 |
|
From India to Bharat Karnataka Assembly |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Women Reservation
Bill
“Helmetian”
dilemma
China’s new
‘front door’ Cricket coverage
hitting a low Inside Pakistan
|
From India to Bharat For
a change, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has shifted his focus from the corporate world to rural India, where 60 per cent of the people live and matter in elections. Not that he has left India Inc in the cold entirely. His budget smacks of poll thoughts as he has chosen to spread the largesse far and wide covering farmers, the salaried class, women and senior citizens. But, essentially, it is a budget for farmers, especially those groaning under the weight of institutional debt. Agricultural loans amounting to Rs 50,000 crore outstanding against three crore medium and small farmers owning less than five acres will be waived. One crore other farmers will get 25 per cent rebate and will be offered one-time settlement facility, which will cost the government another Rs 10,000 crore. This is the biggest-ever loan waiver at the national level. None should grudge it since in the post-reform period the plight of farmers has worsened and government policies have been partly responsible for this. However, a large number of small farmers do not take institutional loans, given the procedural complexities and difficult access. They usually turn to the nearby private moneylender to meet their financial requirements. They will not be able to benefit from the massive loan waiver. Besides, the budget has a limited role in alleviating the widespread farm distress, which gets reflected in increasing suicides in different parts of the country. It is now for the states to take steps to improve agricultural productivity and help farmers board the growth bandwagon. The Centre has done more than its duty to farmers. The Finance Minister has measured up to the expectations of the salaried class also by raising the income tax exemption limit from Rs 1.1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh apart from restructuring the tax slabs. The new proposals will give a minimum benefit of Rs 4,000 to every taxpayer and those having an annual income of Rs 5 lakh will gain by Rs 50,000. The Central employees are in for another bonanza as the Sixth Pay Commission report is expected in April. And this can have a cascading effect on the salaries of the state government employees. Senior citizens will pay no tax up to Rs 2.25 lakh and women up to Rs 1.8 lakh. Medicines could become cheaper if pharmaceutical companies decide to share part of the tax benefits Mr Chidambaram has dispensed to them with patients. There is a Rs 400-crore national programme for the elderly too. Ex-servicemen will be given employment opportunities in the banking sector. These are small, but welcome mercies as those with surviving on pension or interest income may find it hard to cope with the rising prices of oil and food items. There is a small rise in the measly salary of the anganwari worker and helper. Apart from leaving more money in the taxpayer’s pocket, Mr Chidambaram has slightly reduced household expenditure. The across-the-board cut in the Central sales tax by 2 per cent on all goods will boost the sagging manufacturing. In addition, special concessions have been given to the auto and pharma sectors. Small and hybrid cars and two-/three-wheelers will become cheaper as auto pollution and traffic chaos will rise. The manufacturing sector has been hit by high interest rates and the relief given is fully justified. While the abolition of the controversial banking cash transaction tax is commendable, share traders have a reason to be unhappy with the Finance Minister as the tax on short-term capital gains has been raised by 5 per cent. This caused a setback to the stock market sentiment though global markets too traded in the red on the budget day. But brokers’ margins do not unsettle the economy. A positive feature of the Budget for 2008-09 is the 20 per cent and 15 per cent higher allocations for education and health, respectively. Sixteen central universities and three IITs will be set up. The mid-day meal scheme has been extended to aided schools and will cover upper primary classes. The budget earmarks more funds for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Bharat Nirman, the Indira Awas Yojna and the National Rural Guarantee Scheme. The usefulness of these schemes is beyond question. However, what the government has to ensure is a harmony between outlays and outcomes. If the Finance Minister has been able to present a fairly commendable budget it is because he has a buoyant tax collection and a strong economic growth to back the giveaways. Hopefully, he will keep up the momentum till the elections at least.
