The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Unworthy of medals
But dirty cops should also get due punishment

The Union Home Ministry’s decision to strip former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore of his President’s Police Medal following his conviction in the Ruchika molestation case will be some consolation for the right-thinking people who were appalled at the disrepute to which he brought the police force through his unbecoming conduct. The withdrawal will be a stern warning to other tainted officials as well. The ministry may recommend withdrawal of police medals from all persons convicted for moral turpitude or any act that brought disrespect to the police force, or any officer who was dismissed from the service for his act that brought disrepute to the police. Several officers may also be stripped of their police awards.

While the loss of medals may be a disgrace for men like Rathore, what is all the more important is that they get due punishment. Only that can act as a deterrent against misuse of their position. They are given authority to protect the public, not to shield themselves. In fact, the way Rathore connived with other powerful politicians and policemen to make life hell for the family of Ruchika and that of her friend Aradhana makes his being free on bail a risky proposition.

The convict is making much of the so-called media trial. What he is forgetting is that the media is only pleading that there should be a fair trial, which he had circumvented ruthlessly. If he and others like him had not made a mockery of justice, the media would not have come into the picture at all. There is need to put in place a mechanism that men like him are not able to take the justice delivery system for a ride. He had the entire might of the state with him. What is wrong with the media sympathising with the distraught families who underwent a nightmare for 19 long years?

A heinous crime
Australia must ensure students’ safety

While it is not yet clear whether the killing of Punjabi youth Nitin Garg in Melbourne is a racial or criminal act, Australia has gained notoriety for racial attacks on foreign students and the latest brutality will be seen in that context. Indian students who work at night to self-finance their studies fall easy prey to attacks by armed hoodlums who roam freely on the streets of Melbourne and other cities. The External Affairs Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, has rightly conveyed to the Australian authorities the “deep anger” in India over the abominable act and warned that such incidents could vitiate the atmosphere of trust between the two countries.

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has denied that it was a racial attack. It is not enough for her to portray Australia as “a nation that overwhelmingly is an open, tolerant, multi-cultural, welcoming society” unless such incidents are stopped with a firm hand. The Australian government’s response to growing racial attacks on foreign students does not inspire hope. Even the latest law, which empowers the Victorian police to search for weapons without a warrant at designated spots, is a delayed and inadequate reaction to the growing lawlessness, conveniently blamed on layoffs caused by the global financial meltdown.

By taking a soft stance over the mistreatment of overseas students, Australia is only hurting itself. Its reputation as “a welcoming and accepting country” for international students stands tarnished. Education used to be a thriving industry in Australia. No longer so. The quality of education provided by unscrupulous, so-called vocational colleges has cost international students dear and hurt Australia’s image. More than 70,000 Indian students studied in Australia in 2009. For the coming session there is a 21 per cent drop in visa applications. Fears about personal safety have largely forced students to look for other destinations of higher education.

Thought for the Day

Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength. — Charles Lamb

ARTICLE

Pakistan sans NRO
Status quo unlikely to change soon
by Syed Nooruzzaman

When the Pakistan Supreme Court scrapped the infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), it was thought that the days of President Asif Ali Zardari were numbered. Major changes in the composition of the PPP-led coalition government were also expected because of the revival of corruption cases against the Interior Minister, the Defence Minister and many others. But as the situation prevails today, the NRO verdict is unlikely to lead to the consequences as seen initially. Mr Zardari and the two ministers are showing no signs of looking for the exit door.

Addressing a gathering at Naudero on December 27, 2009, on the occasion of Benazir Bhutto’s second death anniversary, Mr Zardari warned all those who wanted him to resign after the apex court judgement, “Don’t think that we are weak, or we cannot fight.” He had been in jail for over 11 years. He indicated that he was not afraid of going to jail again. But his view was that Pakistan needed him to be in President’s House, and he would stay put there. Obviously, he will prefer to use all the resources available to him, including the constitutional provision providing him immunity against court cases, to remain the President of Pakistan for as long as he can.

Mr Zardari is trying to project him and his party’s government as the defenders of democracy, which has been brought back on the rails with great sacrifices made by different sections of society. He has sought to convey the impression that he is not for a confrontation between the presidency and the judiciary, which, many believe, may happen if the NRO verdict is not implemented in letter and spirit. In his speech, there was an indirect hint to the judiciary that it should avoid pressing the matter too much because that might weaken the forces of democracy. The beneficiaries in that situation will be the extremist elements trying to subvert the system by using violent means.

