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Pappu Yadav MP — a lifer Petrol is pricey |
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Pedlar of antics Munnabhai sells marriage that never was Sanjay Dutt and Manyata will no longer have to protest that they are not married. They, really, are not married. The Government of Goa has declared their marriage as void because they had faked – no, not the marriage – but the documents for registration of their marriage.
Why farmers commit suicides
The gardener
Transparency matters I worked like a galley slave, says Putin Inside Pakistan
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Pappu Yadav MP — a lifer AT last! The CBI Special Court in Patna has sentenced Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Pappu Yadav alias Rajesh Ranjan to life imprisonment for his involvement in the gruesome murder of the firebrand CPM legislator Ajit Sarkar. Along with him, former legislator Rajan Tiwari and Anil Yadav have also been sentenced to life for killing Sarkar in Purnia town of Bihar 10 years ago. The punishment for the Honourable Member of Parliament and his cronies is indeed welcome because criminals like Pappu Yadav and Mohammed Shahabuddin (the RJD MP from Sewan who was awarded life imprisonment for another murder) should have no place in Parliament or state legislatures. The best place for them is jail. The Ajit Sarkar case saw several ups and downs ever since Pappu Yadav was arrested in March 2004. If he failed in his tricks to hoodwink justice, it is only because of the pro-active role played by the Supreme Court. It disproved of the comfortable lifestyle he was enjoying in Bihar’s Beur Jail and shifted him to the high security Tihar Jail in New Delhi two years ago. Pappu Yadav, obviously because of his clout and relationship with his party supremo and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, let loose a reign of terror in Beur jail where he was behaving like an extra-constitutional authority. He was organising parties and giving audience, in typical durbar style, to his party supporters, in violation of prison rules. The jail officials were too scared to question his ways and chose to carry out his commands without demur. Interestingly, Pappu Yadav has set a national record in filing the maximum bail petitions. In November 2006, the Supreme Court ordered that no court in the country would further entertain his bail applications in the Ajit Sarkar case. And when it lifted this ban on him in December last year, he promptly sought bail for treatment of his “morbid obesity”. The Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan refused to let him out on bail saying that he could undergo medical treatment while staying in Tihar Jail itself. Criminals like Pappu Yadav and Mohammed Shahabuddin who found their way into Parliament are an anathema to the political system and society as a whole and they deserve no mercy. If more and more politician-criminals like them are thrown behind bars, this may help check the increasing criminalisation of politics and cleanse Parliament and state assemblies of malcontents.
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Petrol is pricey After months of deliberations, the government raised the oil prices on Thursday. Though the price hike is small and kerosene and cooking gas have been spared, yet the cascading effect on prices of general commodities is unavoidable. To add to citizens’ problems, the international prices of foodgrains and edible oils have risen sharply. The RBI Governor has been particularly worried about inflation going out of control. The government’s decision on oil price hike runs contrary to his inflation-control efforts. Its compulsions, however, are understandable. The global crude prices, after a recent fall, have spurted to $94 a barrel. The public sector oil companies lose Rs 7 on every litre of petrol and Rs 8 a litre on diesel. The loss on kerosene is even sharper at Rs 17 a litre and that on LPG at Rs 250 a cylinder. The hike of Rs 2 for petrol and Re 1 for diesel will cut these companies’ losses by 1.2 per cent to Rs 71,800 crore this fiscal. The real benefits will accrue in the coming fiscal year. The government had last raised the oil prices in June, 2006, but reduced these last year on February 15. Instead of fuelling the inflationary fire, the government could have cut the taxes on oil and set an example for the states to follow. In Delhi the tax on petrol is 52 per cent and on diesel it is 32 per cent. Why not tax oil-guzzling big cars more instead? Due to the ad valorem duty structure, the Centre’s tax collection from oil has steadily gone up. The government has also gained from the rupee’s rise against the dollar. Besides, there is a general tax buoyancy on account of economic growth. All this should have prompted the government to bail out the oil PSUs. The Finance Minister talks of giving tax benefits to corporates in the coming Budget, which being the last before the elections, is widely expected to be populist. Obviously, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister need to get their priorities and politics right. |
