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Belated decision
Give minorities a voice |
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Deserted NRI wives
‘Soft state’ tag sticks
In troubled waters
Finally, the right to education
Punjab must utilise Central funds properly
Chatterati
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Belated decision
The
Supreme Court collegium’s directive to Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran to proceed on leave is welcome but belated. It exposes the failure of the present in-house mechanism to expeditiously inquire into and bring to book corrupt judges. Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Justice Madan B. Lokur has been appointed in Justice Dinakaran’s place. After the Tiruvallur District Collector confirmed to the Tamil Nadu government in two reports allegations of land encroachment by Justice Dinakaran at Krishnarajapuram in October 2009, the collegium headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan should have promptly asked him to go on leave, pending a comprehensive inquiry. Instead, the CJI delayed action against him by seeking a report from the Survey of India on the allegations of land grabbing. Though the collegium stalled his elevation to the apex court and withdrew judicial work from him in December last, its failure to take prompt action against him speaks of the system’s inability to haul up errant judges and bring them to book. Justice Dinakaran proceeding on leave is not the end of the story. A three-member committee headed by Justice V.S. Sirpurkar, appointed by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, is currently probing charges against the beleaguered judge following a motion seeking his impeachment by 76 MPs. But this is a long and cumbersome process. Reports suggest that this panel may take a year or so to complete the probe. And even after its completion, nobody knows whether the motion of impeachment will stand the test of Parliament scrutiny. As the removal of Supreme Court and high court judges is arduous, Parliament should examine an alternative mode to fix accountability and throw out the malcontents expeditiously. What is of utmost importance today is the people’s faith and confidence in the judiciary. In the light of increasing cases of corruption, there is an imperative need for resurrecting the judiciary’s image by evolving a foolproof method of selection and removal of judges. Only those of unimpeachable integrity, merit and character need to be appointed to the higher judiciary. The Union Cabinet, meanwhile, should rectify the anomalies in the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill and ensure its smooth passage in Parliament.
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Give minorities a voice
Seventeen
years after the National Commission for Minorities was set up as a statutory apex body, half the states are yet to set up their respective commissions. Whether the absence of such bodies has adversely affected the interests of minority communities is a question that begs an answer. The national commission was set up with the objective of safeguarding the interests and evaluating the development of minorities in the country. While the apex body did serve as a forum to draw attention to discriminatory or dilatory practices in relation to minority educational institutions, it largely remains a toothless and cosmetic body. Large sections of the minority communities seem to be ignorant about the existence of the commission and its helpline. It came as no surprise, therefore, when representatives of several states, including those from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, reiterated, at a conclave in New Delhi last week their reluctance in setting up state bodies for minorities. While states like Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir do not have a minority commission, Punjab has constituted a non-statutory body this year. Although minorities constitute over four, 10 and 17 per cent of the population in Himachal, Haryana and Punjab respectively, all the three states have argued that they do not require a commission because minorities in their states are well taken care of . The claim is dubious at best, especially in view of the increasing sectarian strife in parts of Punjab and Haryana. Also, minority communities in these states do not seem to enjoy even proportional representation in government services, police or academic institutions. In these states minority communities clearly do not enjoy much of a political voice and are of little or no significance to political parties. So small is their number and so scattered are they that they carry no political weight. It is, however, precisely because of this that they need a forum to look after their interests. It is in everyone’s interest, therefore, to ensure that minority commissions are not just set up but are also allowed to work effectively.
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Deserted NRI wives
The
dream of a better life abroad has led many unsuspecting Indian girls to fall into the trap of fraudulent marriages with NRI men. The Centre’s plans to have more stringent rules to protect NRI brides can help check the harassment which they often face at the hands of their NRI spouses. Besides looking into the possibility of making visa applicants to India declare their marital status, the government is also considering tracking of cases through family courts and increasing the funds earmarked for legal assistance to brides left in the lurch in foreign lands. All these measures are much-needed and must be put in place. In a nation, where reportedly 50,000 brides have been deserted by NRI men over the years, the need for stricter laws has been reiterated time and again. The National Commission for Women had earlier demanded a separate legislation to cover NRI affairs, particularly with regard to matrimonial disputes, maintenance of women and children, ex-parte divorce and alimony. The Ministry of Women and Child Development had proposed a second passport for Indian brides who marry NRIs to ensure their safe passage back home. The Law Commission too had made significant recommendations involving changes in maintenance and alimony laws. Yet the solution to the unenviable plight of abandoned wives is nowhere in sight and closer home Punjab faces the maximum number of bride desertions. Stringent laws, however, can act as a deterrent and bring justice to women abandoned by their husbands. States must pay heed to the Centre’s guidelines and those that have not enacted laws on the compulsory registration of marriages must do so at the earliest. Fast track courts in states with high NRI population, as suggested by the Law Commission, too can bring succour to many women. The Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry and Overseas Indian Women’s Association can play a crucial role in preventing what have in effect become “vacation marriages”. Parents too cannot escape responsibility and must double-check the financial and marital status of prospective NRI grooms. Multi-pronged efforts including massive awareness drives have to be made to ensure that lure for greener pastures doesn’t translate into tears and misery for hapless women.
