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Antics of Antulay
Pay hike for judges |
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Reforms in insurance
Anchors: Get real
Compulsive confessor
Moving towards GST
Dawn of a new Basra
Inside Pakistan
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Antics of Antulay
THE controversy over Minorities Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay’s statement over the killing of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare is, hopefully, over. This follows his own submission in Parliament, after the statement made earlier in the House by Home Minister P. Chidambaram, that there was no need for an inquiry into the shootout. With the way he has conducted himself, it is difficult to believe that Mr Antulay would have made such a climbdown without any prompting from someone within the Congress leadership. It was apparent that if he persisted with his outrageous assertion that there was something fishy about the way three senior police officers fell to the bullets of the Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai on November 26, he would have been sacked from the Cabinet. Actually, the Prime Minister should have immediately exercised such an option and nipped the controversy in the bud. Mr Antulay did not crown himself with glory when he made the statement that there was more than met the eye in the killing of Mr Karkare, under whose leadership ATS had been investigating the Malegaon bomb blast case in which a Sadhvi and a serving Army officer, among others, were arrested. Mr Antulay should have known that there were witnesses to the shootout in which the police officers were killed. If at all he had any doubt, he as a minister was entitled to ask for details from his colleagues. In no case should he have discussed the matter in public, particularly when Pakistan was feeling the heat as, for the first time, it had to virtually admit that the attack was the handiwork of its own people. Willy-nilly Mr Antulay was playing into the hands of the propagandists in Pakistan. The frequent adjournments in Parliament show how much the nation had to pay for the indiscretion of the minister. On its part, a section of the Opposition sought to pillory the minister as if his continuance in the Cabinet would have brought heavens down. Much of the wastage of Parliament’s precious time could have been avoided if the government had taken timely action. By virtue of the position they hold, ministers enjoy enormous power. But it also curtails their freedom in the sense that as members of the Cabinet, they have a collective responsibility to the nation. It is a pity that a seasoned minister like Mr Antulay did not realise this when he put his foot in his mouth. He could have chosen another issue for doing so.
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Pay hike for judges
The
Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha proposing to triple the salaries and perks of the judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts from September 1 this year was long overdue. The revision was necessitated by the increase in the salaries of the Central government and public sector undertaking employees on acceptance of the Sixth Central Pay Commission recommendations. The decision will encourage judges to perform better as also impact on the overall efficient functioning of the courts. The Chief Justice of India will get Rs 1 lakh plus Dearness Allowance thereon as against a salary of Rs 33,000 earlier. The other judges of the Supreme Court and the chief justices of the high courts will draw Rs 90,000 (Rs 30,000 earlier) plus DA. The high court judges will get Rs 80,000 (Rs 26,000 earlier) plus DA. The Supreme Court and high court judges have also been given another benefit. Their sumptuary and furnishing allowances have been doubled from September 1. Unfortunately, the judges in the country have been a neglected lot. Though their pay was revised in 1996, it was not commensurate with the fall in the value of rupee and the rising cost of living. Chief Justice of India Justice K.G. Balakrishnan had to write to the government with a request to consider pay hike for judges. There is a general impression that bright and talented advocates would prefer to be in the Bar than in the Bench because of poor salaries for judges. For instance, those passing out of the national law schools are offered hefty salaries by law firms and corporate houses while the judges get a pittance. This scenario will now change for the better. It goes without saying that if judges are paid well, the Bench will attract talent. Of late, there has been tremendous strain on the judges for clearing the huge backlog of cases. They are expected to quicken the pace of justice and restore the people’s faith in the judiciary. However, this task becomes difficult if they are not given better pay and allowances as in the US, the UK, Singapore and many other countries. It would be worthwhile for India to replicate the UK model. In the UK, the Senior Salaries Review Board revises the judges’ pay from time to time and thus tackles the problem of judicial salaries keeping pace with the rising cost of living. The judges should not be made to ask for pay hikes.
