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Bullet to ballot Misuse of PIL |
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Shame of Doraha
Sixth Pay Commission
City that walks
Creamless quota Tibet: India’s image at stake Where radio spells magic
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Bullet to ballot THE peaceful election held on April 10 to Nepal’s Constituent Assembly deserves to be welcomed for more reasons than one. It is cause for celebration that one of the poorest countries in the world burdened by an autocratic monarchy and devastated by prolonged Maoist insurgency affirmed its faith in the power of the ballot. The voter turnout, according to provisional figures made available by the election commissioner, is over 60 per cent. The results of the election have started trickling in and the outcome of the contest to the 575 seats in the 601-member House is likely to be known within 10 days. In the system adopted for this election, 240 members will be elected directly, 335 through proportional representation and 26 nominated by the government. The election has been inclusive and extraordinarily participatory. The rebel cadres and their supporters, too, plunged into the battle of the ballot with immense enthusiasm as this election is also critical to the future of the Maoist party in the emerging democratic order. The Maoists, pitted against more seasoned electoral parties like the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), are on test in an arena they have not entered before. The Maoists have affirmed that they will respect the verdict of the people, but this does not rule out the Maoists or any other contender crying foul if the results are not to their expectation. Regardless of how the parties fare, the elections signify a major democratic advance. The repeated postponement of the election had raised doubts over whether it will be held at all; and, whether forces inimical to parliamentary democracy will intervene to sabotage or subvert the process. The fact that the election was held is an achievement as it takes the peace process forward. Abolition of the 240-year-old monarchy and rewriting of the constitution are likely to be the first tasks on the agenda of the new Constituent Assembly towards making Nepal a federal democratic republic.
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Misuse of PIL CLOSE on the heels of calling for a case-by-case examination of the usefulness of public interest litigation petitions by an independent agency, the Supreme Court on Thursday has decided to lay down guidelines for itself and the high courts to entertain them. It has asked eminent jurist Fali S. Nariman to render assistance in this regard. A Bench consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran disagreed with their colleague Justice Markandey Katju’s opinion that PIL marked an encroachment on the executive’s domain. On the contrary, it ruled that some of the petitions are “well researched and judicial intervention has been very productive for the common man”. Of late, the number of PILs has increased. The courts should admit them only if they serve the larger common good. It would be wrong to believe that PIL has not served any useful purpose. Indeed, in many cases, PIL has proved to be a boon. Consider the one relating to safety of casual labourers working in thermal power plants. It is primarily because of the Supreme Court’s intervention and timely directives that the government has now expressed its willingness to provide the necessary equipment to the labourers and take care of their health. In many other cases, the court’s intervention has safeguarded public interest and protected the civil rights of the common man, who does not have a voice. It is through the introduction of PIL that the Supreme Court had given all individuals, consumer groups and social activists an easier access to the law and introduced in their work a broad public-interest perspective. If some irresponsible people are misusing PIL, the courts should examine whether a petitioner is acting bona fide and not for personal gain, private profit or political considerations. The courts should not entertain personal pleas and anonymous letters as PIL. The Supreme Court has evolved the eligibility criteria for admitting a “letter PIL”. Surely, the norms and guidelines on PILs being formulated by the apex court will help limit their number, reduce the judges’ burden and serve the intended purpose.
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Shame of Doraha THE sacred teacher-student bond, the so-called guru-shishya parampara, is not what it used to be at one time but what a professor of Doraha in Punjab has done has crossed all limits of perversion. This devil in teacher’s clothing captured a MA student engaged in an un-natural act on the video and used this film to blackmail him and abuse him sexually. His accomplices in the heinous crime were some students of the same college in which the 25-year-old victim studied. The lid from the ugly episode has been lifted only after the disgusted youth committed suicide after several months of utter humiliation. No punishment will be too harsh for such a teacher. In fact, he deserves the ultimate punishment. The other students who, too, were equally active in ruining a life also deserve no mercy. The suicide note left behind by the hapless student and the pornographic stuff the teacher and his accomplices released through the mobile multi-media service make investigation of the case easier for the police. Ironically, a lot of hue and cry is raised whenever ragging takes place in an educational institution. Nobody even in his wildest nightmares could have believed that even a teacher could be indulging in such devilish kind of exploitation. Which parent will now feel safe to send his ward to a school or a college? Girls have been victims of such exploitation. Now even boys are not spared. How one wishes it was just one incident of its kind. But many such crimes are being committed at several places. Only recently, the Headmaster of a school near Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) was given 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for raping a student. In Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, three government teachers, including the in-charge of a middle school, were arrested by the police for raping two minor girl students. Each such incident is a nail in the coffin of the education system as it exists today.
