 |
|
Costlier food Bishnoi men out |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Cricket as politics
Whither rule of law?
Primary pains
Parliament approval must for nuke deal Tibetan protests shake China Inside Pakistan
|
Costlier food After costly wheat imports last year, the country is faced with a grimmer situation this year. The spectre of hunger stalks the poor in many countries. The FAO has revealed that 854 million people currently go hungry around the world. Shortages lead to skyrocketing prices. Commodity traders make matters worse. When India decided to buy wheat last year, its prices suddenly shot up in global markets. Rice and corn prices too escalated. Corn is being increasingly used to produce ethanol. Food riots were reported in countries like Hungary, Mexico and Australia. Reports indicate the situation can get worse this year. The world consumption of foodgrains has outstripped production in the past seven consecutive years. India’s wheat and rice production has been stagnant while the population keeps rising. The Indian farmer has not benefited much from high global farm prices. Since he gets subsidised inputs, the government buys his produce at the minimum support prices. However, farm input prices have risen faster than the MSPs. The latest World Bank data shows that the fertiliser prices have spiraled 17 to 41 per cent. Oil is now well above $100 a barrel. The low farm prices and productivity have emaciated and indebted the farmer. The government efforts to help the farmer and the poor have not yielded the desired results because of leakages in the delivery system and non-targeting of the subsidies. Even if sufficient food stocks are managed with imports, there is no guarantee that food would reach the needy. This country has witnessed starvation deaths despite there being plenty of foodgrains. The public distribution system is in tatters and nothing has been done to make it functional and check food diversions. Food transportation has become costlier. Manual handling, pilferage in transit, lack of sufficient silos and poor storage facilities raise the costs of food. A comprehensive plan is required to boost production and efficiently manage the food stocks.
|
|
Bishnoi men out The
development which was anticipated for quite some time has finally taken place. Haryana Speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian has disqualified suspended Congress MLAs Dharampal Singh Malik and Rakesh Kamboj from the Vidhan Sabha. The representatives from Gohana and Indri, respectively, have been staunch supporters of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his MP son Kuldeep Bishnoi. On his part, Mr Bishnoi on Friday resigned from the Lok Sabha after Speaker Somnath Chatterjee sent a petition seeking his disqualification under the anti-defection law to the Privileges Committee. His fate would have been similar to the MLAs, who had voluntarily left the membership of the Indian National Congress on whose ticket they were elected on December 2 last year, the day Mr Bishnoi announced the formation of the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), during a rally at Rohtak. There is hardly any surprise element in the turn of events because such disqualification of “deserters” is very much covered under the law. The only surprise that emerges out of the episode is that the Bhajan lal followers could not foresee the coming event. Their attempts to take the help of courts too came to a naught. They could have easily resigned from the House voluntarily and thus could have avoided the tricky situation. But that was not to be. Mr Bishnoi’s last-minute move is also a panic reaction. The seats of Mr Malik and Mr Kamboj have been declared vacant. The numerical strength of supporters of Mr Bishnoi in the Vidhan Sabha has thus gone abysmally low. But the big question is the fate of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. The verdict in his case is slated for March 24. The decision of the Speaker is not likely to be much different from that of the two MLAs. Before that, a court petition filed by Mr Bhajan Lal is to be heard by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 18. The father-son duo has been lying low after the December 2 rally. How productive their political life outside the Congress proves to be remains to be seen.