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Reforms in insurance
With
the Leftist monkey off its back, the government introduced the insurance bill in Parliament on Monday. The bill had been pending for the last three years due to the Leftist opposition. The Leftists again kicked up a row to stymie the bill, which aims to lift the foreign direct investment cap in insurance firms from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, but lost in the voting game. Their argument against opening the insurance door to foreigners, however, assumes significance after the recent financial meltdown. They claim they have saved the country from much financial pain by opposing its attempted integration with the Western markets. While risks attached with hot foreign money cannot be ignored, especially in the present economic scenario, advantages of having more FDI in insurance companies outweigh them significantly. A vast majority of Indians is still without any insurance cover. People need better and cheaper insurance products, particularly to cope with the rising cost of treatment. The existing firms are constrained by lack of funds. The new bill will enable them to raise cheaper money from global money markets as well as partner with foreign insurance and reinsurance giants. There will be greater competition, which will drive down costs for customers. Only the regulator will have to keep a hawk’s eye on possible business malpractices to avoid a future financial shock. Some way of guaranteeing the redemption money may have to be found. After winning the no-confidence vote following the withdrawal of Leftist support, the UPA government had promised to resume the held-up economic reforms soon. It has towards the end of its present tenure tried to keep its word. A major challenge before the government now will be to have the amended insurance law in place before the present Lok Sabha’s term ends early next year. There may be one more session before the present House is dissolved. The government will be running against time, once again.
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If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ paid in full! — Rudyard Kipling
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Anchors: Get real The smirks on the faces of television anchors has provoked me to write this piece. And I write in both anger and with deep frustration at the way our television channels and news leaders have morphed into shouting, agenda-driving shows and show comperes. The National Broadcasting Association’s guidelines on broadcasting have not come a day too soon. My frustration has grown out of unverifiable polls put on news programme after programme that television could even claim credit for the “changes” that have been brought about or are being sought in national security. Such an assertion underlines a number of things - the raw arrogance of the media, unmindful of its lack of comprehension of issues, a neglect of the fact that there are political forces which represent millions of people and institutions, which may be slow to react, but do have the welfare of the country in mind. The broadcast media often forgets that there are people outside of studios, in society, who watch their programmes and who understand these issues as well as if not better than most of those who froth at the mouth in public view. After all, if the media is so all-knowing, then why do we need generals, intelligence agencies and governing institutions? It is so set in its smugness that it is dragging this country to the brink of war — “war-mongering” was the common collective term used for such coverage when a small group of editors and journalists from South Asia met in Kolkata the other day on the sidelines of a discussion on displacement and migration. It is useful to remember that many broadcast journalists refer to their programmes and even news bulletins as “shows”: “We’ll get back to this show after this commercial break” or “And coming up in the show tonight ….” The media has become a spectacle, supremely confident in its own rightness, justified by high noise levels, and asserting the wrongness of others. In discussion after discussion, our television anchors take up the space with much hectoring; they bring in discussants who reflect their points of view (remember that a televised discussion or debate is all about how much your views are in sync with his or hers or how loudly you can shout - or out-shout even the anchor). Those invited to shows consistently barrack the Pakistanis and talk with such condescension to them: “Your heart appears to be in the right place and you appear to be a moderate” is what one anchor said on an English news channel a couple of days back. Is this what Indians think or believe or even want to hear? I doubt it, not from what I know from extensive travels across this country and especially in the Northeast, where conflict zones are multiple. The poll samplings that television channels conduct on such issues (such as “Is the media responsible for changes in policy?”) are laughably limited, lacking any depth. It is better that someone with integrity and knowledge, not to speak of articulation, such as Yogendra Yadav, the analyst and psephologist, is requested to conduct an assessment of how specific news channels and their stars are viewed. There is a wealth of competent studies here and abroad of how media coverage has reflected on specific issues and it would be useful to refer to them. Members of the “public” are interviewed on the streets with single-point agendas by rookie journalists (can’t blame them, that’s what they are ordered to do and they need the jobs and the money). There was one programme which talked about whether India should use the military option (an extremely irresponsible discussion in a studio), and street interviewees said such an idea was stupid. But did the participants in the studio reflect that - NO. They were conducting themselves like war-mongers; a former COAS even talked about retaliation on Pakistan and then moderated his view to say that India should inflect a “thousand cuts” on the jehadis. But surely any attack on Pakistan soil (whether disputed by us or not) would be regarded as an attack on that country and would be met energetically. And in all this we forget that both are nuclear-armed States in a region that Mr Bill Clinton once famously called “the most dangerous place on earth”. There is much training, capacity building and research on specific issues to be done involving media practitioners. I often recall the images of young television reporters and editors, wincing or ducking at the sound of shots, because they had never seen a gun fired in their lives or seen extreme violence and killings, (except on television!) or had been in a conflict zone. Mumbai was a wake-up call. I find that Pakistani journalists and editors such Hamid Mir of Geo TV and former diplomats are coming out with far greater articulation, common sense and respect for other viewpoints than the hysterical brigade here who believe in trying to shout down everyone who does not sing their song or whistle their tune. We should appreciate that the civilian government under President Zardari is trying to rein in both the ISI and the military. It is a near-impossible challenge. But our news channels seem to suggest that we want a confrontation with Pakistan or appear to be doing everything to push for a military regime there. Neither country can afford this confrontation. It is the multiple incompetencies that have driven the Indian State these past years and decades, not just the politicians, which have brought us to this pass — as well as the complete lack of focus on police reforms which are critical if this country is to survive the “thousand cuts” that others are seeking to inflict. In all this point scoring and ratcheting up their so-called TRP ratings, in breathless and unethical ways, trying to outdo the other, there are a few basic things forgotten. Amartya Sen reflected on this in a conversation with a small group in Delhi a few days back when he said a very simple thing: “I am astonished at the way people can go to sleep at night comfortably in a country which has the largest number of hungry children in the world.” Reflect on that a bit, my media pundits and friends. Think of a few good, silent things happening in this country, not as one-minute specials but as drops in the ocean worth reflecting upon. For without those drops, our ocean will be that much smaller and our world that much
diminished.