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Pedlar of antics Sanjay Dutt and Manyata will no longer have to protest that they are not married. They, really, are not married. The Government of Goa has declared their marriage as void because they had faked – no, not the marriage – but the documents for registration of their marriage. This is the trouble with people in the film world: They believe that since people are beguiled by whatever they reel out on the screen, people can also be fooled in the real world; that in real life, too, they can get away by assuming any role. As celebrities, they are confident that officials, who are not sufficiently cowed by their glamour and status to be obliging or conniving, simply need to be hoodwinked. So it was with Sanjay and Manyata who declared themselves as residents of Goa for registration of their marriage. The courting couple has, knowingly and deliberately, courted trouble. Trouble could well be Sanjay Dutt’s middle name. Although he may lament that trouble finds him, his record shows that it is he who has an unerring propensity to get into trouble. He seems to be suffering from somewhat more delusions that most others in an industry that sells dreams. After falling foul of the law for being in unlawful possession of a weapon, undergoing the ordeal of prolonged and recurrent detention, and a clear idea and full taste of what kicking over the traces can do to him, our Munnabhai still looks to cut corners or tweak the law of the land. Is he a compulsive-obsessive personality who can never stick to the straight and the narrow? Is Manayata, his companion in faking the certificates, a woman after his own heart in more senses than one? No one could, or would, have stopped them from getting married; and, they had the option of doing it in any number of ways or places. These days, couples do it in the air, underwater, on mountain peaks and even while bungee jumping. To do it the one way that meant breaking the law shows an amazing capacity to befool others. Or, maybe Sanju Bhaiya prefers to be in the news — even of the wrong kind. |
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Just as a flower, which seems beautiful has colour but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of a man who speaks them but does them not. — Dhammapada
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Why farmers commit suicides
RECENTLY the news of farmers’ suicides has resurfaced in the national scene in a shocking manner and it is hard to believe that in one year (2006) there were 17,060 suicides. Why is it that so many farmers are continuing to commit suicide even when the problem has been addressed at the highest level in the country and huge relief packages have been sanctioned? Several research papers and books have already been written about the causes behind such suicides and extensive interviews have been conducted with the family members of farmers who died in a most gruesome manner. All point to the fact that it is crop failures and economic and social pressure that are the main causes behind farmers’ suicides and it is not related to “general depression” among farmers, as some politicians would like us to believe. It is also not the rich farmer but the small and marginal farmers and sometimes tenant cultivators who are the victims and the number gets bigger if we take into account women farmers. They die most commonly by consuming pesticides and obviously extreme conditions of stress and loss of economic assets drive them to this act. There is the fear of the moneylender who has a hold on the farmer’s entire life cycle, loss of social status and hopelessness that compel him to take the extreme step. Nowhere in the world have so many farmers taken their own lives like in India though many countries have faced agrarian crises of various types. It is not as though Indian farmers cannot be helped. The Prime Minister himself went to the affected areas two years ago and a hefty baleout package had been worked out. Why is it that despite the relief package worth Rs 4,825 crore in the Vidharba region alone, the suicide rate in that area is still rising? It means that either the real reasons have not been identified or the package did not reach the farmers and only went to old projects. It basically reflects the deep-seated problems in agriculture which relate to a sharp fall in public investment over the last decade and a half. It also shows that the average farmer is extremely vulnerable to misinformation about crop prospects and crop diversification because of his low literacy level. Because when economic pressure compels farmers to seek higher returns, they try to change over from growing food crops to growing cash crops and they are not fully aware of the risks involved due to poor extension work in the farms. The seeds which are usually sold by multinational corporations are far more expensive for cash crops and they require a more intense application of water and fertilisers. Again, very few are guided properly and they end up applying huge amounts of fertilisers which require more water. When monsoons are not good enough there is need for additional water supply. Farmers are forced to tapping ground water. Thus they borrow from the ubiquitous moneylenders to drill deeper and deeper wells but as the water table has in many places moved down due to over exploitation of ground water, they are unsuccessful in getting water. When the crop fails or the produce is not as good as expected, the farmer is in trouble. He has already borrowed heavily at high interest rate and often has to sell in a market which is not remunerative or is openly exploitative. Here the downward global price trend in certain commodities like cotton, play a part. Due to the heavily subsidised agriculture in the US, its cotton production in recent years has been enormous and the international price of cotton has been declining as a result. Thus while Indian farmers are facing rising input costs, the price they get in the market for their produce (which is driven by the international price) is not able to cover the high input costs. As a result, the farmer faces a debt trap. Facing the moneylender becomes impossible for him, specially