The threat to stability posed by the Taliban and other extremist elements has, in fact, proved to be a blessing in disguise for Mr Zardari and those on his bandwagon. Many political analysts have been arguing that any attempt to unseat Mr Zardari will be an invitation to instability and chaos, which Pakistan cannot afford today.

Interestingly, there is talk of “reconciliation” between the Zardari camp and those who want him to pack off and leave President’s House. Mr Zardari is being advised to initiate a process for the removal of the 17th amendment to the 1975 Constitution, which gives power to the President to dissolve the national and provincial assemblies and to sack an uncooperative government. He is also being urged to improve the government’s functioning to acquire a new and better image.

Even PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif is not speaking as forcefully as he ought to for the implementation of the apex court’s NRO ruling. Addressing a meeting of his party last Saturday, he asked the government to bring back the money stacked in Swiss banks by Pakistanis (an indirect reference to Mr Zardari’s overseas bank accounts). But his statement is interpreted as being aimed at mainly silencing his critics, who allege that his party is playing the role of a “friendly” opposition. The former Prime Minister has refrained from issuing a threat to launch a drive for the implementation of the apex court verdict. The language he uses nowadays is different from that of the days when he fought for the restoration of the judiciary’s pre-November 2007 status.

Efforts are on to prove that the judgement reflects the judges’ bias against the PPP and Sindh province. The verdict is also being interpreted as aimed at targeting certain individuals — read Mr Zardari. The PPP leadership says it will not take the matter lying down.

The newspapers and TV channels trying to create an atmosphere in which the tainted politicians can find it difficult to survive in their present positions are being targeted by the government. Some ruling politicians have approached the authorities in Dubai to ban TV talk shows lampooning the corrupt in Pakistan. The journalists who have been very harsh in their criticism of the corrupt politicians are being dubbed as “Israeli agents”.

Mr Zardari is not in the good books of the Pakistan Army, yet top generals have not hinted at being in a hurry to get him replaced. Any attempt to show the PPP co-chairperson the door is feared to lead to dangerous consequences. Such a course may result in a split in the PPP, throwing the government out of gear. That is why neither the Army nor Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, enjoying the confidence of the armed forces, wants to take any step that may disturb the present political dispensation.

Mr Gilani may have improved his image considerably since he took over as Prime Minister after the 2008 elections, but he is not in a position to carry along with him the entire PPP. He is fully aware of these harsh realities. The status quo also suits the second major partner in the ruling coalition, the MQM.

There is the possibility of Mr Nawaz Sharif emerging as the major gainer if somehow Mr Zardari has to relinquish power. The PML (N) has been invited again to rejoin the coalition it left soon after the formation of the government in 2008. But there is no positive response from Mr Sharif. Perhaps, he is waiting for the government to fall under the wait of its own problems. But this is unlikely to come about soon as efforts are to get Mr Zardari’s name cleared of all corruption charges levelled against him when Mr Sharif was Prime Minister.

The Pakistan President’s supporters strongly believe that it was vindictive politics that led to the framing of corruption cases against him. Much, however, depends on how far the Establishment is successful in influencing the Supreme Court of Pakistan, particularly when the very eligibility of Mr Zardari to become the President has been questioned.

Mr Zardari, however, appears to be confident of weathering the storm he faces today. He has been asserting that he can defeat the game-plan of his opponents with the help of law. Mr Zardari’s camp followers want the judiciary to keep in mind that if the situation further deteriorates, it will be curtains for democracy again. After all, how long can the Pakistan Army resist the temptation of recapturing power?

MIDDLE

OK tata bye-bye
by Pushi Chowdhry

While most surnames in India reflect caste and lineage, the Parsis had a delightfully modern streak — having landed without caste, history and context, they created identities through professions and urban streets.

Our family moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) from Rawalpindi in 1947. We came as refugees but the family soon settled and by 1953 my father had restarted playing golf at the Willingdon Club. I was eight years old and would walk 18 holes with him every Saturday and Sunday. The three Parsi gentlemen who made up his regular four-ball were “uncles” Poonawala, Coorlawala and Colabawala. Very soon they had rechristened my father Pindiwala.

Uncle Colabawala did not live in Colaba but in a penthouse on Malabar Hill. May be his ancestors had lived in Colaba. I used to spend hours searching the telephone directory to find Parsi surnames and building up stories around their families.