|
|
Cricket as politics Cricket
may longer appear to be a gentleman’s game now that it has become entertainment and, therefore, a spectator sport. With Twenty20 catching on and big bucks at play, often it is hard to decide whether what is on show is the game or a carnival. For instance, wags said that more people went to the ICL Edelweiss 20s Challenge Match in Panchkula to get a dekko at Neha Dhupia and Sameera Reddy than to see the willow wielders in action. Whatever the cause of attraction, the spirit of “new cricket” with glamorous cheerleaders is here to stay. So, it was no surprise that the Akali Dal and Congress MLAs in the Punjab Assembly also went in for a cricket match. The match between MLAs of the two rival parties attracted a lot of attention; and not only for the spectacle of two glamour girls — Nick and Nicole — in eye-grabbing outfits shaking to the moods of the game. What was remarkable about the match — in which the Akali Dal trounced the toss-winning Congress party —was that the legislators played like true sports. They may not have been good at playing, but their spirit of sportsmanship was commendable. In fact, their on-field behaviour was better than that of professional cricketers, who are increasingly in the news for deeds, and words, that have little to do with bat and ball. The conduct of the MLAs was so exemplary it makes one wonder why the legislators cannot be at their best and behave in the assembly as they did during the cricket match. Or, is it that politicians play by the rules of the game only when they know it cannot be changed to their advantage? Whatever the reason that brought out the better, sporting side of our legislators, this is a facet that people would like to see more of — in the House, too. That would be good for the Assembly, lawmaking and governance. If that requires MLAs to play cricket when the House is not in session, then so be it. At least, it would be for a good cause.
|
|
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. —
Elbert Hubbard
|
Whither rule of law?
Each murder, each killing, each dead body is a signal that someone has strayed outside the accepted norms which make up the code that we call The law. Each victim of an unnatural death is the inescapable certainty that someone broke that code. Each crime is a challenge to the “state” - punish the guilty person as you have promised or relinquish your role as the defender of the law or the protector of the people. The law in its most visible form is represented by the men in khaki. The policemen who are present all around us — except (so it seems) when a crime is being committed. But khaki, far from being a reassuring sight, is today a cause of great anxiety and fear even for the most law abiding of citizens — and for good cause. The Malimath Committee in its report on the “Reforms of Criminal Justice System” in 2002 went on the record to say that the conviction rate in India in cases falling within the ambit of the Indian Penal Code is as low as 41.8 per cent. Simply stated, it means that out of every 100 criminal cases that are brought before courts, as many as 58 of those accused are ultimately exonerated by the courts; found not to be guilty as charged. Even worse, this means that for every hundred murders which are committed in the country; for every hundred actual dead bodies which loved ones have to deal with; of those people that the police accuses and charges of the crime, 58 are found to be innocent. At least 58 of the criminals who committed the heinous crime are never accused, never charged and never have to face the punishment prescribed for breaking the covenant against taking a human life. Of course, this is a simplistic way of putting things. The 58 figure includes people who may certainly have committed the crime, but against whom the evidence produced was found to be insufficient or so flawed as to extend the benefit of doubt to them. However, the number would also not include those cases where no action was taken by the police in the first instance or where the crime was simply hushed up. Indeed, other experts have reported anecdotal information suggesting that the true conviction rate in India across the spectrum of offences may be as little as 5 per cent. A large part of the problem is that the last century has not seen the policing system in India undergoing any substantive change. The Imperial Police Service, itself the child of the Superior Police Services, may have rechristened itself the Indian Police Service, but apart from the wafer-thin top layer of officers, the system at the grassroots remains the same. The police operates within the same old mindsets and the operational force — the bulk of the police and that part with which the common man almost exclusively comes in contact with — remains outdated in its methods, skills and mannerism. The feudal daroga mentality continues unchecked; the might of the daroga of a thana has persisted till date and is plainly seen each time a common man needs to interact with the police for any reason. The same hands that wielded the baton against the “criminals” who wanted to break the English law of a century ago continue to wield it with the same brutality today. A part of the blame goes to the ancient investigative methods used by the police, of course. As a guest lecturer in a course conducted for the seniormost police chiefs in India sometime ago, I saw numerous examples of crucial forensic evidence being lost or wasted through sheer ignorance. Blood samples being collected and stored in pan masala tins, bio-medical evidence being stored in plastic bags