when he has sold off everything and has nothing to fall back upon. The state governments can help in many ways like establishing seed banks because it is the high cost of seeds that is the main cause for rising cost of cultivation. It would also take care of the problem of spurious seeds in the market. Agricultural extension work needs to be revamped as the farmers need more reliable information regarding crop prospects and the risks involved. Also, bio pesticides and organic farming have to be encouraged as it would help recharge the soil that has been exhausted by excessive use of chemical fertilisers and this in turn may reduce the risks of crop failures. Recharging ground water and other water bodies can also be very helpful in times of water stress. This task can be entrusted to panchayats. Above all, easier access to credit would be of utmost importance. Indian agriculture is also facing unfair competition from abroad. At the international negotiating table, the Indian delegation has to make sure that in the ongoing Doha Round of the WTO, Special and Differential Treatment of products is taken into account. It is a contentious issue because India and many developing countries have asked for a longer period of implementation for various agreements embodied in the Doha Round — especially those regarding tariff reduction. It is important for these countries to be able to continue with tariff protection for some special products that form the backbone of their food security system and are critical for the farmers’ survival. The influx of competing imports has led to the slow demand for some crops like oil seeds that has impoverished farmers. India has already scrapped all quantitative restrictions on various agricultural products and has also reduced tariffs on many items. The result is a huge influx of all kinds of agricultural produce starting from Australian fruits, Thai vegetables and European cheeses and spices. At the WTO, the US however is going to be tough on the negotiations on special and differential treatment of products because it would hurt their own export prospects in agricultural products, slated at $11 billion in 2008. Unless India protects its own agriculture from cheap imports, rising costs, credit squeeze, and goes for a total revamp of agriculture, more farmers’ suicides may
surface.
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The gardener
I
must have passed it a hundred times — a nondescript schoolhouse stuck in the middle of nowhere, like hundreds of other schoolhouses that dot the Punjab countryside. The L-shaped building was built into one corner of a rectangular plot — the rest of the space wild and unkept, so symptomatic of the government school education system that I learnt to turn my eyes away as we passed. Then, suddenly, one day, I could not turn my eyes away. The building wore a coat of fresh paint, a decidedly bilious yellow, but it did make the building look neat and spruced up. The compound had lost its wildness. There were saplings planted along the boundary, neat flowerbeds bordering the building and a basketball court in the rest of the space. In the months that followed the saplings took root and the flowerbeds bloomed — yes, only with the humble marigolds and cannas but the school looked, at last, cared for. On an impulse I went into the school compound. It was long past school hours but a middle aged Sikh gentleman emerged from the building and greeted me with a welcoming smile. We introduced ourselves, he the headmaster of the little primary government school and I the headmaster of one of the leading and most elitist public schools in the region. He took me into his little office and offered me a cup of tea. It was the first of many meetings. Over the following years I learnt a great deal about him, a great deal from him. He was well read, well informed with clear cut, realistic ideas of what he could achieve within the limitations of his system, and how he could achieve this. Above all, my meetings confirmed what I already knew from my first glance at the “new” school building — he was a man who passionately cared, for the world around him and, most deeply, for his children and he made sure that this caring translated itself into meaningful and far-reaching actions. He was a gardener in the true sense of the word. At the end of the year, I moved to another school and it was a long time before I travelled on that road again. When I did I was shocked to see the condition of that schoolhouse. The saplings were now strong enough to take care of themselves but the flowerbeds had been allowed to go to seed, the playground was overgrown with weeds and bushes and one of the basketball poles was bent at a precarious angle. It was obvious that my friend had been posted out. I checked the impulse to go in and find out where he had been transferred. It did not matter — wherever he was there would be trees and flowers and a basketball court and the schoolhouse would wear a fresh coat of paint proclaiming to all the world that a gardener had taken charge of the schoolhouse, a gardener who cared for his school and for his