There was prohibition in Bombay those days. So to get liquor you had to find Mr Dalal, who would introduce you to Mr Daruwala, who in turn would get bottles delivered to your home by Mr Batliwala who would be accompanied by Mr Sodawaterbottleopenerwalla (the longest Parsi surname I have come across).

Other surnames whose ancestors were in the beverages trade were Mr Fountainwala, Mr Ginwala, Mr Rumwala, Mr Sodawala and Mr Jhunjhunwala.

We used to have two delightful Siamese kittens in our flat and these were gifted to my mother by her friend Mrs Billimoria. My mother spent hours knitting cardigans for them, with wool she bought from the Unwala family.

My uncle ran the air force canteen in Cotton Green and his partner, yes you guessed it, was Mr Canteenwala. They had this fantastic cook, Mr Bhajiwala. Their mild and meek manager, Mr Jeejeebhoy, nodded his head and agreed with everything everybody said.

My grandfather was the Sheriff of Bombay. I think the first and only Sikh to hold this position. Being Sheriff it was only natural that he had Mr Bandookwala and Mr Golimarwala as his constant companions.

Grandfather had many Parsi friends who were in politics. There was this squeaky clean khadi-clad Mr Ghandy, and the not so clean Mr Kalaghandy — who was invariably being hounded by Mr Kotwal. But he never left home without his “friends” Mr Barrister, Mr Vakil, Mr Lawyer and their munshi Mr Mehnty.

My grandfather built Hotel Waldorf on Arthur Bunder Road in Colaba. So for this he naturally used the services of Mr Contactor and Mr Mistry. He never went to the “native” moneylenders when short of money, but borrowed it from his Parsi friend Mr Readymoney.

Our neighbour and family physician was Dr Adi Doctor — he was only half a doctor. He lived with his in laws Mr and Mrs Pochkhanawala. My sister swears they ate only poached eggs for breakfast.

I remember going to Dr Doctor’s sister’s wedding. She married Mr Screwala. What he did for a living, I do not know to this day. If you are in Mumbai maybe you can track him down in the yellow or pink pages.

Jokes apart, there is a lesson for all of us here: imagine if we could christen our politicians through democratic vote: Jinnahwalla, Nikarwalla, Icequeen, Motawalla! It would really be able to keep everyone in check, where individuals and media didn’t only control your public profile but also your public identity.

The Parsis have taught us that if you take serious interest in satire, you can change the world! My name today is Comedymanifestowalla!

OPED

The game-changing tax
GST will boost manufacturing sector
by Rajiv Kumar

Quite often while discussing the progress of India’s bilateral or regional free trade agreements (FTAs), I have argued that first and foremost India needs to sign an FTA with itself! Our domestic markets and economy remain far too fragmented for us to seriously benefit from FTAs with other countries. A universal goods and services tax (GST), then, is a major and long-awaited step in creating a unified domestic economy.

The recently released report of the task force on GST of the 13th Finance Commission rightly remarks that the flawless GST, when in place, will be “an economic game changer”. In my view, there are strong political externalities as well, because a universal GST, managed by a council of finance ministers, will strengthen the federal institutional structure and create another strong unifying bond across this diverse and pluralistic democracy.

By helping to bring down prices of wage goods, improving farmers’ incomes and generating additional employment by accelerating gross domestic product growth by 0.9-1.7 percentage points, GST will hugely improve inclusion.

By bringing large chunks of the informal and unorganised economy into the tax net, it will help reduce the chasm between Bharat and India, which is a desirable goal. For all these reasons, and others cited in the report, GST must be implemented soonest.

The report suggests that the measure be implemented not from April 1, as originally envisaged, but from October 1 to ensure that the design and implementation plans are not compromised.

Will these additional six months suffice to pass the necessary legislation, set up the council of finance ministers and have all the information technology issues resolved?

I am not so sure, unless the Finance Ministry asks the task force itself to help draft the necessary legislation and produce a detailed implementation plan. For me, however, one of the most important implications of switching over to GST at the rates recommended by the task force is the impetus this will provide to the domestic manufacturing sector.

By recommending a flat and universally applicable rate of 12 per cent (5 per cent for the Centre and 7 per cent for the states), the task force is, in effect, bringing down the incidence of indirect taxes by more than 50 per cent.

The recommended rate – which, the report takes pains to demonstrate, is revenue-positive and not merely revenue-neutral, as is the general requirement – will be 5 percentage points below the applicable rate in China! This is revolutionary and indeed visionary.

The lower taxes on manufactured goods will bring down prices and usher in a new demand upsurge. This will finally allow domestic producers to exploit the economies of scale that their Chinese competitors have been enjoying over the past three decades. Indian manufacturing could hope to become globally competitive.

