The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Mamata vs Bengal
Her disruptive politics is anti-people

AS the agitation against the Tata Motors’ factory in Singur continues, it is all too evident that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is determined to deprive West Bengal of the benefits of investment and industrial development which the state badly needs. Even as other parties, fringe groups and celebrity activists have rallied against the allotment of land to the Tatas, the so-called movement spearheaded by Ms Banerjee is more against the people of the state than the Left Front government. Clearly, there are no issues that cannot be resolved, especially after the government has invited her for unconditional talks. Yet if Ms Banerjee has refused to enter into negotiations, it is because she does not want the so-called issues to be sorted out. For that would mean the loss of her platform to continue with the irresponsible agitation.

Doubtless, there is political mileage to be gained by keeping up the siege of the Tata plant in Singur. The factory cannot function, the Left Front is kept preoccupied with the agitation and Ms Banerjee gets all the attention, including from the international quarters which have shown immense interest in the Nano. But, what of the people of West Bengal? For decades, the state has been a byword for industrial unrest with Left-led bandhs, hartals and blockades. After the Left Front assumed office, its ideological blinkers kept industrial peace but also put off both investment and industry from entering the state. Finally, when the Left Front government realised that it should take advantage of the climate of economic reforms and motivated industrialists to come in with their money and projects, there are elements like Ms Banerjee who don’t want the state to benefit. By maintaining the growing unemployment, industrial backwardness and deprivation, these anti-development forces hope to politically defeat the Left Front.

This is not only shortsighted but wilful destruction of the state’s developmental prospects. While the Left may be responsible for this culture of agitation catching on in the state and Ms Banerjee is only giving them back a dose of their own medicine, it is the people who are being held to ransom. It is time the state’s development was freed from being hostage to such people and their politics, regardless of their ideological colour.

Change in Jharkhand
Decks cleared for Shibu Soren as CM

IT will be a sweet homecoming for Jharkhand Mukti Morcha supremo Shibu Soren on August 27 when he will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand at Ranchi. He had a very short innings earlier. Though he was sworn in as the Chief Minister in March 2005, he had to resign nine days later after having failed to muster the required numbers. The wheel has turned full circle for Mr Soren. Having successfully enlisted the support of outgoing Chief Minister Madhu Koda and other Independents, there is virtually no challenge to him in the game of numbers now. He has handed over a list of the 42 MLAs (including 17 MLAs from his party, the JMM) who support him in the 81-member House to Governor Syed Sibtey Razi. Consequently, it won’t be difficult for him to prove his government’s majority support on the floor of the Assembly by September 1, as directed by the Governor.

But then, the JMM chief had to toil hard to persuade the Independent members, including Mr Koda, to give up their resistance to his leadership. Even after his meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on August 22, Mr Koda was sulking and was reluctant to resign to make way for Mr Soren. It was finally left to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to woo Mr Koda and other disgruntled Independents. He proceeded to Ranchi and convinced Mr Koda and Mr Stephen Marandi, the Deputy Chief Minister, to support Mr Soren in the interest of “UPA unity”.

Ever since his acquittal by the Delhi High Court in the Shashi Nath Jha murder case, Mr Soren has been in political hibernation. He may have failed to get a berth in the Union Cabinet, but he demanded his pound of flesh for his party’s support to the UPA government in the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha on July 22. The JMM has five members in the Lok Sabha. Clearly, both the Congress and the JMM need each other most to fight the BJP in Jharkhand. While the Chief Minister’s post to Mr Soren is a reward for the JMM’s support to the Manmohan Singh government, the UPA is looking forward to a tie-up with the JMM for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

Thought for the Day

What music is more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can’t hear what they say? — Logan Pearsall Smith

ARTICLE

The increase in salaries
How the government gives less to its staff
by Arun Kumar

THE Central Government announced a revised pay structure for its employees on the eve of Independence Day. It has been called a “jackpot” for the roughly five million employees of the government. It has also opened the way for an increase in the salaries of the employees of the state governments and university and college teachers. So, in due course, roughly 17 million public sector employees will have their emoluments raised.

When the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations were announced, no one was happy. The armed forces, police officers, bureaucrats, et al, protested against the meager proposed increase in the salaries which was below their expectations, given the prevailing situation in the economy and their requirements. For instance, the armed forces have been pointing to the difficulties in retaining and recruiting the requisite number of officers and specialists like doctors and engineers at the prevailing salaries.

