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Welcome bonanza Needed better work culture in PSUs THE government, regardless of the election code, has decided to go ahead with implementing the Jagannadha Rao committee report, which has given a generous pay hike to the executives of the Central government-owned companies.
Message from Mumbai
My friend Ravi
Terror on TV Linguistic
polarisation Chatterati
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Maha change
CONGRESS leader Ashok Chavan takes over as Chief Minister of Maharashtra during a critical period. Industries minister in the outgoing cabinet, he does not have much experience to handle the job. It is a challenge for him to prove his leadership abilities. The people of Mumbai, nay the entire nation, are yet to recover from 26/11. Mr Chavan has to tone up the administration and remove the sense of insecurity from their minds. Mr Chavan’s predecessor, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, was a big failure. The manner in which his government was caught napping when the terrorists, heavily armed with automatic weapons and grenades, entered Mumbai through the sea route and struck at will in landmark hotels and the CST railway station is well known. The situation would have been different had there been tight vigil in the city as well as along the coastline. Central funds meant for improving Mumbai’s coastal security system remained unutilised and even the bulletproof vests supplied to the Anti-Terrorist Squad were defunct. This speaks volumes about the outgoing government. But then, terror and the lax security system constitute only one aspect of the story. There is a general breakdown of law and order in Maharashtra. The state government had miserably failed to check Raj Thackeray’s antics and the violence against North Indians perpetrated by his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena goons. There was collapse of authority and responsibility. Thackeray is an extra-constitutional authority. Yet, the Deshmukh government had failed to act firmly against him and bring him to justice. Caste clashes and farmers’ suicides are also on the rise and the new government will face a tough time in tackling these problems. Mr Chavan would do well to evolve consensus on major issues and spare no efforts to improve law and order in the state. Of course, the sulking Mr Narayan Rane, who was denied the chief ministership by the Congress high command, will continue to make noises despite his suspension from the Congress. Mr Chavan would need to deploy all his skills to tame him and win his confidence. Ultimately, the people will judge his government on the basis of its record. |
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Welcome bonanza
THE government, regardless of the election code, has decided to go ahead with implementing the Jagannadha Rao committee report, which has given a generous pay hike to the executives of the Central government-owned companies. While approving an average 96 per cent hike in the salaries of 3.74 lakh non-unionised staff of the profit-making central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), the government has washed its hands of any financial obligation and ruled out any fresh budgetary support, making it clear that the CPSEs alone will bear the burden. The staff of the marginally profitable CPSEs will get the pay hike in stages while those of loss-making PSUs will have to wait till their companies start making profits. This is bound to cause some heartburn, especially because some companies have gone into the red due to government policies, lack of financial support or for reasons beyond the control of their bosses as they have limited operational autonomy. It is well known how politicians and bureaucrats misuse funds and resources of government companies. Others make profits due to their monopoly position, rather than any efficiency on the part of their managements. The salaries of the 12.36 lakh unionised workers will be decided later through negotiations. For the first time, apart from getting the biggest-ever salary increase, the “navaratna” executives will receive a performance-linked pay of up to 200 per cent. The aim is to reward outstanding officers and arrest the outgo of talent. Private sector salaries and dynamic work culture have often lured the brightest in government service. More than money, it is often limited operational freedom, lack of recognition and political/bureaucratic meddling that force efficient executives to leave government jobs. Along with extending the financial largesse, the government will have to ensure a better work culture and introduce administrative reforms to retain talent. |
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What is your aim in philosophy? — To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
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Message from Mumbai The tragedy in Mumbai had more than one dimension. It wasn’t only the heart-rending losses suffered by the victims of the terrorist outrage which was shocking beyond words. What was worse was that the nation suddenly found to its disbelief and dismay that it was being held hostage by a marauding gang of assailants who seemed to have come out of nowhere. After the initial sense of shock and horror, a curious numbness seemed to descend on the television viewers all over the country during the following 60 hours of gun battle, reinforcing the belief that no one was safe any more. The earlier bomb blasts in market places and trains were horrible enough. But the jehadis seemed to have realised that their effect was not as long lasting as they wished if only because those acts of terror resembled a sudden accident which could befall anyone at any time. But a prolonged gun battle is different. It cannot be seen as an accidental misfortune. Instead, it was like being trapped in a nightmare with a crazed group of killers. After a devastating experience of this nature suffered not only by Mumbaikars, but by virtually every single Indian, the position of those in authority cannot but become extremely shaky. There is little doubt that the Congress will have to pay a price for what will be widely regarded as its many unaccountable lapses. Its failures are all the