The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Agenda for Chidambaram
Hit Naxals hard but give succour to tribals

The criticism of Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s handling of the Naxalite situation in the country by senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, chiding him for treating it as a mere law and order problem and taking a dig at him for“intellectual arrogance” shows that the Congress is not free of the malaise of washing dirty linen in public. Digvijay Singh has been perceived to be so close to party supremo Sonia Gandhi that it was not unnatural for the media to speculate that Chidambaram may have fallen from favour with her. But the Home Minister has been quick to counter Digvijay by calling on her, and announcing in Parliament that he has the backing of both the Prime Minister and the Congress president who have turned down his offer of resignation. By his prompt action, Chidambaram has indeed stolen a march over Digvijay and has virtually put a stop to what could have snowballed into a major issue of contention within the party. Already, the party’s former stormy petrel, Mani Shankar Aiyar, had come out endorsing Digivjay and with Chidambaram’s aloofness a matter of considerable adverse comment, more statements may have followed but for the Home Minister’s pro-active approach.

Even Digvijay did not fail to give Chidambaram credit for being “extremely intelligent, articulate, committed and a sincere politician” but the Home Minister will be judged by posterity for his actions and not by his rhetoric. The Naxalite problem has assumed gigantic proportions in recent years and it is vital that instead of dithering, the Centre and the states evolve a way to tackle the issue headlong. Considering the help that Naxalites or Maoists have been getting from across the borders in Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh, the issue cannot but be treated as a law and order one. But there is also merit in what Digvijay said, that the problems of the tribals who are falling easy prey (to vested interests) need to be addressed simultaneously.

A unified approach is what is called for. While there must be no compromise in dealing with the Naxals with tough measures, economic measures to wean the tribals away from the path of violence are certainly called for. Neither should be to the exclusion of the other.

Failure of GSLV
No need for despair, setbacks happen

While the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) must be deeply disappointed at the failure of its mission on Thursday, when it tried to launch a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with an indigenously developed cryogenic engine for the first time, the failure needs to be placed in perspective. India has attempted six GSLV launches so far, five of them with Russian engines, but only two of them were successful. Also, cryogenic engines involve complex science and it took ISRO 18 years and Rs 335 crore to develop the indigenous, restrictive and of course expensive technology. It is important to note that only five countries currently have the technology and none of them is ready to part with it. It was, in fact, Russia’s refusal to transfer the technology, allegedly following US pressure, that first prompted India to embark on its quest for developing its own cryogenic engine. While, therefore, the failure of the mission is undoubtedly a setback, such failures have been a part of the development in all the five countries, namely the US, Russia, China, France and Japan, which have perfected the technology so far. Trial and error is part of high-end research and the failure certainly does not call for despair.

There is no alternative but to carry forward the programme and ISRO needs to be commended for taking the failure in its stride and announcing that scientists hope to make another attempt within the next one year. It is of course too early to determine why the vehicle failed to ignite and tumbled into the sea. As ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan explained, all the data need to be analysed first before concluding whether the indigenous engine failed the vehicle or there were other reasons for the vehicle to tumble into the sea.

The mission would have allowed India to tap the lucrative communication satellite launch market. India must move with determination and redoubled vigour to overcome the pitfalls and achieve its goals.

Thought for the Day

When conscience is blindfolded by desire, the sense horses drag the body astray. — The Upanishads

ARTICLE

Lawmakers beyond law
Need to promote constitutional literacy
by Jagdeep S. Chhokar

The period of nine days from March 18 to 27, 2010 will remain etched in the memory of observers of the functioning of legislatures in the states, particularly in Punjab. The importance of the period is that it shows a rare moment of candor on the part of legislators, an attempted legislative overreach, and that it contains lessons for all the legislatures in the country.

First a gist of the reports in The Tribune. The matter came to public notice first on March 17 when the Speaker, on enquiry from an MLA during the zero hour, read out a letter that the Deputy Speaker had written to him on March 11. Complimenting the Speaker on his magnanimity in pardoning Leader of the Opposition on the charge of hurting the image of the position of the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker expected the atmosphere in the House will become cordial in future.