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Compulsive confessor FIVE years ago, when I wrote a middle on Malayalam writer N.S. Madhavan, he wrote to me that he was happy especially because it was read by his daughter who could not read Malayalam. What a pity, I felt, she could not enjoy some of the best short stories in Malayalam penned by her father! So, when I read that his daughter Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s maiden novel You Are Here was published by Penguin, I wanted to read it. A visit to her blog convinced me that she had the “genes” of her writer parents and she had rightly dedicated her book to them for “love, genes and moral support”. She is by her own admission a compulsive confessor. But an interview she granted to a journalist put me off the “saucy, wise and audaciously candid” book that has a blurb which begins with, “The trouble with my life is that it’s like a bra strap when you put your bra on wrong …” In the interview she said her book was lapped up by old men who had more sex on the mind than where it ought to be. After keeping You Are Here back on the bookshelf a few times, I finally bought it on the reasoning: “I am not that old for her to poke fun at”. The book cover that has such teasers as “attend Dad’s second wedding as bridesmaid”, “smoke first post-coital cigarette” and “do not disturb: perfect makeout session in progress” is a pointer to what it contains. The problem with Arshi, the protagonist of the novel, is that she had too many boyfriends with whom she had made out. Her girlfriends also are too candid to keep their personal lives under wraps. So, she is privy to everything going around her, in the school, in the hostel and at work. In the end, nobody remains “maiden” in this maiden book. The overdose of sex takes the attention away from her depiction of characters, situation and time which should, otherwise, have been the strength of the book. Unfortunately, the sex that drips from her pen leaves little to imagination. To drive home the point, O.V. Vijayan’s classic novel Kazakkinte Itihasam (The Saga of Kazak) begins with the journey of its main character Ravi, who halts at an ashram. Early next morning, before the sun rises, he leaves the place in a hurry. On the way, when the sunrays pierce the darkness and fall on him, he realises he is wearing the sanyasin’s robe, not his own dhoti. There is no other suggestion of what happened the previous night. Or, to use another example, Colleen McCullough in her bestseller The Thorn Birds describes the first time Father Ralph de Bricassart kisses Meggie: “As he bent his head to come at her cheek she raised herself on tiptoe, and more by luck than good management touched his lips with her own. He jerked back as if he tasted the spider’s poison…” Sensuous writing need not even be erotic as the 14th century Christian writer Julian in her Revelations of Divine Love brings out. She speaks of Jesus as “our clothing. In his love, he wraps and holds us. He enfolds us for love, and he will never let us go”. All this does not detract from the promise Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan holds out as a writer. All she needs to know is that there is life beyond alcohol and post-coital cuddling. The rest will
follow.