|
|
Karnataka Assembly Even
as the full Election Commission is due to meet Karnataka’s top officials and political parties in Bangalore on March 4, doubts have arisen about holding the elections to the State Assembly on the basis of the new scheme drawn by the Delimitation Commission headed by Justice Kuldip Singh. Constitutional propriety demands that when the President has given her assent to the commission’s report, elections should be held on the basis of the new scheme only. Moreover, the Union Cabinet decided on February 14 that elections to the Lok Sabha and all the states, including Karnataka, will be held on the basis of the redrawn constituencies. Only Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland have been exempted from this because elections in those states will have to be completed by early March. Under the new delimitation scheme, in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, the number of reserved seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will increase to 36 and 15, respectively, as against 33 and two in the dissolved House. Thus, the new scheme will help the reserved categories. If it is not implemented now, they have to wait for five more years. More important, while taking a decision regarding elections, the Election Commission will have to see whether it is bound by a 2002 Supreme Court ruling. In this order, a five-Judge Bench directed that Assembly elections will have to be held within six months of its premature dissolution. Elections can be postponed only in rare and exceptional cases, the order says. If the Election Commission is to go by the apex court order, elections must be held before May 28 and the new delimitation plan cannot be construed as an extraordinary development, warranting extension of President’s Rule and postponement of elections. In a similar situation in 1973-74, elections were held on time in Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Even otherwise, in today’s computer age, fresh demarcation of constituencies should not take a long time. A pilot project by the Election Commission in Mandya district has revealed that the voters’ list under the new scheme could be completed within a few days. True, Parliament can extend President’s Rule in Karnataka by another six months beyond May 28. But this question may not arise because elections can be held by that time under the new delimitation plan.
|
|
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.
|
Women Reservation Bill
There
was deafening silence on the Women Reservation Bill in the President’s speech on the opening day of Parliament. This is an open and clear notice to the women activists that the Bill, which had been so proudly projected as a commitment to gender equality, has been quietly buried, and is not likely to be revived in the conceivable future. Women activists have a challenge — how to restore it as a central agenda. It is necessary to do serious self- introspection by women bodies because if the Bill does not go through this Parliament, it is doubtful if such momentum for it could be revived in the conceivable future considering sub-divisions of the political affiliations of the coming days. A mere dependence on the Opposition would be self-defeating. The BJP will cry foul, but it sounds hollow since it has itself come out with an already rejected formula that instead of the Bill, parties should agree to allot one-third of the seats to women at the time of elections. This will result in weaker seats being allotted to women and thus destroying the whole rationale of the Bill, which was to make it certain that one-third of legislators will be women. The constitutionally of the Bill is not even raised by its opponents because it cannot be disputed that reservation for women as a group, who have suffered similar and sometimes even worse injustices and deprivations than the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, will be permissible under Article 15(3) of the Constitution. The court has already upheld as constitutional a government order reserving 30 per cent of jobs for women. At a recent dinner meeting by Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr Lalu Prasad was asked how much sub-quota for OBC women would be acceptable to him. The answer, if one may now hazard (after the President’s speech), is Nil. As it is, the question of a sub-quota for castes in women reservation is both morally unacceptable and constitutionally impermissible. Reservation of seats is guaranteed only for the SCs/STs under Article 330. The framers of the Constitution did not intend further fragmentation of the legislatures on caste lines. The fallacious argument that the women’s quota will be monopolised by urban women is a red-herring. There are about 200 OBCs in the Lok Sabha. It is a stark reality that it is not their public service, but merely the caste configuration that has preferred them. Similar results will follow even after reservation for women. The only difference will be big chink in the male bastion. That is the real reason for opposition by male MPs. Women leadership will be committing an unforgivable blunder if they do not immediately plan out their strategy to put the Bill back on the anvil and make efforts to get it passed before they are overwhelmed by the manoeuvrings which will start as a prelude to the elections to State Assemblies and Parliament to be held by end of the year. If women’s lobby cannot get this legislation passed by the present Parliament now, the movement for equality will be set back for decades. Apart from justice and equity, practical wisdom mandates that women