and thus being rendered unusable etc. The officers were candid enough to admit that the police has failed to keep up with science. Indeed, the Malimath Committee has gone on the record to lament that the police seeks forensic or fingerprint expertise in less than 5 per cent of the cases in which cases are eventually registered. This is a strange and incoherent disconnect between the police officers and the operational street cop which is also responsible for the chaotic situation. While the training given to the IPS is possibly of sterling quality, the same rarely translates into operational or usable training for the beat constable who is usually the first point of contact of the victim or public with the “system” in any crime. The standards envisaged in the criminal codes are obviously very high and (rightly so) intended to afford every possible protection to the innocent person who has fallen foul of the “system”. However, the exacting standards enforced by the courts on the insistent pleading of defense counsel usually means that the shoddy investigation methods, coupled with the usually insufficient and frequently incompetent assistance of the state’s counsel results in the horrible conviction rate that the committee laments. A huge chunk of the blame must also go to the office of the Advocate General. All criminal cases are initiated by the “state” since all crimes are deemed to be crimes against the “state”. A murder or a theft is not a crime against that one person or against the owner of the property — the crime is against society as a whole and hence the “state” through the office of the Advocate General and its layered minions is charged with the responsibility of prosecuting the accused and bringing him to the book. Each acquittal is a blot against the society’s supreme legal representative and is one more instance of where the state failed to protect its constituents or brought a false case against an innocent person. The low conviction rate also means that there are hundreds of thousands of people languishing in jails today because their trials have not yet concluded. These are people serving jail time without having been found guilty by a court. And the chances are as brighter than 50 per cent that they will be eventually found innocent by a court sooner or later. When they are found innocent, they would usually have months or years in jail — undeserved punishment for which there is no practical recourse and which would have destroyed families and lives. The victim or his kin too would have little solace in finding out that after years of hating and praying for the punishment of the person that the “system” told them was guilty, they are no where near finding out who really committed the crime. The chances at that late stage for a re-investigation and a hunt for the real culprit are of course, zero. There would be no clearer sign that the criminal justice system in India has broken down completely and that the police, the prosecutors, the lawyers and the judges are all playing a farcical role in trying to convince the public that the rule of law exists in the country. This is being dishonest to the citizens and residents of India. Is the legislature
listening?
|
Primary pains
A
nuclear family which needs two and half TVs (the oldest, meant for the oldest member — yours truly — works only half the time) to fill its evenings, is hardly a picture of political unity. Yet, one never imagined one would get singed by the heat generated by a political contest on the other side of the globe. But that’s what exactly what one survived a year ago. It all started with daughter suggesting to wife some changes in the home-routine, including the dinnertime. Unfortunately, the proposed timing clashed with the timings of some popular TV reality shows. The matter was still hanging fire when Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama threw their hats in the ring for democratic nomination. That morning glancing at the newspaper, wife asked aloud from no one in particular, “Who is this Obama fellow? Never heard of him!” I let it pass but daughter nibbled at the bait. “Mama, please don’t talk like that. He is the brightest star on the American political horizon. His nomination is a cinch”, she said with an assurance characteristic of her age. “Hey, wait a moment! What does he know about the ways of Washington? Hillary knows the White House inside out”, wife said, I thought, deadpanning. But daughter was serious, “He knows enough to know that they need to be changed”, she said. Wife read the subtext and said, “That’s the problem with youngsters. They want to tinker with the system before first understanding it!” and looked to me for support. Not wishing to be drawn into the argument I shrugged my shoulders helplessly a la Charlie Chaplin. Wife wasn’t amused. “Am I not right?” She asked sharply. “Absolutely, dear!” I blurted out. “But, Papa, yesterday you were gushing at Obama’s speech. And privately you also favoured the changes I had suggested in the home-routine”, daughter whined. “Er..absolutely, dear”, escaped from my mouth. “What? Then why don’t you run the house yourself?” wife challenged. “Wait, I am not in the running for any house, white or otherwise”, one said and stood up to go. “You can’t run away. You must clarify your stand!” Wife snapped. “On what, dear?” One asked. “On whom are you going to support - Obama or Hillary?” daughter chipped in. This is the difficulty in the post 9/11 world. There is no space for fence sitters. But I was determined to hold my perch. “I’m going to support Uncle Sam!” I said and
escaped.