Moreover, by doing away with the current multiple and complex indirect tax structure, GST will allow investment to flow into sectors in which the country has a true comparative advantage.

I am convinced that this will promote labour — and skill-intensive sectors where our exports can expand further. This has significant employment-generating potential and will yield a much more inclusive growth.

If in the future, revenue realised from levying a 12 per cent GST is seen to be insufficient, the rates can surely be hiked. This will require only the approval of the chairman (the Union Finance Minister) and a two-thirds majority of the state finance ministers who are members of the recommended council of finance ministers.

While the revenue shortage is only a remote possibility, the lower recommended rate should be implemented to provide the necessary fiscal support to domestic producers, especially in the manufacturing sector.

A decade of rapid manufacturing sector growth, with the necessary World Trade Organisation-compatible support, can transform the economy and release massive growth impulses.

So we should persist with the recommended 12 per cent GST even if the Central and state governments have to impose additional direct tax levies to make up for any possible, though improbable, revenue shortfalls.

The suggestion to subsume the real estate sector within GST’s ambit, and do away with stamp duty over three years, is very attractive as it will cut at the roots of hugely corrupt practices and generation of “black money” in the economy.

But for this reason, as also for its effect on bringing above ground the large numbers of producers that operate in the grey zone, this measure will be opposed by well-entrenched vested interests. This has to be resisted.

I am a bit disappointed that the financial media has not taken up the cause so far. This is a crucial reform that must go through. Let us hope that all segments of the industry will champion the cause and not allow this measure to be delayed.

After all, we have already spent 26 years in modernising our indirect tax structure. Is this not a sufficiently long gestation period, even in India, where we know gradualism works better than the big bang?

The writer is the Director and CE, ICRIER, New Delhi

Let Camus rest in peace
by John Lichfield

Albert Camus had the anguished good looks of a doomed film star, not a writer or philosopher. He died a doomed film star’s death, aged 47, when his powerful car skidded on an icy road 100 miles south of Paris and struck a tree on 4 January 1960. Fifty years on, Camus – writer, resistance hero, philanderer and goalkeeper – remains one of the most popular of non-populist writers in the world, and one of the hardest to define. Leftist or libertarian? Novelist or existentialist philosopher? Courageous humanist or heartless womaniser?

Like the protagonist of one of his best-known books (L’Etranger), Albert Camus remains an outsider, and any attempt to interpret or categorise him can still cause trouble.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, an avid Camus reader since his youth, has blundered into this difficult territory. He wants to claim Albert Camus for the nation, by moving his body to the Panthéon in Paris, the last resting place of great Frenchmen (and of one great French woman).

The suggestion has raised a wonderfully French intellectual storm. How dare a right-wing President try to snatch the body of a left-wing hero? (Camus, unlike his sometime friend Jean-Paul Sartre, was never truly a hero of the French left, but no matter). How dare the anti-intellectual President become an intellectual grave-digger and place the Great Outsider inside the secular temple of the Officially Great and Good?

Albert Camus remains, nonetheless, bracketed in the world’s mind with Jean-Paul Sartre, who was for over a decade his rival, his friend and occasional companion in the then smoke-filled rooms of Paris Left Bank brasseries. Both men embraced, broadly speaking, the view that there was no absolute morality or truth, only those values or freedoms which human beings created for themselves.

The friendship broke up violently when Camus ridiculed, in print, the habit of French intellectuals, including Sartre, of equating “liberty” with communism.

Camus, born into a poor white family in Algeria, also angered the French left by refusing to take the side of the violent anti-colonial movements in the 1960s. He did not support the violent white colonists either, but called, perhaps naively, for the French army and the Arab independence movements to fight to the death while leaving civilians in peace.

Camus has become, especially outside France, a kind of anti-Sartre. Where Jean Paul was ugly, Albert was handsome. Where Jean-Paul wrote books during the Nazi occupation, Albert joined the Resistance. Where Jean-Paul pursued (and then dropped) the strange gods of Stalinism, Maoism and political violence, Albert remained steadfastly anti-totalitarian and anti-violence.

Within France, until relatively recently, leftish-dominated intellectual thought has preferred Sartre to Camus. The Centre Albert Camus in Aix-en-Provence, which holds the writer’s papers, attracts far more foreign researchers than French ones.

