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Jairam’s
many indiscretions ‘Uncle
judges’ to go |
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Improving
higher education
Damages
caused by radioactive sources
Down TV
memory lane
Society
needs no moral policing Hydro
power without dams! Bangalore
Diary
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‘Uncle judges’ to go
Ideally, judges on their own should stay away from courts where their relatives practise. But since this has not happened, Law Minister Veerappa Moily has come out with the idea of taking an undertaking from judges at the time of their elevation that they will not function in a court where any of their relatives practises. The Law Commission of India too had disapproved of the existence of “uncle judges” in its report on judicial reforms submitted in August, 2009. The commission had noted that an advocate whose near relative or well-wisher is a judge in a higher court had better chances of becoming a judge. The judiciary, obviously, is not free from nepotism. The issue had gained prominence a few years ago when Chief Justice B.K. Roy of the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued an order barring 10-12 judges from hearing cases argued by their own relatives. Many advocates supported the Chief Justice’s directive and sought transfers of judges whose kin practised in the high court. The number of judges not being able to uphold judicial propriety, however, is small. There are many examples of judges withdrawing themselves from courts where their kin practised or from cases where there was a conflict of interest. It is not the case that every judge would tend to favour his or her relative. An advocate may very well win a case in the court of his “uncle judge” on the strength of his legal skills. But his/her success will always remain suspect. It is the perception that matters a lot. Justice should not only be done but also appear to have been done in every case. The proposal to have an entry test for advocates will, hopefully, keep off those who enter and flourish in the legal profession mainly on the strength of their connections. |
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Improving higher education It
is unfortunate that the National Council of Higher Education and Research Bill that is meant to bring about the much-needed reforms in higher education has hit a roadblock. Four states namely Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat have rejected the draft Bill that proposes to make NCHER the apex body for higher education. While it is apt that the government has decided to rework the law, there is an urgent need to iron out differences and pass the Bill at the earliest. The moot question is not of less or more centralisation but how best to stop students from falling prey to peddlers of substandard education. Over the years the quality of higher education in India barring some institutions of excellence has left much to be desired. In the recent past grant of deemed university status without proper checks and balances has been one of the many ills that plagued higher education. The Yashpal Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education had made many recommendations including setting up of an all-encompassing body to boost higher education. The proposed Bill besides establishing NCHER, which will subsume existing bodies like the UGC and AICTE, also proposes to shortlist candidates for the post of VCs. However, several state governments have resisted the proposals and called them anti-federal. There is no denying that since education falls in the Concurrent List the concern of the states must be taken into account. The government’s decision to redraft the Bill particularly to make the NCHER more accountable than regulatory is in this spirit. At the same time states should realise that education is too important a subject and cannot be used as a pretext for gaining political brownie points. Transparency in the selection of VCs is a must and setting up a national registry with names of eligible persons for the posts of VCs can stop political meddling in the selection process. In the interest of the future of the youth who can only be empowered by quality education, the Centre and the dissenting states must come around and see to it that the Bill, whose various provisions are aimed at improving the standards of education, is passed. |
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Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings.
— Ed Gardner
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Damages caused by radioactive sources
In
a recent radiation exposure incident involving Co-60 radioactive sources at the premises of scrap dealers in Delhi, 11 persons are so far identified to have received high levels of radiation. The incident is being investigated by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and other agencies under the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) . This incident may not have happened if the AERB, the DAE and the AEC had exercised due diligence in comprehensively accounting for all radioactive materials in the public domain and ensured that they are safely stored, used and disposed of by the licensees. It is now clear that the AERB was unaware of the existence of these sources prior to the incident. One wonders how many hundreds more similar orphan sources have been missed by the AERB, and are lurking somewhere to create havoc! It is reported that a sum of Rs 200,000 is being granted by the Delhi government as compensation to each victim of the incident. There is no indication how this paltry compensation, equivalent to about $4,500, was arrived at. I suspect that most of the victims who received high radiation are prime candidates for early incidence of cancer, and will not only need a few million rupees each for hospitalisation and medical care, but will also face a reduced lifespan and total income. The government’s announcement of a measly compensation prompted me to check the quantum of damage payment each of these victims would have received if only the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 , which is about to be introduced in Parliament, had already become a law. To my surprise, I find that the proposed Liability Bill specifically excludes compensation for any damage caused by radioactive items like the ones commonly used in industrial, medical and research applications in this country. It is noticed that Section-2 (f) of the