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Security mania
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Lack of sincerity
Satyam fiasco
Tackling terrorism
Some values stay with time
Without a future
Understanding Mayawati
Delhi Durbar
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Security mania
IT is unbelievable but true that 45,846 policemen guard 13,319 VIPs in the country. Only a few states have as many policemen to guard their entire population. A staggering sum of Rs 825 crore is spent annually on these policemen. What’s worse, the number of VIPs being given round-the-clock security has been growing faster than the population growth.
In Punjab, which has a large number of those who think they are VIPs, are receiving high security although militancy ended in the state years ago. A majority of the beneficiaries are politicians who have always been clamouring for more and more security. All this should be seen against the fact that in India, the police-people ratio is one of the lowest. Most police stations are understaffed with civil policing suffering because of lack of manpower. It is true that some political leaders require security as, otherwise, they may be vulnerable to attacks. However, security has, over the years, become a status symbol so much so that any leader who does not have a battery of security personnel following him wherever he goes does not consider himself to have “arrived”. Even when security is provided, they constantly demand raising the security level from “x” to “y” to “z”, the ultimate symbol of power and authority. Home Minister P. Chidambaram set a good example by refusing to have his security standards raised when he was shifted from the Finance Ministry. In sharp contrast, leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati have resorted to various ingenious stratagems to have her security status raised to the level of the security meant for the Prime Minister. Many of those getting security cover do not simply need them. In Punjab beneficiaries of security continue to cause enormous drain on the state’s resources. The state is also notorious for allowing beacon lights on the vehicles used by the VIPs which get precedence over even ambulance vans at signal points. It is high time the whole issue of security is considered afresh at the state and national levels. The primary responsibility of the police is to provide security to the common man, and not become part of the perceived status symbol of the VIP, who tend to think they are a class apart, ready to thrive at the cost of public exchequer. |
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Lack of sincerity
Pakistan’s lack of sincerity in tackling terrorism has been proved once again by the way it has spoken with a forked tongue on the issue of reining in notorious terrorists. While its Defence Minister, Chaudhary Mukhtar Ahmad, had said only last week in a televised interview that Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, one of India’s most wanted terrorists, was under house arrest, its High Commissioner in India TV in an interview with Karan Thapar has claimed that his whereabouts are not known.
Apparently, Pakistani promises to snuff out terrorism are only a cosmetic exercise. What it fails to realise is that by taking contradictory positions, it has lost its credibility. Its claims that Dawood Ibrahim is also not in Pakistan evoke equally incredulous response considering the mountain of evidence to the contrary with India, the US and the UK. Pakistan has played this game for far too long and stands fully exposed before the international community. Even its mentor, the US, has now seen through the smokescreen. Its claims that
Jammat-ud-Dawa, designated as a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba by the United Nations, is a charity has been rejected outright by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has been constrained to say that Washington has learnt the hard way that sometimes these groups too are intertwined with the bodies that have terrorist links. The restrictions imposed on the JuD are already being eased on the sly any many of its functionaries have gone underground.
No doubt, Pakistan too is suffering at the hands of terrorists. But that is only because it had been patronising them for far too long. The mayhem wrought by them cannot be attributed to “non-state actors”. Its Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood
Qureshi, who said that the “charitable arms” of the JuD would not be closed down, is not a non-state actor. Nor is the Defence Minister who admitted that Azhar was under house arrest but would not be handed over to India. Can such key ministers of a country throw a protective shield around known extremists who are on the world’s most wanted list and yet claim to be fighting terrorism? |
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Satyam fiasco
Information technology companies had raised corporate India’s image at home and abroad through excellence and ethical practices. The US and much of Europe had come to rely on them for outsourcing work. Satyam Computer Services, the fourth largest IT company in the country, has caused a serious dent in its carefully nurtured image by an utterly irresponsible and ill-conceived act for which it has been suitably and deservedly punished by investors. How could the board of directors of the company unanimously decide to acquire two companies floated by the family of its chairman? It is ironical that a company that has been awarded the prestigious Golden Peacock Global Award for excellence in corporate governance for 2008 should stoop to this level. The two firms — Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure — operate in an unrelated field.