Wanting “to go a step further”, he wrote that “the House must pass a resolution for withdrawal of court cases associated with important people (political leaders).” Not wanting to be accused of being vague and general, the Deputy Speaker clarified, “In particular I am referring to cases against Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, Minister Ajit Singh Kochar, Captain Amarinder Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and others.”

He was confident that this will improve the political atmosphere of the state and prove to be very beneficial to the development of the state. He concluded by saying, “If this happens, Punjab could get on the road to progress and emerge as the number one state.”

The proposal seemed to have been widely supported with calls to end political vendetta. Several worthies expressed a desire to go even further than the Deputy Speaker and include all “political workers” in this attempt to improve the political atmosphere and put the state on a firm path to development.

There was also the expected bickering with members of every political party attributing motives to the others. The excitement finally abated with the sobering opinion of the Punjab Advocate General that the House had “no powers to interfere in the matter.”

What does this episode tell us and what can we learn from it? For a constitutional functionary to propose passing of patently unconstitutional resolution by the legislative assembly should alert us to the acute need for much greater constitutional literacy.

The legislators seemed to be unaware of the principal of separation of powers between the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, one of the basic features of the Constitution. This is the essence of “education for citizenship” that is sorely lacking in the country, which can create awareness, active and responsible citizens and mitigate the apathy that is often mentioned to be the cause of most of our social ills.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, is reported to have described a citizen as “one who knows how to be ruled and also how to rule.” The mistaken notion that once elected, the elected representatives can do whatever they like afflicts not only the elected representatives but also a vast majority of electors.

Aristotelian citizens would realise that what the legislature can and should do and what they cannot and should not do, is not determined by resolutions passed in the House but by the Constitution of the country, which also determines what kind of resolutions can be or cannot be passed.

The episode also gives an inside look at the state of the “rule of law” in the country. We must remember that law and order is a state subject. An almost unconditional admission that cases have indeed been instituted on the basis of what is called “political vendetta”, and an implicit acknowledgement of having used (or misused) the law and order machinery for partisan purposes, is unlikely to create a cordial and congenial atmosphere in the state as far as the common populace of the state is concerned. It proves the painful fact that not only is the law and order machinery being misused for partisan political purposes, it is also being prevented from doing its legitimate duties that it owes to the common folk.

With the admission establishing that there are indeed cases which have been instituted because of political vendetta and therefore which may not have a basis in fact, also raises the issue of the loss or wastage of public resources on these seemingly frivolous cases at the behest of the state. It is anyone’s guess what will be the quantum of money if all types of resources such as time, effort, etc. could be quantified in terms of money but it is likely to be substantial.

This episode also highlights the prevailing confusion about the role of legislators and legislatures. All the legislatures, in states as well as Parliament, spend hardly any real, clock time on their main function, legislating, and end up spending most of their time, and even the effort, on executive activities or blocking actions of one or the other agencies. Notwithstanding the pretensions of the District Collectors being the appropriate authority for sanctioning and getting the projects done, the MPLADS and MLALADS schemes are a blatant example of legislators usurping executive authority by the back door.

The confusion about the role of legislators also exists in the mind of the citizens who tend to “approach” the legislatures with requests to get all kinds of executive work done. The legislators are, of course, always happy to oblige in a mutually reinforcing manner.

What can be done to first reduce and then eliminate this malaise? A possible answer lies in education — that of the legislators and of the citizens. Legislators will, of course, consider it presumptuous for any one to suggest that they need to be educated or trained but there seems to be dire need for our legislators to understand the intent and the philosophy of our Constitution and also its working.

There seem to be some attempts at training of newly elected legislators, including members of Parliament, but they seem to be limited to procedural matters. The citizens, on the other hand, need to learn not only their right but also their responsibilities and duties, and how to fulfil them.

The most important lesson for citizens is, to put it in the words of former US Supreme Court judge Felix Frankfurter, “no office in the land is more important than that of being a citizen.”

The writer is a former Dean and Director-in-charge, IIM, Ahmedabad

MIDDLE

Man and the machines
by Rana Nayar

I had always wondered why in India we don’t use science to empower the weak and the oppressed. My curiosity touched a new high after I saw a carpenter in England hack away a piece of seasoned wood, single-handed; doing practically everything from sawing to slicing it off, even shaping it into objects of common use.