The government has announced an increase over the Pay Commission recommendations. But if the total increase is of the order of 21 per cent on an average (as some reports suggest), then this would hardly mollify the disgruntled groups. They were not seeking about a 10 per cent or 20 per cent hike but demanding a 200 or 300 per cent increase in their emoluments. The government seems to be in a no-win situation.

Those who have characterised the announcement as a “jackpot” or a “bonanza” obviously feel that the government servants do not even deserve what was announced by the pay commission so that the additional amount is even more unfair. This is in contrast to the applause from the same circles when the corporate sector announces annual (not over 10 years) salary increases of 40 or 50 per cent and huge bonuses for its managers. What is involved in the announcement of a pay commission award?

Pay commissions have been set up at 10-year intervals because the salaries of the government servants lag behind the ongoing inflation. The government servants get an annual increment and every six months a dearness allowance (DA) to compensate for the price rise. However, since the compensation is never commensurate with the price rise, real incomes keep falling and the pay commissions are supposed to correct for this decline.

Thus, in-between the setting up of the pay commissions, the government gets a benefit by paying its employees less than what it should have been paying. Further, the pay commissions typically compensate the employees for inflation only at the bottom of their pay scales so that the emoluments of those at senior levels come down to roughly the starting point of their scales and they lose the benefit of the increments earned due to seniority. This is a permanent advantage to the government.

Further, over a period of time, the official rate of inflation has gone out of line with the real inflation. The services sector is now over 60 per cent of GDP but its weight in the consumer price index is only 16 per cent. Thus, rapid increases in school fees, travel, entertainment, etc, are not factored in. As such, the compensation for inflation is only partial. Consequently, the government servants feel that they are not able to maintain their standard of living. But there is something else even more critical.

Salaries in the private organised sector and the emoluments of professionals and businessmen have seen a huge increase. These have become benchmarks for everyone to aspire for. Economic theory tells us that when income differentials widen, there is social discontent. Up to 1991, corporate salaries were capped at Rs 3,12,000 per annum. This cap was lifted and now salaries in the private sector can go into crores with top salaries up to Rs 25 crore. In other words, there has been an increase of around 800 times at the top. The starting managerial salaries are even higher than the salary of top government officials at retirement.

Such huge salary differentials have led to discontent all around. Senior bureaucrats, doctors, pilots, engineers, etc, aspire for leave for the private sector where they can draw 10 times (or more) their current salaries.

It is argued that the government’s budget would be upset by the announcement of the salary increases. Hence these should be moderated. But it is forgotten that the government has all along been getting the benefit of not paying its employees what it should have been paying.

However, the real issue is not the financial burden but corruption, weak governance and poor delivery of public services. The public faces harassment in the courts, public sector hospitals, government offices, etc. Given the low prestige of government employees, the public resents any additional payment to them since they do not even justify the present payment they receive.

While in a limited framework, these are the relevant questions, at a higher plane, one may ask: how legitimate is it for anyone to earn salaries 3.5 times to 35 times the per capita incomes when in 2004-05, 77 per cent of Indians spent Rs 20 or less per capita per day? In other words, less than Rs 3,000 per month for a family of five? It is true that people usually look at those above them and not those below them, but why should the government not take a broader perspective? Why, in terms of reference, is there no point about the relationship of salaries in the country with the per capita incomes which represents the nation’s true paying capacity? If some get a disproportionately high income, it is at the expense of the others.

Not only should we ask how much a poor nation can afford but also who should get what. Does a school teacher or a researcher not deserve more than what we pay someone to sell cigarettes or toiletries or for moving funds around the globe? Should salaries depend on how much power one has in the market or how much the managers are willing to do the bidding of the businessmen or how much political clout one can exercise or on the long run, the value of one’s work to society?

In an economy where black economy is rampant (50 per cent of GDP) and businesses earn large sums of money in illegitimate ways and share a part of that with politicians, consumerism has become rampant. Not only does one see it in five-star hotels or at flashy weddings but also in parliament. The people’s representatives are flaunting their wealth for all to see. The Prime Minister and the President drive around in flashy cars and live a lifestyle worthy of kings of olden days. This has led to a severe demonstration effect with everyone aspiring for consuming more so that none is happy with less or willing to sacrifice for the sake of a common good. The Prime Minister did talk of ostentation in the corporate sector, but he was laughed out of court and fingers were pointed at the politicians, so he never raised the matter again. That is the clout of the elite.