If technology companies are facing the heat of global financial meltdown, the plight of real estate and infrastructure companies is no better. They too are in trouble after the decline in consumer demand for houses and government spending on infrastructure. Both were overvalued by the Satyam board. There is no justification for using investor wealth for personal benefit. When foreign institutional investors came to know of the move, they immediately sold their share holdings. Satyam ADRs, listed on a US technology stock exchange, Nasdaq, lost 50 per cent of their value in a day. At least five major brokerage firms immediately downgraded Satyam for poor corporate governance and a shift in the management focus. In India the Satyam promoters lost Rs 597 crore in a day due to the fall in the share prices of the three companies engaged in the controversial deal. This is a rare but welcome example of investor activism and will, hopefully, serve as a warning to family-run companies to desist from undesirable business practices. |
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It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don’t have to.
— Walter Linn |
Tackling terrorism
The results of Assembly elections have proved that Indian electorate has a mature understanding of terrorism as being a world phenomenon as against anti-Pakistan sentiment projected by the BJP. The cult of war cry, in the wake of Mumbai terrorist attack had inflated the ego of the BJP to imagine itself as a colossus. An electoral slap in reply has proved President Lincoln’s saying that “You can fool all the people for some time, you can fool some people for all the time — but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.
This is not meant in any way to lessen the horrendous experience of Mumbai tragic killings by terrorists attack on 26 November 2008. It justifiably numbed and angered the nation, which saw the gruesome happenings live on TV for all those days. The security personnel and commandos are fully entitled to our thankful and respectful homage. Indignation at the incompetence, sloth and indifference of government agencies to national safely has rightly broken out. This perception now stands confirmed by the unalloyed but democratically correct admission of Chidambram, the new Home Minister. Incompetence of the government should not be compounded by stifling civil liberties of the citizens. But I am gravely worried at the sudden loss of trust between India and Pakistan. It is now an established fact that the Mumbai attack had a Pakistani link. It does speak poorly of the Pakistan government that in the first instance it denied that terrorists were from Pakistan, and tried to play an unworthy smart card of India supplying proof of Pakistani connection, especially when Pakistan itself had been victim of its homegrown terrorists. The various assassination attempts on Musharaff and the murder of Benazir Bhutto were obviously the work of Al-Qaida, the LeT and other Jehadi groups operating from Pakistan. Initially, President Asif Ali Zardari made the right noises — he talked of sending the head of the ISI (as was the understanding of the Indian government). But then he recanted, apparently under pressure of the ISI, which led to the demand for aggressive action in India. Unthinkingly the government of India cowed under pressure and cut off all contacts which were mutually beneficial like peace talks on Siachen, Sir Creek. Even trade talks have been put in abeyance. Who are we damaging but the average man in both countries? Things could have become worse, but the US, desperate about its Afghan venture going astray, moved in and pressurised the Pakistan government to act, which has now arrested Lakhavi, the leader of terrorist gang and detained Masood Azhar. One regrets that Pakistan did not resort to these steps at the asking of India. This has not shown our independence of working — rather it has shown that both our countries as being subordinated to US global programme. I should have thought that after Pakistan’s action, however reluctantly, greater trust will grow between both countries. But so much is the mutual suspicion that a hoax call to President Zardari allegedly by Indian foreign minister threatening him to take action against terrorists was blown up in spite of immediate denial by India. Even more surprising is that the hotline which exists between two Prime Ministers was not activated – this mystery apparently has not been cleared adding to further strain. Unfortunately media is not acting responsibly by insisting on the government of India to demand the handing over of terrorists. One report, if true, has it that the Indian government had even asked for handing over of Hamid Gul, the former the ISI chief. It shows a complete lack of realism. The US may behave in a similar vein and get away, because unfortunately Pakistan is a client State economically, especially with US war in Afganistan determining the relationship. But surely saner thinking must tell us that India cannot and could not act, as some hawks are egging on the government of India to take dangerous steps like limited strike in Pakistan territory on the plea of chasing the terrorists. Already suspicion has been so aroused in Pakistan that hundreds gathered at Pakistan Wagah border shouting anti-India slogans. How sad it would make some of us led by Kuldip Nayar, the eminent journalist, who have been lighting candles of peace on 14 August for over a decade and half, and which resulted since last two or three years with an equally genuine reciprocal gathering across Wagah border as a bond of mutual friendship. This mutual suspicion is suicidal. Terrorism is a danger to both countries. Pakistan has gruesome situation of terrorism on its own soil by the terrorists even targeting Shia prayer halls in Peshawar only a couple of days back. Pakistan is so much a victim of terrorism that in the NWFP, the number of terrorists attack against the police has gone up from 113 in 2005 to 1820 last year. The carnage at Taj and Oberoi was in the same strain as the terrorists did at Marriot Hotel in Islamabad.