Camus remains one of the most-read writers in France, but he was – until recently – patronised in academic circles as a “teenage” writer, a source of “set books” for schoolchildren rather than a subject for advanced study.

Marcelle Mahasela, who runs the Camus centre, says that the problem was that he was too much of a free thinker for the alleged left-wing free thinkers. “He did not defend the accepted system of thought,” she said. “He upset the French rationalism of the day and could not be placed in a clear category.”

There are signs, however, that he is finally being taken seriously in France, not as a philosopher but, as Todd suggests, a great writer. The 50th anniversary of his death has produced a land-slip of academic books and also – the final apotheosis in France – a bande-dessinée (cartoon book) on his life.

Camus was born in Mondovi in what was then French Algeria in 1913. His father was killed the following year in the Battle of the Marne. His illiterate and partially deaf mother worked as a cleaner.

Albert’s talent was recognised by a teacher and he went on to study at the University of Algiers, where he played in goal for the university football team. He later declared, to the disgust of anti-sporting intellectuals, that he learnt everything that he knew about life and humanity while standing in the goalmouth.

After working as a journalist and then joining the Resistance during the war, he became a writer. His reputation is largely based on three novels, L’Etranger (The Stranger or the Outsider, 1942), La Peste (The Plague, 1947) and La Chute (The Fall, 1956).

The question of whether the Outsider should become one of the ultimate Insiders of French life remains unresolved. The decision on whether his body should be removed to the Pantheon rests with his family and especially his daughter Catherine Camus, who manages his literary estate.

She said this week that she had not yet decided. She complained, however, that those people who accused Mr Sarkozy of “using” her father were also “using my father as an anti-Sarkozy missile”.

On the whole, she suggested, she could see no reason why Albert Camus should not be honoured as one of the great French storytellers, alongside Victor Hugo and Emile Zola. “My father is a very approachable writer. People feel close to him,” she said. “He asks the questions which are at the heart of our existence.”n

— By arrangement with The Independent

Adopt summer time

Dr Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New & Renewable Energy.
Respected Farooq sahib,

I am a nationally known mechanical engineer whose long professional innings has focussed on development of globally competitive Indian technology and its commercialisation; entrepreneurship, total quality management and higher technical education.

After a 12-year stint on Indian Railways, I joined CSIR in 1965, where I led the design of the 100 per cent Indian Swaraj Tractor and moved on to raise Punjab Tractors (PTL) in Mohali for its commercialisation in 1970.

I then led PTL and its Swaraj group of companies (Swaraj-Mazda, Swaraj Engines and Swaraj Automotives) for 28 years into a Rs 1500 crore nationally and internationally known blue chip.

I was 65 in 1997 when I called it a day at PTL. I have been pursuing my two other interests thereafter: higher technical education (away from rote towards practice) and TQM.

Solar and non-conventional energy and environment pollution have been distinct interests in my long tryst with technology. Latest manifestations of this interest are:

Single-axis tracker for extended linear arrays of PV panels to improve their power factor by 20 per cent +. Patent applied for. Prototype installation in hand in association with Moser Baer

Conversion of environment-nuisance paddy-straw into ethanol. Process also applicable to other bio-mass. Lab process cleared. The Rs 5-crore Pilot Plant under discussion with MARKFED/Punjab S &T.

Our urgency of alternative sources of energy reminded me of the globally exploited practice of advancing the national clock by 1 hour in summer. It shifts human activity to sunlight hours to the maximum extent. The sunrise and sunset times on our longest and shortest days are:

                                         Sunrise            Sunset             Duration of day
Longest day                   5.31              19.43                  14.12 hrs
Shortest day                  7.24              17.58                  10.30 hrs

The difference in the duration of our day is as high as 3.42 hrs. Isn't it a criminal waste of sunlight during the summer months to laze round till 900 or 10.00 hrs when the sun has been up for four hours? What is still worse is its consequential impact on extending the working hours of commercial establishments late into the night. Overloaded power-systems and peak-hour restrictions are natural corollaries.

Since we are, and will remain short of power in the foreseeable future, should we not adopt this practice straightway. The beauty of adopting summer time is that:

It involves no capital investment or large effort.

Since its adoption across the country is universal and simultaneous, there is no dislocation of work. Readjustment of body clocks takes just a couple of days.

Developed countries, all in the temperate zones, adopt summer time to leave enough for social activity and weather for outdoor activity is most amiable. In our case, conservation of electricity should be the dictating factor.

With respectful regards and best wishes for the New Year.

Yours sincerely,

Chandra Mohan, Padmashree