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Polls in Pakistan Complaints about cops |
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Perpetual probe
Reforming the police
The speaking tree
They don’t blame
Al-Qaida, they blame Musharraf Rekindling a ‘national memory’ The United Nation’s latest recruit: Spiderman!
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Polls in Pakistan THE Election Commission of Pakistan is contemplating postponement of the January 8 elections to the end of February. In fact, it has already made up its mind to delay the polls, and the much-awaited announcement will be just a formality. The excuse for this dangerous plan is what the commission calls “the security problem” in at least 13 districts following the assassination of PPP chief Benazir Bhutto. The commission has also said that since replacing the ballot boxes and electoral rolls destroyed in the violence in Sindh and elsewhere will take time, the holding of elections as scheduled “looks impossible”. Besides these, Muharram-related rituals are also being cited as a hindrance. The mention of Muharram is surprising as this factor must have been kept in view while finalising the poll date. The truth is the emergence of a strong anti-Musharraf sentiment all over Pakistan. In such an atmosphere, President Musharraf’s PML (Q) is bound to be routed in the elections. Obviously, the major beneficiaries will be the PPP and Mr Nawaz Sharif’s PML (N). There is, in fact, the possibility of the PPP being in a position to form a government in Islamabad on its own because of the countrywide sympathy wave caused by the Benazir murder. That is why the caretaker government is in search of excuses to delay the elections. In its calculations, the sympathy factor working in favour of the PPP may get weakened if the polls are postponed. The postponement may also bring with it more violence, worsening the already chaotic situation in most parts of Pakistan. The PPP and the PML (N) have already threatened not to take it lying down. These parties have expressed their strong opposition to the idea of delaying the elections. They must be preparing to launch a countrywide movement to expose the designs of the Musharraf regime. It would be wise on the part of Islamabad to abandon the thought of changing the poll schedule. It can find a way to handle the crisis caused by the attack on the Election Commission offices. This will not only be in the interest of restoration of democracy but will also help in ensuring stability in Pakistan. |
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Complaints about cops THE Haryana government should not have ignored the Centre’s directive to give mandatory powers to the State Police Complaints Authority in its legislation on police reforms. If this authority’s recommendation for action against a policeman is not binding on the government, as the Haryana government wants it to be, it will serve no useful purpose and its very existence will be inconsequential. In tune with the Supreme Court’s directive on September 22, 2006, all the states and Union Territories are expected to set up such authorities at the district (for complaints against policemen up to the DSP’s rank) and state level (from the SP’s rank). They are meant to help the people file complaints against policemen for their acts of misconduct like extortion, rape in custody, land or house grabbing and abuse of authority. An unhelpful policeman can also be brought to book if he/she doesn’t cooperate with a citizen in filing a first information report (FIR), for instance. The police complaint authority system has been functioning well in many countries. It is an effective instrument in the people’s hands to make policemen aware of their responsibilities and act accordingly. In the present system, a citizen can go to the court with a complaint against a policeman. However, it is a cumbersome and time-consuming process. On the contrary, the complaint authority system is a major reform that will enhance accountability and empower the people in the truest sense. There is no ambiguity about the Supreme Court’s directive. In essence, the authority’s inquiry and subsequent action will replace the formal departmental inquiry. Once its inquiry is completed, the authority can recommend suitable disciplinary action against the erring policeman to the government which will be bound by it. Alternatively, the authority can also advise the registration of an FIR against the policeman. While the new system merits a fair trial, proper steps are needed to insulate the complaint authorities from pressures, political or otherwise. Independence of members, adequate funding and infrastructure and cooperation between the authority and the police department are essential for the success of the new system. |
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Perpetual probe YEARS come and go but certain things continue in perpetuity. Among them is the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry probing the razing of the Babri mosque in 1992. Set up soon after the incident, it was supposed to submit its report within three months. Fifteen years and 399 sittings later, it has still not completed its work and has now been given the 43rd extension. Will that be the end of the wait? Don’t count on it. It is already the country’s longest-running enquiry. Perhaps with a bit of ingenuity, it can make it to the Guinness Book of World Records, too, some day. The only ones who seem to have benefited from it are the legal eagles attached to it. The expenditure has already gone past the Rs 70-million mark. This despite the fact that in 2006, Home Minister Shivraj Patil had assured the Lok Sabha that by 2006-end, the panel would submit its report and the role of all leaders involved would be out. There are serious doubts not only about the “when” part of the report but also the “what” considering that Anupam Gupta, the lawyer attached to the commission, had said some months ago that he wasn’t sure if Justice Liberhan would like to address the role played by BJP leader L.K. Advani in the demolition. He has since disassociated himself from the commission. It will be wrong to blame the good judge for the delay because he had been hemmed in by lack of infrastructural support. It must have been nightmarish for the single-judge panel to examine such a large number of persons and sift through the mass of evidence in the absence of crucial investigating staff. The commission had been stripped of the services of CBI personnel assigned to it in 1993. All this raises the question whether the whole purpose of the inquiry was to bide time. |
