The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Bumpy ride
Let Jet Airways handle its problems

Pilots of Jet Airways have gone on mass sick leave to protest against the sacking of two of their colleagues, who had played a key role in forming a union. Jet Airways has 760 pilots of whom 360 have gone on leave. To escape legal action, they insist it is not a strike.

The airline Chairman, Mr Naresh Goel, has responded by sacking three more pilots, approaching the Bombay High Court for a legal remedy and seeking government intervention to break the strike. “They (the pilots) are behaving like terrorists. They cannot hold the country, the passengers and the airline to ransom”, he thundered on TV. He has threatened to shut the airline, treating it as a personal fiefdom and disregarding the other stakeholders’ interests.

If the pilots’ action cannot be justified for causing inconvenience to passengers, loss to their employer and disregarding the court orders, the management has incompetently handled a simple labour dispute. And this is not the first time the management of India’s largest airline has bungled. To grow big overnight, Jet Airways started new international flights, recklessly placed orders for aircraft and blundered by purchasing Sahara at a hefty price before the meltdown.

The management first sacked 1,900 employees, then took them back after political uproar. It squeezed concessions out of a sympathetic government and still protested against higher fuel prices. With its image in tatters and losses mounting, the airline is on the retreat, thanks to bad administration.

Initially, the government got carried away by Mr Naresh Goel’s outcry. It weighed the use of ESMA against the striking pilots. There is a move to exclude pilots from the purview of “workmen” and deny them legal protection.

Why should the government interfere in a dispute between a company and its employees when there is a legal mechanism in place for resolving labour disputes? Besides, Air India is among the airlines that have benefited from Jet’s cancelled flights.

Who is to rule Kabul?
Karzai can’t ignore rigging charges

The presidential election in Afghanistan has been mired in controversy since the day — August 20 — polling was held. The Elections Complaints Commission has received a large number of complaints that the incumbent President, Mr Hamid Karzai, indulged in unfair practices to ensure his victory.

The complainants belong to the camps of almost all the 41 contestants, including, of course, the two main challengers to Mr Karzai’s position, Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Dr Ashraf Ghani Ahmedzai. Dr Abdullah, who is believed to have got over 28 per cent votes, has threatened that his followers will not allow a Karzai-led new government to function if all the rigging charges are not probed thoroughly.

Now even the Obama administration has come into the open with the stand that “a rigorous vetting of all of these allegations of fraud” must be done to ensure the legitimacy of the election results.

The Afghanistan Independent Election Commission has yet to declare the final outcome of the polls, but its latest announcement has it that Mr Karzai’s vote share has gone beyond 50 per cent of the ballots counted, eliminating the chances of a runoff. This has boosted the morale of the Karzai camp, which has begun working on government formation. However, the international community, particularly the US, is not happy with the conduct of Mr Karzai, who has virtually started behaving as the undeclared winner.

The US worry is that it should not be seen to be supporting a government formed on the basis of rigged elections. The number of Americans who want the Obama administration to continue with its Afghanistan mission, aimed at decimating the Taliban and Al-Qaida, has declined considerably.

The US administration will have to face more flak at home if the rigging charges against Mr Karzai are not cleared. The Taliban, too, will find a new argument to belittle the Kabul regime in the eyes of the gullible public.

Thought for the Day

There are few things more painful than to recognise one’s own faults in others. — John Wells

ARTICLE

BJP under the RSS
Moderates will lose ground
by Amulya Ganguli

IF the turmoil in the BJP was a case of the stirrings of a dormant secular conscience, then there would have been some hope for the party. A consideration of some of Mr Jaswant Singh’s remarks can convey this impression. His comparison, for instance, of his former party with the Ku Klux Klan is one of the sharpest criticisms of it by anyone inside or outside the BJP.

Even before he was expelled, Mr Singh had called for clarifications on Hindutva. A similar re-evaluation was sought by the two Muslim members, Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mr Shahnawaz Hussain, mainly because of their unhappiness with Mr Varun Gandhi’s speeches. They wanted to know whether the Piliibhit “version” of Hindutva was acceptable to the party.