In brief, since the debate on the emoluments of government servants has remained in the narrow confines of the budget or its inflationary consequences, it has missed the main point that it should relate to the country’s worldview (or a lack of it) about equity and social justice. In the 61st year of our Independence, the ongoing debate shows that for the elite, whether in the public or private sectors, the nation is hardly the reference point for action.

MIDDLE

Departure Terminal
by Raji P. Shrivastava

People huddled in little groups by the stone benches as they watched the mortal remains of a 55 year old being consigned to the flames. There were relatives, neighbours, colleagues and friends. The bereaved family was distraught. I had entered the cremation ground several minutes late owing to a traffic snarl.

I remember looking at the grotesquely painted statues of a Kali and a Yamaraj and wondered if morbidity in sculptures constituted a new art form. But the shady trees were soothing and the amenities in the place were excellent : a caring local body had tried to make Departures less painful. The same outfit could do something about making Arrivals more welcoming, I thought facetiously, remembering the squalid labour ward of the civil hospital I had occasion to visit only last week.

I did not know the deceased very well; he was a member of the large organisation I worked in. I was there as a gesture of workplace solidarity. You could clearly tell the office crowd from the homemakers. The former were in workday clothes of varying degrees of elegance while the latter, having come from home on “hearing the news” were dressed in summery whites that could pass for regulation mourning and yet morph into kitty party chic at the flash of a diamond.

“They have all the time in the world, my dear,” said one office type to another. “Look at that perfect French manicure interrupted by platinum on alternate fingers – try using a computer keyboard with all that! ” sniggered her friend. “Mmm. Let’s catch up soon; ever since I got transferred to the other building a few years ago we hardly meet. We last saw each other at Kirpal’s funeral ! ”. Some office friendship, this, I noted silently. First Kirpal and now Samir had to die before these two could meet up !

The scene in the men’s group was no better. Macho demonstrations of weighlifting ensued as Van Heusen sleeves were rolled up to lift logs of wood. Latecomers were greeted in a display of backslapping bonhomie and tongues clicked in mandatory sympathy for the departed Samir who until yesterday had played golf with a few and partied with others. Apparently he was known to be tardy and hence the wry comment doing the rounds was “late hotey hotey Late ho gaya Samir !” “Bechaara” was the consensus adjective as “My turn next” broodings from chain smokers and heavy drinkers broke the staccato crackle of the logs.

Snazzy ringtones from misbehaving cellphones pierced the drone of the by-now marginalised priest. One impatient man glanced at his expensive wrist watch as if timing the body’s disintegration. Someone actually asked the priest how much longer it would take.

Finally the mourners moved away, deciding that Samir must now travel alone since the flames were getting too hot to bear. Rustling chiffons, hushed conversation, even an off-colour joke or two. Some ritual washing up ensued and some drove off disdaining such superstitions. All in a day’s work for some, all in a day’s leisure for others.

OPED

Death of a legend
Ahmad Faraz carried forward Faiz’s tradition
by Kashmiri Lal Zakir

IT was, perhaps, in 1988 when my first personal contact was established with a great poet from Pakistan, Janab Ahmad Faraz.In collaboration with the Haryana Urdu Akademi, Rajinder Malhotra, President, Sham-e-Bahar Trust, Ambala, every year organised an Indo-Pak Mushaira in the month of March.

I, being the Secretary of the Akademi, used to give full support to Mr. Malhotra in organising that great annual event and also provided a very generous financial assistance from the Haryana Urdu Akademi.

The mushaira was invariably inaugurated either by the Governor of Haryana or the Chief Minister of Haryana.

In 1988 the Chief Minister of Haryana inaugurated the Mushaira and also gave a generous grant from his personal discretionary quota to the Sham-E-Bahar Trust. It was in this Mushaira that I came into personal contact with Ahmad Faraz, who had been my very favourite poet after Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

His famous ghazal, which was sung by Ghulam Ali and also Mehdi Hasan long back, was always echoing in my mind. The two most important couplets are as follows:

The poet

Once his father, a teacher, bought clothes for him on Id. He didn’t like the clothes meant for him, but preferred the ones meant for his elder brother. This led him to write his first couplet:
Layen hain sab ke liye kapre sale se
Layen hain hamare liye kambal jail se
lFaraz was awarded the Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 2004 in recognition of his literary achievements. He returned the award in 2006 after becoming disenchanted with the government.
In a statement he said: “My conscious will not forgive me if I remained a silent spectator of the sad happenings around us. The least I can do is to let the dictatorship know where it stands in the eyes of the concerned citizens whose fundamental rights have been usurped. I am doing this by returning the Hilal-e-Imtiaz (civil) forthwith and refuse to associate myself in any way with the regime...”

