBI and learnt about its functioning the hard way. Not to beat about the bush, a close relation – let me call him Benny – was “caught red-handed” accepting a bribe of Rs 1,000 five years ago. Benny’s distraught wife rang me up at night to break the news that numbed me into silence. Next day, when I rushed to the city where they lived, I learnt to my horror how his corrupt boss in connivance with a CBI inspector had “trapped” him. Benny was an accountant with a central government organisation. His troubles began when he went on deputation, attracted by a hefty allowance and a nice two-bedroom flat that came with the job. His new boss had grown-up children who were fond of eating in fashionable restaurants. Benny refused to clear their bills because the boss was not entitled to any entertainment allowance. The office also engaged the services of a security agency which employed a lesser number of people than was shown on record. Benny had, therefore, a problem in clearing the agency’s bills, too. Enormous pressure was put on him, but he refused to budge. When he realised he could not survive in such a hostile atmosphere, he sought repatriation to his parent organisation. All the while his tormentors were scheming against him. Benny learnt what they were up to when policemen came knocking on his door on the basis of a complaint they had received from a guard of the security agency. It said Benny called the complainant a “chamar”. It made hilarious reading. The guard was beaten so badly, according to the complaint, that he ran out of Benny’s room screaming “bachao, bachao”. Of course, the policemen extracted their pound of flesh as the offence is non-bailable. The security agency could not pursue the case, I learnt later, because the guard did not belong to a Scheduled Caste. Benny stopped going to the office from that day. Instead, he made several trips to New Delhi to persuade the head office to repatriate him to his parent office. He feared that his boss, who had excellent contacts with the CBI, would get him “trapped”. He also mentioned his fear in his representations to the head office. Finally, the order for repatriation came. After a long gap, he went to the office to get “relieved”. But his boss told him sternly that he would be relieved only if he worked that day. Benny began working when a security guard came into his cabin with a packet of sweets. He not only refused to accept it but also asked him to leave the room. After hanging out there for some time he left. Soon, a CBI team rushed into the cabin and asked Benny to hand over the Rs 1000 he had “received” from the guard. When he could not hand over the money as he had not received it, the guard pointed to a plastic folder on the table from which he himself took out two Rs 500 notes. Benny was asked to dip his hands in a bowl of water. The water remained colourless. Benny was bundled into a jeep and taken to his house where the CBI team turned everything upside down. All they could get were Rs 400 from his daughter’s purse and Rs 1000 he had kept with his driving licence. Benny’s bank balance was a princely Rs 1200! The costliest item he had was a Fiat car I had earlier driven for 10 years. His total assets were valued at around Rs 40,000. Benny was kept that night in a police station. Next morning he was produced before a duty magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody. I met the CBI inspector who “trapped” him. He admitted Benny was not corrupt because “we can make out a person’s nature by visiting his house”. Then why was he arrested? “Because he was haughty and did not clear the bills”. As he said this, I remembered a line from the book Defenders of the Establishment, my friend’s father K.S. Dhillon, who once headed the Punjab police, had authored: “There are two kinds of policemen, the honest and the dishonest. The honest policeman rigs the evidence to convict the man he knows is guilty. Perhaps it is the only way he can get a conviction. The dishonest policeman rigs the evidence to convict a man he knows is innocent”. I met the CBI in-charge, a young IPS officer. He allowed me to vent my anger and frustration and even offered me a cup of coffee. He said the CBI would never ‘trap’ an innocent person. At that point I told him that if Benny had ever taken even Rs 5 by way of bribe, the CBI could even hang him. He coolly advised me to prove his innocence in the court and washed his hands of the matter like Pontius Pilate. On the first working day after his arrest, Benny was produced before the CBI judge, a lady. We all trembled as he stood in the dock. But our lawyer did not have to do much. He just handed over to her copies of the letters Benny had written seeking repatriation and his fear that he would be “trapped” by the CBI. The judge read each letter in the open court, occasionally looking at Benny. After about half an hour, she granted him bail. I wrote an open letter to the CBI Director detailing the case. When it appeared in a magazine, it so moved a senior reporter of The Hindu, whom I had never met, that he personally approached the then CBI Director P.C. Sharma on whose intervention the case was “frozen”. But after Mr Sharma retired, the CBI swung into action and filed a chargesheet. Following a few years of trial, the judgement finally came, exonerating Benny of all charges. It clearly says the case was trumped up. My colleague Yoginder Gupta, whose blood has more CrPC and IPC than white corpuscles, read the judgement, which he found bristling with robust reason, in chaste Hindi. The judge shredded the chargesheet into pieces when he pointed out that the wife of the investigating CBI officer was a partner in the security agency, which made the complaint. Meanwhile, Benny’s boss, who instigated the CBI officer to lay the “trap” has been dismissed from service. Once I asked Benny how he spent his time behind bars. He compared himself to the Biblical Joseph, who was implicated in a false case and sent to jail. For comfort, he had a large repertoire of Biblical verses which he kept reciting. Neither Benny nor I have anything against the CBI, but is this how an investigating agency with ‘Industry, Integrity and Impartiality’ as its credo should function?