Earlier, too, there had been nuanced approaches to the issue of Hindutva, suggesting a distancing from the party’s hardline positions associated with the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, which was behind its success in the 1990s. At a post-poll meeting of the national executive, Mr L.K.Advani described Hindutva as an inclusive programme. Besides, the very fact that the BJP had shelved the three key points on its pro-Hindu agenda — building the Ayodhya temple, scrapping Article 370 and introducing a uniform civil code — way back in 1996 meant that it had become wary of its own belligerence.

Even then, it would be unrealistic to believe that Mr Jaswant Singh’s views before and after his expulsion represented a new line of thinking in the BJP. The comments of the two Muslim members and of Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni can also be ignored because of their minimal influence on the party’s functioning.

Mr Kulkarni had drifted into the BJP from the Leftist camp while the membership of the two others is no more than a token gesture by the party to show that it is not exclusively a Hindu organization. Before Mr Naqvi and Mr Hussain, there was Mr Sikander Bakht. They can be compared, therefore, to Jogen Mandal, who was the token Hindu in Jinnah’s Muslim League.

Even if Mr Jaswant Singh was serious about a reassessment of Hindutva, it is unlikely that he would have been too insistent on it if he had remained in the party. The reason is that few others would have shared his enthusiasm if only because such an initiative would have been a direct challenge to the RSS.

In any event, Mr Jaswant Singh’s views were very much a reaction to the electoral defeat. Had the BJP fared well, he would have been in all likelihood happy to continue subscribing to Hindutva as before. Second thoughts after a setback suggest an opportunistic and tactical reappraisal and not genuine doubts about a policy.

In contrast, Mr Arun Shourie’s views seem to be more in conformity with the BJP’s outlook. He has no qualms about Hindutva. His only grouse is against the leadership. But he hasn’t specified what exactly is his complaint except that the people at the helm failed to deliver. His solution, however, is instructive, for he wants the RSS to take over the BJP. Since the RSS proclaims itself to be a “cultural” organization, those unfamiliar with saffron politics would consider it strange that such an outfit should take charge of a political party even if it is acknowledged as the head of the parivar.

But Mr Shourie’s objective is clear. Since the RSS is regarded as more hawkish than the BJP, his message to the party is that it should return to the hardline stance of the 1990s which elevated it to mainstream politics from the margins. This argument is indistinguishable from what the RSS has been saying all along — that the BJP’s reverses are due to its deviations from Hindutva and the consequent toning down of its aggressive rhetoric. There is little doubt that the hardliners in both the RSS and the BJP believe that if the party did not shelve the temple issue, it would have fared much better.

The tussle in the BJP, therefore, is not a secular versus communal confrontation, but the familiar one between moderates and hardliners, which has been going on for more than a decade. The only difference this time is that with the RSS taking a more direct interest in the affairs of the BJP, the moderates will gradually be weeded out since no one will dare to oppose the Nagpur bosses.

Obedience to the RSS is ingrained in the saffron culture. The supposed autonomy of the Sangh parivar’s various units — the BJP, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal — is a myth. Although the RSS is supposed to provide only advice, as it is said to be doing to the BJP in its hour of trial, its counsel is an order.

Since the RSS believes in establishing a “homogeneous Hindu nation”, as its chief, Mr Mohan Bhagwat, has said, the moderates in the BJP with even their token commitment to multicultural tenets do not have any chance of survival. As it is, there are only a few of them. If they once wielded more influence than their numbers warranted, it was because their tallest leader, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, articulated an accommodative line, which was why the RSS never liked him.

The RSS also thwarted him if it could, as when it vetoed his decision to appoint Mr Jaswant Singh as the Finance Minister in 1998. The former Sarsanghchalak, Mr K.S.Sudarshan, had also called upon Mr Vajpayee to retire from public life in a television interview. He had the same advice for Mr Advani after his favourable comments on Jinnah in 2005. At that time, Advani only lost the party president’s post. Now, the defeats in two successive general elections have given the RSS a chance to pull the rug from under his feet.