An ordinary worker in the West has access to all kinds of small handy machine tools that make life hassle-free for him, whereas, an average Indian workman continues to struggle with his ill-equipped “toolkit”.

So when a couple of years ago, the Chandigarh Administration decided to convert local dhobi ghats into state-of-the-art washing marts, I had stood by and applauded: “How people-friendly the Chandigarh Administration is, and what a great effort, softening the grinding routine of dhobis!”

Like others, who engage in manual labour, our dhobis, too, work under the most gruelling conditions! It was heartening to see “science” finally knock at their door, offering to revolutionise their lives, only if they would let it.

During this period, I visited dhobi ghat on several occasions. Every time, I saw the place humming with activity; dhobis, young and old, running around cheerily, loading dirty piles into the machines, re-setting programmes, and waiting for the washing cycles to run through. Seeing their faces glow with pride, and their bodies move in stately rhythm, I had felt elated. It was as if they were born to handle these very “machines”.

After a year or more, it was, indeed, shocking to see the place look completely deserted, almost grumpy. In the sultry afternoon, I could barely spot a solitary young dhobi, going about his work, desultorily. He was busy drying up a pile of clothes he had manually washed.

Surprised, when I asked him the reason, he informed how the washing mart had closed down, and how things were now pretty much back to square one. On probing further, he revealed that dhobis had run into trouble with the “authorities”.

Apart from charging them hefty rent, the “authorities” insisted that they pay the exorbitant electricity bills of the Administration—owned machines, too. Stung by the blatant injustice of it all, I had expected him to offload a flurry of complaints. On the contrary, he simply shrugged his shoulders, saying, “We are negotiating with the Administration. I’m sure, something positive would come off it.” The young dhobi’s composure and nonchalance had left me quite dazed.

Puzzling over his response, as I walked back home, it was as if someone whispered into my ears, “To heck with machines. Science or no science — we, the poor, have our pride and dignity, too, and know how to preserve our “positive outlook”.

OPED

Investing in people
Knowledge can be Punjab’s future growth engine
by B.S. Ghuman

In the 11th Plan the Central Government has accorded high priority to education. The Prime Minister has termed the Plan as the Education Plan. The growing significance of education has also been acknowledged in Punjab in the recent budget. The allocation to education has been enhanced specifically by 25 per cent in the case of school education. Education as a new source of growth can deliver handsome results if its quantitative expansion is accompanied by quantifiable improvements in its quality.

The economies having good quality human resources are thriving across the globe. Punjab has all the potential to grow on the basis of knowledge. The need is to steer the state in a proper direction. The economy of Punjab having witnessed the rate of growth of around 5 percent for around 30 years has slowed down in the recent past.

For restoring the earlier growth trajectory, the economy can no longer rely on traditional sources of growth like agriculture and industry. The agriculture sector has already reached the saturation level. The industrial sector’s growth also has limited potential due to the proximity to a hostile international border; the state’s remoteness from mineral resources, ports and major markets and tax holidays to the hill states. In this backdrop, investment in the social sector, particularly education, can help the economy to achieve 5 percent or higher growth rate.

Punjab has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the field of education. The state has nine universities, three deemed universities, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, the National Institute of Public Health, 355 graduation colleges, 75 postgraduation colleges, 121 management colleges, 46 MCA colleges, 212 colleges of education, 13 medical colleges, 87 engineering colleges, seven institutes of architecture, 70 polytechnics, 172 ITIs and art-craft institutes, 78 nursing colleges, 33 colleges of pharmacy and 38 law colleges. The state also has 18,446 government schools and 1,251 private-aided schools.

Though Punjab has witnessed a phenomenal growth and diversification of educational institutions, the state of affairs within the institutions is very deplorable. The educational institutions in the state can broadly be grouped into two categories, namely, publicly funded and aided institutions and self-funded institutions.