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Moving towards GST
The
13th Finance Commission under the chairmanship of Dr Vijay L. Kelkar, former Union Finance Secretary and Adviser to the Union Finance Minister, has visited almost all states and is likely to submit the report by October, 2009. Apart from the usual terms of reference to determine the share of different states in the total pool of divisible taxes and inter-se grants for the period 2010-2015, the commission has been specifically asked to “take into consideration the impact of the implementation of the proposed GST with effect from April 1, 2010, including its impact on foreign trade.” Even one of the important terms of reference of the recently constituted Commission on Centre-State Relations by the Government of India under the chairmanship of Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, former Chief Justice of India, is to examine “the need and relevance of separate taxes on the production and on the sales of goods and services subsequent to the introduction of value added tax”. From all accounts it appears that the GST (Goods and Service Tax) is likely to be introduced from April 1, 2010, which will be a biggest tax reform move in the country. This will ensure that producers and, therefore, consumers are not taxed twice on the same product. By reducing the cascading effect of taxes, the overall tax burden will come down. This may also improve international competitiveness of Indian products. It may be pertinent to mention here that it was the Kelkar Committee in July, 2004, which had first recommended the imposition of the GST in the ‘Report of the Task Force on Implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act’. The Kelkar Committee recommended to give the states the right to tax services as a ‘grand bargain’ and motivate them to abolish such taxes as on transportation of goods and passenger, stamp duty for registration of property apart from general sales tax, octroi, entry fee, etc. In return for abolishing all these taxes the states would get the right to tax services. At present the Union Government earns more than Rs 50,000 crore from the service tax. Since the service tax does not find any mention in the Constitution, it has become the sole privilege of the Centre because whatever is not mentioned automatically belongs to it. However, it may be pointed out that taxes like stamp duty for registration of moveable and immovable property stand as a class apart. Practically these levies resemble more with direct taxes than indirect taxes, i.e. taxes on goods and services. Moreover, these taxes are on the State List. Therefore, these taxes cannot form an integral part of the GST. This would create an unnecessary controversy in our federal financial relations and finances of states may be adversely affected. Already there are reports (The Tribune, December 17) that the empowered committee of state finance ministers has demanded Rs 20,000 crore from the Centre to compensate the states for a fall in revenue from the VAT because in the absence of any institutional mechanism the Centre is not bound to compensate this loss beyond 2007-08. Secondly, as part of the ‘grand bargain’ the Kelkar Committee has suggested the following three ad valorem rates, in addition to zero rate on select key commodities. The proposed three-tier rate structure — floor, standard and high — for the Centre and states is 6 per cent, 12 per cent, 20 per cent and 4 per cent, 8 per cent, and 14 per cent, respectively. Why should there be a higher tax rate structure for the Centre? Thirdly, the dual GST system, i.e. the enactment of different rates by different states, though within the suggested rate structure, would affect our domestic trade with all the ills from which it was suffering before the imposition of the VAT in 2005. Multiple and different rates of commodity tax by different states was a great hindrance to promoting free trade even within the national boundaries. Under no circumstances should there be double taxation on any goods and services, levied both by the Centre and states, which is there on some goods under the present dispensation. Fourthly, it should also be remembered that our Constitution-makers have deliberately avoided any tax item on the Concurrent List, where both the Centre and the states can enact legislation. It is only on this account that our federal set-up is considered unique in the world. During his recent visit to Punjab on December 3-5, Dr Vijay Kelkar has reportedly appreciated the Punjab model of sharing the VAT collections with municipal and other local bodies in lieu of octroi, which was abolished in the post-VAT era. He has also admitted that “this is a useful model that could be tried out at other places in the country”. This implies that in the regime of the GST, which is an extended form of the VAT, all other commodity taxes or cesses like octroi have to be abolished by the states. This puts the onus on the 13th Finance Commission to look into all these issues and find ways to adopt the GST in a true sense. As in the case of Punjab, if proceeds from such abolished taxes go to local bodies, the Finance Commission must institutionalise some relevant compensation principle. This will also put the decentralisation process in the top gear and take the growth path up to the grassroots level. The writer is a former Professor and UGC Emeritus Fellow, Department of Economics, Punjabi University.
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Dawn of a new Basra Dining
late in the evening on the restaurant boat Tistaahel on the Shatt Al Arab, as the manager discusses plans for an open-air casino in the summer, is an unusual experience for Basra. This was, not so long ago, a lawless place where militias terrorised the population through murder and intimidation. The gunmen have disappeared, the shops are busy and the roads crowded. Evidence, one could argue, to back Gordon Brown’s assertion, as he announced the withdrawal of British forces during a flying visit to Basra, that Iraq is being left a bright future of stability and prosperity . But tensions are simmering not far beneath the surface. The restaurants in the Corniche can be reached only after negotiating a series of heavily armed checkpoints. The unemployed Shia youths who used to provide the recruiting pool for paramilitaries remain angry and disaffected and there is deep unhappiness at the prospect of American forces taking over from the departing British. There is also the fear that the violence may return in preparations for the forthcoming provincial elections, with Shia paramilitaries seeking