The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Deaths in custody
UP earns a dubious distinction

The National Human Rights Commission’s report that Uttar Pradesh has recorded maximum custodial deaths in 2009 is cause for serious concern. This also shows the state police and jail authorities in poor light. According to the NHRC figures, 232 people have died in the state’s police stations in 2009 alone. Equally alarming is the fact that as many as 1180 people died in custody in Uttar Pradesh in the last four years. Maharashtra comes next with 1184 cases. The situation in Punjab is no better. According to the figures supplied by the Punjab government in an affidavit before the Supreme Court Bench consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, and Justice P. Sathasivam, custodial deaths rose from two in 2004 to a whopping 80 in 2006 and 63 in 2007. Surprisingly, Jammu and Kashmir, often criticised for its poor human rights violations record, has reported only three custodial deaths in 2009. Even during 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, Jammu and Kashmir recorded only one, eight and one deaths in custody.

The increasing number of custodial deaths proves that the state governments are not enforcing the directives of the Supreme Court and the NHRC properly. Part of the problem is the refusal of the police to shed its colonial mindset. Most policemen behave like beats in khaki and adopt questionable methods — often crude and obsolete — during interrogation. The victims usually hail from backward sections most of whom with little or no means to seek legal help. While some succumb to pain, others carry the scars throughout their life.

Though the Supreme Court has issued clear-cut directions and guidelines, the police use cruel ways to snuff out life of an accused. One way of checking custodial deaths is to sensitise the policemen on human rights through suitable training and orientation. The cops found guilty of torturing the accused need to be given stiff punishment including dismissal from service. No leniency should be shown towards policemen who refuse to respect the human rights of the prisoners, including undertrials.

Services as a right
For long the citizen has been at babus’ mercy

It is every citizen’s right to get documents like the ration card and the driving licence within a reasonable time frame. But all these years, these “luxuries” have been doled out as a favour by the so-called public servants, who are actually masters of the public. Those with influence may be able to get these in a jiffy even if they do not qualify for such certificates. But as far as the man on the street is concerned, he considers himself lucky if he can get these at all without greasing palms. This sorry state of affairs can change if a new scheme being launched by the PMO next year fructifies in the right spirit. Under it, penalties will be deducted from the salaries of dealing officials if there are delays in providing citizens services like ration cards, voter identity cards and driving licences.

The scheme will bind government departments to time commitments for the services they seek to provide. It will initially be launched in April 2010 in Delhi and then extended to union territories. Here is hoping that the states will also take up the initiative whole-heartedly because many of the services fall under their area of responsibility.

A novel feature is that to make sure that the blame is not put on the applicant, the onus to help him complete and submit the form will also fall on the officials of the department concerned. To ensure that the officials do not delay the submission of forms unnecessarily, officials accepting the forms would be separate from those who will deal with the case. Since the whole procedure will be monitored electronically, an amount will be automatically deducted from the salary of the official responsible as penalty. The public will be able to benefit fully only if forms are made user-friendly and needless documentation is done away with. Essentially, the babus will have to look at their work from the citizens’ point of view.

Thought for the Day

Get thee glass eyes;/ And, like a scurvy politician, seem/ To see the things thou dost not. — William Shakespeare

ARTICLE

After-effects of Telangana
No harm in altering states’ borders
by S. Nihal Singh

The Telangana crisis reveals the panicky nature of the late night decision of the central Congress leadership to begin the process of granting a separate state and the inevitable repercussions of the move on state parties and politicians and on other demands for carving out new states. The Congress leadership’s mind was so concentrated on averting a tragedy — doctors were warning that the fast of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TSR) leader, Mr K. Chandrashekhar Rao, had left him in a critical condition — that it took even its own supporters by surprise.

Has the wheel then turned full circle? It was the movement of Telugu-speaking people for a state to be carved out of Madras that led to the creation of the States’ Reorganisation Commission and to Andhra’s formation. The erstwhile Hyderabad state of the Nizam was later added to Andhra state in 1959, contrary to the recommendation of the States’ Reorganisation Commission. The fast led to a dramatically changed situation because the TSR did rather poorly in the last election.

The crisis could not have come at a worse time because the Congress-ruled state had been undergoing turmoil after the untimely death of Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy, with his son’s supporters making a peremptory demand for the chief ministership on the hereditary principle. The Congress leadership expended much energy on pacifying Mr Reddy Junior and the senior-most minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, was anointed in office.

