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They had it coming
N-deal: another hurdle goes |
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Sonia back in NAC
The India-Bharat divide
The portrait
An unequal fight
Army can’t do without ‘sahayaks’
Delhi Durbar
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They had it coming
Given
the general sentiments against capital punishment, it is given in the rarest of rare cases. The brutal murder of Manoj and Babli by their relatives and community members in 2007 on the diktats of a self-styled community panchayat (khap) for marrying in the same gotra (sub-caste), indeed fell in that category and forced a Karnal court on Tuesday to sentence five of the seven convicts to death. While one of them has been sentenced to life imprisonment, the seventh convict, accused of abduction, has been sentenced to seven years in jail. How well entrenched the khap panchayats and those who owe allegiance to them are can be gauged from the fact that this was the first case in the state in which the affected family decided to seek justice against the illegal diktat. The death sentence will presumably put the fear of law in the minds of those who think that women are no more than dumb cattle, who must live, marry and die the way menfolk want them to. Such medieval prejudices have been strengthened by the totally illegal but powerful kangaroo courts which not only boycott the “offenders” or force them to live as siblings but also kill them, as it happened in the case of Manoj and Babli of Karoran village near Kaithal. Those who actually kidnapped the couple and eliminated them have been punished. But what about those who aided and abetted the crime? They too are equally responsible for the inhuman crimes that take place at the bidding of khap panchayats. Everyone from the courts to the Home Minister of the country has spoken strongly against their excesses but nothing much has changed on the ground. The reason is simple. Politicians see in khap panchayats a dependable political tool and vote bank. And the policemen, most of them coming from the same milieu where a boy and girl from the same village are forbidden from marrying, are also averse to coming to the aid of those who defy the self-styled keepers of public morality. When these two join hands, they simply play havoc. It is heartening that finally the noose is tightening around the neck of such forces.
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N-deal: another hurdle goes
With
the finalisation of the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing agreement between India and the US, the nuclear deal clinched by the two countries in September 2008 has crossed another major hurdle on its way to bearing fruit. Now India will be allowed to reprocess the US-supplied enriched uranium in two facilities to be set up in this country. The two nuclear plants will operate in line with International Atomic Energy Agency procedures, and India will be in a position to make additions and alterations if it so desires. It would have been in the interest of both countries if India could get more than two plants on a “stand alone” basis, but the Barack Obama administration had its reservations. However, India has been given some concession so far as the clause for halting the reprocessing of the US-origin spent fuel is concerned. The new agreement empowers the US to suspend all the arrangements made under the Indo-US nuclear deal only if there is a threat to the physical security of the plants or to US national security. This is almost as India wanted — “under exceptional circumstances”. Now the ball is in India’s court. It has to get the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill passed by Parliament so that there is no hurdle for US firms to invest in the country’s nuclear energy sector. This will lead to not only the creation of a large number of jobs primarily for Indians but also a substantial increase in nuclear power generation to meet the country’s fast rising power demand. The introduction of the Bill during the budget session of the Lok Sabha had to be deferred owing to sharp differences between the government and the Opposition over the capping of the liability of the operating firm at Rs500 crore in the event of an accident affecting civilians. Hopefully, the differences will be sorted out by the two sides so that the country can have the law essential for the entry of foreign nuclear firms in India. India and the US deciding to sign the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing accord without much difficulty shows that Washington remains committed to allowing the historic civilian nuclear deal to bring about the intended results. The new high in India-US strategic partnership should now lead to the transfer of high nuclear technologies to this country as envisaged in the deal.
