|
A Tribune Special
Fighting injustice and inequality |
|
|
Empowering citizens
Profile
On Record
|
Fighting injustice and inequality
In recent years, there has been an increasing tendency in South Asia of movements demanding equality and justice to drift towards violence. This is particularly seen in the growth of Maoist movements in India, Nepal and Bhutan. More recently as violence has escalated in Chhattisgarh and other parts of the tribal belt of Central India, the government has also launched a major offensive. Where will this take the country and what will be the implications for the innocent people caught in the crossfire? Reflecting these concerns, a National Convention of the Citizens Initiative for Peace held recently in Delhi called for commitment to people on both sides. It asked the government to first stop the offensive in the areas where the CPI (Maoist) and other Naxalite parties are active, to facilitate a ceasefire. At the same time, the resolution asked the Maoist and others to cease all hostilities against the state forces to facilitate a ceasefire. There should be no attacks on civilians by anyone and their lives must be secure. Unconditional dialogue must begin between the government and the Maoists. People’s basic livelihood rights and democratic control over their natural resources must be ensured. This appears to be a very reasonable approach, but will the voice of reason and peace prevail? To avoid such situations in future, a broader plea needs to be made in favour of peaceful struggles and movements for justice and equality. The legitimate demands of equality and justice can be better achieved at a lesser cost and in more stable ways by strong, broad-based peaceful movements. Large-scale violence can increase the overall problems of these countries and even lead to further deterioration in the life of those weaker sections whom the violent resistance movements claim to help. From the point of view of the ordinary people of struggle areas, a long drawn-out violent struggle can mean an endless series of suffering. Several reports from these areas describe the plight of the people caught between the cadre of violent struggle groups and security forces. As both ask them at gun-point to be on their side, ordinary people can easily become the target of either the violent struggle groups or the security forces. These problems intensify when there are divisions within the ranks of the violent struggle groups, or when security forces start arming villagers to create para-military squads among them. In fact, the proliferation of increasingly more destructive modern weapons as well as improvised devices has increased the possibility of more deaths and serious injuries in the course of these violent struggles. Many of the dead and injured are innocent civilians who have no protection and can easily be caught in the crossfire, or fall victims to improvised explosive devices. Many gains made by the weaker sections as a result of violent struggles are not stable. Whether these households can cultivate the land allotted to them by struggle groups or harvest its crops depends on whether the struggle groups are in control or in retreat. For land and other gains to be stable, legal recognition by the same system is needed which the struggle seeks to overthrow. It is not possible for a violent movement to benefit from a wider democratic debate. By its very nature, a very violent secretive movement has to confine debate of critical planning and strategy decisions to a relatively narrow group. Even within this narrow group, free discussion may not always be possible with respect to more basic formulations which have been taken for granted. On the other hand, peaceful movements can be much more transparent and benefit from the opinion of many wide-ranging sources. In a peaceful movement any problem within the movement or failure of the leadership is more likely to come in for public scrutiny so that remedial steps can be taken at an early stage. On the other hand, in a violent struggle this may be delayed for too long and finally violence within the group may have to be used to sort out problems brought out peaceful transitions of governments for a long time now. Therefore, the right way to fight injustice and inequality is to establish very broad alliances of weaker sections for non-violent struggles. All others who are sympathetic to such peaceful struggles can also join in. These peaceful struggles certainly have the right of such mobilisation as may be needed to provide protection to their activists from violent attacks, but as a matter of principle they will not unleash any violence on their own. Their means of achieving success should be their ability to have a very broad alliance of vast number of people and making effective use of all democratic, peaceful means of mobilisation and
protest. |
Empowering citizens
The enactment of the RTI Act, 2005, is a laudable step. It covers not only the public sector but also NGOs and the private sector to some extent. It has various other positive features like the provision of First and Second Appellate Authorities. It is also one of the toughest legislations in the world as it is the only RTI Act imposing penalty for any contravention of its provisions. After four years of its implementation, it can be said that the response to this Act has been very positive. People are learning the importance of the power of information. That is why every section has been seeking information from the authorities. Public Authorities and Public Information Officers are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibilities. It has been a learning experience for each entity involved in the working of the law. However, mere conferment of the right is not enough. There have been various apprehensions like the misuse of the Act, blackmailing of the officers and burden on the government exchequer. Besides, there have been many operational impediments in the effective implementation of the Act like non-designation of RTI functionaries in several organizations, especially in semi-government and autonomous organisations. Moreover, many public authorities, particularly at the