Liability Bill, as it stands today, defines “nuclear damage” as the loss of life or personal injury to a person, loss of or damage to property, etc — to the extent the loss or damage arises out of, or results from, ionising radiation emitted — from nuclear fuel or “radioactive products or waste”. However, Section-2(o) of the Bill further defines that “radioactive products or waste” means any radioactive material produced in or material made radioactive by exposure to radiation incidental to the production or utilisation of nuclear fuel, but does not include radioisotopes which have reached the final stage of fabrication so as to be usable for any scientific, medical, agricultural, commercial or industrial purpose. Interestingly, under the urging of the Prime Minister and the PMO, the AEC and its subordinate organisations like the DAE, the AERB, the Nuclear Power Corporation, etc, have been feverishly working during the last two years to finalise a Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill for early introduction in Parliament. This task appears to have been progressing with the close but unofficial involvement of the industrial federations and business councils in India and the US, who under the current Prime Minister have had a decisive say in dictating how the Indian nuclear sector should be re-shaped, managed and regulated. The US President and the State Department have also been pressing our Prime Minister at every available opportunity for the early passage of such a Bill so that US nuclear companies can start selling reactors to India. Though India started operating its first nuclear power reactor in October 1969 at Tarapur, so far no Indian government has been worried about the nuclear damage that nuclear operations can cause, and the compensation to be meted out to the victims in such instances, until the US pressure for liability legislation started building up after the Indo-US nuclear deal was put in place. The Prime Minister’s present anxiety about the passage of the Bill is also mainly due to this US pressure and not because of any sudden compassion for the potential Indian accident victims and their likely suffering . The middlemen in India — representing industry, the government and politics — who were facilitating the passage of the nuclear deal are looking forward to lucrative private sector nuclear employment and other financial benefits, and they are also, therefore, eager to rush the Liability Bill through Parliament for their personal gains. Given this background, it is no wonder that those who drafted the Bill focussed only on the big-money items like nuclear reactors and associated sub-systems, and decided to omit the compensation for potential damages from radioactive sources, a matter in which neither the Americans nor our government has any specific interest. In India, several thousands of radioactive items are either locally fabricated or imported for large-scale use in various infrastructural activities. These include Cobalt-60 sources like the 100 to 500 kilo-curie source package at the Gajrawadi sewage treatment plant in Baroda, various Gamma Chambers carrying 14,000 curies or more of Co-60, and the sources dealing in medical and industrial equipment bought from within India or abroad . All these have enormous potential to cause serious and widespread damage to several hundreds of people, if lost or misused, or acquired by terrorist groups for their nefarious activities. Under these circumstances, the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, to be introduced soon in Parliament, must be held back and substantially revised to comprehensively cover the issue of damages and liability arising from radioactive sources and the just compensation thereof.n The writer is a former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of the Government of India.
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Down TV memory lane Sitting
in the comfort of his bedroom, as my son surfs scores of channels to view the programme of his choice on a flat-screen television with the clarity which is amazing, I cannot help recalling my own growing-up days. In the early 70s, when television had not made entry into most Indian homes, a big Murphy radio (as big as a T.V) occupied a place of pride in our drawing room. Much to the annoyance of my father, every Sunday, with my ears glued to the radio, I would listen to Sound Track (an hour-long programme based on film story) at a volume so low that no one else could hear. That was the time when for all the news, views and entertainment, there was one and only one All India Radio to depend upon. Television arrived with a big bang in our life. The city was buzzing with excitement when Pakeezah, a Meena Kumari starrer, was to be shown by Jalandhar Doordarshan in its inaugural telecast. Unforgettable was my first date with T.V. Huddled together in our neighbour’s drawing room, we watched in amazement, the black and white movie in a dark room (lights were switched off to create the ambience of a cinema hall). Towards the late 70s, when long antennae started dotting the landscape of the city, our excitement was tremendous when we purchased our first T.V set. A black and white television with wooden shutters replaced our grand old Murphy radio. But viewing television in those days was a challenging task, needing a lot of patience and manoeuvering. Every now and then somebody had to climb on the rooftop to adjust the direction of the antenna; there would be a loud exchange of words regarding the picture quality. Often we would slap the T.V to adjust the picture. Eventually when the reception was clear we would merrily settle down to watch the programme. Of course there was not much to choose from. Unlike today, it was Doordarshan monopoly with the telecast being limited to just a few hours in the evening. Yet those few hours of evening telecast were eagerly awaited; my favourite being Chitraahar, a programme based on film songs. Especially nostalgic are the memories of serials like Hum Log, Buniyad, Ramayana and Mahabharata which caught the fancy of the nation. During the telecast of Mahabharata, keeping all the activities on hold, people would remain glued to their television sets. No wonder the roads looked deserted and a curfew-like situation was created in the city during the telecast. I still remember, when on my sister’s wedding, the relatives won’t get ready until telecast of Mahabharata episode from Doordarshan was over. Such was the addiction to the
serial!
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Society needs no moral policing
Organisations
like the Shiv Sena and Ram Sene, which do not have a well-defined ideology, play the card of public morality, hoping to get validation for their existence. They think the public would fall for their self-righteous dos and don’ts of social behaviour. Political mileage and publicity is sought by picking up the issue of women’s sexuality and its expression. Take the case of famous actress Khushboo. Her spontaneous, off-the-cuff remarks were objected to by some self-righteous, moralistic people and organisations and a whole debate ensued about pre-marital sex. Sex is such a personal experience and personal choice that no social regimentation can really kill the impulse. How then in a democratic country, where men and women rub shoulders at work places, offices, colleges or while commuting or on social occasions, can it be possible to monitor the personal lives of people and consequently their sexual lives? It is a fact of modern existence that the internet, mobile phones, smses make communication and accessibility between the sexes easy. Khushboo merely accepted this reality and remarked that it was fine for girls to indulge in pre-marital sex after taking precautions to keep unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases at bay. Later, she justified her statement by saying no educated man could expect his partner to be a virgin. In no way does the statement encourage or discourage pre-marital sex. It only speaks of what is an evident reality of our times and hence the need to be careful. However, the organisations which objected to this deliberately misconstrued it and implied that she, as an icon, was encouraging pre-marital sex, which according to society, is immoral for all, especially for women! In a patriarchal society, women often have to bear the burden of morality, much more than men. From their childhood they are supposed to be demure, subservient and need to uphold family honour by acting in a socially acceptable way. Women’s sexuality still makes many people cringe with embarrassment. Socio-economic inequalities inherent in our society make women vulnerable in all relationships. But now when women are coming out of their cocoons and making individual choices regarding career, lifestyle, partners and social behaviour, society is suddenly at a loss at handling this liberation. In psychological terms people who are the least at ease with their own “self”, talk and gossip the most about others. Their morality gets easily threatened by someone who embodies a different set of morality. And is that morality so shaky that to protect it, you have to go on witch-hunting and public lynching as was done to Khushboo? Ram Sene has branded “social choices” for women as “social vices”. Referring to the attack on women in a pub by his party workers, Muthalik said: “Women are being misused and misguided. We oppose this. Women have to be protected as the law has failed. We are the custodians of Indian culture… Their method was wrong. I apologise for that. It should not have happened. But it was done to save our daughters and mothers from an alien culture". We would like to ask Muthalik what he is protecting us against. Is he voicing his concerns about feticide or going on hunger strike against the practice of dowry or leading a campaign against rapes? No. His Ram Sene ignores all such issues. Instead, its workers attack women in a pub. A similar impulse led to a fatwa against Sania Mirza for her short skirt. The “culture” that Muthalik seeks to protect itself is so multifarious that one cannot ascribe a single monolithic definition to it. India is a country where different eras coexist simultaneously and often anachronistically. We live in many Indias. There is the India of highly educated, economically independent urban women who get a chance to make their own choices in everything that matters. There is a rural India where women on the wrong side of class, caste and gender have almost no choices at all. There is a liberal India which almost follows the West in its lifestyle and values and there is a feudal India with an extreme patriarchal set-up as is evident in parallel law enforcers like Khap Panchayats. There is an India where everything is commoditised in the great economic boom and there is an India that does not get two meals a day. In a country that shows no uniform development, there are bound to be clashes – economic, moral, ethical, personal or social. A country cannot move forward unless its entire people walk together. When they do not walk together, fundamentalist and moral brigades get a chance to exploit social, cultural and economic inequalities and indulge in moral policing. For a large majority like us, who live their lives without much sexual deviation or aberration or propensity, relationships are deeply emotional and personal along with being physical. Now why in the world would we as individuals be influenced by the likes of Ram Sene regarding our own individual sexual choices? Khushboo has rightly made her triumphant statement as she emerged victorious after a long and traumatic battle against the moral brigades. Like her, we all want these people, who harangue about other people’s morality, to SHUT UP. The writer is a former teacher of Delhi University
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Hydro power without dams!