activists should not lose the present opportune time. Not even the most reactionary of politicians is daring to oppose it publicly. Only lame excuses like trotting out the need to provide for a backward section from women are trotted about. Women activists should ignore this lame excuse with the contempt it deserves. Discerning and genuine politicians like Mr Somnath Chatterjee, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, have openly supported the demand for greater representation for women in legislative bodies. Women, of course, do not have to worry about mass support. They have a ready-made army in over a million women panches. Women’s organisations should not allow themselves to be divided by sub-quotas. A split in the women’s rank will only make it easier for males to retain their dominance and defeat the laudable objective of developing a women-oriented political agenda. Opponents of the Bill refuse to treat women as equals. It is this mindset that is sought to be destroyed by the Bill, which selfish male politicians are resisting while pretending to fight for social justice. Women as a class cannot be bifurcated in the matter of injustice. The creation of artificial sub-quotas within this suppressed section is a conspiracy of male chauvinism to perpetuate its dominance. Given the present instability in the political coalition, it is unrealistic to expect one-third of the male members to agree to give up their seats. In unguarded moments they concede that they are not going to commit hara-kiri. That is why one feels that women should support the alternative of a double-member constituency which will meet both the requirement of ensuring a one-third quota for women and, at the same time, will not disturb the present male seats. Thus the Lok Sabha membership can be easily increased to 750 with a provision that one woman candidate will mandatorily be elected from those double-member constituencies and, depending upon the votes received, it may be that even both elected candidates can be women. This law had been laid down by the Supreme Court decades back in former President V.V.Giri’s case. The same principle will apply in the case of elections to the state legislatures. Parliament space is not a problem. Mr Shivraj Patil, the Union Home Minister, is on record admitting that space is not a problem if Parliament decides to increase the seats. The alternative of a double-member constituency can ensured by amending Article 81(2) of the Constitution by increasing the present strength which can be easily done if political parties are genuine in their commitment to the Bill. The Delimitation Commission has already marked the constituencies on the basis of single-member seats. But it is necessary to redraw the constituencies to make it double. By the rule of thumb the top one-third of the constituencies having maximum voters in each state can be declared double-member ones — if legislators are sincerely genuine they can even submit an agreed list to the Delimitation Commission, which is still continuing and may do the needful in a short time. And the coming elections can be held with double-member constituencies, thus ensuring one-third representation of women. But this will not happen on its own. Radical steps need to be taken by women activists. Politics of drawing room confabulations or courtesy calls on political leaders have to be abandoned by women activists, and a warning given to all political parties that their opposition to the Bill will be met by a mass call by women to vote against the candidates put up by such a party. Is there sufficient women unanimity and cohesion in their thinking? If this is absent the fate of the Bill would be certainly in
danger. The writer is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi.
|
“Helmetian” dilemma To
buy, or not to buy (a branded helmet) — that is the question. I had purchased a stylish German model not long ago, but a stranger is proudly wearing it now. Ironically, I’m wearing his helmet, which is not only unbranded but also unattractive and virtually unprotective. No matter how hard I try, I can’t help feeling a tinge of admiration for this fellow. True, it wasn’t nice of him to steal my prized possession by breaking its lock. However, he was thoughtful enough to leave behind his pathetic piece, thus ensuring that I’d at least escape a challan. It’s also laudable that his fascination for German stuff isn’t limited to material things. I believe he was inspired by Nobel laureate Thomas Mann’s parable The Transposed Heads, in which the chopped heads of two friends are accidentally attached to each other’s bodies. What happened in my case, of course, was neither fictitious nor accidental. An expert lock-breaker, a Germanophile, a considerate human being — no wonder I envy this man and would like to meet him in Gandhigiri style. His apology-for-a-helmet might be a source of embarrassment for me, but I’m superstitiously hoping that wearing it would help me acquire his fine qualities. There are times, however, when I’m tempted to throw it away and go for a snazzy one in keeping with my UMC (upper middle class) status. What stops me is the fear that the new acquisition could also catch someone’s fancy and end up adorning that person’s head, not mine. After all, there are plenty of people who are good at pinching others’ things — for their need or greed. As I teeter on the horns of a dilemma, one thought gives me solace: It’s my world-class Schuberth that’s protecting a potential mastermind. It will remain his durable companion, provided he doesn’t lose it to someone even smarter than
him!