Ab Ki Bichhre Hain to Shayad kabhi Khawabon Mein Milen
Jis Tareh Sookhe Hue Phool Kitabon Mein Milen

Gham-e-Dunian Mein Ghame Yaar Bhi Shamil Kar Lo
Nasha Barhta Hai Sharaben Jo Sharebon Mein Milen

In that Mushaira Ahmad Faraz recited the following couplets, which stole the Indo-Pak mushaira of that year:

Teri Baaten Hi Sunane Aaye
Dost Bhi Dil Hi Dukhane Aaye
Phool khilte Hain To Hum Sochte Hain
Tere Aane ke Zamaane Aaye
Aisi Kuchh Chup Si Lagi Hai Jaise
Hum Tujhe Hall Sunane Aaye
Ishq Tanha Hai Sare Manzile Gham
Kon Yeh Bojh Uthane Aaye

This personal contact, with the passage of time, developed into a very close friendship. We shared the platform of the mushaira a number of times at various places. But the Indo-Pak Mushaira, which had become an annual event, continued for many years.

In recent years Faraz had changed his romantic style of poetry and was grappling with the social issues of both countries. I feel that with this new change of trend and style in his poetry, Ahmad Faraz has carried the traditions of Faiz to very high limits.

In his latest poems, Faraz has emerged as a visionary. His constant message always emphasised the strengthening of bonds with India. He always conveyed the message of friendship, peace, brotherhood and justice to the common man living not only in this subcontinent but also in other parts of the world.

He had great faith in Dreams. I quote here a few lines from his poem Khvab Marte Nahin:

Khvab Marte Nahin
Khvab Dil Hain Na Aankhen Na Saansen Ki Jo
Reza Reza Huai To Bikher Jayenge
Jism Ki Maut Se Yeh Bhi Mar Jayenge
Khvab Marte Nahin

Khvab To Harf Hain
Khvab To Noor Hain
Khvab Suqrat Hain
Khvab Mansoor Hain

The news received a few days back that Faraz was critically ill and was admitted in hospital in Chicago was very painful. His son Shibali devoted all his, energy and money for the treatment of his father.

You can face all the turmoil in the world but cannot defeat your destiny. We have ultimately to submit to that invisible great force.

I end with a couplet of Faraz, which he wrote on one of my books when he came to Chandigarh a couple of years back to attend an Indo-Pak Mushaira:

Voh Jis Ghammand Se Bichhra Gilla To Uska Tha
Ki sari baat Mohabhat Mein Rakh Rakhao Ki Hai

Salaam, my great friend Faraz!

Nuclear waste containers likely to fail
by Geoffrey Lean

Thousands of containers of lethal nuclear waste are likely to fail before being safely sealed away underground, a devastating official report concludes.

The unpublicised report is by the Environment Agency, which has to approve any proposals for getting rid of the waste that remains deadly for tens of thousands of years.

The document effectively destroys Britain’s already shaky disposal plans just as ministers are preparing an expansion of nuclear power.

It shows that many containers used to store the waste are made of second-rate materials, are handled carelessly, and are liable to corrode.

The report concludes: “It is cautious to assume a significant proportion will fail.” It says computer models suggest up to 40 per cent of them could be at risk.

Britain’s leading expert on nuclear waste has called the report “devastating” and Peter Ainsworth, the Conservative environment spokesman, said he would write to ministers to urge them to “make changes to ensure public safety”.

He added: “Such a warning from the Environment Agency must be taken extremely seriously. The failure of just one container could prove catastrophic.”

The report says that “tens of thousands” of containers of immensely dangerous waste, bound in concrete, are simply being stored above ground, mainly at Sellafield, while the Government and the nuclear industry decide what to do with them.

On present plans it is assumed they will remain there for up to another 150 years before being placed in a repository underground. It will take another 50 years to fill the repository, which will then remain open for another 300 years, while the waste is monitored, before being sealed up and buried.

Officially, containers are designed to last for the full five centuries before the repository is closed. But the Environment Agency report questions whether this is “realistic” and says there is an “absence of robust arguments which demonstrate that this target is achievable in practice”.