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I make myself laugh at everything, for fear of having to weep at it. — Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
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Reforming the police
Ever since the Supreme Court’s directives to the Centre, states and Union Territories to implement police reforms, there has been some forward movement. The chief ministers seem to have realised that their reservations notwithstanding, they cannot flout the apex court’s orders any more. Almost half of the states have complied with the directives. Some have partially implemented them while the remaining are in the process of finalising them. Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have passed the Bills, but there are some glitches. Haryana, for instance, is reluctant to give mandatory powers to the State Police Complaints Authority. Of what use this committee will be if the government does not implement its recommendation to punish an erring cop following a citizen’s complaint? The Union Home Ministry has come out with a Model Police Bill after the Police Act Drafting Committee headed by Mr Soli J. Sorabjee, eminent jurist, submitted its report to the government. There is inordinate delay in its enactment. It is not yet clear when the Centre will introduce the Bill in Parliament. The problem with the states is that the political class is allergic to reforms. No state government would like to lose its hold over the police. Given an opportunity, the states would do everything to scuttle them. Not surprisingly, whenever an expert committee has come out with sound recommendations to streamline the system, the states have developed cold feet. The report of the National Police Commission headed by the late Dharma Vira over 25 years ago had failed to click because of the states’ non-cooperation. Interestingly, the Supreme Court’s directives are based on this report. Clearly, if there is some forward movement today, it is only because of the apex court’s firm stand. It has refused to heed some states’ petitions for a review of its directives issued on September 22, 2006. It rejected the petitions on the ground that these were devoid of logic and hence unsustainable. In a way, these also expose the states’ reluctance to insulate the police machinery from political influence. Who will believe, for instance, that there is “minimal” political interference in the police administration in Gujarat under Mr Narendra Modi? His government (including that of Nagaland) told the court that there was no “unwarranted influence” over the police and hence no need for a state security commission. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh feel that setting up a state security commission with binding powers will undermine the powers of a constitutionally established state over the state police. They say it will lead to the creation of a “parallel body” which is not accountable to the people of the state and would infringe upon the state’s rights and autonomy. These states also say that a fixed tenure for the Director-General of Police will demoralise officers and limit the government’s flexibility. They say a two-year fixed tenure for the DGP, irrespective of his date of superannuation, will block opportunities for other eligible senior officers and take away the government’s right to transfer police officers to meet what they call “administrative exigencies”. Going a step further, Andhra Pradesh says that an officer’s short tenure does not impact on efficient functioning. Karnataka and Gujarat oppose the empanelment of three senior officers for appointment to the DGP’s post by the Union Public Service Commission. Such an exercise is neither practical nor necessary, they say. These states and Tamil Nadu have also been opposing the directive for police establishment boards and complaint authorities on the ground that these will duplicate the existing systems as also impose a financial burden on the governments. These arguments are simply unconvincing and lack merit. The court has ruled that these reforms are vital for making the police administration neutral, professional and responsive. There is no denying that the decay in the police administration in most states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, has become increasingly worse because successive regimes have failed to improve the governments’ style of functioning. This is evident in the way police officers are subjected to a system of reward and punishment and the way officers are forced to become victims of lopsided priorities. Worse, peremptory transfers subject the officers to the whims of even local-level politicians. Consequently, the police are caught in a conflict of interests. In fact, in today’s coalition politics, some chief ministers themselves are hostages to blackmail by the governments’ allies. With the law and order machinery in perpetual disorder, money has always changed hands for postings and transfers from the DGP to the SHO level. Though many states have enacted laws, some of them sought to dilute and weaken the court’s directives. Consider the one on state security