|
China’s new ‘front door’
BEIJING – It’s expected to handle more passengers than any air terminal in the world. It was built fast. Beijing’s new international air terminal, which opened Friday in time for the Summer Olympics surge, attracts and embodies superlatives. It also embodies the new China, a country racing headlong into the future fueled by an economy on fire. The airy glass-and-steel structure, even at two miles long and half a mile wide, raced from design to takeoff in four years. Most airport projects take a decade or more to complete and usually involve lengthy reviews, detailed assessments, planning committees, public hearings and environmental impact statements. For many countries increasingly worried about how competitive and fast-moving China is, this $2.8 billion project provides one more reason to fret. China’s authoritarian system can certainly move. At its peak, the construction site had 50,000 workers toiling around the clock. Elsewhere across China, skyscrapers sprout, highways unfurl and dams appear at breakneck speed, cutting through neighborhoods and displacing millions of people in the process. This terminal is among about $40 billion worth of projects being built in Beijing alone in advance of the Games, which start Aug. 8. “Most Western politicians wouldn’t admit agreeing to that system, but they’re very jealous,” said Rory McGowan, Beijing-based director of global engineering company Ove Arup & Partners, which worked on the project. The Chinese “can react to decisions four or five times faster than we can (in the West) because China runs the way it does.” China has a long history of awing visitors with structures that evoke size and power epitomized by the Forbidden City. The new Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport is a modern counterpart, the gateway to a new China. “This is the front door of China,” said Brian Timmoney, Beijing-based partner with architect Norman Foster, who is based in London. The $2.8 billion terminal, designed by the Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute and Foster, measures 1.3 million square meters in area, astride a runway able to handle new Airbus A380 “Superjumbo” aircraft. It’s got all the bells and whistles, including “barrier-free” facilities for the handicapped, floor tracking to guide the blind and multi-denominational prayer rooms in an officially atheist country. It’s also got baby-changing facilities and 26 smoking rooms with advanced filtering systems, in short, a whole lot of stuff you probably won’t see again during your stay in China. The terminal’s designers put a premium on air, light, greenery and distinct Chinese characteristics. The sloping roof is meant to evoke a dragon with triangular skylights resembling scales. Feng shui principles were incorporated into the design, while the interior is decorated in colors that hold special meaning for Chinese. “Feng shui has a scientific and a superstitious side,” said Shao Weiping, principal architect with Beijing Architectural Design. “We used the scientific side.” Passengers entering the terminal are met with a blaze of red, reminiscent of celebration, good luck, joy and enthusiasm. By the time you approach your gate over a mile distant, preferably using an automated train, the interior has shaded to yellow. This color is associated with royalty, mother and earth, which presumably act as a calming influence for your boarding experience. Chinese officials tried to be diplomatic when comparing the terminal’s rapid construction schedule to London’s Heathrow’s Terminal 5, Europe’s busiest, for which planning took five years. “Britain is relatively more forward-looking in planning,” Dong Zhiyi, the airport’s deputy general manager, told reporters, before adding: “The speed with which (the terminal) was built shows our capabilities.” China’s air traffic has exploded as its 1.3 billion increasingly affluent citizens are allowed to travel, even as the world flocks to its doors. The new terminal will boost the airport’s capacity by tens of millions of passengers to 82 million passengers annually, a target planners originally expected to hit around 2015, but now believe could come years earlier. A second international airport already is under consideration. The new terminal also is expected to change the region’s competitive equation by allowing China to handle more of its own passenger and freight traffic, which has overflowed its borders to the benefit of new airports in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. The new terminal also will allow Beijing to negotiate more nonstop services with North American hubs, as San Francisco, Seattle, Houston and Dallas all seek a bigger share of the trans-Pacific market. The new terminal was built in modules with many systems pre-fabricated at the factory to ensure better reliability, although builders admit privately that work quality is always a concern. The rapid expansion of China’s aviation system has led to safety concerns. China has had no major accidents in the past three years, but before that suffered several attributed in part to rapid growth. Others with ties to the airport already are expressing concerns about all the changes. Starting in April, a new light rail system will link the airport to the city center in 20 minutes. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
|
Cricket coverage hitting a low In
the late 1970s, Australia’s Channel Nine catapulted live cricket coverage to dizzying heights, with a quantum increase in cameras, spot-on camerawork, slick cutting and mixing of shots, not to mention a host of technological advances. The commentary on C9, though, was its relative weakness. It drafted in eminent former players on its panel; but few were trained for the purpose. Richie Benaud, a journalist by occupation in an era of amateur cricketers, had, in the twilight of his playing career, taken the trouble of undertaking a broadcasting course in London; and was, therefore, conversant with the art of talking to pictures. But some of his colleagues rattled on – and still do – as if describing football on radio rather than cricket on TV. An expert’s role is to have an antenna for the unanticipated and also be bereft of bias – which one of C9’s team members is unacceptably guilty of. The output in Australia conspicuously lacks insight on Indian players, as well. Contractual obligations may have deterred one or two Indians from lending their services. But