|
Parliament approval must for nuke deal The observation not being a part of the dismissal order, it is not even an obiter-dicta. However, this observation has been played up by a section of the media and also by the pro-deal political section, to spread the impression that in law the approval of the Parliament is not necessary for the deal. Hence the occasion for the following rejoinder. The missing fundamentals are democracy and the underlying rule of law. In a democracy, people are sovereign and all power vests in them. In a representative democracy, the same power vests in the legislature, it being the representative of the people. When, therefore, a power is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution as being vested in any of the organs of the state, it is deemed to be vested in the people and therefore in its representative the legislature. The legislature may exercise its power by enacting a law or by passing a resolution. Our Constitution vests all power in the people and therefore in the legislature. Its power cannot be usurped by the cabinet which is only a small committee appointed for discharging the assigned duty for a limited period of time. The central legislature, namely the Parliament, which also has all the residual power, is concerned with the present subject. When, therefore, no provision in the Constitution vests a specific power in any organ of the state, it is legitimately to be presumed to vest in Parliament, which is the repository of all residuary power. The question to be asked in such circumstances is not what provision of the Constitution vests the relevant power in the Parliament, but what provision vests power in any organ other than Parliament. This is elementary. Even the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948,) in its article 21 (3), states, among other things, that “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government”. This particular observation that Parliamentary approval is not needed for the nuclear deal seeks to redefine democracy, as a government of, for and by the executive. That destroys democracy in our country at one stroke, equating it with the authoritative regime of a bunch of ministers. Worse still, it opens the doors for rough-shod exercise of undefined and untrammeled power by the executive. We have been patting ourselves on account of the praise showered on us by others as the largest stable democracy of the world, little realising the inroads we have been permitting into our democratic base, namely the power of the people, from various quarters. The overbearing nuclear deal is one such instance of it. Unfortunately, neither the political parties nor legal luminaries have paid any attention to this phenomenon so far. Even the presumptuous nuclear-deal has not evoked any reaction as to its un-constitutionality from these circles. This raises a wider and frightening question. Have we surrendered ourselves and our democracy to the arrogant superpower or are we so mesmerised by it as to forget even the basics of our legal system? It must be one of these, else our otherwise vocal sections would not allow such a flagrant violation of our Constitution to go unnoticed. What amazes one is the casual and flippant manner in which such profound questions of constitutional validity of the executive’s actions, which have also portentous effects on the country, are tackled or are sidetracked. The illegal usurpation of power by the executive confronts us everyday with ‘emergency’. Vigilance it is rightly said, is the price of liberty. What price, democracy? The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India
|
|
Tibetan protests shake China BEIJING – The largest pro-independence demonstrations in the Tibetan capital in nearly two decades have rattled the Chinese government as it struggles to contain growing criticism of its human rights record in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics. More than 500 Buddhist monks participated in marches toward the center of Lhasa, shouting slogans against China’s 57-year rule over Tibet. Two of Tibet’s three most important monasteries participated in the protests on Monday and Tuesday. Monks inside the third, the remote Ganden Monastery in the mountains 29 miles from the capital, were said to have staged their own demonstration Wednesday, said Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University in New York. “It is an astonishing development after 20 years that this is happening,” Barnett said. Activists quoting witnesses inside Lhasa said Chinese security forces were setting up roadblocks around the city. In another security move, China notified tour operators this week that Mount Everest would be closed to climbers this year until May 10. Although the letter of notification cited environmental concerns, analysts say the Chinese want to avoid a repeat of an incident last year, when climbers recorded video of themselves on Everest with a “Free Tibet” banner and posted the act on the Internet. China has ruled Tibet since 1951, and critics say it has stifled Tibet’s culture, language and religion. This week’s protests marked the March 10 anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China. Separately, several hundred Tibetan exiles tried to march into Tibet from the north Indian town of Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama presides over a government in exile. Some were arrested. The U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan language service reported that it received a phone call from inside the Ganden Monastery from a witness who said monks were demonstrating on Wednesday. The service also