The publicly funded and aided educational institutions are largely old and offer education in traditional areas. Most of these have good infrastructure and qualified staff. The work culture in these institutions is at variance with quality education. Job security and lack of accountability have negatively impacted on the outcome of educational institutions. The curricula have not been updated regularly in tune with changing societal needs. Cases of absenteeism, low pass percentage and a high dropout rate are considerable. With a few exceptions in institutions of higher learning, research is mainly repetitive and lacks applied and policy orientation. Barring a few islands of excellence, mediocrity is the general rule in educational institutions.

In the case of self-financing institutions, the situation is more alarming. The cases of over-charging, less qualified faculty, lower salaries, mainly contractual appointments are galore. In private professional institutions, premium on management quota seats is a normal practice. Except in a few private institutions, quality is no consideration in the delivery of services. On the whole, commercialisation of education has adversely affected the quality of education. Social equity is another casualty of commercialisation of education.

The existing trend will not help the state become a knowledge-based economy. The proliferation of education institutions is a necessary condition for a knowledge-based economy. The sufficient condition for leading an economy in the field of knowledge requires a sustained quality movement across educational institutions based preferably on the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) – a new paradigm aiming to make an organisation work in the most effective manner and deliver the best quality goods/services.

An effective policy intervention is also required to revitalise the traditional educational institutions by investing liberal funds. In case of the self-financing institutions along with a rigorous derive for quality improvement, ensuring social equity by offering free-ships to the lower strata of society is equally important.

At this juncture, the education system also needs a regulatory regime independent of government control. For this purpose an Independent Regulatory Commission in the field of education needs to be set up. The major objective of the commission should be to provide effective regulatory framework aiming to ensure access of quality education to all the strata of society by regulating areas such as (i) admissions (ii) fee structure, including free-ships for socially and economically backward students, and (iii) quality of education. In the case of violation of the norms, the commission may be authorised to take disciplinary action, including derecognition.

For reaping the benefits of educational institutions further, the state should also set up a Knowledge Commission on the pattern of the National Commission of Knowledge. The commission may be assigned the tasks of suggesting strategies for the promotion of excellence among educational institutions; production and dissemination of knowledge, specially applied knowledge; promotion of entrepreneurial culture etc.

It is expected that the combined impact of the two policy interventions, namely, setting up of a Regulatory Commission and a Knowledge Commission coupled with a quality drive based on the tenets of TQM within educational institutions will help the state become a knowledge economy moving rapidly towards higher growth.

The writer is a former Dean, Faculty of Arts, Panjab University, Chandigarh

J&K: Strike off, problems remain
by Ehsan Fazili

On the assurance of the Chief Minister, over 4.50 lakh employees have called off their strike demanding the payment of arrears and other benefits, bringing relief to the state government. Mr Omar Abdullah, however, has raised more questions than he has answered while trying to convince the agitating employees to resume duties in public interest.

Employees agitate for arrears. Photo: Amin War

The basic handicap with the government is that its coffers are empty to meet the demands of the employees and it looks towards the central government for a financial bailout.

This is not for the first time that the state government has been faced with such a precarious situation. It has faced similar crises earlier also, the last one being on the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations last year.

Prior to this in 2002, the employees had gone on a 42-day-long strike in support of their demand for the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations then. Not only the higher pay scales, other issues have also caught various governments on the wrong foot in this trouble-torn state over the years. In the absence of an elected government, the employees stayed away from their duties for 73 days in 1990 — a year after the eruption of armed militancy in the state.

The coalition government led by Omar Abdullah had earlier wriggled out of the crisis posed by the employees’ strike due to the death of two women in Shopian in May last year. Many questions were raised over human rights violations at the hands of security forces with the death of the two women, allegedly raped and murdered by men in uniform and the death of three teenaged boys during public demonstrations against human rights violations in Srinagar early this year.

With the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, as agreed to by the coalition government in July last year, a huge amount of Rs 4,200 crore as arrears is yet to be paid to the employees. They were agitating also to demand a hike in the retirement age from 58 to 60 years and regularisation of contractual employees.

The issue that was taken up at an all-party meeting called by Mr Omar Abdullah in Jammu on March 31 decided to send a delegation to the central government to secure resources for the payment of the arrears of Rs 4,200 crore. The government plans to consult the representatives of the agitating employees in this regard as well. The opposition PDP and the Panthers Party, however, did not attend the meeting in protest.