It suggests that the containers are not made of the kinds of stainless steel best able to resist corrosion and questions whether the types used are “fit for purpose over an extended time period”.

It reveals that their internal surfaces are not treated to remove vulnerabilities to corrosion, and that some have seals “that are not expected to be durable over periods of hundreds of years”. It also discloses that some operators have touched the steel drums with their bare hands, although the rules require gloves, depositing sweat that can also lead to corrosion.

Tens of thousands of containers already in store have been produced to less exacting specifications, which do not even attempt to make them safe for the necessary 500 years. The report adds that the implications of this do not seem to have been “fully considered”. Some 17,000 containers in storage contain a kind of nuclear waste that reacts with cement and so is expected to fracture the concrete encapsulating it within 140 years.

By arrangement with The Independent

Inside Pakistan
by Syed Nooruzzaman
Why is Sharif inflexible?

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif seems to have made up his mind to precipitate fresh elections in Pakistan. This is one inference that can be drawn from his party’s decision to withdraw from the PPP-led ruling coalition. It is believed that the PML (N) has a fair chance of doing better than any other party if the situation leads to the holding of polls again.

As Daily Times has commented, “The PML (N) is relying on civil society pressure to punish the PPP for ducking out of the agreement to restore the (sacked) judges.... Championing the cause of the judges was supposed to show the PML (N) in a better light and give it an enhanced public standing in relation to the PPP. Inflexibility was also sure to go down well with the people since compromise is considered dishonourable and cowardly (in a country where there is no dearth of jihadis).”

According to The News, “We may well see a return to the squabbling and bickering of the 1990s when fighting between Mr Sharif’s party and the PPP, then led by Benazir Bhutto, often ended up paralyzing the government….”

But PPP leader Asif Zardari must have kept all these factors in view when he decided to go slow on the question of reinstatement of the deposed judges. In his latest statement, Mr Zardari has said that he is prepared to restore the status quo ante of the judiciary, but only after he has overcome the problems coming in the way.

Mr Zardari has admitted that he had signed “political understandings” with Mr Sharif, but has asked the PML(N) chief to realise the difficult situation he is faced with. He referred to the help they had taken from “some friends within and outside the country in the ouster of President Musharraf”. These “friends” — who could be either the Army or the US or both — are opposed to bringing some of the sacked judges, including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, back to the courts.

Mr Zardari’s is known for his belief in realpolitik. If Mr Sharif does not listen to his appeal to allow the PML (N) to remain a part of the ruling coalition, the PPP leader will be better placed to explain his position if and when fresh elections become inevitable.

New political alignments

With Pakistan entering a new phase of uncertainty, political alignments are set to change in the days to come. The situation may be clear by September 6, when Pakistan’s new President will be elected. The PPP’s candidate, Mr Zardari, will be opposed by the PML (N)’s Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, a former Chief Justice of Pakistan.

According to The Nation, “The PPP, despite being in a comfortable position to grab the Presidency, is lobbying hard to woo the forces it had been accusing in the past of involvement in Benazir Bhutto’s murder. Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who met Ch Shujaat Hussain and Ch Pervez Elahi (of the Musharraf-backed PML-Q) in Islamabad the other day, sought their support for Mr Zardari besides discussing with them the possibility of the PML-Q’s cooperation with the PPP at the Centre as well as in Punjab.

The Nawaz Sharif camp, too, is wooing these leaders, who were his party colleagues before they decided to jump over to the bandwagon of Mr Musharraf when he grabbed power as Army Chief in October 1999. Both sides have given the impression that they are prepared to forget their immediate past and start life afresh.

Mr Sharif’s worry is not the fate of his nominee for the presidential election as much as the future of his party-led government in Punjab province. The provincial government cannot survive once the PPP withdraws its support to the ministry headed by the younger Sharif, Shahbaz.

Economy on the slide

People, however, want the government to concentrate on handling the problems like rising prices, growing militancy and unemployment more than any other thing. They are leading a miserable life these days. Ghazi Salahuddin says in an article in The News, “the situation is very grim” on the economic front. Last Friday, the Pakistani rupee fell “to a record low” — 77.15 against a dollar. “This could not have been imagined in the recent past”, he added.

The Nation (Aug 26) has quoted Moody’s, the international credit rating agency, to highlight “yet another drop in Pakistan’s credit fundamentals. The agency, which had downgraded Pakistani’s sovereign credit ratings to B2 from S1 this May, is predicting further deterioration in the country’s investment climate.”