commission. The rationale behind this reform is to prevent the government’s unwarranted influence on the police. However, some states have excluded the Leader of Opposition from the state selection committee (SSC), reduced the number of independent non-government members from five to two as also the security of tenure for non-government members “subject to the pleasure of the government”. The SSC will become a farce if the membership tilts heavily towards government representatives, the independent members are outnumbered, and there is no Leader of Opposition in the panel. How will the SSC impart confidence and ensure just and fair selection of an officer to an important field posting if it is not realistically insulated from undue political interference? The problem is that if the SSC’s role in the selection process is diluted, the government will continue to retain full and absolute control over the police apparatus and it will be the status quo ante again with no systemic change worth the name. The tenure system is a major reform. The apex court is for a two-year tenure for officers on operational duties (from the DGP to the SHOs). However, most states (including Punjab and Haryana) have provided for only one-year tenure. Himachal Pradesh has provided for two years. How will these officers do justice to their work in just one year? At the National District Collectors’ Conference (May 2005) and National Superintendents’ of Police Conference (September 2005), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had suggested a two-year tenure for them to ensure stability, continuity and efficiency in administration. It is noteworthy that the Second Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Mr M. Veerappa Moily has recommended a three-year tenure for the officers. In its Fifth Report, Public Order (June 2007), it says that the fixed tenure should not become a hindrance for the removal of especially the DGP-rank officer, “the Chief of Law and Order Police” and “the Chief of the Crime Investigation Agency”, in case of incompetence, corruption, etc. It says that the police chief’s removal by the government should be subject to the State Police Performance and Accountability Commi-ssion’s clearance. If the police officers are shuffled every year in the name of “administrative exigencies” or “at the officer’s own request”, it will make a mess of the administration and defeat the very purpose of the intended reform. The apex court will have to ensure that in the name of complying with its directives, the states don’t weaken or dilute them in their respective
legislation.
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The speaking tree
Having
jogged a bit hard in the Town Park, I stopped under the lonely, holy and aged Peepal tree to stabilise my breathing. “Hey, you humans are strange creatures!” I heard from nowhere when I looked at a pattern of falling bark on the trunk of the Peepal. “Are you a speaking tree?” I asked and observed a smile flashing on the tree-face. You may call it wooden, but I will not, since it had emotions, expressions and was enormously animated. “You all are here everyday and still do not greet one another. Rather, you brush past as if by the side of a log, on encountering someone, menacingly brisk-walking on his doctor’s advice. You seem to spare no winks and smiles for each other. You do not exchange even a kind of tokenism of your supplemental existence,” the speaking tree was quite candid in his observations and expression of disgust. “And what else have you observed about us, the human beings,” I asked trying to restrict the curve of my smile when pat came the suggestion: “Now stand for a while and look at the one who is cutting corners literally and also the other one who does not go faithfully on the curved walking track and rather strays off tangent for a short cut. What for? To save some distance? To cheat oneself! Fools.” The speaking tree was full of contempt at the behavior of the ‘park pals’ — an expression he did not agree with since he had not seen any bonding between those who come daily to walk in the park. I stood speechless when again the Peepal nitpicked, “Now look at them. They are three of them. A man and two women in tow. I can have a bet that they will never walk from under the wire mesh shed, loaded with green creepers, but will ‘bypass’ it. Is it not pleasurable walking in that airy, shadowy, green arcade purpose-made only for them to have a more idyllic feel!” The speaking tree had hardly concluded when I saw exactly the same thing happening in front of me. I chuckled and kept mum with my breathing being restored slowly but my eyes becoming heavier with inability to face the tree-face due to some kind of guilt experienced. “Tell me something good and heartwarming speaking tree since you know it is very rare that one hears such pithy stuff,” I tried to digress and seek a real philosophical intervention from the “Mighty Seer” for he might still go ahead with his banter against those who litter, spit and soil the parks, what the environmentalists call the lungs in urban habitations. “All I can recall are the stories of sweat and toil my dear!” speaking tree said with some lament laced in his comment. “Sweat and toil? Sorry, I didn’t quite follow it.” I sought an elaboration. “All I wish to say is that once upon a time the farmer and tiller of this land used to sweat out here to earn his bread and spare a lot for others as well. But nowadays the likes of you sweat it out here but only seeking to maintain appropriate levels of your blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol etc. But you are still better of the lot,” speaking tree said to me. “How come you are so kind to me?” I asked. “At least you are listening to me while all others pay no heed.” I took leave of the speaking tree quite pampered. But aren’t great souls known to pamper and preach. Take heed O’ Homo
sapiens.