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Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly. — Aristotle
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‘Soft state’ tag sticks There has been so much exaggerated bravado about India seeking the extradition of David Headley to stand trial in this country for his role in the ghastly Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008 that this country’s inglorious record in bringing terrorists to book is being ignored in assessing the justification for India’s request. The Americans on their part have ruled out extradition and are even casting doubts on whether India would be given direct access to the Pakistani-American terror suspect. Evidently, they are wary of skeletons tumbling out of the cupboard on Headley’s CIA connection if they allow him to be grilled without American sleuths being present. While Home Minister Chidambaram continues to insist that he is confident that India would be given direct access to Headley, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake reiterated as late as April 1 that no decision has been taken on this until now. Going by the antecedents of the CIA, it is not hard to believe that Headley may have been under its pay and that he double-crossed his American masters when he branched out to fulfil the agenda of the Lashkar-e-Toiba which included targeting Americans, among others, in the Mumbai terror attacks. The American connection perhaps explains why the Obama administration is so cagey about giving direct access to Indian investigators. While it is perfectly in order for the Manmohan Singh government to press on with this demand, extradition is quite another matter. On that, there is a credibility gap because of the notoriously “soft” nature of the Indian state. The difference indeed lies in the approaches of the two systems. The Americans are uncompromising and ruthless when it comes to dealing with terror and terrorists. On the other hand, successive Indian governments have been inordinately lax in dealing with terrorists. Vote bank politics plays a key role in not meting out deterrent punishment, and national interest is often sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. India’s record in bringing to book perpetrators of terror has been questionable. Take the case of former underworld don Abu Salem for instance. He was extradited by Portugal in November 2005 along with his paramour, Monica Bedi, with much fanfare. Ms Bedi was freed a couple of years ago while the cases against Abu Salem are still dragging on in Indian courts with no signs of coming to an end. A former alleged Khalistani terrorist who was extradited from the US in 2006 after a 12-year effort was freed after acquittal in three murder cases against him by the Punjab police. Kulbir Singh Barapind alias Kulbira was acquitted by an additional district and sessions judge for want of evidence in the last of the three cases last year. Though there were cases against the terrorist under TADA, the Punjab police could not pursue those as it had given in writing to the US courts that he would not be tried under any special law (like TADA) after his extradition. There was also the case of Muthappa Rao, a Dawood Ibrahim aide, who was deported from Dubai in May 2002 and lodged in Bangalore jail. Two years later, he was a free man, acquitted in the last of the nine cases against him, a case of murder of a real estate agent in Bangalore, on grounds that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against him. In May 2003, Riyaz Siddiqui and Raju Sharma alias “Chikna” were deported on charges of abetting several crimes committed in Mumbai by Dawood’s gang. The evidence against Sharma included five audio tapes of a conspiracy to murder which were given to the crime branch who later told the court that they could not find the tapes. In the absence of this crucial evidence, Raju Sharma was acquitted. In the case of Riyaz too, the FIR and the witnesses’ statements were reported missing and he was let out on bail. In Punjab, where terror held sway in the late eighties and the early 1990s, there was not a single conviction of a terrorist in those days because no one dared challenge a terrorist. When Chief Minister Beant Singh was assassinated in August 1995, Punjab was in the grip of fear and terror. A special court was set up whose verdict came 12 years after the assassination when the state was mercifully out of the terror stranglehold. One convict was awarded 10 years imprisonment and since he had already served more than that, he was immediately freed. Two others, who were awarded life imprisonment, were released a little later while two more, who were sentenced to death, are still going through the legal processes of Supreme Court appeal and mercy petitions. From January 2004 to March 2007, the death toll from terror attacks in the country was 3,674, second only to that in Iraq during the same period. According to a statement by Home Minister P Chidambaram, 28 clemency petitions are pending with the President’s office and each one is considered according to its serial number. Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted for the attack on Parliament in 2001, is one among many terror convicts, serving death row, who have appealed to the President for clemency. All-India Anti-Terrorist Front President Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, who is a former Youth Congress president and was attacked by terrorists in 1993, said in a newspaper interview last year that even after the highest court of the land ratified the death sentence to a terror convict it took years for the government to execute it. “The Supreme Court awarded the death sentence to my attacker Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar in 2002 but his mercy petition is still pending with the President of India for the last seven years,” Bitta said. Bhullar was sentenced to death by a designated court in 2001 under TADA after being found guilty of involvement in the 1993 bombing of the Youth Congress Office in Delhi, which led to the deaths of many. Said he in an interview to Mumbai’s Mid-Day: “The number of those who died due to terrorist violence is much bigger than those who died during the Independence struggle. Around 36,000 people were killed during the Punjab militancy only. About 40,000-50,000 died in Jammu and Kashmir while Assam has seen more than 15,000 deaths as a result of terrorist violence. Till date successive governments have treated terrorism as a poll issue, nothing more.” And so the juggernaut rolls on with a great deal of lip service being paid to fighting terror but little on the ground to deter the perpetrators who draw great strength from the weak will of the Indian
state.