The Chief Minister is of the view that despite resource constraints, most of the demands have already been acceded to, which include the release of pay scales to the state government and PSU employees in the light of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. This has entailed an additional annual expenditure of Rs.1,800 crore.

He claims that despite the limitation of resources, J&K was one of the few states having implemented the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. However, no consensus was reached upon on the hike in the retirement age, with the government arguing that this could not be done in view of the increasing unemployment among educated youth.

In response to the employees’ demand for the payment of the arrears, the government stated through its advertisements that the state’s total income was only Rs 3,600 crore, while a huge amount was paid as the salaries. “The salary figures are concocted and different from the figures presented in the budget”, says Farooq Ahmad Trali, a senior leader of the Employees Joint Action Committee.

On the contrary, huge salaries were paid to the IAS and KAS officers, who have “benefited the most” and not the agitating non-gazetted employees, he opined. Unemployment, being a global problem, could not be solved by sticking to the present retirement age of 58 years, the employees argued.

The recent benefits given to the IAS, IPS officers and the ministers and legislators should also be seen in the light of financial constraints of the state. While the employees feel hard-pressed due to the price hike, the government has acted in haste in conceding the employees’ demands without looking at its financial constraints.

Cost of living quite high in Ludhiana
by Harpreet Kaur Bains

There are certain factors which contribute more to price rise in Ludhiana. Being an industrial town, Ludhiana attracts a large number of skilled and unskilled workers from other states. Besides, this city is generally considered to be a safe place so far as the law and order situation is concerned. During the days of militancy a large number of people from Amritsar and other border districts migrated to this town for personal safety. In the wake of the 1984 riots, many Punjabis, when forced to return to their native state, preferred to settle here.

This has led to an alarming increase in its population, which in turn has caused an acute shortage of accommodation. Accommodation, even when available, is beyond the means of the common man. In the posh localities like Sarabha Nagar, Udham Singh Nagar, Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, Aggar Nagar etc., the situation is even worse. All efforts aimed at providing more living space to the people have been nullified by the ever-increasing population. The land prices have shot up fast. A man of moderate means cannot afford a plot of reasonable size, much less constructed accommodation.

Due to the constant growth in population, supply is not able to keep pace with demand and there is a chronic shortage of commodities and a steady increase in prices. It has become difficult to buy even the bare necessities of life as far as the middle and lower income groups are concerned. Kerosene is usually in short supply and there are long queues before ration depots.

A study conducted recently in Ludhiana has shown that in many middle class families, most men hand over only a limited fixed sum to their women and expect them to manage the household expenses for the full month without asking for anything more. Under the circumstances, balancing the family budget, weekly or monthly, becomes a wild goose chase for the homemakers and it turns out to be an uphill task for them to make both ends meet.

It is said that black money runs a parallel economy in India but its best example can be seen in Ludhiana where huge amounts of money change hands everyday.

The government will have to adopt bold policies and take drastic measures to break the vicious circle prevailing in this city. An ambitious programme of building up more residential colonies with a view to providing living accommodation at reasonable prices to the residents of this town will have to be taken in hand without further delay.

In this regard, a news item published in The Tribune recently offers some hope. The Ludhiana Improvement Trust is reported to have woken up from a long slumber and is said to have drawn up plans to acquire land in and around Ludhiana for building up residential colonies.

Besides, the distribution system must be streamlined by setting up more fair price shops and by strengthening the existing ones. The experiment of “apni mandies” has been a good success in some localities of Ludhiana; it should be extended to other parts of the town to contain the prices of fruits, vegetables, etc.

Industry is almost negligible in many districts of Punjab; a number of industrial units will have to be set up in these neglected areas in order to divert the inflow of labourers to this district from other states. There is certainly a necessity of this long-term corrective measure for the development of backward regions of the state relieving thus pressure on this central city. Ludhiana needs special attention from the state government. Only a timely and well-conceived policy on the part of the administration can relieve the residents of this town of their hardships, both social and economic.

The writer is a teacher in the Deptt of Journalism, PAU, Ludhiana.