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They don’t blame Al-Qaida, they blame Musharraf Weird, isn’t it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us. Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, is assassinated in Rawalpindi – attached to the very capital of Islamabad wherein ex-General Pervez Musharraf lives – and we are told by George Bush that her murderers were “extremists” and “terrorists”. Well, you can’t dispute that. But the implication of the Bush comment was that Islamists were behind the assassination. It was the Taliban madmen again, the al-Qa’ida spider who struck at this lone and brave woman who had dared to call for democracy in her country. Of course, given the childish coverage of this appalling tragedy – and however corrupt Ms Bhutto may have been, let us be under no illusions that this brave lady is indeed a true martyr – it’s not surprising that the “good-versus-evil” donkey can be trotted out to explain the carnage in Rawalpindi. Who would have imagined, watching the BBC or CNN, that her two brothers, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, hijacked a Pakistani airliner in 1981 and flew it to Kabul where Murtaza demanded the release of political prisoners in Pakistan. Here, a military officer on the plane was murdered. There were Americans aboard the flight – which is probably why the prisoners were indeed released. Only a few days ago – in one of the most remarkable (but typically unrecognised) scoops of the year – Tariq Ali published a brilliant dissection of Pakistan (and Bhutto) corruption in the London Review of Books, focusing on Benazir and headlined: “Daughter of the West”. In fact, the article was on my desk to photocopy as its subject was being murdered in Rawalpindi. Towards the end of this report, Tariq Ali dwelt at length on the subsequent murder of Murtaza Bhutto by police close to his home at a time when Benazir was prime minister – and at a time when Benazir was enraged at Murtaza for demanding a return to PPP values and for condemning Benazir’s appointment of her own husband as minister for industry, a highly lucrative post. In a passage which may yet be applied to the aftermath of Benazir’s murder, the report continues: “The fatal bullet had been fired at close range. The trap had been carefully laid, but, as is the way in Pakistan, the crudeness of the operation – false entries in police log-books, lost evidence, witnesses arrested and intimidated – a policeman killed who they feared might talk – made it obvious that the decision to execute the prime minister’s brother had been taken at a very high level.” When Murtaza’s 14-year-old daughter, Fatima, rang her aunt Benazir to ask why witnesses were being arrested – rather than her father’s killers – she says Benazir told her: “Look, you’re very young. You don’t understand things.” Or so Tariq Ali’s expose would have us believe. Over all this, however, looms the shocking power of Pakistan’s ISI, the Inter Services Intelligence. This vast institution – corrupt, venal and brutal – works for Musharraf. But it also worked – and still works – for the Taliban. It also works for the Americans. In fact, it works for everybody. But it is the key which Musharraf can use to open talks with America’s enemies when he feels threatened or wants to put pressure on Afghanistan or wants to appease the “extremists” and “terrorists” who so oppress George Bush. And let us remember, by the way, that Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter beheaded by his Islamist captors in Karachi, actually made his fatal appointment with his future murderers from an ISI commander’s office. Ahmed Rashid’s book Taliban provides riveting proof of the ISI’s web of corruption and violence. Read it, and all of the above makes more sense. But back to the official narrative. George Bush has announced he was “looking forward” to talking to his old friend Musharraf. Of course, they would talk about Benazir. They certainly would not talk about the fact that Musharraf continues to protect his old acquaintance – a certain Mr Khan – who supplied all Pakistan’s nuclear secrets to Libya and Iran. No, let’s not bring that bit of the “axis of evil” into this. So, of course, we were asked to concentrate once more on all those “extremists” and “terrorists”, not on the logic of questioning which many Pakistanis were feeling their way through in the aftermath of Benazir’s assassination. It doesn’t, after all, take much to comprehend that the hated elections looming over Musharraf would probably be postponed indefinitely if his principal political opponent