Similarly the European Union has sent a strong message and asked it to “fully cooperate” in investigating the “horrendous” terror attacks in Mumbai. The wellwishers of Indo-Pak friendship should not let the foul deeds of Al-Qaida, the LeT or the Jamat-ud-Dawa muddy our relations. The comment by some Indian artists proudly saying on TV (India) that they will not perform with Pak artistes was objectionable, provocative and totally against the spirit of art. Similarly, action by the Pakistan government telling singer Ghulam Mohd not to go to India is unworthy. We must cry a halt to unnecessary jingoistic, provocative action. Let not our anger, at our government’s inefficiency, make us insensitive to common safety and welfare. We have to accept that average Pakistani wishes his democratic experiment succeeds, and his friendship with India blossoms (ISI tricks notwithstanding). Any hawkish attitude in India does not befit the conciliatory and understanding statement of President Zardari, namely Mumbai attacks were directed not only at India but also at Pakistan’s new democratic government and the peace process that we have initiated. The mutual wrangling can create an unintended dangerous course. Mr Qureshi, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan (who by all reckoning is rightly considered a champion of Indo-Pak friendship) because of compulsions at home and possibly hawkish sentiments emanating out of India, has had to say, “ We do not want to impose war, but we are fully prepared in case war is imposed on us”. This only shows how politicians in both countries wish to display sterner face forgetting that there is nothing more destructive for us than war between India and Pakistan — this is not an option, because it can only bring untold misery to both our
countries. |
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Some values stay with time
I
was sitting in the room of a senior scientist at Punjab Agricultural University, recently, when he asked his office messenger to give a Rs 500 currency note to the canteen contractor saying “the money is not mine”. In the transaction for his purchase, he had been sent his original currency note along with the change. His colleague said: “Why did you send the money back? You did not steal it”. The scientist’s face sported a wide grin. He said: “I cannot let down the ideals I got from my mother”. “How is your mother related to a free cash sop by our campus canteen contractor?” his friend asked. The scientist leaned back in his chair, drew a deep breath and said: “It all started when we had to come to India after Partition. We lost everything in Pakistan and were staying in a makeshift structure near an ‘atta chakki’ in Jalandhar. There were certain days when we did not have any meals, at all. Sometimes, at night, my mother used to go to the flour mill nearby and get the leftovers of the flour from near the machine which had closed for the day”. “I always felt guilty and was deeply anguished by the idea that my mother was committing the sinful act of theft. She, singularly, led the family into settling down into a peaceful boarding in the same city, within 10 years. Despite my best attempts, the image of her walking into the compound of the ‘chakki’ in the night always lurked in my mind”, he said. “One day, my mother sent me to get ‘khal’ (a special fodder) for our buffaloes. I took a Rs 10 note. The purchase cost Rs 8. The shopkeeper returned me Rs 12. I came back home and told mother to keep the fodder as well as gave her Rs 12. I had a glee on my face to show my success in the purchase”. He said: “She asked me to run back to the shop and return the extra cash. I did not reply and turned back towards the shop. I could not stop myself and said mother I remember you used to get us flour at night when..... “She interrupted: ‘do you think I was stealing? The shopkeeper had himself asked me to take flour from his shop. He said I could even come after it closed down. I did not want any alms, however, when I could not see your drooping faces and contorted stomachs craving for a single morsel, I used to get the leftovers of closed machine’. “She told me the money you got now is not any leftover crumb which you have taken, with due permission, for your family after crushing your self- esteem”. The scientist said: “Her words are stamped on my heart. I went back to the shop and returned the cash saying
sorry”. |
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Without a future
The Mumbai terror attack and the discussions on it in Parliament when it opened for the winter session drowned another kind of tyranny that is keeping a staggering 12.6 million children in our country, some of them as young as five and six years, shackled to child labour. India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of child workers in the world. So some 1,500 people, including NGOs, MPs, MLAs, bureaucrats, sarpanches heading village education committees, corporates, trade union representatives, educationists as well as children who have been pulled out of the labour force, got together in the Capital to work out their agenda for getting every child into school.
Spearheading the movement for “Abolition of child labour and right to education” were the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), UNICEF and the ILO. It was one of the biggest national conventions of its kind and came at the end of eight state consultations on providing dignity and freedom to children by ensuring their education.