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Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. — Helen Keller
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Sixth Pay Commission
The
government did not agree to have a member from the defence forces on the Sixth Pay Commission in spite of them being nearly 36 per cent of the Central government employees. It would not include even a single officer or clerical staff from the armed forces in over a hundred assembled for the commission to work out the details. Consequently, the devil has been let loose into the details related to the armed forces pay and allowances! On protests from the defence forces, a committee of secretaries has been constituted to look into their demands. Again there is no member from the defence forces on this committee. It is merely a repeat of the charade played out during the Fifth Pay Commission. Successive pay commissions have systematically, progressively and by design, disadvantaged the armed forces. They have deliberately overlooked the peculiar nature of the service: the hardships it entails, the need for retaining youthful profile and extremely limited promotions. All these factors are inbuilt, imperatives, and unique only to the armed forces and to the complete exclusion of the civil services. Therefore, no common yardstick can be applied. All these factors have to be adequately compensated in just and fair measure. As an example, the need to maintain youthful profile demands early retirement, both for officers and Other Ranks. Accordingly early retirement has to be compensated both in pay and pensions. Similarly, limited promotion avenues requires a continuous running pay band during the full span of an individual’s service, subject to continued satisfactory performance. The Pay Commissions have simply overlooked these basic features of military service. In the US early retirement is compensated by grant of 75 per cent of pay as pension and so it was before independence in Indian armed forces. A similar dispensation is granted in most other democracies. The entire issue of pay and allowances for the military is relative to the civil servant’s pay and allowances. The SPC has delivered a body blow to the middle-rung officers of armed forces. In fact, the disadvantages set out for the defence forces are far too many to list. Still a few would indicate the extent of disparities introduced. A trainee in the civil services gets full pay with the training period counted towards service but it is not so in the case of defence officers. Extremely limited vacancies in higher ranks results in painfully slow promotions, consequently various scales and full range of increments never come into play. By keeping the Military Service Pay (MSP) outside the basic pay, it has disadvantaged armed forces personnel in status, pay and arrears of pay and allowances etc. In the case of arrears every officer of the Armed forces will get 6000 X Number of months since 1 Jan 2006+DA less compared to central services officers. Thus in the total take home pay across the full length of service, a civil servant leaves defence personnel (all ranks) far behind. The larger issue is one of so doggedly pursuing a course which persistently disadvantages the defence services. Gen O.P. Malhotra, Chairman Chief of Staff Committee in 1981 in a note to the RM, strongly protested against the periodic (in 1948, 62, 65, 1971) lowering of status of armed forces officers, which eventually bears on pay etc. The Committee of secretaries (three of them) who decide warrant of precedence, (and get the Supreme Commander to confirm) recorded that, “military officers had been placed unduly high in the old warrant of precedence, presumably as it was considered essential for officers of “army of occupation to be given special status and authority.” It was the perception of a few babus that Indian army was, an “army of occupation.” If so, then why was the warrant of precedence not lowered in one go and why after every war! Later, when the status of service officers vis-à-vis civilian officers in armed forces headquarters was lowered, Gen SF Rodrigues, as Chairman Chiefs of staff Committee, raised serious objections and highlighted the fallout on the smooth functioning of service headquarters. Such protests have been falling on deaf ears. India has an unbroken record of military defeats stretching back to more than a thousand years, sans victory over East Pakistan in 1971. The profession of arms never generated the kind of interest and focus it demanded and consequently failed to draw on the right leadership for its armies. Stephen Peter Rosen, professor at Harvard in his book, “Societies and military power; India and its armies:” attributes India’s long chain of defeats essentially to the lack of collective national security perspective. Philip Mason, ICS in his book, “A matter of Honour” lays the blame for this unbroken chain of defeats on the types of governments India produced. The British understood security issues and what it takes to organise armies and motivate them. It took them more than