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UK ruling to benefit Indian professionals London
– Indian professionals in Britain such as accountants, bankers and marketing executives are also expected to benefit from the recent court ruling on treating doctors from India and other non-European Union countries on par with British and EU candidates for employment purposes. The ruling, on a case lodged by the British Association of Physicians of Indian origin (BAPIO), spread a wave of cheer among thousands of Indian and other non-EU doctors working in training jobs or aspiring to work in the National Health Service. Experts believe that it will brighten the employment prospects of thousands of other Indian professionals currently in Britain under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP). The ruling held that Indian and other non-EU doctors under the HSMP needed to be considered at par with British and EU doctors for employment. Amit Kapadia, executive director of the campaigning group HSMP Forum, told IANS: “The decision from the Court of Appeals in BAPIO’s case would not only remove discriminatory and unlawful rules for doctors on HSMP but also all other professionals. “Accountants, techies, engineers, marketers will also benefit from such rulings, as employers will have to stop unlawfully applying such discriminatory rules of restricting HSMP holders from applying for permanent positions due to their limited leave to remain and also because of the draconian extension rules introduced by the Home Office”. Indian professionals under the HSMP, who have a limited period of stay in Britain, find it difficult to gain employment because employers prefer to recruit candidates who have no restrictions on their stay here. Under the HSMP category, overseas professionals are first given one or two years leave to remain in Britain. If they show they are economically active during this period, they are given further extensions. Kapadia said he was aware of several cases of non-EU professionals being refused jobs in writing because of their HSMP status. A major British bank recently wrote to an HSMP holder: “According to your online application form you are currently using a highly skilled migrant worker visa. Unfortunately this is the reason we are unable to proceed with your application. “(Our) company policy states that to be eligible to apply, candidates must have the indefinite right to remain in the UK. I would like to stress that the decision was not made based on your qualifications or skills”. After the ruling, Kapadia said that it will be illegal for employers to deny employment to HSMP professionals on their ground of their HSMP status. The legal challenge brought by the HSMP Forum against retrospective change to HSMP criteria introduced in November 2006 is scheduled to be heard on Nov 30. Another immigration-related case affecting thousands of Indian professionals under the work permit scheme is scheduled for hearing on Dec 17 and 18. This case relates to raising of the qualifying period for permanent stay in Britain from four to five years. Kapadia hoped for a favourable outcome of the cases, particularly after the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights severely criticised the changes to the HSMP rules and the raising of the qualifying period for permanent settlement from four to five years. The committee, in its report in August, called for urgent amendment of immigration rules to remove the retrospective aspect of the rules. According to Kapadia, the Home Office had privately accepted one of its mistakes in relation to HSMP holders who came under the programme between June 2006 and November 2006. Kapadia said: “This has been just one of the many blunders made by the Home Office. We have been highlighting certain discrepancies since past one year but Home Office very recently (since July 2007) started accepting their mistakes. Some of the HSMP holders were issued one-year visas between April and November 2006 while some were issued two to four year visas.” “We are still waiting for the Home Office to come forward and correct their blunder of retrospectively applying new qualifying criteria for HSMP extension and permanent residency to existing resident HSMP visa-holders.” —
Indo-Asian News Service
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Inside Pakistan Despite
General Pervez Musharraf committing one blunder after another, the opposition parties in Pakistan are unable to launch a powerful enough drive against his misrule. That is why the General does not appear to be feeling as unnerved as he did during the lawyers’ movement in the wake of the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in March. PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif are together in the anti-Musharraf camp once again, but their suspicions against each other cannot be ruled out, particularly after Ms Bhutto’s recent overtures to the General. She did not bother about the fate of the Charter of Democracy she had signed with Mr Sharif in London. She also ignored the advice of her own party colleagues that her efforts for striking a deal with a military dictator would not only affect adversely her own party’s support base but also weaken the Opposition campaign against the General’s attempt to perpetuate his rule. Ms Bhutto appeared to be interested in coming back to power even by allowing the General to misuse his position to become President for another term. That is one reason why the Opposition is in total disarray today. According to a report in The News, “Maulana Fazlur Rehman, adopting a different line from other opposition forces, has again refused to give his consent to the date of November 17 for holding an All-Party Conference (APC), jointly agreed to by Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif.” The paper quoted its sources to say that “Fazl argued that he would not attend any joint conference of the Opposition, including the one that would be organised on the platform of the All Parties’ Democratic Movement (APDM) before his JUI(F)’s decision-making session on November 20.” The real purpose of the Maulana, who is also the MMA’s General Secretary, is to ensure that Ms Bhutto doesn’t “hijack” the opposition platform. Within the MMA itself there are serious differences of opinion on various issues between the JUI(F) and the Jamaat-e-Islami. The two powerful religious parties seemed to be parting company because of Maulana Rehman’s unhelpful role when the Opposition unsuccessfully tried to prevent General Musharraf from getting re-elected as President. Threat to Imran’s life The way Tehrik-e-Insaaf Party chief Imran Khan has been arrested from the Punjab University campus in Lahore with the help of the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami shows that some of the opposition parties are working at cross purposes. The former cricketer-turned-politician was first confined to a classroom by activists of the Islami Jamaat-e-Tulaba(IJT), affiliated to the Jamaat, and then handed over to the police. He faces serious cooked-up charges that can result in a death sentence or life imprisonment Interestingly, the Jamaat, an important member of the MMA, is an alliance partner of Mr Khan’s party. The Jamaat chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, has disapproved of the action of his party’s student wing, but its leaders have received no punishment for their irresponsible behaviour. As Dawn commented on November 15, “The group (IJT) has more or less terrorised Punjab University for the last year or so, bullying the administration into taking certain decisions like shutting down the musicology department or disrupting cultural functions. The self-professed morality police seem to be upset that Mr Khan was invited without their knowledge, as if the university is their sole turf.” Anti-judiciary drive again It seems those running the government in Islamabad are not feeling comfortable even when the Pakistan Supreme Court is composed of the judges who refused to side with Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry when he along with some brother judges declared the emergency as unconstitutional immediately after its imposition. They are the same judges who adjudicated upon the Lal Masjid case and allowed the release of 61 “confirmed terrorists”, as stated in the emergency proclamation. That is, perhaps, why ruling coalition MPs asked General Musharraf last week to “divest the apex court of its suo motu powers”, according to Business Recorder. The financial daily quoted these people’s representatives as saying that “otherwise we will again face problems that confronted us particularly at the hands of the Supreme Court” in the recent past.
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A VERY senior officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation called me up recently about an editorial The Tribune had published. He told me in impeccable English that it showed we had “no clue about the functioning of the CBI.” Despite my urging, he did not elaborate on the inadequacies he found in the leader.