In fact, the very strong statement that went out was that every child who is not in school is a child worker. But the terror of the moment kept the media from giving due attention to the larger terror that millions of children face every day of their lives working not just in hazardous industries but even as domestic help in homes where even 60 years after our Independence they continue to be treated as slaves and are beaten. The British have left India but the baba log culture prevails with the less privileged children carrying school bags of the more fortunate babas. In fact, what is hazardous is to be out of the protective environment of school. An estimated 75 million children neither go to school nor to work. They are domestic child workers, street children, migrants and are called “no where children.” The strong anti-child labour sentiments that echoed through two days of deliberations led to an assurance at the conference by Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury that the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous jobs would cease. It was also an epoch-making convention because it was unanimously agreed that all those below 18 years should be categorised as children. So far different policies in the country have variously defined “children” as those below 14, 16 or 18. The demand for equity and quality in education was voiced by children from across the country. The lack of high schools in villages, adequate number of teachers (in Orissa 40,000 posts of teacher need to be filled) and basic facilities like school furniture, drinking water and toilets was raised. Voicing concern for their less fortunate brethren, representatives of 200 children at the conference pointed out, “What is our future without education? Who will employ us?”
Ending child labour and getting every child into school should be “non-negotiable.” There should be no dithering on these two issues which are interlinked. While Renuka Chowdhury went all out to endorse the demand and even announced that her ministry would come out with a logo that could be put on products that did not employ children, the Minister of State for Labour and the Minister for Rural Development, Oscar Fernandes and Raghuvansh Prasad, skirted the issue of ending child
labour. It is not really possible to end child labour without ending poverty was their excuse at the conference and there was a chorus of protests. It is, in fact, child labour which is shackling children to a life of poverty, retorted NGOs. The eight national commissions too, including those representing the minorities, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes as well as the safai karamcharies issued a joint statement that they wanted total abolition of child labour whether rendered for an employer, middleman or one’s own family up to the age of 18. There is an explosive demand for education among the poor today. Parents, even among the poorest, are not only capable of sending their children to formal day schools but are willing to do so. This has been amply demonstrated in Andhra Pradesh, where thanks to the pioneering work of the MV Foundation, 1,500 villages have been declared free of child
labour. Every child in these villages goes to school, the village panchayat monitors their attendance and the parents are proud of their children. In fact, the parents of these erstwhile child labourers are making enormous sacrifices to see that education of their children is not disrupted until they finish at least class 10. They talk with pride about the transformation of their child from a child labourer to a student.
As against the parental demand for education, there is the more powerful force of the market that prefers child labour because it is a source of cheap labour. Children can be forced to work for long hours in sub-human conditions of work. Their exploitation goes unseen
under the garb of ‘charity’ as if the employer was doing a favour to the child in employing and keeping him or her alive.
NGOs working for children, point out that such exploitation goes unabated because there is no shock or outrage in society that children are at work and not in school. The tolerance of child labour is so pervasive that it gets internalised by parents too. |
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Understanding Mayawati
The performance of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the just-concluded assembly elections in the three states of Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh requires a close look as political observers and media persons are drawing conclusions depending upon their respective political liking and leanings. Undoubtedly, UP Chief Minister Mayawati has helped her party do better by winning 17 assembly seats — Delhi (2), Rajasthan (6), MP (7) and Chhattisgarh (2) — but her efforts need to be seen in the background of the BSP’s investment, resources and claims. Not for a moment did she hesitate in claiming that the BSP would emerge as a king-maker in the post-election scenario as Mayawati was sure that the trend of fractured mandates would continue which would suit her political ambition of being the next prime minister of the country. The BSP’s tally of 17 seats is the result of Mayawati fielding candidates for 590 seats. She gave the ticket to either disgruntled and rebel elements of established political parties or to those who could donate big amounts to party funds. In terms of the popular votes polled, the BSP has increased its vote share. In Delhi, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, the BSP’s vote share has been 14.23 per cent, 8 per cent, 11 per cent and 6 per cent. Barring Chhattisgarh, the BSP contested all the seats and it does not require any big calculation to reach a conclusion that the party’s vote share was bound to go up, particularly seen in the context of Mayawati’s huge victory in the 2007 UP assembly elections.