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Transparency matters THE recent slew of Integrity Pacts adopted by Public Sector behemoths like Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Container Corporation of India, Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited and a host of others, is an indicator of the growing urgency among Government organisations to institutionalise transparency and accountability in their working. The rising incidents of scandals and delays in Government contracts and procurements have led the common man to believe that corruption is rampant in Government dealings. Clearly the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are keen to clean up their image and dispel the common perception. Public procurement through government contracts have always been the primary source of corruption. According to experts, in Government procurement and work tenders, less than a quarter of the money reaches its intended destination, the rest is siphoned away through systematic leakages. The manual tendering based public procurement system presents many opportunities for manipulation by corrupt civil servants and tender “mafias.” Killing of tender rivals and cinema style kidnapping and violence have always been part of the tendering process. In some cases, cartels distribute the works within themselves and seek exorbitant prices. Politicians and public employees also collaborate to award contracts to the payer of the highest bribe or to their favored contractor. They also indulge in corruption by systematically leaking information and manipulating papers during the tender approval process. In order to create trust in the minds of the people and to put a check on this kind of corruption, it was felt that Integrity Pacts (IP) could be a tool to bind the buyer and the seller with a moral commitment – a pledge not to indulge in giving and taking of bribes or any act of favoritism, says Admiral R H Tahiliani , Chairman, Transparency International, India. The Pact itself was formulated by Transparency International in 1990s to ensure fairness in procuring and contracting through large public tenders. The bidders and the procuring party sign an IP against each tender. By signing the Pact, PSUs like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Coal India Limited, Gas Authority of India Limited and Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited have committed to have most ethical and corruption free business dealings with counter parties whether they are bidders, contractors or suppliers. It is also binding upon them to deal with all counter parties with equity, reason and fairness in competitive dealings. The company and its associates are further obligated not to seek any favor/benefit/or accept bribes for themselves or for third parties. In the event of any associate being prejudiced or conflict in interest, the company will exclude the associate. On its part, the counter party will not pay any bribe, directly or indirectly, or extend illegal benefit or provide undue advantage to any one while dealing with the Company. It will also not engage in collusion, price-fixing, etc. with other Counterparties in dealing with the company. Further, the counter party will not pass on to any third party any information of the company unless authorised by it. The entire process of the dealing is supervised by an external independent monitor of impeccable credentials, appointed by the company in consultation with Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Transparency International India. If the monitor observes or suspects any irregularity, he shall inform the senior most official of the company, CVC and Transparency International, India. Will then the signing of such an IP ensure complete transparency and combat corruption in bidding, contracting and procurement process by PSUs? Cynics are not fully convinced about the efficacy of IP. Says a senior Government official: “there are so many external variables that come into play in public procurement dealings through government contracts, that enforceability of IP becomes difficult”. He says that companies resort to corrupt practices such as bribing because they come into direct competition with others and they suspect that if they do not, their competitors will. He says that at the end of the day, if the balance sheet does not look good, the Managing Director of the Company gets no marks for being ethical and transparent in the dealings. Will a time come when the integrity of honest officials is recognised and rewarded? Besides, the IP has no legal backing. It works more as a tool to put moral and ethical pressure on companies in order to ensure transparency, accountability, equity and competitiveness in their working. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has simply recommended the adoption and implementation of IP in respect of all major procurements of the Government organizations. Often the CEO or CMD of the company is so preoccupied with retaining power that their commitment to dealing with corruption is severely compromised, IP or not, says another officer in a top PSU on condition of anonymity. Add to it, the lack of political will and corruption by politicians themselves, which has resulted in the Government tailoring itself to absorb corruption through years of practice. That said, even cynics are compelled to admit that the IP is the beginning of a good intent that a company wishes to follow and spreads the message to various stakeholders. By adopting IPs, companies state that they will not practice corruption and abuse the power entrusted to them. Says Subir Raha , former chairman of ONGC which was the first PSU to adopt the Pact, “ it stops unnecessary interference from Ministers and politicians lobbying for a particular bidder which is a great relief for the CMD of the company”. More importantly, adoption of the IP enhances the credibility of the organisation and facilitates considerable reduction in the overall costs of the project. However, its effective implementation is possible only if the CEO and the entire system responds to it and is committed to fully abiding by it. Without effective implementation, it will remain merely as a part of the tender files.
The writer is Executive Director, Transparency International India |
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I worked like a galley slave, says Putin “Are you Europeans not ashamed of yourselves to approach the same issues in different parts of the world with such double standards?” asked Putin during a marathon question and answer session with journalists in Moscow. Speaking days before the UN-administered Serbian province is expected to declare independence, he said that if Kosovo could do so, there is no reason why Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus, or territories like Abkhazia in Georgia should not also be allowed to break away. He also repeated threats to aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine and Poland if elements of a proposed US anti-missile system were installed there. More than 1,000 journalists gathered in a Kremlin conference hall for the audience with the president, and in a feat of Castro-esque endurance, Putin answered questions for more than four-and-a-half hours without a break, ranging in subject from foreign policy to his personal life. He assured Russians that his anointed successor Dmitry Medvedev would continue his course, and that he himself planned to be a long-serving and powerful prime minister. He said he was not worried about any potential policy disagreements with Medvedev in future, and said that a major policy speech to be given today by Medvedev at a Siberian forum would be a “continuation” of his own strategy. There was no need for Medvedev to take part in pre-election debates or answer questions because he had showed the country his policies in action, and the lack of political discussion in the country was not due to a lack of democracy but because “the vast majority of Russians support the course we have taken over the past few years”. While insisting he had never planned to change the constitution and stay on for a third term as president, he hinted that Prime Minister Putin would not undergo the humiliation of hanging a portrait of President Medvedev in his office: “I don’t need to hang his portrait in order to build good relations with him; we have other ways of communicating.” Many regional reporters, representing various outlets across Russia’s 11 time zones, had come with brightly painted banners which they waved enthusiastically, hoping they would be picked to ask a question. Many simply offered thanks to Putin for various local projects, or for making a visit to their region. The cloying words of thanks took on a new level when a young, pretty radio reporter asked Putin if he had received any Valentine’s cards. No, said the president, he had woken up, done some exercise, and come straight to the conference, so hadn’t had a chance to check. “I would like to give you a Valentine’s card,” said the reporter, who at the end of the conference handed over her pink, heart-shaped card. The few occasions where Putin appeared to become irritable and raise his voice were all responses to foreign policy questions and Western attitudes towards Russia. He repeatedly said that Russia was not seeking a confrontation with the West and did not want a return to the Cold War, but if provoked would respond adequately. He was particularly scathing in response to allegations printed in the Western press that he had accumulated a secret fortune during his time in office, which were “nonsense” that Western newspapers had “picked out of their noses and smeared on the paper”, said Putin. Another target for criticism was the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which said it would not be sending its observers to monitor the presidential election on 2 March after Russian authorities refused to meet its conditions on the arrival date for election monitors. Putin said that “nobody has the right to dictate conditions to Russia”. Instead of trying to “teach” Russia how to behave, said Putin, they should “teach their own wife how to make cabbage soup”. Summing up his eight years in charge, he said he had worked “like a galley slave” and was proud of his achievements. When asked what he most regretted about his presidency, he said that there had been “no serious failures”. At no point were any of the more controversial events during his time in office raised, such as the Kursk submarine disaster, the Nord-Ost theatre siege or the Beslan school hostage-taking.