However, a weakening of the moderates is bad news for the NDA and, therefore, ultimately for the BJP as well. The NDA has already dwindled to five or six members from its high point in Mr Vajpayee’s time when it was a 24-member body. The uncertainty about its present composition arises from the fact that the Asom Gana Parishad had said that its ties with the BJP were confined only to Assam.

After the departure of the Biju Janata Dal and the Trinamool Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal, too, is no longer a part of the NDA. In Maharashtra, the split in the Shiv Sena has considerably weakened the NDA.

If, on top of this, the RSS is seen to control the BJP more directly than before, then parties like the Janata Dal (United) will have no option but to reassess their membership in the NDA. The JD (U) is already a virtually independent entity, judging from the manner in which it has relegated the BJP and its leader, Mr Sushil Modi, to a secondary place in Bihar.

It also approves of the Rajinder Sachar Committee’s report on the minorities. One of its top leaders, Mr George Fernandes, who once said that if the RSS was fascist “I am also fascist”, is fading out. There were even overtures to Mr Nitish Kumar before the elections from the Congress.

The anti-Congress elements in national politics, who had their first taste of success in the Janata Party’s victory in 1977, fell apart two years later because the Jan Sangh refused to break its links with the RSS. The result was that the Congress easily returned to power at the Centre in 1980. A replay of the same scene with the BJP once again kowtowing to the RSS will be a shot in the arm for the secular forces.

MIDDLE

Kaami meets her Karma
by Raji P. Shrivastava

KAAMI, short for Kashmira, was my neighbour throughout my childhood. She attended the local Gujarati medium school and was indifferent to exams and grades. She had a lovely handwriting but she hardly used it except to copy film songs into a notebook which she then used during Antakshari sessions.

She could be moody and cantankerous, but since we were the only girls in the neighbourhood, we were very close. The eldest of her five brothers was 15 years her senior in age, which is how Kaami acquired that object of envy, a bhabhi.

Usha Bhabhi, meek as a mouse, was forever engaged in rolling out mountains of rotis, playing nursemaid and nanny to young Kaami or washing the muddy jeans worn by the young men in the house. I remember feeling very jealous of Kaami’s carefree existence. Nobody asked her to study or do a single chore around the house. As latchkey children of working parents, such decadence was unimaginable for my sister and me.

Kaami acquired a BA degree courtesy a “bridal university” in which her brother Milan had vital contacts. Such institutions existed primarily to fulfil an essential social function — the degrees were recognised only in the marriage market but not for jobs and the like.

I attended Kaami’s wedding to Jignesh three days before I left the city to join the civil service. I accompanied her to the Jain Derasar for the pre-wedding prayers. She did not seem very happy at the prospect of getting married, despite the fact that one of Jignesh’s essential qualifications was that he had no younger sister at home!

Eighteen years later, I ran into Kaami at the Dharnidhar Derasar which was always on my worship itinerary in Ahmedabad. It was Jignesh I recognised first. Kaami stood outside the temple with her silver prayer box and red potli bag, squinting into the sunshine at me. My girlhood friend had changed beyond recognition, and evidently so had I.

Age usually treats men better than women, especially in the marriage to motherhood phase. “Tusmu kesmem chhesme?” I asked her, in our code language which involved inserting the syllable “sm” into every word of “Tu kem chhe” or “how are you”.

She squealed happily in recognition and it was as if we were back in the lane in front of our old homes, playing Thappo (hide and seek). She introduced me to her teenage daughters, Madhuri and Aishwarya, who had divaesque attitudes to match their celebrity namesakes. She told them in colourful Gujarati, “Look, you good-for-nothings, this is the Maasi who became an officer. Shake hands with her and maybe some of the magic will rub off.”

She turned to me and cribbed bitterly: “They refuse to study. They watch TV all day and sleep until noon — what a nuisance kids can be. I ferry them daily to tuitions on my Kinetic but they are bone-lazy. I am worried about their future!” I listened politely but my lips twitched in suppressed amusement. She finally saw the irony and said with a wink and a chortle: “See my Karma! I have no Bhabhi to do my tasks for me now, and the marriage university has folded up!”