half a century to make the Indian army a first rate fighting machine, to match the very best in the world. In 1947 the same army reacted with alacrity and élan and snatched Kashmir valley from the very jaws of Pakistan. But after independence, India had put in place the type of government, which Philip Mason refers to. It took the Indian government less than one and a half decade to demolish that edifice the British had so caringly and painfully built and bring it down on its knees where a mere push by the Chinese in 1962 was enough to roll it over! The SPC took help from certain management institutions (SLRI etc) which came up with a preposterous projection that a man (all ranks!) in the defence services costs the government, in way of perks etc, 4.5 times his pay. Our argument is: give us just twice the pay and take away all the so-called perks! A soldier in Ladakh, Siachen, North Sikkim etc does cost the government a packet, but there is no personal gain for him except all the travails. Our scientist at the Antarctic station costs perhaps 10 times his pay and so does our embassy staff in Paris and elsewhere. Management gurus appear to have succeeded in making the SPC swallow this absurd position only in the case of military. The SPC has once more spared the service chiefs and army commander level officers from its hatchet work. The policy of divide and rule was first tested with the King’s Commission Officers (KCIO’s) and thereafter made into an art form. On their part they accepted this divide by the government without any sting to their conscience. The British knew the Indian character and its penchant for self promotion etc. Therefore, the dictum in the Chetwood Hall, at the Indian Military Academy, “— the comfort and welfare of your men comes first always and every time —— ” The British never felt the need for such an advice to the cadets at their own military academy! Some senior officers are so naive as to talk of only “Izzat” forgetting the adage that, “money makes the mare go,” or the saying, “Parsu, Parsa, Paras Ram, is maya dey tinh hun nam.” With wealth respectability was automatically conferred on him and from Parsu he came to be addressed as Paras Ram. The security scene is worsening by the day and has taken a new form. We may be merely giving credence to Philip Mason’s hypotheses of the types of governments that repeatedly led to Indian defeats. The babudom in India is considered one of the most inefficient, corrupt and self serving, but it has the skill to eat the cake and also have it, and throw crumbs at others. In 160 districts, government’s control has become marginal. In spite of all the mischief against them, the defence forces have so far continued to remain a functioning organ of the government. It can deliver, and deliver on time. The moot point is how long it will remain so! No amount of good weaponry and high technology would be of any avail if those manning it are de-motivated and demoralised. The exodus will intensify, shortfalls would increase and deterioration had set in some time ago. Jai Hind!
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City that walks CHANDIGARH’S vast walking areas are the envy of oxygen-hungry metro dwellers all over the world. Like many disgruntled souls, their tendency to poke scorn at the healthy exercise habits of Chandigarhians flows easily in the form of a free fund of jokes and faux anecdotes. Sample this. A 50-year-old woman weighing 48 kilos goes to the busy orthopaedic OPD complaining of knee pain. The doctor cut her off midway, prescribed some supplements and said dismissively, “Sair karo ji, next month please come back with three kilos weight-loss.” Everyone seems to be walking here — on doctor’s advice or out of kitty-party rivalry. Lower your HDL, increase your LDL, stop your blood sugar fluctuation, prevent cancer — go take a walk! Bahadurs walk the dog and businessmen walk their stresses away. Take the case of the middle-aged lady who got off the flight at Heathrow and started briskly pacing the arrival area with firm, rhythmic strides. “Chandigarh di honi hai, it must be time for her morning walk back home,” pointed out a yellow-turbaned man to his bejewelled bride. Truly, our NRI cousins from Vancouver and Birmingham go green with envy at the sight of morning walkers and evening strollers in our parks and sectoral roads. “Oj ji, enna nu hor kamm ki hai, they have cooks and maids at home so they can go round and round in aimless circles to kill time. But back in the USA, we even have to do our own dishes!” There may be some truth in this snide comment. I recently heard this tale of two middle-aged baby-sitters in sports shoes meeting up in the shady avenue off the precincts of a swank gym. Pram-pushing, fitness conscious maids connect over their mid-morning walk while their memsa’abs sculpt their abs in the air-conditioned confines of the health club. Everyone in Chandigarh has his own “walker’s story.” At quarter to five one morning, I greeted the gardener in the Fragrance Garden as he unlocked his toolshed. He unwinded his hosepipe and cribbed, “I