reported fresh accounts of a protest Tuesday in which several hundred monks were witnessed marching near a police station. “There were probably a couple of thousand armed police. ... Police fired tear gas into the crowd,” the witness was quoted as saying. Although some witnesses said they heard gunshots, no serious injuries were reported. The blockades kept the monks far from the city center where they had hoped to demonstrate. But the marches clearly rattled the Chinese government as it tries to fend off human rights activists from all corners of the globe using the Summer Olympics as a platform for their causes. “The Olympic charter requires that the Olympic Games not be politicized,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday. He also criticized the Dalai Lama, saying the Tibetan spiritual leader’s “conspiracy to split Tibet from China and his secessionist attempt is doomed to fail,” according to the official New China News Agency. Since 1988, when a monk was shot to death for unfurling a Tibetan flag in Lhasa, the Chinese have kept such a large paramilitary presence in Tibet that protests against their rule have been virtually impossible. Barnett noted, however, that this week’s protests were handled with much more sophistication by the Chinese. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
|
|
Inside Pakistan Will the newly elected National Assembly of Pakistan, to be convened on March 17, be allowed to function smoothly? There are clear indications that President Pervez Musharraf is preparing for a confrontation with the yet to be formed PPP-PML (N) coalition government if it goes ahead with its judicial agenda. While the coalition partners are preparing to move a resolution in parliament on the issue of the judiciary, the Musharraf camp has conveyed its view that even the National Assembly cannot undo what was done on November 3 last year. According to The News, “On March 11, Musharraf's top legal adviser, Sharifuddin Pirzada, is reported to have assured him that if parliament moves a resolution restoring the judiciary, this can be challenged in the Supreme Court. Mr Pirzada seems confident the apex court will stay the resolution, on the basis of a lack of precedent. He has maintained that extra-constitutional measures taken in the past, including the 8th Amendment Bill and the 17th Amendment Bill, were not reversed by a parliamentary resolution.” Since most legal luminaries do not agree with Mr Pirzada’s views, the situation appears to be leading to a confrontation between the government and President Musharraf. Already, “President Musharraf has warned such a confrontation would be 'catastrophic'.” Since the emerging scenario is upsetting for the lovers of democracy, President Musharraf is being advised to abandon the dangerous idea. Dawn said on March 11, “Popular sentiment wants the new system to succeed, and the President, too, has a stake in its successful working because he fathered it by means questionable at places but also laudable, like the holding of a largely credible election.” Saudi factor Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Pakistan, seems to be playing a major role in ensuring President Musharraf’s continuance in office. Both Mr Asif Zardari and Mr Nawaz Sharif are reportedly planning to visit Riyadh together, ostensibly to appeal to the Saudi authorities to help Pakistan handle its deepening economic crisis. “But the two leaders must remember”, as The News pointed out, “that, in exchange, the Saudis may seek pledges too – perhaps chiefly for 'stability'. This could mean an agreement not to rock the presidency for the moment. The coalition partners, particularly Mr Sharif, who has been the most strident on the judicial issue, will need to see how to handle this scenario, should it come about.” Lawyers cautioned Most newspapers have reminded the people of the historic role played by lawyers and a section of the judiciary for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. The lawyers observed Black Flags Day to mark the completion of one year of the movement launched against the onslaught on the judiciary on March 9 last year. It was on this day, a Sunday, that President Musharraf, then Chief of Army Staff, dismissed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary from the Pakistan Supreme Court because he was trying to assert judicial independence by taking up cases like those relating to missing persons. The lawyers, who appear determined not to take rest till the judiciary's status quo ante is restored, are being cautioned not to allow themselves to be used by any section of the politicians for the latter’s selfish ends as there is the possibility of a give-and-take arrangement between the Musharraf camp and the new government that will be formed. As Daily Times says, "They are now a lobby and pressure group – a powerful one in many ways – who have the right to influence the politics of the country. But they will have to keep in mind that their movement began as an agitation against an act of subversion of the constitution, but after coming into being of a fresh elected parliament, it has to become a campaign of persuasion." What Daily Times points out should be seen against the backdrop of the fact that “the (US) White House, depressed at the electoral outcome, is doing its utmost to salvage the Musharraf presidency”, as Ahmad Faruqui, writing in Dawn on March 10 says. He quotes a US senator to highlight the view that the Bush administration has concluded that reinstating “the deposed judges would lead to Musharraf’s removal from office.”
|
| 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 | |
This