OPED

Election in Afghanistan
Now political fighting breaks out
by Andrew Grice

The British Prime Minister’s strategy on Afghanistan is under mounting pressure from all three of the main parties as the political consensus on the war begins to crack. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are preparing to call for the Afghan election to be re-run amid growing evidence of vote-rigging and intimidation. Their move puts Gordon Brown in a difficult position, because Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, is utterly opposed to holding another election.

And Mr Brown is trying to prevent Labour activists staging a debate at this month’s conference demanding that British troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan. Tensions over the war could dent Mr Brown’s plans for a show of Labour unity at the last annual gathering before the general election.

If Mr Cameron becomes prime minister, he would send more troops to Afghanistan so that the training of the Afghan army and police could be quickened – and British forces withdrawn more quickly. His approach is described as “send them in, train them up and get out” in Tory circles. Senior Tories believe such a strategy is backed by Britain’s military chiefs, whose call for up to 2,000 extra troops was blocked by the Government earlier this year. An extra 900 were sent for the Afghan election period only.

Although the Opposition still supports the mission in Afghanistan, Mr Cameron broke ranks with the Government Wednesday by condemning the way the country’s elections were held.

In a conversation with the shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague picked up by a BBC microphone, Mr Cameron said: “The things that seem to have happened are so naked, you know, you just saw the number of votes and the number of people who actually turned up at polling stations, it just couldn’t possibly be right ... We should be very clear about that.”

The Tories are expected to call for the election to be re-run after the Independent Electoral Commission has published its findings on the first round of the contest.

The Liberal Democrats called for a second round whatever the official result of round one because there were so many doubts about the process. Nick Clegg, the party leader, said: “It now seems very clear that the elections in Afghanistan have been plagued by fraud and we need a second round to establish some credibility in any government. This is necessary to ensure Afghanistan gets a president with legitimacy without which the conflict against the Taliban will be all the more difficult.”

Ministers worry that Mr Brown’s autumn fightback is being hampered by controversy over Afghanistan and the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

On Wednesday the Prime Minister gave ground to his critics by calling on world leaders to discuss an exit strategy in Afghanistan. He called for “new benchmarks and timelines” to be agreed at an international conference later this year, in a joint letter to the United Nations with the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Senior Labour sources confirmed that the party’s high command is trying to head off a special debate on Afghanistan at the Brighton conference. But the grassroots Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has circulated a motion to constituency parties urging them to call for a “contemporary issues” debate, stating: “The Government should withdraw British troops from Afghanistan.”

In a message to local parties, the campaign says: “Rather than keeping terror from the streets of Britain, the war is fuelling hatred and increasing the possibility of future attacks. Afghanistan must be guaranteed a future without the threat of war and foreign domination. Our Government should bring the British troops home immediately.”

Labour officials are pressing the trade unions, who, like party members, hold half the votes at the conference, not to call for a debate on Afghanistan. A party source said: “There is concern at the top [of the party] about this. But there is also growing concern among party members about what is happening in Afghanistan.”

The Prime Minister’s spokesman admitted people were “anxious” to know the result of the elections but said it was important to let the counting process run its course, with only preliminary results announced so far. Describing reports of fraud as “no surprise”, he added: “We always knew there would be potential difficulties with these elections and that fraud was a possibility.”

Mr Hague said: “If the commission requires some elections to be re-run, that should happen. Nor should a full second round of the election be ruled out if that proves necessary.”

Mr Brown, Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel said their proposed UN summit should set “new prospects and goals” for governance, rule of law and human rights in Afghanistan, as well as security and social and economic development.” They added: “We should agree on new benchmarks and timelines in order to formulate a joint framework for our transition phase in Afghanistan, ie to set our expectations of ownership and the clear view to hand over responsibility step-by-step to the Afghans, wherever possible.”

— By arrangement with The Independent

A solution to Punjab power crisis
by Virinder Singh

A workable solution to the Punjab power crisis is possible through energy conservation and the execution of power generation projects in the public sector as the global meltdown has affected the private investor badly.

It is heartening to note that of late the management of the Punjab State Electricity Board has decided to implement three major energy conservation projects envisaged during 2006-08. The result of their implemention will be visible within one to three years.

The first project relates to the replacement of all incandescent lamps in Punjab with CFLs through Bachat Lamp Yojna (BLY) in collaboration with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the Government of India nodal agency for energy conservation.

Under this project, CFLs will be provided to consumers at Rs 15 per piece, i.e. at the cost of an incandescent lamp. The implementation of this project will reduce the peak demand by 660 megawatt, save about 1,400 million units worth Rs 560 crore annually.

The second project is to conduct low-cost maintenance on about 1,500 11Kv feeders supplying power to about 27 lakh domestic and commercial consumers in the rural and suburban areas.

Under this project, load balancing — fixation of consumer meters in pillar boxes — maintenance of distribution transformers, improvement of the earthing system by using strip with earthing electrode embedded in Bentonite or thermal plant fly ash and tightening of loose joints nuts and bolts will be undertaken.

This project will reduce the peak demand by 700 megawatt and save 1000- million units worth Rs 400 crore annually, thereby recovering the project cost of Rs 750 crore sanctioned by the REC within two years.

The third project involves the replacement of 11 lakh agricultural pump sets and motors with efficient ones. A pilot project on two agricultural feeders will be implemented in collaboration with BEE and then the project will be implemented across Punjab through ESCO companies.

This is likely to save 1,400 million units worth Rs 560 crore annually recovering the project cost of Rs 1,700 crore in about three years and reduce the peak demand by about 660 megawatt.

Besides, the currently implemented HVDS project for agricultural consumers is likely to save about 2,500 million units worth Rs 1,000 crore annually. In addition, the installation and ensuring working of LT and HT capacitors can save about 1,200 million units annually and implementation of the restructured APDRP schemes launched by the Union Ministry of Power, covering 25 lakh town and city consumers will save about 500 million units annually.

The energy conservation projects, put together, can save 8,000 million units worth Rs 3,200 crore annually, thereby making the PSEB earn a profit of Rs 1,200 crore annually, which can be invested in power generation, transmission and distribution systems of Punjab.

The present plan to add 9,480 megawatt generation capacity in Punjab constitutes 6,480 megawatt power through coal-based thermal plants exclusively in the private sector. The government plans to buy 2,000 megawatt installed capacity through a competitive bidding process at the national level and execute the 500 megawatt extension projects, each at Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat, departmentally.

The signals for this targeted generation capacity addition in Punjab through the private sector are not positive. The Vedanta group, executing the 1980 megawatt project at Talwandi Sabo, has announced a cut in investment, the 1320 megawatt project at Rajpura settled at a rate of Rs 3.32 per unit is under re-bidding and coal linkages are yet to be finalised for the 2,640 megawatt Gidderbaha project. The 540 megawatt GVK project at Goindwal Sahib has of late been undertaken for execution.

Under an alternative plan to execute generation works in the public sector, the Gidderbaha thermal project, costing Rs 13,200 crore, can be executed through a joint venture of NTPC and the PSEB. Thirty per cent equity of the total cost will have to be borne by Punjab and NTPC equally, the balance 70 per cent will be loan.

NTPC is executing similar joint sector projects in Haryana, Karnataka, Bihar, UP and Tamil Nadu. Punjab will thus need to invest Rs 495 crore annually over four years. This joint venture project can come with 100 per cent certainty within 48 months of the agreement with NTPC.

With all clearances already obtained, the Rajpura thermal project, costing Rs 6,600 crore, can be executed in the state sector by Punjab by investing 20 per cent equity of Rs 1,320 crore spread over four years. Similarly, the 500 megawatt extension projects each at Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat can be executed departmentally within next 48 months by investing Rs 375 crore annually as equity.

Punjab should press for one 2x2000 megawatt nuclear power plant in the Twelfth Plan through equitable 20 per cent equity participation with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. It will take eight years and call for a capital investment of Rs 32,000 crore. Punjab will need to invest Rs 400 crore annually in this project, ensuring 3,000 megawatt nuclear power to the state by 2017.