went back home at midnight after checking all the light points with the electricity fault repairman. Those two in the grey and blue tracksuits were still there. I came here early to water the petunias and I still find them walking. I don’t know when they sleep!” I looked in the direction of his pointing finger and saw two octogenarians setting a brisk pace, their walking sticks gesturing wildly in the airspace above them. Green spaces are sacrosanct and thank God we seem to have the funds to keep them ship-shape…for now! Our sense of ownership and personal pride in their continued existence is legendary, if somewhat comical. A bureaucrat working in the city administration was once asked by his former walking buddies, “Ever since you took on this assignment you stay holed up in your office for hours in interminable meetings and are buried beneath piles of files. Why don’t you come to the Lake for your evening walk?” Pat came the retort, “I work so that you may
walk!”
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Creamless quota THE Supreme Court judgement upholding the constitutional validity of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, has expectedly evoked mixed reactions. The Act provides for a quota of 27 per cent for candidates belonging to the socially and educationally backward classes, also called the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). On the whole, political parties, especially the Congress, have hailed the judgement. However, the five-member Bench’s order to exclude the creamy layer from the ambit of the Act has disturbed the allies of the UPA government at the Centre. When the draft legislation was taken up for discussion in the Union Cabinet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had warned that the inclusion of the creamy layer in the Act would be violative of the Supreme Court ruling in the 1993 Mandal case. The Union Law Ministry, the Left parties, the Oversight Committee headed by Mr M. Veerappa Moily and the Parliamentary Standing Committee had also objected to the inclusion of the creamy layer. Yet, allies like the DMK, the PMK, the RJD, the Lok Janshakti Party prevailed upon the Cabinet to include the creamy layer. The Supreme Court judgement is the law of the land. The UPA allies have no alternative but to fall in line. But then, this does not seem to be the end of the story. Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss (PMK) has hinted at meeting all like-minded parties soon and filing a review petition in the court challenging the exclusion of the creamy layer. The Congress and the BJP leaders are treading with caution. While Ms Jayanthi Natarajan (Congress) said that the party would consult its allies to come out with a “structured response” on the issue, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) reserved comments though his party had favoured keeping the creamy layer out. More important, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has said that the issue of the creamy layer needed to be sorted out and that he planned to take the matter to the Union Cabinet. When the Cabinet examined the Bill, before its introduction in Parliament, the HRD Ministry did not take a view on the creamy layer, preferring it to be “a call of the Cabinet”. What is the creamy layer? The National Commission for Backward Classes and an expert committee headed by Justice Ram Nandan Prasad had examined the issue. But there is no comprehensive definition of it. As it stands today, it refers to the children of those holding constitutional positions and those persons having a gross annual income of Rs 2.5 lakh or above. Families owning irrigated land, which is equal to or more than 85 per cent of the ceiling limit in terms of irrigated land (as per the state ceiling laws), fall in the creamy layer category. There is ambiguity in the criteria for those with large agricultural holdings. Those possessing wealth above the exemption limits prescribed in the Wealth Tax Act for three consecutive years (incomes for salaries or agricultural land not clubbed) also belong to the creamy layer. Moreover, children of doctors, engineers, chartered accountants, actors, consultants, media professionals, writers, Class I officers of the Central and state governments, defence officers of Colonel and equivalent rank or higher, Supreme Court and high court judges are also excluded from the ambit of quota. Interestingly, Justice Dalveer Bhandari, in a separate judgement, called for excluding the children of sitting and former MPs and MLAs as well from the benefit of quota. He ruled that the Office Memorandum of September 8, 1993, on creamy layer is not comprehensive. This should be revised periodically, at least once in every five years, to ensure that the creamy layer criteria take the changing circumstances into account. This was also the view of the other four judges. Even as the political parties are grappling with the matter, there is the issue regarding the determination of backwardness. In their ruling, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice C.K. Thakker said