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In troubled waters THE corridors of power continue to be abuzz with endless discussion about the omnipotent molester who fell into troubled waters, following his conviction in the Ruchika case. I started wondering how water, acknowledged for its serenity, could be branded as troubled, in sharp contrast to its intrinsic attributes. As is evident, the word troubled etymologically suggests agitation or disturbance, pertaining to mind or physical elements, like water or sky. This explication has apparently been accepted over a period of time, since at least the 14th century. However, the axiom of waters, as opposed to water, was incorporated for the first time in Benjamin Rush’s Essays, published in 1798. Contemplating its coolness and fire-extinguishing characteristics instantly fluttered the reminiscences of excursion-in-smooth-water during my visit to Manila. It was amazing to gape through the glass boat floating on still waters, and capture oceanic corals, breathing silently beneath waters. How would the super cop, once mighty and highly decorated, now freezing in deep waters, manage to keep his head above waters while combating turbulent waves? Pitched in multifarious battles, he would obviously need to spend like water, notwithstanding a sizable cut in his pension looming over his head. Presumably, he would have never imagined that an invincible cop of his stature could ever be pushed into hot waters, baking water blisters on his “decorated” persona and exposing him to water-borne contamination. Facing stiff hostility from all segments, the convict finds himself marooned, stripped of all police medals, with water water everywhere, not a drop to drink. With the plugging of all escape routes in Macaulay’s criminal law and slapping of new criminal cases against him, the ace cop would find it difficult to pull himself out to safety, notwithstanding his gutsy beautiful wife by his side. He would have to curb his trademark smirk, hold water with strategic strokes and pull out his oars to tread high waters, to make to the shore of safety. He must also ensure that water levels do not rise any further. Being waterlogged and all tides turning against him, he would have to keep cool like ice water so that he is not consumed by tsunamis of public ire. It needs to remind him that the offence committed by him is really grave, not simply written in water. The same water cannons which he allegedly used umpteen times against the relatives of hapless Ruchika have now been trained at him. With so much of venom spit at him, his critics clamour that he would surely meet his Waterloo, while possibly inching to his watery grave. Whether the convicted cop succeeds in pouring oil on troubled waters and manoeuvres to turn the tide in his favour would be revealed only in the days to
come.
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Finally, the right to education
Not
often does a nation demonstrate the kind of resolve India showed this April 1. After 63 years of dithering, the government guaranteed free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school to every child aged 6 to 14 years, no matter who is he, where he is and from what class.