happened to be liquidated before polling day. So let’s run through this logic in the way that Inspector Ian Blair might have done in his policeman’s notebook before he became the top cop in London. Question: Who forced Benazir Bhutto to stay in London and tried to prevent her return to Pakistan? Answer: General Musharraf. Question: Who ordered the arrest of thousands of Benazir’s supporters this month? Answer: General Musharraf. Question: Who placed Benazir under temporary house arrest this month? Answer: General Musharraf. Question: Who declared martial law this month? Answer General Musharraf. Question: who killed Benazir Bhutto? Er. Yes. Well quite. You see the problem? Our television warriors have informed us the PPP members shouting that Musharraf was a “murderer” were complaining he had not provided sufficient security for Benazir. Wrong. They were shouting this because they believe he killed her. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Rekindling a ‘national memory’ MOSCOW – The Soviet film The Irony of Fate has a permanent home in Russian hearts – and on TV screens every holiday season.
The 1975 film, directed by Eldar Ryazanov, is a sweet, witty romance that also took a sly shot at homogenisation in Soviet life. After a bender with his buddies, a Moscow doctor named Zhenya sobers up in the Leningrad airport, unaware that he has flown to that city. He takes a taxi through streets exactly like those at home to an apartment block exactly like his and even opens the door to what he believes is his fourth-floor flat with his key from Moscow. The oblivious Zhenya falls into bed. The apartment in fact belongs to an attractive blonde named Nadya, a woman not entirely happy with her puffed-up bureaucrat boyfriend and searching for something truer in life and love. She and Zhenya, the slightly hapless hero, strike up a romance. But the film, which airs every New Year’s Eve on Russian television, ends without revealing the couple’s ultimate fate. Now the suspense is over. The Irony of Fate: Continuation opened in Russian theaters in December. “For people who were born in the territory of the former Soviet Union, ‘The Irony of Fate’ is not actually a film - it is part of their national memory,” Konstantin Ernst, one of the new film’s producers, said at a news conference this month. Retouching a classic is a risky business. And perhaps unsurprisingly, a film whose makers insist is not a sequel has met with derision from Moscow film critics. “The second ‘Irony’ differs from the first one as much as the rotten, dank weather outside differs from a frosty, fresh December with powdery snow,” Yelena Yampolskaya wrote in the newspaper Izvestia. The bad reviews had no effect on curious moviegoers, who showed up in droves. The box office take was $9 million the first weekend, making the film a blockbuster by Russian standards. “I liked it because it’s so recognizable,” Nadezhda Bessonova, a 28-year-old computer specialist, said after seeing the movie this week. “It’s also a humane and kind depiction of our current life.” After the first “Irony” faded to black, the new film informs us, Zhenya and Nadya went their separate ways. Nadya stuck with her bureaucrat boyfriend, married him and had a daughter, also called Nadya. Zhenya married and had a son, Konstantin. Both later divorced. More than 30 years later, Konstantin ends up blind drunk in the original flat, where the younger Nadya finds him. He is there as part of a convoluted ruse by his father’s friends to get Zhenya back into the arms of the woman with whom he shared a magical night. The waylaid son is the bait to get Zhenya back to Leningrad, now called St. Petersburg. Of course, one romance is rekindled, and another, between the son and daughter, is struck up. The original lead actors returned for the new film, including the Polish actress Barbara Brylska, whose voice was dubbed in both versions. Ryazanov, who is now 80, declined to direct the new “Irony” but read the script in advance and took the same cameo part he played in the original. Yet he has been studiously silent since the movie opened, and declined to comment for this article. The “continuation,” however unwittingly, is in its own way a reflection of the new Russia, where consumerism is king. The film is chockablock with product placements, particularly for Beeline, a Russian cellphone operator that is one of the movie’s backers. The sense of dislocation triggered in the original movie by the sameness of Soviet construction is ostensibly re-created in the new film through mishaps with cellphones. Most critics weren’t buying that, either. “The people who made ‘The Irony of Fate 2’ are sure that everything on Earth can be sold,” Yampolskaya wrote. “One more brand appeared in our lives. And one miracle disappeared.” By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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The United Nation’s latest recruit: Spiderman! SpiderMan’s