Thus to execute power generation projects in the public sector, Punjab needs to invest about Rs 1,600 crore annually as equity. Implementation of the energy conservation projects supported by power sector reforms and managerial measures can save about Rs 1,200 crore annually for investment.

Levying 50 paise per unit on agricultural power or a power cess on foodgrains exported out of Punjab can generate Rs 550 crore annually. The electricity duty of Rs 650 crore annually should be pumped in power generation exclusively.

All these put together will leave Rs 2,400 crore annually for investment in the generation, transmission and distribution systems of Punjab after wiping out the present PSEB annual losses of Rs 2,000 crore.

The determination of the state government and the PSEB management to take these measures and execute generation projects in the public sector can lead Punjab from darkness to light.

The writer is a former Engineer-in-Chief of the Punjab State Electricity Board

Confessions of a bad parent
by Simon Carr

When Simon Carr lost his wife, he had to raise his sons alone. His no-rules approach – not found in any parenting manual – resulted in chaos, and inspired both a bestselling book and a major British film. But did it work?

Every family is happy in a different way, so how do we know what to do for the best? There is no Unified Theory of Parenting. Some children with all the advantages become drug addicts; others are brought up by wolves and go on to run merchant banks.

The underlying fact is, we do what we can. Or, to resist generalising (that won’t last), I did what I could.

My attempts at fatherhood have just been made into a film. The three of us went to see it recently at a private screening. It was absolutely shattering. I’m not sure if any of us want to go through that again. The film is terrific with handsome, cool, clever Clive Owen taking the lead and two young actors creating a very lifelike impression of the two boys.

Seeing yourselves up there, seeing your secret life turned inside out, seeing yourself starring in your own tragedy ... a lot of it looked out of focus, and none of us saw it all.

But there we were. The three of us. A father and two boys, an all-male household. We have been marinaded in our own essence, like nouvelle cuisine.

We went through the boys’ formative years with a male view of the world, of family, of daily life. It looked like that National Lampoon cartoon entitled The World Without Women. That showed pandemonium in the neighbourhood with boys on the roofs, battle formations in the streets and footballs being thrown from one house to another.

That was us. That’s what we did. It’s all there on the screen. Except the swing has been replaced by a zip-wire. They may not have been able to get insurance for the swing.

Our swing, as we’re on the subject, was attached to the upper trunk of a 30ft tree on a bank above the house. I’d had to get professionals in with spiked boots to climb up there. When a boy gripped the crossbar at the end of the rope and launched himself he’d swing in a fantastic arc to the level of the first floor balcony. What a rush – it was like a fairground ride.

I never dared go on it myself. If it thrilled children it terrified their mothers, and that, I fear, was part of the thrill of the swing. There was a certain political point to some of our ways. It was important to show that we could do it our way.

We live largely in a mother’s world these days. Childcare has gone a long way in the other direction; it’s public policy now. Health and safety. Coursework. The official way of doing things. The fact that so much we do – even as adults – now has to be pre-approved. Those policemen who wouldn’t go into the water to search for a drowning boy? That behaviour wasn’t “on the list”. That’s how it is these days.

They’ve leached the untidy spontaneity out of public life. For good or ill, our family life did it the other way. My boys were given space to grow up according to their natures. Provided they followed the few, large rules I had in place, they grew up without the pruning and training that mothers like to do. Somewhat carelessly, I now see.

— By arrangement with The Independent

Corrections and clarifications

n The headline “Waterlogged roads stall city” (Page 5, Sept. 10, Chandigarh Tribune) should more appropriately have been “Waterlogged roads stall city traffic”.

n In the headline “Industry rues hike in power tariff” (Page 14, Sept 9) the word “rues” is inappropriate. The connotation is of regret. The appropriate word would have been “resents”.

n In the headline “Senior citizens plaint registered after 7 months” (Page 5, Sept 9, Chandigarh Tribune), it should have been “citizen’s” not “citizens”.

n The news of West Bengal shelving the IT township project has been carried at two places in the issue of September 8—a PTI report on Page 15 and a Tribune News Service report on Page 18.

Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them.

This column appears thrice a week — every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error.

Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com.

H.K. Dua, Editor-in-Chief