district level, do not display names and details of PIOs on their notice boards. Junior officers are often appointed as PIOs who are unable to collect information from their departmental colleagues. Above all, while only PIOs can be penalised under the Act, they are not provided adequate infrastructure for performing their duties and responsibilities. Owing to the absence of penal consequence, public authorities are yet to give shape to any time-bound action plan for the implementation of the RTI Act, especially suo motu disclosure. Experience regarding seeking information is also not very encouraging. The fee charged and the manner of payment is not uniform. There is confusion about the head of accounts to which the application and other fees are to be credited. Most PIOs at the state and district levels are not cooperative and they sometimes force the applicants to withdraw applications. People in rural areas find the appeal process expensive. Many times, there is just one First Appellate Authority for the whole department, that too, located at the capital cities. BPL exemptions are also being misused by unscrupulous elements. The Information Commissioners are not frequently using the penalty clause against officials providing wrong or no information. As a result, an impression has been created that the government departments need not take this Act very seriously. The government departments also don’t always comply with the orders of the Information Commission. The Commissions have not been provided with enough teeth and adequate infrastructure. Their autonomy is compromised as they have to rely on the government for infrastructure and support. The awareness is lacking among the information seekers and information providers both in urban and rural areas. To overcome problems in its effective use, the governments should take steps to propagate this Act among the illiterate sections living in the villages. The states should increasingly use information technology or e-governance. Records in the government offices need to be digitised and indexed for easy retrieval. Video conferencing should be used extensively for hearing the appeals. What is most important at this juncture is to give a fair chance to the Act to operate without creating stumbling blocks and bottlenecks. There is a special duty cast upon the civil society organisations and public authorities to be vigilant so that the objectives of the Act do not get frustrated by the bureaucratic manipulations. This necessitates an attitudinal change in the bureaucracy for the successful implementation of the RTI Act. At the same time, there is need to initiate suitable amendments in the conduct rules for public servants, create efficient information management system and more frequent use of this right by the media and citizens. Effective operationalisation of the RTI requires capacity building of both the information providers and information seekers. Capacity building at the cutting edge functionaries forms the key element as it facilitates the first interface with the citizens. Above all, the RTI Act can be made effective only through people’s active involvement. Much would depend on the seriousness of the Centre and the states and public authorities in fulfilling their obligations under the Act and in removing difficulties in the operationalisation of the Act. The Act is indeed a bold step and will go a long way in creating an enabling environment for maturisation of our constitutional mandate by empowering the
citizenry. The writer is on the faculty of the Haryana Institute of Public Administration, Gurgaon |
Profile Rarely by-elections become so politically significant as the victory of the Congress candidate, Raj Babbar, from Ferozabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He defeated Mulayam Singh Yadav’s bahu, Dimple, by a whooping margin of over 85,000 votes. A film star, Raj Babbar, was till the other day a member of the Samajwadi Party and elected to Parliament thrice, courtesy Mulayam Singh Yaday. As a matter of fact, it was the SP supremo who gave a break in politics to the matinee idol but equations between Raj Babbar and Amar Singh soured, resulting in the former’s expulsion from the party. Amar Singh has time and again lambasted Raj Babbar for contesting against Dimple, saying “look at him, he is contesting against bahu of Mulayam Singh who nurtured him in politics”. Reports say, initially Mulayam Singh was opposed to fielding Dimple but Amar Singh insisted that she should oppose Raj Babbar and he had his way. Why film stars take to politics, bidding goodbye to the glamorous and money-spinning world of cinema? To them, the weird world of politics is more lucrative and more challenging. Few enter politics because they want to serve the people. Entering portals of power is yet another attraction. Their screen image helps them to get popular in public life sooner than others. When people hear that a film hero will make a public appearance, they rush out to see him and hear him. Raj Babbar is one such matinee idol who arouses peoples’ curiosity. He entertains them with film-style dialogues. He is known for his special style of dialogue delivery. Though Raj Babbar has been successful both in films and politics, his personal life has not been so happy. He married Nadira, had two children but separated because he was madly in love with that talented actress, Smita Patil and married her. Samita died after giving birth to a son, who was named Prateek. Reports say that Babbar has now patched up with Nadira. Babbar’s last film, Yaraan Naal Baharaan, was released on October 7, 2005. He played the role Jimmy Shergil’s father and his daughter, Juhi Babbar, played the main lead in the film. He then joined the Samajwadi Party and got himself involved in politics. Following a spat with Amar Singh, he was expelled from the Samajwadi Party, joined the late Prime Minister V P Singh and subsequently moved to the Congress which fielded him from Ferozapur Lok Sabha byelection to oppose Mulayam Singh’s daughter-in-law. Born in Agra, 57-year-old Raj Babbar graduated from the National Institute of Drama in 1975. He performed in many movies and commercial films. Some