Perhaps the timing of Mr Chandrashekhar Rao’s move to begin his fast for Telangana was determined by the turmoil in the Congress party after the sure-footed touch of Chandrashekhara Reddy was gone. Mr Rosaiah had barely managed to retain his office and the ranks of the late chief minister’s son remained restive. There was thus a leadership vacuum and the Congress leadership was left without shrewd local advice on how to handle the situation.

The Congress has since then been engaged in a damage-limitation exercise, with its man for all seasons, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, rejecting calls for carving out Gorkhaland and other new smaller states. Second, the process of forming Telangana will be a slow deliberative process. Initially, the Congress leadership is fighting shy of accepting the logic of a second states’ reorganisation commission that could frame rational guidelines for carving out new entities.

The UP Chief Minister, Ms Mayawati, has added her own twist by seeking the trifurcation of her state. And the redoubtable former Bharatiya Janata Party leader and member of Parliament, Mr Jaswant Singh, has found a new cause in promoting Gorkhaland to repay the votes the Gorkhaland constituency of Darjeeling gave him for his unlikely win in the state of West Bengal. Ironically, Ms Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, set on her one-point programme of unseating the state Marxist-led government, has found common cause with her adversary in rejecting Gorkhaland.

Despite Jawaharlal Nehru’s opposition, the pull of linguistic states proved too powerful for him to resist. The unity of the country has to be balanced with people’s linguistic aspirations, which can take such entities into excessive forms of local patriotism. But even with the forms the Shiv Sena and its splinter organisation have taken in Maharashtra, Nehru’s fears have largely proved unfounded.

In rational terms, the Telangana demand and other agitations for smaller entities pose two kinds of problems. How often must India change its state boundaries to satisfy local aspirations? Second, will a second round of carving out smaller states help in better governance and poverty alleviation? While a new commission of eminent experts and public men can go into these questions, a few answers are self-evident.

For one thing, the state of Uttar Pradesh is too big to be governed effectively and its size and the seats allotted to it in the key lower House distort the country’s political profile. While Ms Mayawati might have her own political calculations to propose the trifurcation of the state, any commission studying the issue afresh must grasp the opportunity with both hands.

The reverse of the coin is the cost involved because each new state means a whole new set of chief ministers, legislatures, Raj Bhawans and other accoutrements of power and pelf in a country that has more than its share of protocol expenses. But in the ultimate analysis, these costs must be balanced with the benefits of greater local initiative, particularly in programmes that serve the poor.

A state is a living organism as much as languages are and just as English language dictionaries are regularly revised to take in new words and expressions, state borders can be altered for rational, and sometimes sentimental, reasons. The sooner the central Congress leadership reconciles itself to the need for a new states’ reorganisation commission, instead of putting Telangana on the slow track and dismissing other demands until they become too insistent, the better it will be for the party and the country.

Critics have decried the use of fasts, hallowed by the Mahatma, to achieve political ends once India achieved Independence. But the fast as a weapon remains in the political armoury to press individual and collective causes. It is up to the country’s leadership to remain sensitive to people’s grievances to prevent fasts escalating into tragedies.

However slow the transition to a Telangana state might be, Mr Chandrashekhar Rao has become a hero to his people because his fast was the trigger to the initiation of the process. Whether Hyderabad remains the exclusive preserve of a future Telangana state or not, he can be reasonably confident that he will occupy a pre-eminent position as and when the new entity is formed. He has plucked victory out of his defeat in the last election.

Other parties, including the Congress and the Telugu Desam, are now having to make adjustments to the new reality. Other areas, particularly coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, are angry and politicians are now having to balance the benefits of endorsing Telangana with its adverse consequences in the rest of Andhra. Mr Chandrashekhar Rao will probably have the last laugh.

MIDDLE

Anger management
by Chetana Vaishnavi

A hungry man is an angry man and an angry man is a savage. Josephine Licciardello warns us saying, “Anger is just one letter away from danger!” Anger is an emotional state from minor irritation to intense rage making one to punish oneself with other people’s mistakes. It is a part of fight or flight response to certain real or perceived threats.

Phil Barker describes anger as a natural and potentially productive emotion. It can serve positive functions when expressed properly. A certain amount of anger is in fact necessary as it allows us to defend ourselves and can be useful in expressing how we feel to others. Expressing anger makes one feel more powerful than the other. At times it can even help to solve a problem. But venting anger does not always work.

Anger can be suppressed by focusing it on something else. Well-wishers often advise us to count ten before saying or doing anything. It has been rightly said, “Never reply a letter when you are angry!” If you are prone to violence then walk away from the provocation before pressure builds up.

You can calm down by taking a deep breath and relaxing. You may not get what you want at all, and yet in remaining calm, you may discover something else that you need even more than what you thought you wanted.

People who become social doormats do not admit feeling hurt about anything, but usually have resentment underneath their calm appearance. Whining, as said by Al Franken, is anger through a small opening. Apathy is a veiled form of anger with deep sorrow for all humanity. People get angry when their expectations are not met.

Personal biases and emotions take over leading to aggression. Anger is the wish for harm to come upon someone that one believes has injured one. Often an angry person hurts innocent persons by manipulating circumstances.

Remember that when the boss slams his fist on the table and yells, “I’m the BOSS!” — he no longer is! Anger takes him off his rockers, thereby sending him up the air to hit the ceiling! He starts going bananas and beats his breast in anger, crying out aloud. This makes him lose his cool, his blood begins to boil and most likely he would have burst a blood vessel by looking daggers at someone! Nevertheless the best form of revenge is to forgive and never allow the sun to go down on your anger so that you can balance your stress.

Angry people commit many mistakes in life. But mistakes that lighten your mood can be real fun. For example, a furious teacher says, “Write down your name and father of your name!” Yet another one shouts, “Why are you looking at the monkeys outside when I am in the class?”

May God increase such angry people’s tribe! After all, like laughter, anger is also nature’s gift to us!

OPED

Gandhi would have blessed Obama’s ‘just war’
by K. Subrahmanyam

US President and Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama was acutely aware of the apparent inappropriateness of his receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace even as he was inducting an additional 30,000 troops into the Af-Pak theatre of war.

In his Prize acceptance speech, he said, “I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict – filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other”.

He went on to assert “We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert – will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified”.

He had always acknowledged his admiration for Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He said: “I am a living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naïve in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King”.

He then proceeded to outline his point of departure. He said: “But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake, evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaeda leaders to lay down their arms. To say force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism – it is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man and the limits of reason”.

Obama obviously is not aware, when subjected to the same dilemma Gandhi in 1947 advised to the Government of India the same course of action that he had chosen It is a supreme irony of history that Obama has to face the choice of war and peace in the same Af-Pak region and the causation of the dilemma for both Gandhi and Obama is the same mindset which uses terrorism as an instrument of policy .

Obama can rest assured that if Gandhiji had been alive he would have his blessings as Brigadier Sen had, as he left to command the Indian force trying to save Kashmir valley from the terrorists from the same FATA region, at that time led by ‘General’ Akbar Khan of the Pakistani Army.

Pyarelal, Gandhiji’s private secretary, has vividly described Gandhiji’s attitude towards the use of force by India against the tribal raiders from the same FATA region. In his book “Mahatma Gandhi, The Last Phase” he records that when the Kashmir invasion by the tribesmen was at its height and the invading army composed of Afridis and the like, ably officered, was advancing on Srinagar, burning and looting villages all along the route, Gandhiji remarked in one of his prayer addresses, “It was difficult to believe that this intrusion could take place without some kind of encouragement from the Pakistan Government”

He could not escape the conclusion, he said, that the Pakistan Government was directly or indirectly encouraging the raid. The Chief Minister of the Frontier Province was reported to have openly encouraged the raid and had even appealed to the Islamic world for help. It was therefore right for the Union Government to save the fair city by rushing troops to Srinagar. He would not shed a tear if the little Indian force was wiped out bravely defending Kashmir like the Spartans at Thermopylae nor would he mind if Sheikh Abdullah and his Muslim, Hindu and Sikh comrades died at their post in defence of Kashmir. That would be a glorious example to the rest of India. It would make the people of India forget that the Hindus, the Muslims and the Sikhs were ever one another’s enemies.

Some people were shocked by Gandhiji expressing his appreciation of the Indian Government’s action in sending troops in defence of Kashmir. His exhortation to the defenders to be wiped out to the last man in clearing Kashmir soil of the raiders rather than submit was even dubbed churchillian”.

When General Cariappa asked Gandhiji to tell him how he could teach his soldiers the spirit of non-violence without endangering their sense of duty to train themselves professionally as soldiers Gandhiji replied that he was still groping in the dark for an answer and he would find it and give it to him someday. That day never came since the Mahatma was assassinated next month.

Gandhiji and Martin Luther King were leaders who changed the status quo and in their offensive operations to change the status quo they very effectively used non-violence. So far the world has not seen non-violence used to preserve the status quo against an adversary who is on the offensive to change the status quo according to his values...Therefore, non-violence is not effective against Hitlers, Stalins, Maos and bin Ladens and their patrons. In such circumstances a just war becomes inescapable.

There is a continuity from Operation Gulmarg of Akbar Khan in 1947 through Operation Gibraltar of 1965 to the terrorism perpetrated by the associates of al Qaeda in Kashmir from 1989 onwards, the Kargil infiltration, 9/11 and subsequent threats posed by al Qaeda and its associates to various democratic, pluralistic and secular societies.

The origin of this threat is the mindset associated with the belief in holy war and in the manifest destiny of one’s faith to prevail over others.

Obama pointed out in his speech that no holy war can be a just war and elaborated “For if you truly believe that you are carrying out the divine will, then there is no need for restraint – no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic or even a person of one’s own faith. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace but the purpose of faith – for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us”.

But the US initiated, sponsored and sustained a holy war (in the words of author John Cooley, an unholy war) from 1979, triggering the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan followed by nine years of unrestrained carnage in that country.

Those who enthusiastically participated in that holy war are today accusing the US of having deserted them and in contradiction to the values expressed by Obama, the US administration feels defensive about having discontinued its association with the warriors of the “holy war” of the eighties during the period 1990-2001.

If, according to Obama, holy wars are not just wars then the war in Afghanistan in the eighties, which was a war of choice for the US, cannot be a just war. It was a costly cold war aberration like the support to dictatorships during that period. The present war is a just war, which in all likelihood would have earned Gandhi’s approval.

Why do we lag behind China?
by J.L. Gupta

Recently, the London-based Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index placed India well ahead of China. In domestic institutional maturity, India was ranked 36th to China’s 100th. And then in the social capital sub-index India was ranked 5th and China, 70th.

Thus, India was supposed to have beaten China. But could it be true? I had doubts. Today’s report – ‘US cos prefer China for investment’ seems to give the correct picture.

The 2009 China Business Report released by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai shows that ‘a large majority of American firms operating in China the continue to see revenue and profit growth even as elsewhere they face downturn.’ China is the world’s ‘fastest growing economy.’ Not surprising. May I share a personal experience?

Last summer, I had taken the Alaskan cruise. On board the ‘Radiance of the Seas.’ It is a big ship with excellent facilities. In the midst of an unfamiliar luxury, what struck the patriotic cord was the fact that almost everything one saw on board the American ship was ‘made in China’.

In the cabin, the toiletries, towels, linen and water flasks were from China. In the dining hall, the crockery and cutlery carried the Chinese label. The position persisted in the shopping area. Even a small battery ‘charger’ needed to energise the camera, though labelled ‘Kodak,’ had actually come from China. It seemed that the ship was flooded with Chinese goods.

After about 36 hours of leaving Vancouver, we had anchored at Ketchikan. It is a small but beautiful town in the state of Alaska. It is popularly known as the ‘salmon’ city. Has a total population of about 13,000. There are shops within almost a hundred yards of the port. One may walk into any shop. Each one is stuffed with all kinds of winter wear and small souvenirs. The caps, shirts, sweaters, chinaware and knives. Everything except the knives, which are a purely local product, was from China.

During the week, I had visited a number of shops in different cities. After repeated queries, it was only in one shop that the salesman was able to locate just one T-shirt with the label – ‘made in India.’ I tried to tell him that India grows good cotton and makes good items of apparel like shirts, T-shirts and hosiery etc. But the polite response was - ‘Most of the things here are from China. Very good finish. Above all, moderately priced. These are not expensive.’ And this was not confined to clothes. Whatever one looked at, the chinaware or children’s toys or even the electronic gadgets, all had the Chinese label.

In one of the shops, there were some good-looking leather products. In almost all sizes. I looked at the shelves with an expectant optimism. I saw a small bag. Indeed small. But on checking I found that it had lot of space. For everything - like the passport, credit and visiting cards, cash, pen, spectacles, travel tickets and on the outer side for the boarding pass etc. It seemed handy. It was well made. But inevitably this too was from China. Not from India.

The position was not peculiar to the ports that I touched during the cruise. Or to some places in America. It was the same in Canada. Be it Vancouver or Toronto. The airport or the town. In fact, there is a ‘China town’ in Vancouver. This ‘town’ has shops, eateries and even a park named after Dr. Sun Yat - Sen. Actually, it appears that China has invaded every nook and corner of America and Canada with its cuisine and products. There were glimpses of China all over.

At the end, I felt convinced that we, in India, only brag. We boast of our art and artisans. We talk of the wonderful native workmanship. We claim that there is growth and rise in exports. Actually, it is difficult to find an item from India in the world’s shops. Be it the airport or the city, it is the same story. An Indian product is a rare sight. It arouses a suspicion that we actually fiddle with the figures and make unfounded claims.

Why can we not be really enterprising? Or make things which would find space in the show windows of the world? Why do we lag behind China or other countries of the world? What do we lack? Do we not have the manpower and the materials? Or do we not have the will to do well, excel and take pride in producing quality goods? Worse still is the fact that no one seems to feel concerned or embarrassed. It does not seem to hurt our sense of national pride. There is a total indifference that defies all logic.

Today, I feel sure that China easily outperforms India. It is well ahead of India in industrial output and exports. Also ‘in health, education, general safety sub-indices.’ And then, what can ‘domestic institutional maturity’ or ‘the social capital sub-index’ mean to any Indian living on an empty stomach?

Why do we lag behind? Because, we are not honest and hard working. We are inefficient and indisciplined. And if our ‘governance’ and ‘social capital’ were actually good, we shall not be undoing what Patel had done. We shall not be burning buses or trying to divide the country on petty parochial considerations. We shall not be saying ‘no Bihari in Bombay’ or talking of ‘Maharashtra for Marathi Manoos only.’ Actually, we are opportunists. We have a long way to go. We have to fight greed. Eradicate illiteracy, indiscipline and poverty.

Till we do that, China would probably continue to grow economically. But we shall only multiply numerically.

Delhi Durbar
MPs celebrate birthdays

It was the birthday time in Parliament last week with members busy holding out flowers for the ones they wanted to wish well. On top of the priority list of Congressmen was UPA chief Sonia Gandhi, who turned 64 last Wednesday.

Despite the Telangana sword hanging on her head, the Congress president managed to accept floral greetings from most party men who had queued up in the galleries to wish her.

Soon after Sonia had her day, it was Congress crisis manager Pranab Mukherjee’s chance to get into her shoes. On December 11, his birthday, he turned up in the Lok Sabha Nehru-style, sporting a red rose on his coat and smiling uninhibitedly.

A day before that, Trinamool Congress’ chief whip in the House Sudip Bandopadhyay celebrated his birth day, which incidentally coincided with the World Human Rights Day on December 10.

Last but not the least was BJP MP Shahnawaz Hussain, who also managed good attention on December 12, which saw hoardings all across the town, wishing him a very happy birthday!

A Rahul admirer

Rahul Gandhi naturally has a large fan following among his party MPs, specially the young ones. So it is no surprise to see them crowd around him in the Lok Sabha and try to chat with him every now and then.

The other day when Trinamool MPs, egged on openly and defiantly by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, were disrupting the House proceedings to take up some Bengal issue as they do each day, an unconcerned Rahul Gandhi sat in his far corner, swarmed by Congress MPs, unmindful of Mamata’s angry outbursts.

And lo and behold who joined the Rahul star struck gang? None other than India’s former Union Minister of State for Home and L.K. Advani’s trusted lieutenant, Harin Pathak.

In the last elections Advani had a hard time forcing Narendra Modi to allow Harin Pathak to contest from Ahmedabad. And now with the RSS preparing to send Advani on a sabbatical, wonder whether Harin Pathak is looking across the BJP fence!

Legal luminaries fight it out in RS

It was a lively debate among top legal luminaries in the Rajya Sabha last week when it discussed the Liberhan Commission report on the demolition of Babri Masjid.

The Congress fielded party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi while the BJP used Arun Jaitley, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, as its main weapon to tear apart the findings of the commission.

Another legal expert, Kapil Sibal, the suave HRD Minister, intervened during the debate while Home Minister P. Chidambaram replied to the debate.

And Chidambaram pointed this out in his speech in the House. The debate provided members of the legal fraternity an opportunity to test their skills in Parliament, he remarked as he sought to demolish each and every argument made by Jaitley, virtually turning the House into a courtroom.

Contributed by Aditi Tandon, Faraz Ahmad and Ashok Tuteja

Corrections and clarifications

n The headline “Nobel economics laureate Samuelson dies” (Page 11, December 14) sounds odd. A more appropriate way of putting it would have been “Economics Nobel laureate Samuelson dies”.

n The headline “Axe on abattoirs in Maharashtra” (Page 23, December 13) should more appropriately have been “Most abattoirs ordered closed in Maharashtra”.

n The headline “Fire Dept fails to feel the heat” (Page 5, December 13, Chandigarh Tribune) is inappropriate. A more accurate headline would have been “Fire Dept steeped in inefficiency”.

n The headline “Measles take heavy toll on Indian children” (Page 18, December 11) was incorrect. It should have been “Measles takes heavy toll on Indian children”.

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 twice a week — every Tuesday 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