The promise is of educating 194 million children in the target age group at an initial cost of Rs 1.78 lakh crore for the first five years of the law. There’s also a commitment to trace every invisible child trapped in difficult circumstances including trafficking. Some 35 million children in India are in need of protection; 30 million are in child labour and one crore are out of school. That explains why the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2010 is so ambitious. The UNICEF has already hailed it as unmatched in the world in terms of targets it sets on access and quality of education and teachers’ qualifications. For the first time, India has a law that lets a child demand education as a right. Every state, local authority, school and parent must deliver or face penalty. Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal likes to say it differently: “Water has been released from its source. It has no place to go but forward,” Asked what he thinks of stakeholders’ fears of delivering, the minister says, “There’s no escape now. This has to be done. In any case, only difficult things are worth doing.” It’s this firmness of government resolve that’s bothering many, especially the private, unaided schools which must reserve 25 per cent seats in Class I from the next year for disadvantaged children from SCs, STs, Dalit, minorities and disabled categories. In return, they’ll get the per child expenditure, which states incur. Under the Act, this expenditure would be calculated by dividing state’s total expenditure on elementary education in all schools with the number of students enrolled. Private schools however feel this reimbursement is too meagre for the quality they offer. “We spend around Rs 25,000 per child every year. We support the Act but we must know where the money to teach 25 per cent students will come from?” says Ameeta Wattal of Springdales School, Delhi. Some legal experts argue that reserving 25 per cent seats would amount to discriminating against the 75 per cent kids who don’t make it to high quality public schools. “This is state-sponsored privatisation. Education must be offered through neighbourhood schools,” says Niranjan Aradhya, Fellow, National Law School, adding, “We can’t look at the law romantically. It is discriminatory and leaves out children in 0 to 6 and 15 to 18 year category.” One of the strongest criticisms of RTE Act, which requires state governments to set up neighbourhood schools in three years from April 1, is its blacking out of 170 million children in pre-primary and secondary school level. “India has signed the UN Convention on Rights of the Child which defines a child as someone up to 18 years. But the law is restrictive and says nothing on the education of 0 to 6 year category. It assumes children will be ready for class I. That’s improbable when millions suffer malnutrition and anganwaris are not universal,” educationist Vinod Raina, who helped draft the RTE Law, says. The government admits it could have done better had finances not been an issue. “Funding delayed RTE for children aged 6 to 14 years. Even for this, we need private public partnership,” Sibal says. But private schools are anxious; some have already moved the Supreme Court against the 25 per cent quota norm, saying it infringes upon their right to self govern. They are also concerned that the law bars them from screening children. “How are schools to admit these kids, who will come from disadvantaged settings? Would they feel comfortable among peers who are educationally ahead of them? The government should have increased spending on education from 3 to 6 per cent of GDP and not depended on private schools,” says Pooja Marwaha of CRY. Another grudge is being voiced by the minorities who feel the Act goes against Article 30 of the Constitution which guarantees them the right to establish and administer institutions. But Sibal rejects the argument. School management committees (to be constituted within six months from April 1) which will monitor teachers’ performance and make school development plans in government neighbourhood schools will only have an advisory role in minority schools. The law’s public enforcement remains a huge challenge, given its mighty provisions — teachers must reach a standard qualification in five years or they can’t teach; schools must create basic infrastructure in three years or close down; states must finish school mapping in one year to find every child who must get to school. “States have limited capacity. Most are ill prepared,” says Raina, who participated in 12 state consultations on RTE. Moreover, though the Act requires State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights to monitor the implementation, hear complaints and appeals, 30 states/UTs don’t have a commission yet. Until the systems are created, RTE would remain a dream. Sibal himself admits RTE will get real only after five years. It will be worth the wait for millions of disadvantaged children.
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Punjab must utilise Central funds properly States
blame the Centre for their fiscal problems, particularly when the political parties in power at the two levels are different. This is what the Punjab Finance Minister did while presenting the State Budget for 2010-2011. True, almost all the elastic sources of revenue — income tax, corporation tax, union excise duty, custom duties, service tax, capital tax, etc. — belong to the Centre and its access to mobilising additional resources of revenue is much wider than all the states put together. However, for Punjab, the fiscal transfers recommended by the 13th Finance Commission for the five-year period from April 1, 2010, is one of the best. No doubt, in totality, the share of all the states in the divisible pool has been fixed at 32 per cent compared with the effective rate of 30.5 per cent recommended by the 12th Finance Commission. This increase in share (4.92 per cent) has been recommended by the 13th Finance Commission in view of the “higher buoyancy registered in Central revenue.” Punjab has also received a sizeable jump in state specific grants. The 13th Finance Commission has recommended Rs. 27,945 crore as grants for state-specific needs compared with just Rs 7,100 crore recommended by its predecessor. While summing up the discussion on the Union Budget in Parliament, Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, announced