In
recent years there has been a growing concern about the social and environmental impact of dam projects. At the same time at the time of escalating energy crisis, many people do not want to give up the potential of hydro power. In the middle of this dilemma now comes the interesting and thought-provoking news that it can be possible to harness significant amounts of hydro power without having to build dams. Explaining this concept, Patrick Mccully, Executive Director, “International Rivers”, writes in ‘World Rivers Review’ (March 2010), “Non-dam hydro comes in a diversity of forms. It includes all technologies to generate electricity using water without dams. The two sectors receiving the most attention are wave power and ‘hydro-kinetic’ turbines that capture energy from the flow of water in rivers, estuaries and ocean currents, and even irrigation canals and water supply and disposal pipes.” Patrick Mccully writes that hydro-kinetic turbines should not be confused with “run-of-river” hydro power which includes a dam, but usually not a large reservoir. This clarification is important in the context of India, particularly hydro development in the Himalayan region. Here when big dam projects like Tehri faced a lot of criticism for their adverse social and environmental impact, the authorities came up with the alternative of “run of the river” projects which were promised as environmentally safe. However, in the case of many of these projects, this turned out to be a false promise. Actually some of these small dam and tunnel projects also proved to be highly disruptive, particularly when a chain of such projects was constructed in ecologically sensitive areas in ways which involved an indiscriminate use of explosives. Therefore, there is a need to be cautious when alternatives to large dam projects are examined. In fact, even Mccully agrees that not all non-dam hydro technologies may be benign and environmentally appropriate at all sites but it appears likely, he asserts, that these technologies could be very low impact compared with dam-based hydro. However, more research is needed to ensure that the turbines and associated facilities do not harm fish or other aquatic life. In the case of ‘conduit hydro’ — kinetic turbines installed in pipes and irrigation canals — environmentally impacts can be almost zero. Again if we look in India's context in the Himalayan region, we are immediately reminded of the tens of thousands of watermills that already exist (called ghats or ghrats or by other names) in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmmir and the north-eastern states. These water-mills can be slightly improvised to add hydro-generation which can meet a hamlet's needs. I recently saw an example of such “conduit hydro” near Uttarakashi and it was very impressive. An additional benefit I saw here of decentralised functioning was that power-generation had been stopped at a time when villagers needed more irrigation water. Such adjustment with the villagers' needs is only possible in a system which is managed by villagers themselves. This is what we really need in India's context. The question of appropriate technology is also linked to who controls technology and in whose interest. This aspect should have been given importance but unfortunately the government neglected this crucial aspect when the government was exploring alternatives to big dams. This is why in a hurry so-called alternative projects were awarded to companies which did not really understand the needs of villagers. This led to further problems which also attracted national attention in the upper parts of the Ganga/Bhagirathi river. However, in other areas also serious problems have emerged. We need to be very careful about the alternatives that villagers truly need. Perhaps the first step should be to help villagers to repair and give a new lease of life to ghrats (watermills) and guls (irrigational channels) and then we can consider the next step of environment-friendly small-scale hydro generation.
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Bangalore Diary
Bollywood
actor Sanjay Khan’s luxury hotel at the outskirts of Bangalore would see another high-profile event after actor Hrithik Roshan got married at the same venue with Sanjay Khan’s daughter, Suzanne. This time it is Shashi Tharoor who is getting engaged to his ladylove Sunanda Pushkar at the hotel. Their affair made headlines when the IPL scandal broke and Tharoor lost his place in the Union Council of Ministers for helping Sunanda become a co-owner of the Kochi IPL team without her investing any money. The couple visited the hotel last month and apparently liked the spa and overall ambience of the place. The engagement, it is learnt, will take place next month. The hotel, belonging to one of Bollywood’s most stylish actors, boasts of a helipad also. This is considered an advantage since many of the guests are expected to arrive for the function in choppers. The couple has already booked the resort, though details like food menu, etc, are yet to be finalised. Racing car It’s been India’s IT hub for long. But Bangalore is quickly making a mark in other areas of technology development as well. Students of PES Institute of Technology in the city have built a racing car which has been named Haya. The car, which has been created as part of students’ college project, will be exhibited at the Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competition in Michigan, USA, starting from May 12. Some of the world’s best engineers compete in the event to design a small Formula-style car. The car is meant for non-professional race enthusiasts. Halappa sick? Karnataka minister Hartal Halappa, accused of raping his friend’s wife, complained of chest pain and got himself admitted to hospital after he was arrested. Nobody is ready to believe that Halappa, who resigned from the Cabinet in the wake of the controversy, is really ill. “Hallapa uncle needs some 'MENTOS' ..dimaak ki batti jalane ke liye .. same old ideas , why are people not being creative anymore”, wrote a young reader to an evening daily which provides an opportunity to its readers to air their views. “Earlier hospitals were there to save patients’ lives. Now to squeeze money from innocent people and save criminal politicians, rapists and murderers”, wrote another reader.
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