others could easily have been considered. Besides, the camera techniques that made C9 so revered is disappointingly missing. The failure to provide a correct angle to the controversial slip catch claimed by Michael Clarke off Sourav Ganguly in the 2nd test at Sydney was an illustration of this lacuna. Contemporary cricket coverage on Channel Four or SKY in England would rarely commit such incompetence. The delay in displaying the snickometer is another example of C9’s falling standards. But Australian outfits at least work with broadcast standard equipment and their pieces-to-camera are reasonably professional. In contrast, Indian news channels (with light, semi-professional cameras) are a woeful embarrassment. The Indians record close-of-play media conferences; and then shoot “stand-ups”, incredibly, often executed in empty stadiums, without any background atmosphere. Barring some exceptions, reporters with squeaky or shrill, flat, monotonous and untrained voices, deliver lines to cameras to mark their channels’ presence at the match. Rough cut video is, then, fed via low cost methods to studios back in India, where it’s incorporated in a package. However, more disturbing has been the appraisal of the Harbhajan Singh case appeal hearing. Despite a thorough process followed by the Appeals Commissioner Justice John Hansen of New Zealand – an entire day’s arguments, examination of witnesses and submission of evidence – vast sections of Australian and Indian media, including print and wire services, baselessly concluded that Cricket Australia (CA) had buckled before the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Since there was nothing to independently substantiate the Level 3 charge against Harbhajan Singh, where was the need of a deal between CA and the BCCI? Justice Hansen revealed: “Many (media) reports have suggested that if the appeal is unsuccessful the balance of the tour would be called off or would at least be in jeopardy. Mr (Vasha) Manohar (counsel for Harbhajan) has assured me that that is not the position of the BCCI and it is no more than media speculation and exaggeration. I accept Mr Manohar’s assurance.” |
|
Inside Pakistan The successful holding of elections has emboldened the forces of democracy in Pakistan, but there is a big IF. All the gains made so far and after the formation of the government can be nullified if the status quo ante is not restored in the case of the judiciary. And this appears impossible so long as President Pervez Musharraf continues to be in the position he holds. Thus, PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif has a point in insisting on the retired General’s resignation after the rejection of the Musharraf-backed PML (Q) by the voters. Under the constitution of Pakistan as it exists today, President Musharraf can dismiss not only the Prime Minister, whosoever he may be, but also dissolve the National and Provincial Assemblies if he is pushed to the wall. As Khalid Javed Khan says in his article in Dawn: “There is every likelihood that if Mr Musharraf survives as President, he would sooner or later exercise his power under Article 58-2(b) of the Constitution to dissolve the National Assembly and dismiss the elected government. Under the present dispensation, such an action would be subject to confirmation by the Supreme Court. If the independent-minded judges are not restored to their office, there is little doubt about the outcome of the next dissolution case.” That is why Business Recorder, a highly respected financial daily, has supported former Supreme Court judge Tariq Mahmood’s call for “care and deliberation” at this critical juncture. The need for caution is being felt more in view of Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan’s recent announcement for a long march on March 9 if the deposed judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, are not brought back to their respective courts by March 7. As the business daily points out in an editorial: “Indeed, the legal community needs to keep the parties in the new Parliament under pressure so that they do not put the issue of judiciary on the backburner.” From Mush to Zardari Is there something cooking between President Musharraf and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari? According a report in The Nation, Mr Musharraf has quietly offered his cooperation to Mr Zardari in the restoration of the judiciary as it existed before November 3, 2007, if there is a mechanism to ensure that it will not take up cases against him. This means that the controversial orders like those relating to the dismissal of judges and the imposition of the emergency are accepted as untouchable. Despite the report’s denial by a spokesman of the President, what it has cannot be dismissed as something impossible in Pakistan. Mr Musharraf cannot ignore the uncertainty hanging over his fate. He can be impeached if some independent members of the National Assembly join hands with the PPP-PML(N)-ANP combine. It all depends on the role of the PPP. As Daily Times says, “…the PPP has not pronounced on the matter (of judiciary) clearly. It is still not correct to say that the PPP has acquiesced in the PML(N)-led view that a simple resolution from the National Assembly will undo the amendment made in the Constitution under Article 27AAA.” Dealing with the crisis in Balochistan The PPP may be dithering in deciding about its prime ministerial candidate and the issues relating to the judiciary, but it seems to be of the view that the Balochistan crisis cannot be resolved without assuaging the hurt feelings of the people. That is why the party leadership has issued an apology on behalf of the people of Pakistan, admitting that the Baloch have suffered “atrocities and injustices” inflicted on them in the past, but they will get justice from the new federal government that is going to be formed. However, as pointed out by Jawad Hussain Qureshi in an article in The News: “Whatever the shape of the new federal government, both the PPP and the PML (N) have historical baggage in terms of their dealings with the Baloch people and nationalist politicians. From overseeing a military crackdown to dissolving provincial governments in Balochistan, both parties will have to treat the province carefully, especially in terms of sharing of financial resources, demands of autonomy and the future of mega projects in the region.” |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