that the Centre could do this through a notification. However, for excluding the creamy layer, the Centre and the states should obtain the necessary data and the notification so issued can be challenged in the court on grounds of wrongful exclusion and inclusion, Justice Pasayat said. Again, questions have been raised about the graduates’ eligibility for quota for pursuing post-graduation and further. Justice Bhandari has ruled that once a candidate graduates from a university, he is “educationally forward” and thus ineligible for special benefits under Article 15 (5) of the Constitution for higher studies. Justice Pasayat has also said that graduation will be the criterion for determining one’s backwardness. The judgement is silent on whether the new quota could be imposed on private, unaided institutions though one of the judges observed that such a move would be unconstitutional. Apparently, the implementation of the 27 per cent quota for the OBCs in professional institutions will not be a smooth affair. For the first two years at least, the OBCs are likely to get less than 27 per cent reservation because the Centre has decided to stagger its implementation over a period of three years. The Centre will increase seats at the affected institutions by 54 per cent (so that the number of general category students does not fall) gradually over three years, and the full OBC quota will apply only at the end of the process. The IIMs have deferred the declaration of the final list of selected candidates for 2008-09. It is a challenge for them to prepare expeditiously separate lists for general and OBC students, based on different cutoff marks. There is also the problem of infrastructure. Most IIMs and IITs say that they will have to expand the facilities in terms of faculty, equipment and hostels to cope with the increase in seats. All said and done, the judgement has raised as many questions as it has tried to answer.
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Tibet: India’s image at stake Tibetan
uprising came as a bolt from the blue. China was taken by surprise totally. They were busy with putting up the Olympic show that would surpass any thing seen in the past. Their reputation and pretensions of smooth assimilation of Tibet into China got a rude shock. Tibetan’s long list of grievances has been multiplying ever since the Chinese took over their homeland in 1951. The Chinese have resorted to cultural genocide, suppression of faith, religion and language and mass induction of ethnic Chinese into Tibet with a view to making the indigenous Tibetans as a minority in their own land. Some countries have in some ways tried to express their concern to the Chinese to go easy and humanely in checkmating the Tibetan uprising. However, none had the courage of the type displayed by them during the uprising by the monks in Myanmar. China is not only ruthless in suppressing opposition but also overbearing and aggressive diplomatically. It brooks no interference in its internal affairs. China was uninhibited in warning the US when its 10-member delegation led by Congress speaker Nancy Pelosi met with the Indian Prime Minister and later Dalai Lama on March 21. Calling the crisis in Tibet as “a challenge to the conscience of the world”, she added “If freedom loving people all over the world do not speak out against the Chinese repression in Tibet, we will have lost all moral right to speak for human rights.” It even urged the Chinese to allow independent monitors. This was not taken kindly by the Chinese. The Chinese ambassador in India promptly warned that if any country or organisation or a person says any thing in respect of happenings in Tibet, it would be tantamount to interference in the internal affairs of China. India’s response to Tibetan’s woes and their human rights violations has been over cautious and in fact timid: certainly not in keeping with its professed global aspirations. All India could say in Parliament was that it was distressed. To please the Chinese who wanted India to take firm action against the protesting Tibetans, Indian police swooped down on peaceful processionists and detained them under preventive detention laws. And yet China literally rebuked India for allowing Tibetans to indulge in political activities on Indian soil. Indian policymakers must not get cowed down by Chinese arrogance of power. Tibetan Diaspora must be helped to the extent possible under the circumstances. Right from Nehru’s time, India has for some inexplicable reason followed a policy of appeasement towards China. Acceptance of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet in 1954 and declaring it so ritually during every Indian VIP’s visit to China and theirs to India (only exception being Dr Manmohan Singh’s recent visit), weak-kneed response to Chinese occupation of large chunks of Indian territories, particularly in Aksai Chin (where “not even a blade of grass grows”), defensive political responses to repeated border violations by the Chinese and our Prime Minister’s recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh by skipping Twang are just a few more significant examples of Indian proclivity to appease China, even at the cost of our dignity and self respect. Unfortunately, the 1962 debacle has conditioned our mind so much that even after 46 years, we find it difficult to come out from that defeatist mindset when faced with China. By kowtowing to China and showing undue deference to them, India’s credibility as an emerging global power is at stake. It must rise above this and act with a certain degree of confidence and independence in its own national interest. Otherwise it will land up corroding its own credibility in the eyes of other nations. India must overcome that nagging fear of offending China. Even our reaction to China’s forward march in encircling India from north to south and east to west has been rather mute to say the least. We have perhaps never expressed our concern publicly, leave apart displeasure at China’s ingress into India’s area of influence. Really speaking, Tibet is no more a Chinese issue. It has international connotations, for what happens there has immediate worldwide repercussions. The US has been involved in Tibet right from the beginning. There is a strong Tibetan lobby in America who supports their cause. International response has been rather mute. China will soon overcome this uprising with ever-increasing repressive measures as they have always done in the past. And it will soon fall off the international radar. Whilst the US will resort to severe indictment of China, it will not allow its relations to suffer in any way. They will remain friends despite the posturing, for they will not like to mess up their trade and economic relations in any way.
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Where radio spells magic A group of local Adivasi young men and women gather in Amabeda in Kanker district of south Chhattisgarh led by a bespectacled, soft-spoken yet deeply committed leader, Keshav Shori, himself an Adivasi, to share their experiences with a radio programme. This was created by them in the local dialect ‘Gondi’ called “Bhumkaal Ta Pollo” or “News of the Community” and broadcast through All India Radio, Jagdalpur. The journey began a couple of months ago when this group of social activists working with the Disha Samaj Sevi Sanstha, a tiny NGO, was introduced to producing of a radio programme for rural communities in their region. While they were all avid listeners of radio programmes, the idea of actually making a radio programme was daunting. They imagined it may have been put together by persons far wiser, capable and technically savvy than them. A myth that was suddenly and almost brutally broken by a workshop organised by Charkha Development Communication Network, an NGO which connects rural issues to the media. Beginning with an audience research in villages such as Niljhar, Kolyari and Chhecchgaon in Kanker district and Eradagaon in Bastar district, the idea was to get to know what kind of people listen to the programmes, at what time and what are the kind of programmes preferred. A five-day training workshop followed this audience research which pointed the direction for making the programme. For the 12 Adivasi men and women, it was a step into the unknown nervous yet excited, seeking yet shy to ask. Sukai Usendi could not bring herself to press the red button to record while she talked looking at it as if it would explode! Manglu Ram while conducting a mock interview with a farmer, started off with a well-framed question on the agricultural produce. Then he suddenly got cold feet glancing furtively around for support, lapsing into his local dialect from Hindi and was literally whispering into the recorder half bits of the next few questions. On the other hand, there was a spectacular mock interview by Shanti Sodia speaking to the first girl from her village who completed her education till the MA level. The questions were clear, relevant and drew out the emotion and excitement of achieving this. The challenge of absorbing, learning and assimilating a new medium was huge. Through interesting and sometimes grueling sessions on script-writing, sound-recording, editing, and presentation of radio programmes, the group displayed a marvelous sense of timing, team spirit and a passion to learn and master this medium. The team worked in two groups which collected material for creating a radio programme. In field visits to nearby villages, Iradaha and Marda Poti, the team conducted interviews with the Sarpanch, the head of the Mahila Mandal, a young social activist working on disability issues and a village elder and got a mix of perspectives. They also recorded sounds of the village, local songs. Onwards they went to the next stage, the crucial editing stage at a studio at Raipur. Here they observed and understood how a radio programme is indeed ‘made’ from the raw material they record, how music and commentary is woven in. It was a moment to remember and treasure for all the 12 wide-eyed, wonder-struck people packed into a tiny editing studio. |
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