a grant of Rs 800 crore for compensating Punjab for providing electricity to the agricultural sector at extra cost thereby ensuring the rice supply for the Central Pool, in spite of the widespread drought in the country. Therefore, the Punjab government deservers kudos for presenting its case before the 13th Finance Commission and receiving a quantum jump in grants for its specific needs. However, it should redouble its efforts to make best use of these funds lest the grants would lapse. Experience shows that Punjab has not been able to reap the full benefits from the Central schemes. Even for such national flagship programmes as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission, the National Rural Health Mission, etc. Punjab’s poor performance is common knowledge. Significantly, in the first year of assuming power, the Badal government created a special cell to monitor the utilisation of Central funds available through various schemes. However, due to lack of political will and bureaucratic apathy, this experiment didn’t work. Unless every government department is held responsible for the shortcomings in the use of Central assistance, such aids would be of no avail to uplift the state economy. The Sukhbir-Kalia report envisaging mobilisation of additional resources amounting to Rs 4000 crore is commendable though its main recommendation to enhance the VAT rate, where large-scale evasion is rampant, is running into rough weather. Similarly, the proposed hike of electricity duty in 2010-2011 budget by three per cent to collect Rs 270 crore should not be grumbled provided 24 hours electricity supply is ensured. However, the reduction of entertainment duty from 125 per cent to 25 per cent does not stand the test of logic particularly when new sources of entertainment need to bought into the tax net. Then, there is a need to revamp non-tax resources like fees, fines and other user and administrative charges. In fact, an item-by-item study for every government department should be conducted to identify the potential sources of revenue. For the first time, the state budget has focused on environment for which Rs 300 crore has been allotted. A three-year plan for checking pollution of the Sutlej and the Ghaggar rivers has been prepared and a provision for Rs 135 crore has been made in the budget 2010-11. But the Finance Minister has missed the opportunity to levy green tax on vehicles and institutions polluting the environment such as 15-year-old vehicles, luxury and diesel cars, hotels, private nursing homes, marriage palaces, etc. Another front on which the Punjab budget has failed is to prune and rationalise public expenditure. Though not much can be expected from the government which has less than two years to face the electorate, by resorting to austerity measures, at least in personal expenditure of ministers and the so-called peoples’ representatives some positive signals can be thrown. As all the political parties are talking about putting an end to vendetta politics, they should, as a first step, sit together to find ways to rejuvenate the Punjab economy to regain its lost economic glory. The writer is a former Professor of Economics and UGC Emeritus Fellow, Punjabi University, Patiala
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Chatterati Delhi
has been through a hectic social week. A bunch of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches and non-official after-match parties along with the FDCI Fashion Week and its bacchanalia all coincided. The party of the first IPL match in Delhi was a ‘happening’ one. For a change, the owner of the Mumbai team Nita Ambani and her two children were present. The Ambani children have been kept out of the media glare till now. This was actually a fun evening with the country’s top models walking on the ramp in Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna’s outfits. The much-awaited fashion week of the FDCI was, however, a dampener. The FDCI’s could not get their fire licence in time, thus leading to the first day’s shows getting cancelled en masse. So, Ritu Beri, for example, could not get Sushmita Sen as her show-stopper the next day because Sushmita was already booked for the next programme. Actually, the fashion weeks are now quite a public flop. In this fashion week, one neither saw celebrities or major buyers. The designers were not, privately, happy with arrangements at all. But here once again the after-party of some designers were quiet a hit. Free booze and free khana is after all, always welcome in Dilli. Not Amitabh
Drawing room Delhites are busy indulging in their favourite pastime — trying to keep tabs on the Commonwealth Games. Suresh Kalmadi’s reply on who’s going to be the face of the Commonwealth Games was: It has to be a sportsperson, a young face and not a repeat of old Amitabh Bachchan of the Asian Games. It is as if the love-hate relationship that Amitabh and the Congress have is being carried on. And it cannot be that Amar Singh can remain out of it all. Delhites still cannot, after many many years, fathom: What is Amar Singh all about? The Bachchans’ have a history of being in the way of the Gandhi family controversy. So many people are now watching the Amar, Akbar, Anthony relationship closely as to see what the future holds for them. Rahul’s agenda
As the Congress gears up in Uttar Pradesh to take on Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi has his own agenda very clear. As he is already now known for his hard work, he is working overtime to take in as much as he can, whether it is meeting editors over a quiet meal or spending time with renowned religious scholars. He frequently visits Dr Karan Singh, who is a master of literature, music, art, and culture, and has authored books on Hinduism. Rahul is often seen with dedicated NGO heads at a south Indian eatery. He walks into conferences to hear speakers who interest him. He recently swept the Black Swan author Nassim Taleb away for a quiet lunch. So, when Rahul is not campaigning across the country he is busy grasping all that he can by meeting people, right from scientists to thinkers and industrialists. He has a limited circle of friends where he might spend a quiet evening at home with them; otherwise this young man spends his time meeting Congressmen from across the country. |
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