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Sonia back in NAC
Congress
President Sonia Gandhi’s appointment to the National Advisory Council (NAC) as its chairperson not only suggests her reassertion of authority in the party and the government but also the United Progressive Alliance government’s desire to monitor social sector reforms at various levels. Mrs Gandhi had left the NAC in March 2006 after the Opposition accused her of violating the rule that MPs must not hold offices of profit during their tenure. Parliament amended the office of profit law to exempt 55 offices, including the NAC chairperson’s. However, Mrs Gandhi refused to return to the NAC. She quit her Lok Sabha membership and got re-elected from Rae Bareli. Subsequently, the NAC, once regarded as a “super government”, also lost its lustre though its term expired only on March 31, 2008. After the Supreme Court upheld the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 2006, in August 2009, the Congress mooted the NAC’s resurrection. The NAC acted as an effective interface with the civil society in regard to the implementation of the Centre’s National Common Minimum Programmed (NCMP). It comprised distinguished professionals drawn from diverse fields of development activity such as Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze, C.H. Hanumantha Rao and N.C. Saxena. Through the NAC, the government had access to their expertise and to a larger network of research organisations, NGOs and social action and advocacy groups. It made recommendations to the Centre and provided feedback on the impact of action initiated in various sectors. The NAC had played a notable role in the enactment of the Right to Information Act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the Rs 70,000-crore loan waiver scheme for farmers. In its new avatar, it is poised for a bigger role because Mrs Gandhi is said to be keen on monitoring the Congress’ big ticket programmes like the Food Security Bill, the Right to Education Act, the NREGS expansion and major schemes on health and water. The BJP’s charge that Mrs Gandhi’s position in the NAC had undermined the Prime Minister’s authority may seem exaggerated. However, one cannot rule out the possibility of growing tension between the party and the government which needs to be avoided.
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The quality of mercy is not strained,/ It dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven/ Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;/ It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. — William Shakespeare
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The India-Bharat divide
The
rise of “Chindia” has forced the centre of the world to move to the East. However, the world largely views China’s rise as a threat and India’s as a wonderful success story. Thanks to democracy, so goes the argument, India produces the largest dollar-billionaires as also slumdog millionaires. As the world moves closer to the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs), India, a nation of billion aspirations, faces millions of problems. And yet, despite the many loopholes and leakages, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and a plethora of Central schemes have begun to change the face of rural India. Now the Right to Food Act, independent India’s biggest, boldest effort to free the nation of hunger is about to be introduced. Prof Amartya Sen has applauded the Manmohan Singh government’s move as a “step in the right direction”. At the same time, he has advised the government to make sure that the facilities reach the poor. As celebrated American journalist James Reston famously said, “A government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.” More so in India where many revolutionary steps have floundered owing to the corrupt, inefficient and highly bureaucratic state machinery. Reaching the goals of MDGs depends largely on India’s and China’s success. NREGA gives out hope despite its many limitations. A revolutionary step, it has added substantially to the purchasing power of the rural populace. It is slowly becoming a powerful mechanism for helping poor communities to invest in building durable assets and to generate employment. The flagship programme has got the thumbs up from the ILO which said that had it not been for the scheme, the labour class in India would have been badly hit by the recession. Nevertheless, NREGA is still far from becoming transformative. Now that the Food Security Bill is on the anvil, there is a lot that India can learn from the Zero Hunger Programme of President Lula of Brazil. The Fome Zero or Zero Hunger programme was launched on the very first day President Luiz Inacio da Silva, popularly known as Lula, assumed office in 2003. Inspired by the UN Millennium Development Goals, Lula’s flagship programme placed primary importance on reducing hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty. At the core of the programme is Bolsa Familia (Family Purse). It is the largest income transfer programme in the world, providing cash assistance and benefits to 12 million poor families. The emphasis is on giving cash directly to mothers and female heads of households as mothers are considered more zealous in controlling family resources. However, the beneficiaries must show children’s school attendance and use of health cards and other social services. The programme allots about $ 55 a month to poor families on the condition that their children go to school, and distributes food to some 37 million children while they are at school. Some 12.4 million families are part of the Family Purse programme. Brazil is a country of sharp economic and social contrasts, even more than India. It is simultaneously the most developed and the poorest country in Latin America. It has been for long one of the world’s most unequal societies: from the Manhattan-style skyscrapers of Sao Paulo’s financial district to the grinding poverty of the parts of the north-east. In Morumbi, the affluent neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, there are some of the most magnificent houses in the world. And yet, even in a city of Rio de Janeiro a large chunk of population lives in favelas (slums), many under sub-human conditions. Lula’s revolution has sought to change that and the results are there for all to see. When Lula took over, he realised Brazil was not an underdeveloped country; it was an unjust country. While Brazil still faces major challenges, as per FAO estimates, malnutrition has been reduced by 73 per cent in the last six years. It has also managed to reduce infant mortality by 45 per cent in the same period. This has been achieved through food banks, community kitchens, school meals from local ingredients and support for small farmers. Between 2003 and 2008, the proportion of people living in poverty has come down from 28 per cent to 16 per cent. The Brazilian model has several ingredients. First, it is the result of excellent coordination between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Development. Many of our programmes in India suffer from the lack of coordination. In early 2009, while attending a meeting organized by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj with the visiting Afghan delegation in Shastri Bhawan, I was stunned by the reaction of a senior ministry official in response to a request from the Afghan minister to meet officials of the Rural Development Ministry. He flatly told the delegation, “You may have to directly request the ministry. Here we deal only with the Panchayati Raj.” Second, it is an excellent example of a combination of public-private partnership, international support and governmental contributions. Third, Lula’s success owes a lot to his ability to get the Family Purse programme coordinated among the federal, state and local governments. Many people were skeptical about Lula’s initiative initially. Lula ensured that the Family Purse did not remain a one-off programme. He combined emergency measures with structural changes, like family agriculture programmes, agrarian reform and initiatives to educate families about nutrition, something that had never been done in Latin America. He launched dozens of programmes under the zero hunger banner that targeted clean water and electricity supplies, among others. The northeast region in Brazil is the poorest and has the highest rates of illiteracy. Interestingly, 88 per cent of the beneficiaries who learned to read and write were from the same region. Lula has reasons to take credit for ensuring that the programme reaches the intended beneficiaries in regions that need utmost attention. Several African countries like Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia have begun to replicate aspects of the Brazilian model. In North Africa, some of the countries have largely relied on price-distorting food subsidies for their social safety nets. Many argue if countries fighting hunger and malnutrition could switch to a conditional cash transfer model like Brazil’s, things could improve. India too has for long depended on the subsidies model. Will the conditional cash transfer model like Brazil’s be a success? India’s stakes are high. If India is to acquire global power status, it cannot afford any further widening of the India-Bharat divide. The robust economic growth and several Central schemes have lifted millions out of poverty. But our gains are still modest. At times, we seem to be trying to eradicate cancer cells with a blow
torch. The writer is Associate Director,
Institute of Social Sciences, Delhi.
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The portrait Years ago I read a Ronald Dahl story where a dealer in antique furniture, masquerading as a parson, scouts old farmhouses for neglected, forgotten pieces of antique furniture. He meets with spectacular success and uses his ingenuity to reaffirm, in the farmer’s mind, that his possession is a piece of useless junk. Having done this he buys off the piece at one tenth of what he will sell it for. Then, inevitably, he overdoes his smartness. He finds a genuine Chippendale commode. He convinces the owner that it is a crude, modern reproduction and that he is only interested in the legs to be used for a coffee table. A deal is struck for a very small fraction of the real value. The dealer, his heart bursting with excitement, rushes off to bring his van around. In the meantime the owner is assailed by doubts. A parson would be driving a car too small to take such a large piece of furniture. Once he realises this, he would back off from the deal. Since it was only the legs he was interested in, the farmer chops off the legs to ensure there is no backing off. I felt that the parson’s inordinate greed had called divine retribution upon him. With this feeling I should have learnt to control my own greed. But I am ashamed to admit that in a similar situation I behaved in exactly the same way. I found an old portrait in a junk shop, covered with green fungus. Yet, enough of the face was visible to show that it was a superb work of art. The dealer, noticing my interest, launched into the usual sales talk: “Its an original oil painting, more than a hundred years old”. “Painting?” I cut in, “What painting? It is in such a bad condition; it is absolutely useless. I only want the frame for a mirror.” After some haggling a ridiculously low price was settled upon. Since I was travelling by train, he agreed to send it to my sister’s place, who would bring it up later. The next day my sister rang up. “What did you want that dilapidated frame for?” “For what is inside it.” “But there is nothing inside it”. My heart missed a beat but my mind raced. “Can you ask him what he has done with the painting?” The answer came five minutes later. “He says you told him it was useless. His daughter has just started painting lessons and he has given her the canvas to practice upon.” Fortunately my story had a happy ending. I made a dash to Delhi, recovered the canvas while the coat of white paint, which the girl had put on it, was not quite dry, paying him the price he had originally asked for. Six months later, fully restored, the splendid portrait of Salar Jung II hangs in my living room, a constant reminder of what might have happened because of my inordinate
greed.
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An unequal fight
While
introducing a Bill in the Legislative Assembly on February 28, 2009, to ban inter-district recruitment in the State, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, perhaps, had no idea that this issue would snowball into a big political controversy and that he would have to plead before Sonia Gandhi to find a way out. Both the coalition partners – the National Conference and the Congress — have divergent views on the issue. The National Conference advocates that the Bill should be tabled in the Assembly but the Congress opposes the Bill in its present form. If passed into a law the Bill would jeopardise the interests of weaker sections, especially the Scheduled Castes (SCs), as the SC candidates would be allowed to apply for the reserved posts only in their own districts. According to the existing rules, any person who is a state subject is eligible to apply for any government post anywhere in the state. The issue was first raised in 2007 when some MLAs demanded that inter-district recruitment should be banned as candidates from the educationally advanced districts take away jobs at the cost of candidates from the backward districts. As the Supreme Court had already upheld the verdict of the J&K High Court against banning inter-district recruitment, the then Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, had announced in the Assembly on January 15, 2007, that the government would amend the Constitution for imposing the ban and a Bill in this regard would be introduced in Azad, however, could not introduce the Bill during his tenure. Omar Abdullah introduced the same Bill in the Assembly on February 28, 2009 The Bill intends to amend the present recruitment rules which deals with reservations. Clause 6 of the recruitment rules makes it clear that a person is eligible for appointment to a district cadre post only if he/she is a permanent resident of the State and also a resident of the district concerned. As the population of the Scheduled Castes is almost negligible in 12 of the 22 districts, leaders of this section term the Bill as an attempt to jeopardise interests of the weaker sections because they can apply for the reserved posts in only 10 districts and the reserved posts in the remaining 12 districts would automatically lapse due to the unavailability of SC candidates. Keeping in view the pressure of the SC leaders, the government referred the Bill to a select committee of legislators on March 9, 2009. The committee, headed by Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, has submitted its report. Those advocating a ban on inter-district recruitment demand that the Bill should be tabled in the House for discussion and voting. The Congress leadership feels that since the Bill in the present form would harm the interests of the SCs, a consensus should be evolved. “The Bill in its present form is contradictory to the mandate of the Supreme Court and against the reservation rules in the Constitution”, observes B S Slathia, a former president of the Bar Association of Jammu. Legislator Murtaza Khan argues that a provision for reservations should be made in the Bill for the SCs as per their population in different parts of the State. Abdul Haq, who is spearheading the agitation to ban inter-district recruitment, says that reservations should be given to the people as per their population. Engineer Abdul Rashid, who also supports the ban, suggests that the reserved categories should be left out of the Bill and a ban be imposed on posts of the open category. The trouble over recruitment is the result of unequal and unbalanced development in the State since 1947. Some areas of Jammu and Kashmir have remained backward even after six decades of Independence and inhabitants of these socially and educationally backward areas find it difficult to compete with candidates of the educationally advanced districts of Jammu and Srinagar.
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Army can’t do without ‘sahayaks’ THE Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence asked the Army the other day to abolish the “colonial” practice of employing jawans as “sahayaks” of officers as it felt that this system was “demeaning and humiliating”. In reply to the committee’s suggestion, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has said that a sahayak is “a comrade- in-arms” to an officer. The Army has reacted to this suggestion by issuing instructions to its units to ensure that combatant soldiers are not employed on jobs that are not in conformity with the dignity and self-respect of a soldier. Employing “sahayaks” is not a “colonial” practice as all armies in the world have combatant soldiers as batmen integral to the organisations of their units. Sahayak is a Hindi version of batman. The MOD has rightly said that a sahayak (batman) is a comrade-in-arms to an officer. His duties are to ensure that an officer’s dresses are kept ready and laid out for all appropriate occasions, for instance, P.T. dress, uniform, mess dress, etc. In war, he carries the radio set of the officer/JCO he is employed with apart from being with him in the thick and thin of war. In other worlds, he is a buddy of the officer/JCO he is working with. This relationship is life-long and does not end with the retirement of the officer and his sahayak. During his visit to India in February 1968, Lieut-Gen Sir Reginald Savory recorded about his relationship with his old batman thus: “I joined the 14th Sikh 54 years ago in 1914 when I was just 20 years old. Only this morning (February 8) Lance Naik Bhola Singh of the 14th Sikh, who had been wounded in Gallipoli