greater because the country has been experiencing terrorist attacks for years on end. Yet, the requisite sense of urgency does not seem to be there in the corridors of power. Nothing demonstrated this casualness more than Maharashtra Home Minister R.R.Patil’s outrageous comment that “Bade bade sheheron mein aisi ek-adh ghatna hoti rehti hai (such small incidents keep happening in a big city)”. Apart from its seeming lack of seriousness, the Congress made two other mistakes. One was not to replace POTA with another enactment in order to strengthen the hands of the investigating agencies, which are known to be hamstrung by a lethargic criminal justice system. Or, instead of scrapping POTA as a gesture to placate the minorities, it could have introduced more safeguards to ensure that it was not misused. It goes without saying that a law as draconian as POTA cannot be trusted to deliver justice when people like Mr L.K.Advani or Mr Narendra Modi are in charge. The kind of sectarianism which guides Mr Advani was evident from the anguish which he expressed over the alleged torture of a Hindu suspect while he has maintained a deafening silence all these years over similar allegations concerning Muslims. However, there is no denying that preventive detention is unavoidable when facing terrorism or insurgency. The Naxalite uprisings introduced the phrase “fake encounters” into the police vocabulary and, unfortunate as this practice of cold-blooded killing by the security forces is, it was also known to have been used during the Sikh insurgency. While dealing with both these problems, the Indian state never appeared as helpless as it does today although Naxalism still remains a threat. Terrorism, however, and especially the mayhem in Mumbai, have dealt a hugely demoralising blow to the self-confidence of the average Indian, who had begun to regard himself to be on a par with the citizens of advanced countries. If the country is to recover its poise, there is a need to introduce more than mere cosmetic changes at the top. The Union Home Ministry should have been the government’s first priority in this regard. The reluctance to touch it was the second mistake which the Congress made, for it allowed perhaps one of the most incompetent ministers to continue to be in charge for far too long. When he finally resigned, virtually no other options were left for either him or the government or the party since the nature of the bungling was so great. It isn’t that the Congress had not been aware that it had chosen the wrong man for the second most important position in the government. The move to elevate Mr Shivraj Patil to the presidency last year showed that it wanted to kick him upstairs, as the phrase goes. But the Left’s objections, presumably because of Mr Patil’s Sai Baba connections, made the Congress nominate someone else. The time for Mr Patil to go was after the blasts in Delhi in September when his sartorial elegance came more into focus than his determination to check the terrorists. For a while, there was speculation about the appointment of a minister for internal security, but the idea was dropped. Arguably, such moving of the pieces on the political chessboard may not be too effective because the Congress’s bench strength in the matter of talented individuals is nothing much to speak about. The party was apparently also afraid that any step against Mr Patil might be seen as an attempt to make a scapegoat out of him when the failure is collective and includes the Maharashtra government as well. But such decisions are unavoidable in a democracy if only because the people are scandalised to see such people living a pampered existence at public expense in fortified bungalows when their inefficiency is there for all to see. That Mr Patil and the government were groping in the dark was evident from the Prime Minister’s decision to set up a task force to prepare a road map within 100 days for dealing with terrorism and insurgency. Nothing showed more starkly than this belated move that the government had done precious little since it assumed office to deal with such problems with a sense of urgency. The scale of the failure in Mumbai has also revealed the curious way in which the government functions. It appears that the government did have the information that the terrorists may come by sea disguised as fishermen and attack Taj Mahal hotel. What this shows is that at least the intelligence-gathering machinery is still functioning reasonably well. But it is at the level of adopting security measures that the government failed probably because the Maharashtra Congress was mostly engaged in tacitly encouraging Mr Raj Thackeray so that the shenanigans of his band of goons would undercut the influence of his uncle’s band of goons. It is the violence engendered by the divisiveness of Indian politics which deflects attention from dealing with the primary threat of terrorism. When the poor and innocent north Indian breadwinners are attacked in Mumbai, churches are burnt in Orissa and a new group of Hindu militants suddenly appears on the scene, the government’s attention cannot but be deflected. It is the same petty fractiousness which is again apparent in the BJP’s move to exploit the tragedy to score political points. The party’s resolve to rise above partisan politics, as declared by spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad over CNN-IBN, did not last 24 hours as Mr Advani declined to accept the Prime Minister’s invitation to travel with him to Mumbai to show that the political class was united at the hour of crisis. Given the continuous threat which India faces because of Pakistan’s inability or unwillingness to rein in the jehadis operating from its soil, the government will do well to enlist the help of intelligence agencies from America and Israel, which have had much greater success in dealing with the problem. The report in an Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, therefore, that India did not seem interested in the offers of cooperation from Tel-Aviv was disheartening. Apparently, the government is still excessively concerned about Muslim sensitivities – an attitude which prevents it from enacting tough anti-terrorist laws. Yet, the Muslim citizens cannot thrive if the country
suffers.