of his roles have a negative shade. Babbar started his film career with Sau Dina Saas ke (100 days of mother-in-law). B R Chopra’s Insaaf Ka Tarazu was a turning point in his career. In this film, he performed a villainous role. He became the first choice in B.R. Chopra’s films like Nikaah with Deepak Parashar and Salma Agha, and Aaj ki Awaz with Smita Patil. Some of Babbar’s popular films include Umrao Jaan, Rudaali, Itihaas and Prem Geet. Raj Babbar is now a Rahul Gandhi loyalist. Rahul has set the task for him — work hard to make Mission 2012 a success by ensuring the return of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. He was also deputed to campaign in the ongoing Assembly elections in Jharkhand. With Raj Babbar’s victory in the Ferozabad by-election, says Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in-charge of the party affairs in UP, the process of restoring peoples’ faith in the Congress has begun. He is confident that the Congress is set on the course to form the next government in the
state. |
On Record
Kanimozhi, Member of Parliament and daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, is a poet, journalist, feminist and social activist. She was a student of Chennai’s Church Park Convent and a postgraduate in economics. She worked as Assistant Editor in The Hindu and was the Editor-in-Chief of the popular Tamil weekly Kungumam. She is also the founder of Karuthu (Opinion), a forum to encourage free expression of views. She was the brain behind the successful Chennai Sangamam, a grand exhibition of Tamil folk arts, aimed to preserve the dying ancient arts of Tamil Nadu. From her dreamy world of poetry, she had stepped into the arena of politics, after her election as the DMK’s MP to the Rajya Sabha. She was a part of the MPs’ delegation from Tamil Nadu which visited the camps for the internally displaced Tamil families in Sri Lanka. Incredibly polite and careful with her choice of words in an interview to The Tribune in Chennai, she shares her views on variety of topics. Excerpts: Q: What was your motivation for poetry? A: I was always attracted to words and language. Poetry is the highest form of expression through language and is the only one that is brief while conveying numerous meanings more than the actual words. This was very appealing to me. Q: Do you have a favourite poet? A: I cannot name a particular poet since it will mean that I agree with all his views. We like different things from different poets. I love the verses of Subramania Bharathi (noted Tamil poet who penned poems on India’s freedom struggle). But, this does not mean that I accept all his views. I appreciate the works of poets in other languages too, but it does not mean that I agree with all their views. At a certain age, people tend to get inspired by certain people and agree with all their views. I am past that period. Q: What was your goal in life? A: My life was ordinary. I did not set any goals for myself. I did not aspire for a particular vocation. I had only a passion for poetry. Q: Your forum Karuthu was started when the controversy over Tamil actor Kushboo’s remarks on chastity at its peak? Was it started to defend her views? A: Karuthu was not started for a particular person. We felt that people’s freedom of expression was being crushed under the guise of religion or culture. So, an organisation which supported free expression of views was required. Karuthu is a very small effort to support democracy. Q: Did your public life began with Karuthu? A: I was involved in a number of apolitical fields. Though I haven’t spoken at DMK meetings, I have delivered speeches for the Communist Party. So my public life did not start with Karuthu. Q: What are your priorities in politics? A: Many of the dreams of Periyar (the founder of the Dravidian movement) was achieved through political power. For example, women’s right to inherit family’s property was advocated by Periyar. But it was achieved by a legislation when the DMK came to power in Tamil Nadu. It makes good sense to raise your voice for social change at the forum where the law of the land is decided. Q: What is the present status of women in Indian society? A: We have a long way to go as far as equality for women is concerned. Among women, even achievers, scholars, leaders in their own right are not treated as equal to males. I cannot say men are against women’s liberation. The social structure and customs are major factors against gender equality. Q: What should be done to change the situation? A: We want our rightful place in society. Do not deny what we deserve just because we are women. It is very important to teach women about their rights. Women have to be taught what the Constitution offers and what society has to offer them. Women’s education is important to create an awareness that they have the right to live as equal citizens. Empowerment of women does not mean that women will displace men. Empowerment is to take our rightful place in society and not to displace men. Q: What about Chennai Sangamam? A: Pongal is celebrated with zeal in Tamil Nadu. It is a festival for all, cutting across religion and classes. Such celebrations will help in overcoming the differences. Q: Is there any advantage of being the Chief Minister’s daughter? A: There are so many MPs. Aren’t you interviewing me just because I am his daughter? Q: Are you satisfied with the progress achieved by your team’s visit to Lanka? A: Over 50,000 people had been sent to their native places after our visit. However, the re-settled Tamils should be given equal rights on par with their Sinhalese counterparts and allowed to lead a peaceful and dignified life. This would be possible only through a political solution. Q: Are the job fairs organised as part of the celebrations of the Chief Minister’s birthday successful? A: The purpose of job fairs is to ensure that educated youths in semi-urban areas got attractive jobs as their counterparts in urban and metropolitan areas. The job fairs organised at Kariyapatti, Kanyakumari, Virudhunagar and Vellore districts were all successful as many people could get
employment. |
||
|
HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |