The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Prosecute Rathore
Legal system should not be helpless before rogues

NOW that the Ruchika molestation case has pricked the conscience of the nation like rarely before, even Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily has been constrained to admit that it presents an example of “travesty of justice”. The punishment of only six months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 to former Director-General of Police of Haryana SPS Rathore for molesting a 14-year-old girl, that too after 19 years of legal tussle, is “atrocious and the delay is unpardonable”, he has opined. But just the expression of regret would not be enough. What is necessary is reopening the case. If that can happen in the Best Bakery and Manu Sharma cases, so should be done in this particular instance. The abetment to suicide trial is the need of the hour.

Here was an officer who misused his high position to the hilt to torment the girl’s family which forced her to later commit suicide. Even the FIR in the case was filed nine years after the incident and Rathore was charge-sheeted after a decade. He has brought the entire police force into disrepute. Just because he twisted the investigation to his advantage does not mean that he should go virtually scot-free, with that notorious smirk on his face. Not only he but all those politicians and officials who helped him in this sordid escape are answerable to society. Even the judiciary has to do some serious introspection as to how and why wheels of justice got stalled in this particular case.

Just stripping the disgraced top cop or reducing his pensionary benefits would not make up for the conspiracy of silence. He should get exemplary punishment for his sins. Let this be a test case to restore the public’s confidence in the legal system. The proposal to categorise and fast-track cases relating to violence against women, particularly rape, molestation and dowry, should become a reality with la affaire Rathore.

Telangana in turmoil
Prolonged unrest will cripple its economy

THE Telangana situation is deteriorating by the day, plunging the entire Andhra Pradesh into chaos. Reports that Maoists are seeking to take advantage of the explosive situation must goad the Central and state governments to redouble their efforts to defuse it. That a joint action committee of the Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and actor Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party has threatened an indefinite bandh in the region from Tuesday is a matter of concern for a state where work has been at a virtual standstill for over two weeks. With Mr K. Rosaiah having been catapulted to the chief ministerial chair by the high command without adequate support from partymen after the death in an air crash of the popular Rajasekhar Reddy, he lacks the acceptance to make his peace overtures work.

The Telangana legislators from various political parties who have turned in their resignations to their party leaders must understand the implications of their actions. While neglect by the more affluent regions and consequent backwardness were the reason for the demand forstatehood for Telangana, the hard reality is that the current movement and the bandhs and hartals that are on would only pile up the misery for the people of Telangana. Investors too would begin to shy away if political uncertainty and violence continue for long. Tourists would start shunning Hyderabad which is the nerve-centre of the Telangana movement. That all this would be disastrous for the state’s economy should worry all right-thinking people.

Clearly, the options for the Centre are narrowing. Imposing President’s rule and keeping the State Assembly in suspended animation, once dismissed as an option, is now emerging as a possible wayout in the short run. With Mr N.D. Tiwari having quit as Governor in the wake of a sex scandal, it would be interesting to see who succeeds him in this key state at this crucial juncture. Imposition of President’s rule can at best be a patchwork solution. Ultimately, a way out of the impasse has to be found on a permanent basis.

Thought for the Day

He does smile his face into more lines than are in the new map with the augmentation of the Indies.

— William Shakespeare

ARTICLE

Lament for the media
Sad decline in professional values
by B.G. Verghese

AS the year closes, one must with sadness and shame pen a lament for the Indian media. India is rightly proud of its vibrant democracy despite shortcomings and flaws. Among the instrumentalities of our free society is the media which has seen exponential growth in both the print and electronic segments with a huge and burgeoning viewership and readership in all regions and languages.

The communications revolution has given the media an instant and global reach and, with convergence, a multi-dimensional capability. It has grown in range and sophistication and is now immensely powerful and even feared not only by the public but by the organs of state. It was always true, but today information truly is power. This carries with it a corresponding responsibility imbued with a sense of trusteeship in providing the people with the kind of information needed for democratic participation, empowerment and informed choice.

It is in this regard that we must lament a disgraceful fall in standards as revealed by well-documented stories of the sale of electoral coverage by sections of the news media through “packages” relating to the kind of treatment sought. What earlier seemed an isolated, low-level viral outbreak appears to have gained virulence and epidemic proportions. Alarm bells have sounded. One respected editor of a leading Hindi daily recently resigned on this score while another Urdu editor who contested the elections was also asked to pay for coverage, although on concessional terms after he protested that he was himself a journalist.

A complaint was lodged with the Press Council some months ago by the late Prabhash Joshi and others and the matter is now being investigated by it. Meanwhile, new evidence has come to light from the just concluded Maharashtra polls. The sitting Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Chavan, was found to have shown no more than Rs 10,000 for media advertisements in his election returns though pages and pages of advertising had appeared in his favour which in aggregate in value could even be in excess of the total permissible electoral expenditure for an Assembly seat. Not content with this, he publicly awarded substantial monetary prizes to each of the three polling stations that gave him the highest votes. What is this if not an ex post facto electoral inducement and an act of dubious morality if not an outright electoral malpractice. Who paid, Mr Chavan or the exchequer? If the former then this must be added to his election expenditure which could inflate his returns above the prescribed ceiling. Some one has filed an election petition on Mr Chavan’s election expenses and the case will be watched with interest. Technically, he may plead that the advertisements were, unknown to him, placed by “friends”. None will be taken in by such subterfuge and the papers must be asked to disclose who paid the bills.

The rot set in with economic reforms and deregulation which led to a rapid expansion of economic activity with new ventures, M&As, rising stock values and corresponding public relations spending. Business reporters were baited with freebees and, in turn, started demanding or assuming favours, something governments had long done with housing plots and so on. The Editor’s Guild prescribed a code to curb business sops. But then managements entered the lists and “advertorials” crept in obliterating the distinction between news and ads. This was followed by “private treaties” in which advertising was bartered for company shares to mutual benefit with promotional news writing and sponsored news.

News was commodified and dumbed down to provide titillation, sensation, hype and sound-bytes rather than substance to catch “eyeballs”, enhance sales even if it meant dumping copies at vantage points, The media’s mission to provide unbiased news, outside the editorial page, yielded to the market. News has become commerce. Managers have increasingly taken over from editors, some of whom have fallen prey to bloated salaries and perks. Many family papers have gone the same way with money overriding mission. Honourable exceptions apart, this represents a sad decline in professional values though many journalists are acutely unhappy and embarrassed by these trends. Some of the largest papers have been the worst offenders.

The 24x7 news channels too have not been blameless. They are by nature shallow unless they take special pains to give depth to their coverage. Some anchors have turned inquisitors, slanting discussion to preconceived views and seeking to impose their opinions on panellits. That there are some excellent programmes too only shows what we are missing. And in this scenario, the government, Parliament, the media, advertisers and the entertainment world have wilfully conspired to all but kill public service broadcasting and radio. The well-heeled consumer has trumped the citizen who looks to the media for empowerment, access and participation in life and living.

The matter is too serious to be left to drift. Maybe the Press Registration Act needs review to entrench the position of the Editor who is even now responsible for everything published, including advertisements. Can the law require public interest directors to be appointed to boards of all media houses from tiered panels to act as guardians of the public interest. The establishment of self-regulatory bodies for the broadcast media by no means precludes the necessity for mandatory broadcast regulations as found in every part of the world. This need not curb media freedom. Fast driving requires good brakes. Should “private (ads for shares) treaties” be required to be mandatorily disclosed by the paper/channel concerned? Can the Election Commission compel separate accounting of all advertisements and advertorial support for candidates under election expense?

These are obviously extremely sensitive and complex matters that impinge on freedom of expression. But when freedom becomes licence, democracy is in peril.

MIDDLE

Force or farce?
by J.L. Gupta

WE had driven from Switzerland to Belgium. Through cities and streets. Even the Black forest. Everything was smooth. Nobody changed a lane without giving an indication. Nobody overtook any vehicle from the wrong side. No one honked. And there were no cops anywhere. To an Indian who is used to seeing policemen in every nook and corner, it was a surprise. What if there is an accident?

My nephew Shireesh, who I thought was just a beginner at the Bar, had an answer. He (I learnt) had been invited to speak at an international conference in Stockholm. The venue was the Town Hall where the Nobel prizes are given. He had an exclusive audience with Crown Princess Victoria in the Golden Room. This is the room with gold on its walls. And it is in this room that the Nobel Prize winners are presented to the King and Queen of Sweden before the ceremony. So, I was curious and wanted to know the details.

The young man was understandably reluctant to blow his own trumpet. But he readily shared an experience.

He had taken the train at the Frankfurt airport. When he was walking out of the station, one of the two young men who were standing in a corner of the street threw a bottle of beer at him. He ducked and escaped an injury. But what followed was interesting.

In less than a minute two jeeps had appeared. Almost out of nowhere. With men in uniform. Two men had caught hold of the two young men and taken them away. The other two from the second jeep asked Shireesh about his destination. They drove him to his hotel. And on reaching there asked: “Would you like to press the charges?” He expressed reluctance as he had to catch the morning flight to Stockholm.

Thereafter, not a question was asked. The officer gave him his phone number and left with the request: “Please let me know whenever you want to go out of the hotel.” And sure enough, next morning, he was escorted to the airport.

Shireesh’s experience is illustrative of the efficiency of the German police. They are not seen in the streets. But they are seeing everyone. Everywhere. All the time. Day and night. They act when required. The State protects people. The taxpayer gets what he deserves.

Inevitably, it also confronts us with the stark reality that we face. A comparison with what we have. The picture of potbellied, foul-mouthed men in uniform comes alive. They look the other way when a person needs protection or the public property is destroyed by street urchins. They stand as dumb and mute statues when buses are burnt. And these symbols of State’s authority have become a source of harassment and torture for the masses they are meant to help.

What service does the police service do? Do we have a force or is it a farce?

OPED

Obese kids and the blame game
Unfair to target the parents
by Amina Khan

WHEN Dr Sadaf Farooqi and colleagues discovered a genetic abnormality that caused severe obesity in a handful of children, she had no cure. Yet, the scientist transformed four families’ lives nonetheless.

The British parents had been living in fear of losing their children—the youngsters’ severe obesity had been seen as a possible sign of abuse or neglect, and they had been put on the list of the country’s social services department.

“They were being blamed for their children’s condition, receiving frequent visits from social services, frequent reviews, knowing people could have their children taken away,” Farooqi said.

Farooqi told authorities that this abnormality—a DNA deletion—wiped out a key gene involved in the body’s response to leptin, a hormone that controls appetite. The children were taken off the list.

Farooqi’s study, published on December 6 in Nature, affected only five of about 1,200 severely obese youngsters. But as more genes related to obesity are unearthed, and as rates of childhood obesity climb, courts, social services and parents increasingly will have to grapple with difficult social and legal questions:Can extreme childhood obesity be considered abuse? How much of a child’s weight can be blamed on the parents, and how much is out of their control?

A three-decade rise in childhood obesity rates has meant that related abuse and neglect cases are more often making their way into the courts. According to a 2008 report by the Child Welfare League of America, “California, Indiana, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas have had to determine whether morbidly obese children whose parents are unable or unwilling to control their children’s weight against medical orders are properly considered abused or neglected.”

In 2007, North Carolina mother Joyce Painter was told she would lose her 255-pound, 7-year-old son if he did not show progress in his weight loss within two months.

And, in June, South Carolina mother Jerri Gray lost custody of her son Alexander Draper after being charged with criminal neglect. The 14-year-old weighed 555 pounds. Gray is facing 15 years on two felony counts, the first U.S. felony case involving childhood obesity, said her lawyer, Grant Varner.

Such cases will require authorities to consider not only genetics but the helplessness parents can face in trying to regulate a child’s behavior, especially that of a teen, in today’s calorie-dense environment.

So far, genetic tests have played a limited role in cases of childhood obesity in which authorities have become involved (Draper has not been tested, Varner says). The tests are fairly new, expensive and assess only a few of the genes known so far to strongly influence obesity.

In any case, for all but a small number of people, genes tell only part of the obesity story.

“What genetics does is sort of set the range of weights for you,” said James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado in Denver. “If you’re somebody who is genetically predisposed ... you may never be lean, but there’s still a wide range of weights in there.”

But today’s environment is likely to push many kids to the higher end of their range, said Dr Marc Jacobson, who sits on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ obesity leadership work group. In 1955, he said, McDonald’s fries were 210 calories but the large portions more often consumed today are 500. A Coke was 6.5 ounces, versus 20 ounces in today’s plastic bottles. No wonder, he said, that today U.S. kids have an obesity rate of 15 per cent, and that another 15 per cent are overweight.

“Food is available 24/7. Domino’s delivers. We’re not programmed for that kind of environment,” Jacobson said. “We’re programmed for an environment where food is scarce.”

Some of the factors are hard for parents to control, especially if they live in disadvantaged communities, said ethicist Erika Blacksher, a research fellow at the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics research institution in Garrison, N.Y.

“It’s unfair to hold parents accountable for factors such as whether their neighborhoods have safe places for their children to play ... or when their neighborhoods don’t have grocery stores that sell healthy foods,” she said. “We don’t want quick, easy, negative, punitive responses and tools.”

Melinda Sothern, a clinical exercise physiologist at Louisiana State University New Orleans who works with obese children, says physicians and social workers can be quick to rush to judgment and assume a parent is neglectful in such cases.

She cites an 8-year-old she treated who, at 6, had a body mass index of 48. The boy was so obese that he had to have knee surgery and use a machine to counteract his sleep apnea.

Genetic tests for two known obesity genes came up negative. The endocrinologist and social worker then suggested he be taken out of the home.

But, Sothern said, her patient’s mother was a single working mom in post-Katrina Louisiana who was not quite poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. She was making her doctors’ visits and enrolling her son in karate class.

Similarly, Varner said, Jerri Gray could not be held entirely responsible for what her son ate and did outside the home.

“She’s a single mom. She’s at work, busting her butt to make sure there’s a roof over their heads, and this kid’s at school six, seven hours a day,” Varner said. “Trying to control a teenager-that’s trying to knock down a solid brick wall with your bare hands.

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Railways vision statements
by Arabinda Ghose

THE documents — White Paper on Indian Railways (IR) and the Vision 2020 for IR released by Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee on December 18 — should be treated as landmark achievements which should be taken not as rebuttals of the claims made by the Railway Minister’s predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav as regards to the unprecedented performance by railways under his stewardship from 2004 to 2009.

At the outset, one has to say that there has been no fudging of figures by the Railways during these five years since the railway accounting system under the leadership of Financial Commissioner, who is also the Member Finance of the powerful Railway Board, and differences in perceptions are the only aspect that has gained currency during the controversy.

It cannot be denied that the railways did record a surplus “before dividend” of Rs 88,699 crore during these five years, but to describe it as “profit before dividend” may not be palatable for those dealing with railway finances or writing about them. For, there is no concept of “profit” or “loss” in railway accounting .The terminologies used is “excess” and “shortfall”.

Having been a railway correspondent for nearly four decades in New Delhi, one has to admit that the documents published that day are probably the most comprehensive in the 156 years of the Indian Railways and will remain a collector’s item for rail enthusiasts. Mamata Bannerjee has earned the respect and gratitude for such people by leading the team that prepared such comprehensive documents.

In the last nearly 20 years, railway ministers had been publishing documents of this type. The first the Status Paper on the Indian Railways published by Railway Minister George Fernandes in 1990. Nitish Kumar had followed this example twice during his tenure—the first in 1998 and later a revised one in 2002. However, the December 2009 documents are really valuable for the lovers of the Indian Railways and railways in general—in India or abroad.

It is somewhat baffling why Lalu Yadav described the white paper as a “black paper” or “non-paper”. This should not have been done by a former Cabinet Minister. The Railways did make progress during his stewardship. Only, one would regretfully observe, that he thought it was because of the performance of the Railways that the economy showed such outstanding development. Perhaps his advisers had convinced him that the Railways generated freight traffic during his tenure. He should have realised that it was the economy that had generated freight traffic and his credit lied on exploiting the situation.

One has to blame his non-railway Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the erroneous perception he developed about railway economics. When he had taken over as the Minister of Railways in May 2004, he had paid tributes to his predecessor Nitish Kumar of the NDA in these words:” I am glad to report that in the year that has just ended (2003-04), the Railways have moved 557.39 million tones of originating revenue earning traffic against the target of 550 million tones and 38.65 million higher than the previous year’s loading”

The Hindi version of the speech, which Lalu Yadav had read in the Lok Sabha, on July 6, 2004, has been highlighted in green to show the importance he had attached to this aspect of his speech. Yet, from the very next year, his tone changed and he started mentioning the fact that the Railways had nearly gone bankrupt in 1999-2000 and had recovered probably because of the efforts of his team, which included the non-Railwayman OSD. The suspicion that the OSD had generated this view in strengthened by the fact S. M. Kumar wrote a book titled “From Bankruptcy to Billions” creating the impression that he and Lalu Yadav had achieved the recovery from 2000 to 2003-4, while the fact, which Lalu Yadav himself admitted in his first speech as Railway Minister on July 6, 2004, is that it was the NDA itself which had achieved the recovery and had handed over to the UPA a fairly healthy Railway system.

One would like to suggest that the controversy should not be carried forward and all sections of the government, including the former allies, should come together for meeting the formidable challenges facing the Indian Railways.

The Railways, according to these documents, proposes to set up bullet train systems totally 2,000 kilometres by 2020, a laudable goal. Huge challenges face the Indian Railways in the coming years and one feels that all sections of the people should support the efforts of the government, never mind who remains the Railway Minister or the party in power.

Chatterati
Overhauling BJP
by Devi Cherian

IN the last one week, the BJP has done an overhauling in a big way. A young, Nitin Gadkari was appointed as new President of the party. Sushma Swaraj, the articulate and moderate MP, is a welcome change from Mr Advani. Arun Jaitely who is the leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha and Sushma Swaraj in the Lok Sabha will both offer competent and effective leadership. But at this moment, the BJP needs a dynamic leader. Was the former Maharashtra BJP chief the only option? His performance in Maharashtra was not really up to the mark. One has recently witnessed the new BJP President in the Capital with a fleet of cars in front and back driving from one Central leader to the other. It seems he is doing the Delhi darshan. Does one think he is a match to Rahul Gandhi charisma?

The worrying aspect of the new changes in the BJP is that they are still being done by the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP. This leads us to the question: Is this the path for the BJP to come back to power or will this revert the party to its Jansangh days? That would be a sad situation for this nation.

The 83-year-old L. K. Advani is now the Chairman of the BJP’s Parliamentary party. Some say, at this age people usually are retired and settled. Jaswant Singh is being wooed back by the BJP and obviously the two top leaders, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitely, now are the two pillars and will have to work together. Both are young and dynamic.

Telangana impacts Cong

chaos in Andhra Pradesh is leaving the high command quite worried. After the announcement of Telangana, the results are happy, worried and dangerous too. The young Telangana MPs who are close to Rahul Gandhi are overjoyed as they see themselves either in the Cabinet or at least as main advisors on this issue to the Centre. Former senior ministers think the UPA has dug its grave. At a recent dinner hosted by the Prime Minister, the young Jag Mohan tried to make up and do some PR, led by Subi Ram Reddy to meet Sonia Gandhi. But they were met with a royal snub. So, they quietly melted into the background. The Congress cancelled its daily briefing in Parliament for five days. They feared that the Andhra MPs may raise the uncomfortable Telangana issues here. The fifth day Lok Sabha was adjourned sine dine and most MPs left for their constituencies.

Senior Congress men are trying desperately for a breakthrough in this issue. Also, the conditions in Karnataka are not very good. Most probably the BJP and the Congress are trying to put their houses in order there. The problem, of course, is: Who can handle the notorious mining Reddy brothers? The Telangana issue has a positive effect too for the Congress. It has weakened Chandrababu’s hold. Secondly, it has cut to size Jag Mohan Reddy. Jagan’s support base has gone down tremendously after his united stand of Andhra Pradesh. For once the new Andhra Chief Minister K. Rosaiah is feeling secure after the former Chief Minister YSR Reddy’s demise.

Chauhan humbled

It seems Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is rapidly losing ground. He has been sulking recently as the PCC President is slowly and steadily gaining ground. Even though at any given opportunity his own party people of the Congress pull his leg. Chauhan, who prefers to be called ‘the son of the soil’, ironically tasted a crushing defeat on his home ground—Vidhisha district. In the recently-concluded civic elections, Amit Boss of the Congress won and became the Corporator of Ward No. 33, where Shivraj’s house is located. Boss happens to be Chauhan’s next-door neighbour. They even share a common wall. So, this was clearly a great victory for Pachouri.