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My friend Ravi Ravi
Dara took me on my first visit to the Golden Temple many years ago. Afterwards, we wandered round the crowded bazaars sampling the culinary delights for which Amritsar is famous. Ravi was a foodie and knew all the right places to go to. Meandering through the narrow lanes, I remember her picking up beautifully crafted costume jewellery and bangles for her friends. She always tied her hair in a joora with a long rim, and we found a clutch of these too. Ravi and laughter were synonymous. She was devout and God fearing, always visiting all the places of worship she knew. But her God failed her when she was gunned down by terrorists at the Oberoi Trident on that night of carnage in Mumbai last month. She lived in Delhi and I in Kolkata, but we met at a public relations conference in 1972 and instantly became friends. That friendship deepened and lasted until her cruel death. We planned many workshops and seminars together all over the country. I used to invariably lose my cool over untoward incidents that invariably happen at such conferences. Ravi used to tell me: “Things don’t always work according to plan. Don’t get upset. You do something else and I’ll sort this out.” And she always did. She was the one to tackle problems, assuage frayed tempers and egos, lend a sympathetic ear and lighten our load with her wisdom, tact and patience. We were in Toronto once for an international conference and after a 17-hour non-stop flight, I was literally falling asleep over the dinner which we had to attend as soon as we got in. Ravi woke me up gently and took me to my room, no one else being any the wiser! When a friend was in hospital with a terminal illness, Ravi saw her fumbling as she was trying to tie the strings of the hospital gown. By the evening Ravi had had a few gowns stitched with press buttons she could easily slip over. When my father passed away in Kolkata, Ravi came down from Delhi to console me. Many were her acts of kindness and of love. She was always there for all of us – ever smiling, ever reassuring, seemingly ever “unsinkable”. Ravi’s quiet, but radiant personality reflected itself in her beautifully tailored, but low-key salwar suits, teamed with the most elegant dupattas of which she was specially fond and her matching danglers. We learnt over the years to be careful about favourably commenting on her outfits, as such remarks would prompt her to say: “I’ll get you one”, and more often than not, she did! That evening in Mumbai, Ravi had just finished dinner at the Kandahar restaurant of The Oberoi Trident when two terrorists appeared as if from nowhere. Reports say they marched all the diners up to the eighteenth floor where they separated the men from the women. They shot three women at point-blank range. Ravi was one of them. I was to have met her in Delhi on December 3. Instead, I met her bereaved sisters and her much-loved nephew, Arjun. He too was in Mumbai on work that night, but he, God bless him, survived the Taj carnage. And when, after his own night of horror, he went to search for his Bari Masi at the Oberoi, it was traumatic. Hoping for the best, he waited and prayed. Finally, when he was allowed in it was over a carpet of bodies on the ground floor that he had to weave his way through. It was unbelievable that the vibrant Ravi was one of the bodies, shot twice through the head. We mourn our dead, but I can hear Ravi telling me with the laughter in her voice she always had: “Come on. Get on with life. Be happy
always”.
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Terror on TV
The
attack on Mumbai by terrorists who subjected the city to unprecedented violence for three days during the last week of November, has many lessons for the nation to learn. The terrorists may not have been able to bring down the Taj Mahal, the Oberoi-Trident, Café Leopold and Nariman House, but they have been successful in achieving their main objectives — which was to kill as many people as possible and depict the city, and India, as an unsafe place. The television networks in India gave wide coverage to the event from the start to the finish as if they were covering a cricket test match. The terrorists as also those who were masterminding their “operations” were getting a bird’s eyeview of the events. The media called the events in Mumbai as a war. But the way in which it was projected displayed indifference to the tasks confronting the forces fighting the terrorists. In a war the armed forces take every care that their adversary is not aware of their strength, their locations and the equipment at their disposal. As a Public Relations Officer of the Army during the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars, I know how keenly India tried to keep the location of the armoured formations and the strength of the armed forces in different sectors a secret. All dispatches from the front did not give details of the infantry formations, the kind of artillery at their disposal and such other details. For example, the Pakistan Army was surprised when they encountered tanks in the Khem Karan, Bhikhiwind and Sialkot sectors in 1965 and the armoured regiments in the Shakargarh sector in 1971. If the happenings in Mumbai were a war, no effort was made to deny details of the forces that were trying to evict the terrorists from the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels or the Nariman House. The television coverage showed that initially the forces ranged against them were from the Maharashtra Police and the Anti Terrorist Squad, which were soon joined by the commandos of the Army and the Navy and the National Security Guard. Commentators of television channels were constantly “breaking news” about the reinforcements and their details. The disclosure of the death of Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and Major Sandeep Unnikrishnana of the National Security Guard boosted the morale of the terrorists. In a war the casualties are not given till the end of the operations. The arrival in Mumbai of the National Security Guard, pictures of the para-dropping of the forces on the Nariman House were shown live by the television channels. Details of the weapons of the forces were available to the terrorists through the visuals. Many of those engaged in combating the terrorists were keen to present themselves before the cameras and take credit for their “achievements”. And they included officials of the armed forces. The Army, the Air Force and the Naval commandos were doing their assigned tasks, but their senior officers were speaking to the media and giving details as to how they were “fighting” the terrorists. It was only towards the end that television channels were asked to restrain themselves and the local cable network was taken off the air for a few hours. But the damage was already done. The monitoring of the conversation of the terrorists has shown that their leader was able to direct them to different locations in the hotels in order to kill as many as possible by using guns and grenades. The Prime Minister has assured the nation that a federal intelligence agency will be created soon. He has been saying this at the conferences of Chief Ministers, the Director Generals of Police and intelligence officers repeatedly. The need has been felt that the legal provisions to combat terrorism have to be strengthened. The Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by Veerappa Moily, submitted a report on the subject recently. But we have been hearing that law and order is a state subject and the states are not willing to change the law. But the guidelines needed to be updated after our experience of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and the Kargil war. The comprehensive report submitted by K. Subramanyam was studied by a group of ministers and the guidelines and technical publicity rules governing publicity have been revised as per the directions of the group of ministers and, hopefully, they would be followed in future. It is time that the government prepares a set of rules for the media to follow during a crisis situation like the Mumbai terror attacks. And the discretion to impose the guidelines should be given to professionals and not bureaucrats or politicians. The Central Intelligence Bureau had conveyed information that our adversaries across the border had planned to infiltrate India from the seas. Similar information was made available by the Research and Analysis Wing. These reports were given to the authorities concerned, but little action was taken. It is sad that the suggestions made by K. Subramanyam have not been followed. We have many lessons to learn from the terror attacks on Mumbai. It is time the changes are made in the laws governing security of the country. And the problems should be studied and proposals submitted — if necessary to Parliament —without delay. India cannot afford to be complacent. Is that too much to ask? The writer is a former Principal Information Officer, Government of India |
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Linguistic polarisation The
reorganisation of states was basically meant for a sort of autonomy to states so much so that they would develop their states without any intervention by the Central government and would be free in the decision-making process in the best interests of people. The states, which are much in the news for disturbances caused by ego-centric provincialism, have posed a problem as to how inter-state relations will continue in future. Threats to kill a provincial leader have added to the gravity of the situation and indicate imminent dangers of provincial fundamentalism. Most of the states seem to have failed to develop as per expectations. Due to unemployment and less scope in their states, youth belonging to one state rush to other better developed state or mega cities where employment opportunities are easily available. The exodus from Bihar and U.P. both for employment and business purposes to Mumbai is considered a legitimate claim by provincial political parties and leaders in the respective states. But it has created a sort of commotion by equally provincial parties like the Shiv Sena and the new Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNC), which claim that due to the exodus youth in Maharashtra are denied employment opportunities. The aggressive agitation and incidents threatening law and order have disturbed the states’ political leaders and their provincial parties, which have demanded a ban on the parties concerned in Maharashtra. While rival political leaders in Bihar are now united for the demand to ban as also dethroning the Congress-NCP alliance government in Maharashtra, leaders in Maharashtra have also threatened to unite despite differences for the cause of the autonomy and respect of Maharashtra. The situation has created a sort of linguistic polarisation, which is obviously a threat and challenge to national integration. National solidarity is a priority over provincial autonomy and self-respect. This has to be stressed in view of the present crisis of polarisation. The reorganisation of states on the basis of language has resulted in not only some sort of respect or even over-consciousness about language but also in granting autonomy to state governments. Each state is free to enact its own laws in the interests of its people. If such laws, rules and also the government’s specific decisions are discriminatory, particularly showing leniency to its own language at the cost of the others, they are open to criticism and are challenged in the court of law. This is because while states are formed according to their language and culture, the nation is one and any citizen in the country is constitutionally entitled to go to any state and can continue any business or professional activity. A matter regarding taxation on films of other languages and concessions for films of one’s state language has already been considered by the Supreme Court and the decision in the case is strong enough to guide different states and their leaders as to what should be the attitude and approach in matter of controversy, particularly regarding interests of different languages. No state government is expected to be lenient to its own language while considering taxation on various language films exhibited anywhere in the state. The Supreme Court’s decision in the case of the Andhra government’s discriminatory order imposing concessionary entertainment tax on Telugu films and more on Hindi films has indicated that leniency on the basis of one’s own language is not legally sound and should not be followed by any state. But each state should see and, if necessary, should enact legislation that in recruitment priority should be given to the needy in one’s state so as to stop any exodus to other states and grabbing of opportunities, which should be first made available to residents of the respective states. The question as to why Bihar and U.P. are not developed in order to create employment opportunities for the needy in their states, even after autonomy after the reorganisation, is also equally well-founded and political leaders like Lalu Prasad are expected to assess causes and inadequacies that have kept the lacuna. This requires political will to introspect seriously and speed up schemes of development for which the state leaders who are in the Union Cabinet should stress for funds and the required facilities. But to get excited by self-assertion based on linguistic and provincial pride and to threaten action by united strength of rival parties and leaders is not only disrupting the respective states but also posing a serious threat to national unity and integrity. |
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Chatterati Weddings
of this type are very rare to witness nowadays. Sameer Sharma, son of Capt Satish Sharma, got married last week. A bright sunny afternoon saw a small gathering of the powerful and famous. The “barat” included Sonia Gandhi, her mother Paola Maino, son Rahul, daughter Priyanka and Robert Vadra in “saafas” and “achkans”. The Gandhis and the Sharmas are old family friends. Glamour quotient Preity Zinta was there with boyfriend Ness Wadia. Sharika Sharma and her husband, Bollywood hero Rahul Bhatt, were the main planners of this wedding. The venue was tastefully done with just flowers and more flowers. It was good to see the Gandhis so relaxed. The wedding ceremony was followed by lunch. There were no security checks or SPG guys around to hassle anyone. This is what a wedding should be: small, classy and simple. Wake-up call? The Mumbai terror strikes seem to have broken the illusion of those who thought that terror was someone else’s problem. Delhi and Mumbai saw mass protests and marches by educated youngsters from all walks of life. Is the Mumbai siege going to be a wake-up call for such people to enter politics and govern? Are they going to stop abusing the politicians who they vote for? Will they take some time out of their busy work/social obligations and be responsible citizens of this nation? After all, it has hit them in the face that you too can be attacked. Till now this class kept aloof from the political and social process of the country — not even voting at times. Unkept promises Narendra Modi arrived in Mumbai trying to garner political mileage out of a national tragedy. He offered Rs 1 crore to the wife of the slain brave cop Karkare. The widow of the martyr refused to take the money. But Modi has made many such promises in the past and not stuck to his word. After the Akshardham attack he had announced compensation for the families of the brave policemen. Another SPG commando who got a bullet in his neck was promised Rs 10 lakh. Forget the money, they did not even get the national award that Modi had promised. When will these fellows learn not to mock the simple folk who lay down their lives to keep them safe? Whether the Mumbai attack will help the BJP garner votes is not known. But they launched a full-fledged offensive against the government even while the commando operation was still on at Mumbai. They wanted to form a collective desire to sell this horrifying attack by bringing in advertisements and banners. Shame! They have forgotten the attacks on Parliament and Kandahar during their own days. The plan was to use the attack to divert attention from the Hindutva terror network. |
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