in 1915, took the trouble to come all the way from his home to call upon me; and after 52 years we saw each other again. Now he is ‘chitti dahri walla’ and I am old and bald; but although we both have grown so much older, yet our affection for each other and our mutual pride in our Regiment stays as young as ever. Long may this continue.” While asking the Army to shed the batman system, the Parliamentary Committee seems to have totally forgotten that the Army is meant to fight a war; therefore, all its establishments are designed to cater to war-like situations. Most of the time the units are in field areas where they cannot employ civilian manpower for security reasons. There is no doubt that some officers employ sahayaks on jobs which are below the dignity of a soldier. Rather than discarding the sahayak system for this reason, such officers should be taken to task to stop this unethical practice. There is no system or rule that is not being misused or abused in this country today. If we start discarding/abolishing systems or rules for this reason, then no system will remain intact. Incidentally, the sahayak system is not only prevalent in the Army but is also in vogue in the paramilitary and police forces. In most police forces its misuse is well-known to the public. A lot of manpower of the police is used even by retired officers in the name of security. In the days of yore, one could not even think of using a batman on a duty, which was below the dignity of a soldier, leave alone doing so. But then what one should not forget is that in those days, the officers, by and large, came from a different background. Why talk of this, see the number of corruption cases among the senior officers today. We never heard of a senior officer being involved in a disciplinary case in the olden days. But today when all other organisations in the country have deteriorated in standards, how could the Army having the same countrymen remain unaffected? There should be no question of abolishing the sahayak system as it is integral to the Army and its necessity remains beyond any doubt. The senior officers, however, must ensure that neither do they misuse sahayaks nor they allow their subordinates to do so. What all officers need to remember is that besides professional competence, the only other secret to command men with dignity and respect is to hold them in
high esteem.
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Delhi Durbar The Supreme Court delivered three verdicts last week expressing serious concern over the misuse of the legal provisions for filing public interest litigation (PIL) and special leave petitions (SLPs). An apex court Bench even went to the extent of suggesting the setting up of a Constitution Bench for drawing up guidelines to minimise the scope of SLPs, which were primarily responsible for as many as 70,000 cases being filed in 2009 alone. While the Canadian SC hears only 60 cases every year and its US counterpart handles just two times of this number, the apex court of India is burdened with 55,000 pending cases at present. Another Bench felt that litigants were unnecessarily resorting to Article 32 of the Constitution which guaranteed fundamental rights. In some cases, this provision was misused even for challenging the decisions of the courts below and tribunals. Yet another Bench opined that the SC and HCs had no power to order probes into allegations of corruption against politicians. All this have had the lawyers worrying as less cases mean less income. Vaidya’s bitter pill
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) ideologue MG Vaidya was at his preachy best the other day when he built the thesis of Hindutva being a way of life and not a religion. With BJP president Nitin Gadkari by his side, the Sangh veteran set out by making clear as to who the boss was. “Mera naam Vaidya hai…kuchh dawaein kadvi bhi hongi (My name is Vaidya. Some medicines will be bitter)”, he said before slamming the BJP for thinking of dissociating itself from the RSS post-Lok Sabha election defeat last year. Pointing to Gadkari — the RSS choice — Vaidya promised hope for the future. Both leaders, in fact, spoke in peculiarly similar tones on Hindutva, stressing its pan-Indian strain. Vaidya went out of his way to argue that the BJP was the most committed among the parties to the Women’s Reservation Bill. “Hinduism is the only religion that makes space for female gods. Is it not?” he asked, illustrating Hindutva’s universal nature using three words — Dharamshala, Dharamkanta and Raj-dharma. “Is Dharamshala meant only for the Hindus and not the Muslims? What does a Dharamkanta weigh? Is Rajdharma meant only for the king and not the subjects?” For a while, Vaidya had the audience thinking. Separatists, really
Separatist Kashmiri leaders came in full strength for the celebrations of the Pakistan National Day at the Pakistani mission in New Delhi last week. Even as Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik and his senior colleagues personally received moderates and hardliners of the Hurriyat factions as well as JKLF chief Yasin Malik, the Kashmiri leaders avoided even eye contact with one another. Even on the dinner tables, they sat separately with their respective supporters, relishing ‘kababs’ and other Mughlai dishes. One photo journalist, who wanted to capture the separatist leaders together in his frame, was quite disappointed as they just would not give him an opportunity to do so. Ultimately, he left the venue with a one-liner: “They can’t even sit together…and they talk of uniting Kashmir.” Contributed by: R. Sedhuraman, Aditi Tandon & Ashok Tuteja
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