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Inside Pakistan The anti-Pervez Musharraf sentiment throughout Pakistan is getting stronger with every passing day. A large number of people reportedly think that he is a major cause for the growing instability in their country. Nobody can be sure if the situation will change after the February 18 elections. Daily Times quoted a BBC World Service poll to say that “a large majority of Pakistanis – 64 per cent – believe that stability and security in Pakistan would improve ‘if President Pervez Musharraf were to resign now’, leaving only 25 per cent thinking that security would get worse if he were to resign. This shows that President Musharraf’s stock is down since the first quarter of 2007 when he made one of his ‘Kargilian’ blunders by using rough tactics in dismissing the Chief Justice of Pakistan.” It is believed that President Musharraf himself and his well-wishers in Washington and Riyadh are largely to blame for what the people think about him. As Daily Times says, “The Americans who financed his government through copious assistance pressured him to let Ms Benazir Bhutto return after a ‘write-off’ reconciliation ordinance. And after that, Saudi Arabia, which is perhaps more crucial to Pakistan’s survival than the US in many invisible ways, got him to take Mr Nawaz Sharif back too. Today, the two parties challenge him directly for ruling space.” The PPP and Mr Nawaz Sharif’s PML (N) may not accept the results of the “pre-rigged elections” if President Musharraf’s PML (Q) succeeds in its designs to recapture power. This means the situation of uncertainty is unlikely to end even after the polls. The Nation points out, “Unfortunately, things do not look promising, and a report attributed to the Secretary of the Election Commission says that out of a total of 1773 complaints the EC has received, not a single one has been fully addressed. Besides, an NGO has concluded that while 4.5 million voters have double entry in the electoral rolls, a whopping 27 per cent of households are just missing.” There is no end to the food shortage continuing for a long time. Now reports are being received about chaos at utility stores in many cities and towns. The News (Feb 13) says, “The mayhem that broke out at a utility store in Rawalpindi the other day, as the police were called in to control thousands of desperate people who had queued up to obtain ‘atta’, cooking oil and other essential commodities at the subsidized rates advertised by the government, shows how badly the continuing food crisis is being handled.” According to Dawn, Pakistan is faced with “the most severe food price inflation in its history”. Elaborating the situation, the paper says, “The price of flour, our staple food, more than doubled from May due to acute wheat shortages while edible oil has jumped by around 100 per cent in one year on the back of the escalating global palm oil market… “The policymakers miserably failed to curb food prices no matter what they did. A tight monetary policy didn’t help much. Domestic oil prices remained unchanged since January 2007, despite a 76 per cent increase in the global crude market, forcing the government to borrow heavily to finance its budget and defeating the purpose of the tight monetary stance adopted by the central bank to contain core inflation.” Obviously, this may have its impact on the coming elections despite the explanation given by the government. Polls: Army ‘delinked’ Perhaps, with a view to making the elections appear credible, the Pakistan Army has been “freed” from all poll-related responsibilities. According to Business Recorder (Feb 14), the new Army Chief’s decision is “significant”. The Army “micro-managing” the elections would definitely send out wrong signals. The paper says, “Late last month the ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations) had stated that the task of conducting elections is the sole responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan, and the Army would stay away from the electoral process except for its duty under the Constitution to help maintain law and order… “Whatever be the reason for the Army’s clearly heard stance that it has nothing to do with the conduct of elections, the message comes loud and clear that the Army would like to jettison its political role…” But in view of the Army’s past record, this cannot be taken for granted. As an article in The Nation (Feb 14) by Viqar A. Khan says, “the rank and file of the mainstream political parties must gain the respect of the institution which they are trying to replace in the name of democracy.” Otherwise they must be prepared to see the situation reversed anytime in the future. |
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