to infiltrate back into the city. And, although much effort has been made to reform the police, suspicion remains that many of them are secretly in league with the insurgents. There certainly has been significant improvement in the past few months since an offensive by Iraqi, American and British forces called Operation Charge of the Knights, cleared the gunmen from Iraq’s second city. Even a year ago, I could travel in the city only under extreme caution, to hear local people whisper, behind closed doors, of the appalling treatment they faced at the hands of the private armies. A hundred women a year were victims of honour killings, Sunnis and Christians were targets of sectarian murders by Shia paramilitaries running death squads alongside corrupt policemen. Reporting the abuse could be a highly dangerous matter. Nour al-Khal, a very brave Iraqi journalist I worked with, along with an American reporter, Stephen Vincent, was taken away at gunpoint by men in police uniforms and shot. Stephen died, Nour, dumped on the roadside, survived. The abduction of Nour and Stephen was in Hayaniyah, the most deprived area of the city and a stronghold of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army. It was also the scene of frequent ambushes of British patrols and it was the launching pad for mortar and rocket attacks on the UK headquarters at the airport. The evening after Mr Brown’s brief visit to Iraq this week, and the widespread airing in the local media of the timetable for UK withdrawal, Hayaniyah seemed a relaxed place. A passing Iraqi army patrol accompanied by British soldiers drew a crowd and an impassioned debate, but no overt hostility. Some in the Iraqi security forces are also convinced that another confrontation is looming. Basra was once known as the Venice of the East you know? Inshallah, maybe those days will return.” —
By arrangement with The Independent
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Inside Pakistan The Washington-based International Republican Institute has shown the mirror to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who has been exposed as a leader lacking in qualities to govern a country faced with a serious crisis today. His popularity rating has come down to 20 per cent from 45 per cent in June. This means that 80 per cent of the Pakistanis – an overwhelming majority – are not satisfied with his functioning as the top ruler of their country. The interesting survey was conducted in the second half of October. According Dawn (Dec 22), “The government’s performance in key areas, the economy, governance and security, has left the country unimpressed, and its standing is already comparable to Gen Musharraf’s widely disparaged regime earlier this year.” Under the circumstances, “The winner in the political beauty-parade is Nawaz Sharif. The collapse of the PML-Q has drawn the centre-right electorate towards the PML-N, and with the PPP government vacillating at every opportunity, the PML-N and its wily leader benefit from the dithering of a government that appears to have lost its compass”, as The News pointed out in an editorial on December 22. If Mr Zardari refuses to see the writing on the wall he may be upstaged in the days to come. This is not an encouraging scenario for the fledgling democracy.
Privileged daughters
Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar, who has been faced with a damaging controversy relating to his daughter Farah’s admission to a medical college, must be feeling relieved today. Some PPP leaders have come to his rescue by resurrecting the issue relating to the admission of Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Maryum, to a prestigious medical institution in 1992 when the PML (N) leader was Prime Minister. She got entry into the college by managing her migration from an institution in Rawalpindi. These and more facts have been revealed in a pamphlet circulated in the Pakistan National Assembly last week without the permission of the Chair. The pamphlet also had a caricature of Mr Sharif, who claims to be a believer in politics based on principles. As The News (Dec 21) says, “The story that circulated at the time also spoke of an unwilling principal who was to pave the way for the privileged daughter. There is also talk of how Mayum Nawaz was readmitted to the same college in 1998, during the second tenure of her father as Prime Minister, presumably as she failed to graduate successfully the first time round.” Chief Justice Dogar’s daughter has been able to fulfil her wish after she was given additional marks in her FSC examination when she applied for a re-evaluation of her answersheets. The matter was raised in the National Assembly, which set up a Standing Committee on Education to hold an enquiry into the matter. This was, however, challenged in the apex court, which dismissed the petition filed by a Nawaz Sharif loyalist. According to Daily Times (Dec 21), “the controversy started when Mr Nawaz Sharif ‘disclosed’ in a TV interview that an unnamed person had approached him on the issue of Justice Dogar’s daughter’s admission and had offered ‘lifting of cases’ against him in return for his giving up the pursuit of the case in parliament.”
A valley under fire
A Mingora-datelined Dawn report says that 15 militants and two security personnel were killed in armed clashes in the Shakar Darra area of the Swat valley on Monday. The area is a stronghold of the Taliban. The military launched an offensive after a militant attack on an army check-post. However, according to Business Recorder (Dec 23), “Military victory in Swat is not in sight, mainly because it has not been sought in the real sense. Swat has a history of periodically throwing up uprisings against the governments of the day.” What has been going on there has caused considerable damage to the ruling ANP in the NWFP because of large-scale collateral casualties. The provincial government was being reduced to being non-existent. Last Saturday, the provincial Cabinet decided to take stock of the overall security situation. The Recorder highlighted two disturbing aspects of the developments in the NWFP:
”One, over the last week or so the militants set on fire some three hundred trailers and trucks contracted to ferry supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The argument that the security of the terminals located in close proximity of Peshawar is the contractors’ responsibility is not entirely plausible because the local administration cannot be absolved of its duty to help ensure that such acts of arson do not take place in its jurisdiction.
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