challenges have so far been pretty small stuff. Since he first spun his web in the 1960s, he has squared up to a gallery of rogues, from the multi-limbed Doctor Octopus to the shape-shifting Sandman. Yet so far he has only been tasked with rescuing the citizens of New York. Now he is set for the truly big time. In a story out later this year, the Marvel hero will be called upon to rescue the battered image of a very real-world institution – the United Nations. In a move that will add grist to the mills of critics of the UN, who say the New York-based international organisation is ineffective and is suffering a communications crisis, particularly in the US, the body is joining forces with Marvel Comics, the creative force behind a stable of superheroes that includes Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men. The unlikely partnership will create a new comic book that will include UN characters working alongside “Spidey” and other superheroes to settle bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease. Details of the plot have not yet been released but, according to the UN Office for Partnerships, the script is being written and the final storyline is set to be approved next month. Cartoonists and writers are working for free. The comic is expected to be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature heroes including Spiderman and the Fantastic Four, as well as workers from UN agencies such as children’s charity UNICEF and blue helmets of the peacekeeping forces. Eventually, the work will be translated into several other languages and widely distributed, but it is American schoolchildren who the UN plans to target first in a bid to rescue its image; the comic will be distributed free to one million US school children later next year. The UN says on its website, “By making the complex UN system accessible to youth, the partners hope to teach children the value of international co-operation, and sensitise them to the problems faced in other parts of the world.” There is, of course, no mention on its website of the UN’s troubled image but the initiative can only serve to bolster the organisation’s reputation, which has become embroiled in accusations of corruption and ineptitude. Relations between the UN and the US have become particularly tense during the presidency of George Bush. More than 10 years ago, former US ambassador the UN, John Bolton went so far as to say there was “no such thing” as the UN and called the US the world’s “only real power”. He also declared that if the 38-storey UN building “lost 10 storeys today, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference”. Marvel Entertainment, the parent company based in New York that owns Marvel Comics, is known in the publishing industry for zealously guarding its brand, regularly declining tie-in and licensing opportunities. Many will raise an eyebrow at the firm’s apparent UN love-in, but a look at the comic company’s history reveals a long tradition of promoting political causes, and acting as a touchstone for American ideals and patriotism. In Spiderman, the international body may have found a public relations supremo worth a thousand besuited Manhattan marketing executives. Spiderman, easily the most successful of Marvel’s gallery of superheroes, was not immune to political influences. A Cold War-era hero – Peter Parker’s alter-ego first appeared in the comic book Amazing Fantasy in 1962 – Spiderman also reflected American city-dweller’s increasingly angst-ridden relationships with their metropolises. Here was a hero who could single-handedly rid the streets of crime. Back at the UN, chiefs have been quick to point out it was not they who came up with the idea for the new comics. That distinction lies with French filmmaker, Romuald Sciora. But a close look at his CV shows him to be something of a UN loyalist – his portfolio includes “À la maison de verre” (In the glass house), a series of short documentaries looking at the leadership and accomplishments of the last four UN Secretaries-General. UN bosses will be eagerly anticipating the latest attempt to restore the organisation’s reputation. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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