Her supporters and political analysts had attributed the BSP’s outstanding performance to a novel political invention of “social engineering”. After the UP victory, Mayawati’s national ambitions had been aroused fully and she had started focussing on Delhi’s throne. Mayawati had made her party contest earlier assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh with a similar hope that the BSP would be able to register her presence in these two states and her close political lieutenant, Satish Chandra Mishra, had applied the much-touted “social engineering” formula on the two states. The results of Gujarat and HP were as disappointing to Mayawati as the present election results are. The UP Chief Minister said in Lucknow that she was not satisfied “101 per cent” with the BSP performance. She has already ordered a close scrutiny of the results of the four states with a view to taking corrective measures. In this backdrop, we have to analyse reasons for the BSP’s dismal performance and its future role in the national
politics. The BSP failed to ignite the voter mind. The electorate can be befooled sometimes, but not always. Mayawati came to power in UP with an absolute majority as no other party was perceived to replace the then ruling Samajwadi Party which had become unpopular among the electorate for various reasons, including the rising crime graph and lawlessness in the state. The two other parties — the Congress and the BJP — were seen as partners of the SP. The Congress was supporting the Mulayam Singh Yadav government from outside and it withdrew support only a few months before the elections.
SP general secretary Amar Singh’s proximity to the NDA government was another reason that the BJP was not seen as an alternative to the SP-led government. No doubt, her selection of Brahmin and Muslim candidates in large numbers helped the BSP win large numbers of assembly seats in the 2007 UP elections but to interpret it as a novel political tool would be a mistake as it was her opportunistic approach rather than her conviction in “social engineering”. It is likely that the people may not comprehend the real motive of a “cunning and shrewd” politician immediately but after some time truth comes out.
In the case of Mayawati, her core constituency of Dalits is still following her blindly but other castes have gone to or would go to the BSP with the sole objective of sharing power or getting a slice of power and that is where precisely the UP Chief Minister is being seen as wanting. Immediately after coming to power in Lucknow, Maywati became imperious and became inaccessible even to those who had supported her in her run-up to capture power. Not only, did she cut herself off from the common man but also from senior administrative officials. Her whims and fancies became the talk of the town. Till the time, she was getting Ambedkar memorials constructed all over the state, people accepted but the moment the UP Chief Minister declared that her own statues would be erected along with her mentor and BSP founder, Kanshiram, Maywati became a suspect in the popular eyes. The common man started discussing the prospect and possibility of her becoming the Prime Minister in 2009. “If she came to occupy the Delhi throne, she would not stay at 7 Race Course Road (Prime Minister’s official residence) but in Rashtrapati Bhavan”, gossip mongers started saying at tea stalls and pan shops. The writer is a Senior Fellow
at the Observer Research Foundation. |
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Delhi Durbar Outsourcing always has its own problems and it is now being realised even by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the country’s premier organisation that issues accreditation to journalists. Having outsourced the job of making accreditation cards, the PIB is facing a unique problem: the face on the accreditation card not matching the name. A senior journalist, who recently went to collect his PIB accreditation card, encountered the problem of having to prove his credentials to the PIB staff as the card being issued to him had his name but not his photograph. This obviously could pose a serious problem for security agencies as PIB accreditation cards are cleared by the Home Ministry after a thorough verification of the antecedents of journalists. With the country facing a security threat, the bureaucracy in the PIB ought to wake up and do what needs to be done without delay.
Eye on CM’s chair Commerce Minister Kamal Nath is sulking over the loss of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. The minister was hoping that if the party wins in the state, he would be the frontrunner for the chief ministership. Given the uncertainty of the Congress heading the government again after the coming Lok Sabha polls, Kamal Nath appeared interested in a five- year stint in his state. However, all his calculations have gone awry. These days the minister is so upset with the party’s drubbing in the state that he categorically says no to questions on elections. It is generally felt that the Congress was routed because of factional fights. Prominent leaders Kamal Nath, Arjun Singh, Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia were all working at cross purposes. Kamal Nath tried to prove his acceptability to all factions and even organised a party workers’ convention in Chhindwara in August. While Digvijay accepted Kamal Nath as “the leader”, other factions looked away. Jyotiraditya repeatedly said that just because all leaders had gathered in Chhindwara did not mean Kamal Nath was the Congress’s CM candidate. Digvijay campaigned for his supporters, Kamal Nath for his and Scindia for his ‘durbaris’. The most interesting aspect was that all stalwarts squabbled over the CM’s chair, none of them joined the poll fray.
Gehlot’s room The room occupied by Ashok Gehlot as the AICC General Secretary at the party’s headquarters at 24, Akbar Road, is much in demand. The reason: the occupants of the room have often been elevated as chief ministers. Before Gehlot, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sushil Kumar Shinde had occupied the room as general secretaries and they went on to become the chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra respectively. With a shake-up in the AICC on the cards, senior leaders are not only vying for the General Secretaryship but also for the room vacated by Gehlot. Contributed by Girja S Kaura, Bhagyashree Pande and Ashok Tuteja |
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